A man with a bag over his head was being dragged through a narrow corridor. On the sides, there were steel doors with malnourished prisoners peeking out. Barely anyone was even looking through the small openings in the door, the will to live had long faded from their eyes.

The man was being dragged by two soldiers, their faces somewhat covered by pointy helmets. Both of them arrived at the end of this prison in a certain room.

“Senior, we have brought him over as you instructed…”

One of the men spoke out while he and his partner threw the passed-out person onto the floor.

“Good, is he still unconscious?”

“Yes senior.”

The old man with a red beard nodded while moving closer. In his hand, there was a sword and it looked like he was about to use it.

“I don’t know who you are, but for the prosperity of my White Tiger Clan you have to disappear.”

The man said in a monotone way while plunging his sword into the man’s chest. The man that the sword went through twitched slightly before he could feel the life leave his body.

“Hm…?”

This White Tiger Clan elder noticed that something was off. The way his sword went into the man’s body was strange. He saw him fight during the event, someone that was on the brink of the Martial Master realm should not be this soft.

He quickly sliced open the sack that was covering this man’s face. The first thing he noticed was the lack of white hair that the man at the arena was known for.

“What… isn’t this…”

The face that this now dead body had was something he recognized, it belonged to one of the guards that brought it in. The man quickly looked to the guards but only spotted one of them.

“Not showing any remorse…”

Before he could react a person grabbed him from behind. This person had a hellishly strong grip and put him in a chokehold almost instantly.

“I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you killed him instantly…”

An unfamiliar voice and a strength that went above anyone that should have been staying in this prison.

“Who are you? Do you really want to make enemies of the White Tiger Clan?”

The old man could feel the grip on his neck getting harder. He tried to activate his own Martial Master cultivation level that was at the late stage. Even when he did, he could not make the man budge the slightest.

“Enemies? Think we are long past that point…”

“Guhh...N-nooo...y-you…”

A peculiar crunching sound could be heard by the second ‘guardsman’ in this room. The strong senior before him stopped his struggles and his hands started flopping around without any strength in them.

The man that had killed this elder let go and removed his helmet. His appearance was the spitting image of the dead guard on the floor but soon it started to shift into this old man’s.

“I guess we will have to do it this way...”

Zhang Dong spoke out while now having the appearance of this White Tiger Elder. While going through the dead man’s clothes he thought to a few minutes before.

He had absorbed all of the slave collars that were in the room, this was enough to push his body refining into the silver body stage. The silver body put him on equal footing with a foundation establishment cultivator.

In these lands, a Martial Grandmaster would at most reach the power level of a foundation establishment cultivator at the great circle. This was also probably the level of the patriarch of this clan. He wasn’t that sure but it would align with how the smaller clans in his world worked.

A Martial Saint was equal to a core formation practitioner and the step into that realm would be a big bottleneck. This Clan was on the lower end of the totem pole. Thus he assumed that the enemy he would be going up against was a late stage Martial Grandmaster.

His plans weren’t to fight it out with the whole clan. They could have magical items that boosted their levels, maybe more of those beasts. It was nice to absorb all that electric energy but he could not fight a whole army, at least not yet.

Zhang Dong removed the old man’s clothes and put them on. Luckily he was wearing the more baggy robes which allowed him to fit his larger frame into them. The technique he was using only allowed him to shift his face for now.

Due to his low cultivation level, shifting his body shape was impossible. He was a bit taller than the man he replaced as well as packed on more meat. The baggy robe hid this fact slightly so he hoped he would be able to make his escape.

The man had a spatial ring with him, in it, he spotted something similar to spirit stones. Some weapons, other robes, pills, cultivation materials, and even some scriptures and manuscripts. He would need to examine them later as for now he only needed the sword that the man was using.

Spirit Steel Jian

Mortal low grade

The sword was your regular double-bladed design and the quality wasn’t all that great but it would have to do for now.

“H-how can I help, senior?”

While he was rummaging through this man’s belonging the other guardsman called out to him. This man belonged to the Snapping Turtle Clan. A few moments ago the two guards arrived to take him here. They were quickly knocked out and this man had the closest appearance to one of the other guards so he took him along.

The young lady that apparently came from the main family was now in charge. It seemed that she was putting her hopes on him now. Left with no way out he did look like the best option. They probably hoped that he would be enraged at the lack of respect and then the assassination attempt.

Zhang Dong didn’t fault his attackers for much. They were just trying to protect their own clan and thought this was the only way. He would not show mercy to people like this anymore though. He did not have enough strength to be lenient here, the man showed no mercy so he would not either.

“For now keep watch…”

He needed to think, the most troublesome part was now over. The elder that seemed to be the strongest person around was now gone and he defeated him without alerting the others. This gave him now the option of sneaking out of this dungeon.

No one would stop a high ranking elder and they would probably avert their eyes. The only problem would be the young master, if he ran into him, his cover might be blown.

Then there were the Snapping Turtle Clan members left in the cell. It would be easy to abandon them here and just sneak out by himself. Him getting out of the city would be almost assured if he just ignored them.

This was not how he lived his life though. This group of people aided him, they put bandages on his injured body. He might have died if they weren’t there so now he owed them.

“Hm…”

There was not much in this room, it looked to be an office where probably one of the guard captains resided in. For now, he stashed the body in a closet that had some weapons in it. He also found more keys, probably to the other cells and to the exit.

“Is there nothing else...what is that…”

There was a desk in this room, in it he found a map. It depicted this very dungeon along with some areas around it. He was versed in reading maps so he instantly spotted a few interesting things.

“There was an old sewer system that connected to this prison…”

Luck was on the side of the Snapping Turtle Clan as he found them a perfect escape route. This dungeon was built upon another structure that connected to some underground tunnels. It was time for a prison break.

What followed was a silent escape, after gaining the looks of an elite senior from the White Tiger Clan Zhang Dong could walk freely through this dungeon. Thanks to how it was built he was able to disable the guards without the others being able to notice them.

After about thirty minutes all of the guards that were on the level were out of commission. They were tossed into one of the cells without their weapons or any clothes. Those were given to the slaves that were strong enough to hold them.

“Great Senior please tell us your name!”

Xia Yanmei was now looking at the disguised Zhang Dong. The slaves that had their collars removed were now moving through a narrow hole in the wall that he made with a well-placed charged punch. It would lead them to a series of tunnels that ended at the edge of the city.

“Does Zhang Dong and United Element Sect ring a bell?”

He asked but the girl didn’t seem to know this name.

“Senior Dong from the United Element Sect? The Snapping Turtle Clan will remember this favor!”

Soon everyone had gone through the hole opening but Zhang Dong remained outside. Xia Yanmei and a few of their clansmen remained while looking at their savior. It seemed odd to them that he was not moving forward, it was as if he had other plans.

“Senior, you aren’t coming?”

“No… I need to figure out some things, this will be a good opportunity to gather some information.”

He replied while delivering a punch to the walls above this hole. The rubble covered up the escape route and would make it hard for anyone to follow after.

‘Well then, it’s you and me Bob.’

After giving out a sigh he headed up, he needed more information and that information could have been gotten in the White Tiger Clan. With his current incomplete disguise, he would have trouble moving freely. Thus before leaving there was one thing that he needed to do, reach the foundation establishment level!

He had noticed that this clan was versed in the dao of electricity. Even the doors here were electrified and would deliver small shocks to whoever touched them. With this in mind, he headed into a certain spot that he noticed on the prison schematics.

“It should be here…”

He pushed the large door open and inside he found the item in question.

Thunder Crystal

Mortal middle grade

This yellow crystal was in the middle of this room. It was floating around in a glass container to which many thick cables were connected to. This was this prison’s power source and the perfect item to further his cultivation.

During the breakout, he had already absorbed quite a lot of energy from the slave collars of all the prisoners that were here. This Thunder Crystal here was just the item he needed to complete his transformation.

“I’ve seen my disciples do this… it should not be that hard…”