“I want this place to be empty within the hour, take everything, grab the spatial rings, and don’t leave any stone untouched!”

“Yes, Senior Brother!”

The battle was over and Zhang Dong was looking at a particular scene playing out. The foundation establishment juniors were ransacking the entire mine and even taking some of the wooden beams that supported some of it. It seemed that there had been an order to not leave anything with spirit energy inside left.

‘I did say to bring any and all resources… I guess they are keeping true to my order.’

With the recent recruitment drive, his army was steadily growing. This meant that they needed to provide everyone with weapons, good robes, food, and even pills. The conflict had just started and they were going against a behemoth in the form of the Long Clan. Their opponent was well connected, no one stood in their way, and would offer up all their resources without a second thought.

His sect on the other hand had existed only around for ten years. While they were now famous it would take a lot more time for everyone to accept them as the new giant. Each time they went into new cities they had to jump through certain hoops to get the people's support. Some even tried to resist as they did not believe in their might.

Thanks to Zhang Dong’s system it was possible to recycle almost everything that was considered a crafting material. Thus his people were tasked with even stripping the floors of tiles which could be then reassembled into something workable. Even now they were scraping everything from this temporary enemy encampment to send back to later send back to the main sect.

“Take the prisoners away, they shall work at the mines.”

“Unhand me, I am a member of the Long Clan! Do you know who my uncle is? When he finds out, all of your descendants will be killed!”

“Shut it you old fart, they have special places at the mines for people like you!’

The man that belonged to the main Long Clan and was a core formation expert was apprehended. Even though their side had lost he was still complaining as if expecting to get returned to his family. It seemed that these people weren’t taking this war as seriously as his side was.

‘Hm… It's always better to go against a foe that underestimates their opponent, I hope there are more fools like this one out there.’

He could see victory on the horizon if they were up against self-absorbed idiots like this person. Considering that the Long Clan had been at the top for more than a hundred thousand years, they had no reason to doubt their victory. Perhaps they expected their outer clan elders and disciples to take care of everything.

‘How did that saying go? Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times. They had been on top for so long that they had probably weakened to a degree. They rely on other sects and branch clans to do the dirty work for them while they hide out in the middle region in that flying castle.’

Zhang Dong nodded at his assessment, when considering this truth things didn’t look that bad. However, the longer this exchange took the more his enemy would grow. Just like with the other empires he needed to continue pushing and the end would appear.

“Is everything fine?”

“Hm… Can you give me a report?”

He nodded while turning his head over to Lan Fei who had become sort of a secretary. The battle was over and he was done with suppressing the lesser cultivators with his aura. Without another nascent soul master to block it out, there was no way for them to fight back.

“We suffered no casualties thanks to Elder’s magnificent battle. Only a few injuries here and there but nothing a few pills can’t fix.”

“Mmm, and what of their side?”

“Around a fifth of their people had been slain in the attack the rest have already surrendered.”

“Is that so, you don’t seem happy Elder, is there something wrong?”

“No it’s nothing, help the others handle the prisoners and transport them to our stronghold. Then prepare them for transport after the gate is finished.”

“Of course.”

Lan Fei nodded her head and slowly retreated towards her sect brothers and sisters. She recalled the old days where this man had helped her out. Even though his face was rugged and unmoving it was obvious that he was feeling compassion for the deceased warriors from the other side. That someone like him existed in such a world felt strange but it also brought a smile onto her face.

‘I’m not sure what to do to minimize the deaths… These people aren’t participating entirely of their own free will. They can’t go against the Long Clan, even a random core formation elder is getting the royal treatment.’

The battle was won and the prisoners were getting taken away. The bodies of the defeated foes lay down on the ground while covered by thin cloth. The only thing he could do for these people was to take their remains into his medallion and then send them back to their clans. The least he could do was give their family members some closure.

‘They might hate me for it but… there are too many things at stake here for me to stop now.’

Killing regular human beings was a lot different than demi-humans. Even though this wasn’t the first time something like this happened, he could never get used to it. Soon the mine area was cleaned out and they returned to the stronghold where they were greeted by a few remaining sect members.

“Everyone, you did well. You are allowed to rest for the rest of the night, we will continue tomorrow at dawn.”

His people were tired, even if they were cultivators he knew that sooner or later their bodies would break. It was up to the commanding officer to keep his troops well prepared and resting was one way of sustaining morale. He could already see some of the soldiers smiling and commenting on the first real battle. All of them would start forming bonds with each other which would just solidify their integration into this company.

‘I wonder how the others are doing. Bob show me the report.’

‘Affirmative.’

While the others rested he wasn’t done with his duties. As the only nascent soul master here it was his job to keep everyone safe. His spiritual sense could spread out far into the distance. If someone got too close to their stronghold he would know.

He took a seat in his own private chamber that was devoid of any furniture. The castle had been assembled but it only created foundations of cold rock and steel. People would actually have to assemble other necessities that could be more easily transported through spatial rings.

For the time being he pulled out a chair along with a table onto which he superimposed a holographic image of the entire western border. The Long Clan was right in the middle and didn’t really control that much land compared to his sect or the one to the east. Even without any land, they were still considered to be the strongest superpower in the world.

‘Due to their concentration in the middle, it might be hard to drive them back, their protective formations could be as powerful as the ones from the Emerald Phoenix empire which shouldn’t be that much of a problem. What I really need to watch out for is that flying city and that Goliath thing Long Qing spoke about.’

The name reminded him of something like a giant golem or colossus from various legends. It was possible that this Long Clan he was going up against had a huge trump card. While this thing was supposed to help him against the other empires, now that he was going against his previous allies, it could be the reverse. It was possible for the scenario to change as he had a suspicion that the Overseer had something to do with it.

‘Perhaps if things get too one-sided, the Overseer has to level the playing field?’

He asked himself while staring at the map on the table. His forces were slowly assembling close to the border cities and assembling large castles. They weren’t just large structures of stone that could take a beating, there was a further purpose to their creation. After assembling a formation would be created, this one was quite special and could connect to other similar ones.

‘This is quite the undertaking, we need to assemble over a hundred of these to even have a chance to connect them.’

The plan wasn’t that simple. All these formations were supposed to connect to each other to form a giant wall between the center and the west. This is why they were trying to hide these buildings and create them before their enemy knew of their true purpose.

‘We have about one-fifth of them assembled, it’s going nicely but the Long Clan won’t remain passive.’

He recalled the elder that escaped from the battle. The man would probably make a full report to the Long Clan that might return with reinforcements. When the time came he needed to be ready to defend this place but he was not alone. Thanks to their teleportation gates, reinforcements would be able to arrive.

Even now some of his sect members were working tirelessly to assemble the first of these gates. Once they were finished more scientific staff could make their way over to help outfit this stronghold with weapons. Within a few days, he expected it to have many spirit canons, and protective shields to stem the tide.

‘I guess it’s up to them now, I’ll just need to protect them if those reinforcements arrive… I just hope they won’t be too hasty.’

This was an opportunity to test his enemies. Would they release the danger that was before them or would they ignore it? There were a lot of politics involved in the cultivation world. It wasn’t that easy to assemble new armies and get other elders to move. Without a proper leader or some structure, their response would be sluggish.

‘Well, I can only hope that they aren’t prepared for what’s to come, if this goes well, we will be able to push in for an offensive sooner than I anticipated.’