“Darkness is it… well, they say that a balance between light and dark needs to be maintained and only then true power can follow…”

Zhang Dong looked at the prompt on his screen while holding the flaming black feather. After defeating the Emerald Emperor’s Son he gained the prize that he was after. Perhaps after enhancing his cultivation level with these three higher Daos it would be possible to push into the immortal realm? This was an important question as he wasn’t sure if he wanted to make the transition just yet. He had to consider the time and place as the Overseer could become aware of this transformation.

‘But what if someone steals the feather before I can use it, just like that time…’

There had been a chance to absorb Wang Long’s power and he let it slip. What if the same thing happened as last time and he had to actually go through regular cultivation for close to a thousand years? Even though he didn’t really mind retiring for a while after this war was over, a life with some strange powerful being watching over him would be stressful.

Thus a decision was made to just go through with the absorption of the three Daos here. Zhang Dong wondered if this was some kind of hidden scenario that he was given three at once where he expected to get one or two at most. Wind, Fire, and also Darkness. With the last one, he was conflicted a bit but darkness didn’t really have anything to do with demonic cultivators. As long as he was careful he would not be taken over by demonic urges that originated from ingesting demonic Qi.

‘Okay Bob, let’s do it, start the absorption process.’

‘Acknowledged’

The black feather that was in his hand started crumbling into dust and vanished from this plane of existence. The knowledge that he was missing concerning the Dao of fire and wind started filling his very existence. He already had a fairly good grasp of those so the increase wasn’t that great but when it came to the Dao of Darkness it was different. This was something he only grasped a tiny bit of after combating the demonic cultivators in the north.

Just as the knowledge was filling his brain the little seed began opening up even more. His power started growing and the people below that were still unsure of what to do started trembling. He could not stop his aura from seeming out and to the weaker warriors it was a soul-crushing experience. However just as fast as this boost in power came, it vanished quickly after. The seed stopped opening instantly after the process was over and still wanted something more.

‘Hm… it’s still missing something, perhaps the fire and wind Dao’s aren’t special enough to fill out this seed…’

While fire, water, wind, and earth were the basic elemental Daos and were also higher ones, they could be considered the most basic ones. Something like the Dao of Gravity or the one of Darkness that he just took in were a notch above them. This meant that in theory if the Cerulean Empress that was left behind only had the Dao of water to absorb, he wouldn’t be getting much from that confrontation.

‘Hm, I’m sure the hidden boss from the lands Lucius and Argus came from probably had the Dao of Light or Holy which I already have and he won’t probably ever appear now…’

This mission was now over and he would be giving Lucius his reward. With the holy aegis shield relic in their hands, they would perhaps not have any reason to stay here anymore. That is unless a third relic was needed to complete their mission. Nevertheless now with the east and west sides of the empire cleared out, they could just go on their search without anyone getting in their way.

Zhang Dong’s name was already famous enough to open up all doors to people associated with him. The only place they would be barred from would be the Azure palace that even he didn’t have access to. That place was meant to be his last destination after all the Emperors were gone and it looked like that time would come sooner than he had expected.

‘I never thought this would go this smoothly, I over-prepared for the occasion.’

He had prepared a whole army made out of metallic puppets and also taken time to save up on spirit points. He was ready to call forth his close aids which included his wife, Hao Qiang and Zhang Zhi. The three were integrated into his system and possessed a battle power equal to the strongest nascent soul masters in the empire.

His grandfather would also arrive in his golden stronghold that needed a lot of points to be brought over here and then back to the northern battlefield. All of these resources were not used up and everything ended rather quickly. Luckily he could use the automatons somewhere else and perhaps turn them into a task force in the western region.

‘Hm, maybe that is a bad idea. It'll make me look like some power-hungry dictator trying to police everything… but it would probably save some lives, at the cost of some freedoms…’

Zhang Dong wasn’t sure if he wanted to become a benevolent dictator. In theory, this wasn’t a bad idea if the dictator was knowledgeable enough. This however was not something he was confident of nor did he want to stifle the freedom of the people living here. Everyone was free to do what they wanted and he could only present a system that would not allow for too much bloodshed. Considering how quickly people in this world were to seek conflict, he would need to think it through when the time came.

“It’s over, both the son and the father are no more.”

Finally, the time to end this all came. His voice boomed through the entire area and interacted with everyone’s soul. The enemy army was slowly inching back, even though they had the giant fortress floating in the back without their emperor it couldn’t be fully utilized. A design flaw that rigged it to only work with their emperor. This meant that it was now nothing more than a large floating palace with no attacking or defending capabilities.

“Just as I promised, you all may now leave but you’ll have to leave some things behind…”

The enemy Saint Emperors that were previously generals in the Emerald Phoenix Empire army could not say anything against those words. It was already enough that they could just leave. Normally if their side was victorious they would have slaughtered all of the Heavenly Crane Sect cultivators and everyone else that got in their way. The faction leaders from the sect knew and raised their voices in protest.

“Honorable Golden Dragon, why should we show these savages mercy? They had gone through our lands, they pillaged, raped, and killed, they deserve no mercy!”

“You speak the truth, Leader Zhong, they have performed atrocities but they were still only following orders… answer me this, why didn’t you do anything when these acts of violence were being performed on your people?”

“That is…”

He knew that the Heavenly Crane Sect didn’t really care about their people that much. If they did, then they would have pushed back harder. It wasn’t impossible for them to drive the initial forces back if they utilized more of their nascent soul masters. They didn’t though and now that a weakened leaderless opponent stood before them, they just wanted to perform the same acts of slaughter that they did.

“I have given my word, they are free to go. Of course, they will leave their battleships and all the ill-gotten gains that they stripped from your lands will be returned, if they don’t abide by the rules then we will resume our battle.”

“But honorable…”

“I shall not repeat myself, are you trying to go against my decision?”

Zhang Dong needed to put his foot down. He had worked with these people and they had gotten the wrong idea that they were on the same level. They needed to understand that if he wanted, then they would not be able to stop him. This was achieved by his aura spiking to a tremendous degree. His power had actually risen by absorbing the new Daos and this would be felt by the nascent soul masters that could measure it.

“Please appease your anger honorable Golden Dragon, Leader Zhong had spoken out of terms, we shall follow your proposition.”

“Y-yes…”

The man that had usually gone against him quickly went back on his statement after feeling the tremendous power coming from Zhang Dong’s form. He wasn’t the only one here, the army of metallic angles was also turning their heads towards the Heavenly Crane Sect and so was Lucius. They were sending a clear message that if they continued with the prodding that all hell would break loose.

This of course was a surprise to the Emerald Phoenix Empire forces that couldn’t really believe that a powerful master would allow them to just leave. There was no reason not to now, they had already lost and without the large emerald palace behind them, it would be impossible for a counterattack.

“Do you agree? If you promise me to relinquish your weapons and stolen goods, then I will allow you to take a few ships that can contain the remainder of your people and cross the bridge back to your own lands. Of course, you are not allowed to come back and I can not guarantee the safety of anyone that attempts to come back here.”

“C-can we really trust in your word?”

“General Xiang, what are you doing? Are we really going to surrender our weapons to them? What if they attack us right after?”

“Look around you, General Qiuyue, do you think they need us to relinquish our weapons to achieve a victory?”

“That is…”

Zhang Dong waited for the generals to converse with each other. Now that the Emperor was gone a new faction would form. At the moment it would consist of the strongest Saint Emperors and luckily they were starting to agree with each other. It was true that there was not much to gain from letting them go and that his side didn’t really have to. Everyone was already shocked that they had not attacked after the Emperor was dealt with.

He could feel the will to resist fade as he surrounded the area with his aura. Even he had to give them a little nudge to lose all semblance of resistance. Luckily these people were primed to follow strong people and he had proven to be even stronger than the Emperor that terrorized them their whole lives. There was no way that they could hope to go against him and thanks to this some lives would be spared today.