A week had passed and the enemy army had finally arrived. The defenses were patched up into place but the new formation array was only able to cover the Zhang Clan compound and not the whole city. The first encounter with the Dark Palm Sect was victorious and one of the nascent soul enemies was defeated. This boosted everyone's morale making them think that they could win this.

The exact same strategy was attempted a second time even due to the complaints of the other cultivators, and just as expected it had failed. At this exact time, Matt was looking at his hand, it was trembling after he had defended himself against the strange ghastly attack of this new opponent.

'This guy might be tricky...'

He clenched his fist while looking up at the enemies before him. He thought that his improved disguising technique would let him take out one more grand elder before the big battle. He underestimated their leader's detection skills, he was now looking at the man while frowning.

Yang Guanyu [ Nascent Soul Late Stage ]

'One in the late stage, one at the middle stage and three at the early stage...'

Handling the four of the people that chased him down previously was hard enough. Now he had to go against this slender man looking old fart, which lowered his chances of victory even more.

'Those two haven't come out of their seclusion and I have no idea how close they are...'

The dimensional regalia masked any inside auras so he wouldn't know if they were breaking through even if it was happening right now.

"You want to go to the city while I'm here? Do you think you can handle me alone? Are you sure about that?"

Matt clenched his fists and flew up into the air, he could see that army of over a hundred flying ships heading towards Spirit Spring City. Even without the protection of their nascent soul elders, it would be hard to shoot down all of these flying vessels.

Yang Guanyu snorted while moving his palm forward in a grasping motion. From his perspective this man was only in the early stage of the nascent soul, there wouldn't be a problem in just snuffing him out.

"Arrogant welp, die!"

A large purple hand of spiritual energy appeared out of nowhere. It was massive in size, each finger the size of a massive tree. The hand moved forward in a grasping motion as Guanyu attempted to crush his opponent with pure spiritual energy.

"Two can play this game, you anorexic Palpatine looking, bastard."

Zhang Dong mirrored the motion of the Dark Palm sect leader, he created his own massive hand that went against the purple one. It was crackling with lightning energies and was radiating golden-colored energy. The two huge energy hands of the two masters collided which caused even the grand elders in the area to stop in their tracks.

"W-what is this, he can match the leader's strength?"

"Nonsense, the Sect Leader is a late-stage Grandmaster!"

The two hands struggled against each other, Yang Guanyu raised an eyebrow and pushed more Qi into that hand which made it expand in size. The purple hand started wining out momentarily before the golden one expanded to match the other. After some back and forth both of the hands exploded into fine energy particles, the explosion causing hurricane-like winds that pushed some of the flying ships to the side.

Zhang Dong flew back, his opponent did the same while the explosion pushed everything away. Guanyu narrowed his eyes, this wasn't what he was expecting. His level of strength was enough to safeguard a large sect, there really weren't that many people above him at this level.

"Who are you... it's impossible that someone like you has remained hidden."

Zhang Dong just looked up and moved his hands over his chest, he struck a valiant pose before shouting out.

"You got me, in reality, I am the son of the Azure Emperor, if you harm me you'll all get eradicated."

The grand elders stopped and gasped, could this be true, if this youth was the actual son of the Empires ruler they would be all dead.

"Stop spewing nonsense, that is an obvious lie!"

Zhang Dong coughed into his hand while shifting his eyes to the side.

"You dare call the son of the Azure Emperor a liar! Hey, is that the Azure Emperor behind you?"

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You could see a giant vein on the old Dark Palm Sect leader's forehead expanding. His pale face started getting red as he gritted his teeth.

"Kill them all!"

With this, the army of ships started to advance and it soon started getting bombarded by the city defense force that was set up on the walls. The four grand elders ignored the cultivator in white, leaving him to their sect leader. The man was confident and they wouldn't argue with him. Plus there had to be a reason that this man was trying to defend that structure, it would probably be best to find out why.

"Shit..."

Zhang Dong started glowing with a golden light that filled out the sky with a glaring glow. The light expanded to the sides, thunderous sounds echoed through the area. It looked like a miniature sun made from golden electricity and light was formed. It didn't take long for this effect to subside and be replaced by a large golden dragon that roared out into the sky.

The dragon burst upwards and towards one of the grand elders that were approaching Spirit Spring City. Matt's plan was to buy as much time as he could before his allies made some progress. The Dragon would help with protecting the city while he himself faced their strongest cultivator.

Yang Guanyu didn't just stat and look at Zhang Dong without doing anything. He unleashed his dastardly aura into the surroundings. Wails of spirits were heard and purple fog escaped from the gem stuck to the man's forehead. The mist expanded and expanded into the sky before forming into a shape.

The first thing Matt noticed about the mist was that it was taking a humanoid shape. The face looked like a skeleton, this skeleton was hovering in the sky while holding a large scythe. This was Yang Guanyu Soul-Beast, there were humanoid ones. This one looked like the grim reaper, it was dressed in a shadowy black robe and glowing purple energy was coming out of that hollowed skull.

Compared to the golden dragon the grim reaper looking soul-beast was a lot smaller, maybe just twice the size of its user. It just hovered behind the Dark Palm Sect elder, it's eye sockets burning with a spooky green glow. Yang Guanyu stood motionless in the air with his digits resting against each other in a triangle shape.

The skeletal figure behind him gazed at the man in the white robe, it rose its bony finger out while pointing at him.

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."

Matt felt that something was off the moment that man uttered those words. He raised his golden lightning barrier instantly before some strange dastardly fog surrounded him. It came out of nowhere and was highly corrosive, he could see it trying to eat away at his forcefield by the holy energies that were imbued into his defenses kept the demonic energy at bay.

"You... what is that awful Dao of the living..."

The man's beady eyes stared at Zhang Dong while he managed to protect himself from the strange energies. The grim reaper behind the man was still pointing out with his finger and probably resupplying this strange fog with more energy.

"Weak to the holy element?"

Zhang Dong smirked slightly and propelled himself forward while still keeping his shield up. He headed on a collision course with the Dark Palm Leader and his soul beast. The man in the late stage of the nascent soul level didn't move a muscle. He kept his long thin digits together while just staring.

The grim reaper behind him grew in size, its scythe moving out as it swung it against the incoming cultivator. The two energies collided with each other, the wails of many souls were heard as the reaper beast delivered a strong blow on the man surrounded by the circular barrier. The two energies fought with each other for a few moments before canceling each other out. Zhang Dong retreated a couple of steps and Yang Guanyu did the same, the man's complexion getting even paler after this exchange.

"Impossible! He was able to resist the Elder's Soul beast and secret arts!"

The grand elders were slightly busy with the golden dragon that appeared out of nowhere but they were able to see how their sect leader was faring. None of them would be able to survive one of Guanyu's demonic attacks, they knew that he was a demonic cultivator.No one cared about this fact as what mattered was the power and prestige that he brought to the sect.

He was mighty and not many could stand up to him due to the corrosive and poisonous nature of his attacks. He could even suck your soul from your body, leaving you nothing more than a skeleton. Somehow this man with white hair could protect himself from those attacks, they could feel that golden energy counteracting the venom that Yang Guanyu was producing.

One of the grand elders bit his lower lip and wanted to fly over to aid their leader. The golden dragon beast had other plans, it roared out while producing storm-filled clouds. The area began getting bombarded with golden lightning bolts that set any flying ship in the nearby area up in flames.

The whole place was a battlefield, the giant armada from the Dark Palm Sect continued on while getting barraged by the Zhang Clan defenses. Every able body was on those city walls, inserting all of their Qi into the long-range cannons. This was the only thing they could do to aid their leader in this battle, so they gave their all and some people were already passing out due to Qi depravation.

Everyone saw the moment the Patriarch's golden dragon appeared, this was overshadowed by the skeletal soul beast of the Dark Palm Sect leader. The strange aura from the creature was giving everyone the shivers it was as if it was sucking their Qi and Lifeforce away but just being there.

Things were different now, the clan might have had the upper hand against the small group of ships the first time around. They could submerge them in the cannon fire, they also had their Patriarch helping them. Now, on the other hand, they were against a hundred ship strong armada even with the golden dragon keeping the other nascent soul elders somewhat busy the enemies were advancing forward.

"Reporting Sir, the Patriarch has engaged in combat. He is facing off against what we presume to be the Dark Palm Sect Leader, he matches the descriptions."

The man getting the report was Zhang Jin. He was sitting in a room with some screens and looking at them. This place was the command center for the city defenses and the clan had managed to somehow copy it from the secret ground. This was far worse than the hologram console and looked more like a game of sink the battleship. The enemies were indicated as red dots, while the allies by green dots.

"Is there any word of the Feng Matriarch or the young Huo Clan lord?"

Zhang Jin asked.

"No sir, the secret treasure is inaccessible to us so we have no information."

Zhang Jin slammed his fist on the table and looked outside, he wanted to just fly out there on his sword and aid his grandson. He knew that it wouldn't change a thing and only might cause Zhang Dong's morale to plummet as he wouldn't last a second against any of those grand elders. He looked at the large gold dot that represented Zhang Dong and could only pray, pray for a miracle to happen.