“Elder, you have arrived!”

A small group of cultivators bowed their heads before a long-bearded man. All of them were wearing similar robes with a white dragon on their back. They were members of the Lightning Dragon Sect that kept order in these lands.

A day ago they had all witnessed a strange phenomenon. The large torrent of lightning energy that had existed before any of them had been born, was no more. It was an inhabitable land that none of them could visit so only when the spiritual energy faded did they start to notice.

While this area still had a lot of residual energy left, it was nothing they couldn’t handle. Even a foundation establishment cultivator would be able to walk into the center. This center all of them were looking at as there was someone there.

“Have you identified this cultivator?”

“We can only speculate, but there aren’t many masters that are able to control lightning to this extent, we fear that it might be the Emperor’s brother that has been seen active…”

“Long Dong? This complicates everything…”

The old man looked at the strange thing that was circulating at the spot where the energy pillar was. Instead of the pure lightning energy they were used to it was composed of some strange mixture.

The elder could detect the Dao of Lightning that he was a student of himself but it was a lot purer than he was used to. Then there was a radiant golden glow that was giving out a warm glow that was making his skin tingle. It was as if some of the old wounds that he had suffered through his five hundred years of battles were being slowly healed.

It was clearly the Dao of the divine yet there was a third energy that he could now decipher. It was not something he was familiar with but even when he couldn’t see it he could tell that it was there. It was pulling at his nascent soul as if wanting to absorb it.

“If this is truly the brother of the Azure Emperor then we can’t disturb his enlightenment yet if it is an enemy then…”

The Lightning Dragon Sect was not unaware of the strange happenings in their lands. People had been disappearing that were even nascent soul masters. These events were mostly accompanied by divine energy that was left behind at the scenes.

This aura here was similar, the person responsible for the disappearances could be the man before them. They had a chance to strike, during the period of cultivating a person would be unaware of their surroundings and unable to protect themselves. If they wished to strike this would be the best chance but it could cost them dearly if the person here was really related to the Azure Emperor.

“... Everyone spread out, we will create a protective array for the senior…”

Everyone else looked at each other and quickly nodded. All of them could feel that the person inside of that spiritual bubble was someone tremendous. Even being this close was making their own cultivations throb out of embarrassment. Striking the person in there could fail as the difference in powers was large and even if they failed in cultivating that wouldn’t mean that they would die on the spot.

Thus all of the people gathered here spread out in all directions. While they were missing the large torrent of lightning energy that was once here, it wasn’t all gone. It was as if the person here left some of it behind so that they could contemplate its Dao and get stronger.

This was actually a great boon for them as now they would be able to turn this into a cultivation spot where they could study the residual laws of this greater Dao. Previously the lightning torrents made the innermost lands inhabitable but now they would be able to expand. They knew that if they dug into the ground here they would be able to mine out various treasures as well.

The biggest reason for helping was as always self-interest. This elder was unsure of being able to contend with the being who was before him. Each time he tried to measure that area with his spiritual sense he couldn’t feel anything. It was as if the gap between him and the thing in there was inhumane. He could not see himself winning with that powerful being and this is why seeking favor with them instead was the most logical conclusion.

Soon more cultivators were pouring in, some were from the same lightning sect but others were just curious to see who was responsible for this spectacle. It was inconceivable to everyone here that someone was able to remove this lightning storm that plagued these lands for so long. Was there a trick involved or was the one responsible for it a master of never before seen proportions.

Yet while most that gathered here were waiting for the man in question to be done with their cultivation journey, there were a few others that didn’t belong. They were wearing golden suits of armor and riding on white horses with wings.

“Inform the Knight Commander, that we have found him.”

….

‘Almost there…’

Zhang Dong was floating up in the air while surrounded by a thick layer of his own three energies. At first, they were very chaotic but soon they began to slowly react with each other. It was as if the purpose of separating the three cores was to later bring them together and fuse them into one.

This was just the process he found himself in now as all three of his cores were slowly fusing with each other and the seed in the middle. The most difficult task was to keep everything at an equilibrium, whenever something was out of line a sharp pain would attack his body. Without his body refining at this level, he would have already failed but thanks to it he was allowed enough retries without his body crumbling into dust.

‘I can’t heal myself during this process but my guests don’t seem to be hostile, at least not for the time being.’

While he was concentrating on his development he had also noticed that he was surrounded by multiple unknown cultivators. He could only feel the ones that were the closest, some of them were nascent soul masters that should not pose a problem if he was in a rested state. If after this core fusion he would advance further or be tired was still unknown to him.

The ascension he was going through was unknown to him. His system could not even identify the name of it nor was it able to help him with its progress. This made him believe that it was an unknown variant that the person that created this system didn’t know about. Yet there could be another reason if the creator of the system did not want the system holders to know about it. Either way, if he managed to progress further and had to challenge this godly being then this unknown cultivation realm could be his only way of victory.

‘It’s almost there…’

Soon enough after a few failures, he had managed to stabilize all three cores that started to slowly fuse with the white seed in the middle. The first effect of this fusion was represented by the seed’s growth from something that was pea-sized into a walnut-size seed. Yet even with the size increase, there was something wrong, he did not feel that much of a power increase.

The seed had multiplied in size by quite a lot but his all-around spiritual energy reserves did not. Instead of this feeling like a proper large realm breakthrough, it felt like he had gone through a few years of training. But this wasn’t quite over as the seed started to change its color.

From a pale white into a deep blue and quickly into a transparent gold. It continued to switch between the coloring of his three previous cores until it settled on a yellowish pattern. This wasn’t all as from the top it started to slowly open up, perhaps when it sprouted the real realm shift would commence pushing him into a higher state of being.

However, instead of the expected change the seed never sprouted. Instead, little golden whips of light shot out from within and made its way towards his middle dantian. Through it, the small ball of light escaped and started increasing in size. At the same time, the energies that were surrounding his body exploded causing everything to be bathed in white.

On the outside, the cultivators had quite the scare as the person the phenomenon they were all watching violently exploded. The formation that Zhang Dong created himself took the brunt of the force but quickly exploded. A wave of spiritual energy was forced outside in all directions and towards the defensive array, the people from the other sect created.

Even though the blast had been lessened in its destructive force it still went through the barrier as if it was made from paper. The people that were sustaining it started coughing up blood while using all sorts of defensive talismans to save their life.

But just as soon as this devastating wave of spiritual energy traveled through everything leaving injured in its wake, their misery was short-lived. A warm glow appeared soon after that quickly cured everyone’s wounds. This glow was accompanied by a strange low pitched roar that sounded like some kind of powerful beast.

“W-what is that?”

“It really is the Golden Dragon!”

“It is… but what is that strange small creature next to him?”

‘Strange small creature?’

Zhang Dong had to take a moment to gather himself. When looking inside of his spiritual sea he could see the enlarged seed that looked as if it was about to sprout into something. Yet it still didn’t, it looked like it was frozen in time. Even with the cores now gone, he could still feel all three of the energies pulsating from the seed but the progress was halted.

Now the other peculiar thing was that light that shot out. At first, he didn’t notice it but there was something familiar about that small light. When he opened his eyes he was surprised to see a somewhat familiar-looking creature before him. The first noticeable thing about it was the golden pattern to its scales and the two wings it was using to keep itself afloat.

“Are you… my soul beast?... but why do you look like that?”

“Purrr!”

What he was seeing was a rather cute baby dragon that was about the size of a large dog. It was floating around him while making cute sounds. It looked like a smaller version of the golden dragon that was once his soul beast. But there was something different about it, the connection was different. Instead of it being part of his soul it felt like a separate being with a similar energy as his, as if it was made from his soul but not part of it.

‘Interesting…’

Zhang Dong placed his hand on the creature's head. The cute dragon baby reacted by fluttering its wings and purring like a cat. While his cultivation breakthrough didn’t go as planned he had gained something else, his soul beast had returned and the spiritual energy that was coming from it was not low at all.