While the last remaining Falcon stayed on watch, Sage brought out a tiny egg and took a minute to link with and hatch it. Since it was so small, the creature was matured almost immediately, and a tiny ant with a pair of wings on its back sat on the palm of his hand. Sage had been refraining from using the Insect Immortal Index in his new identity. He’d been seen killed and if ‘Ling Sheng’ was seen using bugs, it would be a clue others could use against him. Even having the bug demi-human Hoplites was already a bit too attention drawing for his taste. It was also the main reason he didn’t have his Twin Soul just hunting endlessly on its own.

With the winged ant fully grown and matured, he willed it into flight. The small wings unfurling and the small ant taking to the air. It would be less suspicious to use another insect for this task, but Sage didn’t have many normal bugs at hand. He didn’t keep many regular insects in the Universe Ring outside of the habitat area. In the habitat area they ran wild, but it would take him some time to go inside and hunt a few down. Even if he was completely sure they weren’t under some sort of counter surveillance he didn’t want to make any unnecessary motion to alert anyone in the area. He shielded the development of the ant in his hands, so it might only seem like he’d caught an ant and released it. Far less obvious than using a large and powerful Spirit Insect.

The ant flew on a circuitous path, doing a few laps around the surrounding area and not moving in any specific pattern. Eventually, it approached the warehouse from a random direction and flew into the gap under a door. Then it crawled up a wall while Sage used its eyes to make sure nobody was watching. After ensuring they were unnoticed the ant flew up into the air again and started to travel the building in search of the two hooded figures. It flew around almost aimlessly, not noticing anything unusual. Then, something flickered. The wall lit up and the ant was instantly annihilated.

Sage watched the outside of the building for a few minutes to see if anyone was alerted. Noticing nothing different, he brought out another ant and repeated the activity. This time when the ant neared the previous area, he had it land nearby and carefully observe the situation. An ant didn’t have such great eyesight, so it was no wonder he didn’t see it before, but there was an Array Formation upon the ceiling. It was hidden between two sets of ceiling beams so the light from the nearby lamp sconces wouldn’t reach it during the daytime. As it was now, in the dim glow of moonlight, it was nearly invisible.

It took far longer than normal to analyze the array with the ant’s eyes, but Sage still felt they had a good chance of being undiscovered so it was better to keep hidden. Even if they had already had their cover blown, it wasn’t like they’d be able to mount a better chase if they went loud. Their quarry would be long gone either way, so why not hope for the best. There was a small risk that they were discovered and currently being slowly surrounded, but the chances of that happening were small. It was also the reason only three Falcons were part of his surveillance team. He actually had a whole set of newly trained Falcons in the area to act as lookouts, while the experienced Falcons were assisting him directly. The Falcons trained for the Jade Horde were taught in small classes and meant to act as scouts and espionage agents for the Jade Horde. On the other hand, most of the other Falcons were taught on an individual basis in secret by a Falconer and they operated their own small spy networks by recruiting Little Birds. Sage had named these military Falcons, War Falcons, to easily differentiate them.

Sage recognized the formation, and unfortunately, it had no flaws for the ant to sneak through. ‘Shocking Reminder’ wasn’t a powerful formation, but one meant as a weak deterrent and an alarm mechanism. If anything entered the protected area it would take a small shock and then suffer a slight deja vu feeling. That would serve to wipe out any small pests and guide away normal folk. If the formation stayed active for more than a few moments then it meant there was a more serious infiltrator and the master of the formation would be alerted. It was quite an effective security array, at least for protecting against normal beings and acting as an alarm. It did absolutely nothing to keep out a cultivator besides giving them a slight tingling feeling.

Instead, Sage analyzed the area that the array was protecting. It was located over a corner of the warehouse right next to a set of stairs that led to an upper balcony storage area. With the stairway there, the corner was small, so it wasn’t used like the rest of the warehouse. Instead it was filled with damaged pieces of crates, nails, and tools. It looked like an impromptu trash dump, but with the array over it, it was obviously not so simple a place. He had the ant move to a few other positions nearby to get different angles to examine the corner. From a side view it looked like just a pile of trash, but when the ant got to a high vantage point and looked down from above, he saw that by squeezing through a few spots there was a clear path and it led to the space under the stairs. Sage analyzed the place from the outside of the building and the interior and exterior sizes of the building were the same.

There must be an underground passageway.

Sage let the second ant follow the footsteps of the first, flying it towards the area under the stairs. He wasn’t at all surprised when it died this time from the shock. The other Falcon was left on guard while Sage slipped away. He concealed his movements as carefully as possible, using Cerulean Cloud underneath his cloak to hide from Spirit Sense, and the alchemical potion ‘Bird Bath’ to hide his cultivation. He took an indirect path back to the City Lord’s manor to make sure he wasn’t tailed, then went to the room he’d been given and snuck back in. Then he entered the Universe Ring and hunted up a specific creature.

When he finally caught a few he left the ring and received a Red Crane Message. The sun had already risen and a few servants were respectfully waiting outside his door to serve and assist him with daily rituals. He ignored them for now and checked the message. It was a report from the Falcons from the night previous. Nobody had left the warehouse after he left, and the two that had left were tailed to their homes. Their identities had already been discovered and the Falcons were already recruiting Little Birds to gather information for them. He destroyed the message and then bred the tiny being he’d caught. The new egg soon hatched and a tiny worm writhed out. It was the precursor to the Warp Worm. A simple little Refinery Worm, but Sage wasn’t planning on using it to filter any materials.

Instead he linked with it and tossed it into the air where a sparrow caught it in its claws. The bird carried it across town back towards the warehouse where it was dropped onto a patch of rough earth in an alleyway. Sage ended the Birdwatching technique and put the worm to digging. It would take it some time to map out the area underneath the warehouse, but with time they could learn where it led. It was likely the secret passage was how they smuggled the slaves out of town and if they could track them without being discovered they’d be one step closer to the origin of the slavers.

Catching just one or two won’t do. We need to pull this organization out at the root and then burn the stem and leaves.