“It was a trap, they have surrounded us but… their forces are too thin to stop us, their formation won’t be hard to break, what are they planning?”

Leader Zhong shouted out while floating up in the sky. Their forces attempted to engage with the fleeing Phoenix Emerald Empire forces. It seemed like all of them were scattering to all sides after their protective shield had been broken. However, after a few quick maneuvers, they had encircled them. It was as if they wanted them to break into their formation. The only problem was that they didn’t seem to have enough manpower to block them. There must have been more to this tactic than met the eye.

“Be careful, that woman isn’t simple…”

Sun Shen retreated back to where the other faction leaders were floating and looked towards a certain woman that had appeared before them. At the moment the net closed on them she appeared up in the sky. She was wearing a very long emerald dress that was being held up by two powerful female cultivators that were giving these two great circle nascent soul masters a bad feeling.

“You danced on top of my palm very gratefully, I wasn’t expecting that dragon but it won’t be a problem. Where is that handsome man though? I wouldn’t have come here if I knew that he was just using them as disposable pawns.”

The woman started going into a monologue while the battle stopped. This didn’t sit too well with some of the masters here. It seemed that she had decided that victory was already in her grasp without even trying or taking part in the battle. While she was talking some of the ships that were flying there took aim with their cannons.

“What uncultured little bugs! Do you really wish to die sooner? Very well, this has already become a trivial matter, activate the formation and kill them all, your Princess commands you!”

The spirit cannons rained towards her location but instead collided with some kind of secondary shield that was around the giant flagship she was hovering above. It seemed that the grand barrier they broke through was just a distraction and that each ship had its own field that needed to be broken. Their attacks didn’t leave much of a dent while previously they saw some cracks forming after the first volley.

Right as she finished the sentence a strange force took over the whole place. A massive formation that was under them started appearing and giving off a strange energy signature. The people were stunned, how were they lured into such a simple trap without knowing?

“Did the Golden Dragon betray us?”

The Heavenly Crane Sect members had previously discussed tactics with the man in question. He had told them that he would prepare a few trap and illusory formations under the battlefield before they started. However, since his disappearance, there was no word from him and instead, the massive creature appeared. They thought that it was there to guide them to victory but perhaps this was all a trick.

If it was just a soul beast it could leave the battlefield at any moment. Zhang Dong wasn’t there and perhaps his true goal was for the Heavenly Crane Sect to be eradicated instead. This was what some of the faction leaders were leaning toward but others weren’t quite sure.

The puppets were still there and had put themselves between the invaders and it didn’t seem that they were turning around to attack them. It was the same for the men clad in golden armor, they weren’t doing anything sketchy. This would be the right moment to turn their blades towards the Heavenly Crane Sect but they didn’t.

“Wait… nothing is happening? Do you feel that something is off about this trapping formation?”

“Yes… it’s not affecting us… but look at their ships and soldiers, don’t they look tired?’

To everyone's surprise, the ones that were getting weaker or entrapped weren’t the forces of the Heavenly Crane Sect but the ones from the Emerald Phoenix Empire. Right as the formation was activated they started charging toward their army and using their own ships in charge. However, after a few moments, they stopped as if they weren’t feeling well. The shields that were previously absorbing the cannon fire from their ships started wavering.

“What is happening, why is the formation affecting my army? Who is responsible for this, who dares betray the Emerald Phoenix Princess!?”

The woman in charge started shouting out in anger as she noticed that something was wrong. Her expression changed from a cold beauty to an angered brat within just a second. Her aura burst forth making most of the opposition experts to fall back, one of the beings there didn’t flinch through. Instead, it opened its toothy mouth to shoot forth another concentrated beam of golden energy right at the woman.

“An overgrown lizard dares to attack this Cuilu Yahui?”

Cuilu Yahui's eyebrow shot up while she remained in place. Instead of moving forward herself the two attendants that were behind her acted. First the beam of energy collided with a green shield that was produced by the flagship under them. Even though it managed to pierce through it, the moment it arrived before the two battles maidens it was severally weakened. They had no trouble dispersing the energy that quickly turned into radiant bubbles around them.

“Hoh, you managed to block it?”

“Who is there?”

They heard a voice of a man echoing through the whole battlefield without any proper spot to pinpoint. This soon turned out to be just a ruse as a massive amount of energy had begun forming directly under their main ship. Due to all the chaos that ensued from the trap being altered a chance was presented. A massive beam of energy that looked like a sword pierced out from the earth and went through the massive esthetically pleasing emerald ship.

It happened in a fraction of a second and didn’t give anyone a chance to react. This was not all, while this energy sword was the largest it was not the only one. Soon after the flagship was hit, smaller sword attacks appeared from under them, all going for the largest flying vessels with the highest fighting potential on this battlefield. Before the tide of battle could shift in favor of the Emerald Phoenix Empire’s troops, they took a large hit to their fighting potential.

“Well, this turned out better than expected, I didn’t have enough time to analyze this formation of yours but it should still work at around seventy percent capacity on your troops instead, quite an interesting idea of disrupting spiritual energy, I’ll have to study the concept later.”

Finally, the voice that was echoing became clearer and all eyes focused on the man that it belonged to. He was standing on top of the giant golden dragon’s head with his hands behind his back. His body was radiating an unfathomable cultivation base that could not be denied. The invaders were stunned, even their princess that was considered a matchless genius could not produce a staggering amount of Qi as he could. Even before the battle started everyone was inching away, they knew that more than likely if they tried to engage this man, they would die.

…

‘It’s always easy to go against ‘smart’ people, they always think that they are ahead of everyone and never expect to be beaten.’

Zhang Dong had finished his preparations and waited for the enemies to activate their formation. Only after it was running did he go after them, Bahamut took their attention while he dealt with the cultivators that were underground. After making sure that there was no one there to disable the cracked formation, he decided to join in the battle.

Instead of their forces suffering a weakening in their cultivation base, the people of the opposing army were. It wasn’t as strong as the original formation but it was enough to give him time and destroy some of the more important ships. With time the enemy cultivators would figure a way to either stop the formation or block its effect from affecting them. However, before that could happen he and his allies would put an end to this.

“Don’t let this chance slide, the enemies are weakened, give them hell and join me in battle! Leave their leader to me!”

“You heard the Golden Dragon, don’t give them a chance to recover!”

“For the Heavenly Crane Sect!”

Soon after his allies shouted their orders and the encirclement that was supposed to be a trap became a perfect opportunity. The forces outside were weakened and not prepared to fight enemies in this fashion. Their shields were faltering and their war formations wouldn’t properly take shape, they were quickly getting pushed back. It was clear that if this continued that they would lose.

“Don’t you dare surrender, I, Cuilu Yahui have never known defeat and this will not change!”

As their morale was at an all-time low a burst of energy exploded from the Emerald Phoenix Princess. It was so powerful that it managed to send out a shockwave that pushed the Heavenly Crane Sect’s and the Army of Angles back. However before any damage could be done it faded away, not due to not having enough power but due to Zhang Dong that decided to cancel this energy out.

“So your name is, Cuilu Yahui? If you surrender now, I promise to let your people live. Be smart and don’t prolong this struggle, enough people have already died for your greed and hubris.”

“You want me to surrender? The Daughter of the Emperor? The most powerful woman in the whole Empire? You overestimate your abilities, after I’m done with you, you will be nothing more than a slave below my heel!”

“Sorry, but I’m happily married and I’m not really into that stuff… but I’m not sure if my Grandfather wouldn’t indulge in something like that… Nevertheless, you will not win.”

“Hah, empty words, nothing more!”

Many things were happening all at once but as the two most powerful fighters started talking, everyone else stopped. It was clear to them that if any of them died and the other survived it could sway this battle in another direction. This was just how powerful they were, each one of them was a one-person army.

Zhang Dong parted from his dragon’s head and took flight. In his hand, a shiny sword appeared which he intended to use against the woman that he was facing. While he wasn’t happy about having to fight a woman, this was war. She was a capable fighter that could not be ignored, even he would be in trouble if he didn’t take it seriously.

Cuilu Yahui in response waved her hand to disperse that long wavy dress into a type of energy. It surrounded her body to produce a more tightly fit battle robe, something more suited for this confrontation. With a second wave of her hand a mass of swords appeared behind her, there had to be thousands of them and each one radiated a force equal to a heavenly treasure. The clash between the two experts was soon to start and everyone started holding their breath while hoping that the master from their side would be victorious.