Song Xiaohui and He Peizhi were both stunned by Feng Fan's audacity. His words stung with a confidence that bordered on madness. A tier 9 Array Master, even one of such rarity, was still bound by the same rules as any other Array Master. His advantage existed only within the bounds of his prepared territory, his web of arrays. Without them, what power did he truly hold?
Did Feng Fan actually believe he could stand alone against an army of Transcending Tribulation and Return To Void experts? Did he think his paltry cultivation realm could protect him outside the perimeter of his arrays?
"You arrogant bastard!" He Peizhi growled, his voice echoing with fury. "You only know how to hide behind arrays like a coward. Just wait, I'll destroy that smug smile of yours with my own hands!"
But Song Xiaohui didn't speak. She narrowed her eyes, watching Feng Fan with growing suspicion. Something was wrong. He didn't seem nervous. In fact, he hadn't moved a single step since they arrived. The air around him felt heavier, more dangerous. Her instincts screamed at her to stop the retreat.
And then, Feng Fan moved.
His hands sliced through the air in blurs of motion, each gesture weaving unseen threads of power into the ground. The desert beneath his feet trembled, shifting like waves on an angry sea. In an instant, the sands surged and coalesced; massive whirlwinds forming the bodies of hundreds of sand dragons.
The dragons roared as their maws opened wide, then lunged at the closest person from Green Mountain they could find.
Before the Green Mountain troops could regroup or retreat, the sand dragons attacked. Cultivators were swallowed whole, consumed in silence. No screams were heard after being swallowed, and any resistance proved to be futile. Only the grinding sound of sand burying life.
He Peizhi's eyes widened in disbelief. "Y-You—" he began to curse, but his words were cut off by a shadow descending upon him. One of the sand dragons surged toward him with unnatural speed.
"Fuck off!" he roared, his fist crackling with lightning as he threw a devastating punch toward the incoming beast. The force of his strike cracked the air and collided with the dragon mid-flight, halting it briefly. The creature shook, fragments of sand flying off its body. For a moment, it seemed like the attack had worked.
But it wasn't enough.
The sand dragon trembled for a split second, then let out a thunderous, guttural roar and charged again. He Peizhi's face contorted in disbelief. He launched a flurry of punches, each one infused with more lightning than the last. Each was a technique that had brought down multiple strong beasts and cultivators alike.
Unlike the first blow, his subsequent strikes barely slowed the creature down. The sand reformed faster than he could break it. The dragon, impervious to his power, loomed ever closer. Its crimson eyes were glowing with an eerie light, as if mocking his futile attempts to fight back
But He Peizhi wasn't Green Mountain's strongest expert for nothing. Just as the massive sand dragon lunged to swallow him whole, his cultivation erupted like a tempest. With a deafening boom, he struck out, and the dragon's head exploded into a cascade of sand, collapsing into the ground below.
He barely had a moment to catch his breath.
Even as the remnants of the dragon scattered, the sand twisted unnaturally, reforming its head as if nothing had happened. Even worse, more sand dragons surged toward him, drawn to his power and recognizing him as a threat.
Despite being outnumbered and surrounded, He Peizhi endured. His instincts were razor-sharp, and his strikes were powerful enough to temporarily repel the dragons. Every movement was calculated, every blow precise.
But He Peizhi's case was an exception. Most cultivators caught in the path of Feng Fan's sand dragons were slain almost instantly, overwhelmed before they could even put up a fight.
Seeing her people fall one after another, a shadow darkened Song Xiaohui's face. "All Transcending Tribulation experts, target the sand dragons! Array Masters, focus on breaking his formations!" she commanded, her voice sharp and unwavering.
Despite the sudden devastation brought by Feng Fan's arrays, Song Xiaohui did not lose her composure. She issued orders swiftly and precisely, her calm presence anchoring the battlefield even as chaos unfolded around her.
Though the Transcending Tribulation experts and Array Masters lacked the power to completely halt the slaughter, their combined efforts managed to slow the tide of destruction, just enough to buy time for the weaker cultivators to retreat.
Feng Fan's eyes lingered on Song Xiaohui, a glint of admiration flashing beneath his calm expression. Her composure under pressure was rare. Most people would have crumbled when a clear advantage dissolved into calamity, but not her. Song Xiaohui stood firm, refusing to waver.
Feng Fan knew that if things continued as they were, he wouldn't achieve the outcome he desired. The weaker cultivators of Green Mountain would inevitably retreat, leaving only the strongest behind. In time, he would win. Of that, he was certain.
But that wasn't enough.
A slow victory wouldn't send the message he intended. What he needed was absolute dominance; an overwhelming triumph that would crush the enemy's morale and prove that resistance was not just futile, but laughable.
'No… this must end swiftly. Green Mountain must realize they never stood a chance.'
With that thought, Feng Fan's hands halted mid-motion. The dragons of sand collapsed one by one, their forms crumbling into lifeless dunes.
Sighs of relief echoed among the Green Mountain forces.
"Why did he stop the attacks?" Song Xiaohui muttered, her eyes narrowing as she focused on Feng Fan's unmoving figure.
Then it appeared, an image behind him, rising like a specter of dread.
A massive battlefield, drenched in blood and littered with corpses, stretched endlessly into the space behind Feng Fan. The air turned heavy, suffocating. It was his Dao Image, and its manifestation sent a shiver down the spine of every cultivator present.