“Is this really wise? What if they return with a new force? Shouldn’t we snuff out the flame while it is still small then face a blazing inferno later?”

“I’m of the same mind but… how about you tell that to him…”

“...”

The Patriarch from the Heavenly Crane Sect looked along with a few other faction leaders from his sect towards the sky. There a lone man with snow-white hair was gently floating, his hair even though long was not affected by the winds. It was as if he was standing in a vacuum with no air around, with feet planted in something robust.

At the moment the armies from the Heavenly Crane Sect were looking at a handful of ships leaving towards the bridge between worlds. A massive wall of chaotic elements was blocking the pathway from all sides with only a thin passageway going to the other side. On all of those ships, there were soldiers from the enemy side and this would have been the best moment to just blast them to kingdom come.

They were on their way out of this empire and this place would be soon turned into a fortress. Even though these were the Heavenly Crane Sect’s lands it didn’t seem that they had a say in this. To each side of the bridge to another land, two towers were being assembled by the strange flying automation that originated from the United Element’s Sect.

The whole spectacle was quite strange, out of nowhere a group of strange cultivators appeared. They were dressed in white coats with black gloves that looked as if they were made from rubber. Their leader’s hair was all over the place and he was wearing dark goggles to cover his eyes. After shouting out some things the man took control of the flying automatons and together with a few other men started ordering them to build structures. Even though the Emerald Phoenix Empire forces were still in the process of gathering they were already working on setting up the barricade.

“It would be better if we cut our losses here, maybe in the future an opportunity will present itself but for now, we must wait.”

“The Patriarch speaks the truth, we should let the Golden Dragon settle things with the Emperor first before we make a decision.”

“I concur, we still don’t know if they are working together or not… another war might start soon and it will be wise to not get involved with it.”

The Lily faction leaders started nodding at each other. Surprisingly all of them were in agreement, they did not want to get mixed up in the battle for the throne. At first they all were thinking of teaming up with Zhang Dong to force the Azure Dragon to relinquish some resources. They had made a mistake as they had considered their sect to be at least on the same level as the United Element’s Sect.

Now after seeing their leader in action, they knew that they were not in the same league anymore. It wouldn’t be strange if Zhang Dong was able to kick the Azure Emperor off the throne if he wanted. Some were already making up schemes and possible scenarios in their head. Perhaps Zhang Dong was actually the real Azure Emperor and the one sitting on the throne was just a trick to let him go through the lands easily.

“We shall wait and be watchful…”

The old masters nodded at each other while exchanging hidden messages. They would have not dared to utter words out loud out of fear. The way Zhang Dong defeated the monster that was the Emerald Phoenix Emperor was still fresh in their minds. The battle was incomprehensible to them, even though all of them assumed to be great circle nascent soul masters they could not place themselves on equal footing with Zhang Dong.

The gap between them had even become larger as for some reason the man felt even more fearsome than before. It was in their best interest to not anger him as he could very well become the new Emperor of these lands. They couldn’t discount that he already was the hidden leader and was just making things official by coming to the eastern region by himself.

Perhaps all of this was just a ploy to make them realize that they were not part of the big three that they had assumed. Maybe there were never three forces in the whole empire to begin with. After seeing him in action it wasn’t strange to assume that he commanded the strongest force on the entire plane. If not, then sooner or later he would come for the current head which was the Azure Emperor. The Heavenly Crane Sect wanted no part in this war and would be sure to barricade themselves at their home territory until everything was done with…

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…

‘Hah, they really are afraid of me now. I wonder what they would do If they knew that I can read their hidden messages on my system screen? Though even there they are referring to me in a cordial manner…’

This was quite normal as they saw something that shouldn’t be possible. The Heavenly Crane Sect had a lot of nascent soul masters but even their Patriarch paled in comparison to the Emerald Phoenix Emperor or his opponent that was the Golden Dragon. It was an entirely new world for them that thought to have reached the zenith of power in this world. It was a gap that they didn’t really know how to cross and the decision to wait wasn’t wrong.

‘But they think I might go against the Emperor huh? That would probably be the path of a regular cultivator…’

There was a saying that there was no room for two Emperors in one empire. It wouldn’t be strange for him or the Azure Emperor to make some kind of move. In the eyes of this Heavenly Crane Sect, a long-lasting war was not off the table. The United Element’s Sect would only have to announce that they are taking over the western side of the empire for themselves and creating a new region with them at the top. This or refusing to pay taxes to the current leaders was also a way out. Then it would be up to the Long Clan to retaliate and if they didn’t then it would send a message to everyone that was living in that region.

‘In the system’s scenario, the Azure Emperor was supposed to be my ally. He might have been destined to fall from the start but could also be there as the strongest opponent…’

After interacting with the Emerald Phoenix Emperor’s son he knew that things could shift at a drop of a hat. If he wasn’t as close as he was to the father and son when the absorption process was taking place then he would be in for the fight of his life. Cuilu Kong was a master that had lived for half a millennium, even though he was around at the same level as Wang Long he was probably a much more advanced combatant with many tricks up his sleeve.

‘I got lucky again… I even have this thing now, it’s quite similar to the Golden Dong Palace, a late-stage weapon’

There was a thing about flying castles and this was one of them. It was of similar size to his golden bastion but at the moment was offline. It was mostly made of some type of green metal that glistened like an emerald when sun rays collided with it. For the time being the whole thing was in some type of hibernation. It was floating around but nothing really worked, Bob was already working on ways of cracking the defenses.

This artifact was meant for the Emerald Phoenix Emperor’s use only and would only react to his bloodline. This would leave Cuilu Yahui as the next in line after both her father and brother had died. He hoped that it wouldn’t get to that but perhaps he would have to use her in conjunction with this emerald palace. Even though the woman was stripped of her cultivation base she was still alive. Her fate would be to live as a mortal while having to bow her head before even the weakest cultivator.

‘But It might be possible to emulate her bloodline to make this thing see me as its master, it’s nothing more than an intricate DNA scanner. Either I’ll have to alter the scanner itself or go with the other option.’

This flying ship was not part of his faction and had no long-range teleportation features. The plan now was to drag it back to his sect where some specialists could look over it. There were probably some hidden treasures on board that needed to be analyzed. With how the weapons of this empire eclipsed theirs, this flying treasure trove of knowledge would probably usher in a new age of weaponry.

“Now that it is over, I would like you to keep your promise.”

“Hm? Oh, Lucius.”

As he was looking at the large palace being attached to ten flying ships they collected from the enemy fleet, Lucius and Argus appeared before him. Now that the battle was over, they had come to claim the prize which was the holy shield. With it in their possession, they might have nothing left to do here and this would be the end of their relationship.

Perhaps others would have decided to hold on to a weapon that they don’t really understand but he was looking at the bigger picture. It was unwise to allow another emperor-level threat to arrive at his doorstep. The Cerulean Empress was the only one that remained but the side Lucius came from wasn’t fully revealed to him. As his people had proven themselves to be capable no further reinforcements were needed.

“Haha, you should stop grimacing so much or your eyebrows will get stuck like that.”

Lucius frowned while Argus that was flying behind him started chuckling. It was quite funny to see him flinch the moment the duke looked back. Zhang Dong pulled out the relic from his replica of the dimensional regalia and threw it toward his allies. The man in golden armor looked quite panicked as he tried catching the item in question.

“C-careful…Argus… is this really it?”

“Hm… yes, it does resonate, it is the sacred shield! With this, it’s almost complete!”

“Huh? Almost complete, is there really more?”

Zhang Dong butted in as for some reason he expected the second relic not to be the last one. After the second one become apparent it wouldn’t be strange that there wouldn’t be more he just never really asked to confirm this claim.

“Ah, yes, if we just need to find the sacred plate and it will be complete.”

“Secret plate? Is it a suit of armor?”

“Yes, do you perhaps know its whereabouts?”

“No… but I’ll be sure to tell you when I find it…”

If a suit of armor was the only thing left this brought some trouble with it. What if it was scattered in multiple places? Perhaps the helmet was at one location but the gauntlets at another instead of it being at one location. However, this also meant that his new friends would be staying and now with the freedom to move around almost the whole empire, they could find it themselves.