“This really does look quite eerie…”

Zhang Dong was rocketing forward while surrounded by a golden shield of light. After going through the old house he had managed to figure out a way to get into the trial ground. But regretfully there was not much that he could use here.

The whole place was devoid of life and in some kind of stasis. Even the plants that seemed to be alive were surrounded by some uncanny energy.

‘Did he use the same technology that kept him alive on these plants as well?’

While he could enter this area while shielding himself with his spiritual energy, the rest was covered in some kind of strange aura of stasis. Bob was trying to analyze it and he also found some old research material that could help him figure it out later.

This strange energy was probably the reason why this place survived for this long. All the monsters and creatures that he had encountered here were probably just constructs made from spiritual energy. After the trials were done they would vanish and the whole place would start recharging itself.

The cube that he found in the room with the pod was the focal point of this whole place. Even now it was generating power while also taking it from somewhere. Probably another hidden spirit vein was buried deep underground that even his system scanner couldn’t reach.

After flying through the air he found the places where he met his wife and other friends like Huo Qiang. If he wanted he would even be able to go to the section where he met the seven sins and where the library was. For now, he decided to not as he had already scanned every book that it had, there was nothing to gain from there.

It would be better to keep this place operational and powered up. Even though it was now in his lands this could give his enemies an edge. But they were not system users and not above the person that made this secret ground. They would even find themselves trapped and then sucked into the teleportation array.

“This is disappointing but maybe I can use this thing…”

What he was looking at was a deactivated map. It was the treasure that was used by his clan members for the tower defense system. Even now it was able to produce a holographic image of the areas surrounding it but he was thinking of using it differently.

“It’s strangely similar to the one at the Long Clan, perhaps this guy had lifted the design?”

Zhang Dong could only speculate but it looked like the system user that he saw in the videos had used some of the designs here. This thing was either copied over or just bought from the system store and then altered. With the help of Bob he would be able to access it, then reprogram its functions to mimic the map at the Long clan.

“I’ll be able to monitor the whole empire, that thing was able to even track the movements of the invaders…”

This would probably be one of the most important items that he could get. It would allow him to predict the movement of his enemies and act accordingly. With the real-time holographic map, he would know where to place his forces before anything happened.

It was nicely preserved and still in working order. The stasis that this place was placed in probably helped preserve even magical treasures like this. With some skillful hand movements, he used his spiritual energies to levitate this while map into the air and then quickly deposited it into his spatial ring.

“Doesn’t seem that there is anything else that interesting here, I wish I could take this fortress with me but it probably won’t work without being connected to the secret ground… unless… ”

Zhang Dong had taken the bulky map with him but there was still the small fortress that was used for the tower defense part of the trial. It was used by his people to create defensive structures after killing monsters.

Clearly, the killing of monsters did nothing as everything was fueled by spiritual energy here. It was just fake currency and the secret lay in the secret ground itself. Then, if he could take this small fortress with him, could he recreate the system to quickly fortify his own sect? Perhaps he could feed it other things than spirit stones to make it create cannons out of thin air like during the test?

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He had come prepared to take some bigger structures with him. Around his neck was a medallion that looked strangely similar to the dimensional regalia. It was a heaven grade replica of the immortal treasure with the same function. The space inside it was vastly smaller but it would be large enough to take this structure with him.

This procedure would be somewhat harder and require more spiritual energy but at this point in his life, Zhang Dong was quite powerful. The whole structure trembled as it rose into the air while being covered by his golden aura. The medallion around his neck started glowing as it shot out a beam of blue light.

When the beam collided with the large structure it started to quickly surround it with light. After the building was submerged in the light it vanished. After peeking inside he could see the building standing on a large plot of land.

The inside of this treasure was about a kilometer in diameter which was quite enough for several of these structures. His plan was to have bob analyze both the map along with the fortress and connect them to his own system. Through it, he hoped to mimic the functions of the tower defense system.

This is why he took away the map first as he wanted to disconnect it from this structure and then later place it at his sect ground. There he needed his people to monitor it as he still wanted his generals to do most of the strategic planning for him.

“I guess this is for this part…”

Zhang Dong looked at the empty region devoid of any life. He tried to recall the area where he had faced the demon of pride and burned up his life energy to save the people here. It brought a smile to his face as it showed him that he had it in him, the drive to help others over himself. But now things were somewhat different, with a more tightly knit family he didn’t know if he wouldn’t put them over the lives of his other sect members.

It was time to leave so he continued with his search. He visited all the places that he had been through as well as some other hidden away secret stashes. There were some hidden away locations with some treasures like weapons and old pills. These he had probably missed while stressing out to get back to his clan during his time here.

While the books from the library were mostly useless, the swords and spears could be used by his people. Everything that was of some worth was tossed into his spatial rings or the regalia replica. The items that he was taking were mostly of earth grade but even they could tip the balance in the future.

After spending some time flying around the testing ground he was satisfied with his earning and retreated back into the room where he found the computer. At first, he wanted to leave it be here but after discovering the room with the cryogenic pod he had changed his mind.

As long as he didn’t remove the cube that was powering the whole structure the whole secret ground would still somewhat work. Though after he removed so many treasures it would be impossible for anyone to finish this trial. If anyone was sucked in, they would find a defensive structure to keep the monsters away, they would be forced to use only their own martial prowess.

“So, you are positive that if I remove this I won’t trigger some kind of defensive mechanism or get me stranded here?”

“Affirmative.”

Bob replied in his cold robotic voice while he was looking down at the bunch of monitors and cables. It seemed that the person that made this didn’t think that anyone would be getting in here so there were no defensive measures. Which was somewhat strange as he did seem concerned with the ‘higher being’ that was out there.

‘Perhaps he convinced himself that his system was impenetrable from outside?’

Getting in here was truly impossible for people at the nascent soul level. There was probably no one that could get in here unless they had something like Bob.

‘Maybe he didn’t care or didn’t believe that the higher being could be stopped even if he tried?’

He could only shrug at his attempts of putting things together. Thus he focused on gently taking the whole computer and all the other items like the router along with the monitors and even the gaming chair. The whole room made it into the replica regalia while also keeping all the cables connected to the proper sockets.

“There, that should do it… everything seems to be in order…”

The person that left those videos was not as knowledgeable about the world as he had hoped. The old man was unable to cut away from it and instead ascended into the immortal realm, probably with the help of the system and thousands of years of gathering spirit points.

This war seemed like the main event that would give the system holder enough points to push through. But it also didn’t feel like it was handing the victory over on a silver platter either. The scouting party that he battled with was not an easy opponent, even for him that had managed to reach about the power level of a great circle nascent soul master.

Finally, the time to return home came so he headed out of this empty room. Just as Bob mentioned the area didn’t shut down and he was able to return to the place that he entered through.

He did not have to go through the other corridors anymore as he had searched through everything. There were some plans of the secret ground on the PC and they confirmed that he would be unable to find anything of worth.

With the help of Bob, he opened up the entrance and left this place for now. The cube would continue powering this area and if anyone dared to take the trial they would probably perish or be teleported to another location.

“Hello, yes I’m fine, I’ll be coming back now, please gather some of the engineering staff, I need them to look at something.”

After coming out he notified his wife of his well-being. It was time to get everyone informed and to prepare, soon the war would commence, the time was nigh.