'Good the coast is clear…'
Zhang Dong was planning to run towards the exit gate while being chased by the enraged cultivator. Yet due to him having to lower his cultivation level he wasn't quite able to do it. Instead, he sidestepped into an empty alley where his pursuer was quickly knocked out while no one could see it.
The man was now stuck within his spatial artifact with the other servant he apprehended. Luckily for him, the idiot that was charging after him was radiating a negative aura everywhere. It wasn't hard to heighten his battle prowess in a situation like this without alerting the nascent soul elders around him.
'Let's go.'
"Liu Chen? What was that commotion? I heard that there was a fight at the training ground"
"Oh you know, it was the usual…"
While he had not received any real damage during his bout he made it seem that he had been beaten up. The guards here were not informed about the details so after a glance, it looked like he had gone through the usual. Thanks to that they gave him the nod and he was able to leave the core sect area. The young master probably had other things to worry about as he was now owed money.
His mission was mostly over now and after he left the inner city he would more than likely be safe. What remained was to travel to the upper inner city and finally escape. Thus he made his way through the streets while shedding his Liu Chen disguise as fast as he could. Instead, he went for one of the many guards that would have the clearing for leaving this inner sect.
'I don't think I have much time left…'
On his system window, he had a countdown timer to when the meeting with Wang Long was supposed to take place. Yet just like before the security around this place was lax. The people that were performing these tasks didn't seem to care much or were unable to think that they were being infiltrated.
'I guess randomly taking over a sect and forcing their inhabitants to work doesn't work that well…'
There was a difference between the approaches that he and Wang Long took. Zhang Dong had slowly built up the trust in his clan and with the other families before their sect was formed. The vast majority of the core sect was in awe of his power and strong character. There wouldn't be many things that they wouldn't do for him and their trust could not be easily broken.
Here on the other hand it was power gained by force. It wouldn't be strange if all of the Chaos Sect members surrendered instantly after their new leader was defeated. Even if Zhang Dong wished for a battle between him and Wang Long the man in question would probably not agree to a fair confrontation just between them. If that was a possibility Zhang Dong would have already announced himself and demanded a proper bout between the two leaders.
'There we go… Bob, be sure to scan for Wang Long, we can't have him popping out of the blue.'
'Affirmative'
This was still Wang Long's faction and he wasn't sure how far his faction system had been upgraded to. The sect was patched up in a couple of places but it wasn't being managed that well. Perhaps thanks to this was his infiltration attempt this successful. Now what he just needed to do was to get outside and his way out was just around the corner.
"Wha…"
"Sorry about that…"
A merchant with a few guards was about to pack up and leave. Another victim fell to his body-switching technique as he took out a guard that had just entered an outhouse. Zhang Dong had strategically placed himself on the ceiling before knocking out the man with his pants down.
With his new disguise in place, he just got out and joined the other mercenaries that were escorting the merchant. The carts were filled with some junk that the merchant probably hoped to dump in the outer city where the resources were harder to come by.
"Common move it, we don't have all day, and remember, none of you are getting paid until you unload the merchandise!"
He could see the regular workers giving out sighs of disappointment. While there were only three carts with goods they contained some spatial treasures with the true items. These would probably need to be removed from inside the treasure and then carried to their proper destination.
Soon they arrived at the checkpoint which contained the large gate. In a few moments, he would be outside and after reaching the outer city he would be safe. Even if he destroyed the outer city gates during his escape it wouldn't really matter anymore. The massive barriers surrounding everything were already rigged by him, what he needed to do was to get outside and contact his army which wouldn't take that long to get here.
'It's our turn now.'
Even though it looked like the coast was clear he didn't forget to pay close attention to everyone here. The merchant owner was showing his identification plaque to the guards which would probably allow him to move through the gate. During the exchange, he also saw some blood crystals making their way into the guard's spatial ring which would only allow them to cross faster.
This was quite the normal occurrence even back at the orthodox sect side. Bribing guards at entrances to cities or other territories was a regular expense that merchants counted in before setting out to trade. Here it was more of the same unless the guards lacked a reason or were incentivized to capture people that attempted bribes nothing would change.
'Warning, warning.'
'Huh, what is it, Bob?'
Suddenly as they were passing through the checkpoint he could hear his AI blasting loud horns. There was something wrong but even when he spread his senses in all directions he couldn't see anything.
'Warning, outer system changes detected, attempting to block the change ….. attempt was unsuccessful, the change will take place in 3…2…1…'
'Wait Bob, what are you talking about? What changes?'
Zhang Dong continued to move with the merchants through the large gate while his eyes darted around. There was something going wrong right when he was about to step outside of the gate. Only after the countdown was over was he able to see the shift.
"What is happening?"
This was also noticed by the guards and the merchant he was with. A strange device with the logo of the Chaos Sect appeared on it. It was clear to Zhang Dong that this had to have been created by Wang Long and his faction system. Bob quickly confirmed his fears which forced him to drop the guard act.
'Identification device spotted, warning! The user will be unable to conceal himself from the other faction system!'
For one reason or another Wang Long decided to dump some spirit points into his faction system. This was something that he did frequently to upgrade the structures and enhance others. This might have still been only a coincidence and before he was found out he might be able to escape.
"Hey what are you…"
*BOOM*
While the carts stopped in place he gathered all of his energies around his body. A bright spark of light filled the entire region as he tossed himself towards the exit. Of course, he was still on the threshold of the barrier that would only be removed after he blew up the spirit vein. That part of the plan was still in place but it was too soon for it.
This was a multiple-layered defensive formation and he was right inside of it. While charging through the gate he was forced to bust through it while using a large chunk of his spiritual energy. Luckily the formation needed a second to activate and this gave him enough time to get to the other side.
'Can I teleport out of here?'
While pushing through he quickly brought up the system window that he was previously hiding. First, he attempted to teleport toward one of his sect members who was supposed to be at the secret camp. Yet a red screen appeared just like he was afraid of, unless he used a huge amount of spirit points he would be unable to leave. These he needed for the long-range teleportation of the golden palace and thus he postponed this option.
With another injection of Qi, he shot out through the other end of the gate. This of course sent all sorts of warning signals through the entire sect. Various masters were forced to take chase along with some guardian beasts that were of similar power. Yet no one was quite as fast as Zhang Dong was, if it was only this much then he would surely be able to escape.
He could already see the exit before him, his speed increased as his body was surrounded by both lightning and golden light. To augment his power he decided to make his spiritual energy take the form of a really fast drill. Even if the barrier stopped him for a moment he would just drill through it instantly.
Finally, the last hurdle was before him as he collided with the barrier while bulldozing through various other demonic cultivators. There were even two nascent soul elders that were just knocked to the side as if they were crash test dummies. The promised land was before him, in a few seconds he would be outside and even if anyone tried to follow him they would be unable to keep up with his speed.
Yet right before he collided with the outer city barrier he noticed a large shadow looming over him. This was followed by a giant spike in demonic Qi. This was above something that anyone from the elders here should be capable of doing. He needed to get out of there and it needed to happen now.
His bones started crumbling as he forced himself to change directions in an abrupt manner. Only thanks to his healing energies and his powerful body were he able to somehow evade a critical injury. This was just in time to not get hit by a torrent of dark energy that collided with the spot he was going for.
When looking towards the source of this massive energy spike he found a familiar-looking dragon that looked a lot more demonic than before. It wasn't alone though as on top of its head he spotted a certain evil cultivator that was going by the name of Demon King these days.
"Haha, look what the cat dragged in!"
'Well, shit!"
Wang Long glanced toward Zhang Dong, who had stopped his escape. From all sides, multiple nascent soul masters came swarming in as he quickly found himself being surrounded. His escape route was blocked and the man he was after had arrived, his biggest fear was about to come true.