“Uh… are you my guides?”

“Yes, great and honorable Golden Dragon!”

“But why are there so many of you…”

Zhang Dong turned to Sun Shi, the man that came to his sect and started this little adventure. Next to him was his granddaughter with only two guards this time around. Besides these four people, there were ten other small groups with around four to five people in them. Each nascent soul master seemed to have four or three core formation attendants but this wasn’t all.

“To make the journey preferable the council had decided to use our finest luxury flying ship. It will of course be escorted by our finest warriors and you Golden Dragon will be tended to by our finest servants.”

“And you are?”

A new face appeared next to Shun Shi. The moment Zhang Dong witnessed his robe he knew what the problem was. This late stage nascent soul elder was from the Sun Lily faction and it was obvious that the two men had a history with each other. He noticed the faint eyebrow twitch and raise in blood pressure Sun Shi which indicated anger.

This turned out into quite the expedition with each faction lending them one nascent soul elder of varying power. Some of the less prominent factions only gave out an early stage master but they tried to counter this deficiency by putting in better-serving staff. There were quite a few of them and would somewhat complicate things.

While it would probably open a lot of doors to him he wasn’t going out for a picnic. The power this group of nascent soul masters offered wasn’t small but he wasn’t sure if he could trust them to protect his back. Would they continue fighting in a dire situation or just flee to save their lives? He had already grown accustomed to fighting alone and taking out the leaders and now that Wang Long was dead there was no one that could block his teleportation escape.

It would be much easier for him to go around the eastern regions alone to scout things out first and then come back with reinforcements. With this many people around it, his progress would be slowed down by the slowest ship they had. His personal speed surpassed anything that could be built and not like he had that much time to spare.

“My name is Kang Yunru, Honorable Golden Dragon, I come from the Sun Lily faction and I’ll be honored to guide you through these lands.”

“Hm… sometimes more isn’t better, I think we’ll have to make some changes.”

“Golden Dragon, what do you mean?”

Kang Yunru asked and Sun Shi perked up along with all the other various elders that were gathered here. Zhang Dong needed to put his foot down as they weren’t out here for a picnic. If too many came with him he would feel responsible for them and it would slow down his progress. Instead of a bulky gathering that was a whole battalion, he wanted to go light and scout things out.

For that reason, he needed to get rid of most of these people. This was slightly problematic as he knew that they would start arguing if he picked out one group instead of the others. At the moment he wanted to just grab Sun Shi who he already knew slightly and go. The man called Kang Yunru would probably start pouting and complaining though. Thus when thinking about it he decided to go for a mix.

“There are far too many of you, one speedy flying vessel is all we need. For this reason, I have decided, Sun Shi from the Moon Lily faction will come with me.”

Sun Shi started grinning instantly and glanced at Kang Yunru as if his side was victorious. Of course, the other old fart wouldn’t just take this lying down. He was quick to step forward with his voice raised.

“But Honorable Golden Dragon what about…”

“Hold on there, I wasn’t finished. To be fair, the Sun Lily faction can tag along too but the rest will remain here. If you can’t agree with my decision then I will just go alone instead.”

He needed to put his foot down. These people were like hungry locusts, they clearly only intended to come with him in hopes of him giving them new high level techniques or perhaps some pointers. It wouldn’t be strange that if he corrected someone's form that another would quickly ask for some help. This whole expedition allowed him to remember how shameless some of these old cultivators really were.

“If the honorable Golden Dragon has decided then it will be so…”

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Kang Yunru that was about to go into a rant covered his mouth while faking a coughing sound. It was clear that he didn’t have anything against this situation if his faction was allowed to come. The others looked disappointed but they didn’t complain as much and this was also what he expected.

Both the most prominent factions the Moon and Sun Lily were like representatives of each side, as long as both of them were allowed to go the other lesser factions wouldn’t complain. It was these two large sides that stirred the pot in the first place so if they agreed with Zhang Dong’s decision the other eight couldn’t complain.

“Lend me your fastest ship, best if it won’t announce to the whole world that we are coming from the Heavenly Crane sect… got something less flashy than those?”

In the air, ten flying ships from each faction had been gathered. From their designs, they screamed that they belonged to this large sect. They all had some crane-related symbols on them that gave everything away, one, in particular, was just shaped like a white crane including big wings on the side. To sneak up on the enemies something more neutral was required.

“Less flashy?”

“Yes, if it was silent and had some camouflaging formations to hide our approach. It should also be very fast but doesn’t need to be large as we won't be traveling in numbers.”

“Such a ship exists but…”

“But what? If it exists then go get it, we are wasting important time, what if your sect brothers are dying to the Emerald Phoenix Empire at this very moment?”

“I.. very well…”

Sun Shi looked at Kang Yunru who somehow deducted which ship they would be going for. The whole place went silent as the nascent soul elders felt uncomfortable about what they would be doing. Zhang Dong, on the other hand, didn’t care, he just wanted to get out of here if they didn’t give him a ship then they could all just stay here.

“Let’s go, unless you wish me to leave alone.”

“No honorable Golden Dragon, please just follow us I’m sure the owner of the ship you wish to take will give it up willingly.”

“Give it up?... Well whatever, let us just get on with this.”

…

“That both of you would lose, I can hardly still believe it.”

“Forgive us, Patriarch.”

“It’s fine, no one could hope to defeat that monster. It is better if we work with him than against him, if we are lucky then we won’t even need to lift a finger.”

Tao Guan and the two guardians were talking to each other over some tea. After the loss they had taken their bodies were still not fully healed. Even with the various healing pills and elixirs, they had access to, getting rid of internal Qi damage wasn’t that easy. Each punch and hit that their bodies took was like another day's worth of rest.

“The Patriarch is right, we just need to distance ourselves from both of them and only act after a victor presents himself.”

“Wise words left guardian.”

Tao Guan nodded as the three were talking about the Azure Emperor and Zhang Dong. They believed that sooner or later the two brothers would come to blows. After this transpired they would either use that moment to attack or follow the victor. The decision was not made yet but it would require some more deliberation with the other ten leaders.

“You two should rest up.”

“Thank you Patriarch but I’ll come with you while the right guardian rests, he had suffered more than me.”

“If you must.”

The two were still his bodyguards that were supposed to shadow his every movement. The sect didn’t want their Patriarch to ever suffer a defeat as he was a symbol for the whole sect. This was the first time in many years that one of the protectors had become injured this much. Luckily while inside of this sect there wasn’t that much to worry about, the two slowly moved over to another location where something awaited them.

“This always seems to calm me down.”

Tao Guan gave out a sigh while looking at something that he had received from the previous Patriarch. A medium-sized crystal treasure that was floating on top of a magnificent pond. At first, it looked like it was a regular boat but after peeking another time a person could see that it was gently floating above water that could not touch the surface. The water was instead repelled from the crystalized surface of this flying vessel.

This had turned into Tao Guan’s hobby. He would come to this serene pond where a treasured flying ship was docked. He would either ride it slowly while fishing or just clean it a few times to relax. It was his last hobby and something that he learned to treasure through the years. While everything seemed to have continued to change this ship that he was proud of always remained the same.

“Hm? Who is trying to gain entrance through the formation… is that the Golden Dragon? What does he want and why are there two elders from the factions with him…”

He didn’t like the look of this, ever since this troublesome man entered his sect things started moving in a direction that he couldn’t foresee. While he was not the greatest Patriarch out there, he still considered himself one of the better ones. His motto was to go with the flow while slowly analyzing things around him. There was no reason to rush into things before he had the whole picture. This approach had gotten them through hundreds of years but now things were moving too fast for him to wrap his head around it and this man was part of the problem.

“Honorable Golden Dragon, was there some kind of problem?”

“So that’s the ship… it does look like it fits the description, good we will take it and depart immediately!”

“You wish to take my ship? What is this about…”

He glanced at the two elders that were behind Zhang Dong but they instantly turned their heads away as if they didn’t have anything to do with it. The troublemaker of a Golden Dragon in response landed on the boat that he was about to give a nice scrub down with a sponge.

“A fine boat you have, I’m sure with its help I’ll be able to get my mission over fast, thank you for your help, Patriarch Guan.”

Zhang Dong clasped his hands while smiling, someone else wasn’t smiling though and it was the owner of this boat.

“B-but my boat…”