“Grand Elder, the serpent is destroying the wall, it won’t hold!”

“Leave it to me!”

A massive snake with an azure pattern continued to constrict the fortress walls. Its body had wrapped itself around it multiple times as the body was not all that thick. Yet even when the thickness wasn’t much more than that of a regular tree, the scales could not be easily cut or damaged. Even when everyone was hacking and hitting the exposed parts, not more than scratches were being produced.

“It’s Elder Qiang!”

“Leave it to me!”

A large man with an even larger horned being behind it appeared. It was Huo Qiang and it was up to him to take care of this problem. In the absence of the other two great elders, he was not in the position of the leader. Instantly the temperature around the place increased as he went for the snake monster’s head.

“Come here you oversized noodle!”

A gigantic fist rained down onto the monster's body that continued to entangle the walls in hopes of breaking the protective formation. Various other smaller snakes jumped forth with venomous fangs aimed at Qiang’s throat. Before they could sink them in an absolute inferno blazed forth to burn them all to cinders. The elongated monster could not rely on its minions and opened up its large mouth from within which an azure flame appeared.

“You want to use flames against me? You must have a death wish!”

It was fire against fire as the sparks started flying. Crimson light collided with the azure as a hole was blown in the side of the fortress. The monster snake's head flew back after the collision. The fangs that were inside its mouth flew away as it could not take the hit filled with red flames.

“G-grand elder the wall!”

“Haha, take this you damn snake!”

Huo Qiang roared out as he descended upon the long beast. Even while the sect members screamed in horror he continued blasting a larger hole into the wall. The beast finally lessened its grip on the wall but the damage had already been done. Smaller serpents poured in the moment they were able and only now did the temporary leader realise what he had done.

“C-contain the snakes, don’t let them through the wall!”

“Ahh, quickly plug up the wall, activate the defensive formation!”

“I uh… Shouldn’t the others have died with it or something?”

The man in question scratched his forehead while looking at the dead snake. The massive size and elongated body started to get shorter but it didn’t stop the attack. He had tried thinking about Zhang Dong, his senior brother, and what he would do in such a situation. When the largest serpent appeared he assumed that with its defeat all would be over, to his surprise all the smaller snakes were still there and well.

It wasn’t over by a longshot and even a strange occurrence took place. The much smaller minions started attacking the now-dead body and biting into the flesh. Their smaller bodies started packing on some size as they began to engorge themselves in their leader's flesh and Qi. Now Huo Qiang realized that unless all of the snakes were destroyed, this wave would never end.

“Elder, more beasts are coming, we can barely hold them, what should we do?”

One of the other nascent soul elders called out from a distance. He was using all of his might to keep more snakes from getting through the hole Huo Qiang created. The other sect members were beginning over various construction materials in an attempt to reform the wall before it fully collapsed.

“Don’t worry! I have a plan!”

Huo Qiang called out with a lot of confidence while raising his index finger up into the air. The large ifrit soul beast behind mimicked his gesture and a massive orb of plasma started to form. Within a few moments, it looked like a miniature sun and it was bursting forth with flame energy.

“Grand elder, please wait, an attack of this size could…”

“I wait for no one!”

This attack was quickly then thrown at the charging group of snakes and created another huge explosion. It caused the whole fort to rock back and forth due to the ensuing earthquake. The flames engulfed the entire outside and caused all of the flora to go up in flames. While Huo Qiang cheered as he was able to destroy most of the pesky snakes, the castle walls were starting to crumble.

“The walls, they are collapsing!”

“Haha, what do we need walls for, all of the snakes are dead anyway, we don’t need to hide anymore…”

As Huo Qiang was about to cheer for his might winning over he noticed something in the distance.

“More beasts approaching, these ones are capable of flight… it’s a massive azure phoenix!”

It was a giant flock of bluebirds with one massive one in the front. The largest flagship their sect was capable of creating was not comparable in size to its thing. They all were coming in fast and due to the crumbling walls, the whole place was now wide open.

“Ahaha… L-leave that oversized chicken to this Huo Qiang, just repair the formation!”

“B-but there are still some snakes left outside and the flames are spreading inside.”

“Can’t you handle it by yourselves? They are just little flames…”

“But Grand Elder, it’s burning and weakening the formation, please contain your Qi!”

The attack that was produced was a double-edged sword as the flames continued to burn any living matter they came in contact with. The long snake beasts spread through the entire battlefield and some of them had even made it inside of the walls. To make things worse the giant snake body that had previously wrapped itself around the whole fort was also starting to burn up. If Huo Qiang charged into the distance and didn’t contain his technique better, then his people could actually burn to death.

“Damn, hold on, give me some time to think…”

Huo Qiang’s head started going red and his body exuded even more flames than before. His decision was important as it would dictate the flow of battle. If he remained within the fortress the flames could be contained easier and the formation would be repaired.

However, the flock of killed birds would surely reach the walls by that point and they would be left in an even worse spot than with the snakes. If he went for the birds instead, then maybe he would be able to hold them back the leader for a while. The smaller birds would be able to attack his sect members while they were trying to reform the formation and contend with the flames as well. It didn’t look good but he needed to make a decision before it was too late.

“Wait, what’s that?”

“What now, I’m trying to think!?”

“It’s coming from the other side… could it be?”

Something started approaching from another direction that looked like a giant mountain. When looking in closer the people discovered a vast quantity of large turtles moving at a moderate pace. All of them were gigantic but could not be compared to their leader that was larger than the whole fort they were protecting. However, this was not what everyone was looking at, instead, they noticed a golden ray of light shooting from the distance.

“This spiritual essence… it can only belong to one person.”

The golden surge of light flew forths and targeted the flying monster in the distance and as it was passing the fortress everyone noticed the man inside of the light. It was their leader that had gone missing within this strange formation.

“Tend to those flames Qiang, leave the birds to me then focus on the giant turtle.”

“Haha, senior brother, I knew you’d make it back!”

“You know me, I won’t go down that easily now focus on those flames before the whole place burns down, Qiang.”

“Of course!”

Huo Qiang started laughing as he saw his senior brother passing by. All the other sect members that were gathered here started cheering as their true leader was finally here. With him on their side there was nothing to fear, they just needed to focus on the task before them and he would guide them towards victory.

…

‘I don’t see gramps nor Liena among those people, they must be somewhere else…’

As Zhang Dong flew at the phoenix made from blue flames he started pondering about this place. It looked similar to the tower defense stage from the past. All the four beasts had appeared but their sizes and power eclipsed the ones in that secret ground. The ones back there were also not of the same elemental alignment of azure flames which these were part of. Two of them were not defeated but their minions still continued to push towards the eradication of his people.

‘First I needed to get a hold of this situation, I didn’t realize how bad Qiang was at leading…’

Before arriving he could see his junior brother cause the collapse of the defensive formation by himself. His techniques were quite volatile so he wasn’t the greatest ally to be next to during a large-scale battle. It was always better to use him as an attack hound and send him into the middle of an enemy army where he could cause more damage.

Giving him the task to attack the giant turtle would allow for the least collateral damage to their forces to occur. The monster was a mountain in itself so his explosive techniques could be utilized without a problem, the more damage he caused the better. Zhang Dong on the other hand was against flying foes that would not stand a chance.

His whole body produced a purple light that expanded in a sphere in all directions. The moment the flying beasts entered this zone they were instantly pulled down to the ground. His Dao of gravity was the best counter against flying creatures the didn’t use proper flying techniques but their wings to keep themselves afloat. The increase in weight was strong enough to destabilize their flight paths and bring them down to the ground. The only one that was not faltering was the leader but his movement had become sluggish.

“You’re not much stronger than that giant blue tiger, just give up before I’ll have to kill you.”

“CAW!”

“It was worth a try…”

The monster gave out a maddened roar as it looked at the tiny human covered in purple light. Zhang Dong attempted to reason with the beast but it didn’t seem to be anything more than a mindless puppet used by the strange place they were in. The only thing he could do now was to bring this thing down and then tend to the remaining blue tigers that were still approaching from the way he came.

“Well then, I can at least give you a quick death…”

He shouted while pulling out his sword and charging forth, a part of his troops was here but the search was not over yet. Zhang Jin and his wife were the two he was concerned about the most. After clearing things up here his search for them needed to continue.