The clanging of metal rang out in succession.

The entire arena fell silent at that moment, because everyone knew the battle had begun from that instant.

In the two-thousand-person team, each formation plate held five hundred people. Grouped in fives, there were one hundred groups. When all their weapons completed this state, a halo of light emerged at the points where the weapons crossed, spreading in rings outwards. Upon meeting the halos of other groups, they merged and grew. Eventually, a colossal ring of light enveloped the five hundred people overhead.

"What is that!?" Almost everyone exclaimed in surprise. They truly had never seen such a thing.

It wouldn't have been strange if the Su Clan used various formations, but these were all Star-Eye Clan people. This large light ring was clearly created by them, which was indeed strange.

Had the Star-Eye Clan mastered some new ability?

Seeing this, the Huaitang Clan immediately became vigilant. Their formation shifted from disorder to order, forming a defensive formation, with shield warriors on the front line, each with excellent defensive capabilities.

This response drew repeated nods from the Huaitang Clan's clan leader in the viewing stands.

Although the two thousand Huaitang Clan personnel overall overwhelmingly suppressed the Star-Eye Clan in strength, the opponents were now far superior in equipment and preparation, narrowing the strength gap.

Especially when facing such an unknown ability, blindly charging forward would be the wrong choice.

The myriad races of the universe were not delicate flowers raised in a glasshouse; they were races that had survived so many years of war with the Slave Race. They were not easy targets to manipulate.

Previously, the continuous attacks by Ye Zhongming and the Star-Eye Clan on their supply convoys were also due to sudden, unprepared attacks and later misjudgments. If the Huaitang Clan had taken it seriously and truly deployed heavy forces for defense, the Star-Eye Clan would have had to give up.

The light ring hovered in everyone's sight for a few seconds, then rapidly flipped, changing from horizontal to vertical. Its spinning speed increased faster and faster as it charged towards the Huaitang Clan's battle formation.

Sounds of "Ah" and "Oh" began to rise and fall in the arena.

"Attention, long-range attack!" 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Sibier roared. Under his command, many people unleashed skills, attempting to intercept the howling light ring.

Keeping the enemy at bay was the safest method.

All participating Huaitang clansmen half-lifted their heads, watching the light ring and their own skills draw closer. The clansmen at the very front had already raised their shields, prepared to defend against any residual impact.

The two sides soon collided. Light flared brilliantly, forming a vast luminous curtain in the center of the arena. Though dazzling, the spectators were basically all trained warriors, so it didn't hinder their viewing too much.

Within the light curtain, the light ring was visibly dimmed, but it still landed on the Huaitang Clan's formation with a loud clang.

Many Huaitang Clan warriors responsible for frontline defense stumbled backward, only stopping when caught by clansmen behind them. Some shields showed cracks, indicating that the Star-Eye Clan's attack packed considerable power.

The Huaitang Clan warriors breathed a sigh of relief; they had withstood the Star-Eye Clan's initial show of force.

However, before they could reposition, they suddenly heard a great uproar. Sensing trouble, they quickly looked over and saw that upon the formation plate that had just released the light ring attack, some… light swords were formed again.

These light swords had no hilts, only blades. Unlike the previous giant light ring, these hiltless swords were separate this time, a full one hundred of them.

"Defend!"

Sibier's voice was somewhat distorted. He truly didn't know what kind of abilities the Star-Eye Clan was using. The power of the previous light ring, weakened before crashing into the large shields, seemed at the level of his full-powered strike. If it hadn't been weakened beforehand, it might have matched the attack of a great expert.

By analogy, these scattered swords each had an attack strength at least equivalent to the strongest attack of beings with fifty to sixty thousand Furelai life force.

If they struck anyone within the Huaitang Clan's formation, few could withstand it.

As Sibier shouted the command, these hiltless swords stabbed down one after another, even faster than the previous light ring. Moreover, being so scattered, they were not easy to defend against using the previous method.

The Huaitang Clan warriors panicked somewhat. Many launched skills, hoping to offset these attacks.

This method had some use. Many light swords were hit, and the foremost few were even directly dispersed.

However, with around fifty swords present, over thirty hiltless light swords still fell into the Huaitang Clan's formation. Screams immediately arose. At least twenty-some people were hit. Sibier turned back and saw that ten people he could see had been killed.

Their unremarkable armor could not provide sufficient protection for these clansmen. The strength of these slain clansmen was equally unable to block the attack.

"Here it comes again!"

Before Sibier could turn back, he heard the shouts of other warriors. He quickly spun around and found that this time, even more densely packed light swords were already close at hand.

In the moment he had turned back, it was still the warriors on that Star-Eye Clan formation plate. Unlike the previous two attacks, which were carried out in groups of five, this time each individual launched an attack independently. Five hundred light daggers flew over, landing within their battle formation as the Huaitang Clan warriors watched.

These light daggers did not possess the power of the previous light swords, but their numbers were too great, and they were sent too quickly, giving the Huaitang Clan warriors little reaction time. Consequently, the effect was even better than the previous two attacks. Over ten more people died, and dozens were injured.

The spectators within the arena were stunned by this almost continuous barrage of attacks, utterly unaware of when the Star-Eye Clan had mastered such abilities.

If it were just an individual mastering this, it would be nothing, but this was a collective mastery by five hundred people. That was somewhat frightening. Compared to the third attack, which caused the most casualties, everyone actually valued the first two attacks more, because those were true team-coordinated assaults, an ability allowing lower Furelai warriors to challenge higher-ranked fighters.

"The formation plates, there's something wrong with their formation plates!"

A being stated very confidently.

For a race to master a completely new combat method might not happen once in hundreds or thousands of years. They didn't think the Star-Eye Clan, which had been in a very bad situation before, possessed such ability; otherwise, they wouldn't have been so poor. Since that was the case, the only explanation was the formation plates.

Had the Su Clan's large formation plates broken the restriction of range, able to unleash effects similar to formations personally arranged by Su clansmen?

If so, that was somewhat frightening.

Many beings resolved that after watching this competition, they would acquire a few formation plates to test.

Ye Zhongming watched the battle below, the expression on his face growing increasingly relaxed.

He and many spectators saw that the Star-Eye Clan was exploiting the Huaitang Clan's traditional thinking about formation plates—that they could stall and make the opponent walk out and abandon the plates.

Unexpectedly, the Huaitang Clan had instead fallen into passivity because of this. The previously correct approach had now become the wrong one.

"This is just the beginning. Savor it well," Ye Zhongming murmured. As he spoke, Bashilu's square formation, which had already launched three rounds of attacks in the arena, suddenly gathered towards their core training chief. All their weapons converged, touching upon Bashilu's weapon. Before the eyes of over two hundred thousand people, they emitted a massive surge of energy, forming a giant sword a hundred meters long, pressing down upon the Huaitang Clan's battle formation like a collapsing mountain peak!