Matt was sitting down by a giant table, hand in hand with his wife that was sitting next to him. He was feeling a bit dazed after the first proper kiss that the two had had at the wedding ceremony. He needed to keep a cool head though, this was the part of the ceremony where they were going to be accepting gifts from the other clans and sects.
There was an old friend from two years ago looking at him. He was bald and looked like a monk and his name was Bankei. He had met him and Feng Liena during the forced expedition to the sacred ground. They received a bunch of talismans and evil repelling treasures as also an oath of recognition from him and his sect. They didn't reach out in their time of need though so Matt didn't feel like he owed them anything.
The boring exchange of bows and presents continued on, all various clan names were being thrown about but he didn't remember any of them. He even felt like some of the last names started repeating themselves. This made him realize that he was sitting on even more power and land now, it was as if he was an emperor on his own planet, at least surface wise.
He tried recalling what the next part of the ceremony would be. He would have to go through the whole sect on a decorated flying platform and wave at everyone there. He had already made his greeting speech and was just waiting till all of this was over.
The thing that he was anxiously awaiting was the ending of this wedding, namely the wedding night. He was equally eager and equally afraid of not fulfilling his wife's womanly needs. The only thing he had to go back to was the one night stand almost three years ago and knowledge from internet movies from back in his earthen days.
"Now from the Dragon Gate Sect…"
His nervous contemplations were brought to an end after he noticed the name of one of the three great sects being mentioned. He went a bit on alert and also could feel Feng Liena gripping his hand a bit tighter. If he liked it or not these were people he had to contend with and offending them would never be anything good. Still, a line had to be drawn and there were certain things that they wouldn't be able to turn a blind eye to.
The person that appeared was an older man, his cultivation wasn't high or anything and he conducted himself with grace. The gift wasn't anything grand but it made Zhang Dong feel like this sect was being respectful. He just nodded and thanked the man and that was it.
Next came the Demon Subduing Sect, this time it was a lady close to his age. She looked a bit haughty but she also managed to deliver the present of goodwill without making much of a scene. The trouble only started with the third and last guest that was from the Limitless Sword Society.
The person was your typical young master as always. Matt wasn't sure why there were so many of those types in this world but they seemed to always cause trouble. He arrived late and even held up the ceremony process. It would be seen as a disgrace if they changed the order now.
The first red flag was that he was carrying his sword on his hip. Apparently the Limitless Sword Sect's cultivators treasured their weapons and would rarely allow them to be taken away. Still, this young man wasn't at a position where he would be allowed to do that in front of a nascent soul master like Zhang Dong. He was clearly disrespecting them, not afraid as he had his sect to back him up.
Matt just gave out a sigh as he watched the man that looked to be in his late twenties strut in. He wasn't sure how old he was but he could very well be over fifty even if he looked like this. His core formation cultivation gave him quite the longevity up to 500 years of age. A nascent soul elder in contrast mostly lived between a thousand and two thousand years.
"Greetings from the Limitless Sword Society~"
The man had a couple of people behind them. They didn't bow or even clasp their hands while approaching Zhang Dong and Feng Liena. Liena grasped Dong's hand even tighter than before and he could feel like she could have some kind of a rage outburst soon.
'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…'
Matt wasn't all that mad, he had already kind of gotten used to those haughty young master types. He already went through battles and knew that nothing good came from aggravating them. This showed after the Dark Palm sect debacle which was caused by one of their junior members. He even started blaming the parents more than the young masters for how they acted. If their elders showed them how to present themselves and not see everyone as a little bug to squish they would probably be normal people.
He was just a bit afraid that his wife could do something emotional as this was her wedding and women tended to take it a bit more seriously than others. He did a small side glance to his wife, he could see her eyebrows twitching furiously at the display of disrespect.
"We came bearing gifts for you honorable lord and your beautiful wife, hope you cherish this treasure."
The man from the sect clapped his hands together and two of his retainers brought out his gift. It was in a polished bronze container which they placed on the offering table. They opened it up while everyone looked with curiosity, inside were low-quality pills that made more brows furrow.
The people started whispering with each other. This was a blatant show of disrespect, those pills that were getting presented looked to not even be above mortal grade in rarity, probably at the lower end of it.
The people from the United Element sect were appalled by this behavior. They were sure that the young man was just throwing his weight around. He had some backing as his granduncle was indeed a nascent soul master from that sword sect.
Still, the United Element's sect leader managed to last through the battle with the Dark Palm sect's Yang Guanyu and even took on five cultivators at once. This young man was probably unaffected by this fact and probably thought it was just baseless rumors.
"Oh, quite the high-quality earth grade pills you have brought with you there…"
After a moment of silence, Zhang Dong's calm voice resounded through the banquet hall. Everyone looked to the sect leader and wondered what their leader was on about. The pills that those people brought in were clearly low-grade mortal ones.
Before anyone could ask about what Zhang Dong was talking about, one of the pills moved upwards. It flew towards the United Element sect's leader and stopped in front of his face. He moved his free hand over to the pill and tapped it with his index finger.
The people weren't sure what he was doing but soon realized that it wasn't anything they could fathom. After the little tap, the pill started changing, it spun around and exuded a large amount of spiritual energy. The ugly brownish color started to change into a golden one as the pill increased in quality shooting all the way to the pinnacle of earth grade in a matter of moments.
This was one of the upgrades that his crafting abode. He didn't need to be in it for some of its functions to work as he could affect the items outside. What the haughty young master had brought over were simple Qi replenishing pills, they could be easily upgraded as they didn't really require any more ingredients, just some pure spiritual Qi.
The shameful present was turned into something more bearable. No one really offered anything at the heaven grade which was not something many were willing to do. By doing it like this Zhang Dong was trying not to start a fight while also showing off his power.
The young master in question looked surprised, by turning the trash pills he brought over to something valuable Zhang Dong had delivered a blow to his face. Before he could speak out about it though he felt a strong presence washing over him.
"Listen here you little shit, I'm not sure what you were trying to achieve with this, but those trinkets that you are wearing won't be able to protect you from me."
Zhang Dong was the one speaking while concealing his voice so that only this person from the Limitless Sword Society could hear him. The young master was stunned, the protective treasures should be able to block out any nascent soul master's spiritual power and even teleport him back home if he got into trouble. For some reason, they weren't activating and he couldn't move a muscle or even speak.
"I will ignore this only once if you dare disrespect me or my wife again…"
"Your elders won't even find traces of your soul behind. Now just smile, apologize to my wife and move on with your pathetic excuse of a life."
The man felt the strong power vanishing and he could breathe again. He quickly scanned his treasures and to his surprise, they were all unresponsive. They were all heavenly grade but somehow they all stopped working, he couldn't even teleport out of here to save himself.
He realized that he could very well die now if he continued with this charade. He just did what he was told too, bowing down while his face went pale.
"Excuse me, honorable elders… I'm not feeling too well... "
He stumbled back and almost fell over the people with him surprised at the reaction of their young master. They rarely saw him this way, he looked meek and afraid. Zhang Dong was good enough in masking his aura so that most of the people in the room didn't know what he did.
Two people did though, Feng Liena was one and Huo Qiang was the other one. The latter burst out in laughter and even pointed at the Limitless Sword Sect cultivators that were leaving.
"Look at them run with their tails between their legs."
The two people that came before him were a bit surprised but it didn't take much knowledge to figure out about what transpired here. None of them could tell what the United Sect Patriarch did but it had to have left an impression of the young haughty man. They were surprised that his protective treasures didn't activate, this prompted them to be extra careful.
This was Zhang Dong's home turf. He had designed all of the formations and with the help of the spiritual vein, they also boosted his power. The youth's treasures were all heaven grade but at the lowest spectrum so deactivating them while he was under his grand formation was easy to accomplish.
The gift-giving continued for some more time and finally, the day was coming to an end. The street lights that were spread out through the entire sect lit up as the sun went down. The whole sect has a more modern look to it as those lights also had lightbulbs in them instead of candles.
Feng Liena and Zhang Dong were now making their rounds on the decorative flying platform. Waving at their new sect members, the two didn't talk that much. Whenever Zhang Dong tried doing some small talk the woman started blushing, he didn't think she would be this bashful right before the big night.
The two finally flew out into the sunset and glided towards a secluded villa. A separate protective formation churned and engulfed them in a thick barrier that didn't allow anyone to peek in.
The other people continued mingling with each other and Zhang Jin found himself surrounded by beautiful women from all sides. In the future, there would be tales of the big female cultivator brawl that happened after the famous Zhang Dong's wedding that would be recounted in history books for generations.
The woman and man of the hour awkwardly went in through the door of the villa their sect members had prepared for them. Apparently, it was lifted from somewhere and brought over by a flying ship instead of being built. Now they were supposed to consummate their marriage. Zhang Dong looked at his blushing wife and nodded to himself.
'The final battle has just begun..."