Those strange thoughts were dispelled quite immediately and a message was sent off. The Yincha Sect Leader was not so easily convinced. She seemed quite pleased to find someone that hadn’t immediately given her a concerned look. Her own taste was quite unusual, and she was a frequent part of a very select crowd. This person that was supposed to be her enemy seemed to be a member of her crowd! Lady Diyin and the Sound Sect Sword Master didn’t have any more foolish thoughts, but they also didn’t move to stop her.

For Sage’s part, he found this woman to be extremely flirtatious, but he was also very far from showing any interest. This woman was his enemy, he was not foolish enough to trust anything she said. On the other hand, he was happy to let her chatter on, because he was waiting for the Artful Life Alliance to spring its trap. All of these high level Cultivators had such long lives that any time Sage was up against a large organization he always assumed at least one of them would be strategizing and plotting against him. With that in mind, he made sure to show off two layers of his own plots before finally showing himself for an assumed final confrontation.

There was no way to know how many parts these sorts of plans had, but there was always a limit to how far that could go. If someone was reserving their elite forces or laying out traps in a dozen different layers, wasn’t that just splitting their power into a dozen parts? Even if you wore the enemy down at each level, how many of your forces would be sacrificed along the way? Striking with an overwhelming advantage was always the most preferable in order to minimize one’s own losses. There was also the risk that the enemy sees through your plot and disrupts it. If your plan has ten steps and they don’t do what you predicted on the second, what do you do?

The Shou Clan Leader’s flirtatious banter suddenly came to a stop when a number of powerful auras burst to life around this portion of the forest. Thunderous loud noise started to erupt from all around them. The roar of flame, the gurgling of water, rushing winds, the rumble of the earth, the crack of snapped wood, and most importantly the shouts of men and women. At the same time, the hundreds of rank 5s on the scene turned around and started to assault the forest around them once more. They rapidly expanded the clearing while the three Nascent Souls kept their eyes on their fifty foes. Then the sounds in the distance rapidly grew closer. The source of those sounds became apparent when the hundreds of rank fives ran into familiar faces. While they expanded the clearing, there were others smashing down the forest from the outside. At that point, the clearing had been transformed into a field. Miles in every direction had now been completely scoured clean of all vegetation.

The hundreds of rank fives met up with hundreds more. The number of high level forces suddenly doubled. The previous four to one odds they were facing had now suddenly jumped up to more than eight to one. Worse yet, they were only an appetizer. The main reinforcement was actually the vast aura of five other Nascent Souls.

Wow! They really went all out. They hired three mercenaries? How generous of them.

“You’ll have to forgive us, Little Miss. This fellow has to die today.”

“Aww, don’t do that,” the Shou Clan Leader pouted to her Ancestor for a moment and then quickly turned to her enemies, “Hurry and apologize. Just join our Alliance and swear on an Oathstone! Then we can be friends again.”

She made quite the appeal, and the stoop backed old man didn’t refute her request. They both watched their foe expectantly. Oddly enough the three mercenaries were the most intrigued. This trio of hardened warriors were curious if they would be missing out on their bonus combat pay this time. They certainly didn’t mind, since that meant they had been paid merely to travel here and watch a show.

“I decline.”

Sage looked at the trio of mercenaries with a look of pity, “I’m so sorry, you three are very unlucky.”

Then he charged towards the direction they were standing. All of his own forces followed behind him, with the capes of their black cloaks flapping in the wind. They moved in unison, following tightly behind Sage while he opened his mouth and released a massive burst of wind. The Stormsbreath gave him the power to knock back the closest fifty rank five cultivators. They were blown away by the sudden attack, clearing the way towards one of the mercenary Nascent Souls. This man was holding a strange looking weapon, the Ji. The ji is a dagger-axe, having a curved L-shaped daggerhead protruding from the side of a spear head at a ninety degree angle. A law power rippled through the man’s ji and was aimed towards his oncoming enemies.

Then the two figures to Sage’s left and right released their own power. Along with Sage, the aura of five Nascent Souls bore down upon the single enemy in their path. The mercenary didn’t try to perform any heroic actions like stopping them all, but he also didn’t move out of the way. While Sage and his fifty rushed forward, the five Nascent Souls in the front released powerful attacks while the ji wielding mercenary backpedaled rapidly. He did his best to dodge and avoid attacks without moving too far to the sides to clear a path for them. Sage tossed a line of webbing into the air before blasting it onto the mercenary’s leg. He pulled hard on the silk cable and tripped the man up. By the time he could remove it from his leg, the five of them had already rushed up and attacked in unison, blasting the mercenary out of the way.

Sage’s forces rushed through the open gap in their encirclement and made a mad run for the edge of the clearing. The Artful Life Alliance had first surrounded Sage’s side before destroying their way to the central clearing. Sage’s side was crossing that bit of empty clearing, making their way back towards the remainder of the forest where they would have some cover. Then the five in front abruptly turned to the side and let the others run past them. Sage turned around with the other four Nascent Souls, they stopped in place to take on the enemies eight Nascent Souls that had now grouped up and caught up with them. When these five stopped, the other eight did as well. Behind Sage, the rest of his forces scattered, running in different directions into the forest and disappearing from view. Behind the Alliance, the hundreds of Core Formation cultivators were regrouping after that sudden chase and forming themselves into a wide line. Sage’s side seemed to be fleeing for their lives while the Alliance was spreading out to encircle them.

“You thought we had three so you brought five? Or were you arrogant enough to think that your five could beat our five? Are you going to turn green from regret? Were you too prideful as a mercenary to hire other mercenaries?”

The stoop backed elder had seemed to lose his confident and workmanlike tone he used to have in favor of a boastful one. Seeing the boastful and gloating person in front of him, Sage would be very surprised to see how calm and confident this old man was at all other times. At this moment, Sage looked at the mercenaries again, “How much would it cost to cancel your current contract?”

The three of them sneered back at him, not even bothering to share a glance before replying in unison, “Impossible!”

One of these three men carried a twin halberd, a spear with crescent shaped blades on either side of it. He followed up to clarify, even as the other two seemed too busy sneering to say anything, “There is no amount of money that would make us cancel a contract.”

“You are honorable mercenaries? Damn, I was really hoping you weren’t.”

The three looked at him with contempt, thinking he was trying to buy his way out of this problem. What they didn’t realize was that Sage was merely distressed about having to kill people he would otherwise respect.

It’s such a shame they have to die.