At a faraway location, you could see destroyed walls and chunks of rubble everywhere. It looked like a large battle took place, craters and cracks in the hard rocky ground were seen everywhere.
Up in the air, six people were floating on one side, they were looking in the distance where a group of five was staring at them from afar. Compared to the area around them these groups of people looked fine. They were glaring at each other but they were keeping their distance, both sides retreating.
“I propose a ceasefire… I think no one here wants to engage in an all-out war…”
The man speaking was Elder Wan, the strongest cultivator from the group that was previously chasing after Zhang Dong. After he attacked the border wall that belonged to the Demon Subduing Sect a fight broke out. The members from the Dark Palm Sect weren’t here to fight their long-standing rival though, but after the misunderstanding, they had to stay to explain themselves before this got out of hand.
“You want us to believe that someone disguised themselves as Wu Ming to sew discord between our sects? Aren’t you just afraid to attack!”
An elder man that was at a similar level as Elder Wan shouted out. He was holding onto a large saber and his face was full of scars. The Demon Subduing sect was a virtuous one and had a bad opinion of the Dark Palm faction. There were a lot of rumors that they were a demonic sect, but there wasn’t any substantial proof. The two factions clashed here and there, but none were confident enough to go into all-out war.
“Don’t try my patience Fan Ping, we from the Dark Palm Sect never turn our tails and run, but this was clearly a misunderstanding!”
The man named Wan shouted back at the other five people, his eyes going bloodshot after the others accused them of being scared.
“Please calm down, we will retreat to our side, there is no reason for this fight!”
The old woman cultivator from the Dark Palm side floated between the two shouting leaders. She gave Fan Ping a small bow and whispered some words into Elder Wan’s ears.
“We can’t fight the Demon Subduing sect while that cultivator is on the loose.”
“He was strong enough to defeat Wu Ming, we must retreat!”
“We must alert the Sect Leader and the council!”
Elder Wan listened, his sect member was saying the truth. They couldn’t let an unknown rogue cultivator run amok in their lands, he was the priority. They needed to go to their top bras and also examine the places that the enemy was seen before.
“My junior sister speaks the truth, we will reimburse you for the damages to your broken formation and wall.”
Fan Ping stroked his beard while looking at the opposing faction. He knew that if they continued this fight deaths would be unavoidable. Taking some spirit stones for the destroyed walls and formation was a win in his mind. There was no reason for the two forces to clash here, everything did seem kind of fishy.
‘They are probably telling the truth… but who was that man that caused this… we need more information…’
His eyes gleamed in a cold light while he looked down, this might have been something trivial but there was also a chance that it could lead to something.
“Fine…pay up and let’s be done with this!”
The other side threw spatial pouch with spirit stones inside, there was enough to cover the costs. The two sides turned around and flew away, still they left more than one nascent soul elder on each side, just in case. The man named Fan Ping took out his communication jade afterward, he had to make some calls…
………………
Back in the Dimensional Regalia.
Huo Qiang had his mouth wide open, drool running down his chin, his hands trembling as he was staring at the red manual in his hands. Feng Liena was right next to him, her eyes were sparkling and she had a similar dumbfounded expression as her fellow cultivation brother next to her. The thing that snapped them back to reality was the cough from the white-haired man opposite them.
“I think you stared at them long enough… we should get on with it, time is of the essence!”
The two cultivators looked between their colorful manuals and then back to Zhang Dong. Their hands began shaking, the aura that was coming off these two booklets was unfathomable.
“S-senior B-brother are you sure we are allowed to read this?”
“Y-yes, t-this is just too much…”
Matt chuckled a bit, the two cultivators were acting like little kids. Their eyes were sparkling like a child that had received a toy for Christmas that they were waiting for long time.
“It’s fine, you must cultivate this and quickly reach the nascent soul level, we don’t have time!”
He moved over to Huo Qiang, his finger outstretched.
“For this reason, I will have to hasten the process… first, let me impart you the knowledge.”
He had the Impartation of Knowledge skill, he had leveled it up to the pinnacle so he could force 100% of the techniques information into a given target. Though that what it was, information everyone was different and it would depend on them on how fast they could digest it. He placed his index finger on Huo Qiang’s forehead and activated the skill, the red-haired man twitched as his mind was filled with the Plasma Ifrit Of The Perfect Yang Path knowledge. Matt also included knowledge about some of the Dao’s that could be useful.
“W-what…?”
The man backed away and grasped his aching forehead, the pain subsided fast. He could then feel that somehow he knew the cultivation method now.
“S-senior Brother… this!”
“Yes, I can directly transfer the information of the techniques, it would take too long if you study it yourself. Keep the manual, for now, sometimes it helps to reread it yourself.”
Huo Qiang quickly opened the booklet, he started reading and it was just as Zhang Dong said. He already knew everything that was written down here, but there still were some pictures that could come in handy if he got stuck. Qiang looked between the cultivation manual and Zhang Dong, his eyes going bloodshot.
“Huh?”
Before Matt could react he found himself in a bear hug. The man that was hugging him was larger and more muscular than him, plus he had a thing for not wearing much to cover his chest. He was now getting bearhugged by a buff dude that was wearing a tiny vest that was exposing his hairy chest.
“Hey, calm down, let me down!”
“You are my sworn brother for life, Uooohhhh!”
The man roared out while Matt pushed up against his face and slowly forced him away.
‘God damn… use some deodorant dude…’
He pushed him back and due to him being in the nascent soul level, Huo Qiang was flung into the distance and tumbled a couple of times before coming to a stop. He was still laughing out loud while clutching the red cultivation manual like a starving man clutching some bread.
“S-senior Dong…”
Matt looked back, a Feng Liena with sparkles in her eyes was standing there. She fidgeted like a small child while hugging the manual against her large chest.
“Can I also receive your finger technique?”
“My finger technique?”
Matt looked down at his finger then back to the busty lady. She had closed her eyes and stuck her forehead out while looking up to him. He sweated slightly after misunderstanding what she meant and then placed his finger on her forehead. He imparted her knowledge for the Storm Phoenix cultivation technique. She gave out quite the cute low pitched sound during the process, then squatted down on the ground while holding on to her head.
“W-was it that bad?”
He was someone who got used to the headaches thanks to his system. He wasn’t affected by it anymore but it seemed that other people like Liena weren’t that resistant. He took the time that Liena was organizing her thoughts to peek at her status.
“Similar potential to my disciples, eh?”
“Only 3% progression this will cost a lot…”
He could see that she was under his new faction, the process could move forward now. He brought up his faction window, he had an option to search for people that were in it. He typed up her name and could see a similar status screen like the one he used for analyzing people. He selected her cultivation and was given the option for increasing her progress but this wasn’t all.
Just like everyone else who used weak cultivation methods, people built-up impurities in their bodies. For instance, Zhang Jin that used a really low graded one had his progress halted at the early stage of core formation. It took a lot of resources to push him into the middle stage along with remaking his original cultivation manual.
‘Nice… didn’t know this option existed!’
Matt knew that the two were studying lower graded techniques, so even when they reached the next realm some of the impurities would remain. This would lower their power level in some way.
“Senior Dong?”
Feng Liena was already off the ground and had realized that she already knew what was written in the manual she was holding. She wanted to thank Zhang Dong that made it possible but found the man staring intensively in her direction while poking at the air.
“Ah… huh?”
Matt snapped out of it, the system window appeared directly in the line of sight of Feng Liena and made it look like he was staring at her with passion in his eyes.
“Ah sorry…”
“N-no it’s fine…”
The awkwardness didn’t last for long as Huo Qiang appeared from the side, his loud voice alerting the two to his presence.
“Ha, this cultivation technique is great… An Ifrit Soul-Beast, everyone will bow before my might, long live United Elements Sect!”
“Let us cultivate now, I can’t wait!”
Qiang was ready to drop down into a lotus position and get to it, before he could go through with it Zhang Dong spoke out.
“We need to do something before that… if we do it normally this is going to take far too long, please take this first…”
Zhang Dong took out a round object, it looked like a marble that fit nicely into Feng Liena’s hand. The woman looked at the item that was handed to her. It looked quite ordinary, a normal orb made from glass without any major features.
“Could you hold on to that and head behind that building…”
The woman looked at him for a moment but nodded. She believed that this item probably did something great and decided to follow the instructions. Though, why she was to go behind the building was a mystery.
“Are you in a safe spot Sister Liena?”
“Yes, Brother Dong.”
“Okay, this might feel strange so please bare with it…”
Liena wanted to scratch her head, what was she supposed to bare with. Was this glass orb that she received some dangerous spiritual treasure.
“Something strangeeeeeeee?”
She screamed out, she started feeling pain all over her body. She could feel that something was happening, her whole body spasmed as she dropped down to her knees.
“Please bear with it, it should be over soon!”
She heard Zhang Dong’s voice from the distance and followed the instructions. She clenched her teeth while the strange feeling took over her body. Besides the pain, she started feeling nauseous as if she was coming down with stomach flu. She couldn’t hold it in as vomit shoot out of her mouth covering the ground with black like ooze.
The whole process took about five minutes and left a large puddle of black goop behind. Liena felt really weak but refreshed at the same time. The black stuff that came out of her body had a foul odor and she instantly knew what this was.
‘Impurities! All of this…?’
She felt stronger her body was cleansed, her cultivation path reinforced by this strange glass bead that had shattered into pieces while she was going through the process. While she was trying to get a grip on the situation she heard Zhang Dong shout out.
“If you head back there is a hot spring you can use, you probably need a change of clothes after that.”
She realized now why he told her to go behind the building. She had a foul odor to her and looked like a mess, she needed a change of clothes. She smiled a bit and then moved towards the area where the springs were. During this time Huo Qiang received the same treatment his loud shouts could be heard all around the floating island in the pocket dimension.