“Lord Xu Qing, the United Element Sect, sent us a message.”

People started murmuring around the large hall. On one end was Xu Qing, the current Patriarch of the middle-sized Dragon Gate Sect. Along with the Demon Subduing Sect and the Limitless Sword Society they made up the three powers that were situated around the lands that Zhang Dong’s sect was.

Ever since he had taken out Zhan Jie, the previous Patriarch of the Limitless Sword Society, they had remained vigilant. They had kept an eye on that strange Sect that had a somewhat concentrated power base. In their opinion without their Patriarch they were nothing much yet with him, they were a dangerous foe if offended.

In the beginning, they had all of their infiltration attempts foiled. All of their spies had vanished without a trace which forced them to abandon this form of action. It was clear that they were being assassinated inside of that sect. They could not voice a complaint as they would be confirming their fault.

But after years of silence, it seemed that the United Element Sect had become silent. Even after their Patriarch had vanquished a strong opponent in Zhan Jie there were no requests. It was as if the man had vanished which prompted everyone to ponder.

In the end, they could only speculate that he had been injured during the bout and resting in his own territory. That is until they recently saw him during the empire-wide announcement where he was shown off as the Emperor’s blood brother.

Xu Qing and his people had quite the panic attack when this came to light. As one of the sects that had somewhat enforced their will on the United Element Sect, they were now frightened. They would not be able to retaliate against someone with the title of Golden Dragon.

If he wished to take revenge on the sects that left them so little after the Dark Palm Sect’s demise, they could do nothing but accept their fate. Thus they needed to take any call-outs from the United Element Sect very seriously. Even more, after they pushed the Demon Subduing Sect out of the lands that previously were occupied by the Dark Palm Sect.

“Have they decided to set their eyes on us? What does the message say? and what of their movements?”

Xu Qing asked while looking at the messenger. The man was your regular core formation cultivator and he was quick to voice out the news.

“My Patriarch, as you know we have reports of many nascent soul masters appearing out of the United Element Sect’s lands, the number that appeared close to our borders is… fifteen…”

The people from the Dragon Gate Sect sect gasped at this revelation. This was quite a large force considering that the United Element Sect was supposed to be a middle sized sect just like them. But from the information they had gathered the number of nascent soul grandmasters was quickly increasing.

“How many do they have…”

The Patriarch leaned back in his chair while going slightly pale. Such a force would be hard to compete with and from the old reports it didn’t seem that these nascent soul masters were of the old generation.

They were still somewhat young and able, which meant that the United Element Sect could be hiding even stronger reserves at their main sect building. They had managed to go against the mighty Soaring Dragon Sect, it was clear that they could not go against them.

“Continue, what do they want?”

Everyone steeled themselves for what the messenger would reply as they feared for the worst. Would they ask for an unreasonable amount of resources? Would they try to enslave them or take away their lands? Maybe even worse, it could be just a war proclamation before an immediate attack.

“They have given us information that we should expect foes arriving from the northern reaches and that they would probably arrive here within the week. They wish to offer their aid in the coming battles if we agree to let them enter our territory…”

“Foes arriving within the week?”

“Do they think we are stupid! Who would believe such an obvious lie!”

“That’s right, they want us to disable the protective formation so that they can have an easy way into our sect grounds!”

The old men and women in this hall erupted in anger after the messenger delivered some of the accounts. To them it was obviously some kind of scheme, if they let those nascent soul masters in, they would probably not live to tell the tale on a later day.

“Silence! Was there anything else?”

Xu Qing was also surprised by this declaration but he managed to keep his composure. He didn’t think that they would tell such a bad lie to make them lower their protective barrier. It was more probable that there was some kernel of truth in there.

“Ah yes my lord, they had sent over a jade with information for the elders, I assure you that no one dared to look inside.”

Xu Qing nodded while looking at one of his retainers on the side. It was a large man with a spear floating to his side. He moved in quickly to take away the jade with what would probably be some more information concerning this issue. The man looked at the jade and scanned it with his spiritual sense before bringing it over to the Patriarch.

“It is safe to use Patriarch.”

Xu Qing nodded while grasping the jade, quickly he went through the information that it contained. His eyes started bulging out as the information flooded into his mind. What was inside of this jade was a shortened version of what was happening in the empire and how the Soaring Dragon Sect was in danger of being attacked by invaders from far away.

Normally he would have agreed with the other elders and thought that this was some kind of elaborate scheme. But this did confirm some of the information that his own spies had dug up. There were already mentions of strange creatures roaming the lands in the north. Other sects had also reported being attacked in various locations in the empire.

He made sure to place spies all over the empire. While his sect wasn’t the strongest out there, they made sure to be one of the more informed ones. Reports of sightings of the Golden Dragon also reached their ears as he had been pursuing someone to the northwest point of the empire.

“Patriarch, you can’t be thinking of opening our gates? This will make us look weak if the other sects…”

“What if the other sects? Do you think they would be able to just turn down the blood brother of the Azure Emperor? We thought he had become a cripple but he had grown into something that we can’t deny, also…”

The request from the United Element Sect was worded rather cordially. That sect was obviously on the rise, they would not need to act that respectfully to get their way. Normally they would have used Long Dong’s famous name to strongarm them into submission.

This they did not do, there could be various reasons for this. One of them could just be a pretense, a way to seem just and honorable. But there was another one that this Patriarch was afraid of, there could be truth in their words.

What if they were on the cusp of being attacked by a powerful foe? What if this Golden Dragon deemed it necessary to lend them his help as he believed that they had no chance of winning?

“We need to bolster our defenses at our northern border first…”

“Patriarch! Can we really believe…”

“Silence!”

The Dragon Gate Sect elders were forced down to their knees by the pressure that Xu Qing was exuding and quickly went silent.

“If it was just the United Element Sect talking then we could just refuse but this is the Golden Dragon we are talking about. You all have witnessed the Emperor’s decree, if this Long Dong wished, he could just take over these lands and we could not lift a finger to stop him.”

“This doesn’t mean that we will just bow down and make way for them, we will examine this situation first. Sent the message that we will welcome the Golden Dragon but with that, he keeps his forces outside our lands…”

Xu Qing was somewhat willing to believe in the information that the United Element Sect was giving them. It went in line with what he already knew, this didn’t mean that he was fine with that many nascent soul masters parading around his lands. Long Dong was the Emperor’s brother, he could not stop him from entering as he carried the Long Clan name. Thus the decision was made and it would be carried out.

“W-we understand Patriarch.”

The rowdy elders that bowed their heads as they understood that they could not go against someone that was the blood brother of the emperor. They quickly moved out to send a reply to the United Element Sect.

In it, they welcomed Long Dong into their sect while using some mild words to indicate that they would not wish for his forces to come with him, at least not ones with multiple nascent soul masters. After some back and forth they were given a reply that the man in question would be arriving along with a couple of core formation masters and one other nascent soul one.

Thus the day came that the once strong Dragon Gate Sect had to bow their heads towards a visitor from the south. Most of them would remember the day fondly, the golden aura that he exuded felt quite warm. The people gasped out as they witnessed that magnificent radiance, it was as if a grandmaster descended into their lands to bless them.

There was a uniform gasp by the masses and myriad of cultivators that were on guard. The large Dragon Gates that were a staple of this sect were opened to allow him and a couple of cultivators to fly in.

Even though they were tiny compared to the huge gates that reached up to a kilometer in height, there was something to the radiance these people exuded.

“I greet you my friends from the Dragon Gate Sect, as you might know, I am the Golden Dragon, do not be alarmed I have come in peace!”

Zhang Dong floated forward while making sure to use one of his oldest abilities that was the senior aura. With it, he could ease the emotions of these people that were thinking that he was here to occupy their lands.

‘This is a good start, now to prepare them for the coming battle…’