Chapter 80

The people looked as the Patriarch turned around and vanished into thin air after they showed off their skills. He didn't test them out on the defensive formation, but not like they had enough spiritual energy left for that. The Zhang Clan members were in high spirits though, they managed to break through the leader's strong barrier quite a bit. The moment the man came in they could feel the high energy fluctuations from him. The younger members couldn't tell much, but people like Zhang Zhi felt the increase in Zhang Dong's power after he formed the shield that could block an attack of a late stage core formation expert.

*He wasn't showing the full extent of his power.*

The man thought to himself while sitting down into a lotus position to gather his energies. He looked at the youths around him, he didn't think that they would be able to train them up so well. The strange military methods seemed to be working, the catchy workout song was also doing its thing. The upgraded techniques were a lot easier to master and the youths, as well as the elders, were progressing at breakneck speeds. The spiritual energy in this artifact was quite pure so that helped with the training as well.

"Everyone you have an hour to rest, we will resume further training afterward, you did well."

The younger members were sweating a lot more than the foundation establishment elders that looked slightly out of breath. Though they were invigorated after this test run, they just saw their new Patriarch he was quite the celebrity around the clan.

"Did you hear that. The Patriarch said that we did well!"

One of the tired youths said while he flopped onto his back and panted.

"Yes yes, I think he also smiled in my direction, such a manly smile!"

One of the females said while other members looked at her with narrowed eyes. Zhang Zhi's lower lip quivered as he got ignored by the younger generation that started talking about the Patriarch and didn't even reply to his comment. He let this transgression slide this time, as he also was a bit excited that the man that improved his arts gave them a passing grade.

*He was also right about my spear training*

After he received the katana, he was in a bind as he had to train in the sword art manual that he got. He was apprehensive at first, thinking that if he didn't see any progress within a weak he would just return the sword and skill manual to the leader. But to his surprise, after he started training he noticed that the sword was like an extension of his body. He was already a seasoned cultivator and warrior, he knew how long it normally took to learn a new fighting style. The speed at which he was immersing himself in the sword Dao was astonishing. Day by day he found himself improving, getting past the beginner stage and advancing further rather easily.

*The sword does indeed fit me more than the spear, wish I knew this sooner. But how did the Patriarch know about this, he just examined me briefly with his spiritual sense... truly wonderous.*

The figure of Zhang Dong was getting bigger and bigger in the eyes of his clan members, making them think that the man was some kind of one in a billion genius. The cultivators in this world already tended to show sect-like behaviors, having the leader's opinion outweigh their own or their families. Matt was slowly getting put up on a pedestal in the mind of these people, he did make them stronger and did it for free, this was mostly enough for cultivators to pledge their allegiance to the person responsible.

While people were overestimating Matt, he walked out of the secret chambers wanting to check out if there were any spirit stones he could gobble up. His system point tank was on empty after having upgraded so many techniques and frankly, they weren't all that great anyway. The most he spent was on his grandpa's cultivation technique getting that thing to not halt the cultivation process was quite costly. Upgrading unfinished or incomplete techniques cost a lot more than just upgrading finished ones. Guess it was easier to renovate an old building than to rebuild a half-finished one.

He was greeted by his accountant Zhang Kuo, well at least that's what Matt started thinking the man was as he was mostly responsible for the numbers. After selling off all the weapons he had gained some spirit stones, but it wasn't nearly enough. He spent all the crafting resources on the robes and weapons for his clan members. The rest were used on weapons that he could absorb, finally managing to get his body into the late-stage along with his regular cultivation level.

*This isn't enough to evolve my lightning cultivation into that golden one... Should I try hunting for some core formation beasts...*

There was less than a month remaining, the dark palm sect had given them instructions to gather their forces in a certain place at a certain time. The Zhang Clan had one flying ship left, it looked like a large galeon with a dragonhead at the front. It was different from regular ships, it didn't have sails or anything as everything around this world worked on spiritual energy. It was the last one the whole clan had, as the ones that it previously used in the first expedition never came back, probably pawned off by the dark palm sect or some other clans. He would probably look into that later and get their stuff back.

*The trip there will take about a week, so that leaves less than three weeks to tie up loose ends around here...*

The option of running away was still open for Matt, but for some reason, he didn't feel like it. He was slowly bonding with these strange people and their quirky ways, finding it funny as they overreacted when they saw him do 'unfathomable' things. They were clearly a violent bunch, but most of them were good people. There was also the thing that he promised to himself, not wanting to be a coward anymore.

"Well, hold the fort while I'm out Kuo. I'll be heading to the mountains but I'll be close by. You know how to reach me if something happens."

Matt headed out to cultivate at the mountain peaks and maybe hunt some beasts for points, he might get lucky in his travels. While he was charging into the distance on his flying sword, the light in the hidden pocket dimension was dimming. The people there noticed that the place had a night and day cycle, the nights took about eight to nine hours.

The dorm was quiet as most juniors were resting, but there were four youths sneaking to a certain place. The dorm was only used for living, there was nothing besides the rooms that could be used for sleeping, no plumbing or lights to speak of. But the water wasn't a problem around here, so the people just dug out a couple of holes and transported some spring water from the outside. The water had healing properties and could also help with stamina recovery. There was a separate place for the boys and girls, blocked away by a large bamboo wall. The youths in question were clearly heading for that wall.

"E-elder brother Teng, are you sure about this... if we get caught w-we will be severely punished."

Zhang Bao asked while he looked at the grinning elder brother that was smiling and licking his lips. There were two large males behind him as well, the buff Zhang Peng and the round Zhang Hong that had replaced some of that fat with muscle now, but he still looked round as a ball. The smallest from the bunch was blushing, still wondering how he got himself into this. He was just outside to pee when he saw the trio sneaking out of the dorm, he went to check on them but they just pulled him along to go peek at the girls.

"No need to fear, my part of the family is renowned for their hiding skills and the Patriarch even improved on our skill so if you just follow my instructions, the lovely thighs of junior Sister Xue and the lovely front peaks of Sister Ai will be all for us to behold!"

The youth's started doing obscene motions with his fingers almost drooling while talking about the peaks in question. The other two members that got roped in had dopey expressions as well. The burly guy looked like a perverted older man, the chubby fellow seamed to be salivating as if he saw a jelly-filled doughnut in front of himself to devour.

"Little bro hehe, you remember how the elders told us to work together, we must get through this as a team!"

"Yes Bao, remember what the drill sergeant said, it's all for the team, it's a team-building exercise!"

The three looked like hungry wolves sneaking through the night, due to Teng's sneaking technique their footsteps were muffled as he could produce a mist around the whole group making them hard to spot within the dark night. The idiot quartet approached the bamboo wall, they could hear the girls chatting on the inside. The group clearly went out the moment they saw their female team members leave to take a bath, as the four girls were talking inside.

"Oh, little Xue your hair sure is shiny, what do you use to keep your hair so smooth and soft?"

"Not much, think it might be the cultivation art that Master taught me, my hair turned white too."

"Not fair, I also want to be the Patriarch's disciple, do you think he will take me in as well?"

"He looks so dashing, not like the boys from our group."

The males heard their names getting mentioned as the girls chatted, though it wasn't anything good. Teng was thought to be a big pervert, due to his snake-like appearance that gave the girls the chills. Peng was said to look like an old uncle and was too buff for the girls taste, Hong... well Hong was just a thick boy, the girls were scared of him crushing them. There wasn't much said about Bao, Liu and Tai got some praise from the girls though they didn't like the older ones stuck up attitude. The girls laughed as they joked that elder brother Tai looked like he was constantly constipated.

The pervy youths were listening but at the same time working on the next stage of their masterplan. The next stage would be poking a hole in the wall so that they could peek on the girls, what could go wrong? It was just bamboo, they were high-level cultivators they should be able to poke a hole in it with their fingers by now. But while the three hornballs were pushing their cheeks against the wall, as they tried to listen in the bamboo started buckling under their combined weight.

The wall started to shake as the young male's hormones got out of control. The females on the other side noticed the shaking wall, it was giving out under the weight. Hong had gotten too excited and tripped, slamming into Peng on the way making the two large males fall face-first on the bamboo, which gave out in seconds. The girls saw three males on the collapsed wall one was missing though as Teng was nowhere to be seen, he had dissolved into mist the second the wall started falling down and made his escape. Using the commotion to get out before the impending thrashing.

*Kekeke, oh well guess I'll try another time alone~"

"Kyaaaaa... damn perverts!"

A girl screamed loudly alerting all the other women in the spring, everyone started covering up while the three guys sweated profusely. They looked back to their 'leader' but he had vanished into thin air, long gone.

"Team building my ass!"

The three youths shouted in unison while trying to run, but there were too many angry women around them cutting off their escape route. Teng sneaked away while the other three youths were pummeled by the angry girls on the other side. The four females from their platoon weren't the only ones in there, so there were many more girls eager to stomp them good. The three youths' faces looked like they were stung by bees and they had an allergic reaction after the beating was done. Their lips were swollen and many bruises could be seen on their bodies, the three were pulled away by an elder to get treated.

The next day, the three were punished by Zhang Jie that was fuming with anger due to her daughter being in the bath while the three were peeping. Though after some scolding she let them go, they were beaten badly so there wasn't really a reason to punish them more. She didn't see the part where the three youths started chasing their snaky looking friend with drawn weapons, the drill sergeant didn't know people could run so fast. He just saw a blurry snake-like youth sprinting away, with fear in his eyes.

"Get back here, I won't be satisfied until I punch your face at least ten times!"

Zhang Peng shouted while wielding his knuckle looking weapon, that covered both his forearms.

"Hey, it's not my fault that you lard asses can't keep quiet! Lieutenant Jie save me!"

While this was happening the girls were looking at the four with shifty eyes, Zhang Liu was just laughing to the side while the last male member from the platoon didn't know what those four fools were doing, so he just jogged on.