“How much of the sect has been affected?”

“Not that much Patriarch, most of the destruction was spread through the city but the sect buildings have remained mostly intact.”

“Good.”

Zhang Dong nodded while walking together with a man that he hadn’t seen in a while. It was Zhang Kuo that was one of his trusted retainers. His cultivation had advanced into the middle core formation stage and his face didn’t change much even though he had aged by a whole five years.

At this moment in time, he was walking through the large halls of his own sect. While normally there would be many disciples running around, the halls remained mostly empty.

“So, all of the disciples have been evacuated to the dimensional regalia?”

“Yes Patriarch, Zhang Ya is with them along with a core group of elders.”

Thanks to the treasure that he had discovered on his travels the sect was able to evacuate all of their disciples. There was enough space in that pocket dimension to house everyone. The treasure took the form of a medallion so transporting it was rather rudimentary.

The person holding this treasure was inside a similar escape pod-like his children were. Just as they, the person holding the medallion had not yet left and been on standby. During the meeting of the elders, he would need to decide if they would be remaining here or if they would be moving towards a different destination.

“Well done.”

He nodded and was glad that the escape pods were still unused. When activated the tunnels would explode later on and the whole construction would have been unusable. All in all, they didn’t suffer that many casualties and were rewarded with the treasures in the spatial rings of the eleven nascent soul masters.

“Thank you, Patriarch!”

Kuo replied with vigor which took him by surprise. This man was usually the more cold and calculating type but after a while, he had also become a father which might have altered his way of thinking.

His own daughter was hard to peel off after he informed her about the elder meeting. For the time being, they were with their mother but he was to return to them as soon as possible. While little Xiu had opened up fully back to him, this wasn’t the same for his youngest Jun. It would probably take some time for the boy to open up to him but for now, it was fine for him to be healthy.

“Zhang Zhi, greets Patriarch.”

Before the large meeting hall stood Zhang Zhi with a large samurai sword strapped to his hip. Next to him was a somewhat large woman that looked like a battle-hardened amazon. This was the man’s wife who was also part of the old Feng Clan.

“Glad to see you, I have to thank you for taking care of the sect while I was away.”

“I am but a humble servant my lord, I did it all for the sect!”

It didn’t look that this man had gotten over Zhang Dong quite yet. Even now he could see that samurai lookalike’s eyes sparkling during their conversation. Normally Zhang Dong would only cringe at these sparkly eyes and try to hide but now after not sleeping his number one fan for so long, he didn’t mind.

“Keep up the good work then, maybe if we have some time I could impart a new technique to you.”

“I am unworthy of such praise!”

Zhang Zhi just lowered his head but Zhang Dong could tell that when he mentioned the improved technique the man became a bit giddy. Soon all four of them entered through the door and were greeted by a room filled with many sect elders. Everyone was already waiting for him and some of them had less than stellar looks on their faces.

“We greet the Patriarch.”

Huo Qiao called out from the side which made everyone bow their heads to Zhang Dong. This was someone that he hadn’t interacted much since the old days but it seemed that the old elder was still friendly with his friend Huo Qiang.

Both of them were sitting quite closely while Qiang’s father still looked rather uncomfortable. Even though he didn’t look like he approved, he did bow his head. Zhang Dong’s performance and boost in power spoke volumes and he could not be denied.

“I’m sure you’d like to know where I’ve been for all of those years but that will have to wait, we must decide on our next move.”

Everyone nodded as they knew that if they came to the wrong decision they would be eradicated.

“Hah, the moment senior brother returns all hell breaks loose, there is never a boring moment if you are there, I’m glad that you are back!”

Huo Qiang called out while laughing, it seemed that he wasn’t taking this that seriously. Even now he was not at full health after facing Elder Tong but this only made him itch for the next challenge.

“I’m glad to be back, I must thank you all for taking good care of the sect while I was away. Now let us discuss the matter at hand, does anyone want to make a proposition about our next step?”

While he was still the Patriarch and the decision-making was up to him, he always liked to hear out the people from his own sect. Their lives were at stake as well, even more than his as he had ways of hiding himself along with his family if he ever needed to.

“What can we do? We offended the Soaring Dragon Sect!”

One of the elders called out while the others nodded their heads.

“This is similar to the time when we offended the Dark Palm Sect!”

Zhang Zhi was the one that commented that from his point of view this was not the first time that they were against less than favorable odds.

“You want to compare the Dark Palm Sect to the Soaring Dragon Sect? It’s like comparing a toad to a phoenix!”

Soon the elders started to shout at each other as the opinions were somewhat split. While some still believed that there was hope to get out of this alive others wanted to flee. Zhang Dong remained silent for the time being as it had been a while since he had seen the elders be so rowdy.

“That’s enough.”

While normally he enjoyed when the oldies were at each other's throats this didn’t get them anywhere. They needed to make a decision and they needed to do it fast.

“I can see that at least you all agree on one issue, there is no peaceful resolution to this problem we face.”

Zhang Dong said as he noticed that no elder in the room made a proposition of bribing the Soaring Dragon Sect to appease their anger. Everyone here seemed to be in agreement that it would be strange if that sect just let things be after they killed so many prominent elders from their side.

“If I may speak, Patriarch?”

Huo Qiao spoke out and Zhang Dong just nodded with his head.

“Brothers and sisters, it might look dire but there is still hope. We have managed to push their assault, this was not a small force that the Soaring Dragon Sect had amassed, it is not something they can just ignore, they can not ignore our potential might!”

“Are you implying that the Soaring Dragon Sect will be fearful of us and not go through with an immediate attack?”

Zhang Dong asked as he was not sure what their enemies would try to do. Normally a huge force like that would not take something like this lying down. They killed ten of their late stage nascent soul masters and most of them fell to his blade.

On the other hand, they did manage to slay these ten monsters that each could be the Patriarch of their own middle sized sect. This showed people that the United Element Sect was to be feared.

Those middle sized sects in the region would probably not want to have anything to do with this conflict. They might even choose to flee instead of answering the call to arms that the Soaring Dragon Sect would normally send them.

“Not afraid but unable to.”

Huo Qiao continued with his train of thought.

“The Soaring Dragon Sect is but one of the powers that rule this empire, they still have to answer to both the Azure Emperor and The Heavenly Crane Sect.”

The Heavenly Crane Sect in particular could see this as a chance to strike. Ten late stage nascent soul masters didn’t just pop out of nowhere. It was clear that Wang Long miscalculated by bringing over such a big force.

It was clear that there were so many of them for the intimidation factor and they weren’t really planning on fighting. Even then those cultivators didn’t expect the amount of resistance that the United Element Sect offered.

“That is a possibility, the tunnels and facilities for the sect's evacuation are still undamaged.”

More people started talking, it seemed that even if they remained, all of the teleportation formations and intricate mechanisms for their escape were still in place. The defensive formation was still there and with Zhang Dong here now it could be fully utilized.

“We have two options, either we stay here or abandon the sect to a life of constant flight.”

Zhang Dong gave his opinion as well. While it wouldn’t be that hard to flee, that would be for the sect. It would be impossible to keep as one tight-knit group. They would probably split into two sides, one going with the Huo Clan while the other going with his side. Some might even try to establish their own small clans in the other sect territories.

By not staying together they would have no chance of ever fighting back if the Soaring Dragon Sect decided to search for them. On the other hand, it would be a lot easier to hide in smaller groups and they could infiltrate other cities and lay low.

While survival was more probable with the second option, they would never recover their old prestige nor would they be able to progress as cultivators as they did.

“Patriarch, do you believe that we have a fighting chance?”

Everyone looked to Zhang Dong, it was all up to him to decide. While the old him would have probably chosen flight, the man that he now was different.

“Yes, I do believe that we have a fighting chance… tell me, how many masters at the great circle of core formation do we have to spare?”

“Patriarch, do you mean?”

Zhang Dong nodded with a little grin on his face. While his system was not fully in working order with his new realm that was more powerful than the old one it gave him his old method of raising his people up. It had been five years since he was here, in that time his people had to have made some progress.

“Yes, the more the better, we will put the resources that were left to good use!”