Chapter 333: Golden Cricket Cove

Golden Cricket Cove. It was named after the Golden Cricket, the insect that the Chong Clan used as their insignia. Golden Cricket Cove was a wonderland for insects, though it was hard to tell if that was the reason the Chong Clan settled there, or if living there had caused it. Those who were familiar with the area thought it was a little bit of both. The environment was good for them, but the Chong Clan also had many hunters and trappers hunting the creatures that preyed upon insects. Usually, hunters liked to take down big game, increasing their yield for their effort. In Golden Cricket Cove, whole clans had developed around trapping and hunting small game and birds to fulfill the Chong Clan’s contracts.

In this culture, crickets were seen as lucky animals. People carried them in small boxes in their pockets, feeding and caring for them as any other pet. They used a special technique to tickle them and make them sing. They were a portable music box for the poor and common people. Cultivators had marvelous devices that functioned on Qi, but the mortals had to play instruments. Even proper musical instruments were somewhat expensive, so outside of special occasions, and singing to themselves, crickets were a cheap form of music in their lives. Different types of crickets ‘sung’ in different ways and the Golden Cricket was just the most popular one in this part of the Kingdom.

The Chong Clan was named after a whole category of creatures, basically all the small creepy and crawly things. Snakes, worms, insects, bugs, shellfish, small lizards and other similar reptiles or creepy crawlies. With such a multitude of creepy things to choose from, they of course settled on the insect that was a symbol of good luck, the cricket. As a Clan that wanted to do business and reassure the local common folk, they would of course choose a benevolent and kind insect to be their figurehead. Of course, there were many sub-groups within the clan that chose their own specific insects to focus on. The Chong Clan had also turned many of them into branch clans, using it as a method to spread their power around the Kingdom.

The whole of 10,000 Wave Province was covered with bodies of water. It had hundreds of lakes and over a dozen inland seas. It was on the east of Dou Kingdom, with an ocean at its edge. Flying Wind Province was to the north, Endless Valley Province was to the west, and Bronze Tiger Province had a sort of diagonal border with them to the southwest. Most of 10,000 Wave Province was a series of very large islands very close to each other, which is what gave its its name. Half of its counties were basically just the largest islands in the province. Even so, some of those ‘islands’ were the size of multiple european countries or large states back on earth.

Sage was mainly here to sell his spoils of war, but he could have also done the same just as effectively in the capital of Bronze Tiger Province, which was closer to Lionheart Town. He actually traveled the farther distance as he wanted to see for himself what the Chong Clan was like. Given that they seemed to have made little response to Jiang Hua destroying the Lang Clan, he wanted to see what they were made of. Were they merely too incompetent to catch the young Jiang Hua, or did they not care? What about the actions of the Fu Clan? From halfway across the Kingdom, their agents in 10,000 Wave Province almost completely annihilated the Lang Clan’s remnants without the Chong Clan stopping them. What sorts of politics or greater powers were involved? Sage had never heard of any public response to the complete destruction of the Lang Clan, so what happened?

Sage landed the Chameleon Mantis in a wooded area outside of Golden Cricket Cove. He stored it into the Universe Ring, since in this place if anyone saw it he would immediately be identified as a Clan member if he used it. Then he combined the ‘Mud Bath’ technique from the Little Birdy manual with the ‘Living Canvas’ technique to alter his features. Living Canvas on its own only changed the color of his hair, eyes, skin, and other body parts. The changes made it harder to pick him out of a crowd, but on close inspection his facial features would all be exactly the same, just colored differently. It was also more restrictive in that nearly everyone he’d met in this world were of an asian ethnicity. It limited the range of colors he could use without standing out too much. He had used it in the past to be blonde with blue eyes, but such a thing wasn’t impossible here. There were plenty of rich teenagers who liked to act wild, or unusual social groups who had uncommon interests.

The Mud Bath technique on the other hand used an alchemical process to mix up some crude prosthetics and makeup. He chose to alter some of his facial features with a few simple prosthetics, giving himself a larger nose and fatter cheeks. Then when he finished blending in the makeup to hide it, he altered his own skin complexion to match the makeup rather than the other way around. It made the disguise much more convincing, especially when he switched outfits to something a merchant or the butler of a powerful cultivator might wear. Conveniently, Hei Bai had hundreds of different costumes to choose from.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have a good bodyguard, carriage, or mount handy. If he used a Hoplite or Vulture Gecko it would mark him as coming from the Jade Horde. The same went for King and Wanqian Lei. King was a somewhat noticeable character from the Jade Horde, and Wanqian Lei certainly didn’t look like a bodyguard. He looked far more like a young master that Sage would have to pretend to serve. Worse yet, if he brought that kid out, Ruanfu would insist to come along and be treated as a Princess. Better to just do this alone.

Whatever, its just a few miles walking down the road.

Thankfully, the trip was uneventful. A few carriages rolled past him on their way into town, completely ignoring him. He only got a few weird looks by commoners walking out of Golden Cricket Cove. Sage was dressed too nicely to be trudging around on the road, or at least that’s what they thought. He actually overheard one of them whispering to another that Sage must have been robbed on the way. He wasn’t going to correct them.

At the city gates, Sage paid a few coins as an entrance fee and even the guards looked at him with some pity. He ignored the glances, but with that in mind he picked out a few destinations. The city itself was quite majestic, but also a bit disconcerting. The streets were all paved with cobblestones, but the stones had tiny metallic or crystalline flecks that made them glitter in the light. As if in stark contrast, the roof of every house was actually covered with grass, flowers, and other vegetation. It sort of felt like the world had flipped over, with grass in the sky and houses under the ground. Sage followed the flow of traffic into the first large intersection. At that point the somewhat raised and open square really gave him a great view. All the buildings had flat slanted roofs angled in the same direction. When looking in one direction Sage saw a sea of green like a grass field covered with small hills. Then, when he turned the other way he saw a metropolis with little splashes of green from vines and grasses poking off the tops of the buildings.

While enjoying the view, a boy or about ten or so years old came up to him, “Hey Mister, where do you need to go? I can take you there for,” the boy paused and looked at Sage’s somewhat road weary, but still expensive clothing before continuing, “Ten silver coins.”

Even Sage knew he was being ripped off by that price, but common currency didn’t mean much to him. He had thousands of gold coins in the Universe Ring, and a single Spirit Stone could be traded for many hundreds. Even so, if he gave the kid too much it could make him into a target. So, instead he just nodded, “Take me to the best Coachbuilder in town.”

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