Here comes the

Minister Zel was quietly watching the battle proceed, occasionally making a comment or issuing a command. Minister Xia and Wei Huoran also sat at the same table as all three were watching a holographic display of the battle. A small scale model of the island was shown with all the formations, tiny flying ships, and even smaller armored units facing off against the horde of invaders. The flying ships were a sight, encircling the island with twenty frigate class, ten destroyer class, five cruise class, and one battleship class fleet of ships.

Soon, the contemplating eyes of the three changed as they noticed a change in the enemy. Each wave had older and more powerful attackers, but something fundamentally shifted in their movements. They became faster, and no longer seem to focus on the flying ships and armored units opposing them, instead heading straight for the grand formation.

"What happened?", Xia asked.

I looked over at Huoran, and the latter had a quizzical expression on his face for a few moments before returning to normal.

"The Dragon Emperor has arrived, and taken command of the armies", Huoran said, "Given the actions we see here, he has commanded them to open the formation at all cost."

"He has ordered everyone to burn their blood essence and core", I added before sending a mental command to all the ship captains and unit officers, "This is Minister Zel, the dragon emperor has arrived, and order his troops to attack at all costs. Be on the lookout and keep your distance, because most likely all incoming attackers will try to die and take you with them."

Turning my attention back to the battle, an unexpected moment came when powerful beams of energy appeared from outside of current view. I watched as groups of beams shifted to focus on the closest ships, and in the process, passed over several armored units that had underestimated how quickly these attacks would move. It was heartbreaking to see these soldiers fall from the sky as their suits could not protect them, and it dawned on me that this was the first death of a citizen since Daoist Huoran had first brought people here.

"Damnit! The flood dragons are sitting farther than five hundred kilometers away", Xia exclaimed.

Wei Huoran was still for a moment, and suddenly the holographic image grew smaller as I could see he was expanding our view of the battle. The armored unit became harder to see, but we could see the ships ascend to both dodge the attacks, but also keep the focus on them instead of the armored unit.

This slight change allowed soldiers of the enemy to reach the formation in the chaos, and we witnessed them crash into the barrier, and detonate their core.

"Damage to the Southwest area of the Grand array", a guard in the other room shouted, "Barrier Integrity is unaffected, but if the enemy continues, we will uselessly waste our spiritual power reserves."

The attacks from the flood dragons stopped chasing the flying ships, and were aimed at the grand array. Wei Huoran had expanded the view to the point that we could see the heads of the flood dragons sticking out of the water.

"No more holding back, use the island's cannons to take out those flood dragons", I ordered, and as I saw the mass of enemies rushing towards the barrier, I added, "All units, use whatever means necessary to hold them back."

I saw Daoist Wei stand up, so I asked, "What are you doing, Daoist Wei?"

"I heard the order from the minister", he said with a determined face, "I wanted to wait a bit longer, but we have fatalities and it's time I moved."

I nodded in agreement, and watched as he left, then I returned to watching and giving orders.

'Isn't it too early to show yourself', Quanliyuan inquired as Huoran teleported to the southwestern corner.

"The Draco Empire was able to do something to shift the momentum of the battle, and it cost us several dozens of lives", Huoran replied, "We cannot allow this to continue."

Huoran steadied his arms as the teleport finished as a swarm of crazed soldiers was rushing towards him now. He attacked with both arms as bright red beams of lights swept the area in front of him, slicing hundreds of bodies in half. As each attack finished, a used talisman would eject from the back of his hand.

The area around immediately cleared out after a few more shots when the barrier behind Huoran came to life. Huge complicated, multilayered arrays appeared, and proceeded to fire at the enemies. Some of the arrays fired beams of lights similar to what Huoran fired, striking the target in the head, neck, or chest. Others fired giant talisman arrays that caused huge explosions, viscous lightning, or gravity wells.

The flood dragons that were saw the counter attack either died, ducked back underwater, or fired back at the new threat. One flood dragon had aimed at an array cannon near him that just launched a talisman array, the cannon needed a few moments to reload but the flood dragon fired its energy beam. Huoran flew into the path of the beam, and engaged his barrier to protect the cannon. The attack slammed into Huoran's shield, but Huoran's protection held. He landed on the ground afterwards as the scent of ash came from Huoran's suit.

'This core batteries certainly are something', Quanliyuan remarked.

Huoran could only grunt in agreement as new core batteries were automatically placed in the place where the old one were.

Huoran rushed forward, blazing through groups of soldiers until he noticed that the area was stabilizing. A few of the armored units had went to the locations of their fallen comrades, and the teams worked together to fend off the swarm while dragging their teammates bodies back to the barrier.

With the array cannons of the Grand array formation killing many of the flood dragons, the flying ships moved to advantageous positions and opened fire. They would still occasionally gain the attention of an enemy, and would have to maneuver to stay safe. Also, a few more armored units were lost when overwhelmed by suicidal attacks from enemies. Also, three frigates and a destroyer had to retreat behind the barrier after taking too many attacks from the enemy flood dragons.

"I need to move forward to attack the emperor", Huoran was frustrated.

'Then stop holding back!', Quanliyuan yelled.

Huoran felt guilty because what the artifact spirit said was true. He mentally commanded his suit, and several artifacts separated from the back of his suit. The 'drone bits' as he decided to call them immediately went into action, firing quickly at the closest enemies. As Huoran would clear the enemies in front of him using the 'drone bits', talismans, and his own cultivation methods, he started getting the attention of the more powerful enemy combatants.

Huoran had to quickly subdue these elite fighters as they threw everything at him. Also, he had to keep the weaker attackers at a distance as they tried self destruct, and several times he had to raise his shields to protect himself.

Using a special satellite that had launched the day before the attack, Huoran was able to track the battle from his visor. This satellite was made the same as the others, but instead of allowing it to orbit like the others. He instead gave it extra core batteries, and programmed it to stay above the island to give them constant updates. It was connected the the display that Zel, Xia, and him were watching together earlier.

'Quanliyuan, I know you're busy', Huoran called out in his mind, 'But do think you can handle one more thing for me?'

Huoran had an idea, but also knew that the artifact spirit, despite its talents, was watching over the city, the array, the life realms, and now the battle.

'Tell me your idea first, and I'll consider it', the man dressed as a samurai responded.

'The city should be on lockdown', Huoran recalled, 'So find something you're responsible for, but can be reassigned a lower priority temporarily. Then connect with our new satellite, and take out some of the bigger threats in the back.'

'Offense is the best defense?', Quanliyuan replied, 'I will do it now.'

Huoran continued to press forward with his drone bits constantly firing, moving, and firing again. Another flood dragon had decided that Huoran was causing too much trouble, and turned his attention towards the latter. He opened his maw, and was about to attack when a beam of light came from the heavens and burned through his skull.

After another thirty seconds, the beam of light descended and killed another elite soldier just a few hundred meters away from the first. The enemies closest to the two corpses panicked, and began moving away from that area in fear of being targeted next. As they directed their attention towards the sky, and stopped paying attention to the battle, a pair of array cannons fired 'Gravitas' talismans towards the grouped elites. The resulting activation of the talismans when they hit their intended targets caused massive shockwaves killing all inside the area of effect and shattering the ice shelf as well. Then the gravity effect happened and all the air, water, and ice were drawn into the center. When the gravity returned to normal, Huoran noticed that the spiritual beast cores from the elite soldiers appeared the same but slightly different that when they attacked the snake queen.

'The environment around core when the Qi and essence is compressed matters', Quanliyuan said.

'The ancient beasts and the cultivator that performed the inscription on the beast cores where not aware", Huoran realized, 'I'll just have to remember that later, it's not the time for this.'

Huoran had quickly flew past the area where the elites had suffered from the talisman attack, and no one was willing to challenge him at the moment.

Huoran thought it was the time to confront the dragon emperor, 'Quanliyuan, find the dragon emperor and mark him.'

The artifact spirit took a moment to run the array that would locate the Dragon Stone, and indicated to Huoran the stone's location. Huoran flew in the direction indicated by Quanliyuan, and had the later use the satellite to give him cover. He also switched to a similar talisman that used light focused by ice lenses to attack enemies that could potentially block his way to the emperor.

After battling his way to the target to his destination, Huoran witnessed a strange scene, a giant manta ray slowly floating in the sky. Standing in a dominating pose on the back of the ray was a man wearing colorful robes and a golden crown. Embroidered on the robe was a five toed dragon traveling among the clouds, and in his hand was a familiar orb, the Dragon stone.

'Quanliyuan, start scanning the stone', Huoran urged his friend.

'I have already completed the task', Quanliyuan replied.

Huoran pointed both hands and all four drone bits at the man before launching an attack at him.

A barrier stopped the attack, but the man was slightly surprise that the combined beam attack had affected the barrier more than he had expected.

"You are Wei Huoran, the disciple of that man?", a deep voice broke the silence.

"And you are the dragon emperor", Wei Huoran replied.

'Quanliyuan, send a message to all our troops, ships, and the ministers', Huoran instructed, 'Also prepare to run the grand array at full power if needed.'

Having witnessed Huoran's tests in Simspace, the artifact spirit did not ask for clarification, it only responded, 'Sure.'

"Boy, even if you're the disciple of the man, do you think he can protect you from me when you are so close?", the dragon emperor threatened Huoran, "Just tell your master to hand over the stones, and I will show him face and not kill you."

"You are not the dragon emperor", Huoran realized something, "You are the soul of the one trapped inside, but you killed and ate enough beastkin with dragon bloodline that you manifested."

"Smart boy", the dragon emperor chuckled, "Since you already know, do what I commanded you this moment, I'm sure your master can simply find a replacement for you if you do not."

"You are not as strong as my master", Huoran remarked, "That you are here is proof of that."

Huoran immediately raised his shield, and dodged to the left, his shield tearing from an attack he normally should not have seen.

The dragon emperor raised an eyebrow, "I have to admit, I did not think you could move that fast. Normally, I would love to toy with you, but the defenses on that island are better than I expected. I'll end this now, and claim the other stones."

Huoran and Quanliyuan began moving and dodging while maintaining a shield to prevent an accident. The drone bits would try to injure or hamper the efforts of the dragon emperor by aiming at his eyes.

After a few minutes of failing to capture Huoran, the dragon emperor sighed, "Since you refuse to do this the easy way, I can no longer guarantee your safety."

Clouds gathered around the dragon emperor before a giant head with whiskers and horns burst forth towards Huoran. Huoran had to continue to quickly burn through core batteries in order to dodge and protect himself. As the full body of the dragon emperor came into view, it was a body that was three kilometers long and three toes on each claw. One of his claws held the Dragon stone that normally was the dragon core in artwork Huoran had seen in his past life.

'Let the the ministers know once we start this last plan, and the soldiers of the Draco Empire run, just let them go', Huoran told Quanliyuan.

'I have just been told that everyone is now safely inside the formation, but the enemy is now attacking', the artifact spirit reported.

'Then let's start', Huoran said.

The dragon emperor angrily tried to use a combination of claws and lightning to trap Huoran in a pincer attack when a voice and an aura caused his scales to stand.

"Little lizard, why are you so shameless to chase my disciple", the mysterious voice caused the dragon to stop.

The dragon emperor turned towards the voice to see a young man with white robes and long white hair. The man's aura caused the dragon emperor to feel danger, and he twisted his body in preparation to attack.

"Who are you, fellow Daoist?", the dragon growled in greeting.

"I am Qian Liyuan, the master of the child you are chasing", the man in white answered.

"Quan Liyuan is not the man cultivating on that island", the dragon emperor said before realizing something was wrong.

Huoran had appeared next the dragon claw that held the Dragon Stone, and pulled out the 'Zodiac' array made from the twelve other stones. He placed the 'Zodiac' array in place with the Dragon stone completing the circuit.

'We gotta go now', Huoran said as he activated the teleport to the island.

The everything became a giant white flash.