Upon meeting, there were some more secret protocols to follow, mainly demonstrating that he also knew the techniques from How to be Little Birdy, and then using some secret codewords to show that he wasn’t just someone who stole their techniques. The difficult part was convincing the Falcon to request reports for him. Especially since this whole meeting was being conducted using a bird as a medium. The Birdwatching technique let them influence where a bird flew and listen to what it heard. For this meeting, both himself and the falcon were merely talking to a bird without laying eyes on the other party. Sage’s birds were led by the opposing Falcon’s birds to a place out of his view while he was speaking to one that had remained behind.

Sage had to accept a compromise, having the Falcon deliver a message up the chain with a phrase that Wan Ling would recognize. He also stated that he wished to gather information about the Artful Life Alliance and also that agents should be sent to learn more about the Eastern and Western Coalitions of the Dou Kingdom. In the past he hadn’t cared about them, but after learning more about them from the Chong Clan he was curious about the conflict at the higher levels. Especially since the Fu Clan was part of the Western Coalition. If he were to wipe them out, would the rest of the coalition come after him?

Since he guessed it would take a few days for a message to return he scheduled a meeting for three days later and left the Jade Horde Camp. He thanked Abbot Kunga and went into the nearby city. This city is where they received most of their business from and so their camp was only a short distance from it. He rented a room at an Inn and focused on completing his recovery. A few days later, Sage met with a bird outside of the city and quickly left for his next destination.

Surprisingly, many of the smaller sects that were part of the Artful Life Alliance had suddenly disappeared. Sects, Clans, and large businesses had been abandoned completely overnight. One night they were operating as usual and then the next day the place was completely barren. Sage wasn’t surprised by the smaller groups doing this, but the part that did intrigue him was that two of the stronger parts of the alliance had also been abandoned. The Sound Sword Sect and Yincha Sect were both completely vacated. Those were the groups that the two Nascent Souls from the Artful Life Alliance originated from. He’d heard that the Artful Life Alliance had three Nascent Souls, so this news meant that two of them had already disappeared.

It would make sense if they knew of my true power, but there isn’t anybody who should know about the Purple Mist Sect.

He had a hard time believing that they were so afraid of him that they just got up and ran away in the middle of the night without a word. Sage thought it was far more likely that these people were up to something. Especially since they didn’t release any public announcements. They didn’t make an apology or state the dissolution of their alliance. They also didn’t make a direct challenge to him or try to provoke him. Yet, the most damning evidence was that not all of the members of the Artful Life Alliance had disappeared. So many of them had been killed, and others had just up and disappeared in the same manner, but there were still others that acted like nothing happened?

If the alliance had fallen apart from fear wouldn’t they all be reacting? Even if they all didn’t run, wouldn’t some of them at least claim to leave the alliance and say they weren’t involved? Why would they just wait quietly without saying anything in their defense? Hmm, some of them might have left already and they just left a few behind to keep up appearances.

Sage traveled to the nearest of the remaining Artful Life Alliance members. It was one of the smaller clans and he found that it was actually as he’d guessed. It was only a skeleton crew of guards and servants that made it look like the Clan was still around, but the majority of the clan was already gone. He was only interested in making the leadership pay so he left without being noticed.

He wasted no time in heading to the next member and found a Sect that was actually still in full swing. Nobody had left at all. He stopped to consider what to do next. He had not acted against the Artful Life Alliance for a while so perhaps they thought he had given up. Or maybe they felt themselves to be so powerful that he had no chance. Was there a trap lying in wait for him? After a few minutes of deliberation, he stopped and gave himself a slap on the cheek. Would he give up on his revenge if they were plotting against him? Was he going to stop just because he didn’t have the advantage of surprise?

Sage stopped overthinking things and moved into action. He stopped at a local bar near his target Sect and gradually learned the habits of their leadership. Then he went and kidnapped a member of a local gang. A gang that had previously been at odds with the Sect. The ones that knew you best were your friends, and your enemies. The gang member was quite happy to tell him anything he wanted to know and Sage used his Hypnotic Eyes to make the man forget they’d ever met. Then he left and hypnotized some of the lower level guards and attendants to arrange a meeting for him with one of the Sect Elders.

The Elder thought he was meeting with a business man, but he was met with a sudden strike to the back of the head. The man was knocked out and restrained before he knew what was going on. This particular Elder was old and respected in the Sect, but he was only in the early stages of the fifth rank. Sage chose him as a target because of the man’s low cultivation, specifically. After restraining the old man, Sage woke him back up and gave him a good threatening. Then he asked who had supported their Sect joining the Artful Life Alliance. He knocked the old man back out again and then killed three Elders and the Vice-head of the Sect. The leader was new and hadn’t been in power when the Sect joined the alliance so Sage let her live.

Sage had killed others in the alliance without doing as much verification as this time, but for some reason he gave this group a little more slack. Maybe it was because they were audacious enough to not run away after what happened to the others in their alliance.

The next group on the list was one that he’d been quite familiar with in the past. The Shou Clan. Those fellows with the long ears that had so many dealings with Hei Bai. Sage took a similar tactic as he had in the last city, gathering information at a bar and then finding an enemy of the Shou Clan as a source of information. This time he captured a member of that rich clan in the and the man was happy to share information with him. Then Sage used the Hypnotic Eye to influence him: “You won’t remember sharing any information about the Shou Clan after this.”

“It’s good to forget, so I don’t upset our new allies.”

That sudden admission made Sage pause. The prior information had been given voluntarily, but now that he had the man under control a new fact was revealed? They really are plotting!