NOVPUBAs Zhang Xiu’s first spear thrust forward, a series of spear shadows, accompanied by the phoenix cry, rapidly surged forth, resembling the starting gesture of the "Hundred Birds Facing the Phoenix," but even more powerful. A giant fireball wrapped in purple and red flames swiftly condensed, while flame feathers, akin to wings, danced beautifully around the purple flame fireball, creating a gorgeous sight filled with lethal intent!
Wielding the Tiger Head Golden Spear frantically, the immense Spearhead Formation of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry that Zhang Xiu led also scattered into countless serrated edges, resembling sawteeth, upon the emergence of the purple flame fireball above.
"Hundred Phoenixes Facing the Sun," Zhang Xiu bellowed. After the Cloud Qi of the entire army empowered them, they once again wildly expended it, and the feather-like flames dancing around the giant fireball swelled dramatically upon being infused with Zhang Xiu’s Inner Qi, as a plethora of fire birds took flight, hovering beside the sphere resembling the sun.
"The final step, reverse it for me!" Zhang Xiu gathered all of his Inner Qi in a frenzy, and his tremendous Tiger Head Golden Spear directly stabbed towards the Great Sun.
Following the spear’s strike, the sun, which had amassed half of the army’s Cloud Qi, leaked irregularly, and the fire birds hovering around this sun crazily grew in size. Phoenixes began to appear directly above the sawtooth-like military formation commanded by Zhang Xiu.
"Hundred Phoenixes Soaring in the Sun, annihilate them for me!" Having done all this, Zhang Xiu was just a kilometer away from Ma Teng’s military camp. Bearing down with over a hundred phoenixes comparable to Zhang Xiu’s full powered strikes, Zhang Xiu waved his hand, and the phoenixes transformed into lines of fire, bombarding Ma Teng’s Army’s camp with ferocious booming cries.
The instant the hundred-plus fiery phoenixes took flight, around seventy percent of Zhang Xiu’s army’s Cloud Qi vanished, leaving only a faint layer of purple. However, Zhang Xiu paid it no mind. Leading the charge, he dashed towards Ma Teng’s military camp following his Ultimate Knowledge, confident that his last move was enough to devastate half of the front camp.
Tong Yuan’s Spear Technique was known for its stacking effect; whether it be "Hundred Birds Facing the Phoenix" or "Hundred Phoenixes Facing the Sun," the final move was decisive. All previous moves were meant to accumulate Attack Power for the last one. Zhang Xiu realized after his first time Commanding Troops over a decade ago that, supported by Cloud Qi, he couldn’t execute a complete "Hundred Phoenixes Facing the Sun," and even "Hundred Birds Facing the Phoenix" became a joke.
Cloud Qi consists of power emitted by thousands of individuals, and as the Chief General and center of Cloud Qi, every move carried immense power. This resulted in having seemingly infinite Inner Breath, but being limited to only unleashing the maximum Combat Power that the body could endure due to a series of issues like Physical Quality.
In other words, as long as one spent Cloud Qi without concern, the super strong Attack Power that normally required a lot of skill to achieve was trivial. As long as your body could withstand it, you could unleash the ultimate attacking force.
That’s why when General Commanders utilized Cloud Qi, all their attacks were either magnified or densified—direct and unbrained—because plenty of Cloud Qi meant it could be spent without concern. Whatever was fast and caused the most destruction was the method chosen.
Of course, this was also because Tong Yuan was a martial arts expert instead of a Valiant General accustomed to the battleground. The techniques he used suited the martial arts world and weren’t suitable for the battlefield, where tens of thousands clashed.
Zhang Xiu hadn’t experienced full-force combat on the battlefield for ten whole years, and during this lengthy period, aside from martial arts practice and analyzing those two simplest Military Formations, Zhang Xiu spent his time pondering one issue: how to unleash the strongest attack. Perhaps it was Imperial Heaven’s blessing for the dedicated, during one practice of "Hundred Phoenixes Facing the Sun," instead of sending the Hundred Phoenixes into the sun to enhance its Attack Power, he shot them outwards.
Naturally, the originally ultimate attack split into over a hundred weaker attacks that were pitifully weak to behold, but this exerted no strain on the body whatsoever. It was that very strike that enlightened Zhang Xiu; he needn’t pursue the strongest single blow. Distributing it into over a hundred attacks would inflict much more damage than a single most powerful strike.
This was the initial idea behind Zhang Xiu’s "Hundred Phoenixes Soaring in the Sun": to split the mightiest attack into many, a concept completely against the principle of a one-hit kill. If Tong Yuan knew of this, he would have berated Zhang Xiu mercilessly, but by that time, Zhang Xiu had already delved deep into this line of research.
After several years, Zhang Xiu finally perfected "Hundred Phoenixes Soaring in the Sun." The sun, originally conceived as the strongest attack, became a battery solely for charging the fire birds derived from the same source. Therefore, the requirements for the sun were no longer high; as long as its Attribute matched the Spear Qi that became the fire birds, it was suitable.
When the time came, one simply needed to draw sufficient Cloud Qi from the sun-turned-battery to transform into phoenixes. As for the instability of the internal Spear Qi, internal conflicts, and explosions, Zhang Xiu wouldn’t care. As long as the fire birds grew, he would just launch them out. Why should he be concerned if the explosions killed someone else?
Such a crude approach resulted in a geometrical increase in consumption; fortunately, since it was group combat, even a geometric increase in consumption was bearable for Zhang Xiu.
Accompanied by the phoenix cry, over a hundred Phoenixes transformed from seventy percent of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry’s Cloud Qi directly bombarded Ma Teng’s Army’s front camp. The Cloud Qi above Ma Teng’s Army stood for an instant before being submerged by the overwhelming Phoenix Flame, plunging the entire front camp into chaos.
Zhang Xiu was not in good shape at the moment; after that move, seventy percent of his strength had been depleted, and his ten thousand Iron Cavalry had lost about thirty percent of their Combat Power in that single assault, leaving them weakened before the battle had even begun.
