While the Fu Clan was trying to gather intelligence upon the Lang Clan, the Lang Clan was rapidly establishing its own intelligence gathering capabilities. Yahui was already quite experienced at building and operating this sort of thing and was many times more capable and skilled at it than Sage had ever been. With Sage and Ling’s help, Yahui took control of the meager intelligence gathering organization that they’d built previously. Outside of a few specific places, the network was pretty dysfunctional and mostly served to gather the generally available rumors. Before their marriage, Ling and the Tiankong Clan had caused quite a rapid expansion in the Prosperity Company and the general news from the branches were almost as detailed as what the current information network knew.

Ling offered to share some of her business contacts with Yahui, but he declined. Sage was quite impressed when Yahui told him that everything about information gathering needed to be separated. Sage had known of this concept from spy films, but he quickly realized that it was no simple task to set things up in that regard. It certainly sounded simple, just train people with the ability to then train other people. Repeat this a few times and the ones at the bottom and top know nothing about each other. Even better if they’re trained in isolation. Then they only know their direct superior and the subordinates they train personally. The problem was that they still had to pass information and materials back and forth. They also had to be able to pick the right subordinates. Those they trained had to be just as competent as themselves in order to keep the chain going. How would you keep them all loyal? All they had to do was kill the direct superior who trained them. Wouldn’t this just lead to little espionage teams springing up everywhere?

I’ll just leave it in his hands. Can’t do any worse than me, right?

In the new Lang Clan territory, they already went to work putting the agricultural and construction technology to work, laying down the foundations for a city of their own as well as changing the available farmlands to be much more efficient. In the Inner World, they were already adapting and improving the techniques pioneered on the Lang Clan Fortress. For one, Sage had always wanted to restore running water to the masses. In Lionheart Town, he’d started a massive project to install the proper infrastructure to the whole city, but it was quite time and resource intensive. They’d done the same thing in a few cities in the Inner World, but since the Fortress was developed, they’d been altering the technique to be used to build a set of aqueducts and pipes using trees.

Wood was not the material most think of when mentioning water pipes and plumbing, but it was certainly used for such purposes in Earth’s history. When wet, wood will expand, which is the principle used to create a barrel. The wooden staves are not perfectly fitted to each other, at least not to a watertight fit! It's difficult enough to work so precisely with modern equipment, let alone old hand tools. The trick was to use the expanding property of wood to your advantage. They’d let the barrel leak water for a few days, slowly expanding till every gap was filled, then you empty it out and fill it full of whiskey, water, or anything else you might like. Sage also remembered hearing about wooden pylons for bridges. As long as the wood always stayed submerged it would rot at an extremely slow rate. It was only when water soaked logs were brought out of the water and allowed to dry that they rotted.

What they had already started installing on the Inner World was even better. They were going to grow hollow cavities into the trees to be used as water pipes. As long as the trees stayed alive, then these pipes could theoretically last forever. Since the trees could absorb some of the water that ran through them, they’d also have a constant water supply.

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All they need is a source of nutrients and these trees would be pretty self sufficient. Oh, I wonder if we can use the roots to make a sewage system?

While the Soul Clone had already started further iterations of a ‘utilities tree’, Sage’s true body was walking through a stone corridor, surrounded by tombstones and plaques. He walked past hundreds of them before finally reaching the end of the corridor and taking a turn to come face to face with a giant stone door. A stone door that he hadn’t seen for hundreds or thousands of years, depending on your perspective. In his own mind, it felt like thousands, but in the real world it had only been dozens. He’d been beyond this door two times in his life, both of which were when he needed to seek refuge. The first was when the Lang Clan had been wiped out and he feared for his own safety. The second was when he lost his mind, transforming into a terrifying monster after merging his body with too many other creatures at far too rapid a pace. Something had drawn him back here, and the old ancestor had saved him.

This was the first time he’d returned that he would not be seeking help, but to report his success.

Sage took a few steps closer and placed his hand upon the stone door. Almost as soon as he touched it, the array symbols upon it lit up with power. They glowed with light for a moment before the stone started to rumble. The vibration was caused by the movement of stone upon stone, and accompanied by a loud grinding noise. It was only a small inconvenience, so Sage ignored it. He walked forward, through the open door and down a sort of stone hallway lit with arrays that came to life as he approached and turned off again once he’d gone far enough. The lights led him to a stairway and down ten flights of stairs.

He looked at the two familiar statues of mantises, each of them reaching up to a height over ten feet. Then he took a more careful look at the many arrays that covered the walls, floor, and ceiling in this room. After double and triple checking that the arrays had not been modified since the last time he was here, he stepped forward. He walked right into that kill zone, confident that these arrays wouldn’t put him to death. So many arrays came to life, but none of them activated to smite him. Instead, the intense glow they gave off almost made him feel like they were welcoming him back. Only one of the arrays seemed fearless enough to actually activate and that one was kind enough to open the door for him.

Sage walked into the true tomb and the door closed behind him. He was greeted with that same gigantic underground chamber from last time. It was larger than an aircraft hanger and it contained six large daises. Each of these dais held a single sarcophagus along with shelves and tables that held items that were the most important to the eternal occupants of the tomb. He was a little curious to check out the other altars first, but he didn’t wish to keep the ancestor waiting. Since the one ancestor had been the one to help him, then that ancestor was the one who would receive the credit for his restoration of the clan. There was also no telling which of these ancestors were still living.

He climbed the steps to the altar he was most familiar with and upon reaching the top of the dais, he stepped onto it without a hitch. Last time he was here, most of the daises blocked him at the last step with some sort of barrier, so he was pleased to find none here to stop him.

Back at last.