“Looks like… you ten-man squad leaders aren’t convinced about me?”
After a short conversation with Brutal Thunder, Fang Yuan sneered coldly as he watched the few ten-man squad leaders surround him. “Fine… All of you can come at me together. As long as one of you can make me take a step backward, I will give up my position as the hundred-man commander.”
Among barbarians, strength was equivalent to respect, and most of them were brainless muscular men. They immediately agreed. “Good!”
While some were releasing their materializations, some had already charged at him directly.
Chichi!
Fang Yuan stood still, smiling faintly.
An immense amount of Saber Qi suddenly erupted from his body, leaving bloody wounds all over these people.
“This is… Saber Realm?” Brutal Thunder muttered in shock. “No wonder he was accepted into the Holy Mountain in advance and became a core disciple… Fang Yuan was merely average in the tribe, but I never thought that he would improve so drastically after going to the Barbarian Palace!”
After unleashing his Saber Qi, Fang Yuan stood there proudly, overlooking the bloody people in front of him. With the same faint smile, he asked, “So? Convinced?”
He had shown mercy. Even though their injuries looked terrifying, they were nothing more than superficial wounds.
Even though barbarians were foolish, they were not people who could not accept a loss. All of them knelt. “Greetings, Hundred-man Commander!”
“All right! I appoint Brutal Thunder as my deputy. Besides me, you have to listen to everything he says. Understood?” Fang Yuan practiced nepotism without restraint.
The ten-man squad leaders immediately replied, “Understood!”
…
In the blink of an eye, one month passed.
On the plains, Fang Yuan brought a small team out of the camp gates.
“So a war between cultivators in this world looks like this,” Fang Yuan muttered with a grass straw in his mouth while looking into the distance.
First, the main force of the opposition was clearly the Kun Yun Sect. Moreover, it was only considered a small influence in the cultivation world.
After all, the outside world was boundless and had plenty of cultivation sects. The enmity between these sects might be even more than their hatred toward the barbarians!
“Next is this form of battle. Because both parties have Immortals overseeing everything, as well as terrifying arrays arranged in the camps, launching a direct attack on a camp is definitely asking for trouble!”
“The most we can do now is to wander around the area divided between both parties in our hundred or even ten-man units to entice enemies before fighting them in close quarters, engaging them in a bitter war of attrition!
“Once a party can’t support the consumption any longer, a direct and open war will naturally start, unless they take the initiative to escape.”
…
Fortunately, this kind of small-scale fighting between tens or hundreds of people would rarely involve the Apotheosis realm, let alone Immortals.
With the strength of his men and some luck, the unit that Fang Yuan led did not encounter many dangers.
His unit had had only one or two casualties, while the nearby unit had losses of nearly twenty to thirty percent, mostly due to bad luck.
Fang Yuan’s reputation was gradually spreading. The other hundred-man commanders knew of a Materialization realm core disciple of the Holy Mountain who might not have high cultivation but was extremely lucky. The unit he led not only won every battle, but it also had the lowest casualty rate.
At a time like this, being able to protect subordinates was naturally going to gain the support of others.
Fang Yuan’s prestige started growing unknowingly from this small unit.
Even barbarians from other units were starting to be envious of such outstanding military achievements and incredibly low casualties. They were so envious that they even wanted to join his unit.
Fang Yuan was not one to forget his roots, so he got Brutal Thunder to look for the people from the Flybarb tribe and had them join his unit. He even took extra care of them once they joined him.
…
“If the Immortals and Apotheosis realm powerhouses are not taking action, it is up to us soldiers to exhaust each other to death!”
This time, Fang Yuan brought some ten-man squad leaders out to fight.
Although this kind of messy war environment was a hindrance to his cultivation, it was not without benefits. At least, he could make use of his military merits to exchange for all the magical powers that he wanted.
As for the heavenly materials and earthly treasures that the Hundred Physical Forging Technique needed? They were extremely valuable to the Immortals. Fang Yuan rolled his eyes after hearing Gold Ingot talk about it and no longer harbored any hopes for the sixth star of the Nine Star Pearl.
“Let’s go!”
He led his ten ten-man squad leaders and disappeared into the plains.
The surroundings of the two big camps of the barbarians and the cultivators were the battlefields for many small units.
“We’ve already entered the danger zone. Pay attention to those hiding!” Fang Yuan warned as his spiritual will spread out to cover five kilometers around him.
This greatly surpassed the range of Materialization spiritual will and was also why he was confident in ensuring the safety of his small unit.
After all, his current spiritual will was definitely at the Primordial Core level. Once he came across any danger, he could activate his mystic technique to raise it to the Apotheosis level. With such abilities, it was naturally easy for him to escape the pursuit of mere Primordial Core cultivators.
In this war of attrition, the competing factors are using spiritual will to detect others and your concealment abilities… Fang Yuan had a sort of realization in his heart. This is the same as radar and stealth fighters in my previous life. Just like spears and shields, both parties need to constantly improve to eliminate each other…
Of course, a war between cultivators was much more terrifying.
“We’ve passed the middle…”
After walking some distance, Fang Yuan smiled lightly and activated the Nine Star Pearl Mystic Technique.
In a split second, his spiritual will expanded infinitely, going beyond dozens of kilometers.
During his scan, plenty of Qi fields appeared one after another.
“Southeast, twenty-five kilometers! A small team of Primordial Core cultivators. They should be elite troops led by a barbarian thousand-man commander!
“Eighteen kilometers north! Traces of cultivators! The opposition has already started to escape in the opposite direction!
“Battle fluctuations in the west… about twenty-two kilometers away!”
…
Vast amounts of information converged for him to summarize. “Let’s head west! Two units encountered each other there!”
“Understood… Haha, I bet they would have never imagined that our leader’s innate spiritual will was so formidable…” Brutal Thunder and the other ten-man squad leaders laughed.
With Fang Yuan exploring for them, the entire battle process… was like cheating.
“How strong are the enemies?” Brutal Thunder asked cautiously after they crossed several kilometers.
“Four at Primordial Core and about a dozen at Materialization. A similar composition to ours…”
Ordinary Predatory realm soldiers were not even considered cannon fodder on an elite battlefield like this. They did not need to head out onto the battlefield, and their only job was to reinforce the arrays back at the camp.
Fang Yuan sensed and smiled slightly. “Seems… like there are a few familiar auras! Let’s go!”
His small team sped up, and not long later, even Brutal Thunder sensed the violent fluctuations in the Qi of Heaven and Earth ahead.
“Yan Luo! You won’t be able to escape this time! We three brothers came out personally to kill you. You should feel honored!”
Three Golden Core cultivators were on flying swords and looking down, incredibly arrogant.
Below them, Yan Luo had blood flowing from his chest but still continued to shout ferociously, “Outsiders… Die!!!”
On his back, a flame materialization emerged, and it started spitting flames in all four directions.
“Ice Seal!”
The big brother of the three reacted quickly with hand seals.
Ice appeared out of thin air and consumed the power of the flames.
“What are the military merits for killing a core disciple of the Holy Mountain?”
The eyes of the three Golden Core brothers turned red, and they sent out their flying swords. “Three Talents Immortal Trap Array, kill!”
“Damn it!” Seeing this, Yan Luo could not help feeling slightly desperate.
Overwhelming Sword Qi descended, and his subordinates suffered disastrous casualties.
Among them, a female warrior in leather armor shouted, “Hundred-man Commander, don’t worry!”
Her jade rabbit totem started emitting astonishing cold air, and it jumped forward with its mouth wide open to gobble up the entire ice wall.
“Tsk! A mere Foundation Establishment cultivator dares to intervene between the affairs of Golden Core cultivators? Courting death!”
One of the cultivators sent a sword light at her.
In the outside world, it was not difficult for a Golden Core cultivator to kill a Foundation Establishment cultivator. But among the barbarians, the gap between the Primordial Core realm and the Materialization realm was like heaven and earth.
A casual attack from one was undoubtedly not something a lower-level cultivator could withstand.
The female warrior struggled desperately against the sword light before her saber flew out of her hand. Her entire body was shaking fearfully, as though she were about to vomit blood.
“Our small team… is probably doomed!” Yan Luo smiled bitterly. “Ten-man squad leaders, escape immediately! Don’t worry about me! Try as hard as possible to get away! The more, the better!”
“Hundred-man Commander?!”
The female warrior trembled, while the other ten-man squad leaders had already started escaping without looking back.
Even though they were honorable barbarians, they would not deliberately throw their lives away in this completely hopeless situation.
“Cough cough…” Yan Luo had merely entered the Holy Mountain slightly earlier than Fang Yuan, so he was among the weakest of the Primordial Core cultivators there. Being surrounded by three Golden Core Venerables, he was in a desperate situation. A sword suddenly pierced through his chest, causing him to vomit blood.
“Am I… really going to die here?”
Just when Yan Luo lost all hopes, he heard a voice. “Senior Brother Yan Luo, don’t worry!”
“Junior Brother Fang Yuan?!” Yan Luo was hopeful again but then smiled bitterly.
If it were any other hundred-man commander, they would be at the Primordial Core realm. Together with him and the advantage of their totems, they might actually cause some trouble for these three Golden Core cultivators.
But this little junior brother? He might be overflowing with talent, but he was still not at the Primordial Core realm!
“Arrange the formation!”
Two waves of troops arrived under Brutal Thunder’s shout. Several ten-man squad leaders abruptly appeared with connected Qi, and the fluctuations were astonishing.
“Kill!” At the same time, Fang Yuan wielded his saber.
Swoosh!
A twenty-meter long saber light extended across space.
His peak Materialization realm cultivation combined with his peak comprehension of the Saber Realm nomological laws was enough to release Saber Qi that could frighten the Golden Core Venerables. He did not even need to use the Nine Star Pearl Mystic Technique.
“A ten-man formation comparable to a Golden Core, and this barbarian at Materialization…” One of the Golden Core Venerables withstood the Saber Qi but was forced back over ten steps. His face turned red as he shouted, “Let’s go!”
“Brutal Moon, how are you?” Fang Yuan descended and smiled at the female warrior.
Brutal Moon raised her head, but her expression was quite complex.
