Zhang Jin moved in front of the woman and shielded her from the angry looking Huo Gang. The two exchanged glances for some time, Jin was smiling while Gang was frowning. The thing that broke the stare down was the appearance of Huo Qiao.
"Patriarch you have arrived!"
The man with the mutton chop beard moved forward and placed himself between the two elders. He was afraid that his leader might do something drastic. He was a loyal follower but he was more scared of Zhang Dong than Huo Gang at the moment. The white-haired cultivator could flatten their entire clan if he wished for.
"Qiao, where is that stupid son of mine? Bring him out, we are leaving!"
Huo Qiao started sweating bullets, not sure what to say to his boss. The young master was brought away by the order of the Zhang Patriarch and was in some secluded location. He was apparently training to reach the nascent soul level, but Qiao was still skeptical about the whole thing. The only thing keeping him here was the knowledge that the Zhang Clan possessed an immortal level cultivation technique.
"What are you waiting for? Where is he? We need to flee, we will head towards the west and seek shelter outside the Dark Palm Sect territory!"
"Your son is busy cultivating now, Senior Gang if you come with me I'll explain everything."
Zhang Jin moved in, trying to diffuse the situation.
"Cultivating? Why would he be cultivating at a time like this? Are you people sane?"
The man started furrowing his eyebrows and clenching his fist. His core formation aura at the great circle filled up the docking area where they were holding this conversation. The core formation masters behind him started moving forward while pulling out weapons. Huo Qiao was taken aback, his clan was turning hostile against a nascent soul cultivators sect.
"Please Patriarch calm down, we can't offend the Zhan... no, the United Elements Sect!"
The dark-skinned man stopped for a bit, not sure what his clan member was talking about.
"What nonsense is this, a Sect? Have you gone mad, if you don't tell me where Qiang is, I will consider this treason!"
Not a second later after finishing that sentence Huo Gang felt himself getting pushed into the ground. Some kind of pattern appeared at the spot he was standing on and it was sapping most of the energies from them. From the side, Zhang Kuo appeared, in his kind some kind of pilot looking treasure.
"You leave us no choice, the United Elements Sect will not negotiate with people like you!"
This was a defensive array and the item Kuo was holding was a remote control of sorts. This was a large defensive array that started affected all the core formation experts that were hostile. It siphoned the Qi out of their body rendering them defenseless but keeping enough for them not to die.
"You! ... Do you think something like this can hold me!"
The man's face went red and you could see the veins on his neck bulging all over. He started gathering all of the Qi that he could muster, his body covered with a red glow. But the moment he felt the pressure breaking Zhang Kuo turned the dial on the remote which made Huo Gang get pressed into the ground like a pancake.
"You won't get away with this! Are you working together with the Dark Palm Sect, what did you do to my son! Did you brainwash him like Qiao too!?"
The man started thrashing on the ground while bringing out some false accusations. He had quite the bright imagination as he tried pinning any type of scheme on the Zhang clan members. The array was keeping him in place, Qiao on the side wanted to go after Zhang Kuo that was controlling the whole thing. He stopped himself from doing that as he knew that this was a misunderstanding.
"Patriarch you are mistaken, Young Master is training to reach the nascent soul realm with the Zhang Patriarch that is already at that realm."
Huo Gang quieted down the moment he heard the nascent soul get mentioned. He heard about someone rescuing his son from Jade Grass City, but this information was hard to swallow. Why would a master of that level oppose the Dark Palm Sect and be from the Zhang Clan that has no power?
Huo Qiao knew that this old man was quite stubborn and would probably not believe any outlandish claims without enough evidence. The only thing they had to go off was from the call he had with his son. Huo Qiang after making a half-assed report decided to ignore all of his father's communication attempts.
It came to Qiao to try calming him down, but even when he described everything with detail. From the beginning till the end of the Dao festival, his Patriarch was skeptical. The only part he was convinced about was, that they had offended the main sect in the area and now had to flee.
While most of the Huo Clan elders were squirming on the ground, Zhang Jin stepped forward.
"Senior Gang we really mean you no harm, your sone is alive and well, if he was in danger your life indicating treasures would tell you this. Please appease your anger and we can talk this out like fellow Daoists."
The Fire clan leader looked up and was feeling humiliated. He realized that he wasn't the one with the upper hand here, the defensive measures this clan had in place were above the ones back home. He didn't like this, but for now, it looked like he had to abide by the other party's rules.
After a few moments, the large man nodded, in response, Zhang Jin gave Kuo the signal to lower the output on the defensive array. This was one of the measures put in place thanks to the secret ground rewards, this new suppressing formation warked similarly to how cultivators suppressed weaker opponents. It outputted enough spiritual pressure to incapacitate anyone below the nascent soul level. Its only downside was that it was only applicable to people in the main Zhang Clan compound.
"I hope we can start off again, Senior Gang."
Zhang Jin smiled while everyone from the fire clan breathed a sigh of relief. They all looked at Zhang Kuo that was holding the remote control to the defensive array. He just needed to use the dial while thinking about who to suppress and it would work. The fire clan relented and didn't try anything funny.
Most of their cultivators stayed in their ships while a small elite unit was escorted into the main sanctum. In there they were greeted by the fire clan juniors that were rescued from the Dao Festival, Huo Kong was one of them. He instantly spotted his grumpy looking grandpa in the distance and greeted him.
"Grandson greets his grandfather!"
He bowed respectfully, Huo Gang almost smiling as he saw that his grandson was fine.
"Little Kong, where is your father, is what Qiao speaking the truth?"
Huo Kong nodded and recounted what had happened from his perspective, most of it was the same but the youth's eyes began shining whenever he started talking about Zhang Dong's fight and appearance.
"And then Lord Dong took off with that Dark Palm elder called Ming, he returned not long ago, I've even seen him wondering these halls he truly reached the nascent soul level."
The grandson was set on convincing his grumpy grandpa on trusting this clan for one reason or another. His blossoming fondness towards Zhang Xue might have played a slight role in his decision-making process.
"Is that so..."
Gang was willing to believe his grandson, but there was also a probability of brainwashing. He still wanted to grab his family members and just bolt it for the hills. He still needed to find his strongest son, he was the future of the clan and already almost as strong as he himself.
Then suddenly people heard the sound of thunder, out of nowhere a cultivator in a pure white robe appeared. The man looked to be in a hurry as he run-up to the man that was holding on the defensive array remote control. Huo Gang was watching this happen, he noticed that the Zhang members were instantly bowing at the man that just came in.
He handed what looked to be a cube to the man along with a large scroll of paper. He wasn't hiding anything as even he could see that that scroll had some sort of array formation on it. He focused his ears to listen to the conversation, quite interested in what this Zhang Patriarch was all about.
"Yes Kuo, here is the improved array formation and here you have the first battery cube, you see these parts, you need to place them all there."
The man took out more large paper scrolls, there were various things drawn onto them showing some strange pointy tower-like structures.
"Here, give this to the formation masters, have them work on it."
He also handed the man a spatial ring, telling him that he would find most of the building materials in there.
"Supply the masters with more building materials if there happens to be something missing, now go we don't have any time to waste I still need to make five more of those!"
Zhang Dong had taken a small break, he needed to give the plans to his workers while he was crafting the items required to power the new array formation. When he was about to head back to his crafting abode a large burly man in a red robe stood in front of him, he looked like he wanted to say something.
"Grandfather t-this is the Zhang Patriarch..."
Huo Kong was to the side, bowing his head down and looked slightly scared. His grandfather wasn't showing enough face to someone that was at the nascent soul level as he didn't even bow. Zhang Dong looked to the red-haired youth and then to the muscular grandpa, the sight of those massive tree trunk-like arms was awe-inspiring.
"Ah, you must be from the Huo Clan, I'm glad that you have arrived to aid us in these troubled times, we will take all the help we can get!"
Before Gang could even say anything he felt the white-haired man's palm be placed on his shoulder.
"I welcome you to the United Sect of Elemental Dao, I don't have the time to take your oath right now, but after the preparations are done I'll be sure to arrange a pledge ceremony for everyone! Really glad to have you here!"
Huo Gang listened to the man talking and grasped Zhang Dong's hand by the wrist. He tried pulling it off his shoulder but it felt like he was trying to move a mountain. It just wouldn't budge, the man just continued talking like there was nothing wrong. His muscles bulged and he even pushed his Qi into it but still, not even a millimeter of that hand moved.
"Ah, I see that you have brought many ships with you, that's great! If you have any spirit stones and beast cores with you, it would be great if you handed them over, we can use them to power the new improved grand formation!"
Huo Gang just sweated, his attempt at resisting wasn't being taken seriously at all. The man just walked away after a moment after monologing for a while. The large old man knew just from that short encounter that this Zhang Patriarch was a true monster and he wasn't taking him the Huo Clan leader seriously at all.
"Hah..."
"Grandfather are you okay?"
"I'm fine Kong'er..."
The man had his fighting spirit sapped. First, there was this formation that could force them down to their knees and then there was this monster of a Zhang Patriarch running around. They had no way of forcing the Zhang Clan to do anything, the only thing they could do now is either stay or leave without Huo Qiang.
You wrote Zhang Kong instead of Huo Kong for the first one.
Someone keeping up with the names? Impossible!
@Kuropon im just naming the Huo clan buff bro# 1-10 in my mind at this point its like OPM Tanktop clan all over again
Senior Gang we really mean you no harm, your sone is alive
??? i senses a typo in the novel force
thx for chap
Tftc
Thanks for the chapter!
Thanks for the chapter
Thx for the chap.
Thanks for the chapter.
Busy Dong is pretty single minded. Even the Huo Gang can't keep up.
thanks
I think the Huo Clan should split or just run away completely. Huo Kong and his father would stay, but there is absolutely no reason the rest of the clan would aid the Zhang clan.
It makes no sense to trust a clan that is 'weaker' than their own to defeat the Dark Palm Sect. What's more, the Zhang-Huo alliance has only existed for 2 years (with their leaders never meeting until now). No competent clan leader would risk the total annihilation of their clan on such things.
Even back when the Zhang clan was attacked by their neighbor clans, I believe Zhang Jin sent people out so that the Zhang clan may be revived some day.
Basically, there is no reason for the Huo clan to put their trust in ONE Nascent Soul Realm expert. As time is running out, if Hou Gao(?) doesn't come out near the start of the next chapter I feel that the Huo Clan should make the decision to leave.
(Also, things have been going too well for the Sect's creation. The Fang Clan joining made sense, as there is a direct connection between the Fang and Zhang leader as well as being the main cause of the Dark Palm Sect's ire. The Huo clan are basically outsiders in comparison.)
Yeah, even if they sent most of their people to Zhang clan, all 3 clans should be sending people away just in case.
The Huo clans actions are only reasonable if they’re gonna be killed by association cause what the son did... which is possible in cultivation worlds.
@Mandark The Dark Palm Sect is a demonic sect in disguise and are known for their 'strict', heavy-handed rules. So the Huo Clan's best chance is to flee immediately.
If I was the leader of the Huo Clan, I would order a retreat across the sect's border or change the clan name, head to the boonies and hope the Dark Palm Sect won't look for them there. Remember, nobody from the Huo Clan is aware of Zhang Dong's abilities.
No, there are lots of cases where friends creat empires together with one leading and the other following. Nothing weird about that. Every emperor needs trustworthy and competent generals/officials and Huo Qiang proved himself well. As for accepting Huo clan, sect needs manpower, also Huo Qiang could not just abandon everyone and leave by himself. That just does not make sense.
@sabazurc Narratively, we know the Huo Clan will stay. We know that the United Elements Sect is going to win. We know this because we are reading a story and Kuropon (the author) hasn't thrown any plot twists at us (except for at the Vol. 1 finale).
To the characters of the story, however, these events are very real. Would you really trust a stranger with the survival of your entire family? No! The Huo Clan would've already been long gone if not for the Patriarch wanting to pick up his most talented son.
The relationship between the Huo and Zhang Clans is that of business partners. The only reason they joined the Triforce Alliance was because Zhang Dong saved the Huo Qiang AND gave them a far superior cultivation technique compared to what they already had. At the beginning, the Zhang Clan was a weak clan with a powerful leader. That's all it was. Granted, it didn't stayed that way thanks to Zhang Dong.
(Sorry about that, I got a little side-tracked.)
If anything, the Zhang Clan being willing to hold their ground should be a sign for the Huo Clan to at least evacuate half of the clan. The fight between the Zhang Clan and the Dark Palm Sect would slow pursuers down. Their confidence shows that there might be a chance at winning, so some of the Huo Clan would be left behind as a token of support.
@Kagetokage Well, I think old patriarch thinking about running away is exactly because of reasons you mentioned. But the same reasons can be said about Feng clan. Huo Qiang did take huge risk by staying with Zhang Dong but he risked it because he saw some amazing things Zhang Dong performed.
What I disagree is not that Huo clan does not have reason to run away, I agree on that. You said that Huo clan is just bunch of strangers and I disagree. Huo clan is a power Huo Qiang brings and if Zhang Dong wants Huo Qiang to join him, obviously Huo clan comes with him. Same goes for Feng clan, Feng clan for now is not related to Zhang clan in any way but they joined too. And Huo Qiang is not just a business partner, Zhang clan is not some modern corporation, it's martial clan and Huo Qiang and Zhang Dong fought side by side in life and death situation without betraying each other. That makes the relationship much deeper. It's not something modern people who live in peace can understand completely. In the martial world I would want such a person by my side as well, especially if they are talented cultivators too.
The only thing I will agree is that Huo Qiang is too rush, he did risk a lot for Zhang Dong by supporting Zhang clan in Jade city.
@sabazurc The difference is that the Fang Clan Matriarch (Fang Liena) is a personal friend (and potential love interest) to Zhang Dong. She has the power to mobilize her entire clan, she's their leader after all! What's more, the Zhang Clan got in trouble with the Dark Palm Sect by helping the Fang Clan too. Everything points to the Fang Clan wholeheartedly supporting the Zhang Clan.
This is not the case with the Huo Clan. As you mentioned, Huo Qiang has a deep relationship with Zhang Dong. It is even stated that Huo Qiang has a higher trust level than Fang Liena! However, Huo Qiang is NOT the patriarch of the Huo Clan, he's not even the only successor/young master of the Huo Clan. So, CURRENTLY he does not have enough pull in the Huo Clan.
Once Huo Qiang is at Nascent Soul Realm he'll probably take over his clan. But that hasn't happened/been revealed yet.
@Kagetokage And that is why his patriarch arrived personally. It was a decision made by Huo Qiang personally and only those who were with him at that moment agreed. I think Zhang Dong knows that but is not worried too much because Huo Qiang will become Nascent cultivator in several days and will have greatest power in Huo clan. The fact that he was not patriarch during the agreement will be inconsequential after that.
@sabazurc ? Okay, now I'm getting confused. The whole point in my original posts were that if I was the patriarch of the Huo Clan, I would've already ordered an evacuation.
This is due to having no idea about Zhang Dong's potential and never meeting him before now which, even then, it was only for the briefest of moments.
My talented, but simple-minded, son gave a half-assed report that made no sense except for the fact that our Huo Clan is in grave danger. This danger happened because he assisted the Huo Clan to fight against our overlords, the Dark Palm Sect.
After arriving at the Zhang Clan to pick up the rest of my family, I'm told that my son is in seclusion in an attempt to reach the Nascent Soul Realm. However, my son wasn't even at the late Core Realm before leaving for the Dao Festival. So this is highly likely to be a trap or a hostage situation in an attempt to get the Huo Clan to fight alongside the Zhang Clan (who are now calling themselves the United Elements Sect for some reason).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Huo Qiang could come out and explain everything, but he doesn't. Plus, since he did such a bad job explaining before, the Huo Clan are in a panic. To them, there should have been no possibility of upsetting the Dark Palm Sect. Unlike the Zhang and Fang Clans, the Huo clan hadn't even slightly offended the Dark Palm Sect before this. But now they are forced to leave everything behind because of their young master's rash actions.
@Kagetokage "if I was the patriarch of the Huo Clan, I would've already ordered an evacuation."
Well, first his strongest and most promising son is there so he can't just leave, this is the rational reason. Second, He is not just a patriarch but also a father, this is irrational/emotional reason. Third, he saw Zhang Dong's incredible strength so now he is obviously confused and scared. What if Zhang clan really brainwashed his people and after he leaves Zhang Dong just kills him, or if Zhang Dong is really so powerful that leaving him means missing some great opportunity and running his whole life. After arriving there he does not have that many options left.