CHAPTER 554: CHAPTER 554. FIVE ELEMENTS PRISON

"Do not think you can waste my time with this stupid trick!" Jiang Tong exclaimed. He again shot into the sky, leaving Jiang Tong’s clones that were crowding around him.

He spread his hands before bringing them together in front of his chest. When his hands were about to touch one another, they stopped as if a strong repelling force were keeping them apart. A large glowing energy orb appeared between those hands.

"Haaa...!!!" Jiang Tong heaved. His two hands squeezed the glowing energy orb. The orb shrank until it became a tiny dot. While that happened, the liquid metal broke into countless little pieces and swarmed around the glowing dot. They were crammed tightly from the pressure Jiang Tong exuded.

Xuang Feng was initially confused about what Jiang Tong was trying to do. When he finally realized, he hurriedly sent his clones to move away.

"Too late!" Jiang Tong yelled. He let go of the pressure in his hands.

The compressed energy in the tiny dot was released in a massive blast. The tiny pieces of the liquid metal flew in all directions like silver bullets. All the enemies within the blast range were shredded. The bullets hit all Xuang Feng’s clones. They vanished and turned back into talismans that were now ripped apart.

The blast also hit Jiang Tong himself. This was a double-edged art. He could perform this art due to his exceptional defense. His silver skin protected him from damage. All the blast did to him was push him back a little.

He looked at the land below to survey the destruction he had wrought. Dead Khode soldiers and broken battle puppets lay on the ground. Xuang Feng’s clones were no more, but he also couldn’t see the enemy general. His eyes finally noticed a battle puppet slightly larger than the others. This battle puppet survived his attack. To survive his attacks, he estimated the battle puppet must be a mid-tier runic grade. His Spirit Sense also registered Xuang Feng hiding behind this battle puppet.

Jiang Tong dove toward his enemy. He clenched his fists during his dive. The silver bullets on the ground flew back to him. They merged in his hands and became a giant silver mallet.

Xuang Feng and the large battle puppet jumped away as the giant mallet came slamming down.

Another battle puppet with the same size and features appeared next to Xuang Feng. The Khode General kept these two battle puppets in his space ring earlier. These battle puppets now faced Jiang Tong in direct combat while Xuang Feng harassed the Echos First-Class General from a distance using his sword-whip.

Xuang Feng’s two large battle puppets had higher defense compared to the other battle puppets on the battlefield. Jiang Tong’s weapons couldn’t destroy them easily like the rest. Each slash only left an incision in their outer shell.

Jiang Tong transformed his weapons again. The liquid metal now gathered around his two arms and formed a pair of giant silver gauntlets. He used them to pummel the battle puppets. With blunt force, he wanted to cause damage to their internal circuit. That should shut them down faster.

Even though he wanted to take down the two large battle puppets, he didn’t forget that his true target was Xuang Feng. He continued to force his way to get to Xuang Feng, but his enemy was cunning. Xuang Feng continued to keep a safe distance from him.

Finally, one of the battle puppets cracked under his punishment. Once that broken battle puppet dropped to the ground, Jiang Tong used Instantaneous Burst, the same movement art Da Niu used. Although the speed burst he attained from this art was not as striking as Da Niu under the Great Bull King form, he was still fast enough to bypass the remaining battle puppet and close in on his distance with Xuang Feng.

Xuang Feng never stopped moving away. He was surprised by Jiang Tong’s sudden speed increase, but could still react calmly. His sword-whip whirled before Jiang Tong and hindered his forward path.

"Enough!" Jiang Tong exclaimed. He used his two hands, still covered by the giant silver gauntlets, and caught the sword whip. With a heave, he tore the sword-whip and broke it into pieces.

When he was about to advance again to catch Xuang Feng, his Spirit Sense detected a sudden energy spike in his immediate surroundings. He looked at the ground where he sensed the energy spike, and a large piece of talisman was there.

Five such talismans were around him. These five talismans flared. Pillars of light shot out of them and into the sky. Each pillar contained one of the five divine elements. A wall of light connected one pillar to another. These walls formed a pentagonal prism trapping Jiang Tong inside.

Jiang Tong punched the energy wall that formed the prism, but it didn’t budge.

Xuang Feng finally stopped moving away after Jiang Tong was trapped inside the prism. He was panting. He didn’t spend much aether since he mostly used tools, but facing Jiang Tong was taxing him mentally. There had been several times when Jiang Tong almost got to him. Even though they both had the same cultivation level, he knew he would surely be a goner if Jiang Tong ever caught him.

"What is this!!" Jiang Tong exclaimed in fury. He continued to punch the prism’s wall repeatedly using his giant silver gauntlets, but all they did was cause some vibrations in the prism. It didn’t seem anywhere near breaking.

With the prism in between them, Xuang Feng dared to approach Jiang Tong.

"This is the Five Elements Prison," Xuang Feng answered. "Another pride of Khode, born of the endless research of our talisman masters and formation sages. You will not free yourself from this prism."

"Hmph! We will see about that," Jiang Tong harrumphed. His two silver gauntlets transformed into two giant lances. They then combined into a giant silver drill, the same drill that he used to breach the energy wall earlier.

The giant silver drill spun and pushed against the prism wall. The wall flared brightly and vibrated even more fiercly than before. But unlike the energy wall, this prism held. Jiang Tong didn’t give up. He continued to push against the prism’s wall.

"General Jiang Tong, stop! I have a proposition," Xuang Feng uttered.

"Save your breath. This prison won’t hold me for long. I’m going to tear your head off when I’m out. Once I do that, I will listen to your proposition," Jiang Tong replied.

"General, be reasonable. Look at your army," Xuang Feng said.

Jiang Tong finally stopped drilling to look back. His army was still struggling against the massive Khode puppet mob with their suicide backpacks.

"Even if you can somehow defeat us all by yourself, are you willing to return without an army?" Xuang Feng asked. "Furthermore, you are not truly invincible. I know the arcane art you used to turn silver is your other special arcane art, the Metallic Supremacy. It not only boosted your already impressive defense, but it also granted you inhuman strength. However, between that and your Metal Molding art, they consumed a lot of aether. Even you have a limit. Sooner or later, you will exhaust your aether reserve. When that happens, do you think you can still fight all of us by yourself?"

"I will kill at least half of you before that happens," Jiang Tong said defiantly.

"That is possible, but do we need to go down the path of mutual destruction like that?" Xuang Feng asked.

"Pah! You invaded our kingdom. You are the one who forced this mutual destruction upon us."

"Like I said, I have a proposition. Please hear me out."

This time, Jiang Tong didn’t immediately brush Xuang Feng off like before. Instead, he said, "Call your troops to stop their offense."

Xuang Feng took out a talisman. He also signaled to the others in his force who held similar talismans. He did something to the talisman in his hands, which caused several words of power to dance around the talisman. He then pointed at the battling army.

Jiang Tong looked back again. He saw Khode’s puppet mob stop advancing. They retreated a certain distance before stopping altogether. Echos soldiers were confused, but they didn’t chase the enemy. They were grateful this puppet mob had stopped assaulting them.

"Those are our citizens, aren’t they?" Jiang Tong asked. "What did you do to control them to that extent? Are they still alive?"

"Yes, they are Echos citizens. I can’t tell you how we do it. That is our state’s secret, but I can tell you that they are still alive. By hearing my proposition, you are not only saving your soldiers but also your citizens."

"You, bastard...," Jiang Tong cursed.

"Don’t be like that, general. You know full well that everything goes in a war. Utilizing war hostages is a common practice. We are simply more advanced. We possess a technique you are not familiar with. If your side has an advantage we don’t have, I’m pretty sure you won’t hesitate to use it."

"So, is that it? Our two countries are officially at war? Do you wish to conquer Echos? If you do. This pathetic force you bring to invade us is far from enough. If not for that hostage army, we would have routed you."

"Believe it or not, we have no wish to conquer Echos," Xuang Feng answered.