"Yes, Vice Leader!!" The man firmly took the order. He quickly left the room to carry out his task.
Ignored by the other two, Jiu Hao dumbly stood there.
Mao Quanzhou walked to the door's exit and turned to Jiu Hao: "What are you doing?! It's your time to lead our men to battle!!"
The fire was re-lit in his eyes as Jiu Hao rushed out of the room and roared: "You despicable sons of vulture, RISE!! Today, we will drink some ravens' blood!!"
Following that, he charged out of the camp all by himself.
The rest of the bandits, who were still preparing themselves under the vice leader's order, did not know what to do, so they turned their eyes to Mao Quanzhou only to find their vice leader face-palmed himself as he shook his head.
———
Meanwhile, all villagers were preparing for the second step of the plan: Arrays.
Arrays were a technique cultivators used for various purposes in various occasions.
Depending on the type of the array, one could do many things such as increasing one's own strength, barring enemies from entering the area, improving the possibility of making pills or reinforcing weapons, and many others.
To create an array, cultivators could simply use Theríon to draw a magic circle in a particular pattern.
As long as one knew how to draw it and had Theríon, they could create an array anywhere you liked.
The array's power depended on how much Theríon was poured into it. That was why a formation made by the stronger cultivators could exude more power.
Nevertheless, arrays could also be empowered by any source of energy, and the simplest one was the monster core.
By adding a monster core as the catalyst, one could increase the effect of the array.
With how convenient things became after using the array, many cultivators wished to learn the technique, but it was easier said than done.
The most basic level of arrays might be simple enough for anyone to learn. However, the more complex and advanced the array was, the higher the concentration, accuracy, and mental toughness were required, so one's talent played a big role here. Only a few out of a thousand cultivators could become array masters.
And learning was always easier than creating something from nothing. Researching new arrays was the hardest part of the process.
Luckily, Feng Luotian learned plenty of arrays during his past life.
In the meeting earlier, he explained how the array worked and taught some of the most basic examples for the villagers to perform.
The aforementioned second part of Feng Luotian's plan was Theríon Augmentation Array.
This array had two types of magic circles.
One was the ground mark, and another was the body mark.
To create this array, the villagers were required to draw the ground marks and form its area of effect. Each mark could not be more than ten meters apart.
To receive the array's effect, they needed to draw the body mark on their bodies.
Once they had the body mark, anyone who stood within the formation's area of effect would have their Theríon strengthened and have the power to contend against stronger cultivators, albeit not cross-level.
But Feng Luotian did not stop with just that.
He suggested the villagers imbue the array with all Four Fangs monster cores, making anyone in the array able to fight cultivators with one level higher. However, this effect was limited to those under Four Fangs. Someone like Wu Neng or stronger cultivators in the village would only receive small benefits from the array.
Although they needed one Four Fangs monster core for one ground mark, their village was small. Only forty-some of those ground marks were needed, so the village only spent forty-some of such monster cores to reinforce this array. As for the rest of the monster cores, Feng Luotian had another use for them.
Of course, they could not let those bandits know what they were doing. They acted as if they were on their usual chores, washing clothes and cooking, but once they were inside their hut, they began to carry out the plan.
All of these were instructions provided by Feng Luotian.
When others were preparing Theríon Augmentation Array, two kids, Wu Xin and another girl whose face looked just like Wu Ya, were playing at the village's entrance while drawing something on the ground.
———
When the villagers finished preparing themselves, Vulture Bandit Troupe arrived in front of the village.
With an exception of the leader, the vice leader, and other Five Fangs or higher bandits, the rest followed behind in panting breaths. They could finally catch up to their dumb leader.
"Hand over the item, or else you'll all die today!!"
Not wasting any more words, Jiu Hao got straight to what he had in mind with a loud roar.
All villagers were hiding inside their huts, and no one answered. Only a sound of wind breezing was heard after Jiu Hao's scream.
"Come out here and hand me the item!!"
Jiu Hao shouted again.
"…" Nothing happened.
It was like he was talking to a forsaken village.
"Have they all left?" Mao Quanzhou talked to the man who was assigned to be a lookout over the village.
"No, Vice Leader. They're all in their huts." The lookout answered.
"What were they doing before we arrived?" Mao Quanzhou questioned with knitted brows.
"Nothing, Vice Leader. They were only doing their usuals."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, Vice Leader. I'm sure."
Mao Quanzhou gave an order: "Okay. Fourth Squad and Fifth Squad, go inside and get the item. Kill anyone who's in your way. As for you, Jiu Hao, stay put!!"
Someone who did not know them would definitely think that he was the one in charge, not the Eight Fangs Fighter who was obediently waiting as ordered.
"Yes, Vice Leader!!" The assigned squads nodded and charged into the village.
This situation was somehow quite bizarre, so Mao Quanzhou was using their two weakest squads to probe the village whether the villagers were really scared and did not dare to come out.
Those two squads consisted of a dozen bandits with two Six Fangs Fighters as their squad captains.
Looking at the situation, the village only had its head at Seven Fangs, and the rest were only Five Fangs or lower.
More than that, after a couple of Vulture Bandit Troupe's previous visits, dozens of the fighters in the village got beaten down with heavy injuries, including half of their Five Fangs Fighters.
Right now, the villagers who were still able to fight were less than twenty people, and most of them were women.
As for the village head, two Six Fangs Fighters should be able to deal with him. So, the fourth and fifth squads should be able to entirely clean up the village with a breeze. However, what actually happened was unlike the scene they all expected.
When the bandits arrived at the center of the village, its villagers came out of their huts one after another, including Wu Neng.
Sweeping his glance around and counting the village's manpower, the fourth squad captain snickered before he domineeringly threatened: "Wu Neng, hand it over, or else you and your people will all die here today!!"
But the only answer he got from the village head was the howl from the village head.
"KILL!!"
Wu Neng and the rest of his men engaged in a battle with two squad captains.
On the other side, led by Four Fangs Wu Ya, the rest of the women charged out from their huts and fought with the members of the fourth and fifth squads.
Strengthened by Theríon Augmentation Array, Wu Ya could now defeat Four Fangs Fighters with ease and be able to fight those bandits one level higher than her. The same scenario occurred in every ongoing fight.
Bandits fell down one after another.
As their number was gradually withered down, the fourth squad captain had no choice but to cry for supports: "Vice Leader, help!! We need reinforcements!!"
The village huts were not orderly built where one could see the whole place just by standing in front of its entrance.
One needed to stay up on the higher ground like when the bandit lookout was stationed on top of the hill to see the overall situation.
As such, the rest of the bandit troupe could not see what was going on inside the village right now.
After hearing the call, Mao Quanzhou turned serious and confused before he commanded: "First Squad and Second Squad, check them out!!"
Although he wanted to check the situation himself, Mao Quanzhou was quite a cautious person. If there was a little risk, he would never tread that path.
Even so, the strength of their first and second squads was twice as strong as the previous force. They contained four Six Fangs Fighters amongst the two squads. They should be enough to take care of any mishaps that was going on with the other two squads.
When the fourth squad captain gave out his distress call, Wu Ya immediately retreated from her battle and dashed to the village's entrance to greet the newcomers.
The moment the first and second squad were about to enter the village, Wu Ya suddenly appeared, blocking the entrance.
She said with a sweet voice: "I'd like to encourage you, evil men, not to enter my village at this time."
Her sudden appearance prompted all bandits of the first and second squads to look at each other before they started laughing.
The first squad captain licked his lip: "Sweetie Pie!! If you go get that item for our boss and are willing to become my woman, I'll order my men to not enter your village any longer. How does that sound?"
The bandits all snickered under their breaths.
Wu Ya was unfazed by all those provocations: "If you do not appreciate my kind intention, then do as you wish."
She ran back into the village. Once she moved past a certain point, she turned back and then burst out her Theríon, standing still while facing her enemies.
"Hmph!! One way or another, you'll become my woman today, bitch!!" The first squad captain cursed before he commanded his squad: "Kill everyone else and leave that woman alive!!"
"Alright, Big Brother!!" His men nodded and howled.
All bandits under the first and second squad's banners rushed to enter the village.
However, when the first step touched the village ground …
BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!
A series of explosions tore through the incoming bandits' flesh and bones. The only things left were screeching wails and groans.