“This isn’t going as well as I thought it would…”

“Oh, what was that oh honored senior?”

“Ah, nothing…”

Zhang Dong gave out a sigh after being stuck at another location. His goodwill was biting him in the behind once more as he was stuck healing more people along the way. He wasn’t sure if Wang Long was doing this on purpose but it was certainly working in making him lag behind.

After getting out of that large city he continued to follow the trail of red. While most of the time it was a straight line in one direction, sometimes Wang Long rested in various settlements. Just as with the first city, some locations were then corrupted with demonic energy. He didn’t outright flatten the large cities but there was always something for him to cleanse left behind.

It also seemed that his new enemy was using his skills all over the place. Sometimes he would find a trail of dead plants left behind Wang Long’s flight path. Other times there were large holes in mountains that were clearly attacked by him. They all radiated demonic Qi at various levels which showed that Wang Long’s proficiencies in the various techniques were all over the place.

He apparently had a hard time keeping the evil Qi from not affecting the area while also not being able to control it when performing attacks. This went all in line with what Zhang Dong thought. Wang Long was clearly over-relying on his own system, the key to his victory might be this as he took some time to practice his battle techniques after he lost the system store.

‘That is if I ever reach him in time… I think I know where that bastard is going, this complicates things…’

“I’ll bid you farewell then.”

The group of people bowed before him while Zhang Dong flew away. After healing some villagers that were affected by demonic miasma, he was on his way towards a certain desolate area. It was a famous lawless zone that he had heard about when he was performing bounty work as his demon hunter persona.

It was in the far northern reaches of the empire. From what he knew, the first one had to go past a wide desert filled with monstrous sandworms. It was devoid of all life and covered in faint demonic mist. Past it was a large body of water named the sea of death.

It apparently had many sea creatures lurking in the deep. The water in itself was poisonous to the touch and constantly radiating demonic Qi. It was mostly impossible to get through it without some kind of flying treasure. Any ship would just be pulled down into the deep by monstrous creatures.

Then when someone was finally able to pass through these two natural barriers they would arrive on a large island. This was the true land of the demonic cultivators, it wasn’t as big as the empire but would have enough space to house a few middle-sized sects.

It was of course in a constant perpetual war. The demonic cultivators weren’t very agreeable with each other, they constantly fought for the spot of the next Demon Emperor. But with how little trust there was, it was almost impossible. Without someone dominating them all with pure might, it wasn't feasible.

‘I guess I’m in luck… Wang Long is probably going to become the next Demon Emperor…’

While there weren’t any potential evil emperor candidates before, now they had a prime candidate coming their way. Wang Long’s achievement of clearing out the entire Soaring Dragon Sect was probably known by the people living there. Some of them would welcome him with open arms as their new leader but others would need to be convinced.

His counterpart would probably oblige with that. Killing every single demonic cultivator would not make him bat an eyebrow. The carnage might already be taking place as he flew there. This complicated things as Zhang Dong was losing one of his advantages, which was having an army.

While the demonic cultivators could not be trusted, there were ways to bind them. Evil contracts and rituals could secure their loyalty if Wang Long was smart enough to use them. With their lives on the lines, these monsters in human form would toss themselves into battle for their master. Unwilling as they might be, they would have no other choice.

During his travels he didn’t just space out, he was still involved with his sects business. With his system, he could reach out to his faction members like Zhang Zhi who were in the process of taking back some strategic locations.

“Is Huo Qiang giving you any problems?”

“Elder Qiang has managed to compose himself as his position required.”

“Oh? That’s surprising, I guess he had grown up somewhat since those five years ago.”

Zhang Dong reached out to his number one fan Zhang Zhi. He was informed that the Dark Palm Sect area had been liberated from the other sects. With the number of nascent soul masters and his new title, it seemed that the middle sized sects agreed to capitulate without putting up a fight.

Luckily the United Element Sect had a good reputation for being one of the better righteous sects in the Empire. The other sects actually somewhat believed that they wouldn’t get stabbed in the back when they lowered their protective formations.

“Good, be sure to occupy the spirit stone mines. I want them to be quickly mined out to the last spirit stone! Don’t forget to place at least one nascent soul master at that expedition ground.”

With the old Dark Palm Sect lands in their grasp now, he could revisit that secret ground again. He wasn’t sure if he would need to go through the test phase again but there were probably some secrets remaining there that were worth looking into. His sect had enough people to easily go through those tower defense stages now he believed that they would be able to get through it with minimal casualties.

After he ended the call with Zhi he continued with his chase, even though he knew where his opponent was going now this didn’t mean that he didn’t decide to go elsewhere. Maybe if he was lucky he could get to Wang Long before he vanished into the dark criminally underbelly of the empire. Tracking his demonic Qi in that sea of evil energy would also be harder even with the help of the system.

But the journey there was long and even with his top speed, he would need another week to reach the border. So his journey continued and with it more affected people that Wang Long had gone through. With the constant slowdowns, a few more days were added to his journey.

Finally, he was now at the last large settlement closest to the demonic lands. This area was ruled by one of the more morally ambiguous sects. It wasn’t that evil sects were banned from existing on the entire continent, only when they gorged themselves too much on the evil arts were there actually problematic.

“Wait honored Golden Dragon let us guide you to the evil lands!”

Just like with the other places this one was somewhat affected by Wang Long’s evil Qi. After such a long journey Zhang Dong was feeling somewhat tired. Even though at his level he didn’t need to sleep at all, the stress from the impending doom was getting to him. At the question of one of the cultivators he just nodded, with them in tow he headed for what was supposed to be the entrance to the land ruled by evil and corruption, the Eternal Dark.

He wasn’t really sure about this small group of cultivators that were coming with him, but they were probably just trying to kiss his behind as always. To them, the brother of the Azure Emperor was a nice ticket into a higher position. Regretfully for them, Zhang Dong had no time for politics. While they were talking he just continued to mumble and nod while just looking at his system screen and preparing for the coming battles.

“So, this is the desert?”

Finally, after some time had passed they arrived at the first barrier, the desert.

“Yes my lord, this is the Evil Desert of the Damned, various demonic beasts and spirits wonder about these dead lands. Are you sure you wish to go beyond it?”

“Evil spirits? That won’t be a problem… but what’s that…”

While looking at the vast empty land that was covered with sand and storms, he spotted something. At first he thought it was just a regular storm but it looked somewhat strange by how it remained stationary.

“Does the senior need an explanation?”

One of the random cultivators that he picked up along the way asked him after seeing Zhang Dong starte into the distance. With a nod of confirmation, the man continued to speak.

“The maps aren’t very detailed but this place is very close to the northern edge of the empire. That torrent of dark energy in the distance is the great divide, no one knows what is beyond it but some speculate that it’s just another zone created by the evil cultivators.”

The man continued with the explanation but Zghang Dong knew well what was behind this wall of energy. One of the other empires was there but for now, they remained behind the barrier. Wang Long had taken one of the more roundabout paths towards his destination as he needed to go to the northeast if he wanted to reach his true destination now.

“I will take my leave then, you can go.”

He didn’t really have time to thank these people, he already cured some of their own so he didn’t feel like he owed them anything. The people just bowed while slowly floating back but as he was about to plunge himself into the desert he felt something.

His eyes were drawn back to the barrier between the empires. It wasn’t much but he felt a decrease in spiritual energy and the storms filled with a mish-mash of elemental energies started to die down.

“No… it couldn’t be…”

This didn’t look good but he thought that there was more time. To check he opened up his system map to look for something. His visit to the Azure Emperor gave him knowledge of the spots where some of the bridges should appear. He quickly overlayed these spots against his map and to his dismay this was one of the locations where a link between Empires was supposed to be formed.

“What is that… this has never happened before…”

The small group of cultivators that were with him spotted the change in the storms as well. The wall of energy that would even mangle up a nascent soul master started to subside. It was as if the sea of energy was parting in the middle to create a path.

“Shit… I can feel something… it's approaching.”

He looked at the group of people that was with him, they were still staring at the phenomenon taking place. Zhang Dong on the other hand knew that there was a potential war battle ahead of him. Thus he checked his spatial ring and brought out his sword which he placed on his hip for now, first he needed to see, maybe if he was lucky these invaders wouldn't be bloodthirsty.