‘I should have practiced this mimic skill a bit more…’

Zhang Dong was making his way through the inner Chaos Sect while in his new disguise. This time around he was a man that looked to be around forty. In reality, this person was closer to a hundred and only a foundation establishment late stage practitioner. With his advanced age it would be quite hard to reach the core formation stage as the older a person got, the harder this became.

‘Perhaps that’s why he is only a servant? He would have a better life in some of the lower regions where core formation is rare…’

His new disguise was a bit problematic as he couldn’t even fly on a sword to his destination. Yet before he exchanged himself for this person the servant was keeping up a fast pace. Probably if he delivered these pills and scrips slowly he would receive punishment.

‘I just need to get in and find a core disciple to impersonate.’

Zhang Dong’s main concern was reaching the thing that powered the formation. His current disguise along with the identification plaque that he got from the unfortunate servant would allow him to progress further inside. From his experience, the hard part was getting through a checkpoint but once in it wouldn’t be that hard to move around.

Core sect elders were mostly trying to prolong their life and get to the next level so they didn’t pay that much attention to what was happening outside. Their disciples were even more focused on progressing their techniques as their growth was more palpable. They would certainly not be that quick to investigate servants running around as there were other things to be done.

“Did he send you out for another errand, Liu Chen?”

“Ah, yes…”

Zhang Dong approached the gate and was surprised that one of the guards knew who he was. There was a certain look of pity in the man’s eyes when he looked his way. This probably meant that Liu Chen, who he was impersonating, didn't have an easy life.

When he knocked out the servant there were certain injuries that didn’t fully heal yet. He even had to mimic some of the wounds on his face that indicated that he had been recently punched. Probably if he actually ran into this young master it wouldn’t be strange if he had to get smacked a few times for his mission to succeed.

“Go in then, young master Yichen should be out at the training ground.”

After bowing his head Zhang Dong was able to get into the core sect compound. This one was also behind a grand wall that stretched almost all the way up to the ceiling of this underground. Above on the wall, he could see core formation sentries with ranged weapons patrolling even as he went in.

‘I expected their defenses to be lax, they should have transferred more guards towards the assembly.’

He had hoped that everyone, even the disciples would have been forced to pay their respects to their new leader. Perhaps Wang Long didn’t like sect gatherings and forbade everyone from participating?

This might have been the reason behind this place being filled with demonic disciples and their masters. It just seemed to be an average day for them if some weren’t commenting about the demon king’s arrival then he could assume that he wasn’t even coming here.

‘The training area should be that way…’

Normally the plan was to avoid the young master to whom this servant belonged. Yet as always his luck when it came to infiltration wasn’t all that great. Where the training ground was so was his next destination. Only after passing through it would he arrive at the main sect building where his mission would end.

‘Bob, are you sure that this is the best route?’

‘Affirmative.’

‘Great…’

He had found a map of the entire sect compound on the servant. There were some markings done by Liu Chen that probably indicated where the young master of his liked to hang out. The servant probably got the map to help him find this Yichen before he got another beating. Thanks to this he could order Bob to simulate the safest route of getting there and all of the paths went through the spot this young master was at.

‘Is there someone else I can change to… this might become troublesome if I start getting beat and this brat breaks his arm on my face…’

Zhang Dong’s body refining skill was at the peak of this world. It would be somewhat hard for him to get injured by anyone below the nascent soul level. To anyone below it would feel like they were hitting a slab of metal instead of flesh. He would really need to go with the punches to make it seem believable if the confrontation occurred.

Regretfully this place wasn’t really suited for taking out people. There were a lot of open spaces and a large number of people were going back and forth. The fake sun that was illuminating the place would also make most of his shadowy techniques lose most of their impact.

Luckily for him, the robe he was wearing was identical to every other servant. It wouldn’t be that hard to cover his face and blend in with the crowd. Thus after silencing his own steps and breathing he decided to blend in with everyone else. It seemed that looking at attendants in the face was not something the young masters would do. This gave him the opportunity to move toward his target with more ease than he expected.

‘I’m practically invisible to these people…’

It was as if he was water and they were oil. No one was interested in him after they realized his robes belonged to a servant. There were even special walkways for servants like him through which he could avoid contact with most of the disciples and elders.

When passing through he could see the usual facilities everywhere. Cultivation caves, herb gardens, and pill pavilions. It didn’t really look any different from any other sect even though the buildings were a bit less kept from what a person would expect to see.

‘Well… that went better than I expected…’

To his surprise, after arriving at the training grounds there was no trouble. The disciples were just training and battling each other to gain more experience. For a moment he expected one of these young masters to run up to him with their palm outstretched. Yet even after going through the whole way, there was no one that stopped him.

It seemed that taking on the role of a servant was a lot better than impersonating an elder or a disciple. No one that mattered probably even knew who he was. They weren’t expecting any infiltration attempts either and perhaps they thought that no idiot would even try impersonating one of their personal delivery boys.

‘Well then, now comes the interesting part.

When he arrived at the main compound he quickly evaded the praying gaze of the other guards. Instead, he hugged the wall like a frog and started climbing up. This place was another checkpoint yet this time around it was too dangerous to try and get in through the main gate. Instead, he would use all of the skills that he gained to not get detected.

He wasn’t sure what it was but for some reason, the path before him had opened itself up. When he went through the guards were not paying attention, all of his moves were silent, and progressing through this checkpoint proved to be an easy endeavor.

His good luck continued as he pushed further into the core sect. There he found an underground labyrinth. Yet to someone of his knowledge it was obvious that if he went with the traditional way then he would be stuck in there for days. It was a clear trap for the non-initiated and a secret path was there for him to be discovered.

With the help of his senses and also his system he was quickly able to discover an out-of-place entrance. It was hidden behind several illusory arrays that after being cracked opened up to a flight of stairs. From that point onwards it was smooth sailing and within an hour of him passing through the checkpoint, he finally arrived at his destination.

‘It doesn't seem that there is anyone here, could it be that they haven’t really had time to prepare this place for spies?’

Even though he was a one-in-a-billion master it was still strange that it was this easy to get here. The only explanation that was plausible was his timing. This sect had been taken by Wang Long not so long ago.

It wouldn't be strange if the people that knew this place in and out were all dead. Wang Long might have not thought ahead with his plans and had everyone that was competent replaced. This would leave the new people to pick up the slack, without proper plans of the area it would take years for even a master to figure out this whole place.

Only with the help of his cheat system was he able to condense all the knowledge from old books and texts to come this far. Others would need expectantly more time to get a grasp of everything around them.

‘There really doesn’t seem to be anyone here…’

Even though he had a hunch it was still best to wait and see. Only after spending some time scanning the whole area with the help of his system and his sense did he decide to reveal himself. The area he was in now looked like a giant chasm with lava coming out of it, yet the lava wasn’t quite red but instead looked like corrupt dark blood.

‘This must be a corrupt spirit vein, the demonic radiation is truly powerful but…’

He trailed his eyes forward and could feel that this was not the spot with the most energy. That went further in the direction of Wang Long’s new castle. Luckily spirit veins of this caliber couldn’t just be absorbed by the system. They would need to go through some kind of process of purification before this could be attempted.

All over the walls, he could see strange occult symbols that the energy-gathering formation was composed. It was responsible for the grand formation working and if he disabled it then the inner city shield and even the one around this core sect area would be easily breached.

“I guess I should put a timer on this and get out of here…”

The last phase of the plan was upon him. After hacking the formation he would be able to leave. Finally, the time for the last battle was within hand’s reach.