“I’m glad you could take the time out of your busy schedule to meet with me, Xie Bian. You’re the Clan Head now, so you’ve probably got endless problems to deal with.”

“Others may have forgotten, but I will always remember the part you played in getting me this position, Lang Sheng. Aren’t you busy as well, you brought your Clan back and control of a whole Province. You can’t be as relaxed as you act.”

“It was my duty, don’t worry about it. As for my Clan, you must have heard I stepped down from the Clan Head position. It was never something I wanted or was good at, I was just the only one left.”

Across from Sage, a beautiful mature woman with her hair pulled back into a bun by a pair of jade chopsticks nodded slowly, “You never explained where your new Clan came from. Did you step down by choice, or was that part of the deal you made?”

“That’s not something I’m supposed to be talking about. Just know that the new Lang Clan are legitimate successors of the Clan.”

“Fine, I won’t push you. So then, why have you come to see me? What was important enough you had to visit in person? Are you bored now that you’ve stepped down?”

Sage took a sip of his tea and shook his head, “I wish it was that simple. Sadly, I am here for some unfortunate business. You might have heard of the Prosperity Company’s clash with the Four Major Businesses?”

“I have, it's quite unfortunate. They do have quite the stranglehold on the business in the Kingdom. At least they prevent the conflict between the first rate powers from spreading too far. You might end up offending some of them by doing business outside your own Province.”

“Well, you see the problem is that they’ve already exhausted all their tricks for dealing with us. They’re now working on trying to copy our products directly. If you know anything about our goods, then you’ll know this puts us in a difficult situation.”

Xie Bian, the current head of the Chong Clan was about to answer and then her eyes suddenly narrowed. She looked a little more cautiously at the golden eyed man in front of her and frowned.

“Are you here to deliver a warning? Or a threat?”

Sage shook his head, and let out a soft sigh. Then behind him five silhouettes appeared. The ground under them shattered as they flashed out of their position, instantly surrounding Xie Bian even as the woman had leapt backward, destroying her chair, the table and the tea set they were drinking from in the process. She had a furious look on her face, “You dare!”

“I’m sorry, the Chong Clan is too big of a liability to us. The Insect Immortal Index cannot fall into the wrong hands. We’ve shown too much of its capabilities, so I’m sorry.”

Power was already surging in the room, but they were already at the heart of the Chong Clan so they were already inside the powerful Sect Protecting Arrays. Many more shadows appeared behind Sage and rushed out through the doors of the room, flashing away at high speed. A loud rumbling came from the sound behind the wall. Then there was an explosion of debris as a giant scorpion burst through it, rushing into the room to back up the Chong Clan leader. The two of them released the aura of a peak Nascent Soul, facing off against Sage and the five others who’d surrounded them.

“I came to speak with you in the hopes we could do this the easy way. We don’t wish to harm anyone, we only do what we must. Anyone that surrenders will not be injured. We will be doing all we can to make sure nobody is killed, but there’s only so much we can do. Please, ask your Clan to surrender and we can prevent as many deaths as possible. I know there will be many who would rather die than be captured, please help me prevent that.”

Xie Bian leapt up onto the back of the huge scorpion, her constant partner for thousands of years. They gathered energy to strike until the six opponents they were facing showed off their own power, releasing the techniques they were using to hide their levels. Xie Bian suddenly realized she was facing off with three other peak Nascent Souls, as well as two ninth stages and an eighth stage.

“Sense the outside and then look at this.”

Sage brought out a large scroll and unfurled it, holding it up for Xie Bian to see.

“This Blood Contract affirms that the Lang Clan will not kill, enslave, or torture those who surrender.”

“What?! How is this possible?”

At the same time as she saw the Blood Contract, she also extended her Spiritual Sense outwards and what she found shocked her further. The many shadowy figures that had just run out of the room were not just minions. Over a hundred of them had spread into the Chong Clan and now that she actively sensed them, she realized every single one of them was a Nascent Soul. Her shock was too great and she couldn’t hold back her confusion.

“The odds are stacked against you. Eleven versus more than a hundred. Please see reason and instruct the Clan not to resist. We don’t wish to cause needless death.”

Sage stared calmly at the leader of the Chong Clan. This whole situation was not something he wished to have happen, but there were too many factions and competing interests in the Chong Clan. What was worse was that more than a few of the internal factions and branches of the Chong Clan were at odds with the Lang Clan. They were either jealous or resentful of the Lang Clan’s ownership of 10,000 Wave Province. The idea that a mere branch clan could rise up to a higher position than the main factions upset them.

He knew that if he tried to approach them for a treaty to prevent them from siding with the Four Major Businesses it would only lead to a long and protracted negotiation. There were no guarantees that a few rogue members of the Clan wouldn’t sneak off to join the Four Major Businesses out of anger or jealousy. There were likely to be individuals who would choose to burn down their whole Clan in order to be the last one standing and take over. Of course, this was only a guess on his part, but just the chance of it made him worried.

From his time interacting with the Chong Clan, he was pretty sure most of them didn’t have access to the True Insect Immortal Index. His guess was they each had something similar to the Lang Clan in the past, where they had the weakened version along with a single upgraded part of the technique. Just like the Lang Clan had an improved Hive Body. Yet, even the weakened version of the Insect Immortal Index still allowed breeding insects together that were normally incompatible. If the Four Major Businesses were to learn this technique and put enough time and effort into studying it, they could breed purchased Blastids with some other bugs to come up with their own version. This needed to be prevented at all costs.