The Fu Clan cleaned up the battlefield, collecting every single one of those large insects and wiping out every last ant with wide area weapons. They returned to Plum Lantern City and finished their cleanup work, simultaneously announcing to the remaining crowd just what would happen to those who went against their clan. Many of them were injured, but they hid it well, putting on the appearance of invincible warriors.

Some in the crowd made a show of being impressed, approaching the Fu Clan and promising their support. Vowing to visit soon with gifts to show their sincerity. Others found the behavior to be despicable. A lone cultivator wasn’t just sneak attacked, but he was ganged up upon by a dozen Elder level figures. Such overbearing and cowardly tactics led many in the crowd to change their opinion of the Chong and Fu Clans. The Fu Clan always spoke as if they were a righteous and valorous group, yet their actions today were quite the contradiction.

Fortunately, the Fu Clan were not as thorough as they thought. A dozen yards away, at a spot where the roots of the tree had touched for only a few seconds, there was a small golden ring. It was only the size of a grain of rice, dropped off by the tip of that root before the tree was sliced in half and the roots rapidly shrunk and atrophied. The Universe Ring was an outstanding treasure and it gave off no outward emanations or fluctuations of energy. Without careful inspection it appeared no different than a ordinary golden ring. The ground had already been torn up and disrupted from the many tunnels and the thunderous attacks that pulled the worms out of them, which made it quite hard to notice one small piece of gold buried a dozen yards away.

Sage had been using the Timeless Eyes to try and secure an escape. Every idea he had to get away would only lead to him dying a few seconds later. All he could do was to choose the path that gave him a few more seconds of life. Finally, he ran out of methods and could only choose to let them win. All of his real valuables were already kept inside the Universe Ring, his Beast Bag and the Storage Ring on his finger were just decoys. They were filled with spare clothing, food, and the basic pills that most cultivators carried. He even kept some weapons and the common technique manuals he’d taken from people in the past in there.

With his decision made, Sage crippled his own cultivation to expel the five wondrous objects that had been forged into his Foundation. That glowing nebula of energy was suddenly smashed apart, splitting into pieces. The Seed of Life along with the four other special objects were pushed into the Universe Ring and the Warp Worm that was carrying Sage was killed. He hadn’t had time to link to a new bug so he had to ride in the stomach of one worm following in the path of another, with blood spilling down his chin. Expelling those objects had damaged his internal organs and dropped him down to the third rank when he lost his Foundation.

Looking at the Fu Clan members, so many powerful figures working so hard just to chase him, Sage couldn’t help it. He started laughing. Not only was it funny how they thought this would be his end, but it was also ridiculous to go to so much effort to kill him just for assisting Chong Xiezi one time. In the past, he only desired revenge against the Fu Clan out of principle. They had killed the many scattered Lang Clan members in many different provinces. Small families and lone cultivators were put to death to send a message to the Chong Clan. The main culprit was Jiang Hua, but the Fu Clan were nearly as bad. Previously, Sage knew he was too weak and only thought to gain revenge in small bites whenever he could swallow them, but now it was personal. Just as Jiang Hua had killed his Uncle Zhang, now the Fu Clan were killing him.

When he felt the sudden shock from his throat, it was over.

Sage’s soul broke through the sky of his spiritual sea and flew out of his body. Sinking into the ground and floating slowly away. Only those who had advanced into the sixth rank could control their souls outside of their bodies. At least normally. It was only because of the ancestral memories and techniques of the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent that Sage’s soul hadn’t already dissolved into nothing. Without a body to contain it, the soul was extremely vulnerable. Those with faith would have their soul transported to the afterlife.

The Soul Spawn technique acted outside of the normal rules. Giving the soul just enough protection and motivation to allow it to survive. Slowly drifting through the earth and soil till it seeped into the Universe Ring. Within that grassy plains, his soul drifted into the singular building and moved inside. Moving into a bedroom, it sank through the floor into a hidden chamber. The only thing in the chamber was a large egg sitting on a bed of Spirit Stones.

Sage’s soul drifted into the egg and joined with the embryo within. Every time he’d had an improvement in his power, he had left an egg behind, hiding them in various places along his journey. For others, the eggs would be similar to an unusual alchemical pill, like a compressed form of energy. With experimentation an alchemist could probably use it to create a pill. Sage on the other hand had to expend more energy to create the egg then he could ever get back out of it. Also, that would be like eating one’s own flesh. Gross.

Within the egg, the embryo was rapidly maturing. Even so, the process was not instantaneous. While personality and memories were imprinted upon the soul, without a mind to drive them he was like a computer with no CPU. The hard drives weren’t blank, but he felt like he was in a dream. Just floating mindlessly on white clouds like a blank slate. A few months later the incubation process, started by his use of the technique and insertion of his soul, was finally complete.

A tiny claw poked through the shell of that two foot wide egg. Very slowly, a four limbed serpent chipped away the egg shell and slowly consumed it. Each piece of the shell acting as a little bit more energy to fuel the rapidly growing new infant. If Sage’s mind and personality had been a campfire before, it was now little more than a small candle. Relying only upon the most primal of instincts and after consuming the whole shell, he swallowed the remains of the Spirit Stones. Most of their energy expended to accelerate the incubation process of the egg, they were dimly colored. Even so, the Serpent wasn’t wasteful and drained the energy of the stones in its stomach.

A few hours later, it slid down a small tunnel. The only exit from that hidden chamber, the path twisted and sloped upwards. A spiral ramp that led to a large stone. He pushed on the stone and remarkably it was extremely light. Sliding out of the way and dumping him on the outside of the building. His animal instincts kicked in, his nose catching the scent of many beasts and bugs in the distance. Slithering through the grass, he started to hunt. It wasn’t long before a six foot long centipede was tangled up in the serpent’s coils and bound with silk webbing.

A few months later.

A white haired boy with a pot belly was laughing as he looked at the, now teenaged, serpent. The serpent was trapped in a cage made from some sort of shiny blue metal and the boy was poking it with a stick. After a few minutes of this he seemed bored of his own game and stared into the cage.

“Lang Sheng, are you awake yet? You never told me you had such a interesting technique. I would have had you use it earlier! You’ve already eaten half of your own beasts. It’s about time you woke back up before you get any bigger and eat everything. You’re going to feel like a real idiot if you wake up and find all of your precious creations fell into your stomach.”