“Huh? What is that… why is everything shaking?”

“Is the Emperor angry? What is happening!”

A group of people was looking at some shaking tableware. Just a moment before they were having a heated conversation about the state of the world and now the entire floating city was trembling. This was not something anyone was used to and they certainly didn’t think that the floating city could ever be breached. Thus the only explanation could be an internal conflict of some kind.

“C-could the Emperor be battling with his brother?”

“The Golden Dragon? He wouldn’t dare!”

“B-but I’ve heard that he matches the Emperor in power…”

“Even if he is the Emperor’s match, he would need the backing of the elder, without it he will have to go against every single martial master in the city!”

An old man shrugged while smiling, in his mind, if the Golden Dragon decided to go against his brother now, it would be suicide. He had no backing and came from a lower sect with no power. How could someone with so little backing be brazen enough to attack the most powerful man in the empire?

“Oh, perhaps they are having a friendly spar instead?”

Another option was given by a young man, this sounded plausible but not quite probably. Why would the two top cultivators of the clan allow their spiritual attacks to affect the populace in the city? They would normally do something like that in seclusion to hide their techniques to be released to the world and copied.

“That’s probably not it… but isn’t the shaking getting worse?”

At first, only the tables were moving around but soon the small restaurant they were sitting in began shaking as well. With a fear of the whole place collapsing on their heads they all started to leave, perhaps when they got outside they would be able to figure out what the problem was.

“What is going on?”

They were not the only people outside as many clan members started crowding the open streets. Some of them that were of core formation and above started taking to the sky. There was a certain strange spiritual pulse coming from the direction of the Azure Palace.

“W-why is there such a bright golden glow? Could it really be the Golden Dragon?”

To everyone’s surprise something behind the Azure Palace that they had no access to was brightening the sky. It was as if the a miniature sun was rising from behind it and slowly going up, but when it revealed itself it was something different that they had never seen before.

“W-what is that Golden Structure…”

“Wait, there is something written on it… ‘Golden Dong Palace’? Isn’t that the name of the Golden Dragon? I… Is he really revolting?”

“T-that…”

Everyone here was used to certain privileges, even though their cultivation levels were high they were not really used to fighting people at their own levels. Whenever anyone went out into the world they were treated like kings or queens. The whole world bowed their heads before them, so in a situation like this where a capable enemy might have surfaced, they were starting to panic. In their minds, if a usurper arose they would be prepared for battle.

“Wait, that palace… it’s glowing…”

“Hasn’t it been glowing already?”

“No you idiot, the glow is different… it’s…. teleportation?”

While the people were panicking and expecting the floating castle to start firing projectiles everywhere it just vanished. The golden glow subsided as the structure was submerged in a pale blue light before disappearing.

Everyone here could tell that it had performed a teleportation spell but how was it able to get outside their protective barrier that was supposed to block all teleportation attempts? Was this something the Azure Emperor agreed on or was the Golden Dragon powerful enough to ignore his older brother?

…

“Emperor, we have lost it…”

“What do you mean?”

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“W-we can’t find the Golden Palace within our lands, it must have traveled further outside.”

“That is indeed surprising… my brother is full of mysteries…”

Long Qing was sitting on his throne while looking at something that looked like a holographic screen. There a moment earlier he could see Zhang Dong’s palace rising up above his own and then vanishing. He had assumed that his brother was just cultivating in his new home and would come out soon, but instead, he had escaped from his range of influence.

“Why would he leave?”

Long Qing posed the question to the elders here as he didn’t understand his brother. Why would he leave the most prosperous region and the safest place in the Empire? There was no reason to go out there, it only complicated things as now the relic of the past was not there anymore. Without it, their city had lost some of its defensive capability but not to the point of going after it.

“Perhaps the young dragon wishes to prove that he can be self-sufficient?”

“So is it hubris then? Very well, we will wait for him to have his little adventure, he will return here sooner or later, send a few elders to keep watch of his moves, and report back.”

The Emperor waved his hand as if he was tired of the talk. In his mind, this didn’t change much of the future plan. His brother had the golden palace with him so there was no danger of him losing his life. Even if he did, that wouldn’t change much. While he was glad to have received a sibling on his level he would not cry when he was gone.

“Yes, Emperor!”

“What a troublesome little brother don’t you think so, my Empress?”

Long Qing gave out a sigh while turning to his wife that seemed a bit too quiet. As he called out to her, the smile on her face quickly appeared once more.

“He is truly an interesting individual, my Emperor.”

She nodded while moving closer to her husband but from the corner of her eye she was focused on the area where once the Golden Palace resided.

…

“Woah, that burned through almost all of the energy reserves… luckily we are out…”

Zhang Dong along with all of the sect members that were inside the Palace were feeling drained. Everyone had to inject some of their own spiritual energy into the flying relic from the past. With everyone's help, they were able to teleport outside the lands of the Long Clan but not enough to return to their own Sect Grounds.

“Bob, give me a status report!

“Energy is low, redirecting all power to the anti-gravity module.”

He was still sitting in his command room without anyone else around him. Some of the screens that were used to monitor the various rooms were flickering. Red light accompanied by an alarm was signaling that they were on a collision course with the ground. If this huge structure were to crash without any energy within the protective barrier it would be a disaster.

“Shit…”

There was no time to think about his own health as the weapon to finish this war was about to be destroyed. To the side was a large pale orb that he had already used to add power to the teleportation function, now he needed to do the same with the flight modules.

‘Warning… Warning… Warning…’

“Yeah, yeah be quiet for a second Bob.”

He placed both of his hands on the basketball-sized orb and soon after it started sucking away his spiritual energy. To make the process quicker he decided to inject it at a faster rate which caused the orb to start cracking. Zhang Dong was not the only one, various members of his sect had been spread out throughout the structure to act as potential batteries and now they were giving it all they had to keep this mobile fortress afloat.

“R-run!”

On the outside, a group of villagers was having a bad day. Out of nowhere a giant building made of gold appeared out of nowhere and began falling on their peaceful village. Most of them were in a state of panic, some started running away while others accepted their fate. If the large structure collided with the ground the ensuing shockwave would wipe everything that they knew and loved.

“W-wait, it… it's stopping?”

One of the elders from the village looked up in shock as the golden palace started to glow from underneath. It looked like some kind of round disk started to flicker in and out of existence before finally settling itself into place. This disk started growing to the point of being wider than the entire structure before it finally stopped in place.

A gust of wind hit their faces and caused some of them to tumble to the sides. When looking back up they could not see anything besides the underside of this glowing palace. It was bigger than their entire village and just floating above their heads like some kind of divine construct.

All of them dropped down to their knees to bow their heads. Even without knowing what this thing was they knew that it probably belonged to some powerful sect or clan. Their only hope of survival was to lower their heads and hope that the master of this flying city was merciful with them.

Yet as they remained on the ground nothing seemed to be happening. The building above their heads was giving out a warm glow with a calm harmonious sound that felt somewhat relaxing. Some of the people that were injured could even feel that their wounds were being mended.

Finally, after about fifteen minutes a person on a sword appeared from within the palace and was followed by more people wearing similar robes. Anyone that was previously looking up lowered their heads once more out of fright. Now their fears came back, what if these people decided to murder all of them, in these troubled times a small village like theirs would not be remembered or avenged by anyone.

“Raise your heads. We would like to apologize on behalf of the United Element Sect, we hope that this will be enough to cover the damages.”

The young man that was speaking possessed white hair and was quite the looker. The moment the girls from their village laid their eyes on him they were captivated. The man didn’t stay for long as he tossed a sack to the ground before quickly returning to the golden palace he came from.

It didn’t take long before the giant structure above their heads began moving away. While it might have seemed slow it was actually moving fast when considering its large size. Finally, after it was gone the village elder decided to look inside the sack.

“T-this is… spirit stones and gems… why this is a fortune!”

To their surprise, it was filled with precious items that were more than enough to cover the repair costs of a few collapsed roofs that occurred after the strong winds collided with their home.

“The United Element Sect… truly a peculiar lot…”