Sage was pleased to find out that Wu Chang chose not to choose the shameless angle. After Sage made his humble brag, the man just stared at him for a moment. Then the battle continued for a quarter hour just so he could be sure that Sage wasn’t bluffing. Of course, Sage had no idea how long the Jade Horde could actually last while fighting at that intensity, but he knew they could go at least a few hours. So, he just added a little exaggeration to decrease Wu Chang’s morale.

Eventually, Wu Chang called his troops back and Sage called out an order to the Centurion. The city guard had already started retreating from where they had engaged the Jade Horde, but with his order the Jade Horde broke their shield wall and stepped out. They aimed their shields for maximum coverage and released the arrows that had been fired at them earlier. They angled their shields downwards, launching the arrows into the ground around them instead of towards the retreating city guard. In just a few moments the previously empty training ground had turned into a sea of thigh high arrow shafts. It looked almost like a field of wooden grass, feathered fletching slightly waving in the breeze.

The tornado like aura of the cavalry commander as well as the Whirling Sand Formation had already been deactivated. The release of all those arrows had merely been a demonstration to the city guards what might have happened to them if the Jade Horde was attacking instead of only defending. Wu Chang also saw the sheer number of arrows released all at once and felt a bit of fear.

“City Lord Wu Chang, shall I call you Seven Stars Wu Chang, now?”

Wu Chang was reminded of their stakes and his fear suddenly turned into excitement. It was quite easy to read the shift in emotions on his expressive face. Then his mood dampened a bit and he asked a question, “How much authority do the Seven Stars have over your organization?”

Sage smiled, “The Seven Stars only answer to the Leader of the Jade Horde, and myself.”

“So, I could still have the Jade Horde…”

“Complete your assignment? Of course. You could even lead them on it if you’re worried.”

Wu Chang seemed to be on the verge. About to make a decision, but not quite ready yet. Sage wanted to give him that last push, “If you take the position, all of your subordinates and city guards can also come with you. They only have to pass a few training tests. If anyone fails you can always maintain a separate guard unit. It just depends on whether or not you’d like to have Lionheart Town directly defended by the Jade Horde or not.”

Finally, Wu Chang gave in and accepted Sage’s offer.

That night they had a feast to celebrate, and only then did Sage learn that his victory was not as perfect as he thought. Wu Chang, now wearing his new armor, was opening up about his difficulties.

“How is it possible for Lionheart Town to be in debt?”

“Decades ago, when Lang Clan was destroyed, the city changed hands many times. The different rulers tried different tactics to restore order and increase revenue. All of those changes were radical and none of them cheap. Each changeover only seemed to make the budget issues worse. The secret payments of the groups using the Lang Clan territory are the holders of the city’s debt.”

Poor Wu Chang. He’s in way deeper than I thought. The information from my network wasn’t as reliable as I hoped. A single falcon per town is probably not enough.

He immediately made plans to drastically upgrade the ability of his information network, but also realized that would cost even more money. Just like the problems facing Lionheart Town.

“Who exactly is the city in debt to? Your problems are now my problems, Brother Wu Chang.”

Sage began to speak more intimately with the City Lord, wanting to deepen their connection. If Wu Chang chose to enroll even just a fraction of his city guards into the Jade Horde proper, that would allow them to expand explosively. They continued the rule of every 1 in 5 of the Jade Horde needing to be a human cultivator, even though they could quickly raise a horde of thousands more Hoplites at any time. If they expanded too quickly, Sage worried the Hoplites would be seen as a demi-human threat. They were also far too block-headed and needed humans to guide them. If even a thousand of Wu Chang’s men joined the Horde, they could add in four thousand Hoplites. Ideally, Sage figured each of the Seven Stars should have their own personal legion of a thousand troops. Additionally, there should be another legion for the leader, at the headquarters and also at vitally important places like Horde Home.

Currently, they had too few human recruits and their numbers were only a third of what they needed. The Jade Horde should have at least ten thousand troops and right now they had just over three thousand. They were making do with large numbers of ‘trainee’ Hoplites, used as immediate replacements, but if they could add a thousand more they’d nearly reach the ideal troop size. Better yet, Wu Chang and Lionheart Town itself had over three thousand guards, if more of them were willing to join…

Sage put aside his idle musing over expansion and returned his focus to the issue at hand. Wu Chang had been stalling, seemingly torn over pulling others into his problems, but Sage pushed further.

“Please, we are to be of one house now. The Jade Horde is now yours, too! Please allow your brothers to step in and help you out.”

“Ahh… I haven’t had any Brothers for so very long. I gathered so many subordinates to help fill the void of their loss, but it’s not the same. They’re not supposed to be that important so that I won’t feel their loss, but that also means they can’t ever fill that void.”

“That’s better! We will be brothers from now on, so lean on me! Tell me the details and we will find a solution. It will not be quick to test and train your guard so we have plenty of time to work on the details.”

“Ai… there are two major parties involved. It wouldn’t seem like it from a cursory investigation, but the ones occupying the land are all connected to either the Hatchet Gang, or the Artful Life Alliance.”

Sage was not expecting such oddly named groups, though after a moment he remembered gathering information on the Hatchet Gang already. They were a worldwide organization from what he could gather. They were present in not only the Dou Kingdom, but also the Shihu Kingdom, Eightfold Kingdom, and Tianren Kingdom. He hadn’t had any contact with other areas beyond those, but there was a good chance they spread even further. They were something of an alternative to mercenary work or a path for the desperate to tread.

They had a unique cultivation technique that was easy to learn and could be used by even normal mortals. From what he had learned, it sacrificed the user’s future cultivation potential to create a single powerful technique. Neither the cultivation technique or attack technique even had a name, as they were simply called ‘Hatchets’ by the Hatchet Gang. That singular technique channeled their energy into a weapon and created a small cutting edge with extreme sharpness. In fact, Sage had thought it was some sort of space technique because nobody had really found a way to block their Hatchets.

On the other hand, the vast majority of their members were normal mortals with next to no cultivation talent. Even using their hatchets they had only normal mortal strength, speed, and reflexes. They could only beat cultivators by drowning them with their sheer numbers. More powerful cultivators could fly through the sky and rain down powerful energy attacks from a distance. Even with hatchets that could slice through anything they were powerless against such strong cultivators.