The next day the citizens of Fuyang were worked into a fervor talking about the big event of the day before. A dozen people had died, one of the most popular tea houses had been completely leveled to the ground, and a local restaurant was now extremely popular. The restaurant was getting a lot of traffic because of the residual energies left over by two powerful cultivators that had engaged in battle. A passing expert had said something that had astounded other cultivators and now weaker practitioners were flocking there in large numbers to try and experience the power of the great warriors.

As for the ones involved in that ‘great battle’, they had no idea that just the residual energy of their faceoff would create such a stir, nor did they care.

At this moment, the villain in the ordeal was chained up and trapped within a Formation Array. The once proud and majestic Dou Bao was now cursing his foul luck and the corrupted seed that had created that third son of his. Trapped and helpless as he was, he was contemplating two things. First, what he could say to get out of this terrible situation. Second, who could have cursed him to have such a useless offspring.

His suffering only continued for a few hours before he finally saw that same face again and his face drooped.

“Great Master. We have such a long and storied history. Surely we can let bygones be bygones and come to an arrangement.”

Those golden eyes stared at him, with not a single word passing from the figure’s lips. The cold stare seemed to cut through the polite atmosphere he was trying to build.

“There is always a shortage of good subordinates. You should know how useful I can be. I have a whole wealth of knowledge and skill that you could put to use.”

As his anxiety started to build, the ‘great’ Dou Bao finally saw a smile appear on the man’s lips and his heart skipped a beat. There was something about that smile that did not give him any confidence at all.

“It’s good that you’ve decided to speak. There are many things I’d like for you to tell me.”

Screams and pleas echoed down the halls of the subterranean facility for many days to come.

A beautiful woman smiled when she heard footsteps behind her. She rose from her seat and turned to greet the golden eyed man who just walked in. She was quite small with a thin frame, yet with a fierce look in her eyes as she spoke, “So who was that idiot? Did you handle him?”

Of course, that golden eyed man was Sage, or more specifically Sage’s Soul Clone. He laughed and reached up to stroke the woman’s hair, “That was Chong Jinxi Po, the heir of the former Chong Clan Patriarch. Turns out he was harboring many secrets.”

“Jinxi Po. Hmm, didn’t you kill that fellow? That was the bowman that nearly killed you right?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. I had someone interrogating him, but he died before he said much. Turns out that the Jinxi were hiding a lot from the Chong Clan. That fellow isn’t just Jinxi Po, but the Jinxi Ancestor. That old fossil has been possessing his descendants with their Golden Cicada.”

She blinked with amazement and looked at her hand, “What a vicious method of attaining eternal youth.”

Sage laughed at the conclusion she instantly jumped to, “He only possessed his descendants when he was killed in battle. He never actually got to live out his full lifespan in any of his bodies. At least that’s what he’s said so far. It is going to take some time to wring every last secret out of him.”

Seeing the look on her face, he brushed a finger across her cheek to get her attention back, “Don’t worry, Jiao. Now that we’ve got him under control we’ll definitely be experimenting with the Golden Cicada to see what it can do.”

Sage had been living the home life here on the Inner World. His wives and friends had entered with him and they’d forgotten all their troubles from the outside world and started over. Sage was the master of this world so nobody could truly trouble them. In this world, nobody could progress any further than Sage himself. There were a few that were actually further along in their cultivation than him, but they could make no further progress as long as they were here. Worse yet, they had no way to leave this world. Even so, they had no desire to. The only ones stronger than him were Elder Manji, a few of the Purple Mist Sect members, and the Three Kings.

The three mercenaries that had been hired by the Artful Life Alliance, who chose to head to the Inner World over death had become overlords of the Inner World in the hundreds of years they’d been here. They knew who was really in charge, treating the Prosperity Company and Purple Mist Sect with deference, so Sage didn’t care. In fact it simplified things, since if he wanted to enact any large-scale change he could just have the three former mercenaries push his initiatives.

He put aside these thoughts and spent some quality time with Jiao, then went to meet with Ling and had a similar conversation. Are all women so obsessed with not aging?

They’d already been here a few years, but he hadn’t produced any descendants yet. The main reason being their shared concern over their bodies. They’d already decided to eschew the human body in favor of making a strong family, but there was still a major decision in front of them. Ling and Jiao were mastering the True Insect Immortal Index, while Sage was busy on the body they would use. He’d already mutated this body a few times trying out options and just so happened to run into Jinxi Po’s new body while he was out relaxing and trying it out. He’d been amused by the arrogant young master and after hearing the kid brag about his father for the tenth time he took the kid hostage and sent the ransom letter to see who would show up. Who knew he would encounter such dumb luck as to find the resurrected Jinxi Po?

He’d got the chance to put this new body to the test and was pretty pleased with his progress. After a few more rounds of experimentation he’d discovered an important fact. Using an extremely powerful beast was not without problems. The more powerful the Demonic Beast, the less fertile they would be. It had always been a struggle for King to have offspring, and only with the help of the Human Seal was he able to help mitigate his issue. Even so, King had hundreds of wives and only a few dozen children, and most of them were from much weaker species. Ruanfu was the exception as she’d been created through Sage’s use of the Insect Immortal Index. If the body that they chose for the Lang Clan was too powerful, they too would have to rely upon the Index in order to create offspring.

It’s certainly a bold idea to create an immensely powerful clan, but it also leaves a lot of room for problems.

It was already bad enough that they would have to rely upon the Human Seal, but he had planned on creating an ancestral memory for the clan so they would never lose that reliance. In the worst case scenario that all was lost, they might end up becoming like the Dragoons with their half insectoid features resulting from their unskilled use of the Human Seal, but Sage was more concerned over the Insect Immortal Index. The true form of the technique was too powerful and just like he’d experienced in the past, dangerous to oneself. It needed to be carefully controlled, so giving it to every member of the clan without reserve was not something he wanted to happen.

There was also a far more practical concern: Where would he get an extremely powerful beast to use as a base?