Chapter 1603: Soul Exchange

They could truly call themselves messengers of the gods.

"Darn it! Boss, you really are a brilliant strategist. It seems the imperial allied army is truly playing its strongest hand this time. Those twelve individuals high above the clouds have incredibly terrifying auras, and each possesses an extremely formidable cultivation foundation. Moreover, in my personal judgment, if I'm not mistaken, the strength of these twelve individuals is highly compatible with the laws of this illusory world. They should hold crucial clues connected to the strongest creator ruler of the Second Divine Temple, who is operating behind the scenes."

Hearing Long Kun's words, Xu Yang immediately smiled and nodded.

"You're truly getting smarter, kid; now you're learning to think things through. Since these individuals are called messengers of the gods, then behind them must be the so-called Divine Temple forces. If my judgment is correct, once we conquer all these individuals, our main battlefield mission for this war will be complete."

The White Lotus Demon Saint showed a puzzled expression. "But Master, behind them are two great empires and millions of allied troops. Can it be that these millions of troops pose no threat?"

Xu Yang sneered. "With our hundreds of thousands of demon beasts in the army, what are a few million people? More importantly, there's something you haven't noticed: these twelve divine messengers possess the ability to jointly unleash forbidden-level cultivation profound techniques. Once the confrontation between the two sides reaches a fever pitch, in my judgment, these millions of troops will suffer massive casualties in this war. Before true powerful cultivators, ordinary mortals with flesh and blood bodies are as vulnerable as ants. What's more, if these twelve divine messengers, considered the most powerful trump card of the Brocade Empire, are suppressed one by one by our people, then do you think the millions of warriors behind them will still have the will to continue this confrontation? Their desire to fight will also turn ice-cold. More importantly, while the warriors in their military formations possess strong imperial pride, the two great empires were never truly united; their alliance was merely a matter of expediency. Once these twelve individuals make any mistake, and with no core strength left to support them, they will absolutely be unable to muster sufficiently strong fighting spirit when faced with the powerful cultivation techniques of our cultivators. They will be like scattered sand, not worth fearing."

It must be said that Xu Yang's understanding of the battlefield and his transcendent way of thinking once again astonished the powerful cultivators under his command.

"Hahahaha, with you, Boss, in charge, we can naturally fight to our hearts' content."

Long Kun patted his chest. "Let me lead the guys in the charge for this battle. We'll roughly divide these twelve individuals, and everyone should get a suitable opponent."

Xu Yang had already seen through Long Kun's intentions and couldn't help but poke the fellow with his finger.

"Since you're so eager to fight, I'll assign you the strongest among these twelve individuals. As for the others, the Four Great Demon Saints, Ling Yao Xiaohua, Xiao Xiang Jiu'er, and three representative powerhouses of the Eighteen Guardians will jointly confront these twelve divine messengers. I'm quite curious to see what impressive abilities these twelve individuals possess. Once they can no longer contend with you and decide to launch a combined forbidden-level attack, everyone must immediately retreat back to our formation, and I will personally neutralize their ultimate trump card. This will be the entire battle plan for our upcoming fight."

After Xu Yang finished speaking, all the top-tier powerhouses from his team, entrusted with important roles, rose to their feet and respectfully bowed to Xu Yang with cupped fists.

"Rest assured, Boss, we guarantee mission success."

The great battle was on the verge of breaking out, and the war drums of both sides thundered, shaking the heavens. The twelve divine messengers had already lined up in formation above the void, awaiting Xu Yang's top powerhouses to step forward and meet the challenge. Soon, led by Long Kun, Xu Yang's top powerhouses ascended into the sky one after another, each finding their designated opponent.

Meanwhile, Xu Yang completely concealed his physical body. Taking the form of the laws of the Dao, he completely hid all his aura with the power of light, standing proudly at the very top of the void.

He overlooked the entire void battlefield from the perspective of a hidden ruler, monitoring the ultimate showdown between both sides throughout. Should either side fall into a disadvantage, Xu Yang would intervene without hesitation.

With Xu Yang overseeing the battle from behind the scenes, these powerhouses could fight to their hearts' content, without any worries or inhibitions.

Soon, the battle between the twelve top experts from each side converged into a chaotic melee, effectively splitting into twelve localized battlefields.

Initially, Xu Yang's twelve powerhouses naturally held the absolute upper hand. However, as the confrontation progressed, Xu Yang increasingly noticed that the auras of the twelve divine messengers before him were not fixed.

They seemed more like twelve chess pieces without independent souls. After a period of combat, their respective auras would leap from their original bodies and transfer to another body.

The advantage of this was that it greatly increased the physical exhaustion of their original opponents. Imagine, each of these twelve divine messengers possessed the ability to control one or several types of elemental qi from heaven and earth.

For instance, the strongest opponent Long Kun was fighting was most proficient in thunder-attribute cultivation techniques. But just as Long Kun was getting familiar with his opponent's combat routines, suddenly, mid-fight, the opponent exchanged souls with another partner. This rendered Long Kun's previously accumulated combat experience completely useless, forcing him to re-explore the new opponent's cultivation routines.

In contrast, after the soul exchange, the combat abilities unleashed by these bodies not only showed no weakening but seemed to grow stronger.

Their bodies seemed to possess a very special memory ability; any technique previously used by any of the twelve souls could form a memory pattern within a specific body.

After Xu Yang recognized this unique combat method, he immediately realized that this battle absolutely could not be prolonged. If it dragged on into the late stages, the individual consumption for Xu Yang's twelve top powerhouses would be quite terrifying.

It was highly likely to wear down some of the relatively weaker members among them. In a confrontation of this level, Xu Yang absolutely would not allow any member of his core team to be harmed, as they would face even more powerful opponents in the future once they broke free from this Second Divine Temple world battlefield.

As expected, the first ones to show a disadvantage in the confrontation were the two girls, Jiu'er and Xiao Xiang. After all, they were, in essence, the proud prodigies of the Human-Spirit Six Veins Royal Family, and in one-on-one combat, they were by no means weaker than their opponents.