Everyone from the Zhang Clan gathered in the city and they were looking in the direction of the faraway mountains. The aura fluctuations were quite chaotic and reached the pinnacle of core formation which made the regular Qi condensation people shake in their boots.
“What a battle, shame that we can’t see anything…”
The common cultivators could profit when two experts fought each other. They could see their techniques and get inspired which would allow them to reach a higher realm. So wanting to be there to see how those two monsters performed was quite enticing, but it was also very dangerous, one bad step and you could be flattened by a Qi strike.
“You’re not half bad, Zhang Clan Patriarch!”
“You’re not a slouch either, Sir. Demon Hunter!”
They were a bit perplexed that they could hear the two men talking, it was as if they were shouting out in the direction of the City or something. Which was just what Matt was doing, both of his hands placed in a cone shape, his shouts were accompanied by some Qi so that his voice would travel far and wide.
Luckily Zhang Kuo was smart enough to order the clan members to set up a perimeter outside the city, so that no nosy person would bother their Patriarch’s scheme which looked as if it was working. After some back and forth, the people started cheering out Zhang Dong’s name.
They had considered the pros and cons and they came to the conclusion that it would be a travesty with the Zhang head perished here. What would come of these tax cuts and new laws, would the other three families gain back their position and bully them once more? An even more ruthless clan could even show up, which would mean their downfall.
The three big Moonlight City clan heads were standing outside the forest, they were afraid to return afraid that the Zhang clan people would apprehend them the moment they tried to sneak in.
“Blasted idiot! Did something eat his brain! Why does he have to implicate us too!”
They were pulling their hair out, they didn’t think that the famous demon hunter would just waltz into the city and demand a duel with his assassination target. This would be fine, but he had to babble out that he was coaxed into it by them, a child would figure out during that speech that they were the ones that hired him.
“Calm down… if he beats him then only that other core formation expert will be left… Judging by his temper he will attack the demon hunter…”
“Yeah if he kills all of their core formation experts we will be in the clear…”
The three talked while hiding behind some large trees, the loud thunderous sounds could be heard even from the place they were in. Their conversation got interrupted though, by someone they were talking about.
“Oh? the other expert? Did you mean me?”
Zhang Zhi was hovering on a sword above the group of cultivators, Zhang Kuo already filled him in on where the three stooges were hiding at. The location was provided by Zhang Dong, but no one besides Kuo would know about that little detail.
“Don’t move, I’ll cut you where you stand if you try to run!”
Zhang Zhi pulled out his sword and held it over his shoulder, the long blade glistering with water Qi which made everyone below him gulp in fright. The man in question wasn’t in on the plan, so he was still on edge as he thought that his clan head was fighting a ferocious opponent. He had no way of telling how strong that Senior Yinglo was, he was truly astonishing.
The glorious Zhang Dong at this moment was leaning against some rocks, here and there he fired off a bolt of lightning from his finger which caused more noise than damage. He was munching on a meat bun and looking at the sky, quite relaxed. Here and there he would shout out or produce a loud roar which would make the people back in the city gasp in worry.
‘Hm… is this enough? How long do experts fight for… I don’t really want to blow these mountains up for this silly play I’m doing.’
He glanced around, the area looked quite silent as every creature in a ten-kilometer radius had scattered away. He was hoping that they don’t cause trouble for some villagers or something, he’ll have to send out a squad of warriors to check that out.
‘Guess the Demon hunter will have to go out with a bang…’
He wouldn’t kill of his other person but he had to make him lose in some shape or form. He had one ability that didn’t require him to be in the vicinity of it so he would go with that.
The people in the city suddenly felt a surge of Qi, the power was truly immense. Out from behind those mountains they saw a bright golden dragon emerging, it was made purely out of golden divine lightning energies. It was truly immense a couple of kilometers in length and powered with Zhang Dong’s Qi.
“Look… what is that! It’s flying into the air…”
“That’s a giant dragon… wait is that a Daoist magic of some sort?”
The dragon was roaring out and chasing someone on a sword, the man looked beaten up quite a bit his hair and clothes were disheveled.
‘Is that the Demon Hunter? Looks like he is fleeing from that dragon…’
The dragon shot of lightning bolts all around the area and flew right after its enemy. The fleeing cultivator couldn’t shake it off as they danced around in the sky. Finally, the people gasped as they saw the dragon’s mouth closing on the man, the cultivator dressed in black holding that mouth open as the two flew up into the air.
The man looked like he was holding on for his life, not letting the dragon construct close its large maw on him. The two flew straight up into the air and vanished behind some clouds. Just a couple of moments later there was an explosion, the shockwave reaching the people standing outside and made their hair flutter in the wind.
Everyone started looking and running to see what happened, the clouds were blocking the view but the explosion kicked up quite the strong wind which blew the white sky marshmallows to the side. The revealed the demon hunter, he was still alive but the top of his robe was no more.
He was floating up in the air, covered in red which indicated that he took quite the hit from that.
“You’re quite a strong fellow Daoist Dong, this is my loss… I have made a mistake you are clearly not a demonic cultivator, it would be impossible for a foul demonic cultivator to possess such divine abilities like these…”
“That’s fine, we all make mistakes fellow Daoist Yinglo. You may leave with this experience, it would be a travesty if our land lost such a talented master such as yourself.”
A disembodied voice came from somewhere sounding like the Zhang Clan Patriarch, apparently, the demon hunter lost but Zhang Dong was letting him go.
“My humble thanks, I should have known that those three clans were up to no good and placed those demonic artifacts to make you look bad!”
“Yes, don’t worry my clan will take care of that.”
The two chatted for a bit before the Demon hunter swished away, he flew high up into the clouds and vanished from sight. Matt would wait for the coast to be clear before returning back to his quarters. Zhang Zhi and the others would take care of those three family heads their businesses would probably fall into his clutches now.
The three Patriarchs tried to defend themselves, accusing Lei Yinglo instead. They proclaimed that he was the mastermind behind everything and that he even stole their money after threatening them. They would have a lot of time to explain everything in the court, the lie detection devices had proven to be quite the handy commodity which made the trials progress at a rapid pace.
You just had to ask the right ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions, which forced the truth out one way or the other. The only way to circumvent this procedure was not to talk at all, but almost no one could stomach that pain. This might feel like it was a bit tyrannical, more or less torture. But it got the job done and the truth came out easily.
Still, the device wouldn’t kill a person a safety device was put in place after the death warriors that the Zhang Clan captured wouldn’t talk. They lit up like Christmas trees from the high voltage and almost died at the court hearing. If you refused to talk would just be incarcerated with no way of getting out, so there was no reason to take the pain unless you were covering for someone.
Matt made sure to write out the penalties for any transgression, he knew how murderous these cultivation nuts were. He didn’t want them killing people for stealing food or some coin. The crime would fit the bill, the death penalty would exist for certain nut jobs like the demonic cultivators or cultists. Mostly you would get a jail sentence with some hard labor added on to it.
Matt returned to his quarters after the night came, he was uninjured as the blood was fake. It was a contained explosion the Qi blast that resulted from it was dispersed into the air.
The city seemed quite peaceful most of the goons and thug types were too afraid to cause trouble after what happened this day. The police were patrolling the city and the pleasure district was quite barren, it would take some time before some of the more raunchy establishments resumed with their work.
He took a sip from his tea and sat down on a large beanbag pillow, he had one made just so he could laze around.
‘Well, I’m making progress the daily points are going up!’
He looked through his system window, the city was progressing and he could see the red area’s changing from red to yellow, yellow areas going blue and blue areas changing to a nice shade of green. This showed him that things were improving, getting everything into a nice blue color was the least he wanted to achieve, all green would be just a nice bonus.
The city needed more work though, it was one thing to make it safer for the citizens and lowering the taxes to keep them happy. It was another thing to provide them with a steady job. This city needed something that they could use for profit. Like Spirit Spring City that had the Zhang Clan which had a good business in pill making.
There was a plan of bringing some pill making masters over here to train people, setting up another division that would produce more income. There also was a plan in making other things, like daily necessities like plumbing. The construction of factories that would hire people to produce parts was already on the way. This would be a long term plan, but they were hoping to replace some outdated products with some easily manufactured treasures that worked on spiritual energy.
‘Well, guess it’s time to go back to Spirit Spring, wonder how things are going back there…think grandpa sais something about a clan get together or something…’
‘He said that it was for the junior members… sounded like some tournament, probably to show off your disciples.’
Matt looked at the ring that he was holding, in it were the spirit stones and loot that he got from the three clans. He then looked at his current amount of points, a bright grin appearing on his face.
‘Well, thing gramps can just go there instead of me, think it’s time to get ready to reach a new level!’
He calculated that if he grabbed the remaining spirit stones that those three stooges offered him, he would have enough to absorb and get those ten million points. He needed to return to his home city and get ready, he would soon be in the nascent soul level he needed look over those nascent soul techniques he got from that secret ground. There was also something that he wanted to talk about with his two friends Huo Qiang and Feng Liena.
‘Well, that Bankei guy wasn’t that bad, can bring him over too…that last guy felt a bit opportunistic…will have to think about that one some more…’
‘Well, guess I’ll head out in the morning and tell gramps that they should go without me. I’ll just tell him that I’m busy with cultivating and can’t be bothered. Gotta love the perks of being the clan leader, can shove babysitting onto others, he he.’
‘But I guess if I’m going to talk to those two, I should think about a good name first…’
The man continued sipping his green tea while looking at the system screen, thinking that after he rose up to the Nascent Soul level, things would get hectic.