“This is where the formation masters contemplate new improvements…and that’s the building where the Clan’s physicians take in the patients, I’m sure I don’t need to explain how much better our healing arts are compared to what you would find outside in the empire...”
“...is that so…”
Zhang Dong along with three people were walking through the main Long Clan compound. The three here were all the children of the Azure Emperor and were quite gifted for their age. Two young men and a beautiful lady that would make almost any man’s heart flutter.
After arriving at the Azure tower that looked like a giant phallic object going towards the heavens the Emperor had to leave. At first, it seemed that he would be getting a tour of the compound by the leader himself but the elders from the clan had other duties for him.
They started bickering between each other and only when the empress spoke up did the Emperor agree to tend to his duties first. Zhang Dong had already noticed that this dynamic between the Emperor and Empress was a bit one-sided. Whatever the lady said was taken to heart and he acted instantly.
It was probably her that he needed to look out for even though she was the weaker cultivator. Clearly, the pants in the relationship were worn by her and not the man that was enamored by her.
Thus while the Emperor was yanked away to tend to some things he was deposited into the arms of his children. The oldest prince was clearly not happy about him being there, his face could be easily read as he didn’t hide his disdain.
The second prince was a bit more mellow as he had a happier expression. He was also the one that was the most talkable out of the three. While going around he seemed quite proud in showing all the advances in this sect but Zhang Dong also noticed that his guide was talking down to him.
Clearly, he was not that welcome here and he didn’t fault the emperor’s kids for this. To them, he was only some random cultivator their father brought over. They had no reason to like him even if he was a part of the family. There were many other family members like him that were part of branch families.
He knew how these cultivators looked at status and he clearly didn’t have any in their eyes. As the leader of a small sect from the lower regions they probably were shocked by him being here and getting so much attention. Probably unless they saw some proof they wouldn’t believe that he had a pristine bloodline just like them.
“Our new friend doesn’t sound that interested in these structures, maybe we should show him something different brothers?”
This was true as he just continued to nod his head while giving out one-liners whenever they showed him the various clan structures. They were probably hoping for a big reaction from him after seeing the state-of-the-art facilities that they had here.
In reality, this wasn’t anything new to him as his own sect was on a similar level as this Long clan. In some cases, they were even ahead thanks to his knowledge and healing arts he considered the United Element’s Sects physicians and healing pills ahead of the curve.
The formations that he had the opportunity to glance over weren’t anything that he wasn’t familiar with. They did vary in some ways but not by that much to make his eyes pop out. Thus it made him look somewhat bored as there was nothing in particular that he was interested in.
But this also made the three children of the Azure Emperor somewhat upset. Thus the daughter spoke up while her face remained behind a semi-transparent veil.
“Maybe we could show him something more interesting, like the elite clan training ground?”
She chuckled while looking at her two brothers that quickly caught on to the meaning of those underlying words.
“Yes, our dear uncle Dong is probably tired of all these boring places!”
The younger of the two brothers nodded to the sister while the oldest brother agreed.
“You are both right, there is nothing better than some exercise to bring family members together!”
“Is that alright with you Uncle?”
The sister turned to him while smiling. For some reason, he was getting some bad vibes from this conversation as if he wasn’t in on the joke. He was in enemy territory and didn’t really want to offend anyone just yet. His system window was open at all times for a quick teleportation escape so for now he decided to wait and see.
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“I don’t mind, lead the way if you wish.”
He was still someone that by proxy of the Azure Emperor would be considered a senior to these three. His decision of just nodding with a blank expression on his face could be taken in several ways but it seemed that these youngsters didn’t like him too much.
“Good, let us depart then dear uncle, father will probably be busy for a while before he joins us!”
They all soon departed towards a new destination. They were all being flown around on a large flying platform by another member from the clan that was not talking at all. After some time they arrived at the entrance of a giant building. From the outside, it looked similar to a closed-off stadium that was several times larger.
There were various people moving back and forth between the entrances. Some of them looked injured and somewhat worn down by this training. While heading in he started to somewhat realize why they wanted him to see this place. It seemed that they would be going through with a childish plan.
On the inside, there was a wide-open area that was sectioned into several smaller training grounds. It made the inside look like it was divided into many fields for various sports that people were engaged in.
‘There is a spatial formation in here.’
The whole building was bigger than your average football stadium from the outside but inside it was more than ten times as big. It was like a mini pocket dimension which allowed them to probably save a lot of space and also make the formation not as hard. It did certainly not compare in the slightest to his dimensional regalia.
Various shouts filled this large space and even without looking he could tell that people were doing combat training with each other. There were old and young cultivators exchanging pointers with each other in brutal combat.
It was just as violent as in any other clan. People would get their bones broken and teeth knocked out. With good healing pills, there was no problem in mending wounds that would normally take a body months to recover.
“Hey isn’t that young master Shen?”
“Yes, and he is together with fairy Yanyu and young master Fengge.”
Long Shen was the oldest of the bunch with Long Fengge being the youngest brother and Long Yanyu being the middle daughter. All of them were prominent names in this city and were shown proper respect the moment they entered this training ground. They were quite noticeable as behind them there was a group of guards, some at the nascent soul level.
At first, Zhang Dong thought that that would be it but after they bowed once it became quite noisy. Some of the women started shouting at the two young lords while the men pelted Long Yanyu with compliments.
“Please marry me fairy Yanyu!”
“Lord Shen, please look this way!”
“Young master Fengge, you look as stunning as ever!”
Were one of the lines that he heard as it became quite nosy. It was somewhat strange to be on the other end for once. Normally he was the person that was in the center of it, here though he was ignored and pushed out as a circle formed around the young lord trio.
If he could, he would take this opportunity to walk away. Due to how some of the guards were looking at him it was impossible. Even though the Emperor seemed to trust him, it was clear that his children and followers were more grounded.
He couldn’t fault them for thinking that this whole situation was bizarre because it was. If he wasn’t in possession of the system and knowledge of the other worlds he too would be confused about the whole thing.
“Please my friends calm down, today we have brought a friend from the far reaches of the empire.”
Long Fengge spoke up while looking to where Zhang Dong was standing. This caused the crowd to part way and bring the attention to him.
“A friend?”
The people started to look at him, Zhang Dong’s facial features were somehow similar to the Azure Emperor’s with the main difference being the hair color.
“Lord Fengge, this gentleman is?”
“Oh, how rude of me, let me introduce you to… um, what was it again?”
Fengge asked as if he didn’t find Zhang Dong’s name all that important. Who replied was his older sister that just giggled a bit.
“It was Long Dong, brother.”
When he heard his ‘true’ name being mentioned he wanted to cry. He could probably force his own sect members to stick to the old one but he probably wouldn’t be able to do the same here.
“Yes, uncle Long Dong has been invited by our father, we were trying to show him around. He hails from the lower regions so we hoped we could show him the might of our brothers and sisters, would someone be willing to demonstrate?”
The people started to look with interest at Zhang Dong but the moment the lower regions were mentioned they all somehow seemed dejected. He knew what was going on here as the other kids were trying to make him look bad.
It didn’t take much to bring the other cultivators that were here to demonstrate some techniques during a fight. All of them went over to one of the larger training spots that looked like a small arena. On it he was somewhat forced to sit through a few boring matches between core formation cultivators.
While the three youths sitting next to him probably thought that he would be surprised that their young warriors could fight like this. To him, this was child play as the people from his own sect were about at the same level as these youths here.
“Uncle, you don’t seem that interested in the fight, is something wrong”
While observing his mind did wonder about the troubles that he was facing. This didn’t go unnoticed as the three young masters were just waiting for something like this to happen.
“If uncle is bored, why doesn’t he demonstrate his techniques to the juniors?”
“That’s a great idea sister Yanyu!”
There it was, the bait that he was supposed to take. He now had two options of either going along with it, or just ignoring the cocky young masters but seem less in their eyes...