“My brothers and sisters, we have gathered today to greet a new member of our family…”

Zhang Dong was sitting to the side while one of the elders was giving a speech. Long Qing, his supposed brother, was down on his throne together with his wife. The kids were all properly dressed and to the side while the older generation was presented to the masses.

The Long Clan was quite advanced for the setting. It had similar holographic technology to the United Element Sect. Thanks to it they were transmitting a proper image to some of the larger cities around the empire.

While he didn’t really want to do this, it was important to get his face out there. The Long Clan was giving him and his sect free advertisement. By confirming that he was now part of the royal family there would not be any closed doors to him.

“Thus I would like to introduce everyone to our Azure Emperor’s brother, Long Dong the Golden Dragon!”

With some persuasion, he was able to go with the golden dragon title instead of the one the old ancestor had. This didn’t matter as much as no one besides the core family members even knew that he had existed. The information had been long forgotten and only existed in the locked library.

With his name now spreading through the lands he would probably have the trouble of ever being called Zhang Dong ever again. He would have to cope with being Long Dong from now on.

“Thank you elder Yingjie for those eloquent words of introduction but this is not the time for pleasantries, I must implore everyone to be vigilant in these coming days as there is a villain that plagues this land and he goes by the name Wang Long…”

While the people that were listening to this introduction were a bit confused, the members of the Long Clan had been informed beforehand. They also agreed that someone like Wang Long needed to be stopped and they couldn’t really stop Zhang Dong from speaking out.

To him this was the most important problem they needed to tend to, more important than the secret war effort that was starting in the background. Almost no one besides the Long Clan and the Heavenly Crane Sect knew about this problem. The smaller sects had been kept in the dark as they weren’t seen as very useful.

From Zhang Dong’s perspective, this was a faulty mindset. He knew well that a united sect or land was far more deadly than one that was not. His sect was proof as with the help of formations even the lower leveled cultivators could combat the ones in a higher realm.

If it was up to him, he would have spread the knowledge through the lands to at least prepare the border regions for the onslaught. He was informed that the areas where the bridges to the other empires were supposed to appear the Long Clan had set up fortresses.

Even with those in place, he wasn’t sure if the Long Clan was expecting to go through a proper fight. With the eradication of the Soaring Dragon Sect, victory was more unlikely. The Azure Emperor was in high spirits though, it seemed that this hidden treasure that they had in store was supposed to be the ace to bring them victory.

The only problem with that was they weren’t willing to show it to him just yet. The elders were quite against Long Qing showing him this Goliath. It looked like they wanted to wait first, which made some sense.

Secret weapons were meant to be revealed at the later stage in war efforts. If they played their trump card too soon they would probably regret it. The threat that the attackers would pose was also unknown, it could have been highly exaggerated as some Long Clan members thought.

There was a part of them that was convinced that their cultivation had improved with their advancement. They believed that those other empires were probably at most at the level of the two grand sects. In their opinion, they would probably be able to achieve victory with conventional tactics and their own strength.

“This demonic cultivator is extremely dangerous, that is why I The Golden Dragon from the Long Clan implore you to not face him alone, you will be rewarded for any information that might bring us closer to his apprehension…”

Zhang Dong continued with his speech. He knew that the regular cultivators in the empire had no chance against Wang Long. They would just feed him more spirit points if they confronted him. Thus he only required them to point him in his general direction. He was also someone with a system and probably the only person that could handle him in a one-on-one scenario.

“I will personally dispose of this demonic cur, thus I implore you to report any strange occurrences…”

As he continued he listed a few particular things about Wang Long’s characteristics. One of them was how he liked to force himself upon young and beautiful women. The other was his soul beast, while he could disguise his face it wouldn’t be that easy to change his draconic soul beast.

While the information traveled through the whole empire, he expected Wang Long to also see it. This couldn’t be helped but might also lower the body count of the victims. After knowing that there was an empire-wide manhunt for him, he would probably try to hide somewhere safe.

There was a certain shadowy place for people like Wang Long. It would probably be the first one that he would attempt to make his own. But if the man was smart he would avoid any obvious places where demonic cultivators met.

“Live long, prosper, and may the Qi be strong with you…”

As with his own sect, he ended the speech with a few chosen words that stuck with him from his previous world. The response to his speech was met with lukewarm stares from the Long Clan populace.

He didn’t really mind this as this was quite the big exposition pill to swallow. They were getting a new high elder that was on par with the current Azure Emperor. At least on paper, the two should have the same amount of power and prestige.

Reality was often disappointing though, Zhang Dong didn’t fool himself into believing that the people would just accept him. It would probably take many years or something like the expedition he went through with his Zhang Clan to prove himself to them.

After the speech took place and he was inaugurated as the Golden Dragon, he noticed a change in his system. The part that had changed was his faction display. While he was still listed as the leader of the United Element Sect faction, he was now also a member of the Long Clan faction that had a separate tab.

There was not much on that one as besides the Azure Emperor that was next to him on the faction tree, there was no one else. This was probably all due to him not having a favorable relationship with anyone besides his new brother.

His approval rating was also not fully maxed out and only 70%. Before he showed that he was the actual true descendant the approval rating was probably lower. The elders that were here didn’t seem to trust him enough to show up on the faction tab, the queen nor her children appeared on it either.

‘I guess everyone is just putting up with me due to Long Qing… I wonder if they would accept me as their new Emperor if anything happened to him…’

This was something that he expected people to think. He was a powerful cultivator on the level of the Azure Emperor. From their standpoint, it wouldn’t be surprising if he pointed his sword at Long Qing. It was actually a very natural event as all of the cultivators here had progressed in mind.

The spot on top of the empire would be a natural place for them to go for if they were in Zhang Dong’s position. Thus everyone that was on the Azure Emperor side were on guard as they didn’t know when the Golden Dragon would make his move.

‘I bet after they gather more information people from the opposing factions will try to contact me…’

Zhang Dong on the other hand didn’t want to have anything to do with the inner struggles of the Long Clan. He just wanted to use their help to get past the coming hurdle. They were something that he needed, if the war was really coming he might even have to move his own sect here.

He didn’t want to admit it but this flying fortress was probably better suited for a prolonged defensive. After reading through some craftsmen books that were here it would take some time to get his own sect up into the air along with the whole city. The problem as always was a proper power source which this flying city apparently had. It was something hidden away quite well as even with his senses he could not tell where it was.

“That was an interesting speech my brother, I see that you really wish to get to this Wang Long.”

“Yes, I would sleep much better if he vanished from these lands.”

“Come, this is not the time for such matters, we need to feast!”

“Well… about that…”

Zhang Dong stopped before his new brother. Long Qing was clearly not taking things as seriously as he was. Now that he had done what he came here for there was nothing keeping him here. His family was waiting for him at home as well, his disciple was still in the ship that they left behind.

“Is there something bothering you brother?”

“I have to return to my own family, I have already overstayed my welcome but don’t worry we shall meet again, for now though… I’ll have to bid you all farewell.”

With a quick clasp to his fist and a bow he just vanished. Golden dribblers of lights were left behind as he left the people here quite shocked.

“Instant teleportation?”

“H-how? It shouldn’t be possible without the proper knowledge of the formation…”

They were all shocked as the grand formation that was in the city didn’t allow anyone to teleport in or out. If they attempted they would be struck down by the defensive features but this Golden Dragon apparently was able to get out as they could not feel his presence anywhere else.

“Ha Ha! My brother is full of mysteries of his own, don’t worry elders, we should trust him!”

The Azure Emperor just started laughing while everyone else was left with question marks above their heads.