Sage broke the tension and did not deactivate the protective formation plate he’d thrown down. It was one of the few he had that was actually a rank 5 Formation Plate. High rank Formation Plates were quite expensive to create and so he didn’t use them often. He preferred to layer many cheaper and weaker Formation Plates, but in this situation he had panicked a little bit and used his most powerful Formation Plate. It usually took him less than a minute to swap around the plates on the Formation Machine to suit his situation. He even stored them in a dozen different common configurations inside the Universe Ring to make the switch faster. Unfortunately, the Formation Machine had sustained a little bit of damage during the last operation, and even if it hadn’t, that energy from the necklace was too fast and deadly. He hadn’t expected anything like that and used his most powerful defense out of fear. Now that it was over, he stopped to analyze what happened.

Was it a curse? A poison? What sort of terrible weapon was that thing?

He voiced his concerns to Black Saber and Wu Chang. They both just grunted.

Fear clogged their throats, I guess.

“Let’s just go and check this last ring and get as far away from here as we can.”

And then fill this room with concrete. Wait, they don’t have cement here. Well, we can brick and mortar the door…

Wu Chang and Black Saber nodded. Wu Chang led Sage to another cell, far far away from the first one. Then he opened the door and did not go inside. Black Saber retreated a few doors down and kept his gaze on both the new cell and the one down the hall where the bone necklace was still sitting. Wu Chang came out of the cell and joined Black Saber, both of them wary of whatever it was that Sage had found. He couldn’t really blame them. He also wanted to just throw both of the two items into a volcano and never think of them again.

Who just wears a necklace that can liquefy a person like that?

The poor chap in the second cell did not receive a good end. It was far from as terrifying as what the first man had experienced, but for the criminal it was many times worse. When he put on the Storage Ring and tried to access it, he let out a loud scream. The man fell to the ground and started convulsing. He emptied his stomach and his bowels, thrashing around in a very disgusting puddle. He curled up in the fetus position and continued to scream with pain. When he started to smash his head against the stone floor, Sage took out a crossbow and put the poor man out of his misery.

Black Saber walked over and looked at what happened, “Convulsing Death. That’s another common trap, but it’s extremely expensive,” he opened the cell and then swept his hand with a horizontal motion. He held his hand flat like a saber and a burst of energy flashed out. The slash blasted away the mess, and perfectly tossed the little Storage Ring into the air. He caught it and poked it a few times with his fingers, firing a few bursts of Qi. Then he tossed the ring to Sage, “Let’s get out of here.”

Sage put the ring away, trusting in Black Saber’s methods. They returned back the way they came and Sage decided not to leave such a dangerous object just laying around. He went back to the door of the first cell and opened the slot in the door. Then he unleashed a torrent of white flame into the cell, completely drowning the room with fire. He kept it up for nearly half a minute before he’d completely exhausted the air storage of his Divine Breath. Then when the smoke cleared, the room was completely empty except for a metal bed frame jutting out from the wall, and the bone necklace. The remains of the criminal had been completely cremated. Sage threw a Formation Plate next to the necklace and a bubble of energy sprung up around the area like a big glowing bowl had been slapped down to catch the necklace like a bug. Then he carefully opened the door and swept both the energy bowl and everything inside it directly into the Universe Ring.

He looked down at his body, checking for anything out of order. Then he wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead and walked out of that cell quickly. He didn’t even look at Black Saber or Wu Chang, treating it the same as they had earlier. Better to keep from mentioning such unspeakable dangers. Wu Chang closed the door to the cell, smashed the lock, and carved the word ‘Forbidden’ into the stone around the doorframe.

After that, the three of them went back to Wu Chang’s manor and drank a few jars of wine.

The next day, Black Saber and Wu Chang returned to their normal duties. Black Saber had the whole Jade Horde to run. He’d spent a few weeks there helping take down the slavers. Wu Chang was still the City Lord of Lionheart Town and Sage planned on building a new headquarters for the Jade Horde here. Horde Home was not being abandoned, but it was merely intended to be a production base and shouldn’t be considered their headquarters. In fact, Sage had plans for a much larger manufacturing facility here in Lionheart Town. He had to rebuild the Lang Clan, and the best cover for that was to establish the Jade Horde here first. Black Saber didn’t have to leave, but he had to coordinate with the rest of their forces spread across the Kingdom.

Wu Chang was also busy, having to attend to administrative tasks, and also to face the pushback of other organizations in the province. They’d just made a huge strike upon six different places. Slavers weren’t illegal in the kingdom, but neither was war. This was a world where might, made right. The rules enforced by the kingdom were loose at best. They cared only about receiving their yearly resources from each of the provinces. The local powers that ran each province cared about getting resources from their local counties, and the county governors only cared about the resources from City Lords, and City Lords only worried about their subordinate villages. As long as that order wasn’t messed up, a person would only have to answer to the local lord of the territory they were in.

Those slavers weren’t directly involved in that resource chain, so Wu Chang’s superior, the Prefect of Jade Spirit County, didn’t care at all. On the other hand, the Prefects of two other counties, as well as three City Lords were upset. They were likely receiving benefits from the slaver groups and were now upset at the loss. The other cities weren’t too great of a threat, as with the help of the Jade Horde they were quite weaker than Lionheart Town. On the other hand, the two Prefects were trouble. Jade Spirit County’s Prefect wasn’t harmed by their actions, but he also wasn’t going to stand out to protect Wu Chang. While they didn’t truly control the dozen City Lords that answered to them, a Prefect had to be strong enough to quell at least two or three of them at the same time.

A normal City Lord would be a Core Formation cultivator with the support of others, or a lone cultivator that was at the upper stages of the fifth rank. For example, one of the Prefects making a fuss: Lai Liang. The Lai Clan controls the county. Lai Liang is at around level 58, and four of his subordinate City Lords come from the Lai Clan. They’re only level 51 to 53, but have the backing of the Lai Clan. Wu Chang is just about as powerful as Lai Liang individually, but without any backer he could only rise to the level of a City Lord. Now that he’d joined the Jade Horde he could almost stand on equal terms with a County Prefect.

Unfortunately, there were two different Prefects sending threats to Wu Chang. If he didn’t handle things correctly, they could join forces against him. At that point, the three City Lords would likely join in and Wu Chang would be finished for sure.