After receiving a bit of free advice, Sage wasn’t quite done with the Inner World. He had to stop and ask something of Guan Zhenyan, “You said I can’t have the Universe Ring back until I pay you ten million Spirit Stones, but how about the price to retrieve some of the items out of it? There are two experiments I was working on that I wish to move to the Inner World.”

“Experiments? What do you mean?”

“These are two of my secrets. Since we are already tied together, please do not leak this to anyone else. The first experiment consists of special materials from a Hidden Domain. I am trying to get them to reproduce. The second experiment is based upon the techniques of an Arborist. I’ve been breeding insects that are performing their basic techniques to try and grow magic tools.”

“Really now? How trusting of you. Now that I know of your secrets, don’t you think I’ll try and pry them out of your hands?”

“Forgive me, Sir, but even if you know of them you cannot access the Universe Ring. If anyone other than me could, there’s no way the ring would have passed all the way to you. I think you’d much rather I move these projects into my Inner World. Then, I can get your assistance improving them, and if they ever succeed you get a cut. Am I correct?”

Sage chose to make a calculated risk here. Among his many secrets these weren’t directly impactful upon his combat ability. Also, he’d already put his life into Guan Zhenyan’s hands multiple times and the man seemed to treat him fairly, even if it was only because Sage still had value to him. In fact, if he could get Guan Zhenyan’s assistance improving these two avenues of research then it could even raise his value. Sage didn’t enjoy being kept around as a test subject, but it also meant that he had a very powerful person protecting him. Right now, with so many enemies, what he needed was protection and time to grow.

“Alright, you’ve piqued my interest. I’ll let you access the Universe Ring, but we will stay linked. Do you dare to let me see inside?”

This final condition made his heart beat harder. Could he let Guan Zhenyan see all the secrets he’d hidden inside? What would he see? Sage quickly did a mental inventory of his important possessions. All the natural treasures and other crafting resources weren’t anything extraordinary. Only his unique creations or his few rare objects might catch Guan Zhenyan’s eyes. The Formation Machine, steam powered devices, and the Peachwood Ring. There were a few other oddities like that severed Armored Ghost Hand, a shed skin from when he’d been a Naga, and the remainder of his auction winnings, but Sage didn’t think Guan Zhenyan would care much about those. Most of the sensitive information was kept within Memory Spheres or his stacks of scroll manuals. All he had to do was refrain from looking in them and Guan Zhenyan couldn’t take a peek.

“Alright, I agree!”

Sage pulled his consciousness out from the Inner World and back to the real world. He was still sitting in front of Guan Zhenyan with his legs crossed. The Storage Ring in his hands had been completely emptied out in the process of remodeling his Inner World. All of the seeds and small plants, along with thousands of unusual objects and resources had been placed in his Inner World to transform the environment into a massive farm. Guan Zhenyan stared at him for a few moments before he took out a small golden ring and tossed it to him.

“After you get the ‘experiments’ out, you have to give it back, understood? I can’t just give away your motivation for free, so don’t think you’re going to take everything out this time either.”

Sage cursed inwardly, his plot getting discovered. He was hoping he could just clean the whole place out, then even if he didn’t have the ring back at least he wouldn’t lose all of his equipment and funds. Guan Zhenyan saw right through him. Grumbling, he took hold of the Universe Ring and after nodding, he disappeared. His whole body was transported into the Universe Ring and the little gold ring slowly floated down to sit upon the ground.

With a soft ‘whoosh’ sound, Sage found himself back inside the Universe Ring and he took in a deep breath, “Long time no see.” He spoke to no one in particular, but then a Hoplite ran over and bowed to him. Almost immediately, the man started listing out the status of the many insect ranches and other crops he had them farming. Guan Zhenyan chuckled in Sage’s head, but didn’t say anything. Sage nodded to the Hoplite and sent him off.

Sage usually always appeared inside the fortress like manor he’d built in the Universe Ring. That way, an attendant could always meet him and give him an update. Otherwise, he was just accessing the storage vault underground and he’d pull things out without actually entering the Universe Ring. Now that he was inside, he couldn’t help but walk around the manor and give Guan Zhenyan a little tour. Unlike the Inner World, he could actually physically enter the Universe Ring and so he’d spent some time making a comfortable home and conditions here. Rather than hide the strange hybrid creations he’d created based on earth technology, he instead showed them off to Guan Zhenyan.

The man seemed lazy and was a real miser, but he also seemed to like comfort. With that in mind, he showed off his early designs. Really, it was just a magical stand in for modern plumbing. Hot and cold running water. Shower, bath, sink, and toilet. Cultivators could use their powers to replicate many of these comforts, but it was always more extravagant to not do any work for oneself, wasn’t it? Guan Zhenyan wasn’t excited, but he was interested, “Not bad, Kid. You say these are very cheap to produce?”

“They are, I started a business in the Shihu Kingdom with them. A high end bath house. Luxuries that the wealthy have never seen, and also cheap enough for the weak to enjoy. I’ll trade you shares in return for you using your influence to set them up here.”

“Hah! Good, very good. When you agreed to let me watch, I knew you had some plot in mind.”

Sage took a roundabout path, skipping the area where the steam weapons were stored, but stopping in a large hangar where he kept an airship. Well, a partially completed airship. He’d long ago sold the first model he’d kept here and hadn’t ever had time to rebuild it completely. While he was on the run for two years he’d been teaching King’s children and also groups of Hoplites whenever he had time to rest for a few hours. A copy of the blueprints were also pinned up on the wall of the Hanger and some of the Hoplites had been working on the parts that they could. Right now, it was nothing more than a cabin and a huge leather balloon laid beside it.

“This is a design that I consigned to the Holy Flame Sect. They’re handling production. It’s already been a number of years so I’m betting they’re pretty popular there already. It’s a Flying Ship that costs only a tiny fraction of the cost. Of course, it also only has a fraction of the performance, but it’s a flying vehicle that doesn’t require taming flying beasts, or expensive materials.”

“So, you’re letting poor folk enter the air? Won’t they be clogging up the skies?”

“You underestimate the size of the skies. Also, the danger. They still need to hire cultivators to guard them. Even so, the benefits are massive. Trade with remote areas will receive a huge boost. Without needing to build roads, cities can be formed around more distant resources. We are also the only supplier of the engines, but the rest can all be manufactured by others. By encouraging secondary markets and third party builders, we sell even more engines and make it even more popular.”

“Haha, bold claims. I suppose you want to sell those here, too? Pretty pushy. You probably just want to trick me into telling you where you are. Still plotting an escape, aren’t you? Nice try, but you aren’t going anywhere until you pay me back completely. The mental link, remember?”

Sage grumbled. Guan Zhenyan laughed at him and told him to hurry up. With the sales pitch over, he didn’t dally any longer and walked towards his experimental zones. The Stonesap Tree was growing to the side of the path and Sage made a plea, “Oh, I forgot the Stonesap Tree. I was using it for insect nurturing, can I move it?”

“Fine, but hurry up already. Let’s see these experiments.”

Sage walked over to the first site, which looked like a sad excuse for a forest. There was an area of dark blue sand like soil that contained a pool of unknown watery liquid. Many small crystal trees, bushes and flowers had sprung up in the soil, but their growth looked stunted and far from thriving. In another nearby area, the ground was layered with brown crystals and sand containing a pool of transparent dark green liquid. Just like a heavily algae filled pool of water.

“This is from the Hidden Domain. As you can see, I haven’t been very successful so far. I’m trying to reproduce the lighting situation from the Hidden Domain, but it’s only just barely keeping them alive. I’m not sure what the use of all this stuff is, but that green liquid seems to be an unrefined form of Gemsteel Acid. Even more amazing is that brown crystal acts like a low quality Spirit Crystal. If I could produce more of it and figure out how to refine it, I could make a fortune.”

“Haha, so these are your ‘special materials from a Hidden Domain’. Not too shabby, but unfortunately for you, you’re missing a few things.”

“Wait, do you mean?”

“Yeah. I’ve seen these things before, and you’re not too far off. The bad news is that you don’t have any hope of growing them without three very specific Heavenly Materials. You need the right Jewel, Wind, and Flame. Without that combination of air, light, and soil, you won’t get anymore of that crystal. If you add on the right type of water you can get the gemsteel acid and a Heavenly Metal can actually jumpstart the production of gemsteel ore. On the other hand, the good news is that you were right about your earning potential. Now that you’ve got the starting remnants here, if you got your hands on those Heavenly Materials you could make a fortune.”

“Which Heavenly Materials?”

“Haha, since I can’t get them for now you’ll have to pay extra if you want to know the names.”

Sage grumbled about him being a cheapskate again and they abandoned the plans to move this experiment. Now that he knew it was pretty much impossible to do much better than he already had, he just left it alone. It had limped along for years already, all it took was a thought from him to put the whole area into stasis and they moved on.