The Purple Mist Sect members started to bring out equipment to be used for ‘convincing’ Chu Shuai to repay his debts. For debtors that he planned to release again, Sage was careful not to send them to the Inner World. Especially after he found out about the Chain Ocean Palace, he was extra careful not to ‘disappear’ any of their members. They would think he killed them, or worse, the Chain Ocean Palace would know they’re still alive and know Sage had sent them somewhere. That would give them a good reason to come after him and might also lead to suspicion of what he did to them. It would be even worse if they forced him to release them again and then they found out about the Inner World.

Unfortunately, this meant the most effective method of wearing them down with time and the futility of escape was no longer available. Within just a few minutes, there were already some pained noises coming from Chu Shuai. They hadn’t yet taken away the man’s storage treasures, still leaving him a method to hand over what was owed. Storage Rings had built in protections and it would be much easier on them if they could get Chu Shuai to ‘volunteer’ the payment. It was a little more stressful to constantly watch out for any tricks and pull away any tools or weapons the man tried to use, but they could count all the confiscated goods towards the paying off of the debt.

They started to make progress with Chu Shuai around the hour mark, but that’s when something went wrong. A small Flying Ship carrying three powerful Cultivators swooped over the top of the plateau they were on. Each level of the Tianxia Capital was over a thousand miles wide, so there was plenty of wide empty area for this sort of clandestine combat to happen. Someone stumbling upon them on such a desolate level was very unusual. Three of the Purple Mist Sect members stayed focused on their captive while the other five took up a defensive formation around them. Sage stepped towards the hovering ship and he blinked, activating Foresight to watch out for an ambush. A moment later, two of the three powerful Cultivators stepped off the ship, slowly floating down towards the ground. The two of them were still attached to the ship by a chain, lowering themselves downwards to the ground with a gentle smoothness.

They certainly put on a good show for their first appearance, but those chains mean…

The two women touched down upon the ground in front of Sage and they both looked past him to focus upon Chu Shuai who was now strapped to a chair. The woman in the lead looked quite young while the other woman stood to the side and slightly behind looked to be in the later middle ages from the slight wrinkles around her eyes and lips. A tendril of Spiritual Sense extended from them to try to check Chu Shuai’s condition, but the formation formed by the Purple Mist Sect members blocked off their probing. Seeing this defense, the two women finally turned their gaze to Sage.

In this situation, it was three Nascent Souls matching off against nine Nascent Souls. The three new arrivals realized they were outnumbered and so they seemed to be taking a more polite path. The two women stared him down for a long moment before finally starting to speak. The woman in the lead had a pleasant voice which contained far less vitriol than he was expecting, “Greetings to you. It seems that my Chain Ocean Palace has offended you and I’m so very sorry for the trouble. I thank you for being so magnanimous to treat our member so kindly after our misstep. Please tell me how we have wronged you so we can properly compensate you.”

“Chain Ocean Palace, is it? Excellent. You are correct, you have greatly wronged me! Though, to be specific, it is not me, but my employer that you are in debt to. I am working on behalf of the Dream Dealer and there are many debts owed by members of your Chain Ocean Palace. It would be excellent if you could repay them all right now and save me quite a bit of trouble. Most of the debts are between the individual members of your organization and the Dream Dealer, but if your organization would like to take responsibility for each of its members that would be quite wonderful.”

Upon hearing mention of the name ‘Dream Dealer’, the woman’s features tightened for just an instant. She was too experienced for the whole range of emotions she was feeling to show themselves on her face, but with the time pace of the Inner World, Sage could easily identify the stress she felt upon initially hearing the name. That lasted only a moment though as the woman to the rear seemed to shift after his admissions. The respectful look on her face subtly shifted to take on more of a haughty tilt, yet she stayed quiet as the younger woman in front continued to speak.

“The Dream Dealer is back? How wonderful! My Chain Ocean Palace has a deep and long lasting relationship with the Dream Dealer. Where is he now? I know the Palace Master has been eager to see him again. Can you ask him to stop by again? I’m certain the Palace Master would love to throw another feast for him so they can catch up on old times.”

“That’s good to hear. I’m so glad the Chain Ocean Palace is on such good terms with the Dream Dealer still. Will the palace pay the debts owed by its members? Or does that mean you’ll be helping me collect on the debts that your members owe?”

“Please forgive me, I don’t have the authority to make such important decisions for the whole of the Palace. I’m not on the level of the Palace Master or the Dream Dealer, after all. I’m sure that once the Dream Dealer visits with the Palace Master they can discuss how the situation can be handled so that it benefits both parties the most.”

“You don’t have the authority to make those decisions? Well, that’s a real shame. I suppose that means my work will have to continue then. Are you here to pay for Chu Shuai’s debts, then?”

Sage already knew that Guan Zhenyan didn’t want to do this job himself, and as soon as the woman asked for a meeting with the Palace Master, Sage was harshly scolded by the man, “You cannot agree to that. Understand?”

With that tip, Sage got many ideas about the relationship between these two parties and also why he was the one being tasked with these duties. He also took the chance to do a little testing to see the attitude of these people from the Chain Ocean Palace and he gathered some interesting information from it. Seems this group might be one of the main reasons that Guan Zhenyan had chosen to hide with him rather than continue what he was doing.

“I’ve come to help out a member of Chain Ocean Palace in need.”

“He needs you to pay his debts. Are you willing? It’s alright if you cannot afford it. I’ll get Chu Shuai to pay off his debt one way or another. You don’t need to worry, we won’t ruin the reputation of the Chain Ocean Palace or take his life. An upstanding member of your palace should properly pay their own debts, correct?”