“I really need to create more waypoints through this empire…”

After the issue with his borders was resolved Zhang Dong continued with his travels. This time around he traveled eastwards towards an area fabled for their stormy weather. He decided to travel lightly without his soldiers as moving the heavy flying ships around would just bring unwanted attention.

His soul and golden cores were brimming with power yet his original one that was meant for lightning remained the smallest. It was possible to upgrade it with the help of spirit stones but with this method, he would burn through his reserves too fast.

This system of his didn’t have many methods of earning him spirit points. Spirit stones were the easiest and then he also had his faction that supplied him with a daily dose of points. Thanks to this he would never run out of them but it was not nearly enough to progress his cultivation.

The amount that he got from his faction mostly covered the teleportation expenses. There was always a reserve he needed to keep for any potential traps from which he needed teleporting out. If someone decided to employ any teleportation blocking formations it was still possible to flee but only at an increased cost.

Then there was the problem of Wang Long that had all the same features as he did and perhaps even some that he wasn’t aware of. These systems tended to alter themselves along with its user, it didn’t seem that his evil counterpart was using any kind of crafting abodes and only utilized the system store for all his needs.

But with a supply of spirit points, there was no reason to use any other functions. That store could provide everything, cultivation materials like potions and pills were also included. Luckily for him, Wang Long never practiced with the arts he bought and always tried forcing the fight with his superior cultivation. While that worked against the young masters he faced in the past it would not against him.

‘I wonder what that idiot is up to, some time has passed since then…’

Due to the war, all information that concerned the northern region was halted. He had no idea what happened with that bridge that he managed to defend the attack against. The long clan was unwilling to send their people to defend it which meant that these invaders had probably built another stronghold there.

Wang Long had made his way towards the demonic cultivators that were situated close to that location. If he was still there was up to debate but with so many of these invaders around he would have a lot of spirit points coming his way. The longer this war continued the more Wang Long would grow and after getting his ass beat the first time he would probably prepare better for the rematch.

“This world sure is vast though…”

Even now he had not had the pleasure of freely exploring this entire empire. The distances between the cities were massive and it felt like he was on another planet whenever he went between them. The differences between the environment and the people living there were sometimes extreme.

“So it’s supposed to be past that storm huh?”

Before his journey could continue he was greeted with a stunning phenomenon. A huge wall of wind and rubble was before him. It was a giant twister that was hundred of kilometers long and if he managed to pass through it he would arrive at an area filled with electrical discharges. It was hard to imagine that anyone could live there but large trade ships with enough armor were able to pass inside.

“What was the sect's name that rules these lands? The Lightning Dragon Sect? Reminds me of that thunder sect I visited in the other empire…”

This sect's name was very similar to one of the techniques that he bought of the system store all those years ago. With it he could summon serpentine dragons that could act independently from him and aided him in some of his previous encounters.

It was actually one of the larger middle-sized sects that had made it into the top ten. Thanks to this natural barrier that they used to their advantage they were hard to invade. But from his standpoint, this was one of the biggest weaknesses. When people started relying on these types of defenses they crumbled if they were ever removed or countered. The same thing happened to the sect with soul arts that was almost crushed by the red vampires.

‘If an armored ship can cross this, then so should I’

Zhang Dong nodded to himself while surrounding his body with a protective layer of Qi. This he probably didn’t need as his body had already reached defensive capabilities of a pinnacle heaven grade weapon. Yet, this was not the same for his clothes that would be shredded by the sharp winds and rubble flying around.

‘They are lucky that I’m not interested in the wind qi that is gathered here or their biggest shield would have to go.’

Finally, he plunged himself into the tornado and continued with his flight path. The inside was of the storm was quite dark and it was hard to maneuver. But with the help of his map, there was nothing that he needed to worry about. The shield that was around his body was enough to make this an underwhelming experience. Perhaps if he visited this area when he was weaker it would have been a struggle but now he was like an unstoppable rocket going forward.

Now on the other hand he was just ignoring these massive torrents of wind energy. Even though this storm had the thickness of hundreds of kilometers at the speed he was going it wouldn’t even take him an hour to pass through it. The experience was quite underwhelming as the inside was devoid of light and chilly.

‘At times like this, I wish I still had my phone to watch some movies or something…’

Even though the world was vast and beautiful, long journeys like this were somewhat boring. There was nothing to do besides to look at the scenery that passed by in a flash. It was as if he was stuck in a high-speed train with nothing else to do but look out of the window.

‘Wait what’s that?’

In an unexpected turn of events, he spread out his spiritual sense to do a quick scan. There he noticed that there was something a few kilometers in front of him. There were many people there and they were getting closer.

‘A flying ship going out?’

This was not that out of the ordinary as this place could be passed even by the locals. Either a person needed cultivation of at least an early nascent soul master or a strong enough ship with metal plating. This was certainly the former but something was off, when he used his sense further he noticed an oddity.

‘Is that… mana?’

The spot he was scanning was clearly a flying ship with a lot of people on it but besides the usual variations of spiritual energy, he felt mana similar to the one he interacted with in the other world. It was slightly different with its own flare but it clearly wasn’t spiritual energy used by the cultivators of this empire.

‘I did hear some information about strange men in full body armor using straight swords…’

The war had taken off now so more information was flowing over towards him. There were rumors that some of the fleeing cultivators brought with them that his people reported to him. One of them was a rumor about people looking like knights that used strange sword techniques.

This was something worth looking into thus he increased his speed slightly to see intercept the flying ship. While he was still inside the storm there should be a latch there that he could climb through, if not he could also force his way inside. But this could still just be a specialty of some clan and not be related to another invading party thus he decided to not make any presumptions.

‘There it is, the ship isn’t in good shape either and… they are fighting…’

The storm was making things hard on his spiritual sense but when he got closer the mystery was revealed. On the inside, he felt a larger group of cultivators using their spiritual energy meant for combat. It was clear that a fight was taking place, even the ship was slowly falling apart and the shield formation that was keeping the storm at bay seemed to be flickering.

This ship’s exterior was not made from heavy metal, instead it was designed with energy shields in mind. If the formation that was producing the shield was damaged more it would go out and the people inside would suffer the consequences.

‘This thing won’t last much longer…’

It was their lucky day as Zhang Dong was an expert in the field of formations. Within a few minutes of him arriving he was already mending up all the holes and reinforcing the shield so that it wouldn’t burst into tiny pieces of spiritual energy.

The ship had a strange exterior appearance, it looked like a whale made from wood. It had no mast or anything that would make it resemble a flying shield. Yet it was moving as if it was swimming through the air. With The shield being fixed he made his way inside by slipping through the formation he had reinforced.

‘There should be a way to get into the interior without destroying the exterior, it would be unwise to damage this thing with so many people in it…’

After a moment of searching, he found the entrance at where the whale had its blowhole. There was a sealed entrance that could be opened from the outside. After a little fiddling, he was through and found himself at a large empty hall.

“Fighting took place here…”

The moment he arrived he could see blood stains and nicks in the walls and ceiling. The place was mostly made from some special wood that would be resistant to core formation level of strength.

“These look like they were made by double-edged blades, could it really be those magic knights?”

Now that he was inside he made his way through the various hallways. The inside of this flying whale was quite large, it was similar to a luxury cruiseliner from his modern world yet much larger. The further he went the more destruction he saw which finally culminated in dead remains that were still fresh.

Without wanting any more dead on his hands he bolted forward now with full speed. Within a moment he got to the area where fighting was taking place, people were shouting at each other and various energies were being used.

‘They really are knights…’

What he saw was a group of armored men surrounded by radiant light. The blades they were holding truly gave him that magic knight vibe and they were clearly hostile against the cultivators they were facing.