Sage spent a full week in the lap of luxury. Haircut, manicure, pedicure, skin treatment, massage, he was curious to see how things had evolved from his initial ideas for the business. Wan Ling and the business managers would take input from customers and their own experience to improve their services so it quite interesting to see how far things had advanced. He was glad to see the concept of a luxury hotel taking hold. Each room had its own large bathtub and shower with running water, which must mean the Sect had stepped up its production of the hot water systems, or they’d figured out how to make pipes at a low cost. He had raised the idea both to Wan Ling and the Sect, but he hadn’t found a solution.

The majority of his week of relaxation was actually split between the restaurant and the movie theater. Initially, they weren’t popular enough to be added to the later locations they’d set up for the Palace of Prosperity. The Movie Projector was an expensive magical device so the greatest profits would be had by having them traveling around from city to city to draw huge crowds. The amount of people cycling through Treasure Pass must be great enough to support a dedicated projector, which meant that business must truly be good! Sage got to take a peek at the different sorts of films that were being made these days. In the beginning he’d just tried to create a few of the most basic movie plots on his own and threw them into some memory spheres.

The beauty of the system was that the memory sphere was filled based upon memories. If you could imagine something with enough detail it could be transcribed directly into a memory sphere. A movie could be created straight out of one’s own imagination. Usually such creations were blurry and vague, but they could be further edited and changed till it was exactly right. Sage was pretty confident that once it was popular enough a few visionary movie creators might start springing up out of nowhere. A single person could create the whole thing, there was no need for huge crews, actors, writers, filming locations, or any of the many people involved in creating films on Earth.

Amazingly, it seemed his first few films he’d made were still quite popular. Probably because he’d just copied the storylines of popular films from Earth and just revisualised them to fit into his world. He also had just chosen one movie from each major genre. Many of the newer movies were mashups of many genres, having far too much going on, or they completely broke the ‘rules’ of cinema. Sage was no film buff, but even he knew that movies with literally a hundred characters and ones that were six hours long were definitely not normal. Even so, there were dozens of new films that were pretty good and Sage was quite happy to see that they weren’t all made by the same person.

The other portion of his time was spent in the restaurant. Both because he was trying out the buffet, and also because he was gathering information. He hadn’t yet donned his Holy Flame Sect uniform, specifically because he wanted to check on things as if he were an outsider. It was a bit overcautious of him, but after getting killed he wanted to make sure things were still safe for him before he returned.

Thankfully, everything seemed to be okay. There were rumors of something going on among the major sects of the Shihu Kingdom, but the folk passing through Treasure Pass were mostly here to trade. The merchants were sensitive to the brewing danger, but for now they were quiet about the source and didn’t want to be the one who said too much and got turned into an example.

Satisfied that it was reasonably safe, Sage put his uniform on and joined a caravan heading through Treasure Pass back to the sect. He didn’t want to be too attention grabbing and wasn’t in a hurry so he didn’t pay extra to rent a beast mount, but he was also being cautious and refrained from traveling back within an insect. He’d never actually taken the ground path into the sect so it was a good opportunity to take in the sights. In the past he’d been brought in or out by air. Either in a Flying Ship or carried inside his insects. Other times he’d hunted in the mountain ranges without going too far from Heaven Stone Valley. It was quite interesting to pass through valley after winding valley. He even took the time to count as they gradually passed through sixty five different pairs of mountains before they finally reached the edge of the Heaven Stone Valley.

It was a thousand mile wide crater, the edges of it nearly the same height as the surrounding mountain ranges. Thankfully, some powerful cultivators had carved a tunnel through it and they didn’t have to climb up and then down a mountain to enter the valley. Instead they only had to ascend a few miles of switch back trails and then enter a huge tunnel carved through the upper portion of the crater. When they exited the tunnel they were met with a spectacular view. After having traveled through the pass for over a week and constantly being surrounded by towering mountains, the view of the massive bowl like plains was absolutely liberating.

To either side of the platform they were on stretched the two huge walls of the crater. The gentle inward curve showing their sheer size as they extended off into the distance. It reminded him of the first time he’d seen the Grand Canyon back on earth. It was just a big crack in the ground, but the winding twists and turns made it easy to see how very large and majestic it really was. The person that made the tunnel seemed to know how beautiful the view was as they made the exit platform from the tunnel of a massive size. The dozens of wagons and carriages all had plenty of room to roll out of the tunnel and loiter around to enjoy the view. Sage even suspected the person who carved the tunnel had made them climb up the few miles of roads just so they could have this view here on the other side of the tunnel.

The caravan stopped for the night there, enjoying the view before continuing down into the Heaven Stone Valley and entering the true territory of the Holy Flame Sect. They followed the road, a few of the wagons and carriages splitting off once they reached crossroads. The many Peak Masters along with quite a few cities were spread out around the massive crater. The vast majority of the caravan continued on to Holy Flame City and it was there that Sage finally reunited with his friends.

Walking into his house, he was surprised to find it in such good condition. Then he remembered that he left it in the care of Wan Ling to use as a headquarters for their business dealings. Walking inside he looked around, amazed at the complete transformation in the decor. It certainly looked like the refined and elegant lobby of a local merchant company, all it was missing was a receptionist.

While looking around, Sage heard footsteps coming from behind and he slowly turned around. Smiling widely when he saw the familiar face of Wan Ling. She had her hair pulled back into a bun with a few chopsticks poked through it. Her dress was elegant and stately, not showing off anything but also very beautiful.

Crack!

The sound was quite startling. It actually took a moment for Sage to realize there was a slight stinging sensation coming from his cheek. Thankfully, Wan Ling hadn’t advanced much in her cultivation while he’d been gone or else that slap she’d just given him might have rearranged his face.

“Seems like you missed me!”