“That didn’t give me as much time as I hoped for… how many are there, Bob?”

“There are four large energy sources approaching from behind. There are also another five from the north and three from the south.”

Zhang Dong looked at his minimap and he could see many small dots there that were following after him. After giving the bogus cultivation technique to the four people that confronted him, he made his escape.

Regretfully the old fogies were craftier than he anticipated. They alerted some of their allies that cut his escape route. Even though he went through a face swap it was hard to talk his way out of this predicament.

The next group that he passed started following him as well and now he had over ten powerful cultivators following him. They were mostly from places that he had robbed of spirit stones and other cultivation resources.

‘Why does it always have to be like this…’

There he was, close to the border between the two empires. He had to make a lot of stops and zig-zag around the area as there were many lookouts posted to welcome him. The route that he planned to use had been denied as many old fogies blocked all the best exits. Thus he found himself having to use the scenic route.

‘There is always a place like this isn’t there?’

What he was now looking at was a wall of wind and death energies. The wall between these empires was not an actual wall, it was some kind of old barrier formation that shredded anyone that wanted to pass through it.

He had gained some information from the cities that were closer to the borders. No one really could give him a clear answer but this strange ‘barrier’ between the two empires had been there since time immemorial.

This strange construct created a large wall of deathly elemental energies between these two empires. There were a couple of ‘tunnels’ that allowed passage but they were all controlled by the strongest forces in each empire.

There was some information about these passages not being open at the time being. A limited timeframe for the passages being open would explain the lack of wars between the powers.

It would take time and resources to conquer. If the aggressors could not invade and set up a stronghold for their forces it was a fool's errand. Even when they placed some of their forces there if they could not return home to get more troops and resources they would be eradicated.

This also brought up another problem, which was teleportation. If they could not make strongholds that linked them back to the original empire this also meant that teleportation gates were limited.

This caused Zhang Dong to worry even more. It was possible for his teleportation feature not to work even when he arrived in the right spot.

‘Not like I have the choice to test things out though…’

He glanced behind and saw a swarm of beasts and cultivators following him from all sides. They all clumped up into a large force that was slowly catching up to him.

“Stop this instance, there is no place to run!”

Some of them shouted at him but he ignored them. What he was looking at was the great unknown bundle of energies in front of him. The ‘wall’ spread all up into the heavens and was pushing the clouds away.

The ground was devoid of any life and looked like a desert. Elemental storms, rain, and hurricane-like winds along with twisters were everywhere. While he was not affected by the lightning energies here, there were far more elemental powers at work at this location.

Even with his current cultivation level, it was debatable if his body would not just burst into chunks when he entered this chaotic stream of energy.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea!”

He burst forth with energy and headed towards the dead zone between the chaotic energies and the borderline. When he entered it he could feel his face and lip being cut by something. Even with his current cultivation, he was receiving damage for even being in close proximity to the elemental energies.

While he propelled himself forward the people that were following him stopped in their tracks. Some of the beast tamers were not able to halt their less intelligent familiars. The moment they entered the zones their bodies contorted in strange ways and they started exploding.

Thanks to Zhang Dong’s improved golden body that also reached the great circle stage he was somewhat able to resist the initial phase. But, even now he could feel that his body would be torn apart if he ventured in too close to the deathly black wall composed of strange energies.

‘How does it look, can I teleport yet?”

He glanced at his system screen and at his faction section. There he was trying to see if he could fast travel to his home point which was his sect.

‘The user is still out of range, the user must move a hundred meters closer.’

A hundred meters might have seemed like nothing at all but in this place, it could mean death. Behind him was a group of cultivators that was on par with nascent soul masters. In front of him was a torrent of energies that would rip any regular nascent soul master to shreds.

His body was reinforced and covered with a layer of golden glow. This was enough to keep him from exploding for now but if he ventured forward he was not sure about his survival.

There was a choice to make, should he turn back and try to fight the large group of foes? Or should he fly towards the unknown without even knowing if the teleportation option would work? One thing was clear, the longer it took him to make a decision the meeker his chances of surviving got.

‘I feel like going into this storm is certain death… but…’

Zhang Dong could not shake this strange foreboding feeling. This feeling was part of the reason for him being sloppy while returning home. If he was more careful it would have taken him longer to get here but he would have probably been able to cover his tracks.

Thus he took a step forward. It was a large stride that took him closer to the barrier and even this caused his clothes to be shredded by some incoming wind.

“What is that madman doing? Does he intend to go into the vicious elemental storm?”

The cultivators that were following him cried out in astonishment as they watched the man in the white robe stride forward. They were already astonished that he made it halfway in without dying.

He advanced forward without looking back. Soon he was unable to keep himself up in the air and had to descend onto the sandy ground. The earth was devoid of any life, when he landed his feet caused the ground to crack.

Even though the ground looked like a desert it was far from soft. He noticed a strange increase in gravity the further he went which made his feet sink into the hard compressed sand.

Ninety meters, seventy meters, fifty meters, he traded on and the further he got the slower he became. His form became one with the storm as the cultivators that were following him could not see or feel his presence anymore.

To them, he was already a lost cause. His remains would be eradicated by the elemental energies and scattered in this zone that was devoid of life. But, he kept on pushing. The memories of his children and wife keeping his spirit afloat allowed him to move through the pain.

Forty, thirty, twenty, and ten. He was close yet also quite far as his body was pushed into the ground below him.

‘Not yet, I’m not done yet…’

He pushed his body to the very limit as he crawled. It felt like he was being weighed down by a mountain and going against the stream. Still, he didn’t falter and continued, one meter at a time he pushed forward, and then when all seemed lost and his vision started getting blurry he noticed something.

Faction in range, teleport to the registered home point? Y/N

With a shaky hand, he reached out to select one of the prompts. His vision blurred and he felt like his body was about to be torn apart. Then suddenly he felt his face landing on something soft and squishy.

“Huh?”

The feeling was reminiscent of something and when he opened his eyes he realized.

“Wait, isn't this?”

He rolled over and could see a familiar-looking ceiling and the soft thing he landed in was a bed that he created himself.

“Am I back?”

“Affirmative, the user has returned to his faction's home point.”

Bob's robotic voice echoed in his head. He wanted to do nothing more than to jump up in a show of happiness but then he noticed that his body was in no condition to do this. He was naked, his body looked like it went through a shredder as he was covered in wounds and bleeding all over the place.

The room that he appeared in was his secret man cave. It was something that he made as an excuse for secluded cultivation. In reality he used it to wind down and relax. This room was secretly placed deep underground, the walls were blocking spiritual senses so no one would be able to tell that he had returned.

“Ugh… it should be somewhere here…”

This room was somewhat similar to his old room where he used to live. It wasn’t very spacious and besides the large bed, there were some monitors, a desk, and a gamer chair in the corner.

There was also a side room where he kept some of the items that he made. This was the room that he was slowly forcing himself to crawl to. In it, he was able to find some healing pills which he instantly popped into his mouth before passing out on the floor.

When his eyes opened again he felt refreshed. Through the dried-up blood that covered his body, he could tell that he had passed out for some time. This was no time to rest as he jumped up to his feet and quickly returned to the main room.

“What is that?”

With a flick of a switch, all of the monitors here turned on. On them, he could see what the sect looked like on the outside. The first thing that he noticed was that the defensive formation was turned on and that his wife was floating up to receive some unwanted visitors. This was quickly followed by a glaring alarm that was coming from deep within his own head.

“Other system holder detected in close proximity to the user, caution is advised!”