'I was too slow…'
Zhang Dong had to stop his push into the enemy defensive line to take a look at his map. There he saw a large red dot appearing right at the edge of the empire. It was coming right out of the bridge between worlds and belonged to the person he hoped to avoid. The map detected Qi signatures in the whole empire and this one was the largest he had seen.
'I couldn't see Wang Long's Qi on the map so this doesn't have to mean that this guy is stronger but it might not be an easy fight.'
It was certainly true that when he compared this area it was radiating more power than the Demi-Human Emperor did. It wasn't certain that all this spiritual energy was just coming from the Emerald Phoenix Emperor. It was possible that there were a lot of powerful experts around him or that some beasts were there. Perhaps he was in possession of a powerful treasure that didn't necessarily have to have battle use, just like the immortal-level dimensional regalia he came in contact with.
'I guess there is no use to rush now, I should have a talk with my allies about this and prepare for the last battle.'
Zhang Dong had no time to mope about his first plan going up in flames. Perhaps if he pushed it hard into the eastern region while ignoring all the destruction it would have been possible. Though, when he considered the time it took for the Emperor to arrive, it made it seem that he wouldn't make it anyway. The Prince had decided to retreat quite fast which would force him to face more than he wanted.
'They lost a lot of troops during the escape, it wouldn't be strange if that little prince sacrificed more than half of his troops for this stunt. Is he that much of a coward or is he planning something?'
Without meeting with the man he couldn't really make a good assessment of his character. His sister was transported into his own sect and was stripped of her cultivation level. After it became clear that she could not really be used as a bargaining chip, there was no use keeping her as a potential threat. Without her power, she would not live for that much longer. Her age was rapidly increasing and it was clear that her beauty was artificially kept up with some beauty elixirs.
It was quite disheartening to see a sister be abandoned by her brother but Zhang Dong wasn't sure if the siblings had been corrupted by their circumstances. Their father was the leader of the whole empire and in their childhood, they had been fed information in a peculiar way. They never interacted with each other and were considered to be special. Maybe it was not that somewhere along the way they became monsters but had been brought up as ones from the start. He could only see this as a warning and not have his children follow suit.
"Honorable Golden Dragon."
"Patriarch Guan, it's good to see you and the guardians too."
"Yes, we couldn't leave all the glory to you, these are our lands and we will recapture them."
Zhang Dong smiled after seeing Tao Guan. The Patriarch had finally decided to move on his own accord. In the Heavenly Crane Sect's eyes, victory was right around the corner. They had managed to push all of the enemy forces back toward a small region. Before them was the citadel in which they would receive their rewards.
'It would be nice if they did this for something else than just fame and fortune, still this is better than not having any help.'
He didn't fool himself into believing that these people were doing all of this out of the goodness of their hearts. It was also clear that their perception of his motives was the same. It wouldn't be strange if, after the final battle, they would actually betray him in some sense. If he was at death's door they might even be inclined to present him with the last hit. They would just have to explain to his brother that he died during the confrontation with the Emerald Phoenix Emperor and died as a hero protecting the lands.
Things like this were quite common in the cultivation world. Every alliance was razor thin and whenever a side was on top they could change the details of their contract. No one could be trusted in this world and this was a reality he had to accept for now. The other side was probably thinking the same, if they were weakened then they would be up for the taking by Zhang Dong and his sect.
"Haha, that's good to hear, the enemy will surely be close to breaking apart."
"Yes but their fortifications aren't simple, we haven't been able to continue at our usual pace. The ships are continuously firing but those shields aren't going down."
"You are right, Patriarch Guan. But as long as we get those down we should be able to surround their main base, after it falls it should be over."
"That is true but I need to ask you, are you confident?"
"Confident in defeating their Emperor?"
"Yes…"
"It shouldn't be a problem."
Zhang Dong shrugged while playing it off as child's play. He needed to remain confident and not show that there was even a possibility of defeat. These people from the Heavenly Crane Sect were very skittish. If they were even ten percent uncertain of their victory they would instantly pull out their troops. It wouldn't be strange if they even abandoned him during the final battle if they saw no way out of it. Luckily for him, after so many victories they were convinced that he was at the level of the Azure Emperor.
"Glad to hear that, I will join my sect members now, if you wish to discuss something…"
"Sure, I'll let you know, first let us just get through this protective shielding without wasting too many resources."
Both Tao Guan and Zhang Dong parted ways. He could see the two guardians looking at him funny as if they wanted a rematch. The enemy had set up strange tower-shaped markers that produced a huge protective shield that went up into the stratosphere. Usually, a barrier was in the shape of a dome but this one just went straight up.
In this world, there was some type of force that didn't allow even a nascent soul master to go past a certain threshold. Besides spiritual energy thinking out the higher a person flew, there was no air and some kind of strange pulling force that wouldn't allow a cultivator to leave.
From Zhang Dong's perspective, it was a safeguard put in by whoever made this planet. It didn't allow anyone to see it from a high enough vantage point to spot the other empires. If they could leave the atmosphere of the planet it would also be possible to circumvent the bridges between the various empires. It wouldn't be strange if only a being at the immortal level would be able to break through these shackles.
'At this point, I wouldn't even be surprised if we weren't on a planet but in some kind of huge fake dimension…'
While looking at his replica medallion he was reminded of the huge space in the original. The area in that one was almost as big as the planet he came from but it was not round in shape. It was just a massive chunk of land floating in nothingness and it continued to increase in size with more energy being fed into it.
This could be the same for this world, with the only difference being the scale. If a being of power wanted to make a new world it could conserve energy in this fashion. Otherwise, there would be a need to create a solar system with a working star and other planets around it. If they just put everything on a floating island and divided it with some magical barriers, it would save a lot of resources.
It was not possible to scale these walls as they were out of reach of anyone. The triangle-shaped monoliths looked like they were actually not transported here. Instead, it seemed that they rose out of the ground as if they had been placed here beforehand.
'Could it be a safe zone established for them to make this last longer?'
This shield was quite sturdy and it was possible to rip a hole for a moment to get through. If a person wanted to have a whole army to travel through it complicated things. When looking at this forcefield it made it seem like it was meant to keep armies out but let strong cultivators through. It would be certainly possible for him to power through it in one quick burst of energy but it would be draining.
At the moment he wanted to conserve his power for the Emerald Phoenix Emperor. Pushing in through the front door by himself was now off the table. This time around sneaking in to place some traps and maybe encountering the prince and princess would have been the better option. As it stood now, he had activated the last boss of this questline and he would have to take care of it the hard way.
'How does it look back there?'
'Patriarch, as you ordered we have pulled our troops back after the last wave of enemy troops has been defeated.'
'Good, if they appear again, let them push in a bit while you conserve your strength, have the palace move back towards the mainland, and wait.'
'Yes Patriarch but how will we make it in time?'
Zhang Zhi asked while being a bit confused. Zhang Dong had ordered everyone to stand down and get ready for a potential attack in the eastern region. The only problem was that if they wanted to get the Golden Dong Palace there, it would take several weeks as it was not a very mobile fortress. Due to the focus on being a defensive bastion, it wasn't very good when it came to speed.
'Oh, don't worry about it, remember how we got it during the Wang Long pursuit?'
'Yes!'
'It took some time but I made my preparation, so just be ready to fight some cultivators, have the troops look through the battle records.'
'Yes, Patriarch!'
During his travels, he was sure to have the puppets record all of the battles they had. With the data, he could have his soldiers ready for when the time came. His main plan was to take care of it with the help of the Heavenly Crane Sect but it wouldn't be wrong to have a backup plan when things went sour…