“I don’t like the look of that… I need to hurry!”

Zhang Dong’s form blurred as he increased his speed and bolted towards the large fortress in the distance. After the strange worm burrowed into the sandy earth the fortress began giving out a strange buzzing sound. It didn’t take him long to realize what was happening as a beam of light shot out from the middle tower of this fortress.

This beam shot up for several kilometers before splitting up. It was then that he truly knew these beings were trying to set up a protective formation here. This beam started forming a dome and probably when it connected with the ground it would be hard to enter.

He was somewhat able to measure the power of this protective shield that was being formed. Even for him, it wouldn’t be that easy to break through and this was probably not the end of their plan. If he was correct in his theory, the main plan for these attackers was to create a base.

To establish such a base in this world of his a protective barrier was only one component. The second one would be a large enough force to keep any opponents at bay. This could be achieved in two ways here.

Either they believed that the shield would last long enough for more reinforcements to come through the bridge, or they had some kind of teleportation array in the fortress that would soon be activated. If they could summon more of their kind here, then perhaps they would be able to defend this position.

Zhang Dong’s figure blurred and his after image was leftover behind the dome shield that quickly descended down. His true form on the other hand made it just in time. The barrier forced itself down into the ground and it was clear that tunneling under it would not work.

“Made it and here comes the welcoming committee, they still had this many left?”

The moment he burst into the range of this strange fortress the guards that were stationed here started gathering. He wasn’t afraid though, the quality of these warriors was nowhere near the ones that he faced outside, that is beside one.

What ensued was quite the one-sided slaughter. These toothy beings tossed themselves at him like madmen while screaming out in rage. But with a big difference in power, Zhang Dong only needed to swing his hand once to produce enough spiritual energy to make his attackers explode before they could get anywhere near him.

They still managed to slow him down and he had a suspicion that this was their aim. He could feel that inside of that fortress there was some kind of higher power along with strange energy fluctuations that were similar to what he felt during the times a teleportation gate opened up.

“Get out of my way.”

He bolted forward while the toothy enemies tried to stop him but with such a big difference in strength, they were all sent flying to the side. Their flesh was burnt by the holy flames that surrounded his body and turned to paste due to how fast he was rocketing forward.

Even then, the monster-like people did not stop coming. It was as if they were mindless drones with no mind of their own, their only purpose stopping him before they could activate the teleportation device inside.

After a moment Zhang Dong collided with a large gate made out of bones and strange dark flesh. It folded almost instantly as it was also not able to stop his full powered-up approach but as he was getting closer to his destination, he was forced to protect his head.

This time around, instead of a bony spear a large hammer flew his way. At first, he saw no reason to block or to move out of the way but the moment it collided with his flame barrier he had to perform an evasive maneuver to the side. The large hammer when colliding with his Qi was able to somehow erase it from existence and continue to fly unperturbed by it. It was clear that this weapon had some strange properties.

“Who the hell are you? The last boss?”

Zhang Dong felt the weapon graze his cheek as he utilized one of his movement skills that let him change his position. His joints and body cried out in pain at the sudden movement but with some of his healing arts, he was able to quickly mend the tears to his ligaments that ensued.

The large hammer that looked like a two-handed weapon made an arc and quickly returned to the person that used it. Quite a large one appeared, this one was clearly superior to its species as it was a lot larger at about three meters tall. Its body was covered in even more spikes but the most characteristic thing about it was the large dark horn coming from its forehead.

“You shall die here outlander, you will make a fine addition to my collection!”

The large being growled while talking, its strange-sounding deep voice would probably make most cultivators shiver in fright. Zhang Dong on the other hand wasn’t that impressed but it seemed that this opponent was more at his level.

“You’ll probably won’t just move out of the way and let me destroy the thing that’s behind that large gate?”

Without answering the monster lowered his head slightly while pointing with the horn towards Zhang Dong. The moment that horn was aligned with his head, he quickly stepped to the side. In a moment a ray of concentrated energy collided with his afterimage and with the spot that his face was in just a fraction of a second ago.

This was the second time he was forced to evade and it was time to fight back. When the ray of dark energy passed by him, he raised his hand and pointed out with his finger. A ray of concentrated Qi flew forward while spinning around like a drill while pointing at the monster’s head.

His opponent raised its weapon to intercept this shining force and like a truck flew towards Zhang Dong’s position. It was clear that this weapon would be a problem, its Qi canceling properties caused his finger attack to be dispersed without causing any damage at all.

After a couple of exchanges it was clear that this monster wouldn’t be going down as easily as the other six that he faced. Both of them jumped back and stood still while glaring at each other. Zhang Dong looked at his fist that collided with the hammer the monster was holding. It was really hard, he didn’t feel that he would be able to crush it with his current strength.

Even though his body was more metal than flesh, he could not keep his knuckles from sustaining mini-fractures. Without his healing capabilities, it would have probably not looked too good for him. Without being able to surround his body with a layer of Qi to further protect it, he was receiving some damage.

‘But, not like this creature is doing much better.’

He evaluated the situation and noticed that there was something off about his opponent. The horn was giving out some strange energy signatures and the longer the fight took, the more the monster’s body started to darken. There was a patch of unhealthy-looking black skin going from its forehead and increasing slowly as the fight continued.

‘Is it using some forbidden technique to boost its stats? Or is that something else…’

There was no way for him to know this opponent's biology. It was not a regular cultivator but from his perspective, his opponent was slowly running out of time. The problem was that he was also. This being was probably only trying to buy some time before some reinforcements arrived, if they did he might have to retreat.

“Sorry, but I don’t have time for this…”

When his Qi and body weren’t enough, it was time to use his sword arts. A golden sword appeared in his arm; its radiance caused this whole area to become as bright as day.

At first, the monster wasn’t impressed, its own weapon was clearly superior to the small flimsy longsword that Zhang Dong was holding. But then it felt something, the radiant glow died down, and instead a strange humming noise was heard.

To someone untrained, it would be a mystery but to this monster it was apparent. He was against someone that had mastered the blade to an astonishing extent. His hand that was holding his hammer trembled, not from fear but because his weapon started to vibrate as well. It was as if the superior treasure that he was holding was afraid of the blade that stood before it.

Zhang Dong didn’t make any flamboyant movements, he just grasped the hilt of the sword with both his hands while holding it above his head. It was as if he was trying to perform a practice swing. But to his opponent, it didn’t look that way.

It was as if time stopped for him, instead of the small human that he was fighting he saw an image of a giant. It was as if he was holding a sword as big as a mountain above his head and it was clearly going to be swung his way. Out of panic, he bolted forward, in his mind the only way to survive was to kill before he was killed.

In a fraction of a second it happened, Zhang Dong swung down his sword while unleashing a torrent of sword energy. The monster as previously tried to swing its hammer towards the focal point of this attack. Both of them collided, but this time instead of the hammer canceling out what was thrown its way and crumbled instead.

While the weapon was able to cancel out spiritual Qi, it could not do the same against concentrated sword intent. This Dao of the sword worked on different principles and continued to go forward along with this practice like swing that Zhang Dong was performing.

The being along with its hammer found itself being sliced apart into two perfectly equal parts. And as the image before its eyes parted to the sides he saw a somewhat gassed-out Zhang Dong.

The fortress before him was not better off, it was sliced apart by this simple move that integrated his whole sword Dao into a single swing. While the move was powerful it was hard to use and perhaps if instead of going towards him like an idiot the enemy would have dodged to the side, he would have been unable to use it.

‘Shit… I don’t think I can use this one repeatedly…’

Zhang Dong almost tripped forward, both his hands shaking. His body was crying out for help as he felt that some of the bones in both his hands had broken the moment he finished the swing.

‘I don’t have time to stand here…’

A golden sheen surrounded his body as he started to heal himself, while he defeated this monster it wasn’t quite over...