The old fatty groaned and squirmed on the ground, unable to move his bloated body hurting all over after being trashed by the Zhang Clan sister. Zhang Ai removed her helmet, her hair was in a bun to make it fit in. This was one thing that she didn’t like about these battle helmets that the clan produced.
“I remember… still he needed a good thrashing!”
The woman gave the already beaten and bruised man a kick with her foot and only then moved back. While Ai was still by the old guy, Zhang Teng tried to help the girl up, but his snake-like features and his long tongue were giving the poor frightened girl a scare.
“It’s okay, don’t worry this older brother will protect you!”
He smiled brightly, or so he thought his smile looking like a pervy grin that sent shivers down Ling Ling’s spine. Zhang Ai shoved her clan brother to the side, quickly moving between him and the frightened girl.
“Brother Teng please stop, you are scaring the little thing.”
“Scaring? How could anyone be scared of my valiant appearance!”
He stuck out his chest proudly, standing tall as if he was trying to show off his good features.
“Listen here little girl, this older brother here is quite famous, I am one of the heroes from the Zhang Clan, I even helped our glorious Patriarch fight it out with a ferocious demon cultivator. It was a tough battle, but thanks to my quick wits our Patriarch managed to land the killing blow on the nascent soul cultivator!”
Zhang Ai looked at her clan brother, squinting her eyes and sighing inwardly. This wasn’t the first time that the man told this to others, the story was more exaggerated the more he talked about it. At first, he only mentioned taking part in the expedition and making it out alive, but soon he was turning to the hero of the story, he even had the gall to mention the Patriarch in this blatant lie.
“Hero? Helping the Patriarch?”
“Don’t believe his lies little one, this brother here passed out under some rubble when the demon cultivator appeared. Only after our Patriarch slew the monster of a cultivator we found this useless brother under it. He even soiled his brand new robe that our clan painstakingly fashioned for us, the stench was horrendous!”
The woman still remembered the appearance of her clan brother, he was in quite the silly position slumping forward with his posterior in the air. You could clearly see stains through the partially broken up robe, it had suffered some damage in the fighting his posterior positioned in such a fashion that you could see it all.
The man blushed instantly, throwing hands above his head as he tried defending himself.
“Sister Ai… you jest, nothing like that happened… you have no proof… don’t listen to this older sister little one, her intellect diminished due to her chest being so big.”
The two started arguing with each other, the girl looking shocked. She started relaxing though, the two looked to be close comrades and the comedic way they were talking with each other diffused the tense atmosphere around here, the young girl even started laughing.
“Pfff….”
She soon moved her hands to her head, not wanting to sound rude to the powerful cultivators that saved her. The Zhang Clan duo looked at the young girl, then to each other and simultaneously turned their heads to the side while blushing.
“A-anyway, let us take this collar off you first.”
They removed the ring that was controlling the slave collar from the sausage-like fingers of the man, which wasn’t an easy endeavor. The little magical treasure was kind of a master key, it could deliver shocks to the slaves but it also could unlock the collars without having to pry it off their necks.
While the two were doing that, another clan member moved in. He was a Qi condensation practitioner and was wearing a more regular looking robe. The thing that stuck out was the peculiar-looking hat that he was wearing, yes it was a regular looking police cap that you saw on earth. It even had a police shield emblem in the middle, signaling this man’s rank.
“Reporting to Sergeant Ai and Teng, we have found captive people in the levels below, we have taken care of all the bodyguards and they are being held on the upper floor.”
This was something that their Patriarch came up with, the group was called ‘Police’ the name sounded quite strange to these cultivator nuts but what their Patriarch said was considered sacred. Their belief in Zhang Dong was borderline cult-like after he managed to save them, the people that were at the secret ground had a firm image of their glorious Leader etched into their mind now.
There were four ranks in this institution, the regular members were police officers. After them came the police sergeants that started up from the foundation early stage all up to the late stage. When you reached great circle of foundation establishment you were promoted to a police Lieutenant, there was also a Captain that was the leader of the whole group. He was the strongest cultivator at the police station and would mostly be someone of core formation.
It had been two years since the expedition, the two were in Moonlight City and they were the first batch of the cultivators here. Yesterday they arrived with some core formation elders to take over the city that their clan once owned. The clan that ruled it was still the Cheng Clan, the Patriarch from that clan had even managed to reach the early stage of core formation.
They weren’t afraid though, the Zhang Clan wasn’t the Zhang Clan of old. In these two years, they had recovered all of their strength and even went beyond what they were capable of. They had more core formation elders now all thanks to their glorious leader that provided them with miraculous pills and improved their cultivation techniques even more. Breaking through for those people that were stuck at the great circle of foundation establishment was just a matter of time now.
“Begin the rescue operation, prepare the blankets and the recovery pills for the feeble ones and gather everyone in front of this slave-trading shop, we need to do a headcount. Examine everyone, ask if they have families they want to be returned too if not, follow the previously established procedures.”
The Zhang Clan had many new rules now, the Patriarch founded many new institutions the Police was just one of them, he even set many new clinics and even schools were being built for the regular people. The cultivators were a bit apprehensive about some things, why should their Zhang Clan spend valuable resources on the lowly masses.
Their Patriarch’s words were final though, something about bringing the happiness of the populace up being quite lucrative for the well being of the entire clan. They couldn’t really go against the leader though, so everything was being set up and the all-around atmosphere around the Zhang Clan owned cities was skyrocketing.
“It’s a shame that that old Cheng clan fox and his brats got away.”
“Yes, they must have realized that we took care of all of their spies in Spirit Spring City. But I’m not sure if they can flee far, our Captain should be on their trail.”
“Ah yes! Captain should be able to chase them down!”
Zhang Ai clapped her hands, being reassured if it was that man he should be able to catch those fleeing Cheng Clan members and bring them in for questioning. Since the expedition, it was that man that improved the most just a shame that he was already taken.
The said Cheng Clan Patriarch and his no-good young master of a son Cheng Tong, were on a flying ship. It looked similar to the one the Zhang Clan used when they were going to the secret ground but it was smaller and instead of a dragon it had a crane on its beak.
“Haha, you’re great Father you knew that those bastards from Zhang Clan were coming for us, we managed to flee with most of our treasures too!”
The chubby man was sitting on a big chair a bit away from the ship’s helm, looking at the passing scenery. He knew well that this day was coming and it was coming soon, he prepared a flying ship and brought all the core members of the clan on it before the bastards from the Zhang Clan attacked.
“Leave it to your old man Tong’er, those idiots can have that blasted city we’ll just keep our heads low for now, but don’t worry your old man is already an expert, taking over another city won’t be a problem!”
The man was sipping on some spirit wine, a busty lady attendant was pouring it into a tall glass while sighing inwardly. She would rather stay back in that city that was liberated by the Zhang Clan, she heard the rumors that slaves like her were treated a lot better in Spirit Spring City. But she could only dream, the slave choker visible on her neck and the Patriarch having the control ring on his finger.
“Yes father, our clan will flourish and then when we can have our revenge against those bastards, that Zhang Xue is quite the beauty too…”
One of the other young masters said while sitting next to his father, Cheng Tong was only the third son so he was sitting a bit to the side of his two elder brothers that were enjoying the view with their father.
The Clan Patriarch moved his hand upwards and yelled for them to stop the flying barge, he noticed that there was a cultivator on a flying sword directly ahead of them.
They slowed down, soon enough they could see the man’s appearance clearly. He was standing on a black flying sword and holding a large black blade over his shoulder, it was similar in length to the man himself. His hair was styled into a ponytail and it was wrapped up with some bandages. He had some stubble and a blade of grass was sticking out of his mouth.
“Halt, In the name of the Zhang Clan!”
The people’s eyes bulged, this cultivator had chased them down here and was from the blasted Zhang Clan. The Patriarch gritted his teeth but then took a closer look at the younger-looking man, he was only in the early stage of core formation and he clearly only achieved it recently.
“What, is it only you? You gave me a scare there… move if you don’t want to die!”
He moved from his seat, his core formation aura filling the area. The man wasn’t a core formation expert for long, but he had reached this point a year ago so he was confident in defeating this inexperienced cultivator.
“Oh, are you resisting? The Patriarch ordered your capture, you will not escape! Take my blade!”
He moved his blade over his head, water energy gathering all around him as the blade pulsed with might. He was going right into it, no more questions would be asked. The Cheng Clan Patriarch looked behind him, he was still standing on the ship, this would be bad.
“Wait, you idiot! All the treasures are on this ship…Nooo!”
He couldn’t explain much more as he saw a water blade moving towards him, the attack transforming into what looked to be a water dragon and roaring out as it charged at the cultivator and all of the people that were still on that flying ship. This ship wasn’t made with the intention of battle and the steering was limited, there was no way to evade the fast incoming attack.
The Patriarch quickly mustered up his own attack to block it, he still believed that the man shouldn’t be that strong the treasures had to be protected. But as soon as his palm strike went against the raging dragon he felt his hand breaking, like a tennis ball hit by a racket he bounced to the side and was embedded in the ground below. The flying ship, on the other hand, was sliced in two, the people standing on the lower level could even see the cultivators on the other part looking at them as the ship slowly slid apart.
This man was, of course, Zhang Zhi. He flew towards the core formation cultivator, leaving the flying ship’s remains up to his juniors that were flying in a smaller ship behind him.
“Stop resisting!”
He punched the man over and over again, thumping sounds filling the area while the creatures that lived there escaped in various directions. The Cheng Clan Patriarch was treated like a rag doll not even able to mutter a word.
‘Brother I’m not even resisting, why are you whacking me so hard, do we have some kind of old grudge?”
While this was happening a familiar-looking man with white hair was standing in the now taken over Cheng Clan building. He was looking at his system window, the points were going up as the ownership of the city went over to his clan. He looked out into the city, remembering his adventures here and about what happened in that secret ground two years ago.
“Hah, it’s already been two years…”