Molting the Mortal Coil

Surprisingly, Xuelong was present for this meeting, standing in the same spot that Huifang was standing at the earlier meeting. Of course, this meeting was now being called in a hall of the Thundercloud Sect and not the Dian Clan. The people sitting on the chairs were quite different from the group the last time. One of them wore bracers made of blue scales, one of them had a vest made of golden scales, and a third had spheres of lightning around his pupils. He was a Doctor and Sect Elder, Chang Lanyan. There were three others that Sage didn’t recognize in the least, but he assumed they were quite important among the Thundercloud Sect. Without waiting for any introductions, Sage immediately gave the assembled group a deep bow.

“What did you do to Xuelong?”

One of the three who weren’t wearing scales was the first to open his mouth. He was an old man with stark white hair and he was sitting second from the right. Sage wasn’t sure if the ones towards the center held more power, but it seemed their seating arrangement didn’t decide who could speak. The others didn’t seem surprised by the outburst and the man wearing a golden scaled vest even leaned forward in anticipation. Unfortunately for them, Sage wasn’t about to buckle under such light pressure.

“I cured him.”

“How?”

“After many hours of intense treatment, I was finally able to remove his poison.”

They did not seem pleased by his vague answers, but Sage wasn’t about to start revealing secrets to the leaders of a first rate power. Well, as long as there was any other choice that is. I thought I was being kind by not making any demands before rendering services, but it seems I may have made a mistake.

Thankfully, the Thundercloud Sect wasn’t as ruthless as he feared. After the old man’s questioning didn’t get a result they didn’t continue to push the matter. Instead the woman sitting near the center, a beautiful middle aged woman, smiled. She had a warm and motherly voice, “Don’t worry about Violent Cloud. He was just curious how you could do something that even Blue Cloud could not.”

She waved her hand to indicate Chang Lanyan, and Sage started to make a connection. A moment later, the woman cleared up his confusion.

“Pardon my rudeness. I am Peach Cloud. In the Thundercloud Sect, the highest elders are titled ‘Cloud’. We’ve brought you here to thank you for your help.”

Sage bowed yet again, “Even though I only met Dian Huifang by chance and her connection to your Sect is small, I still could not stand by when I could help out.”

Especially when it might get me out of trouble. Hmm, they can’t just have brought me here for a simple thank you, right? Is there something special about Xuelong? How has he garnered so much attention from all these high ranking people? I feel like I saw most of these people by his bed. One disciple isn’t that important, right?

Peach Cloud smiled pleasantly, but Sage could tell she didn’t quite buy into the story he was telling. He tried to guess if it was experience or a technique that let her see through his false words, but it didn’t really matter as she didn’t seem offended. Acting politely even to your worst enemy was important to maintain one’s own face after all, so letting a little lie like that slip past wasn’t a big deal. Sage didn’t think these people were such fools that they wouldn’t be aware of the situation with Dian Huifang. They might even have gone further than ‘Uncle Rong’ and know that Sage’s actual connection to Huifang was almost non-existent.

All of this trouble had been caused because a Nascent Soul had decided to butt into one of his secrets.

Peach Cloud pondered for a moment before she flicked her hand and an Oathstone flew in front of Sage, suspended in mid-air by a small pink cloud. He looked down at it and realized it wasn’t a normal Oathstone. It seemed to be of a much higher quality, something that Sage had once learned meant it was for more powerful cultivators to use. The standard Oathstone’s punishment became less and less dangerous the more powerful a cultivator became, so it wasn’t a surprise that a more powerful Oathstone was built to properly threaten the most powerful people.

“Swear an oath of secrecy to never tell anyone of the information we are going to reveal to you today.”

As he’d just done the same thing to ‘Blue Cloud’ the day before, Sage found the situation a bit funny, but he had no problems with doing as they said. He wasn’t crazy enough to put any loopholes to his oath, saying it exactly as Peach Cloud had told him to. When the oath was finished, he felt a terrifying surge of energy ripple through his body. It felt just like a normal Oathstone, except at least four or five times stronger. If he broke his promise it was quite likely it might just instantly kill him. The strength of that energy made him wonder if it was even possible for his soul to survive. Breaking the oath might even lead to a real death! The Thundercloud Sect doesn’t seem to mess around.

“Xuelong was injured while exploring a Hidden Domain for the Sect.”

If Sage didn’t have complete control over his expressions, his eyebrows would have just shot off his head and his jaw would have popped open. No wonder they cared so much about his injury!

“The Hidden Domain only allows teams of five to enter, and Xuelong is the only one that returned. Thanks to you, he recovered enough to tell us what he saw. The other members of his team were not killed by the poison. They were attacked by strange creatures with human-like bodies and weird insect-like heads of a type they’ve never seen before. Xuelong has told us that they weren’t that physically powerful, but the poison he suffered from is everywhere.”

Sage nodded with understanding, “Ahh, I understand. I’ll do it, but only if I go alone. I’ll split the gains with the Thundercloud Sect, half and half.”

The old man near the end, Violent Cloud, smashed his hand against his arm rest, turning it into splinters. He glared at Sage, “You little cretin! Do you think you have any capital here to be arrogant? You should be happy to still be alive and thankful to have an opportunity to do a service for the Thundercloud Sect!”

Sage didn’t respond to the tirade and just kept his eyes fixed on Peach Cloud. After a few moments she smiled as well and held up a hand to silence Violent Cloud. She held up two fingers, “Twenty percent, and you’ll take along a Memory Seed with you.”

“One third and that’s as low as I’ll go.”

Violent Cloud was not pleased wanting to leap up and throttle Sage, but he was stopped by a wisp of pink clouds that flew over to him. Peach Cloud laughed at how easily Sage was upsetting the old man and she clapped her hands.

“You’ll take one quarter and you’ll like it. Consider the rest a payment to keep Violent Cloud from murdering you and everyone you know as soon as you leave here.”

Sage felt cold sweat roll down his back, but he smiled nonetheless. He nodded to Peach Cloud, “Change that to every member of the Thundercloud Sect, Dian Clan, Lei Clan, and anyone else you all know and you have a deal! Oh, and no hiring killers either. Is there some sort of mass Oathstone you can use?”

Peach Cloud held in a snort and she shook her head, “No, but we can issue a Sect Order, that’s close enough.”