“When are you going to get home? You haven’t been seeing the children much lately, your son misses his father, you should come back when you can.”

“I know and you’re right as always my beautiful wife but I have to finish a few things, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed when I come back.”

“Daddy come back soon, I learned a new technique!”

“Oh, did you now? I’ll be sure to see it the next time.”

“Me too, I learned the basic feather steps already!”

“Oho? The feather steps? You are becoming quite the martial artist, soon you’ll be able to start learning the basics of the Thunder Movement Art.”

“Mhm.”

While Zhang Dong wasn’t home he could see his kids on the screen. This wasn’t the greatest way of speaking with his kids but it was better than nothing. Usually, he came back every few days to spend some time with them before returning to work. Making the advanced treasures took a while and required some precision. Some parts took days of concentration and Qi infusion and would actually require any lesser craftsmen months or years instead.

“Well, daddy needs to go, remember to listen to your mother and your senior sister and brother, I’ll be sure to see what they taught you when I return.”

Zhang Xiu and Jun were at the age that martial practice could be started. Xiu was already a qi condensation practitioner and would probably be able to reach the foundation establishment level in her early teens. Jun started a bit later but he was making quick progress that was even above his sister.

Previously he didn’t show that much promise as he did have a meek personality. Yet after Zhang Dong returned and showed off his power before his son, Jun started finally aspiring to become a cultivator. It was a strange feeling to have a son that was looking up to him this much. To not disappoint him he needed to also strive for excellence and pave a path he could follow.

He wanted nothing more than to get back to his home and relax but for now, he needed to watch over his troops. The battle between Huo Qiang and the man called Tritton was about to start as they were speaking. After saying his goodbyes the image of his family vanished and was replaced by two burly men looking at each other with victory in their eyes. It seemed that these two were somewhat similar to each other as he did not expect this king of resolution to be possible.

‘Could it be possible to reason with them if people like this exist?’

Tritton the enemy general kind of went against what they had unearthed about their new opponents. They were supposed to be nothing but drones, some kind of mass-produced soldiers that needed to follow orders. However this person was different, he seemed to go against the grain.

‘Or was this an order from their leader? Maybe they want to test our strongest fighters before committing to a full assault?’

That was also a possibility and danger could be lurking around. Perhaps after this fight is over another general would peek their head out. Huo Qiang was strong but he was somewhere around the level of this Tritton. The fight could go either way at this point and they were fighting in an area with a lot of water qi.

Normally this would be an instant loss to Qiang as his fire techniques would lose a lot of their effects here. There was one ace in the hole though, Zhang Dong’s prestige unit system that Qiang was now part of. Just like he had shared his holy Dao with Zhi to add to his power the same was given to his new retainer.

“You think that this watery wall will help you to win? Think again!”

Huo Qiang roared out while his body was shrouded in a purple haze. After the battle started the opponent dived underwater to start pelting Qiang with watery serpents. To counter this the new Dao that he was capable of using, was utilized. Just as a moon could cause water to shift away, so could the gravitational Dao be used here. The water didn’t need to be evaporated away to make way, instead he could create a large sphere of energy that wouldn’t let any water close.

‘That’s it, get in close range and finish it.’

The plan was quite rudimentary, Huo Qiang’s biggest strength was his sturdy body and powerful fists. He needed to close the gap and take the fight to Tritton who was utilizing the vast quantity of water around him to douse Qiang’s flames. When close to the gravitational shield that pushed things away, those flames could not be put out.

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This made the fight a bit hard to follow as both of the combatants dived underwater. Tritton probably reasoned that he would be given a simple victory. Fighting a fire user underwater usually meant that the water user would win. However, when Qiang dived under a large hundred-meter area around his body pushed all the water away. It looked as if he was in some kind of giant air bubble.

This of course took Tritton as a surprise as even the water serpents that he produced with the trident couldn’t pierce through this defensive measure. The would-be somewhat able to enter it but would then be dispersed by the immense heat inside along with gravity. It was as if the inside was a star, immensely hot and filled with powerful gravitational forces.

Huo Qiang was working against the clock though. Even though the technique he was using was powerful it had a large weakness. It burned through a lot of Qi and sooner or later would collapse. Before it did he needed to get in close range to deliver a critical strike. Tritton on the other hand seemed to know this and was keeping his distance. The way he moved through the water was astonishing, a speed that Qiang could hardly keep up.

“Fight me you coward!”

“I Tritton am no coward!”

“Then stop squiggling around.”

“I Tritton am also no idiot.”

The quick exchange between the two masters could not really be heard by anyone else besides Zhang Dong that was listening in. He was ready to teleport there on the spot if anything happened to his friend but he wanted to keep his presence hidden for now. If there really was a trap then he would rather have the other side spring it first. If there were other generals waiting around then it would be better to capture them together. If they began escaping even Zhang Dong wouldn’t be able to catch them underwater.

‘Hm, I guess it’s about time that he used it now…’

Just as he thought, Qiang firstly tried to achieve victory through his own power. The armor that was given to him was already equipped but he wasn’t really utilizing it well. Only when he realized that his enemy wouldn’t engage in close-range combat did he use his trump card.

His soul beast which had been right with him through the entire chase started glowing red. It turned into something that looked like a miniature sun and surrounded his entire body. When the armor was soaked in all of this pure fire energy it began reacting. Various glowing runes appeared on it and started sucking in all of this energy.

The boost in energy was clear and Qiang’s power level shot up to a level never seen before. Everyone from the United Element Sect held their breaths as they saw a giant pillar of flames erupt from the murky depths. It spun around like a twister and caused a giant part of the sea to spread apart instantly.

“There you are, you will not escape!”

Tritton was quite surprised as the watery pathways that he used to evade his enemy were not there anymore. With so many fire Qi everywhere he was having trouble with controlling all the water Qi. This slowed him down quite a bit and allowed Qiang to finally close the distance. His trusted trident was used as protection from the giant dark crimson fist that connected with it.

The merman’s entire body felt like it was evaporating before him. He had never felt something like this before, two energy types that opposed each other clashed within his body and he caught up blood. His mind was telling him to instantly flee but he wasn’t sure if he could. The only thing left was pushing his opponent away with all the might he had left.

‘They are going at it… didn’t expect that General to be able to last through it… that trident must be of better quality than the rest…’

If Qiang was going against the merman that Zhang Zhi faced then it would have ended right there. The weapons that these fishermen held were very similar to each other but they certainly did vary in quality. Perhaps the trident Tritton was using was one of the original ones while the other ones were just lesser replicas.

It was quite interesting to see his own armaments going up against other treasured items. The battle couldn’t last forever and just like Zhi had used a special prestige class skill to win the first encounter with a merman, so would Huo Qiang.

The illusory image of Zhang Dong appeared behind Qiang and augmented his fists striking power even further. There was no possible way for this general to last through it, the various protective measures and treasures he activated to protect himself from death broke almost instantly. The massive fist connected with his chin and threw him right up into the air with half his face missing from the impact.

This victory didn’t come easily, however almost instantly after the hit went through Qiang’s body started spasming around. He had burned through far too much Qi in a short time frame. Even though he was in a world of pain his fist was raised high, he could not show weaknesses in front of his allies and enemies. The victory needed to be burned into both sides, they needed to know that the United Element Sect elders could not be messed with.

“Long live the Sect!”

He shouted and everyone that was watching on top of the ships repeated everything. The bout was won and the enemy general was flying through the air while half-dead. The moment of joy was short lived though as a strange sight unfolded before everyone.

The merman that was a powerful cultivator at the great circle instantly shriveled up and turned into a fish. His trident, on the other hand, stopped in mid-air, turned itself toward the sea, and shot off as if it was a rocket. The speed was quite tremendous and not something Qiang could catch up to after draining his energies this much.

‘Was the trident the true source of power and not the merman?’

Zhang Dong pondered this possibility, the item was long gone before his troops could catch up but the victory was there. Now the only thing that he was thinking was if those fish people would honor the deal or not…