“I was just wondering when you would show up, I really didn’t expect you to try to sneak in like a total retard though. What was the plan here bruv? Were you trying to assassinate me during my introduction speech?”

“...”

Zhang Dong was surrounded by around ten nascent soul masters and multiple other demonic cultivators. Most of them were floating on swords but some were using flying ships or other treasures. Yet even with all of them here the only real problem was the man that was leading them, Wang Long.

“Assassinate you?”

“Hah, are you going to play dumb? But you did come alone so perhaps you aren’t the brightest!”

Wang Long was up in the sky on his demonic-looking dragon. This creature had gone through a drastic change of form on power. It looked like some kind of charred zombie dragon, it had exposed flesh sticking out everywhere that looked as if it was decomposing. Some of its bones were also sticking out but even when it looked like a corpse it didn’t look weak.

‘The creature is surrounded by evil energy, I can feel the corruption from all the way here… but I might be in luck, he doesn’t seem to realize that I was actually escaping before he arrived…’

From the monologue, Zhang Dong could tell that Wang Long had only discovered him just now. He was unaware of any forces gathering outside of his new domain. The change to the gate was probably something he did recently and it wasn’t anything planned. It seemed that Wang Long didn’t know about the barriers being rigged and ready to collapse.

‘Even though he is dumb and conceited, he still is strong…’

While his enemy wasn’t the best tactician one thing was for sure, he had leveled up since their last run-in. It was a monolithic change, if Zhang Dong didn’t know that his opponent had the system it would have been a stunning turn of events. If his power eclipsed his own was still up to debate as none of them were showing their cards right now.

Yet he could not just attack him, the other nascent soul masters might have not been strong or that dangerous but they would sway the fight. He was also missing his own dragon that was left behind at the secret encampment. After he was discovered his whole system had been jammed from peeking outside and he was still unsure if he should fork up the spirit points to run. For all, he knew Wang Long had more of them and could block his escape anyway.

“Weren’t you more chatty the last time we met or are you stumped that your system won’t let you teleport out? I’m not like you, I actually have a functioning brain! If you weren’t just a goober you’d have done the same back at your faction, haha what a noob, and you’re supposed to have been longer than me!”

It was strange to hear a villain monologue from the only person that was supposed to have come from the real world. Yet there he was, berating Zhang Dong for not taking into consideration that he wouldn’t be able to escape once he entered his faction area. However, the only reason he did not prepare last time was because he was unaware of the existence of a second system user.

“You sure talk a lot for an incel.”

“... what did you call me?”

‘I guess that hit the spot.’

To shut up his enemy he jabbed at something that was probably the truth. Wang Long overvalued his sexual life to a fault. This was probably something that had to have been a focal point in his previous life. The most probable cause was probably the lack of the man’s experience with the fairer sex. He went out of his way to have as many sexual acts as he could as if he was making up for his past inefficiencies.

“You heard it, who else but an incel would act as you do? Still trying to fill the void in your heart because that one girl in high school didn’t want to look your way or something?”

In reality, he was unsure what this would help him with but he needed to stall. Before he was discovered he did notice one thing, Bahamut his familiar was a lot closer to this city than he was supposed to be. Did he somehow know that his master was in trouble or was there another explanation?

“By how red you are getting I’ll assume that I hit a bullseye on that one. Hey, if this is just a game like you make it out to be, does it even count?”

“Huh?”

Wang Long was giving off quite the chaotic aura that was even making the people here cover in fear. He was clearly still thinking that everyone here was an NPC and not a real human being. This could be used to Zhang Dong’s advantage if he poked at his opponent's insecurities.

“It doesn’t count, you are still and always will be a virgin and an incel, right? These people are just NPCs bots with no emotions, no matter how much you do it with them it will never count!”

“You fuck! Stop calling me an incel, I’m not a virgin!”

“Are you sure? If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck then it’s probably a little virgin just like you!”

He burst out in laughter while inching away, the uncomfortable demonic aura wasn’t affecting him as much as it was the people that were trying to keep him from escaping. The negative emotions infected the demonic corpse dragon as well. It was corrupting the air around it causing even the nearby nascent soul masters to cower in fear.

It was a simple battle tactic, getting an opponent angry always worked in favor of the one that could keep their mind cool. They would get aggressive and easy to read. It was a lot better to fight someone that couldn’t control their emotions than someone that mastered them and Wang Long was certainly the former type.

“You fucker, I’ll cut off your balls and feed it to your bastard kids!”

Just as planned he had lost it and began his assault without carrying for the people around him. While the man had gotten a lot more powerful his personality didn’t change. He certainly still had a big chip on his shoulder and Zhang Dong was a person that could remind him of the old world they left behind. He would desperately try to destroy the only link to his old unfavorable past even if that meant killing his own people.

“D-demon King w-why…”

After propelling himself to the side to evade the huge breath attack of the corrupt zombie-like dragon one of the nascent soul masters that was behind him was hit. Even though he was a nascent soul master at the pinnacle his face started to instantly melt from the corrosive and poisonous cloud that escaped from the dragon’s maw.

However even when Wang Long was going berserk and some of his troops were getting massacred, Zhang Dong was still in trouble. The only thing he could do was dodge while trying to reach the outer city barrier.

‘Just a bit more, that idiot didn’t realize it yet but I’m not really trapped in here.’

Even though he was a nascent soul master, getting through the outer barrier wouldn’t be that easy. It was reinforced by the hexagram and the creatures that were drained of their energy there. Zhang Dong had done his due diligence to take care of that part of the problem before delving deep into the inner sect. Now it was time to spring his own counter trap that he was hoping to activate only after his troops appeared on the scene.

Luckily for him, Wang Long was far too busy being angry and pointing his dragon’s breath attack at him to notice the strange change in the formation. First, the six towers that were the focal point of this city's outer formation started rumbling, from within the screams of the massive monsters could be heard by everyone.

This was followed by a switch in the formation's color that was more akin to his golden lightning than the demonic gray it was before. The trap was simple, the barrier would work for a short amount of time while the six large nascent soul beasts would be let loose in the city.

Thanks to his knowledge about beast taming that he had lifted from the old expedition secret ground he knew how to insert a little thought into all of those creatures minds. They already felt animosity towards the people that trapped them there but that would probably be focused on the citisens and not the actual people that were responsible.

For that reason, he just inserted a little mind trick. The beasts had already mostly lost their mind and were just a bundle of rage that wanted nothing more than revenge. He just needed to shift that anger towards certain Qi patterns. These would all belong to masters above the nascent soul level.

Thus as the beings emerged from the rubble of the collapsed spires they turned in the direction of Wang Long and the other grandmasters. They were the largest beacons of energy in the area and quite easy to track. They instantly charged toward the floating humans while ignoring anything else. This would somewhat allow the regular citizens to evacuate but would probably still cause some deaths that he needed to contend with.

This was his cue to make a run for it. Wang Long that was raging a second ago was forced to look away towards the crumbling towers. His system was probably showing him all sorts of warning signals at this very moment that would hold him back for a moment.

Zhang Dong turned around to head back to where his troops were at. His tactic of setting the beast on the city only after his army attacked had fallen through but his plan could still be salvaged. Yet as he was about to turn into a shooting star and get out of here he stopped himself.

“Huh?”

“Support the Patriarch, attack with all your might!”

“For the United Element’s Sect!”

“For the Sect!”

“For the Patriarch!”

Instead of him having to rendezvous with his troops they appeared out of nowhere themselves. Only after the outer barrier was lifted did his system start to go back online and he could check his faction window for his people.

“Liena, what are you doing here?”

“What do you think? What wife wouldn’t come to aid her husband?”

“Senior Brother! I see that you have started without us!”

“Dong’er, I see that you managed to return in one piece but it would be smarter to leave these sort of tactics to the spy unit next time.”

All of his friends and family members were there. They had arrived at the scene even after he had ordered them to remain at the base and wait for further orders. They had ignored them but he was not mad but glad about it.

“You guys… we’ll talk about this later…”

While he didn’t appreciate it that his wife was here this was supposed to be the last big battle of his sect. Wang Long was here and he was caught with his pants down it was time to end all of this once and for all.