Chapter 750: The Power of a Battle Formation Master
Swish!
The massive silver spear tip streaked across the sky and, under countless watching eyes, slammed straight into the descending black battle seal.
Yet at the instant of impact, there was no earth-shaking boom as many had expected.
The two vast seas of battle will met in silence, and only the violent rippling of space betrayed their clash.
Silver and black gnawed at each other, each trying to overwhelm and crush the other.
All eyes were fixed on the heavens.
As the stalemate dragged on, Dong Kui's expression slowly darkened.
This was not the scene he wanted.
With the Calamity Guard outnumbering the Silver Mist Guard nearly five to one, this should have been a one-sided suppression.
"Let's see how long you last," he said coldly, changing his seals.
Behind him, another wave of black battle will surged forth like a tide, pouring into the Calamity Seal above.
Their will far outweighed Silver Mist Guard's.
All he needed to do was keep the pressure on and Lin Langtian would eventually crumble.
The sudden swell of power in the black seal made Lin Langtian's eyes narrow slightly.
He snorted softly, raised two fingers like a spear, and thrust down.
Swish!
The air before him split open around his fingertip.
Screech!
An awful tearing sound rang out high above, and countless pupils shrank at once.
A huge crack had opened in the Calamity Seal.
"How is that possible?!"
Shock rippled across the stands.
No one had imagined that a seal forged from the Calamity Guard's overwhelming will could be torn apart.
Dong Kui himself froze for a heartbeat.
Lin Langtian did not waste it.
His fingers flicked again.
Several sharp-eyed experts felt it at once: for a single instant, the Silver Mist Guard's battle will surged, turning wild and violently alive.
A streak of silver light lanced down.
The spear tip hammered into the crack and drove it open to its absolute limit.
Under the watching crowd's stunned stares, the Calamity Seal split cleanly in two.
Rumble!
The shattered seal burst apart, dissolving into a rain of black motes that slowly faded away.
As they vanished, Dong Kui and the Calamity Guard could only stare, expressions blank.
An uproar exploded beyond the arena.
No one could understand how Lin Langtian had done it.
By all logic, the Calamity Guard's battle will should have utterly dwarfed the Silver Mist Guard's.
"What's going on?" Luo Lin blurted, turning to the Spear King beside him.
By any normal measure, it was Silver Mist Guard that should have collapsed.
The Spear King frowned slightly, eyes narrowing.
"This Lin Langtian is anything but simple. You really haven't noticed?" he murmured.
Luo Lin hesitated. "It feels like the Silver Mist Guard's battle will hits harder in his hands."
"Could you do the same, if you were commanding them?"
Luo Lin shook his head at once.
If he'd been in charge, the thousand-strong Silver Mist Guard would have broken apart already under the sheer weight of the Calamity Guard's will.
"Exactly. His understanding and control of battle will surpass yours by far," the Spear King said quietly.
Luo Lin stared at him in disbelief.
Lin Langtian had been in the sect only a short while.
He came from a lower plane; he shouldn't even have had contact with battle will before.
They had been steeped in it for years.
"That's why he isn't ordinary. To climb out of a lower plane, a man like that must have talent, methods, and luck far beyond the norm.
"You're on decent terms with him. You'd do well to keep it that way," the Spear King added.
Luo Lin nodded slowly, gaze drifting back to the tall figure in the sky with a complicated light in his eyes.
Elsewhere above the arena, the Calamity King's face had already turned sour during the earlier stalemate.
Now, watching the Calamity Seal shatter, it went utterly black.
"A defeated general is still a defeated general. Nothing has changed," Lin Langtian said mildly as he looked at Dong Kui's pale, twisted face.
The words cut like blades.
Dong Kui's features contorted even further, hatred burning in his eyes.
"Don't celebrate too soon," he snarled.
"You think my Calamity Guard is made of mud?"
His shout cracked across the field as he clenched his axe tight.
A new surge of dark battle will swept toward Lin Langtian like a bursting dam.
Driven to the edge again and again, Dong Kui had finally begun to lose his grip on his own fury.
Lin Langtian watched the incoming tide without panic.
His sleeve swept out, and the Silver Mist Guard's will rose to meet it once more.
Thud, thud!
Black and silver slammed into each other, exploding into waves of energy that rolled across the sky.
Gale-force winds tore at the arena as sand and stone whipped through the air.
On the surface, Dong Kui seemed to hold the advantage, but anyone paying attention could see the truth.
No matter how hard he hammered at them, he could not pierce the Silver Mist Guard's defense.
His attacks might have been savage, but they were ultimately powerless.
He simply could not match Lin Langtian's control.
As the onslaught intensified, even Dong Kui began to sense the problem.
His expression twisted into something almost feral.
Losing to Lin Langtian as an individual at the Spirit Pool had been humiliation enough.
To now lose as the commander of five thousand Calamity Guards, with years of experience behind him, to a newly appointed leader with only a thousand troops…
He would become the joke of the entire sect.
"Damn him," Dong Kui hissed, eyes turning bloodshot.
He ground his teeth.
Whatever the price, he had to win this wager.
If he failed, the Calamity King would never forgive him.
"You forced this on me," he whispered, face contorting.
With a sweep of his sleeve, the surging black axes and waves of will suddenly withdrew.
His eyes gleamed with poisonous light as he looked down at the Calamity Guard.
"Blood sacrifice the battle will!"
A ripple of hesitation passed through the Guard, but only for a heartbeat.
They bit down on their tongues one after another, spraying blood into the air.
Whoosh, whoosh!
The streams of blood fused into the churning sea of will behind them.
It darkened to a thick, viscous crimson-black, like a river of clotted blood.
The Calamity Guards themselves turned pale.
Boom!
The black-blooded will roared skyward behind Dong Kui.
Its stench of slaughter spread over the arena like a second nightfall.
"Blackblood God-Sundering Axe!"
His face twisted into a snarl as he formed a new seal and thrust his hands upward.
The blood-sea erupted and gathered in the sky, slowly shaping into a titanic axe a thousand meters long.
As it formed, the air filled with a chilling wind of pure killing intent.
Faces across the arena paled.
Dong Kui had truly gone mad—forcing all five thousand Calamity Guards to injure themselves to unleash this final killing move.
Even a Fourth Grade Sovereign could be slain by such a strike.
Mu Honglian's complexion turned slightly white.
Even she hadn't expected him to go this far.
Jiang Yinlan's hands clenched until her knuckles whitened as she stared at the tall figure in green.
"Block this if you can, Lin Langtian!" Dong Kui roared wildly, his expression so twisted it was almost monstrous.
Lin Langtian squinted up at the hovering blood axe, feeling the chill radiating from it, but spared no glance for Dong Kui's madness.
Instead, he closed his eyes.
"Silver Mist Guard!
"Kill the enemy with me."
His voice cracked like thunder across the hearts of every Silver Mist soldier.
"Kill the enemy!"
"Kill the enemy!"
The cry answered him from a thousand throats at once.
Their spears slammed into the ground with a dull roar as they dropped to one knee, both hands gripping their weapons.
Every head bowed toward the figure standing above them.
Boom, boom!
Pillars of silver battle will shot into the sky like fountains of light.
They twisted together into a raging storm that coiled around Lin Langtian, roaring with a thousand battle cries.
He slipped his hands into his sleeves again and let the storm rage.
His will spread outward, sinking fully into the wild tide.
The storm swelled.
Its power climbed with terrifying speed.
Faces shifted across the stands as observers realized what was happening.
Even Dong Kui's maniacal grin gradually froze.
The battle will around Lin Langtian was multiplying.
Within a few breaths, the Silver Mist Guard's combined will had completely overtaken the Calamity Guard's.
"Impossible…"
Voices faltered into stunned silence across the arena.
All eyes locked onto the calm figure drifting in the heart of the storm.
They could scarcely find words.
To command battle will at such a level…
Even the Spear King and Tiger King felt their brows draw together.
Their gazes sharpened, their expressions turning grave.
"It seems Lin Langtian has the talent to become a battle formation master," the Spear King said quietly.
"A battle formation master?" Luo Lin echoed, throat tightening.
As a fellow commander, he understood all too well what that meant.
Such figures were rarer—and far more terrifying—than ordinary formation masters.
Once, it had been his own dream.
But his talent for spirit arrays was limited, and the path had eventually closed before him.
"Is he a spirit formation master, then?" he asked in disbelief.
"Hard to say. Battle formation masters are a branch of spirit formation masters, but one doesn't need to become the latter to walk the former's path.
"He's from a lower plane. He may have walked a different system.
"But these days, battle formation masters are even rarer than spirit formation masters.
"Without a teacher, his future progress might still be limited," the Spear King said with a trace of regret.
"If our sect had one to call its own, our strength would soar."
"An ordinary commander can barely draw one or two tenths of an army's strength.
"But with his grasp of battle will, Lin Langtian can bring out every last drop."
Above them, the Silver Mist storm grew ever more violent.
It tore at the air, rending fresh scars across the battlefield below.
"Damn you—I refuse to believe this!"
Dong Kui snarled through clenched teeth, eyes wild.
He lifted his hand and brought it down in a savage cut.
The blood-black axe hovering overhead plunged.
Swish!
Its speed defied sight as it ripped through space, the force of its passing tearing new rifts into the sky.
It flashed into existence above the storm in a single instant, bleeding killing intent into the air.
Lin Langtian's expression never changed.
He drew his hands from his sleeves, fingers weaving a single, tight seal before pressing together.
Buzz, buzz!
The Silver Mist storm writhed like a living thing, its color brightening until it shone with blinding light.
From afar, it looked like a colossal silver dragon rising between heaven and earth.
"Silver Mist Ruin Spear!"
At his command, the storm's highest point rose and sharpened.
A massive silver spear tip pushed free of the swirling will.
Light traced down its length as the rest of the shaft condensed behind it into a spear hundreds of meters long, gleaming coldly enough to pierce the sky.
Lin Langtian's gaze remained calm as he lifted two fingers and pointed.
Buzz, buzz!
The spear trembled with mounting force—
Then vanished.
It reappeared a heartbeat later beneath the falling blood axe, driving straight up to meet it.
Tip and edge met like needle and awl.
Clang!
The clear ring of steel echoed over the arena as the two currents of will howled together, silver and blood-black splitting the sky in two.
"Break!"
Dong Kui roared, forcing every last scrap of power into the axe as red-tinged will crashed forward, desperate for one final turn.
Lin Langtian met his frenzy with a faint, almost bored smile.
"Then break."
Light flared along the spear's point.
Swish!
It happened in less than a breath.
When the silver radiance flashed and vanished, the spear had already passed through, appearing behind the giant axe.
A thin, hairline crack slowly crept across its surface.
(END CHAPTER)
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