Well, that was tense.

An attendant took led him outside. When he reached the gates there was already a large crowd gathered both inside and outside of it. On the inside, Zhu Jiao was standing there, glaring at him hatefully. Some other young ladies and an older lady were holding her back and most likely telling her to calm down. Sage certainly wasn’t a fan of the prior events himself so he certainly couldn’t blame her. He merely bowed politely in her direction and made his way out of the Zhu Clan’s compound. Walking out, he was met with the entire delegation from the Chong Clan. A dozen elder characters along with Chong Xiezi.

She put a hand against a bag on her waist and the Charming Lance Beetle appeared beside her. Sage smiled and quickly collected the beetle, bowing to Chong Xiezi, “Thank you, Miss Chong.”

“Che-hehe. You did save me after all, the least I can do is return your bugs. Now then, shall we talk about our transaction?”

Chong Xiezi had used that terrible laugh once again, smiling and looking eager to invite Sage off somewhere. The elders behind her nodded their heads, the one with the most elaborate set of robes and the greatest power level stepped forward.

“You have honored the Lang Clan with your actions. We were so saddened by the loss of the Lang Clan. It makes us all so excited to hear that someone survived and is willing to rebuild the clan. You have our support!”

Sage noted that such support was only in name, the elder not bothering to list any actual support of resources or manpower. Of course they would hedge their bets by first thoroughly investigating him and his plans before they commit anything more than lip service to his cause. Unbeknownst to him, Zhu Jiao’s angry glare had turned on to Chong Xiezi.

All of a sudden, utter chaos broke out. Sage felt something wrong and tried to dive to the side. At the same time, the strongest elder of the Chong Clan grabbed Xiezi and they both disappeared. Sage felt a searing pain as a blade made out of darkness flew out of his own shadow and sliced through his leg. The blade continued forward and bit into the shoulder of one of the other Chong Clan elders.

Sage’s severed left leg fell to the ground and bright blood splashed onto the stone tiles. From out of his shadow the silhouette of a person was revealed. Dressed all in black, with a mask, and carrying a long dagger. Sage sensed more danger and he disappeared, in his place was the Charming Lance Beetle from before. The slicing darkness bounced off the Beetle’s thick carapace, leaving just a heavy dent behind. The Beetle immediately took off into the air, trying to avoid another incoming blade, but failing. This third strike catching one of its wings. The fourth strike and fifth attacks doing the same. On the sixth the Beetle’s wings were crippled and it fell to the ground, rolling a few times before regaining its footing.

A dozen figures dressed all in black with masks covering their faces appeared all around the street. Stepping out from around corners or climbing out of shadows, each of them brandishing different types of terrible looking weapons. They started after the huge Beetle, their initial assassination attempt having failed they stepped it up into open combat.

“The Fu Clan! Get them!”

The Chong Clan wasn’t one to be slighted like this in public, especially not when it was their mortal enemy. One of the elders led away the one who was injured while the remaining nine released a plethora of bugs and insects. Each of them had a specialty just like the Fu Clan and their weapons. A swarm of wasps battled against a flaming censor. A huge yellow centipede barreled towards a man with a ten foot tall scythe. Three Scarab Beetles as big as dogs formed a formation in mid-air and fought off a huge tornado being emitted from a man with an ornate wooden staff.

In the meantime, Sage hurried to leave. He was taking a few healing pills while inside the Charming Lance Beetle and quickly had the ants move to attack. The Beetle had a few large dents in its armor, but it was moving quickly now. With each step it took, hundreds of ants would stream down onto the ground, leaving a massive army in its wake. Sage didn’t care if they were all lost right now, from what he could tell these foes were all Elders and hence in the level fifties, way out of his league.

One of them was already bad enough, what can I do against a dozen!

With nine of the Chong Clan elders engaging the Fu Clan members, there was still at least three of them free to continue chasing after Sage. Since they’d done most of the work wiping out his clan of course they were here to finish the job. Why would they want the Chong Clan to gain another qualified assistant, of course they would spend a little effort here to clean up the mess. Knowing that three elder level figures would make quick work of him, Sage went all out.

The Beetle crouched down, pressing its stomach against the ground. Sage placed down a Formation Machine in the small area beneath the Beetle and willed the dozen Spirit Stones atop it to power it up. Then the Beetle lifted up slightly and he threw out four Thorn Cloud Hornet nests, aiming towards where the Fu Clan members had been chasing from. Next came a horde of insects, releasing all of the adult Chameleon Mantids, Emerald Dragonfly, and Steel Silk Centipede’s that he had left. The Formation Machine came to life, unleashing waves of hallucinogenic gases and psychotropic lights.

The Charming Lance Beetle rose back up and started running once again. Ants still continuously streaming from its footsteps, two of the Fu Clan members were tied up. One of them was throwing out small smoke bombs at the ants swarming out while the other had a large silver chain. The chain was floating in mid-air, completely encircling the Formation Machine like it was wrapped around an invisible dome. The gas and lights from the Formations had been completely confined within the silver chains just after they were thrown out. The small smoke bombs seemed to be tailored to battle insects, each of the ants that were caught in the smoke stopped moving and just laid down on the ground.

The mass of large insects was enough to slow down the third elder for a few minutes, but he eventually cleared them out and caught up to the one throwing smoke bombs. Together they cut off the Lance Beetle’s legs and then beheaded it.

“Where is he?”

The Fu Clan member who chopped the head off the Beetle was visibly upset, even taking out a vial and pouring it over the Beetle. The liquid inside rapidly spreading to the whole Beetle’s body and a moment later turning the whole carcass into a sizzling mass of acid. The Beetle that had been about fifteen feet long and eight feet wide was completely gone.