“ARGH… he’s going through our ships… stop him!”

“The ships… they can’t take it…”

“U-use the war formation, entrap him!”

“H-how could someone be this fast, the formations are crumbling!”

Shouts of soldiers being knocked out or blown away echoed through the battlefield as a blue of golden lightning energy went through it. No one was fast enough to react and each defensive trap they tried to muster was shattered instantly the golden being of light went through it.

Within a few minutes, the army of thousands of Martial Saints and Supreme Saints was no more. Their large flying battleships that proudly flew an emerald flag with their emperor’s insignia went up in flames. The giant war formations that looked like giants made from energy popped into nothingness the moment the radiant golden glow plunged itself into them. It was a one-sided slaughter and nothing but retreat was on anyone's mind now.

“R-retreat, inform the other battalions!”

“Hm…”

Zhang Dong looked at the flaming ships that were falling down to the ground. They were exploding and burning up before him and the crews that were inside of them were fleeing. Perhaps it was a naive gesture but he didn’t feel like chasing after people that had already lost their will to fight was just.

‘I’ve also burned through a lot of Qi, chasing after them now could expose me to a surprise attack from more Saint Emperors.’

He glanced towards his right hand, there he saw a passed-out man with a bloody nose. It was one of the last remaining generals from the Emerald Phoenix Empire. The man was close to a late stage nascent soul master which at this point was nothing. This battle was won but it was not the end of the war, not in the long shot.

‘Not like I can capture them all or kill them for that matter.’

At first, Zhang Dong was deliberating on performing a large-scale attack and going all out. However, it was better to not show how strong he really was. The technology on the ships that these people had was unknown to him. Perhaps the Emerald Phoenix Emperor would see him fight and find some of his weak points. It was better not to give his enemies too much information about the limits of his spiritual energy or the techniques he uses.

“Well then, Sun Shi, Kang Yunru. I’ll leave the apprehension of the survivors to you, I propose capturing them first and interrogating them.”

While talking he held out the struggling man before him. His whole arm was around the Saint Emperor’s neck. The man was struggling but his body was disabled by Zhang Dong’s superior Qi. At this moment he was not stronger than a Qi condensation practitioner and putting some restraints on him wasn’t hard.

“T-the High-Generals will not stand for this, unhand me you…”

“Hoh? High-Generals? Are they your elite team of elders? Good, I like that you are willing to share information without the need for me to ask but I’ll leave you in the hands of specialists.”

“Huh?”

The man was stunned by the reaction and even more, as strange shackles of light started suppressing his body. They were wrapped around his limbs and also neck to cancel out most of his Qi. In this state, it was easy to throw him into the replica medallion that had now mostly become a prison for anyone he deemed worthy to question.

“We won?”

The hole he blocked didn’t even have time to be restored by the stunned members of the Heavenly Crane Sect. The battle was over before it even started by one man that was now slowly hovering back towards them. Some of them were stunned, others afraid while another group was giddy with anticipation. Almost everyone had heard about the Golden Dragon by this point but seeing the real thing before them couldn’t have prepared them for such a feat.

‘I guess most of them thought that the rumors were overblown, this should gain me some fame and make things easier in the future.’

His image in the west was already cemented in everyone's mind but here on the eastern front, he was still a new rising star. His sticks were now shooting through the roof after he had managed to single-handedly take out a large battalion of soldiers. Battle formations crumbled under his foot and almost all of the Saint Emperors had been taken out within a few hits. Thanks to this the low morale that everyone was radiating started shifting.

“L… Long Dong!”

“...Long live the Golden Dragon!”

“Golden Dragon!”

Soon after he made his way back behind the protective barrier he was greeted with cheers. The tired soldiers that had accepted their deaths were ecstatic. In their minds, he was now a symbol, a hero that couldn’t be stopped by normal means. Finally, there was now a chance at victory as this was actually the first stronghold that had managed to push back the assailants from the Emerald Phoenix Empire.

“Well, I’m glad that you are all in high spirits but this is only the start of this long journey.”

He spoke out in a gentle tone, his voice wasn’t loud and with the help of his cultivation, it was heard by everyone. The cheering stopped and all eyes were on him, there was no time for a grand speech but he needed to say a few words to these soldiers.

“This battle might have been won but the war is far from over. Don’t worry, you will have my full cooperation and I will protect all the other cities that are going through the same struggles.”

Things were handled here with no problem, the Saint Emperors that had invaded this side had been dealt with and were in shackles as well. With Sun Shi and Kang Yunru here this outpost would have enough manpower to even last through another siege. He could not stay here though, there were other forts that were being attacked just like this one. This was only the start but also a chance to deal a large blow to the enemy offensive.

“While I will depart to the other locations, elders Shi and Yunru will aid you in reinforcing the defensive formation.”

“Honored Golden Dragon?”

Sun Shi wanted to comment but Zhang Dong didn’t have time to look over everything. His gaze was on the system map and the next location that was being attacked was already a waypoint. He needed to be swift and the ship that they came with wouldn’t be fast enough.

“Don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself but you should probably try getting some reinforcements from the main sect, tell them about the enemy’s strengths and use one of those guys for information.”

He pointed towards one of the passed-out Saint Emperors that he took care of. There were five generals on a similar level and two were on this side. Another two were defeated by him on the other side with the third one fleeing when he saw that there was no chance of winning. When looking at the map he knew that the other forts would have to deal with similar amounts of enemies.

“Of course honored Golden Dragon but we shouldn’t be hasty. What if enemies that you can’t handle alone appear, it would be better if we waited a day and set off together to the next location.”

“Normally that would probably be the better option but I don’t think that your allies have that much time. This attack wasn’t the only one, the other ones might be slightly delayed but they will certainly go for the other strongholds that offer a good strategic foothold. I’ll see you later then!”

“Honored Golden Dragon!”

Sun Shi stretched out his hand but as he was calling out Zhang Dong’s body turned into a golden beam of light and shot up into the sky. After a large burst of energy, everyone there could see a golden lightning bolt traveling through those clouds in a direction one of the other strongholds was.

The people that were gathered here stood still without saying anything. They looked at the widespread destruction, corpses, and passed-out people. One man had just arrived and taken care of one of their problems in a matter of moments. Some of them were glad that it was over, others were angered that an outsider was needed for something like this and others saw this as a chance to further their ambitions. Nevertheless, they needed to get to work, and finally after Zhang Dong was gone Sun Shi shouted out to get a hold of this situation.

“Everyone, attend to the injured, the ones that are able shall reform the grand protective formation!”

Kang Yunru didn’t want to be shown up so he also started barking out his own orders as everyone got their butts moving.

“We must transport the defeated enemy generals to our prison, I will tend to their grandmasters that the Golden Dragon disabled for us!”

Zhang Dong wasn’t there to oversee things like this as he didn’t have time and didn’t want to babysit anyone. The people he was helping needed to pull their weight in one way or another, he couldn’t be everywhere and at this moment he was more concerned about gaining back his spiritual energy.

His exit was flashy as he needed to use his lightning form to travel faster through the electrical currents in the sky. This way of flying was a lot faster than using the Heavenly Crane Sect’s ship the Patriarch lent him. This of course eat into his reserves that had been lowered due to the quick pace of the fight against the Saint Emperors.

For a brief moment, he returned to his physical form to take out a large pouch filled with marble-sized pills. All of them made their way into his mouth before turning back to the previous energy form. Each one of these pills when consumed by a foundation establishment practitioner could push them through several small realms or even make them explode if they weren’t careful. For him on the other hand they didn’t even amount to one percent of his total Qi.

His ever-growing cultivation base was too much ahead of his pill-making skills. This he could only offset by volume as preparing these pills wasn’t that difficult through the factory mode in his crafting abode. Thus he rocketed back through the clouds to his next destination, with some luck he would get there before their protective formation fell apart.

‘This should give me some time, if they know that there are capable combatants on this side, even the Emerald Phoenix Emperor will think twice before launching another attack!’