Sage took a few days to catch up with Wan Ling, learning of her other plans and also plotting out how he would help contribute. After that he went to the Central Plaza and started purchasing storage chests as well as crafting materials of his own. He’d studied enough storage chests and bags to create his own and he had some problems that needed solving. Returning to his home he turned one of the four bedrooms into a storehouse, filling it up with shelves and loading the shelves with storage chests. He moved most of the non-liquid materials he collected from the Hidden Domain into the chests. Storage Chests were about the size of a large plastic bin from Earth, about eighteen or twenty inches in height and length and about three feet long. The amount they could hold, on the other hand, was pretty close to a ten foot cube. Volume wise, they were about thirty times larger than a storage bag, but the ratio was not as good as the smaller storage bag. A little pouch that could hold a cubic yard had a better ratio then a huge chest that held a small room worth.

Sage wished he’d held onto that huge collection of storage bags from before, but it was too late now. Storage Chests were far cheaper than bags and he didn’t need to be moving them long distance so he went with chests. Each chest was only ten spirit stones compared to the hundred for a storage bag, Sage purchased a hundred chests and completely stuffed the large bedroom full. About seventy of the chests fit inside the room, which Sage nearly completely filled with materials from the Hidden Domain. Doing some math, Sage had calculated that a hundred chests would store about half of the space of his Storage Ring. Since half of it was currently filled with liquid, he was able to clear out the remainder into the seventy chests. The rest of the space was his carefully organized crafting materials, weapons, and clothing from his earlier adventures.

After that was taken care of he went to the Central Plaza to the Blacksmith Hall and rented a forge. Using the materials he purchased earlier, Sage started crafting some liquid storage devices. He could have purchased standard storage gourds or vats, which were basically the equivalent of bags and chests for liquids, but they didn’t pack very well. A gourd shape was fine as a canteen, but the bulbous shape was horrible for putting on a shelf. The same went for the vat, it was like a giant vase with a flattened top. Barrels or drums would be more efficient, but Sage went a step further and made blocky cans with spigots on their caps. They were essentially ‘jerrycans’ the tall metal 5 gallon gas cans with spigots added to their caps. Sage carved his own arrays into them and ended up with a final product somewhere between the gourd and vat. The quarter gallon gourd held a hundred gallons while the fifty gallon vat held 2000 gallons. The Storage Can, as Sage was calling it, held 500 gallons and it was easy to stack and maneuver.

Sage had collected about 375,000 gallons of liquids from the Hidden Domain and so had to craft seven hundred fifty Storage Cans to meet the demand. The materials for the cans came out to around 2,250 spirit stones and put a large dent in the meager funds he had left along with the thousand he spent on the hundred storage chests. He invested the money and a couple weeks of time because he felt it would pay itself off later when testing, refining, or transporting it all. Additionally, Sage built a few huge open topped vats and put them into his Storage Ring in case he ran into this issue in the future he could collect multiple types of liquids without them mixing.

Sage then took his new Insect Breeding stock, the ones that survived an arena battle, and added them to the insect shed habitats. Preparations finally complete, Sage linked to a new Chameleon Mantis and took flight to Red Knife City.

One week later.

Sage was sitting in a restaurant having lunch. He was looking down at his food and drinking tea, but his attention was actually on the other patrons around him. He was listening for gossip and gathering information just as he had been for the last few days. Instead of coming to town and announcing himself to one that obstructed his building plans he took the less direct path. He spent some time learning about the recent news in the city and listening to what the common folk said about the powers in the area. The information he got from Wan Ling was confirmed, but he also learned far more.

Red Knife City sat at the border of the Green Plateau Province and had a complex relationship with another city, Daggerguard. Green Plateau Province is a huge plateau with only six entrances. Each entrance was guarded by a whole city, and this particular entrance, Red Knife Pass, had Red Knife City at the bottom of the Plateau and Daggerguard at the top. Each of those six cities were the only trade routes into the entire province. The province was entirely self sufficient, but there were many amenities and luxuries that came from afar which turned the pair of cities into reluctant partners. On one hand they were fortresses to prevent military action from either side, but on the other they were close trading partners.

With some research, Sage learned that the group who had blocked their real estate purchase, the Wen Clan, was very likely to be backed by a faction from Daggerguard. With this in mind, he started gathering information on the Wen Clan. Sage was careful not to get anyone else keeping his information gathering passive for the most part. When he asked questions he would do so through a second party and while in disguise. In fact, he didn’t even plan on acting against them at this point, only wishing to gain information on a possible enemy. They would still need to open up their business here in the future and he wasn’t about to let people from the Green Plateau push them around. The Green Plateau Province was run by the Cult of the Woodlord, a constant rival with the Holy Flame Sect.

Sage took his time collecting information, learning that the Wen Clan was related to the Mu Clan of Daggerguard by marriage. He wasn’t sure of the dynamic between the two families, but he kept them in mind for a source of future problems. There was also the possibility he could take advantage of being a part of the Holy Flame Sect. While there were thousands in the Sect, they controlled the entire province. Each of the City Lords were also a member of the Sect and if he could forge a good relationship then it was very probable for his real estate deal to go through. That said, Sage didn’t want to go down that route. With their already being resistance in place it would only invite opposition if he were to push their business through.

Right now, their enemy thought they had squashed the problem. If he were to push back and force their way into the town it would be retaliation against the Wen and Mu Clan. These sorts of criminals always liked to be in charge. If they were seen as challenging their authority it would form an enmity and then there was no telling to what lengths they would go to for revenge. Even if it was a smart foe that buried their grievance, there was always the chance they were the spiteful type that would wait for years for the perfect opportunity to ruin everything.

Currently, they were new and weak. They needed to cautiously expand and keep on everybody’s good side. The Palace of Prosperity was just a harmless little spa and hotel, they had no need to be at odds with anyone. It was much easier to just strike Red Knife City from the expansion plans for now. They could try again later once they had gathered strength and built up some capital. You don’t start a war you can’t win. Especially when you can’t even afford to start the war, let alone fight it.

Sage was only here to make sure there wasn’t some hidden enemy trying to undermine either himself or Wan Ling. Thankfully, the evidence pointed to the Cult of the Woodlord wanting to curb the growth of the Holy Flame Sect’s influence in the business sector of Red Knife City. From what he had gathered so far there was three mercantile and trade guilds in town. One in support of the Cult of the Woodlord, one for the Holy Flame Sect, and the third wanted only to do business and free themselves from the influence of greater powers. Most likely, he was pushed out to keep one faction from growing larger than another.

Sage stayed another week to try and get more confirmation on his information, but he found little else. He was pretty sure of his findings since the only enmities he had formed were either with dead folks or many provinces away. He had been careful to leave no evidence on the recent people he’d killed, so unless that Demonic Plant had taken on human form, or the dead rose again, he was pretty sure there was no one specifically after him.

When he had passed by this town earlier on the way to the Timeless Master’s Cave there was something he wanted to do, but didn’t dare to because of his Serpentine transformation. Now that he had the human seal he wanted to do it before heading back to the Sect.

Time to go shopping!