Chapter 302: Guild Welfare, Formation System Debuts (Request Monthly Votes)

Qi Sheng monitored the battle to contain the Kongyuan Peak node from behind the scenes.

In this battle, he observed numerous flaws in the player system under warfare mode.

The most obvious flaw remained the inability of individual forces to unite into a single cohesive power when facing powerful opponents.

This problem was not without a solution.

Refer to the Counterflow Legion.

Every soldier of the Counterflow Legion, no matter how weak, could channel collective power through formation tactics.

The Monster World teemed with powerful beings whose strength could move mountains and fill seas, shattering skies and splitting earth with a wave of their hands.

Yet even the weakest, no matter how hard they pushed their development, could not withstand even a sliver of divine realm pressure.

Thus many races concentrated their resources on their top few warriors, using their strength to expand territory.

But the Counterflow Legion shattered this iron law through the way of formations, creating a warfare model: "Ten thousand ants can swallow a god."

That is, what Instructor Shi Shi Xiuluo of the Counterflow Training Camp called: "Merge many into one, defy heaven against the tide."

The hallmark of the formation system was allowing Counterflow Legion soldiers to gather their powers collectively, acquiring group strength capable of opposing Half-Divine Realm and even True-Divine Realm powerhouses.

Transform each soldier into a single screw within the formation, coordinating the formation's operation so individual power became part of the collective's elevation.

It could also achieve shared damage and unified output.

This amplification was not as simple as mere addition.

If 100 soldiers' powers were merely added together, total power would be only 100 units.

Through coordinated resonance, the formation model allowed 100 soldiers' gathered power to reach 1000 units—or even higher.

After the formation was established, all members' consciousnesses interwove, using formation runes as guides, blood and qi as bridges, and will as the blade.

The weak were like streams, the strong like Jianghe; within the formation, streams could ride Jianghe's momentum, and Jianghe could absorb the might of countless tributaries.

Truly achieving unity of ten thousand hearts, their power could sever gold.

When all soldiers' killing intent, battle intent, and belief became highly unified, a "spiritual shadow of the army" could even coalesce above the formation.

While studying this system, Zhiyin analyzed the origin of the formation system.

He learned this system's origin came from the "Fire Ant Clan" of the Pale Continent, a tribe long since vanished from the Monster World's stage.

The individual strength of this tribe was extremely weak; a single ant could not even pierce the hide of external predators.

But when millions formed a formation, their blood and qi intertwined into a "Heaven-Scorching Fire Net," and their will coalesced into: the War God Fire Ant Shadow.

It could spew flames that burned the world, making even Half-Divine Realm powerhouses struggle to resist, easily burning through their surface defenses.

The Counterflow Legion took this as reference, through constant experimentation, adjustment, and battlefield testing.

Eventually developing the formation system.

Turning each soldier into a driving force within the torrent of war.

The strong create momentum and advance; the weak follow and push; all forces combine to forge a destructive tide.

This was, in Qi Sheng's eyes, the future direction of the player armies.

Enabling guilds and groups to gain the power to overcome stronger foes through the formation system.

But if they were going to do it, they must do it best.

Imitating the Counterflow Legion was not enough—he aimed to perfect and surpass it.

With Zhiyin's ability to analyze all things, many problems the Counterflow Legion faced had solutions at his disposal.

At this stage, development of the formation system was still in its infancy; very few formation templates had been fully finalized.

And each day required massive Shou Shou Jili investment.

The performance of the United Task Force under the God-King's command during the containment of Kongyuan Peak gave Qi Sheng the idea to launch this feature early.

He thought perhaps, like the growth-based pet system, the formation system could be continuously refined through updates adding new content.

Second, he considered that many player guilds were shifting focus toward Adventurer Dungeon mode.

He felt it was time to introduce some welfare measures.

The popularity of Adventurer Dungeons was simple to explain.

Compared to the main world, dungeon mode allowed repeated exploration to gather strategies, eliminating the need to outwit external forces like Di Nian the Tyrant.

The random reward system gave players anticipation with every dungeon challenge.

Under multiple influences, the popularity of Adventurer Dungeons continued to rise.

Qi Sheng did not think the Adventurer Dungeon development model was unworkable.

As long as it generated tax revenue and enhanced player strength, players could play however they wished.

He was concerned that the combat rewards from the main world and the output from Adventurer Dungeons had already diverged.

Especially for groups in the mid-tier of the player faction.

The Blue Lantern Clan gave too much, keeping player enthusiasm for dungeons persistently high.

To balance this, and to encourage groups to actively contain diverse domain nodes,

he decided to launch a welfare initiative for guild development.

Making each territory node containment bring benefits to participating guilds.

Taking resource node containment as an example.

After each containment, a portion of the resource node's output could be rewarded to participating guilds.

Enabling these actively fighting guilds to continuously profit from victory in campaigns.

The specific plan already had a clear conception in Qi Sheng's mind.

After contacting Sister Jiu Yin and Chaowei to learn the formation system's development progress in detail, he decided to begin preparing for the new feature update immediately.

That day, at 3:00 PM.

The Challenger notification rang in every player's mind; the forum simultaneously posted the update thread.

【Challenger Notice (All-Channel Notice): The game is about to undergo a version update. The content is as follows:】

Poster: Guide (Officially Verified)

Update Content One: Guild Rights

Content Introduction: To encourage players to actively participate in Domain Node Containment operations and enhance the team combat experience, this update will introduce a new mode: Node Revenue Rights.

Henceforth, guilds that successfully participate in Domain Node Containment operations will automatically acquire permanent output revenue from that node.

Example: When Guild A participates in containing the "Dark Steel Mining Zone" resource node, that guild permanently enjoys 2% of the mining zone node's output revenue as a continuous dividend.

The specific method is: when players in the Di Zhao Village mining zone mine Spirit Ore produced by the Dark Steel Mining Zone and consign it to the Trading Hall, for every piece sold, 40% of the transaction fee (5%) belongs to the guild that participated in the containment.

Note: When multiple guilds participate in and successfully contain a resource-type node, guild percentage rights are allocated according to battle contribution (command score, damage output score, damage taken score, sacrifice score, support score, etc., calculated comprehensively), dismantled and distributed from the 2% permanent rights.

Update Content Two: Battle Formation Mode goes online.

Specific Content: Players can go to the latest functional building in Di Zhao Village, "Battle Formation Plaza," to understand the relevant content in detail.

Update Content Three: Battle Formation Challenge Event.

Event Duration: 72 hours (Countdown: 71 hours 59 minutes 57 seconds.)

Event Details: After this update ends, players can participate in the limited-time event through the new functional building "Battle Formation Plaza." Players can edit the battle formation system participating in the event within the scene, challenge endless levels, and enter the leaderboard when the event ends to receive generous rewards.

(The Battle Formation Challenge is divided into three rankings: Ten-Man Battle Formation Ranking, Hundred-Man Battle Formation Ranking, and Thousand-Man Group Battle Formation Ranking.)

After entering the event space, all Painful Painful Minghun levels are set to Level 30, with 5 Star Pulse Slots, and Painful Painful Minghun inlays can be freely matched.

Players who clear levels reaching the top hundred on the leaderboard can receive event rewards.

……

Comment Section:

Whiteboard Limit Counter-Kill: Is the Battle Formation Mode in Update Two similar to that of the Retrograde Legion? This thing is too hard to learn. I've watched the course compilation videos on the forum several times and rehearsed with brothers in the warband many times but failed; it's all difficult points. I hope the one-click Battle Formation Mode produced by our own side skips the tedious coordination and the Qi and Blood entanglement process; I'm numb from learning it.

Monster World is Really Fun: Does the permanent revenue rights mentioned in the update regarding containment include previously contained Domain Nodes? Although rewards for nodes contained in the early days have already been distributed, I think since this function has been updated, the rights for early-contained nodes should be added too (because my guild participated in several early node containment battles, drooling).

Like a Dream: Permanent profit rights look satisfying; top guilds like Shen Tang can earn passively in the late game, but 2% is a bit low. If a hundred guilds participate in containment together, splitting this 2% is too low. Fortunately, guilds can be inherited. Laozi conquers the world, then passes the permanent rights down to descendants. How long Monster World this game can live, the next generation can enjoy it for that long. This isn't rights; this is means of production similar to land in the new era.

Raven: Haven't gone to check the new functional building yet. I feel lone-wolf players can't use this update content at all. Whether it's the battle formation system or guild permanent rights, they have nothing to do with lone-wolf players.

Knife in the Rainy Night: Actually, node containment revenue also depends on the efforts of the Miner Faction players. The more Miner Faction players mine, the more ore they sell to the Trading Hall, the higher the revenue the guilds participating in containment can obtain... Another thing to mention: the mining zone is very lively recently; it's full of newbies from the Eternal Silence Binghu. It seems many newbies plan to start by accumulating Shou Shou Jili in the mining zone. These players who haven't done physical labor in the real world are quite hardworking in the game (moving bricks, laughing. jpg).

……

The update content sparked heated discussion on the forum.

Meanwhile, the east district of Di Zhao Village shook, and a brand new plaza rose from the ground.

In terms of shape, the plaza's layout follows a Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams pattern. The ground is paved with black stone slabs, each slab carved full of dark red formation patterns, resembling dried bloodstains or burning flames.

At the central formation eye stands a ten-zhang-high bronze giant stele. Golden seal script is printed on the stele face: "Transform the Many into One, Defy Heaven Against the Current."

And this sentence is precisely the core of the battle formation system.

At the four directions of the plaza, four stone statues of the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise guard the four sides. Dark flames flicker in the statues' eyes, as if they will come to life at any moment.

But veteran players all know that the appearance of all functional buildings is just decoration; the focus is on the content inside the functional buildings.

Just as players launched heated discussion on this.

Hearing the update notice, Hei Ye Jiang Zhi decisively put down the book in his hand, walked out of the Di Zhao Village Library, and hurried towards the direction of the new functional building.

Updates in Monster World are always very sudden, with no update previews.

Usually, when updating, he needed to return to the village via the "Convenient Method."

This time, he was checking materials in the Di Zhao Village Library, which saved the resurrection cooldown time.

Passing the resurrection teleportation point along the way, he could see player figures constantly surging out from it.

The teleportation point, whose area has been expanded multiple times, showed signs of pressure again after the previous recruitment round, needing to contain more Domain Nodes for expansion as soon as possible.

Otherwise, if millions of players surge into Di Zhao Village simultaneously, the resurrection teleportation point might be like exploding popcorn, with figures surging upward.

The one who just teleported in hadn't walked out of the resurrection point yet and was already pushed toward the sky by the continuously surging subsequent players.

A few minutes later, Hei Ye Jiang Zhi arrived at the "Battle Formation Plaza."

Before his feet even leaped off the flying skateboard, he, having entered the functional building scene, heard a Challenger Notice in his mind:

【Challenger Notice: Enter the Battle Formation Space? This teleportation consumes 2 points of Shou Shou Jili: Yes/No.】

After confirming, a strong Intense Weightlessness struck.

In the darkness, he heard the sound of war drums beating gradually become clear and amplified, the sound waves making the Qi and Blood in his body boil.

The darkness in his eyes dispersed, revealing a magnificent training ground before him.

Beneath him was a black stone high platform, its surface carved with various weapon patterns.

Wild wind rolled sand grains, slapping his face, carrying the mixed scent of rust and sweat.

Looking around, the entire training ground had a circular sunken structure, estimated to be twice as large as a football field.

The ground here was paved with dark red stone blocks polished smooth by training, with deep brown old bloodstains congealed in the cracks.

Eight bronze pillars coiled with dragons stood at the edge of the field. Broken war flags were stuck all over the surrounding walls, rustling in the wind. The dark red "War" character on the flags seemed written with fresh blood.

Directly in front of him were three neatly arranged square formations.

In the first square formation at the very front stood ten heavy-armored warriors like iron towers. They wore all-black battle armor, with vicious thorns extending from the joints, resembling asuras crawling out of hell.

The ghost-face helmets on their heads were cast into the likeness of evil gods, with dark green flames flickering in the hollow eye sockets.

Although they held no weapons, every one's fists were wrapped in spiked gauntlets, knuckles protruding like wolf teeth. They stood motionless like sculptures; only when breathing did white mist hiss from the gaps in the faceplates in the wind.

Extending backward, the hundred-man formation was like a moving steel wall.

Their heavy armor was even thicker. Roaring black-armored snake patterns were cast on the shoulder guards. The ghost-faces on their faces were different, with angry eyes wide open and ghastly white fangs stabbing out from the lip gaps.

At the very back, the thousand-man formation spread to the end of the vision, a dark mass like a demon army surging from the abyss.

Their armor was carved full of blood grooves, and the ghost-faces were uniformly of the formless appearance, smooth as a mirror.

The thousand people were silent; only the war drum sound resonated with their heartbeats, emitting a low "thump-thump" sound.

Just then, on the side platform for appointing generals, twelve Kui-Ox war drums were beaten by bare-chested, upper-body-naked strongmen.

A figure like an iron tower stepped out from the drum formation; its visor lifted to reveal a face carved like by knife and chisel, with a ferocious scar slashing diagonally from the left eye down to the jaw.

He knelt on one knee, cupped his fist toward Hei Ye Jiang Zhi's position, his arm armor clanging loudly, his voice booming like a great bell:

"General, the formations are arranged. Please inspect the troops!"

At his low shout, a semi-transparent, blood-colored light-mirror interface unfolded before Hei Ye Jiang Zhi's eyes as night approached.

"This opening is somewhat interesting."

Hei Ye Jiang Zhi chuckled softly, his gaze focusing on the battle formation arrangement list before him.

【Battle Formation System】:

Content Introduction: Players can use warriors in the martial arts arena to simulate and test battle formation combinations and applications. Different formations possess different group amplification effects and can gain additional combination bonuses through the Painful Painful Minghun traits of the players arranging the formation.

Main Formation Introduction:

Ten-Person Formation: Asura Break Formation (Level 1).

Main Formation Introduction: Requires a minimum of ten players to form the formation (maximum 99). All players' attributes merge, gaining an additional two-fold comprehensive attribute amplification.

Price: 100,000 Shou Shou Jili.

Hundred-Person Formation: Great Luo Iron Wall (Level 1).

Main Formation Introduction: Requires a minimum of one hundred players to form the formation (maximum 999). All players' attributes merge, gaining an additional five-fold comprehensive attribute amplification.

Price: 300,000 Shou Shou Jili.

Thousand-Person Formation: Formless Ghost Tide.

Main Formation Introduction: Requires a minimum of one thousand players to form the formation (maximum 9,999). All players' attributes merge, gaining an additional five-fold comprehensive attribute amplification.

Price: 1,000,000 Shou Shou Jili.

Ten-Thousand-Person Formation (Locked...).

After brief contemplation, Hei Ye Jiang Zhi chose the "Ten-Person Formation" as the test target. Immediately, the interface shifted, and miniature models of ten black-armored warriors appeared in front within the interface; beneath each warrior's portrait were star-pulse slots available for inlaying.

Each warrior had five star-pulse slots; on the right was a selectable Painful Painful Minghun library, with all Painful Painful Minghun set to Level 30.

At the very bottom was a clickable "Battle Formation Attribute Compendium."

With curiosity, Hei Ye Jiang Zhi touched the option with his consciousness, and immediately, lists of attributes for different combinations floated up within the interface.

Bone-Eroding Blood Poison (Battle Formation Attribute): Level 1.

Requirement: The formation must possess ten Black-Armored Snake Painful Painful Minghun. The formation's Dharma-Image will gain the "Vicious" effect bonus; all attacks will carry the Bone-Eroding Blood Poison effect, inflicting continuous poison attribute damage on the target and restricting the life self-healing speed of the hit target (as the number of Black-Armored Snake Painful Painful Minghun increases, and as the comprehensive level rises, additional trait buffs can be obtained).

Blood Fiery Break Army (Active): Level 1.

Requirement: Thirsting Blood Painful Painful Minghun (x10), Blood Ignition (x7).

Attribute Effect: Continuously releases destructive air currents, inflicting continuous storm damage on targets within a 500-meter radius outside the formation. The inflicted bleeding damage will be absorbed and transformed by the "Thirsting Blood" air currents, continuously restoring life consumption for members within the friendly formation, and greatly increasing the killing power of the formation's Dharma-Image.

Raksha Wrathful Dharma-Image (Active): Level 1.

Requirement: Vast Qi (x10), Ink Flame (x10), Mightful (x10).

Attribute Effect: On top of the main formation's amplification, gain an additional one-fold attribute amplification, condensing into a Raksha Dharma-Image.

The Battle Formation Attribute Compendium in the list contained a full 328 entries.

Players forming the battle formation must activate these through the Painful Painful Minghun they have inlaid.

To Hei Ye Jiang Zhi, the Battle Formation System seemed like opening a new Battle Formation Star-Pulse System on top of the existing Star-Pulse foundation.

But the requirements were higher than those for Star-Pulses.

Players composing the battle formation can be likened to "Painful Painful Minghun"; the sum of the Painful Painful Minghun carried and inlaid by the players must satisfy the requirements in the Attribute Compendium to activate corresponding attribute bonuses and special skills.

How to combine them must all follow the Compendium.

Without additional attribute bonuses, a battle formation is like a blank slate; aside from attribute amplification, it possesses no other effects.

Although the main formation has attribute multiplier amplification, the effect is not necessarily better than fighting individually.

After all, a battle formation is like a prison, binding the actions of all players within it.

In combat, some damage can be solved by dodging, but under the Battle Formation System, everyone must collectively take the beating.

From this preliminary understanding, he felt this newly launched system was extremely complex; the current mainstream Star-Pulse combinations only had ten Painful Painful Minghun slots.

But the Battle Formation System starts with one hundred Painful Painful Minghun slots.

Flipping through the Compendium library, one could find that some battle formation attribute activation requirements even started with ten thousand identical Painful Painful Minghun, and also required combining other types of Painful Painful Minghun; it was simply a Super Star-Pulse System.

This made battle formation combinations even more complex than Star-Pulses.

Especially those requiring mixed-type combinations.

For example, the "Formless Demon Kingdom" attribute he saw in the Attribute Compendium library.

It required combining 39 types of Painful Painful Minghun, with each type needing over one thousand.

Therefore, the characteristic of the Battle Formation System is: the more players, the higher the strength.

For every additional player, an equivalent number of battle formation slots matching the player's star-pulse slots can be added.

For example, if one player possesses ten star-pulse slots.

After they join the battle formation, ten slots available for inlaying different types of Painful Painful Minghun can be added to the formation.

If one hundred thousand players form a battle formation, all battle formation attributes in the existing Compendium could be activated, with no need to worry at all about how to reasonably use the slots.

From this preliminary understanding, he could confirm that the Battle Formation System had only launched partial content.

Just as growth-type pets are released irregularly, the Battle Formation System also had a vast amount of content still locked.

For example, the Ten-Thousand-Person Formation, Hundred-Thousand-Person Formation, Million-Person Formation, and so on.

The number of activatable battle formation attributes on the Compendium will inevitably increase in the future.

This is a brand-new Xin Wan Fa that gradually increases in strength as the player faction develops.

But the actual combat effectiveness remains to be tested.

For this complex pairing play, Brother Heiye Brother Heiye Jiangzhi immediately became interested.

Back then, posting star-vein pairing guides on the forum was purely out of interest.

He began assembling his first battle formation according to the attribute requirements listed in the bestiary.

Ten warriors, totaling fifty star-vein slots—he first selected the Rakshasa Wrath attribute, embedding each warrior with Qi Shield, Ink Flame, and Force-Ogre Axe Painful Painful Minghun.

This consumed thirty card slots in total.

For the remaining twenty slots, he inserted the "Infernal Flame Soaring" attribute, using eighteen slots to embed Ink Flame + Roar Painful Painful Minghun.

The leftover two slots couldn't form any battle formation attribute, so he prioritized the Rock Shield Painful Painful Minghun for its higher growth stat value, boosting overall attribute strength.

After completing the pairing, he tapped "Confirm" with his consciousness.

Instantly, the interface dissolved, and a booming, resonant roar exploded in his ear:

"By the General's order—Shura Formation, OPEN!"

Looking up, the ten black-armored warriors before the platform stepped forward in unison.

The towering figure at the head of the squad raised his right arm, and a battle formation imprint rose from his palm.

As he stomped one foot, the blue bricks beneath cracked, and a complex crimson-gold spiritual diagram emerged and spread outward.

Rapidly interweaving spiritual runes formed the Shura Battle Formation's pattern: seven concentric rings centered on a node, totaling ninety-eight star positions (minimum ten warriors required to activate).

"Form ranks!"

The other nine black-armored warriors leapt into position, their iron boots landing precisely on the innermost star positions of the formation.

With each landing, the corresponding star position ignited a pillar of blood flame.

When the last warrior took his place, the entire diagram suddenly rotated and lifted three inches into the air; nine blood lines shot from the star positions, linking the ten warriors into a grotesque Shura constellation.

After activation, the formation diagram dissolved into scattered starlight, floating in midair.

The warriors' blood qi resonated like a dragon's roar, and crimson steam rose from their bodies.

These vapors wove into a net in midair, achieving blood qi interconnection, then forcibly synchronized the ten warriors' heartbeats.

The formation was complete.

Boom!

Ten streams of blood qi surged from their crown points, twisting into a crimson hurricane in midair.

The Rakshasa Wrath attribute activated first.

From the center of the expanding blood qi ripples, an eight-armed Rakshasa phantom slowly rose, engulfing the ten black-armored warriors below.

At the moment of full manifestation, the Rakshasa phantom roared to the heavens; its sonic wave became a visible crimson ripple, sweeping across the training ground.

The cracks on the ground continued to spread.

The second formation attribute, "Infernal Flame Soaring," activated immediately after.

Ink-black flames erupted from the ten black-armored warriors, writhing like living things around the Rakshasa phantom's body.

Instantly, the crimson Rakshasa phantom was ignited by the ink flames, transforming into a black-flame demon body, its attacks infused with Ink Flame power.

Fully synchronized, the ten black-armored warriors struck the ground in unison; the Rakshasa phantom's eight arms slammed down in response.

Thud!

From the center of the formation, a violent storm of intertwined black and crimson ripples erupted outward.

Where it passed, the earth shattered; the tattered battle flags on the training ground's walls ignited and were reduced to ash by the gale.

"So cool!" Brother Heiye Brother Heiye Jiangzhi couldn't help exclaiming.

In this first pairing test, the formation's visual effects were truly stunning.

But beauty means nothing in the Monster World—the most important thing is combat performance during actual testing.

His consciousness tapped "Actual Combat Test" in the interface, selected a low-difficulty ancient battlefield map, and clicked Confirm.

Instantly, a prompt popped up in his mind:

【Actual Combat Test Activated. Please select test mode: Spectator Mode / Commander Mode (Commander Mode places you in command of the formation squad).】

After brief consideration, Brother Heiye Brother Heiye Jiangzhi decided to first experience it in Spectator Mode.

Upon making his choice, the training ground's scene twisted and faded like a washed-out ink painting.

When his vision cleared again, a biting north wind laden with the stench of blood struck his face; the thunderous clamor of battle flooded his ears like a tidal wave.

The ground beneath him trembled; looking up, a dark tide of enemy forces surged forward.

Thirty thousand heavily armored infantry formed a charging line, their spears standing like a forest, glinting coldly in the twilight.

The earth shuddered under the enemy's iron boots, and dust raised by their advance blotted out the sky.

In Spectator Mode, no control was needed—the ten-man black-armored squad that entered the combat test scenario began acting autonomously.

"Enemy attack! Form ranks!"

The squad leader roared, raised the formation imprint, and the ten men instantly formed the formation.

The crimson-gold spiritual diagram reappeared beneath them; nine blood lines linked them together.

Blood qi surged from their crown points and intertwined in midair—but before the Rakshasa phantom fully formed, the enemy's arrow rain arrived.

"Defend!"

The Rakshasa phantom instantly enveloped the ten-man squad; arrows struck the formation's spiritual manifestation, producing a dense patter like rain on banana leaves.

The Rakshasa phantom stepped forward, shattering the earth; its crimson phantom instantly transformed into a burning form wreathed in ink flames.

The enemy's spears impaling its body melted away.

The arrow rain fell and turned to dust.

The phantom punched forward, unleashing an energy shockwave of Ink Flame + Qi Shield + Roar.

The front-line enemy soldiers, clad in heavy armor, had no time to scream—their bodies disintegrated mid-flight.

He swung his arm back in a horizontal sweep, severing a row of mounts and the warriors riding them at the waist; various dismembered limbs were flung high into the air, only to be incinerated into ash mid-flight by the burning ink-flame waves emitted by the Dharma-Image.

An enemy general roared as he charged, raising a rune-etched greatsword to strike down, but the Dharma-Image, jointly controlled by ten black-armored warriors, merely slapped it down with a casual backhand.

The enemy general, along with his sword, was slammed into the ground, leaving only a blurred smear of flesh and blood embedded in the cracked earth and stones.

The ten black-armored warriors began advancing in unison, driving the Raksha Dharma-Image that enveloped them forward; wherever they passed, the enemy forces scattered in rout.

When some warriors attempted to flee, the Dharma-Image opened its mouth and roared; the sound waves, solid as matter, crushed over them, causing the fleeing soldiers to explode into clouds of blood.

He stomped his foot down, causing the ground to ripple like waves; hundreds of enemy soldiers were blasted into the air, and before they could land, they were burned to charcoal by the released ink flames.

At the center of the battle formation, the ten black-armored warriors maintained the flow of blood and qi energy; the Dharma-Image they jointly controlled moved like a single, complete living being, with no stutter or lag in its actions.

During the observation, Hei Ye Jiang Zhi was also recording relevant information about the Dharma-Image.

All this information would be needed when publishing the strategy guide post later.

The battle continued; accompanied by a roar, a giant war elephant clad in heavy black-iron armor trampled the earth and appeared, charging forward like a moving mountain.

Three energy ballistas mounted on the elephant's back simultaneously locked onto the ten-person squad forming the formation, as the gunners turned winches to adjust their aim.

The front sections of the ballistas rapidly charged with energy.

Facing the charging giant elephant, the Raksha Dharma-Image controlled by the black-armored warriors slowly raised a hand; a deep, abyss-like maw split open in its palm, where endless ink flames surged and gathered, condensing into a massive fireball.

The cold-colored ink flames seemed to compress the fury of an entire hell within them.

The Dharma-Image closed its five fingers; the fireball suddenly collapsed to its extreme limit, then transformed into a black rainbow that pierced the sky and shot outward.

Boom!

The war elephant's thick metal armor was rapidly melted through like thin paper upon contact with the compressed ink-flame fireball; the instant the fireball pierced its skull cavity, the entire elephant head exploded from within outward into a rain of fire filling the sky.

Burning bone fragments scattered, piercing their own warriors and leaving smoking black holes in their flesh.

The headless elephant body still charged forward by inertia before crashing to its knees with a thunderous thud.

Ink flames gushed out from its seven orifices; the steel armor melted like wax, revealing the body inside, already burned to charcoal.

The three ballista gunners on the elephant's back had no time to escape; they were caught by the wildly spreading ink flames, and the moment they screamed, they were roasted into charcoal.

The ink flames did not extinguish but continued to burn fiercely on the ground; the war elephant's remains were burned into molten iron slag, slowly seeping into the earth.

The Raksha Dharma-Image, controlled by the ten-person squad, lowered its hand and stood still, surrounded by swirling, surging ink flames, resembling a demon god descending to the world.

The battlefield, which had originally been attacked by thirty thousand enemy troops, was now utterly silent.

The practical combat test ended; the battlefield scene twisted and shattered, and the setting returned to the training ground.

Data related to this battle floated into Hei Ye Jiang Zhi's mind; he recorded all this information in his personal document on the forum.

Through this observation, it can be seen that the strength of the battle formation system is extremely high.

But the most important point has not yet been revealed.

That is, under the battle formation system, what exactly is the state of connection between players?

Can every player participate, fighting through joint control, or is the captain's will dominant, with other players becoming mere energy-supplying attachments?

If it is a battle formation similar to the Backflow Legion, all warriors are part of the whole and can participate in control together.

This is also the reason why, in the Backflow Training Camp, every warrior must constantly train in battle formation modes before graduation, ensuring they do not become a burden to the formation.

However, whether the battle formations in the player system are similar to those of the Backflow Legion remains unknown for now.

With curiosity, he decided to personally take part in the practical combat test next, participating in captain mode.

(End of this chapter)