With so many ‘great’ examples, along with his own failures, Sage chose to make the Purple Mist Sect a place of complete unity. Even if he knew that their strength would suffer for it, he did not wish to encourage direct competition among its members. They would not advance as quickly without challenge or adversity, but that was okay with him. The Purple Mist Sect would reward those who helped the others in the Sect, and encourage unity above all. The methods that Ruanfu had used to train that small army of Core Formation Cultivators were used as a reference to build their main training paradigms. The armor they wore was also the same model that carried the Shifting Swarm Formation so they could combine their energy into a single whole for offense or defense.

Of course, Sage wasn’t foolish enough to think that such measures would completely eliminate any competition or conflict from within the Sect. He only hoped that it would make them more like a real family and less like a pit full of snakes trying to consume each other. Families always had a bit of internal strife, but a real family would always be united against the rest of the world.

It would also be quite poetic to have a bunch of snakes be more unified than most humans were.

After distributing rewards to the Purple Mist Sect, Sage started sorting through Jinxi Po’s belongings. While he’d been expecting to find a lot of wealth, the true amount was absolutely terrifying. It was to such an absurd amount that Sage was daunted with the idea of sorting through it all. There were enough pills to start an apothecary business, and a pile of Spirit Stones that would form a small mountain if they were poured out. Sage’s Soul Clone sent Jinxi Po’s Storage Rings out from the Inner World to the Universe Ring where he gave it over to Dragoon Attendants to sift through.

At that point, his Soul Clone proceeded into the dungeon and started to interrogate Jinxi Po. It was just too bad that the fellow sealed his lips up tight and didn’t say a word. Sage was no torturer, with basically no experience in this area. He made an attempt to use his Hypnotic Eyes, but the fellow was strong enough to easily resist. Sage tried to apply some pain, but Jinxi Po didn’t bat an eye. Considering that Sage had created his own technique to resist pain, it was no surprise to him that Jinxi Po also had a way to deal with it. He was also always of the opinion that if torture reached a certain point, wouldn’t the tortured person say anything at all to make it stop? How reliable would that be? If you damage them too much, then death becomes a release and they’ll say anything to achieve it, or act belligerently to incite rage. Not only is it unreliable, but it seems to take a lot of skill to torture someone to the point they don’t want to live and then still keep them alive until you break their will.

Having captured this man as a prisoner, Sage was actually trying to figure out whether or not he had any value. Usually, if Sage was to enter a fight, he would already be determined to kill. In such a fight for life and death there was no holding back or you might be the one who lost their life. He’d rarely captured anyone, and the one prisoner he’d taken had escaped and caused more pain. Sage had to pause a moment to give thanks that Hei Bai was already dead. He was merely curious to know more about where Jinxi Po had gained such superb archery skills from and also learn why he was so wealthy. Wasn’t he just the young master of the Jinxi Faction? Why did he seem like a world renowned hitman for hire? If there was nothing to profit from it, then there was no way Sage would leave this fellow alive to trouble him later.

A golden blade flashed from Sage’s hand and the man’s head was suddenly separated from his shoulders. Then he released a burst of flame from his lips, torching the Nascent Soul that was too slow to escape. The death of the body would cause a Nascent Soul to be knocked into a semi-confused state for a moment. The sudden switch from body to soul took a moment to kick in. That was why those experienced with battling at the level of Nascent Soul would instantly attack the soul as soon as the body was dead.

With the foe taken care of, Sage left the corpse behind for the Sect members to take care of.

Back in the real world, Sage modulated his breathing and settled the Qi in his body, calming it from the violent state of battle. After the last few hours, he was basically at full strength though feeling very sore and weak in his limbs from the heavy wounds he’d suffered upon them. With that in mind, he wasn’t wanting to run into any traps that Jinxo Po might have set so he immediately left the area. Sage switched routes, taking a completely different path than before on his way to meet up with the Jade Horde in Endless Valley.

Pleasantly, the rest of the journey went without a hitch and Sage carefully examined a small settlement the Jade Horde had built up. After observing them for a few hours, he came to the conclusion that nothing seemed strange or unordinary. With that in mind, he chose to trust Abbot Kunga and approached the settlement without guile. He greeted them and was pleased to see that they followed a strict protocol before allowing him into their camp. He had to show an identity token of the Jade Horde to establish who he was before being escorted to a room surrounded by guards. Even with the token they didn’t just trust him to do as he wished and he waited a few minutes before Abbot Kunga himself showed up.

“Is this how you treat all your guests?”

The Abbot laughed and nodded, “It is! After what happened to you, security is always taken very seriously here. Many of our clients complain about the harsh treatment, but it also seems to have a good effect on some of them. So then, what can I do for you, Sir? Is everything okay?”

Sage nodded, “Everything is fine, don’t worry. It looks like you’re doing a great job here, so keep it up. I’m only here because I wanted to make contact with a few Falcons. Is there anything you need here? You were there since the Jade Horde started, but I’ve basically abandoned you the last few years.”

Abbot Kunga bowed his head and held up one hand, showing Sage his palm, “Amituofo. You have your own path to follow. We are fine here doing many small good deeds.”

This man was a former monk from the Eightfold Kingdom, a place which was somehow full of Buddhists. Sage had no idea what that could mean, but he still respectfully gave the Abbot a bow and thanked him for his time. He didn’t disrupt any of the activities that the Jade Horde was up to and instead just quickly met with some of the War Falcons. They were in charge of intelligence gathering for the Jade Horde, so he had to meet with them first. At the same time he was also leaving a few secret signals for the hidden Falcons among the soldiers.

The War Falcons worked for Abbot Kunga directly, while these hidden falcons were actually responsible for reporting on Abbot Kunga’s portion of the Jade Horde. These hidden falcons answered to the information network which Wan Ling was now in charge of. They were there to make sure there weren’t any more betrayals planned in the Jade Horde as well as gathering information from the many places that the Jade Horde traveled to. Since he was the former master of the network, he’d trained these fellows masters and so he ordered a few birds to stand together on a tree branch near the camp. The birds that were grouped together were sorts that didn’t get along in the wild, and a sign that falcons could use to set up a meeting. Another bird of a different species joined the branch and then the group left together, leading Sage to the location of a meeting.