Chapter 370: 344 Turning Point

In another wide canyon, a great battle was erupting.

This was likely the most intense battle since the exam began. No, it could be called a campaign.

Sixty-seven examinees, locked in a great battle against five hundred puppets.

Although for the entire Qianxian, for the entire Suiyu, this kind of battle was not worth mentioning, its appearance in an exam was unprecedented and beyond everyone's expectations.

How to put it...

Regarding the trouble brought by Qu Huan and the others, there were certainly those who were secretly annoyed or even cursing them as jinxes, but more of the youths were actually excited.

To actually have a chance to fight a real decisive battle!

These examinees had come all this way, searching and seeking, fighting and fleeing; they had mainly been rushing along and running away. Finding horses had left them mentally tense, completing tasks had left them physically and mentally exhausted, and the back-and-forth fighting had left them drained of Heart Power. Most people had lost all other thoughts and just wanted to hurry to the finish line to rest.

But a decisive battle was different, a national war was different.

Especially after several young people from the Jing'an Division delivered a passionate mobilization speech, seeing the rolling dust and smoke in the distance and countless ugly Talisman Puppets advancing this way, a feeling of hot-bloodedness naturally arose.

"Where is this? This is the Qianxian! Coming to the Qianxian means fighting! Dragons must churn the rivers and seas, tigers must roar and gather in the mountains! If a rabbit hears the wind blowing or grass stirring, it can run! Are there any rabbits here?"

"Fight, fight, fight!"

Like an echo, the cries of "fight" stirred up huge waves.

Wen Caifei stood there shouting loudly; the people from the Jing'an Division and New Sharp Battalion naturally had to respond, and the Prison Suppression Division actually followed suit and shouted along. There were still many in the Jing'an Division who hesitated, but since the atmosphere had been built up to this point, naturally no one retreated publicly.

Courage is contagious, and the courage in this valley was now boiling over.

Standing nearby was Huo Chaoqun, a top-ranked newcomer from the New Sharp Battalion. He had been listening calmly, seemingly unaffected. Once she finished speaking, he said calmly, "Miss Wen, do you have any more tactical arrangements? If not, shall I take over?"

Wen Caifei naturally yielded; she was not skilled at deploying troops, so she said, "Please, Brother Huo, make the assignments."

Huo Chaoqun stood at the highest point and said in a steady voice, "Time is limited, so I will be brief. The enemy situation is currently unclear; we only know that about five hundred powerful puppets are charging into the valley, among which there are no fewer than five that are especially strong. We only have one hour to prepare. We must prepare for the worst, so let us first consider ourselves the weaker side, using the valley's terrain to set ambushes and surround them separately to achieve the goal of defeating the strong with the weak. Now, listen to my assignments—"

In the haste, Huo Chaoqun could not recognize everyone, nor could he set up a proper formation, but as an elite trained by the New Sharp Battalion, he was accustomed to the combat mode of elite squads. He placed the students present in units based on their own squads at various nodes to execute the goal of luring the enemy deep and encircling them for separate annihilation.

In fact, his line of thinking was the same as Ouyang Zhou and the others: both used the advantage of terrain to lure the enemy into splitting their forces and dealing with them individually. Even Qu Huan himself had thought this way when he led the puppet army here.

This was, of course, not some predestined fate, but rather that those who understand the Art of War will naturally choose the most advantageous method.

The difference was, first, there were more people here, so there were naturally more cards to play. Second, the powerful Puppet Charm on the other side was here, making the puppet army more like a real elite force.

The battle broke out after more than an hour. To give the examinees a little more preparation time, Qu Huan and the others had deliberately taken a longer route; the price was that they were almost caught, and they were truly in a sorry state when they charged into the valley.

Fortunately, he charged into the canyon and was quickly rescued at the first corner. Wen Caifei led her classmates out to take over his position as bait, and his subordinate Wu Qi, whom he had sent over, hoisted them up the cliff from the mountain.

Not to mention the rest for Qu Huan and his group, the battle was intense from the start. In fact, their "Ambush from Ten Sides" was still effective. Although that Puppet Charm was powerful, it was not a master of the Art of War and could be worn down layer by layer by various elite squads and led into various dead ends.

In fact, real human military strategists would also fall for such tricks; even someone as strong as the King of Xiang would still be besieged by an ambush from ten sides.

It was just that while they overestimated the puppet army's level of the Art of War, they underestimated the strength of these puppets.

Even though they divided the puppets into dozens of squads and separated them from the main group, besieging them separately in the narrow valley, they still... could not cut through them.

Of course, not all puppets were uncuttable. Those small puppets, especially the humanoid ones, had quite a few weaknesses and could be dealt with if one struck accurately with an Art Tool. But those large puppets, the ones that were like moving city walls, even if a real Art Tool struck them, it would only leave a white mark; they were harder to break through than real Fierce Beasts.

And although that Puppet Charm was not a master of divine calculations, it was quite methodical, knowing how to use stillness to control movement and make itself invincible. Although these puppets were split up, every route necessarily had at least one large puppet following it, and the large puppet's tactics were very clear: it acted as cover, blocking in front of all the puppets, while the small puppets in the rear fought with long-range weapons like "spray arrows," creating terrain where there was none.

Therefore, although the group of puppets was divided and surrounded, they could not be eliminated, and sooner or later they would converge, which would instead consume their own people separately.

At this time, Qu Huan, who was watching the battle from above, reminded Huo Chaoqun, who was in charge, "Old Huo, the key lies in removing the firewood from under the cauldron. We still have to find the Puppet Charm."

How could Huo Chaoqun not know this? He said, "This Puppet Charm is very cunning. Look, the performance of each of these puppet squads is about the same, especially since there are many mistakes; every squad often loses its direction, and they often make mistakes in the overall situation."

Qu Huan pondered, "By 'performance is about the same,' you mean you can't tell which squad the Puppet Charm is in, and by 'making mistakes in the overall situation,' you mean..."

Huo Chaoqun said, "It means the Puppet Charm is not observing the entire battle from a high vantage point like we are."

There was no one else around. He couldn't help but bite his fingernails and said, "In this winding and complex mountainous terrain, there are too many blind spots when you are in the mountains. I originally wanted to lure it to a high place to observe the terrain; once it left the main force, we could deal with it from above. I didn't expect it wouldn't take the bait."

Qu Huan gritted his teeth and said, "This Phantom is a coward."

Huo Chaoqun said, "Our time is limited. If it really doesn't work, we can only trap them here and then run for our lives. Anyway, we aren't far from the finish line; we'll just charge through and consider it a success."

Qu Huan said, "Running for our lives again? That would mean we lost..."

Huo Chaoqun said, "Victory and defeat are common matters for a soldier; there is no need to avoid saying it. We will get the horses outside, then sound the retreat, and we will come out and ride the horses away."

Just as they were admitting defeat, a turning point appeared at the foot of the mountain.

A huge puppet got stuck at the entrance of the canyon, blocking the puppets behind it in a mountain hollow.

Everyone's eyes lit up; they had found a new breakthrough—using the width and weight of the puppets themselves to destroy them.

At once, everyone swarmed up, whether by setting traps or using the terrain to block their positions, and in one fell swoop, they captured two squads!

Now only...

Eight squads remained!

Or rather, seven squads and one large unit. The main large unit. The large unit could still be split into more squads.

Although it was only a small step forward, although it was unknown whether they could capture all the squads before this exam ended at this efficiency, although there were still many uncertainties...

But if one could win, who would want to fail?

A Squad Leader named Wang Chong climbed up and said, "Captain Huo, I have good news, you—"

As soon as he came up, he saw Qu Huan and Huo Chaoqun looking at the foot of the mountain with grave expressions. His heart immediately sank, and he said, "What's wrong?"

Qu Huan and Huo Chaoqun turned their heads at the same time and said in unison, "Nothing—what is it you have?"

Wang Chong suppressed his doubts and said, "We have already found the control Rune Formula for the giant Talisman Puppets. Although it is not the most core one, destroying that Rune Formula can prevent those city-wall puppets from moving normally!"

This was indeed good news. Huo Chaoqun's eyes lit up, and he said, "Well done. Wave the flags and summon all the captains; you will teach them the method of breaking it."

Wang Chong shouted, "Understood." He went to the hilltop to wave the flags. The examinees of the New Sharp Battalion all understood flag signals, and the other examinees were not unfamiliar with them either; they had agreed on simple contact flag signals when they assigned tasks earlier, using them as orders for deployment.

After he left, Qu Huan looked gravely at Huo Chaoqun and said, "Did you count them clearly?"

Huo Chaoqun gritted his teeth and said, "I counted them clearly. Originally, we split them into twelve squads through the terrain, but now, including the ones that fell, only eleven remain. One puppet squad has disappeared."

Qu Huan was silent; he could not say anything at this moment.

This sentence contained too much information.

He gritted his teeth and said, "But it would be one thing if other puppets disappeared, but how could such a large puppet slip away right under our noses?"

Huo Chaoqun had no words to reply, and could only repeat, "I would not count wrong."

Qu Huan fell silent once again.

After a while, he also said, "I have some good news... or perhaps bad news to tell you."

Huo Chaoqun said, "Speak, how much worse could it possibly get?"

Qu Huan gritted his teeth and said, "I couldn't be sure during the chaotic battle before, but now I should be certain. The puppets in this battle are much stupider than the one that was chasing me."

Huo Chaoqun turned around abruptly and said, "You mean to say—"

Qu Huan said, "That powerful Puppet Charm should have already left this place."

While the battle here was in full swing, on the dark-colored Pingyuan over there, a squad of puppets was marching.

This squad was primarily composed of ordinary humanoid Talisman Puppets, with no massive monster puppets, but if one looked closely, among them was a tiny square puppet that was exactly the super-sized puppet shrunk a hundred times over.

A solemn-looking youth walked silently at the rear of the squad; he was the only human in the entire group and appeared to be a commander. Under his command, the squad marched straight toward the finish line of the examination.

Behind the Talisman Puppet squad, two uninvited guests were watching from afar.

One of them, a middle-aged scholar, sighed softly and said, "It seems Xiao Tang has also realized something is wrong."