Molting the Mortal Coil

This is the point where a young person might waver in the face of great power. Even if they had already made up their mind, when someone held your fate in their hands and was looking sternly down at you it created a sort of mental pressure. A sort of pressure that was best felt by youngsters trying to break out from their parents' shadows, but it was also something that the Ci Clan Head felt at this moment. The difference in status between the two was far greater than a parent and child, if Xie Bian wished to, she could do to the Ci Clan what they had just finished doing to the Fu Clan and others might only say that it was deserved.

In this world, the powerful made the rules and the Chong Clan was much more powerful than the Ci Clan. It definitely took a lot of courage to openly ask to break off from the Chong Clan. The Ci Clan Head carefully rose to her feet and then gave another low bow, “We are sure, Matriarch.”

Thankfully, the Chong Clan was not so small minded or vicious enough to make an example out of the Ci Clan. Xie Bian merely nodded and then patted a hand upon the top of the other woman’s head. From purely appearances, the women looked to be of similar ages, but one of them was looking positively pleased to have her head pat like one might pamper a pet. Then, Xie Bian turned her steely gaze over to the heads of the other three branches and the three of them froze in place.

“Do any of the other branches feel the same way?”

The Yi Matriarch, Jie Clan Head, and Min Clan Head quickly shook their heads and bowed profusely, adding a quick round of praise for the Chong Clan’s Matriarch. They glanced at the Ci Clan Head with such pity that Sage felt like they still thought the woman was going to get murdered, but such a moment never came. After such a long period of unease, the Ci Clan Head was sent away after getting a few pats on the head. Without receiving any further abuse or commands, the Ci Clan Head strode over to Yating and knelt in front of him. She lowered her head to the ground and kowtowed for the second time today.

Just like that, the Ci Clan changed allegiance and the Chong Clan let them. There was no further explanation and most were left to wonder about the reasoning behind this decision. Even Sage was surprised by this turn of events as he’d imagined that the Chong Clan would make an example out of the Ci Clan. Letting them leave meant they felt quite highly of the Lang Clan and also that they weren’t quite as worried of the other first rate powers as they seemed previously.

I suppose they want to make the separation with the Lang Clan clear, but also show they’re still close friends. Are they trying to secretly signal an alliance? Or is this a move that secretly marks them as an enemy in the future? I hate politics.

Sage wondered about this issue for a while, but then he gave up. The Lang Clan had the backing of his Purple Mist Sect, so they were already too strong for the Chong Clan to defeat.

The rest of the meeting flew by in a flash, especially since he stopped caring about the politics and let Yating and the others handle everything. He was quite happy to finally get to enjoy some of the benefits of ‘retiring’ from power. For the people in this world this would only cement his reputation as something of a joke. He had been chased around and nearly killed multiple times and now he’d returned with a whole bunch of strangers and basically handed them control of his name. There were already rumors going around about how Jinxi Jao was actually not very powerful and Lang Sheng was merely a pawn of the Chong Clan Matriarch. He also overheard something about the new Lang Clan being a group that was brought in by the Chong Clan in secret.

These rumors were not from that meeting, but actually gathered after the fact by their still budding intelligence organization. Yahui had only been in the outside world for a few years, but his intelligence gathering was already many times more extensive than Sage’s attempts long ago. The Little Birdy techniques had been analyzed and improved in the Clan’s Research Academy many times over the years and Yahui was quite gifted in developing methods to recruit and more importantly, fund, skilled operatives. It was a problem that had always plagued Sage.

The best way to track down the source of a spy was to follow the money. If tracing wealth back to its source led to the Lang Clan, then what was the point of having a secret intelligence organization? Instead of giving them a lead upon their competition, they’d directly earn their ire. Sage had always struggled to increase the size of his intelligence network because his funds had to be slowly and carefully distributed through the network. Much was lost along the way in the pursuit of making it untraceable.

Yahui, on the other hand, put his illicit pursuits to good use. For many brothels, it was said that the pillows had ears. It was no secret that most brothels were filled with spies, coaxing secrets out of their partners along with their money. After experimenting for a few centuries, Yahui seemed to become an expert at not just building brothels, but teaching others how to build and run them. Not only could they directly collect information from the brothel, they were also using the profits from the brothels to fund other agents.

It certainly wasn’t something that Sage would choose to go for, as he realized he still carried the reserved nature of his past life on Earth. He’d never been one prone to debauchery and the common culture of the places he’d lived in this world also had a similar level of reservation. At least for the most part. There was something of a deprivation and debauchery culture at work. Most men were very polite to women and wouldn’t dare to say anything untoward. Women were expected to be pure for their marriage and in some places even showing too much of the skin of their arms or legs was deemed lewd. At the same time, there were also brothels and men acted like beasts there. It was much like the courtesans and prostitutes were a different class of people.

Just like Cultivators are a different class. They think that the normal rules don’t apply to those that are of a lower class than themselves.

At some point, Sage stopped thinking about these rumors about himself, the Lang Clan, and the Chong Clan. He had already been back at Lionheart Town for a few weeks now. Most of the Lang Clan had already started to disperse through 10,000 Wave Province in order to inspect and exert their control over the many counties and cities. There were only a few lone Nascent Souls inhabiting the province and Yating made sure to send one of his siblings to meet with these people. One of them was a County Prefect, while two others merely controlled a single village.

These villages were basically made up entirely of their own family clans. They cared little about power, and they controlled a specific resource to provide for their family which over time developed into a whole village. If they wanted to, they could easily have taken a city or county so they were either guarding secrets or truly didn’t want any power. Either way, they were the only ones that the Lang Clan had to be careful of. They were treated with respect and given gifts from their new lord. Every city and county had to give a portion of their resources to the province, who then had to give a portion to the kingdom itself. The Lang Clan merely had to make sure the ones below them continued to offer up their tributes.

At least, that’s how others saw it. There was also an unspoken rule that the Chong Clan was also putting into practice. When a new leader came into power, they would put their house in order. Anyone that didn’t match their standard would be replaced. At this time, the Prefects of Red Jungle, Dawn Mountain, and Daybreak Valley were in the process of changing hands. Sage had already got his vengeance against the former holders of these positions and others had stepped in to take over. As such, they were already on shaky ground so they were the easiest to swap again. Just like other first rate powers, they wanted to control most of the counties with their own people. If they controlled at least half of the counties they’d never have to worry about the others ganging up to overthrow them. Rogue Nascent Souls teaming up with the county prefects had overthrown more than one first rate power in the past, and nobody wanted to repeat that history.

It was also a good chance to inspect all the properties and receive ‘gifts’. Those that didn’t want to be replaced would go above and beyond to prove their worth and pledge loyalty. If they gave enough they could keep their positions, but if they were too stingy then their new lord would just take it all and put someone new in their place. Yating was especially good at determining the wealth of the counties and cities and knowing just how much they could give.

There were many new City Lords and County Prefects in 10,000 Wave Province, but Sage was no longer concerned with these issues. He had faith in the new Lang Clan and it was far past time that he got back to his own pursuits.