On the battlements of the Sun Base city gate.
Brother Dao's heart suddenly clenched, as if missing several beats, when he noticed Liu Qichao and the other two preparing to make a move again below.
He glanced at the surrounding guards, three black lines appearing on his forehead.
What kind of incompetent teammates did he have, daring to provoke Liu Qichao and the other two so brazenly, not knowing that his Yuan force was already depleted!
After Liu Qichao unleashed the Fire Dragon Explosion using his Yuan force, Brother Dao, as the formation's eye, had a significant portion of his Yuan force drained.
He couldn't imagine if another Fire Dragon Explosion of that magnitude occurred, whether he would suffer a decline in his cultivation realm due to excessive Yuan force loss.
As Brother Dao considered this, he immediately took defensive measures.
To prevent a recurrence of the previous situation, he intended to end the battle as quickly as possible.
The method to end the battle was quite simple.
It was to preemptively activate the formation's offensive mode before Liu Qichao and Li Mingbo could make their move.
Indeed.
The Sun Base's formation leaned towards defense, primarily absorbing damage and reflecting Yuan force.
However, it was important to remember that the base's city defense formation was a high-level formation. How could a formation of this caliber lack an offensive mode?
The offensive mode of the formation before them was the two stone lions beneath the city gate tower.
At the main entrance of the base, two stone lions, each aδΈε in height, were placed. Besides their imposing stature compared to ordinary stone lions, their mouths contained a structure resembling a ball of flame.
As the formation's eye, it was easy for Brother Dao to mobilize the stone lions for attack; he only needed to draw a certain amount of Yuan force to activate them.
The reason the offensive mode had not been used previously was primarily due to two factors.
The first was that Brother Dao did not want to waste his internal Yuan force.
When Liu Qichao and Li Mingbo had joined forces to control the Fire Dragon's attack on the base's formation, Brother Dao had not perceived any threat to himself.
In his estimation, once the Fire Dragon summoned by Liu Qichao and the other two touched the city gate, it would be immediately absorbed and reflected by the base's formation.
However, he would never have imagined.
Liu Qichao and the other two had foreseen this. They did not control the Fire Dragon to attack the formation but chose to detonate it mid-air above the city gate tower.
This single explosion had left Brother Dao and the others utterly disoriented.
If another explosion of this magnitude occurred, Brother Dao, being at the forefront, would be the first to be unable to withstand it.
The second reason Brother Dao considered was that activating the stone lions required a substantial amount of Yuan force.
According to Brother Dao's knowledge, the Yuan force consumption for the base's formation's active attack was exponentially higher than its passive defense.
He had initially believed that relying on the formation to reflect damage would be sufficient to deal with these country bumpkins. Who knew they would disregard conventional tactics?
They directly controlled the Fire Dragon to explode in mid-air, nearly draining Brother Dao's internal Yuan force in an instant.
This was a terrifying prospect.
If too much Yuan force was drained from his body, his Grandmaster realm would become unstable, and with a slight misstep, he could even fall back to the Martial Artist realm.
However, Brother Dao had finally decided to activate the stone lions for a proactive attack.
This was because the Sword Intent that Liu Qichao possessed was incredibly enticing. If he could be captured and interrogated to uncover the secret of the Domain Sword Intent, Brother Dao could ascend to become a Sword Dao Grandmaster.
"The so-called teammates around me are all useless, incapable of achieving anything and only causing trouble. I'll drain their Yuan force later..." Brother Dao thought to himself.
As the formation's eye, he naturally had the ability to draw Yuan force from any martial artist within this area.
The reason he hadn't done so earlier was that he had been caught off guard by Liu Qichao and the other two.
No one would have expected.
The terrifying Fire Dragon summoned by Liu Qichao and the other two was merely to ascend into mid-air and explode, ultimately using the residual power of the Sword Intent to attack them.
If Brother Dao didn't believe that Liu Qichao and the others understood the formation's damage reflection property, he wouldn't believe it.
Precisely because of this, Brother Dao still felt that a proactive strike was more secure.
"The stone lions consume a considerable amount of Yuan force. Activating them this time should truly turn my useless brothers into completely ineffective individuals!"
As the formation's eye for this area, Brother Dao was naturally aware of the cultivation realms of all the guards.
Among them, the highest realm was only Elite Martial Artist High-tier, and there was only one such individual. The rest were below Elite High-tier, with many being ordinary Martial Artists.
The offensive mode of a high-level formation consumed immense Yuan force. Although the guards were numerous, their combined Yuan force was insufficient to withstand the consumption of a single activation of the offensive mode.
However, some casualties were normal when facing formidable enemies.
Compared to the potential casualties of his "incompetent teammates" beside him, Brother Dao was more concerned about the commotion caused by the formation's offensive mode.
One must understand.
This was the main gate of the Sun Base, and not far from the main gate was the Song family's encampment.
"Once the stone lion formation is activated, the Yuan force fluctuations it generates will quickly attract the Song family elders. I must deal with them as quickly as possible."
As soon as this thought entered Brother Dao's mind, his actions became swift.
Brother Dao took out a pure white jade stone and embedded it in the spot beneath his feet where the stone lion formation was activated.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
As the offensive formation was activated, white beams of light shot up from the two stone lions.
On the city gate tower, the place where Brother Dao embedded the formation's hub also lit up with white light.
This white light formed a pentagram formation along the jade stone beneath Brother Dao's feet.
Upon seeing the formation take shape, Brother Dao immediately turned and shouted to the surrounding guards, "Quick! All of you, get inside the formation!"
Because Brother Dao was the leader of this city gate and possessed the strength of an initial-stage Grandmaster, many guards obediently stood within the formation upon hearing his command.
However, there were always exceptions.
The only Elite High-tier Martial Artist in the crowd asked with confusion, "Brother Dao, why haven't I seen this formation before? Why do we need to stand inside it?"
It was precisely because you haven't seen it before. This was a special permission granted to me by the Song family elders, intended to sacrifice the martial Dao lives of you insignificant individuals. If you knew this, how could we handle emergency situations?
Although he thought this, Brother Dao explained verbally.
"Don't you see how terrifying the attack methods of those two country bumpkins below are? It's safer to stand inside this formation to avoid being caught in the Fire Dragon explosion!"
"Is that so?"
The Elite Martial Artist muttered in disbelief at Brother Dao's explanation, clearly not convinced by his fabricated story.
"What, do you intend to disobey orders!" Brother Dao threatened coldly when he saw someone being disobedient.
"It's fine if you don't go in. Such a huge commotion has occurred here, and the Song family elders should be on their way. If any problems arise later, you will bear the consequences yourself!"