“Hey, aren’t we free to go? Didn’t the young master promise?”

“Be quiet slave, the young master gave the order for you to remain here, be glad that you are still alive!”

The slightly rusted-over dungeon doors were closed by the guards that quickly went on their way. This was the exact same cell that the people from the Snapping Turtle Clan occupied before the arena event. Now the survivors were back in it, along with the man that saved them all, Zhang Dong.

Everyone saw him being electrocuted to a crisp by the slave collar. They suspected that the young master just wanted to kill the man out of spite but after they investigated they could hear his heart beating.

“Will they really let us go?”

Xia Yanmei asked one of the elders from the Snapping Turtle Clan.

“They might… but their assassins will be not far behind.”

“Yes young missus, that Dai Rong can not be trusted, you must flee the first chance you have, some of the Clan members were able to flee! It is still possible to rebuild our clan!”

“Yes, what the old lady is talking about makes sense.”

“Huh?”

The group of people that were talking turned to an unfamiliar voice and could see the unknown man there. They all jumped back after seeing him standing up as if the heavy electrocution never happened.

“Is something wrong? Is there something on my face?”

Zhang Dong answered while dusting his already mangled clothes off slightly.

“The honorable senior is fine? But the slave collar?”

The people quickly backed away from Zhang Dong. He had left a lasting impression on these people after massacring all those lightning beasts that the White Tiger Clan was known for.

“Ah, this?”

Zhang Dong grasped the collar around his neck and started to pull on it from both sides. The item activated once more and started delivering electric shocks. The people quickly jumped back while not knowing what this senior was doing.

“S-senior what?”

“It’s fine, this has no effect on me.”

Even when he was getting electrocuted he was still able to talk as if it was normal. After a couple of seconds, the slave collar started losing its charge and was promptly ripped open from his neck.

“White Tiger Clan you say… could you tell me where I am? I don’t recall such a clan existing...”

The young master that was sitting in that VIP booth wasn’t all that strong. After a quick scan with his system, he came out at around the Qi condensation 7th level. Zhang Dong had reached the 12th level now and was already close to going beyond.

There was one old man next to this youth, he gave off the feeling of a master above the foundation establishment level but there was something strange. The spiritual energy was similar but not quite, so was also the cultivation of the people around here.

“This is the city of Xuanhai.”

“Xuanhai? In which part of the Azure Dragon Empire is this?”

First were the clan names, now the city names had a different naming scheme than what he was used to.

“Azure Dragon Empire? Doesn’t Senior mean the Emerald Phoenix Empire?”

The people in the room looked at Zhang Dong as if he was being silly. He on the other hand started sweating as he had never heard of this Emerald Phoenix Empire.

“Ah, I know!”

An old man called out from the side as if he remembered something.

“In one of the old scriptures there was an old map, If I’m not mistaken, this Azure Dragon Empire is to the far west of our Emerald Phoenix Empire.”

“To the west?... how far is it!”

Zhang Dong swooped to where the old man was and grabbed him by the shoulders. He then promptly started shaking him around while his eyes bulged out.

“Ahhh...I-I’m not sure… It was an old map, it is forbidden to talk about what is outside the borders…S-senior please.”

“Ah sorry…”

He quickly let the man go while trying to get out some more information. From what he got was that there was some vague information about the Empire that he came from but it was something that was hidden away from the masses.

“The old map showed some kind of blockade between our empires but that’s all I know senior.”

“Is that so…”

Zhang Dong tried to remember if there were any mentions of this other Empire here. The maps that he had access to didn’t show anything to the east. There could very well be some kind of wall or natural phenomenon that divided these two empires. There were some rumors about other tribes or countries existing but nothing too explicit. The Azure Emperor kept everything under wraps and only he and the top two sects had that information. 

‘This at least confirms that I’m on the right planet… now I must get home…’

A weight was dropped down from his shoulders as he now knew that he was in the right place. What he needed to do now was to return home while recovering his cultivation.

The biggest problem as always was time. He had no idea how long he had been away as he already saw that time between the worlds worked differently. For all he knew, hundreds of years could have passed or maybe just minutes since his departure.

‘This empire will have a different calendar…”

There was no way for him to calculate the right time. The stars that surrounded this huge planet moved around as if they had a life of their own. This made it impossible to use astrology to determine anything. What he was left with was a general direction, he needed to go west.

“Good, there is one last thing I’ll have you do for me…”

“Y-yes Senior?”

The old man asked while he saw a hand moving towards his neck. In a matter of seconds, Zhang Dong was grasping the man’s slave collar. The old man screamed out in shock as he knew that such acts would only activate this collar of death.

“N-noooo!!.....huh?”

Even when the collar activated and he could see the sparks fly around, he didn’t feel any pain. Instead, he saw the senior before him absorb the electricity. Then when the slave collar was out of juice he just ripped it to pieces.

“Can you all line-up, I’ll remove your collars…”

After fifteen minutes or so, Zhang Dong was sitting next to a pile of broken slave collars and a bunch of prostrating cultivators. Even Xia Yanmei, their mistress, was down and asking for help.

“I don’t really have time to help you regain your clan, at most I can help you escape from this dungeon but then you will be on your own…”

“You will help us escape? T-that will be more than enough honorable senior!”

Xia Yanmei replied while bobbing her head up and down out of gratitude. Zhang Dong on the other hand grasped one of the damaged slave collars and examined it.

‘This thing had enough power to contend with a Qi condensation practitioner up to the 12th level...It might be enough…’

“Could you tell me about this Empire of yours and also inform me if any trouble is coming, I must regain some of my lost strength.”

After absorbing all of that electricity he was almost ready to re-create his foundation pillar. This process was unknown to him as he arrived in this world as a core formation expert. Now before he did attempt a breakthrough he wanted to do something about his body refining.

The people followed his instructions, it was clear that he was home. In this world, if someone was considered a senior the juniors would follow his instructions the best they could.

Zhang Dong believed that the old fart that was with the young master would come for him. He would probably arrive here to either question him about his origins or just to kill him and to hide the body.

He was too much of an anomaly to be without backing. Which wasn’t wrong but his backing was in an empire on the other side of the planet. It was better to dispose of someone like him as they did already cross the line. Normally a senior in his position would not forgive such a transgression. Thus it was best to get rid of him while he was weak and defenseless.

While thinking he grasped one of the slave collars. He injected some of his spiritual energy into it which changed its color to red. Soon the people here saw the broken slave collar being absorbed into this man’s body.

‘80% in one go? not bad!’

His bronze body shot up quite fast and almost reached the middle stage after absorbing this one collar. There were many more, he hoped to attain his silver body which would really be helpful against the enemies from this Clan here.

“Don’t mind me, tell me about this city, empire and even about your cultivation...Inner Aura Realm was it?”

Xia Yanmei nodded while sitting before Zhang Dong, who was in the process of absorbing all of the collars. There were close to thirty people in this cell so he had a bit to go through.

An explanation of the current world affairs, or at least of what this small clan members knew of, started. This empire was very similar with it being divided between other powers but it was slightly different.

There were sects but they didn’t really focus as much on controlling the lands as the Azure Empire counterparts. This was mostly due to a smaller number of cultivators on this side, this being due to the way they cultivated.

While in the Azure Dragon Empire it was easy for anyone to gather Qi up to the 3rd level of Qi condensation, here it wasn’t. The Inner Aura Realm was the first one but was a lot more difficult to achieve. After examining the people here and asking about how they would be ranked he came to a conclusion.

The Inner Aura Realm at the early stage put someone at around the 4th level of Qi condensation right off the bat. This was probably why it was so much more difficult to achieve. It also only went up to about the 9th or 10th level of Qi condensation when it entered the late stage.

There was no grand circle small realm as all of the smaller realms here ranged from early to late. What they lacked in small realms they made up in larger realms. After the Inner Aura Realm, there was the Martial Master realm, which when fully mastered was at about the strength level of an early foundation establishment cultivator.

After it came the Martial Grandmaster realm followed by the Martial Saint realm. There were six in total with the Supreme Saint cultivation realm trading blows with the Nascent Soul level realm from his empire. It was a bit confusing but he believed that the power cap was the same in both empires. If not, then he might have some trouble in going back to his own side.

With less cultivator power the sects established giant secret grounds where they took disciples in. They left the ‘mortals’ to their own devices and didn’t care about anything else than cultivation. Some of them sometimes visited the cities but most of the time clans like this here only remained. Someone like a Martial Saint level cultivator would be hard to find as they were off cultivating somewhere and part of a larger sect.

The geographical and historical lessons continued for some more as he cultivated. Time was of the essence he needed to get out, luck wasn’t on his side though. He already imagined what would be happening after he left that door…

Emerald Phoenix Empire realms:

Inner Aura Realm

Martial Master

Martial Grandmaster 

Martial Saint 

Supreme Saint

Saint Emperor