Chapter 239: Little Birds
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Chapter 239: Little Birds
The Jade Horde continued to expand its influence. Given that he was recruiting mercenaries to do work as mercenaries, all he did was supply them with equipment and cannon fodder troops in the form of the Hoplites. Their bravery and resilience were exemplary, and their commanders treated them well. Sage had already started selecting and training his agents, with their first tasks being to investigate the other members of the Jade Horde. Sage hadnt had time to carefully check the background and qualifications of every new member, so this was a good first test for the agents as well as a check to root out any spies from other organizations. Every new member had to swear an oath to keep the secrets of the Horde, but secrets only pertained to a few important bits of information. Spies could still pass information about their movements or daily activities. Nobody would go around declaring each and every thing the squad did or was going to do as a secret. Without such a declaration, the oath wouldnt come into effect.
Very quickly, a dozen Jade Horde members at various ranks were rooted out. Only two of them were actual undercover operatives, the other ten were just those who had taken payment to share information with outsiders. Those ten werent harmed, instead they were moved into specific squads with agents as their commanders. They could be used to spread misinformation in the future. As for the two real spies, they were sent out on a series of increasingly dangerous missions. One of them was killed in action while the other tried to desert and was killed by his own squad in the process. Searching for infiltrators was a good test to promote agents and soon Sage had twenty hand picked members formed into a special squad for himself.
If they were just going to act as regular information gatherers, it would be a terrible idea to move them onto a special squad and then send them back out to other squads with no explanation. It would be a mystery that would draw much curiosity. The problem would lie with the reason for such a squad to be dissolved so rapidly, forming one wasnt an issue. Sage wasnt planning on sending these twenty agents back into the Jade Horde. Instead they were going to take on his role of selecting and training new agents. A few of them would stay with the Jade Horde to recruit and train internally, while the majority of them would head out into the world to build an information network. Ñ00v€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.
How to be a Little Birdy, was mostly about selection and training, but it also had five main techniques that Sage learned and then taught to the agents. As they were to be his trainers, he even created copies of How to be a Little Birdy, and the Beauty of Birds. Passing out the seemingly innocent childrens book and the huge scroll of bird related literature. They were quite easy to pass off as being something a bird lover would carry around.
The final technique was the most brutal, but a necessary evil. Birdbrain, a name which Sage was pretty sure got changed from some old technique to fit the theme, was a technique that a cultivator could use to selectively burn out a portion of their own memories. It was an ultimate method of protecting vital information from being discovered. The problem was that it didnt just target specific memories, but wiped clean the portion of the brain where it was stored. Any use of the technique would have collateral damage, and wasnt to be used lightly. In fact, if pushed to the limit it could be used as a suicide technique. All it took was targeting the portion of the brain that controlled the basic functions of the body and a cultivator could tell their heart to slow its beating to a crawl which would quickly lead to death. A powerful cultivator would be able to control their own body functions, but this was like disabling the autopilot. Then they just had to let go of the wheel and let death take them. Thankfully, Birdbrain was a voluntary technique that could only be used on oneself.
Teaching all five techniques in their entirety was very quick, meant to be possible over the course of a couple months even with just an hour of training once every few days. A prospective agent would only have to spend a few hours a week, barely disrupting their normal habits. Sage spent a few months with the twenty new agents, whom he called Falconers, before sending them out into the province to start recruiting agents, whom he called Falcons. Bartenders, Accountants, Shopkeepers, and other normal folk were then recruited by these Falcons and called agents. They collected rumors and then sent them up to their handlers, the name of agent was just to make them feel important. In the organization they called these people little birds.
Building an intelligence network wasnt cheap, and the majority of the earnings from the Jade Horde were put to use. The mercenaries thought these earnings were going to the Emerald Horde, and didnt think it was unusual. The race of demi-humans formed a mercenary team to make money. They didnt seem very smart so they used their talent for combat to earn money for their people. This was mostly true, especially considering most of the Hoplites had no idea of their origin. Their children each underwent a sort of baptism that transformed them from bugs into humanoids, but none of them even thought a thing about it. It was a secret they didnt even know they had, and most never even realized they couldnt share it. The ceremony that placed the Human Seal also included a seal to block speaking about it. Sage set it up so that half of the rewards going to the Jade Horde and the Hoplite Tribes were actually funneled to the two Falconers that worked within the Jade Horde and was then distributed to the rest of the information network.
In the span of a few years, they spread their wings over the whole of the Bronze Tiger Province and the information started to roll in.
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Chapter 239: Little Birds
The Jade Horde continued to expand its influence. Given that he was recruiting mercenaries to do work as mercenaries, all he did was supply them with equipment and cannon fodder troops in the form of the Hoplites. Their bravery and resilience were exemplary, and their commanders treated them well. Sage had already started selecting and training his agents, with their first tasks being to investigate the other members of the Jade Horde. Sage hadnt had time to carefully check the background and qualifications of every new member, so this was a good first test for the agents as well as a check to root out any spies from other organizations. Every new member had to swear an oath to keep the secrets of the Horde, but secrets only pertained to a few important bits of information. Spies could still pass information about their movements or daily activities. Nobody would go around declaring each and every thing the squad did or was going to do as a secret. Without such a declaration, the oath wouldnt come into effect.
Very quickly, a dozen Jade Horde members at various ranks were rooted out. Only two of them were actual undercover operatives, the other ten were just those who had taken payment to share information with outsiders. Those ten werent harmed, instead they were moved into specific squads with agents as their commanders. They could be used to spread misinformation in the future. As for the two real spies, they were sent out on a series of increasingly dangerous missions. One of them was killed in action while the other tried to desert and was killed by his own squad in the process. Searching for infiltrators was a good test to promote agents and soon Sage had twenty hand picked members formed into a special squad for himself.
If they were just going to act as regular information gatherers, it would be a terrible idea to move them onto a special squad and then send them back out to other squads with no explanation. It would be a mystery that would draw much curiosity. The problem would lie with the reason for such a squad to be dissolved so rapidly, forming one wasnt an issue. Sage wasnt planning on sending these twenty agents back into the Jade Horde. Instead they were going to take on his role of selecting and training new agents. A few of them would stay with the Jade Horde to recruit and train internally, while the majority of them would head out into the world to build an information network. Ñ00v€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.
How to be a Little Birdy, was mostly about selection and training, but it also had five main techniques that Sage learned and then taught to the agents. As they were to be his trainers, he even created copies of How to be a Little Birdy, and the Beauty of Birds. Passing out the seemingly innocent childrens book and the huge scroll of bird related literature. They were quite easy to pass off as being something a bird lover would carry around.
The final technique was the most brutal, but a necessary evil. Birdbrain, a name which Sage was pretty sure got changed from some old technique to fit the theme, was a technique that a cultivator could use to selectively burn out a portion of their own memories. It was an ultimate method of protecting vital information from being discovered. The problem was that it didnt just target specific memories, but wiped clean the portion of the brain where it was stored. Any use of the technique would have collateral damage, and wasnt to be used lightly. In fact, if pushed to the limit it could be used as a suicide technique. All it took was targeting the portion of the brain that controlled the basic functions of the body and a cultivator could tell their heart to slow its beating to a crawl which would quickly lead to death. A powerful cultivator would be able to control their own body functions, but this was like disabling the autopilot. Then they just had to let go of the wheel and let death take them. Thankfully, Birdbrain was a voluntary technique that could only be used on oneself.
Teaching all five techniques in their entirety was very quick, meant to be possible over the course of a couple months even with just an hour of training once every few days. A prospective agent would only have to spend a few hours a week, barely disrupting their normal habits. Sage spent a few months with the twenty new agents, whom he called Falconers, before sending them out into the province to start recruiting agents, whom he called Falcons. Bartenders, Accountants, Shopkeepers, and other normal folk were then recruited by these Falcons and called agents. They collected rumors and then sent them up to their handlers, the name of agent was just to make them feel important. In the organization they called these people little birds.
Building an intelligence network wasnt cheap, and the majority of the earnings from the Jade Horde were put to use. The mercenaries thought these earnings were going to the Emerald Horde, and didnt think it was unusual. The race of demi-humans formed a mercenary team to make money. They didnt seem very smart so they used their talent for combat to earn money for their people. This was mostly true, especially considering most of the Hoplites had no idea of their origin. Their children each underwent a sort of baptism that transformed them from bugs into humanoids, but none of them even thought a thing about it. It was a secret they didnt even know they had, and most never even realized they couldnt share it. The ceremony that placed the Human Seal also included a seal to block speaking about it. Sage set it up so that half of the rewards going to the Jade Horde and the Hoplite Tribes were actually funneled to the two Falconers that worked within the Jade Horde and was then distributed to the rest of the information network.
In the span of a few years, they spread their wings over the whole of the Bronze Tiger Province and the information started to roll in.
Chapter 239: Little BirdsThe Jade Horde continued to expand its influence. Given that he was recruiting mercenaries to do work as mercenaries, all he did was supply them with equipment and cannon fodder troops in the form of the Hoplites. Their bravery and resilience were exemplary, and their commanders treated them well. Sage had already started selecting and training his agents, with their first tasks being to investigate the other members of the Jade Horde. Sage hadnt had time to carefully check the background and qualifications of every new member, so this was a good first test for the agents as well as a check to root out any spies from other organizations. Every new member had to swear an oath to keep the secrets of the Horde, but secrets only pertained to a few important bits of information. Spies could still pass information about their movements or daily activities. Nobody would go around declaring each and every thing the squad did or was going to do as a secret. Without such a declaration, the oath wouldnt come into effect.Very quickly, a dozen Jade Horde members at various ranks were rooted out. Only two of them were actual undercover operatives, the other ten were just those who had taken payment to share information with outsiders. Those ten werent harmed, instead they were moved into specific squads with agents as their commanders. They could be used to spread misinformation in the future. As for the two real spies, they were sent out on a series of increasingly dangerous missions. One of them was killed in action while the other tried to desert and was killed by his own squad in the process. Searching for infiltrators was a good test to promote agents and soon Sage had twenty hand picked members formed into a special squad for himself. If they were just going to act as regular information gatherers, it would be a terrible idea to move them onto a special squad and then send them back out to other squads with no explanation. It would be a mystery that would draw much curiosity. The problem would lie with the reason for such a squad to be dissolved so rapidly, forming one wasnt an issue. Sage wasnt planning on sending these twenty agents back into the Jade Horde. Instead they were going to take on his role of selecting and training new agents. A few of them would stay with the Jade Horde to recruit and train internally, while the majority of them would head out into the world to build an information network. N00vl--1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.How to be a Little Birdy, was mostly about selection and training, but it also had five main techniques that Sage learned and then taught to the agents. As they were to be his trainers, he even created copies of How to be a Little Birdy, and the Beauty of Birds. Passing out the seemingly innocent childrens book and the huge scroll of bird related literature. They were quite easy to pass off as being something a bird lover would carry around. The final technique was the most brutal, but a necessary evil. Birdbrain, a name which Sage was pretty sure got changed from some old technique to fit the theme, was a technique that a cultivator could use to selectively burn out a portion of their own memories. It was an ultimate method of protecting vital information from being discovered. The problem was that it didnt just target specific memories, but wiped clean the portion of the brain where it was stored. Any use of the technique would have collateral damage, and wasnt to be used lightly. In fact, if pushed to the limit it could be used as a suicide technique. All it took was targeting the portion of the brain that controlled the basic functions of the body and a cultivator could tell their heart to slow its beating to a crawl which would quickly lead to death. A powerful cultivator would be able to control their own body functions, but this was like disabling the autopilot. Then they just had to let go of the wheel and let death take them. Thankfully, Birdbrain was a voluntary technique that could only be used on oneself. Teaching all five techniques in their entirety was very quick, meant to be possible over the course of a couple months even with just an hour of training once every few days. A prospective agent would only have to spend a few hours a week, barely disrupting their normal habits. Sage spent a few months with the twenty new agents, whom he called Falconers, before sending them out into the province to start recruiting agents, whom he called Falcons. Bartenders, Accountants, Shopkeepers, and other normal folk were then recruited by these Falcons and called agents. They collected rumors and then sent them up to their handlers, the name of agent was just to make them feel important. In the organization they called these people little birds. Building an intelligence network wasnt cheap, and the majority of the earnings from the Jade Horde were put to use. The mercenaries thought these earnings were going to the Emerald Horde, and didnt think it was unusual. The race of demi-humans formed a mercenary team to make money. They didnt seem very smart so they used their talent for combat to earn money for their people. This was mostly true, especially considering most of the Hoplites had no idea of their origin. Their children each underwent a sort of baptism that transformed them from bugs into humanoids, but none of them even thought a thing about it. It was a secret they didnt even know they had, and most never even realized they couldnt share it. The ceremony that placed the Human Seal also included a seal to block speaking about it. Sage set it up so that half of the rewards going to the Jade Horde and the Hoplite Tribes were actually funneled to the two Falconers that worked within the Jade Horde and was then distributed to the rest of the information network.In the span of a few years, they spread their wings over the whole of the Bronze Tiger Province and the information started to roll in.
