'It's the same body refiners that I met in the northwest.'
Zhang Dong was looking out from a distance while Huo Qiang was engaged in battle with the enemies. His reasoning for not helping him out was to let his allies train, it didn't seem that there were any of those unicorn ones in this group of soldiers so he could leave the fighting up to his nascent soul masters.
While Huo Qiang was first to dive into battle he was not the only one. Many of the recently ascended sect masters were spreading out through the borders. Thanks to the working map treasure at their base they could easily monitor the movement of their enemies. They could predict where they would show up and thus shorten their time of arrival.
'Huo Qiang is doing well but the others.'
He started rubbing his chin while glancing over his faction system. There he moved some of the elder's names that were battling their opponents into a separate window. Now he could monitor things like their life-bar and even spiritual energy bar.
Huo Qiang was certainly overwhelming the invaders with his plasma ifrit but the other nascent soul masters were still unpracticed. They were using up too much of their Qi while also suffering damage against the commanders of this attack battalion. Luckily for them, the opponents didn't come in large numbers.
'They should be able to survive this, if one is in danger I'll use the teleportation feature.'
This was war so casualties were going to happen. It would be impossible for him to be everywhere and at everytime. His warriors needed to learn to fight for themselves and he could only wish them good luck while offering them more power. For the time being, he somewhat put his own elevation of power to the backburner.
What he needed was more minions to carry out his bidding. The more nascent soul masters he could produce the fewer battles he would need to participate in. His plan was to let his sect members battle the regular masters while he focused on the horned ones that seemed to be more powerful than the rest.
'Even with the map they are hard to spot, these guys just don't give away that much spiritual energy…'
When he peeked at the other sides of the empire the enemies there gave out a brighter red glow. The people he was up against though were body refiners that were somewhat hard to get a feeling on. Only when they were in sight would he really know if he was facing a potential threatening opponent or just another soldier.
It was somewhat hard to convince the Dragon Gate Sect's Patriarch of his intentions. This did cause some casualties as he was not able to send his forces to bolster the defenses at the border. Instead, he had them wait on standby in the distance before jumping in.
Due to this some of the border defenses were overrun in other locations. This one was somewhere in the middle so Huo Qiang was able to get here in time. His men were spreading out to take back the fallen lands. When looking at his own version of the empire map he could see them being successful.
It took some time to clear things up, the whole battle was strange as the enemies tossed themselves into the fray without any fear. They never turned around and continued to charge in a maddened rage towards the enemy that was before them.
'Is this in their nature or is something else driving them to be like this?'
Zhang Dong had been in some fights and met demonic cultivators that sometimes fought like this. He had witnessed such behavior in their minions that they didn't have a way out unless they managed to do their master's biddings. Perhaps there was a force they feared more than death or perhaps they were convinced that if they ran away, they would die anyway.
"They certainly put up a good fight, at least there were no cowards among them!"
After the battle was done Huo Qiang arrived at his location. He didn't look injured as the strongest cultivator that was there had been below his level. The early stage nascent soul masters had managed to force their first victory as well.
"Is that so…"
"You don't seem happy brother?"
"Well, it was a bit too easy but I might be overthinking things…"
"Can I leave this place to you, they might attempt to launch another attack and now the Dragon Gate Sect won't be able to deny us anymore."
"Leave it to me, Senior Brother! Just send me some booze if it takes more than a few days!"
"Hah, sure just don't drink too much, I need for you to be sober."
Zhang Dong decided to leave things to Huo Qiang here. While it didn't seem that these toothy attackers had fled there still was a chance that some of them might have slipped in. The people in the nearby cities and villages were at potential risk that needed to be cleared out.
While his people were going through their own battles he would return home to see his wife. She had remained back at the sect as they needed to at least leave one of the strongest cultivators behind. Lately, she had been complaining that he was leaving her behind too much yet he did not want her to get involved in the fighting just yet.
"So you are finally back?"
He was greeted by a somewhat cold tone when he arrived back at his new house. His lovely wife was laying on her side while watching the kids play with some toys in the green courthouse. She was in a gazebo-like structure that was supplied with a comfy bed for this purpose.
"You seem mad my wife…"
"Mad? Why would I be mad at my husband that constantly leaves without saying a word."
"Uh, don't be this way… I need to see to our sect members, we are at war now I won't be able to remain at this place for long…"
Zhang Dong moved closer but Liena decided to puff out her cheeks while turning her head away. It was understandable to him that she was mad, her husband had been gone missing for many years and after returning he was off to a war. She was acting like a child now but he knew that she obviously was aware of what was at stake.
"I am here now and I think it's time for you to progress further with your cultivation!"
For the time being, he decided to shift the conversation in a different direction. Liena had remained a bit stagnant with her cultivation after he had left. Tending to the sect and young children had kept her away from training as much. Huo Qiang had passed her up due to not having those responsibilities.
"Progress my cultivation?"
Liena perked up at the mention of her cultivation. She was still a cultivator at heart, so bringing up the possibility of increasing her Dao would always work. Though she quickly turned her head back and continued to pout right back.
"Don't be like that my wife, I have prepared an area in the Dimensional Regalia, it will be just the two of us."
"Just the two of us?"
Zhang Dong nodded while approaching his pouty wife and giving her a gentle pat on the shoulder.
"That's right, granny Maling will tend to the kids so we will have plenty of time to work on your cultivation!"
Her eyes darted back and forth as he could see her reacting favorably when he mentioned that it would be just the two of them. His intent would be to supply her with more spiritual energy so that she could raise herself into the middle nascent soul stage, then spend some time with her to help her set her foundation better.
"... Fine then, let us depart!"
Finally, after some convincing, he had managed to get Liena to move. She now had a bright smile on her face instead of the cute pout. Before leaving they were sure to tell their kids to listen to Maling, who was a bit disgruntled that she could not work on her own Dao now. Zhang Jin was away at the border together with Huo Qiang for the time being, so it was up to the old girl.
Zhang Dong brought his wife over to a nice spot next to a waterfall. The Dimensional Regalia was now a small world in itself. It had many living beings and plants living in it and he was sure to reserve the most beautiful area to help his wife progress through her bottleneck.
But while he and his wife were having a nice moment another scene elsewhere was playing out. In the western reaches of the empire at the recent bridge that had opened up, there was a large fortress that he had seen before.
It was clearly brought over on a large beast worm that had borrowed its way into the ground. There was a small difference though, the inhabitants of this place were not quite the same as the gray-skinned ones that he had made contact with twice.
"So those worthless bastards from the Terakota Tribe are no more?"
"Yes chef, they had made some progress but had fallen in battle, the scouts report seeing a being made of pure flames."
A man that was wearing light leather armor was talking to someone sitting on a large throne. Both of these 'people' had a red tint to their skin and the one that was on the throne had a large horn protruding from their forehead.
"It doesn't matter, they had lost their chieftain but I thought they could at least pave the path for us better, truly useless until the end."
While the red-skinned man also possessed a set of sharp chompers they were nowhere near as long as the people from the Terekota tribe that Zhang Dong ran into.
"We will need to show our tribes superiority!"
"It will be done my lord, the troops should be ready to march out in a few days, the transfer gate is fully operational."
"Good, what of the golden one? Has he been spotted?"
"No my lord."
"The Emperor has taken interest in that outlander, we will gain much favor with him if we can present him to the Emperor."
The man with the horn on his head leaned back in his throne made of strange metals while smiling. For him and his people, this was an opportunity to rise above all the other tribes. Anyone that brought the man to the emperor would be given a boon.
"We must get to him first before the other tribes discover his location! Now go and make the lands run in the blood of the outlanders, leave no one standing!"
"Yes, my lord!"