He was finally at his destination, how it looked was a lot different than he had expected. When using his own eyes he could hardly see anything past ten meters in a circle around him. He had placed his flying sword back into his spatial ring by now and was just floating close to ground level.

“It’s really quiet… too quiet… where are all the animals?”

He wasn’t far away from the border wall now. He was expecting to get to the bottom of this but he couldn’t see any bodies to tell him their tale. He did see some claw marks on the border wall and they weren’t that old.

“Maybe I’ll find something further in…”

This was still far away from the main Divine Fist Sect location. He used his system map to place a waypoint marker. He placed it on the location where Fang Heng was supposed to be. He was still surprised that there was no word from him whatsoever, it was odd but there could be one reason for it.

Before continuing further he decided to stop and land. He stretched out his hand while opening up his palm. He used some spiritual energy to slowly suck the mist towards his palm. He started condensing it together while gathering the fog up in a more solid form. He only stopped after getting about a marble-sized item, what he was left with was a cloudy dark gem that radiated strange energy.

He looked over it and could feel a peculiar demonic like aura coming off it. He gave it a little poke with his finger but nothing seemed to happen. The second test was similar but this time around he dispersed the holy energies from his aura that were protecting his finger.

There was a response. The moment his skin made contact with the concentrated mist he could feel his energies being drained. He quickly defended himself against them by reapplying his holy aura.

“It’s draining my vital energies… but that’s not all…”

He took out a teleportation beacon from his spatial ring. This one wasn’t the same that he gave Fang Heng, it connected back to the United Element Sect’s teleportation gate. He tried activating it but for some reason, it wasn’t working. Something was blocking out the signal from going through entirely.

“So it’s because of this mist…”

Zhang Dong had his answer to why he couldn’t get in touch with the Divine Fist Sect elder. This fog was blocking out the signal.

He grasped the condensed fog with his hand and crushed it. The moment it made contact with his holy elemental energy it just crumbled into nothing.

He followed it up with another burst of his golden aura, this time he backed it by a lot more of his cultivation base. The bright energies spread through the area reaching about 100 meters in diameter. The mist was forced back or more likely the energies were destroyed due to the holy elementals.

The moment the area was cleared up he looked back to his teleportation beacon. With the fog slightly dissipated he couldn’t feel a connection going through. He decided to fly up while dispersing the fog some more. With enough altitude, a signal started to finally go through.

It was too early to summon help for now but he used this chance to send his wife a quick message that he was inside.

Getting more people in here would be troublesome now. This mist was robbing people of their vital energies, he was only fine due to his unique cultivation method. No one from the nascent soul elders had a holy element to their cultivation method. They might be susceptible to this mist if they stayed too long in it. There were ways to help them out with it, but they would need to prepare some contingencies.

‘I should probably wait.’

Zhang Dong decided to wait for now. He didn’t need backup just yet and if he summoned help now the nascent soul elders in question could run out of spiritual energy. If that happened before they actually fought the monster and its minions it would be disastrous.

He floated back up and inspected the mist free area. The residual divine energy seemed to be keeping the fog back for now but he could feel it slowly closing in.

‘This sect practices divine arts, they should have some kind of defensive formation utilizing it…’

He believed that these cultivators were still alive. The reason that the teleportation beacon wasn’t working was because of this mist. Even with a protective formation in place, the signal wasn’t still reaching him. This meant that the fog was probably still covering it from the top. If it was a dome-shaped barrier it all made sense.

The ground shook as he jumped upwards and headed inside of the Divine Sect Territory. He spread out his senses in all directions while examining the situation. There could have been survivors out here that could answer some questions.

He traveled further in, the mist continued to get thicker but he was unaffected by it. It looked more like it was trying to evade him instead.

After some time he finally came across a living being. It wasn’t a human though but a beast, after further examining it he noticed something.

Frenzied Axe Beak [ Qi Condensation 5th stage ]

It was a bird-like beast. It looked similar to an ostrich with sharp taloned feet and a wedge-shaped beak. The most interesting part of the name was the prefix, the monster was in a frenzied state. This brought him back to the past when he first came across monsters like this.

‘It’s the same as that time…’

He spread out his senses into the surroundings and also glanced at his map while flying forward. There were more animals in the area and they were just wandering around without a purpose.

All of them had similar statuses after examination, it was clear that his favorite squid faced monster was involved. Just like in the past the monster was gathering other living beings and gaining strength. This mist that was all around the land was probably another step in its evolution.

‘The more of these it absorbs the stronger it will become, I must hurry…’

He needed to get to that city as fast as he could. He had no idea where those ruins were exactly and even with his speed it would probably take him days or even weeks to pinpoint the location on his own.

Zhang Dong took off into the air, flying high above the clouds and even getting above the mist. Everywhere he looked it was covered in white, it was as if a giant thick cloud was placed on the ground like a large white fuzzy blanket.

His plan was to continue right towards his destination, getting the Divine Fist Sect’s input and someone to guide him towards the ruins where the monster slumbered. Before that could happen though he finally came across his first human survivors.

They looked like regular people, they weren’t wearing any sect robes which probably meant that they were just commoners. Normally a person in Zhang Dong’s situation would see the bigger picture and leave them to their own fate. He would be wasting time and spiritual energy in helping here.

He wasn’t your usual senior though. He knew well that his emotions always got the better of him which caused a lot of trouble to him and the people he wanted to protect. But this was just how he was, if he saw someone in need and he was able to do something about it, he would.

The people he was looking at were a group of five. It looked like a family with two kids and a grandparent. The father was in front of them getting attacked by those frenzied birds he saw earlier. They all were weak cultivators at the Qi condensation level and the beast outnumbered them three to one. If he didn’t aid them, death or corruption was awaiting them.

He could see that they were wearing masks over their faces probably in hopes of not getting affected by this mist. They were still on their feet so these masks had to be working to some extent. He could also detect faint divine energy coming off from those, there was more to them that met the eye.

Zhang Dong finally sprung to action, doing it just in time. The man that was protecting the women and children was about to get clawed and pecked to death by those fearsome birds.

He was much stronger than those beasts, with a wave of his hand he just made them stop in their tracks entirely. It was as if time had stopped for everyone here. His golden energies dispersed the white mist from the area letting the folks here breathe in relief.

The people could barely speak as they saw their family member that was almost killed float up into the air. His wounds were healing themselves on their own in real-time. He was then dropped to his feet right in front of his wife by Zhang Dong.

He turned around to the immobile monsters and with a tiny motion of his finger made them explode into nothingness. They were all safe but he could see the fear in their eyes. The monster birds were replaced with an unknown cultivator that was many times stronger than anything here.

“Don’t worry I’m not going to hurt you, I just wanted to ask you, good people, a few questions.”

He spoke up first without waiting for them to reply. There were a few things he wanted to ask about before going any further.

“Y-yes senior! Whatever you wish! If there is anything this junior could do to repay this favor he will!”

The father started bowing instantly and his family members followed suit. He already felt stiffened by the tone they were addressing him with but this was just how people treated scary nascent soul elders like him, with unshaken respect.

“Relax, I’m here to help. Can you tell me when this mist started to appear and how are you resisting its effects with those masks…”

“The mist…”

The man gave out a sigh and stood up straight while looking out into the distance. He could notice that this elder in front of him was something special. He was even keeping this fog at bay with his cultivation.

“Great senior it happened about a week ago, it appeared out of nowhere in our cities and started to slowly sap our energies away….”

The man gave Zhang Dong the recap. The fog appeared unannounced and invaded their lands, at first they didn’t make much of it. They thought that it was only the weather playing tricks on them. Soon they discovered that it wasn’t the truth and they were slowly getting their spiritual energy sucked away.

The more energy they lost the thicker this mist became. Somehow this mist was growing while draining these people of their energies. After a few days, frenzied beast attacks started happening and the village these five lived in was overrun.

“And the masks? I can feel faint divine energies coming from it…”

Zhang Dong asked while the man looked back at his family. His wife gave him a nod and he finally removed his mask. On the mask, Zhang Dong could spot a flower petal, not really large but it was giving off a holy light.

“It’s a special flower that grows in these lands, it is able to slightly filter the air. With it we can move through the mist but not for too long…”

Zhang Dong identified the petal the moment he saw it. It was a type of spiritual sunflower growing in this world, this did explain how they were able to move through it without passing out.

He rubbed his chin in thought but before he could ask another question one of the children dropped down to her knees and started shouting out.

“Please save us senior!”

The young girl started sobbing while her family members tried to make her stop. From their perspective this elder here had done enough already, asking for more would be shameful. It could also get them all in trouble.

‘I was afraid that this would happen…’

He looked at the girl that was about the age of twelve, her face covered in snot and tiers.