1776 The Reply

The sudden arrival of the beasts and the blood beasts caused a massive stir within the enemy's ranks. The 2nd layer of their formation was immediately disrupted as the majority of the soldiers there had to turn their attention toward Alex and the beasts.

It wasn't just them, but even the other soldiers from outside the formation had to switch their attention to them.

Immediately, a massive battle broke out right there, one that shifted the paradigm of the war instantly.

Alex gave the simple order of 'fight' to the 300 blood beast and charged upon the enemy himself.

A far more chaotic battle raged on the battlefield as the beasts occupied a majority of the soldiers in the second layer as well as part of the first and third layers.

The beasts that Alex had brought were the best of the beasts that Bai Jingshen had sent along with Alex. They were the strongest of what the Western Continent had for fighters, and only these few were what the White Tiger could afford to send while his oath was still active.

Thankfully, each one of these 20 beasts was supposed to follow Alex as if he were their master so that they didn't implicate the White Tiger in return.

As soon as the chaos of the battlefield returned, Alex departed from where he stood. He immediately flew in between the many battles, trying to still find his way forward.

He could see the Emperor in the distance. He just had to go through here.

A middle-aged woman attacked him from one side while he was somewhat distracted. At the same time, another older man attacked him from another direction.

Alex used the All Swirling Elemental Shield to block one of the attacks easily and destroyed the other attack before it even got too close.

He teleported, arriving behind the woman, who seemed to have been expecting that. She turned around instantly, bringing out a talisman that sent out an attack of its own.

Alex was struck by the attack and pushed backward. The woman prepared Immortal Qi to attack Alex when suddenly a beast slammed onto her from the side.

The leopard that had attacked had been ordered to fully listen to what Alex said, and follow his command as though he were the ruler of the world.

"Are you okay, young human?" the leopard asked Alex as he came close to him. The leopard looked around, trying to figure out a way of escaping from this place.

"Did you not use your Immortal Qi to attack her?" Alex asked as he watched the woman turn back around and charge toward them with vengeful fury.

Alex also instantly sensed the man behind them who seemed to have readied an Immortal attack to throw. Just as Alex turned around to look at him, the attack was loosened.

The massive golden trident flew through the sky, coming for him.

The leopard suddenly roared, letting out a massive blast of earthen Qi, using Immortal Qi to fight Immortal Qi.

Alex closed his ears at the sudden sound next to him and teleported quickly to an advantageous position from where he could easily kill the woman.

He teleported beside her once again, and while she had been ready for him this time too, she was surprised to find out that the person she was attacking was only an image and nothing more.

Her face changed belatedly as she realized that Alex was somewhere else. Before she could put back her defense, a deadly attack carved through the middle-aged woman, killing her.

Alex quickly made sure that the Soul of the woman was dead too before the body fell to the ground below. He took one last look at everything around him before moving toward the 3rd layer.

Suddenly, an ominous feeling filled Alex quickly as it spread out from his senses. When he checked the source of the ominous feeling, he realized what it was.

The Dragon Emperor was missing.

Alex doubted that the Dragon Emperor would leave at all. Which meant the Dragon Emperor had joined the fight somewhere as well.

With tens of thousands of soldiers fighting all around, it was difficult for Alex to—

A terrifyingly mighty power caught onto Alex, suppressing him with its aura, while making him completely unable to move at all.

Alex overcame the suppressive aura from the Dragon Emperor, and struck back, surprising him.

The Dragon Emperor's eyes widened in somewhat shock as he refused to believe that Alex could overcome his cultivation base's suppression.

"Let me congratulate you first of all," the Emperor said. "You have come prepared to fight me. But you are too young to do so. Even as far as you have come, you are nothing but a puppet for me to play with."

A river of Qi flowed out of the Dragon Emperor, traveling into the spear he held. Lightning crackled softly around the spear and the Dragon Emperor looked down on Alex again.

Unlike Alex, the Dragon Emperor hadn't yet completed his side of the trade and had been bound by oath for quite some time. As such, the Dragon Emperor felt great hesitation in attacking Alex just as it was.

So he spoke.

"The technique you sought to give me was incredible," the Dragon Emperor said. "But I will have to refuse it. It is simply too valuable for me to give something in return for it."

The Dragon Emperor felt the suppression leave his body following his words. He was no longer bound by the oath. As soon as he realized that, the lightning power in his spear improved immediately and he stabbed it forward.

A massive dragon-shaped bolt of lightning went straight for Alex.

Alex looked at the incoming lightning bolt, the speed of which seemed quite slow for his eyes. He acted immediately and space twisted around him.

Alex disappeared into a fold of space past where the attack passed through, flying into the distance. The space untwisted itself and Alex reappeared.

As soon as he was out, he sent out some attack of his own. Unfortunately for him, the Dragon Emperor was being empowered by a lot of strong individuals, and as such his power was quite high.

The Dragon Emperor realized he couldn't just attack and instead decided to catch onto Alex first. He created vines and roots manifest around him in the air and sent it all toward Alex.

However, before it could come anywhere close to Alex, a simple fiery slash landed on the vines and roots, and instantly exploded.

The technique used right then was Alex's technique, but he had not been the one to use it at all.

"Are you alright?" Hannah arrived next to Alex, looking at him worriedly.

"I'm okay," Alex answered and quickly looked back to where his sister had come from.

Two dead bodies were falling from the sky even as she had appeared here.

The Dragon Emperor's lips turned to a sneer as he looked at Alex and Hannah. "If you two think you are going to make any difference at all, then you are very much mistaken."

The shield appeared on his hand as well. Lightning crackled on the spear once again.

"He's stronger than before," Hannah said softly. "Hemight have more help than usual."

"That doesn't matter to us," Alex said. "Since we're this far in, it's time to go all the way. We'll kill him here if possible."

"Alright," Hannah said and held tight onto her thin sword. "Together?"

"Together!"

The two of them attacked the Dragon Emperor at once.

Hannah attacked first, sending out a bunch of Ice spears at the Dragon Emperor as she used the Infinite Heavenly Ice Spear technique to attack the Emperor.

Alex teleported to the side, far away from the Emperor and his sister's attacks, and used the Dao of Space and Dao of Cutting to send out an attack that cut through space itself.

The Dragon Emperor instantly understood Alex's attack. While he protected himself from Hannah's attack using his shield, he sent out an attack in Alex's direction, intercepting the incoming attack.

The two attacks landed together, creating a rather strong clash in the middle.

Alex teleported again, moving to the other side of the Emperor. He maintained a lot of distance as he understood that the Dragon Emperor had the ability to extend the distance at which he teleported.

Far away, a few meters of extra teleportation did not matter to him at all. However, close up, if he was somehow forced to teleport right where the Emperor wanted him to, that would be quickly troublesome.

As such, Alex stood attacked from far away.

The Emperor quite efficiently fought through both Alex and Hannah's attacks, defending against both and sending back more attacks in retaliation at the same time.

He found it quite difficult to retaliate well enough to destroy either Alex or Hannah without the other one being to disturb him somehow, but he also didn't let himself get caught in their attacks.

The three of them fought for nearly 10 minutes before the status of the battle slowly began changing.

The Dragon Emperor slowly got stronger and stronger.

Alex was very confused about how the man was getting stronger as time went on. However, he quickly realized the reason.

He looked to the side with the many strong cultivators who had formed an array for the Emperor and saw that there were new faces added to them.

He quickly looked at the situation of the war and realized they were once again no longer on an equal footing.

Enough time had passed that even without the teleportation formation, the soldiers from nearby cities were now beginning to arrive in bulk.