“They really did follow through, this is becoming more and more predictable. I recon the other Emerald Phoenix Empire will be a stereotype as well.”

Zhang Dong’s hammer connected with a crimson piece of metal. The tool he was holding exuded a jolt of golden lightning that arced into the other item. The moment the electrical Qi seeped into the armor he was working on a few strange runes appeared that quickly faded away and left behind a shiny red outer shell.

While he was working on the new armament for Huo Qiang the system window to his faction was open. Through it and a few other monitors that were in his crafting abode, he could monitor everything.

During the last few weeks, they had continued attacking the turtle islands that were in range. All of them had identical numbers of defenders which they used to their advantage. The beasts that they were producing still needed some time to develop. It was the perfect time to take over more of these hatcheries with the exact same tactic and forces.

Through this second test, he saw one big flaw in these invaders, they were too similar to each other in every shape and form. They would constantly fight in the same fashion and use the exact same tactics. With so little variation in their troops, it was very easy to form a counterattack.

Even the leader that Zhang Zhi almost lost to turned into a predictable enemy that he could win against if following the correct tactic. So they continued to take over the turtles one by one and finally after the fifth one had fallen a new group appeared from the north.

‘Considering that they took so much time to react there could be a couple of reasons…’

He thought to himself while hammering away. One of the causes could be a lack of information flow between their forces. Perhaps a word about them being attacked took a long time to travel to the one making the decision. Another possibility was that they just weren’t prepared for this kind of resistance and just needed some time to form a proper army.

‘Another one could be distance, the ocean is vast it could be bigger than the whole empire, and no one has been able to chart it out even to this day… or the leader could be incompetent and just took their time.’

“Well, it doesn’t matter, they will fall one way or another… and this thing should be good to go.”

The armor was created and he looked at the shiny dark and crimson tint. He had been inspired by demon lords from works of fiction. Huo Qiang was in possession of a soul beast that looked like a devil so this was quite fitting. Instead of proper armor with angles, it looked more like a bodysuit with horns.

The metal it was made from had interesting properties. It was very resistant to attack and could channel fire energies quite well. However, its biggest strength was flexibility. When wearing it Huo Qiang should have no problem performing all his favorite moves, it would not constrict his movement at all while pushing him up another level.

“Hope this will be enough to take out the next opponent.”

Zhang Dong had decided to build up the people around him. Zhi was the first and now came Qiang. The biggest reason for doing this was that he had no other choice. The enemies that he was facing were large in number and the system he was using was focusing on the faction side of things.

His only real way of getting the system points was through his people and their approval rating. Zhi had gone through the leaders and also some other opponents since being given the new sword. Thanks to this he was sitting on a lot more spirit points than he expected.

He used those to upgrade this armor and also fully repair the Golden Palace which was now going to go into battle. Their opponents came in vast numbers that Zhi and his smaller army would never be able to contend with. They needed more firepower and the bastion that helped them against Wang Long and his forces would be what they needed.

‘Gramps has gotten used to calling the shots there, didn’t he start calling himself the Golden Elder or something now…’

Just as his forces continued to win more and more battles so did his name grow in fame. Not his original name Zhang Dong but more the Golden Dragon persona. Everyone wanted to be part of this popularity boost and his grandfather took this as a chance. Now he started wearing golden robes that were embroiled with golden dragons. It was as if he was the Golden Dragon and not Zhang Dong who continued to use the usual white robes that fit his hair color.

‘Well as long as he does his job right, he can call himself the Golden Dong for all I care.’

After shrugging to himself he grabbed the piece of armor and headed out. Now with the increase in spirit points, he didn’t feel as bad about teleporting all over the place. With more prestige units he could also use them as relay points as it did cost him less to get to them.

He had been using the feature a lot more lately as he needed to get to his bastion for work and monitoring purposes. Upgrading it to the next level wouldn’t take that much longer and perhaps the next iteration would allow him to combat these sea creatures. For the time being, it had one main flaw, it would lose a lot of its capabilities if it tried to go underwater.

The base of the new invaders would probably be somewhere underwater. There was a limit to how far the flying fortress’ armaments could shoot. It was fine when going against flying creatures and masters but the torpedoes he mass-produced in his crafting abode were better than the spirit cannons the castle had.

‘Need it to have some underwater feature and also increase the reactor size, it will need to hold its shields stead for the whole time if it bursts underwater people could die… have to consider the water pressure and how it will work on my people, not all of them had the body refining skills to last through it, quite troublesome.’

There were a lot of ways to improve his fortress, first of all, it needed to be waterproof. The problem was that the shields would react to stress by draining a lot of power. He needed to conserve power and only use the minimal amount that would keep the water away.

‘Best to make the shields react to force from the outside on the part that is getting attacked and not on the entire surface area.’

This problem could be alleviated with spirit points but his engineering department was also gaining some ground. Through this war, many geniuses arose from the ashes and were working with no rest to get everything going. Slowly but surely the people from his faction were becoming self-sufficient.

Perhaps in a couple of years, he would be able to just hang back and enjoy the fruit of his labor but for that to come he needed to first take these invaders out. Then the last enemy he needed to face would be the overseer but perhaps that battle wouldn’t need to be fought if he played his cards right.

She left him alive and didn’t destroy the world either, there was still a chance of a peaceful resolution. However this also depended on the purpose of it all, if the being that created this world turned out to be malicious in nature then he would need to endanger his life again.

“Qiang is probably impatient, I’ll head over to him first.”

For the time being, he was in the golden palace that was making its way from the demonic continent down to the northern shores. There it would rendezvous with Zhang Zhi’s forces and the rest of the elders that would be taking part in the coming battle. This time Huo Qiang needed to shine and for that, he needed to be promoted to a prestige unit.

“Senior brother, you came!”

“I did say I would, didn’t I?”

“That is true.”

“You do seem rather excited, Qiang.”

“Why wouldn’t I be excited? Words of what happened here reached the sect! You also mentioned a gift?”

Zhang Dong wanted to laugh when looking at Huo Qiang and how he was behaving. The man that was a head taller looked reminded him of his son whenever a new toy was promised. The new armor was mentioned in passing and everyone had seen Zhang Zhi ascend to a new level. New weapons and gaining a new realm were cultivators' biggest dreams and Qiang was still one at heart.

“You are really impatient… Hm, I was thinking of presenting it in front of the sect members, I’m sure it will give them something to strive for.”

“In front of the sect? Um… like the time with Zhang Zhi?”

“Yes, it would be just like that, you did your homework.”

Zhang Dong laughed to himself but Huo Qiang didn’t seem as happy for some reason. This was a bit strange, the usual loudmouth of the sect that liked to show off would normally jump at the opportunity. He would be getting a new powerful treasure and getting his cultivation potential enhanced, there was nothing more a cultivator could ask for. Everyone would see his moment of glory just like they saw Zhang Zhi ascend to new heights.

“Um, senior brother could we perhaps do that part in private instead?”

“That part?”

“You know… the thing you do when you infuse your knowledge into people…”

“Infuse knowledge?”

He thought back to the time with Zhang Zhi, Huo Qiang probably meant the moment he turned Zhi into a prestige unit. That point seemed to make him a bit uncomfortable for some reason. His memory was quite good so he thought back to it. Most of the time he was paying attention to the system screen and somewhat to the rest.

“Oh… you mean that… Fine, we can do that in private.”

“Thank you, senior brother, I knew you would understand!”

Huo Qiang quickly reverted to his cheerful self after knowing that he wouldn’t need to go through the strange procedure. Even now the recordings of that day were circulated among the sect. Zhang Zhi’s moaning face was plastered everywhere and strange stories started circulating among the younger female demographic. He did not wish to be part of them as that would have been truly a disgrace.

“Well, we are a bit short on time… there aren’t really that many people here so let's do it now.”

“Wait what….ohhhhh….”

The screams of a particular firey elder filled the corridors of the base. Not many people witnessed the spectacle but some rumors continued to spread even into the later years of the sect's existence…