Sage walked across the top of the dais towards the huge stone casket. He couldn’t help but admire the masterful craftsmanship that went into creating the extremely lifelike and highly detailed stone statue on top of the lid. It looked just like a person lying in repose upon a stone slab, but it had the texture of stone. The stone had the same color as a flesh tone might, but he merely commended the artist for their excellent choice of material. He’d seen stone with bright black and white patterns, vividly colored red and greens with complicated spatters and many other types of stones back on Earth, so a stone with a skin-like color was no big deal.
It was the same regal face he remembered, with pointed eyebrows and a well trimmed mustache. Sage examined the stone face for a moment before he remembered himself and kneeled down on the ground. He lowered his forehead down to touch the ground and paid respect to his ancestor. He’d been in this life many many times longer than Earth, and he’d merged with many different beings. He’d long ago come to terms with being many things at once. His identity included many different individual personalities and he was all of them at the same time. He no longer worried about being discovered as an imposter or being unworthy of carrying the name of a person whose body he took over. As soon as he stood back up, that deep voice echoed around him.
“You finally return. Didn’t I say to come back once you formed a core, why did you wait until you coalesced your Nascent Soul?”
“Forgive me Ancestor. I ran into many difficulties along the way. I also felt guilty because of the assistance you gave me last time. I didn’t want to ask for more before keeping my promise.”
“Before keeping…”
The ancestor’s voice trailed off and then Sage felt a pulse of Qi wash over him. It was washed past him and then he lost track of it. It didn’t disappear, but once it left the small area that he had his Spiritual Sense covering it was like the wave of Qi had never existed.
“Interesting! So many of them with my blood. What did you do? They’re all beasts. How can there be so many generations this quickly, did you choose a weak Spirit Insect that breeds quickly?”
Sage felt a slight overtone of rage in the ancestor’s words and without any resistance at all he felt himself cowering backwards. He stopped himself after taking a step back and he gave the ancestor’s casket a low bow, “Forgive me ancestor, we are no longer humans. I chose to use the Colossal Iron Mantis and modified it to give us unique advantages. Every clan member is now born with ancestral memories of how to apply a Human Seal. Each of them acts as a human from birth and only releases their true form for emergencies. They aren’t living and breeding rapidly as insects.”
The ancestor cut him off while he was still explaining, “Then how is there so many generations already? It’s only been a few decades since last time!”
“I have a Green Core,” he bowed low again before continuing, “I stumbled upon a Seed of Life when I was young and used the accelerated time to raise the clan on my Inner World, err that’s what I call it. I’ve heard it's known as a World Core to others.”
“World Core? What!? Who would have thought my Lang Clan would be so lucky! Excellent! That’s commendable of you to raise your family without being able to interact with them directly, you’ve sacrificed much for the clan.”
Sage held up his hands, not wanting to get rewarded for something he didn’t do, “Oh no, I didn’t sacrifice like that. I have a clone body that has been with them on my World Core the whole time.”
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To demonstrate his point, Sage brought out the Soul Clone. The two of them were identical in their human form, but their true bodies were different. Sage’s was still a gigantic amalgamation of Genesis Spider, Sea Locust, and his favorite abilities, while the Soul Clone was a Jade Sky Mantis. After letting the ancestor examine the clone with his Qi, Sage sent it back into the Inner World. Just that few minutes of time in the real world was equivalent to being gone for a few days.
It was also because it was the first time he’d brought the Soul Clone out since first sending it inside and he hadn’t realized how vulnerable it made him feel. Sage had grown very used to being able to view the world in slow motion. His consciousness was shared between two different bodies, and because one of those bodies was moving at many times faster speed, he almost felt like the Inner World was the real world and the outside world was like a turn based game. He had so much time to make every decision that he could carefully deliberate on the best course of action even in the most hectic and stressful situations. What was a split second instinctive reaction with one’s life on the line for others became akin to a turn timer. A decision that others had a second for turned into more than eleven minutes for him, giving him ample time to plan the optimal course of action. It was even more absurd when he entered combat and used Foresight to see what was going to happen.
The moment of bringing the Soul Clone back into the outside world felt like stripping off all his clothes. He felt utterly vulnerable and only when the Soul Clone was returned to the Inner World was he able to relax once again.
The ancestor was speechless. He had examined the Soul Clone with a tendril of Qi, but said nothing. Then the tendril retracted and Sage put his clone away. Then he waited cautiously for a few moments before adding details that he felt the ancestor might want to hear, “Including the Seed of Life I’ve been able to collect ten Heavenly Materials so far. Once the clan has settled in I plan on seeking revenge against those who wronged us, and after that I will be hunting for more Heavenly Materials. Please forgive me for being so weak, Great Ancestor.”
After what seemed like an eternity of silence the ancestor let out a sigh, “After you chose to be a monster, I was worried for the future of the clan, but it seems you have extremely strange luck. I’ll just have to hope that you survive long enough to truly bring us back to prosperity. You seek to avenge the wrongs perpetrated against the clan. That is good, but you must be cautious. Do not ever offend the Imperial Family. If we have to act to protect you, that will squander what precious time we have remaining. Don’t disappoint us.”
“Imperial Family? Is that the Royal Family?”
“The royals answer to the imperials. The Dou Family are subordinates of the Tianxia Family. The Tianxia Capital is quite a ways from here, the tower rises to the heavens to signify their power and ties to their namesake, under heaven. It’s a bold claim to declare ownership of all under heaven, but their ancestors did a pretty good job. Don’t try to go against them or you’ll ruin the clan again. Anyway, I’ve wasted enough time. You’ve done well so far, but don’t get complacent. You have to protect the clan and keep improving your strength. If you become a saint then getting the revenge you seek will take just a flip of your hand.”
Sage was startled by this command, “All cultivators dream to become saints, but how can I do that? All I know is that we must advance our understanding of the laws, but nobody has any idea how to do that. This ungrateful descendant begs for your help.”
He bowed to the casket again, but the ancestor just laughed at him, “Hahaha. So quick to change your tune. Well done, but I’m afraid you’re out of luck. Only the Imperials are allowed to pass down a cultivation technique that can take you to sainthood. Heh, I can see that look in your eyes, but don’t even think about it. Even if you steal their method it only works with a specific cultivation technique tailored to match the imperial bloodline and it requires very rare materials to take to completion. Those materials are expensive even for them.”
“Oh ho! Did I hear someone mention expensive materials?”
At that moment, they were interrupted by a third voice. A swirl of smoke appeared next to Sage and a slovenly dressed fellow with his robe hanging off one shoulder was standing there with a long metal pipe in hand. His whole arm was out of the sleeve of his robe, exposing half his chest and exposing the fact that despite his amazingly beautiful and attractive face he was in fact a man.
“Mmm, I can always smell a heavy purse. So, who wishes to conduct a deal?”