Sage shot through the sky, simultaneously pouring Qi into the object he was standing on and also into Cosmic Traction, using it in the manner he learned from King. Moving through a little fold in space to avoid air friction and increase his flying speed. The object he was standing on looked like a red canoe at first glance, but anyone who gave it a closer look would see a venation pattern, also known as the arrangement of veins on a leaf. This large red leaf looked partially dried, and its edges were curled up to take the rough shape of a canoe or narrow boat hull. The pointed tip of the leaf was at the prow and the stem curled up and then back down again, dipping below the canoe like it was a steering oar.
In the Lang Clan tomb, Sage had received a Storage Ring full of treasures. He kept the majority of the Spirit Stones, but passed all but one of the other treasures over to his son for the Lang Clan to use. Since it was the legacy of the Lang Clan, Sage would prefer it be used by the Lang Clan. These magical devices that the Ancestor handed to them were definitely of ancient manufacture, so they would be better off as the trump cards of the clan. As for the Spirit Stones, the Clan would be better off learning how to create its own income, and Yating was already a genius in this field, so he didn’t feel bad about taking that portion of the windfall for himself. As for the one treasure he kept for himself, it was this canoe-shaped red leaf, a Flying Tool. The clan might be the manufacturer of Airships, but they were fundamentally a cheap method of achieving flight. They were far from matching the performance of true Flying Ships.
As for Sage himself, he didn’t desire a Flying Ship. He had the Universe Ring to carry passengers, and that was without even considering the whole world he had within himself. This Flying Tool was exactly what he needed, the fastest method of travel for a single person. The speed of his flight was extraordinary, appearing as a flash of red light in the sky. It was also the source of his name for this device: The Red Comet.
I should get a silver mask made.
The amount of time he’d spent traveling between provinces and kingdoms in the past was not small, so he was very grateful for having a method to more rapidly return to the Lang Clan. It was also the reason that he could easily meet up with the place where the perimeter was breached. The Red Comet stopped in mid-air just a few yards away from a large cloud. A moment later the cloud faded away and revealed the airship that was hiding within an Illusion Formation. A Lang Clansmen was standing on the front prow, holding onto the railing and waving him over. Sage flew over and Red Comet hovered near the deck.
“Which way did they go?”
Gauging by age, the clansman was likely one of his great great grandchildren, but he didn’t have time to catch up at this point. The man put aside any thoughts of flattery. The fellow bowed deeply, saluted him with a clasped fist, and then pointed into the distance, “That way, Ancestor!”
Sage nodded, “Well done!”
After this quick reply, he took off again in a flash, disappearing from the clansmen’s view and moving rapidly in pursuit of the mysterious group that had been able to penetrate their defensive perimeter. He’d already received a half-dozen messages relating to different groups of people who had already been detained by the Lang Clan. They would all be kept under guard until the war with the Fu Clan was over. Even then they would be carefully inspected before they could go along on their way.
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Somehow, a large group had passed through the perimeter and the Lang Clan’s Dragoon armies were unable to stop them. A large unit was knocked out of the sky by a sudden attack and a set of Flying Ships slipped past them. Sage was surprised by this sudden turn of events and he rushed off to investigate. Before the assault upon the Fu Clan had started he’d already sent a pair of Purple Mist Sect members to act as a hidden backup force for each of the Branch Clans. Since no one in the Branch Clans had broken through into rank 6, it was pretty simple for them to stay hidden. When Sage rushed off, he sent them a message to stay on guard and to notify him if there were any other unforeseen changes.
He flew through the air, following in the direction that the ships had taken. The Red Comet was many times faster than the standard Flying Ship, especially when he removed all wind resistance. Sage expanded his Spiritual Sense to search for the culprit. Just as he was about to bring out a bunch of extra eyes to help his search he felt a presence up ahead and was forced to bring the Red Comet to a stop.
An old, yet still quite beautiful, woman was floating in the air in front of him. Sage could feel Wind Laws swirling behind her, and even with his abilities this disturbance would be able to drastically impair his movement speed if he were to enter it. Sage carefully examined the woman and almost instantly he smiled, “It seems the Fu Clan is far more capable than I ever imagined.”
On the Inner World it had taken him a bit of time to identify the woman, but from the look of the Qi around her, as well as her clothing, he finally figured it out. This old woman should be the unmasked appearance of the Fu Clan Matriarch. She was not surrounded by a wind avatar in a bat shape, and Sage hadn’t been close enough to the fight to recognize her Qi by feel, but on the Inner World he already had Memory Spheres of the battle and he spent a few minutes doing a close analysis to compare the visual similarities in her techniques, physical appearance, and mannerisms.
The old woman was taken aback, “You know me?”
“Of course. Didn’t you and three others just self-detonate yourself to give the other Fu Clan Nascent Souls a chance to escape? Quite an elaborate ploy, I must say. Is that a backup body? Do you have some sort of fake self-detonation technique?”
A series of changes crossed the old woman’s face before she let out a sigh, “Acting against the Lang Clan truly was the beginning of the end for us. I told him not to do it, that old fool,” she had remorseful eyes when she looked at Sage, “I am truly sorry what happened.”
“The Fu Clan’s actions have led it to its downfall. You didn’t answer any of my questions, are you that confident?”
She looked at him for a while and then shook her head, “Your reputation precedes you Lang Sheng. The others didn’t believe Little Xidong, but I’ve always been confident of his judgement. Given your age and my strength, I shouldn’t have a problem defeating you, but I am not a fool that would underestimate you.”
“So, you concede? Call your people back.”
The woman was silent a moment before she shook her head, “I would rather die than give them up,” then she held up a hand, giving Sage a moment of pause before he acted, “Let us make a deal. Everyone involved in or supporting hostilities against the Chong and Lang Clan are still in the underground headquarters. Only those that have never been involved are part of the exodus. The Fu Clan is no more. Those that remain are leaving not just the Kingdom, but the whole Empire and starting over somewhere else far away.”
“So, the Chong Clan will still run into everyone they have ever formed an enmity with and these refugees will never return to take their revenge? You are arrogant enough to guarantee that?”