Deadlock

You turned your head to look at Long Yang and the others.

“Didn’t I say I was handling important matters and wouldn’t be coming back?”

Long Yang sensed the anger in your voice and realized he had made a mistake. He shrank back, looking sheepish.

“Well... it’s been a few years. We thought you were done with your business...”

You asked again.

“You are all the pinnacles of your respective traditions, leaders of the allied forces. Both in ability and strategy, you are far beyond ordinary people. Did none of you sense something was wrong?”

Wu Yue let out a sigh.

“Actually, there was one person who firmly doubted your orders and tried to stop us from advancing.”

“Who?”

“The Sword Master.”

“And where is he now?”

Long Yang and the others exchanged uneasy glances.

“You locked him up?”

They were too embarrassed to answer.

Your blood pressure shot through the roof.

For years, the Three Heavenly Sovereigns had deliberately shown weakness, using minor defeats to fuel arrogance among the human-realm allied forces.

When the allied forces could no longer suppress their eagerness to attack, the Sovereigns impersonated you and issued direct orders to advance.

At that moment, few would question the legitimacy of the order. They would only think: Finally, the day has come!

Now, the Heavenly Sovereigns’ goal was achieved.

They had successfully lured the entire human-realm allied forces into the presence of Wuxiang!

“Master... tasty... humans... tasty!”

A chilling voice emerged behind you.

You turned to see the dragon-humanoid monster covered in slime had already flown out from the underground cave!

After devouring Zuo Zuo Lu, it had gained the ability to fly at the Martial King level!

“What is that?”

“Ugh, disgusting!”

“I can’t sense any cultivation from it, so why can it fly?”

The soldiers of the human-realm allied forces had also spotted Wuxiang, murmuring among themselves.

You had no time to scold Long Yang and the others for falling into the trap, so you let out a loud roar.

“Full retreat! Don’t ask why! Follow orders now!”

The leaders, aware of the trouble they had caused, hurriedly passed down the command without the slightest delay.

“Eight-Direction Immortal Prison Formation!”

But this was precisely the dragon army’s trap, and they had prepared accordingly.

Eight Regional Sovereigns, who usually seemed to squabble endlessly, now took their positions in eight directions, joining forces to activate the formation.

A pitch-black barrier rose from all eight sides, converging at the top of the sky like a giant black pot, sealing the entire dragon stronghold within.

Apart from the scattered troops chasing the dragons, most of the human-realm allied forces were trapped inside this formation.

The Three Heavenly Sovereigns stood outside the Eight-Direction Immortal Prison Formation, watching the trapped forces with amusement.

“Chen Yi! The war is over! We’ve won! The final victors are still us, the Sixth Expeditionary Force!”

Outside the formation, the fleeing dragons began to counterattack.

Armed with demonic artifacts and using their innate ability to fly, they turned on the pursuers. Without reinforcements, the pursuers were locked in a bloody struggle, falling under the dragons' assault until blood flowed in rivers.

Inside the Eight-Direction Immortal Prison Formation, the trapped human-realm forces watched their distant comrades fall but could not escape from under the giant black pot.

And beside them, an immense danger was approaching.

Wuxiang!

“Don’t get near it! Stay away! Don’t touch it!”

No matter how much you screamed yourself hoarse, among the millions of humans and demons, it was nearly impossible to achieve perfect obedience.

The bigger problem was that many still had no idea what was happening.

When Wuxiang began treating everyone as food and the first counterattack was launched, its evolution began!

Hit with a boxing technique, it learned boxing and grew ten arms to throw punches simultaneously.

Struck by a sword technique, it conjured evil swords behind its head, its dark sword energy unstoppable.

Attacked by a beast master, it learned the art of taming beasts and turned the tamer’s own creatures against them.

“What the hell is this?! Is this also a dragon race?!”

“Why won’t it die?!”

“Damn it, it’s using my family’s martial arts! And its hits are even stronger than mine!”

The entire army was trapped inside the dragon stronghold with no way to escape.

With each attack, Wuxiang grew stronger, its form larger, and its appearance more bizarre and mysterious.

It had no complex thoughts—only the instinct to hunt.

“Humans... tasty...”

Its mouth could only utter those monotonous words.

You were frantically trying to prevent the human-realm forces from attacking further while analyzing the formation in an attempt to break it.

But the dragon’s methods were fundamentally different from those of the human realm—like parallel paths that never intersected.

You could only try to break the formation with another formation.

Seeing you on the verge of breaking through, the eight Regional Sovereigns immediately activated their Hyper-Soul War Method, entering the Dragon God Realm. With their superior cultivation, they forcefully suppressed your attempt.

Wuxiang had already evolved to a level that threatened most people’s lives.

Once caught by it, not fighting back meant certain death. But fighting back triggered the vicious cycle of strengthening it.

Now, no one needed to be reminded—this thing could not be attacked. The more you attacked, the stronger it became.

The only option was to dodge, but they were trapped under the formation with no way out.

A dead end!

Outside the Eight-Direction Immortal Prison Formation, the Three Heavenly Sovereigns and the eight Regional Sovereigns looked on with smug smiles.

The Dark Sovereign raised a hand, his face glowing with triumph.

“Alright, the game can end now. All Regional Sovereigns, shrink the formation!”

The eight Regional Sovereigns, who were always obedient in front of the Heavenly Sovereigns, responded in unison.

“Yes!”

The Eight-Direction Immortal Prison Formation began to contract.

The space for everyone to avoid Wuxiang was shrinking.

Seeing that, if this continued, the elite of the human-realm army would be devoured by Wuxiang, you decided to summon the Great Demon to attack from outside and see if you could break the stalemate.

Shen Qingshan was in the Star Domain—too far away.

Five years had passed, and Li Wentian could act again, but the same problem remained—too far away.

The Dragon-Phoenix Corpse was not in this area either.

Only the Great Demon was closest!

But doing so meant losing another Martial God needed for the Seven-Luminaries Celestial Formation.

Just as you were about to make the decision, someone arrived.

“Brothers, do not panic! Let me break this formation with my sword and get you all out!”

The Sword Master stood in the air, his immortal sword gleaming with cold light, pointing at the formation cast by the eight Regional Sovereigns!

“Sword Master!”

In the past, whenever you saw the Sword Master, you felt at ease.

Would this time be the same?

The Sword Master now stood alone outside the formation.

You were trapped inside and could not help him.

That meant he had to fight alone!

His enemies were over a hundred thousand dragon elites, eight Regional Sovereigns, and three Heavenly Sovereigns!

And he had only one man and one sword!