ATG: Formation Master c26

~~~~~~Aftermath~~~~~~

The battle's conclusion played a pivotal role in the continent’s politics. The Divine Phoenix Empire’s might was questioned, and it was crushed.

The forces that observed the fight from a distance were shocked, to say the least.

They witnessed the birth of a new combat style, combat formations were showcased, and bloodline abilities like the ones wielded by the Phoenix Empire were disabled, leading to complete and utter defeat for the dominant power.

In a long history of the Profound Sky Continent, powers rise and fall. Dominant Empires appear when they gain an advantage over other powers.

For the Phoenix Empire, it was their Bloodline, but it’s not as flexible. Their bloodline will eventually run out, unlike Blue Wind Empire’s Formations, which can be taught.

Not that it was their only card, as many witnessed the absolute power of Dharma Body Manifestation.

This technique became a pivotal point. 

A technique that finally got the attention of Sacred Grounds.

Sadly for them…

They were a bit too late…

But that is for later. At the moment, there is a bit of change in the air in the Phoenix Empire, as the news of total defeat has reached the Phoenix Imperial Palace.

“...Impossible.” Feng Hengkong read through the scouts' report. 

It has been days since they declared war, and now he has the report.

What he is reading can be called fantasy if not for multiple sources.

They say one and the same thing, their phoenix flames were nullified, formations drained their cultivation, Blue Wind Empire has tens of thousands of Earth Profound Soldiers, hundreds of late Sky Profound and even a decent amount of Thrones.

Lastly, a Throne Fire Dragon and the Prince could become blue giants and wield the power of a Monarch.

“Utterly preposterous. Call the elders, we need to discuss this.”

Sadly for Feng Hengkong, the meeting only confirmed his fears. The Blue Wind Empire became a real threat.

A threat big enough to force him to utilise his Overlords.

~~~

Hundreds of miles into Divine Phoenix territory, Cang Long was leading his troops into the enemy territory.

After crushing the main force, nothing prevented them from advancing into the deeper territories of the Phoenix Empire.

The Crown Prince decided to slash their lands and add to his Empire, bit by bit.

Of course, it’s never that easy…

‘Hmm?’

He looked forward and saw several old men dressed in red robes.

The Prince commanded his dragon to fly towards them.

“Young man. Your war ends here today.”

“You have surprised us with that defeat. But, no amount of formations could match the true might of cultivation realms.” The old men of the Phoenix Empire spoke in a condescending tone.

“It would seem you old foggies don’t understand the difference between Heaven and Earth.”

Cang Long’s words made the Overlord Elders frown.

“I have already figured out your Phoenix flames, which means you can’t beat me anymore. So I suggest bowing down and asking for forgiveness for your stupidity because when I am done, there won’t be any Divine Phoenix Empire.” The Crown Prince’s tone had a similar arrogance to the elders. 

That caused them to snap. 

“Courting death!” The leading elder roared as he thrust his arm.

A silhouette of a flaming palm rushed towards Cang Long, who copied, releasing a palm strike.

A flaming palm collided with a blue palm. The elder expected a brushing victory, but he was surprised when the blue palm dissolved his fire one.

After all, on the rushing palm were two words: ‘Phoenix Negate’. Negating godly power would normally be a bit difficult, but these elders have considerably weak Phoenix blood.

“Impossible!” 

“He is an Overlord!” 

The elders realised that the dragon-riding Prince was an Overlord, and he was not even twenty yet!

“Hm? Why did you dodge that? Let me guess? You sensed dread? You should, borrowing power from the divine can come at a price.” Cang Long mocked them.

“You see, normally it would be impossible for me to influence your cultivation because of strong divine blood.

But you idiots breed so much that the divine blood in your bodies became so thin… I can do this!” He pointed one of his fingers and did a shooting motion.

“Bam.”

One of the elders grimaced as his face turned pale.

He threw up blood the very next second. Before long, he started to shake and tremble.

“W-What did you do?” The overlord elder panicked. He started to shake his head; he could feel that his body was ripping itself apart.

“Aghh!!!”

The next moment, his cultivation shattered as he began to fall.

Couldn’t maintain his ability to float.

“I dispelled your phoenix blood. Not the hardest thing to do, after all, you bunch of idiots use it everywhere, you ten million phoenix fire users to my land, I only needed to check on to develop phoenix blood negation.”

“H-How is that possible!?”

“How? Your Phoenix God can control his blood. You think others can’t develop similar techniques?

That’s quite an arrogant perspective, you can, but others can’t?” 

He scoffed before doing the same one-finger motion, and just like that, another elder coughed blood as he lost his cultivation.

Before dropping to his death.

The remaining two elders turned around and flew away in panic.

“Pathetic.” 

~~~

Feng Hengkong’s eyes were trembling as he had just heard what the surviving elders told him. 

‘This is… crazy, that Prince is a monster!’ The Emperor clenched his hand. He realised that this was a trap! They provoked him into a war!

At first, he wondered what was happening. Had they gone insane? But now it made sense. The prince prepared for a war, and now he got it!

‘They won’t retreat, I need to sue for peace!’

“Leave us! We have things to do!” The Emperor motioned to leave as he returned to his throne and began to consider methods of fighting this.

He needs to lay a trap as well.

Maybe… all he needs to do is finish that prince off. He is the source of the Blue Wind Empire; once he is gone, the army will crumble, and that peasant empire will capitulate.

With that in mind, the Emperor began to plot how to deal with the Prince.

At the price of his empire’s territory.

~~~~~~Later~~~~~~

A dragon roar spread through the large city as the sound of loud bells spread; these were city-wide alarms as an army at a distance was approaching. Their banners were blue with wind and dragon symbolism.

Leading the front was a large red dragon wearing armour made from an unknown metal full of glowing symbols.

“They are here.” Crown Prince Feng Ximing said to his Royal Father, the Emperor.

“Yes, I can see that.” Feng Hengkong frowned as he noticed that their army had grown several times in size and that several Flood Dragons were in their battle formations.

The Phoenix Emperor wondered how in Heaven’s name they could control such arrogant creatures with such ease.

By this point, the Blue Wind Empire had expanded to more than ten thousand leagues in Phoenix Empire lands and controlled two whole regions.

“Raise the flag, request a meeting.” Feng Henghong instructed his soldiers.

The horns blared, and one of the flags went up.

The Emperor narrowed his eyes as he watched the same flag raise on the other side.

With a clear sign of a temporary truce, the Emperor and his Crown Prince began to fly forward. The big red dragon circled and landed in the middle first.

The pair of Phoenix Imperials followed suit and moments later landed not far from the Dragon and the Crown Prince.

By that point, Cang Long had a table with seats ready. He placed his helmet on the table and summoned drinks as well.

“I suppose I earned the first meeting.” The Prince raised his cup with iced tea.

“We want to get to the point, Crown Prince Cang Long. You can keep the lands you conquered. Your Empire won’t need to pay any more tributes.

And we shall have no war between us for the next hundred years.” The Phoenix Emperor suggested a peace treaty.

“Hmm… and you want me to forget the mockery you put us through for the past thousand years?” Cang Long swirled the tea inside his cup as a small whirlpool appeared in his mug, but he didn’t even look at them.

“That happened long ago, might as well water under the bridge.”

“Ah, yes, when it concerns you, then I should forget.” The Crown Prince chuckled.

“Just accept our generous offer!” The Prince, next to the Emperor, exclaimed with anger.

“Pfff, hahaha, who might you be?” Cang Long laughed as he looked at the person who was talking to him like that.

He laughed even more.

“And you are? Phoenix Emperor, why did you bring a random street urchin to a parley?” The Crown Prince mocked the mundane-looking Prince.

The Emperor and Prince duo gnashed their teeth in anger as the dragon behind Cang Long laughed as well.

“This is our oldest son, Feng Ximing.” The Emperor spoke in a dissapointed tone. Clearly, the Prince brought embarrassment to him.

“What a waste of space. For reasons like these, your Phoenix blood is so thin.” The Formation Prince reminded me of that.

“Enough!” The Prince got pissed as he went for his weapon.

But that moment he dropped on his ass as he could even move.

“Clearly, you lack your children's education, Emperor Hongkong.” 

‘W-Why can’t I move!?’ Feng Ximing began to fear for his life as he couldn’t even move.

*TSK!!!*

The Phoenix Emperor slapped the dumbfounded Crown Prince with his backhand. The slap was loud enough that even people in the city behind the walls could hear it.

“We apologise for such unsightly behaviour.” 

“Don’t apologise to me. Apologise to him for failing to rise him.” Cang Long shrugged before returning to sip his tea.

“Then we can assume that you decline our offer?” The Emperor sighed.

“Sadly, I won’t stop until I know I reached my limit.” 

“Be careful for what you bite for, young Prince. You might be unable to bite it off.” After saying that. The Emperor grabbed his son and flew away at rapid speed.

The next moment, huge, blaming bolts rushed out from the city.

“It would seem they brough their own machinery this time.” Cang Long stood up as he looked at the incoming attack.

These bolts were not simple; he could sense sheer power radiating from them. Obviously, simple steel nails submerged in oil, ignited, and then shot wouldn’t do a thing.

That is why they most likely have a different method of preparation that does legitimate damage to practitioners of high cultivation.

“Hmm…” Cang Long’s Dharma Body manifested as he, the blue giant lifted its hand and cast freezing symbols on the incoming projectiles.

He was a bit surprised that the fire returned on them in an extremely short amount of time.

“In that case.”

The Prince summoned his chains as he grabbed the projectiles, turned them around, and sent them flying back into the city.

*CRACK*

*BOOM**BOOM**BOOM*

Explosions erupted throughout the large city as the projectiles exploded. Screams of people followed as the city turned into a living hell.

“Wasn’t expecting that. I assume they tried to copy our Thunderfire.” Cang Long was surprised. It would seem that even in the world of cultivation, technological progress is a thing!

“Now what? We will lose a valuable city!” Chu Yuechan flew over, followed by her sister.

“Well, we will do what we can. While it is valuable, it is still an enemy town, full of soldiers.”

As he replied, the gates opened and burning soldiers rushed out, followed by citizens…

It was quite… a vivid scene.

“Don’t tell me we are just going to watch?” Chu Yuechan grimaced as she couldn’t take that screaming anymore.

She is feeling pity towards them.

“Then freeze them over.” He said with crossed arms.

“That is a good idea.” Her eyes began to glow as a diamond-shaped symbol appeared on her forehead. She summoned her Dharma body and transformed into a giant.

The massive construct lifted its arms and summoned a freezing formation.

In a matter of seconds, portions of the city turned into ice.

As this was happening, Chu Yueli looked at it. It had been months, yet he still hadn’t taught her this technique!

She is getting tired of waiting.

‘Might as well, I shall go on offence.’