“Duke Lucius! Why did you interrupt my negotiations with the native, he was about to set free my apprentice but now…”

“Wizard you are out of line, you might have the required skill to participate in this secret expedition but you are not part of the army.”

After Zhang Dong had vanished from sight everyone was momentarily stunned. Soon all of them were looking towards Argus the mighty wizard and Duke Lucius who was the commanding officer here. Just as Zhang Dong had suspected the Wizard had no say in the militaristic part where the nobles resided.

“Everyone, we will divide our forces into four and follow this barbarian, he could not have traveled far with such a fast teleportation spell he must still be close to our location! When you find him activate the beckoning spell, he might be alone but that savage is strong, don't try to fight him alone!”

“Yes sir!”

The group of ten golden knights was quick to follow Lucius’ instructions as they all spread out in three directions while dividing themselves into smaller groups. Their commander on the other hand took the fourth position himself. Everyone here knew that he was the most powerful warrior that didn’t need anyone watching over their back.

“Wait, if you kill that man then my apprentice could be lost…”

Argus stretched out his hand as he tried to call Lucius back but no one was listening. The moment the knight commander appeared his overseeing privileges were overwritten. All of the knights now ignored him as they were given the order to find the white-haired native that had been here. Even Gregory that had called for help had gone with them.

“You blasted fools!”

The ground started shaking as bolts of blue energy appeared around his body. Yet his anger soon subsided as he heard a familiar voice.

“Is this a bad moment to interrupt?”

This voice belonged to the man that he had discussed a few things before. It was coming from his left hand in which Argus was holding a comma-shaped bead that was made from green jade.

This communication jade was thrown his way when Lucius had attacked during the diplomatic talks. He had surrounded it with a thick layer of mana as at first he thought that it might have been some kind of malicious item but now he knew what Zhang Dong’s intention was.

“Sir Zhang Dong, is that you?”

“Yes, we were interrupted previously but I still think that we could work something out. That depends on if you can somehow convince those nobles of yours to work with me though…”

Argus looked around and quickly snapped his fingers to produce a sound canceling barrier. The soldiers here would certainly inform the knight commander if they heard him talk to the person they considered a barbarian.

“First I must apologize for the behavior of my countrymen, I’m not sure how I could regain your trust.”

“Oh, that’s fine, I understand the social structure you are under. While we might not be able to work together directly if you promise to halt your advances I could help you with that Lightbringer and about your apprentice, I’ll drop him off in a few hours so keep in touch through this communication jade, I set it up so that you can contact me through your mana signature.”

“You will release my apprentice?”

Argus was shocked by the words of the man he was talking with. Even though his people attacked him in a brutal fashion to kill him, the man was still seeing the bigger picture. Bringing them the Lightbringer would be the fastest way of ending this invasive expedition. This Wizard knew how the nobles operated and that it would take a massive effort to convince them to see it his way.

“Yes but I will be keeping those soldiers, I do not trust them to not just go back to killing the people that live in these lands.”

He could not disagree with Zhang Dong’s words. The people belonging to the kingdom’s war machine would follow the knight commander’s words. It was him that was the true leader here as he had the highest noble rank of a duke. But this could change in the future, he was not the only duke in the kingdom, and then there was also the royal family with its many members.

…..

“Just give me an hour or two and I will send you the coordinates of your apprentice.”

Zhang Dong concluded his conversation with the man named Argus. The old wizard was not opposed to working with him so he would throw him a bone. The apprentice that he had in his medallion was a bargaining chip but he needed to show some goodwill. The rest of the soldiers were too dangerous as they would probably listen to that knight commander that wanted him dead instead.

“Those idiots think that I wasn’t able to use wide-area teleportation.”

After clearing up things with his new associate there were now two things that he had to do. One was to go towards the large torrent of electrical energy to further his cultivation by another step and then there still were the golden knights on his trail. Those people had some nice teleportation technology which meant that if he attacked his pursuers they would quickly gather at his location.

‘Or at least that’s what they are hoping for, keep me busy long enough for all of them to arrive in one location. They made a huge mistake though…’

Zhang Dong through his communication jade could hear Lucius give out his orders. There was nothing specific there but with the help of his map he was able to pinpoint the locations of his enemies. Even though the map had trouble discerning the power of these enemies he just needed to use their hideout as a reference point. The big question now was, did he gain more from taking out these golden knights before cultivating?

‘All of these people aren’t hostile, they can be reasoned with but if I just murder their Knight Commander along with a large part of their strongest men then I will probably lose any goodwill they could offer me…’

If he just went along with the guerilla tactic of taking out the smaller forces and running he would probably be successful. Yet this would put a target on his head, even if Lucius was defeated or captured those nobles would probably hate him. The man named Argus didn’t have any political power and they would probably set a bounty on his head for killing their noble leader.

This was not an easy choice to make for him. When looking at the bigger picture then it was better to postpone the fight for a later date. If he managed to get this sacred sword to them he would have all the leverage. Yet if they saw him as a true enemy of their people, even with the relic in hand they could choose to attack him as the trust would be hard to gain back.

‘Argus mentioned that some other nobles would arrive later, ones that see things more his way, that would probably be the right time to strike up a deal…’

Zhang Dong clicked his tongue while looking out into the distance. These lands were vast and populated by many cultivators. While the magical knights weren’t wantonly attacking everyone they saw they would probably retaliate swiftly whenever met with any kind of resistance.

“You can never save everyone huh?”

He knew that the morally right thing to do would be to take out the invaders before they cause more damage. Yet it was not the correct way of winning this dispute with people that were searching for some strange relic. As a leader he needed to see the bigger picture here, the sheer amount of people that could be saved by an earlier end to this war outweighed the ones he could save by acting now.

Thus with a heavy heart, he turned away from the map indicator that informed him about the general direction of his pursuers. They would not be able to find him as he was a lot further away than they expected. He could only hope that they would continue to remain hidden in these lands instead of going into a full confrontation with the sect living here.

‘Well then, first I need to drop off this apprentice… that looks like a good location.’

In the distance, he saw a large mountain that was getting struck down by many lightning bolts. It was a good natural barrier that could not be crossed by any cultivator below the nascent soul mastery level and a good hiding place for his mage. The constant lightning bolts made it hard to use any detection techniques and spells which made it perfect.

After taking off he quickly surrounded himself with a golden spiral of energy. Using this he drilled himself into the mountain range. There were no naturally formed caves here so he had to make some space so that this apprentice would be able to survive.

“That should do it…”

With a wave of his hand, he brought up some wooden furniture along with some food. He did not know how fast Argus would be able to come here as the distance from their hidden castle was about a day’s journey with his own flight speed. If the wizard could fly as fast as he could for a whole day he did not know.

“W-what?”

“Well hello there, you must be the apprentice Argus mentioned.”

“You know my mentor? Who are you, what do you want?”

“I don’t want anything, you just need to stay here, your master will come and pick you up later so it would be better if you stayed here, if you happened to die then It would probably sour our relationship.”

After the little explanation vanished from sight. The apprentice was left in a hidden cave made by him and surrounded by rocky mountains. He had reinforced the exterior so there was no problem with the mountain collapsing on the man inside or him being able to get through the walls himself. Air would be supplied by a handy treasure he had taken from his sect and with enough food and water to last him two weeks he should have been safe.

“Old man Argus, I have your disciple stashed in a safe location, he should be fine there for a week or two but it would be better if you didn’t stall too much. Also, bring some lightning protection and maybe some mining equipment.”

“Mining equipment?”

He could not see the wizard’s face but he was sure that the man was confused about his words. After some further explaining, everything was clear, the Wizard was on his way to free his apprentice and Zhang Dong started his journey towards the zone containing the largest amount of lightning energy.