“Matriarch, the protective barrier won’t last for much longer, shouldn’t we move to another location?”

“If we move now, it will be hard for Elder Qiang and Jin to find us.”

“But if we remain here, we might not be able to leave, these beasts are relentless, there is no end to them, we need to…”

“Your input is appreciated, Elders but we will hold out for now, that will be all.”

“Matriarch… if that is your wish.”

Five nascent soul elders clasped their hands at Zhang Liena. The group soon left after discussing some issues involving their stay here. Already close to a week had passed in this volcanic area where they had appeared. All search parties that went off too far had not returned to give a report, instead, they were in a constant state of being besieged.

“Was that the right decision…”

“The Patriarch will find his way back to us, he always does.”

“Elder Zhi, you might have more trust in my husband than me but it’s true, he hasn’t let us down before…”

Zhang Zhi was the last one to leave and after the comment, she felt somewhat reassured. Yet, she could not help but worry about Zhang Dong. While others thought of him as some kind of deity, to her he was only a man. His facade of the perfect Patriarch was something that he always did put on but that was the problem, it was partially a facade. His power was tremendous, but he made mistakes and sometimes others needed to pick up the slack.

“I’ll have to move the fortress if this takes too long, the other elders are right, if we run out of power, then it's all over.

The problem was due to their main generator, it was slowly getting drained. Normally the fortress should be able to replenish the energy reserves with time, that was if it wasn’t burning through energy constantly. The protective barrier needed to be in place to shield them from the toxic fumes and hot environment. Not everyone would be able to survive outside if it wasn’t in place.

Then there was the second problem with them wasting energy, constant attacks from the residents. The strange lizard-like creatures with almost impenetrable scales were the problem. They could be defeated by continued spirit cannon barrages but all of this took their precious resources and fuel. The beasts just continued to come at them, even the nascent elders needed to get themselves involved to allow the barrier to function normally.

Even as she was thinking about the correct move forward, the lights turned red as the alarm went off. She hadn’t gotten used to this yet, the red flashing lights and the loud sound was something her husband came up with. Something about it showing the gravity of the situation better than just having an announcement done by an elder.

“What is it now?”

Zhang Liena was the temporary owner of the Golden Palace. She could easily teleport herself to the command room in which she could observe the outside of the palace. The alarm had a tint to it and by the look of it, the situation was dire outside. Normally it started out with a yellow, then moved on to orange, and ended up on red when the situation was critical.

“What is that thing, it's as big as the whole palace… not it’s even bigger…”

She soon realized what the problem was, outside there was a towering being made of molten rock. Its size was gigantic and constantly increasing as it was trying to rise itself out of the lava lake it came from. It had a humanoid shape that lacked any legs, and its underside looked like it was stuck to the ground but perhaps it was only hidden there.

The massive arms were made of black obsidian rock that was on fire. Cracks filled with lava constantly spit out a fiery concoction along with black smoke. Without the need to analyze this thing, it was clear to her that this was a problem. The creature was slow but its size was a problem. With the Golden Dong Palace stationed in place, it would be an easy target for this monstrous being.

There were a few options she could go with, the easiest one would cause more energy to be spent. This volcanic monster that looked like a flaming stone golem was still an easy target. The large number of spirit cannons that were placed on the floating bastion would eventually kill it. How much of the barrier would be damaged in the process was a problem and she also didn’t know if more of these creatures could appear. If they started getting pounded from all sides, sooner or later all of their reserves would run out.

“I haven’t really had an opportunity to test that new gift he made, this might be a good opportunity for it.”

Liena looked at the lumbering giant slowly approaching the golden palace that was conserving its power. Soon she found herself outside where she could see masses of spirit bullets flying from the defensive towers. The shield was designed to allow the cannon fire to pass from the inside but would not allow anything to enter from the other side. The same was true for anyone that wanted to go outside. They would be free to leave but entering back in wouldn’t be as easy. Only someone like Liena had all the privileges could move back and forth at her own pace.

“Matriarch?”

“Stop the cannons, I’ll take care of this creature myself, aim them back at the smaller beasts instead.”

“As you command!”

Her voice echoed through the entire palace and no one dared to say anything against it. The only person that didn’t like this plan was Zhang Zhi who decided to hang out in the back. At the moment he didn’t raise his complaints but Liena knew that he would prefer to perform this task instead.

He was a loyal soldier to her husband and would probably give his life to protect his dear Patriarch’s wife. She wasn’t that fond of this treatment as the man trying to protect her was actually weaker, proving to him that he didn’t need to baby her around was also part of this encounter. Sometimes the people forgot but she was one of the great three founders of this sect and just as strong as any of them.

Soon her form started exuding copious amounts of emerald light. She shot out like an arrow from a bow to cross to the other side clad in a veil of wind energy. The rays of emerald light that were surrounding her body slowly intensified as she went through a change. Everyone could feel it, a great Dao of the Wind taking form and a marvelous power that she wielded with it.

The ugly lava golem that was trying to emerge from the huge lake could see the bolt of green light getting closer. As a reaction to the attack, it started opening its large mouth which was filled with volcanic ash and magma. Soon a torrent of red flames emerged from within with the target being the green energy.

The emerald light looked so tiny in comparison to the huge torrent of lava coming it's way. No one would expect Liena to be able to handle this amount of molten rock. The sect members expected her to just gracefully dodge to the side before launching a counterattack but instead, they saw the lights of their Matriarch being engulfed by the burning earth instead.

Some gasped, others were stunned and even Zhang Zhi reacted in shock. However, before acting, he realized that the power Liena was exuding was still there. Suddenly a massive burst of green took shape, the torrent of lava was forced to the sides and submerged the lizard beasts.

“A mindless beast like you is not a worthy opponent of this Zhang Liena!”

Her form became noticeable to everyone and it had changed. Instead of the flowy dress robe that everyone was used to, a suit of armor could be seen instead. It fully covered her body from head to toe and glistened like an emerald. To her back something that looked like four wings were fluttering yet when taking a closer look, they were metallic in form. Instead of being actual wings made of feathers, they were composed of many flying swords.

These swords were soon utilized as weapons, she just needed to point in a direction with her right hand and the whole wing on the same side started disassembling itself. Multiple green blades emerged and flew right toward the massive beast made from lava. Even though its body was composed of hard rock the swords made it through.

The creature was attempting to smack the glowing green fly away with its massive hand. Yet just as it was taking a swing the shining swords started cutting into it. Their speed was astonishing and each and everyone could produce a green beam of light that cut through the hardened rock. In a matter of moments the monster’s whole arm was shredded into pieces and fell to the ground.

Yet this monster defied the natural laws, even though the chunks of its arm were landing on the ground a new one was forming back in place. A surge of lava escaped from the stump that was left behind. It soon took the same shape as the old limb. The molten rock soon hardened and Liena had to continue with a few more tests to realise that this approach wouldn’t be enough.

“It’s regenerating its body through the connection to the ground.”

She could feel the fire and earth elements being sucked up from underneath to replace any missing body parts. This beast was quite large and when trying to feel for the core that should be the weak point, it wawa hard to pinpoint. There was a vast quantity of fake cores inside the monster. It was one of the ways these creatures became almost impossible to beat as a fake core could become a true core if that one was destroyed.

“If I destroy all the cores at once, it won’t be able to transfer its consciousness into a new one.”

She waved her left hand to activate the flying swords from the left wing. This time instead of using them for more slicing she called back all the blades. They all swirled around in front of her to create something that looked like a sexagram. From the center a massive amount of Qi energy was then quickly gathered as she prepared for a technique that this armor came equipped for. She wasn’t quite sure about the technology her husband invented but the destructive power it had, was quite real.

A massive burst of energy flew forward and collided with the volcanic monster that was still busy reforming its body. The emerald light shredded into the volcanic body tearing it apart into tiny pieces. It was as if the monster was getting cut apart by millions of tiny wind blades, even the swarm of fake cores could not shield it from its demise.

“Hoh… I see you didn’t really need my help…”

The beam flew up into the air to push the clouds to the side and revealed a glowing orb of golden energy hidden within. Inside of it, there were a few familiar faces but only one, in particular, brought a smile to her face.