The large floating fortress with cannons pointed in all directions halted its advance. The cultivators from the United Element Sect recognized that the voice that came from it belonged to their Patriarch.

While some of them cheered out, others were concerned. Did the Patriarch really return or was this just some pre-recorded voice line that this floating weapon possessed? There was also the problem with it being openly hostile towards the Soaring Dragon Sect.

Some of the elders were still hopeful that giving up one or two women would save the rest from bloodshed. While everyone was speculating and discussing with each other another conversation that could not be heard by anyone else was taking place.

“Long Wang huh?”

“How are you talking to me?”

“Did you think that you are the only one that has a system? Things are not how you might think, stop treating this like a game.”

“Wait? Do you have a system too? You’re a player just like me?”

Zhang Dong with the help of Bob had managed to hack his way into the communication function of Wang Long’s system. He wanted to do nothing more than to punch this guy in the face. Regretfully people's lives were at stake, if he could talk his way out of this mess he needed to try.

“Player? This is not a game, why are you attacking my sect? The woman that you are trying to take away is my wife.”

“Your wife? Are you one of those role play types or something?”

“Huh?”

“Well I did try that one time, but I was never good with those romance games, getting the correct dialogue checks was confusing.”

The man called Wang Long gave out a sigh and started going on a tangent. While listening Zhang Dong realized that this person didn’t see the people living in this world as true living beings.

It was clear that he thought that they were nothing more than a part of some program. The system allowed people to see people's stats, even alignments. It also sometimes advanced its features to suit what the user wanted.

He was a witness to such things as when he desired the teleportation feature that had just appeared there. This could have happened to this man as well, maybe his system was presenting him with emotional-related statics like affection.

Even Zhang Dong had similar stats in his faction system. He could see how well his people were doing, it was all presented to him with things like the satisfaction level of his people. If he didn’t invest in his clan as he did he might have still been thinking like this person.

“Wait... hold up, these people aren’t NPC’s, have you actually sat down and talked to one without your status looming over them?”

While Zhang Dong started out thinking in a similar way as this person. It started changing over the years, he was a more compassionate person from the start which probably caused him to see the humanity in these strange cultivators.

They all had their problems but they all had goals just like him. While they acted reserved when people with status were involved they also laughed and cried.

This he mostly learned when he was out on his travels. When he pretended to be someone else he did visit restaurants, taverns and even looked at the people in the villages. He just couldn’t see them as part of some strange program. They were certainly not soulless puppets as this person was claiming.

“Damn, are you being serious right now? You role-player types always got too much into your strange fantasies. Wait, aren't we forgetting something? How come you also have a system? could this be some trick?”

“Did you think that you were the only one? You are not the only person with a system.”

“This is bull-shit! I thought this was a single-player PVE experience! Does this mean that I have to worry about getting ganked by other players? Wait, why should I even trust you? Hah, you almost got me but I’m too smart for such an obvious trick!”

“Wait, what are you talking abou…”

It seemed that the person he was talking with was not the trusting type. He started accusing Zhang Dong of a scheme. The person was clearly a gamer that was used to playing certain player versus player-related content. Some of these games were quite toxic and people loved killing others just to troll them in any way possible.

“Damn, I didn’t know that you could go into faction versus faction combat, I bet I’ll get a massive boost in spirit points if I win this fight…”

“Wait, this isn’t what…”

“Shut up, you think that you can pull a fast one on me? Go screw yourself!”

The connection was cut off soon after and Bob reported that this Wang Long had used some of his points to set up some kind of communication barrier that would require Zhang Dong to also spend points.

‘Shit, what is this idiot even thinking? Did he lose himself to the debauchery of this world?’

While Zhang Dong had a rather reserved personality and it came hard for him to interact with women, this person seemed to be the total opposite. He treated everyone as mere NPC's in the game and probably didn’t suffer any remorse when something happened to them.

“Young master are you alright?”

He looked into the distance and could hear a member from the Soaring Dragon Sect calling out to Wang Long.

“Yes I’m fine, let us continue with the attack! They are clearly disrespecting our sect!”

The barrier was reactivated but he had to jump start it. This used up some of the power reserves which would cause it to shut down a lot sooner.

“Wang Long or Long Wang, stop this, you don’t realize what this world really is, we can still discuss it!”

While his connection to Wang Long’s system was down he could still talk through the fortress and the city speakers.

“Do you think that I’m stupid? You just want to gank me and take away all of my spirit points! I’m not going to trust some idiot in a backwater sect like this.”

“Listen to me, you idiot!”

“Screw you!”

The little back and forth between the two was clearly heard by the people around it. It didn’t seem like it was going anywhere as the two cultivators started calling themselves strange names like cucks, simps, and incels.

“Enough! Tong attack, at least I’ll be able to see if there is a respawn feature in this game! Burn the city to the ground but leave the women alive!”

It seemed that the time was up and the young master pointed out with his finger towards the barrier. The ships in the back that were prepared started gathering up energy and soon they started to assault the city.

The people from the Soaring Dragon Sect would soon discover that it would not be such a one-sided slaughter. The barrier that was created here was not like the other ones fashioned in this world. While the defensive capabilities were lowered it also possessed a certain feature.

Zhang Dong flying fort’s cannons were already ready to discharge similar spiritual bullets. Normally this would be impossible as the barrier was a two-way barrier. With some testing though he had managed to get the energies in tune with each other. Thanks to this the deathly energy-packed bullets would be able to pass through it.

Soon the energy bullets were released and they were not only coming from this flying castle. The whole city was a massive fort filled with automated weaponry. All of this firepower lit up the sky and the ships from the Soaring Dragon Sect started being suppressed.

“How is this possible? Their protective formation is still up? How can they return fire!”

Tong called out in fright while holding one of his palms forward to produce a shield of his own.

“Elders, summon your soul beast, protect the ships!”

While the automated weapons that were scattered around the whole city emerged from some buildings, the people from the sect were still confused.

“Elder Liena, is this your doing?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Who else but you would profit from this chaos?”

Asked a rather angry looking man from the Huo clan.

“Be quiet father, you should know that only Senior Brother would be able to do this…”

“The Patriarch? Could he really be alive?”

Huo Qiang shrugged while looking to Zhang Liena and Zhang Jin for answers. The old man looked to the large floating fortress that was shedding its skin and revealing some kind of metal contraption underneath.

“I’m not sure, it could have been some weapon left by Dong’er that was activated when his wife was in danger…”

Zhang Jin looked at Liena who was still staring at what used to be her home crumbling into dust. Her expression that was filled with astonishment quickly changed to one of curiosity and longing.

“Nuana, stay here, the rest of you… what are you doing? It’s already too late to bargain, you heard that bastard, they are going to turn this city, our city, to cinders if we don’t stop them. Even if it’s the Soaring Dragon Sect, they are not impossible to beat, let us focus on this battle first and then deliberate on our future actions!”

After giving a little battle speech she departed towards the island that was approaching them slowly. It didn’t seem that her advance would be stopped as even when she was right next to the cannons they didn’t fire at her.

She descended onto the part that was the main courtyard. The buildings that were once her home were in tatters. The whole place was shaking as the cannon fire continued endlessly. With each shot of these cannons, more of the marble crumbled and more of the buildings crumbled.

“Husband? Are you there? Is it really you?”

She called out, her breath heavy as she was unsure of what was happening. While the conversation between the bastard that tried to take her away and this flying fortress was quite animated it didn’t mean that it was her husband.

Leaving behind part of one's memories was a technique that some cultivators could use. Her husband could very well have left a part of himself behind that could somewhat speak and reason. It would not be him if this was true.

“Zhang Dong? ZHANG DONG? Where are you?”

Her shouts were met with silence and as she was almost ready to give up hope she noticed something. A large glowing circle appeared in the spot that once had a large fountain on it.

The light was there and it was humming, without thinking much she decided to stand right on it. The moment she did, the ground under her shook slightly and she started descending.

Soon a strange feeling took over her, it was pitch black in here and she dropped into something. It felt like she was submerged in some kind of liquid. She wasn’t prepared for this so she opened her mouth and it made its way inside which caused her to panic.

“Relax, the spirit fluid won’t hurt you.”

She then heard a familiar voice which was followed by light returning to her eyes.

“You should have regained your senses, it's a strange feeling at first but you’ll get used to it.”

Once her breath returned and her vision got clear she found herself in a certain man’s lap.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it…my wife.”