Of course, with the technique a success, there was the possibility of merging with the Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel, but Sage felt it would be in poor taste to steal away the Guardian Beast of the Thundercloud Sect. It would be many times worse than Dian Huifang wanting to leave. She wasn’t even a member of the Thundercloud Sect, and it was already a pain to get her to just leave the Dian Clan.
On the other hand, Sage wasn’t going to miss out on a great opportunity like this. He’d already discussed things with the Eel and it was happy to help him with an egg. Also, Sage had already promised to give it a Human Seal. It wouldn’t be following him, but it would help it to communicate with the Thundercloud Sect and play around in the Cultivator World in a way it never could in the past. It had seen humans doing interesting things for many thousands of years, but it could only ever watch from the sidelines. A huge electrified cloud was not an existence that could easily interact with normal humans.
Before those things could happen, there was another major matter. The eel explained that it didn’t make the whole journey to the ‘Hidden Domain’ itself. Instead it was more of a shuttle. The Thundercloud Sect had a Lightning aligned Transportation Array. That room full of crackling lightning pillars was precisely the eye of that formation and it was responsible for sending them most of the way. It also had many restrictions, since it could only send a powerful lightning natured creature like the Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel, and normal Cultivators could only be taken along while under the protection of the Eel. So, the matter of the Human Seal and egg could only be dealt with after they returned.
They traveled quickly through space until they reached the return location. Then the giant eel waited patiently for a few minutes before Sage felt everything go topsy turvy again. He sensed a fluctuation in the spatial laws around him. It was far more obvious to him now that he’d reached the 6th rank. The absence of sound was deafening. The crackling of the eel’s electrical body was suddenly silent and Sage felt uneasy with the complete silence after so many days of traveling inside an eel shaped bolt of thunder and lightning.
With a loud boom they returned to the material world and Sage found himself standing inside that same chamber he’d departed from. The same three ‘Clouds’ of the Thundercloud Sect were standing there waiting for them. Not wanting to delay their cooperation, Sage whispered to the Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel and the two of them disappeared into the ground. The ‘entrance pass’ that covered him in energy made it possible for the eel to carry him through space without any issue, so this chamber was also no issue. This ground and pillars of this chamber had been constructed to interact perfectly with the Eel, so it was no surprise that it could travel through them without any difficulty. It was also simply enough for it to bring Sage along. The Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel brought him to its home, which turned out to be a pool of water covered in electrical arcs.
There was a small island in the center of the pool that looked to be made out of a lodestone or a magnetic type of stone. The eel relaxed upon the stone and Sage immediately started crafting a Human Seal for it.
“Ahhh! So comfortable! Now I can go and drink some wine!”
Sage was certainly surprised at the Eel’s first words, but after some thought he realized that Yun Leidian loved his wine and so the Eel had always followed by his side, unable to take a taste of such things. As if to confirm his thoughts, the Eel started talking about all the foods it wanted to try, listing out dozens of different things that Yun Leidian had loved the most. Sage laughed and then they quickly moved on to their second task. With some careful effort, Sage transferred the essence of the Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel into a Warp Worm egg. With the tasks complete the Eel returned to its natural form and brought them back to the chamber where the three Clouds were waiting.
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Peach Cloud, Violent Cloud, and Blue Cloud were looking around and had looks of impatience upon their faces by the time Sage returned. They wanted to reprimand the Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel, but the Eel’s status was too great so they could only bow to the Eel. They were in for a great surprise. Once Sage stepped out of the Eel’s mouth there was a flash and another person was standing beside him. Sage quickly passed over a set of clothing and soon a wizened old man with thin lips and blunt nose was smiling at the three Clouds.
“Haha, you three look quite sour! This old man finally has bones. They sure do feel strange!”
The other old man, Violent Cloud, rapidly moved from confused to angry, “What did you do with our…” but he was interrupted by the beautiful middle aged woman, “Respected Guardian Elder, is that you?”
The thin lipped old man chuckled and gave them all a martial salute, wrapping one hand over the fist of his other hand, “Manji has seen juniors. Come, take me to see the other Elders. This is surely an occasion for a banquet, right? Get the chefs to work!”
After a moment the three of them suddenly realized what was going on, they didn’t know how it was possible, yet they seemed to accept it for the moment. Sage could tell they weren’t entirely convinced, but he merely followed along behind the group of four as it wasn’t something he could interfere with. He wasn’t a part of the Thundercloud Sect after all. He was brought to a waiting room and the three Clouds took Elder Manji along with them to have a discussion. Sage had nothing to do during this time so he merely drank tea and cultivated. He let Maji handle his own affairs. After Soul Resonance, he trusted the Eel with his life and treated him like a brother so there was no need for him to be worried. With the Guardian Beast, now an Elder, on his side, he felt quite confident. The matter with Dian Huifang should now be easily solved and he would have another powerful ally in the world.
Here’s to hoping that Manji can get the Thundercloud Sect to become formal allies with the Jade Horde, or the new Lang Clan.
After a few hours, Sage’s prediction came true. All that Manji had to do was show off his true form after all, and there was little that anyone could deny. Sage no longer cared so much about the Human Seal being revealed as he’d already had his secret blown when the Jade Horde rebelled. While it wasn’t common knowledge, the big players could find out about it with some digging into his background. Since that was the case, he may as well make use of it. Now that he could take a Human form, Manji could play a much larger role in the Thundercloud Sect. He could negotiate for much better resources for his services and use his strength to get involved in their matters. With their new bond it was also a given that Sage wouldn’t want to harm the Thundercloud Sect, since that was the legacy of his good brother’s closest friend.
Sage was called for an audience and the Memory Seed was retrieved by the Council of Clouds. He had to wait for a bit more time as they browsed his two years worth of memories. Of course, it was quite well edited by him already and the majority of that time was spent mining Astral Silver anyway. After reviewing the trip they had profound looks on their faces. So many strange things happened on that world, things they had heard of before, and also seen glimpses of from other trips, but Sage had lived among the Hexacrats for a while which gave them a much more in depth view of the people on that world.
Without being asked any further, Sage brought out the resources from that other world. From what they’d seen he brought out a full 75% like their deal had stated. Thankfully, they’d only made him swear an oath to not reveal details and not on the amount owed to them. The Memory Seed was supposed to keep him honest, but he’d luckily found a way to cheat it.
He’d acquired about 46,000 normal-grade, 4,500 high-grade, and 1500 superior-grade Psionic Crystals. He also took along a dozen Astral Realm Fragments along with dozens of tons of Indigo Quartz and Lunarstone. His haul of Astral Silver was even greater, tens of thousands of tons had been mined over that year and a half and it was the material he planned to give the most to the Thundercloud Sect.
Sage took out 7,500 Psionic Crystals as well as a few tons of Indigo Quartz and Lunarstone. Next, he handed over 10,000 tons of Astral Silver, and 3 Astral Realm Fragments. Lastly, he brought out Gauss Rifles and other little devices and trinkets he’d got from the Hexacrats and Flares. Of course, he’d carefully altered his memories so that those amounts were three quarters of what he’d found.