“What is happening?”

Suddenly a loud thunderclap was heard by the ten nascent soul masters from the lily factions. The clouds above them started circling around their gathering location and changing color. Soon a strange deep yellow glow that resembled gold appeared in the middle. Inside they noticed a person, he had his hands behind his back and was standing on the clouds like a ferocious sword.

“It’s the Golden Dragon? Was he part of this meeting?”

Everyone looked towards Sun Shen, the faction leader of the Moon Lily faction. The old man shook his head as he had not been informed of this. Even the old woman from the faction known for their seers looked surprised. The only thing they could do was wait while slowly reaching for their weapons. Could this be some kind of attack, perhaps the Golden Dragon had been coerced by the enemies? He had spent a lot of time in those lands and that strange army of angels had also appeared out of nowhere.

“Are you this surprised to see me? What’s with those looks on your faces?”

“Honorable Golden Dragon, why have you appeared before us without informing the council about your presence in the sect? We would have of course welcomed you if we just…”

The Patriarch was the one to speak out but the two guardians that were behind him started to move as well. They had mostly recovered from their wounds and were now aching for a rematch with the person that gave them their first loss in a while.

“You just what? Threw a big feast? Wasted more time bickering here? When will you make your move, I already set the stage for you, do you really want me to do everything myself? Is the Heavenly Crane Sect this week?”

“Weak? Long Dong, you are going too far!”

“Hoh, did I touch a nerve? But isn’t what I’m saying true? How do you think your sect will look if all the lands that you previously owned are liberated by me? Well… to be honest that might not be a bad idea, I could just turn them to my vassals instead, the resources there aren’t bad…”

Zhang Dong was slowly floating down from the sky while going into a monologue. He knew that these people didn’t pose a threat to him. After he one-sidedly beat up their twin duo all of these masters were scared of him. If they came at him together as one unit and had some good teamwork then perhaps they would be victorious. However, the ten were divided. One side was even in favor of what he was doing and he could see the old lady even joining his side if a fight broke out.

“What are you insinuating, do you mean you wish to take over our lands?”

“Do I wish to take over your lands? No, that is not what I want, my intention from the start was to get rid of the Emerald Phoenix Empire but if you are not willing to give me aid, I will take care of everything myself.”

Just as he was about to land his body became a blur made of golden lightning energy. His landing shattered some of the ground and produced some smoke. It looked like he was attacking which made the Patriarch and his bodyguards that he appeared next to flinch. However, this was the end of it, no follow-up attacks and no talking, just silence. It was as if he was saying to them that he could have taken their leader’s head if he wanted to and they would not be able to do anything about it.

“You must excuse my actions but this is an issue I will not back away from, the Emerald Phoenix Empire will continue their way to the north and west after they are done with you. Alone you will not be able to stop them, but with my help it is possible, so let me help you and I will promise to leave everything as it was.”

“So, your goal is the eradication of the invaders?”

“Yes.”

“Do you really want us to believe that? What is the real reason?”

Leader Zhong once more was the person to doubt his words. Zhang Dong wanted to give the man a slap across the face but attacking this group of people would just ruin the whole plan. While he could let the Heavenly Crane Sect perish while taking out some of the Emerald Phoenix Empire armies, it would be a net loss in his eyes. They could do so much more if they worked together and fewer people would have to perish.

It wasn’t strange for Zhong to be skeptical about Zhang Dong’s motives. Saints existed in this world but they never really got to the level of a nascent soul master. Each and every cultivator sooner or later had to walk over someone else to gain their position. To him, there had to be some kind of hidden treasure or something that Zhang Dong or his sect would gain from helping them.

“You want a reason? Shouldn’t you be asking yourself a different question though?”

“A different question?”

“Yes, is this a bad deal for you? How about you stop worrying about what I’m getting for this and think of what your profits will be? It’s fine if you don’t trust me but is it a bad deal for you?”

“The golden dragon isn’t wrong… the weapons of those invaders are quite peculiar, perhaps we could gain their wisdom and adapt them to work with our techniques!”

“Yes… the samples of their pills were also interesting… there is much that we could gain from this.”

“See, now you’re thinking in the right direction, you get your treasures and the only think I will ask for, is their Emperor.”

“The Emerald Phoenix Emperor?”

“Yes, you can have the rest, but their leader is mine.”

“Hm…”

The Patriarch and all the other elders started thinking. They knew that the leader of the enemy empire would probably have the best treasures on his body. It wouldn’t be strange to want what was the best for them, considering they were one of the big three in the empire. However, they were in the presence of Zhang Dong, the great Golden Dragon. It was clear to them that they wouldn’t be able to defeat him in a fair fight.

‘Hm… They will probably agree and when the time comes weigh their options again.’

“I think what the Golden Dragon is saying isn’t a bad offer, there will be many treasures to be gotten.”

“I also agree, those pill formulae are already good enough and will help us bolster our sect for generations to come!”

Soon some of the factions that were on the fence started to agree. Their greed was strong and when given the option of gaining potential treasures in the form of weapons, pills, and techniques they weren’t able to refuse. The only thing they needed to do was to give Zhang Dong the belongings of their leader.

Even this was a potential chance, he knew that they were hoping for the two leaders to take themselves out. When the two most powerful cultivators fought to the death, there was always a chance for a third party to snatch it all at the end. If Zhang Dong won and was gravely injured, they could swoop in to take the prize.

The same rule applied if he lost, as long as one of the scary Emperor level threats was weakened they could attempt to take everything. In either scenario, they would be gaining a lot, thus their decision swayed towards sending their troops. Even if there was a chance to lose some people, the chances of gaining more power outweigh any potential deaths of their sect members.

“I see your point Golden Dragon but you will have to leave us so we can vote on this matter as our traditions require us.”

“Of course but keep this in mind, it won’t take much more time until their counter-offensive.”

“They plan to attack us? Do you have proof for this claim?”

Leader Zhong shouted out from the distance as always as he had been planning to bunker up instead of charging in.

“Proof? No, I don’t have anything substantial, this is just an opinion made on my own observation.”

This time it was the Patriarch who was interested. They still didn’t really know their enemy's true motives. Were they after something specific or were they just warmongers trying to capture more lands? Some would probably be fine in giving up some of their lands if they retained the more critical locations that were closer to the center of the Azure Empire. It wasn’t strange to back off and wait, cultivators were long-lived so even waiting for hundred years wasn’t anything new for them.

“Then what is the basis for your actions?”

“I would say, their nature and lack of time? I, I forgot that you are not the Long Clan, you still do not know what is happening.”

“Golden Dragon… could you explain it to us then?”

All the elders here were quite intrigued by Zhang Dong's claims. What were this true nature and lack of time he was talking about? They still didn’t know about the fact that within a hundred years, the bridge would be closed and the Emerald Phoenix Empire would need to evacuate. They also didn’t know of their hundred of thousands of years of prep time. This he could quickly explain to them which would probably push them in the right direction.

If they knew that their enemies resided in another section of this world that was only accessible every hundred thousand years, they would surely get interested. They were just like them if they could, they would probably like to invade the Emerald Phoenix Empire lands if they could. It would be an intriguing place to visit that could even have various different treasures that could be received by them.

Zhang Dong had to actually persuade his own people to not cross into the demi-human empire while the bridge was still there. The option to plunder their lands while they were in the process of a civil war was enticing. Their leader had been killed and most of the tribe leaders were as well. It wouldn’t be hard to take over their lands but it would also split up their resources. However, perhaps if the northern sea creature problem was done with, then perhaps the demi-human empire could act as a secondary source for spirit points.

“Well then, sit tight as this one might take a while, let me first explain the bridges that have appeared all over the empire and the great divide…”