“You see, I told you that he is the true second descendant.”

A rather happy-looking Azure Dragon was standing together with three elders and looking at his new brother performing a mystical sword dance. His movements weren’t anything that these old men and women had seen before, it was truly a long-forgotten sword art that they were witnessing being born anew.

“Did he really reach enlightenment by just spending only an hour in the secret chamber of sword intent?”

“What the Emperor says must be true then, no one other than a true descendant would be able to grasp the ancestral sword techniques… doing it this fast only shows us how much of a genius he is…”

“I still can’t grasp his true strength… his cultivation method is bizarre, he seems like a core formation junior but is much stronger, could it just be the aurulent flame’s unique Qi?”

“The evidence is hard to deny but we should still be careful, this man has not been brought up within the clan, we do not know where his duty lies…”

The three here were the grand elders of the clan. After the Azure Emperor, they possessed the most political might in the whole clan. If the Emperor ever perished or died of old age they would take up his duties until a new one surfaced. To them, Zhang Dong was a big wild card which they didn’t know if they could trust.

“Are you worried that he might side with the other factions?”

“The possibility isn’t zero, they will surely try…”

Even though these three had a lot of pull, the Long Clan had many powerful nascent soul masters. Some were influential and powerful enough to be on the same footing as these three grand elders.

Now if for instance, they gained the favor of someone that was on the same footing as the Azure Emperor it could mean civil war. While Long Qing didn’t seem to be worried about his new brother’s loyalty, the old elders were.

“You three worry too much, even the old texts mentioned the appearance of the true disciple and that he would usher in a new age of cultivation!”

“Yes we do, but what if in this new age of cultivation the Long Clan doesn’t exist?”

Long Yingjie, the oldest of the three grand elders, asked while feeling the ground rumble. Zhang Dong was finished with his sword dance which left some of the pillars in bad shape.

“He managed to damage the ancestral pillars… he truly is strong…”

“Stop worrying, we need my brother for this coming war! During the battles we will deepen our bond as we are warriors at heart!”

The three were still skeptical but it seemed that their leader had made up his mind about this new element. What would need to follow was a proper inauguration to the sect and presenting him as the second true descendant. This would probably get some pushback from the Azure Dragon faction.

“Well, I’ll leave the paperwork to you elders, you know I’m not that good with these things.”

Long Qing laughed out while strolling towards Zhang Dong who was somewhat sweating after performing the new sword technique. The three elders just nodded as they knew that their strength was mostly in politics while Long Qing was still the most powerful warrior here.

“While my husband tends to our newest family member, let us discuss the coming crisis, shall we?”

The Empress spoke up as she made herself known. Long Yingjie bowed to this woman. While she was all smiles he knew that she had a lot more power here than one might expect. The emperor would constantly ask her for approval on difficult decisions and she was always able to sway them.

While this was going on Zhang Dong looked at his shaky sword hand. The weapon that he pulled out of his spatial ring was a lower heaven grade sword. But after performing some of the movements this item was filled with cracks.

‘I just performed a couple of sword movements… what if I actually tried to use a more powerful offensive move?’

This swordsmanship wasn’t something easily mastered. It required a lot of spiritual energy that even a nascent soul master at the great circle stage would not have. He didn’t despair as with his new cultivation method he was a master at such a level.

His cores were still unfilled as they constantly wanted more energy. The seed that he was nurturing had grown slightly and he felt his power increasing as the seed grew. If this continued he might even be able to push slightly past the limits of what a nascent soul master would be able to contain.

‘I need to gather more spirit points and upgrade this sword style… Only powerful techniques that I can somewhat master can get me past that deficiency…’

While his strength was comparable to the pinnacle of the nascent soul, he lacked one component. This was a soul beast, this was something unique to that level and he was unable to summon his soul dragon that once aided him in battle.

This put him at a disadvantage against other nascent soul masters. It would be as if he was constantly going against two opponents at once. The only way to get past this deficiency was to be stronger than his opponent or somehow seal the opposing soul beasts.

While the beast were mighty and could act on their own, they were still condensed soul energies. Zhang Dong’s soul core had already proven how well it could absorb those kinds of energies. Maybe with more training, he could point it towards the soul beast and absorb them even when they belonged to cultivators at his level of power.

‘This clan has provided me with a lot of holy energy, I need to gather more lightning and souls now to put everything into equilibrium.’

After eating almost every nirvana fruit his golden core had expanded to a larger size than his other cores. It would be impossible for him to absorb more holy energy before nourishing the other two cores. If he tried he risked cultivation deviation which could cripple him outright.

“See Shen, I told you that you should respect your uncle! Maybe if you pay your respects he will even teach you some sword techniques.”

“Father…”

Long Qing appeared once again with a big smile on his face. When he heard that he was supposed to teach the brat sword techniques Zhang Dong frowned slightly. There would be some ass crawling required from this Long Shen for him to get anything out of him now. His opinion of these three young masters was somewhat low but it didn’t mean that he would be opposed to it if they apologized.

“Hm, maybe if he kowtows a thousand times and calls me great senior uncle, I might think about it.”

Long Shen recoiled in disgust at what Zhang Dong offered. It was clear that he was a prideful one who would probably not be easily swayed by techniques.

“I don’t need any help father, I can achieve mastery of the ancestral sword arts by myself!”

“I don’t think your son has much of a sense of humor, my brother.”

Zhang Dong just shrugged while looking at Long Qing. The Emperor just laughed while also being somewhat surprised. There weren’t many people that talked to him in such a casual way.

Everyone that was here noticed how nonchalant Zhang Dong was being with the Emperor. It was clear that this was a new powerful player that had arrived at their faction. That Zhang Dong was a true descendant was still not known to everyone as a proper announcement still had to be made.

The man in question had gone through every important point in this large crystal tower. If he was frank he would probably want to leave at this point. His wife was also constantly calling him every thirty minutes over his system as she was deathly worried that he was being tortured or something.

It didn’t look like he would be able to just ditch everything now. He probably needed to go meet with all the important elders of the clan. Then his true identity needed to be announced to the entire clan and then through the entire empire.

This would offer him the freedom to roam the realm in search of Wang Long. With the Azure Emperor backing him directly no sect could close their gates to him. Due to this, he decided to go along with this process as he did need the help.

When everything was done he would gain access to every single teleportation gate in the empire. He could produce an empire-wide witch hunt for Wang Long, any information that could bring him closer to where the man was would be rewarded. This loose end needed to be tied up before the other nations attacked.

….

In another location…

A large man with his chest bear was sitting in a large throne room. Behind him, lava was pouring down from the ceiling and lighting up the entire chamber. The heat was truly immense but the man sitting there didn’t seem perturbed by it.

In his hand, there was some kind of leg of an unknown creature. While looking at a bowing man in front of him the large man opened up his mouth to present quite elongated sharp teeth that ripped into the piece of meat he was holding.

“Speak.”

“Oh great Demon Emperor, I bring news from the world boundary, the time is upon us.”

“Hoh, is it time for the legendary hunt? You better not be lying to me, shaman!”

“I would never, oh great Demon!”

The man prostrated himself before this man that seemed to be at least three meters tall. He wasn’t the only person here either, many others were down on their knees, faces lowered into the hard volcanic rock that this place was made of.

“Finally, sound the horns, we prepare for the great hunt! We will gorge ourselves on the flesh of our enemies and reach the apex of creation!”

The man stood up from the large throne that was made from various bones of unknown creatures. His footsteps caused the whole place to shake as he descended with a massive flaming cleaver over his shoulder.

There were various other scenes like this playing out at almost the same time at other locations. Various leaders were being informed about the coming time. It was as if each and every one of them had a different prophecy guiding them towards the coming conflict.

The millennia they spent preparing for this day were finally going to be of use. The battlefield was beyond the borders of their lands. For some, it was called the great hunting grounds, for others the celestial lands of legends. Time was running out for everyone, the war that was to rock this whole planet was close...