Before Sage could take the comment as a compliment, the woman opened her mouth again, “At least you haven’t turned into a complete idiot, but still… What a mess!”

The woman’s golden eyes stared at the large serpent, a piercing gaze that seemed like she was looking deep inside. She shook her head, “Just because you can have more than one set of meridians doesn’t make it a good idea. Torn in so many directions, do you think jamming in everything possible will make you stronger? Wouldn’t that mean all the strongest Demonic Beasts would be chimeras with a dozen heads and hundreds of limbs?”

She let out a long sigh, pausing to let her words sink in, “Oh well, at least you’re lucky. The squad that picked you up didn’t realize you were human and that got you far enough for someone else to realize your value. Sit tight, we’ll figure out what to do with you soon enough.”

Sage thought about a number of responses, but the woman seemed to already know so many of his secrets. She hadn’t given him an ultimatum or made any demands, so there was little sense in arguing with her. Anything he said would merely be disagreeing with her, or demands he had no backing to make. He also wasn’t sure what to think about her insults. It was possible she was trying to undercut his decisions to make herself seem wiser, but her words were also somewhat true. The most powerful beasts had special abilities, but they usually fit within a sort of theme or specialty that they truly excelled with. He had more than a dozen different special qualities he’d taken from different beasts and insects.

Was that a bad decision? Did I spread myself too thin?

She left Sage alone to ponder her words. He didn’t let himself be too affected, especially since there was nothing he could do about it right now. If he were to activate his Chrysalis now, he would have no way to protect himself, and they might interrupt or do even worse to him when he didn’t respond. He also held out hope they were bluffing about what they knew about him. The woman made it seem like she knew everything about him, but there was probably a limit to what they actually knew. They could be guessing about things and he wasn’t going to be the one to confirm anything for them.

The next few days passed in a similar fashion. Grimuk the many armed minotaur came by once a day to dump a bucket of scraps for him to eat, each time looking at him with contempt. Then a short while later, the beautiful woman would stop by and ‘pity’ him. Each time she would seem to feel sorry for him, while also making subtle jabs at his body. The missing arm, the useless milky eye, and all his many scars became targets for her to pity him for.

While they were gone, he spent his time trying to find a way out of the cell. He studied the stone walls and bars of the cage, but he couldn’t find any leads. Besides the small gaps between the bars, everything else was completely impermeable. To make things worse, if he touched the bars he suffered a terrible wave of pain. When he tried to send his Spirit Sense out of the cage only a tiny trickle fit through the gaps in the bar, and even his Twin Soul was blocked by them. None of his tricks worked.

He couldn’t help it, but when he realized there was little chance of escape, Sage felt his exhaustion setting in. The years on the run had exhausted him to the limit. With no further hope of escape, he could only accept his situation and allow himself to finally rest. He laid down and his mind went blank. Slowly recovering from the years living a savage life on the run.

In addition to trying to break out, Sage spent much of his time managing his Inner World. Being on the run for a few years, a few decades had passed in his Inner World and he already had hundreds of mature insects to call upon once again. During his escape, he’d also had Ruanfu start training Hoplites. The damned bugs were just too simple minded that they only knew how to follow the orders of their commanders. By removing himself from the normal chain of command, Sage had made it far too easy for the Jade Horde to betray him. He wanted to come up with a better method to ensure their loyalty, but he didn’t really have the luxury of inventing new techniques or shopping for new ones while he was running for his life. It was far from ideal, but he’d have to make due. Unfortunately, these new Hoplites didn’t have equipment like the Jade Horde, they could only spin armor, shields, and even very basic weapons from Steelsilk.

Ruanfu had continued to grow and mature, now looking like a young woman. Unlike a cultivator’s aging, the Human Seal made the beast appear at a similar human age to the maturity level of their true form. With enough energy, a Demonic Beast could mature very rapidly. Their usual limiting factor was consuming enough beasts or animals to refine a sufficient amount of energy. With the beasts that Sage had captured in the past, the Inner World was teeming with prey animals. The ecosystem was definitely very absurd, but it somewhat functioned. Sage had populated one continent with insects, and another with Spirit Animals. He’d also made sure to plant vegetation that the animals liked as well as edible fruits and vegetables for the Hoplites and King’s family.

The world didn’t have much in the way of variety, but it was enough. The insects preyed upon each other, which made the strongest of them grow to maturity. On the other continent, the Spirit Animals had no predators except for the Hoplites and King’s Family. They were able to reproduce at astounding rates and provided ample food for Ruanfu to quickly reach adulthood. She was already on the cusp of breaking into the fifth rank, and Sage could only hope that his captors didn’t know about her.

His captors hadn’t even bothered to take away his Storage Ring or Beast Bag, showing their confidence that he couldn’t do anything inside their prison. He wished that he hadn’t lost the Universe Ring. Maybe one of the tricks in there could have gotten him out?

That’s a silly thing to think. They’re so confident, it’s unlikely the Universe Ring would save me.

After a few days of being insulted by the furry eared woman, Sage couldn’t take it anymore and lashed out at her, “You talk big for someone who has to waste their time everyday insulting a prisoner. You’re just a jumped up jail guard who has to insult other people to make themselves feel important!”

Unfortunately, the response was even more patronizing than before. She put her hand against her chest and her face softened, “Oh, you poor, poor thing. Only a few days in confinement and you’re already losing your cool. You must truly have suffered before we found you. I’ll have Grimuk bring you something special tomorrow to cheer you up.”

The next day, she made good on her word. Grimuk’s bucket was even worse than before, the things poured out of it weren’t just scraps of meat and gristle. Instead it was a bucket full of offal and grease. Discarded bits of organs and entrails, swimming in a grease pond. Sage was disgusted, coiling his body up at the back of the cell. The front and back of the cell had a gentle gradient which led to a small grate made of the same material as the bars of the cage. The mess each day would slowly dribble towards the grate, the blood from the ‘food buckets’ would dry up and Sage would sometimes use a gout of flame to get rid of the smell. Since they’d left him with his Storage Ring, they must have known he’d have rations in there. He guessed the daily bucket of slop was more of an insult to further wear down his mental state.