Earlier at Spirit Spring City in the dimensional regalia treasure:
The floating island in the void of the medallion had seen better days. The whole place was riddled with craters and rubble, even the buildings there were partially destroyed. The reason was the person who was in there and he was the one and only Nascent soul cultivator of the Zhang Clan.
Zhang Dong floated around while being in a seated position. His robe dangling downward due to gravity while he rubbed his chin. He had spent quite some time at just getting used to his new cultivation realm, he had long consolidated it and moved on to training in his techniques.
He didn't have the cash shop to go back to so he had to use his own understanding of the Dao to make progress. This wasn't a problem though, thanks to him having an astonishing amount of knowledge concerning the Dao of lightning. The upgrade to his cultivation technique also increased his understanding in the field of the holy elements so his healing arts would be more potent as well.
"Well, this place looks like shit... but with my current cultivation I can almost instantly repair it by infusing my Qi into the medallion."
He could barely get the pocket dimension to expand in size when he was still in the great circle of core formation. But things were different now, he was a Nascent soul grandmaster, a true behemoth in these lands. His true battle potential yet unknown as he hadn't faced a foe at the same level yet.
"Time to repair this place."
Matt knelt down and placed an open palm on the ground. The whole lump of earth that he was standing on was a part of this treasure. Thanks to this he could repair it without having to go outside to touch the medallion that was still in that protective room. His golden spiritual energy flowed into the earth beneath and he could already feel the fissures and craters sealing themselves back up again. In a matter of moments the scenery was back to normal, still not fully though.
"Well... I guess repairing the buildings would be too much to ask from this treasure..."
The structures like the large dorm looking building or the other ones that were built in this dimensional space couldn't be recreated like this. He would have to have his clansmen do the repairs manually. Some of the structures had collapsed due to several mistakes on his end. He had to watch his output a lot more now, a simple swing of his hand with a minimal amount of Qi in it could destroy the landscape around him.
"Haha, It's good to be the leader. Not like anyone can complain to me about destroying things here."
Matt was adamant about his leadership position at first, but now he was slowly warming up to it. It was much easier to just gather points with the help of his clansmen. He just needed to shove them slightly in the right direction and they did most of the work for him. Not having to worry about a popular vote when it came to making new laws was also a nice bonus.
"I don't think I would be able to pass most of those new laws if we had things like a Senate or a House of Representatives..."
Matt stood up after getting the ground back into shape, though it looked slightly barren as only the basic plant life recovered like grass.
"Benevolent Dictator Zhang Dong... has a nice ring to it..."
He laughed while walking towards the dorm house where the platoons had stayed at when they were training.
"Still, I'll have to look into that when things settle down..."
He was someone from modern times and his country was also a democracy. So he leaned in that direction, but in this world ruled by strength it would be hard to propose that way of thinking. Getting people to follow elected officials that weren't actually stronger than them in battle would be a strenuous task.
"Well I got most of the techniques and the Qi flow down now, this new enhanced spiritual sense is quite neat as well."
"I should probably craft that dagger now, wonder how much stronger I will become when my body also reaches the nascent soul level...also what's above a golden body... platinum?"
Matt rubbed his chin, thinking that that metal looked silver and would be just backtracking. Though a silver sheen was nice as well, maybe he would get a pure shiny chrome body that blinded his enemies.
"I will ride eternal, shiny and chrome...or something like that?"
No one was there to appreciate his bad monologue, so he moved on and was ready to enter his crafting abode to move on with the crafting. He wanted to take his attempt at the heaven grade weapon slowly, this was mostly the reason why he spent close to a week in training his Qi control. This skill was paramount to crafting weapons as making a slight mistake while infusing the metals and materials with his Qi could turn a treasure into junk.
[ Warning!!! Disciple Zhang Liu's body condition is rapidly decreasing! Warning!!! ]
Suddenly he heard a siren that was followed by a big red pop up window right in front of his face. It said that Zhang Liu was in a dire situation, he didn't know what was going on nor that his system even had this kind of function.
"What the hell ..."
He quickly tapped that prompt, the window quickly switched to Zhang Liu's disciple window and he could even see his photo in the top left corner. On the right side, there was a miniature version of a human body, it looked like one that you found in a medical book. Normally this figure was green, the colors changed depending on the amount of damage his disciples suffered.
"W-what is this!"
His eyes bulged as he knew how this disciple window should look like. He had trained with the kids before and they had suffered some minor injuries. The colors shifted from green to blue, yellow, orange, red, and then black. Black was the color of death and he never saw his disciples ever getting anything below the yellow color. To his astonishment, most of the diagram was red or orange and there were places turning red at the same time as he was looking at it.
"What's happening in that city? did they run into some demonic beasts on the way home?... what's going on?"
Matt rattled his brain, he didn't know what was going on. His grandpa and his retainers assured him that this was just a friendly get together for the clans. There shouldn't be any problems along the way as it was a safe zone, Zhang Jin even had that prototype treasure that he made to help him out if something went wrong.
"I must call them!"
Matt hastily left the dimensional regalia and appeared next to the medallion in the spacious empty room. The guards were startled as they couldn't even give him a salute, their Patriarch just zoomed past them and flew up the stairs leaving an afterimage behind.
[ Warning!!! Disciple Zhang Liu's life is in danger, killing intent detected, should the system activate the protection mark? Warning!!! ]
Matt stopped after another popup window showed up. He remembered that he spent some points on his two disciples when he was examining his system more throughout. He remembered that this was something high-level masters did for their pupils, so he spent a good amount of his points in his system on that mark. He almost thought that it was a rip-off, but now it could be Liu's only chance of survival.
With the pinpoint precision of a seasoned gamer he poked the 'yes' button as fast as his nascent soul cultivation allowed him to do. This of course didn't get unnoticed, a simple finger poke from someone this strong produced a giant shockwave blast that turned the stairs that he was standing into rubble.
[ Warning!!! Disciple Zhang Liu is in critical condition, life protective mark has been activated! Trying to stabilize, please wait! ]
This explosion didn't get unnoticed, guards poured in like bees to honey as they thought that their main building was getting attacked. The moment they got there though, they saw their Patriarch rising out from the rubble a strange expression on his face. He looked at them with a stern expression that made them stand up straight, their rear ends clenched.
"Where are Ya and Kuo, bring them here... do it now!"
The Zhang soldiers didn't need to hear the order twice as they bolted in various directions. While they were searching for Zhang Dong's two retainers, he himself pulled out a communication jade and tried contacting his grandpa that should be there with Liu.
"Nothing... I'm not getting through..."
He didn't know that the systems protective mark had fried all communication devices in the area, even the Dark Palm Sect headquarters in Jade Grass City had gone dark. This was a blessing in disguise as they wouldn't be able to call for backup for now.
"What's happening there?"
He removed himself from the ruined structure and was now in the main hall of the Zhang Clan compound. He wanted to just bold for that city right here right now, but he was holding himself back. He needed more information, his two retainers needed to fill him in before he made his way here. He had already experienced situations into which he went without any sort of plan or idea of the foe he was facing.
"Good, his vital signs are stabilizing..."
While moving towards the office that Kuo should be in, while at it he also kept looking at Zhang Liu's disciple window in his system. He noticed that this mark that he spent good spirit points on was actually keeping this boy alive. Previously dark red areas were turning brighter as time passed, which indicated a chance of survival.
"Zhang Kuo greets the Patriarch."
"Zhang Ya greets the Patriarch."
He moved his head away from the status window as his two retainers finally showed up. They were all standing out in the open as they had met halfway. There were other Zhang family members around them along with the guards that had called these two over.
"I will make this short you two, was it the Dao festival? Tell me, were there some dangers in the city it was being held?"
The two looked at each other after they stopped bowing, then Kuo replied to the question Zhang Dong said.
"Nothing in particular Patriarch, the festival should be ending in a couple of days, we are expecting the grand elder to return within the week."
Matt raised his brow, he could tell, the two were lying. Thanks to his enhanced spiritual sense he could tell this, what Kuo said was partially right but he was withholding information. Why the man was doing it was unknown to Matt, he had no time to spend on these games though.
He truthfully didn't have the slightest idea that the Dark Palm sect was located in Jade Gras City. There were far too many cities and towns with Spirit, Jade, Phoenix, or Dragon in their names, for him to remember which one was which. His two retainers were still keeping up with the request of the grand elder Zhang Jin, so they were just following orders.
"Is that so..."
The people in the room twitched the moment Zhang Dong said those words. They felt an oppressive aura coming from their Patriarch. This was something very uncharacteristic of their leader, everyone was surprised as they went down to their knees, gasping for air.
"P-patriarch appease y-your anger..."
"Appease my anger? My disciple is on his death bed and you still claim that everything is alright?"
"The hell is going on, SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS! I know that you two are withholding information from me!"
Zhang Dong pointed his finger at his two retainers accusingly, his aura washing over them which made them tremble in their boots. The cat was out of the bag at this point, so the two didn't have any reason to lie anymore. Their leader already knowing that something was fishy.
"T-the truth of the matter is..."
"Jade Grass City is... part of the Dark Palm Sect..."
Matt stepped back, the pressure around his people subsiding the moment the truth was revealed.
"The grand elder didn't want to worry you, Patriarch..."
The two had their faces mushed into the ground and couldn't really see if Zhang Dong was still mad or not. They were just following orders from their perspective but this could have been seen as undermining the leader's authority. From the Patriarch's point of view this could be considered treason and he could even have them killed.
"The Dark Palm Sect again... damn you gramps..."
Matt mumbled to himself while glaring at the two people at his feet. He was ready to take off here and there, before he could though he was interrupted by a female voice.
"Your disciple? did something happen to little Xue and Liu?"
This was Zhang Jie, the mother of his two pupils. She had a strained expression on her face, not really sure if she heard it right. Matt looked at his cousin and placed his arm on her shoulder, he gave her a solemn look before replying.
"Don't worry, I'll bring them back."
He then looked at Zhang Ya and Jin as he spoke out.
"I'll deal with you later."
He was already putting the coordinates of Jade Grass City into his system. Before Zhang Jie could reply he was already floating in mid-air, his body flashing in a golden light. The spiritual energy spiked in the surrounding that caused everyone to gasp out, was this really their Patriarch? This man was a lot stronger than they remembered him to be, they didn't get much time to gawk though. The man's body turned into a being of lightning and blasted straight upwards, the people in the vicinity were flung to the side just from his takeoff.
The people outside the Zhang Clan headquarters could see a bright beam of light shooting into the clouds followed by a thunderous boom. Everyone looked up into the sky only to see a thick bolt of lightning shooting from the cloud that was directly above them. Some of them could have sworn that they saw a person inside that huge lightning bolt.