“Honorable Golden Dragon, may I ask why that woman is with you?”

“Ah, don’t mind her, she is harmless in the state she is in.”

“Big brother, why have you taken me here.”

“My precious sister, I just need you to tell our generals the plans our father the Emperor had in store for us, also don’t forget to inform them about my own orders.”

“Oh brother, you are so forgetful.”

“This is… mind control?”

“Similar but not quite, she thinks that I’m her brother Cuilu Kong. That man is the current Supreme General of the Emerald Phoenix Empire forces.”

“I see, fascinating.”

The group of faction leaders from the Heavenly Crane Sect was looking at a beautiful woman. She was named Cuilu Yahui and just a few days ago was captured by Zhang Dong in the confrontation between their two armies. It was clear to them that she was under some kind of mind spell as she was treating them as part of her army.

“Hey, are you listening to me?”

‘Remember to play along, call her princess and give her a few bows. She thinks that you are generals from her army that are subservient to her. She told me that they normally put their seniors up on pikes if they are being rude.’

“Y-yes, Princess.”

Zhang Dong sent a hidden message to Sun Shen and the rest of the faction leaders in the room. They were quick to straighten up as they didn’t want to have any part in getting themselves impaled on logs.

‘But Honorable Golden Dragon, how did you achieve this…’

‘Oh, it’s just a little trick I picked up along my travels, she is under an illusion spell, to her we look like the people from her army. I told her that she passed out during the battle and that I as her older brother had managed to slay the horrible Golden Dragon’

‘I see!’

While under his spell it would be impossible for her to catch their hidden conversation. The elders were quite fascinated by this interrogation method that didn’t use any drugs but just showed the person a different version of the world. However Zhang Dong knew that it had its limits, he would need to hire some good actors to play the parts of the prince and the generals if she had a closer relationship with them all.

Luckily the two didn’t seem to interact with each other that much. The other generals that he captured gave him some input on the state of their royal family. They were seen as horrendous spoiled brats with their own power bases. They were rumored to never interact with each other besides in family meetings. It was a stark contrast to the relations his own son and daughter had.

‘So, is this what happens when the parents are not present?’

Zhang Dong was still a new father, he only had a few years under his belt. His five-year disappearance also complicated things and made him lose precious time with his children. On the other hand, the Emerald Phoenix Emperor didn’t seem to treasure the two as much. Even sending them here without any proper supervision and help was already a sign that he wasn’t that perturbed by their fate.

‘That or perhaps his belief in his children is so strong that he thought that they would be able to complete the mission without him? Could it have been some tough love of a parent to teach them a lesson?’

He wasn’t sure and at his current stage of parenting, he was still taking care of pre-teens. It would be hard for him to send his children without their mother being present. The only reason he was willing to go stay away from them like this was all thanks to his system. Otherwise, he would probably be scared that something could happen to them while he was away from the sect.

‘But, these two are already adults, I’ll have to learn to let go in the future…’

The woman he was using to get more information from was actually close to four hundred years old. She might have looked young on the inside but after capturing her he was able to identify her physiological structure thoroughly with the system and his spirit sense. Her brother was supposed to be a hundred years older which would make their father even older. His next enemy was someone at the peak of their power and with a lot of experience to go with it. While he might not have the raw stats like Wang Long he would probably have better battle sense.

‘Well… that or he will be too used to being the top dog and easy to surprise. Maybe one blitz attack will be enough.’

He could only hope that his new opponent would underestimate him as all the others did. The element of surprise was one of his better tactics and in a world filled with old monsters that became too prideful for their own good, it was something that usually gave him an edge.

“F… for the Emerald Phoenix Emperor!”

“Bother, these generals are being rude we should…huh?”

“I think that was enough for now, go back to sleep…”

Zhang Dong snapped his fingers next to the woman’s ear, making her pass out in an instant. She was still a powerful cultivator that could go berserk at any moment. On her wrists were spirit energy-dampening shackles but they could only lower her power to the level of a core formation expert. It would be possible for her to make a run for it if she realized that something was off and he had gotten enough information out of her in this way.

“What will you do with her Golden Dragon?”

“Nothing, for now, was planning to use her as a bargaining chip, perhaps her family is sentimental enough to back off into their own empire.”

“The chances of that being are…”

“Yes, probably very low, when I was playing her brother she was always on edge, she doesn’t show it with that haughty attitude but in reality, her fear was almost palpable. It was the same whenever the Emperor was mentioned.”

“Yes, her heartbeat did increase whenever she mentioned her father…”

The other nascent soul masters here used their own spiritual sense and techniques to see if the woman wasn’t lying. Some of them even got into the role quite well while others like leader Zhong continued to be awkward and disgruntled. However thanks to this act they all heard some good information about their new enemy.

“Yes and also this, Prince Cuilu Kong will be the next opponent if they don’t agree on the trade.”

“Well, about that trade… think it won’t be happening…”

“Honorable golden dragon?”

“I did send one of my puppets to send a message to their leader but it seems they have destroyed it instead but it’s better if I just show you.”

Zhang Dong wanted to speed things up so coming here was just a little presentation. He had already heard the woman out and knew about everything. A few of his angel puppets were sent out to meet with their leaders and send them a message. However, before they could actually discuss things the automaton was destroyed. This was quite unexpected as he expected the man to at least hear them out, maybe even a trade could occur. While they wouldn’t turn back, perhaps some of the enslaved citizens from the Azure Dragon Empire could be set free.

“So that’s, Cuilu Kong?”

“Yes, he does look like someone that would let his sister die…”

“Those eyes have no mercy in them…”

A small holographic image of the last few minutes of the puppet's life was played in front of the people gathered here. There wasn’t really much as it arrived at what looked like a massive throne room with one man sitting on the end. The pre-recorded voice of Zhang Dong played informing the man of his sister’s capture. Right as the part with the demands was about to play the puppet’s main camera started flying through the air. Someone in the room had cleanly sliced it off and the last part it captured was the Prince’s foot crushing its head.

“I think he is the type to not negotiate with terrorists.”

“Terrorists, Golden Dragon?”

“Ah, just ignore that, think we need to prepare for the next encounter, I don’t think they will just rush into combat now after losing so many people and equipment.”

Zhang Dong nervously coughed into his hand after his joke fell on deaf ears. It was clear that the man didn’t want to hear any of it and was probably already preparing a counter-offensive. It wouldn’t be strange that even if they tried using the princess as a human shield the enemies would just ignore that fact.

“Hm, I don’t think we can use that woman as a bargaining chip.”

“Leader Shen might be right but we can’t discount the enemies just trying to disorient us.”

“It could have been just for show, you mean? Hm… I’m not sure if that’s possible, for all he knows we could have instantly killed her just for that.”

“That might be true but…”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill her. Perhaps they think that she is already dead or something, it's worth a shot but we shouldn’t base our tactics on this point anymore.”

Everyone in the tent nodded. They needed to account for all the options, perhaps the Prince would get a bit more sentimental over his sister if she shows up on the battlefield. Zhang Dong didn’t want to become the villain of the story but people's lives were at stake and even if he would dangle her as a damsel in distress he would not endanger her life. This was probably more than his enemies would give him but he was not someone that killed off prisoners of war. After everything was over they would serve their time and depending on their sins, be released.

“Well then my friends, we have more work to do, I don’t think that our enemies will try to assemble another regiment to get here, instead they will probably retreat.”

“We confirmed this with the map you supplied us, some of their scattered forces have started retreating towards the outer regions, just where the bridge to their Empire is located.”

“Hm… this will become harder but in my opinion, it would be better to cut off the head of a weakened tiger before the dragon appears.”

Zhang Dong knew that if he didn’t push now then the Emerald Phoenix Emperor would surely appear. The only problem was that he was cooperating with people that weren’t so keen on battling it out. They were not desperate enough to see the bigger picture and after the recent victory were content on resting their troops before the next engagement. It was now up to him to either convince them otherwise or face his enemies alone yet again.