Dragon's Soul Chapter 218: Ploy

"Using greed to control the masses, our opponent is a fearful one." Jian Lei said as he watched the chaotic brawl that Zhang had initiated continue to grow bigger and bigger in size as more and more people joined in.

"It's obvious most of those people haven't even once seen a piece of the Ascending Beauty Painting." A middle-aged man who gave off an air of superiority said as he appeared beside Jian Lei.

"Senior Yue Xiu." Jian Lei said politely while cupping his hands, a clear sign that the man before him was someone of important and higher position.

"Always telling those around you there is no need for formalities, and yet… As someone who answer my call for aid, there is no need for you to perform such formalities with me. If anything, we should stand as equals." The middle-aged man said with a sigh.

"Then, Master Yue Xiu, should we be readying our forces to engage the enemy? Or shall we continue to wait." Jian Lei said, quickly catching onto the middle-aged man's intentions.

"We will wait for now; our true enemy has not arrived yet." Yue Xiu said as he narrowed his eyes and focused upon Zhang and the beauties who were still ensuing confusion and causing mischief on the battlefield.

Using his essence to manipulate and make the pieces of paper that he had scattered glow, Zhang was able to basically start a witch hunt. At first, the pieces of paper began to glow at random however over time Zhang began to only pick out full saints, in an attempt to trim down their numbers.

"Get him! The piece of the painting in his hand is glowing!" Ai yelled as she pointed to a full saint holding one of Zhang's forgeries.

"Shit…" The full saint mumbled as a mob of people instantly pounced on him.

"From everyone's reactions, I've managed to pick out a few people who could possibly have a real piece of the painting in their possession." Yuying said to Zhang through her divine sense as she continued to observe everyone's expressions and mannerisms.

Simple to say, the people with the real pieces of the painting would have instantly figured out all of the pieces of paper that Zhang had scattered were mere forgeries and thus did not participate in the brawl and had moved back from the battlefield.

"Let's go collect the pieces of our painting then. Who first?" Zhang replied through his divine sense as he glanced at each of the beauties, signaling them to prepare to do battle.

"That one there first." Yuying said as she pointed at a shirtless muscular full saint who was surrounded by a dozen shirtless muscular lesser saints.

"Alright, I'll tell Shan Li to begin and then we can start." Zhang said as he contacted Holy Son Shan Li who had been awaiting his signal within their camp.  

Before long, all of the full saints and lesser saints who had been waiting within the coalition's camp took to the sky. Sadly, the ground forces of the Blood Coral Cove and Starry Sea Sect had traveled by sea and did not possess any means take to the skies like the forces of the other forces present, thus they could only watch from afar.

"Send these fools who dared to arrive here and partake in a conflict that was not their own a safe trip to hell!" Shan Li's roar reverberated into everyone's ear as he and all of the saint level experts of the coalition spearheaded into the brawling mass of people and slaughtered everyone in sight.

In actuality, everyone had simply been trying to snatch Zhang's forgeries from each other and had not actually drawn any blood yet so the moment Shan Li began to slaughter dozens of people in a blink of an eye, a mass of hysteria broke out.

Using this hysteria as a cover and distraction, Zhang and the four beauties unleashed a storm of attacks upon the shirtless full saint. A hail of hundreds of razor sharp shards of ice formed from thousands of condensing water droplets that had risen up from the sea, countless thousands of sharp bones engraved with strange runes had swirled around Yuying before piercing through the air, a single singularity that exerted an unbearable suction force had been released using the power of the Rising Moon Sword, a massive black colored spiked whip fueled by Ai's otherworld strength and a tempest of Lingqi's poison drenched needles were all directed toward the group of unsuspecting muscular men.

In an instant, nearly all of the muscular full saint's lesser saint guards met their demise and fell from the sky. Anyone impaled by Ling's ice shards would find their bodies instantly frozen over and breaking apart into bits and pieces. Luckily for Ling's victims, thanks to the extremely cold nature of the ice shards, little to no pain was felt when their body basically disintegrated.

Whereas anyone touched by Lingqi's deadly poison found themselves in a world of pain as their skin began to blister change in color. The amount one experienced was so intense that most of the lesser saints that had met their end thanks to Lingqi had lost the ability to think straight and fell into the sea before their bodies floated back up to the surface lifelessly.

Thanks to Zhang's singularity, grabbing hold of many of the lesser saints, Ai's massive whip was able to deal devastating damage as it smashed in armor, crushed bone and turned insides into mush.

Unlike the other beauties, Yuying's rune engraved bones had actually not killed anyone, rather they closed in on the muscular full saint and created something reminiscent of a cage around him.

"Shatter!" The muscular full saint roared as he retrieved a pair of metal gauntlets from his interspatial ring and attempted to break out of Yuying's bone cage, however before he could even lay a finger on the cage, a small spatial slit opened up and a sword found itself embedding into his heart.

As the muscular full saint's body fell lifelessly onto the floor of Yuying's bone cage, Zhang quickly appeared and retrieved the man's interspatial ring before storing away his corpse.

"It seems today is our lucky day." Zhang said to the beauties through his divine sense after sweeping through the muscular man's interspatial ring and locating a piece of the Ascending Beauty Painting along with a small fortune.

Upon seeing Zhang slay the muscular full saint, a hand full of people began to close in on him, with vague ideas of what Zhang had just obtained.

It was clear to them that the entire charade that had been taking place had been started in order for Zhang to kill the muscular man, of course, they weren't completely certain but why else would Zhang move across the battlefield without bothering to attack anyone besides the muscular man.

"Our next target should be that bald-headed monk over there who the large black colored staff." Yuying said to Zhang who nodded in response.

"Shan Li, after I take care of the next target I'm going to begin the second part of the plan. Prep out forces." Zhang said to Shan Li through his divine sense as he engaged the group of lesser saints sped toward him.

With a nod as a show of acknowledgement from the beauties, Zhang quickly charged into the group of lesser saints approaching him and slashed about with the Riding Moon Sword.

One after the other a total of five lesser saints were bisected and cut to ribbons by Zhang in an instant before he charged through the incoming group of enemies by employing dance-like motions.

Charging out of the mob that began to form around him, Zhang sped toward the bald-headed monk that Yuying had pointed out while tightly gripping the Rising Moon Sword.

"Singularity!" Zhang roared as he created three black colored orbs that spiraled about around him, repelling and attracting those around him at random.

Due to the repulsion and attraction force exerted by the singularities, all of those who charged toward Zhang while he headed toward the bald-headed monk found themselves unable to hinder him in any way.

Rather many of them soon found themselves in peculiar situations where they fell under Zhang's mercy. With a single swing, Zhang could easily behead any who were caught in the attraction forces while those pushed away by the repulsion force found themselves unable to do a thing to him regardless of their efforts.

Thus, unhindered Zhang arrived before the bald-headed monk and with a wave of his hand withdrew the thousands of Mirage Viper Scale Arrows that he had stored away, along with thousands of mithril tipped spears. Then with a flicker of his wrist, Zhang unleashed what could only be called walls of spears and arrows at the bald-headed monk.

"Protect our lord!!" A barrage of cries sounded out as a dozen or so skimpy clothed women appeared out of nowhere and created a human wall around the bald-headed monk. To be exact this group of skimpy clothed women were all actually lesser saints.

"What the…" Zhang mumbled as he wondered what kind of monk surrounds himself with skimpy clothed women.

"Well… I guess it can't be helped…" He thought as the arrows and spears under his control, continued on their merry way without any sign of stopping or slowing down at all.

Off in the distance, a middle-aged man with a pair of distinct looking red colored horns protruding from his head could be seen conversing with another man who also had a pair of distinct looking blue colored horns protruding from his head.

"Lord Long Zhiming, if our intel is correct, that muscular one should have been Cang Hui, one of the confirmed owners of a piece of the painting and the bald monk should be the infamous Bud Snatcher Monk, a man known for kidnapping virgins and mind washing them into his puppets… I believe he is also one of the people we had suspected of having a piece of the painting..." The man with blue colored horns said in a respectful tone.

"It appears he's doing our job for us. Ready the Twin Horned Ice Dragons and have the Dragon Scale Soldiers prepare to move in at my signal. For now, let's continue to watch the show.." The man with red colored horns protruding from his forehead, called Lord Long Zhiming said with a chuckle.

"Right away my lord." The man with protruding blue colored horns said respectfully.

Back in the midst of battle, the wall of skimpy clad women surrounding the bald-headed monk found their jade like skin scarred by countless cuts as Zhang's swarm of weapons closed in on them. Luckily for them, Zhang had a soft spot for women and avoided aiming for their vitals, had it been one of the beauties then this group of women would, of course, have met an untimely demise.

"My darlings, attack! Whoever brings me his head will receive so much pleasure they'll wish they were dead." The bald-headed monk commanded while laughing manically, prompting the group of women that were shielding him to charge through the air without regard for their own safety.

"It seems they've already been completely broken…" Zhang thought with a sigh as he decided to end things.

Thus, with a thought, he gave all of the Bud Snatcher Monk's victims a quick and painless death. Using the death of the group of women as a distraction, Zhang opened a small slit in space and impaled the Bud Snatcher Monk in the throat.

Then in an instant Zhang arrived and cleanly sliced off the monk's hand and retrieved a pinkish colored interspatial ring where a piece of the Ascending Beauty Painting was awaiting him.

"Success!" Zhang thought as a wide grin appeared on his face. With a total of three pieces of the Ascending beauty painting in his possession, Zhang was ready to initiate the next step of his plan. A plan that involved fleeing the battlefield at top speed. A plan that would lure out his true enemy.

A few moments after slaying the monk, Zhang began to move through the sky at top speed and flee from the battlefield, leaving after imagines in his quake.

Seeing that Zhang was attempting to leave the battlefield, a scowl appeared Lord Long Zhiming's face.

"Signal our forces to move in…" Lord Long Zhiming commanded.

"Yes, my liege." The man with blue colored horns said as he pulled out a golden colored horn and blew into it.

"It has begun." Zhang mumbled in an inaudible tone as a wide grin appeared on his face as a deafening sound made its way into everyone's ear, while the sea began to quake and rumble.

From the depths of the ocean, massive serpentine beasts shot out from the shifting waves and through the water's surface before releasing deafening roars that reverberated in the air.

Soon a total of eight massive pale white colored dragons caused a mixture of shock and awe to envelope everyone present as they coiled about in the air.

With maws large enough to engulf large ships, sharp looking spikes protruding from their backs, fierce looking rows of teeth that most likely spelled death for all who found themselves clamped in between them, and eyes filled with intelligence, the eight massive dragons caused many to shudder and fear to fill the air.

"Dra-dragons!?" A lesser saint cried as his legs buckled and his teeth chattered.

"I-i-it must be th-th-the Dragon God Palace!" Another person cried.

Before long a babble of voices could be heard.

"Brother… I want one of those…" Ai said in a low tone as her eyes glittered. Like in most cases, whenever Ai caught sight of an interesting demonic beast, regardless of their strength, she would wish to acquire them and make them her pets.

"Like husband, like wife." Yuying laughed as she saw the raving madness in Ai's eyes. A madness that was similar to when Zhang caught sight of treasure, like when Lingqi saw rare medical herbs, or like when Ling gets her hands on a new book.

"We will see if there are any left once this battle is over." Zhang said as he eyed the glittering jade like white scales the massive ice dragons were clad in.

"Elder Yu Xiang, it appears my speculation was true after all. So, I take it we are officially allied with each other?" Zhang proceeded to say as he glanced at the forces of the Golden Shell Sect and relayed a message to them through his divine sense.

Chapter end