Even on the Inner World, Sage’s time was limited. Especially considering his personal lack of talent. As he’d discovered many years ago, the Spiritual Root was the source of ‘talent’ and it was essentially the level of perception related to Qi and somehow related to the connection between the body and soul. In a way, Sage’s lack of talent was like trying to perform precision tasks with bad vision. With enough practice he could assemble a watch full of tiny interconnecting gears and parts, but it would be many times easier for someone with very sharp vision and a magnifying glass.

Sage’s lack of talent meant he took hundreds of times longer than ‘geniuses’ to learn and master different techniques. The Inner World giving him hundreds of times longer to practice only served to level the playing field with those greatest of talents. There was no way he would dare to try and learn every possible technique he had access to. There were many legends of Cultivators using only a single simple technique and constantly training and improving it until it took them to the highest levels of power. It was only after his Thermal Law exceeded his Corruption Law that he dared to diversify from the path of the Jade Mantle that he’d been focusing on.

In fact, Sage wished he could focus more of his efforts upon mastering the Heavenly Materials that he had acquired. There were many Cultivators that focused all their efforts upon one and had greatly exceeded all their peers because of their unique abilities. The problem was that they acted differently on the Inner World in comparison to the outside world which meant he couldn’t take advantage of the faster time frame to practice with them. It was somewhat disappointing, but he was stuck between using a stronger weapon versus one he had deep experience and practice with. Thinking this far, Sage realized that as he deepened his familiarity with fire and water controlling techniques it also benefited his control of the fire and water Heavenly Materials.

Seems this change was for the better after all.

While training hard on the Inner World, Sage started to travel again on the outside world. He stopped in Black Cloud again to do some business, selling off a large quantity of materials. The multi-year gap was an excuse for him to build up a large store again so the shops wouldn’t be suspicious. He had already made great gains from the thermal vent and it would likely take decades more to make marginal improvements. Instead he continued on his trip, traveling from one Depths city to the next to build up his supply of Spirit Pearls and Stones. He stopped worrying about catching fish or exploration and purely traveled from one city to the next at his top speed. There were a few close calls with high tier Demonic Beasts, but he was able to shoot away from them all and continue onwards.

Sage acted just like the traveling caravans in the Depths, making a full circuit a few times faster than they usually did, completing the loop in a single year rather than two or three. Along the way he purchased techniques to improve the Lang Clan library, sold goods to the shops, and left behind agents. After seeing their effectiveness first hand in Oyster Quay, Sage realized he was being silly by collecting all the information himself.

There was just something romantic about going into seedy bars and meeting random strangers to gather information. While it wasn’t impossible, it was much easier for those who’d spent their lives perfecting these skills. It wasn’t that he couldn’t gather information himself, it was just much faster for these agents to do. There was also the fact that there were many of them and only one of him. There was even the added benefit that some of them would take more drastic approaches that were many times more dangerous. Sage was always wary of accidentally offending some terrible old monster so he wouldn’t dare to randomly kidnap or brainwash a stranger to gather information, but some of the daring agents did it almost exclusively.

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It was far more efficient for him to just release a dozen agents into each city of the Depths and then hurry on his way. They had communication tools and worked in multiple cells so they couldn’t all be compromised at the same time. There were also those that specialized in earning money and they worked together with those that trained new agents to replenish any losses they might suffer. As long as they weren’t unlucky it would only take a few years for fully fledged intelligence networks to form in each of these cities. Chances are some of them would get wiped out, but perhaps with time the more successful teams would send more agents to the cities where they’d failed to be established.

Sage didn’t bother to micro-manage them, nor did he bother with any specific instructions. They were all trained to do this sort of thing, adapting to the local circumstances and insinuating themselves carefully. Eventually they’d get in touch with other groups nearby and then perhaps reconnect with the Lang Clan on the outside world, but there was no telling how long that would take. It was simply too expensive to give them the communication tools that linked all the way back to the Lang Clan. The Messaging Jades of that level used very high ranking materials and there was also the fact they came in matched pairs. One of that pair would have to get sent all the way back to the Lang Clan. They would just have to work in isolation for now. Upon returning to the clan, Sage would have jades sent out to the successful teams.

With that thought in mind he returned to the same tavern that he had first arrived at more than fifteen years ago. The local headquarters of the Merciful Mollusk. Sage had arrived in Deep Shore all that time ago and it was from these strange floating octopus people, the Gilogos, that he learned the rules of the Depths. He’d inserted himself into a few conflicts but compared to the earlier adventures in his life, the Depths actually turned out to be something of a vacation for him.

Haha, to think that fighting giant monsters deep under the sea for a decade would become a vacation for me. I’ve come so far from those days of being trapped in a mine and coming out to find my clan completely destroyed.

Others might think he’d come quite far in a few centuries, but he knew the real turning point was the many millenia he’d spent on the Inner World. Changing the Twin Soul into a Soul Clone and permanently stationing it on the Inner World was the real turning point for him to become a real powerhouse. Not only did it empower him, but all that time also served to change his mindset. He’d spent so long on the run and in fear that finally getting hundreds of years in complete safety to raise a family had finally soothed all those mental wounds. He was finally secure enough to pursue his real dreams. He let his descendants take over for the heavy obligation the ancient ancestors had put on his shoulders and went off to explore the world.

This first venture out into the world without having to worry about rebuilding the Lang Clan and constantly in fear of being hunted down was very liberating. The enemies he made were because of his own choices and the risks he took were because he chose to take them, not thrust upon him by old enemies of his family or those who targeted him for his abilities. The Depths was filled with so many foreign cultivators and controlled by a greater power. The neutrality and diversity there was very refreshing. He was targeted for his wealth, not for his name or what powers he had.

Unfortunately, it was time to return to the ‘real’ world.

Sage stepped into that secluded chamber in the Merciful Mollusk and held up the token he’d paid a large sum for. An unusual form of energy spilled out of the token and wrapped around his body, shielding him as the Transportation Formation sprung to life and shot him through space.