Molting the Mortal Coil

This time, the hail of seeds and shower of orange flame did not let up for an eternity, comparatively at least. Of course, he couldn’t keep up this attack forever and finally the Winter Lotuses ran out of energy. The last of the seed pods were expelled and the last of large flowers shriveled up and fell off. The vines that had sprouted them still remained, but the flames that were shielding the Peak Master lifted into the air and expanded outwards. Colliding with the vines, the flames seemed far more effective this time. Instead of just cutting into the vines like they were blades, the brilliant sapphire flames clung to the vines, losing their previous shape. They had appeared to be like solid blades of energy, but at this time they showed that they were in fact real flames. Flames that could burn through even these wrist thick vines with ease.

The river of flame stopped pouring out of Sage’s mouth and he reached up to rub his jaw, feeling the sore area of muscle from holding his mouth open for so long. In front of him the other set of flaming lotus petals spun in place without advancing towards him again. The Peak Master finished burning away the cage he was trapped in, leaving the two of them facing off. Sage’s golden eyes were fixed upon Xuegang’s brown eyes. Sage saw that despite the man’s vainglorious nature, he was not as sinister as he’d feared.

It’s good I don’t have to kill this fellow. That would be very difficult to explain away.

The two of them had paused, neither making another offensive move at the moment. Sage gave the man a smile, just in time for the Peak Master to realize they were not alone in this room. The Peak Master felt a pressure against his Spiritual Sense from behind him in two places. He immediately reached out actively and realized these two new arrivals were also Nascent Souls!

Sage didn’t give the Peak Master any time to confuse the situation and quickly explained to him, “You never stood a chance from the beginning. Do you understand now? If you continue to go against me or mine in the future, you know what will happen, right?”

To further drive home his point, two others had walked up beside Sage as well. At this point, the Peak Master realized he was outnumbered five to one. It was also to show Xuegang that the Holy Flame Sect would choose to ally with Sage’s side over his own. He had enough strength on his side to equal that of all the Peak Masters. If it one day came down to the decision of handing Xuegang over or starting an all out war, which way would the Sect Master decide? Peak Master Xuegang was rapidly trying to figure out the solution to this vague equation when another pair of Nascent Souls walked into the room. Not just five, but seven.

If they had equal numbers as their enemy, they would fear sacrificing one as a ploy to weaken their strength, but if the power disparity became overwhelming, would the Holy Flame Sect hesitate?

“Shall I call a few more? You have no idea who you’re getting involved with, so quit while you’re ahead. Don’t interfere with me again and there will be no more grudges or grievances between us. We can pretend as if we’ve never met.”

Without waiting for a response, Sage turned around to walk away and the six members of the Purple Mist Sect around him watched the Peak Master carefully as they all slowly filed out of the room. Sage turned his back on his foe as a bit of psychological pressure. Just to show that he didn’t fear the Peak Master in the least, especially since there were six other dark armored Nascent Souls to cover his back. The Peak Master didn’t give any reply even after Sage and his men had exited the room. He extended his Spiritual Sense to follow them as they left and then activated the most powerful arrays to protect his palace and the whole of the mountain as soon as Sage had left each of the areas.

Sage had already sent the Purple Mist Sect members back to the Inner World before he was flying away from the mountain on The Red Comet. Beating up the Peak Master like that wasn’t really part of his agenda on returning to the Holy Flame Sect, but he was just making sure that the Peak Master wouldn’t try to plot behind his back in the future. As long as he was strong and mysterious enough, the Peak Master wouldn’t want to risk so much for an unknown amount of benefits. Sage wasn’t known to possess anything extremely valuable so why would the Peak Master go out of his way in an attempt to bribe so many Nascent Souls over his side. The key to defeating any bully or opportunist was to become not worth it. If their gain was less than their expenditure, why would they bother?

If you fought back against a school yard bully hard enough to injure them in return, it would ruin their fearful reputation. It was much easier for them to target the weak instead, one’s that could be scared into doing their bidding. Sage didn’t cause any lasting harm to the Peak Master, nor did he ruin the man’s public reputation. He hoped the Peak Master could agree to this little private agreement. While he was pretty sure that the Holy Flame Sect would end up siding with him once they realized the strength on his side, it would also weaken their relationship and that would be quite unfortunate.

The old dormitory he’d once shared with his three classmates in the Sect had long been passed on to others and his three friends were Elders on three different peaks. As such, meeting up with them again with such short notice was no simple task. As such, Sage didn’t bother with any formalities and went directly to the Million Skill Library, the place where the Holy Flame Sect kept its vast library of knowledge and techniques. He still had his identity token as a member of the sect as well as his Profession Badges which acted as his keys to enter the library. Knowledge was restricted by one’s achievement in their professions, so he was far from accessing their whole collection at the moment.

He planned on formally advancing his Professions, allowing him to access the whole of the Million Skill Library and collecting the whole of their knowledge for himself and his Clan. Sage had already justified this appropriation to himself, considering it to be akin to a descendant or apprentice.

If I know everything they know, it will make it twice as hard for this important heritage to ever be lost, right? They should be thanking me for doing such a service. The Holy Flame Sect is not just my mentor, but the mentor to my whole Clan. We will take their knowledge, improve it and carry it on into the future.

If those in the Holy Flame Sect were to hear him speak about stealing their heritage in such a blatant manner, the vast majority of them would spit up blood. Even so, Sage wouldn’t care at all, especially not at this time as he was quickly copying down every text in the library to the libraries of the Inner World.