“The carpet seems to have survived at least…”

The throne room was quite large, there was a large red carpet going towards a large throne made of more golden metal. It was a lot more radiant than the columns on the sides that spread out into more empty space.

“There is a spatial formation at work here, the castle didn’t look as big from the outside…”

After wandering for half an hour through the entire place he figured out that something was amiss. The corridors stretched for many hundreds of meters and the courtyard was larger than several football fields. The palace was large and all but it after coming inside it was the size of a whole village.

The throne that belonged to him looked to be missing some gems. There were sockets on the sides that were emptied out. Gray dust was everywhere but some of the fabric that was dangling from the chandeliers and ceiling was still there.

“Maybe I could give it to the weave masters to make some good robes? If this material has survived a hundred thousand years then it has to be special.”

Behind the large golden throne, there was a large stained glass window. The color was a bit faded but it was depicting several scenes involving warriors and dragons. It was the only light source for now but he could see similar windows frames on the upper floor but they were not letting any sunlight in.

“I guess this is the focal point of this palace?”

Finally, after walking down a small flight of stairs he arrived at the throne. The armrests looked like two golden dragons that were immortalized in this costly chair. It was not the same as the Azure Dragon throne, it seemed that the two brothers had different tastes. For once the Azure Palace was much larger from the outside while this one with the spatial formation was just as big on the inside.

‘Establishing direct connection with the new domain…’

After placing both his hands on the sizeable sparkly throne his system window instantly popped up. Bob started informing him about various modifications to the new ‘domain’ he had established here. Previously it was nothing more than a few words on the screen with some basic stats but now it was transforming into a detailed holographic image.

“So this is the whole palace? I could probably fit every core disciple into this thing if I wanted to…’

As with everything in this world, there was enough space to fit around five thousand people without experiencing any problems in housing them. There was a larger barracks and many luxurious rooms spread through the entire palace hidden away by various formations that constricted it.

Then he also had the dimensional regalia which was a small pocket dimension of its own. If he combined the two he would have a mobile flying fortress that was a lot sturdier than the one he created himself. Almost instantly he wanted to have his sect members come here to start with the renovating process. This palace was on a higher level than what he could create himself but it needed repairing.

In the treasury, there were some relics that had managed to survive along with more spirit dragon gold to go around. With him in the castle and with that golden egg to power everything this flying island could become an important asset in beating the other empires. If he managed to restore the defensive systems and bring over some powerful cannons then perhaps he could use them to take back some of the lost lands.

“Will the Azure Emperor complain if I take it outside his lands?”

That was one of the main problems, Long Qing accepted Zhang Dong as part of his family yet he still wished to confine himself to his own lands. This golden palace was an old precious relic that he and the long clan might want to keep inside their territory.

“Do they have the right to stop the Golden Dragon though? I bet some of the people from the Azure faction would love it if I just took this thing and just went away never to return.”

On the other hand, he had no support in the Long Clan. Probably if Long Qing wasn’t supporting him as his long-lost brother the rest of the Long Clan would have turned their swords toward his neck. He was nothing more than an eyesore as he could contend for the throne, he had a whole heritage of the Golden Dragon, someone equal to the Azure Dragon lineage.

“Getting ahead of myself, first I need to get this rust bucket operational. Bob, I assume that all this red and orange isn’t anything good right?”

“Affirmative, discovered multiple failures and errors in the new domain, immediate repair required, do you wish to use spirit points to repair the damaged structures?”

“So I can repair it just like that?”

Zhang Dong leaned back in the uncomfortable throne room and started clicking at the holographic picture representing the golden palace. After fiddling around for a moment he started getting the hang of it. Firstly he zoomed in on the room that he was in now, even this room was mostly destroyed and showed up in yellow.

“These shouldn’t cost that much…”

With his finger, he pointed at the destroyed chandeliers that were dangling from above the ceiling. While the usage of spirit points to raise his cultivation was tremendous it wasn’t the same for the subsystems like this. The chandelier’s repair wouldn’t cost him that much and he could even alter their looks. He had various options available as it allowed him to pick from designs he had at his main sect.

“Let’s go with the default one for now…”

After clicking the confirmation prompt the closest chandelier started shining brightly before regaining its former luster. Various colorful gems appeared around the previously empty golden frame and started giving out light. This light could be changed at will to fit any color and brightness he desired.

“Isn’t there another way to do this? I still need those spirit points…”

There were never enough spirit points to go around. While his evil counterpart could slaughter living beings for them he could only absorb spirit stones or other unconverted sources of spiritual energy like spirit veins. There was one under his sect that he could devour but it would destroy his sect that relied on spiritual power.

He also knew about the much larger one that was here, as the Golden Dragon he might have even been able to visit it. The Long Clan would certainly go after him if they realized that he was draining them of their most precious resource.

“What is this though…”

Yet there was something new after he received this base, his passive spirit point income had more than doubled after gaining this relic of old. This palace was granting him a large number of points just for its base version, if he repaired it and then perhaps upgraded it further could it triple or quadruple his passive income?

“Hey Bob, will my spirit point intake increase if I repair this fortress.”

“Affirmative, the new domain will generate more resources after being repaired, user can also create structures to further increase resource acquisition.”

“Oh, really?”

He almost jumped up in glee when he realized this. Soon he began scrolling through the whole palace and looking for such options. This thing was like a little mobile game, he just needed to wait for a while until the structure was created and it would start to generate him spirit points. The more he mends the place the more he would get in return. The best part about it was that he could do it remotely and his sect members could also hasten the process by cleaning everything up first.

“This is great… if my calculations are okay, this will outpace slaughtering multiple nascent soul beings every day with just its passive income…”

It seemed that this was really an end-game item that was meant to be received when the war was well underway. The faster he got this place in order the faster he could focus on feeding the spirit points into his seed. This place was also connected to his system so he would actually be able to spend spirit points on armaments for his people. It was truly a fortress made to grow his faction and profit from it.

“Hah, can I give this thing a name? Calling it ‘new domain’ every time will be annoying. If I still had my old naming sense I would call it something ridiculous like ‘Golden Dong Palace’ but luckily I have also matured past that, now I bet there is a naming option somewhere here…”

Before he could access that function though he heard his AI assistant call out to him in that robotic voice.

“Domain name has been updated to Golden Dong Palace.”

“... Abort! Cancel!”

He shouted loudly while watching a few characters appear above the stained glass window. It was the exact thing that he just said and a large banner with the words ‘Golden Dong Palace’ appeared.

“Bob, stop it, I want to update the name again!”

After a short pause, he started shouting at this AI companion. The name apparently was now being etched into some key locations; he could even see it appearing on the main gate where everyone could see it.

“Can’t change the domain’s name at the moment, the user has to wait twenty-four hours before attempting again, changing the name will require spirit points from now on.”

“Hey… what is this pay-to-win model?”

The number of spirit points that he would need to spend was also not low. He compared it to the number he spent when repairing the chandelier and it was more than a hundred times above it.

“Screw it then… Golden Dong Palace it shall be… not like anyone will care…”

Zhang Dong slumped his shoulder forward in defeat. He was unwilling to spend such a ridiculous amount of spirit points to just change a few words on the wall.

“I guess it could have been worse…”

He had other creative names floating around in his head that would have made him look even worse. Luckily in this world, the word dong that stood for his name didn’t mean what he was thinking. The people that lived in this world would not find it strange that his name was there, they would probably expect it to be there.

“I should probably return to my dear old brother, he will probably be surprised that my name appeared above the gate…”

With the golden palace now safely stored in his faction window and a teleportation point setup he was free to come back here without many spirit points wasted. Yet before he could step outside his AI reacted again, now informing him of another spicy find.

“Item fitting description has been found…”