“What is troubling you?”

“Troubling me? It’s nothing, just worried about the direction the sect is heading, that's all”

“Is that it? The sect is just growing but the people revere you, maybe a little bit too much. If they only knew that their leader worried this much~”

Liena smiled while giving her husband a peck on the cheek. It was time for her to head out as the two were quite busy. Now that the danger of Wang Long had ended and their power was shown to the world, they needed to continue to improve.

The lands that they reclaimed during the demi-human invasion were now practically theirs. Other clans and sects that once fled back to the middle reaches continued to swarm back to their homes. What was supposed to be an army for the Azure Emperor was quickly becoming his own faction.

In quite a short amount of time, the United Element Sect had become one of the big powerhouses of the Empire. They were now considered to be part of the big three and a replacement for the Soaring Dragon Sect. Zhang Dong was viewed as a rising star that was perhaps only second to the Azure Emperor. Some even believed that he was stronger as he achieved this much in not even a year.

Zhang Dong and his sect had achieved something that even the previous powerhouses couldn’t. They had successfully infiltrated the demonic island and dealt a lasting blow to the evil cultivators. Their city was in ruins and the demons had fled, while they weren’t fully eradicated it would take them millennia to get back to their previous glory.

It was already enough for Zhang Dong to defeat Wang Long who had destroyed the age-long Soaring Dragon Sect by himself. Not everyone believed that it was done in single combat between the leaders but it was enough to make everyone speculate. Could there be a new world order coming and which side should they join before it was too late?

On one side there was the tried and true Azure Emperor and the Long Clan that had existed for many millennia. However even they didn’t engage in a fight with the demi-humans or the demonic cultivators as if they were afraid of them. One side proved their might while the other one was showing weakness.

Even now in the east, a new battle was taking place and flags of the Emerald Phoenix Empire were being placed everywhere. Where was their great leader the Azure Emperor? He remained back at his castle without sending any kind of aid. The only thing that he did was allow anyone to retreat to his lands. Then when people arrived there they were forced into temporary militia forces and treated unfairly.

On the other side to the west of the Empire, it was different. The Golden Dragon had managed to clear up the bloodthirsty demi-humans and even fixed the issues with the demonic cultivators in the north. People could return to their homes and be free to do anything, there were no forced conscriptions and the sect even allowed them to withhold paying any taxes until they got back on their feet. The sticks of the Golden Dragon were on the rise while the Azure Emperor was beginning to be seen as a tyrant.

“I have to go, there is still much work to do, the barricades at the western regions have been almost fully assembled but the scouts have spotted movement.”

“The remnants of the demi-humans trying to return home?”

“It might be.”

“Maybe I should go instead what if…”

“I can handle myself, I am not a child and if something happens that idiot will also be there, now stop worrying.”

After a little back and forth Liena left him to his own devices. The world moved on but he was stuck on what happened several weeks ago. There he interacted with this world's Overseer and who was the wife of the Azure Emperor. She was under the impression that his memories were wiped clean.

This didn’t give him any solace as the worst-case scenario could happen at any moment. What if she contacted the grand being that was apparently the one responsible for it all? What if she decided that this world was lost and needed to be restarted again? But would she do this now after so much time had already passed?

Zhang Dong thought back to that day when he defeated Wang Long. The cube that he could use to reach the new stage was taken away and he was left with more questions than answers. Nothing really happened after the encounter, she nor the Azure Emperor contacted him in any way. It was as if the even never happened to begin with and that the scenario could play itself out.

‘Bob, are you sure that she won’t do anything with that nucleus?’

‘Affirmative, world overseers are designed to supervise the world, they will only act if they discover an anomaly that can threaten the balance of the world.’

‘Yeah…’

His handy Ai that had all the knowledge of his predecessor kept reassuring him. The administrator of this world would not act unless there was a big enough issue. Even when the whole world was destroyed they wouldn’t act out and instead just wait. Only when something that shouldn’t happen occurred would they act. Thus only after he was about to reach a new stage of being that was alien to this world did she come forward.

‘I guess this confirms my previous suspension, they will probably let the world play itself out and summon another system holder after the war is over and many thousands of years pass… should I just accept this…’

This was the big question he needed to ask himself. Did he really want to continue on this path that could break the cycle but would also endanger everyone he loved? The first time he prodded the beehive he wasn’t stung but if he did it again then perhaps everything would end.

There was no guarantee that things would remain like this. Perhaps the next time the Empress saw him she would realize that the memory-altering attack didn’t work. She would probably not be as sloppy the other time around. The only reason he got away with it the first time around was that she didn’t take him seriously. If he was deemed to be a bug in the system that couldn’t be fixed then he was done for.

‘Bob, is there really no way of getting rid of that time-stopping technique?’

‘Insufficient data.’

This was one of the biggest problems, during the encounter she was able to fully disable his entire cultivation base. Perhaps with enough system points, it would be possible to counter it but his Ai wasn’t sure. The time he spent under the effect was too short for Bob to make an assessment. He would need to put himself under that effect again to know the answer.

‘At least I found another one of these…’

He looked at another cube that he discovered in the demonic lands. It had been around the volcanic region where Wang Long’s castle was. Luckily his enemy wasn’t smart enough to look at his own map to see the strange dark space. It was an entry point for other orders like them and probably for ones that decided to start with demonic arts as a base.

The cube he was holding still had some juice left in it and could be used for an injection of spirit points. For some reason, he felt like it would be better to hold on to it instead of absorbing it outright. Having a trump card like it wouldn’t be a bad idea and he could always get more points in a different fashion.

One of these ways was the corrupt spirit vein that still resided in the demonic region. After taking over the place he decided to slowly siphon it for more points to prepare for the future. While the issue with the overseer was the largest problem there were some others. There were still two hostile empires that needed to be driven back and perhaps a third enemy.

‘Will Long Qing and the Long Clan just remain passive like this? He could also just be a puppet of that administrator, there is no way of knowing what they will do now…’

This uncertainty had already brought him many sleepless nights. Perhaps it would be fine to just dial it down and let this story play out. After a thousand years, he would just die but his life would have been quite eventful. He had a wife and kids, something that he never thought was possible.

But as a father, he could not stop worrying. What if the great overlord above the sky decided it was time to erase it all? What if he reached the immortal stage or whatever the seed let him sprout into? What if perhaps he could challenge that god with that newly gained power? There had to be a reason why it was keeping the power level low and didn’t allow the cultivators to reach heights beyond the nascent soul level. It must have been afraid of potential enemies that could interfere with its plan, what this plan was, he did not know.

‘That administrator let me live for a reason, at least it can’t read my thoughts or could detect Bob that can imitate the true system, to it I might as well have been Wang Long and everything is going according to plan.’

Zhang Dong looked out of the window of the rebuilt mansion. There he saw his two kids playing with the toys that he made. Their smiles were the current driving force behind his actions and probably the only reason that he didn’t go crazy.

For the time being, he would need to play along with the forces that governed this world. The Empress was probably watching his every move, perhaps she even had a way of peeking inside of this very room he was staying in. Two enemy empires and one that he was neutral with still remained.

He needed to gather more power, perhaps there was another way to reach the immortal stage. At least two of the enemy emperors could give him greater Daos. The way towards advancement wasn’t closed off to him just yet. He needed to move forward and guide his people and family toward victory.

“Fine, I’ll play along…”

Zhang Dong nodded before floating out of the window, his next point of interest being the far north where the sea creatures awaited…