‘Hm, these appearances out of the heavens are becoming a bit cliche but they do work on a new crowd.’

Zhang Dong arrived at the City of Panhua fort which was in the middle of a siege. The barrier protecting them had been broken down and enemies were starting to trickle in. Before any serious injuries or deaths could happen he decided to jump in.

In actuality, they had arrived a full minute before the barrier was broken but a problem arose. The Moon Lily and Sun Lily faction elders started arguing about the plan. Kang Yunru wanted to wait it out to see how it goes, it seemed that he didn’t want to go into battle that wasn’t in his favor.

Sun Shi on the other hand wanted to instantly dive in to save his people. To quiet the two down he finally pronounced that he would go into battle while the two could do whatever they wished. He didn’t really care as after a quick scan of the surroundings he didn’t spot anyone that could be his match. The two late stage nascent soul elders would probably have a hard time competing against the multiple Saint Emperors down there, but not him.

‘Saint Emperors… Supreme Saints and Martial Saints… They seem stronger here than when I was in their empire, this is something that was probably intended by the system maker.’

He could quickly tell that these cultivators had been boosted by the Qi from this empire. Zhang Dong had traveled through the Emerald Phoenix Empire after coming back from the previous world but didn’t take that much time to examine everything. It would probably be better to catch some of these experts to examine their cultivation, perhaps he could implement these enhancing methods somehow to boost himself or his people further.

Maybe there was a way to isolate the effect but perhaps there wasn’t. It could have been some kind of racial trait that these people had and it would not be possible without their bloodline. Nevertheless before taking any action regarding their unique cultivation methods he needed to clean this place up. He could see at least two Saint Emperors having broken through the array and multiple Supreme Saints at the late stage.

‘If I recall correctly they only have three small realms in their cultivation, so those Supreme saints are close to half step nascent soul masters.’

The number of Supreme Saint experts on the other side was comparable to the core formation experts on this. However, they were much stronger than their Azure Empire counterparts. Adding the spirit energy boost on top of the half-step nascent soul power level made these quite an army, even nascent soul masters would have trouble with these numbers.

‘So this is probably the main problem, while they don’t have more masters at the very top, their main army base is a lot stronger with all these Supreme Saints around. However… that is if they don’t have a person like me leading them…’

Zhang Dong was slowly coming down from the sky while producing a magnificent radiant glow to blind the people down on the ground. It looked like the sun was rising behind him to illuminate this place that was surrounded by darkness. Only torches from the fort and the colorful techniques had previously given light to this place, now as he was descending it looked as if a new dawn had risen.

“Hah, do you think that I Wung Tong, the Hall master of the Enlightened Victory Hall, would be scared? You mean nothing and will go down as an unknown stepping stone in my path to glory.”

“Uh…”

Zhang Dong didn’t have any time to perform the usual seniorly pose. Who seemed to be the leader of this group of Saint cultivators quickly burst into a monologue instead and stole his limelight. Then just as quickly he flew forward like an arrow drawn from an exquisite bow.

‘Hm, could he have identified me as a threat and means to finish it in one go, or… is he just an idiot?’

He wasn’t sure but it was more probably that the latter was true. If the man knew what he was up against he would have just retreated first and then tried to charge at him with the help of the other Saint Emperors that were still on their way. Shooting at him with the large cannons from those bulky ships that were floating in the background would have also been a better order.

“HA! Die to my blade!”

“Hm, sword intent? It’s not bad but …”

The man surrounded himself with massive amounts of sword energy. It circled around his body and would shred anything that came in contact with it. It was clear that he wanted to bounce any potential attacks away from his body while also performing a quick and vicious attack.

“Huh?”

Perhaps if he was up against Shun Shi it would have worked but this was Zhang Dong, the Golden Dragon and liberator of the west. With two fingers the sharp weapon was grabbed before it could poke through the heart as it was intended. The stop was immediate and the sudden stop caused a backlash against the weapon. The sword tip showed a few cracks as the massive amounts of Qi that it was infused with were too much for it to handle. Before the man could let of his blade this energy also injected itself into his sword hand to cause an explosion of flesh.

“ARGHh…”

Just a second ago the man was flying through the air while looking like a gallant warrior, now on the other hand he was falling down like a deflated balloon. The rebound was tremendous and Zhang Dong made sure to inject his opponent with a large quantity of his lightning Qi. It was now wrecking his body that he was not able to protect.

“H-hall Master!”

“How could this be, how could the General fall this easily, it must have been some sort of trick, don’t let this affect you and charge!”

While Wung Tong was falling down from the sky the voice of another Supreme Saint echoed through the area. When taking another look all the people here were color coded. The Leaders that consisted of Supreme Saints were wearing robes that were purple. Then the next in line that were the Supreme Saints were red and the ones below yellow.

‘I guess they have some kind of color-coded ranking system, considering their Emperor has something to do with emeralds, green will be the most prestigious of them all?’

Zhang Dong wasn’t sure but thanks to the bright colors he knew exactly who to target. The enemies were all wearing the same types of clothes and were clearly part of one army. He wasn’t sure if this was just part of this Enlightened Victory Hall but when listening to some of the shouts it didn’t seem that they all knew each other. It was possible that the army was conscripted by the Emperor’s forces before setting out to the Azure Empire.

While Sun Shi and Kang Yunru were arguing he was listening to his enemies. Even now the man that he one-shot was called a general. On his side on the other hand people still segregated themselves into sect juniors and seniors. This division was a bit less orderly and additions from other sects or clans wouldn’t be easily welcomed. However, if the opponents had a strict army regiment then it would be a lot easier for them to react to orders.

‘I guess that’s another reason why they have been winning so much, the Heavenly Crane Sect’s allies are nothing more than slaves. It wouldn’t be strange for any subservient clan or sect to abandon the fight the moment they had a chance…’

It looked like going forward wouldn’t be as easy as he had assumed. If the enemies had a regiment of trained soldiers that were also cultivators then it would be difficult to progress. It was one thing to fight against people that had no idea how to co-operate than ones that were used to fighting with each other. This was also one of the reasons why his troops were so ferocious, their teamwork was impeccable.

‘These guys seem like they might have been the last hurdle to pass.’

Within a few moments he made his decision, the Saint Emperor that was injured wasn’t let go of the hook as he quickly appeared behind him. A hit to his dantian quickly ended the general's military career. At first, he wanted to play it up for the Heavenly Crane Sect forces and raise their morale. However, these enemies weren’t a joke and could probably produce some nasty war formations to prolong this battle and cause more carnage. He needed to end it and do it swiftly before his enemies could regain their bearings.

Thus instead of using flashy attacks that would cement him as the famous golden dragon, he went with speed. His body became clad in golden lightning as he flashed next to the second Supreme Saint opponent. This man was slightly weaker than the previous one and after delivering a palm strike to his chest he flew right back toward the hole in the array that all of them came from.

Everyone was shocked at what was happening, two powerful experts had been rendered useless within a few seconds of Zhang Dong’s appearance. However, this wasn’t the end as the golden bolt of lightning shot right after the man that was just struck. While using the Supreme Saint as a human shield he burst to the other side where the bulk of the enemy army was waiting for him.

“No one will disturb us here.”

He made it to the other side and after performing a pinching motion with his thumb and index finger the hole he came from began to close. A little something in the form of a chaotic orb of lightning was left in the middle of the opening. From the core multiple electrical lines shot out to grab the opening defensive shield. It created a net of charged lightning that was slowly closing itself. When touched by anyone it would electrocute them and turn them into a charred corpse almost instantly.

“Yunru, Shi, I’ll leave the small fries to you that got to the other side, leave the ones on this end to me.”

“... Y-yes honorable Golden Dragon.”

Sun Shi replied after finally getting out of the hidden ship together with Kang Yunru. The enemies that got through were not on their level. The two elders instantly knew what Zhang Dong had planned and had no reason to refuse. This was a stronghold of their sect and enemies that could kill their juniors were here, the two were more than capable of suppressing them all by themselves.

“Well then, show me what you are capable of.”

Zhang Dong on the other side shot forth toward another Supreme Saint. First, he needed to clear out all the commanding officers, and then perhaps he would be able to take their equipment without damaging it too much.