“How was he able to escape through the ancient formation and the mystical chamber?”

“It doesn’t matter, don’t let him escape from here!”

“Agh…He’s too strong, where is the Emperor?”

“Release the seal of the mystical chamber!”

A group of people started panicking as they saw the white-haired Zhang Dong speed throughout the area. His body was surrounded by golden lightning and with each movement he created a sonic boom. Even though there were many late-stage and great circle realm nascent soul masters around, none of them could even touch him.

They did not understand how their Emperor was even able to last against such a monster for this long. The two dragons were on another level and all the elders here quickly realized that they were like little children compared to them. It would take their leader a moment to get here so it was up to them to stop this person from escaping. If they were able to block him for a few seconds, then it would be their victory.

“Get out of my way if you don’t want to die.”

However, their opponent would not go down without a fight. All the people that were trying to block his path were trampled through. The walls of spiritual energy were shattered, their soul beasts destroyed and their own bodies battered. The once mighty nascent soul masters could only look on with horror as a human inside a giant bolt of lightning collided with the exit gate.

“Fool, only the Emperor can activate the grand gate you shall not escape!”

“Only the Emperor? Thanks for the tip, idiot.”

“Huh?”

One of the elders shouted out to spite the man that had shoved him out of the way and took his arm along with it. The way outside could only be opened by the Azure Emperor himself without their leader they would be unable to leave themselves. Only one person from the royal family had access to this area at a time and currently, the Emperor had managed to emerge from within the white chamber.

The flesh wounds that were on his body had healed up thanks to his own body-refining technique. People from the Long Clan wanted to cheer but before they could give their leader some words of appreciation the whole place started rumbling. Something connected with the large gate before which an elevator was placed.

“How?”

“What are you looking at, stop him!”

The usually calm and collected Long Qing shouted at his followers. His voice carried with it an uncanny amount of animosity that they had never witnessed before. The Azure Emperor that they knew was more relaxed and never took things too seriously. Yet, at this moment the air around him had become different. It could only mean one thing, the opponent that they were facing was on a level that could make the world's strongest angry.

“The gate, it’s opening? Is his bloodline this strong…”

One of the elders here had to bite his tongue before saying something that he couldn’t take back. Everyone here assumed that only the Azure Emperor could use the large gate as he was of the line of Azure. They had forgotten that Zhang Dong here was supposed to be his brother from a very close bloodline to his. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem but their ancestors were close brothers and probably twins. It was possible for his bloodline to activate the opening mechanism and apparently, it was.

The large gate started opening and just as soon as the opening was big enough for a person to slip in, he was out of there. To make things worse, the gate started closing itself back behind him and left the nascent soul masters trapped on the other side. Even when the Azure Emperor approached to activate it, it wouldn’t budge.

“What did he…?”

It seemed that somehow Zhang Dong’s bloodline had overpowered Long Qing’s and the gate identified him as the new master. Even after their leader moved his hand forward to activate the opening mechanism there was no response. In the case of a bloodline overpowering another, the previous owner would lose all of their rights of ownership. This sight caused a silence in this area in which the group found itself trapped now.

“M…my Lord? Maybe if the young lords come together the lock will open…”

Finally, the highest-ranked elder from the group decided to speak up. In the case of the bloodline weakening it was possible to boost it with the help of more direct descendants. This included all of Long Qing’s children and perhaps a few other elders that were at this time in the city. It was a shameful act to ask for but as it stood, this was the only way for them to get out of there as the walls were too sturdy to break through.

“Hah, you want to involve my children? A shame like that is unbecoming of an Emperor!”

Instead of calling for help, the man raised his blue blade forward. It started radiating a blue flame that expanded forward to take the shape of a dragon’s head. This head shot forward while accompanied by a massive roar. With shock on their faces, all the elders quickly retreated to make way for the dragon made of Qi and sword energy.

After it collided with the gate a massive explosion shook the entire place but still it wasn’t budging. The Emperor didn’t falter as he held his azure sword forward and continued to push the technique against the cold rock. Within a few seconds, an audible cracking sound was heard by everyone here. Finally, the protective structure gave in to the quasi-immortal weapon that was able to create a small hole to the outside.

“It’s small but now you will be able to use our teleportation techniques to get out, follow him, and don’t let him escape!”

“You heard the Emperor, follow me!”

The old men initialized their talismans to vanish from within this area with only one remaining for a moment. It was the leader of those elders and the strongest person here before the Emperor. Most of them didn’t hear it but there were two cracking noises at different locations as the attack connected.

“What are you waiting for, I gave you an order.”

“Of course, Azure Emperor!”

The man quickly left while looking over Long Qing’s tired expression. This attack he performed had taken a lot out of him and was probably the reason why he wasn’t chasing after the man that got away himself. It was better to keep this realization to himself as mentioning this to his clan members would only cause a lowering in morale. All of them needed to focus on this enemy, if they could take care of the usurper then it would all be over.

…

‘This tunnel looks like an old subway… who made this?’

Zhang Dong with the help of Bob had managed to hack into the opening mechanism. Luckily this world saw him as the Long Clan’s ancestor’s descendant. His bloodline resembled the Azure Dynasty’s and through it he was able to gain ownership over it. It was a temporary solution as he expected Long Qing to get out of there sooner or later but by that time he would be long gone.

When outside he entered something that looked like a subway tunnel. There were cables and lights at constant intervals here and also something that looked like a monorail. The platform that was before the gate probably moved through this modern-looking tunnel system. Perhaps if he visited this place a few years ago he would be surprised but after getting to the truth of the system the veil was already torn from his eyes.

‘Did the person that created this really come from Earth or from somewhere similar?’

The way things looked here was almost identical to the stations he remembered from his old life. It was quite eerie to fly through this place that reminded him of his old world and the lack of any side tunnels only made it creepier. However, before he could focus on this feeling a red window appeared before him.

“Hm? Did they get through the gate already? It should have taken him at least a couple of hours to reset the bloodline… Did he use the quasi-immortal weapon?”

After taking a glance he knew that Long Qing was not able to use his bloodline to get through. This left one other option which involved the powerful blade that he was using. During his confrontation with the Emperor, he realized that it would be impossible for him to beat it. If he was not getting chased by an angry man with that blade then he needed to increase the pace.

‘Can’t that blasted thing just shatter already… I guess it’s not an almost immortal blade for nothing, I also can’t exclude the possibility of him having other weapons like that.’

His speed increased as he did not wish for the battle to continue in this small area. There was no way to evade and these walls were as strong as that gate that he left behind. Luckily it didn’t seem that anyone predicted that someone could get through it. There were no checkpoints that stopped him or blockades. Probably when he arrived at the top one last area waited for him before he could escape.

‘I should be able to teleport back to the golden palace after I leave this place. Bob, use the function instantly when you are able to, we can’t take any chances.’

‘Affirmative’

His system was powerful but also quite rudimentary. It had the basis of an old operating system that he was familiar with. To activate anything he needed to click through many prompts and windows. Thankfully, with Bob’s help who could access functions with his approval, it was possible to go around these limitations.

Only a couple of kilometers remained and when he got outside he would be back with his allies. With the help of the Golden Palace, he hoped to counter the quasi-immortal blade. It had gone through a lot of upgrades and could dish out a lot of damage. Yet, the finishing blow would probably need to come from him but as long as he had some backup then everything was possible.

‘Wait… someone is there…’

A strange light appeared at the end of the tunnel as he arrived. Something was wrong which caused him to surround his whole body in a layer of protective spells and techniques. The moment he arrived at the exit area he was bombarded by a barrage of spiritual energy. All the nascent soul masters that he saw down below were here to receive him, things looked grim but for some reason, the Azure Emperor was not here…