Sage wasn’t close enough to the main battlefield to hear what was being said, but it was pretty apparent that the Fu Clan was attempting to negotiate with the Chong Clan. The Fu Clan had somewhat pained looks on their faces, likely because of their losses so far as well as the concessions they were offering to the Chong Clan.

It was unfortunate that Nascent Souls were so observant and powerful since it meant Sage couldn’t just send in an insect or bird to act as his eyes or ears for this exchange. Why wasn’t he involved in this chat in the first place? It came down to loyalty. She didn’t say it explicitly, but Sage could feel a very cautious attitude from the Chong Matriarch. Sage had previously killed the former Patriarch who was essentially an even match with the Matriarch. She had been equally matched with the leader and that fact had made the Patriarch worried about her. That worry had slowly worn down and infringed upon the treatment of her Xie faction which eventually led to the loss of the Patriarch’s position. The Matriarch seemed very wary of such a situation repeating itself. He was kept at arm’s length and she certainly didn’t want to give him more opportunities to gain more support or power.

She seems quite happy that I am from a Branch Clan and not one of the main factions. It’s just too bad that she doesn’t have any idea how powerful we have actually become.

For this conflict, he was kept on standby. The Fu Clan would be bringing all of its power to bear in order to avoid the extinction of their Clan, which put the Chong Clan at a big disadvantage. They couldn't commit all of their top level power to this conflict or they would just make themselves an easy target for others. If they sent every single Nascent Soul they had, then who would defend their home? If they destroyed the Fu Clan only to find that their home, assets, and families had all been wiped out by someone else, what would be the point? What if they committed so fully to the action and then failed?

At least if they beat the Fu Clan they could take their enemies home and try to make do with what was left, but if they failed after exerting their full effort it would put an end to their Clan as it was. They would be just like the Lang Clan, a few tattered stragglers pursued by their former enemies doing everything it could to avoid total elimination. To avoid this terrible possibility, they had to face the full might of the Fu Clan with only a portion of their own power. As the aggressors, the Chong Clan also had to overcome the Fu Clan’s defenses at the same time. The combination of these factors was why it was so rare for any of the first rate powers to be toppled and control of provinces rarely changed hands. When taken to the Kingdom level these problems were even more pronounced, which was why the Royal Family's rule was measured in the millenia.

For this attack, the Chong Clan left its hidden Elders behind. Sage had no idea how many of them there were, but their presence meant anyone attempting to attack their headquarters while the majority of the Chong Clan was away would be delayed. Even if they were heavily outnumbered, just a few Nascent Souls combined with Sect protecting Formation Arrays should give the clan time to return. If the opportunists weren’t strong enough to defeat the remaining defenders in a short amount of time, they would gain nothing but the gratitude of the Fu Clan and the enmity of the Chong Clan. Depending on the resultant states of the Fu and Chong Clans this might be a great idea or a terrible idea.

Sage realized this contributed greatly to the reason the ‘hidden’ Elders were so unknown. The less the Chong Clan’s enemies knew about their reserve strength the better. If Sage, as a Branch Clan leader had no idea how many hidden elders there were it meant the Chong Clan’s enemies would be even worse off. Without having accurate information, who wanted to make such a powerful enemy without any assurance? That was without even taking into account the possibility that this whole thing was a ruse. What if the Chong and Fu Clans were actually secret allies?

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In summary, Sage was left out of the important discussions and left with incomplete information, but he was close enough to be called in as backup to help tilt the balance of power. In fact, he felt it was quite likely they would call him in to tangle with one of the level 70s. They would probably try the General’s horse racing strategy to avoid sharing any glory and call for him only if that didn’t work or to respond to any tricks the Fu Clan might pull out. Sage found the story of the General’s horse racing strategy interesting as it was very similar to something he’d heard from Earth, but obviously under a different name. In a set of three horse races, the general sent his worst horse to face his opponent's best horse. Then the general set his best horse against the opponent’s second best and his second best against the opponent’s worst horse. In this way the General won best two out of three. It was also a military technique, sacrificing the weakest to occupy the enemy’s strongest. The Chong Clan might send a few of their weaker Elders to just occupy the Fu Clan’s strongest while the Matriarch took on the weaker members one on one.

Of course, he was only speculating. Sage didn’t know much about the strengths, weaknesses, or tactics of the Chong Clan or Fu Clan Elders with the exception of one. This deficiency of knowledge was not for lack of trying, but the Nascent Souls of most Clans and Sects worked very hard to keep their secrets from being shared. Most of the common knowledge about them related to their lives before they became Nascent Souls. The Chong Clan didn’t deign to share their information about the Fu Clan Elders, so Sage could only go with the flow. It wasn’t like he would need to know these details if he really brought his full forces to bear.

All of this speculation only took Sage a moment to process, the Soul Clone was free to spend days theorizing and even discussing these concepts with some political advisors. In the outside world, he was completely focused upon trying to discern every little detail he could from this distant conversation. With two minds acting as one, he could truly experience the world in slow motion as an outside observer. He almost felt like he could now play out his own life as a video game, and this sudden inspiration shifted his perspective. He realized it was like a first-person virtual reality version of a turn-based game, except there were no actual turns or pauses. In fact, the time ratio was so exaggerated that it almost approached the level of a play by mail game. Every second in the real world was more than eleven minutes for the Soul Clone. This time dilation was exaggerated even worse when he used Foresight, not just giving him a huge amount of time to deliberate upon his actions, but also to see the possible future outcomes of those actions. It was almost like he could mouse over his enemies and see the probability of success for the actions he was going to attempt and the amount of damage he might inflict.

This change in his thinking helped him better integrate these two different minds that were merged as one. In the past he’d always ‘primarily’ lived as his outside body and only got the Soul Clone involved in the middle of combat. It was more like he was jumping between worlds with different rates of time. Now, with this new way of looking at things, the outside world became more like an avatar while the mind in the Soul Clone took over the actual decision making. He was no longer living in two worlds and swapping between them. It was much like his ‘true’ mind was now within what he considered to be his clone. For a moment he became worried about the state of his emotions, but at the same time, he became many times more confident of his strength.