Molting the Mortal Coil

After being fed all this information, Sage turned his gaze upon the man who brought it, “That’s quite a lot you’ve brought to me. I suppose I should trust you because you’re wearing red and your information is quite detailed, but what proof do I have that Xiezi actually sent you?”

The man in front of him visibly paled and then quickly brought out a jade slip and held it out, “She said this should prove my identity!”

Sage motioned to Tujiu, “Watch him,” before he carefully inserted his senses into the jade slip to see what it contained. He acted very cautiously, wary of any traps it might contain, but thankfully it had only a few lines of text. For anyone else it might seem like nonsense, but for Sage it made sense: ‘Your beetle saved me, yet I couldn’t protect you from the bats. I’m still sorry about that to this day.’

The only other person who would know of those events was that Fu Clan member who tried to kill Xiezi, and for them to be so well informed of the Chong’s internal matters would be pretty scary so he could only assume that this man was not an imposter. Even so, Sage still looked at him a little more closely, “You were given quite an important job. Who are you in the Chong Clan?”

“My name is Xiefeng. Lady Xiezi is technically my aunt a few times removed,” then he saw the look in Sage’s eyes, “Yes, we are about the same age. Her parents waited much longer to have children.”

Sage realized his momentary gaff and just nodded. A rank 4 cultivator could have a lifespan in the hundreds of years and it was possible for them to have children that were the same age as their own great great grandchildren quite easily. Tracking generational relationships in cultivation clans must truly be a headache. I will definitely need to assign someone to keep track of all that later, I certainly don’t want to be in charge of it.

After a little more chatting, Xiefeng left. Sage didn’t express his support for the Xie Faction, but at the same time it didn’t really matter. As far as the Jinxi were concerned he had already cut ties with them by causing such a large problem with the Wu. Even without a formal declaration, they all assumed it was the truth. Looks like I’ve hopped on their ship without intending to. That arrogant kid has pushed me to the other side, no wonder things have gotten heated. He ruined all their careful attempts to win me over.

The trouble seemed to make sense now, but it also didn’t solve anything for him. He’d now been thrust into this dispute and there wasn’t anything he could do to get out of it. As soon as he struck out at those Wu Faction members, he was already prepared for things going this way, but he didn’t know it was going to be quite so abrupt. He thought he might have a chance to try and negotiate his way out of it, which is why he’d offered the Wu a chance to apologize. It was no wonder he hadn’t seen those two poisoned youths yet, they must have realized how bad the relationship was and gave up on them. They had no desire to grovel to a Branch Clan, they’d rather lose two of their young members, even if they were elites.

Sage found their stance distasteful. Those kids were fools, but they were just causing trouble, they hadn’t done anything worth dying over. He wasn’t so ruthless to kill people that were just annoying and insulting him. Eventually, he couldn’t help himself and paid a messenger to carry a letter to the Wu with very simple contents: “Send the two poisoned ones to me.”

It took a few days, but they eventually sent them over, and Sage frowned as he saw their condition. They were far from death, but the Greenrose Venom was not kind. After two weeks, the green roses would ‘bloom’ and change to a black color. New green vines would spread into their body and form new green roses. Those now black roses weren’t just pretty colors, they were the marks of the flesh completely dying. Since the Wu had waited so long, the first roses on each of the young men had already ‘bloomed’ and caused them some permanent damage.

One of the two had been poisoned upon his chest, thankfully it was in the center and the damage didn’t spread directly to his heart. It was a heavy wound, but in time he could likely regrow the dead flesh with healing pills. The other man was far more unfortunate. In trying to help his friend, he had touched the poison and there was one rose on each of his hands. Now that it had progressed, the backs of his hands had been devastated. Without some very powerful healing pills or techniques the use of his fingers and hands would be affected permanently. The dead flesh had spread into the many small nerves and muscles of his hands. Sage could only frown and begin the process of pulling the poison back out of their bodies.

The second man might be slightly crippled for the rest of his life, but it was still better than the certain death that his family was going to leave him to if Sage hadn’t acted. There was also the off chance that he could work hard and earn enough to afford the high level healing pill required to restore himself. In this world, severed limbs could be regrown with a powerful enough pill, and even whole bodies could be rebuilt from nothing, but such miracles had an equally extravagant cost in natural treasures, let alone the price that had to be paid to the Master Alchemist needed to refine the pill.

Once the poison was removed from their bodies, Sage could only give them some healing pills and have them sent back to the Clan. If he had suffered such damage himself he could regenerate it, but that was because he had the true version of the Insect Immortal Index. After spending so much time with the Chong Clan, Sage realized that they didn’t have the true version of the technique. In fact, from what rumors he could gather, only a few of the factions had improved versions of the techniques. In the past, he learned that the Lang Clan had an improved version of the Hive Body technique, which allowed them to store their insects inside the immaterial space of their Dantians. The normal version of the technique kept them within the physical body, and was only used on very small species. That was why the Xiyi had lizards on their shoulders, and Xiezi’s scorpion was always in her robes. From what he saw, most of the Chong Clan were carrying around small creatures inside their clothing.

He’d heard rumors that the Wu were the most adept at ‘Mutate’, and that was why they had dozens of different types of centipedes that they used. That led Sage to suspect that they had an improved version of Mutate that was closer to the true version. Even so, the improved Hive Body that the Lang Clan used was still not equal to the true version, which led Sage to suspect there truly was something going on with the Ancestor he’d met under the Lang Clan. The true version of the technique is more powerful than what the Chong Clan has, but isn’t the Lang supposed to be just a branch of the Chong Clan?

There was definitely a story behind all of this, and Sage would have to ask the Ancestor about this at some point, but he had been forbidden from returning to the tomb until after he re-established the clan.

After not receiving any more visitors for a few more days, Sage was about to leave. As if reading his mind, Xiezi was waiting outside his inn along with a dozen guards wearing the Xie Faction uniform. The gloating smile on her face made him suspect that she was spying on him somehow, so she could jump out just when he was ready to leave. I wonder how long she would have waited for me to leave?

Putting aside the thought, he could only greet her cordially, “Lady Xiezi, is it? It seems that I’ve joined your side accidentally. Are you here to put me to work? Please try not to take too much advantage of me.”