Silence fell upon the entire mountain range. The previous thunderous region that was covered by storms was now devoid of it. The sunlight started to rise on the horizon and gave birth to a new day bringing an end to the slaughter.

Zhang Dong was hovering above a large crowd of people. His body was radiating an oppressive aura which was causing both sides to remain quiet.

After the three Supreme Saints were vanquished by him in a very flashy matter the fighting had stopped. The evil sect members were down on the ground cowering in fear.

When the top elders fell in battle the juniors knew that there was no way of surviving. Zhang Dong was also already on a level where he could single-handedly dispose of the rest of them. The only way of survival would be to scatter and hope that he would not be able to kill them all too fast.

‘Hm… some parts of the system seem to be back in working order but the most important one…’

Zhang Dong’s eyebrows furrowed as he went through his system window. The part involving his sect was the most important one and he was now looking at it. He hoped to see the information about his family there. They were part of his faction so the information should be there.

‘It’s all grayed out… Bob, do you know something?’

‘The system update was successful, some functions have a distance limit.’

‘I’m too far away from the sect?’

‘Affirmative.’

‘Could you update my map to show me how close I have to get?’

Soon Zhang Dong was looking at a holographic image of the world. He was on the other side of this empire and it would take quite some time to get back. His hopes of at least seeing the passage of time was also denied.

His faction-building part of the system showed him the ages of his followers. If he was able to see their age he would know if more than a year had passed as his memory of them was still strong.

‘Damn, I have to get all the way to the border… useless shitty system.’

Zhang Dong cursed out which caused a thunderous noise to escape from the heavens. The people below were looking cowered in fear and started to bow.

“Please senior, show mercy. We could not go against the wishes of the patriarch!”

“How dare you speak!”

Tengfei the sect Patriarch shouted out soon after. His trident was stained with the blood of his enemies, his bloodlust still not satiated. With the three strongest cultivators being busy with Zhang Dong he had killed most of the other Supreme Saints that were below the late stage all by himself. The man that was pleading for his life was the only one left alive now.

“Ah right, I forgot about you guys…”

Zhang Dong gave out a sigh, the most important functions of his system were not working. The teleportation option was also something that was activated when he was at the nascent soul level. Even if he got it now, he felt that it would also be out of range.

When he was in the Azure Dragon empire he did not find any limitations but that was only because he could not travel beyond it in the first place. His disciple window was also not working; everything had a range limit.

“Didn’t have a choice? There is always a choice.”

Zhang Dong finally started speaking, his body started shining as he descended from the heavens.

He was not a naive person, he knew very well that these people had blood on their hands. Even with that some of them were probably victims of their circumstances.

These demonic cults and evil sects had a way that they operated. Most of the time they would go pillaging through the villages stealing the young men and women away. They would sometimes use them for their strange experiments and the ones that proved themselves would be taken in as disciples.

Even with that, it was probably too late to save them. Their characters have been tempered by bloody battles and carnage. Taking such a person and trying to bring them back into the light would be quite the hard task, one that Zhang Dong didn’t feel like he would be able to go through with.

“Your lives may be spared…”

The pleading man’s eyes lit up at the motion of spearing their lives but soon they went wide after Zhang Dong continued.

“You all will give up your lives as cultivators and become mortals, you can continue living as servants.”

The cult members cried out in shock at this proposition. For a lot of people in this world losing one's cultivation was something worse than death. Living with no power in a world ruled by power was a sentence most cruel.

“But senior I implore you to reconsider, we could form a soul contract you may still have use for our cults powers!”

“A soul contract?”

There was that, it would force people to do your biddings. They would still have their cultivation but would be not able to go against the person hanging on to part of their soul. They would be nothing more than slaves but they would still be able to cultivate.

It was funny that the people here would rather become mindless slaves just to keep their small amount of power. Living as a farmer or a baker seemed like a worse deal to them.

Even the Patriarch from the Thunderball Hall seemed to be considering this proposition. It would be quite a boon to their sect if they could enslave thousands of cultivators. They would have a battle-hardened unit of cultivators that they could order to die for them.

It seemed like a good deal for everyone but Zhang Dong felt otherwise. There was no way of keeping tabs on all of these evil cultivators. How many people would they kill without getting an order to do so? What if they got aid from another sect and somehow regained their freedom? It was hard to do, but there were ways to counter these types of contracts.

It was far too dangerous to let them at large and Zhang Dong did not want to have more deaths on his conscience.

“No, you will become mortals. There is no need for your types to possess this amount of power.”

After saying that he pointed out with his finger. A thick ray of golden lightning energy shot out and at the halfway point down it split into many more rays of energy. All of these rays traveled towards their targets and connected with their dantians.

The people that were hit by these beams cried out in pain as they got hit. He was not able to just cripple everyone here, his power was not quite there yet. What he did was aim for the people that were around the Martial Saint and Supreme Saint realm. By holding them back with his soul core they weren’t resisting much.

“Cripple the rest, you come with me.”

He pointed out towards the Hall Patriarch while everyone was too afraid to raise their heads. With the strongest fighters now out of commission, this elder here was not needed.

“What do you need, great ancestor?”

The old man bowed his head and clasped his hands as he was beckoned over. Zhang Dong could tell that after healing this old man he was quite grateful. It was time for him to start his journey through the empire but for that, he needed more information.

“Yes, show me a detailed map of the empire and also take me to the sect’s treasury.”

It would be unwise for him to go unprepared. He had already burned through most of his spirit stones. Those he could recover after getting into this sect's treasury. He felt that after saving all of their lives a reward was in order.

He would not just drain the sect of all of their riches, only the items that would aid him in recovering his cultivation. Luckily this sect was concentrated in the lightning element, thus he had reason to believe that there would be many treasures involving his favorite element.

“Yes Great Ancestor, follow this junior.”

The Patriarch didn’t even react at the mention of the treasury. It seemed that he was fast to switch into the junior’s position after seeing Zhang Dong’s might. Clearly, he believed him to be the man that died inside that coffin.

The proof that this was untrue had been destroyed during Zhang Dong’s cultivation as the room he was in had exploded. The huge hole at the top of the tower was proof.

The Patriarch quickly guided Zhang Dong to the tower, the old man could also fly so he was the perfect guide. The inside of the tower looked a bit different as all of the illusory formations inside had been deactivated. Luckily the treasure room that was in the middle section was still there and well protected.

“I will bring the map of the empire promptly!”

“Mhm.”

Zhang Dong nodded as he was left in the treasure room. Compared to the White Tiger Clan that he had robbed, this place had much more. The spirit stones were of middle grade quality as well as of high quality. There were many earth grade weapons and even armor that he could use to quickly improve his body’s cultivation.

‘I should be able to reach the golden body easily with all of these, the spirit stones should help me boost my cultivation directly.”

He could also spot the thunder stones that he saw powering some of the buildings stored here. They were all promptly sucked into his new spatial ring that was quite spacious. Soon most of the high quality treasures and items made their way into it, when the Thunderball Hall Patriarch returned with the map he found a mostly empty treasure chamber.

“A..ancestor I have brought the map…”

It was clear that the old man was against this daylight robbery. He could not say or do anything about it, from his point of view the ancestor was the sect. Zhang Dong was someone above the Patriarch.

“Good, show me where those three sects are located that attacked us…”

“Ancestor… Do you intend to go there?”

Zhang Dong just nodded. He was not stupid enough to just start his journey when there was much more to be gained here. The strongest fighters from these three were now dead, the resistance that would be offered were minimal.

His plan was to clear out the three evil sects from their treasures and only then make his way back towards his empire. Even when he recovered his ability to fly it was slower than his nascent soul realm spread.

It would take him a month to reach the border, before that he could clear out these sects which would also protect this one from any more deaths.

“I will make it so that they won’t be able to retaliate but then I must set off on my own journey, I will leave the sect in your care.”

“B-but Ancestor…”

“This is my decision and this is what will happen.”

He replied in a stern voice which caused this Patriarch to shrink back in fright. It was time to finally set off and time to begin his journey back home.