After handling the initial damage control, Sage could finally take a break to reflect on what had just happened. Lives had been lost due to his negligence. He had no idea that such a simple experiment would turn out so destructive. All he wanted to do was see if he could raise the wisdom of a little bug by making it experience a few lives. How could he ever guess that it would succeed with such spectacularly horrible results.
That storm of lighting was no doubt a Heavenly Tribulation. It was said that when a cultivator broke into the 7th rank, it would summon a Heavenly Tribulation. A person in the 7th rank was called an Immortal or a Saint, and that change was said to go against the heavens. They were breaking the rules of the world, and by doing so angered the heavens. The lightning was their punishment. Any that could survive the nine bolts of lightning would break free of the rules of the world and charge up into the heavens.
Of course, given the way that knowledge of the higher levels of cultivation had been suppressed, what was said was likely only partially true. There was probably more to the story, but from what just happened there was quite a bit of truth. That little Dragoon had transformed into a human shape without a Human Seal, and it survived a Heavenly Tribulation before flying into the sky and disappearing. It may have just flown too high to see and left, or maybe there really was some mysterious place that it went to. Either way, the Heavenly Tribulation was very real. How and why it happened was something else entirely.
Sage very much believed in reason, and critical thinking. Without any solid proof, there was no telling why the ‘Heavenly Tribulation’ existed. Sage also hadn’t figured out how many of the magical things in this world worked, but that didn’t mean he believed them all to be mystical. They were merely complex systems that hadn’t yet been revealed. In fact, it helped to drive him on his path to immortality. If he never grew old and died, then couldn’t he study everything? He’d already experienced so many wondrous things, so many forms of unknown energy, so many mystical reactions and transformations. There was a whole world out there of things to study! What sort of person didn’t want to know how things worked?
Putting aside his endless curiosity, he focused upon the destruction caused to Lionheart Town. Soon, detailed reports came in and the death toll was far smaller than he’d thought. In a town of hundreds of thousands, most of them mortals, he thought hundreds or even thousands would lose their lives under that violent assault of lightning. Surprisingly, only 34 had lost their lives. The many cultivators had rushed into action to save those near them, and somehow the power of the Heavenly Tribulation never actually fell upon any of the mortals. Those lives were actually lost due to collapsing buildings, fires, and being trampled by the other mortals fleeing for their lives. Even so, it was still 34 lives too many. Innocent blood that was on his own hands.
Thousands had been injured which could have led to far more deaths, but the healing pills of this world were far faster-acting than the medical technology back on Earth. While Doctors here didn’t have carefully synthesized drugs and chemicals to assist them, they could see inside other people’s bodies and use miraculous pills to heal them. Normally, a mortal wouldn’t have access to such things, but Sage felt responsible and spent a large sum to ensure none of those injured in this disaster would lose their lives.
To make amends for this tragedy, Sage fast tracked his improvements to Lionheart Town. With so much of the city already heavily damaged, much of it had to be rebuilt. With that in mind, he opened the doors of the newly constructed Lang Clan compound to the people that were displaced from their homes. Sheltering them while the city was reconstructed. He also offered to purchase the destroyed properties at their previous prices. He needed to reclaim places for parks and other public buildings after all. With the money he paid them, the owners of the destroyed properties could purchase new places of business, or leave town if they wished.
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As for the reason behind it all, Sage wasn’t foolish enough to claim responsibility. The news released to the public was simple enough, ‘A wandering expert broke through unexpectedly. Their Heavenly Tribulation was summoned inadvertently, and they broke through to become an Immortal in our Lionheart Town.’
Even in the wake of such a disaster, the news that was spread turned the event into a blessing. How many people had ever heard of a Heavenly Tribulation descending and someone becoming an Immortal? Such a thing was only a legend. Despite the terror of that night and destruction left behind, the city was abuzz with excitement. Their little Lionheart Town had been the place that an Immortal had faced their Heavenly Tribulation! Already, people were building small shrines around some of the places where a bolt of that Heavenly Thunder had fallen. Turning a burned scar on the side of a building into a holy relic.
Sage felt remorseful over the loss of so many lives, yet the loved ones who sent them off proudly marked the cause of their deaths on their plaques. They had been killed by heavenly lightning! For many of the mortals, a death like that was worthy of bragging about for generations. In the eyes of a normal shopkeeper, craftsman, or farmer this event was something straight out of a legend. In fact, Sage was already being pressured to commemorate the event. He was already sure that the day would become a yearly holiday, and next year they’d have to hold a festival of some kind to celebrate the Immortal that broke through in Lionheart Town. As it was, Sage already had to commission a statue of the Immortal to be built. With a Memory Sphere, Sage transferred his memory of the appearance of that teenage boy and passed it to a sculptor.
At that point, a heartless thought appeared and he couldn’t help but to share it with Wan Ling. With a sigh, he told her, “Do you know of merchandising?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s just taking something popular or famous and selling many goods related to it.”
Wan Ling nodded, and then Sage elaborated, “I would like those lost in the disaster to be mourned, but it seems that celebrating the day is also a form of remembrance. If their lives were not thought to be lost in vain, that is also a credit to them, is it not?”
She was obviously not as affected by the deaths of a few mortals. Growing up in this world, the lives of a mortal and a cultivator were on completely different levels. Thousands could die when an evil cultivator went wild. Whole families of hundreds were wiped out by competing clans and sects all the time.
“Since we have such a vivid view of the Immortal, we can make use of it. That Memory Sphere has my whole view of the Heavenly Tribulation and the Immortal battling it. Of course, we shall leave out the part where he came from and what he said. We can play it on our Prosperity Network, and let people relive that day. In the meantime, we shall merchandise. We can sell smaller versions of the statue, clothing with lightning bolts embroidered on them, pieces of the rubble that were struck by the lightning, and also sell showings of the event on a Movie Projector. On the Prosperity Network, we will show just little clips of a few seconds at a time, or still images of the immortal. We should show the full event only during the annual festival.”
Wan Ling was surprised by all these ideas. Normally large merchant groups wouldn’t care about such things. They were the sorts of things that street peddlers would do because such keepsakes weren’t all that useful and also simple to create, which meant they wouldn’t sell for much. She told him this and he nodded, “Well, that makes sense. Little statues and bits of clothing certainly aren’t big business, but it’s a different story if they are very popular.”
It also requires trademark laws for this to really make money, but I don’t want to abuse my power that much.
Instead, he just planned for their merchandise to be very distinctive and cover every type of keepsake they could think of. Essentially, a brand. Goods bearing a maker’s mark weren’t new to this world, but Sage would highlight this fact. They could use this market of immortal memorabilia to form a brand following. People were already starting to sell poems of the immortal, and whittling little wooden figurines.
Sage was confident in the army of Dragoons and the methods of mass production to make their little memorabilia faster and more uniform than the competition. Laying out his plans to Wan Ling, it was at this time that the architects and engineers from Golden Cricket Cove arrived. Sage went out to greet the Airship and the planning session suddenly got much longer.