This chapter has been brought to you by me, and WanderingGummiOfDoom.

Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety – The Guard Camp Steps Onto the Stage

He Xiang’s heart was beating like a drum. The other elders were all pale. They had not recovered from watching the battle just now. One thousand and five hundred people had all died. Their power instantly shrank by one-fifth.

The corpses scattered across the mountains made it seem like a h.e.l.lish landscape. The elders who had been scrambling for the opportunity to attack the city first were now filled with fear. If it had been them … …

Truthfully, Second Elder had performed very well. He had a great weapon in the Cloud Formation Silk, he had the bravery to lead from the front. None of the elders here could have performed better than he had, but he still died. The whole troop had died. It wasn’t that he hadn’t performed well, but the enemy was too strong.

What kind of formation battle watchtower was that? The hard lightning it released seemed endless like a tide. If it wasn’t that they had seen it with their own eyes, they wouldn’t believe that there were such powerful formation battle watchtowers in this world. Even if there were, how could they appear in this minuscule Little Mountain Jie?

If this came out, how could everyone live?

And that Skyring Moon Chime Formation, could that still even be called the Skyring Moon Chime Formation? Bro, you weren’t the only one that played around with a Skyring Moon Chime Formation before, are you sure that what you have is still a Skyring Moon Chime Formation?

The elders looked at Golden Crow City with sorrowful rage.

Bro, be nice, you are so strong, don’t come running to Little Mountain Jie to steal food from us little people!

Why … …

Even He Xiang didn’t know what to do next. Continue to fight? He looked at the elders around him. Every one of them was dispirited and had lost their courage. Even if there was an elder that had the courage to attack, the people under them wouldn’t be willing. He could clearly feel the morale of his troops had reached bottom.

But with everyone watching them, he felt he couldn’t retreat like this and lose face.

Just as He Xiang was struggling with his dilemma, Golden Crow City acted again.

Many people suddenly appeared on top of the walls of Golden Crow City and jumped down from the walls.

He Xiang’s eyes widened as he stared in disbelief at the people continuously jumping down from Golden Crow City’s walls.

Was it … … were they going to attack?

For an unknown reason, he suddenly shook. He turned to look at the other elders and stilled again. The elders that had surrounded him had all disappeared. Only when he turned his face around did he see that they had retreated three zhang away from him.

Terror was on everyone’s faces.

The movement of Golden Crow City had attracted everyone’s attention. The xiuzhe that were watching from afar moved their eyes towards this group of people that flooded out of Golden Crow City

This group of people were all wearing black heavy armor, but their movements were light and agile. After watching for a while, everyone had puzzled expressions. Almost no one used heavy armor among the various types of ling armor because the majority of xiuzhe battles were in the air. The heavy ling armor would greatly affect their speed. The popular ling armors were mostly light and carved with formations to be activated during battle. Usually, the defensive abilities of the ling armor were not reliant on the ling armor itself, but depended on the strength of the ling s.h.i.+eld activated from the ling armor.

It was possible to see that the black ling armor on these people was very heavy.

Only body cultivating xiuzhe could support such heavy ling armor. Looking at the nimble movements of these people, they did seem like body cultivating xiuzhe.

There was a continuous stream of armor-wearing xiuzhe jumping off the city walls. Their movements were extremely quick, and well-trained, flowing like water. A group of xiuzhe quickly gathered outside the city, and when the number of xiuzhe reached one thousand people, the spectators all inhaled sharply.

He Xiang and the others had ashen faces!

Who said that Golden Crow City didn’t have many people?

It was very hard to calculate how many people were needed to man the thirty six formation battle watchtowers, but it definitely wasn’t less than one thousand people. Now, one thousand body cultivating xiuzhe had come out. How many people were really hiding inside Golden Crow City?

He Xiang didn’t even have the energy to swear. The other elders could only stare at each other.

———

One thousand heavy-armor xiuzhe quickly gathered, their movements clean and without any fuss. In a short span, they finished organizing their formation.

One thousand armor-wearing xiuzhe stood solemnly without a sound. All noise had disappeared.

The wind blew past and stirred the dust and dried leaves to swirl in the air. The killing intent was as cold as a knife. The one thousand people were like a heavy rock pressing on everyone’s chest, making them unconsciously feel that breathing was slightly difficult.

Shu Long had a small headache.

First, they could not resist Boss’ mission. Boss had told them to collect the spoils. If he went on a different path, Boss definitely would not be happy. Even he wasn’t willing to do so.

However, the words of the daren inside the necklace could not be dismissed. That was his direct teacher. If that person was offended, his days would become very dark.

His mind suddenly moved and had an idea.

———

The people that were paying attention to the black armor troop were of two different opinions.

One side chided the master of Golden Crow City for being so dim to create such a trashy troop. No matter if it was sword xiu, or Dhyana xiu, they emphasized the ability to fly. The mainstream battlefield was the sky. If this group of people flew up into the air, they would be like turtles, only able to wait for death.

The other side was very curious. Up until now, every move of the master of Golden Crow City made people feel amazed. How could such a person make such a shallow and low-level mistake? There had to be a deeper meaning.

The middle-aged person and the large male held the second opinion.

“It’s very hard to say with precedent,” The eyes of the middle-aged person flashed as he said gravely. “Only people that can break convention are true heroes.”

The large male stared at the black-armor troop outside the Golden Crow City. Other people might feel that this troop was hilarious, but he had seen true elite forces before. This troop couldn’t be called elite, but it seemed to have a presence that others could not dismiss.

Other people might not concern themselves with this, but the large male knew it wasn’t so easy to form such a presence.

This master of Golden Crow City was really talented!

The eyes of the large male became even hotter.

———

[Hards.h.i.+p Guard] was an extreme mo skill. It wasn’t possible to cultivate unless one had perseverance. If they could tolerate pain, the progress was far faster than any other mo skill. When that King first obtained [Hards.h.i.+p Abyss], he had felt it wasn’t bad, but thought that it didn’t progress quickly enough. He didn’t have the patience to slowly nurture his personal guards so he had made the appropriate changes to the skill and made the newly formed [Hards.h.i.+p Guard]. It became a quick mo skill, but the pain involved naturally multiplied.

To the King, he had countless people. Even if the elimination rate was astounding, he didn’t care at all.

He probably would never have thought that this mo skill would one day be given to a group of xiu slaves. These xiu slave had gone through many hands. Those that could survive were those with resilience. Also, Pu Yao naturally didn’t have any kind of emotions like pity. To prove the value of Sky Yao, he had furiously urged them on.

Today was the first time the Guard Camp showed themselves.

What did this weird troop want to do?

Just as everyone was puzzled, they saw the organized ranks suddenly spread out. Each troop was like a stream of water, suddenly turning to ten smaller flows. With thirty six of them to a platoon, they quickly sprinted among the mountain.

Their speed was very fast, the heavy armor on their body seemed to not affect them at all. What was most praiseworthy was that even at such fast speeds, the shape of the troop was not affected at all.

At the top of Golden Crow City, Zuo Mo made a small sound of surprise.

After working with formations for so long, he was abnormally sensitive to formations. With one glance, he recognized the platoon of thirty six people were maintaining a kind of battle formation.

His mind moving, he opened his ling eyes.

Above each little troop, black energy s.h.i.+fted like dozens of black serpents swimming around, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with killing intent.

Zuo Mo instantly jumped in fright.

What battle formation was this?

The killing intent in this formation was so heavy that Zuo Mo had never seen anything comparable. Even the killing intent of Gongsun Cha’s Vermillion Bird Camp was far less than the Guard Camp’s present battle formation.

As expected, Pu Yao still had a trick up his sleeve!

Zuo Mo rubbed his chin as he thought.

Sweat continued to flow down Shu Long’s head as he heard the daren inside the necklace bellow.

“What have you trained? Ah! This is only the thirty six person Little Mo Kill, you’ve only gotten to this. Then that one thousand people Great Mo Kill, can you even train … …”

Pu Yao didn’t have any of the composure that he had in front of Zuo Mo. His shouts were like thunder and made Shu Long’s heart tremble. He was clearly very dissatisfied.

Shu Long’s orders quickly pa.s.sed to every little team. Everyone’s heart shook. Already full of desire for battle, they raised themselves to one hundred and twenty percent of their usual attentiveness.

———

The killing intent of each platoon became even more tangible. At this time, even the xiuzhe who didn’t have ling eyes could see the extraordinary aspects.

“Such keen killing intent!” For the first time, the middle-aged person had a shocked expression. His expression was grave as he said, “This formation has the heaviest killing intent that this subordinate has seen in life! I wonder who could create such a vicious formation!”

“Any formation that can kill people is a good formation!” The large male  was very liberal with this point. He stared attentively at the constant movements of the black armor camp guards.

The killing intent was tangible. There were black snakes that seemed to be flipping above the heads of each platoon and inspired fear when looked upon.

The people that had been mocking Zuo Mo before were gaping now as their hearts beat rapidly. Even though they had not seen this black-armor guard troop’s attack, but just this shocking killing intent was enough to rob many of their courage.

———

“As powerful as expected!” Zuo Mo, who possessed the Ling Eye, could see more clearly than the others. Once they were touched, the killing intent that had turned to black serpents would instantly coil around the enemy. Each platoon was like a wild beast that devoured people. Inside the killing formation, the pupils of each camp guard had turned b.l.o.o.d.y red, and exuded a terrifying presence. If it wasn’t that they cultivated [Hards.h.i.+p Guard], and had indefatigable personalities, they would have broken under such dense killing intent.

Zuo Mo couldn’t help but be curious what it would be like if this battle formation encountered an enemy. He really wanted to go ask Pu Yao, but if he went to ask at this time, that guy’s nostrils would face the sky.

He ended the thought. Suddenly, he finally responded. “Didn’t I tell them to go strip the talismans? What are they rehearsing for?”

Upon second thought, when he looked at the ground full of corpses and scattered talismans, Zuo Mo instantly was furious. It definitely was Pu Yao that was the culprit.

So much jings.h.i.+ … …

Just as he was going to swear, he suddenly saw out of the corner of his eye dozens of sword lights flew in from the horizon.

Translator Ramblings:Question and Answer

Q: One person commented on the use of Moon Chime Sound Storm after everyone was depleted and not as the first line of defense since the sound storm attack is more powerful. So it was a waste for the sound storm to be used on a few hundred people and not the whole bunch and it may have been rash.

A: I do agree that it does seem quite rash but I don’t think it was wasted. It could be that Zuo Mo was rash and inefficient so he had it attack a few hundred people. But there are possibly trade-offs in using the sound storm that I think affects how to use these two attacks.

First, we don’t know the range of the sound storm but hard lightning works very well as a long-range attack. The sound might weaken over distance so that could have been a concern. It is a mid-range or less attack. The formation also requires Lil’ PaG.o.da’s power to control and is a one-use technique as Lil’ PaG.o.da is exhausted by the end of it. That means it should only be used when it will be most effective. Hard lightning can be produced as long as the people have the power so it can be used with less care.

Getting the enemy to go through a rain of lightning, and then at the end, setting off  something totally unexpected is a relatively better tactic than setting off something at the beginning that puts them on their guard and then using something weaker as the enemy approaches unless it was for intimidation.The sound storm might also be less effective the more people it attacks at once. In that case, attacking a few thousand people would result in less effects on each person which might be negligible.

The moon storm is one of Zuo Mo’s attacks and while it is effective here, there are more in his a.r.s.enal so how he uses them depends on what he has left in the future chapters.

Any thoughts?