Sage stayed in his position for a bit longer, bowing at the waist to present the Great Elder an opening. He was daring her to make a move, but she didn’t take the offer. Instead he slowly rose back up to a standing position and smiled at the woman. He recalled his law energy, “Now that you’re done trying to intimidate me, are you going to move on to trying to make me feel guilty and indebted to the Xie faction? Why don’t you just skip to the end and tell me your plans and how you want to fit me into them.”

The Great Elder’s imposing demeanor had vanished, replaced by a somewhat annoyed and exasperated look. She looked over to Xiezi once again and then sighed. The two women seemed equally sad and resigned at this moment. Sage felt they wanted to take out a bit of their bad feelings on him, but he wasn’t going to accept it. They probably wanted to vent on him and use it as an excuse to make requests of him, but he was tired of being stepped on.

He had always chosen to let people walk on him in order to avoid conflict. There were many who were disgusted with him for so shamelessly complimenting people at his own expense. They always claimed he lacked any dignity or pride, but what did they know? Would pride and dignity protect him? What did he lose by acting like a bootlicker? Was it more important than his life?

He could care less about his public face and dignity, and his eagerness to give it up made him less of a target. Those people that loved to bully people lived to see a certain response. They wanted to see anger, rebellion, rebuke, and any other signs of unwillingness. They wanted to see someone broken down. If you immediately bow to them and praise them, they get bored immediately. It was like punching a cloud of smoke: extremely unsatisfying. He also found it was quite easy to disgust most people by just pouring endless praise upon them. Those vain fellows liked compliments and yes-men, but most of them had a limit. Not only could he avoid being a target, he could even disgust them into leaving him alone completely by just smothering them with honey.

Even so, he still had his own limits. These people that had come for his life over and over again were just too much. When he was weak, he didn’t have anything they would want to take and so his sniveling act could protect him. His desire to stay inconspicuous led to him learning Seals, and that backfired upon him, eventually turning him into a target. He’d tried to change his identity, but was eventually found out and forced on the run again. Then he’d gotten more powerful, enough to stand at the highest levels, but even that didn’t stop them from coming after him. They just brought more people.

He had always wanted to avoid this treadmill of revenge that he’d heard stories about. There were many legends of young geniuses that constantly battled their way to the top. By defeating one enemy, they’d make another, and another. They save an innocent and offend a young master. Then the young master’s father came for revenge. Then that father’s teacher came, then that teacher’s children, and so on and so forth. They could only continually grow stronger or die to the endless sea of related people.

In a world ruled by Sects and Clans, with skills and abilities passed down through the generations, there would always be countless relations between all peoples. The only reason that same story didn’t happen to everyone was because they all had different groups backing them. People had to know who they were allowed to offend, and those legendary stories were all centered around a youngster with no backing whatsoever. Orphans who stumble upon secret techniques. The sole descendant of an ancient clan. The last survivor of an annihilated clan.

Seems I fit into that last category, don’t I?

Sage had spent more than a century on this world, and more than three decades on Earth, but that was nothing compared to the time the Soul Clone had spent on the Inner World. He had thousands of years to contemplate on the world and the meaning of life and cultivation. He still found no gain in causing conflict, but he now realized that some conflicts were inevitable. Rather than waste his time trying to stall or dilute the conflict, it would be far more expedient to strike first. Instead of letting the Great Elder manipulate him, he would rather jump right to the point.

“You still haven’t said anything. Does that mean you didn’t have a plan for me? You just wanted to pull me over to your side then? I should feel bad over Uncle Zhou’s death, so I should make it up to you by backing you completely?”

Great Elder Xie seemed to be contemplating things just as he had been, but he’d been the first to break the silence. His words had been rude enough to shock the woman and she glared at him, “Don’t get cocky, brat. Even if you have potential, it doesn’t mean that I won’t hammer your face into the ground.”

Sage laughed and smiled at the woman, “Hah, alright I get it. You didn’t have to do any of this. Before the trip to the Zhu Clan I was forced into your camp, and you wanted to use this opportunity to make me a willing participant. What you don’t realize is that I want to get the Chong Clan’s backing, so I was already prepared to give it my all. The Wu Faction tried to kill me in the past, and even if the Jinxi they’re siding with didn’t put them up to it, I would still choose to oppose them. I don’t take kindly to those that wish to kill me.”

The woman’s face twisted a bit. She’d heard from Xiezi that this Lang Sheng was sentimental and she wanted to get his heart on their side, but now he shows up and is already declaring openly that he was here for his own benefits? She clenched her teeth for a moment and then nodded, “Fine. That will have to do, but don’t for a second think you’ll reap profits without an equal investment. If you don’t contribute enough to this conflict, do you think we’ll go out of our way to help you?”

“How confident of you. Maybe I should go to the Jinxi and join them in return for punishing the Wu? Weren’t you fighting over support of the branch clans? They’ll make big promises for me, right?”

“Psh. They’ll definitely make many promises for you. Many empty promises. When this is all over, they will probably let the Wu Clan handle you just like they’re planning to handle my Xie Faction. We might become puppets and slaves, but they’ll probably torture everyone you care about in front of you while mutilating your body.”

“Are they really so brutal? The conflict has escalated to such a level? I thought you were just trying to vote them out of the leading position.”

“We underestimated the Jinxi. They are already preparing to fight a proxy war with us.”