"There, it's done, now we just need to get enough energy for it to work."
"I see that there is nothing that my grandson can't do. He must have gotten it from this old man!"
"Sure I did…"
Zhang Jin's palm landed on Zhang Dong's shoulder as he was praised for assembling a complex teleportation formation. The other sect members with them could not believe what had transpired. His movements were so fast that they were afraid to blink. None of them understood the techniques that were used but they already knew that it would help them further pursue the formation craft. Normally to see an expert like him at work they would need to either be his disciples or part of the inner sect. Even then no one was really granted any teachings besides the two main disciples Zhang Xue and Liu.
"You lot, stop staring and line up. We will be returning to the volcanic region you came from, I need you to focus on the mission."
"Yes, Patriarch!"
Everyone jumped up in fright after he shouted at them for spacing out. While he appreciated that they were interested in his work, they were supposed to keep watch over the whole area. While he had the system it wasn't perfect, when he was focusing on making the array his spiritual sense couldn't be utilized to monitor the area. There was no way to track the enemies like in the azure empire through the map either.
"Huh?"
"What was that?"
Suddenly, before he could start the activation procedure, the ground started to shake. At first, it seemed to just be a little quake, maybe even some distant creature making a ruckus. However, after focusing on the area where the tremors were coming from, it became clear that there was something off."
"It's coming from that area…"
"Yes, where I met you two…"
Zhang Jin nodded at his comment as it was becoming clear that they perhaps didn't have that much time. Quickly they turned around towards the teleportation array that still needed some time to be charged. This was a process that couldn't be rushed as doing it too quickly would destroy the fine traces it was composed of.
"They had to chose the worst possible moment to come after us."
"Gramps."
"Leave the array to me and Elder Wuyan."
This was the third nascent soul elder that came for this rescue mission. He was not as strong as Huo Qiang and more on the level of his grandfather. His expertise in the arts was true and he had lived around the same amount of time as his grandfather. Together the two would probably be able to handle the teleportation formation.
"I'll leave it to you. Qiang, come with me."
"Finally something to do!"
The big brute's fists collided with each other as he pumped himself up. There was nothing more that a battle maniac like him liked more than a good challange. Judging by the spiritual energy traces, the enemy that they were facing was at the apex of the nascent soul. This would normally not be an issue but there were multiple enemies at a similar level.
"It's probably the Cloned Generals, there were a bunch of them down in that palace."
"The more the better!"
"Don't let your guard down, there is something else there… something much stronger…"
The first to appear were the generals with the tridents. They seemed to be the same soldiers that used to plague the seas close to the coastline. Previously his armies used them to farm a lot of spirit points which made this expedition possible. Huo Qiang had already faced them in battle so there was no fear of letting him handle most of them.
What he was more on guard against was the being that was following behind them. Even after the generals appeared on the surface the rumbling didn't stop. Something huge was approaching and it was making this whole miniaturized world shake. It was hard to focus on the group of nascent soul masters with raised weapons when a giant torrent of earth was shooting up into the sky from right behind them.
It blocked out all the view and even covered some of them in mud. Zhang Dong could see some of the generals fleeing to the sides or surrounding themselves with water energy to not get swept by this avalanche. Soon enough he could see something appear there and it was thrashing around in all sorts of directions.
"Is that a giant tentacle?"
At first, he thought that it was another version of his old foe that forced him to take a five-year-old break from his family. The energy signatures that were coming from this thing were different though. It lacked the evil demonic aura and was more attuned to the water Dao that permeated through this pocket dimension.
"Wait… could it be something like a Kraken?"
An ugly head with huge tentacles at the sides appeared out of the ground. The creature somewhat resembled the Cthulhu monsters that he used to fight but it lacked the humanoid shape. Instead, it was composed mostly of a mass of tentacles and strange tendrils with other appendages at the end. Then there was one other difference, this beast could actually speak.
"My feast, they stole it! Bring them to me!!!"
To his surprise, the monster could articulate quite well. If he didn't see the mass of tentacles and the ugly mouth filled with teeth then the voice could be mistaken for a woman's. Considering that this was probably the leader of the mermaids it made some sense. This was probably their mistress and perhaps someone that created the fishy ladies that could serenade everyone to sleep.
"Qiang, don't let them approach the array, we must not let them get to the other sect members."
"Leave it to me, Senior Brother!"
Huo Qiang was ecstatic when he saw the massive creature. Its body was as huge as a mountain and it was also apparently capable of floating above the ground. It was as if the creature was swimming through the sky while giving out orders to the many trident-holding generals below.
"Capture them! I want to feast on their sweet flesh!"
"Yes, Mistress!"
The clash between the two strongest elders from the United Element sect and the forces from the Cerulean Empire started. Considering that this thing had a female voice the thought of it being the Cerulean Empress crossed Zhang Dong's mind. Yet the generals weren't referring to her by this title which more than likely meant that this wasn't the case.
"Are you the one that stole my feast? You will pay and join them inside of my stomach, I hunger for human flesh!"
"Sorry, but I'm not into those sorts of things, and your breath kind of stinks…"
The moment the monster octopus appeared it instantly picked him out as her target. Huo Qiang attempted to intercept her through a punch from his soul beast but was stopped by the generals that were acting like minions. They were in for a blazing inferno that was slightly diminished due to the nature of this place.
Even though his junior brother wasn't showing it, his Dao of Fire was somewhat suppressed by the prevalence of water, even more after the squid monster appeared. Zhang Dong could tell so he decided to lure the monster away to the side to let Qiang have some breathing room while fighting.
The peaceful landscape filled with coconut trees and a relaxing atmosphere turned into a battleground. Trees were unearthed and burned by the giant fire monster and the man that was controlling it. All of the buildings that made up the previous resort were destroyed in the process of the squabble. Energy blasts made out of water energy, fire, and electricity were flying everywhere.
"Elders, shouldn't we help the Patriarch?"
"Concentrate on the array and stop looking away, they are only distracting the enemy from us, remember our mission is not to defeat these beasts but to return to the rest of the sect."
"My apologies elder."
Zhang Jin paced around the array that some of the other core formation elders were reinforcing with their Qi. If it was up to him then he would just throw himself into battle along with Qiang and his grandson. Yet he also needed to keep the troops alive that were given to him, the easiest way out of here was through this teleportation device and it wouldn't take much more for them to finish it.
The only problem was the berserker creature up in the sky. The tentacles it was swinging around were so long and thick that they looked like giant towers. Each of these appendages also had smaller ones attached to them. Every time Zhang Dong dodged one that was approaching a swarm of smaller tendrils with spikes at the end shot out.
These squiggly fleshy whips were breaking the barrier of sound with each attack. There were so many of them that even Zhang Dong was having trouble keeping up and had to rely on his holy barrier to deflect the ones that he couldn't shake off. Then if this wasn't bad enough, even though he was constantly slicing through those tentacles they just kept growing back. No amount of holy energy that usually worked on demonic beasts could halt the regeneration that this beast was equipped with either.
"Dong'er, we are finished!"
Luckily he wasn't alone here and beating this monster was not the main plan. Zhang Jin called out to Zhang Dong who could tell that the teleportation array was activated. Some of the core formation experts were already going through to pave a path for their experts.
"Qiang, we need to retreat!"
"I'm not sure it will be that easy…"
The number of the generals wasn't low and even Huo Qiang who went through an upgrade was having trouble contending with them. Even though some of them were down on the ground with their faces melted off, some were able to deliver some flesh wounds to the muscular man and draw blood.
'I'll open up the path for you, close your eyes and follow behind me.'
A hidden message was sent and right on cue a massive flash of light escaped from Zhang Dong's body. It covered the entire area in bright white light that disoriented the enemy attackers and even caused the squiggly beast to wiggle in pain.
"S-stop them, you shall not escape!"
Huo Qiang closed his eyes right in time as the flash took place. Soon after he combined his body with his soul beast and turned into a flaming comet. Both he and Zhang Dong were now in full escape mode yet the massive monster wouldn't just let them escape. Without any thought for her own men, she started elongating those appendages to cover everything in them. Qiang who was trailing behind a bit was the one to get smacked and even the coating of fire didn't protect him from the thick beast whip.
Even though he wasn't stopped, now a meteorite of fiery energy was heading straight for the teleportation array. Zhang Jin instantly jumped through while ordering everyone to do the same, it was clear to them that whenever that bundle of fire energy collided with the teleporter then it would become unusable…