“So the giant turtle isn’t really meant for combat?”

Zhang Dong had decided to remove himself from the crafting chamber and moved to his secret room in the golden bastion. There he could monitor the movement of the current army that Zhang Zhi was leading. The diagram of the massive turtle could be thrown onto a holographic map along with the space surrounding it.

It really felt like he was looking at a strategy game. He could see his troops trying to surround the giant beast while the sea creatures pushed back. It was all going well until the larger sea monsters started moving. It was the same exact ones that he was able to easily dispatch while hiding his true identity.

If he wished he could have just teleported there and probably cleared out everything by himself. This was not the reason that he was letting Zhang Zhi be the leader though. Only when put into stressful situations could his people rise to the occasion. While he didn’t want anyone to get hurt, this world they lived in was not fair or lenient. Everyone needed to learn to take care of themselves and only when clashing against people on the same level could they improve.

“By the calculations, they should be able to win this battle…”

Bob analyzed the situation and came out with a winning percentage. He was of the same idea that this was a very winnable scenario. If his armies believed in their power and all of the commanding officers did their job then victory was assured. However, problems and unforeseen events could always transpire. He was ready to go into battle the moment something out of the norm happened.

‘Well then, how will those attacking formations prove against the nascent level monsters… each one of them has one to contend with.’

On the holographic map he could see the sprite that represented one of the sea serpent formations moving towards the nascent soul beast. If he looked from here he wouldn’t be able to tell what was happening. There were no stats on the units he was seeing or any health points as a reference. What he could do though was access his prestige unit that was Zhang Zhi.

The bulk of spirit points he spent to enhance his cultivation allowed him to see things through his eyes and his senses. What Zhang Zhi felt he could also somewhat feel and see through his eyes while spending a minor amount of spirit points. Thus he continued to monitor the fight as if he was watching a boxing match on TV.

When the two clashed at first it seemed that the nascent soul monster would win. It was at the level of a late-stage cultivator with a body fit for it. However, the attacking formation was fueled by many cultivators which gave it an advantage when it came to Qi and also lessened the weak points that this creature didn’t seem to be aware of.

The monster attempted to claw at the body made from spiritual energy and water Dao. Yet the sharp teeth and talons that it was proud of didn’t amount to much. The initial attack dug into the flesh made from energy but even when it was torn apart, the serpent made of energy quickly reformed itself back. Unless the creature killed the people that were fueling the formation it would continue to mend back into its main shape.

This might have sounded like a critical weak point that could be easily exploited. However, hitting the correct spot that was buried deep into the huge serpent wasn’t that easily achieved. The people hidden in the spiritual flesh weren’t visible to the naked eye and there was a vast range of similar spots set up as dummies.

The sea serpent formation’s strength was in its random movement. The body could contort in many different ways to avoid the other creature’s attack. Then when close enough it went for an entanglement attack. By wrapping its elongated body around the huge monster it went for the kill. Not by means of force but by electrocution as this attacking formation was not just versed in the ways of water but also lightning.

‘Water does conduct electricity well.’

Zhang Dong nodded to himself as he was the one that came up with mixing his lightning Dao with the attacking formations. It was a change that required some support items where he injected some of his own power. The cultivators on the inside just needed to supply their own spiritual energy which would then turn the sea serpent into a heavenly lightning eel.

Electricity and lightning were not something underwater creatures were that resistant to. Even though massive storms pelted the sea with lightning bolts the power would be quickly dispersed on the giant surface area of the water. It would only deliver damage to the surface of the water but never reach underground where the stronger sea monsters resided.

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He could not test out his theory last time but now he could see that it was working. The monsters were being entangled by the attacking formations and slowly getting the electric chair treatment. They weren’t going down quietly though as some of the creatures even managed to slip out of the death hold.

‘They are making a lot of mistakes but it's working in a general sense, the big question is if the enemy leaders will come up with a counter for the lightning attack.’

There was an actual way to counter the electric attack. Water didn’t conduct electricity if it was pure and without any additives. Pure water was an excellent insulator and did not let electricity through. However, they were in the sea which had a lot of salt in it and this made the current tactic hard to counter. The master would need to cleanse all of this water and produce pure H20 if they wanted to protect themselves with the help of the DAO of water.

The huge creatures here weren’t the smartest and they were also being controlled by the mermen. Perhaps if they were free to think for themselves they would be able to counter this attack but as it stood now they were quickly succumbing to the jolty constriction.

‘There they go… is that turtle hollow or something?’

Finally, as the heavy hitters were getting suppressed the denizens of the turtle started pouring out. They used the four holes that should have the huge turtle's limbs as an exit point. First came the humanoid fish people that were around the later stages of core formation. They were quite vast in numbers and were also carrying spears and some were even wearing armor.

In the back, the mermen with tridents arrived. This time there was more than one and each was riding on a chariot pulled by large fish that resembled large sharks. The display he was seeing through Zhang Zhi’s eyes became quite detailed as the man finally decided to move into battle.

There were four mermen at the middle stages of the nascent soul and a fifth one that remained closer to the turtle's head. He really did look like some kind of king from an underwater city. His beard was quite long and he was wearing golden-green armor made from some type of scales. This was Zhang Zhi’s next opponent, the other four merpeople would have to contend with some of the new elders that joined the war effort.

This time around Zhang Dong’s side had the number advantage when it came to them but they were not comparable when it came to cultivation. There were four of them against eight early-stage masters with the addition of the attacking formations that were taking out the large creatures his side was able to make up for the lessened quality.

‘How will this pan out…’

Zhang Dong was somewhat concerned about his people. Watching the bloody battle wasn’t so good for his heart. Both sides were losing their fighters but his side was clearly pushing forward. Even when someone got critically injured there was a special unit to rescue them before they died. Cultivator bodies were quite resistant and with the help of body refinement, it was possible to last through a lot.

While other sects discarded people that fell in battle he had a different philosophy. It was a dog-eat-dog world but it didn’t have to be. Having a person go through years of training just to fall in battle was in a sense a giant loss in resources. One was a moral problem but in saving people he would produce a vast quantity of veterans that were grateful.

Everyone would also risk a lot more if they were convinced that their sect members would do their utmost to rescue or help them in their time of need. Thus as the army on the other side discarded their vast number of creatures and soldiers, his side was constantly pulling their fallen away into the medical ships and defensive formations and evacuating them to a safe location. Later they could use the experience from this battle to better themselves and produce better results when the time to fight came again.

This was the same for Zhang Zhi, his battle with the enemy leader wasn’t going all that well. Even though he had increased his cultivation level and received a new weapon he was having trouble using it against this new foe. The location of the battle was clearly disadvantageous for him and the giant turtle that continued to blast him with sound waves was very troublesome.

The man like the other mermen was using a trident, with it he was producing strange waves of water energy that continued to chase after Zhang Zhi. In return, Zhi had to burn through his spiritual energy and create quick slashes with his sword. These sword energies clashed with the watery currents and dissipated each other.

‘It doesn’t seem that he will win if it goes on for much longer…’

Zhang Dong rubbed his chin while watching over the fight. While the difference in skill wasn’t that big, the other man just had more spiritual energy to delve into. Unless Zhi managed to deliver some kind of critical hit in one hit, the battle would be lost.

‘I guess it's time to test out that new feature…’

He looked towards his system menu where Zhi’s profile was. Currently, he was the only prestige unit that he had here. Besides the boost in cultivation and the possibility of teleportation items there was another technique that was usable.

‘Manifestation of skill, is it?’

Before the battle was decided he pressed the button to activate this feature. The moment it was active Zhi noticed a strange phenomenon. He was given knowledge of DAOs and techniques that he never practiced and an illusory figure of a certain Patriarch appeared behind him…