I can’t have anyone spreading the news of… wait a second!

At this moment the reason for Sage’s confidence suddenly became apparent.

The eight Nascent Souls on the side of the Artful Life Alliance enjoyed the look of regret on their enemy’s face and that spurred them to move forward, ready to strike the enemy down in this moment of weakness. Then, almost instantly that feeling of bloodthirsty glee was dampened. From all around them, they felt the flaring auras of other Nascent Souls. Not just one or two, but tens of them. The cloaked figures that had run into the forest earlier were now rushing out of it. They had spread out wider than the enemy’s line and were dashing forward in two columns to flank the Alliance’s forces. The few moments of conversation had given them time not to escape, but to spread out and set up an encirclement of their own. Forty-five people trying to surround over four hundred would at any time be a foolish choice, but at this moment when those forty five released their full power, it seemed to be absolutely intimidating.

The Artful Life Alliance was right in their belief that this battle would be completely one-sided. They just didn’t realize that they were the weaker party. At this point they all became very aware that the odds weren’t eight against fight, but fifty against eight. The stoop backed old man, the Shou Clan Ancestor, was not convinced. He immediately thought this was some sort of trick.

“Don’t fall for their ruse. Their aura is fake. Attack!”

He chose a direction opposite where Sage was standing, since he already knew of the Nascent Souls there. The Shou Clan Ancestor was already guessing that there was some sort of technique to create fake power fluctuations. It was far more likely that the enemy had spread a few Nascent Souls through this crowd while the rest of them were fakes. Then when they attacked those few real Nascent Souls would resist them and make them think all of them were equally as strong.

To prove his conjecture, he struck out with a palm strike, causing the air to ripple away from him. The simple gesture turned into a powerful attack when infused with his Qi, causing the air to compress and smash against one of Sage’s subordinates, knocking him backwards. Another one of the black cloaked figures ran up to block the old man’s next attack. The second palm struck just like the first and then he spun and directed both hands towards a third person. The first two hits were testing blows, and from the resistance the enemy put up he knew they were both Nascent Souls. That’s why he made a full power attack against the third. Surely, they wouldn’t have enough numbers for all three of the enemies arranged near him.

The Shou Clan Ancestor’s third strike was far more powerful than the first two, striking with two overlapping palm waves that caused the air to ripple and hum. They struck the third black cloaked figure and sent him tumbling backwards. Most of the power of these sound waves penetrated into the body, causing it to resonate and break down slightly from the reverberation. Even so, this third person wasn’t killed instantly like if he was a Core Formation Cultivator. The look on the old man’s face had been expecting to see the person he struck fall to their knees. Then their skin would crack and their organs would start to rupture and detach from all the places they should be attached to. Tendons and muscles should fray or unravel and then after bleeding from all their orifices, die.

All of these expected reactions didn’t happen. The person he struck pulled back their hood and a gruff looking woman coughed. A few drops of blood trickled from the side of her mouth, but she merely wiped it off with her hand and glared angrily at the old man across from her. The other two that had initially faced the man ran over to join her, forming a loose half-circle to encircle the Shou Clan Ancestor. At the same time, the other Nascent Souls of the Artful Life Alliance were also rushing forward to strike at the black cloaked figures and running into similar results. Three of the black cloaked Nascent Souls had already moved to pin down each of the Alliance’s highest leaders. The other half of them maintained the perimeter around these hundreds of Core Formation Cultivators from the Artful Life Alliance as well as from the other Clans, Sects and organizations from Western Peace City that had been coerced to join them.

Unlike the Alliance, they hadn’t committed all their lower level personnel. They didn’t want to be slowed down for this final surprise attack. With five Nascent Souls and hundreds more Core Formation cultivators, they assumed that this infamous Lang Sheng would easily be handled. It was only now that they realized they had chosen wrong. They had been convinced that the Alliance suffering so greatly was only a momentary setback and the perfect time for them to be the one’s delivering coal during winter. With so many of them joining hands this operation would be extremely easy. With the Artful Life Alliance in need, they could help with this simple task and earn great favor for themselves. Or so they had all thought.

At this moment, the fire in the old man’s eyes seemed to dim. He couldn’t believe it, striking at the three who were starting to hem him in. He immediately realized these three were not quite as strong as he was individually, but three against one they could easily hold him off. With that realization he started to fight harder, adding more law energy into his attacks. At the same time, the other seven on his side started to do the same.

The Nascent Souls moved faster than the other cultivators on their side and a dozen exchanges had already passed before the attacks of the Core Formation Cultivators finally arrived. Twenty five black cloaked figures created a perimeter around the area and rushed forward to meet the attack of all these weaker cultivators. Four hundred against twenty five was an utter massacre against those at similar levels, but in this case it meant they only had to face eight lower ranked fighters.

In general, advancing a rank roughly made them twice as powerful as they were at the peak of the previous rank. So that meant a level 61 was twice as strong as a level 60. Worse yet, a level 60 was more than twice as powerful as a level 51. The weakest Nascent Soul was around five times stronger than the weakest Core Formation cultivator. Yet, this was all without considering any individual talents or techniques which could greatly skew the balance of power.

With the sudden flare of strength shown by the Alliance’s forces getting serious, Sage’s side also had to show their might. The Alliance’s forces realized they were now fighting for their lives and many precious treasures were suddenly revealed. There were many leaders of smaller groups here to build relations with the Alliance leaders. These leaders were also not like the typical cultivators as they had whole organizations behind them. With greater sources of income and their long lifespans they were able to accumulate many life saving methods. These sudden flares of power knocked those on Sage’s side backwards, forcing them to show their true abilities.

The black cloaks were torn off and revealed the armored suits they wore underneath.