When the meeting ended, Sage left behind a Storage Bag with 20,000 Spirit Stones in it, and also a contract to sell hatchets to the Hatchet Gang. It was a similar deal to the one made with the Cloudmetal Consortium, but with a smaller discount. Most importantly, if they wanted to purchase hatchets made with Cloudsteel instead of Spirit Steel, the Cloudmetal Consortium would act as a middleman. The conversation started out quite combative and they both spoke in a sort of code. Fu Hong kept his words completely civil and so did Sage. Neither of them would be the one to lose the battle of words and eventually they called it a draw.

At that point, the negotiation was more blunt and Sage introduced the Horde Halberd like a salesman. Then he took out a ‘Giant Saber’, the mass production version of the weapon. It was made of common Spirit Steel and didn’t have a size changing function. It only kept the feature of swapping from ten percent weight to full weight. The actual power could be altered for the user by changing out what objects were kept within the internal Storage Bag. In a pinch, a wielder might even keep their emergency supplies inside it. A more civilized bandit might only take Storage Bags and Rings, but leave a person’s main weapon so they don’t get killed by beasts.

Fu Hong didn’t really find it all that special until he was told the price. At that point he smiled. The Hatchet Gang was definitely about quantity over quality, so having a cheap weapon with good performance would be a huge boon to them.

Sage would not have offered them such a deal before today. After combining what he learned from rumors, his own observation, and the time spent with Fu Hong he felt he had a pretty good idea of what they were about. They lived up to their appellation as a gang. They were a group of like minded people, tired of being mistreated and trod upon. They went to drastic measures to try and improve their lives. They treated their own members like family, and anyone that tried to stop them was their enemy. They followed their own set of laws, operating outside of normal society.

In this world where might makes right, he couldn’t really blame them. After the Lang Clan was destroyed he ran away and lived a harsh life as a caravan guard and mercenary. He was all alone, and living on the run. If he wasn’t incarnated into the Lang Clan where he could at least learn how to cultivate and merely born into a common mortal household, then he might make the same decision. Who would want to live their whole life as worthless ants? Forced to bow and scrape in front of even the most insignificant thug. You could start a business or learn a trade, but that required capital. What if you toiled for years, saving and scrimping only to finally fail or get robbed at the last moment? It would be very tempting to join the Hatchet Gang and become a low level cultivator.

It was actually more of a wonder that every mortal person wasn’t already in the Hatchet Gang.

Fu Hong’s parting words resounded in Sage’s ears, “It seems you learned how those people found their way into the Slaver’s hands, but have you found out where they were heading to?”

Fu Hong didn’t answer the question, instead just showing Sage out. After passing over half of his personal funds, Sage was glad the Hatchet Gang wasn’t too excessive. The little bribe was basically compensation for moving their people back into the city walls and out of the old Lang Clan area. The Hatchet Gang knew they didn’t have any true claim to the area, they just relied on the debt that the City Lord owed them. It was hard to be rude to one’s creditor, but now that the Jade Horde had arrived things changed.

The Hatchet Gang was a large organization as well, so they knew who they could and couldn’t offend. A large group undergoing rapid growth and expansion was not good to be on the bad side of. Such rapidly growing groups could shoot to power like a meteor, and the Hatchet Gang hadn’t survived for so long by being idiots. Their leaders were quite experienced. They wouldn’t stand for being humiliated, but they also knew when to back down. Their goal was to improve the lives of their members, not to pick fights or rise to power. With the slave trade being a source of more trouble than profit, they simply gave it up and moved to other methods. Instead of selling debtors, they could just put them to work.

Sage and Fu Hong came to an understanding, and he focused on the question the man had left him with. There couldn’t be a slave market without buyers. The Hatchet Gang were opportunists. Those outposts they’d destroyed were only middle managers. They didn’t seem to be part of a singular organization, but they definitely answered to one.

We need to do a more thorough search of everything we recovered for more clues. There’s no way they didn’t leave any traces.

Sage met with Black Saber and shared his suspicions. Wu Chang and Black Saber both agreed with him and they began a careful search of all their spoils of war as well as reinterviewing those who had been captured. Sage then lowered his voice, “I’ve run into some… marked items. The sort that will harm the person who tries to use them. You should both be careful of the goods you took off the leaders.”

Wu Chang chuckled, “Ahh, I’ve also had some trouble with those in the past. Don’t worry, I found a solution for that many years ago! Come with me.”

Sage looked over to Black Saber. The former bandit smiled, and then nodded to Sage as if to show that he knew what they would do. Wu Chang led them through Lionheart Town and back to a large stone building with metal bars over its windows. At that point Sage seemed to understand as well. They went inside and after a short delay with security checks they made their way into the basement level.

“This is where the Death Row inmates are housed. The few times when I’ve come upon some questionable loot, I have these fellows test it out for me.”

Black Saber nodded his head. He didn’t say anything, but Sage saw a little twinkle in his eye. The guy used to run a bandit gang, so he probably used to do something similar. Sage put aside his misgivings, “So, which do we choose?”

“Come along. The ones at the end are cultivators. The normal folk can’t activate Storage Tools. I always make sure to keep some of the cultivator criminals around as testers. They’ve been sentenced to death anyway, better to make some use of them.”

Definitely the most pragmatic choice. I can’t say I blame him.

Wu Chang led them to the last cell and took out a keyring. He opened the door and walked inside. The man inside was covered in scars and had a vicious gleam in his eyes. Too bad for him, he was only rank 3. On top of that, his wrists and ankles were secured to the walls by chains. He didn’t have much hope when the trio of rank 5 people entered, but that didn’t stop him. He rushed to attack them, trying to use his chains as a weapon. Wu Chang seemed ready for it, swinging his hand before the man even finished attacked. There was a loud crack of skin to skin, the prisoner was slapped back into the corner.

Wu Chang stared down at the man, “Settle down and listen up. All you have to do is run your Qi into a few items and then you’ll get moved to a nice clean cell and served three meals a day. Got it?”