“Watch out, they are hiding below ground, leave them to me just keep them away while I concentrate.”

“It shall be done, Patriarch.”

Zhang Zhi shouted loudly which caused Zhang Dong’s ears to hurt. While he appreciated that this elder was so animated he seemed to be too eager to show his worth. Whenever he asked him to do something he would follow his words to a fault without considering anything else.

If he told him to fetch him something while his child was being born he felt that Zhang Zhi would not even question the order. The man was a true classical cultivator that was overly grateful for being given cultivation resources to get into the nascent soul level. Zhang Dong was like a monolith in the man’s mind that was close to a godly being.

Some of the demi-human tribe members could swim through the earth like it was water. Even with the help of his map system, it was hard to pinpoint their location and then aim for an attack to get them. The hard rocks below were enough to slow down any attacks. This always gave enough time for the mole-like men to move away from danger while also pelting the person attacking them with rock bullets.

But Zhang Dong was not a regular opponent, he had the system with him and even though the map wasn’t perfect it gave him enough information. When mixing it together with his spiritual sense he could lock onto the desired target one by one while concentrating his attack. What he just needed was time and then most of the enemies would be done for.

“I won’t let you interrupt the Patriarch, your opponent is this Zhang Zhi!”

For this very reason he needed some help and Zhang Zhi was the man for the job. While Zhang Dong was concentrating on the map and his spiritual sense the attacks kept coming from all sides. The rock bullets were nothing to scoff at but they were not the only problem. Besides the mole demi-humans, there were the red ones that did not hide but charged straight toward his location.

Even though he was letting Zhang Zhi protect his position he spread his senses enough to know that he could handle himself. If one of the horned demi-humans paid them a visit then Zhang Dong would need to act. For the time being besides Huo Qiang, there weren’t any others that could handle them. Even his wife would probably fare badly that was the third strongest in the sect.

A loud roar escaped from Zhang Zhi’s soul beast which was a water dragon. It produced a large sphere of water around the entire area and protected Zhang Dong while its master pulled out his blade. Soon a battle ensued in the skies as the samurai wannabe continued to cleave his opponents in half.

The watery prison Zhang Dong found himself in didn’t actually hurt him or make it hard to breathe. Each time a spiked bone or a rock bullet came in contact with the water it would lose its momentum. With time there were many of these projectiles just floating around while the enemies continued to attack without successfully hurting their target.

Even though this looked easy Zhang Dong knew that the water soul beast that was producing this barrier of water wouldn’t hold out forever. Zhang Zhi was the only nascent soul master besides him here and they were drawing attention away from the core formation experts. With some regular people in the area, they needed to wait a moment before unleashing more destructive arts than this.

“That does it, remove your barrier Zhang Zhi!”

He called out and his helper quickly followed the instructions. The bubble that was around him burst and while the projectiles that were in it started falling down to the ground Zhang Dong attacked. Above his head, a large orb of golden energy appeared that he guided down with his finger.

Soon the technique took effect by a mass of concentrated beams of light shooting out from it. These guided energy blasts sunk down into the earth at an astonishing speed towards the routes the enemy demi-humans would take. Predicting an enemy's movement was something that he learned through the years of combat he went through and this was nothing different.

The groans of the people underground could be heard by everyone here as the ground beneath turned into swiss cheese. The missiles created from a mix of Qi and mana bent in odd directions as he altered their trajectory where it was necessary. The demi-humans that looked like moles were getting eradicated without being able to counterattack at all, soon enough only one remained.

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“Hey, I know you… you’re that one that ran like a coward before I could finish you off!”

It was the mole tribe leader that he previously met with the vampires. That time he had escaped by using his people as meat shields but after what Zhang Dong did there were not enough demi-humans to create a big enough diversion.

“You ruined my stealth run, you bastard! Hope you are ready for the consequences!”

Zhang Dong was still somewhat angry that the soil that he carried out from the camp had done him. This mole man commander was a lot stronger than the minions that he surrounded himself with but he was not the tribe leader. His realm of power could not compare to a trained cultivator like Zhang Dong and the demi-human knew that.

“Oh no, you don’t!”

Before the battle could even start the mole-man attempted diving back below ground. Just like before he was attempting to flee while distracting people with something else. In this case, it were the red-skinned demi-humans that came along for the ride. Regretfully for him, Zhang Dong was not alone and Zhang Zhi was holding his own against the commander of that troop. Without anyone to stop him Zhang Dong had ample time to charge forward to get him.

His palm flew forward and left a giant imprint on the ground that the mole person dived into. How this demi-human traversed the earth wasn’t through pure digging. They were using a special technique that could turn rocks into something similar to mud through which they could swim through.

Yet this also required concentration and the earth elements to be in balance. By constantly delivering large area attacks and infusing the ground with his holy energies Zhang Dong attempted to make things more difficult. His approach was successful as he could feel the demi-human getting stuck in the crumbling earth that it could not easily traverse anymore to the point of propelling itself towards the sky to free itself.

This commander-class demi-human now knew that he wasn’t getting out of this predicament without a fight. Thus he turned toward his attacker, his entire body expanded to a monstrous size and his muscles bulged out intensely. It seemed that he had decided to try a more vicious approach. His body was pure black like obsidian and his hands were more like sharp claws.

Zhang Dong was not impressed though as he casually punched out towards those massive claws that looked like they were made from sharp metal. The increased size that the demi-human achieved was supposed to help him defeat his enemy but when the claws collided with that fist they quickly snapped in half.

“I-impossible…”

The creature's bones shattered into tiny fragments during the collision. Zhang Dong’s level of body refinement was far above what this commander class demi-human was capable of. Even though he had a small horn on his forehead it didn’t amount to anything. After the right arm turned into a wet noodle the next target was the head.

After the transformation, the mole-man had gained a lot more teeth yet even those quickly shattered. There was no possibility of victory as the mole demi-human flew upwards from receiving a clean uppercut to the jaw that was broken as well.

Even though Zhang Dong wanted to deliver the killing blow this was a commander from the enemy camp. The mole person might not have looked smart but he could have some important information for the future.

These bastards were hard to capture by how they could traverse the earth, perhaps his sect masters could examine their techniques and come up with better countermeasures. As it stood there would not be that many people that could soak the ground with enough Qi to disrupt the earth elements that were turning the ground softer.

Thus with a swipe, the mole man made his way inside of his replica medallion. Inside was a large group of humanoid puppets that reached up to the core formation level of power. They were the prison guards that he used to carry off prisoners of war. After they were defeated he only needed to use slave collars that sapped them of their strength so that they could not escape.

“One down… and one more to go?”

While the mole men were taken care of, for now, the red bony demi-humans were still attacking. Zhang Zhi had suffered some minor injuries as their commander class leader was close to him in power and skill. But with the help of his many minions, the tide was shifting in the demi-human’s favor.

“Zhi that’s enough, let me handle him.”

He called out to his retainer that surprisingly didn’t just nod his head and move away. Instead, he just looked at him with indignation in his eyes.

“I see, you wish to face him alone, very well I will set the stage for you just don’t lose.”

“You have my gratitude, Patriarch!”

As always he replied with a lot of vigor in his voice. While Zhang Dong could easily wipe the floor with this demi-human that wasn’t the problem. Zhang Zhi still had his honor as a master, he wanted to prove that he was worthy of being part of the sect.

Thus to accommodate that request all the small fries need to be exterminated. Thus by gathering his Qi he surrounded the area around Zhang Zhi and his red opponent so that no one could come inside. It was a ring created for just the two of them. The red minions weren’t happy about this though as they tried attacking the barrier. When they did, their bodies were electrocuted and turned to ashes in almost an instant.

“You red bastards have other things to worry about than your master…”

The air around Zhang Dong started crackling as lightning bolts appeared. There was no one here beside him and Zhang Zhi now could truly let it lose. By clapping once with his hands he surrounded his entire body with a thick layer of Qi. The demi-humans turned to face him, their disfigured faces for the first time showing dread as they knew that their opponent was far above them.

“Let’s dance…”