When standing at the divide to heaven and hell, there were few that would choose to stick to their principles. Especially not this self-aggrandizing monk. Sage collected the monk’s possessions and then fled from the pagoda before the other monks moved to stop him. Sage didn’t stay on this level of the capital any longer than he needed to and quickly left to climb higher. Venerable Surari was not part of a Sect or a Clan, the Pagoda was more akin to a temple. A group of people with similar beliefs. Temples were weird in comparison to other groups as every one of them was different. Most Clans or Sects usually had similar qualities, but for Temples or Cults it was harder to narrow it down. Some of them were extremely strict and filled with zealots following very restrictive rules. Others were much looser, and thankfully the one that Surari was part of fell into this category.
All the members of the temple would work together to ensure its safety and protect it from enemies. They might also team up to secure resources for their own disciples, but they weren’t very unified otherwise. Each of them cared more about their own advancement rather than the interests of any organization. All they cared about was having a place to Cultivate without interruption. Sage had battled with Surari just outside the pagoda and there were likely many of the monks that had watched. Even so, none of them came out to help Surari, and none of them stopped him when he went to Surari’s room.
As long as Sage showed no enmity with the other monks or aggression towards their temple as a whole, none of them were willing to make an enemy for no reason. Even so, Sage didn’t want to push it. There were always those who only fought when they had the upper hand and they might try to come for Sage in the dark.
A few days and dozens of levels later, Sage was at his next job and this time he got the payment that Guan Zhenyan demanded without resistance. It wasn’t because the debtor was upright, though Sage wouldn’t really know about that because he never gave the man a chance. After some deliberation, Sage decided he wasn’t going to give them a chance any more. He brought out some of the backup that he’d always kept in reserve. With eight members of the Purple Mist Sect at his side, Sage started the conversation with the newest Debtor by setting up a Formation Array. It wasn’t an array specifically arranged to counter this Debtor’s abilities like the Path of Fate’s Direction. Instead, the array was used to suppress the Formation Array of the Debtor’s manor that wasn’t yet activated. If the array was already active this plan wouldn’t work, but because the man had no idea what was coming he was caught off guard.
With nine Nascent Souls suddenly surrounding him and ready to fight, the man was captured before he could decide to resist. It was only then that Sage brought out the token from the Dream Dealer and asked for repayment. The Debtor thought he’d been arrested, but soon realized he was being robbed. Unfortunately, there was no one he could go to for justice, as this robbery was one he’d brought upon himself. Suddenly surrounded and overwhelmed he was forced to cripple his net worth in order to repay his past debt. Sage took the payment after Guan Zhenyan verified it and he then left quickly.
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Achieving his goal so easily made Sage realize that only when faced with overwhelming power would people be the most polite and civilized. He’d had this thought in the past, but it was always more impactful to experience something first hand. If there wasn’t a powerful government enforcing law, how many people would pay their debts or taxes?
Seems I have become too used to hiding my power. I let the Lang Clan free to show their might, but that was because I felt I was strong enough to back them up. Now I’m here in the Tianxia Capital and I’m scared again. As long as I don’t break any of the big rules or threaten the rulers they shouldn’t have a reason to come after me, right?
With his thoughts heading down this road, Sage realized the other situation where the ‘local snake’, the lord of the level, might come after him. He sent his thoughts towards Guan Zhenyan.
“You need to warn me if we’re entering the level of any of your enemies. Also, are these payments I’ve collected enough to make me a target for the Lord of a level?”
“Do you take me for an idiot? I’ve already had you skip past the debtors on four levels where you’d get targeted. Just heed my advice and stay away from the levels I tell you to and you should be safe.”
“Should be? That’s not very reassuring.”
“What can I do about it? I can’t control the idiots in the world. If you let anyone go after they pay up, how can I stop them from telling someone else about all the wealth you obtained from them? The question is whether or not they can convince someone it's worth taking you on.”
Sage realized that letting the debtor free after they paid was leaving a loose end for himself. They knew he had at least as much as they paid him and also could tell others about the return of the Dream Dealer, or at least the Dream Dealer’s representative. On the other hand, in order to make them pay he also set up a very intimidating situation. Would the returns from chasing down Sage be worth the expense of hiring so many experts as help? A force of nine Nascent Souls was not a weak one. There was probably a good reason that Sage had visited debtors that were lone individuals. If they were part of a large unified organization, wouldn’t he have to take them all on if things went south?
While climbing the tower, Sage used his time every night to process his gains. Count Voctem was quite the treasure trove for Sage, even after accounting for everything that was owed to Guan Zhenyan. It wasn’t a huge monetary gain, or even precious resources as the man owed a lot to Guan Zhenyan. The real benefits were the knowledge and ‘specialized’ resources that Sage got from Count Voctem. Voctem would make a good helper on the Inner World, but Sage wasn’t going to let him keep his full strength. Sage really didn’t like the ghosts that Voctem used and so he felt it was best to put them out of their misery. The tortured and vengeful souls that Voctem used to feed his Ghostwood were too vicious for Sage’s taste. He extracted them from the Ghostwood and ripped them to shreds. As they were destroyed the tortured will inside them was dispersed. Then he used the Soul Refining ability he’d gained from the Bone Mantis to ‘consume’ the remnants of these souls.
Soul Refining wouldn’t increase his understanding of the laws, so there was little actual change in his strength. On the other hand it could slightly strengthen his physique, so it wasn’t completely useless. Since he felt their existence to be abhorrent, he destroyed them, so the Soul Refining was just a little bonus rather than the reason to do something.