“Hey, there are some survivors here!”

“How many are there?”

“Not that many, not more than ten made it out alive…”

“If it wasn’t for the Patriarch, a lot of us would have perished with them.”

“So this is how the Long Clan does things?”

“Yeah and still those idiots flock to them … “

Two soldiers were pushing some rubble out of the way to get to the survivors. What they found was not for the faint of heart. The people that were within the blast zone of the explosion had their souls destroyed. Their bodies looked like dried-up husks and several of those were on top of one survivor here.

“The people on top must have used something to protect this person…”

“Family?”

“Perhaps…”

One of the soldiers noticed a medallion around the woman’s neck that had survived the explosion. Three other people with similar accessories were on top of them. It seemed that they tossed themselves on top of her to protect her soul from getting devoured.

“Could have been their child or perhaps a sibling?”

“Such a terrible fate to be betrayed by your allies… will the world finally listen?”

“What do you think? They’ll try to pin the blame on us, I bet they’ll say that our Patriarch did it all just like the last time!”

“They have no honor or pride.”

One of the soldiers spit to the side while the other gently carried the survivor onto a floating platform. This platform produced a blue shield of light to protect the injured woman. It was a special stretcher that on the inside also produced golden light of healing to stabilize this patient. In the distance, similar devices were used to carry out the handful of survivors that could perhaps give some insights into the current Long Clan strategies.

Even though they were being rescued their status was still that of a prisoner of war. Perhaps after the betrayal from their side, it would be easier to convince them of the Long Clan’s devil-like nature. Yet, the fear of the old monster that had ruled over these lands for millenia was strong. It wouldn’t be that easy to change the mind of the citizens that grew up on the fact that the Long Clan was the strongest of them all.

“That is true but will anyone believe us?”

‘That’s a good question…’

Zhang Dong hovered up in the sky while looking around the area. His attention focused on the conversation of these soldiers. He was far up in the air but this didn’t stop him from using his senses to listen in. It brought a question to the forefront about how others would see this confrontation. Would they believe that the Long Clan abandoned their branching families or not?

‘Our side recorded the whole exchange but they’ll just say that we tempered with it or created some type of illusion. There are many ways of spinning it but one thing is clear, they have lost this battle and were forced to retreat…’

Although the Long Clan would probably deflect all accusations of their cowardly behavior, one thing could not be denied. The Behemoth that towered over the Empire for countless ages had been vanquished in an open field. Even though most of their army was made up of branching clans and mercenaries willing to risk their life for resources, they had lost.

‘Those clans will think twice about involving themselves in this conflict now.’

Zhang Dong knew that the people from this world were not that brave. Cultivators calculated their chances of victory and usually only engaged in combat if they were confident in winning. The ones that arrived at the pinnacle of power were not there due to their bravery but their caution. This war which was supposed to be an easy victory had become a lot messier.

‘The Emperor’s dragon was seen by everyone, they probably won’t be able to deny that.’

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With the appearance of the Azure Dragon beast, it was clear that this was not an easy battle. If the Emperor had to get involved to save his children, the sides had to be somewhat equal. Most of the experts would take this time to reevaluate their decisions and steps. Siding with the United Element Sect had become a valid tactic that could prove very profitable.

In the end, the cultivators just wanted one thing, more cultivation resources to fuel their neverending desire for power and immortality. If the Long Clan actually fell during this conflict, the rewards that could be gained would be massive. They had hundreds of thousands of years to reach this point and were probably hiding a lot of secrets.

The ancestor of the Azure Emperor was supposed to have been a true immortal that ascended. To push into that fabled realm a lot of people would risk their lives. Masters that were close to their death could see this as a chance for them to live a bit longer.

‘It will take a bit longer for those old hidden foggies to come out, one won battle won’t change much, this war is only beginning…’

Zhang Dong brought up his system window and clicked over to his map. There he could see the entire wall that was created on the western border. It was mostly in a shade of green with a few spots being orange and the spot he was in now, was the same. The color represented the damage that the formation suffered. It shifted to yellow from green and then over to orange with red being the last one. If the fight continued for longer then red would be all that was left.

‘It held up and they have all retreated after their main fortress fell…’

After analyzing some combat data it was revealed to him that this area was a decoy. They were probably expecting to pull most of the defenders out from the other regions here. With most of the firepower drawn in the direction of their flying fortress the other ship fleets would have time to blast through one of the other walls.

However, after it was destroyed the other ships in the other areas started to retreat. There were probably many reasons for the retreat, one of them perhaps being the betrayal from the Long Clan’s side. The more the trust wavered, the better it became for his side of the equation. Now it was up to him to decide on the next step. Would they give their enemies time to recover or push in while they were winning?

‘If I wait too long they will eventually recover and the next time it might not be as easy…’

Information was key and now the Long Clan had a lot of it. The next time they came here they would probably expect him to be somewhere on the battlefield. He had hoped to remain hidden as Lei Yinglo but could not keep his form during the explosion. The soul energy and aura of golden thunder clearly belonged to him. Perhaps even the Azure Emperor would be there to catch him when he revealed himself.

‘They certainly don’t care about their soldiers as much as I do. Launching a sneak attack during the confrontation could work and they probably do something about the gravity trap the next time around.’

He could not count on the same tactic working twice. Now that his enemies knew about the gravity energy and also about his shadowy technique that he implemented into it, they would certainly try to do something about it. Zhang Dong was not out of options though. They had no idea about his system and he could use it to create better-placed teleportation spots at the border region. Defending this area for some time was possible and perhaps he wouldn’t even need to participate.

‘Hm… what should I do…’

“Senior brother, watch out!”

“Huh?”

“I tried to stop her but she came through!”

“Uh…”

His thoughts were interrupted by Huo Qiang who shouted in his direction. The person he was pointing to was flying his way and she didn’t look happy. Those furrowed brows made her usually cute face look ferocious. It was like a demon was coming his way and he had no place to run.

“How dare you lie to me!”

“I uh… please calm down my wife we are still out on the battlefield, what if there are any Long Clan survivors…”

“Then they will have to wait for you to explain yourself.”

Zhang Dong started backing away while Liena flew over to his location. The other sect members bowed their heads at the arrival of their matriarch and soon started listening in to the conversation. When arriving she was screaming out at the top of her lungs which made things somewhat obvious. To not have their private life be exposed, Zhang Dong quickly created a barrier to block out sounds from getting out.

“You were supposed to remain at the sect, what were you thinking? Disguising yourself as an elder? How long have you been doing this for?”

“I uh… it wasn’t that long…”

“It wasn’t? So if I look up your fake name in the records, I won’t find anything interesting?”

“Why would you do that dear… How about you calm down and we discuss things somewhere private.”

“Calm down? You want me to calm down?”

He had made a grave error in his wording. His lovely wife, who was usually calm, collected, and cute, started shouting at him. It was hard to refute her claims as he had done the things that she mentioned. Without telling anyone he endangered his life but the biggest problem was this, it was the lack of trust.

“Do you really trust us this little?”

“No, I was just worried that more people would die… please understand.”

After a little back and forth the shouting stopped. The crux of the issue was his lack of trust in his people that usually depended on his overwhelming might to get things done. He had come here to finish the battle faster and to conserve lives. While his plan had worked, if his enemies were able to figure out his true identity, this whole thing could have ended with a tragedy.

“No more lies from this point on, will you promise me this?”

“Of course!”

Liena squinted while Zhang Dong tried to put on his poker face. Her face moved in quite close to look for nervous ticks but there were none. Even though he just went through a large-scale battle, the fear he felt now was greater than he had when the flying stronghold was exploding.

‘I’ll be sleeping on the couch for a while…’