“Dong’er are you sure that this is safe…”

“I’m not sure… I guess half and a half?”

“Only half? Maybe we should try it on another sect member that isn’t as old as this old man.”

“Just be quiet and let me concentrate, I need to do it with someone that I’m more familiar with before I continue with the other sect members…”

“P-please be gentle…”

“Don’t worry I will… this might feel a bit strange so please bear with it…”

“Ahhh… it tingles…”

“...”

“What are you two doing in there!”

A confused-looking Zhang Liena burst into a hastily manufactured cave opening. There she saw her husband and his grandfather. The old man was bare-chested and in a lotus position and Zhang Dong had his hand on his back.

“Oh…”

“Is something wrong Liena? Is the Soaring Dragon Sect attacking?”

Zhang Dong called out while breaking his concentration. He had managed to cleanse every expert's impurities with the help of his system. This didn’t mean that everyone would be able to reach the next level just like that.

Normally what they would do, was to give a person that could potentially progress some pills and also time. But time was not something that they had as they could be attacked at any moment. Thus Zhang Dong decided to lend his energies to help people progress faster.

Zhang Jin was part of their inner circle and his body was similar to his own. Through these similarities, he wished to test how well he would be able to nourish his cultivation up. It seemed that he had forgotten that he had promised to give his wife a call when he was finished with the initial cleansing stage.

“I’m sorry, I was just too busy with work, how are you?”

Liena started blushing a bit, he wasn’t sure what this was about but it seemed that she misunderstood something. Zhang Dong could just move over to place his hand on her cheek.

“Don’t worry, I won’t vanish like last time.”

“It wasn’t like I was worried or anything…”

She started blushing even more and Zhang Dong could feel that his wife’s body heat was increasing. But before he could lean in for a hug and maybe something extra he heard someone chuckling from the side.

“Oh, don’t mind me, pray continue with what you were doing, I bet you two have a lot of catching up to do, don’t mind this old man being here!”

Liena quickly moved away from Zhang Dong after hearing Zhang Jin commenting from the side. The old man just started laughing which caused the matriarch to stare at him with intent. To diffuse the situation Zhang Dong decided to quickly speak up as he didn’t want to have his grandfather being mutilated by his lovely wife.

“Um, I’ll be stuck here for a little bit, is there any word from the spies outside…”

“That is the surprising part, it doesn’t look like they are attempting anything but we didn’t have any spies placed directly in their sect, the closest one was by a nearby sect but it has been quiet…”

“That does sound odd… you’d think that they would be making a big deal out of losing so many elders and ships, could they be silencing the news so that they don’t lose face?”

Zhang Dong asked while contemplating. A few days have passed since the attack but no news of any retaliation had reached them. If another large force would be getting formed it would not go unnoticed.

At most, the Soaring Dragon Sect could teleport through a gate to a closer location before attacking. Such a large undertaking would be noticed before they reached their borders as the sect had done well at placing their people at strategic locations throughout the whole empire.

“That’s a possibility, maybe the word hasn’t reached them? Wang Long vanished without losing a trace and we took care of the rest, we even managed to catch all the stragglers that fled into the forest.”

Zhang Jin chimed in while Zhang Dong tried to come to a conclusion. What would be the reason that would make that sect wait?

“Maybe they want to act, but can’t for some reason? Maybe they truly fear the Azure Emperor and the Heavenly Crane sect…”

This was the only logical conclusion that he could come up with. If it was true then he would not need to worry about being attacked any time soon. Maybe if Wang Long was the sect leader they would be attacking instantly but he didn’t seem like someone that worked well in a team. To him, his sect brothers and sisters were nothing but pawns.

The Patriarch that was his grandfather would probably think everything through before coming to a decision. Blindly going against someone that managed to slay that many nascent soul masters was not something that should be taken lightly.

“What worries me is what the Azure Emperor and the Heavenly Crane Sect will do, gramps do you think they might aid each other?”

“I don’t think that’s a possibility, the great three never saw eye to eye, they would sooner aid us before giving a hand to the Soaring Dragon Sect.”

Zhang Dong nodded, the more turmoil that they caused for the Soaring Dragon Sect the happier the other two would be. They probably wished to snatch the mainlands that were in the center of the empire for themselves and only then worry about the United Element Sect.

“Well, there is no use to worry, we can only look towards the future, gramps get back into position, we need to get you into the nascent soul level, or was there something else?”

Zhang Dong looked at his wife and just shook her head. While he was glad that she was worried about him to the point of paying him a visit here, it was not the time for a family get-together.

Soon Liena left the cave and was greeted by her grandmother.

“See, I told you that he would return, my husband, isn’t so easily killed. It’s best that you don’t mention that you wanted me to remarry.”

“Yes, that would be best...”

Feng Maling nodded while also sweating a bit. She had gone through this cleansing procedure about five years before but this one felt a bit more intense. The other elders that were in the great circle level were all on the ground and meditating.

“But Liena, do you really think that it's wise to stay? I understand that you want to listen to your husband but I worry about the future of this sect, what if we…”

“No, he is the Patriarch, without him there would be no sect, if you doubt him then you can just leave, no one will stop you.”

Feng Maling was glared down by her granddaughter and started chuckling.

“Your love for him didn’t waver one bit, it might have only gotten stronger, fine I’ll put my faith into the young Patriarch, if we falter then we shall pass on from this world together.”

The old woman nodded and was about to join the other core formation experts before feeling something. She together with all the others looked to the cave into which Zhang Dong and Zhang Jin vanished.

“What is that…”

The ground started to rumble and the cave opening that was being guarded lit up in blue. There was clearly something happening inside but no one dared to enter. They were told by the Patriarch that there would be strong energy fluctuations during the change and that they should not interrupt the process or it might cost Zhang Jin his life.

“Everyone, let us give the Patriarch some space.”

Feng Maling called out to the people that were sitting around and trying to get their own cultivation in check. They all nodded and quickly put some space between themselves and the small mountain that they had set up their training camp.

A tremendous amount of energy filled the area and it continued to rise well past the levels of what a core formation expert would be able to produce.

“By the ancestors, is that old idiot really going to progress?”

Feng Maling’s eyes bulged out as she hovered next to her granddaughter that had helped her move out of the range of this energy.

“If my husband said that he would be able to do it, then he will be able to do it!”

Liena on the other hand just nodded while smiling. She started looking around to see a forest of astonished faces. Everyone’s jaws were agape at the demonstration here. It was clear that they weren’t sure if the Patriarch’s plan would work. After five long years, a chunk of them had forgotten how big of a miracle worker Zhang Dong was.

They would remember after this day that their leader had the golden touch. The mountain exploded with another burst of energy that approached the level of a nascent soul master. This wasn’t a gentle transformation, no, from inside the mountain Zhang Jin’s screams could soon be heard.

“Bare with it, we are almost there!”

Shouted Zhang Dong before the closed-off mountain blew its top. A pillar of deep blue escaped from it that formed a fountain of water. This burst of clear blue transformed into a mighty serpent with wings that gave out a mighty roar.

“H-he did it!”

The old grandma could not believe what she was seeing. Inside of this water dragon stood a half-naked Zhang Jin. His age started getting to him these past five years but now he looked like a new man. Even some color returned to his hair after he achieved this new level of power.

When they looked up they could see Zhang Jin floating up in the air. Behind him was Zhang Dong who still had his palm on his grandfather’s shoulder. It looked like he was constantly helping the old man with his new transformation and only pulled back after it was done.

“T-this… I feel a hundred years younger!”

Zhang Jin was ecstatic as he shouted out. His aura spread through the area and brought the core formation elders to their knees. Luckily Liena was there to block it, otherwise, some of them would have blacked out instantly.

“You old fool, get a hold of yourself, you’re not the only one here!”

Feng Maling shouted out in anger but only when Zhang Jin got smacked to the back of the head by Zhang Dong did he realize what he was doing.

“Oh… excuse this old man, I must have lost myself…”

“Yeah… you should go meditate and check if your cultivation is stable, it does look like your nascent soul is stable but you’ll need some time before you can make your soul beast appear.”

Zhang Dong nodded and then looked down at Feng Mailing.

“Okay granny, you’re next, then I’ll start with the rest of the elders, please decide on the order yourself.”

Everyone nodded while looking with sparkly eyes at the floating Zhang Jin. To them it was a miracle in the making, to allow them to reach this level of power Zhang Dong was a true saint to them.