“You are really a spirit energy black hole…”

‘Insufficient spirit points.’

“Yeah… yeah…”

“Patriarch, is there a problem?”

“Ah no Zhi… wait a moment I just need to gather my thoughts!”

Zhang Dong turned around so that no one could see him pull out a palmful of spirit crystals. They quickly crumbled down to the ground as he started absorbing them. He was now in his sects war room, the map that he lifted from the secret ground was here and Bob was hogging all the resources to figure it out.

With the inclusion of the evolving fortress and this map, he was forced to go through all of the spirit stones that his sect had brought over. The mine was being quickly drained of its resources but it still wasn’t enough to get everything working. For the time being, he focused the reserves on the map as knowing where the other empires were, was more important.

The people in this exclusive room didn’t say anything but they were clearly confused about what their Patriarch was doing. He just kept moving back and forth, sometimes he would touch the thing that he had brought with him and then hide behind the corner to do something. Some of them even noticed some shiny powder on his robe that seemed to increase each time he came back.

“Oh? It’s glowing!”

One of the elders pointed to the device in the room that was now giving out a greenish glow. Within moments a holographic representation of the old fortress popped into view but soon it started to flicker.

‘There we go’

Zhang Dong gave out a sigh while allowing Bob to connect this holographic map to his system. At first, the image was of the fortress that people used during the tower defense phase of the old trials but soon it began to shift.

“Wait… isn’t that our Spirit Spring City?”

The map first showed a detailed representation of the whole city and the sect. Thanks to it now being connected to Zhang Dong’s system that had a detailed faction section it was quite precise.

It continued to zoom out as Bob started uploading the data that he lifted from the Long Clan’s world map. Soon the whole empire appeared in view as the map's holographic color shifted from green to gold. The radiant glow was a clear indicator that he had managed to fully absorb this technology into his system.

“This is the map of the whole empire?”

“That’s right, but this isn’t all, just wait a moment, gramps!”

Zhang Jin that looked a bit younger after passing into the nascent soul level asked. Soon red dots started to appear all over the map along with some arrows and different indicators. The arrows were at the border regions and indicated the bridges through which the enemies were slipping in.

It took a few moments for the map to take shape but it painted a picture to everyone. All of the elders left their seats to get closer, everyone knew that the red markers represented their enemies but they did not show the full strength of their forces.

“This treasure… Does it really represent the truth?”

“It should, do you see the red markers, they represent where the enemy forces are located. This map can somewhat measure the concentration of spiritual energy in the area. Thanks to that we can somewhat ascertain the strength of the enemy in that area but it’s not perfect, look over here.”

While explaining Zhang Dong pointed to the area where he tracked Wang Long to. There the concentration of red was somewhat weaker than on the other sides of the empire.

“It might look like the forces here are weak but in reality, they were mostly composed of body refiners.”

“I see, the treasure is unable to accurately measure spiritual energy that is focused inside of a body refiners body!”

Huo Qiang that was rubbing his chin chimed in from the side, the other elders nodded at his statement that was too obvious for them to even mention.

“You are correct, now everyone look over there.”

Zhang Dong pointed to the lower regions of the map where the United Element Sect was. The map was already connected with his system so he could select his area of influence and change its color to blue. With that everyone could clearly tell where the borders of their sect started and ended.

“This is where we are, we must now decide, do we protect all of this land or do we move back and wait…”

The power of the enemy was mostly unknown to these people, so he was sure that they would probably not want to give away even a smidge of their current territory. Cultivators that belonged to factions were highly territorial and would see it as an offense if someone invaded their lands without a proper reason.

“Do we even need to decide? We will just crush anyone that tries to enter our lands!”

Huo Qiang smacked his fist into his palm while puffing his chest out. Even at this very moment, Zhang Dong could tell that his muscular friend wanted to do nothing more than charge into the fray.

“I see that you are itching for a fight Qiang and we might be in for one soon.”

“Do you mean?”

“Yes, look here, these are called bridges and through them, our enemies are coming in. This one wasn’t there before and it is close to our borders. I fear that we might be getting some unwanted visitors soon.”

While at the Long Clan headquarters he had examined the map. There was no indication of a bridge appearing close to his sect but now it was different. A new opening had appeared and it was close to his sect ground. While they still had some time it was probably better to reinforce their defenses at the borders if they intended to spare the locals from seeing bloodshed.

“This area? Isn’t that the border region closest to the Dragon Gate Sect?”

Asked Zhang Liena.

“It does seem that way, I’m not sure if they will be able to defend themselves.”

Zhang Dong looked at the faint red area that was around the big red arrow. It looked like the forces that were pouring in weren’t giving out any strong spiritual signatures but this was the west side of the empire, the same side that the body refiners came from.

“Qiang, would you take some of the elders and…”

“You don’t need to say anything senior brother, I will meet those bastards in battle!”

He could only smile as he saw his red-haired friend pumping himself up for the coming battle. Zhang Zhi was next to him and after meeting his gaze he knew that there would be another babysitting session in store for him.

“Then it’s decided, Zhang Zhi, be sure to inform our friends from the Dragon Gate Sect of the coming danger, if they allow us to help them but you don’t need to go out of your way.”

While he would want to keep everyone safe, he was responsible for his own men. The Dragon Gate Sect was somewhat on friendly terms with his sect so he would give them aid if they required it but he would not force it on them.

He expected the invaders from the other empires to start sending out more scouting parties. Probably if the defenses of the Dragon Gate Sect proved inefficient they would outright attack, if they managed to survive they would probably return with a larger force later.

The map was in working order and the elders in the meeting room started discussing the coming days. For the time being, he decided to listen to their conversation to see what the natives of this world would decide on. It wasn’t much of a surprise though, even when he tried to change them, the ones at the top of the ladder rarely did.

“Patriarch, I’m not sure it’s wise to involve ourselves with the Dragon Gate Sect’s business, we should focus on reinforcing our lands.”

“I agree, the other sects would never give us aid if they were in our position.”

Everyone clearly didn’t want to send any aid, at most they would give them safe haven after their lands were occupied. They would probably welcome any additional strong cultivators into their ranks to then use as meat shields instead of their own. Luckily not everyone was of the same mind as the older members of the sect.

“I for once think we should give the Dragon Gate Sect some aid, they treated us properly I wouldn’t group them with the Limitless Sword Society.”

Zhang Jin voiced his opinion, his grandfather was of the mind that they should show some compassion. The actions of his grandson didn’t go unnoticed, he had been helpful to others which gained them some allies.

“This is true but this doesn’t mean that we should risk our sect brothers to save them, if it wasn’t for our Patriarch they would have not had any problem in robbing our lands!”

Soon a discussion about lending aid to other people in the empire started. While it was mostly chaotic where the elders just continued to shout at each other, Zhang Dong was somewhat glad. In the past there would probably not even be a side that showed any compassion, they would obviously only protect their own assets and ignore the rest.

Now on the other hand, through his own actions, he had shown them that goodwill could be rewarded. While the cultivators kept to themselves they did have some sense of honor. If someone helped them they would feel obligated to return the favor or they would receive bad karma.

“Okay everyone settle down.”

Finally, he raised his hand after it was getting a bit too loud.

“Let us discuss a different issue, we need to arm our sect brothers and sisters, some of them need more training while others can be drafted instantly. We will use the merit system to help us with this but I do not wish to force anyone if someone denies the call they will be given an opportunity to leave the sect but if they do, they may never return.”

He did not want to force anyone to fight but he would not allow them to come back after victory was achieved. While there probably wouldn’t be many deserters he didn’t want anyone that would flee and cause others to die in the middle of the fight.

“We also need to discuss our budget, food supply, and other resources, let us get into it…”