Once the entire building, its contents, and even the landscape decorations were collected and rebuilt on the Inner World, Sage left. He thought about trying to take away the outer wall, but the arrays were still functional and he didn’t want to risk setting anything off. It was also a shame he couldn’t take away the giant energy cage, but he did make detailed notes of the array symbols that were used as well as the materials he could glean from study. He might have been able to dismantle them to learn more, but they might also just blow up in his face, which was something he didn’t care to experience at the moment.

Who knows, maybe someone will need to trap an elemental someday and I’ll be able to point them to the right place.

With these two sites visited, Sage put aside his treasure hunting for a while as he already had an agenda in mind before he left the Lang Clan for this trip. He wasn’t in the Shihu Kingdom just to capture the Demonic Plant, and investigate the black tiger, those were just stops along the way. The real reason he’d come this far was, of course, to return to the Holy Flame Sect.

As soon as Sage had become a Nascent Soul, he no longer feared those who had once chased him out of the Shihu Kingdom because of his Seals. He had made the long trip here to collect Ling’s family before their wedding, but he hadn’t been able to stay for any significant amount of time because he was too preoccupied with rebuilding the Lang Clan. It was only now that the Lang Clan was secure in their position that he could finally return to the Sect he was forced to flee so long ago. That said, the reason he sought this place out was far different than the first time. All those years ago, Sage had come here to find a place to belong, somewhere he could be safe from the viciousness of the outside world. He was still in the lower ranks and had stumbled upon some luck that helped him get recruited.

Now, Sage was returning with a purpose. The Holy Flame Sect was renowned for its great professionals, and Sage had dabbled in many of these professions in the past. Now that he was back, he aimed to take all those scattered learnings and push them to the peak. The Holy Flame Sect restricted their library to those of certain rankings in each profession. So, in order to collect all of their library for himself, Sage would have to raise his rank in each profession.

Once I have the whole library of the Holy Flame Sect on the Inner World, I’ll probably advance the researchers' progress by thousands of years.

Of course, he was only making an estimate. There was no telling how much they would be able to gain from getting access to so much knowledge. Previously, most of the Inner World’s knowledge was based upon the Timeless Master’s library, along with the handfuls of general information books he’d been able to purchase. It was a basic foundation, but it was nothing compared to many complete training systems that the Holy Flame Sect had. It was already something impressive to follow the path of a master to reach the upper ranks of a profession. The Holy Flame Sect’s library not only had multiple paths to this high realm, but they had so many of these paths they were even grouped into different schools of thought.

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Sage flew up to the massive crater that was the territory of the Holy Flame Sect on The Red Comet. The sect members on guard duty were immediately concerned and he saw communication tools in their hands. He didn’t mind, as he wanted to meet with someone higher up anyway. By the time he touched down upon the ground and stowed his flying tool, a powerful aura had flared up and rushed over to approach him. A large cloud of dust formed in the trail of a large armored chariot. It was being drawn by a truck-sized rhino-like creature, and the two-wheeled vehicle was open from the waist up, but was otherwise thickly armored. Yet, that wasn’t the reason he smiled. The part that caught his eye was the set of large weapons mounted on either side of the chariot. He recognized them by their lack of bow arms, and the mist being spewed from exhaust pipes that marked them as steam weapons. The armored chariot was manned by a half-dozen rank fives, which was a pretty impressive reinforcement team to be summoned on such short notice.

Sage gave the approaching group a friendly salute and then he held up the identification token of the Holy Flame Sect. He was also wearing the uniform of the Holy Flame Sect, but this outfit was so nondescript that they didn’t even seem to notice that because they were so worried about someone with a flying tool approaching. Magical devices that could be used for flying were comparatively rare and expensive, so only the most powerful or wealthy used them. Since Sage didn’t have any guards with him, they assumed he was the former and called for backup. The Holy Flame Sect was not known for their martial strength, so none of them were too prideful to call for assistance, even if only as a precaution.

The chariot rumbled along the road, stopping a hundred yards from him at which point Sage tossed over his token for them to verify. They took a close look and while it was considerably old, that wasn’t a big deal as there were many older generations in their sect. Most of them didn’t recognize the name, but one of them did and a sneer crawled onto the man’s lips.

“This man has already been exiled from the Sect. He dares to return like this in broad daylight? Does he think we, the Enforcement Teams, are nothing but air?”

The man had suddenly raised his voice, since it seemed he wanted not only the others on the chariot to hear, but also all of the gate guards and others in the area to be aware. With his declaration, many heads turned to take a look at this new person of interest.

“Is this guy trying to buy his way back into the Sect?”

“I wonder how many guts he had to buy before he could work up the courage to come back.”

“Do you guys know him? What did he do?”

The enforcement team member that first raised his voice started to smile when he heard the rumors already shooting through the crowd. Sage found it quite unusual that the fellow was so eager to smear him, but at his level he no longer had to catch this sort of mud that was splashed towards him. He just smiled back at the man and let his aura loose. That crushing pressure of a whole tiny star system spread out around him. Along with this powerful influence, he stretched law energy out into the air and wrapped it around the man who’d started the trouble.

“A mere enforcer dares to accuse a Nascent Soul? You must have bought many more guts than I did!”