A chibi version of Zhang Dong with a somewhat bobble head was floating around the room. This form used up almost no mana as it was small and without much density. The design he went with was one that would make him seem cuter. His face looked quite cartoonish with enlarged eyes but still had some of his old face structure.
The people in the room looked at this ‘Lightning Emperor’ with mixed expressions. Most of them were baffled by the strange look that was inspired by animated movies from his old world. He wasn’t sure if this was the right choice for the occasion but at least he was garnering some attention.
“Honorable Lightning Emperor Leigong?”
After a moment of silence, the dark elf Principal decided to speak up first. Her words were preceded by a cough that caused the Vice Principal to also straighten up.
“I see that your associate has mentioned our encounter.”
Zhang Dong looked at the old man that was standing to the side. The moment he did he could see the Vice Principal’s face twitching a bit.
“Yes, he did inform me about it. I would like to apologize on his behalf.”
The dark elf looked to the side, where the old man was standing. She started wiggling her eyebrows a bit to make him aware of something. This made the Vice Principal move forward and perform a small bow before Zhang Dong and Beatrice that was behind him.
The young girl started flailing her hands awkwardly as she didn’t know how to react to something like this. This was quite the normal response by someone on the lower end of the social ladder like a Baron’s daughter. The person in front of her was akin to a Count and far above her status. Her summoned spirit on the other handheld his nose up high while nodding.
“I’m glad that you understand, I will let this transgression slide but only this once!”
Zhang Dong replied while slowly floating toward the old man. He had scared the old man into submission and he could clearly see the fear in his eyes. Even though he looked like a cute anime character now the man probably saw him as some kind of ferocious creature. He had given him the stick but now it was time for the carrot.
The people in the room could see Beatrice’s spirit moving and reaching out towards the old man’s chest with his tiny hand. Before they could ask what he was doing a strange magical pattern was felt by the two strong magicians.
“T-this… how unique… What kind of magical energy is this?”
The Principal called out from the side with awe. She could feel a small amount of energy moving from that small hand. There wasn’t much power in what this tiny spirit was doing but the mana was different. Soon the purpose of this magical spell was clear as the Vice Principal let out a sigh of relief, the mark that was on him had been dispelled.
“T-thank you, great spirit!”
“I’m glad you understand my magnanimity!”
Zhang Dong laughed out loud while swishing his long sleeves around. He had made a more wavy robe variant with this form which made him look more like a traditional cultivator.
“Vice Principal Elobarin, is the mark gone?”
“Yes, Principal.”
Both of the mages in this room looked at the small floating cultivator. It looked like a big weight was removed from their shoulders. They were probably glad that this strange Spirit Emperor could be reasoned with.
“This was the reason that you called us here right? Or was there something else?”
Zhang Dong asked while floating to the side. There were a lot of books in this room so he started giving them little pokes. While being here gathering more information was paramount.
He also wanted to make these two mages work for him, they were on the top of the totem pole here. They would be able to speed things up, he wouldn’t need to go through the usual child games that would be happening in the classrooms if he did it the normal way.
“Yes, if the honorable spirit is willing to talk with us, we would like to give him some questions…”
Zhang Dong could see that there was a little glint in the dark elf’s eyes. It appeared since he removed that soul binding technique from the man named Elobarin. It was clear that his unique cultivator Qi was different from mana.
After reading up on some of the spells he figured out a way to make it work in this world as well. The conversion rate wasn’t as good as in his old world but there was a way to transform mana into Qi.
With this cultivation would also be possible here but it would take a lot more time. The people cultivating would also find it harder to recharge their energies after performing their Qi dependant techniques. The whole process was akin to emulation and a lot of energy was lost during it. That’s why he was trying to come up with new ways of using his own Qi here, without the need of emulation. Learning magical spells wouldn’t be that easy though so he needed a lot of research material.
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“A few questions?”
Zhang Dong started rubbing his chin that was part of his new bobblehead. The two mages started looking to each other with some concern in their eyes.
“I guess I could answer a few questions, are they about those demons that you spoke about?”
Zhang Dong looked to Elobarin. The old man had previously mentioned that there were some shape-shifting demons running around this school here. Maybe if he took care of that problem he would have something to leverage for.
He didn’t want to waste too much time but Beatrice wasn’t strong enough. That attack that he performed with the help of his soul beast didn’t even reach up to the nascent soul level. It was the most he could do at this point in time. From what he could tell this Principal lady was at about the middle or late stage of core formation.
She was apparently the strongest mage in the whole academy while also making her one of the strongest mages in the entire world. How strong was the strongest he didn’t know but it looked like these people haven’t yet taken a step into the nascent soul level of power. Which was good for him as if he recovered all of his strength he could easily flatten anyone here.
“Yes, amongst other things…”
Zhang Dong nodded, he could tell that the woman wanted to ask him about other things more. That look she had was something he was familiar with, it was very similar to what his junior sect members did. They were always trying to get pointers from him who was the most powerful cultivator in the whole sect. She was looking at him like a pupil that was eager to learn.
‘I should throw her a bone but put some restrictions on it…’
He knew that he needed something to trade with. There was not much that he could offer for the information and resources that this academy had. The thing that he wanted to ask for were the cubes. Mages here would probably know some locations where these items could be located. If this world was like his previous ones the cubes had to be in places that previous ‘players’ like him were summoned to. For now, he decided to push the conversation towards the demons as this looked like a problem that could be tackled.
“Yes, I am sure that the great spirit is aware of the age-long battle between the demons and the coalition of races.”
“Mhm.”
Zhang Dong nodded as he went through some of the history books that this place had to offer. The setting looked to be very similar to games or other books that he had read before. It was quite generic, this ‘Coalition of Races’ was composed of various fantasy-like races, elves, humans, dwarves, and some others but those were the big three main ones with the most pull.
These humanoid races were in an aged long battle against the demon race. These demons came in various shapes and sizes but mostly had one thing in common, their red skin, horns, and a third eye right in the middle of their forehead. There were also existences known as the ‘Demon Lords’ along with a ‘Demon King’ that ruled over all of them.
From what the books said this ‘Demon King’ lived in some kind of secluded castle surrounded by rivers of lava. He didn’t leave this castle and only the demon lords were sent out as his generals. There was a certain reason for that.
This Demon King was supposedly the strongest being on this planet. The only reason that he wasn’t able to destroy the other races was a massive barrier that was surrounding a continent where all of the races gathered.
There wasn’t much explained on how it worked, but supposedly it kept the strongest demons out but weaker ones could somehow squeeze through openings in the net. Some of those demons that made it through could get to the level of the strongest people living on this side.
The gist of it was, that the weaker demons were slowly infiltrating these lands and trying to weaken the barrier. Sometimes they succeeded which allowed one of the demon lords to hop to this side. Thus the war continued to this day, the races were holding on for now but they were slowly losing land while the demons closed in.
“Before that, shouldn’t we do something about that?”
Zhang Dong said while pointing at the cat-girl maid that was listening to the conversation while cleaning.
“Don’t mind Gertrude great spirit, she is someone that has worked at this academy for years and we can trust her.”
The maid perked up at the conversation, she was putting some books back on the shelves. She turned around to give the whole room a warm smile that could melt icebergs.
“Is that so? Can you remind me again, the demons mostly have red skin, horns, and a third eye, right?”
“Yes great spirit…”
The principal replied while not being sure where this summoned spirit was going with this.
“That person has a third eye.”
Zhang Dong pointed towards the girl in the maid uniform while staring. He was someone that had a disguising technique that would even fool nascent soul masters. The demons were using something similar so these people that were below the nascent soul level were unable to detect anything. He on the other hand could see behind this disguise, the girl was clearly a transformed being.
“W-what? Are you certain, great spirit?”
“Can’t you check with that technique of yours?”
The cat lady started backing off while looking at the Principal and Vice-Principal. Both of these mages were looking at her in a strange way.
“W-what? Did I do something wrong?”
The principal looked to the great spirit with confusion in her eyes. The maid here was someone that she knew for a long time. She had worked here for many years and her loyalty had been proven but before she could act the spirit moved in first.
“Well, I can do it for you.. shouldn’t be too hard…”
The Principal looked at the small spirit performing some strange hand gestures while pointing at the cat girl. The girl started to panic but it was too late. The strange spell was cast and the girl’s from started to shift.
All of her hair started to fall off along with the cat tail that turned into some black sludge. What remained was a bald lanky humanoid that wasn’t even female in figure. Its face wasn’t pretty to look at and it had both the horns and third eye that any demonic being possessed.
The demon gave out a loud shriek that caused the windows to shatter. It then jumped out through it while the Principal and Vice-Principal were stunned by the reveal.
“You’ll have to catch it yourself though, I think you should hurry up before it calls more friends over or escapes”
Zhang Dong chuckled while floating around, the old man quickly jumped through the window to give chase while the others were left to discuss more in the Principal's office.