If the Shou Clan were going to go and investigate the other properties that Hei Bai owned, then Sage, as the title holder for those properties, figured it was only fair that he got to search them first. Since the tailor shop that Hei Bai owned seemed to be the most important to her, Sage chose to head there first. It was also conveniently the closest one to Golden Cricket Cove and so Sage took it upon himself to check it out first. As they came upon different towns, King did a slow circle around them in the air, giving Sage a chance to confirm where they were and point them towards their destination. Soon they reached Iron Mist City in Canyon Wind County, their destination. Hei Bai had both a tailor shop and a manor home here. Given the level of the properties, Sage had guessed this was Hei Bai’s most important alternate identity.

While King was swooping down towards the ground, something suddenly approached them at high speed. It came directly from the town in front of them and King instinctively swerved away. Sage looked back and saw a cultivator floating in mid-air. At almost the same time, the man noticed him and the two of them shared a surprised silence. King slowly started to circle in the air and the man floated slowly closer to match the pace.

“Pardon. I’ve never seen a bird like this and it was diving towards our city.”

Sage bowed his head from King’s back, “I understand. Please forgive me for rushing towards your city too quickly. I’ll be careful to approach on foot from now on.”

The man looked at the bird, “You must be new to the air. Most cities will treat you as an enemy if you fly above them, please be careful. There are many who aren’t as kind as I.”

Sage felt a bit of rage well up from the man’s tone, but he controlled himself. He was likely just interrupted from something and thinking there was an enemy attack. It was reasonable for him to be a bit annoyed, so Sage bowed his head again, “Thank you for your instruction. Allow me to treat you to a drink later as an apology.”

The man waved his hand, “Fine. You can find me at the Essence Sable Sect.”

Before Sage could even answer, the man had already flown back down to Iron Mist City. He’d already annoyed the man enough, so Sage didn’t make a big deal out of it. Instead he brought King back outside of town and landed within a clearing inside the forest. He released a thick cloud of mist from a Formation Plate to hide them and then searched carefully with his Spirit Sense before letting King return to his human form. He still wasn’t eager for anyone to learn of the Human Seal yet. They didn’t waste any time, jogging rapidly to Iron Mist City before slowing to a walking pace. They’d already made a big enough commotion in the sky earlier, so Sage was extra cautious now.

Their first stop was the tailor shop, Lin Mei’s Fashions. Walking inside, Sage noticed that half of the shop was closed off with a sign reading ‘Closed for Renovation’. He felt something was odd, but asked the clerk about what was going on.

“We have a new owner, so they are giving things their own touch.”

“Is that so? What happened to Lin Mei?” Sage asked carefully, testing the waters.

“To be honest, Lin Mei only visited the shop once every few weeks. She only handled the most important customers. Our manager told us she’s become the new owner because Lin Mei wanted to retire.”

Sage thanked the saleswoman and then left the shop. He felt uneasy about the situation, but went directly to ‘Lin Mei’s Manor’. He took King to a tea house down the street and they had a cup of tea while Sage directed a Chameleon Mantis into the manor. The cat sized insect used its camouflage skin to sneak inside and investigate. A similar event was occuring in the manor as had been going on in the tailor shop. A change of owners. He sent over a small bird to keep track of the situation in the manor, while the Chameleon Mantis investigated the new owner. The insect followed the movers to the steward in charge. Then trailed the steward back to the new owners old home, and Sage listened in on what was going on.

It took a few hours, but eventually he learned that someone had approached them and liquidated the property. After some more investigation, a similar person was also seen at the tailor shop before the owners changed hands.

Who would know about Hei Bai’s properties and that she wasn’t around anymore to keep them?

Reaching a dead end, Sage stopped by the Essence Sable Sect and met with the cultivator who had stopped him earlier. The man’s name was Yu Wu, and also the head of the sect. It wasn’t a very large sect, so a rank 5 cultivator was their most powerful member. Sage treated him to some expensive wine as an apology. Yu Wu seemed a bit better off when he learned that Sage was part of the Jade Horde, they were gaining fame in the area recently so he was happy to make friends.

After the meeting, Sage returned to Lionheart Town. Over the next few days, the rest of the teams sent to Hei Bai’s various properties had returned. None of them had good news. They’d all been recently sold to various mysterious persons.

Is there some other organization that Hei Bai was working for?

Without any other good leads, Sage set his Falcons to work on the Artful Life Alliance. They were already paying attention to them before, as one of Wu Chang’s creditors, but now they were target number one. With so much focus upon them, Sage started receiving news about them on a daily basis. They compiled a list of all the Clans, Sects, and Businesses that were part of the Artful Life Alliance, as well as those that were affiliated with them, and those who only did business with them. Then they created a list of all their important personnel, which unfortunately was a lot more difficult than the earlier lists. The Artful Life Alliance was made up of smaller groups and organizations within 10,000 Wave Province.

First rate powers controlled provinces, Second rate powers helmed counties, third rate powers ran cities, and fourth rate powers had villages. Or at least, they were as strong as the groups in control of such places. The Artful Life Alliance was equal to a second rate power, but only through the combination of many smaller groups. Essentially, they were a collection of groups with only one or two Core Formation Cultivators at best. Most of the involved groups didn’t even have anyone with a Golden Core, only those at the peak of Foundation Building. With the recent increases in manpower, the Jade Horde could now qualify as a real second rate power. Theoretically, they could take on the Artful Life Alliance, but in practice the Jade Horde was newly established. Their foundations were too weak to be taking them on. That also went double for the County Prefects that were upset with them.

Since the Artful Life Alliance wasn’t going anywhere, Sage turned his attention to the matter of Lionheart Town. Sage had accomplished his goal of gathering funding for the Jade Horde, but there was still the matter of deciding how to use it. The cheapest method would be to hire a Mercenary team to back them up, but if the County Prefects were serious it wasn’t like their wealth was any less than Sage’s. Getting into a battle to see who had the most money was not the first choice for either side. Clearly, both Prefects were getting benefits from the slavers. Now with them gone, they were applying pressure to Wu Chang to make up for those lost benefits.

Sage was called into the main hall of Wu Chang’s Manor. A messenger had arrived from the Prefect of Dawn Mountain Country.