“Take everything.”

“Even the floor tiles?”

“Especially the floor tiles, also don’t forget to keep your eyes open there could always be some survivors.”

“O-of course Patriarch.”

A member of the united element sect clasped his hands while flying into the distance on his flying sword. Zhang Dong looked from afar while a large group of them were dismantling buildings for resources.

‘The only good thing that comes out of these demi-humans is that they don’t care about the treasures at all…’

After arriving at the border region Zhang Dong had decided to push toward the lands behind it. The demi-humans were causing a lot of wanton destruction that he could capitalize on. While he felt bad to rob the previous owners of their heirlooms this was war. These cities were devoid of life with part of the people fleeing into the lands that he owned or perishing.

‘Those vampire bastards are keeping their distance, the only demi-humans we encountered are either these red bastards or those molemen…’

Zhang Dong tried to remember the man named Valentine that whom he had come in contact with. That was one of the more difficult beings to kill as he possessed some kind of life-saving technique. He was clearly the schemer type that didn’t take his opponents lightly.

Zhang Dong was actually convinced that he was the reason that these red boney bastards appeared instead of the vampires. They had a reason to prove themselves to the Emperor after he decimated their sister tribe. This was probably a stalling tactic but what was he stalling for?

‘It’s probable that he is unable to use that trump card repeatedly, he might be trying to recover while pushing the other demi humans towards my lands. I bet he won’t face me until he is sure that he can get away like last time, those cowardly types are always a pain in the ass…’

The monster he was facing was the type to be strong against the weak and cowardly against the strong. Probably even if he decided to storm that fortress the Vampire could decide to flee again. He would do anything in his power to survive, only when those types were assured that their strategy worked would they toss themselves into battle.

‘But sneaking into their fortress alone is probably a bad idea…’

Zhang Dong thought back to the many times that he had tried being stealthy. First, the molemen discovered his location by the soil stuck to his boots. Then Argus’ managed to pinpoint his hiding spot with a spell he was not that familiar with. It was probably that if he went alone he would be discovered.

With his current cultivation level, he didn’t feel like he would lose out to these horned tribe leaders. Even before he absorbed all three of his cores he was more than a match for them. The only person that he could see coming close to his level was their leader, the demi-human Emperor.

‘The leaders shouldn’t be that much stronger than the Azure Emperor but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the weakest of the Emperors.”

The Long Clan was strong but even they feared the invaders. This was something they had been informed about by their ancestors. The old writings were probably keeping them from being involved. While they might achieve victory if they could wait it out it was fine.

Even if the other sects and clans perished they only needed to last for a hundred years before everything was over. If the invaders remained they would not be able to get any reinforcements either as the connecting bridges would be gone. Zhang Dong was able to traverse through the barrier thanks to his system cheat but he did not believe that it would be possible for anyone besides him or Wang Long to do the same.

‘Long Qing doesn’t really want to talk about his plans, and neither do the elders. Unless I spread my influence there is no possibility of the Long Clan listening to me, killing the current Emperor is also out of the question even though that would probably be the easiest way…’

Zhang Dong knew how this world operated, the best way to gain resources from the Long Clan would be to compete for the throne. If he could defeat his brother in a fair one-on-one bout then the members of the Long Clan would have to listen to him. But he could not see them being quiet while he was beating their Emperor’s face in.

If he went with that nuclear option his hands would be filled with blood. He would have to eliminate everyone that was closely related to Long Qing, this included his children and his wife. After being able to create his own family there was no possibility of him performing such an evil act on someone else. His actions would be no different from what the invaders were doing now and killing people as a means to an end.

‘Can’t attack the Vampire Fortress yet but if I get that Palace to work then perhaps I can force a victory…’

To end this whole invasion faster he would need to take an active part in the war. For that, he either needed stronger forces to battle his enemies or strategic superiority. He could use guerrilla tactics that would allow him to slowly push the larger demi-human forces back. Yet the biggest problem with that approach was Wang Long.

If left alone for too long he would gain too much power. He was the true last enemy and a wild card with a system. The other last bosses or hidden bosses that were created in this scenario were probably balanced to let the system holder win. On the other hand, Wang Long could do anything, even reach the immortal stage if he was given enough time to absorb spirit points from the increasing number of enemies from all sides.

“Why did that damn bastard need to appear, if he wasn’t here…”

Zhang Dong frowned after remembering Wang Long’s stupid smug face. If that bastard was not here he would probably be living a more relaxed life even with the invaders attacking. Now on the other hand he needed to worry about an angry manchild that was taking this world as one big game.

From Zhang Dong’s perspective, Wang Long was mistaken. The people living here weren’t much different than the people in their original world. It was true that the setting was customized behind the scenes but it wasn’t at the level of mind control or mind alteration. The people here thought for themselves, they were just victims of the setting and reacted accordingly.

All of them were taught from a young age how the world worked. With one person being a nuclear bomb in a robe it was normal for their mentality to be different than the modern world that both Wang Long and Zhang Dong came from.

‘It wouldn’t surprise me that if something came to alter the setting, a being like that Demon Lord comes out to bring it back to the original setting?’

He was not sure as he only had one instance to look back to. In the other world after he affected the power balance the being appeared. Luckily he came from a world that allowed him to gain enough strength to face that demon. Which made it problematic, as whoever appeared before him would probably be stronger than the strongest martial master here.

‘I’ll cross that bridge when I get there, for now, I need to get more materials.’

His people were working diligently on ransacking one of the large cities. While most escaping clans took the treasured items with them, the buildings were still there. These would be stripped down to their foundations and sent off to the Golden Palace. Thanks to his faction window he would be able to use the recycle function even when not being there.

For the past few days, he had been escorting his men while they ransacked everything. Small packs of the red demi-humans appeared here and there but they were quickly dispatched. They had a similar way of fighting to their pale counterparts but instead of throwing bone spears, they could turn into porcupines. Their whole bodies would then fire off smaller projectiles that could even explode if the attack was performed by a senior tribe member.

“I don’t like it, it has been too quiet lately…”

Even with the mapping function, these demi-humans that didn’t give out much of a Qi signature were hard to spot. It was impossible to pinpoint their location as the entire area was light red now. His spiritual sense also had trouble with enemy detection which mostly resulted in not much time to react. It also didn’t help that stripping down the buildings was a very slow process. Transporting all these heavy items was only possible due to the replica dimensional regalias that were better at storing such large loads than regular spatial rings.

“I need to contact Argus, the deadline is in a week…?”

While mumbling to himself he noticed something. The map that he had set up to be to the side of where he could see flashed red for a moment. This was a clear sign that something or someone was approaching. By how they have been spending some time traversing these conquered lands he already knew who it was.

“Everyone, take to the skies and retreat!”

An order was given quickly and everyone instantly dropped what they were doing to jump onto their flying swords. This was not the first time that he had warned his sect members of an incoming enemy attack. Now he just needed to raise his voice slightly for his people to follow his instructions. With them being mostly core formation experts they were ill-equipped for battling these demi-humans that had many members that were close to nascent soul masters.

“Patriarch, I am here!”

“Zhang Zhi, there is something coming from below, be careful…”

He was not the only nascent soul master in this area. Together with his number one fan Zhang Zhi, he had been traveling for a week and gathering materials. Most of the time it was actually the samurai that cleared up the enemy encampments or ambushes with him just keeping watch of the weaker core formation sect members.

Zhang Zhi pulled out his katana that was specially made for him. It was a lot longer and had a nicely decorated blue hilt. While holding it above his head he started gathering his true Qi. The black blade instantly became engulfed with blue water energy that took the shape of a water dragon.

Then suddenly a large worm monster burst through the ground. Its toothy mouth opened up to devour the nascent soul master but he was prepared. With one downward slash, the sword energy traveled forward while roaring.

Zhang Dong was watching from the side and felt a bit sorry for the monster that was cleaved in half before it could do anything. Yet it was not over, even though the monster was dead it was just the beginning of the battle as many mole-like creatures appeared from the hole beneath.

‘I guess this was bound to happen…’