Sage entered the branch of the Merciful Mollusk situated within Golden Cricket Cove. The city was the former headquarters of the Chong Clan, but now it was a branch of the Lang Clan. Since he was here already he didn’t head directly to Lionheart Town and instead traveled over to the Chong Clan’s former home. As the capital of the province, there was a reason for the Chong Clan to be headquartered here. There was a very valuable resource known as the Breeze Shell that was collected from the many coves around the city. It would be extremely foolish to give up control of the Breeze Shell, so the Lang Clan had to take over Golden Cricket Cove when the Chong Clan left for Lucky Star Province. They took along their many hundreds of years of supply and took all the ripe lands of the Fu Clan. As the new leader it was a good excuse to take over many of the entrenched powers while extorting the others for ‘tribute’.

The Chong Clan had to treat its long-time allies in 10,000 Wave Province kindly, but it was a different story in Lucky Star Province. The Lang Clan had also offered some concessions of resources, sending them their own form of tribute for a few centuries to tip the scales in their favor. The Chong Clan got an influx of resources, whole provinces for their factions to take over, and a new first rate power as an ally. It wasn’t the perfect situation they’d imagined of controlling two provinces, but none of the other first rate powers in the Dou Kingdom would ever let that happen.

Under the Lang Clan’s rule, Golden Cricket Cove became the new way for them to show off their advancements to the world. If they made Golden Cricket Cove into a big juicy target, then those seeking to do them harm would strike at the cove rather than their true home in Lionheart Town. With this in mind, Golden Cricket Cove had undergone a huge change in the time since the Lang Clan had taken over. It was a backwards place in comparison to the Inner World, but when put up against the other cities in the Dou Kingdom it was quite impressive.

There was a somewhat small cove, an inlet from the sea. Where there was once a sprawling metropolis around this cover there was now only a giant forest. Or at least it looked that way from afar. The vast majority of the buildings in the city had been replaced by the Lang Clan’s Banyan Building techniques. A system of tree boughs acted as water pipes, fed by the Water Trees growing in the nearby freshwater lakes. Larger trees had hollow interiors that grew into the shape of apartment buildings and homes with large canopies that shaded their yards and streets. The only stone buildings that remained were on the corners of each block and they were mainly used because of their large flat walls. Three sides of each of the buildings were used to display projections of news and entertainment programs. Given the lack of choice or control, the shows were very optimistic and biased, aiming to build trust and good will in the common folk. Without any competition, they were free to use as much propaganda as they wished.

The Chong Clan’s home had been quite distinctive as they covered all the roofs of their buildings with grass and wildlife, creating an ideal breeding ground for insects and bugs. The Lang Clan was not shy about knocking down the majority of the Chong Clan’s buildings. They only left behind a small compound that contained the most sacred zones of the old Chong Clan. This left behind a great hall as well as an ancestral hall and the most ancient and revered manor home of a legendary ancestor. Considering this was also an ancestor of the Lang Clan they left this part of the land alone and built a huge defensive wall around it. The rest of the Chong Clan land was cleared and replaced with elaborately grown trees and decorations. Most notably they grew a single gigantic tree to act as the center of the local government.

Most of the other buildings in town could be considered hollowed out trees with homes inside them like gigantic squirrel dens. The rulers mansion of Golden Cricket Cove was quite different as it was more akin to a bunch of mansion sized treehouses secluded among the boughs of a tree that was as large as a mountain. This single huge tree spread out over the cover and partially shaded half of the city forest. The branches and canopy were shaped in a bonsai-like fashion to reduce the amount of shade cast upon the other trees. It was also many times taller than the other trees so the space between the two canopy layers meant that most of the trees got plenty of sun throughout the day. All over this giant tree were large metallic discs hanging like ornaments, and many of them were connected by long cables and hung with huge sheets covered with symbols. These strange decorations were actually components of a huge Formation Array making the heavy protection of the tree quite obvious and the giant talismans strung between them gave it a very shrine-like or festival feel.

In fact it was so large and flashy that he was glad the Cult of the Woodlord was a whole kingdom away or they’d likely be sending an army their way to take their technique or at least clear cut the city to maintain their monopoly on plant construction. It was also something of a proving ground for the Lang Clan. It was a place for them to send all their younger members to get some experience. They could work with the city police forces to patrol and investigate crimes, join the more militaristic defense force and hunt down the local bandits, start their own businesses, work in the clan’s businesses, or even dip their toes in politics and manage parts of the city infrastructure. Lionheart Town was a fortress where they trained their youngsters and the elder generations focused upon cultivation. Golden Cricket Cove was where those youngsters went when they grew up and were ready to take on the world. Once they could stand out and make a name for themselves here, they could go anywhere they wanted.

Sage had only been privy to the planning stages of these developments. He’d seen to it that Lionheart Town was secure and approved of the plans for Golden Cricket Cove, but now that he was here in person seeing it completed, he felt quite fulfilled. The Clan had come so far from its near complete annihilation. He felt a bit uneasy at how dangerous it was for the clan members that lived here, especially since they were not nearly as many generations removed from him as those on the Inner World. Most of them were in the fifth to eighth generation from him, which was far closer than those a hundred generations away on the Inner World. They were close enough to still feel like family and not just people from the same country or organization.

After seeing how far the city had come, he decided not to make his presence known. There weren’t any pressing threats that he noticed and he didn’t feel any need to attend a feast or other welcoming ceremony. Instead he just observed the changes and way things worked from afar. He stayed for a couple weeks to sightsee before returning to the Merciful Mollusk and taking the Transportation Array to Jade Spirit County.