Zhang Dong hovered in the air while looking down at his opponents. One of them was quite handsome for his age but he could tell that the man was using a disguising technique. Below it he could see a face that only a mother could love.

Behind him, there were the shouts of many people. The battle had reached its focal point and to end it he would need to end these three old farts.

“If you surrender, I promise to only cripple your cultivations and you may live the rest of your lives atoning for your sins.”

“Surrender? It’s you who should surrender, I don’t know who you are but you can not defeat all of us. Now brothers, let us destroy this man and claim what is ours!”

The man that looked younger than the rest proclaimed while the other two just nodded. He knew that there was no use trying to bargain with these types but he liked to give people an option.

“Is that so, well then…”

Zhang Dong pointed out with his finger and behind him, a circle of magic appeared. It was followed by many more such circles which riddled the sky behind him in a mass of bright lights.

“Mass Lightning Arrow.”

From the magic circles, a scorn of magical lightning arrows was produced. This was one of the many magical techniques he had learned from the other world. It could very well be used with Qi as a replacement for mana and actually required less energy while still packing a lot of damage.

The three stooges were in the process of chanting a strange ritualistic spell as well. The moment the swarm of bright blue lightning bolts descended on them a dark purple shield appeared before them.

This shield looked to be holding out fine but this soon changed as the onslaught of lightning bolts descended onto them.

“How could he attack for so long…”

The arrow rain was without mercy and the magical circles remained in place. Soon the three men inside the barrier started sweating. It was clear to them that they might not be able to outlast this enemy and drastic measures needed to be taken.

Zhang Dong just looked at them while being calm. This was mostly a test of his new cultivation realm that he had achieved. He was still not used to the three cores inside of him and how they could work independently from each other.

While he was contemplating his move the three demonic cultivators acted. They chose to overload their protective shield and cause it to explode. This caused a massive burst of evil energies to be exuded into the surrounding area.

Plants and insects that were in the close vicinity all died instantly. The whole place was covered by a strange greenish mist that even enveloped Zhang Dong’s body.

Even then he remained calm. It was clear that this was something akin to a smokescreen that these cultivators used to surprise their opponents. Any regular cultivator would be forced to retreat in fear of being poisoned by this miasma.

Zhang Dong on the other hand instead of running he activated his golden core. A radiant glow of holy energy covered his entire body. There was a certain lack of lightning energies surrounding his body.

Now with his golden core being separated, he did not need to use lightning along with his holy energies. This would save him much energy which could be better attuned to his needs.

“Oh no, not the dark mist, what will I do now…”

He chuckled a bit as the poison and evil energies could not penetrate through this thin layer of holy energy. It would be easy to just remove it almost instantly but if he did that, then the enemies would not come to him by their own volition.

Soon the first took the bait as he raised his hand up and added some lightning energies to his palm. With this raised palm a bladed weapon connected, this weapon looked to be a pitch-black battle scythe.

“You demonic types sure like those scythes of yours… wouldn’t a spear or halberd be much more proficient?”

“How did you…”

The cultivator’s eyes went wide as his sneak attack was blocked by Zhang Dong’s palm. Even though his bodily cultivation was still at the silver body level he could block attacks like these by surrounding his body parts with concentrated Qi instead.

This was one of the more basic protective techniques but also one of the hardest to do during the heat of the battle. The cultivator needed to focus on the direct moment of impact. If they timed it badly they would suffer dearly for it.

“I guess you will be the first one.”

The other two cultivators were not far away, one was below while the other one was above him. Before they could finish their combination attack, Zhang Dong grasped the scythe with his hand.

His eyes started glowing with lightning energy which he then quickly discharged everywhere. Most of it went into the metallic item he was holding. The old man that was grasping it was quickly shocked by a mix of lightning and holy energies.

Both him and the evil cultivator lit up like a bright star and caused all of the mist to be consumed by the light. The two men that were trying to attack him from two sides were forced back and had to use defensive trinkets to protect themselves.

“One down, two to go…”

“What!?”

After the bright light subsided they could see their ally’s charred body. It soon started crumbling into dust as it was incinerated by the lightning energies.

“Blast you Ying! This was not part of the deal, I did not come here to die!”

The ones that remained were the Poison Cult master and one of his friends. This friend was clearly not too keen on remaining here anymore. This was one of the most common traits of these types of people.

They were strong against weak people but their confidence quickly crumbled at any sign of resistance. They would not put themselves in harm's way to help their allies, sooner they would plunge a dagger in their back so that they would have more time to flee.

“No brother, we must fight together if we don’t…”

“Screw you, you are no brother of mine!”

Zhang Dong looked at the two men fighting in front of him. They were quick to blame each other and clearly none of them was concerned about their other allies' death.

Ying was unable to convince this man who tossed out some items towards Zhang Dong. Some turned into strange creatures that flew towards his way, while others created more poisonous smoke.

“I might have overestimated your strength or I might be stronger than I originally thought.”

He gave out a sigh and released a new aspect of his aura into the surrounding area. It wasn’t very flashy as there was a certain lack of a golden aura around him. Instead, his body was covered by a dim transparent glow.

The creatures that were attacking him found themselves dropping down from the sky as if a mountain was weighing down on them.

“Wh-what is this…”

“How could someone like this have been hidden away in the Thunderball Hall?”

“Please, senior, I didn’t have anything to do with this. It was all that Ying, he made me do it! Show mercy!”

After the dust was cleared both of the cultivators were seen down on the ground. They were grasping their chest in the spot where their heart was. They could not move and breathing came hard as they were being successfully suppressed by Zhang Dong’s soul core.

This core in particular allowed Zhang Dong to affect other people's souls. Soul arts were a forgotten art and very few texts existed on how to harness the power of the soul. Thus for him, that had this soul core it was easy to directly attack his opponent's immortal souls.

With no knowledge as to how to protect themselves, he could disable people that were even at his level. Only much stronger opponents could ever hope to protect themselves from such attacks. It was more or less an advanced version of a suppression attack that would allow him to never have to bother with weaker opponents.

“Your types are quick to change your tune at the drop of the hat, I gave you a chance to surrender.”

His opponents were now defenseless and before him. They were unable to fight back as he was successfully suppressing their souls. If this was the old Zhang Dong then he might have been merciful but after years of struggles, he was not so kind.

“You have killed many and you would kill more if you were left amongst the living, I shall give you a quick death.”

He began concentrating and thought back to one of the techniques he discovered in the spatial ring. It was very similar to one of his old moves that he was unable to do because of the lack of a nascent soul.

Zhang Dong clasped his hands together and his body was surrounded by a deep blue light. This light soon expanded while being followed by crackling thunder and lightning.

It started as a small circle but soon turned to a hundred meters in diameter. Then with a burst of lightning, a draconic head emerged from within. On this head, Zhang Dong was standing proudly.

Soon a huge lightning dragon could be spotted by everyone in the vicinity, its howls filling everyone with fear.

“N-no, I can not die here…”

“No please, what do you want? Spirit stones? Virgins? I can give you all, I will pledge my life to you senior, just let me live.”

Zhang Dong didn’t answer while the man pleaded. The time for talking was over as the dragon opened his mouth. A large ball of electricity formed in front of its maw and continued to increase in size.

“I hope you can find solace in your next life…”

The lightning dragon’s breath descended on the ground and the two disabled cultivators. The massive burst of energy almost instantly disintegrated both of them into atoms while producing a giant explosion.

The fight between the sects came to a stop as none of them were able to move a muscle while under this lightning dragon’s aura.

“Well then.”

Zhang Dong looked down to the giant hole that he blasted with the help of this lightning dragon. It was not quite the same as his soul beast but could be used during his core formation days.

He finally turned back to the Thunderball Sect, it was time to clear things out with the locals and then finally try going back home. With the increase in his cultivation, his system was revitalized, maybe now he could teleport back and see his family...