‘It doesn’t seem like this will turn into a cold war of attrition. I could have probably waited this out until the last moment…’

Zhang Dong was looking at the map of the Empire. All the red blobs that were previously there were now non-existent. His previous advantage over the other Empires could not be used against the Long Clan. The map he copied from their city was not created to follow their movements. Without knowing where his new enemies were it was a lot harder to prepare counterstrategies.

For a moment before the Long Clan started advancing, he hoped for a stalemate. His older brother wasn’t the youngest. Even though he looked like a young man, he was several hundred years of age. Considering the gap in age of around one thousand years, it would have been possible to just wait until he became a decrepit old man. It would probably be a lot easier to face the Emperor when he wasn’t in his prime. Then his replacement, who was one of his sons, would probably be somewhat weaker in comparison.

He didn’t really care about owning the whole empire as he needed to look at the bigger picture. The Long Clan wasn’t his true opponent, that was the Overseer lady that was the Emperor’s wife. If they could stall this out his forces would slowly overwhelm the Long Clan’s as there was something that he had that they didn’t.

This was of course his system and the constant supply of spirit points. With the help of those points, he would be able to bolster his forces. Numerous amounts of nascent soul masters had already ascended thanks to these spirit points and his faction system. If he was allowed to wait for a hundred years, overwhelming the Long Clan with sheer numbers of nascent soul masters would have been an easy task. There would be no way of stopping their advance and that would be it.

‘Could they know something about that? They probably don’t know about the system but perhaps think that I have some type of treasure that does the task for me. It wouldn’t be wrong for them to conclude that they need to strike now or perish in the future… I guess that makes sense.’

Zhang Dong gave out a sigh of indignation. His daughter was about to turn eleven and the new war had just started. He hoped for at least ten more years of peace until his children went through puberty and became somewhat competent fighters. While he wouldn’t integrate them into the army they would at least have enough power to run away.

‘We might have spread out too much into the western region, this won’t be as easy as the other Empires.’

When looking at the map he could see some points where the battle had started. Some of the elders like Huo Qiang were already at the main front. The biggest problem was the vastness of the border region. Now that his sect was the de facto owner of the lands they should be the ones to defend them. However, this became problematic as they needed to thin out their forces without being able to gain much ground.

Small skirmishes between groups of cultivators soon erupted. The Long Clan won some while his others. It was surprising that both sides were this equal. Considering this reveal, if this group had decided to help out during the other battles, the Azure Empire would have easily been able to defend their lands and people.

‘They are claiming that we started the wars ourselves, nice excuse.’

The premise was simple, the Long Clan claimed that he was trying to take away the mantle of the emperor from his brother. The fights that were created were part of the ploy of destroying the Soaring Dragon Sect that was the previous ruler. They even claimed that Wang Long was working together with them from the start. Then after the deed was done they went north to silence him along with the demonic cultivators. Afterward, it was as easy as just disguising their sect members as demi-humans to cause chaos throughout the lends.

‘This doesn’t explain the state of things in the east but not like the Heavenly Crane Sect will decide on anything with that council of theirs. As long as they continue to remain neutral it's fine.’

His new friends weren’t willing to help either side which was understandable. The Long Clan wouldn’t pursue their borders as long as they didn’t aid their new enemies. This didn’t mean that he wasn’t getting a little bit of help from this sect. Their borders were right on the other side. Even though they presented themselves as natural forces, the Long Clan couldn’t just ignore them.

They needed to post some of their masters on that side as a safety measure. The borders needed to at least last out for a few weeks if for some reason they decided to attack. There was no real trust between cultivators, might was all that mattered and they knew this. The moment the Heavenly Crane Sect saw an opening it wouldn’t be strange for them to push to gain more lands and resources. Just like any other sect or clan, they wanted to rule over all to gain access to all of the cultivation resources this world had.

To counter the claim that his sect were demonic cultivators hell-bent on world domination they spread their own agenda. It was more or less the truth, they presented the Emperor as weak and too scared to battle for the western regions that had been partially destroyed. His sect painted them as opportunists that wanted to gain all the glory after everything was already resolved. The only reason they wanted to attack was the growth of the United Element Sect which was threatening their dynasty.

‘I think most people realize what it’s all about but their fear of the Azure Emperor is very real. Only if we can show that we are truly able to stand up to them, will the people follow without fear.’

The Long Clan was an old monster that had lasted through ages long past. To a lot of people, this clan was the Azure Empire. It had existed for so long that no one could imagine them not existing forever. Forces like the Soaring Dragon Sect and the Heavenly Crane Sect weren’t ones that lasted. Sooner or later they always deteriorated and were taken over by another faction. To many people, the United Element Sect was just like them, with time their spark would die down and only the Long Clan would remain.

‘I guess we’ll have to prove that we are here to stay.’

For the time being he needed to remain home as his forces took care of everything else. As the leader, it was better for him to only appear when the Azure Emperor decided to strike. Otherwise, there was a possibility of him getting lured into another trap. Long Qing was a more fearsome opponent than the grand elder, the fight might not be as easy.

‘It’s possible that he never showed me his true capabilities back at the city, even though in theory I should be stronger now, I can’t discount that Overseer…’

Zhang Dong would have loved to just ask his older brother for a duel to clear things out. His clan would probably ignore the challenge while giving some type of excuse of them trying to set up some sort of trap. A battle between leaders would have been the best and least bloody solution to the problem. Yet, after what the Long Clan had attempted he couldn’t really trust them anymore.

‘They would probably only accept if the competition was held within their borders, then they will just try to entrap me in some type of formation or just outright attack me with multiple people at once.’

After having a good chuckle he decided to sit himself down in the cultivation room he was using. Contemplating the Dao of time was still coming along slowly and combining the elements wasn’t getting anywhere. Only thanks to Bob was he actually able to grasp some of it and this was somewhat of a problem. Relying on the hacked system might prove to be his downfall.

‘I need to get a grasp of the logic behind it, if that being created the original system then perhaps it could disable mine…’

There were a few possibilities for the confrontation in the future and he needed to account for all of them. He saw two possibilities, either try to make the system that he was given something that couldn’t be removed or go above it and become a true immortal being of unfathomable power. The problem was that he didn’t really have an idea how he should do either of those.

‘The only thing I can think of… would be binding Bob to my soul but he already should be.’

The Ai was freed when he first escaped from this world. At that time he was nothing more than a soul without a proper fleshy body. It was possible that Bob had already integrated itself into his soul and was a part of it. It was possible that his system had become part of everything but it was also something created by a mysterious being.

This brought several questions up to the forefront that he didn’t have an answer for. Perhaps only after discovering more about the truths of this world would he be finally able to grasp it all. Firstly he needed to take care of the Long Clan problem. Even if he defeated the Azure Emperor and become the new leader, the Overseer might not get triggered.

‘Well then, time to oversee a brand new war… or at least that's what everyone else will think.’

Everyone from his sect was in agreement that the Patriarch should not involve himself in the fighting unless the Azure Emperor appeared. They all wanted to show that they could handle things without his supervision. While he understood the sentiment he did not want more of his people to die.

‘Hiring mercenaries and solo cultivators is also getting prepared… I guess it’s time to join my own army as an outsider, this might be interesting.’

His face started changing into an old man with a nice gray beard and hair to fit. His robe started shifting into something black and gruff. His handsome face was replaced by one covered in many scars to fill the role of masterful warrior.

“It’s time for the demon hunter to appear again!”