Sage met up with the other members of the new Tiankong Clan that were on the premises, but most of them were not around. Funnily enough, Ruanfu had taken Wanqian Lei along with her and gone to stay at the Thundercloud Sect. Sage could only chuckle at her focused pursuit of Manji. He had no idea why she’d chase after an ‘old man’, but he knew he’d be congratulating Manji eventually. On second thought, I’ll be congratulating Ruanfu and apologizing to Manji.

Wan Ling returned right on schedule and he suffered under her scathing stare for quite a while before she just laughed at him and had him bring out many things from the Inner World. He was the ultimate gatekeeper for that world, so now that he was back she put him to work. Many thousands of Dragoons were brought out, and a few hundred Cultivators were sent in. Sage had no idea where Wan Ling got them from, nor did he know why she chose to trust them, but he just accepted her orders and sent them inside. The continents on the Inner World were quite far apart from each other, so the worst they could do was wipe out part of the Inner World before he noticed. The continent with all the cultivators on it had been going for hundreds of years without his supervision, so it should be just fine without him.

Later, Wan Ling told him that those people sent to the Inner World were from the Prosperity Company and were some of her most trusted subordinates. It was obvious even to her that overseeing a whole planet was no small task, and Sage was too preoccupied with his own matters to handle it. So, instead she was taking a business like approach to it. Why run the planet when you can just let the natives do all the work and make money from them. After so much time had passed and with the inclusion of so many Heavenly Materials, they had no idea what sorts of plants or ores might be present on that world, so why not let the locals figure it out?

Sage immediately agreed with her. Having a whole world under his control was quite a great feeling, but when it came down to it, he was only one man. A planet was just too vast a space, at least at his current level of power. Even if he spent all his time observing it, because of the time dilation he still wouldn’t be able to track everything that was going on. It was a much better idea to set up a large business to make money and collect resources, then he would just stop by and collect them every so often. Just like some alien ruler stopping by to collect tribute.

Hmm, maybe that’s not so great a comparison. Since I don’t want to face a rebellion, having a business is definitely the best choice.

With those matters handled, he spent some time with Wan Ling, eating meals and going on a few walks. He was definitely very inexperienced at this sort of thing, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen hundreds of movies long ago. Even if the majority of them weren’t romantic, more than a few were and while he knew they were fictional, they couldn’t be all wrong.

After spending a few weeks on the outside, sending supplies in and resources out of the Inner World, he finally bid Wan Ling farewell once more and went back into seclusion. Since he shouldn’t be gone as long, he had her hide the ring in a much less extreme location, a drawer in her own room. Sage disappeared from the room and she pushed a hairbrush and pincushion against it, pressing it back deep into the drawer before sliding it closed.

Inside the Universe Ring.

The Dragoons did a good job clearing the place up, making it look like a set of buildings with parks around them, rather than a jungle overtaking civilization. Paths had been cleared between the towers and the plants had been thinned into less of an overgrown state. The central tower was no longer a destroyed ruin and brought back to working condition. Sage greeted the leader of this new Dragoon unit and let him carry on running the place, sending personnel and supplies back and forth with the Inner World a few times to settle a permanent team here rather than the random group he pulled over.

Then he moved into his formation protected cultivation room and crossed his legs. He took a few moments to ready himself for the next step and then immediately shook his head and resisted the urge to palm his face. He stood back up and went back outside, heading into the jungle and moving to a spot as far from the towers as possible. Then with a large infusion of energy, the light suddenly dimmed. Many trees suddenly snapped and the ground rumbled. A gigantic figure appeared in front of him.

Eight huge and crooked towers appeared, with a large mass suspended between them. Sage looked up at the shiny carapace from below and he smiled, “Still as impressive as before.”

The giant creature swiveled its body and turned its many eyes down towards him and released a loud squeak. Without the Heart’s Tongue he couldn’t understand what it was saying, but at the same time, after they had undergone Soul Resonance, he knew all there was to know about this massive Swamp Genesis Spider. Unlike Elder Manji, this large spider had mostly been alone its whole life and so it was quite simple. That fact along with them having already shared all their memories was the only reason that Sage dared to take his next action.

Sage used Cosmic Traction and leapt through the sky, landing on top of the Spider’s large head and taking a seat. Then he carefully started creating Qi Feeding pellets and passing them to the Swamp Genesis Spider. Because of its massive size it took a few hours before the Merge technique successfully established a link between them. Then the giant spider used the towers to anchor its silk and started to weave a giant ball.

Usually, Sage would hide himself in a cultivation room covered in defensive formations for this sort of thing, but the Swamp Genesis Spider was just too large. He wasn’t sure whether or not this would work the way he wanted it to, but there was no way to tell until after he tried. Sage used the Merge technique of the True Immortal Index once again, but this time he used the full and complete version. Not a link, but a true combination. Just like he’d done many times in the past, he combined with a new creature.

With the exception of the Silver Liberator Butterfly, and Twin Ringed Soul Serpent, under dire circumstances, he had always chosen to merge with newborn creatures. He would use the Mutate technique to combine them with another beast and then merge with the new hatchling. Even if it was jarring to merge minds with a newborn, it was still much easier than with a fully grown creature. He’d also mostly chosen to merge with Spirit Animals and Spirit Insects for a similar reason. Insects were naturally low in intelligence and their personalities were basically nonexistent. It was far easier to combine two minds if one of them was little more than an organic robot.

The Swamp Genesis Spider broke both of those two guidelines. Not only was it not newly born, but it was also a Demonic Insect with intelligence of its own. Sage knew this was going to be a bit more of a struggle than usual, but it was finally time for him to test if his hypothesis about Soul Resonance would hold true. He believed that since they’d already shared all their memories and knew all there was to know about one another, that when their minds were fully combined it would be a gentle transition.

On the other hand, even if he wasn’t right he still had the Silver Liberator Butterfly from his Ancestor. If he found himself turning schizophrenic or gaining multiple personalities, he could just force another metamorphosis and take control of them once more. He did not wish to become a rampaging beast any longer.

Shoot, I already did it a second time, didn’t I? At least the body count was lower the second time.