Molting the Mortal Coil

Chong Xiezi, Kong Min, and the Jade Horde leaders only stuck around for a few days. They were happy to build a better relationship with the Mount Song Sword Sect and also to make sure they wouldn’t need to rush to save Sage again, which they mentioned multiple times over drinks at dinnertime to tease him. They left using the local branch of the Merciful Mollusk, and then Sage spent another couple weeks with Zhu Jiao and Wan Ling, making sure that they’d be safe here. He didn’t want to send them to the Inner World or take them into the Universe Ring because he was worried about what happened the last time he was killed. If forming a new body was as harsh as that time, then he might be a mindless beast for a few years and they’d be trapped.

He also dallied to let Dian Huifang and Manji have more fun on the Inner World. After they’d spent a few years there, they were brought back out along with Ruanfu to meet the rest of the Tiankong Family. Jiyao’s mother had lost her left leg, and Juzui’s right eye now had a patch over it, but most of the Tiankong were in pretty good shape after that terrible fight. They were happy to meet with their other relatives, but for the siblings with Sage they had been separated for hundreds of years. The faster time scale on the Inner World had put them at much different levels now, so while pleased to see them, their bonds weren’t nearly as strong as when they were children.

During these few weeks, Sage taught his Item Set creation technique to the Mount Song Sword Sect weapon refiners. As it was something rudimentary that he developed himself, it was pretty easy for them to learn it. Using materials from the exact same source and crafting them together step by step, it was truly quite simple. The true holding trick to it was the specificity of these directions.

Metal ore from the same mine was not good enough. It had to be ore extracted together from the same place, like it was from a single solid lump. It had to incorporate the same piece from a single beast inside each part of the set. So the teeth of any old Flame Lion wouldn’t work, each piece of the set had to include the same number of teeth from a single Flame Lion.

Crafting them together step by step didn’t mean to just follow the same process, it meant to literally perform the same action to each piece equally. Sage showed them his process by building another set of formation swords. A dozen large claws from a giant wolf, each of them fired together. Then he took one out and hammered upon it using a telekinetically wielded hammer, then put it back into the flame and grabbed the next one, performing the exact same strikes upon it before returning it to the flame. A few hours later, he finally finished the forging and due to mistakes he made along the way, as well as because he was working without a body, he was left with a set of only six. Three of them were destroyed by the flames, while the other three were completed, but not in unison enough to resonate with the set.

The Blacksmiths Sage was teaching were surprised at how simple it was, and they were eager to try to adapt their own far more complicated techniques to attempt to create Item Sets. Some of them were a bit annoyed because many of the most powerful crafting techniques they knew couldn’t be broken up and applied to different weapons like that, and others were troubled by the strict material requirements, but overall they were quite pleased to know the secret.

Sage chuckled inwardly when he heard them talking with low voices about how this would help them show up the other Five Mountain Sword Sects. They didn’t seem to realize that this technique would work for any Item Set in general and he wasn’t going to specifically tell them that. They were all quite happy to believe this was merely the key to creating formation swords. He could only hope they didn’t ever make the connection and he could save that bit of information for the Prosperity Company.

In that regard, he had apologized to Wan Ling. She would have to make do with what they had at the moment since he didn’t want to waste months or years developing new products until after he had recovered his body and regained his full strength. From the look on her face, she seemed to already have expected this and he could only make a concession by offering her a large amount of natural resources harvested from the Inner World.

She was pleased by many full Storage Chests and he also remembered something, “Oh, right. I never had the time to do the research, but since we have so many low level craftsmen with low wages, the Prosperity Company would probably be able to produce many cheap magical items at a very low cost.”

“I realized that long ago, but they were always busy making weapons for your little army. Since you’ve pulled out of the Jade Horde, they’re finally free for me to use. Good reminder. Alright, I think you’ve hemmed and hawed long enough. It’s about time for you to go into seclusion. Don’t worry about us out here, we’ll be just fine until you come back. We’ve got a hundred years guaranteed safety, remember?”

Zhu Jiao had left a few days ago, having been summoned back to her clan. They had not hesitated to declare there was no relation to him to his enemies and when he was on the run, but as soon as his position was secure again they pretended like none of that happened. The betrothal was still in place, but he was sure that if he got into trouble once more they had no problem tossing it aside again. She was actually tired of scaring away the Mount Song Sword Sect cultivators trying to hit on her. She didn’t like having a team of bodyguards following her around all the time like Wan Ling, so she was harassed far too much for her liking. Sage also thought he saw Wan Ling and Zhu Jiao discussing some secret activities, but they kept him out of the loop and told him to focus.

The many members of the Tiankong Family were given another chance to head to the Inner World and only a few of them took him up on the offer. Most of them quite liked the Sword Sect and didn’t want to be separated for what could be hundreds of years. Sage was actually a little annoyed, “With all of you out here, who is going to be in charge of the Inner World?”

Even King’s three wives that had formerly run the place weren’t eager to go back inside. Baozhai’s Mother and Jiyao’s Mother were happy to spend more time with them, while the third woman, a Giant Blue Crane, had no children. She was always quite lonely, but now there were so many other birds and beasts to spend time with. Sage realized he needed to increase the diversity on the Inner World. There were so many types of insects, but only a few Demonic Beasts.

Elder Manji and Dian Huifang enjoyed their time on the Inner World, but they also had to return. Manji was the guardian elder of the Thundercloud Sect, and Dian Huifang was still on house arrest. Despite wanting to stay there forever, Manji would be the one in trouble for helping her escape, so he had to bring her back. He would face a little flak for taking her out for a few weeks, but he would be in big trouble if he helped her run away for good. Predictably, Ruanfu also wished to stay outside and even travel with Manji back to the Thundercloud Sect. She finally managed to get her way because of Wanqian Lei. He was a Golden Thundereagle, a rare variant beast, and she wanted to get him into the Thundercloud Sect. She was sure their lightning and thunder techniques would fit him perfectly.

Even the four beast friends of the Tiankong siblings came out to stay with them. The Winged Squirrel, Fei Shu, along with a giant lizard and a pair of twin green furred minks, joined this Tiankong Family mountain.

Sage was a little worried about the Inner World going hundreds of years with nobody in charge, but he decided to just leave them to their own business. King’s wives and the Tiankong Siblings had trained plenty of subordinates and they’d just have to step up and fill their shoes. With nobody there he really cared for, he would just have to let them all fend for themselves.

As he was about to leave, Wan Ling gave him a little peck on the cheek and he couldn’t help but laugh like a schoolboy as he disappeared into the Universe Ring.