Chapter 336: Military Formation

In the quiet chamber, a burly old man was leisurely sipping tea when the Star-Picking Token suddenly glowed.

He glanced at it once, and his brows furrowed slightly.

【Your Shadow Division has lost one of its three spies? What of the other two—have they sent any word?】

【My lord, the other two spies are still alive, but their mother-child jade tablets for interstellar communication are limited. By agreement, they must send a routine report after three days in the star domain to confirm safety.】

【This time, the shadow spy died too quickly.】

【The three shadow spies I sent to Spring Thunder Star Domain are all battle-hardened veterans with immense experience—they've safely traversed sixth-tier star domains before. Yet this time, in a fifth-tier domain, one died within half an hour of entry. I'm puzzled, so I've come to report.】

【Have Feng Yi and the others arrived?】

【My lord, they've arrived.】

【Tell him to be careful—this target may be unusual. Exercise caution.】

【Also, immediately erase all true identities and relationships of these three shadow spies.】

【No—change direction entirely. Find a faction we secretly control, and assign them new identities within it.】 The old man set down his teacup and gave his orders.

【My lord, isn't this cost too high? We'd have to eliminate at least a dozen officials involved. Shouldn't we wait three more days to confirm?】

【Prepare it now. Better safe than sorry. My position demands I tread as if walking on thin ice. After three days, assess the communication status: those willing will be sent directly to our controlled star domains; those unwilling will be generously compensated.】

【Yes, my lord.】

Inside Leiying Wangcheng in the fifth-tier Spring Thunder Star Domain, Leiying Wang was reorganizing his forces under the coordination of Leiling Wang.

Xu Jin, however, was lost in thought, devising one plan after another to escape alive through the Star River passages, only to discard each one in turn.

The first potentially viable plan was to vanish invisibly.

But one flaw: at the instant one passes through the Star Gate into the Star River passage, invisibility cannot be maintained.

Once discovered, even if Xu Jin reactivated invisibility, seventh-tier experts had many ways to force him to reveal himself.

Flee at quadruple Shuoluo speed through the Star River passage.

There's a chance of success, but also a chance of failure—once intercepted, Xu Jin's fate would be death and soul annihilation.

Success rate is less than half.

Open another Star Gate?

If one could shatter the star domain's spatial barrier, another Star Gate might be opened—but unfortunately, Xu Jin lacked this ability.

Even if he could open another Star Gate, its destination remained unknown.

Bad luck might lead him into an unknown space from which he could never return.

Opening a Star Gate is extremely complex—otherwise, the Xumi Palace wouldn't have monopolized it.

Suddenly, Xu Jin remembered the Immortal of Drunken Moon—this little princess of the Xumi Palace. If he could contact her, she might offer a solution.

But now, he couldn't reach anyone.

Xu Jin even thought of a branch of the Star-Picking Tower.

But it was useless.

A single branch of the Star-Picking Tower, if erected in the mortal world, could immediately serve as a communication link.

Within a star domain, even erected, it remains isolated from the outside.

【Senior Brother Qi, perhaps we could try a decoy—we take a portion of the alien races and break out, drawing their attention. Then, if just one of us escapes, we can deliver this urgent military intelligence to the Star River Command for warning.】

Ji Hongli had barely finished speaking when Xu Jin struck her on the head. 【Are you stupid? If you do that, you'll die for sure! You charge out—you only distract the enemy and get slaughtered.】

【The one with a chance to survive is me!】

Rubbing his sore forehead, Ji Hongli pouted piteously.

Yet Ji Hongli's suggestion had sparked an idea in Xu Jin.

With his own strength alone, in the terrain of the Star River passage, he couldn't escape the encirclement of seventh-tier experts.

But the forces native to the Spring Thunder Star Domain could be leveraged.

This might be the key.

He already directly controlled eight sixth-tier experts; through Leiying Wang and Leiling Wang, he indirectly controlled six more. If he could extract them…

Fourteen sixth-tier experts—even with two or three seventh-tier opponents—would be more than enough to trouble them.

Unfortunately, the Star Gate restrictions of the star domain prevented extraction.

He could only settle for second best: fifth-tier.

Extract elite fifth-tier aliens from the star domain to create an opening for himself.

Immediately, Xu Jin and Ji Hongli began simulating tactics.

But after half an hour, both faces were grim with failure.

Ji Hongli led over a hundred fifth-tier aliens while Xu Jin played the role of an ambush seventh-tier expert—every simulation failed.

A fifth-tier ninth-layer mortal human might withstand a few strikes from a mid-to-late seventh-tier expert, but a fifth-tier ninth-layer alien, facing a seventh-tier ninth-layer expert, would be instantly obliterated.

Morale would collapse instantly, and they'd scatter in panic.

This wouldn't work, that wouldn't work—Xu Jin grew more anxious, then angrier by the moment.

He hated the unseen mastermind behind this ambush with a burning fury!

Xu Jin now understood: the mastermind behind this ambush was connected to the one who had sold him the Spring Thunder Star Domain's Celestial Star Will that day—perhaps even that person was the mastermind.

And he held a high position, not a low one.

Otherwise, how could he command seventh-tier experts?

Even possess a dedicated intelligence-gathering Shadow Division?

If not for the Sacred Clan Envoy's collusion with the Ancestral Cave Realms, it wouldn't matter.

Xu Jin could simply cultivate here for a few months.

He didn't believe seven seventh-tier experts could idly guard the Star River passage for months on end.

Were there really such idle seventh-tier experts?

But now…

【Senior Brother Qi, don't be too anxious—this won't be solved by rushing.】

Just as Xu Jin was frantic, Ji Hongli handed him a bowl of water.

Only then did Xu Jin realize that in just half an hour, his anxiety had raised blisters on his lips.

While Xu Jin drank, Ji Hongli added, 【Besides, the Star River Battlefield has existed for countless years, weathered countless storms. Against the aliens, it has its own established protocols. Though the Sacred Clan Envoy's scheme is vast, our rushing won't help.】

【We must proceed slowly and deliberately.】

Hearing this, Xu Jin's urgency suddenly eased.

Yes—the tall ones will hold up the sky.

He didn't need to play the savior.

Don't overestimate your own importance, nor underestimate the capabilities of the Star River Battlefield's senior leadership.

【Senior Brother Qi, if you're not in such a hurry, and if we spend some time, I have a relatively stable plan.】 Ji Hongli said.

【Oh? I just thought of the same thing. Shall we write it down?】

【Good.】 Ji Hongli smiled.

In the next instant, both wrote two characters simultaneously.

Xu Jin wrote: Concentrated Fire.

Ji Hongli wrote: Military Formation.

The characters differed, but the idea was identical.

This idea required time.

A rabble wouldn't do.

They needed to train the fifth-tier experts of the Spring Thunder Star Domain.

And the number had to be large.

It couldn't be pure offense.

Fifth-tier aliens feared death too.

If a surprise strike didn't annihilate them instantly, they'd break.

Fortunately, fifth-tier aliens of the Spring Thunder Star Domain were exceptionally suited to forming armies. Thunder star arts were swift and fast, with long range—up to two hundred meters—perfect for concentrated ranged fire.

Water star arts could be used for defense.

Quickly, Xu Jin and Ji Hongli arranged a conical military formation.

Sixty fifth-tier Water Spirits formed the front and flanks, primarily defensive—whenever the enemy attacked, they held the line.

At least a hundred fifth-tier Thunder Spirits and Thunder Hawks formed the core, delivering concentrated ranged fire.

A single volley from a hundred fifth-tier mid-to-late stage Thunder Spirits could overwhelm even a seventh-tier expert.

Even if it didn't kill, injury was inevitable—and severe injury highly likely.

Immediately, Xu Jin assigned this task to Leiling Wang and Leiying Wang as their top priority.

First, gather all mid-to-late stage fifth-tier experts from the three races, then begin military drills!

Finally, Xu Jin would control several fifth-tier commanders to ensure full command.

To ensure success, Xu Jin offered heavy rewards.

Success meant two Dragon-Turtle Soul-Forging Pills each—of the three-layer variety.

Leiling Wang knew the value of these pills. Instantly, the two of them, with several subordinates, threw themselves into the task with full vigor.

While Xu Jin and Ji Hongli waited for the military formation training to complete, they didn't idle.

First, they reaped a great harvest.

Xu Jin and Ji Hongli cleared out the treasuries of Lei Ling Wangcheng and Lei Ying Wangcheng, as well as their secret vaults.

But since these two had already surrendered,

Xu Jin did not strip them bare—he left them a small portion.

Even so, this still added several thousand strands of starlight to Can Dou Tai, and Xu Jin acquired over two thousand fifth-rank Star Jade Tablets, thirty-two sixth-rank Star Jade Tablets, and seven bundles of Purple Thunder Bamboo.

These are specialty treasures from the back mountains of the Lei Ling clan's territory, used to strengthen Thunder-element Star Patterns, though most had already been consumed by Lei Ling Wang.

But from now on, they belong to Xu Jin.

One day later, Xu Jin and Ji Hongli found the source of the Water Spirit Clan's Bi Shui Ling Sui: an underground cavern.

This underground cavern produced abundant fourth- and fifth-rank Water-element Star Jade Tablets, occasionally yielding sixth-rank Star Jade Tablets, and at its deepest forbidden zone, one drop of Bi Shui Ling Sui could be collected each month.

This stuff was incredibly valuable.

A steady monthly output of one drop, combined with the Purple Thunder Bamboo, caused the value of the Chunlei Star Region to skyrocket!

Moreover, the star force concentration deep within this cavern nearly reached the maximum Xu Jin had ever encountered.

It was one to two percent denser than the star force he could draw using a fifth-rank Star Gathering Array with fifth-rank Star Jade Tablets.

A perfect cultivation paradise.

Crucially, it required no expenditure.

Since training the military formation took time, Xu Jin and Ji Hongli simply stayed deep in the cavern to cultivate in seclusion.

Xu Jin had to leave once daily to monitor and urge the formation training, while Ji Hongli remained immersed there the whole time.

Of course, they didn't cultivate nonstop.

Xu Jin transmitted to Ji Hongli the seventh-rank Great Star Gathering Pattern and the eighth-rank-lower Star Flow Pattern, instructing her to study and refine them while advancing her cultivation—her strength had to be raised.

But beyond cultivation, Xu Jin had many other tasks to handle.

For instance, obtaining the secret technique to conceal one's aura from the so-called Shadow Division spies they'd captured.

This was crucial.

The remaining two spies surely had Soul Binding Seals—standard interrogation would yield nothing.

So Xu Jin devised another plan.

He released one of the spies, who remained in a comatose, dreamlike state.

Then Xu Jin concealed himself nearby and observed immediately.

Xu Jin was ruthless enough.

The spy awoke, utterly bewildered.

He remembered being ambushed, but thought he'd merely been caught in the crossfire; before losing consciousness, he'd hidden himself in a safe spot.

These memories had been implanted by Xu Jin within the dream.

The instant he confirmed his safety, the spy instinctively activated his aura-concealing technique.

If he didn't conceal his aura, endless alien foes would keep streaming toward his location—he'd be finished.

He had no idea, nor could he imagine, that Xu Jin was hidden nearby, silently observing.

With the Ming Ji Star Pattern pushed to its utmost.

Though he couldn't discern the exact technique, he could observe roughly seventy to eighty percent of it.

The concealment method wasn't difficult.

It involved drawing star force from the alien's Star Core, channeling it into a clump of alien blood, causing that blood to emit an aura mimicking the alien's, thereby covering the user's own aura.

The process was simple; the method itself wasn't hard.

The Star Core used was a normal one.

The key lay in that clump of alien blood.

That clump of alien blood had been refined by special methods.

Interrogation revealed it had been issued by the Shadow Division.

Likely infused with a specific array or Star Pattern.

That wasn't hard.

Leave professional matters to professionals—Xu Jin seized fifteen such blood beads from the three captives; each lasted three days.

When they returned, he'd hand them to the Grand Master to have someone analyze and replicate them.

The chance of success was still high.

Even more pleasing to Xu Jin was that Lei Ling Wang and Lei Ying Wang worked with extraordinary diligence.

In just three days, they gathered eighty-two fifth-rank mid-to-late-stage Water Spirits, and one hundred eighty fifth-rank mid-to-late-stage Lei Ling and Lei Ying.

Xu Jin redesigned their military formation, and while Lei Ling Wang and Lei Ying Wang trained these troops relentlessly day and night, Xu Jin himself began intense cultivation.

On January 2, Ji Hongli's Soul cultivation broke through to fourth-rank second layer, thanks to one Three-Veins Dragon Turtle Soul Forging Pill each morning and evening.

Xu Jin's Yuan Ling Tai Guang reached 7. meters.

In three days, it increased by 0. meters—doubling his previous rate.

Not only had his base growth accelerated, but over these three days, Xu Jin had also taken one Three-Veins Dragon Turtle Soul Forging Pill each morning and evening.

He'd already received sixty from his master, Kou Jing.

Better to convert them into real power sooner.

On January 5, Xu Jin's Middle Star Palace cultivation broke through to fourth-rank fifth layer, and his Yuan Ling Tai Guang reached 7. meters.

On January 8, Ji Hongli's Soul cultivation broke through to fourth-rank third layer, and her star force cultivation reached fourth-rank fourth layer; Xu Jin's Yuan Ling Tai Guang reached 7. meters.

Though Ji Hongli's star force cultivation had reached fourth-rank fourth layer, in truth, only her Middle Star Palace had broken through—her Lower Star Palace remained at the peak of third-rank ninth layer.

On January 11, Xu Jin's Lower Star Palace cultivation also broke through to fourth-rank fifth layer, and the number of Ming Ji Star Patterns increased to six.

On January 14, Xu Jin's Yuan Ling Tai Guang reached 8 meters, his Middle Star Palace cultivation advanced to fourth-rank fifth layer late stage, and when Ji Hongli's Lower Star Palace finally broke through to fourth-rank first layer, the sound of Lei Ling Wang and Lei Ying Wang echoed outside the Bi Shui Ling Sui cavern.

"My Lord, the formation training is complete. Please inspect!"

(End of Chapter)