Fang Heng looked at the white-haired man that was walking in front of him. This was the person that had aided his granddaughter in the banquet. He didn’t expect to see him here of all places.
He had received a device to set up a teleportation gate with him but it wasn’t working. When he and some of his sect members examined it further they found out the problem. It was this blasted mist. It was somehow blocking out the signal from traveling further.
There was a proposition of carrying it above clouds but that would put many lives at risk. There were many monsters outside the protective formation that would instantly swarm them. He was the only nascent cultivator there that would be able to contend with these beasts.
His allies were mostly at lower realms and these creatures outnumbered them one to a hundred. They had no way of knowing if that plan would even work. Even if they got this beacon high enough for the signal to go through. There was no guarantee that the man that gave him it would appear instantly.
They had abandoned this idea, taking a more passive approach while waiting. They were hopeful that this mist would clear up with time but instead it was only getting thicker.
“So, the mist appeared even before you returned?”
Fang Heng’s thoughts were interrupted as Zhang Dong spoke up to ask him a question.
“Yes senior, it began going through the lands about the same time we arrived at the banquet. It wasn’t as bad as this when I arrived here... but it has been getting worse with time passing…”
Zhang Dong nodded while rubbing his chin.
“So it started after you forced that monster back into its lair… it might have changed strategies. How long has this attack been going on for?”
Fang Heng nodded as Zhang Dong pointed this out. This was also what he and the people from his sect deducted. With the mist, the beasts outside, and even the humans were all corrupted by something. If the monster was intelligent it would try to take care of their enemies with the help of its minions, it was a basic strategy.
“It started with my return, with each day the monsters get stronger and our defensive formation weakens. These beings are susceptible to our divine arts but there are just too many. If this continues the array won’t last for more than a few days...”
Fang Heng replied while moving his head down in distraught. He hasn’t been able to sleep for days and was slowly reaching the end of his rope. But after seeing Zhang Dong in action he was feeling invigorated. The power that he showed outside was immense, he took out a quarter of the monsters outside just by himself while slowly approaching. With him around Heng was feeling hopeful once more.
“First let me look at your grand formation, I must strengthen it. This miasma is blocking out my teleportation treasures, I need to seek aid from my sect members. This is not something I can take care of myself.”
Zhang Dong proclaimed, the people next to him were surprised that someone of his status was so humble. He actually was willing to say that he wasn’t able to take care of this situation even with the immense amount of power that he wielded.
He was led towards the large castle structure in the middle of the meteor impact. It had a giant tower right in the middle that looked like a lighthouse. There was a bright yellow light shining from within it. The light slowly moved clockwise in a circular pattern while illuminating the whole sect.
This was one of the treasures that the Divine Fist Sect was proud of. It was a holy stone that radiated divine Qi, it was placed in the middle of a massive formation and it was powering it. The only problem was that the light was slowly dimming, with each spin the brightness dwindled by a small fraction.
The two nascent soul elders headed up towards this lighthouse. Fang Heng was skeptical about what Zhang Dong could do but he did possess one of the purest divine auras that he had ever seen. It was even above their sect leader and also above any of the hidden council members.
Those were also down to only three, they were all resting in the middle of this lighthouse. Sleeping in a self-induced coma as they had almost given up their lives to fight against that monstrosity.
“Interesting…”
Zhang Dong looked at the tennis ball-sized gem inside of this ‘lighthouse’. It looked like a yellow diamond and was giving off a strong divine aura. It was similar to his own but wasn’t quite there when it came to purity. It was also running low on spiritual energy, luckily for the Divine Fist Sect, he had looked into spiritual battery technology.
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With a slight wave of the wrist, his spatial ring was activated and three small cubes appeared. Fang Heng looked with interest at the items Zhang Dong produced. These items were the size of a regular rubix cube, they were silver and shiny. Their surface was covered with strange runic patterns that the older elder had no way of discerning.
Zhang Dong didn’t want to waste time. He moved his hand forward and with the help of his cultivation base the cubes floated towards the shiny gem. The cubes formed a triangle around its target while gently floating around it.
With a snap of his finger, the treasures that were used for storing vast amounts of spiritual energy were activated. Thanks to the large spirit vein running under his sect Zhang Dong was able to produce these items. They were lesser versions of the cubes that he discovered previously in his travels.
Fang Heng’s eyes opened wide as he saw Zhang Dong performing some kind of strange hand movements. As he did small arcs of electricity started shooting out of those small cubes. First, they connected to each other via those electrical passages.
The three cubes started floating faster and faster while the arcs of electricity connected them together. With a bit of time those bolts of energy connected with the gem in the middle. It started out slowly but soon enough the lighthouse treasure started radiating bright light.
There was something off, Fang Heng felt that the energy that this treasure was giving off was vastly greater than what it was previously capable of. The faint yellow light was also changing into a deeper color, it looked more akin to Zhang Dong’s aura that was pure gold.
A strange buzzing sound filled the entire lighthouse as the cubes started spinning faster than a plane’s propeller. This was followed by an explosion of energy that caused the light to burst in all directions.
The people from the sect that were waiting outside the tower were hearing all of this while standing outside. This caused them to look up high at the strange phenomenon.
“W-what is that?”
They were baffled by what was happening, they were all old men and women that had spent all of their life here. This beacon of light had stood there illuminating their lives since they were children.
After that cultivator from the United Element Sect had entered it changed. Instead of the faint yellow light that they were used to, they were greeted with a deeper golden color that illuminated their sect brighter than before.
The protective shield that was close to flickering out of existence was invigorated almost instantly. The shield expanded in scope while pushing the outside monsters back. The ones that were the closest started burning up. It was as if the holy light was burning these demons to cinders, angry at their unholy existence.
“I’ll have to apologize for what I’m about to do, but this is necessary for now…”
“Huh?”
Fang Heng wasn’t sure what to expect but he saw Zhang Dong cracking his fist together. Then he pulled it back while gathering his spiritual energy into it. It was clear to him that he was winding up for a punch. Before he could stop him or ask about what he was aiming at the fist was thrown toward the ceiling.
A large boom reverberated throughout the whole sect area and the people below were stupefied even more. Their holy beacon of light, the divine lighthouse of legends that was their sect's symbol had its top blown right off. They dodged to the side while the white marble rocks crumbled down below.
The moment the tower’s ceiling was opened the light shot up through it. This was Zhang Dong’s aim. He needed this holy light that he empowered with a support array and his battery cubes to go higher. To reach the skies and to part the clouds along with this miasma that was blocking out the signal to his teleportation beacon.
So it did, the burst of light caused the protective formation to expand even further than before. The monsters that were circling above them in the hopes to attack were quickly turned to grilled tentacle meat.
Zhang Dong shouted out while moving his hand forward. He wasn’t done yet, there wasn’t quite enough power flowing into this divine treasure. There was also a little problem with the whole procedure, the gem started to crack, it was unable to handle so much spiritual energy at one go.
Fang Heng also saw this, sweat appearing on his forehead as he didn’t know what he should do. He wasn’t someone that was versed in holy treasures, nor was he a craftsman. Besides cultivation, he had no other passions so this was above him. He looked to the white-haired man that was exuding an even brighter glow than this whole lighthouse. It was up to him to take care of this, if he failed a battle against a horde of monsters was waiting for them.
Zhang Dong utilized all of his knowledge that he had gained in the last five years to mend this fissure. The gem was nothing more than a source of power that converted spiritual energy into divine might. But due to the abrupt rise in this spiritual energy, it was being overloaded, he just needed to streamline the process for it to stabilize.
It was simple in theory but he was rushing which caused him to actually blunder. If he had done it slower the gem would have probably not cracked at all. He now needed to aid it with his own cultivation base. Luckily the healing energies that he possessed would work on this item as well, after a couple of moments the cracks that were previously there started mending themselves back.
The whole formation churned with astonishing power as it finally stabilized itself. The whole Divine Fist Sect was bathed in golden light. The disciples, elders, and even the animals here quickly noticed the change in the divine aura that was now many times purer. Some of the people could even feel their wounds being mended by just being closer to the tower of light.
“T-this is… so pure… such a refined saintly glow… how is this possible?”
Fang Heng had to cover his eyes for a moment as the glow was even too bright for him. He could feel invigorated by just being in the presence of this enhanced holy formation. He could even tell that some of his old bottlenecks were getting cleared up. Old doors that remained shut for ages were getting forced to open and he knew that if he stayed here to cultivate he might even reach the late stage.
“Phew...I mean... It went just as planned, now I should be able to call my sect members!”
Zhang Dong quickly corrected himself while trying to appear as the unfathomable senior that everyone saw him as. The formation was in full swing now, what remained was to get his people over here and go kick some monster ass.