“I guess it stopped when I cut it…”

Zhang Dong gave out a sigh of relief as he discovered that he had managed to destroy the device that was used for teleportation. After cleaving his last opponent in half he continued deeper into the large fortress that was now sliced into two parts.

This wasn’t all, the huge worm beast that had carried this thing all the way here was also dead. It wasn’t giving out any life signs and his spiritual sense was also not picking out anything. Everything that was here was now dead and he was the last survivor.

Only thanks to surrounding himself with a barrier of golden flames that could burn away anything that came close to him was he successfully able to not be covered in blood and guts.

The carnage remained outside as it seemed that everyone that was here decided to rush him. The reason for it was probably the huge enemy with the hammer behind them, they could either die in battle with him or get turned to minced meat by him instead.

Now he was looking at something that seemed like a teleportation gate. With the help of his Ai helper, he was able to successfully identify this alien technology.

‘This looks somewhat organic…’

Zhang Dong picked out a strange tube from the ground that was connected to the teleportation gate. At first, he thought it was a power cable, or for fuel but inside of it was some strange green liquid that seemed more like blood.

‘This almost looks like organs and veins… I can even feel some faint life coming from this, but it's fading quickly…’

The battle mostly took place in the courtyard of this large fortress. The huge one-horned boss also charged at him before he could really enter into the whole structure. His sword strike left it destroyed and after looking around for a moment he found a certain room.

“Is this a heart?”

On the ground, there was some kind of deflated organ covered in more green goop. It was radiating his sword intent and was clearly damaged by him. This seems like the power room but it had collapsed unto itself along with most of the fortress.

Without thinking too much he used his spiritual energy to raise the rubble around this section. The damaged organ was then floated over and deposited into his spatial ring. Now was not the time to examine these things but he needed to take some samples and have his sect members examine them later.

To his surprise, these monsters didn’t seem to have any spatial technology. He didn’t discover any rings or bags that could carry more items. Maybe they didn’t feel like they needed anything like pills and more weapons to carry around if they could produce them from their own bodies?

The boss that he had sliced in half was also deposited into his spatial ring along with a few other body samples that weren’t too damaged. There was also a strange sphere on a platform made from bones and with some of those veins attached to it. He could feel some strange energies coming from it, thus it also made its way into his belongings.

“How did they build this thing… did they disassemble some beasts or somehow grow this organic mass?”

This place was strange indeed but even more baffling was the mystery behind building it. From the outside, it looked like a pile of bones, but on the inside, it clearly had organic components, even things that looked like organs and a circulatory system.

While he was continuing with the examination he noticed that he had new visitors. They were fast approaching and there was quite a big group of them.

“It must be the cavalry? Fashionably late to the party, aren’t they?”

He was not in any danger as the new arrivals came from the same sect that he visited today. It was clear that after the elders escaped they rallied the troops to defend themselves. While he wanted to compliment their resolve, they would have been dead if they tried attacking these monsters alone.

From what he could tell, there were about three nascent soul masters coming his way along with some basic flying ships and some hundred core formation masters. This was about what a lesser middle-sized sect could offer.

They probably brought about thirty to forty percent of their forces here while the rest remained on standby. It was normal for them not to give up without a fight or measuring their enemies' might. These monsters were body refiners so their combat abilities were hard to measure with spiritual sense as the amount of Qi they possessed wasn’t that high.

“Body refiners… no wonder there isn’t anything here that can store spiritual energy…”

After wandering around for a few minutes and scanning everything his hopes of getting some loot were crushed. The only bounty was the strange hammer that he sliced in half, its spiritual energy disrupting capabilities were interesting and clearly, it was due to the material it was made from. Besides it, there was nothing else of much value that he could spot.

“They don’t need to craft weapons as they can just use their body parts and don’t use pills or spiritual stones to increase their strength, this will be an annoying enemy…”

For Wang Long, this might have been a nice opponent as they would drop spirit points for him. But to him they were somewhat worthless, that is unless he figured out a way to utilize these organic components that they were using.

Without anything interesting to do, he decided to go outside. This didn’t go unnoticed as he was quite the beacon of golden energy.

“I-it’s honored Long Dong, he still lives!”

The moment he appeared outside the cultivators that were approaching quickly stopped in mid-air. While he was playing the Golden Dragon persona he was still not used to being called by that name.

“Ah… yes that’s me… the Golden Dragon, and I have a long d... I mean, I am Long Dong."

He coughed into his sleeve while looking at the group of three elders that were approaching. These three were unknown to him but judging by their cultivation levels they were the leaders, the one that was in front was a late-stage cultivator and probably the Patriarch.

“Ma He, greets the Golden Dragon, we came as fast as we could but it seems that our help was not needed.”

The man was quite respectful as he bowed a lot lower than usual. Zhang Dong just waved his hand as he had no intention of staying here too long.

“Yes, I have managed to destroy the base of these invaders but I’m not sure when the next attack will occur, as you can see the way for them is open.”

He pointed towards the tunnel that was about a kilometer in width and three kilometers in height. While this might have looked like a grand victory, he didn’t really defeat that many people. These forces were about the level of a stronger middle-sized sect and might have been bolstered for the purpose of establishing a base of operations.

“I wouldn’t want to alarm you but I’m not sure if your people will be able to survive the second attack, worry not, I will contact my brother… he might be able to send some reinforcements.”

This was too far away from his own sect that had just secured the lands that they were owed. To defend this location he would need to place at least ten nascent soul masters along with Huo Qiang and Zhang Zhi to have a chance of defending it. They would also need to create protective formations and defensive siege weapons.

“But honored Golden Dragon…”

“I know, you don’t seem convinced but the enemies I faced were above your current level, there aren’t that many cultivators in this empire that would be able to battle on equal footing with them.”

While he wanted to convince these people that it was unwise to stay here, he could not control their actions. The biggest problem was that he had eradicated all of the enemies, which could give an impression of them not being all that strong. In actuality without someone at the great circle of the nascent soul realm, they had no chance of survival.

“You should better heed my warning, but I will not stop you if you want to remain here. If you decide to remain, this would probably be a good spot to place any long-ranged weapons that you have, while in the bridge between our empires the enemies have limited space to maneuver, they will be an easy target. Though after their first failure, they will probably come in larger numbers.”

His opponents were clearly not expecting someone like Zhang Dong to be waiting for them. There weren’t many cultivators or weapons that could create such a devastating wide-ranged attack as he did. If they had some way to relay information back to their leaders, they would probably consider the same thing happening again.

‘This fight has taken more out of me than I thought…’

While he looked fine from the outside he was running on fumes. That huge magically enhanced attack almost instantly drained him of half of his spiritual energy. Then he had to fight off many opponents and use a devastating sword art that injured his own body in the process.

He had been a bit hasty in this battle as he was racing against time. This had now left him out of gas to continue his journey forward. The desert and then the wide dead sea filled with many monsters was still waiting for him.

‘Shit, do I really have to postpone this?’

The reason he came here was to find Wang Long. But he felt that if his other opponent popped out at this very moment he would probably have to flee. With how much Qi he used up he would need some time to recover. Anything related to spiritual energy was already consumed as he needed it to bolster his system and then feed his three cores.

‘These guys didn’t even have any nascent souls, they are a terrible match for me.’

Regretfully he would need to retreat for now but this wasn’t the end. Thanks to his system he would be able to create a teleportation point that he could use later on. It would cost him dearly as this was not part of his own lands but it needed to be done.

‘If I’m lucky those monsters will take some time to return, I might be able to come back and set up my own defenses here.’

With that thought in his mind, he decided to create a save point. He would place it somewhat away from this direct location. If it was taken over by those beings before he could come back, he would be teleporting right into their base where they were waiting for him with some new countermeasures.

“I will have to bid you farewell then, I hope that you and your people survive this, we will need any help we can get to get through this war.”

With a few chosen words to Ma He he started retreating, first he needed to find a nice hidden location for this teleportation point, and then it was time to contact his dear brother, the Azure Emperor.