‘I made the right choice of not using that talisman. There are a lot of people here, old and young…’

Zhang Dong was in his shadowy form looking from afar. When searching for the place the teleportation talismans led to, a large settlement popped into view. There were at least a hundred thousand people here and all of them seemed to belong to various other clans and sects.

‘There are a lot of various banners. Bob, can you analyze them and give me their point of origin.’

‘Scanning, please wait…’

In under a minute he had the result posted up on his system window. There he could see the names and locations of each group that was in this city. To his surprise, they were quite spread out throughout the empire. Some of them came from his territories, others from the east side where the Heavenly Crane Sect resided, and others from the edge of the central region.

‘Now what should I do about this, there are multiple masters here, we didn’t even manage to get half of them and they will continue to teleport here to run.’

The Long Clan was using guerilla tactics. Even though he managed to protect multiple strongholds, some of them had fallen. There were people from his side that had given their life for this war and it would continue to happen as long as the conflict lasted. Ending it as fast as possible with limited casualties was his main goal but how to tackle this problem was the big question.

‘Is there no other way besides massacring them all to send a message?’

In reality, he knew of a somewhat surefire way of getting some branch clans off his back. Cleansing sects and cities was the normal way people did things in this world. When one large group attacked another they usually made sure to eradicate their opponents. In a world where one person could reach the apex of power and seek vengeance, it was imperative to root out any potential disasters. Only if the opponent was astronomically more powerful than another faction would people not seek vengeance.

‘There are downsides to this method, it requires a lot of resources and continuous search for any potential survivors.’

It was quite hard to eradicate sects and clans that had thousands of members. They would join up with rival sects and bolster their power. With more battles, the list of enemies continued to increase. Sooner or later a sect that lived by the sword also died by it. The Long Clan was smart, they let others do their dirty work and could shove the blame elsewhere. There was probably a reason why they survived for so long.

‘So how do I turn these people against the Long Clan without killing everyone in this city…’

A thought crept into his mind for a moment. He knew how a lot of the Long Clan elders looked. It would have been easy to impersonate one of them to destroy this place. He could even make it look like some demonic ritual that the Long Clan was part of. Human sacrifices were a common occurrence, making it look like his enemies lured people here to perform occult magic could work.

‘No, there must be another way… I could do it like this… but it will take some preparation. I should be able to fit them all into the medallion for the time being…’

Zhang Dong asked Bob about the logistics of his current plan. Before attempting it he needed to make sure that he had enough time. After the analysis was done and he got a good result it was time to sneak towards the city to perform a nice theatrical play. For this to happen he would need to first prepare the stage.

……

“This is all wrong, how will we explain this to the main clan elders?”

“We must push and destroy those strongholds before they create more.”

“Do we know what they are even making?”

“The scouts weren’t sure but a formation is being formed and a large one by the scope…”

A group of nascent soul elders was sitting around in a circle while discussing their recent battles with the United Element Sect. They weren’t too happy about their progress as they had assumed this to be a chance to stand out. If they could grasp this opportunity for themselves then their clans would gain the full backing of the Long Clan. With something like this, there would be no one who would dare to stand in their way.

“It all started with that man… who would have thought that they were hiding such a master? Who is this Lei Linglo?”

“He was apparently a demon hunter a few years ago but he suddenly resurfaced…”

“Could he be their Patriarch’s secret backer? This would explain some things… but perhaps it’s Wang Long, how can we believe that he killed him in the demonic region! I bet the two were working together from the start and this man knows some strange shadowy arts.”

“That seems plausible, that young man was powerful and demonic arts would explain his rise to power!”

The United Element Sect was a new powerhouse. More than ten years had passed since they started baring their teeth to the empire and now people had become informed about their past. On the surface, it seemed that they originated from an unsuspecting clan in the lower western regions. No one believed this to be true as it was impossible for a group with not even one nascent soul master to have become this successful.

Many better theories started floating around. Some believed that Long Dong had been someone at the level of the Emperor for many years and used the Zhang Clan as some type of cover. They painted Zhang Dong as a mastermind that plotted to overthrow the Azure Dynasty. It was him that destroyed the Soaring Dragon Sect along with Wang Long and now were dead set on taking over the entire Empire.

“I bet all of those demi-humans were just demonic cultivators from the island, it’s all lightning up… we must stop them before this empire gets overrun!”

“That is the truth but why isn’t the main Clan sending us reinforcements, if this continues we will lose the border.”

“We should not say such things, what if someone from the main clan is listening in?”

“... Haha, you’re right, I’ve spoken out of line, forgive me. I bet the Azure Emperor has a plan, we should trust in him.”

“Yes, we should.”

The group started laughing weakly while looking around. Speaking out against the Long Clan was something that was frowned upon. All of them here were in the same boat and wanted to prove themselves to the Azure dynasty. If they could have some of their children marry into the clan after this was over, their future was as good as secured.

“Now then, we must prepare a tactic for that Lei Yinglo and expose him as the demonic cultivator that he is.”

“Yes, if we get some proof then even more people will join our cause!”

“Proof?”

The group started chuckling at one of their younger members claiming this idea. Even without having any proof in their minds, there was no problem in pronouncing this fact. The Long Clan would probably agree with them and was already using the demonic cultivator angle themselves. It didn’t really matter to these people though, as long as they were able to gain merits for their own factions it was enough.

“Hm… hasn’t it gotten darker?”

“Now that you mention it… the moon, why is it there?”

“Careful, this isn’t something natural!”

“Are we getting attacked? But the defensive formation hasn't been activated?”

“Why would something that I created activate?”

“Huh? Is that… Is that the Azure Emperor?”

The group of around twenty nascent soul masters glanced up toward the sky. There they could see a man slowly floating in their direction. All of them knew who this was, his face, voice, and demeanor were of Long Qing, the man known to the world as the Azure Emperor.

“We greet the mighty Azure Dragon!”

All of these old masters started bowing almost instantly. Yet there was something fishy about all of this. Why would the mightiest of them all come to this remote region without even accounting for his arrival? Normally, if the need arose for him to travel a whole group of masters would make way. Days before his coming they would make sure that everything was in tip-top shape.

“W-what do we owe this honor? Lord of the Azure?”

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, one of the oldest members of this group spoke out. The whole city had become quiet as the voice of this Azure Emperor was quite chilling. There was a sense of danger that everyone was feeling as if the man that they regarded as their leader would actually bring harm to them.

“...”

“...S-senior?”

“BE QUIET!”

A massive surge of energy blasted forth from the sky and pushed down on everyone in this city. Instantly they could feel some of the junior members from their clans and others succumbing to this massive pressure. It wasn’t just a simple aura attack, a strange vile energy was mixed into it all.

“D-deminic Qi? It must be an imposter!”

“An imposter? Do you really think so?”

“What … are those the Supreme and Grand Elders from the Main Clan?”

“Why are they all here…”

Before the cultivators could ask more questions they realized that they were surrounded. Many nascent soul masters that only resided at the sky city were here. They could even see all three children of the Azure Emperor there. They were all powerful masters close to the apex and each and every one was radiating demonic Qi.

“I would like to thank you for your cooperation in coming to this place but your role ends here.”

The whole city started glowing in a dark purple hue. It became clear that this whole city was encased in some sort of demonic formation. The powerful masters that were from the branch families noticed that their qi was being suppressed and also drained by something demonic.

“You shall become nourishment for the dynasty and my idiot brother will take the blame for it!”

“Was the Azure Emperor the real demonic cultivator? How could this be?”

“It’s too late for you to figure it out now, all of you shall perish here and add to my power!”

With that proclamation, all hell broke loose, all the powerful elders from the Long Clan turned into strange beings similar to demi-humans and charged. A fight for their survival started, their only hope was escape but would they be able to run from the greatest force in the empire?