Long Chen returned to Crouching Dragon Mountain through a transportation formation. At this time, the gates to Crouching Dragon Mountain were tightly sealed, and they were covered by its personal formation to prevent others from entering.

Other than Long Chen, the rest of the Dragonblood Legion was in seclusion the entire time. No one had come out.

Long Chen had just returned when he heard a heaven-shaking roar. He saw ten thousand cold beams of light pierce into the sky. That sharpness gave even him a chill.

He saw the Dragonblood warriors wielding sharp blades. They moved like divine dragons, maintaining a grand formation that could transform with the blink of an eye. Long Chen was dazzled.

Over twelve thousand Dragonblood warriors were moving smoothly, sometimes like a wriggling dragon, sometimes like a grand god. Sometimes, they would transform to become a blooming lotus filling the air. The changes in their formations were so quick that Long Chen felt overwhelmed.

“Haha, boss has returned! Taste my blade!”

Guo Ran, who had been at the front directing everyone, was the first to see Long Chen. Without a delay, his armor lit up and he charged at Long Chen.

“What, you want to be the boss now?” laughed Long Chen. He also wanted to know how Guo Ran had improved during this time. He faced Guo Ran’s slash with a fist.

BOOM!

Long Chen was shocked. Guo Ran’s saber didn’t budge from his punch. Instead, blood trickled down his fist. Guo Ran’s saber was actually able to injure him.

The thing that shocked him the most was that power was surging out of Guo Ran’s saber in endless waves that continuously forced him back.

“Haha, boss, I am no longer the old Guo Ran! Summon your divine ring. Otherwise, if I accidentally defeat you, I’ll be embarrassed!” laughed Guo Ran. That pleased expression of his didn’t have the slightest embarrassment.

“Alright, then watch out.”

Long Chen’s divine ring appeared, and green scales covered his body. His divine ring slowly revolved, giving him endless power.

At first, Long Chen hadn’t dared to use his full power for fear of injuring Guo Ran, but he found that as he increased his power, Guo Ran’s power also rose.

That startled him. He was already using eighty percent of his power. This was already the most power he had used when fighting Xiang Yunfei, but Guo Ran was still able to fight evenly against him.

“Nice, you have some power. Then I won’t stand on courtesy.” Long Chen was about to unleash his full power, and while Guo Ran didn’t say anything, the distant Dragonblood warriors suddenly started letting out shouts.

“Stop, quickly!”

Only then did Long Chen notice that those Dragonblood warriors were pale and covered in sweat.

He immediately understood. “You actually managed to transfer energy through space?”

At this time, he noticed that everyone’s armor was glowing ever so slightly. It was very subtle. In an intense battle where everyone was fighting, it definitely wouldn’t be noticed.

“Amazing. Even I was fooled. Well done.” Long Chen laughed delightedly.

He really had fallen for it, thinking that Guo Ran had somehow managed to come up with some crazy idea and make something capable of storing energy and supporting him in battle.

Long Chen hadn’t expected that Guo Ran had been silently borrowing the power of the entire Dragonblood Legion. Long Chen hadn’t sensed it at all.

“Haha, boss, how is it? Your brothers haven’t been training for nothing during this time,” laughed Guo Ran, insufferably arrogant. That pleased expression made others have an urge to slap him.

However, Long Chen had no choice but to admit that the Dragonblood Legion’s combat power had indeed gone through a heaven-toppling transformation.

“It’s just regretful that our brothers have been training for the better part of a day and exhausted a large amount of their energy, or today I could have properly exchanged a few blows with boss.” Guo Ran rubbed his fists.

In front of Long Chen, Guo Ran was never able to conceal what he had developed. He always had to show him the new things he had come up with. He couldn’t endure not showing him.

“Boss!”

Xia Chen also walked over and greeted Long Chen. At first, this kind of address had sounded a bit forced, but after being with everyone else for longer, he now called Long Chen boss very smoothly.

“It’s been hard on you.” Long Chen patted Xia Chen on the shoulder. He knew Xia Chen was a very prideful person.

A large part of the reason why he was working so hard to train the Dragonblood Legion was due to his pride. He wanted to prove his power, to prove that after he joined the Dragonblood Legion, the Dragonblood Legion’s power would completely transform.

How could Long Chen not see through that thought? It was just that Xia Chen’s talent was even greater than he had expected. The battle formations he had just witnessed were absolutely astounding.

If the current Dragonblood Legion were to face the Devil Abyss’s eruption again, then even without Long Chen, they would be able to easily slaughter those devil creatures. That was the difference.

“Actually, the connecting runes that Guo Ran and I designed have many flaws. During the energy transfer, a great deal is wasted. Actually, the majority of the energy is wasted. As for Guo Ran’s armor, although it was reforged with a new formation embedded within, the amount of energy it can endure is limited. So there is even more energy wasted there as well when our brothers’ energy is transferred to him,” said Xia Chen apologetically. Clearly, this was a problem that had been troubling him the entire time. He hadn’t been able to solve it.

“Just being able to connect everyone into a formation is already amazing. At the very least, it’ll increase the power of the Dragonblood Cross Slash by ten times,” said Guo Ran.

After being together for so long, Guo Ran had understood Xia Chen’s nature. He was a very serious person who didn’t like the slightest flaws in what he did.

However, just raising the Dragonblood Legion’s power to this extent was enough for everyone to prostrate themselves before him. It had won him all their respect.

“There’s probably no way to avoid some energy waste during the transfer process, unless you can do it like Chu Yao and have our spirits connect. The Wood Spirit Union is capable of perfectly transferring energy, but it’s impossible for everyone’s spiritual fluctuations to be so close…” Long Chen smiled comfortingly. He was already very satisfied with Xia Chen. Formation cultivators were truly terrifying.

“Wood Spirit Union? Sharing souls? Ah, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that!” Xia Chen suddenly let out a startled cry.

“What? You want to…?” Guo Ran also thought of something.

“The reason the energy transfer is costing so much is because the energy is transferred through the runes without Spiritual Strength. That’s what makes it so clunky. If the energy transfer is supported by Spiritual Strength, it will definitely save more energy, and then we won’t just be limited to having everyone’s power gather on Guo Ran. Everyone will be able to share energy with everyone!” exclaimed Xia Chen.

“But... boss also said that it’s impossible to connect people’s souls like that. We have ten thousand different souls,” said Guo Ran.

“That’s no problem. Even if we can’t carve spiritual runes on hard armor, what about soft armor?” Xia Chen’s eyes were shining.

Guo Ran clapped his leg, excitedly shouting, “That’s right, we can use soft armor for this!”

However, after a moment of excitement, they sobered up. Guo Ran said, “But carving spiritual runes on soft armor requires the highest level of leather. What kind of pelt is capable of receiving such powerful runes and constant spiritual fluctuations without crumbling?”

To endure the impact of over ten thousand people’s souls connecting, they needed the strongest spiritual runes, and only the strongest of hides could endure those runes without crumbling. Even a half-step Netherpassage beast’s skin wasn’t tough enough.

“Is this good enough?”

An explosive sound rang out as Long Chen tossed the Sword Spine Armor Dragon out of the primal chaos space. A terrifying aura caused everyone to jump and retreat.

“A Sword Spine Armor Dragon? Boss… you… did you prepare this for us in advance?” Xia Chen’s voice was trembling. He actually recognized this terrifying beast.

“Xia Chen, can you use this hide?” On the other hand, Guo Ran was already used to Long Chen giving him pleasant surprises. The only question was whether this hide was high level enough or not.

“It’s enough, it’s definitely enough. The Sword Spine Armor Dragon’s strongest aspect is its tough hide. Even quasi divine items are unable to pierce it. It can definitely endure the impact of everyone’s Spiritual Strength.” Xia Chen touched the corpse, his hand quivering from emotion.

“Then what are you waiting for? Let’s get to work!” Guo Ran was even more excited than Xia Chen.

Xia Chen pulled back his hand and shook his head. “The Sword Spine Armor Dragon’s hide is good, and I have the spiritual runes we need in my head, but we’re lacking many materials. Most of the material I am carrying is for setting up grand formations. I have very few materials for spiritual runes, and their quality isn’t high enough…

“What else do you need?” asked Guo Ran.

“Inscription fluid that must be refined from the essence blood of over ten thousand different Magical Beasts, and those Magical Beasts must have reached the eleventh rank at least. There’s also the inscription brush, the powder of the Sky Crystal Stone, the Underworld Butterfly Flower, the Soul Subduing Paper…” Xia Chen listed off dozens of items that people had never heard of.

“So what you’re saying is you need more money?” asked Long Chen directly.

“Yes, and a great, great deal of money. Right now, we can probably…”

Long Chen waved his hand, and a mountain of spirit crystals appeared in front of everyone. Some of them rolled down the mountain with tinkling sounds. This mountain of spirit crystals stunned everyone.

“Boss, did you go plundering again?” asked Guo Ran.

“Is this enough?” Long Chen ignored Guo Ran.

“Yes, it’s definitely enough,” said Xia Chen excitedly.

“Then alright. Do your best to strengthen the Dragonblood Legion. If there’s not enough money, just tell me and I’ll think of something else.”

Long Chen left the Sword Spine Armor Dragon and the spirit crystals to them. He returned to his own seclusion room.