A continuous amount of explosions echoed through the air as the sound barrier was broken. These continuous blasts drowned out the screams of the massive flying creature that was receiving all of them. Its large body was soon parted into many smaller fragments that lit up in an azure haze. While it looked as if the monster bird’s body was gone it quickly changed into a ball of fire that sucked in the previously destroyed body parts.

“Like I’ll let you reform!”

Zhang Dong on the other side lifted up his finger to produce a giant ball of obsidian. A tremendous suction force was exuded from inside and it was quickly thrown at the beast bird that was going through a rebirthing technique. Part of its head was back in place but it was quickly pulled into the purplish darkness of the created technique.

The azure flames were getting sucked inside and the beast could not escape. Its light that was illuminating the sky just a moment ago was being extinguished by a combination of darkness and gravity. Many smaller birds flocked towards the larger one but they could offer no aid. Instead, they were getting yanked inside the gash in space that started quickly closing itself behind them.

“I don’t have time for you to go through multiple rebirths! Now, disappear!”

The Azure tiger went down after one slice from his sword, the serpent was burned by Huo Qiang’s ferocious flames and this bird was now the third that was eradicated. Its capabilities of rebirthing were well known as it was of the phoenix category. It would continue to reform itself until the last of its spiritual energy was extinguished. To hasten the process it was better to send the monster into a miniaturized black hole. He didn’t really know where it led to but it was a better choice than spending hours fighting this thing the conventional way.

‘That only leaves…’

After the large Azure Phoenix was gone the smaller minions didn’t pose much of a threat. They could be easily dispatched by his sect members that had a whole fortress defending them. The more important enemy was in the distance and was as big as a mountain. However, now it was turning into a gushing volcano after a meteor in the form of Huo Qiang collided with it.

‘I guess I don’t really need to help him with that one…’

A massive turtle with Azure patterns on its face was rampaging around while being burned. The forest area it was going through had turned to ash along with the smaller variants of its kind. These creatures had massive shells and hard hides that should have been able to resist most kinds of trauma, yet now they were just part of a massive pool of lava that turned them into a soup.

‘I’ll clear things up here then…’

Without needing to help Qiang in his fight he decided to take care of the small fry here. The beasts were unable to contend with a master of his caliber and continued to get eradicated rather quickly. Even though they had no chance of winning they continued to push forth until the last of them was gone.

‘They were clearly controlled by something, there is no survival instinct anywhere here.’

Zhang Dong hovered around the battle area that was drenched in beast blood. His people were able to leave the walls as no opposition remained. It was around an hour since he arrived here so the battle was won rather quickly. While this feat was remarkable he was no happy, his wife and grandfather were still missing and he needed to get some answers.

“We greet the Patriarch.”

“Explain the situation to me, where are the other elders? How did you come to this place?”

“Of course, let me, Patriarch.”

“Go ahead.”

Huo Qiang was still in the distance where he left a large sea of lava behind. One of the nascent soul elders that he helped push into the realm greeted him first instead. While it would normally be best to ask the person with the most evolved spirit sense about what transpired, it was hard to trust his friend's perception. This person before him was an older gentleman that had a whole lifetime of experiences as the grand elder of fire.

“As you wish. After the Patriarch was pulled in through the gate…

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Zhang Dong was given the events that played out after he was dragged into the special chamber by the Azure Emperor. His people apparently started a quick debate about what they should do. His wife of course wanted to push in immediately without looking back. Zhang Jin managed to talk her down and they decided to send in a team of elites led by Zhang Zhi in first.

This didn’t go well as after he crossed through the gate all traces of him vanished. No one could reach him or see his location on the mapping devices. Bob was connected to a lot of software in the sect through which information could be forwarded. Yet after Zhang Dong was forced into the chamber the connection was broken.

After that, everyone started worrying even more. Two powerful elders from their sect had gone missing. Other sects might have decided to backtrack to conserve their forces but everyone decided against it. It seemed that no one believed that they would have much of a future if their Patriarch actually perished. Thus as a last-ditch effort and a gamble, they directed the Golden Palace through the gate.

What happened next confirmed his theory. The holy energy engine was disabled and after their protective formation was gone everyone was caught in a teleportation trap. All of the people that were here appeared in the middle of a large fortress. With people present that participated in the expedition to the old secret ground, they were able to build up some defenses. They were not given much time as soon after they were attacked from all sides by waves of monsters. Then Zhang Dong finally appeared to drive two of the boss monsters away while Qiang took care of the other two.

“So that’s what happened… and you probably have no idea where the others ended up?”

“My apologies Patriarch. This place is strange and its blocking our senses, our devices have also stopped responding.”

“I see…”

His army was equipped with some more modern devices that allowed them to usually talk through large distances. They also had something like a GPS inside of them to track the movements of their troops. Nothing was working at the moment so finding their lost sect members was not easy.

“Senior Brother, I knew that you would return!”

“It’s glad to see you Qiang but we can’t stay here, get everyone together we will move out and search for the sect.”

“Hah, I was waiting for that, this place has already become a bore.”

Zhang Dong was able to reestablish his connection to these people. It seemed that he needed to get in close proximity to the people from his sect for them to show up in his faction system. It was very reminiscent of the time in the pocket dimensions when he was hunting the Cerulean Empress.

‘This sucks, where am I supposed to go…’

While his people were packing up and gathering the injured he started looking around. This place was huge and it would probably take weeks to search through everything. It would probably be best if he ordered the nascent soul masters to fly out into different directions to gather more information instead of traveling together. The more eyes on the place the better the chances became of them finding their sect members.

‘Hey Bob, I know that you didn’t exist back then… but is it possible for you to access all data from within the mapping system before it was altered?’

‘Is it possible, which data would you like to access?’

‘Give me the layout of the secret ground I’ve visited and compare it to the place we are at now.’

Zhang Dong had visited the secret ground where his adventure had started. His AI companion Bob wasn’t there to help him tell the way. However, both of them visited the secret area later and he had mapped out the entire place. He needed to overlay the old path that he took with the matching terrain on his map to get to his destination. It took a bit but luckily everything lined up with the old secret ground.

‘So that’s how I went through it. If I backtrack then perhaps I can make it back to that tower with the sins.’

It was surprising to see that he was able to confirm the connection to the secret ground. This area was much larger but if he zoomed out with his map everything started lining up. It was as if this was the full version while the one back then was just a trial run. Considering that he found the tower defense part here, the other places that he visited back then would be there.

‘I should expect similar monsters to appear along the way, now what to do…’

While the paths aligned it didn’t mean that everyone would be in the trial tower where he fought the sin of pride demonic being. There was also a series of tunnels his clan members needed to go through and kill a side boss where they could have been transported to. It would probably be better to send someone there that had been through that area before.

Qiang had joined him in the battle against the sins so he somewhat knew what awaited him there. After witnessing the demise of the large turtle he came to a conclusion that it was probably better for him not to lead. His power was hard to contain and only he with a few other nascent soul masters in the sect would be able to survive all of that friendly fire.

“Qiang…”

“Yes, Senior brother? Have you decided?”

“Indeed, you will come with me and part of the warriors will head in that direction.”

The elder that explained the situation to him would be the temporary ladder. He looked at the spot Zhang Dong was pointing at and nodded.

“It shall be done my lord but should we take everyone? What about the injured?”

“They will return to the Golden Palace instead, I have the updated coordinates to the gate there.”

Everyone agreed without asking for an explanation. Part of the group would descend into the tunnels while the others took a break in the Golden Palace. Huo Qiang and Zhang Dong on the other hand would pay an old location a visit. With some luck, they would find all of their sect members at those two locations and then prepare their counter attack against the Long Clan.