In Stormport City, Sage stopped by the local Gu shops and purchased a few of each Gu that were for sale along with their corresponding materials. While he was at it, he stopped by the restaurants, and produce stores to sample the local foods and acquire their ingredients so they could be reproduced on the Inner World. There was also local clothing, furniture, and architectural styles. All of these were sampled to enrich the culture of the Inner World. With samples they could produce their own variations. After returning to Bear Three’s home, Sage sent his agents out to scour the whole city as well as the neighboring ones to complete the tactic. They were also charged with acquiring rare and exclusive Gu that the local groups kept to themselves. They also tried to acquire their techniques and Gu raising techniques, using bribes or any other method they could think of, short of murder, to get their hands on them.

All of this was for a simple reason: Sage was entering seclusion. He was here to hide out and so he didn’t want to become too comfortable. Due to the time until the Realm Heart matures, Sage was going to spend decades here. If he was constantly spending time out in the city, he would inevitably form relationships and make connections. He would establish karmic ties, even if it was just to the servers or workers at the restaurant he frequented. That alone wasn’t a bad thing, but it would tie him to this place. It was much easier to pretend he had already left, doing something that every Cultivator had to do, training alone for many years at a time.

The handful of agents were left to spread through the Xuanyuan Empire to gather information and search for opportunities. Over the many years of growth of the Inner World, they had constantly improved the process of training and they were under the impression that they had been teleported to a distant continent rather than an entirely different world. The populated part of the Inner World was somewhat isolated, the main populated continent being split into multiple Kingdoms. There had been attempts to make a single unified nation, but it just devolved into internal strife. Humans just couldn’t help but need to compete with each other and it was easier for the Lang Clan to just use the Prosperity Company to influence all the sides rather than rule them. Rudely, it was also easier to keep them in the dark about the true nature of their world. A necessary evil to prevent doomsday cults, god worshiping, and uprising against the ‘gods’. Or at least, keeping the Lang Clan out of the crosshairs of such people. It was inevitable for such things to happen after all.

Sage returned to the courtyard home he’d been given, having the whole place to himself for the next few decades. A few of the liaisons with the agents would also have cover identities as servants to maintain the place while Sage focused on his own training. With preparations complete, Sage hid himself away. Day after day he trained in the courtyard, hidden away from prying eyes to improve his control over his Heavenly Materials. Every other Cultivator did this often. A Nascent Soul could live up to ten thousand years, so spending decades in training was nothing to them. Sage not only needed far more practice with the Heavenly Materials he’d had for many years, but he’d also recently acquired many more of them that he’d barely scratched the surface of.

Yet, the real benefit of this seclusion training was that he could devote less attention to the outside world. Due to the time difference, he still had plenty of time to train on the Inner World, during just the eight hours that a person might spend sleeping was equivalent to around eleven months. Not that he actually had to sleep, but every period of relative calm and safety could be used for training. This period of time created a perfect opportunity for extended training on the Inner World, but that was only a small part of his plans. Given the comparatively recent disaster on the Inner World after his brush with death, things were still in a somewhat unstable state. This made it easier to accomplish large scale changes.

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The Prosperity Company and the Lang Clan started a mass recruitment drive. They also took a more active hand in the budding governments. Not to control them, but to form mutually beneficial relationships. In return for greater aid, the nations would allow and assist in the creation of certain infrastructural works. A series of array formations were being built that would connect the whole continent together for the purposes of communication and power distribution. Not electrical power, since that didn’t really exist, but Qi that could be used to power Formations. Since they were getting other assistance along with these changes that also benefited them, no one refused them and the continent wide construction projects were underway.

At the same time, the research into Gu ramped up and took up much of the Research Team's time and attention. The many varieties of Gu were researched and their abilities studied, comparing their various traits. At the same time, the usage of Gu for Qi Cultivators was carefully studied. A person that had already formed their Inner Core could still connect to Gu, but the Gu’s growth was more expensive than normal. Further research showed that the Gu formed a sort of feedback loop with their partner. This altered their bodies so that even if a Gu Cultivator lost their Gu and then linked with new ones they would advance much faster than a Qi Cultivator trying to link with them. Having their bodies and meridians tempered by Gu from the start of their Cultivation changed their bodies in subtle ways. Even so, it was useful to learn that even Core Formation cultivators could link to Gu.

Gu Cultivators also used multiple Gu, with only one of them becoming their Core Gu. The other Gu could also rise to the same level as their Core Gu, which then could still be used as supplemental Qi generators and also for their innate abilities. As they learned more, they realized that the hallmark of many famous Gu Masters and Gu Clans were their combination Gu techniques. Just like the Blood’s Cursed Embrace and Infernal Qi combination that he had, a set of Gu that seemed worthless could turn powerful when used in combination. These combination abilities could still be used by high rank Qi Cultivators, but this came with a high price tag to raise so many supporting Gu of high rank.

Things turned out to work in a similar fashion for Demonic Beasts, as they couldn’t become their Core Gu. The Demonic Core was already in that position. On the plus side, they could rapidly speed up the growth of the Demonic Beast if they were willing to spend more resources that is. Unfortunately, this didn’t solve the issue of letting weaker beasts gain laws to reach the same level as the more renowned bloodlines. On the plus side, further research led them to find out an interesting alternative.

For Qi Cultivators who did have an Inner Core, but could not reach any understanding of laws, there was a way out. If one’s core was destroyed, they would lose their strength, but as long as their dantian wasn’t damaged they could start their journey as a cultivator all over again. A testing accident led to the discovery that a Qi Cultivator could use this time to restart as a Gu Cultivator. Gu Cultivator’s had a somewhat guaranteed path to Nascent Soul, as long as they could afford it. This expensive alternative was not really worth it for the most part, as it would take the wealth of a large clan to raise just a few of them. Yet, it was also a very useful finding as it hit upon one of Sage’s worries. If his family did not reach the sixth rank, they would miss out on doubling their lifespan. In the scope of things, living thousands of years was already more than most could ask for, but who would turn down the chance to spend more time with their loved ones?