“Mistress please calm yourself…”

“How can I be calm, none of them have returned!”

A rather voluptuous woman dressed in dark leather was screaming at a group of men that were kneeling on the ground. Her aura was radiating crimson energy which traveled towards a small horn that was on her forehead. Unbeknownst to her, there was a person that didn’t belong here watching her.

‘That horn, it’s similar to the one that one guy had but it’s a lot smaller…’

Zhang Dong disguised as a regular soldier was standing close to the entrance of a tower where all the screaming was coming from. When being this close he could safely use his spiritual sense to peek at what was going inside there.

The Mistress that these red vampires referred to was quite the beauty. Not as much as his own wife but she had all the right proportions. Even that red coloring of her skin somewhat added to her looks that would make any submissive male drool. At this very moment, she was shouting while cracking what seemed to be a whip-type weapon.

The Mistress was just informed that a large force they sent out had magically disappeared. It was probably the troops that he eradicated at the Shadow Phantom Sect area. Which gave him some information about them not being able to relay information to each other. That battle unfolded a while ago and it seemed that only now she became aware of it.

‘Perhaps they have no long-range communication devices like the communication jades? They probably had to wait for some scouts to come back for the information to reach them.’

What this meant was that even though these invaders were strong they didn’t communicate with each other well. Tribes had been mentioned which symbolized some kind of power structure and this woman seemed to be in some kind of leading position. The small horn on her head symbolized it but its size also put her in some kind of lesser role. Probably the real leader was back at the main base while she was some kind of commander.

“Enough, what of the other reports?”

This scantily clad woman eased up with the whipping and rested on some strange-looking throne with skulls on it. From what he could feel the skulls were quite fresh and probably made from the remains of the people they slew here. She asked someone that looked like an officer but he hesitated.

“What are you hiding?”

“M-mistress… actually one of the scouting parties has gone missing, they were supposed to report but we can’t find them.”

Right after the man ended the sentence his head went flying. A fast fling of the wrist was all the woman needed for the kill. The spiritual energy that was released quickly made its way towards her mouth.

“What are you waiting for? Find him!”

It was clear that she had figured out that there was something strange about that statement. While the men scrambled she remained seated with her eyes closed, it was as if she was concentrating on something.

“It’s true, two of the children are missing…”

There seemed to be some kind of connection between this woman and the rest of the grunts. Luckily this was something that she had to focus her attention on thus he wasn’t instantly discovered yet he found himself in danger. If there was a connection there, she would probably figure out that he was not one of those ‘children’ if they ever met eye contact. While he could copy the appearance of this tribe there was a limit.

‘Perhaps it's some kind of bloodline connection? Maybe one that goes through the soul?’

He could only speculate but now he needed to make a decision. Should he wait for the right moment to strike and risk being discovered or should he wait a bit more. If he wasn’t found by anyone then he might be able to smuggle himself further down the line. Perhaps if he figured out how these people operated he could take the appearance of this commander-class woman, then visit the main camp where the leader was to slay him.

Changing into someone of the opposite gender was not one of his favorite pastimes but he was willing to do it if he could save some lives. But if that would even be a valid option remained to be seen, would this woman even report to their leader or would just push into the empire to wage more wars. There were many places that they could invade and the further into the empire they went in the pushback would become more noticeable.

From what he had seen these invaders didn’t care that much about their own soldiers. It was somewhat similar to how cultivators operated but more the ones from a demonic sect. They certainly had no problem in killing their own if they were in a bad mood.

‘So what should I do…’

Zhang Dong rubbed his chin while also inscribing a character on the tower. It glowed a little bit before fading away. While there was a possibility of continuing with the espionage mission this was not the only way. He had already carried out precautions if they found him out and now after they noticed that there was something of the base became rowdy.

“Let no one leave.”

After the Mistress noticed that a scout didn’t return they began to check with anyone that had recently returned. Everything pointed to the vampire that he had initially replaced but now he had already switched with another foot soldier which gave him more time.

But while he was sneaking around and trying to not get noticed the ground started to shake. It wasn’t the magnitude of an earthquake but something below him was coming his way. The red vampires didn’t seem to be too perturbed by it so he kept his poker face up while remaining hidden in the shadows.

Then the rocks split apart and some other strange creatures popped out of the blue. Their bodies were quite large with the leader seeming to be at three meters. Their hands were quite big and forearm heavy, their faces resembling moles that one might find out in the open.

Their bodies were covered by dark fur but they did wear some leather to cover their nether regions. The elongated face was somewhat rat-like but their nose was quite characteristic and something found on a regular mole.

“Wampir tribe, what are you still doing here? Our Talpa tribe soldiers are already on the move.”

“Be quiet, we don’t take orders from you!”

The horned Vampire Mistress started arguing with the large mole creature. It seemed that both these tribes liked to go through darkened caves and the added heat didn’t seem to bother them. The vast differences between all of these tribes were starting to get very apparent. This was the third variant that came from that Empire and there could be many more.

‘This complicates things…’

From what he was getting here these people operated in some primitive social hierarchy. The members with the horns were on top and they all came from various tribes. The hierarchy was clearly strength based but it was strange that they weren’t killing each other. Normally intelligent humanoid beings of different species wouldn’t just find common ground, this was even less probable when they were as violent as these people.

‘Is it because of their Emperor? Perhaps they came to some kind of agreement or were forced by their strongest?’

Zhang Dong listened in on the conversation while speculating some more. He was together with many other guards and kept a low profile. With the arrival of these mole people, the attention would probably shift away from his intrusion. Perhaps soon he would have an opportunity to infiltrate further while also taking out some commanders.

“Why is this outpost in such disarray, I can smell your disorder.”

“This is none of your concern, our tribe will carry out their orders.”

The woman clearly didn’t want any help. Yet the mole man seemed to be highly capable in detecting abnormalities. After noticing that there was something off in the camp he turned towards the direction where Zhang Dong was kneeling with the other soldiers. The mole man’s strange nose started wiggling around as if it could smell something from his direction.

“You dare ignore me? What are you looking at?”

The mole man just pointed out towards Zhang Dong’s direction as it just answered the question.

“That one… the soil he carries isn’t from around here…”

He was a bit perplexed at the words that the mole person spoke. His disguise wasn’t blown yet but apparently, he was somehow able to sense the earth elements that he came in contact with. There were various ways to track a person and the soil under their boots was one.

“Not from around here?”

The woman turned towards his direction while the other soldiers that were there started looking around. No one was sure to whom the mole man was pointing to as they were all bunched up in a big group.

But the person in question knew that this would probably be it. The thought of trying to weasel out of it popped into his head yet he didn’t think that it would be a valid option. He knew very little of these people's culture, talking them down would be tough.

‘Judging how that woman treated the other soldiers, she might try to decapitate me just to be sure that I’m not a spy…’

“Guess plan B it is!”

Before the woman could take a good look at him he activated his trap. His palm that was down on the ground gave out a light that quickly traveled in all directions. This pulse of Qi when coming into contact with the runic drawings he created caused a magical explosion.

Instantly the place was turned into an inferno. Golden lightning bolts started going off everywhere and each time they touched one of the red vampires they made them crumble into dust. Without having much time to react the creatures were quickly disintegrated by the holy energy that was mixed with some solar rays.

But while these types of traps were very effective against the red vampires, the mole men had a different set of weaknesses. While he did jump away and flew into the air he could see some of them burrow themselves underground to evade this electric discharge.

The massive array of magical explosions caused the entire fortress to crumble. The massive surge of energy was above what these already damaged structures could handle. Yet even though he was successful in booby-trapping the entire area there were still many survivors left.

Most of all the two leaders that were in possession of the forehead horns were still standing. The woman was floating up in the air while the mole man peeked his head out of the ground after lasting through the magical mines.

Zhang Dong started looking around and even without peeking at his minimap, he knew that he was vastly outnumbered. They were in the ground and in the walls, also on the ceiling. He was surrounded from all sides and the lava just continued to overflow everywhere.

“Well then, I don’t reckon you’ll surrender peacefully?”

He asked only to hear a massive screech from the woman vampire that caused all of her kin to pounce at him.

“I guess not.”