US: Chapter 404 (Patreon)

There it was before him, the elusive Long Clan. It was the center of the empire and even considered the empire itself. The moment the elevator reached the apex he arrived before a magnificent city.

The tremendous amount of spiritual energy that was just floating around was truly astonishing. Even back at his own sect he needed to harness the spirit vein directly and implement several spirit gathering formations to barely be close to this.

‘I bet that in the central part it will be even higher, no wonder they were able to stay in power for so long.’

A high ambient spiritual energy allowed people to naturally absorb it while they were young. This would widen the future bottlenecks for anyone living in such an environment. Thus it was quite an unfair advantage that couldn’t be easily passed.

‘So this is the Long Clan?’

Zhang Dong started looking around while the five people that were with them started advancing from this elevator platform. Around them was a wide-open area covered with grass and trees. It looked like a heavily tended garden with a nice path laid out with bricks leading to the outside.

The moment they arrived here he also noticed a large crowd around them. On the path laid out of bricks that seemed to be made from gold, there was a tunnel of core formation cultivators. They were all standing at attention while wearing some expensive-looking armor.

It was a sight to behold as the moment the Azure Emperor’s foot touched that brick road the soldiers raised their swords into the air. It looked like a picture from a game as a tunnel was formed from shiny weapons that probably cost as much as a whole small clan in the lower regions.

This kind of put everything in perspective. He had advanced quite a bit since the first time he entered this world as a core formation master. Probably if he had to face any one of these regular guards at this base level all those years ago he would be in for a hard battle.

“Come brother, I need to introduce you to the rest of our family!”

“Rest of the family?”

Long Qing nodded while urging Zhang Dong to move towards this path of soldiers. There were quite a few of them, it wasn’t odd for the lower clans and sects to not be taken seriously. There were enough guards in this park to eradicate anyone at the level of the old Zhang Clan.

While they were walking through this tunnel of swords Zhang Dong continued to spread his spiritual sense in all directions. He noticed that there were many people looking at them from the buildings around them. Some were waving and screaming the Azure Emperor’s name, others were already on the ground and bowing even without being anywhere near them.

The city in itself was somewhat more modern-looking than he expected. Large buildings made of stone and glass that were akin to skyscrapers from his world were spotted in the distance.

Around them were other various buildings that didn’t seem to belong to one theme. He spotted some that looked like grand churches while others were the regular large pagoda types that were seen everywhere. The city was somewhat random in its architecture without sticking to any single theme.

Then in the distance, he saw a large tower made of bright blue crystals. It stretched far into the sky and towered over all the other tall buildings. It looked like some kind of giant spear that was shoved into the ground by a titanic existence.

“That’s the Crystal tower of azure, the place where I live and your new home my brother!”

“My new home?”

Zhang Dong wanted to instantly refuse but for now, he was still just gathering information. At any moment in time, he could just teleport away to his ship that was waiting at the border. It didn’t seem that he was in any immediate danger, getting more intel was important.

Swaying Long Qing towards Wang Long was also on his agenda. He could not let that madman roam the land and absorb everyone's spirit points, the other player needed to be stopped.

This tower was closer to the edge of this floating city. He was unsure what it was made of but it had a similar color to spirit stones. At this point in time, he would not be surprised if it was actually a huge chunk of spirit energy as it was radiating a gigantic amount of energy.

From here he could tell that there were some formations in place that blocked most of that energy from seeping out. When removed it would probably cause widespread damage as there was a limit of how much spiritual energy each person could actually contain in their body.

The bodies of the cultivators in this empire caused them to absorb ambient energy from the surroundings. If the energy was too pure though it could cause a rather nasty affliction that would lead to death.

He could only speculate that the people here had grown accustomed to this high degree of spiritual energy. Their children would thus be fine living in this environment even though normal children's bodies would be unable to survive for too long.

“Yes, this is your new home and also your people, come my brother let us rejoice in our family reunion!”

While he was half a step behind the Azure Emperor the man moved over and hooked his arm around his shoulder. It was as if two drinking buddies were just walking together while others stared.

This was about at the same time as they stepped out from the tunnel of swords. He could instantly feel thousands of eyes on him. This was not surprising as he was walking hand in hand with the Azure Emperor, the leader of the whole empire. The people were clearly interested in who he was and why the emperor was acting so intimate with him.

There was of course an immediate roar from the citizens of this city. There were various cultivators floating around and keeping an eye out for anyone trying to get too close to the emperor. He could even see some people being shoved back as they were trying to rush to where the emperor and others were.

This painted a picture in his mind when he compared the city to other ones in the empire. The people looked happy and didn’t feel threatened even when rushing towards their leader. It was clear that they were led with compassion and not with an iron fist as most societies here operated.

At least that’s how it looked on the surface level. Zhang Dong was old enough to know that appearances could be deceiving and that on the inside there could be some murky business afoot.

‘He sure is a celebrity…’

The Azure Emperor smiled brightly and finally moved away from Zhang Dong. He floated up into the air with a big smile on his face. The people started cheering loudly the moment they saw him, in the distance, he spotted something that he thought only existed in his own city, a large holographic display.

On this display all of them were visible but the Azure Emperor was clearly the main character. From time to time they would zoom in on his wife and the elders but he was mostly ignored.

“Please Emperor, we must return to the azure tower with haste!”

The previously silent member of the three elders spoke out. It seemed that if they didn’t move this along the Azure Emperor would start a big speech to the people that were shouting. Zhang Dong could even hear some young maidens throwing marriage proposals at the city leader.

“The elders are right dear, our guest also looks overwhelmed with this display.”

“He is? Let us return home in haste then!”

While the Emperor seemed to ignore the elder that spoke up he instantly changed his mind when his wife spoke up. The Azure Emperor was quick to wave his hand to surround everyone with blue flames. From the outside, it looked like they were inside of a flaming ball but on the inside, it looked like a normal spirit barrier.

Zhang Dong took this chance to investigate this peculiar cultivation method. This was some variation of flames that was similar to his holy lightning. It had a somewhat divine aura to itself that was giving him good vibes.

‘This Long Qing is a bit odd but he doesn’t seem like a bad guy…’

In a few moments, all of them zoomed towards the azure tower. When they got closer he noticed that they were passing through several hidden barriers.

‘Scan those formations, Bob.’

He gave the order while looking around, the scan didn’t take that long and he was given a result that he expected. The formation worked similar to the treasure he was in contact with before, they investigated a person’s bloodline.

The closer they got to the tower the better looking the buildings became and the spirit energy increased. Even though the city looked like a happy unit, this barrier clearly segregated them into sections. He wouldn’t be surprised if the people with a purer bloodline looked down on the lesser ones.

Soon they finally arrived at the large tower that looked like a big chunk of blue spirit stone. At the base, there was a large yard made from shiny tiles and the welcoming committee was already waiting for them.

Most of the people there were wearing white robes but some had ones somewhat identical to what the Azure Emperor was wearing. There were three of them, two were young men and one beauty that could give her own Zhang Xue a run for her money in the jade beauty department.

At first, he wasn’t sure who they were, maybe his younger brothers and sister but after they opened up their mouths, it was clear.

“Welcome back father.”

One of the young men stepped forward to greet the Azure Emperor and his wife. The two looked somewhat similar but also the same age. Zheng Dong almost forgot how people aged in this world. It would be somewhat hard to tell which of them was the older one as both looked to be around twenty.

“You to mother, welcome back… and this is?”

While the family of four were having a nice moment they soon noticed him. It didn’t seem that they were that happy to see him as their faces were devoid of joy. From the looks of it, these young lords didn’t think much of him, this probably due to his strange cultivation level that was more similar to a core formation master than a nascent soul one.

“Don’t be rude, this is your long-lost uncle, Long Dong! Be sure to give him the respect that he deserves!”

The Azure Emperor’s words took the trio aback as they examined him some more. From what Zhang Dong could tell the elders of these ‘children’ was actually older than he was while the other two weren’t far behind.

‘They don’t look too happy about me being here, hope this goes well.’

While they did start, with their father around they somewhat lowered their heads with indignation in their eyes. Soon the tour of the Azure crystal tower commenced and he waited for the time to bring up the issue with Wang Long.