Zhang Dong was just standing there, glaring at two nascent soul masters that were angry. He had come up with a haphazard plan just like many times before. He couldn’t just watch a child getting murdered in front of him. He would hate himself in the future if he just stood by, the problem was that now he had involved himself in this fiasco. He would have to see it through till the end.
He eyed the golden-haired girl with a side glance. She looked rather young and was looking at him as if he was some kind of alien. It would have been good if she followed his lead and acted like his family member in this situation. She didn’t look like the scheming type though and probably didn’t realize that he was trying to help her. That or she didn’t trust him enough to go along with it.
Her grandfather on the other hand had been freed from the massive pressure as Zhang Dong had aided him with his own aura. He was also now looking in his direction with brows furrowed. He looked confused but luckily he had more sense than his granddaughter and went for it.
“Y-yes…, you should pay respect to your senior uncle!”
Fang Heng was now grasping at straws. He had no idea what this man called Zhang Dong was thinking. He had heard about his fight but knew nothing more than that. By the way, he was holding back the Yggdrasil Sect’s Patriarch and his ally at bay it looked like he was a strong master.
He was claiming to be a family member of theirs from his granddaughter’s side. If this was true or some kind of ploy he had no idea. At this juncture, he was willing to gamble his life. His favorite grandchild had almost died and he couldn’t even lift a finger. It was this man that had saved her, maybe he was just interested in her for a different reason but he had to risk it. Otherwise, she would be dead for sure, he had to somehow help him.
Fang Meili looked at the handsome white-haired man that was looking to the side. He was currently in a spiritual battle with the two other Patriarchs. He still managed to look to the side and smile slightly.
Before the girl could act though she felt some of that nascent soul energy leaking out. Her whole body trembled from fright and she fell down to her knees while panting. She felt as if someone was holding her throat tightly and squeezing with all might.
“This is absurd! Why should we even let you go on with this farce, you’ve broken the rules!”
“That man never showed any respect for others, he needs to be taught a lesson!”
Zhan Jie from the Limitless Sword Society stepped forward. While his ally backed him up, it didn’t look like this would be ending without a fight.
Zhang Dong could feel the pressure increasing against him and he was having trouble defending himself and the young girl from all this pressure. He was still only at the early parts of his middle stage level so going against these two that were close to the very top of late-stage was proving difficult.
That is if he didn’t use one of his techniques. His Embodiment of the Thunder God technique had been upgraded and he could now use it even better. He took one step forward and a golden hue surrounded his body.
The other cultivators in the area could feel powerful fluctuations of Qi in the surroundings. Zhang Dong’s lightning elemental Qi was of the utmost purity and everyone here could sense that.
The two people that were going against him felt their auras getting shoved back as their opponent walked forward. His energy had the telltale signs of someone at the middle stage but his power was even above theirs.
“Respect has to be earned! You forced my niece to take part in the competition, do you really think I didn’t see that? She was never included in the roster, do you think I wouldn’t notice?”
He had seen some people pushing the blond girl around and forcing her into the labyrinth. During that time he had luckily eavesdropped on them with one of his techniques. He noticed them talk it out with the judges standing guard, they were clearly bribed.
There was a rule in place to register the contestants a day before the competition. The sects that came first could even do it two days sooner. Zhang Dong knew that the people from the Divine Fist Sect did no such thing. They were clearly forced to participate and everyone here knew it. They all kept quiet as it wasn’t their business and they had nothing to gain from alienating the Yggdrasil Sect’s Patriarch.
The two sides began glaring at each other. Fang Heng even made his way over behind Zhang Dong and grabbed his granddaughter. The girl was clearly not powerful enough to take part in this and was barely conscious at this time. She was lucky enough that Zhang Dong had protected her from most of the aura that was seeping out.
“Stop lying, how could that girl be related to you. You are clearly just trying to slander our good names, what gall! Who do you think even allowed your sect to exist for so long? Did you finally lose it? Are you rebelling against the Limitless Sword Society!?”
Zhan Jie retorted while sweating. He could feel that this white-haired man was a lot stronger than he previously had thought. He had the other Patriarch next to him so he had some help, otherwise, he would feel as confident. He wasn’t yet out of his reach, in the sword master’s mind he felt like he could win a one on one fight even though it would be a hard-fought battle.
“Rebelling?”
Zhang Dong started feeling apprehensive about this. He didn’t quite want to start a fight with this sect or the other two. It was slowly becoming apparent that he might not have another choice.
“I and my sect have never and never will belong to you, how can we rebel? Do you think that little sum that we pay you gives you the right to our lands? Fine, from this day forth the United Element sect will cut ties with the Limitless Sword Society!”
Some of the people gasped, they didn’t know what this was going but they all felt threatened. Even though this was the Yinglong Pavilion if a fight between two top fighters broke out there could be some casualties.
“Y-you…”
Zhan Jie’s face contorted and he looked like a demon. The man was clearly angered to the fullest extent. Before he could act though another powerful aura filled the area. This aura came crashing down and just evaporated the spiritual energy that these three nascent soul masters were giving out.
“That’s more than enough of you three. There will be no fighting here…”
The man that spoke out was the leader of the merchant faction. He had remained silent and watched on from the sidelines. He had no stakes in either side but he couldn’t let these people just do anything they wanted. This was his city and there were rules that he made.
“If you two wish to continue then you can clash in the arena, not here.”
Zhang Dong and the two other elders started backing off and quieted down. Both parties were actually glad that the leader from the Yinglong Pavilion intervened as none of them were actually willing to fight.
“If what the Patriarch from the United Element sect says is true then I’ll be lenient, first we must check if his claims are true.”
It was time to clear things out here. There were some accusations thrown out there but no proof anywhere. First, they needed to see if this white-haired man was related to the golden-haired girl or not. If he wasn’t then he was clearly just doing this to agitate the other side, for what reason that would be up to debate.
“Bring it out.”
The man clapped his hands and a person brought out a certain treasure. It looked like a chalice that was made from precious metals. The people here knew well what this was as it was a popular item that could test someone’s family roots.
The chalice was placed on a table. A person needed to put a drop of their blood into the item and let it mix with the other person’s blood. If the chalice showed a reaction by glowing then it meant that the people were related to each other.
There were other more intricate artifacts like this. Some sects used them to test how pure their bloodlines were. This was mostly done with a reference to an ancestral senior. They would use their genetic marker as the base and compare the disciples to it. The closer it was the higher the position in the sect or clan for the junior.
Fang Meili looked at her grandfather, the old man just nodded.
“It’s okay Meili’er.”
Not like the two had any other choice. If Zhang Dong was a liar and he was just trying to start a fight they would go down with him.
Fang Heng was already grasping at straws, his original plan had gone down the drain. It was clear that the other sects knew something as they weren’t worried that much when they took his granddaughter away. He was now sure that they were testing him. Probably the information about the state of his sect was already out there. How much was unclear.
The golden-haired girl nodded and moved forward. She was handed a dagger with which she poked her finger with. A droplet of blood landed inside the chalice and the artifact began to faintly glow.
Zhan Jie and the others were curious, was this girl really related to that man. It was really strange that he reacted as he did. A normal person wouldn’t defend someone in this kind of situation from their standpoint.
They could only think of a few reasons that would make him do something like that. Either the girl was really related to him, or he was planning something. He seemed eager to go against them, was he really so brazen and sure about himself?
Zhan Jie’s natural superiority complex was clouding his judgment. He was already maddened by the fact that Zhang Dong dared to break off ties and would not be paying his sect its dues. He wanted to show him how wrong he was to go against him and his sect. He didn’t even add the other two sects into the equations as he was confident. His own sect was superior and so was he.
Zhang Dong was now up. He was handed a dagger that was a heavenly treasure, he looked at it for a moment and frowned. It looked like he was apprehensive about using it for some reason. This made the other cultivators question his motives, it made it seem like he didn’t want to go through with this test.
“See, he was lying, he doesn’t even want to proceed with the bloodline test!”
The Yggdrasil Sect’s Patriarch proclaimed while pointing with his finger accusingly. The others nodded with approval as it did look like so.
“No, it’s just… fine…”
Zhang Dong gave out a sigh and poked his finger with the dagger. The others looked with anticipation and waited for the chalice to be activated. There was a slight problem though.
“I thought so…”
They looked at Zhang Dong who poked his finger with that dagger but no blood was coming out. The item was a heaven grade treasure but it looked to not be able to pierce his skin. The pointy dagger tip even got bent out of shape when Zhang Dong added more strength to it.
“Sorry about that…”
Zhang Dong handed the dagger back to the person that brought it over. It was now really out of shape and looked unusable. It was clear from this display that this man’s body was something that could resist heavenly grade treasures.
“I’ll just use my own…”
The man then brought out his sword that he once used in the fight against the Silver Spear Sect Patriarch and poked his finger on the tip. Even this item had some trouble to pierce his skin but a small droplet was formed that dropped into the chalice.
The bloodline measuring device started working and it went through a couple of colors. Depending on the shine it gave out it could show how close they were related. It went from red to orange and then to yellow and continued to change. It finally stopped at a slightly darker green which meant that the two were indeed related.
“Green color, this means that they are within three generations!”
Zhang Dong already knew this as his system had shown him this. The person that Zhang Jin had shagged with was Fang Meili’s great grandmother. She was indeed his niece and in the same generation as his two disciples.
The two sect leaders looked surprised, what was the meaning of this? This man was related to this girl, how was this possible?
The two looked at each other and their faces went pale. This was probably a rouse started by the Divine First Sect, they probably lied about the monster attack too!