"Very well, Venerable Zhang, don't forget those words. From now on, I hope you won't stray from the right path or break your promises. That will also count as making amends for your crimes against the Ninth Heaven." I quickly vanished on the spot, leaving Zhang Zhenyun looking around frantically, clearly anxious beyond measure.
I took a Golden Core that accelerated the recovery of a dao body from my Cosmic Sleeve and tossed it directly into the spatial cube. Then I sent a voice transmission into the cube: "Venerable Zhang, recover properly. After some time, when the moment is right, I'll let you out and give you the chance to regroup and bring the Dao Alliance back under your control!"
Zhang Zhenyun hurriedly took the Golden Core, then clasped his hands with an expression of overflowing gratitude. In the blink of an eye, he had absorbed the Golden Core into his incorporeal body, sat down, regulated his breathing, and began working hard to recover.
My decision had actually been one born of helplessness. The Dao Alliance had stood in the Ninth Heaven for countless years. It wasn't something an outside force could simply swallow up at will. For any faction, ten or several dozen years would not be enough to destroy it, and the fastest method was to control it.
How many factions could the Heavenly Realm I possessed contain? Adding the Dao Alliance would hardly make a difference. As long as I preserved their name and power, I would have plenty of time to assimilate them, eventually incorporating them into my territory. That might take a thousand years, or perhaps several thousand.
Besides, the Dao Alliance had already been weakened considerably. A large number of sects had fled into the Six Deity Heaven, though they still considered themselves part