*Uh, I"ll consider this a win..."

He went into the bathroom to clean himself up a bit dejected that the woman was gunning more for his status than himself, then he dressed and headed out to ask people about the Zhang Clan. The rumors were widespread so it wasn"t hard. Apparently the Zhang Clan was void of any elders at the moment and all of their heavy hitters died in some exploration attempt of some ruin or holy ground. Those were things akin to dungeons that had sealed of s.p.a.ces and you never knew what dangers lurked inside, it wasn"t anything new you could gain a lot but also lose your life.

*Guess that"s why Fei gave me the cold shoulder, she thinks that I have no backing now and will get hunted by other clans if they see me...*

He still felt a bit dejected but could understand the woman"s decision and not like they had any deep relationship bonding them anyway. He needed to make a decision now, either head to the Zhang Clan and check out if he could salvage the situation there, maybe it wasn"t as bad as the rumors said. Or wait it out then make the decision. Not like he couldn"t take another ident.i.ty if he wanted, this would probably be the intelligent thing to do, but would the people from the Zhang clan die if he didn"t go there?

This would probably be the case, but that didn"t really sit well with him. Would this system place him in a hopeless position? He didn"t really have a hard time, the enemies weren"t that tough and he was getting better and better at fighting. He also considered his personal strength to be in the later stages of core formation due to his cultivation method and added bonuses from the Dao he had.

He didn"t know why but it just didn"t feel right to abandon those Zhang Clan members, from what he heard the people around here much preferred them to the Cheng Clan that was gaining power. He couldn"t just abandon them now after he knew that they were in danger. Also, he was slowly starting to change a bit, the winning battle with the tentacle monster brought something new. The feeling was strange, but it made him itch for a fight.

It was one thing to battle beasts and fry big bug monsters with his lightning bolts, it was another thing to do the same thing to other humans. He didn"t know if he could hold back and not kill someone by mistake either. While this was going through his mind he tossed out his large sword and started going up into the air. He glanced in the direction of the caravan as he flew above them for a moment, they were leaving the city. The woman noticed him looking at her from afar, she just gave him a little bow before looking away and heading out of the city.

Matt gave out a sigh and looked at his system map, this city was a halfway point if he counted the forest as his starting point so it would take him a bit to get there. So he pushed his spiritual energy into it and with a thunderous sound, he bolted towards his new destination. The people in the city were alerted to his loud takeoff, the Cheng Clan members glad that he was finally gone and that they didn"t suffer much besides that one pervy elder of theirs, but he could be easily replaced.

He was going fast and the scenery rapidly changed below him as he increased his speed, he decided to do some mental training while he was at it. Checking all of his inner knowledge that he received from the system wanting to know what he had imprinted in him concerning fighting other cultivators. He also counted that he would have a bit over 25k spirit points if he started absorbing the spirit stones he got. Though he wasn"t sure what to spend it on yet, he also had enough skills he didn"t really need anymore. They were all higher grade and powerful. Though he was running low on those healing pills, he might have to spend some on those.

At about the time that Zhang Dong was speeding towards his destination, other things were happening there.

Spirit Spring City was at full alert, their defensive formations were all active, a bright golden shield was covering the whole city. You could see cultivators sitting in lotus positions powering the defensive shield that covered the whole area. Some of them were getting dragged away on stretchers, their bodies drained from their spiritual energy as they were switched out with other cultivators. On the other side of the shield you could see people as well, they were pounding on the shield with something that looked like siege weapons. There were balistas and cannons, firing of colorful shots of energy that were hitting the golden shield making it rumble.

Back inside, there was one old cultivator looking at the spot that the weapons were firing at. His hair was white, his face had a scar running from his eyebrow down to his cheek. He had a beard and was about six feet tall, his eyes had a golden hue to them. He had a frown on his face, his hands were behind his back as he squinted at the spot that was getting bombarded.

"How long do we have?"

He asked one of the people next to him, there were older people like him. On his left it was an older lady, looking to be in her sixties and on the right side it was an old man about the same age.

"A couple of days, a week at most Elder Jin"
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The woman said while also looking in the same direction.

"Any word from outside?"

"No sir, we sent out a plea for help to outside families and a call to arms. Some have come to aid us but no one that could turn the tide. There is probably no more help coming. We have no way of contacting clan members that weren"t inside the formation after it was activated as well."

They had lost their Patriarch and the core members of the Clan, Elder Jin was the only core formation cultivator left around and he was also only of the early stage. Zhang Jin gripped his fist in anger as he remembered the day that they got ordered by the sect to examine a new formed holy ground that was unexplored. They couldn"t refuse but the area was an enigma. The Patriarch was a good man, he didn"t want the juniors to suffer if there was danger so he decided to join the expedition along with the other elders and best disciples. Afterward, they found all the spirit tablets with their names cracked and crumbled, indicating that they had perished. They kept this hidden for some time, but after a couple of months the other clans figured it out.

The sect that ordered the campaign didn"t want to get involved, they just told them to work it out on their own accord, it wasn"t their fault that their people weren"t strong enough to manage an easy exploration mission. They got used then abandoned and they couldn"t do anything about it. They could try bargaining with the other clans, but at most they could offer their women and children as slaves, the men would probably be killed. But that wasn"t their style, they would fight to the end.

"I didn"t think that my Zhang Clan would end like this..."

The man looked at the city and the people around them, this was his family. The clan survived for many hundreds of years and the future was looking bright, who would have thought that this would have happened? He would go down swinging, he was old, he didn"t fear death but he was worried about the younger members. He planned to stall as long as he could so that at least the women and children could get away, he already discussed this with the warriors from the clan. The reason that they were still keeping the shield up was just a faint hope that someone would come to their aid, this tactic was about to pay off...