Zhang Dong looked at the six people that were floating around him. They were all on top of the food chain when this empire was concerned as they were all Saint Emperors.
It seemed that his money-grabbing ways have come back to haunt him. He had spent the last weeks ransacking spirit stone mines. Snatching away divine elemental herbs and even absorbing shadowy energies from evil sect grounds.
He was mostly sure to focus on the evil sects as those tended to be the less morally friendly bunch. Thus the people that witnessed his deeds attributed everything to him being from the more righteous paths.
It was clear that the people on top of their sects would not let this just go on. With the lack of time and a goal in mind which would bring him far away from this empire Zhang Dong didn't erase his tracks well enough.
In his eyes, he would be long gone back in the Azure Dragon Empire before anyone could figure out where he went. His appearance in the auction house must have alerted some of these old fogies to his whereabouts.
Even then he would still evade their clutches if he just didn't stop to cultivate. There were ways for him to hide yet this was not something he was planning on doing. With hiding, he would lose precious time. The old cultivators lived long and they could very well remain in close proximity while waiting for months on end.
There were two options left for him here, one was to run away. With his current flight capabilities, he could very well be able to reach the border and teleport out.
There were a couple of problems with that plan. For one he did not know how far these six would chase him and they could always call for their friends to meet him halfway. From six there quickly could become ten or twenty.
Then there would be protective barriers that could be activated to stop him in his tracks. There was a danger in getting caught in a trap from which he could not escape. While flying they could easily track his whereabouts while contacting their allies. He lacked the knowledge of key locations in the empire so he would not know how to evade pockets filled with cultivators.
"If you come with us and return what you have stolen we might show mercy, otherwise consider your life forfeit! Did you really think you could rob us of our belongings and see the light of day?"
The main man that possessed the highest cultivation level here started speaking out. His realm was of a Saint Emperor at the middle stage which would place him at around the nascent soul late stage level. His five comrades that were all at the early stage would be a bit below the middle stage of nascent soul.
In contrast to them, Zhang Dong was not sure where he stood. He was only a core formation expert at the late stage but after battling with people at the levels of half-step nascent soul masters he felt that he stood a chance here.
"I think I'll go with option B. How about you retreat and you might still retain some of your dignity?"
He replied while his aura exploded, it didn't seem that he could talk his way out of this. These six people clearly felt that they had the upper hand so he didn't have anything to bargain with. The only way to prove otherwise would be to prove himself in battle against them.
After his reply, the five lesser Saint Emperors quickly pulled out their weapons and activated their cultivation. It was clear by their auras that they were all from fewer staller sects of the evil variety. It also didn't seem that they were planning to give him much time to retaliate. Being all old experienced fighters they knew that it was best to strike their enemies down as fast as possible.
They charged but as they approached their target they were met with a strange feeling in their chests. There was a strange crushing feeling, it felt like their feet were stuck and that there was a giant weight upon their shoulders.
This was Zhang Dong's soul core. He activated it at max power to see if he could just crush his enemies with soul pressure. Regretfully he could see that these Saint Emperors were different from all the other cultivators that he had faced. Even though his soul core was at full effect it didn't fully disable them.
"What is this trickery?"
The strongest Saint Emperor that was there seemed mostly unaffected. With a hand gesture, he activated his own cultivation aura which started countering Zhang Dong's soul core. While he was somewhat effective against the other five this man was able to dispel his soul attack.
"Watch out!"
Zhang Dong was not born yesterday as he knew that it was best to strike when there was confusion within the enemy's camp. While his soul attack was resisted it gave him enough time to charge at one of the disabled enemies. With one ferocious slice of his sword a cultivator fell.
One man's head fell from his shoulders while another one was quick to move to the side. The slice was aimed at the two but the second one was nimble enough to only receive a grazing wound.
"Hey now, you're not supposed to be dodging and I'll be taking that."
He raised his head while smirking. This was not quite the end of this attack, just like with nascent soul cultivators these Saint Emperors were able to utilize soul divinities. These soul forms could then be able to function to a lesser extent and with some techniques, it was even possible to recover one's body.
At least in theory that was possible but for Zhang Dong, this soul divinity was quite similar to the evil phantoms that he had faced off before. It was a fat juicy piece of soul energy that he could absorb with his soul core.
This was what this group of evil cultivators was seeing. Just as the soul form of their ally left its body to escape it was pulled back and absorbed by their enemy.
"What is this technique, he absorbed his source!"
Zhang Dong could feel the man's very essence being consumed by his soul core. Luckily he only consumed the underlying energy without any strange things like the man's memories.
Some lesser techniques would burden cultivators with such things which then left them a mess if they consumed too many souls of the dead. His soul core would only go for the base energy while ignoring the rest which just faded away into oblivion.
"What are you doing, surround him, don't let up!"
The strongest cultivator didn't seem perturbed by his allies' demise. He was able to see the big picture as he threw his spear clad in demonic energies towards Zhang Dong. This spear burst forth with purple energy and turned into a serpent composed of this dastardly Qi.
Zhang Dong moved his sword to intercept this attack. Spear met sword and a resounding boom filled the area. He found himself retreating a few steps while the spear rebounded back to its master.
He was then met with a pincer attack from four sides which he evaded thanks to his moving technique. The spot that the four Saint Emperors struck now contained an afterimage that discharged a holy energy-charged jolt of electricity.
While the ones that dived in for the kill first were affected by this some of them continued their chase. The area around here began being filled with holes and bursts of energy as the fight continued.
The party of five found themselves unable to gain the upper hand even after several exchanges between the two occurred. Soon all five found themselves on one side while the white-haired Zhang Dong with his bloodied sword was on the other side.
While dodging he didn't remain passive, his weapon delivering punishment to his enemies that were out of position. Their clothes told a tale of who was winning, while Zhang Dong's white clothes were without a blemish his opponents found themselves with sliced-up robes.
"S-senior, this Renegade cultivator is formidable, we might have to retreat for now…"
The four Saint Emperors that were clearly used as cannon fodder by the one above them looked drained. Their wounds only increased while their opponent seemed to be able to see through their attacks.
"I have no quarrel with you, do you really want to die just for some poultry resources that you can just regain with time?"
Zhang Dong shouted out while glowing in his usual golden color. His aura was very confusing to these five cultivators as they had never met someone in the core formation realm.
It was clear to him that these people here didn't come from one sect. Their robes were different and their fighting techniques also differed. There was no unity among them, facing a stronger opponent was only possible with good teamwork which they clearly lacked.
It seemed that the four lesser Saint Emperors were considering the proposition but their 'leader' just seemed more enraged by this proposal.
"Poultry resources? Do you even know how far back you set us back!"
"Is that so? How about this then, I'll reimburse you for your losses."
"Will you give us back the spirit stones you stole?"
"Well, I didn't say that I would use spirit stones, I might have something even better…"
With that being said Zhang Dong pulled out a booklet that he promptly tossed over towards the five cultivators. They were quickly taken aback by this gesture and their leader used his aura to hold this booklet away from the group out of fear of it being some kind of trick.
"What is this? How will this make up for our lost resources?"
"Oh, you don't want the Saint Emperor level Demonic Ashura palm? It's just a pinnacle grade palm technique."
"Pinnacle grade?"
While eyeballing Zhang Dong from afar the leader of the group opened up the booklet. Even from afar all of them could see what was written there and as they continued to read so did their eyes start to get bigger.
"T-this is…"
"It looks authentic… everything written there … how magnificent…"
To masters of this level, it was easy to see a gem like this cultivation method. After a few glances, they could tell that it was the real article. It didn't take much to make these cultivator nuts look at things with hunger in their eyes.
"You see, could you even buy such a technique with those poultry spirit stones and treasures that I took?"
Zhang Dong gave out a grin while yanking the book back towards his own hand. The four old cultivators looked at the technique with hunger in their eyes. Then with a pristine pitching form, he threw the book into the stratosphere.
"If you want it, then go get it!"
With that, he bolted in the opposite direction leaving the group to decide on what was more important.