Chapter 20: Blue Carp Battalion

The strictness of Cloudsea City far exceeded Fu Feng's imagination; in his view he was merely acting in self-defense, yet he was actually exiled to the army to serve punishment—this is really too much.

"These people actually dare to fight in the mine, Leader Li—I'll hand them over to you to deal with." The old cultivator handed Fu Feng and Xiao Yi, together with a dozen burly men, over to a military commander.

Leader Li respectfully saw the old cultivator off, then ordered his subordinates to seal their cultivation and abandon them there, paying no further attention.

"How will they punish us?" Fu Feng asked.

Xiao Yi wore a bitter expression: "What else can we do? We've been exiled to the army."

The rules of Cloudsea City are lax, but the penalty for breaking them is severe; people like them usually have to serve hard labor, and now that wartime chaos has erupted, they'll definitely be used as cannon fodder.

Fu Feng was extremely embarrassed—screwed up big time! What now?

"Boss, wake up!" someone shouted.

Fu Feng followed the sound and saw a naked man running back and forth among a crowd of pale flesh—it was an eyesore.

"Return their clothes." Fu Feng quickly had Xiao Yi give the clothes back to avoid the visual pollution.

Xiao Yi also felt like he was about to vomit, so he quickly threw the clothes back.

Fortunately that commander didn't confiscate their personal belongings, otherwise they'd have to endure the eyesore indefinitely.

The troublemaker also woke up, and after an awkward moment quickly put on his clothes.

The hostility between the two groups also eased somewhat.

The leader was named Wu Ren, a notorious street ruffian of Cloudsea City; this time he purely went looking for trouble and ended up causing a big problem.

However, they didn't retaliate immediately; each sat with heads bowed and spirits low, as if they had lost two hundred spirit stones.

【Foundation Establishment】

The person who had sealed their cultivation appeared, ordering them to follow him immediately.

Fu Feng no longer believed in that useless skill at all; the information he'd gathered was of no use, and there's a huge difference between one Foundation Establishment cultivator and another—he's run into several who could easily thrash him, so couldn't it be more specific?

In the misty clouds the road couldn't be seen, but the hidden killing intent all around was blatant; the group followed timidly behind the war cultivator, not daring to misstep.

"We're here!" said the guide cultivator indifferently.

They saw a vast empty platform, its surface etched with enormous patterns; from the spiritual aura it emitted, they could tell it was part of a formation.

"Shouldn't they have been sent to hard labor? This looks more like a military camp!" someone muttered.

"Go in!" the cultivator ordered.

The group walked in—not because they were cowardly, but because a restriction had been placed on them, leaving them no choice.

At that moment Fu Feng saw Leader Li again, with many cultivators trailing behind him.

"From today on, you're members of the Blue Carp Battalion." Leader Li seemed about to say more, but then held back.

"Teach them the battalion's rules!" Leader Li turned and left, leaving behind a group of cultivators grinning oddly.

"Hey! You lot." Some of Wu Ren's subordinates, unclear on the situation, still wanted to argue.

Then they got lectured!

"You little thief, let us big brothers teach you the rules of the Blue Carp Battalion." He then twisted his body forward and punched him in the face.

The punch sent him flying ten zhang, almost crashing into the training field.

"Huh?" the cultivator who had struck frowned, "Lift the seal." He said to the guide cultivator.

The guide cultivator lifted their restriction and also healed the injury of the one who had been flung away.

"All right!" the scar‑faced man gestured for everyone to listen to him.

"First let us see what you're capable of," said the scar‑faced man.

Everyone was puzzled, but continued listening to his explanation.

"To gauge a person's ability, combat is naturally the best way; you can act freely—even if you kill the opponent, there's no need to worry—and the one who performs best will receive a reward." Having said that, he gestured for them to begin.

A group of people waited in the sky for them to make a move.

Wu Ren naturally looked first at Fu Feng and Xiao Yi—if it weren't for them, they wouldn't have ended up like this, and his subordinates naturally thought the same.

Fu Feng also summoned the Spirit Cloud, constructed a Five Elements Formation, and kept the two of them protected inside.

This time he didn't take the initiative; instead he stood on strict alert, shifting the formation into a defensive state.

Before, Wu Ren and his crew had been careless, but now Fu Feng couldn't guarantee he could control them.

After the previous blow, he had become much more cautious.

Seeing them huddled defensively, Wu Ren relaxed, knowing they truly had no way to counter a soul attack; since you're focused on defense, we won't hold back—he also knew the principle that prolonged defense leads to loss.

These folks, veterans of the Cloudsea, each unleashed their techniques—not limited to Five Arts, but one guy even demonstrated a sword technique.

Xiao Yi rummaged through the spoils and indeed found a sword embryo; he really does have ambition.

Spells came at them; Fu Feng stood on strict alert, and the Five Elements Formation formed a spherical shield around the Spirit Cloud.

The strikes landed on it without causing harm; instead, they passed straight through as if unaffected and landed on the Spirit Cloud.

Before Wu Ren could even feel pleased, he saw his own spells sink in like a fist hitting cotton—directly absorbed—and he lost control of his spellcasting.

Fu Feng dared not be careless; he fully powered the great formation, capturing each spell, yet he felt none of the pressure he'd imagined.

The great formation continuously rotated, transforming the mist‑qi according to the Five Phases, and carried the captured spells along with it.

After one circuit, the captured spells were entirely refined into mist‑qi and then absorbed by the Spirit Cloud.

Both sides understood each other without words.

"Impossible!" The street ruffian also had his pride; Wu Ren was completely confident in his technique that could contaminate magical treasures.

Although he hadn't intended to go all out this time, who would have thought it would have absolutely no effect?

In his panic he unleashed another burst of spiritual power, and this time the refinement happened even faster.

Wu Ren had once had a strange encounter, obtaining a cultivation manual with no title; out of curiosity he practiced it, and upon discovering his spiritual power could contaminate magical treasures, he was delighted—this gave him the ability to walk the path of a street ruffian.

Relying on this ability he'd caused trouble several times, until this time he stumbled into the hands of two blockheads.

Only after Fu Feng knocked him out did he notice the demonic qi on him; he then used the skill "Great Absorption Technique" to purge that demonic qi, which caused his cultivation method to fail.

Others didn't notice the boss's abnormality; they kept throwing spells one after another. In their view, if the boss were serious, this formation would have been broken long ago.

The heavenly crowd was very dissatisfied; they could not tell that the two sides were just pretending to fight.

Dao Ba Lian let out a cold snort; a terrifying sword light pressed down, and Fu Feng felt a sting on his skin. He hurriedly used all his spiritual power for defense, and the formation enveloped everyone.

Creak—creak! Under the sword light, the formation shook and was about to collapse; soon Fu Feng's spiritual power was exhausted, the formation was broken, and the sword light fell on each person.