Zhang Liena was walking through one of the corridors in her mansion. It had been about a week since her son was born. Normally it would take at least a month to get back to full health. With the technology that her husband supplied the sect with the time required went down dramatically.
She was just returning from one of the better sect doctors. The man didn't hold a candle to her husband but he was the next best thing. She was given the seal of approval, now was the time to get ready to move out. Her husband had sent her a message that he had arrived at the Divine Fist Sect headquarters and that he would be setting up a teleportation gate.
He also sent another message that worried her. Previously the plan was for only the nascent soul elders to move out. Now on the other hand she was supposed to bring over more people. He gave her instructions to take the formation masters as well as the healers that were proficient with holy energies.
Zhang Dong had set up various branches of his own original dao. There were special sections that trained people in his advanced heavenly lightning skills. The other one was for his healing dao with the holy spiritual energy. Even with those two created there was no one who was proficient in both as him. Even his two current disciples had a hard time in adding a second dao to their repertoire.
Both of them tried with limited success, Liena even let her younger sister try one of them out but she failed miserably with both. Nuana her sister was handed the wind cultivation method that she herself was cultivating instead. She already knew that Zhang Dong was the person that made him and not his so-called master, Wei Hung.
While she continued to walk she thought back to the time the two got married. She had been quite eager to be accepted as Zhang Dong's bride. Who wouldn't be? He was a young nascent soul master, any woman in her position would have given herself to someone like him. He was handsome, strong, and still young with a bright future ahead. There wasn't really anyone that could match him in his age bracket.
She might have gone through with the wedding with superficial reasoning. At that time she thought that she was in love, there was a sense of longing to be together with that man. In time she realized that it wasn't that easy.
It was more due to her upbringing that this sense of wanting originated. He was just the perfect partner for any young lady at her age. He was just the right business choice with the best future prospect out of them all.
She came to a stop and glanced to the side. There she could see her young daughter running around along with some of the maids, her grandfather was also there. Liena started smiling as her little boy was also out there. He was sleeping in a special protective crib that would keep him warm even in cold weather.
'That might have been then… but now I see that the choice was the only right one.'
After some time passed she noticed that her stone-faced husband wasn't quite the man that she thought he was. The word that she would describe him the most would be 'quirky'. He would put up a facade to keep people out but after it melted, his true character surfaced.
Zhang Dong the Patriarch that everyone loved was just a face that he used. In reality, he was very awkward and even shy. He had trouble in expressing his emotions at first but the two had crossed that bridge with time.
Even now Liena remembered one of the times that he prepared a surprise for her. It was exactly a year after they got married. He called it an 'anniversary', it was quite the novel experience. There was a surprise dinner party with only the two of them at a faraway location. A nice moonlight dinner with just the two of them. The way that he blushed that time was something that she would remember fondly to this day.
'Think it was since then…'
"Matriarch Liena, we are ready for your inspection. Lord Qiang has been informed and he will be arriving shortly."
Her train of thought got interrupted after she arrived at her destination. This was a hidden gathering room with enough space for over a thousand people to fit in. This would be also close to the number of sect brothers and sisters that would be attending in this expedition.
"Ah yes, tell him to hurry up, we can't have the Patriarch wait after he activates the teleportation gate."
She covered her face with one of her battle fans while speaking. These weapons were brand new and of the heaven grading, specially made by her husband. It was also one of the anniversary gifts that he had offered her.
Actually, after the two had started doing these anniversary events the sect people picked up on the trend. It started to be popular for couples to do things such as this. Both of them would give each other some kind of gift each year.
This left Liena in a bit of a bind. She wasn't that good at making items and could only spend spirit stones on buying them from other people. She tried making up that gap in other fields that her husband greatly appreciated.
She blushed a bit after thinking about that last part. The person that called out to her was still there but couldn't see her face that was behind that large jade green fan. She decided to move forward to inspect her troops.
She could see many people in various robes. There were about a hundred sect elders here that were above the core formation level. After five years of cultivating most of the elders that were stuck at the foundation establishment realm made a breakthrough. With the spirit vein in place and Zhang Dong's improved cultivation manuals, everyone soared.
The United Element Sect was slowly making up for the time. They now had a similar number of core formation seniors to similar-sized sects. With the better cultivation methods, they were also of higher quality.
"Yes, like that. Please make sure to form a line towards the teleportation gate, the moment the Patriarch activates the beacon we will move through. We aren't sure what will be on the other side so be ready for battle!"
There was a large teleportation gate in the middle of this room. It was connected to the beacons that Zhang Dong had with him. The sect members clasped their hands and nodded.
The people that were gathered here were composed mostly of core and inner disciples and also elders. They were the backbone of the new generation that was still developing, within time some of them were primed to reach the nascent soul level.
"Did someone say battle?"
Liena looked to the side and spotted a large red-haired man flying over. She covered half of her face with her fan while looking him over.
This was Huo Qiang, the other founding member besides her and Zhang Dong. He was wearing a tight-fitting black shirt that showed off his pecks. His thick arms were covered by intricate looking ruby gauntlets, their thickness only made the man's arms look larger.
She still didn't like Qiang all that much. The man was self-centered and haughty, he was of the mindset that fighting was the end all be all. Liena also disliked the fact that he had a large harem of ladies stashed away in his estate. Her husband was different, he was monogamous, something rarely seen in this world of cultivation.
"You finally graced us with your presence, Qiang?"
Qiang smirked while looking at Liena. Both of them started staring at each other while the disciples and other elders sweated at the sidelines. Everyone here knew that these two didn't see eye to eye. The only person who could actually control them wasn't here so they were afraid that a fight might break out.
"Are those wrinkles that I see?"
"What did you say? Did your brain shrink even more?"
Qiang laughed out while throwing a small jab at Liena. She on the other hand quickly retailed with a few chosen words. The people around them started backing away even more, sweat covered their foreheads instantly. Luckily for them, there were two people present that could diffuse the situation.
"Please Aunt and Uncle calm down, you are scaring the other disciples."
A person moved between the two. He had a similar look to the fabled Patriarch. His hair was pure white and he was very dashing. His name was Zhang Liu and he was Zhang Dong's disciple.
"Yes, why don't we drink some tea before Master opens up the teleportation gate?"
The second one was a white-haired maiden. She was the most beautiful woman in the sect from the junior generation. Her name was Zhang Xue and she was also Zhang Dong's disciple. A bit further away was another young woman, this one had golden hair, her name was Fang Meili.
Liena turned her head to the side while giving out a sound of discomfort with her mouth. Qiang on the other hand shrugged as if this was something that he was already used to and didn't care about.
She looked at the blond girl at the side and then back to Zhang Xue that was with her. She knew that her husband brought over a lady from the city that he had come from. The girl looked to be close to twenty years of age and was quite the beauty. Liena was out of commission for a week so she didn't have the time to meet her.
Some people even started spreading rumors that she was a concubine that Zhang Dong brought over. This was something that her husband wouldn't do. She was quite confident about this, even more after she examined the girl in front of her. Fang Meili's lacked a set of assets that would make her husband interested in her. It would be highly unlikely for her husband to be attracted to this girl that was a bit too skinny for his tastes.
"This is cousin Meili, Master invited her into the sect, she is a relative from grandfather's side…"
Zhang Xue moved her head a bit to the side while blushing. By just mentioning Zhang Jin everyone in here knew how this Meili was related to everyone.
"Is that so,... You have my condolences."
Liena nodded while rolling her eyes. She had no idea how her husband was related to 'that thing'. How one person's desires could take over reasoning like that baffled this Matriarch greatly. She was really glad that her husband didn't do these sorts of things when he went away. If he was like Qiang or Jin there would be quite a bit of babies running around the premises already.
Meili looked at Liena with a strange look on her face. The girl wasn't sure why but whenever this Zhang Jin was mentioned people tended to look away. She herself had evaded meeting her ancestor from the other side of the family. Somehow Zhang Xue had always evaded questions about him whenever she prodded for answers.
Everyone was ready for departure and just in time as Liena received a message from her husband. Following it the gate received the coordinates for its activation. It was time to depart and show off the skills of the United Element Sect.