Molting the Mortal Coil

The message in Sage’s hands was simple enough. It was filled with flowery words, declaring how happy the Chong Clan was to know that someone from the Lang Clan survived, and also inviting him to visit them in Golden Cricket Cove. It was full of flattery and formal sounding language, and Sage was pretty sure it wasn’t anything good. He threw the message into the Universe Ring and put them out of his mind. He had far too much work to do. The changes to the city had only just been completed, and there were many things that still needed to be done. 

The main business area in town, centered upon the Thousand Treasures, had been rebuilt and renamed to ‘The Street of Immortals’. They’d also conveniently saved the many marks of the Heavenly Tribulation on the street while cleaning up and repairing the damage elsewhere. The shop that Wan Ling opened up to sell the new merchandise was called ‘Lioncloud’ and used the logo he designed on all of its merchandise. Since Sage was the most knowledgeable about the Immortal, he also knew that the little Dragoon wouldn’t be coming back any time soon and also wouldn’t lash out for being used by Sage as a mascot if he ever did. 

The water supply, sewage system, and the roads built over them had been completed and already in use for a few weeks. A few parks had been built around town, and Sage had even bred and distributed Fireflies all over the city to light it up at night. A few dozen Steamcoaches were already running bus routes with firefly lanterns to light their way. It only saved a few Spirit Stones when the Fireflies were used in small quantities, but they created a delightful twinkling light that people took an instant liking to. It also helped create more of a unique atmosphere in Lionheart Town during the nights and evenings, so he filled the city with them. Most importantly, the Prosperity Network was already running, with a dozen Movie Projectors already finished and placed around the city playing a new run of shows every day. Half of them were set up in large public squares, while the other half had their own amphitheater areas so people could watch freely without causing a nuisance. 

With the experience he had from his old life, it would be surprising if people weren’t immediately addicted. People flocked to the amphitheaters on a nightly basis to catch the run of evening shows. During the day, the programming was mostly educational, advertisements, and news reports to keep the city productive, while all the most exciting stuff was played every evening. 

In a few months, the popularity of Lionheart Town’s changes started drawing many more visitors to the town. Local business was booming, dozens of new inns were already under construction, doubling the original number to support the increased number of visitors. Sage and Wan Ling were already organizing an expansion of Lionheart Town, and as the only remaining clan member, the Lang Clan sold some of their lands to the city. The clan technically owned most of the mountain range that surrounded Lionheart Town. The mountain that held the Airship Port was officially transferred to the city and turned into a new district for the city, the many Dragoons put to use terracing the side of the mountain. The slope turned into a number of flat levels and provided plenty of room for expansion. He also wasn’t going to sell his city short as they retained a percentage of ownership of the lands and also a second mountain was remodeled into a series of resort hotels in the style of the Palace of Prosperity that was owned by the Lang Clan and leased to the Prosperity company. 

The size and success of cities in this world were normally based upon the natural resources available in the area. For Lionheart Town to exceed that limit, it required other draws, and Sage was just fine with making it into a tourist haven. The whole province was covered in small lakes, rivers, and ocean inlets so there was no shortage of great views, especially once they started remodeling the mountains to get better vantage points. Additionally, the herbs from Sage’s Inner World filled the shops with far better supplies than in the past. With a whole planet’s worth of space, it was pretty easy to keep a single city well supplied, at least more than enough to push it up a few levels in size. 

With all their success, it came as no surprise that they were receiving all sorts of invitations from other leaders and powers. Of course, after what happened to Sage and the Jade Horde a decade ago, most of them had enough sense to not be too imposing. The local groups had already refused to provide assistance at the time and now that he’d returned and become successful, it would be too shameless to try and call themselves friends and allies. Instead, they could only send gifts and try to repair relations. 

Along with that, came a formal summons from the Chong Clan. No longer just an invitation to visit, it was an actual official request. As a branch clan, they were obligated to call when summoned, even if ‘they’ consisted of just Sage. While Sage contemplated breaking relations and refusing, he was also wary of how powerful the Chong Clan was. As he’d seen when visiting the Kang Clan and the Thundercloud Sect, all of the groups that led a province were quite powerful and there was no telling just how deep their reserves were. As the City Lord of Lionheart Town, the Chong Clan was also his ruler in the scope of the Kingdom, and two levels higher in fact. Technically, Lionheart Town was subordinate to Jade Spirit County, and Jade Spirit County was subordinate to 10,000 Wave Province. With two forms of suppression and no real gains to be made by resisting, Sage reluctantly set off for Golden Cricket Cove once again. 

He wasn’t going to play this time, so he only brought along Tujiu. The bald headed silver eyed member of the Tiankong siblings. He was the one that fit the mold of a brave warrior the closest. Sage also brought him along in case he had to make a quick escape. Sage hadn’t yet made enough progress in a Law that allowed flight, and Tujiu’s beast form was the most suitable as a mount, a huge fiery vulture. Ruanfu and her husband were the only better choices in that regard, but Ruanfu needed to stay and protect Lionheart Town. Of course, Sage definitely wasn’t going to tell Tujiu he was taking him along as an emergency vehicle. He told Tujiu that he was the most diligent, and they needed to stay on guard against foul play on this trip. Those centipede wielding assassins in the past had been sent by someone from the Chong Clan. They needed to be on guard against another such attack, and also work on settling the score.

They left town a few hours after Sage received the message, and once they left sight of the city gates Sage smiled at Tujiu, “Junior Brother. Please transform and fly us to the Transport Array.”

Tujiu’s lack of eyebrows made his look of surprise a bit odd, but the silvery holo foil look of his eyes still seemed to shimmer at Sage. Unlike Juzui, the Miniature Red Toucan, and Songji, the Violent Shadow Grouse, Tujiu loved being in his natural form. The Iridescent Flame Vulture was a large and flamboyant looking beast, so he naturally enjoyed showing off. Soon a vulture the size of a truck appeared in front of him. Glowing with iridescent flames, the colors change not only because of the temperature of the fire, but the position of the viewer, orange, red and yellow shifting and twisting around the curling flames like bubbles in the sun. 

Sage leapt up onto his back and the flames dimmed where he sat down, the warmth serving to counteract the rush of cold wind caused by the speed of their flight. The normally day long trip to reach the Transport Array was shortened to just a few hours and Tujiu returned to his Human form before they teleported back to the Merciful Mollusk and boarded a coach to take them to the Chong Clan Manor. Flying was frowned upon over cities, so they could only endure the hour long coach ride through the huge and busy city before they finally found themselves in front of a house sized statue of a cricket cast in gold.