The United Element’s Sect’s flagship had left towards their sect grounds. The cultivators that had escorted them here were less than stellar about them leaving. The Argonaut just sped away leaving the three ships that were chasing them behind.
Zhang Dong had hoped that with his ship's enhanced speed he could just safely return home with haste. This wouldn’t be that easy though as a certain person was already waiting for his arrival.
It was a classical ambush with multiple flying ships waiting for them. The people that were here were from the Limitless Sword Society without the aid of any other faction. The ships from the Demon Subduing Sect didn’t seem to be there anymore. Probably their leaders decided to evade this battle after the strange happenings during the banquet. It seemed that Zhan Jie had other plans for the United Element Sect.
Even though there was only one faction here, Zhan Jie wasn’t the only nascent soul master that arrived. There were two other people floating slightly behind him and both of them radiated nascent soul might.
Zhang Dong was standing around in the ship's bridge. The whole crew from the ship was looking at the screens and they could see the ships that they left in the dust closing in.
“Those two behind him are only early stage masters, can I leave them to you, Captain?”
He asked while looking at the rough-looking cultivator. The man looked like an old fisherman, his skin was tanned and his face looked scratched up. He also had an eyepatch over his eye and Zhang Dong totally didn’t only choose him for his looks to be the ship's captain. He had some skills to back up that look of his.
“Leave it to us, Patriarch! The Argonaut is more than enough for the likes of them!”
Zhang Dong nodded while moving outside, before leaving he just gave one last order.
“You are free to remove the limiter, use the main cannon if you have to.”
The man just saluted, the whole flying ship started buzzing. It was time for everyone to head to the battle stations.
Outside Zhang Dong could see canons rising up and appearing on the main deck. These were all manned by train cultivators and all could fire condensed spirit bullets.
Those cannons were already large in scope but they all paled compared to the monster that was hiding inside. The ship's main cannon would only be activated when it was required, the power drain was quite staggering.
While the whole ship was transforming the enemy cultivators weren’t passive. The leader from the other sect started shouting out the moment he noticed that Zhang Dong was leaving the confines of his ship.
“There you are, face me Zhang Dong!”
He looked over to the man, he already had his sword unsheathed and pointed at his head. He wasn’t sure what this guy was thinking, he should know better. He himself had already proven himself in the arena and given the chance didn’t think he would lose to this guy.
“You are even dumber than I had anticipated. Are those two behind you your backup plan? I guess you are at least smart enough to get some help.”
Zhan Jie went red in the face while the two elders behind him moved closer.
“I don’t need their help to take care of someone like you! Elders destroy that ship and bring me that woman, I need to hear the truth from her!”
Zhang Dong realized this man’s genius plan. He probably thought that he was indeed part of the Divine Fist Sect.
The only worry that Matt had now was if the person from the Yggdrasil Sect was as daring as this guy here. He was one thing, but that old man wouldn’t be able to go against a late stage cultivator. Though without him activating the teleportation beacon he wouldn’t be able to help him.
For now, he had to worry about himself first. He was still up against three nascent soul cultivators. This reminded him of the fight against the Dark Palm Sect. That time he was lured into a trap and almost killed due to ignoring the weaker cultivators. This time around he would be more careful, he also wasn’t alone, he had some backup.
Even before the fight could start the massive Argonaut gave out a strange sound. It started radiating energy and the cultivators around the area could feel it rising. The seemingly low graded heavenly treasure started giving out telltale signs of a middle graded one. It also didn’t seem to be stopping just there as the power levels continued to rise.
“Well then, I hope those two can take care of themselves…”
Zhang Dong smirked while his sword appeared in his hand. Lightning covered his body and he just shot forward, his sword strike was met by Zhan Jie that was forced back while his fellow sect elders looked on with horror. They couldn’t follow Zhang Dong’s speedy movements at all.
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As they turned around to aid their leader they were met with another problem. A barrage of Qi bullets flew right towards them as the massive flying ship started attacking. The Argonaut 1 wasn’t just aiming for the two nascent soul targets, it was aiming for every ship in the area.
The two fast-moving human targets managed to dodge in time but that wasn’t true for the slow-moving ships. Their shields weren’t strong enough to resist the concentrated fire and they started exploding. The cultivators inside started to quickly abandon their ships as they escaped outside.
“How could this be…”
The two nascent soul masters found themselves dodging a barrage of fast-moving projectiles. They could feel that if they got hit by one of them they would be in serious trouble.
This meant that other people below their realm stood absolutely no chance. All of their ships returned fire, the core formation experts that were flying around did the same but the massive metal behemoth remained in place. Its shields lasted through the combined retaliation attack and the ship remained undamaged.
The massive fortress of the ship started to move, its guns firing in all directions. The smaller enemy vessels stood no chance. Their firepower and even their maneuverability was lower than this mass of metal that kicked up a storm like winds whenever it moved.
It wasn’t quite a one-sided slaughter though, the enemy cultivators still had two nascent soul masters on their side. These two old men stood together and started shielding some of the ships from the cannon fire. The Argonaut was good at hitting large slow-moving targets but when it came to small human-sized ones it wasn’t as accurate.
It soon turned into a battle of attrition where the massive ship continuously fired at the core formation and nascent soul cultivators that were dodging everything they could. The people from the Limitless Sword Society were quite good at flying on their swords. Which was the cause for prolonging this battle.
While the whole area turned into a bright light show, further up in the clouds two men were facing off against each other.
Zhang Jie and Zhang Dong started colliding in mid-air. Their sword attacks rained down against each other like a torrent of water. Each time they clashed they produced a booming sound that broke the sound barrier apart.
The shockwaves created from these clashes were periodically pushing the clouds they were fighting to the side. After a couple of exchanges, both of them flew back, both of them didn’t suffer even a little nick
“Is this all?”
Zhan Jie snorted as this was more of just a prelude to what was to come. It was normal for two fighters to measure their skill level by exchanging some blows. These weren’t meant to kill but just to get a grasp of your opponent.
“I should be saying the same thing, if that was it… it would be better if you just turned around. I’m really not someone that likes to bully weaker people, you can turn around and our sects can still coexist with one another.”
Zhang Dong spoke out while looking at his opponent. He knew that people like this Zhan Jie didn’t react well to taunts like this. In this situation, though it wasn’t a taunt, he didn’t feel like he was weaker in any shape or form. He would let this transgression be and even let them keep their lives if they just left.
“Coexist? Turn around? Are you mad! You should be the one groveling and asking for forgiveness, that fool from the Yggdrasil Sect might be wary of your motives but this Zhan Jie never flees from a good fight! You will fall to my sword like everyone that came before you!”
Zhang Dong just started spacing out after his opponent started giving him a long speech. At least he got some information out of it. Apparently, the leader of that other sect had told this guy to not engage.
This meant that they were probably unwilling to act just yet. Fang Heng's chances of survival had increased as they would probably not chase them after he left. The Limitless Sword Society leader was here so the old man should have a clear path home. That is unless there isn’t another battle happy sect leader after them.
“Fine, have it your way. I might have been lenient with your types in the past but too many lives are at stake. Let us get this over with.”
Zhang Dong gave out a sigh while Zhan Jie started fuming with anger. He waved his hand and his spatial ring was activated. In a matter of seconds, thousands upon thousands of white swords were hovering around the sword cultivator.
“I will show you why they call us the Limitless Sword Society!”
There were swords everywhere, they circled around the whole area and slowly started taking the shape of something. Zhang Dong wasn’t passive though, he also activated his spatial ring and a couple of swords shot out, eleven to be exact.
He let go of the sword he was holding on to and the dozen blades placed themselves around his body. They paled in comparison to the huge mass of metal that finally took on the shape of a lotus flower with Zhan Jie in the middle.
The opponent in the white robe was surrounded by what looked to be a mass of metal. There were so many of those swords that they made the lotus flower have solid mass. It wasn’t an illusion it was a giant flower made from swords.
With a wave of his finger, one of the huge silver flower petals parted from the sword formation. It gently floated as if it was getting carried by the wind but in a matter of seconds, it shot forward. Thousands upon thousands of blades rained down on Zhang Dong, each one of them infused with the man’s nascent soul aura.
A dozen blades that were surrounding the sect leader from the United Element Sect sprung into action instantly. They started spinning and circling around his entire body while deflecting the rain of swords. The sound of metal clashing against metal at supersonic speeds couldn’t even be heard.
Zhan Jie’s had a smirk on his face after sending his first petal down. Soon it started contorting in the opposite direction as he saw that all of his swords were getting deflected. The twelve weapons that the man produced were somehow able to deflect or slice them apart. Not even a single strand of his hair was being damaged.
“How could this be…”
“What? Do you think even one of those earth grade blades can scratch one of my heaven grade blades? You think I didn’t notice that you only have a few heaven grade ones hidden in there…”
Zhan Jie’s forehead started showing quite a thick vein before he waved his finger again. Another two petals parted from the lotus flower and shot forward. Their aim to kill the man that wasn’t even moving from his place.