Wan Ling had not been idle in his absence. She had finalized the cooperation with Thousand Treasures and they had become the exclusive dealer of Airship Engines. The Prosperity Company already had a large factory set up on the Lang Clan compound. All the Prosperity Company was responsible for was manufacturing while Thousand Treasures handled distribution, sales, support, logistics and most importantly protecting their design from being copied.

Sage had been trying to move quickly before he was whisked away to another world, he was worried the Lang Clan’s old enemies would come back to wipe them out, but it seems he had been worried for no reason. That, or the forces he’d left behind were sufficient deterrent. A Nascent Soul, along with six Core Formation Cultivators and 9000 Flying Mercenaries Troops seemed to have done the trick in securing their leadership position of Lionheart Town. The City Guard also had thousands of men in it, but they weren’t the City Lord’s personal troops, they were dedicated to policing the streets and defending the city from outside threats.

A single Nascent Soul without any backing was usually enough to completely control a single Town, so it was no wonder that nobody made a play to take Lionheart Town back. Usually, Nascent Souls were the Prefects of Counties, and of course the groups that controlled each Province had multiple Nascent Souls. Sage was just happy that nothing had gone wrong in his absence.

Wan Ling was quite efficient. The factory she setup was already running extremely smoothly and producing many Airship Engines every day. They were also producing a few full sized airships to sell separately. It was part of the deal with Thousand Treasures. Only the engine was exclusively distributed by Thousand Treasures. The rest of an Airship was just too large and bulky to transport all around the Kingdom and still keep a decent profit margin. It was easier to just let others produce them and leave room for others to compete. In this way it would be easier to maintain the monopoly on just the engines. At the time, Sage had assured her that he had many ideas for amenities that others wouldn’t think of, but now he’d been gone for two years.

Wan Ling scolded him on this point and they continued the tour. Surprisingly, they’d also restarted the production of the Jade Horde’s weapons and armor, moving the production facilities to Lionheart Town. Horde Home was now a base for rest and resupply as well as mining Cloudmetal Charcoal and refining Cloudsteel. The Cloudsteel was shipped to Lionheart Town where the weapons and armor were being made.

Sage was quite happy with all these developments and immediately apologized to Wan Ling by filling a few warehouses full of materials. One of them filled with spear hafts and arrow shafts, grown on the Inner World in his Arborist area. A second and third warehouse were filled with Natural Treasures, mainly different types of Spirit Plants that were grown and dried on his Inner World. Without Guan Zhenyan as a backer to facilitate more sales, he had quite a stockpile building up. Wan Ling was a business woman, and she had been reprimanding him for not having new magical devices for her to sell, so he appeased her with resources.

He could have taken out things from the psychic world, but he planned on keeping those for his own troops. Quantity couldn’t really make up for quality, but what if he armed his Dragoons with Shard Rifles? A Nascent Soul with the right laws would be too fast for them to hit, but firing such deadly weapons from the air would give everyone else quite a headache. Sage had no idea how tough someone had to be before the Shard Rifles wouldn’t penetrate their defenses, so if the Dragoons fired in large volleys at an area, it would become quite difficult to avoid their attacks. That said, even though he’d gathered large quantities, his ammunition reserves would still be limited so the Shard Rifles would be saved for a few elite legions to use.

While he was gone, the Tiankong Siblings had re-established communications and cooperation with the parts of the Jade Horde that hadn’t betrayed him. Abbot Kunga, Bi Hongbing, and Liu Ao were all still loyal to him and so they were accepted back into the chain of command. Abbot Kunga was still in Endless Valley, Bi Hongbing was in Red Sand Province, and Liu Ao led the horde Bronze Tiger Province. They didn’t find out about Sage being betrayed till it was too late, and they were too far away to assist him. In the last few years, the Tiankong Siblings had visited them and re-established relations and the chain of command. They’d also reclaimed the network of Falcons with new funding from Wan Ling, thankfully, most of them were out of the chain of command of the Jade Horde. The original class of Falconers had been trained by Sage personally. The War Falconers that worked with the horde had betrayed him, and they had killed a few of the others that they knew, but most of them were far away and the traitors had no idea where they’d gone. Sage, on the other hand, knew how to get in contact with them and had given that information to the Tiankong Siblings.

With Sage’s return he produced more Dragoons. After being taken away for so long, he was worried about such a thing happening again, and he increased the Dragoons numbers by a full ten times. Each of the Tiankong Siblings was given charge of a full ten thousand Dragoons, and those devoted to protecting the Prosperity Companies assets were increased to thirty thousand. Those thirty thousand included Wan Ling’s guard detail. Sage wanted to have the thousand guarding her increased to ten thousand but she wouldn’t have it. Instead, those extra ten thousand were made guards for the company, but only if she agreed to have two legions assigned to her at all times.

Wan Ling had done a great job building infrastructure for him, and the Tiankong Siblings had rebuilt the Jade Horde in his absence. Sage felt quite proud of all the work they’d done without him. Songji had been told about Sage accepting a long and secret mission and returned back to Lionheart Town a few weeks after Sage had left to spread the news. With that reassurance they didn’t directly try to storm the Thundercloud Sect and instead were very productive. In fact, Sage wondered if it was a benefit for him to be gone. He might have just slowed them all down trying to manage them. He’d feared the Tiankong Siblings getting into trouble on their own, but it seemed he worried for nothing. There were a few tales of their mischief, but they handled things quite well in his absence.

After taking a tour of all the changes and getting an update from all the major players in his camp, they organized a huge banquet. It was a big feast to celebrate his return and Sage got to meet up with all the people he’d missed for the last couple years. Wan Ling also took the opportunity to invite all the major players in Lionheart Town to refresh their confidence in their City Lord. Sage even took the opportunity to show off his strength and displayed his full strength as a Nascent Soul. He wanted the groups in town to know not to try any funny business because the Lionheart Town’s City Lord had the strength of not just one Nascent Soul, but two! Along with the number of troops they had, it officially made the most powerful Town in the Province if not the whole Kingdom.

It didn’t bring Sage any closer to vengeance upon his other enemies, but it was probably enough to secure himself from retaliation. Things had been calm for the two years he was gone, but it was possible that they were simply waiting for him to come back before making a move. Since he’d already been driven away and came back a conqueror once before, his enemies would be foolish to defeat his forces at Lionheart Town while he was personally unaccounted for. A smart person would wait for all their enemies to be gathered together in one place before wiping them all out in one fell swoop.

It was a common saying here to ‘pull a problem up by the roots’. If a conflict escalated to killing, then every person with any relation should also be included in that killing. Even if one child escaped from the killing of a Clan, it could lead to a calamity. There were many stories of a single child escaping from such a massacre and coming back decades later for revenge. That thirst for vengeance turned some into powerful cultivators. Others would just start their own families and pass the enmity on to their descendents. A century later the offending Clan could be wiped out by a single child they had overlooked.

Sage was exactly one of those people, and he was still thinking of that man called Skyfire.