“The first guests are arriving!”
“Who is that, senior? They have a really big ship, are they from one of the top sects?”
“They are from the…United Element Sect?”
Two people were talking with each other. They were looking at seven approaching ships. They could see six regular-sized ones barely keeping up with a really large one made from metal. Even from here, everyone could tell that the large one was something special, it was a heaven grade treasure.
“Haven’t heard of them… the other ships bare the flags of the Limitless Sword Society and the Demon Subduing Sect…”
The junior asked while he kept looking, the senior member took out a scroll with the list of people that were invited. The sects that were coming today were supposed to be at the lower end of the strength spectrum. This meant that this United Element sect shouldn’t be anything special. For some reason, they were being escorted here by two other more powerful sects and their ship looked very powerful.
“Ah yes it’s written here, United Element Sect, it’s a newly established sect… the only note here is that their Patriarch could potentially be a threat…”
“Ah… I know, their Patriarch apparently took on the Dark Palm sect single-handedly and survived!”
The Junior member said with passion while the senior next to him gave out a sigh.
“You shouldn’t believe the rumors, that sect is new and they only survived thanks to Zhang Dong’s master.”
Most people didn’t want to believe that someone as young as Zhang Dong could go against the old monsters that easily. He apparently fought off five nascent soul cultivators at once, one of them was even a late stage cultivator. Their skepticism was confirmed as the United Element sect was still paying spirit stones to the other sects surrounding it. This implied that they felt inferior and didn’t want to cause trouble with them.
“Is that so?”
“Yes now straighten out, even though this sect isn’t anything special we must show our hospitality!”
They were still guests of the Yinglong Pavilion. Every sect here was considered to be medium sized and with nascent soul elders at the top. Each of them was a potential source of income for this guild of merchants. They were only profit-driven and didn’t care who was feuding with who, if they were able to spend high grade spirit stones they were good to start a business with.
“Yes senior!”
The two men went on their way to prepare the welcome. They needed to guide many of the cultivators to their temporary living quarters and explain the rules. This was neutral ground so fighting was forbidden. Not all of it as sects that had grievances could fight with each other in sanctioned matches. This was also a source of income in this city, betting on the fights between high level experts brought in quite the number of spirit stones.
Back on the Argonaut that was Zhang Dong’s ship, the sect members were gathering upon the main deck. There weren’t that many of them, only about twenty, most of the people on this ship were the crew members. They would be staying at high alert for the entirety of this trip.
They had orders to not allow anyone on board. Not even if they were powerful cultivators, they were to activate the defensive formations and even return fire. Of course, they would only retaliate if they were attacked and call him over to smooth things out. There was a teleportation gate inside the ship, so Zhang Dong could even teleport there to help them out.
He had certain special treasures that linked him up to the ship’s teleportation gate. His system wasn’t something that was responsible for this feature. This was something that he managed to produce through the years of practicing his crafting profession. He was already a person that could craft heaven graded items with ease and the same was true for pills.
It wasn’t actually forbidden to take your weapons and spatial rings into the city premises. The Yinglong Pavilion people were confident in their grand formation that encompassed the entire city. It boosted their sides might and the other cultivators had no way of resisting if they got serious.
“Everyone gather up, we will be departing. Captain, I leave the Argonaut in your hands, if someone tries to cause trouble follow the agreed-upon procedures.”
Zhang Dong said while waving his hand around. A large golden veil surrounded everyone from the twenty man group. They started to gently float up and left the protective barrier of their large flying ship.
The people from the other two sects would be also waiting outside with them. They were ordered to remain here to watch and report back to their side. Their own sect leaders would be arriving later as they were from the more prominent sects.
The two nascent soul masters that were with them looked at the golden bubble that flickered with electrical energy. While looking at it they flinched out of fright. The lightning Qi surrounding that bubble was of the utmost purity, they didn’t know how this person could achieve such a mastery at such a young age. They made sure to report their findings and then retreated into their flying ships.
Zhang Dong and his group floated towards the main gate where some people were waiting for them. There was a familiar-looking nascent soul elder there, already waiting for him. He was wearing a top hat and a tuxedo quite different from what the other people wore. “We meet again good fellow, let me be the first one to greet you here ol’ chap.”
The man he was looking at was sticking out like a sore thumb again. He had a western looking tuxedo on just like the last time he met him. At first Matt thought that this might have been the whole vibe of this merchant organization. It would make more sense if they all were wearing western clothing but no. Only this man was doing it.
“Ah yes, greetings fellow Daoist, I’m Zhang Dong, I didn’t catch your name last time we met, it was a bit hectic back then…”
Zhang Dong had lowered his spiritual veil from his sect members and they all moved behind him. They were now looking at the entrance gate of his large city. Normally people from so far away in the lower areas of the empire would be opening their eyes wide with mouths agape. This group of oldies wasn’t doing such a thing though. Their own city walls were at least of equal quality to these.
“My humble name is Sebas Tian, you can just call me Brother Tian!”
The man chuckled while moving closer, instead of a bow he offered Zhang Dong a handshake. This took him slightly back but he returned the gesture while gripping the other man’s hand firmly. He was acting similar to an old English gentleman which was quite out of place.
This brought an idea to Matt. The man probably had similar roots to his lovely wife. She also had an ancestor that was probably from a different world. This man’s ancestor had to be of British descent. He might be able to get more information about those cubic treasures.
He was still in the dark about the strange site where he started his adventure in this world. The person that shortly spoke to him told him to get more of those cubes. He wasn’t able to find any other ones at all. Feng Lena’s ancestor also came from another part of the empire or from a totally different country whatsoever.
He scanned his own land with his map and there were no other spots there. If he got this man to speak, maybe he could find one there? This was an unexpected encounter but maybe this trip here wouldn’t be a total waste.
“Brother Tian?”
Zhang Dong raised an eyebrow after the full name got revealed. This only confirmed that he must have some kind of transmigrator or reincarnator ancestor that came from either his own earth or a similar one.
“Brother Dong ol’ chap, you made a name for yourself since the last time I’ve seen you..”
“Ah, a couple of things happened and I got lucky.”
Zhang Dong replied while slightly smiling.
“Nonsense! There is no such thing as luck, only hard work, ol’ chap!”
The man got even closer as the two chatted. The elders behind Zhang Dong didn’t say anything and neither did the people that were standing behind Elder Tian. None of them had a say in this and they needed to remain in place and wait.
Their conversation continued for a couple of minutes before they finally decided to move into the city. The group of old cultivators that was behind Zhang Dong could finally move their old bones.
With the help of the top hat-wearing nascent soul master, they were able to enter without a problem. The man here wasn’t there for only Zhang Dong but he took some time out of his day to guide them into the city.
The two masters exchanged some pleasantries after which Sebas Tian had to return.
“Brother Dong, I will see you at the banquet I’m sure we can discuss the dao there ol chap”
“That we can brother Tian, you’ll have to tell me where you got that hat from….”
Matt was mostly interested in where this man had come from but he seemed like a nice guy. His alignment was also fine at lawful neutral.After they split up a small group of servants came over. They were composed of good looking women and men only. This was probably a tactic to gain favor with the sects. They would keep them happy with small gifts and beauties.
Something like this would have probably worked on Zhang Jin like a charm. Zhang Dong on the other hand was the faithful type. He was even missing his little potato even more now.
The city was filled to the brim with people but the streets were empty. When he and his sect members were walking through the regular residents of the city had their heads down.
Everyone knew that many powerful people would be coming over. This also meant that offending one of them was a high possibility. Even with the city being protected by the Yinglong Pavilion they wouldn’t help anyone of low status. This was the same in any city in this world.The group was guided to one of the larger hotels that went by the name of Azure Phoenix Hotel’. They weren’t the first group of cultivators to arrive though. Some other people were being guided by similar servants and already going inside.
Matt didn’t know just how many other sects were coming. There were far less middle sized sects with nascent soul masters throughout the land.
This also wasn’t the only hotel that the cultivators were guided to. Getting a worse place to stay at could also be a cause of fights breaking out. If one sect thought they should be the ones to stay at a more pricey hotel. It could be interpreted as a loss of face when they saw a similar sect as them getting preferential treatment.
He could already see two sects glaring at each other at the entrance to this hotel. They were composed of people of younger ages. The juniors were to the side glaring at each other and the two young masters were already picking fights with each other.
Matt was glad that he decided to bring the old fart group instead. Those just looked at the exchange with spite, those people were not conducting themselves with grace in their eyes.
Now a problem arose. The path towards his accommodations was right between the two sides. From the conversation, he was hearing these sects were rivals. Something about one of their senior members killing the other in some kind of competition or trial recently.
He had a decision to make, would he wait for them to stop fighting or would he just go through? Both decisions had their ups and downs, but the first one certainly would take more time as the shouting match was only getting louder and no one seemed to be interfering.