“Bring it in slowly, hey watch it, if you drop it you’ll have to pay for it!”

“I’m sorry elder!”

Zhang Dong was now looking at a group of people from his sect moving equipment from the Argonaut here. After performing a test with the help of his familiar he was successful in connecting the palace's teleportation gate to the sect’s system. With the coordinates now locked in he would be able to send his people here.

“How long do you think it will take Kuo?”

“As you instructed, I have examined the interiors of the golden palace. It will probably take at least a month to get rid of all this rubble and reconnect all the faulty spiritual connections.”

“Good, prioritize this facility, you have permission to assemble a team, the cost doesn’t matter. Don’t forget to organize everything by worth, I will come to inspect it later. Prepare a storage area where you will transport high-quality building materials from our sect. ”

“Right away Patriarch!”

The Palace was quite big, even with a large group of specialized sect masters it would be hard to check everything. The old materials that this place was made of could be recycled and along with the ones his sect brought along he would have more to work with. A month was a good amount of time for him to gather some passive spirit points as well.

‘I should have enough to get the basics running but will it be enough…’

This flying treasure was a fortress in itself. Even at this moment, no one would be able to get into it while bombarding it with conventional spirit attacks. Perhaps even the Azure Emperor would need to get involved to bust down the main gate. Yet even if this place was so sturdy it was of no use to him here. What he needed to do is to get it outside and use it as a base of operations.

‘I don’t think Long Qing would let me take this old relic outside their borders. He probably doesn’t suspect anything but I don't think I would have enough time to flee without suffering major damages…’

It seemed that Long Qing needed this golden palace for something. For the time being Zhang Dong felt that he was not in any danger. As long as this thing remained here the Long Clan would probably not move either. This left him with one option of taking it out, long-range teleportation to somewhere outside the grand formation.

‘From what I can tell this relic did have such a feature but it will cost a lot of spirit points…’

After going through his system window concerning this golden palace he acquitted himself with all the uses it had. It could be used as a mobile fortress if it was at least 70% operational. Yet for some reason, there were a few options that were grayed out and to which he had no access too.

‘Perhaps if I repair some of the destroyed rooms the function will become available?’

He could only speculate about the requirements of the locked away options but if this was all created to mimic a game system then there were a few possibilities. Either he just needed to continue repairing this place to unlock everything or find some external help. This was what he was afraid of as Long Qing’s closeness seemed a bit strange.

Even though his so-called brother was all smiles he couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t telling him the whole truth. Without being able to stroll through the Azure Palace by himself and researching the past he could not confirm anything. However, this did not mean that Long Qing’s motives could be malicious. He could just be like any other cultivator that was seeking to use him to further some kind of agenda.

‘Well can’t worry about that now, what I need to do now is…’

Zhang Dong tossed the Long Clan problem to the side and focused on another matter. He found something that could be the holy sword that Argus told him about. It was clearly some kind of powerful relic that reacted to concentrated holy energy. Even then Zhang Dong could not activate it with his current knowledge, it was perhaps not something that he could ever use.

‘I need to set up a meeting with them and bargain for something worthwhile.’

He smiled while thinking of the treasures that he could receive from Lucius and his knights. The duke looked like he was loaded and the armors they were using could turn a beggar into a hero. If he could get a few of them then perhaps he could improve on his own designs that were sometimes used.

The one Lucius was wearing was far superior to anything that he created as it increased his power to match a pinnacle nascent soul master. The armor that he once used would not give him that much protection as his body refining skill already gave him enough protection without being bulky.

This didn’t mean that he could not equip some of his sect members with similar gear. Zhang Liu for instance would be a great help if he could acquire that kind of armor. This would give him another way of strengthening his forces without needing to spend spirit points to boost everyone’s cultivations while forcing them into the nascent soul stage.

“Good, I already got the alibi of being in closed cultivation here so everything is ready.”

A few days had passed since he entered this palace. Both his children and his wife had been escorted by him outside the Azure Palace and the city. He at least made it seem that they were leaving while he stayed to contemplate his new treasure. This, of course, brought a smile to his brother’s face and with the help of his teleportation array, he would be able to go back to his sect unnoticed.

“Kuo, I will leave everything in your hands and you gramps also behave, if you need some help you know how to reach me.”

Zhang Jin was left behind as the leader and also as a backup plan. This place should be safe but having a nascent soul master around wouldn’t be bad. The old fart was only willing to help if he could bring over a few of his wives which Zhang Dong agreed to. With that, he finally left by stepping through the teleportation gate and returning to the sect’s flagship the Argonaut that was waiting for him.

“Captain, we are going back home.”

“Aye aye.”

Liena and his children had taken another jump towards the main sect as he did not want them to be stuck in the ship for days. He on the other hand didn’t want to waste more energy on unnecessary teleports and there were still places on the way that he could inspect. While the regions around his sect had managed to push back the invaders this couldn’t be said for the others.

Up in the north where Wang Long was biding his time was his largest problem. The battle-crazy tribes from another empire were constantly pushing into the mainland. News of their horrific murders had already spread through the whole Empire.

Some of the sects were striking deals at this very moment as they threw everything at their borders to not let the invaders inside. Yet just as he had theorized they were all being pushed back towards the middle of the Empire where the Long Clan resides.

‘If this continues then within a few months most of the middle-sized sects will be left decimated and the great leader is nowhere to be seen…’

During his flight, he decided to bring up the large map of the whole Empire while in his private cabin. A large blue hologram covered with some red spots was presented to him. It reflected the current state of the war and how much ground they had lost to the invaders.

His sect was in the southern region and it hugged the western regions. A bit to the north from his lands there were various light red dots that further increased in intensity. The most intense spot was the enemy fortress where the leader of the vampires he faced probably resided. Since their last clash, the intensity of their expansion was hampered but instead of the vampires, other creatures started to appear.

Then there was the northwest region that he had also visited. Even though he had blasted the invaders and destroyed their base they had managed to reclaim it shortly after he had left. The sect that was there could not even last for one day and now it was another crimson zone with many people dead.

Yet when he looked further north to where Wang Long had fled he could not see much movement. It seemed that the invaders were having trouble with the demonic cultivators. Either they were stronger than he had anticipated or the tribes could not pass through the treacherous regions there.

Then there was the region to the south that was populated by the people from the magical kingdom. The part they occupied was quite small compared to the tribe and with some luck, it would only get smaller.

To the east was another large dark circle that was occupied by an empire that he actually was in before. It was the one most similar to this with their Emperor being called the Emerald Phoenix. They had also bitten a large chunk out of some territories by advancing slower than the other invaders. It seemed that perhaps this land of cultivators was comparable to this one.

Then there was the last place in the northeast that the last of the invaders came from. There was not much information about them besides that they came from beyond the deep sea. The north part of the empire was quite large and composed of a somewhat uncharted sea that could not be passed even by flying ships.

‘Could be some water-based creatures, they didn’t really push into the mainland and instead remain in the ocean…’

The red spot seemed to stop when it arrived at the large landmass in the south and was spreading west towards where Wang Long was. The demonic cultivators fled beyond where normal people could reach them and had access to the ocean there.

‘Would be nice if they got rid of him for me but it’s more probable that they would just turn into more spirit points.’

While looking at the map he needed to make a decision. He still had a few weeks until his appointment with Argus. This gave him enough time to visit some places that he could help. With this palace underway and now with an option of transporting his closest family to a safe location even when he wasn’t there he was feeling a bit more adventurous…