Chapter 51: Shadow Immortal Scheme
The blast Charles unleashed had been so intense, so absolute, that aside from Mirror Immortal, more than half the alliance forces were annihilated in a flash of divine light and shadow. Craters still smoked where battleships once hovered; Primordial Beast corpses lay broken in scorched heaps. The air was heavy with ash ashes of men, beasts, and destruction.
High above, Mirror Immortal floated unscathed, but not untouched.
He looked down at the charred remnants of his sleeve, his expression unreadable. For a long moment, he said nothing. Then a soft smile curled across his lips.
"To think... a Sea Realm cultivator could even burn my clothes," he mused, almost fondly. "Everyone says the Kilvish Clan hasn’t produced monsters since the Shadow Immortal... It seems they were all wrong."
On the ground, the surviving cultivators glanced around, expressions equal parts disbelief and relief.
"We... we survived," someone whispered.
But their survival came at a heavy cost. Every battleship not protected by divine Qi had been obliterated in Charles’s final act.
A man in pristine white robes, his robust frame towering among the survivors, surveyed the destruction with a solemn frown. He was Chu Long, the Vice Sect Leader of the Thunder Spear Sect.
"Superimposing two Advanced Formations is something only a master of formations could accomplish," he said, half to himself. "To think Patriarch Charles was also a formation expert... This was a grievous miscalculation."
Beside him stood Fang Mo, the white-haired Vice Sect Leader of the Storm Clan, his long beard fluttering with residual energy. His face was a storm of rage.
"Miscalculation? Do you have any idea how many cultivators I’ve lost? I came here to conquer, not to watch my legacy burn! Two flying battleships lost! Do you know what even one costs? Ten years of the Storm Clan’s resources are gone!"