A black haired woman with a lean and well muscled body was striking a torso shaped rock. She had just a thin layer of cloth wrapped around her fists, but even so she was smashing them against the solid stone with enough force to cause a loud boom with each hit. A teen girl, wearing a similar tank top and training pants as the woman in training walked over. She waited to the side of the courtyard patiently. After a few more strikes the ‘older’ woman, who looked in her early th...
2019-11-21 21:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Day 3
I finally got a chance to rest for a few minutes. The Qi from my Life Nebula doesn’t seem to ever run out, but my muscles still need time to recover. After running for two days straight I found an underground cave system and the birds couldn’t follow me in. Next time, I need to ensure the Falcons are 100% loyal, and impossible to sway. If it was just the Hoplites and human cultivators it wouldn’t be half as hard to hide from.
In the cave...
2019-11-20 21:00:02 +0000 UTC
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A man covered in bandages laid upon a lounge chair in the center of a large hall. The doors of the hall swung open and a row of armored soldiers walked in. From their armor, it was clear they were members of the Jade Horde. None of them were actually Hoplites which meant they were all highly ranked. The dozen soldiers removed their helmets and carried them under their arms, walking through the hall to the injured man. The lounge chair was placed a few steps higher than the rest o...
2019-11-19 21:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Sage pushed towards the second line of the Jade Horde, even as he was shot from behind by the first line. Luckily, they were disrupted by the insects and only a few of them fired at him, but even so he had about a dozen bolts lodged between his scales. If it weren’t for the Life Nebula around the Inner World constantly supplying him with energy he would have passed out long ago. Instead, he pushed forward, charging towards the squads of troops that moved to surround him. At fir...
2019-11-15 21:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Black Saber was trapped in the coils of the dragon. It had looped around his waist and trapped his legs, he held it with both hands around the throat, keeping its mouth pointed away from him. The dragon’s one remaining arm had stabbed his own saber into him from the side, slowly sinking it deeper and deeper, pushing the point towards his heart. Black Saber’s mouth opened, but there was no sound.
Instead, the dragon howled. Blood spurt from its face, an invisible b...
2019-11-14 21:00:02 +0000 UTC
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A rock like fence exploded up from the ground to block Black Saber’s view. Strong as he was, there was no way something like that could actually trap or stop him. Sage only used it to buy some time. Whitestaff regained her footing from the hurricane winds and started to rush towards Sage from behind. Their earlier collisions had shown him that Whitestaff had already formed her core and broken through into the fifth rank. He had no idea when she’d done it, but it meant she was...
2019-11-13 21:00:03 +0000 UTC
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The most powerful of the traitors, Wu Chang, was being delayed by King. Even so, there were others that were determined to stop Sage from escaping. They knew that now that they’d made their choice they were committed to carrying it out. Both Whitestaff and Black Saber had formerly led bandit groups before joining the Jade Horde. Neither of them were what you would call the most trustworthy of people. Sage had taken them to be ‘honorable thieves’, the sort that weren’t kin...
2019-11-12 21:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Hanging from King’s leg, Sage swung his body to the side. It threw off King’s flight path, but it avoided the invisible blade that was coming their way. With the momentary assurance from being carried, Sage had activated the Timeless Eyes and with Foresight he saw King’s wing getting sliced open. Swinging on King’s leg caused the hawk with a sixty foot wingspan to bank to the side to recover its balance and also to avoid the attack it didn’t see coming.
Unfo...
2019-11-08 21:01:00 +0000 UTC
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It all seemed to happen in a blur. By the time Sage had turned his head from right to left, wondering what the flicker of light was it was already too late. He saw Black Saber’s naked saber and then he felt a force smash against his chest. He heard a cracking sound as he was thrown backwards. He saw that Whitestaff’s namesake was in her hands and held in the air where he’d just been standing. He also saw an object falling towards the ground.
That’s my arm...
2019-11-07 21:01:00 +0000 UTC
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The messenger had already had his qualifications confirmed, and he bowed politely as he handed over a scroll. Then the messenger straightened his back and left the hall a bit quicker than normal. Wu Chang was, as usual, an open book. He looked apprehensive as he opened the scroll, and as his eyes scanned over the contents his face fell. His brows scrunched up and he just handed the letter over to Black Saber. Black Saber read it quickly, just glancing at it before handing i...
2019-11-06 21:01:00 +0000 UTC
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If the Shou Clan were going to go and investigate the other properties that Hei Bai owned, then Sage, as the title holder for those properties, figured it was only fair that he got to search them first. Since the tailor shop that Hei Bai owned seemed to be the most important to her, Sage chose to head there first. It was also conveniently the closest one to Golden Cricket Cove and so Sage took it upon himself to check it out first. As they came upon different towns, King did a sl...
2019-11-05 21:01:00 +0000 UTC
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With the auction over, Sage collected his winnings. He emptied out a few Storage Chests full of Spirit Stones, transferring their contents to the Universe Ring. Then he did the same with the nearly 4 ton mound of Chrono Copper. This infusion of wealth was much needed. Sage had barely more than 10,000 Spirit Stones left before the auction started. He’d spent most of his fortune on getting the Jade Horde established, but the work they did was now able to sustain the organization....
2019-11-01 20:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Along the way, Sage only made one purchase. There was a large hunk of Chrono Copper, and Sage got into a bidding war with someone before winning it for a quarter million Spirit Stones. It was certainly not a cheap item, but Chrono Copper is a rank 4 material like Cloudmetal, and the ‘large hunk’ was weighed in the tons. Cloudmetal was far cheaper to purchase, but it required Cloudmetal Charcoal to work with, so that drove the price up. Chrono Copper was another cheap rank 4 m...
2019-10-31 20:00:59 +0000 UTC
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The time of the auction was soon upon him, and Sage was glad of it. The alchemical prosthetics were a pain to apply over and over again every day. It didn’t dissolve or anything dangerous like that, but over time it grew lumpier and more uncomfortable to wear. If he didn’t remove it and make a new set every day it would start to get itchy and also look like he’d grown a bunch of warts.
Once this auction is over, I can finally ditch this annoying disguise.&nb...
2019-10-30 20:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Dou Deng, the kid, nodded his head. Sage grinned and put a pouch full of silver coins into his hand, “Use these. All you need to tell them is that someone found the corpse of a giant immortal rank butterfly in a canyon. If they promise to tell everyone they know, then give them some silver.”
Dou Deng was pretty confused, but Sage just sent him off on his way. Dou Deng’s grandpa, Dou Cheng stuck around to drive Sage’s coach. Over the next few days, Sage had Dou...
2019-10-29 20:01:00 +0000 UTC
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First, the fingerbone necklace inlaid with gold. This was the terrifying device that turned a person into a puddle in just a few seconds. Sage wanted nothing more to do with it. It might have something special or powerful, but it was also guaranteed to kill people. He did not want to be the one messing with it. He told the appraiser what happened to the person who tried to activate it. The appraiser stayed back and gave a nod to him, seemingly agreeing with his choice. They’d l...
2019-10-25 20:00:00 +0000 UTC
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The boy was a little freaked out, but when Sage held up a gold coin, he immediately nodded his head. The boy took the coin and climbed up onto the driver’s seat of the coach. Sage laughed, “Can you actually drive, or do you just want the coin? Just find me another driver, you can keep the coin either way.”
While he thought it would be funny to see the kid driving around wildly, he might also end up liable for any damage the boy caused. The kid’s face turned pa...
2019-10-24 20:00:00 +0000 UTC
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A common person could get directions for a few copper coins, or have the child guide them there for a few dozen. Even a single silver coin would be a good price for that sort of service. A normal laborer only made 3 to 5 silver coins per day, so for a child to be paid a silver coin in an hour or so was pretty spectacular. He only asked for ten because of how expensive Sage’s clothing looked. He gave the boy a silver coin up front and they started their walk through town. They c...
2019-10-23 20:00:00 +0000 UTC
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Golden Cricket Cove. It was named after the Golden Cricket, the insect that the Chong Clan used as their insignia. Golden Cricket Cove was a wonderland for insects, though it was hard to tell if that was the reason the Chong Clan settled there, or if them living there had caused it. Those who were familiar with the area thought it was a little bit of both. The environment was good for them, but the Chong Clan also had many hunters and trappers hunting the creatures that preyed up...
2019-10-22 20:00:00 +0000 UTC
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Hei Bai called her creation: ‘Human Face Golem’. Just like the other Heavenly Materials, the Black Enhydros transformed Qi. Instead of creating flames, water, or a strange bluish ice like metal; it created that odd black tar substance. Unlike other Heavenly Materials it was far less useful in its raw state, but it was also much easier to subdue. A Heavenly Material didn’t just create things, it also controlled those manifestations. Someone with a Heavenly Thunder couldn’t...
2019-10-18 20:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Sage’s nice mood was immediately soured. Half of the objects Hei Bai kept within her Storage Ring were gross and disgusting. Fully one quarter of the internal space was taken up by bones. It was like she’d taken those anatomical reference skeleton mannequins and hung them up in neat rows and columns from the ceiling. They were arranged like a square military formation, except hanging from the ceiling by wires and hooks like gruesome marionettes. The highest level had human sk...
2019-10-17 20:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Sage learned of the issues facing Wu Chang and let him handle the fallout as delicately as possible. Given his position as the City Lord for so many years, he would have a much greater handle on the political situation and etiquette than Sage did. Sage urged Wu Chang to buy them as much time as possible. He didn’t have to appease them, he just had to keep them from ganging up together and launching an attack.
They needed to buy time to build their foundations in Lio...
2019-10-16 20:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Sage broke the tension and did not deactivate the protective formation plate he’d thrown down. It was one of the few he had that was actually a rank 5 Formation Plate. High rank Formation Plates were quite expensive to create and so he didn’t use them often. He preferred to layer many cheaper and weaker Formation Plates, but in this situation he had panicked a little bit and used his most powerful Formation Plate. It usually took him less than a minute to swap around the plat...
2019-10-15 20:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Faced with the moral quandary, Sage deferred to Wu Chang. Sage wasn’t the only one to have attained items from the Slavers, Black Saber and Wu Chang had no qualms with taking the initiative in giving things to the condemned criminal. They handed him a sword, and when the man’s energy flowed into it, there was a glint in his eyes. The condemned criminal knew he had no chance, but when a weapon entered his hands the thought entered his mind. Almost immediately, he realized it w...
2019-10-11 20:00:59 +0000 UTC
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When the meeting ended, Sage left behind a Storage Bag with 20,000 Spirit Stones in it, and also a contract to sell hatchets to the Hatchet Gang. It was a similar deal to the one made with the Cloudmetal Consortium, but with a smaller discount. Most importantly, if they wanted to purchase hatchets made with Cloudsteel instead of Spirit Steel, the Cloudmetal Consortium would act as a middleman. The conversation started out quite combative and they both spoke in a sort of code. Fu ...
2019-10-10 20:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Clearing up the slaver outposts would cripple the slave trade in the province, but it was far from putting an end to it. Little Birds had informed him of all the businesses that were owned and controlled by the Hatchet Gang in Lionheart Town and he visited them to get an idea of who he was up against. The more he saw the more he found that they didn’t seem to match the information he’d received. Most of them wore the standard clothing of all the other commoners and he saw the...
2019-10-09 20:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Sage felt an initial wave of terror when he activated the peach wood ring. The sudden sight of that violently swirling vortex startled him. A moment later, he realized there was nothing to be worried about. His consciousness had been drawn in, but that was the same method for that of even the cheapest Storage Bag. Nothing else happened to him, so he just carefully observed what was going on. He sent his awareness closer to the swirling liquid and then he sensed it wasn’t empty....
2019-10-08 20:00:01 +0000 UTC
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After his experience with being marked, Sage was far more careful with his spoils of war. At the time he’d gotten advice from Peak Master Zhen in order to better protect against such things happening again in the future. It was pretty costly to use such measures, but given how vicious and powerful Hei Bai had been he didn’t want to chance it. There were a couple methods to leave such marks. Some of them activated as soon as an object was touched, some activated when any Qi wa...
2019-10-04 20:00:02 +0000 UTC
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It was at this point that Sage was regretting that he hadn’t yet built a pressure washer. The mess in front of him made him want to immediately install a floor grate pipe and just wash the terrible ‘mud’ away. Then he thought about ordering an ant colony over to pick through it, but he was worried there might be something in her body that could ‘infect’ them. That woman was loaded with horrible tricks when alive and now that she was dead, he was reminded of that soul tr...
2019-10-03 20:00:59 +0000 UTC
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After collecting the last of the captives, Sage met up with the rest of the Jade Horde outside to get a situation report. The leader of the Slavers was confirmed having escaped with heavy injuries, but no others had passed their encirclement. Sage went underground again and collected the 600 Jade Horde members that were guarding the underground maze. Casualties were minor with the exception of two groups.
The two vice leaders of the Slavers had broken through at those...
2019-10-02 20:01:00 +0000 UTC
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