‘This does make things a lot easier now… I hope the other clans and sects will overlook this…’

A few days had passed after their escape from the Long Clan territory and his flying fortress was slowly traversing the Empire. Even though its speed was close to a plane’s it would still take a lot of time to get to its destination. There was also a tiny problem of them stopping at various locations that was prolonging their trip.

This was the fifth stop that they were making and it was not due to any energy problems. After the hovering palace was stabilized the golden egg that was powering it all with holy energy was enough. The reason they were stopping so many times was to stock up on free materials.

At this very moment, a beam of light was shooting out from under the palace and slowly sucking up partially destroyed structures. Zhang Dong was sitting in his office chair replica while sipping from a mug of tea while his sect members did all the work. They dismantled buildings to toss them into the tractor beam that then sucked up everything for recycling.

‘I guess if those demi-humans didn’t come through here this wouldn’t be possible…’

He felt bad for gathering up all the materials that were left over by fleeing sects and clans. All of them were just there unattended and without an owner. The thing making it rationalize it was the cause these materials were going to. They would all be used to combat the invaders that destroyed everything in the first place.

‘Whoever lived here would probably not be able to get their belongings back or even return here before someone else snatched it all… I’ll have to mark all of these places down and reimburse them after the war is over.’

What he could do to ease his conscience was to make a note of every region he borrowed materials from. If the original owners were still alive and everything coincided with the old records then he would pay them back in full.

The buildings would probably be worth less than his sect's cultivation materials or knowledge for improvement. His biggest worry was that he couldn’t really ask for permission and could only assume what the other party wanted from him yet for the time being this was the best option.

Thanks to this approach his golden palace was being quickly built up to its full potential. But there was something bothering, even though it was quickly reaching a hundred percent it didn’t seem fit for a collision with the enemy empires.

All of his previous resources were spent on getting the inside of the palace in working order. This amounted to a whopping eighty percent number in his faction window. The rest was just twenty which normally would be something to be happy about, yet this number was somewhat small. How could the outside armaments only be this good?

‘Is this really it? I might have to move some of the cannons from the ships if this is the extent of their capabilities…’

After spending the resources he was somewhat disappointed in what he received. The first problem was that there just wasn’t enough firepower here. Then the second problem concerned the amount of damage the few large guns he was able to get with the help of this system.

‘They won’t be able to cover the whole fortress… like this, it’s not much better than the Argonaut… it’s also far slower than it and will be a sitting duck’

While the fortress was sturdy and it would take a while to get through the protective barrier it wouldn’t be much of a problem for a high-level cultivator or a battalion of faster ships. It wouldn’t be much else but a large transport for people at this point that would have to hang in the background.

‘This can’t be it… perhaps?’

Zhang Dong had already gone through the pain of taking this thing out of the Long Clan. If he couldn’t use it as a spear to throw at his enemies it would be a devastating setback. All of the resources that went into this thing could have been used elsewhere and he also would need to potentially offend his older brother.

During his pondering, he continued to look at the percentage number going up while the floating palace was sucking up a deserted city. Soon he would have enough of the recycled resources to complete all of the available armaments and rooms that were on the inside. There was something he was hoping for when he reached that number and his luck was as good as ever. When the last structure was repaired and the counter hit a hundred he was given a new option.

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“Haha, why was I even worrying? There is always some kind of new upgrade!”

This was truly a game-like system, even the flying palace could be upgraded after meeting the right criteria. While this was the first of the enhancements he expected there to be at least a third form that might require something harder than just pumping it full of recycled parts.

“So I’ve got two options… hey Bob, can you show me how the palace will look with each upgrade?”

`Affirmative, uploading schematic to an external screen, please wait a moment.”

After waiting a few seconds he was presented with two golden palaces that looked different. The difference was quite noticeable as one of them was much bulkier with thicker walls and an increase in size. The other one was more similar to the current one with a more streamlined upgrade.

‘The larger one looks better at first glance but…’

“Hey Bob, can you show me some stats?”

The two palaces started getting smaller while a graph appeared next to them. These painted a picture of what he could expect if he decided to go with the bulkier castle. Its capabilities shifted towards defense, it lost some of its speed while gaining more powerful shields and defenses. The second one on the other hand was more inclined towards attacking, it would be faster and the cannons would hit for more.

“So that’s the big question, do I want to have a giant impenetrable slow-moving fortress or one that can blow everything to Kingdom Come?”

This was not such an easy decision to make, the slower version was more robust and would probably not be easily breached. Yet its armaments and mobility were inferior, and the teleportation features became more limited as well so escaping from a battle would be hard.

But what he wanted was something to become a shield for his people while he became the sword himself. Even though he would be given fewer options for attacking that was just a limit placed on the system itself, it didn’t limit anything that was outside.

With a strong enough shield and defenses, he could bring over his engineers. There were many ships in production along with cannons at his disposal. Attaching them to a larger fortress that had sturdier walls would not be as difficult.

‘It will be a lot easier to bring over some artillery than reinforcing the outer walls themselves and I bet I’ll be able to upgrade the side components to alleviate the lack of mobility.’

There was another reason for him going with the more defensive upgrade, the engine's power limit with that form was above the more mobile one. With more spirit energy at his disposal, he could safely bring over more of his own upgrades from the sect. Then perhaps when he reached a hundred percent in this form of the ship, he could reduce some of its deficiencies.

“Hm… I guess this is a good time as any, Bob upgraded the Golden Palace.”

“Affirmative, which variant should the Golden Dong Palace be upgraded to?”

“Do you have to say the full name in that monotone voice… but anyway, the larger one… oh right it has a name, upgrade it to the Bastion variant, but hold on a second, patch me through to the communication system first.”

“Affirmative.”

“Here is the Patriarch speaking, I want everyone to go outside the palace and wait for further instructions, worry not this is only a little test.”

Before he continued with the upgrade he decided to have everyone move outside. He was mostly sure that no one would suffer inside of the palace even if it started changing but there could always be some kind of accident if he didn’t announce it. People would start panicking when the walls started to expand and perhaps trip and fall on something pointy. It took about ten minutes for everyone to evacuate and he was finally able to continue.

His people gathered outside, some were floating up on their flying swords while others remained in the small ground area outside the main gate. Soon they realized that some kind of transformation was taking place as the whole palace began to shake.

By this time they were already used to the strange things happening on the inside of this golden palace, so their reaction was a lot milder. Some of them were just happy that they were finally allowed to step outside the flying fortress for the first time in months. Their joy was short-lived as the whole flying contraption started expanding in all directions.

First, the ground that was the foundation of this flying fortress started getting bigger to accommodate for the increase in size. The walls became thicker and higher, six towers appeared around the old palace and surrounded it with these new walls. On the inside, more free space was created with strange squarish plots of land that seemed to be for something.

The interior of the palace was changing in a similar fashion. The rooms started expanding to the sides along with the ceiling. This was all done via the spatial formation that warped the space inside to create larger rooms that should not be able to exist normally. However, the biggest difference was to the golden egg that was powering the entire flying fortress.

“I can feel the holy energy rising…”

On one of the monitors, Zhang Dong could see the golden egg expanding in size. He was attuned to everything that was holy and the increase in power output was more than doubled. With the increase in the exterior size the flying relic would use it all up but he wasn’t worried as he was greeted by more system prompts that he began to read.

“Hm… so that was just the start of it? Think I’m going to need to ‘borrow’ more materials…”

Thanks to the first base upgrade he was now given an option to reinforce all the existing components with the use of spirit points and building points. These he would be getting via passive production and recycling as always.

“Everyone, we will be taking a small detour so return to your posts, we have a lot of work to do!”

“Yes, Patriarch.”

Everyone quickly replied while hastily jumping through the main gate that was once again open. On the inside, they were baffled with all the free space that looked brand new and ready to be filled out.