‘She is a bit better than the others… but not much stronger than a demi-human tribe leader.’

Zhang Dong was flying through the air while evading a swarm of swords. There were thousands of high quality weapons zooming around in strange patterns. Sometimes they would combine into other geometrical shapes, and other times into large hands and fists while trying to kill him.

Any of his allies would have probably been dead by now, and even Lucius would have probably fallen to these attacks as even the woman’s defensive capabilities were quite high. Each time he fired back, the mass of metal would set up a shield to counter his own sword energy. Even if some of the weapons broke they were quickly replaced by a new batch.

‘It seems she has a limit of how many swords she can use but has more of them to replace the broken treasures…’

Below the area, they were fighting it started sprinkling sharp chunks of metal. The swords were cut up by his own superior one that he was using with his one hand. The metallic chunks looked like confetti after being shredded by him and dropping down to the ground.

‘Hm, I could probably arm my angels with these, most of them are low-grade heavenly treasures but some are higher quality…’

It was clear to him that the swarm of lesser-quality swords was meant to act as a distraction. The weapons that were actually meant to kill him were mixed in with the attacking wave. During each exchange one or two such swords would go for his head or chest in an attempt to pierce it.

He was managing to evade each and every one of them or just smack them away with the help of his own sword. Some even made it inside his spatial bag for sampling. This seemed a good opportunity to gain some easy weaponry. All these swords could be given to masters from his sect or to outfit the angelic puppets later. However, first, he would need to win this fight and as it looked, he wouldn’t have trouble performing this task.

“You are a very slippery man but I like it when they play hard to get!”

“Hoh, some people might misunderstand those words if they heard them out of context… now I think this has continued for long enough…”

Just as always he liked to get a good feeling for any new opponent that he was fighting. This woman gave herself the title of Princess and was apparently related to the Emerald Phoenix Emperor. She would probably be worth a lot more as a war prisoner than die. Perhaps the Emperor was a family man and would pull his forces back for a trade. While he didn’t like the idea of blackmailing a father with their own child, too many people had already died here.

It was clear that his enemy was strong and if he wasn’t here to take care of her himself, even Bahamut his dragon might have not been able to defeat her. She was a true expert and powerhouse that would have been probably able to turn the empire upside down. There was only one problem for her, she was facing someone above the norm. Zhang Dong had realized it already, he had become strong, far stronger than even these people.

As it stood now he wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t already the most powerful regular cultivator in both of the Empires. Perhaps the Overseer was above him but he could not even see himself losing to the Azure Emperor anymore. Ever since he had defeated Wang Long it was as if a tiny fraction of his being had ascended into a new realm. Even this tiny amount was enough to propel him onto a new playing field that these people were locked out of.

“Long enough? Oh no, handsome. This is only the start, you will become one of my man servants and serve me for the rest of your miserable life!”

“Hah… I refuse.”

“Huh?”

The woman named Cuilu Yahui was stunned as for a moment Zhang Dong’s body vanished. She considered the man to be a worthy opponent but he wasn’t doing anything besides dodging her attacks. Considering that she didn’t yet fully commit to the fight it was reasonable to assume that she would have been victorious. That was before he had appeared at her side and a fist made its way toward her gut.

“Hueck…”

Zhang Dong’s fist connected with Cuilu Yahui's thin waistline. The woman was a lot smaller than him and her body didn’t seem to be in the possession of a comparable body refining technique as his. She was clearly a cultivator focused on her Qi and control of high-quality treasures. If she was a character in a game then she would be a glass cannon mage. High ability to do damage but no defenses to speak off. It wasn’t that she was weak nor did she underestimate Zhang Dong this much, the difference in skill and power was just this vast.

One punch was all that it took, on the outside, it looked rather anticlimactic. Cuilu Yahui’s body started slumping forward as she started to lose conscience. A small shockwave was produced by the impact and the moment the woman fainted her hold on the swords was gone and they started dropping down to the ground like dead birds.

In reality, the hit wasn’t as simple. It took a lot of Zhang Dong’s spiritual energy to take this woman out with one hit. The moment the concentrated punch landed on her gut he injected his energy into her body. For a fraction of a second two types of spiritual energy started battling for supremacy and his had won. Without her Qi protecting her body she wasn’t much and quickly lost all her fighting capabilities.

“T-the Princess… she lost?”

“How could this be… she is one of the most powerful cultivators of the Empire…”

“Their commander has been defeated by the honorable Golden Dragon, now is our chance, attack with all your might, drive these savages out of our lands!

While the people from the Emerald Phoenix Empire were stunned at the quick loss, the ones from the Heavenly Crane Sect took this chance to fan the flame. Their masters let out a loud battle cry and started pushing as hard as they could. Everyone knew that whenever the strongest fighter from a side fell, then victory was almost assured. It was their chance to take over and it didn’t seem that the enemies had counted in this variable.

“They aren’t retreating even when their morals have dipped? They look afraid… they must really fear their Emperor…”

Zhang Dong placed some Qi-suppressing shackles on the passed-out woman before throwing her into his medallion. Soon after he looked at the faces of his enemies, they looked afraid as if they didn’t want to continue this fight. It was as if someone was holding a spear to their backs.

“Do they think they will be killed if they dare to abandon the fight? So that’s how they run things back at the Emerald Phoenix Empire…”

He had his own way of treating his people and it contained some respect. Here on the other hand it was clear that defeat was not an option, the people fighting here were doing it out of fear. If they retreated they would have probably been treated as deserters and probably killed for it. It was a way of forcing people to remain fighting, it was better to try their luck against their enemies than to return to certain death back home.

This of course didn’t mean that they wouldn’t start retreating and would be quite beneficial to Zhang Dong’s plans. It meant that these troops could not return to their base but instead remain outcasts. Their only way of surviving would be to hide their association with the Emerald Phoenix Empire. As long as they didn’t show up in front of their old leaders there was a chance of living and to some, it was a more reasonable plan than to die here when winning was not an option anymore.

“I… I didn’t come here to die…”

Soon the first Nascent Soul level master from the opposition turned into a wisp of light and started running. Even though the fear of being killed by their leaders was high they didn’t see a way out of this predicament. If they returned they would be done for and if they continued here, either they would be dead or become slaves. For them, a life of a vagabond was still better than whatever they would have to go through when confronting their old masters.

‘I guess this method only works as long as there is someone there to punish them…’

It was very eye-opening to Zhang Dong, he saw the limitations of ruling people through the sword. Perhaps there were some merits in some places but when it came down to it, these people would not sacrifice their lives for a tyrant. His forces on the other hand were more willing in that regard as they had a closer relationship with their fellow sect members and superiors.

This didn’t mean that everyone was willing to desert and each had their own reason. Zhang Dong wouldn’t be surprised if some had some soul-binding contracts placed on them. Others could have had their families back home that would be murdered if it was ever found out that they deserted. Nevertheless, as long as some broke the formation the enemies would crumble away.

He was not part of the Heavenly Crane Sect so he could not order them to be merciful to the people that had massacred their people. They started chasing after the escaping invaders while he focused on taking down the enemy generals and the flying ships. Some of them didn’t need to be destroyed and would be a great augmentation to his own army of automatons. The battle was coming to an end and a victor was obvious but before a total collapse was achieved a voice echoed through the battlefield.

“Forces of the Emerald Phoenix Empire, your Prince orders you to retreat.”

It was a very short announcement but instantly the people that were still frantically fighting for their life started fleeing. All sorts of treasures that aided in escaping were used and the enemy soldiers started scattering in various directions. To his dismay the ships that he wanted to capture started going up in flames while also being thrown in their direction and exploding.

‘So their commander is at least smart enough to conserve his troops to some extent… and he would rather blow up his ships than leave it to use huh?’

The battle had ended and he ordered his army of puppets to not pursue. A lot of them had been damaged and he needed to see if there was some usable material around this battlefield that he could use to restore them. One battle won but others still remained on the horizon and this prince would perhaps be his next opponent.