Dawn Mountain County. Sage killed the Prefect in charge with just a few minutes of effort. That Prefect, along with Zi Mei, had been the main culprits responsible for turning Black Saber and the others against him. King’s killers had to be put down. There was still one thing bothering him, and for that he walked over towards the table where the secretary was hiding.

“Come out and answer my questions.”

The secretary slowly crawled back out and then kneeled in front of him, “Please don’t hurt me, Lord Lang. I am only a secretary, Prefect Lai made all the decisions, I had nothing to do with it!”

“Nothing at all?”

The Jade Tablets the man was carrying had all fallen to the ground in the scuffle and they now flew over to Sage’s hand. The Blacksilver Pawns came over and surrounded the secretary while Sage checked the tablets. He sent his consciousness into them and quickly skimmed their contents before smiling at the secretary.

“Care to change your tune?”

“I… I am just an advisor for the Lai Clan. I collect all the information and organize it for Clan Leader Lai Liang. I swear I didn’t make any decisions!”

“Of course not, you just advise him on which ones to make. How convenient for avoiding all responsibility, right? Alright, enough crap. Who else in the Lai Clan was involved in making the decision to topple me?”

The secretary started to stammer, “I.. I… uh… it was all Lai Liang!”

With Sage’s gaze upon him, the man had a hard time coming up with an eloquent tale on the spot and just blamed it all on the already dead man. Or at least that’s how Sage saw it. Who wouldn’t just blame the already dead man for all the crimes? The disappointment must have been apparent on his face, because the secretary immediately changed his tune.

“Lai Liang made all the decisions, but Lai Feng was pushing him to take over Jade Spirit County. You were just the easiest target.”

“Oh, I was the easiest? How kind of you to tell that to Lai Liang. Your analysis cost my friend his life. Are you happy?”

The only response was a loud thump, a sound that came from the secretary's head hitting the ground, and then another thump a moment later when his body did the same. In Sage’s opinion, this secretary might in fact be the most guilty of them all. How many people died because of this man’s advice? What other ‘great’ opportunities did this man convince Lai Liang to take? This little fellow didn’t even have the guts to kill people for their riches, or profit from their disasters. He just let someone else do all the dirty work and take all the credit while he stood back and watched from a distance. How many others were like this man and just convincing others to do their dirty work?

Sage was no fool that felt just because this fellow wasn’t the one doing the bad deeds that he wasn’t guilty. If he let him live, wouldn’t he just find someone else to advise? Wouldn’t he just build another Lai Liang and lead that new man to profit from bad deeds?

Heh, who am I kidding. I’m no saint, but these fellows killed King. That’s all that matters.

After searching them, Sage left just as quickly as he arrived, moving on towards his next goal. He left the Artful Life Alliance to worry while he started on the path to getting retribution upon the Fu Clan. Not only had they tried to kill him recently, they’d also destroyed his body in the past after the Thunder Mountain Bridge Tournament. Even worse, they had nearly killed him when he was young, as they tried to wipe out every last survivor of the Lang Clan. His enmity with the Fu Clan ran deep and it was far past time he took care of them. The only problem was that he still had many things to do before he could finish them off.

Oh wait, there’s still someone I almost forgot.

There was a third Prefect that deserved death and Sage rushed over towards Daybreak Valley County. He took a similar tactic, bribing his way in to see the Prefect. It was so much easier to get a meeting with a Prefect than it was a Clan or Sect Leader. As the ruler of a county, they were public officials which meant they were used to conducting meetings to handle the business of their territory. Clan and Sect Leaders got so prideful that they would only ever meet the high rankers of their own organizations, their own descendants, or others at a similar level to themselves. Without showing off his strength and stating his name, Sage wouldn’t be able to get an audience, so he had to fight his way in. These Prefects didn’t know what was happening until it was too late.

Without even bothering to introduce himself this time, when the man he bribed introduced him to the Prefect, Sage rushed forward and ended a life. This prefect of Daybreak Valley County was even worse than the last in his opinion. Sage was a suspected Seal Master, and that fellow wanted to use that as justification to take him down. That would weaken Jade Spirit County and give him an opening to try and insert his people. The Lai Clan were hoping to slowly work their way up from ruling one county to two.

Meanwhile, this Daybreak Valley Prefect had attempted to assassinate Juzui. Sage had just taken over Lionheart Town and he expected since he was new others would think he was weak. He expected others to probe him with threats or bribes to bring them over to their side, but this guy had wanted to send a message by murdering his subordinates. Such a cruel and uncaring person was not someone Sage cared to give any leeway to. He didn’t waste any time, killing the man and then turning to leave. Predictably, some of the guards tried to stop him, but he killed them too and left without saying anything further.

Such a bad man would likely have equally bad employees, but he didn’t feel like looking into it. He wasn’t here to cleanse the world of evil, but to clear his own heart. With the trio of Prefects taken care of, he moved on to his next goal. Soon he found himself standing in front of somewhere very familiar.

Lionheart Town.

He had on his large face obscuring bamboo hat, though it wasn’t raining today so he got a few odd looks from people he passed. He didn’t mind too much, simply making his way to the local member of the Artful Life Alliance that had annoyed him in the past. They’d loaned money to a previous City Lord and so when he took the job they made sure to bother him to remind him of the debt. That wasn’t a big deal, but he found out they were related to Hei Bai. She ran a group that captured people from nearby towns and sold them into slavery. Despicable. And this Artful Life Alliance was involved? As far as he was concerned he was already showing them leniency by letting most of them live.

A huge conflagration marked his return to the town. The Artful Life Alliance’s properties were burned to the ground and a few dozen heads hit the ground that afternoon. Sage didn’t bother waiting for night to fall before he started to take revenge. The new City Lord suffered a similar fate, but it wasn’t because he took Sage’s job. Sage really could care less about the position, he was just going overboard in the past, trying to revive the Lang Clan with a brilliant spectacle. How was he to know that his own downfall would be the greatest spectacle?

No, the reason he hacked off the head of the new City Lord of Lionheart Town was because the man was given his job by the four groups that tried to kill Sage. They’d chosen a representative to take over and send profits to them in the future. With the man dead, Sage left some writing on the wall using the man’s blood: ‘My enemy's dog is not allowed to rule my home.’