A Similar Storm on the Emerald Sovereignty Battlefield (Expanded)
Cracks spidered across the barren land beneath their feet, remnants of earlier clashes still smoldering with lingering spiritual force. The air pulsed with tension. Standing atop a raised plateau was Commander Wu Feng, halberd slung across his back like a slumbering beast. Behind him, five lieutenants stood shoulder to shoulder, each radiating a refined killing intent honed through countless battles.
Before them stood the twenty remaining geniuses of the Emerald Sovereignty—bruised, their garments torn, but their spirits unshaken. Their formation held strong, and at its center stood Feng Lieren, his aura surging like a brewing storm.
Wu Feng broke the silence with a scoff. "Hmph. I expected more of the Emerald Sovereignty. Still, you and the Obsidian Shadow advanced the fastest among all factions… Impressive. But this is where your momentum ends."
Feng Lieren's eyes narrowed, voice cold and cutting. "Too many lives were lost—and the damage this trial threatens to do is unacceptable. The brutality of this entry test… It far exceeds what any of us were told. Something has changed in the Death Knights' ways, and I will demand an explanation."
Sylas stepped up beside him, calm and assertive. "We've read the records. Your trials were always known to be intense, but this level of hostility is unprecedented. Our group is stronger than any in recent history. So why this shift? Is this how the Death Knights provoke our empire?"
The tension thickened. Behind Feng Lieren, druids stirred restlessly, their connection to the land sharpening. The implication of being manipulated, tested without cause, stoked their wrath.
One of Wu Feng's lieutenants scoffed and stepped forward. "Blame your own weakness. The world isn't fair. If you're overwhelmed, perhaps you were never worthy."
Wu Feng's voice turned steely. "My lieutenants speak truth. Your empire accepted the risks. This test is not meant to coddle prodigies. Prepare yourselves."
Then came the storm.
Wu Feng unleashed his aura, the pressure immediate and suffocating—his cultivation at the peak of his realm. His five lieutenants followed, releasing their own energy, forming a wall of lethal force that rippled outward, causing weaker troops to falter, crushed by the sheer pressure.
Feng Lieren's eyes burned with defiance. "My druids are not here for your amusement!"
A burst of spiritual power cracked the earth beneath him—he had broken through. His cultivation soared into the late stage of Flesh and Bone Forging, triggered by righteous fury. The bamboo shadows extending from his Death Arms deepened, now bristling with sharp edges and coiled tension.
He charged like a tempest at Wu Feng, bamboo shadow flaring violently.
Skylar's gaze sharpened. "He broke through… Sylas! Take the two strongest. With me!"
Sylas was already moving. "Let's end this cleanly."
Skylar turned. "Bai Xu, Qiao Ling—handle the other three. The rest of you, support where you can. Minimize injuries. This is our final push!"
Sylas & Skylar: Twin Fangs of Sovereignty
The twin-like warriors blurred forward, blades glinting under the waning light. Sylas and Skylar moved like mirrored storms, their dual swords dancing with coordinated precision. Their Death Arms, soul-linked blades born from a single forging ritual, shimmered with shared spiritual resonance. Every strike they unleashed exploded with force—causing entire pockets of terrain to crater.
Sylas ducked low, cleaving through a lieutenant's glaive with a spark of emerald lightning. Skylar twisted mid-air, crossing blades in a scissor-like slash that disarmed another, sending their weapon flying. The surrounding battlefield trembled as their synchronized movements cleaved through lines of enemy reinforcements.
A wave of weaker troops attempted to reinforce the lieutenants—only to be shredded by the twin barrage of blade arcs. Each clash of steel sent shockwaves rippling across the field, knocking lesser cultivators off their feet or outright crushing them.
"Split and flank," Sylas barked. "We'll corner them."
"For the Sovereignty," Skylar replied, blades flashing once more.
Bai Xu & Qiao Ling: The Archer and the Blooming Shield
From the high ridge, Bai Xu took position, drawing back his Eternal Arms bow—its sleek, storm-forged frame pulsing with wind-elemental power. His Death Arms wrapped around his arms like gusting currents, enhancing every pull and shot with blistering speed.
He loosed volleys—valleys of arrows infused with wind. Each arrow sliced through the battlefield like a falling star, ripping through armor, breaking formations, and piercing lieutenant guards who got too close. The sky turned silver with flying steel.
But Bai Xu was not unprotected.
Qiao Ling stood beside him, rose in hand. Her Death Arms bloomed and shifted endlessly—glaive to vine whip to petals that solidified mid-air to shield arrowfire and sword strikes. Her defenses bloomed like a garden of war, intercepting projectiles and disrupting those who charged Bai Xu's position.
A lieutenant lunged toward Bai Xu's flank, only for Qiao Ling's thorny whip to ensnare him mid-air. It twisted, pulled, and flung the attacker into a wall of spiritual pressure.
"Keep firing, Xu!" she shouted.
Bai Xu, calm behind the storm, replied, "As long as you keep the winds clean."
Together, they became an unshakable fortress—an eye of calm precision and elegant destruction in a whirlwind battlefield.
Feng Lieren vs. Wu Feng: Bamboo vs. Halberd
At the center, the storm raged fiercest.
Feng Lieren clashed with Wu Feng, each blow of bamboo against halberd sending out thunderclaps of force. The ground split beneath them. Lieren's bamboo grew in intensity, his Death Arms projecting branches and thorns mid-strike—binding Wu Feng's feet, grasping at his wrists, coiling around the haft of the halberd.
Wu Feng bellowed, shattering the bamboo bindings with a single twist of brute force. He slammed the halberd downward, the strike forming a crescent crater that radiated outward, scattering cultivators nearby like leaves in a gale.
Lieren answered with fury—his bamboo spiraled upward like a hurricane, then plunged down as a whip of shadowed wood that lashed the earth and cracked the stone beneath Wu Feng's boots.
Wu Feng growled. "You fight with the fury of a cornered beast!"
"I fight for those you thought were expendable!" Feng Lieren roared.
The halberd became a whirlwind of death, cutting through waves of spiritual flora, while Lieren wove between them like a ghost, striking with piercing jabs, drawing blood with a thousand needles of bamboo.
Explosions rippled as their techniques escalated, neither side relenting. Their battlefield became a zone of devastation—those too close were either dead or unconscious, felled by the sheer collateral of two titans in conflict.
It was war—etched into memory by steel, spirit, and the fury of the Sovereignty's finst.