“Welcome to the Pink Pleasure Palace, can I…”

“Sorry, I’m not going to be here for long, I'm just looking for my family member… you probably know him by the pervy look on his face… no?”

Zhang Dong entered into the large building that turned out to be a gambler's den along with a brothel. It seemed that his place had it all for big spenders, women, alcohol, and probably drugs to make life easier.

‘I guess even if you are from the top clan in the empire, you still can’t get rid of your desires…’

The lady that greeted him bowed really low, she probably knew who he was as there were already a lot of other fine women behind her to greet him. They were giving him a grand welcome worthy of the name of Golden Dragon, even the person responsible for the brothel was here to greet him. She was a lady that looked to be a mix between a human and a fox with quite the alluring body.

‘Good that I kept Liena outside but It would be better if I didn’t linger here for too long, she might get the wrong idea if I stay here for too long.’

He was now surrounded by alluring ladies of various shapes and sizes. They did not look like they belonged to one race either, some of them were half beasts or ones that gained the ability to morph into a humanoid shape. For people from his old world, this would have been a paradise where they could find a girl for every possible fancy. On the other hand, it was somewhat uncomfortable as he had found a lady that covered all of the bases with his wife.

“Now please, I really need to go.”

Before he could be totally surrounded by the vixens he activated a simpler movement technique to go past them. This one didn’t shock anyone or produce any loud sounds but just increased his speed by a tremendous amount. With the map function in his possession, he could see each and every member of the elder group that was here.

But he was the Patriarch of the sect, it would be strange for him to go around through the rooms to get everyone. Instead, he would go for the ringleader that was Zhang Jin. After getting his grandfather out from here the old man would be tasked with getting in touch with the others instead.

‘Luckily the people here clearly know who I am.’

Thanks to his face and aura the guards that were stationed in this place stepped to the side. Soon he arrived at a large golden door that led him to an interesting area. After opening he was hit by vivid shouts of customers, dice, and water.

‘Did they combine a spa with a casino?’

There was clear flowing water in a few places and warm baths with people sitting in them. They were mostly older men together with scantily clad women that were chatting and smiling. In the distance, he could see many tables with various dice games that were loved in this world.

Cultivators in this world were quite fond of gambling. Most of the time they swarmed for gambling houses to wager their spirit stones against other masters. At first, Zhang Dong was confused about this fact but soon it all made sense. With so little entertainment in a cultivator's life, gambling was one of the small joys where they could feel some excitement.

This of course led to a lot of trouble as some people didn’t know when it was a good time to end it. They could not accept the loss and continued to gamble on everything that they owned. Sometimes even going as far as putting themselves up for sale or their family members.

Gambling was not forbidden in his sect ground or city that he governed either. It was a good source of income as the games that were played were designed in favor of the casino. It didn’t matter when someone got lucky once or twice if another ten lost miserably to make up for it. The house always won in the end, only when a cheater appeared would the reverse be possible.

‘Now where are you…There!’

Before another attendant appeared to block his way he spotted his grandfather. While he was sitting with his bare chest out in the open his wives were with him. They were draped around his arms while he was throwing some dice around. From the look of it Zhang Jin had come out of one of the hot tubs and was now trying his luck with the games.

Besides him and a few other elders from his sect, he also spotted various outsiders. Some of them looked like influential figures by the amount of jewelry draped around their necks or on their hands.

‘I guess he took my words to heart, regretfully we might not be able to capitalize on those potential deals that he was working on.’

Zhang Jin had one mission, to get closer with the Long Clan members that were a bit lower on the totem pole. After fostering good relations he was supposed to gain some information about the inner workings of their clan. The Azure Dragon was the leader but there had to be various factions working in the background that didn’t trail far behind the current leader. Perhaps one of them would like to offer their aid to the Golden Dragon that on paper was on the same level as the current leader.

‘But perhaps gaining some donations from them would not be so bad…’

For the time being, he needed more resources to repair the Golden Palace he would be using as his new temporary base. The Azure Palace and the main city were divided between themselves so his people could in theory wander around the city while evading the domain of his brother.

‘Long Qing does seem to have a use for me, it doesn’t seem that he would do anything to alienate me, even less after I have kickstarted that palace, this should give anyone associated with me some immunity in his city…’

Zhang Dong was on the fence now. On one hand, it seems that Zhang Jin was successful in getting some elders that were of the nascent caliber on his side. Perhaps they could start up a trade or ask for donations towards his Golden Dragon faction.

He could promise to support them from the sides, his status as the Emperor’s younger brother was still there so he would be able to exert some weight in a few places. Unless the Azure Dragon actually came out of his palace to go against him, he could not be denied. Before any decision could be made though, his people needed to be transported to a safe zone with no one peeking in.

‘Hey old fart, I see that you are having fun but we need to go, gather up everyone and meet me outside of this building in ten minutes.’

After confirming that Zhang Jin was safe he sent him a message that only he could hear. Even while talking in an annoyed tone his grandfather remained smiling while listening. It was clear that the man had gone through situations like this and was not about to break his character.

Just as he entered this temple of carnal desires he was ready to leave. Luckily no one in here was capable of making him stay. Even though some random elders appeared out of the blue to ask him to stay he just turned around without replying. Playing the mysterious senior was an easy way to avoid confrontation as no one would call him out on it. Soon enough he found himself back outside where the rest of his family was waiting.

“See, I told you that it wouldn’t take long.”

“Hm…”

Liena was first to greet him, his wife started eyeballing his clothes for some reason and even leaned over to give his neck a sniff from a few sides. While he did enjoy the view that his wife was producing from leaning forward he wasn’t sure what she was doing.

“I can’t feel the presence of other women on you, good.”

“Hey now, I’m not gramps, I wouldn’t do such a thing!”

She narrowed her eyes while stepping closer and grabbing onto his arm. It was quite sweet to see his wife be so protective of him. Her gaze told it all as all of the hostesses that were outside the large hotel averted their gazes. Liena was still a nascent soul master that would make any normal woman tremble in fear.

“Dong’er you should have given me a bit more time.”

“Oh, so you want more time?”

“Yes, but what do you mean by that?”

Zhang Jin was clearly confused by how his grandson was grinning. He managed to get some surface-level information from some of the people he met but it wasn’t much. After using some of his tricks to get them drunk he was slowly working down their defenses.

“Well, you said that you were bored, I’ll tell you after we get to the Golden Palace but first the elders will go back to the Argonaut for now and will wait for further orders.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, also here, this is my seal, if you show it to the guards they should open up the protective formation.”

Zhang Dong nodded which only caused Zhang Jin to shrug. He could not really go against the orders of the Patriarch so everyone quickly scrambled to clear out of this place. Luckily they came in small numbers so within about thirty minutes they were already flying towards their destination.

While the elders were showing the guards the emblem he and the rest flew towards the Golden Palace that was recently activated. It had remained in the shadow of the larger Azure Palace, hidden away by a formation. Almost no one knew that it was even there, only when he was accepted by his ancestor did this building react to spring to life. It was barely operational but soon enough it could become one of his greatest battle assets.

“Golden Dong Palace, Daddy it has your name!”

Shouted Zhang Xiu which made her father slump his shoulders forward. The name that he registered would be hard to change and cost a lot of spirit points thus he would need to let it be for now. His kids seemed to be animated enough and no one saw any problem with the character for his name being on the large shiny gate.

“This place isn’t simple and you say that it was left by your true ancestor?”

Zhang Jin asked as he was now before the large Palace entrance.

“Yes, though I don’t think that ancestor was from the Zhang family side but from the Long Clan instead.”

He did not know who he was truly related to. Perhaps a Long clan member made it to his clan in secret, it could have been his mother or father, perhaps even someone further down the line. This didn’t matter much as it was just a setting from the system that probably just altered the world as he arrived.

“I’ll need to have you take care of it for now but let us go in first where no one can disturb our conversation…”

While looking back towards the hidden elders he opened up the Palace gates, inside he would be able to disclose his plan to his family members as well as teleport them back home.