In a dimly lit chamber, a pool of blood started bubbling slightly. Soon a strange dark light flew through a hidden opening in the ceiling which caused a chain reaction. The blood started erupting and gushing in every direction while a humanoid shape formed in the middle.

“He Will Pay! All of them will pay, how dare they do this to me Valentine!’

The vampire lord’s body was crimson in its coloring, a side effect of the rebirthing method that he had used. Valentine looked at the blood flowing out from the small basin he was in as his body continued to absorb it and soon there was nothing left.

“That savage made me use the rebirth chamber, this much pure virgin blood was not easy to gather, I will not be able to go through another rebirth also in my current weakened state if those humans attack us again…”

The vampire started monologuing while four beautiful pale women appeared with his clothes. The man was quickly dressed up in the Dracula look-alike clothes, if it wasn’t for the red coloring on his face no one would have probably noticed a change. But he did as he glanced up to his horn, a visible crack was there that indicated his weakened state.

Valentine’s rage did not subside even after going back to his throne room, the gazes of his tribe members were telling a story. They could clearly tell that he had lost and even used up a valuable resource without which he would not be able to cheat death anymore.

The resources required for it was the blood of virgins at a certain level of soul strength which was uncommon. He needed to capture them first before performing a ritual that would allow him to add the blood into the pool. The old one took a hundred years to fill out and now it was almost empty.

“My lord you must rest, forget about the hunt, the savages can never reach this castle.”

One of the many wives that tended to his needs spoke out while bowing her head. The whole throne room was filled out by the closest of his kin that was still alive. His army of blood relatives had suffered a large defeat, this was a good proposal yet it only brought anger to this vampire’s eyes.

“Are you telling me to hide like a coward? I’m not the prey here, they are!”

The outburst of anger brought everyone in the room down to their knees but he could not deny the truth in those words. It was not time to take his revenge just yet, he needed some time to prepare. Leaving the area was impossible as his tribe was tasked by the Empire himself but his tribe was not the only one here.

“Bring over the eye, I need to speak with the other tribe leaders…”

The vampire woman that was previously trembling on the ground gave out a radiant smile while quickly moving to the side to bring over a basketball-sized demonic eye that was clearly alive. The eye was placed on a stand made of blackthorns, the moment it was set down a demonic scream escaped from the strange item and produced a reddish aura. This aura started to form into an image that slowly started to take shape.

“What do you want Valentine?”

Was the response that he got, a characteristic horn was protruding from the forehead of the person on the other side. A glint appeared in his eyes while looking at the person on the other side, if pushed correctly then perhaps his tribe would not need to face against the strange golden cultivator he faced which would give him time to recoup his losses.

…..

“How did we fare?”

“I’d say better than expected, there weren’t that many deaths and with the help of the healing arts all of the injured will be able to eventually recover.”

“I see…”

Zhang Jin looked at Zhang Dong in a worried fashion as he noticed that his grandson wasn’t as cheerful as he usually was. While to this veteran something like this battle was a great victory, the small number of deaths was an amazing accomplishment.

To Zhang Dong on the other hand, even losing a few people was a failure on his part. He knew that it was almost impossible to have a war with no casualties but it still pained him to see people that looked up to him to die. The only way to lower the death count would be for him to take a more active role and roam the lands himself.

But he was the leader of the sect, he was the only person that could not die or be injured. If he did, the whole war effort was at a risk of collapsing. He was the glowing beacon of hope and strength that his people relied on. As long as he was there to push them forward, they would continue to fight and improve themselves. While wars were brutal they were also an opportunity for growth.

“I’ll leave the troops in your hands gramps, be sure to give them some words of wisdom but try not to bore them too much, they have earned their time of respite.”

This was not the time for moping, it was a glorious victory on their part. With the help of his sect members, he had managed to deliver a devastating blow to the vampires and cause their leader to use up some kind of forbidden spell. Those always had their drawbacks and perhaps the next time they met he would not pose that much of a threat.

“Aye, I could use a drink, this is truly the time to be festive!”

“Please, don’t mingle with the women warriors too much, you have enough wives as it is you old fart…”

Zhang Dong delivered a smack to Zhang Jin’s head the moment he saw him staring at a somewhat voluptuous lady from the healer division. With his youth being somewhat restored Zhang Jin would probably use this opportunity to spread his seed even further than before.

“Don’t make me regret making you a nascent soul master…”

“What’s there to regret?”

The old man laughed while floating towards the encampment at the border region that they retreated back to. While the enemies were defeated they did not press the offensive as there was not enough information.

The map they had only gave a general idea of the enemy forces which could be too much for their one battalion of sect warriors that arrived here. Their forces were still spread out thin and it was taking time to recruit the other sects under their wing. Those had their own problems as they could not trust them to perform well against these monsters that had an uncanny strength.

Huo Qiang on the other hand had disappeared to chase after more enemies. While there weren’t many, some of the lesser vampires had escaped. He was at a level that they would not pose a threat to him after receiving a protective talisman made by Zhang Dong to ward off soul attacks he had gone on his hunt.

‘Everyone is working hard, at this rate we should be able to reinforce the border region. I’m not sure if expanding beyond this point will be that easy…’

While he did not know much about wars he knew one truth, they didn’t end in one day. Even in his old world that was many times smaller, wards could take months or years without ever ending. Here where the distances between sect ground were the sizes of continents it would be even harder.

They needed to slowly transport their troops and reinforce the defenses so that the enemy soldiers could not push further in. While those tribes seemed unorganized at the moment, this could change. There were two choices here, either they rushed in swords swinging or they waited to slowly build up their momentum.

The first option was quite risky and would probably cause a large number of deaths. The gap between the cultivators here and the strange beastman-like tribes was still large. They had more members that were comparable to nascent soul masters and they were all body refiners that didn’t require as much rest as cultivators focusing on spiritual energy.

‘Is sneaking in there a possibility? They would certainly not expect someone like me to go there alone…’

He did not want to leave things unfinished, not being able to kill the leader was a big blunder on his part. But even with his death, there would not be enough information about the occupied lands. Only now his spy network was slowly seeping in, after a big blow to the vampires the lands were ripe for the taking.

‘This is going to get hectic…’

Zhang Dong let out a sigh while vanishing from the spot, he appeared at his private quarters at this location. There as always he contacted his wife and had a little chat with his children through a long-range communication device that could carry a hologram of him. These required special towers to be constructed at certain locations but after they took over the lands here, it was an easy fix.

After catching up it was time to get rid of some spirit stones and reevaluate his cultivation method. He slowly went down to the ground to position himself in the usual lotus position. After clasping his hands together he started to concentrate to look within himself.

The three cores were not aligned, the recently absorbed soul energy was seeping out of the soul core. What he required now was an abundance of lightning energy which he was lacking.

‘The most common elemental energy and I’m lacking in it, well its better than searching for more holy relics to absorb…’

Some of the spirit stones that he ransacked from the underground cities had already been absorbed. The weapons and magical treasures that he could use to bolster his body's refining state had also pushed him towards the apex of this technique. The body he was in the possession of was that of a nascent soul master at the great circle level.

Anyone below that level of strength would find it hard to even produce a scratch that would bleed. This variation of the golden body was a great defensive measure that would allow him to go toe to toe with those horned bastards which were precisely on that level.

‘If the generals are at that level then the Emperor is either at mine or slightly above it…’

While glancing at his struggling lightning core he decided on his next location. Sneaking into the vampire castle didn’t seem like the greatest idea at this point in time. If he managed to bolster his spiritual energy even further and evolve this seed in some way, then no one would be able to stand in his way.

‘I don’t need to endanger my people, If I get stronger those strongholds won’t be worth much nor will that Emperor. Even if I capture that location it won’t end the war. I need to get more powerful and this location seems to have the lightning energy that I require…’