Chapter 393

The commander's face turned deathly pale: "His Majesty! Those are all Da Xia's……"

Gongsun Chi bellowed angrily: "Go! Pick the young and strong soldiers!"

The commander, utterly helpless, kowtowed heavily and stumbled out of the tent.

The armored, sharp-wielded guards of the tent silently and brutally dragged out one bewildered, capable soldier after another.

"What are you doing?"

"The Lieguo people have charged in! I'm about to go into battle to kill the enemy!"

The only reply they got was: "This is His Majesty's decree!"

Soon, the soldiers stripped of their armor had their arms bound behind their backs and knelt in a mass before the tent.

The torches illuminated each twisted face of shock and anger in stark clarity.

They could not understand why, just a moment ago they had been jointly resisting the foreign foe, and now they were lambs awaiting slaughter at the blades of their own comrades.

Wu Luo showed no expression, giving the guards a slight nod.

The guards worked in teams of three, holding a specially made blood‑letting iron spike; two men stood on either side of a soldier, pressing him down firmly.

The third man drove the spike into the soldier's back at the heart, twisted it, and pulled it out.

The scalding fresh blood fell into a copper basin prepared beforehand.

All the kneeling soldiers, upon seeing this, shouted aloud:

"What crime have we committed?"

"Why treat us like this?"

But the guards worked with lightning speed; in the blink of an eye, dozens of soldiers had their heart's blood taken from them while still alive.

A soldier being held down suddenly lifted his head, veins bulging in his neck, his eyes blood‑red as he glared at the tent entrance and bellowed:

"Demonic daoist! Foolish ruler——!"

His voice was shrill, full of resentment, piercing the clamor and stabbing into the ears of every soldier nearby who witnessed the scene.

Hearing it, their hands gripping their swords could not help but tremble slightly.

Wu Luo paid no heed to any of this.

Soon, the heart's blood of a hundred soldiers filled an entire basin, which was carried into the tent.

Wu Luo strode forward, his hands smeared with the still‑warm blood in the basin, and swiftly traced in the air.

Strands of twisted, eerie blood‑red sigils vanished into the void; the blood was drawn by an invisible force, turning into rolling crimson mist that seeped thread by thread into the ground.

"Boom——!"

The ground trembled slightly.

A bloody killing intent mixed with ferocity, pain, and resentment erupted explosively from the tent and shot up to the heavens!

This power was not purely mighty; rather, it appeared frenzied and chaotic, yet it forcibly broke through the invisible restraints!

At the formation's front, Xiao Yuanhang, who was steadily leading his troops forward, suddenly reined in his warhorse.

What had changed on the battlefield?

A gloomy, viscous invisible force, like an unseen mire, began to spread over the Da Xia army.

The Lieguo soldiers at the very front suddenly slowed their movements, as if a dozen‑jin weight had abruptly been placed upon them.

Meanwhile, the Da Xia soldiers who had originally scattered suddenly had their eyes turn an abnormal blood‑red; they howled and charged back, their strength and speed inexplicably surging!

Xiao Yuanhang furrowed his brows, wondering if the Formation… had perhaps been activated?

Wu Luo's face turned ashen as he collapsed to the ground.

He panted heavily, looking up at the Emperor: "Your Majesty! The Formation has been activated! Though its power has waned, it is still enough to check the enemy forces."

Gongsun Chi gazed at the battlefield, a cold light flashing in his eyes.

Indeed, the Lieguo's bamboo‑splitting advance momentum had come to a halt.

The scar on his face twitched as he slowly said: "Pass the order—entire army, counterattack."

"Whoever beheads Xiao Yuanhang shall be granted a fief and made a king!"

"Yes!"

"Your Majesty!" Wu Luo said weakly: "I have just forced the Formation to activate, exhausting my mind and spirit; please allow me to return to my tent to cultivate and heal."

"While I am cultivating, no one may disturb me; I also beg Your Majesty's compassion to send a squad of personal guards to watch my tent, so that after I regain my strength I may return to audience and serve Your Majesty!"

Gongsun Chi's expression remained calm as he personally helped Wu Luo to his feet: "National Preceptor, your hard work and merit are great; I will have someone send you back to rest."

Wu Luo, startled by the favor, said: "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

"Come here! Send the National Preceptor back! Also dispatch twenty men to guard his tent door!"

"Yes!"

Everyone who had just witnessed that scene before the great tent was shocked and fearful; the bloodstains on the ground remained, and the guards dared not approach Wu Luo, merely following him from a distance.

Wu Luo's steps were unsteady, his face pallid, as he staggered toward his own tent.

Only after he entered the tent and let down the heavy curtain did his feeble, exhausted appearance suddenly vanish.

His cloudy eyes flashed with a gleam; there was no trace left of his earlier half‑dead state.

He walked to a corner of the tent, bent over, and lifted a thick felt laid on the ground.

Beneath the felt lay a smooth stone slab.

Upon the slab was etched an ancient, intricate Formation.

The Formation's lines intertwined like vines, also resembling an inverted star chart; at its center a dark red point pulsed faintly, as if a sleeping heart.

Wu Luo extended his withered finger, lightly stroking the edge of the Formation, and let out a low laugh.

"As the ancients said, serving a ruler is like serving a tiger; Your Majesty, do you think I don't understand that?"

He snorted, his tone full of mockery: "Gongsun Chi, do you really think I would simply hand over that girl's fortune?"

Heh... If I didn't say this, how could you muster the nation's strength, send troops to the Fierce Nation, and let me lay down this 'Gathering Slaughter Formation' as tight as a heavenly net and earthly trap?

Without the blood and qi of thousands of soldiers and the killing aura of the two armies' clash as a guide, how could I activate this heaven-defying 'Soul-Guiding Return-to-Origin Formation'?

He sat cross-legged before the formation, bit his tongue tip, and let a drop of essence blood fall into it.

Ever since that damned girl sucked away my cultivation, I have already damaged my yang lifespan by decades, and I willingly courted the world's great condemnation, using evil arts to activate the Gathering Slaughter Formation.

So what?

All of this, compared to that girl's fortune, is not worth mentioning!

Senior Brother, what use is your coming? You've only learned the upper half of the 'True Explanation of Qi Fortune', yet you actually think you can stop me? Delusional!

He made hand seals, and the obscure incantation slowly slipped from his mouth, echoing faintly within the tent.

The formation lines on the stone slab gradually lit up, and a blood-red light burst from the dark red point at the center, quickly spreading across the entire formation diagram.

A chilling yin qi silently spread, penetrating the camp tents, winding soundlessly toward the direction of the Fierce Nation's Main Camp.

Wu Luo's face showed a near-greedy frenzy as he stared at the ever-brightening formation, muttering to himself:

"Damned girl, come quickly!"

"Your heavenly-endowed qi fortune, and your pure, flawless spiritual body—come now, I can't wait any longer!"

"I will suck away all your qi fortune, then refine your soul into a pill and swallow it in one gulp."

He threw back his head and laughed: "Hahaha, you are the cornerstone of my ascent to the Great Dao!"

"You can count yourself as not having come to this world in vain."