With all his preparations complete, Sage left Lionheart Town and flew over to the hidden Transportation Array that would take him to the Merciful Mollusk. Just as before, they didn’t charge anyone to get teleported to them, but they charged an immense fee to get sent anywhere else. The Merciful Mollusk itself, was a mysterious place located at Golden Cricket Cove, the capital of 10,000 Wave Province. When the Lang Clan took over the Province they thought about moving the capital, but such a change would be too rapid. Especially since the capital cities of each Province were strategically placed to protect the most important resources in the whole of the Dou Kingdom.

From what Sage understood from his interaction with the Jinxi Ancestor, the Lang Ancestors, Tao Ba, and Guan Zhenyan, the Kingdoms placed each province to oversee the most valuable resources in their kingdoms. Then the Provincial Governors had county capitals built on the most valuable resources in their territory. Then the Country Prefects built cities, and the cities founded villages.

Did the Empire found the Kingdoms for the same reason?

The Lang Clan decided to leave the capital as it was, but the Lionheart Town would remain as their home. The Clan had to split its power base in half, but as if that wasn’t bad enough they chose to separate their numbers even more and directly take control of nearly half the counties in the Province. The former Prefects of Dawn Mountain, Daybreak Valley, and Red Jungle had all colluded against Sage in the past. He had already got revenge against them, but the new Prefects didn’t have enough time to build up deep foundations and the Lang Clan replaced them. Then there was that noncommittal fellow that ran Jade Spirit County and never gave Sage any help at all. Since Jade Spirit Country oversaw Lionheart Town, it was a given they would replace that man first. With four of the nine counties directly under their control, the Lang Clan had very nicely secured the whole province.

Sage wasn’t really concerned about all these issues of governance as he had faith in the ability of his descendants. The only reason he was thinking about these things was that even with such a massive upheaval in the local area, the Merciful Mollusk seemed completely unperturbed. The strange tavern was still filled with Cultivators that were far more powerful than could be expected. There were only a few rank threes present, the vast majority were actually rank fours and fives with an almost equal split. Even weirder was that not only was there at least five Nascent Souls present, one of them was even the ‘boss’ of the Merciful Mollusk. What was even more strange was that while it was known as a ‘tavern’, Sage felt it was more like a nightclub. The music was very loud, played by a Magical Tool not live musicians, and there was actually a large and packed dance floor.

The people of this world saw it as an oddity, while Sage felt it was strangely advanced. It reminded him of that Hidden Region he traveled to for the Holy Flame Sect. That experience with what seemed to be a spaceship had always left him curious about the origins of this world he was on and what its place in the universe was.

After spending some time gathering information on Golden Cricket Cove and the local standing of the Merciful Mollusk, Sage didn’t find anything else out of place. The Merciful Mollusk was just as mysterious as ever and the Lang Clan seemed to have everything under their control for the time being. There were still some people on his revenge list, but he postponed them for now as they were in high places and he wanted to let the Lang Clan stabilize their position before he started any trouble on a large scale. There were still too many variables out of his control. Instead, he planned on following the guidance he received from the Lang Clan Ancestors. Head to the Merciful Mollusk. Then, tell them he needs to head to their headquarters.

This was certainly a revelation at the time, but considering their use of Transportation Arrays it made sense they were part of some greater power. What made him most curious was how they could put a Nascent Soul in charge and this wasn’t even their headquarters. How many Nascent Souls did they have at their disposal in order to act that extravagantly? Do they have more of them than I do? Curious.

Sage made his way to the person in charge of the Merciful Mollusk, someone they quite simply referred to as ‘Boss’. By tipping the server a few thousand Spirit Stones he arranged a meeting with this Boss. The man’s features were quite unique in how utterly square and blocky they were. He looked much like a very rough wood carving of a man that somehow came to life to act as a bartender. For some reason he followed that classical trope of the barkeep that endlessly dried cups with a towel. When Sage first caught sight of him, he was polishing cups while the other two bartenders handled customers. The man didn’t seem busy, but Sage still had to wait for nearly an hour before he could finally speak with him.

“Greetings, Sir. My name is Lang Sheng, and I’m to head to your headquarters.”

“You are, are you? Disappointed with our services is it?”

Wait, have I just asked to speak to the manager? I thought it was some sort of code word.

Sage shook his head, “My Ancestor has told me to come here and tell you that I’m to head to your headquarters.”

The harsh look of reproval on the man’s face shifted into a smile and he nodded, “Good, then it seems you’ve passed the first test. Are you ready for the next?”

Sage gave the Boss a salute with his cupped fist, “I am ready. Please go easy on me.”

Then the Boss held out a large hand, palm up, “Twenty thousand Spirit Stones.”

Sage passed over a Storage Bag to the man who checked it carefully before smiling, “Perfect. You’ve passed the test. Come on then, I’ll send you on your way.”

The Boss set down the cup and towel in his hands, then turned around and walked out from behind the bar. He walked towards a door at the side of the room and then stopped to look back at where Sage was still standing in place. The man waved him over and then pushed open a door and disappeared into it. Sage followed and entered a long hallway behind the Boss. They walked down to the end of the hall and turned a corner, and were at the top of a long staircase. Weirdly, there was not a landing in sight. The staircase continued down such a long way that without the enhanced vision of a cultivator he wouldn’t be able to make out where the bottom was. If someone tripped along the way, they’d be falling for a few minutes before they hit the end. As for Sage and the Boss, they were both Nascent Souls and simply physical tasks like this were nothing.

The Boss leapt forward, just like he was going to hop down a couple stairs, except his jump took him over a dozen before one of his toes barely touched the corner of a stair and he was launched down over a dozen more. The large and blocky man descended the stairs with speed and grace, barely touching the steps as he went. As soon as Sage saw him take off, he took a moment to examine the man’s technique. He didn’t want to jump right into a trap so he gave the Boss some lead time to give himself time to react. Sage took an overly long blink, and then leapt forward, following behind ‘Boss’ with a field of stars in the pupil of his right eye.