“So you have chosen to stand with the demon? Are there no honorable warriors left? Will you all just stand by while our Empire crumbles in a mindless sea of carnage?”

Long Shen who was acting as the leading general proclaimed after his long speech had ended and no gates were opened. The other side wasn’t budging at all, no one was willing to join their side. Usually, the name of the Azure Emperor was enough to open all doors before them but this time around, they were getting nothing else than animosity.

“Stop babbling nonsense, if you cared about the Empire you’d have helped us against the demi-human scourge!”

“That’s right, where were you and that Azure Emperor of yours when our family members were being devoured by those monsters?”

“My entire family was killed by blood-sucking monstrosities and you did nothing! Now you want to spout some nonsense about honor? Go screw yourself!”

“Screw the Azure Emperor and the Long Clan!”

“Yeah! Screw them!”

A large number of angry voices echoed back at the end of the speech. Many people that were here were ones that joined up with the United Element Sect after losing their loved ones to the other invading Empire. Before Zhang Dong interfered in the city raids, millions of people had already perished. At that time there just wasn’t enough manpower to defend the whole western region.

The only one that could have pulled it was the Long Clan and they had ignored the plight of the people that were now blaming them for the deaths. The United Element Sect’s chosen method was impeccable. People that could betray them would not be allowed to participate in the border defense. There was no possibility of their own forces joining the other faction but this was not set in stone for the other side.

Long Shen’s speech was interrupted by the shouting and the sound magnified in various ways. The Long Clan was still only a clan and not a sect, they did not really allow outsiders to be part of their inner core. They still somewhat relied on forces from branching clans to assist them in large skirmishes like this. Their rule had been unopposed for millenia and thus they had grown somewhat ignorant.

“The Azure Emperor is a monster and so is anyone who follows them!”

“No one wants an incompetent leader to rule over us, now is the time for change. We need someone like the great leader Zhang Dong who actually cares about us instead!”

“Yeah, down with the tyrant the old dynasty needs to end for the Empire to be reborn!’

While this didn’t sound like anything new and the members that belong to the Long Clan didn’t take it to heart, some of the people there did. Branching families had heard about the accusations of demonic origins. A secret investigation had also been launched into the debacle with the secret base. It had vanished just like some of the surviving elders had said and was filled with a strange veil of darkness.

Some believed it to be trickery, others to be the truth. Now that they had all gathered here for another confrontation, it was hard to distinguish who was in the right without proper evidence. Yet the seed of doubt for their overlords had been already planted and by the looks of things, they were still getting pushed around like slaves. Even now their formation had the branch families in the front while the main Long Clan was sitting in the back inside massive aerial vessels.

“Very well, in the name of the Azure Emperor, you will all be punished! If you won’t listen to reason then you will be forced to yield!”

The speech was over and no resolution had been reached. The large armada that was on the other side of the barrier advanced forward while the flagship remained behind. This flying fortress was more similar to the golden palace in size. It wasn’t as bulky but seemed to possess a large number of cannons and space for the Long Clan members to reside on. Many nascent soul masters were residing there along with the Emperor’s children.

Soon the battle would commence and to no one's surprise Long Shen along with his siblings wouldn’t be taking part. After the attempt at opening the gates had failed the oldest son was replaced by an elder of equal strength. While the Long Clan wasn’t as big as a large sect, it made up the numbers with quality. There were multiple such masters gathered here and they would not go down easily.

‘Hm… they started advancing on the other fronts too, they are going for the joint attack.’

Zhang Dong was looking at his system map while residing at another location. Long Shen’s speech had been broadcasted everywhere and also to this stronghold he was now residing. He had been told by his wife and grandfather to remain in the dimensional regalia. Instead of listening to their plea, he had decided to join the border defenses as his alter ego, Lei Yinglo.

‘The main base is being defended by Huo Qiang so it should be safe, at his level he won’t go down to anyone besides the Azure Emperor himself. Zhi might be a bit weaker but he should be fine too and Liena is also there, she should be fine…’

He was the only one that was getting left out of the picture. His position on the chessboard was that of a king. A king should not move too willingly to expose himself to the enemy as if he died, then it all would just crumble. While he felt bad for deceiving his friends there was no danger of this happening if his enemies didn’t actually know who he was.

‘They would certainly pile up here if they knew about it but, they won’t know or even think that I’d pull a stunt like this…’

From his perspective, the Long Clan probably thought of him to be similar to their leader. An Emperor did not put themselves in danger if it wasn’t necessary. The thought of endangering their lives just to save some extra lives was preposterous. No Emperor or king would care about their subjects to this extent. Some even believed that they were the main focal point of their own country. What was the point of protecting it, if the Emperor got killed?

Thanks to the common sense of this world he had been given a safety net. No one would think that he was the Patriarch but just a regular elder that happened to be on the level of the others. His position was still a bit special and not everyone trusted the man called Lei Yinglo. After his work during the establishment of the other stronghold, he gained some fame but there was still some work left until he was seen as a core member of this sect.

‘I can keep watch over everything here and transferring my voice through the faction system won’t be a problem, no one will realize that I’m at this location.’

Thus began his plan of helping his sect to win this battle. Yet this would not be one of those quick battles that he was used to, instead, a prolonged siege was taking place. Both sides started pelting each other with various attacks from a somewhat safe location. It was a trial of attrition that continued for many hours until turning into days.

Even though the spirit bullets were flying back and forth, nothing else but the ground below them was taking damage. Both sides had very strong protective barriers and could not break through them. The flying ships had the advantage of being able to move so each time they had become low on energy, they were just swapped out for new vessels. The side with the strongholds on the other hand was just constantly receiving attacks. It seemed that the enemy’s tactic was quite easy.

“Elders, if this continues we might not hold out for that long…”

“It does seem so, where there any orders from the supreme elders?”

“No, they told us to hold out for now until they gather enough information for a counter-attack.”

After a few days of the continued siege, a problem arose. Most believed that the grand barrier was big and strong enough to last through any attacks even if they took weeks or months. Yet their enemy was the Long Clan, their flying ships were a lot more powerful than they had anticipated and one major flaw in this type of defense arose. As long as the other side could circle out their weaponry, sooner or later this side would become overwhelmed. Unless they supplied the shields with unlimited energy, it just wasn’t sustainable.

“Do they at least know how much time we have?”

“Some say, that we have around a month's time until the shields become too weak to hold, writhing that time we must come up with a solution.”

The Long Clan was in a more favorable location with a giant spirit vein inside the central region. They could route all that spiritual energy into their flying armada to replenish its energy. With a constant stream of new flying monstrosities on their side, the energy resource they were using was practically unending. If something wasn’t done about it, then soon one of the core points of this formation would break and then they would lose their advantage over their enemy.

‘It’s good that they don’t know who I am…’

Zhang Dong thought to himself while coming up with a solution to the problem. His side didn’t want to give up the defensive advantage by sending in their own ships to chase the Long Clan armada. Their side was probably already waiting with a counter-offensive if they attempted to push in. While throwing everything into the battle could produce results, a lot of lives would be lost. The only other option would be to somehow cut off their enemy's supply lines.

“Could I propose a solution to our problem?”

“Elder Yinglo? Could there be something that we missed?”

He was not alone in this place and this time around he wasn’t playing on going in solo either. While it was possible for him to just teleport behind enemy lines, battling all those nascent soul masters by himself would be draining. It was possible for the Azure Emperor to be waiting for such a tactic.

“What if I told you about a way of getting around their defenses? If all goes well, then we will be able to strike at their backs when they least expect it.”

“Oh? Such a way exists?”

“Yes, what we can do is…”

Thus he started explaining his new battle plan, while it had some problems it was better than just waiting here. Before their defenses became overrun by their enemy cannon fire, they would cut off their never-ending supply of energy.