“Greetings brother.”
A dashing young man nodded at the welcome he received from quite a lovely young woman. Both of them were wearing pure white robes reminiscent of their master. Their pure white hair was a clear indication of who that master was.
“The scouts have given their report, it seems that it is inevitable…”
“This does not make any sense, what would one of the great three powers want with us…”
Asked the young man that hailed by the name Zhang Liu. His younger sister was right next to him and they were standing before the hall of elders. Not that long ago word arrived that a large fleet of ships had crossed into the middle sect reaches.
Through the years they had created a vast network of informants that were planted in all of the large cities. Their communication technology was quite advanced for the times. The spies were there to inform the main sect of any suspicious movement from the other powers.
Not long ago such information had reached their ears. A couple of ships from a rather powerful sect have entered this side of the empire and their course was their sect. This was hard to confirm at first but now they were dangerously close and about a day remained until they reached their doorstep.
“What do you think that the elders will decide on?
Asked Liu while Xue, his younger sister, contemplated. She could only shrug and shake her head as this sort of thing was above her. Both of them were now core formation cultivators, which didn’t grant them access to the inner workings of their sect.
While their master was still around they would be informed about the decisions through him. Since he vanished on that fateful day, their standing in the sect had lessened. It was a slow progress but they could tell that some people were treating them differently.
They still had the support of the matriarch but she was also on thin footing without the support of the strongest. That title fell towards Huo Qiang and since his father was also one of the great elders some felt that he should take over while the Patriarch was away.
“We might have to ask your partner about the decision, the Matriarch might speak to her about it before announcing it to the rest of the sect.
Zhang Xiu flinched a bit at the mention of his ‘partner’. The girl in question was still Nuana who continued to strongarm him into a more permanent relationship. Now without his master's support, he was running out of options to refuse the girl.
“Let’s not talk about that…”
Zhang Xue chuckled to herself but soon her expression became solemn. She looked to the large gates that they were both standing at. These gates would only open for registered members of the great elders which they were not.
Past these doors was a large open chamber with seats around a middle platform. This platform had no one standing on it and the elders were sitting around it. It was similar to a lecture hall with the professor missing. The spot in the middle belonged to the Patriarch but since no new one had been unanimously announced it remained empty.
Above the spot where the Patriarch should be standing was a holographic image of the large ship. The image was of various shades of blue but it was quite clear to the people here to whom this ship belonged to.
“Do you recognize the ship?”
A woman with light pink hair and quite an exotic look asked one of the other people in the room.
“Yes, that crest belongs to the Soaring Dragon Sect.”
The group cultivators started murmuring among each other as they knew that this was one of the top three powers in this empire. If this sect wanted to go to war with any of the middle-sized sects they could easily wipe them from the face of the earth.
Someone like the Dark Palm sect that they barely beat with the help of their Patriarch would be nothing more than a speck.
“What do they want from us? Did they figure out our situation?”
“They could be after our technical advances, it's become hard to keep the flow of information hidden away from the other sects. Ever since the Patriarch disappeared it has become hard to handle the spies from other sects…”
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The room wasn’t filled with many nascent soul elders. Ever since Zhang Dong’s disappearance, the progress of the elder generation was halted. He was the only one that could cleanse them from any impurities and offer them the correct advice to help them break through.
Even with their advanced knowledge that they received, passing into the nascent soul level was not an easy procedure. Only Huo Qiang was fortuitous enough to reach the middle stage of the nascent soul level. Zhang Liena, who was second in line, had not been able to progress.
This was mostly attributed to the demons that sprung up in her heart. The days of worry about her husband brought her cultivation to a stop and she couldn't bring herself to advance like Qiang who was more battle-focused.
“Do we really need to fear them? Their visit here might be unavoidable but it does not have to cause destruction for our sect!”
One of the older members that was not quite at the nascent soul level commented and some of the others agreed.
“That’s right, we know not of their true purpose we should hear them out before we make a decision.”
“We should hear them out? Did you lose your mind, why would they gather a whole fleet of flying vessels to come here? It’s obvious that they aren’t coming here to have tea with us!”
Another elder commented on the issue and a fight of words between the two parties commenced. One side was of the mind of raising the alarm and being prepared to fight to the bitter end. The other side was willing to welcome the guests with open arms and hear them out instead.
“Silence you old farts!”
The voice was raised by Zhang Liena which managed to quiet most of the people.
“What do you expect us to do then?”
The one that raised his voice was a tanned man with a muscular stature. Next to him was a man of similar build but hair that looked like it was on fire. He sat there looking bored with his hands crossed over one another as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Could I have a word?”
From the side a voice that a lot of people knew spoke out. A certain dashing young man was seen by everyone which made Zhang Liena scoff slightly.
“Stop using that technique when you are at the elder gathering you old leech.”
“Ha ha, excuse this old man.”
The man’s appearance started changing and soon he was back to his older looks. Zhang jin was his name and he was the late Patriarch’s grandfather. Next to him was Zhang Zhi that was also from the old Zhang Clan.
“What I wanted to inform the Matriarch about is that particular ship. It is quite famous around some of the circles and it does not bode anything good…”
“Is that so? Could you explain?”
“Certainly!”
Zhang Jin started talking. He explained that the ship belonged to a certain grandson of that sect’s Patriarch. He also explained that there were only bad rumors about this young man. His talents were second to none and he rose to peak lord status in just a few years.
It was quite astonishing but also very bloody. He apparently took his opponent's life without any remorse, if there was a chance to vanquish his opponents he would take it.
“You are saying that such a maniac is approaching our sect… What does he even want with us?”
“Ah yes, I’m afraid that this particular young man has a strong love for women… If he has moved here then he is probably after one thing and one thing only…”
Zhang Jin proclaimed in an elusive voice which brought everyone’s attention to him. After a brief silence and not getting a response Zhangn Liena slammed her fist down.
“Well, what is it?”
Zhang Jin finally licked his lips and gave a quick reply.
“Beauties.”
“Beauties?”
“Yes, beauties.”
“What do you mean old man?”
“I mean what I said, wherever that young man is seen women vanish. He is very well known around some circles, the women sometimes find their way back home but they are nothing but empty husks of their former self…”
“Then you mean to tell me, that they organized a whole fleet of battleships to take our women?”
This time Huo Qiang chimed in as he was a bit surprised as well. So were the others as they started asking questions about the person that this young man was after. Soon they came to a consensus on who the beauty in question was that he was after.
“Zhang Xue.”
“Yes, it must be Zhang Xue.”
She was the most sought-after beauty that this sect had to offer. There were a few others that came to mind but all paled in comparison to the late Patriarch’s disciple.
“Do you think that this peak lord will leave if we give them the disciple…”
One of the men here asked the question that was on everyone's tongue. It might seem cruel but offering one member as a tribute didn’t sound so bad if the whole sect was not affected. To some of the people here, it would actually be profitable to get rid of a potential thorn in their side.
There were two main camps in this current sect. One was composed of the people from the old Zhang and Feng clan while the others were of the Huo clan. The latter had abandoned the motion of ever finding Zhang Dong’s remains while the other still wanted to wait till they discovered more clues.
The Patriarch in question that they thought of being dead was at this moment speeding away from an encounter with five powerful cultivators. He could hear the explosions and screams behind him as they battled for possession of the palm technique that he threw far away.
“I should have enough time to get away from here before they discover the fault of this technique…”
While the palm was a powerful technique it had a certain downside of exploring a person’s nether regions if ever used. It could serve as a last-ditch effort for survival but one gave up on ever having children in the process.
‘They’ll need to read the whole thing until they realize I should be able to reach the border by then…’
His body soon vanished in a torrent of lightning energy as he made his way towards the teleportation range. The bad feeling in his stomach did not go away so he continued with utmost urgency.