Whoosh! Whoosh!
Dancing across the sky, an endless road of ice was being left behind as a young man in military armor crosses at full speed. The young man appeared calm on the surface, but deep within, no one could tell what he was thinking, besides for himself.
"Judging from that layout… If I'm right, then this may happen. If that happens, doing this should do it… But if this happens after that, then the plan will fail…"
The young man had many thoughts going through his mind all at once. Even while thinking, he could still move at full speed using his movement art while memorizing every part of the landscape around him.
Not a single stick or stone was left out of his head.
While he was sprinting, a few moments later, he noticed the fluctuation of Spiritual Qi in the air high above him. Sensing that it was a familiar fluctuation, he changed his direction and headed straight up.
Within a few breaths of time, he got close to them. While he was getting closer, the fluctuations seemed to be getting stronger and trying to get further ahead of him.
"These brats, not even bothering to see if it was a friend or foe." the young man thought as he dashed through the air.
High in the sky, he saw two large Magical tools with half a dozen people on each of them. In the blink of an eye, as though he had teleported, the young man who was obviously Wu Dong Yi appeared to stop right in front of them.
"Slow down, it's me," he said.
When the two figures that controlled the Magical tools heard his voice, they stopped moving in the air.
"Squad leader." a voice was heard.
On one side, Su Ming called out his title, while Ying Yu only paused and didn't utter a sound.
"Come down, I will give you your orders." Wu Dong Yi said as he turned to head back down to the ground.
Back on land, Wu Dong Yi shattered a nearby boulder and made seats for every member of his squad. They were all neatly placed in an orderly fashion as the members all took a seat surrounding him.
"Later, the other squads will be invading the previous hideouts that were leaked by the scouts. If I'm right, they will all be empty while this central location here should be where they are." Wu Dong Yi said.
As he said this, he had used a stick to draw a quick map on the dirt.
"When the other squads find out, they will all head to this central location. Once they do, an ambush should be awaiting them there. That's where we come in, while the enemy has thought that they won by surrounding all the troops, our squad will come in from behind and wipe them out in one fell swoop." he continued to explain.
He then drew arrows that connected to the marked locations while explaining the process to those around him.
"Leader, how do you know that the enemy will appear here? What if they have more hideouts we don't know of, wouldn't it just be a waste of time?" Lin Huang asked.
Beside him, Huo Guanting added, "Let's say that they split part of their forces to use as a distraction from the main force if they split off here and head over here, wouldn't they be able to escape?"
Wu Dong Yi nodded, "It's good that you had thought of that, but I wouldn't say so. From the reports, they numbered over a hundred, even if they had a larger force or split off their group in order to hide their traces; they wouldn't be able to escape."
"As for why that is, that's for you to figure out." he continued.
"..."
The squad members all looked at him as he stopped his explanation there. "Have a rest, when the sun comes down, that is when we move," he told them before heading off on his own.
*************
Sitting atop a small hill that he had created himself, Wu Dong Yi could be seen sitting down with his legs crossed. During this time, he started cultivating while also perfecting his foundations at the same time.
Now that he has entered an unprecedented Tenth stage of the Body Tempering realm, he was now slightly further away from the Qi Condensation realm, of course, one could also say that he was even closer than before as well.
After two hours, Wu Dong Yi opened his eyes and stared at the sun. Just a bit more, and the sun would begin to set.
Jumping off the small hill, he picked up a stick that was the length of a shortsword and began to practice.
So far in his practice, Wu Dong Yi had somewhat mastered each of the techniques that he had learned. The only thing he lacked now, was proper combat experience. Of course, he could get such experience from duels with his squad members, but he didn't want to bully them nor get his ass handed to him by Su Ming or Ying Yu.
Since that was the case, he could only practice silently on his own. With a stick in hand, Wu Dong Yi closed his eyes and immersed himself into a world of his own.
Without even moving, nor using even a hint of Spiritual Qi, small pebbles started shaking before slowly rising from the ground. The nearby weeds that grew off the sides of the dirt tumbled along with the wind.
As he opened his eyes slowly, multitudes of petals from a peach blossom tree danced around his entire being. If one looked extremely carefully, they would be able to see a soft pink aura being emitted like heat off his body.
Whoosh!
A single thrust came forward, flushing through the air like a laser. From the wooden stick, countless peach blossoms danced like a tornado. The ends of the wooden stick, small buds of peach blossoms could be seen growing.
It was as though life had been created at that moment.
A single step.
A single stick.
A single man.
At that moment, not only did peach blossoms bud from the stick, the surrounding area of a hundred meters became engulfed with greenery. The dirt and dead weeds could no longer be seen, in place, fresh grass and flowers could be seen instead.
At that moment, Wu Dong Yi felt a similar sensation that he had felt in the past. It was just like that day when he first held a spear in his hands.
A formless aura was being emitted from the tree branch in his hands. He knew that even while using a stick, he could cut things apart just as he would with a sword.
Wu Dong Yi realized at that moment, that he had discovered Sword Intent for the first time. A formidable aura could be traced from his body that was different from those around him.
As he realized this, his eyes slowly closed once again. Instead of using the Peach Blossom art, he began to change into the Black Swan art.
His body moved along to the 18 moves of the art. With each repetition of the art, his mastery improved while his aura continued to become stronger slowly.
After the Black Swan technique, he rotated to each of his other sword arts. It didn't take long before he had practiced all five of them in that single instance.
Seeing that he had made some progress, he opened his eyes slowly. By now, the sun was setting, which meant that it was time for him to head off.
Rather than throwing away the branch, he moved to the top of the small hill and planted the stick into the ground. As he watched the sunset for a few moments, Wu Dong Yi turned around to prepare for battle.
**********
Cling! Cling!
Arg!
The metallic sound of swords and spears clashing could be heard. In a large ravine surrounded by nothing but dirt mountains, hundreds of dark shadows could be seen fighting inside the large pit that was over three hundred meters in diameter.
Within the pit, soldiers with either a sword or spear in hand clashed against bandits carrying large cutlasses. At this moment, the fight seemed to be even between both sides.
Six figures within the pit could be seen facing off against four figures of similar strength. If Wu Dong Yi were here, he would see that the six figures were the other squad leaders of the Infantry unit.
As for their opponents, they were obviously the four vice leaders of the bandit gang. Each of them boasted the strength of the Qi Condensation realm. Not only that, but the four of them were also all of the mid Qi Condensation realm.
The six squad leaders were able to hold out against the four with their low Qi Condensation realm strength due to the difference in numbers. Not only that, but they also possessed combat Magical tools in order to increase their strength.
While the soldiers and the bandits were fighting under the setting sun, a thunderous stampede of horses could be heard uphill.
The six squad leaders all turned and looked uphill only to see themselves surrounded by hundreds of bandits on horseback. Seeing this, their faces all paled.
"Hahahahaha! Our reinforcements are here, now that you're here, you don't need to go back alive!" one of the vice bandit leaders shouted.
To make things worst, the two sides of the pit were also blocked off by the reinforcements, now, the soldiers had no way of escaping their current predicament even if they made some sacrifices in order to leave.
"All forces heed my orders! Do not let up and continue taking the heads of these foul bandits! I have received notice that reinforcements from headquarters will arrive within one shi! If we can hold out until then, we will be saved!" one of the squad leaders shouted.
His voice resounded throughout the battlefield, encouraging the soldiers who were struck with fear in their hearts.
"Hahahaha! Reinforcements?! You're bluffing, even if they do come, do you really think you'll be able to hold out for even half a shi? Look around you, the morale of your troops have dropped by half, while the numbers have dwindled."
"The six of you are barely alive right now only because of your Magical tools! Not only that, but our leader himself also isn't even here yet. When he arrives, not a single one of you will leave here alive!"
Suddenly, a voice resounded throughout the entire battleground, entering the ears of both sides at once.
"Are you sure about that?"
Boom! Boom! Bang!
Suddenly, large clouds of dust, as well as bandits whether uphill or blocking the path of escape down below the pit could be seen. The bandits uphill that were horseback fell into the pit, turning into corpses in large quantities.
"Who?!" one of the bandit leaders shouted in fury.
"Your grandfather." a voice replied back to him, echoing around.
Hearing this, the soldiers below couldn't help but be filled with laughter.
"You bastard, show yourself!"
"Sure."
Suddenly, every single bandit that wasn't dropped into the pit had all fallen at the same time. Replacing them, was hundreds of horses with dark figures sitting on them.
None of the dark figures' faces could be seen. It was as though they had no face, to begin with.
On one end, a young man wearing black military armor could be seen. His helmet was slowly taken off as his long hair danced along with the wind. Beside him, two cross-dressing girls on horseback went right next to him.
The young man looked down at the battlefield and glanced around. "It seems you've done some damage to our numbers, now it's our turn." the young man said.
In his hand, a sword was raised high into the sky. Pointing down toward the battlefield, the troops on horseback all charged down the hills in unison.
Thump! Thump! Rumble! Rumble!
A single word was heard as hundreds of figures on horseback ran across the battlefield.
"Charge."
It was the last word the bandits had heard before their life flashed before their very eyes.