“Elder Xiong we have locked the exits as you have instructed, the phantoms won’t be able to enter.”

“What did you call me?”

“El… I mean Patriarch!”

“Yes, that’s better.”

A smaller group of about a hundred shadowy cultivators were in a large spacious cavern. The glowing moss on the walls was illuminating this place with a greenish light.

“Listen to me, my brothers and sisters. Our old sect might have been destroyed but that doesn’t matter, we shall rebuild and create a new one. We will rise from the ashes and become more powerful than ever!”

The group of cultivators that were here were the remnants of one of the evil sects that had previously attacked the Thunderball Hall. They weren’t fully involved as their previous patriarch had just gone with an old friend to aid him.

“I must apologize to all of you, my idiot brother brought this upon us.”

“It’s not Patriarch’s fault, no one knew that such a monster was hiding in that righteous sect.”

Everyone nodded as they were informed of one of the other sects going down in only an hour. This white-haired devil was seen destroying everything in his paths and not even the great formations could stop them.

“We will be safe here, we will send a party out to search for a new sect location for us.”

“How about we go to the lower reaches and take over one of the lesser sects? With our dark arts, we could easily make their weak cultivators do our biddings.”

“Not a bad plan brother, it would save us from having to hide in this place but for now we need to… What was that?”

While the people were discussing their plans they heard something rumbling. Dirt and small rocks started drooping from the ceiling which made the people here a bit nervous.

They were an evil sect that somewhat knew how to evade the evil phantoms outside. This didn’t mean that they would be able to contend with the stronger ones.

The only thing that was protecting them were a few old treasures and this safe house that had been built by their ancestors. Most of the people here didn’t know how to repair the formations that kept the evil souls away. If they suffered a massive earthquake and this place collapsed they would be doomed.

“Don’t worry, this is normal, the shadowlands are surrounded by a storm of death. That’s probably what’s making a ruckus outside.”

The people from the evil sect made their way into this place through a set of tunnels even before they reached the shadowlands. They had collapsed the exit for now out of fear but there were other pathways that they could use after everything had settled.

“What is that thumping? Is it getting closer?”

The rumbling stopped for a moment but then they started hearing a strange sound coming from one of the walls. It was as if someone was hitting it with a sledgehammer while being quite far away.

“No it’s impossible… could someone really be outside?”

The wall started to shake and the cultivators that were gathered here took out their weapons. The Patriarch moved forward as he was the strongest master here, in his hand a special medallion that had a purple shine to it.

“It might be one of the death beasts, get ready even if it enters here it will be weakened by the formation, it should not break just from this.”

The man said while sweating as he was not really sure if what he was saying was even the truth. Even though he was standing strong he was already eyeing the side exit. He brought the people over here and was the only one that knew all of the secrets.

There were several hiding spots that he could use while the phantoms were busy devouring his sect members. He knew well that if the walls were destroyed the formation would start weakening and the only thing he should do was to flee.

Then finally with one last hit, a small hole was blasted through the thick wall. He was ready to use the item in his hand to try to stall the evil spirits and then to flee. Instead of evil spirits, there was something else that greeted his eyes. It was the face of an unknown cultivator with snow-white hair.

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“Ah, there you are. You know that you really shouldn’t place a spirit protection array in the middle of nowhere, it’s quite easy to sense with nothing else around.”

“T-the Thunderball Hall ancestor? But how!?”

“Oh, I almost forgot that they are calling me that? Well, this will make things easy, give me all of your spirit stones and treasures and you might still live to the next day.”

Zhang Dong forced his way into the inside of this cave and his radiant aura filled it with light. Inside the group of ghoulish-looking cultivators started feeling dizzy the moment they felt the overwhelming aura of good.

“W-what is this…”

The new sect Patriarch was only a Supreme Saint at the middle stage which made him far weaker than this man here. The evil medallion that he was holding out shattered almost instantly as it was pushed back by the holy powers.

With nothing else to do, he tossed this item at the overpowering presence and started running away. Before he could duck away into one of the hidden rooms he felt a pulling sensation. He could not resist it as he was yanked towards the invader.

“Listen here, I don’t have time for this, just give me your spiritual rings.”

The evil cultivator felt his body go limp as he was held by the neck. The man jabbed his finger into his dantian and promptly crippled him. With this, the man's dreams of finally walking out of his brother’s shadow went under.

“Doesn’t look too bad…”

Zhang Dong peeked inside of the spatial rings that this man had on his fingers. Inside of them, he saw many treasures but most unusable to him as they were of demonic nature.

“Now, give me the rest.”

He tossed away the old foggy that looked to be the strongest here. The rest could not budge a muscle due to his overpowering aura. Thanks to his half-step nascent soul powers there were now certain things he could do with his spiritual energy. One of them was to have all the spatial rings in the vicinity to float towards himself.

It only took him a moment to take away all the loo that these cultivators had. Most of it was not great but all of the spirit stones would add up. To top it off he crippled everyone here to the last person.

“Well, hope you can live simple lives from now non.

He commented while making his way out of the cavern.

“Simple lives? You jest, the phantoms outside will eat our flesh and devour our souls, you have sentenced us to a fate worse than death.”

The old man that he crippled first spoke out while panting.

“Oh, the phantoms? I took care of them, the place doesn’t look that bad if you take care of all the evil energy…”

Zhang Dong shrugged and then quickly floated out through the cave opening that he created. On the outside what used to be a barren wasteland covered by grim shadowy energy turned into a more lush environment.

The death trees that were possessed by evil spirits were slowly regaining their life energy. The streams of water that were pure poison to anyone that drank it, was now pure as they could ever get.

Zhang Dong had used his soul core to absorb all of the decrepit soul energy that had gathered here. There was even a big bad phantom king that he had to go through. With the combination of his soul core and golden core, it was nothing more than a mob.

After his holy energies touched this place the plants and animals had turned back to normal. With time this place could be populated by humans with no threat of evil spirits taking hold of them. With the death of the phantom king, the place was cleansed.

“My soul core can’t absorb more energy, now I only need to power up the other two before the next breakthrough.”

Zhang Dong now knew of a good way to increase his cultivation. Such places with evil spirits were uncommon but still existed without ever being exorcised. He could just use the map to find such places as they would clearly be marked as dangerous zones.

The only problem that remained was his golden core. He needed divine or holy energy for absorption to further his cultivation. This core was a bit strange as it also received a boost to energy whenever he did a good deed. Even showing mercy to this group of evil cultivators and clearing up an area filled with demonic energy was making it stronger.

“It’s a bit out of balance, if I absorb more evil phantoms my soul core could go berserk, if I don’t clear up those evil places my golden core won’t progress though…”

It was a bit of a waste as he could get rid of the phantoms without absorbing their energy. The only other option was his system that might be able to equalize things out.

“This will have to be enough, I might be able to advance a bit now..”

Zhang Dong looked out into the distance and he finally took off. After flying for an hour he finally decided on a safe spot. It was deep inside of a stormy mountain range that was also surrounded by some strong beasts. Unless a Supreme Saint arrived he would probably not get any unwelcome guests.

Before passing through he had a little glaring match with the ‘Beast King’ here. The strongest beast here was some kind of glowing green stag. It’s horns were quite intricate and large, it was weaker than him so it could only move its head down in capitulation without even trying to defend itself. The beast could also feel that Zhang Dong was not dangerous.

Thus he drilled into the mountain range and when he came out he found himself in an underground cave. To the side he could spot an underground river of sorts which was probably why there was some space for him to sit on the side.

“Let’s see what I am working with.”

Like before he started taking out all the usable items. All the weapons and treasures that could help him bolster his body refinement were placed on one pile while spirit stones were placed on another pile. Then came all the thunderstones that he had obtained from the Hall.

“Great, with this I should at least be safe when traveling through these lands, it will still take a while to reach the border, better start now…”

While thinking about his family and friends he quickly grasped one of the weapons. It started glowing red and quickly turning to liquid which was then promptly absorbed into his body.

“Not much progress, this will take a while…”

He gave out a sigh while looking at the massive pile of swords and spears. It was time to absorb them all and maybe soon he would have his golden body once again.