“There was a hidden master among them, quickly before he can act!”

“You won’t even give me time to ask a question? Very well…”

Zhang Dong was somewhat shocked at the scene that was playing out before him. Zhang Jin was encased in golden lightning. Through the system, he could place defensive seals on people from his faction. These hidden seals could be given various attributes depending on his capabilities. It was a standard one that every one of his family members was equipped with. After sustaining enough damage it would trigger a pillar of holy lightning that would act as a shield and also recover their health back to full.

After he popped out of the teleport he was greeted by quite the scene. His grandfather was inside this column of lightning with many unknown cultivators around it. They were throwing various techniques toward it and clearly trying to deliver the finishing blow. Perhaps they had noticed that the energy was healing their target and wanted to deliver the final blow before it could finish.

Thanks to his cultivation level he could see everything very clearly. The people coming his way were moving in slow motion and trying to strike him before he got his bearings. It was a known fact that after a teleportation technique was used the user was usually disoriented for a moment. It was a great chance to land an attack before the fight even started and this was probably what they were aiming for.

‘Two early stage nascent soul masters? They are taking me lightly…’

A sword clad in spiritual energy flew at his head. It was aimed right between his eyes with the intent to kill. Then to make things worse the other man came in from behind and aimed for his blindspot. They were doing a standard combination attack, when he dodged the sword from the front the spear from behind would get him.

He wasn’t sure who these people were but they had angered the wrong person. To him, these two people were like mosquitos, not even worth moving. Without reacting at all he let the sword fly forward to connect with a thin veil of electrical energy. The moment the weapon touched the energy it absorbed a massive charge of lightning Qi onto the person that was holding the weapon.

The man’s whole body started convulsing before getting shot back in the direction he came from. It was the same for the spear user that flew forward like a madman into his blind spot. The aim was for the backside of his heart but the only thing he received was a gigaton of voltage. Both men were repelled by a simple Qi shield that he generated without moving. There was no real reason for him to move as none of the people here were qualified to be his opponents.

“You dare attack me, do you know who I am?”

Zhang Dong wanted to let his aura explode to show off his power but he decided against it for now. If he overpowered everyone instantly then he wouldn’t know what these people here were truly thinking. Force was still the number one way of clearing out problems in this world and it seemed that these people were still content with their capabilities.

“White hair and a golden aura, you are the fake from the West, or probably someone masquerading as him.”

“Fake from the West?”

While the two nascent masters were propelled into some walls his attention was pulled towards the direction of a voice. He could sense that this person was quite strong for this world's standards. He was a great circle nascent soul master and next to him was someone at the later stage as well.

“Did you think you could take over what belongs to the Long Clan and get away with it? Until the Emperor accepts your claim you hold no power here.”

“Hoh? So this is what this is all about? You deny the claim of the United Element Sect to the western region even after all that has happened?”

“You dare speak in such a tone? Grandfather, let me take care of this pretender!”

“It would be wise if you don’t proceed with whatever you think you are doing, this will only end badly for you…”

“Empty threats! You might have bested those elders but I’m not like them.”

‘Hm, so he intends his grandson to fight it out? Is he one of those types?’

As the conversation continued it seemed that a fight was imminent. He was not sure what Zhang Jin had told them but if his grandfather wasn’t able to convince them with words, then he probably wouldn’t either. When looking around he could also feel the presence of some United Element Sect’s members. They were covered in wounds and some of them had even lost their lives. It was clear that Zhang Jin had misjudged this mission’s parameters.

His next enemy was a late-stage nascent soul master. He was a lot stronger than the ones he encountered in the middle regions but he didn’t really pose a threat either. What he was more interested in was the man sitting in the large chair in the back. Ever since he arrived his gaze remained planted on his form. It was clear that he realized the threat to some degree.

Sending the stronger fighter after him was probably a means of measuring his threat level. His robe was also different, it belonged to the Long Clan while the others were part of something else, a branch family perhaps. This was probably why they were so haughty, with the backing of the Azure Emperor they expected total submission.

‘They lived hundreds of years without anyone being able to call them out on their bullshit… I guess I’ll have to wake them up from their dream.’

Before more people died he needed to end it. After the short conversation, he got the answer to his question so there was no reason for the act. His power exploded and the man that was charging at him found a fist right next to his jaw. Before he could even react his face was caved in and his body flew to the side. The explosion of speed didn’t finish there as he rocketed directly to the man sitting on the large chair.

Just like he expected, there was a purpose in sitting at that location. The area they found themselves in had a large formation inside of it. The moment he tried approaching this sitting elder its defenses had been triggered. This was perhaps the reason why the man was this confident and the smile on his face confirmed his hypothesis.

“Hah, so predictable.”

“Predictable you say?”

“What do you hope to achieve with this?”

“You are a blemish that needs to be taken care of.”

“It really worked, he took the bait.”

“His power is tremendous but he won’t be able to free himself!”

“Haha, I knew this was a grand opportunity.”

The moment he was entrapped in this formation more people started coming out of the woodwork. All of them were wearing robes from the Long Clan and consisted of four other masters at the nascent soul level. Zhang Dong had already been aware of their presence and decided to give them a chance to show themselves. If he just devastated this one old man that was before him, the others would just flee or imply that they had been blackmailed.

‘This does complicate things…’

While they gloated he was trying to figure out a way to avoid more conflict. While he was mad about what happened to his people and his grandfather there was a bigger issue here. Multiple members of the Long Clan had raised their weapons at his head. This was more or less a declaration of war. Even if he didn’t want to go that far the people from his sect would see it otherwise.

These people had planned to lure their leader into a trapping formation after attacking Zhang Jin. There was a motif and there was also no idea how many people were all behind it. Some would claim that they were acting on their own, and others would say that it was a scheme to kill the competitor for the seat on the top.

The Azure Emperor didn’t show himself though neither were any of his kids involved either. On the surface, it seemed that this was a scheme created by one of these elders that showed themselves. One of them he even knew as he was part of those three supreme elders that he interacted with.

“Long Yingjie of the Grand Elders, I didn’t expect you to be part of this.”

“I’m just performing my duties, this is all for the Long Clan.”

“I’m sure that it is…”

Long Yingjie was the oldest of the three elders that he met a few years ago. It was clear that he didn’t want the status quo to be affected by the powers in the West shifting. While the United Element’s power base grew, the one established by the Long Clan was decreasing. Their decision to not get themselves involved backfired greatly. They seemed weak in the face of danger while their competition looked very competent.

“Let me ask you, did Long Qing order this, does he even know what you are attempting to do?”

“How brazen, you dare call the Azure Emperor by his name? Elder Yingjie, we should take care of this now, we must not let him get a second chance!’

“I… agree.”

Before he was given an answer the group of nascent elders surrounded him from all sides. The trapping formation looked like a prison made from blue shackles. The moment this small group started acting the formation started getting smaller until he was stuck in a rectangle of one meter in width and two meters in height. He continued to resist while trying to fish for more answers but it didn’t seem that they would say anything else.

“I see, so that’s about it… You felt your clan to be endangered by my presence so you either orchestrated this encounter or just grasped at it when the occasion presented itself. You probably knew that I would rush to save my grandfather.”

“You’re wise for your age and would have been a powerful member of the clan if you accepted our invitation, such a shame.”

“Yes it is a shame… that I have to do this.”

While the elders were assured of their victory something unexpected happened. The trapping formation burst into many tiny flames as if it was never there, to begin with. There was no massive torrent of Qi needed to free himself as things like this were already below his level.

“Okay then, we can do this the easy way or the hard way, I don’t really care but in the end all of you will come with me…”