“What do you mean they are all dead?”

*crunch*

A somewhat peculiar crunching sound was heard by several people in this large chamber. A huge demonic-looking man was holding a bloodied head along with the body that was now just dangling around. He then promptly engulfed it in a blaze before throwing it to the side where everyone could see it.

“You there, answer me!”

“Y-yes my Emperor, as the previous high shaman stated, the tribe that was tasked with the mission to the outlands had fallen in battle…”

“What tribe was that again?”

The man called the emperor moved forward while the other person continued to talk. With each footstep, he took the ground and continued to shake along with the other beings that were here.

“It was t-the Terakota Tribe, they w-won the honor by c-combat…”

“So, you are saying that something in the outlands proved too much for the Terakota Tribe? Thought that their chieftain was better than this…”

The large emperor looked to the side. There he saw various humanoid creatures that varied in all kinds of ways. All of them had their heads lowered, no one dared to raise their voice as everyone knew how much of a temper this Demonic Emperor had.

“Did the outlanders predict their arrival and sprung a trap?”

“W-well my Emperor it was…”

The shaman that was talking started stumbling over his own words while the Emperor continued to glare. He knew that if he angered this being of great power, he would be the next one to get his head squished and popped like a watermelon.

“Don’t waste my time shaman.”

“Y-yes my Emperor, w-why don’t I show you instead.”

The shaman was wearing a dark robe and his face was also hidden behind it. From inside of his sleeve he took out something that looked like a large insect with a gem on its back. When the Emperor saw it, he instantly knew what the shaman was doing.

“Good.”

He said while walking back to his throne and sitting down. Then after he was in a comfortable position the shaman placed the large bug on the ground. This insect moved into the center of the chamber before the gem on its back started to give out a green light.

Soon a beam of light traveled from this gem and produced a vivid image to everyone that was here. What they saw was the view from the large fortress that was placed on the huge sandworm beast during the attack.

It was a recount from their travels with multiple angles as if there were various cameras at the fortress. The shaman made sure to not bore the emperor so the image played right before the scouting party was attacked.

Without saying anything it continued to play, all the way from when Zhang Dong fired off a large beam of spiritual energy towards them all the way until he cleaved the Terakota Tribe chief in half.

At the end, all the people from the other tribes that were here were shocked. Every single one of them had a similar horn protruding from their head. The Terakota Tribe leader was not inferior to anyone from them in any way. They all believed that they would not fare much better against the frail-looking outlander that he had faced.

“Are you telling me that they were defeated by one man?”

“Y-yes my Emperor… there were other outlanders there but they quickly fled the scene while this bright one remained…”

Without saying anything the Emperor took out a certain weapon from the side. It looked like a giant cleaver which handle was made from some molten rock. He raised it up into the sky while a giant oppressive aura exploded in all directions. Then without warning, he turned around to swing his massive weapon once.

A large torrent of strange energies traveled forth towards the volcanoes and mountains in the distance. It didn’t take long for this attack to connect with the rocks in the distance. With one swing of his huge cleaver, the mountains were no more. All of the living beings on them groaned out in fear and indignation at their demise.

“This bright one… he will make a fine trophy for my wall, rally the tribes spare no men, I want that gate! Failure is not an option!”

The Emperor declared while hefting the massive blade that was covered in lava over his shoulder. He looked out into the distance with a giant grin on his face, it seemed that this hunt would be more interesting than he anticipated.

….

While his enemies were scrambling around to resume their invasion, Zhang Dong had teleported back to his own lands. Along his travels he had created some save points that he could teleport to but there was a limited number that he could use with his current system.

‘I need to call him…’

He gave out a sigh before tapping his system screen, on it was one of his new faction members, the Azure Emperor. While he did retreat from the pursuit of Wang Long, he still would like to ask for some help. In his mind, the talk could go in any direction but he hoped that Long Qing would see it his way.

It all depended on how fast they could rally the troops and head to that place. Zhang Dong was even willing to go back there to act as support. The somewhat narrow passage would not be that easily crossed if they managed to create a base of operations there. If they managed to plug that hole, it would save them a lot of resources later on as they would be able to control one point of entrance.

“Greetings, can you hear me?”

“... brother Dong… is that your voice? Where are you?”

It was clear that the Azure Dragon was surprised by the voice in his head. From what he could tell, Long Qing was probably looking around for the hidden Zhang Dong that was talking to him.

“Ah, I’m not at your location, I’m talking to you thanks to a certain technique of mine. You don’t need to actually use your mouth, you just need to think and I’ll be able to hear your thoughts, that is if you want me to hear them.”

While Zhang Dong could communicate with people through his system, this didn’t mean that he could hear their thoughts. Unless the recipient didn’t think of the words that they wanted to relay to him, he would not be able to hear them.

“Oh? Let me try then… Can you hear me like this?”

“Yes, loud and clear, also don’t worry no one else is able to hear our conversation, it will remain private.”

“Oh really?”

There was a small pause but soon Long Qing was back to talking, this time around to someone that was with him.

“Are you there?”

“Yes, did you hear that my wife? No?”

Due to this system feature not being able to pick up sounds of others or at least not until the Azure Dragon’s devotion rating went up, he couldn’t hear the conversation that they were having. It was clear that he was together with his wife, who was probably asking him some questions.

“She won’t hear me.”

“Did you hear that my wife? Really not? But he is being so loud…”

“As I said…”

Zhang Dong wanted to give his brother a smack across his face for not listening. It had been a while but he needed to get used to not getting his way thanks to his Patriarch status. After some back and forth, he was finally able to talk some sense into his new brother.

“You did what? Did you hear that honey? My brother managed to intercept a scouting party from the other empire and wipe them from the face of this empire! Didn’t I tell you that we could rely on him!”

“Could you listen to me for a moment…”

“Ah yes my brother, Haha! I’m a little distracted!”

Zhang Dong was afraid to ask but it wouldn’t be surprising that he contacted the Azure Dragon while he was having some fun time with his wife.

“Anyway… would it be possible to send some of the Long Clan elders or convince the Heavenly Crane Sect to send someone over there? I think if we manage to control that location we would be able to minimize the damage to the empire…”

“Minimise the damage?”

The Azure Emperor asked as if he wasn’t sure what Zhang Dong meant.

“Well… if we are able to block the progress of those beings, we won’t suffer that many casualties?”

“Haha, why would we suffer any casualties?”

“But the sects that are located there will be…”

“Oh? I see that my brother is a compassionate one, don’t worry, they can retreat further into our lands where we will use them to bolster our own forces!”

Zhang Dong was a bit shocked by this reaction but it did somewhat go in line with what a regular cultivator thought. In their eyes the only important part was their own faction which was the Long Clan. It didn’t seem that even the Azure Emperor cared all that much about his subjects that lived outside the Long Clan area.

“But we could get valuable information about our foes? We could have their weapons examined and maybe get some treasures?”

“Treasures? That could be useful… but I’m not sure if it will matter at this point in time.”

“What do you mean?”

Zhang Dong asked but there was something telling him that the news wouldn’t be good.

“Well, while you were battling the invaders, more of the bridges had opened up. The one you discovered won’t be the only one coming from that side so I’m not sure if we would be able to defend such a remote location away from our clan.”

The Long Clan had a map that showed them every bridge that appeared and would later appear. Thus they already knew about the arrival of the enemy. Even without Zhang Dong telling them to act, they were probably already scrambling around to bolster their defenses.

“So that means?”

“Yes, I don’t think I can spare any soldiers but if you need some personal guards I could send over some elders, I’m sure they will be honored to accompany the Golden Dragon!”

“Ah, that won’t be needed…”

Zhang Dong shook his head in disappointment as it seemed that he needed to abandon that location. Even if he built a base of operations there, the enemy could pop out a thousand miles away after a day. It wasn’t wrong to bunker up at your own sect where everyone had most of their resources.

“Is that so? Don’t worry my brother, this is only the beginning. Everything is going according to plan!”

“It is huh…”

‘Would be nice if I heard it first…”

It seemed that he would need to retreat for now. Instead of helping the other sects, it would be better to defend his own lands where everyone he loved and cherished was. With that in mind, he ended the conversation with his brother. While he didn’t like it, he would need to be a bit more selfish this time around.