The Chong Clan filed into the room in groups where they were suddenly overwhelmed by a powerful sleeping poison and then sent to the Inner World. The quantity of poison required to knock out the whole clan of thousands might be too much for others to handle, but Sage could simply have the Lang Clan on the Inner World manufacture it for him. It took a few hours for the whole of the Chong Clan to be sent away, completely stealing away the leadership of the Lucky Star Province.

Without wasting any time, Sage and the Purple Mist Sect members left the Chong Clan and went directly to the locations of the Branch Clans. The Yi, Jie, and Min were even more helpless than the Chong Clan. These Branch Clans of Ant, Beetle, and Frog did not even have the backup of a group of nascent Soul Elders. They stood no chance, yet both the Yi and Jie tried to fight back using armies of swarming insects. A few of them sacrificed themselves valiantly, before the leaders finally convinced the rest to stand down. What happened in the Min Clan was even more surprising. They not only surrendered without a bit of resistance they even called back every member of their Clan from afar. The reason for this was that the Min Clan actually had a secret Elder that had broken through to the sixth rank. This Elder was able to understand just how terrifying the force Sage had brought was and so he willingly surrendered the whole Clan without any resistance.

In a single night, the whole of the Chong Clan suddenly disappeared. Yet, the rest of the world was completely unaware of this fact. After staying a few hours in the Chong Clan, Sage released a few hundred carefully selected individuals from the Chong Clan. Then he left to visit each of the Branch Clans, waiting a few hours after completely capturing everyone before releasing a few dozen of their members again. It took a few weeks for Sage to travel to each of the different Branch Clans in the Lucky Star Province and then to return back to the Chong Clan Headquarters. It would take much longer for others, but Sage had his Flying Magical Tool, the Red Comet, to drastically reduce the time. As soon as he returned to the Chong Clan he started to release thousands of people back into the Chong Clan, before leaving to do the same thing at the Branch Clans.

The locals in the Chong Clan’s capital city found it strange that the Chong Clan had refused all visitors and no one left or entered their territory for a few weeks, but suddenly it was like everything was back to normal. The members of the Clan they had relationships with were back like nothing had happened. There were a few cases of well known Chong Clansmen being gone and their friends and acquaintances were told they’d been sent on sensitive missions. There were many who speculated about something unusual happening, considering they closed themselves off for a while and then suddenly random members were gone, but there were a dozen different ideas on what had happened and nobody knew the truth. Had they closed the Clan up to fight amongst themselves? Was there a coup? Had the Clan secretly become a Cult? Did they contract a disease? Sacrificial rituals? Nobody was sure what happened, but most didn’t dare to make a big deal out of what happened to their rulers. None of the locals stood a chance against the many Nascent Souls of the Chong Clan.

A similar thing took place with the Branch Clans, though they were under a little more scrutiny because they were not overlords of the area. They were in charge of three different counties of Lucky Star Province and so neighboring County Prefects were curious why they would close themselves off for a few weeks. Even so, they were still gathering information when the Yi, Jie, and Min Clans returned to normal. The Lucky Star Province had been conquered by the Chong Clan just a few decades ago and these County Prefects were not stupid enough to directly oppose the Chong Clan’s Branches. They found it weird their neighbors closed themselves off for a while, but since this only lasted a few weeks things quickly returned to normal. There were some rumors connecting the time of closure of the Chong Clan and its three Branches, but no one could actually confirm what happened or why. Those with friends among their number couldn’t get any useful information from them no matter how many bribes or favors they offered.

How could any of them have guessed the real truth that the Chong Clan and all its Branches had been sent to another world for twenty years? The Mortals and some of the weaker members of the Clan were subjected to the Hypnotic Eyes and released back into their homes immediately. They would age too rapidly on the Inner World and were needed to turn people away from the Clans. In addition a few members of the Purple Mist Sect were left in each location to make sure nobody barged in.

For the rest of the Chong Clan, they were greeted by the members of the Ci Clan, the Branch of the Lang Clan that had been given this treatment first. As the subordinates of the Lang Clan they got to spend more time on the Inner World and receive some benefits from the Lang Clan’s researchers. For these groups that were sent to the Inner World, they were not here to experience the culture and learn new techniques or professions like the Lang Clan. Instead they were sent to a secluded area and underwent targeted programs to instill them with loyalty.

Those that were weaker fell under the influence of the Hypnotic Eyes of stronger Lang Clan members. Just like Sage had done in the past, there were some who specialized in empowering their Hypnotic Eyes. In this way they could implant suggestions within the minds of those one rank lower than them. A few of these experts were in the fifth rank, which meant they could affect fourth rankers from the Chong Clan and its Branches. Given the number of people they had to deal with it took them quite some time to complete their work.

These suggestions made sure that none of them would succumb to blackmail or enticement by outside forces to go against their Clans or give up any secrets of the Insect Immortal Index. Of course, these suggestions merely affected their voluntary choices. It wouldn’t stop someone from reading their minds or forcing secrets out of them against their will. That was why in addition to these implanted suggestions, everyone of the Chong Clan and its Branches was given a Restriction. Restrictions are an obscure area of expertise for Formation Masters, the study of applying Formation Arrays to people’s bodies.

Sage didn’t even know they existed until he got access to the highest libraries of the Holy Flame Sect. It was a very obscure area of knowledge, complicated and highly dangerous. Once he knew what he was looking for he coaxed some information out of Tao Ba. A Restriction Master was essentially a whole Profession of its own. Others might treat it as a subset of Formation Master, but that was also the case for Blacksmiths, Alchemists, Tailors, and Talisman Masters. They all used Array Symbols and Formations as a ‘language’ to achieve their supernatural effects. It was just that Restriction Masters were so rare in most places that they weren’t able to become their own individual Professions.