Molting the Mortal Coil

Most of Sage’s plans for advancement were put on hold. He worked far less than he ever imagined and spent much of his time with his family. After a hundred years struggling in the martial world with only a few friends along the way, it was a welcome respite to settle down and raise a family in a safe and secure environment. If he was doing this same thing on the outside world he would never be able to relax and let go of his worries as he did, but on the Inner World it was an entirely different story.

The children started to become teenagers and they graduated from training in the rear courtyard of their house to joining the Purple Mist Sect in the surrounding area. They left the insulated life of private family tutors and trainers to join the hundreds of Sect members, most of which were far more powerful than them. The Purple Mist Sect did not recruit from the rest of the Inner World normally, as there was no one who could withstand the poisonous miasma that constantly surrounded them. Only the Lang Clan and the Seething Purple Cobras had the unusual quality of not just surviving in the miasma, but using it to aid in their training. Even with these concerns the Purple Mist Sect still had young disciples other than the Lang Clan teenagers, and they were the children of the Purple Mist Sect members.

Most of them were from the union of two sect members, but a few had actually started relationships with humans from nearby cities. Most of these people they had relationships with would never be able to walk upon the grounds of the Sect, but they seemed happy enough when only allowed to spend a portion of their time together. Sage thought of them like soldiers, spending much of their time in service and returning home to see their families every so often. In fact, once Sage learned of this phenomenon he created a path to encourage them. It would be beneficial for the sect to maintain a presence throughout the whole of the Inner World, so those who showed their worth could be rewarded with a posting in a city outside the Sect. Then, their time distribution would be reversed, spending most of it outside the sect and returning to deliver reports and to train.

There were now many youngsters in the sect, and quite a number of them were actually half human. They were at a disadvantage in comparison to the children of Seething Purple Cobras and the Lang Clan, but they were still pure enough to train with the poisonous miasma. As long as they could still use the miasma to train with, then Sage had no issue with these descendants joining the sect, but he worried how muddled the bloodlines might become in the future. Would this mixing of human and cobra turn into a new race of demi-humans? If they mixed too deeply with humans wouldn’t they lose their ability to use the miasma? With this thought, Sage realized there would be many who faced an unfortunate truth in the future. There was bound to be a child that wished to follow in the footsteps of one of their prestigious parents, only to be told they didn’t carry a thick enough bloodline and find themselves blocked from their dreams.

The only other option he could imagine was creating strict laws to prohibit relationships, which was not something he felt comfortable enacting. He’d already been privy to the tragedy of the couple in Icefire Valley, and he didn’t wish to be the architect of a similar situation. The parents would have to answer to their children in the future for their choices, and Sage did not wish to join that regretful club.

With some of the children joining the Purple Mist Sect as they grew older, Sage started to play a closer role in their training again. When they were younger, he didn’t wish to be the one constantly berating and forcing them to work harder. He’d always felt like children had an innate desire to please their parents and receive their affection. If he was constantly demanding they do better, wouldn’t he be traumatizing or scarring them in that regard? It was better to let someone else take the role of the bad guy while he encouraged them at home afterward. Of course, the children didn’t really appreciate his kindness as he was the one forcing them to partake in the training, but he felt that it would be many times worse if he was the one torturing them with practice.

On the other hand, now that they were older, he felt a little more at ease in guiding their training. It was at this time that he started to train them with the Insect Immortal Index, along with the methods of the Insect Tamer using their natural pheromone ability. The different scent markers that were used to command and direct insects could be produced with their own innate pheromones rather than requiring outside tools. It was also at this time that Sage got to spend more time with the vast collection of weaker Spirit Insects he’d used so many years ago but had outgrown. The Silver Leaf Honeybee, Thorncloud Hornet, and Alarm Crickets were useful low level creatures that he used to teach them with. He could demonstrate how to manipulate a swarm of insects, a weaponized insect developed specifically for combat, and also how they could be used as basic tools. He also spent a good bit of time teaching them about the Spirit Jade Beetle and the ability that he’d stolen from them for the Lang Clan.

“So, someday we can turn our bodies into Spirit Jades? Really?”

“That’s right. Others will be limited to the Qi they can store in their dantian, but if you follow this path then someday every piece of your body will become a container for Qi. Even I have no idea how powerful this could be or what things could be accomplished with it. There are also entirely different paths that could be explored, but as I said I have no idea of their result. If you turn your body into some other type of stone or crystal, there’s no telling the effects. Flesh made of stone might make you tough or strong, but will it be better than Spirit Jade? I have no idea.”

Sage didn’t plan on promoting other experimental paths to his children, but the option was still there so he didn’t hesitate to share it. He had already planned on grooming his children to be the future heads of the Lang Clan, so he didn’t hide much from them. As for his own future, there was a whole wide world out there to explore and he was sure that at least one of his ten children would be happy to run Lionheart Town and lead the new Lang Clan. If one in ten is still not enough, then one of their children or grandchildren should do it, right?

Before he knew it, all ten of his children had become part of the Sect and the oldest were already going on missions to the surrounding areas. They were so eager to see the rest of the world and prove themselves. Especially since there was one secret that he had not shared with them: the existence of the outside world. If he told them about another world ‘above’ their own, that was far larger and more diverse than he knew, wouldn’t at least a few of them become filled with dreams of going to it? Would he be able to deny them and put them into such danger?

At least for these treasured children of his, he would just let them dream of the world outside the boundary of the Purple Mist Sect. There was plenty enough of a world out there for them to wonder about and yearn to explore. Especially when that world was a place where Sage was the equivalent of a deity that none could stand up to.

I suppose I’ve become the most overprotective parent ever, eh?