On the outside, it was a giant wall shaped tree trunk with a very narrow canopy for its size. The lowest branches were a full hundred feet off the ground and those branches had a ‘U’ shape to them so soldiers could use them as a catwalk with thick wooden railing to guard them from incoming projectiles. By using Sacred Banyans instead of stone or other choices, they could incorporate other techniques into the fortress, but that was only one of the benefits. It was also chosen because of the dense root mass and capacity for growth. The immense roots meant they wouldn’t have to worry about reinforcing the foundation of such a huge area and could focus on arrays to block sappers and underground travel instead. The most important benefit was actually the capacity for growth. When the fortress was damaged, as long as they knew the right techniques they only needed to keep adding Qi to keep restoring the damage it suffered.

Despite being something of a rival to the Holy Flame Sect, Sage had always admired the giant tree buildings that the Cult of the Woodlord used. They reminded him of a certain pointy eared species in fiction that were also masters of growing trees into buildings and furniture. The idea was they had plenty of time to devote to such careful tree training, but in this world it was far easier to accomplish such feats with Qi techniques.

Once the fortress was complete, a line of Sacred Banyans was started along the top of the mountain range. This wall was far more modest, using fifty foot high banyans that were only ten feet wide. They were used to create a wall of thick vines along with a catwalk that could walk the entire mountain range. At the same time, buildings began to spring up within the newly protected territory. The Lang Clan had many old mines in the area and they were all re-excavated and the tunnels cleared and reinforced. The forests that were used for sporadic hunting were cleaned up and kept as intact as possible while buildings were building around and between them. They didn’t want to use Banyans everywhere so it was best to reshape and manipulate the existing trees and vegetation to form fences for housing plots. Just like the Chong Clan, they had already been working on incorporating insect habitats into the clan without disrupting their own daily lives.

When the Lang Clan took over Lionheart Town, they didn’t act until they rooted out the Fu Clan’s spies outside the Shanshi Clan. In the Inner World, there were more than a few in the clan that had chosen to follow the path of the Little Birdy. The most surprising of which was actually that troublemaking son of his, Yahui. After fathering enough grandchildren to fill a whole orphanage, Yahui eventually found his calling. He realized that the hunt, the chase, the seduction was far more exciting to him than the carnal acts. Fast forward a few centuries later and the boy had a network of brothels filled with informants spanning the whole of the continent.

When he left the Holy Flame Sect, Peak Master Zhen had charged him with creating an intelligence network in the Dou Kingdom, but he’d barely been able to span a few provinces before getting betrayed. With Yahui at the helm, he felt that task might finally get completed. He didn’t feel so enthusiastic about a clan member running brothels, but he also wasn’t a fool. There was a desire for such establishments, both by the clients and the employees, so even if they didn’t do it someone else would.

I can just ask Yahui to make sure the workers are treated fairly. Some of those places the women are little more than slaves. The more successful Yahui is, the more of those devils will be driven out of business.

Thinking of this point, Sage even sent Yahui a message to encourage him to use more direct methods in eliminating competitors for his future business.

With the Fu Clan’s spies along with the Shanshi Clan eliminated, the Fu Clan didn’t hear of the return of the Lang Clan for days. By the time they got other agents over to investigate the Fortress was already starting to form. It was too bad for them that the Lang Clan was waiting for them and four of the five agents that were sent disappeared without a trace. Only the last one was able to send news, but after describing the giant wall and giving a count of hundreds working on it, he too went silent.

This unusual development sent a ripple of uncertainty through the Fu Clan. More scouts were sent out and those in charge scrambled to gather all the information relating to this new development. Most of the leadership of the Fu Clan had already forgotten about the Lang Clan a long time ago. As far as they were concerned it was a mere branch of their rival that had been wiped out long ago. The matter of finishing the last survivor off was merely supposed to be a simple task that they’d sent their youngest to face. That ‘youngest’ member of the leadership had a very different opinion of this matter and as soon as the news came in he seemed to be on edge.

“Send more scouts. We need detailed reports of these changes. Has Lang Sheng been spotted? We need to hire a rank 6 mercenary to probe them.”

“Xidong, what’s gotten into you?”

“Did that kid scare you that badly?”

The highest powers of the Fu Clan were holding a meeting, but even here in their most secure location these people were all wearing masks over their faces. Each of the masks had a different style, but all of them were predominantly black, just like their clan uniform. The youngest of them, Xidong, had a metallic and angular mask over the lower half of his face. The other two had masks more like something one would see in a masquerade, thin coverings just around their eyes and foreheads. One of them had bright red feathers in a triangular tuft between his eyes, while the other had two bright green fangs on the mask, poking down below each of his eyes.

“You all can belittle me as the youngest one here, but that doesn’t mean I’m a fool. That Lang Sheng is not a human. Don’t you remember what I told you about our battle? That fellow is a giant monster. Do you really think he’s not going to come for revenge?”

“Are you so worried about a single tier six beast? You were working with a bunch of weaklings and you nearly took him out. Do you think he stands a chance against the whole clan and our arrays?”

“Let’s not be too rude to Xidong. He brings up a good point. We may not fear him in a direct assault, but if he’s suddenly gathered a large force he might start sending them after ours. Until we gather enough intelligence we should recall everyone and double the patrol teams.”

The red feathered man seemed content to tease Xidong, while the green fanged one belittled him. Finally, they were both quieted by an older man wearing a mask that looked much like a bandana covering the top half of his head with eye holes cut into it. This somewhat simple look belied his no nonsense attitude and after he spoke the others didn’t dare to open their mouths again. The eight of them around the table merely nodded in unison.