1772 Long Tiankong's Hope
The Dragon Emperor stared at the status of the battlefield in front of him.
Numerous fights still raged there, but the number had lowered significantly in the past few minutes as everyone slowly moved back to their own side, using the moment to heal and cure themselves.
Some even began cultivating to get back what Qi they had lost in the battles. He looked at Alex far away behind his army as well as Hannah and felt anger brewing inside of him.
"What's the situation?" he asked Long Huogang, the Crown Prince's bodyguard, a man who was one of the three heads of the Head Legion.
Guqing, his personal guard, was too old and weak to be involved in the war, so despite him being one of the other 3 Heads of the Head Legion, he had been made to step back for the moment.
He still stood behind the Emperor, just in case someone else came to attack him. Even weak, he would give away his life to defend the Emperor.
"8 of the 23 battalions of the Talon legion have arrived, along with many other legionnaires from Tail legion. Only the stronger ones from the Body legion have been called for now, the weaker ones being forced to fly here instead of using the teleportation formation to not waste time for people who do need to come here."
"People have resorted to teleporting to nearby cities to fly over as well, but it appears it will take an hour or two for most of them to arrive."
"For the situation before us, the worst of the battle has ended. Their number advantage over us has dwindled and is completely gone now. Once we get more soldiers, we can start a retaliation attack."
"Unfortunately for them, they can't keep on bringing soldiers like we do," Long Huogang said.
The Dragon Emperor slowly nodded, looking at the battlefield with an observational mind.
"Have you noticed the White Tiger yet?" the Dragon Emperor asked.
Long Huogang's eyes spun back toward the Emperor in shock. "The White Tiger?" he asked before quickly looking back at the battlefield. "I haven't noticed any white tigers. Is there one?"
"I haven't noticed any as well," The Dragon Emperor said. But he knew that the White Tiger, like all Immortal beasts, was capable of changing its body to appear a human.
He gritted his teeth when he remembered the handsome young man he saw long ago back in the Northern Continent when he first teleported there for the Intercontinental Tournament.
He hadn't seen any White Tiger on the battlefield and that gave him some hope. He had been worried that the White Tiger had somehow been capable of bypassing his oath to come here to attack them.
'As long as he isn't here, I can be safe,' the Dragon Emperor told himself.
"Slow down the attack," the Dragon Emperor said. "Hold back wherever possible. Let them tire themselves while we gather more people into the battle. We will turn this into a war of attrition."
The Dragon Emperor looked up at the large ship that hung in the air. "That ship is their only safe haven. We have to destroy it if possible as well. Otherwise, they could just run away in the end. We can't let them do that."
"Yes, Your Majesty," Long Huogang said and went away to pass along the orders based on the Dragon Emperor's desire.
'Just you wait, you little brat,' he thought. 'I will beat you until you're weak and alone, and then I'll take what you have.'
A new feeling of hope and anticipation bubbled inside the Dragon Emperor's heart. He envisioned himself standing in front of hundreds of thousands of Immortals, all of whom praised him while he floated above them, giving away pills left and right.
They sang songs of cheers in his name.
Long live Long Tiankong whispered in his mind.
Long live the Alchemy God.
* * * * *
Liz stood still, unmoving, unbreathing. Next to her, Hao Ya did the same, neither moving nor breathing.
A few moments passed and they finally breathed again. "Let's go," Hao Ya said and started walking again.
Liz followed behind.
In Liz's hands were 3 talismans made with brilliant care by Helen for the purpose that was decided that she would have to do to help.
Pearl would be off doing one thing, and so would Whisker and Long Huan. Similarly, she had another job as well.
Only, her job was way more dangerous than any of the others.
She and Hao Ya stood right below the battlefield, slowly making their way to the massive Intercontinental Teleportation formation to get it active again.
One of the talismans on Liz's hands glowed softly and she paused. Hao Ya had been paying attention to the talisman as well, so she paused as well.
They both stopped breathing and moving again.
The talisman was specifically designed in a way that it would react to someone's spiritual sense when it was focused around them.
So, when it glowed up to let them know, both Hao Ya and Liz stopped themselves to make themselves appear as though nothing more than some random object among the thousands of other objects that would be.
They were also fully invisible using one of the other talismans, and the third talisman actively hid their aura as well, making it impossible for them to be noticed by anyone not actively searching for them.
When the talisman stopped glowing, they moved once again and finally arrived upon the massive Intercontinental Teleportation formation.
Hao Ya had worked with it previously, so she knew just where it was that she needed to act. She found a small set of teleportation formations that were used as the setting for the main formation.
The formation itself acted as a formation node, allowing changes to be made to the overall formation without changing much of anything to it at all.
"Ah, bad luck," Hao Ya said softly. "They changed the settings entirely from last time."
"Will there be a problem?" Liz asked.
"Somewhat," Hao Ya said. "I'll have to fine-tune the settings again."
"How long will that take?" Liz asked.
Hao Ya sighed. Last time, it had taken her a year to get it right. This time, she knew what right was, so it would take her much less.
"Slow time just for me," Hao Ya said.
Liz complied and suddenly Hao Ya's hands were moving lightning-fast around the console, as she did things that Liz barely caught.
She stopped suddenly with a thumbs up and Liz let go of the Time Dao.
"This one is done," Hao Ya said.
"Oh, that's fast," Liz said and then looked around the massive Intercontinental Teleportation formation. "Uhh… the western continent's formation had 8 nodes, did it not?"
Hao Ya nodded.
"It did," she said.
Liz sighed at the confirmation. That meant they would have to go around the entire circumference of the Teleportation formation and change the settings on the remaining 7 nodes around the place.
"That's gonna take a while," she said.
Hao Ya nodded and got back up. "We better hurry along then. Let's get this done within the hour if possible."
