‘What are you doing Meifen? If we bring this demonic master back with us, he could destroy the whole sect!’

‘But grandfather, we were unable to retrieve the treasure from the sunken temple, if we return as this the grand elder will use us as fuel for the next ritual. It’s better if we use this old monster and escape…’

‘You’re playing with fire my granddaughter but I can’t deny the truth in your words…’

‘...’

‘They really like to scheme in the demonic lands, don’t they?’

Zhang Dong read through the hidden messages that these two quickly sent to each other. There was an old technique to send encoded sounds right next to a desired target's ear. The sound waves were encoded and impossible to hear by anyone other than the desired target. This encryption was far too hard to get through even by powerful masters, thus they didn’t fear him overhearing their scheme.

This wasn’t true for him though, with the help of Bob that worked like a machine the encryption could be decoded. It was presented to him as writing on his system screen, he was seeing a chat conversation between these two that intended to pull one over him.

‘At least it seems that this grand elder had actually seen this Chaotic Demon before. They intend me to stall for them while they make a getaway…’

‘It would be great if this old monster just killed that grand elder bastard, we wouldn’t need to leave then…’

‘That would be the best-case outcome, my granddaughter but please leave the talking to me, you have never been good at acting.’

‘Thank you, grandfather.’

The two were only trying to survive so he couldn’t fault them for going through with this dangerous plan. He did not appreciate that they were willing to have their entire sect wiped from the face of the planet though. If he was truly an old evil monster and overheard this conversation, then following the usual cultivator rules they would die for besmirching his name.

‘Glad my sect isn’t like this…’

He could not imagine his faction members selling each other out like this. There was a certain level of trust between the seniors and the juniors. There was also a lack of death penalties for not fulfilling tasks from senior members of the sect that would produce these types of people. It was clear that the demonic sects took things a lot more seriously than the orthodox ones.

Zhang Dong decided to skim through the hidden messages that everyone was sending to each other. It was surprising how some of them were disrespectful when thinking that he wasn’t able to hear them.

‘Hey, what’s with that guy's chin…’

‘I know… why is it so angular? And that beard looks strange…’

They were mostly commenting on his appearance that he might have had too much fun in creating. Wang Long might have even been able to figure out that it was him by the meme he took inspiration from. Yet his aim was not to meet with his nemesis but to get information about the lands. Then after returning his people could create a perfect plan for assaulting the demonic cultivators.

‘I should ignore them. Will those fish people be a problem? Didn’t expect them to be there, if they appear while we are transporting our army, it might be a problem…’

The captured merman was in his spatial treasure. He was able to function out of water but there were side effects. His spiritual energy started decreasing and his body also shriveled up to an extent. It was clear that he was keeping himself alive thanks to having a high enough cultivation.

‘This means that their forces shouldn’t be able to infiltrate the mainland, that is unless they have something to flood it instead…’

It was clear that even the stronger members of this faction couldn’t live well under regular air. They needed water to remain strong and would be unable to push into their lands without going through rivers and giant lakes. Yet there was another possibility as it was apparent that these lands were becoming flooded. The sea wasn’t this deep before but if it was an effect that would continue was also unconfirmed.

‘Perhaps I should farm a smaller group and create a teleportation gate instead? These people live in some kind of port city, should I use their sect to hide? That might not be the best idea, they could sell me out instantly.’

One of the possibilities would be to grab some hidden land from this Onyx Moon Sect. They probably had some free space where he could create the teleportation devices. By slowly bringing in more of his people it would be possible to move the army here while ditching the sea route.

Yet these demonic sects only answered to power, he was clearly a strong cultivator but this wasn’t enough. The people wouldn’t risk offending the powerful demonic cultivators that existed here. The quality of the top demonic masters was higher than of the regular ones from the mainland.

They gained power by surviving horrific encounters. At the end of their journey, they were basically cockroaches with various ways of staying alive. They were powerful enough to win against their orthodox sect counterparts.

‘I guess, I’ll need to find a hiding place for this plan to pan out.’

‘Hm… maybe this chin is too big…’

While contemplating his new plan he started stroking his short white beard. He had wondered if he should grow one but always thought that he should wait until he was older.

“So, is that the city you fare from?”

“That’s right, great senior. It’s the Silent Moon city.”

From the distance, he could see a massive number of boats. Even before reaching the shore, they started to show up here and there. There were regular people here, not everyone was a demonic murderous cultivator. The core always consisted of the commoners that lacked the ability for proper cultivation. With how low the concentration of Qi was in these lands, these people were quite weak.

The ship covered by the purple haze was sticking out like a sore thumb. Everyone down on the ground could see it and the ones in power quickly became aware of his whereabouts. This was fine as before getting in range he scanned the entire area with his spiritual sense.

Just as he had assumed this Onyx Moon Sect wasn’t all that strong. There was only one nascent soul master in the entire area. From what the old man informed him, this was their main stronghold so there would not be any reinforcements coming.

‘While they only have only one nascent soul master, this sect is more similar to a clan from the Empire.’

This large island in the north of the empire had limited space. Fewer people lived here and of course, the clan and sect sizes would follow suit. This sect was considered on the tail end of the hierarchy as the stronger forces consolidated to the center of it. There he would find the Chaotic Demon and all the other nascent soul masters that were at the great formation level.

‘So you require at least a nascent soul master to form a faction here, makes sense…’

Demonic clans and sects were far more bloodthirsty. The only thing being able to keep them from attacking was power and this was in the hands of nascent soul masters. They would allow the clans and sects to exist while the underlings funneled most of the resources towards the leader. They would live but would be left with scraps and probably unable to gain anything that could threaten the leader's position.

At first glance, it wasn’t anything special, just a large collection of wooden houses that probably belonged to the various fishermen. The coastline looked strange, the water was reaching up to some of these houses that were flooded. This was probably due to the invaders from the northernmost reaches that could control water. He would need to monitor the situation and see if the water levels continued to rise.

Behind what looked like the fishing district was a more traditional-looking city with all the usual buildings. They didn’t look to be in the greatest condition, the walls were slowly crumbling, the roofs had holes and even from here, he could see a few fights breaking out in the streets.

‘I guess the demonic sects don’t really care about the living conditions of the regular people.’

When it came to the mainland sects, it would be seen as a weakness if their cities were in bad shape. They needed to at least have a proper exterior for when the various strong masters visited. Even if the sect was weak it needed to look wealthy and strong from the outside. Instead, they would force the weak and poor out or try hiding them in slums. Here, on the other hand, no one seemed to care.

Then somewhere in the middle stood a large pagoda. It was the most eye-catching building of them all and also in the best shape. This was probably the residence of the sect leader and perhaps also the inner sect disciples. The welcoming committee was also already coming this way. They consisted purely of core formation masters and quite a few women were mixed in.

‘Are they trying to throw demonic beauties at me?’

It wasn’t strange to attempt to lower a person’s guard by sexual means. It wouldn’t be hard for a lady of the night to slice a person’s throat during the act. Yet this only worked against inexperienced cultivators and not powerful cultivators such as him. This was more of a courtesy from their leader that probably sent them to figure out his motives.

‘I guess this is it.’

Finally, he was at his destination, the large ship was lowered by him so that it wasn’t that far away from a pier. As he lowered himself to the ground he thought back to his decision of acting as a being of power. Normally an infiltration mission would be done while hiding but after the last few failed ones he decided to do the reverse.

His new identity of a powerful old monster that returned from a lengthy cultivation session would keep most people away from him. He already knew that demonic cultivators wouldn’t search for trouble with their equals. They would slowly examine the situation before deciding to strike.

‘I can always go with plan B if things turn for the worse.’

Zhang Dong’s main reason was to gather information and perhaps see if he could figure out Wang Long’s whereabouts. The people that were approaching him would help him with that, even if they didn’t want to cooperate. Before the powers on the island would become aware of his presence he would fade away and come back with a whole army. Then finally he could end this charade and bring Wang Long to justice.