He certainly wasn’t expecting to see the new Dragoons with shiny new gear, but it wasn’t really a surprise to him. Given the time difference on the Inner World, a single year for him turned into hundreds there. Without knowing how long he’d been ‘away’, there was no telling how much they’d advanced. In fact, he was more worried about what would happen to civilization on the Inner World without any of the Tiankong to guide it. He feared it would be destroyed while he was gone, but from how the Dragoons were equipped it seems they had flourished instead.

He would investigate their changes later, as he was more concerned with the changes to the outside world. The Dragoons were merely to help him clean up so he sent them to work, cleaning and renovating the nine towers to put them back into line as a living space and farming area. He couldn’t currently remember exactly what had happened, but the bits he did remember made him pity those poor Hoplites and Dragoons. They’d served him so loyally and met a tortured end. The cobra he’d created was vicious to the extreme, and he was glad not to have released any into the wild. Of course, since he was the only one, he’d have to ‘breed’ his essence with something else and that was just a little too strange at the moment, even for him.

With the cleaning crew underway, Sage made sure that his cobra self hadn’t left any other nasty surprises before sending his Spirit Sense out of the Universe Ring to check on his surroundings. A moment later he let out a laugh and then exited the Universe Ring. He appeared in a small and cramped closet. A moment later, he reached down and picked up a broom. Then he snapped the end of it off and slipped a tarnished ring off of the handle.

Clever girl.

Sage commended Wan Ling’s cleverness. She had covered the ring in some sort of tarnish to hide its golden color and then slipped it onto a broomstick and attached the broom bristles around it. It was a very nice broom, matching the high end cleaning tools in the closet. He opened the door slowly and found himself in a large hallway. He spread his Spirit Sense out, very gingerly and quickly learned he was inside a large and expensive compound. A beautiful manor with a large wall, with a dozen others just like it arranged upon the flattened peak of a mountain.

He walked down the hallway towards the largest central room of the manor, which he assumed was a sort of great room and he casually took a seat upon one of the chairs inside it. A few minutes later, just as he had assumed, a short man with red hair and a very large mouth walked into the room. He carried a sword upon his back and had a patch over his right eye. The man smiled and greeted him with a salute and low bow.

Sage smiled, leaping up out of the chair to return the salute and bow, “Juzui! You look so fierce with that eyepatch. Have you still not replaced your eye? How long have I been gone for?”

For a moment, he thought he might have only been away for a few months, but then Juzui dispelled that illusion.

“You’ve been away for fourteen years. The Mistress is away at the moment, but she should be back within a few weeks.”

“Mistress? Fourteen?”

Sage blurted out these two bits of information with a sort of distressed confusion. He’d been a wild animal for too long so he still wasn’t accustomed to controlling himself and after a moment his gaze cleared and he nodded to Juzui, “Thank you for greeting me. I suppose there are many things that have happened while I was gone. My seclusion didn’t go quite the way I figured it would. I still need a few more years before going back to Lionheart Town, but I wanted to make sure there wasn’t any bad luck out here as well.”

Juzui smiled softly and shook his head, “You don’t have to be worried. The Mistress has handled things exquisitely. You’ll be quite surprised to learn of all the things she’s done while you’ve been gone.”

Some servants brought them tea and they spoke for a few hours. Juzui, ever the kind gentleman, happily told him of all the changes. For the first year, Wan Ling had merely taken some time off. She was like a person in witness protection, staying hidden inside her residence and keeping a very low profile for fear of being discovered. Eventually, she was tired of being cooped up, and through the Information Network learned that they weren’t publicly wanted. None of their enemies were foolish enough to put out any wanted notices for them. They had left informants in Lionheart Town and watched the Jade Horde, but they didn’t dare to mess with the Chong Clan, the Kang Clan, the Thundercloud Sect, or the Mount Song Sword Sect. As they were all first rate powers, they all already had spies among each other, but they weren’t going to push their luck and openly confront them.

Those on Sage’s side also had no idea that catching him was a secret order from the Royal Family, but they slowly pieced together that a nobody like Hei Bai was not influential enough to make so many powers ally together and chase after him. They had no idea who was the mastermind behind it all, and even if they were crazy enough to ask their enemies about it, none of them could even prove who had put them up to it.

After that first year, Wan Ling got back to work. Whether it was out of boredom, kindness, or planning for the future, she started many projects with the Tiankong Family. They had become the unofficial beast tamers for the Mount Song Sword Sect, recruiting Demonic Beasts from the wild, giving them crude Human Seals, and then helping them work together with cultivators in exchange for resources. For many of the beasts, they improved far faster than just living in the wilds and fighting for food and survival. It also gave them a measure of protection, especially for the prey species.

Even so, to Wan Ling, they were just being used as mounts. While they might be able to look like people, the cultivators of the Mount Song Sword Sect just treated them as convenient mounts. Mounts that could speak their language and didn’t need special food or pens built to house them. They also didn’t need proud and overbearing handlers that wouldn’t share their secrets and charged them exorbitant amounts to work for them.

The Mount Song Sword Sect didn’t have a heritage of their own when it came to taming beasts as mounts, so they had to bring in outsiders, and in the past they were treated terribly. So, they killed all those annoying trainers and just relied on flying swords for their transportation needs. After Sage brought the Tiankongs here, the Mount Song Sword Sect had slowly found out how useful they were. Over time, the cultivators got more and more benefits, while the Tiankongs found themselves turning over their own kind to be used as beasts of burden.

Wan Ling noticed all this and she helped to argue on behalf of the Demonic Beasts and secure them better treatment. Now, they were basically receiving the same treatment as the Sect’s outer disciples, with their missions consisting of carrying messages or cultivators rather than searching for treasures or fighting criminals. Of course, she didn’t stop there. She expanded their operations, purchasing flying mounts from other trading companies and inducting them into the Tiankong Clan. With her guidance, King’s wives formed their own Clan, and with the Nascent Soul Ruanfu as an Elder, they got an official position as a subordinate to the Mount Song Sword Sect. Once they were officially recognized, Wan Ling had them sign a contract with the Prosperity Company, and started putting them to work. Sage was not surprised at her ingenuity, but he was pleased to hear how she had them working.

They teamed up with various types of beasts, mainly those that could find treasure and carried them on their backs. Then, using their cheap Airships as a sort of high altitude mobile base, they could spread out and canvas large areas. Compared to cultivators on the ground, the birds could cover a large area from the sky and by sleeping in an airship they would suffer far less attacks. In fact, when other aerial Demonic Beasts spotted them, instead of being dangerous, most of them would end up being turned into new recruits.