“Is this information correct?”

“Yes Patriarch, our spies have been on the site of the incident and this information is slowly spreading through the Soaring Dragon Sect’s lands…”

“Is that so… you can leave.”

“As you command, Patriarch!”

Zhang Dong looked at an information jade with the intelligence report of what transpired at the Soaring Dragon Sect. It had been already two weeks since the incident with Wang Long and to this day he did not return.

The preparations that his sect was performing for another battle seemingly went to waste as one of the big three was no more. It was all in this report, the place where the sect used to stand was nothing more than a ghost town.

It was apparently covered in some dark demonic energy that was hard to pass. The scouts from his sect had fake identities as members of some local clans or merchants. They couldn’t get too close due to their lack of cultivation but the word was spreading fast.

It was clear to Zhang Dong that this had been something orchestrated by his fellow earthling, Wang Long.

‘That bastard must have switched to demonic arts to quickly increase his cultivation…’

He was aware of what his counterpart was doing. The system shop was known to him and he had gone through its sections to know what kind of abilities Wang Long picked up.

While he had ignored that certain demonic art section, Wang Long certainly didn’t. Those arts allowed a person to suck away their opponent's vitality while making part of it their own.

These arts were clearly designed to level up faster if a person didn’t have any moral qualm in killing everything around themselves. These abilities incentivized wanton slaughter but also became weaker if the user didn’t perform enough heinous acts.

Being a person that likes to sleep at night he ignored that section of the system shop. He went in the opposite direction with the holy arts and his current divine cultivation method.

‘Previously that idiot had a similar cultivation method as I did before, he just went with the more offensive lightning variant…How many spirit points did he have to spend to totally redo his own cultivation?’

This was probably another reason why Wang Long went with the demonic cultivator variant. As he stood before he wouldn’t be able to harm Zhang Dong with any lightning-based attacks. On the other hand, Zhang Dong didn’t have any way to absorb evil dark energy which Wang Long was probably using.

Holy arts and Dark arts were opposite to each other. While he could purify demonic beings and was resistant to the corrosive nature of those energies, it was the same for Dark practitioners.

Wang Long would be able to counter his holy Qi with his newly gained dark Qi. In the end, the stronger one would win as both of these energies countered each other. That is if he ever got to fight him as it stood now there was no sign of the murderous young master that had caused the demise of his own sect.

“They are starting to call him the demonic dragon.”

While Zhang Dong was thinking Zhang Jin commented from the side. His wife and his red-haired friend Huo Qiang were also there as well as a certain granny that used to look like a baked potato. Ever since she stepped through into the nascent soul level her looks got revitalized.

A nascent soul master could live up to a thousand years. Sometimes longer if they used life-improving techniques. Whenever one that was old made it through this cultivation wall they regained some of their previous looks. It wasn’t that much but the old woman now looked

more as if she was in her late fifties than the late seventies as she did before.

“Do we need to be worried about this renegade? The whole empire will be after him, he will have to escape to the fringes of the empire unless he wants to be chased till the end of his life.”

Zhang Jin continued as he saw this as an absolute win. From his perspective, the sect was the true enemy that they needed to face. With it gone, the single demonic cultivator didn’t pose much of a threat.

“That would be nice but I don’t think our little demonic friend will be that easy to find…”

In Zhang Dong's mind, it was safer when Wang Long acted in a larger group as his location was known. Now on the other hand he would be impossible to find as he also had access to a myriad of disguising techniques that the system store could give him.

“Does he possess a similar technique to the one that you taught me?”

Zhang Dong nodded at Zhang Jin’s question which made the old man rethink his old stance.

“But even if he can hide, not like he can get through into our sect while you are here, isn’t that right Dong’er?”

“I should be able to detect his presence if he ever entered the range of our sect, that is true but…”

While it was true that his faction system was able to detect invaders he had to actually be here for that to work. Then there was the problem of his enemy being able to farm an almost unlimited number of spirit points by killing the citizens of this empire.

If he just decided to bunker up then Wang Long could reach an immense amount of power. If he could contend with such a strong demonic cultivator was not something he wanted to bet his trust into. His new cultivation was kind of strange and he wasn’t sure how to progress it without absorbing an astronomical amount of spirit stones, souls, and lightning energy.

“Is there something bothering you, my husband?”

Asked his wife as she was not really aware of Wang Long’s strange system. To them, the enemy would need to hide himself for many years for this to blow over. Even if he was to emerge with the current state of their sect there was nothing to fear.

“You worry too much senior brother, with so many elders achieving a breakthrough, not even the Azure Emperor could take us likely!”

Huo Qiang also put in a word in this small tactical meeting. He continued to help the elders with their breakthroughs and now they possessed a large force to be reckoned with.

“I’m not sure if having these many nascent soul elders will be such an asset if this Wang Long is in the picture.”

“What do you mean by this?”

They asked while Zhang Dong started explaining.

“We aren’t going against a simple foe, Wang Long possesses a strange technique that allows him to absorb the strength of the enemies that he slays. Through this he can reach new heights in a short amount of time, this is also why he was able to eradicate a huge sect like that so quickly.”

The reports that they were getting didn’t really mention how the young master managed to destroy the whole sect. They could only speculate that he had prepared some demonic ritual beforehand or that he was some old monster in disguise that devoured the sect from inside while the Patriarch was at the meeting with the Azure Emperor.

Zhang Dong knew the truth though, he had done it mostly by brute-forcing his way and getting spirit points from killing all those elders. The new demonic cultivation helped but it was all thanks to the system that he was able to do it quickly.

Now his own United Element Sect had a large number of nascent soul masters. He knew that if he just let them fly around the empire they would just be harvested for spirit points by his enemy.

“Such a technique exists? He must have really made a pact with some kind of demon… or might he be some kind of demonic rebirth?”

While the others speculated he just nodded as he was really unsure of what he should do. Either he would remain here and help his sect members get stronger or he needed to head out to hunt this monster down.

The new improved cultivation that he had made him stronger than a regular great circle nascent soul master. His opponent managed to slay the Soaring Dragon Sect’s Patriarch who was one of the most praised masters in the whole empire.

Demonic arts were quite strong against traditional cultivators. Zhang Dong that was able to not be affected by a large chunk of those techniques would have a better chance than someone that wasn’t versed in the holy arts, even when they were slightly stronger than him.

“The sect formation has been reinforced and the elders are progressing, I will aid them in materializing their soul beasts but then…”

He stopped himself while looking at his wife. While he wanted to head out in search of this demon before it was too late, he was still a father. What if he died or was wounded in the process of his chase? What if his sect that was looking suspicious was attacked by the two other leftover powerhouses in the empire.

Wang Long was a big threat but there was also the Azure Emperor and the Heavenly Crane sect that he needed to watch out for. With how they were able to counter the Soaring Dragon Sect’s attack they had also gained infamy. Wang Long’s name was spreading like wildfire but so was his.

Even though they wanted to keep it hidden word spread that Wang Long set out to the United Element’s Sect. A lot of people saw the parade of flying ships going to one location but they never made it back. It didn’t take them long to put two and two together.

The name Wang Long was infamous throughout this empire. Many beauties fell to this man’s lustful ways and never made it back to their own homes. Now that Wang Long was a wanted man, people weren’t afraid to make their run-ins with him public.

Even now he was getting reports of people popping up even in his own region that had a bone to pick with him. People even started to pull in a reward for anyone that would be willing to take the demonic cultivator out. Wang Long was slowly becoming the most notorious criminal throughout the whole empire.

“First let me help the elders with their soul beast, then we’ll decide on our next step.”

He rubbed his chin and was about to stand up from his chair but without warning, Zhang Kuo burst in through the door. Before he could be reprimanded by the people inside, he started shouting out.

“Patriarch you must forgive me for my rudeness but this is the direst situation. The … The Azure Emperor wishes to speak with you!”