“I still can’t believe we are doing this… can they really not see us?”

“Would they let us be here if they did?”

“Hey, shut up you two, and get a move on, it’s no time for chatter! We need to complete the mission, place the devices in the correct locations just like the elders told us!”

“Forgive us, senior sister!”

A small group of hooded figures were sneaking around the ground. Above them, the loud explosions of spirit cannons were successfully masking their speech as they maneuvered around the raging battlefield. Sparks of leftover spiritual energy rained down on them like drizzle but they were well protected by their clothing and special hiding technique.

They were all shrouded in some sort of darkness, as long as they kept to it, there was no way of them being discovered. The man responsible for this was hidden away somewhere in the middle and concentrating. Thanks to his technique many core formation warriors were able to move around this place freely and were about to finish their mission.

‘They won’t know what hit them.’

Zhang Dong thought to himself while looking up. There right above him was the colossal fortress in which the Long Clan was hiding. After realizing that the shield they assembled wouldn’t last the continued blasting, he came up with a solution. Instead of pushing in with the sect's limited forces, he decided to create a funnel of energy below the armada. His teleportation feature allowed him to create a smaller temporary teleportation gate on the other side of the shielding formation. Through it he moved in some of his troops that were now setting up their counter.

‘I don’t feel the presence of the Azure Emperor nor that of his wife… though she was previously able to hide her true form from me, so I have to take that into consideration.’

When he was in the Azure Palace, his older brother showed some mild care for his children. While he was allowed to teach them a lesson, their relations weren’t that bad. If he managed to capture them alive, then they could probably act as a bargaining chip to hasten their surrender. Yet, he couldn’t see those old elders give up their position in the Empire. Playing second fiddle to a sect of upstarts was not something they would do. Long Qing was still part of the Long Clan and probably carried the same sentiments.

‘He acted very relaxed and confident back then, but that could have been before he identified me as a threat to his position. I don’t think he will step down without putting up a fight but perhaps if I have his children, he’ll back away.’

His current intention was not necessarily to win this conflict, at least not at this very moment. His life would be long and he had not aged a day since arriving in this world. He had a good five hundred years in him until his body would start showing signs of aging. His brother on the other hand didn’t have that much time as long as a non-involvement agreement could be established, it would be fine.

What he needed now was just more time to master his strange cultivation realm and for that he needed the Long Clan to back away. There were a lot of holes in his plan as he wasn’t sure how deep those family ties were. Then he also needed to catch at least one of those kids before he could start bargaining with his current enemy.

‘For all I know they might not even be inside that flying fortress, it wouldn’t be strange for them to have teleported back to their main city to seek shelter.’

His thoughts continued to bug him while this area was being outfitted with traps. Two other regions had been worked on beforehand and now he found himself together with Huo Qiang against the main fortress. His identity remained hidden for the time being and his wife wasn’t here. Liena was probably the only person that would be capable of reading his mannerisms but she was further to the north protecting one of the other core structures.

“Elder, we are done.”

“Good, let us return before they realize.”

Finally, after days of preparing all the traps were ready. Soon their plan could bear fruit and the joint operation could commence. Thanks to Bob who could forward all information almost instantly to everyone at the same time, it was easy to start the push. He and the other cultivators that took part in the initial mission moved back to look at the fireworks.

The unsuspecting people from the Long Clan and their branch families had a rude awakening as they saw a light show from down below. First, all the devices that were placed and looked like boxes covered in magical runes started glowing. They connected to each other with glowing straight lines to produce a giant magical circle underneath. A purple glow encompassed multiple regions as the first effect took shape.

Something akin to a gravity field was formed that started to pull all the flying vessels down toward the ground. Thanks to Zhang Dong’s knowledge of the Dao of gravity and the inclusion of magics from another world, it was possible to trap his enemies here. Now that this magical trap had been activated it wouldn’t be easily destroyed. It was powered by the large defensive formation and directly connected to it.

“Now is the time, give it all you got, brothers and sisters, to me!”

Huo Qiang led the vanguard forward as they burst forth from the main defensive stronghold. Previously they would be unable to chase down the attacking armada that could easily outrun them while pelting them with a mass of spirit bullets. Now while they were trapped in the gravitational trap, they could not move and were also being pulled in the direction of the stronghold which was in possession of many large cannons.

Zhang Dong wasn’t far behind but his main role was protecting the gravity trap which he was the focal point of. If he strayed too far then it would lose some of its pulling force. This was required to affect the large Long Clan flying stronghold that was slowly being yanked over in his direction. It was their main priority and after the other side was caught in the trap, their side began to charge.

Zhang Dong tried to help as best as he could while protecting the formation from various energy blasts. Many large formations taking the forms of turtles to defend him were also in the way. Getting through all of it would take some time and this was not something the Long Clan had plenty off. Their ships could not move at all, they were like sitting ducks just waiting for their shields to be blasted through.

On his system map, he could see the same actions being taken at the other locations. There weren’t any huge flying strongholds like the one here. Even without his help, his people were able to keep at it. This didn’t mean that there weren’t any casualties along the way. It was a war between two powerful factions and no one was willing to give their enemy an inch.

For him who could see his faction population on the system window, it was maddening. He had to sit there without being able to do much while his people were being killed or injured. Before the massive fortress in the air was breached he couldn’t really move. Huo Qiang, Zhang Liena, and Zhang Zhi were battling it out on their own fronts and needed to contend with their own powers.

He had to somewhat stay true to his promise of not getting involved in the border dispute. If he just activated his full power the Long Clan would more than likely target his position. Having a clear shot at the enemy leader was not something they could ignore. Perhaps they would even use this massive fortress of theirs as a battering ram, however, as it looked his involvement wasn’t needed.

‘It seems that they really weren’t expecting this turn of events, just a bit more and we can blast through their defenses.’

While the huge formation that was around the borders was being boosted by various treasures and even somewhat by a spirit vein, the other army wasn’t. They only had flying ships with engines that were not built to get bombarded by countless spirit blasts from cannons. Now that they were forced in range of them, they were getting blasted to smithereens and soon some of them started to crash down to the ground.

“That’s it, they are faltering don’t let up, focus fire on the main stronghold, pull the Long Clan bastards out of there!”

Even now the enemy clan was using the branch families as cannon fodders. A regiment of their ships was creating an axillary defensive formation. They were taking the brunt of the attacks while the people from the Long Clan tried to pull away from the gravitational attack. All their cannons were aimed directly at the ground but it wasn’t that easy to get rid of the magical lines. Zhang Dong was keeping his shadowy techniques alive which made it quite difficult to pinpoint the true location of the weak points.

‘Are they going to use their large cannon?’

As a last-ditch effort to get out of there, the large castle-like structure transformed some of its towers into a massive cannon. The sound of it powering up produced a lot of static noise and was hard to miss. It was pointed directly down and at his immediate location. Clearly, his enemies had pinpointed the man responsible for it all and were dead set on killing him.

‘Oh?’

‘Protect the Elder, don’t let them destroy the gravity trap!’

Before he could do something about it, a large group of flying ships gathered around him. There were various models that he remembered drawing up in his spare time as well as some that he had never seen before. These probably belonged to some of their allies from other sects that decided to join them in this defensive battle.

They were all there ready to take the massive cannon blow by themselves. They all knew that if the elder controlling this grand magic fell, then their plan would go up in smoke. The other side on the other hand didn’t look that united. Some of them were trying to escape to the sides while others continued with the battle. There was a stark difference between the leadership of these two sides and soon it would be made obvious which had the advantage.