“That’s about it, how is Zhi doing?”

The red demi-humans that were similar to the ones he met in the north were decimated by his attacks. Even though some of them were at the level of nascent soul masters they could not contend with him at all. His power had certainly increased and was close to the pinnacle of what this Empire had to offer.

Zhang Zhi was also showing some promise as he was able to hold out against a tribe leader with a lesser horn. Yet the fight was a lot closer than Zhang Dong would like it, both of the fighters were exchanging blows and taking a lot of damage. If this continued for too long he feared that Zhi would lose as his specialty was not body refinement that gave a cultivator a lot more stamina.

‘I feel that he will be depressed if I just jump in to save him… but I can’t have him die here…’

The blade that Zhang Zhi was holding was unable to cleave through his opponent's taught skin and bones. It was obvious that the demi-human was faster and stronger than Zhi yet the cultivator was still able to contend due to his fighting sense. His fighting style was somewhat similar to Zhang Dong who liked to predict his opponent’s movements before dodging with minimal effort and Qi use. This allowed him to hold on without utilizing his Qi for defenses but there was still a limit to everything.

‘He needs to deliver a critical blow, all those flesh wounds would be able to take a normal cultivator down but this demi-human’s healing abilities are over regular body refiners…’

There was of course a limit on how many times the red demi-human could heal himself. Zhang Zhi’s attacks also injected small amounts of his Qi into those gashes which slowly ate away at the opponent’s stamina. It was a true battle of attrition that was shifting in the favor of the humanoid monster.

‘To win this fight he will have to take a gamble…’

This was what Zhang Dong was afraid of. Zhi clearly could tell that he was slowly losing, if he didn’t alter his tactic there was no coming back. What he could do was gamble his life on a risky maneuver that would strike down his enemy. By sacrificing some of his flesh he would be able to strike down his opponent's bones in theory, but would the demi-human risk it?

He was not about to let one of his strongest sect members just die but he at least needed to give him a chance to improve. It would be easy to jump in but he felt that Zhi would feel some resentment towards himself for not being able to be useful to his favorite Patriarch. Thus instead of jumping in directly he decided to fiddle with the lightning barrier that was keeping both of them in a makeshift ring. If there was a danger to Zhang Zhi’s life he would activate a massive discharge to save him.

‘It will be close though…’

Finally, the exchange between the cultivator and the demi-human reached the final act. The first one to act was the demi-human, he was the more aggressive one throughout the entire battle. Zhang Zhi placed his katana into the scabbard while taking up a quickdraw stance. It was the technique he was most familiar with and the one he intended to finish it all.

The monster-like human’s claws expanded, they looked very sharp and were made from white bone. Its entire body was covered in them for protection and it was also the largest problem for Zhi that could not cut through them in one swing. It seemed that he was risking his life to finally cleave his opponent, either he would succeed or die.

Zhang Dong moved a bit closer as he got nervous. He did not know what was going through the man’s mind precisely. Not once did he look for help or even pay attention to Zhang Dong while he was clearing out the trash around the area. The trust for his patriarch was unshakable but the man in question wasn’t sure if he liked that. This put a lot of weight on his shoulders, if he did falter then the trust of his people would be misplaced.

He was prepared to electrocute the demi-human instantly but he allowed Zhi to have his way. The man was hard-headed but he was a warrior who deserved to get a chance if they decided to risk their lives. Thus when he saw what was transpiring he jolted forward, the clawed hand connected with the side of Zhi’s neck, and took a large chunk of his shoulder out almost instantly.

Yet he stopped himself from stepping in as he saw the katana leaving the sheath at a tremendous speed. Zhi had offered up his left side to allow him to get in this one final attack. The sword left the scabbard while being covered in a blue light that was concentrated on the sharpened cutting edge.

A loud thunderous roar that was similar to a dragon followed soon after the blade collided with the demi-human’s neck. Sparks flew as the sword was resisted by the creature's bone plates that were covering its neck for protection. It was a momentary pause as the edge slipped in through a precisely seen weak spot. The head of Zhang Zhi’s enemy flew upwards as the clash was over signaling the end of the battle.

“You idiot…”

Zhang Dong appeared right next to his retainer that was almost decapitated himself. At the last moment, he shifted his body so that only his left shoulder would be blown away. His sword arm was still intact and able to be used to deliver the last blow. By focusing all of his qi on the blade while ignoring his own defenses he was able to dislodge the demi-human’s head.

“I apologize Patriarch, I have shown you a disgraceful display…”

It seemed that Zhang Zhi was more concerned about looking weak in front of his leader than losing part of his body. If Zhang Dong wasn’t versed in healing arts then perhaps he would have been crippled for the rest of his life. Even though he was a nascent soul master, so was his opponent. The amount of damage was serious and normally his body would take years to recover. Yet thanks to the ample holy energies that he had at his disposal, Zhang Dong could shorten the process to a week or two.

“You did well, your opponent is dead and you have gained valuable experience for the coming battles in the future but for the time being I order you to retreat to our sect, our healers will take care of the rest of your treatment.”

“I… I will do as the Patriarch commands…”

Zhang Zhi was happy when he was praised but his smile soon turned sour as he was ordered to return to the sect. It was obvious that in his current state he would be a liability if more enemies appeared before them. Luckily the man would not go against orders like this so Zhang Dong wasn’t worried about him leaving the sick bed before his treatment was over.

“Now hold still, I’m glad that you won but next time you should prioritize your health. Look at the sorry state that you are in now. If you asked me for aid you wouldn’t need to be removed from the battlefield for a whole week!”

“I… I made a grave mistake!”

“Hey stop that!”

Zhang Dong had to deliver a smack to Zhi’s forehead as he was trying to bow down after being reprimanded. His healing energies were slowly recreating the flesh that was once the shoulder blade. It was a lot harder to perform healing arts on nascent soul masters than on regular people. That’s why he needed to do it himself, if he left all of the healing up to the average healer then it could even take a year. After the initial healing was done though, they could continue with the healing process and get him running within the week.

“Patriarch, Elder we have come to aid you!”

While he was applying his healing arts two nascent soul masters that had been given their strength recently appeared.

“Good, one of you can escort Zhang Zhi back to the teleportation gate, make sure that he returns to the sect’s hospital only return to me when he starts his treatment and not a day sooner!

“Yes, Patriarch.”

More and more people started gathering after the battle was over. This was not over as the demi-human parts could actually be used as cultivation resources or weapons. The bones they produced were hard to cut even by high-quality blades and were easily processed by just grinding them down into shape.

With each passing day, his sect was growing. For most other sects this was a time of turmoil and loss, yet for a small few this was the chance to rise up. All of the resources that were left in the wake of this war could be siphoned away. They didn’t need to spend time making weapons, pills, or elixirs that could just be taken from other locations and used to strengthen their warriors faster.

This did not mean that they could just wait as their opponents hadn't actually shown their true hand. Their leaders were still hanging back in their respective empires. would they even appear or just continuously send their forces. It was hard to figure out the number of men that could be thrown their way as they were still in the information gathering stage.

These leader-type demi-humans seemed to know a bit more than the grunts but unless they captured one of the true tribe leaders like Valentine they would not be able to get anything substantial.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles…”

Zhang Dong was starting to take some of the cheesy quotes that he read from the internet to heart. To win this battle he needed to get a substantial amount of information about his enemies. That was the only way of winning the coming battles where he was at a disadvantage.

“But also an enemy of my enemy is my friend…”

He pulled out the holy relic that Argus and the magic knights were probably here for. There was an underhanded method of getting help from them against these demi-human bastards. While he didn’t want to lie there was no way that those people would just give him aid, probably even if he just gave it to them.

‘If I announce that I have it but aren’t willing to give it unless they help me, then they might do it… or betray me at some point to get it… but if I do something else then they will have to help me even if they don’t want to…’

Zhang Dong grinned a bit as he placed the item back into his spatial ring, then soon he took off towards the area where the demi-humans resided with a new plan in mind.