Chapter 547: A Thousand Li of Land as the Chessboard, Pieces Placed

"Senior Qian Unit Two, proceed to this location for support."

"Zhen Unit One, proceed to..."

"Gen Unit Three, mission complete, merit reward three, squad leader merit reward six, vice leader four."

Jiang Ding flew in the sky, his quasi-divine sense electromagnetic waves enveloping the four directions, receiving transmitted messages marked by the One-Eyed Cicadas and sword intent, his divine soul operating at high speed, continuously issuing one command after another.

Within a radius of a thousand li, every command issued would be received with reverent expressions by Jin Dan squads of three to twelve members, who would then move toward the marked coordinates.

"Kan Unit Two, cowardice in battle, merit minus ten."

"A second offense, merit deduction doubled; a third, all merits stripped, no further acceptance."

From time to time, relatively stern words would appear, causing the corresponding squad's Jin Dan cultivators to turn deathly pale.

Once all merits were stripped and one was no longer accepted, gaining nothing was the least of it.

What was more terrifying was that, with Sword Order cultivators spread across every hill and field, one would have to face a sea of cultivators alone, standing on their opposing side.

Certain death!

Of course, that one claimed he would not take the initiative to bully anyone, but no Jin Dan cultivator would believe it, nor would they trust the character of those around them.

"Command isn't actually that difficult."

Jiang Ding processed intelligence coming in from all sides while silently pondering.

To date, the number of Sword Order cultivators had reached two hundred and twenty-one; they used the Eight Trigrams as designations, spread across the four directions, accepting various missions.

Combat, slaughter, gathering, temporarily handling medicinal materials that needed immediate processing... and so on, orderly and methodical, fully considering each cultivator's specialty and personal wishes.

Other loose cultivators discovered in horror that, within a few days, an enormous entity had somehow appeared in Luoxu Sect—orderly, with strict commands, often dozens ganging up to kill a single person, heaven-shattering spells and magic treasures raining down; even peak Jin Dan cultivators would die instantly, unable to resist.

It wasn't only in combat,

In plundering heaven and earth treasures it was the same—an inch-by-inch advance, with multiple formation-talented cultivators as the vanguard, breaking through formations bit by bit, harvesting at maximum efficiency without damaging spiritual medicines.

Compared to the chaotic scramble of loose cultivators fighting over opportunities, the overall efficiency was higher by more than several times!

The many loose cultivators fighting over spiritual medicines and heaven and earth treasures schemed against each other, guarded against each other, maintained extreme vigilance, afraid someone would suddenly burst out, and often used the crudest and fastest methods to break formations—whose formation mastery was often, to put it mildly, hard to describe.

After all that, ten parts of spiritual medicines would have three or four parts destroyed during formation-breaking, another three or four parts destroyed during the scramble, and getting three parts harvested in the end would be considered good.

That didn't even count the many obscure heaven and earth treasures whose preservation methods were special, often improperly stored, causing massive loss of efficacy.

Over two hundred Jin Dan cultivators, under sword intent supervision, had no internal friction with one another, moving in groups, wantonly swallowing up and driving off lone cultivators; every second their gains rapidly increased, heaven and earth treasures piling up fast.

"Lord Master Tushan."

The One-Eyed Cicada at Jiang Ding's waist flashed with spiritual light—it was his hub for receiving information from all sides, made with fairly good materials, reaching the top-grade magic treasure tier.

A white-haired, white-bearded old cultivator appeared in Jiang Ding's field of vision.

"My lord, might we temporarily stop accepting new cultivators?"

Bai Mei True Person bowed in salute.

He had accepted the Master Tushan Sword Order at the first notice, and with his peak Jin Dan cultivation and decent thunder techniques, became the squad leader of Zhen One and concurrently the unit commander of Zhen Unit.

"Our current strength is already enough to sweep through Luoxu Sect as it stands; perhaps we should stop here, no longer accept new cultivators, simply drive them all out and slay them..."

Bai Mei True Person hesitated, words caught in his throat.

"Is this your personal opinion, or that of others?"

Jiang Ding asked.

This was the first time he had heard anyone speak like this, but clearly, cowed by his fearsome reputation, this kind of sentiment had been brewing for a long time before being carefully weighed and finally spoken aloud.

The reason, naturally, wasn't hard to guess—numbers were sufficient, and they wanted to reduce the share of profit-takers.

"... Several cultivators."

Bai Mei True Person said, slightly embarrassed.

"Not permitted."

Jiang Ding said calmly: "I need more people, to ultimately proceed to the Luoxu Sect Ancestral Master Hall."

"There's no need for worry, everyone—your merits far exceed those who come later; you should be able to have your wishes fulfilled."

To avoid dampening the other's enthusiasm, he offered a word of comfort.

"Yes, Lord Master Tushan!"

Bai Mei True Person cupped his hands in salute, daring to say no more.

……

In a mountain valley.

The formation generated layer upon layer of white mist for concealment, occasionally revealing a wisp of aura; it was a top-grade third-tier formation, faintly reaching the quasi-Nascent Soul tier, easily capable of sweeping through and slaughtering a large swath of Jin Dan cultivators.

Over forty cultivators each stood on formation patterns, occasionally raising a hand to cast, and dozens of bolts of thunder would rumble down.

These people mostly carried the aura of thunder-path Gong Fa; what they had formed was only the simplest Heaven-Earth-Man three-talent formation, but they could already avoid interfering with one another, and because they all cultivated the same Xi Gong Fa, there was even a small amplification.

More importantly, numbers!

A full forty-plus thunder-technique cultivators—even those who weren't thunder-technique cultivators were carefully selected, their Gong Fa not only causing no interference but actually providing considerable assistance.

At this moment, dozens of thunderbolts struck down together, and this top-grade third-tier formation immediately burst with spiritual light, the formation teetering on the brink of collapse, revealing the many terrified General General Heishi branch descendants within.

There were over twenty people in total; protected at the very center by numerous Jin Dan guards was, conspicuously, Wu Wu Chengzhong—face deathly pale, wings damaged, broken and tattered, half her body a sticky mess—staring in disbelief at Bai Mei True Person and the others outside the formation.

Among them were several she recognized, or who were wanted criminals of Master Tushan Xiancheng, whose information she knew.

These people came from all corners of the world—some from the orthodox path, some from the demonic path, some from remote small places, even bandits and runaway slaves...

A chaotic mess of identities, their Gong Fa all different—how had they gathered together, maintained hierarchy, and not fallen into internal strife?

How could these lawless ruffians be so obedient?

"Unit commander, has Lord Master Tushan agreed?"

A red-faced old man with a drinker's nose cast a greedy glance at the General General Heishi branch Jin Dan cultivators inside the formation, especially the many magic treasures on them, drool nearly dripping down.

The surrounding loose-cultivator Jin Dan were similar—thunder rumbled down, deliberately holding back some force.

"Haha, what a fine day this is!"

Someone burst out laughing.

Think of them, the loose cultivators — they had always been bullied by swarms of clan cultivators in military formation, never dreaming there would be a day like this, turning the tables, surrounding so many clan Jin Dan here, calling out to heaven with no answer, crying to the earth with no reply.

Everyone's heart was full of exhilaration.

High-grade concealment formations had originally been set up here; even peak Jin Dan cultivators could not detect them.

It was a Sword-Command Jin Dan cultivator who happened to run into a branch-line Jin Dan of General General Heishi, was overmatched in the moment and captured, vanishing without a trace. Then the Master Tushan sword cultivators ordered people to come investigate, and several more fell into the trap.

After that, the entire Thunder Department — over forty Jin Dan thunder-art cultivators — received the order, gathered together, surrounded the place so tightly not a drop could leak out, and bombarded it wildly; even a top-grade third-tier formation could not hold.

"Lord Master Tushan says, no."

True Person Bai Mei gave a faint sigh, and released the voice he had heard for all to hear, to show he was not deceiving anyone.

"No?"

"These people are the most wicked of the clan folk!"

The surrounding Jin Dan cultivators froze for a beat, then exploded in an uproar, deeply resentful: "What a fine chance to get rich! Even after handing over three-tenths, each person could get at least one Zhong Pin Fa, and heaven-sent treasures beyond counting…"