‘Well, this is an interesting turn of events… I have to go, don’t I?’

Zhang Dong was sitting in his office that had managed to survive the last attack on the Sect. On his table was an actual parchment that was handwritten with quite the formal invitation. The place that he was invited to was the Azure Emperor citadel, a huge castle in the middle of this country.

His own little sect ground was at the far reaches of this whole empire. It was a place mostly ignored by other sects and only with his knowledge he had turned it into a high quality cultivation spot.

This was all thanks due to the large spirit vein that they were harnessing down under this ground. They had managed to keep this secret under wraps and didn’t suffer any attacks from the other sects.

The Azure Emperor’s castle was right under a similar spiritual vein. He and the other large sects were in close proximity to it. All three of them had divided this spot amongst each other while also placing a huge dividing wall in between their lands. Due to this barricade, the other sects were not aware of the Soaring Dragon Sect’s fall until it was too late.

‘Is this going to be another trap or are they trying to seek a new ally?’

From Zhang Dong’s perspective, he was being called over there for the sole reason of being able to defend himself from the abrupt attack. They were also the last faction to be in contact with Wang Long before he lost his marbles.

‘Could they be thinking that I did something to Wang Long that made him turn into a demonic cultivator or something?’

This would be a dire situation for him and the whole sect. If the other two giants got the idea that he was somewhat able to turn someone into a demonic cultivator, they could try to eradicate them. There was no proof that something like that happened though so it was somewhat a far-fetched idea.

‘I still need to have some kind of escape strategy… there is no telling what these cultivators will blow out of proportions.’

Strength was still paramount in this world. If they judged him to be a threat to them, they could come up with any strange excuse for conflict. As long as they looked like the just side they could go through with an attack. He would not be surprised if he found himself in some trapped formation after he arrived at the Azure Emperor's house.

‘Though if they are planning to capture me, they will probably strike before I get close to their base.’

From his perspective the two leftover superpowers weren’t yet taking him seriously. This would be something to measure his and his sect’s worth. Thus if he managed to arrive at the castle he would probably be safe as he didn’t think that the Azure Emperor would bring an active threat over to his own throne room. That is unless he was trying to lure him into his home ground and was seriously thinking of taking him out right there.

‘I still have my escape feature, I should be able to escape from there even if they activate some trapping formations, isn’t that right, Bob?’

‘Affirmative.’

‘You sure haven’t been talking much lately or have been that useful since I got back to my sect…’

Bob his AI partner, didn't seem to do much besides answering his rudimentary questions. Then when he asked something more specific he never did seem to have a proper answer. In the world of sword and magic, he was more helpful.

This was somewhat understandable as Bob was a new function of his system. His system was depowered after a while and even with his new cultivation realm, it wasn’t quite recovered.

“Your thoughts?”

“You mustn't go, it must be a trap!”

Replied his lovely wife that had also gone through the letter.

“That’s a possibility but we can’t go against the Azure Emperor’s wishes, his decrees are final in this Empire and you know this.”

Commented Zhang Jin as a rebuttal to Zhang Liena’s outcry. It was clear to the old man that after Zhang Dong had returned his wife didn’t wish for him to leave again.

“I don’t like to agree with the old fart but there is not much that we can do…”

“Not you too granny…”

Feng Maling was also here as she was part of the family. He had asked all three of them to come here as he needed to reach a decision. The letter stated that he was to come alone and that after he arrived at the capital city he would be escorted by someone inside.

“If I don’t go they will see it as treason, I’m not sure our sect can handle Wang Long and both the Azure Emperor’s wrath at the same time.”

While the Soaring Dragon Sect was gone, there was always the danger of Wang Long popping up unannounced. This would be a good chance to get some friends in high places. If he could somehow get the strongest cultivator in the Empire to aid him, it would be very reassuring.

“But what if they throw you into a dungeon, try to torture you for information, what if…”

“Liena please stop, I get it… but I don’t think I can talk myself out of this.”

Zhang Dong stood up from his seat and moved over to his worried wife.

“If I don’t do this we will be forced into a defensive battle with the whole Empire, if there is a chance for a diplomatic resolution of our problem, don’t you think that we should try?”

“But…”

“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t trust that Azure Emperor either I’m not going in blind, if something happens I intend to escape.”

“You intend to escape from the Azure Citadel? I know that you have improved since you were gone, but even you wouldn’t be able to take the whole Long clan on…”

Added Zhang Jin as he wasn’t convinced that his great-grandson would be able to easily escape from.

“Do you remember the time you encountered that elder from the Dark Palm sect?”

“Elder Ming?”

“Yes, that one, what do you think of my arrival at that time?”

“Yes, you did materialize through a strange portal...”

Zhang Jin looked at Zhang Dong with a raised eyebrow as he tried to recall that encounter. His grandson did somewhat appear in a strange fashion through an even more mysterious portal. It did not seem to require any formation to work but he rationalized it by his grandson’s crafting knowledge.

“Do you mean?”

“Yes, I do have a way of escaping and now I don’t really need a portal.”

To convince his family that he would be fine he decided to bring out a monitor that was thankfully in his office. On it, he brought up a room where his disciple Zhang Xue and his children were.

“Can you see that doll little Xiu is holding?”

The screen was quite large and the group of adults could clearly see a very intricately made doll that looked like a small jade beauty in Zhang Xiu’s hand.

“Yes, I see it but what do you intend to…”

Before Zhang Jin could ask the question Zhang Dong vanished from the spot before him. Liena and him flinched a bit as they could tell that he used some strange technique to disappear.

They started looking around and soon discovered that the screen was showing another person. This person was Zhang Dong and he was waving at the camera.

“I didn’t feel that any Qi was used, how did he do that?”

The life in the sect had been somewhat peaceful so Zhang Dong never had to use the system’s teleportation feature before. It was a waste of spirit points as he could already fly and travel anywhere within minutes. Thus his wife had never experienced him teleporting anywhere in such a fashion and was also confused.

“Here, Xiu’er said that she wanted to eat some cookies also here.”

Before the people inside Zhang Dong’s office could speculate on how he got in the room where his daughter was, he returned.

“Hm?”

Liena looked down at the item that her husband was holding and recognized it as the toy that her daughter was playing with. This little demonstration demonstrated his teleportation ability which he intended to use if he ever needed to escape.

“I don’t require gates to teleport, if there is trouble I will instantly flee before they can activate any trap formations. Even if they do, this technique isn’t affected by regular teleportation jammers.”

Teleportation wasn’t something new in this world and there were ways to insulate buildings from such techniques. This didn’t take the system’s feature into consideration as it could go through such places with a small increase to the spirit points it required.

“I plan to use the Argonaut for this journey. The ship will stay afloat outside the Long Clan’s land and if something falls through during that meeting I will escape into the ship.”

He started explaining that his technique had some limitations and he would be able to escape into his flag ship. He didn’t go into detail but thanks to his faction system he was able to teleport himself to large flagships like the Argonaut.

The closer it was to him the fewer points he would need to escape. He had no idea how many anty-teleportation formations the Azure Emperor had so he needed to lower the spirit point cost to the absolute minimum.

“I hope that this will give you some peace of mind.”

Liena looked at the doll in her hand and had to agree that it was the one that her daughter was using. Soon a consensus was reached of him going into the lion’s den.

He was to leave quickly as the meeting was in a week. With the Argonaut’s speed, this would be about the amount of time that he would require to get there. Even with the ship's high speed, the Empire was huge and traveling was still a hassle.

After getting everything ready he started packing. Zhang Liu would be coming with him on the voyage as he was also someone that he could teleport to. On the off chance that something went wrong with the faction teleportation feature, he would go with the portal he had used all those years before.

“Take care.”

“I will.”

Without alerting their children and while keeping the fact that the Azure Emperor gave a decree to meet with Zhang Dong he boarded the ship.

‘I hope this goes well, why can’t I ever catch a break…’

Zhang Dong frowned as he thought his luck was abysmal. People in this world could live for a thousand years and everything that has happened to him didn’t even take ten. Now with new problems arising he wasn’t sure that he would have any more peaceful days ahead of him, not until he got rid of Wang Long.