Monique didn't intend to wait. Although the duration of <Athena's Battlefield> had increased with its power, it wasn't unlimited. She intended to capitalize on it while the golems still had the upper hand.

Finally, the Fang Clan Estate came to life. It only took destroying half their home to throw them into a panic. As if they had been hiding this whole time, warriors flooded out from the various palaces and manors waiting beyond the broken barrier.

Disciples, teachers, warriors, young geniuses, and elders assembled like angry bees, drawn by the sound of the alarms the group of elders rang. Even the lowest of those that rushed out to fight were above lv.110, which meant they were comparable to Nascent Soul Cultivators.

If Monique remembered correctly, it was supposed to be hard to reach this stage. Was it 1 among 1000 that had a talent for cultivation, or 1 in 10 000? She wasn't quite sure, but here were several thousand of them in one place, and they were the lowest ranks.

The average warrior that rushed out to face the flood of golems was lv. 135, comparable to the Soul Severing Realm. Maybe they had not yet reached it, but they were comparable by system standards. If it wasn't for <Athena's Battlefield>, they would have easily overrun her golem knights.

However, even if they matched their numbers, they didn't match their strength completely. After doubling their stats, the golem soldiers were able to match the lv.135 cultivators in single combat, despite their foreign abilities displayed in battle. Across the inner estate, duels and battles between battle formations and party compositions broke out.

However, it took the elder in the Dao Severing stage to clash with the 500 Golem Knights in Epic-Armor. With their stats doubled, they only lagged behind in technique, compared to these absolute powerhouses.

Around Monique, incredible powers clashed, turning giant palaces to liquid glass, splitting the ground below and the sky above. Metaphysical phenomena twisted reality left and right. She felt like walking through a storm of debris, as nobody held anything back anymore.

“ENOUGH!” A commanding shout blew across the battlefield, and a terrifying pressure followed it across the battlefield. It was an absolute command. The cultivators froze in place. Monique and the golems were blanketed by an incredible weight that stopped the golems in their tracks.

They all had been hit by an incredible crowd control ability.

Monique halted, not because of the weight, which barely burdened her. She stopped because the main actor of this show had finally entered the stage. Anything else was just a prelude leading up to this point.

<Fang Rong lv.--->

A name she knew, a level and status even she was unable to observe. This was the current Family Head of the Fang Family at the heart of the Fang Clan. he was a prominent immortal of the XiGuang Province and said to even rival the 10 Great Immortals.

The latter were just an arbitrary list of the most prominent, allegedly strongest people in the province, but according to their intel, the ranking was not necessarily correct in terms of power. Still, in the eyes of the public, these people were tremendous figures, and he rivaled these people. That was enough for now.

He was also at the center of the web of alliances that profited from their exploitation of Urth.

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“What is this farce! How come my great Fang Family is acting like a herd of panicking monkeys? How could you let things get this far?” he asked, disappointment dripping from his words. His gaze was scalding to the men in ripped and bloodied robes who had been fighting the golems to the best of their ability.

Only now, when they were forced to calmly see the consequences of their ineptitude, did they see what they had done. The great and luxurious estate was laid to ashes in great parts. The home of their family for hundreds of years, destroyed in a matter of minutes.

Grand spells and formation traps, trampled in their own panic when suddenly facing an enemy beyond their expectations. This was their fault. Had they acted with just a little more caution, this would not have happened. Truly, how could they have allowed things to come this far?

The shine of silver on the ground below drew in their gazes. The enemy leader, a fairy in grand artifacts, wielding a terrifying spear. They looked at Monique, questioning what had driven them into such a rushed reaction, and they could only blame her presence for it all.

But nobody dared to speak up, as none of them could explain why it was her fault. It would just sound like an empty excuse to the family head. They could only lower their heads and endure the rightful wrath of their master.

“Don't be so angry with them. Things like this happen on the battlefield,” Monique's voice broke the silence. Specifically, it was one of the effects that followed <Athena's Battlefield> and another divine skill <Athena's Battle Deception>.

It was a skill that lowered intelligence and wisdom. Overall, it made it ...easier for the enemy to make decisions that were in favor of her goals. The effects depended on the willpower and resistance of the targets, but considering the boost on divine skills gained through her armor, it hardly made sense if anyone below the rank of a legend could escape its effects.

Even the family leader had waited, watching his estate get destroyed without a single one of their traps or defenses being activated. Only now did he intervene, when things had already gone way too far.

Despite being an immortal, he had waited several minutes before interfering.

But now he was here, and he wasn't playing fair. With a single word, he had stopped the battle and broken the effects of her skill on the assembled cultivators. He could have had this, after all, <Athena's Battlefield> had its fixed duration and was about to run out anyway.

“No more words from your forked tongue!” he barked at her, his words shaking the whole mountain. No more words, huh? A thin smile played around her lips. Fine, she would give him what he asked for, no more words. She shrugged her shoulders, flashed the shield in front of her, and activated a skill.

<Gorgon's Gaze>, part of <Power of Phinene>, was the skill of a gorgon to create a flash of light that drew the attention of anyone who saw it and lowered the resistance to, of course, petrification. The bright light drew all mortal gazes of the battlefield to her shield, even for just a glance.

The Head of the Gorgon surfaced in the center of her Aegis. When the immortal didn't play fair, then Monique had no reason to either. At the sight of the gorgon's visage, all cultivators in the Spirit Severing Realm and below instantly turned to statues. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Hundreds of stone figures fell out of the sky, shattering on the ground. The streets were filled with warriors frozen in combat. Only those of the Dao Seeking Stage were battling the patches of stone growing on their bodies, desperately trying to expel the foreign energy

The only one completely resisting the sight of the gorgon's face was Fang Rong, the immortal. However, his expression had become a pale grimace of shock and anger when all his people suddenly turned into garden decorations without even the chance to resist.

Maybe the biggest shock was that Monique could have done this at any point, but only decided to do it now. Noticing his burning gaze, the Chosen of Athena lowered the shield and flashed him a bright smile, as if to say, “I didn't say a word.”

“If you are that angry about it, come down here and fight me~” she finally taunted as lightning started broiling around her. Her eyes turned white as two bolts of lightning shot forth and fried a nearby elder that struggle to resist the petrification.

“Come on, or there will be nothing left of your clan to save.”

Fang Rong turned into a streak of light and appeared right before her. Apparently, this was enough provocation to finally make the immortal move.