That broad back, light hair and dark skin were clear signs of Yun Ping. Moreover, he had what looked like a metallic tree in his hand, 'Eternal Rampart'. Just like Cao Yun, he was walking toward the demonic beasts pavilion.
"Brother Yun?"
The giant figure turned back, and for sure Cao Yun saw the face of Yun Ping. As soon as he recognized Cao Yun, he saluted him with one hand and waited for him.
"So, you're also going to help out against this stampede thing? Where are you going to? There are several teams apparently. I had a hard time choosing... No matter where I go, I feel like I'm letting down many people. But in the end, I went for the small cities. No one seems to care what happens to small cities." Since Yun Ping came from a very poor province that was bordering on demon territory, he was sensitive to things like that. And indeed he was rather right. Most of the effort against the stampede had been allocated to big cities or even capitals of provinces. But he wasn't absolutely right. After all, the Wubei Sect was also sending teams to protect small cities and help evacuate them. And they were not alone in this endeavor, several sects and even many religious temples had sent help for the small cities as well.
Even though the Imperial City was more preoccupied with the powerful cultivators and their sects, they still hadn't forsaken the people entirely. Since the beginning of the Forsaken Dao Era, the successive emperors had cared more and more about raising a few great cultivators to protect the kingdom against the demons rather than helping the common citizens. After all, since breaking through was becoming more and more difficult, they couldn't waste resources on talentless people. Despite all that, they still seemed to care enough to help them out when a huge catastrophe was upon them.
"If I remember right, I should go to... Yinmen City?"
With Yun Ping's accent, the tones just seemed... wrong. And the name of the city turned out weird.* However Cao Yun had understood. That was the most important thing.
"Yinmen City! That's where I go as well."
Yun Ping's face lit up and he tapped his friend behind his back.
"Great! We'll be able to talk on the way there. Is there a reason why you chose this... Yinmen City?" Yun Ping made sure to pronounce it right this time and waited for Cao Yun to acknowledge it.
"Yes, I've spent some time there after a difficult period. And the city has been very welcoming. To tell the whole truth, my Dao companion is from Yinmen City. She owns a small alchemy shop there that she received from her dead father. Besides, the city lord has been very good to me as well. So I'd really like for the city not to be damaged. I know that our main goal is to protect the people of course. But if we could also protect the city itself..."
"Of course! Why wouldn't we do both?! We'll take care of evacuating everyone who can't or won't fight. But I can tell you, in small cities like that there are always many people who would rather stay and fight for what they have. For some of them, starting over somewhere else is just not an option. So you can count on the people to protect their city with their dying breath. And that's why I'm here. I think I never told you, but my specialty is battle formations.
"From what I heard, and you'll correct me if I'm wrong again, but the city lord is a 1st-grade Spirit Warrior, right?"
Cao Yun nodded and Yun Ping kept on talking while the two of them were still walking toward the pavilion.
"Even a 1st-grade Spirit Warrior will have a hard time protecting his city against tens or even hundreds of weaker demonic beasts. Unless there are way too many beasts or a few 7-core demonic beasts, he should be mostly fine though. All that is if he doesn't use battle formations. And with me there, I can assure you he should. If you know him it will be even easier to convince him to listen to me. With battle formations, even rabbits can band together and kill a wolf if there are enough of them. For example, a 7-core demonic beast could be killed by ten or twelve late Mortal Warriors as long as they fight together and use the proper battle formation.
"I don't want to brag but I learned on the battlefield. With me there, I can assure you that the strength of those people, and of our brothers and sisters, will be increased exponentially. Unfortunately, I cannot promise that there won't be any casualties, but I am confident enough about protecting the city."
"I see." Cao Yun had heard about battle formations but he had never seen one truly performed in front of him. The only moment he could have was when his family was attacked but he was hiding with his sister and the other young members of the Cao family.
-
Once they reached the demonic beasts pavilion, Cao Yun and Yun Ping found several disciples who were gathered in many groups. Each group was going in a different part of the kingdom. Cao Yun immediately recognized his sworn brothers and went to them. Then, he looked for Xiao Xuefeng to give her the letter he had prepared for Feng Yingyue.
The content was not very different from what he was used to telling her. In it, he explained what he had lived and experienced and he also gave pointers about the mind cultivation they were both practicing. Just as she had received the letter, Xiao Xuefeng left. Usually, she would have used a flying sword to go back to the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute, but she had a lot of persons to transport this time. Also, just like the other disciples, she used one of the demonic beasts from the pavilion.
The one she had been given was a 7-core demonic beast, a River Spanning Robin. This vibrant bird was rather large and could accommodate many cultivators on its back. But despite its high level, it wasn't a very good fighter. In fact, it was known for its great speed. After the Blue Mane Falcon, it was the fastest flying demonic beast in the Hongchen Kingdom. Hence, the demonic beasts pavilion only used this beast to travel when the situation was critical. Losing such a demonic beast would be a terrible problem.
Xiao Xuefeng and a few disciples, obviously including Mei Hua, left while riding on this River Spanning Robin.
Then, Cao Yun met up with his sworn brothers and Yun Ping. Sadly, they were not many to go to Yinmen City. Them included, only seven disciples were going there. Among the three other disciples, two were from the Red Cliff Faction and one from the Hidden Orchids Faction. Even during the entire journey, they didn't really speak much, maybe they were too nervous to.
The demonic beast they were given was only a 4-core demonic beast, a Silver Winged-Lion. This kind of vulture had four wings. It wasn't as fast as the River Spanning Robin of course, but it wasn't too slow either. On the other hand, it was a scavenger and not a great fighter at all. Cao Yun noted that this was the weakest of the demonic beasts that were transporting reinforcements all around the kingdom. Yinmen City was really an insignificant city and many didn't care about it.
During the travel, Cao Yun and Yun Ping discussed a lot and his other two sworn brothers joined in the conversation. As none of them were able to cultivate while flying on this small demonic beast, they spent their time talking to each other. Cao Yun still used the time he had to circulate his mind cultivation in an attempt to forge a new Five Echoes Pearl. By now, it had become a habit and he was doing it almost without thinking. It wasn't particularly difficult, just very long and fastidious.
During the flight, Yun Ping had the occasion to talk a lot about battle formations and it interested Sun Liao. Ren chao got kinda bored. And Cao Yun was also fascinated with those battle formations.
They were very similar to array formations. But unlike them, they were not static. They moved all the time and had to be changed according to the rhythm of the battle itself. What constituted the battle formations were the cultivators themselves. Both Sun Liao and Cao Yun compared what they heard from Yun Ping with what they knew about array formations. Many of the principles were similar but simplified. In the midst of a battle, one couldn't just use a compass to find out the best formation. Decisions needed to be taken in a split-second or people would die.
As such, there were many techniques to balance the battle formation so that it wouldn't break. It could diminish in power, but it couldn't break, ever!
And those techniques gave a lot of ideas to both array formation masters. In fact, they also gave a few ideas to Yun Ping. As he had reached the Mortal Warrior realm a few weeks ago, Yun Ping could probably lead Human rank battle formations by now. Up until very recently, he had only been a 5-star Earth strategist. Battle formations were just one facet of a strategist but they were very important.
Right now, Yun Ping should be able to demonstrate Human rank battle formations by providing a bit of his own Qi to the cultivators. Moreover, by injecting his Qi within, he could also send his voice more accurately to specific cultivators. This would allow more control of the battle formations. And of course, he could sense Qi in the air more clearly even if it was some distance from him. All those factors would make his battle formations way more powerful.
While they talked about all of that, Cao Yun and Sun Liao got a lot of insights. Since they both practiced 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peak', their minds were heightened and able to almost understand everything as soon as Yun Ping explained it. Furthermore, the two of them had read many books on those subjects. In fact, Cao Yun and Sun Liao were convinced that they could use battle formations in an actual battle if need be. But of course, Yun Ping would still be better than them, both because he had more experience - understanding something was not the same thing as experiencing and forming an intuition of it - and because he was a Mortal Warrior and could thus use more powerful battle formations.
The main principles behind battle formations were the Six Stratagems.
One of them, Breathing as One, got Cao Yun very interested. Yun Ping explained that this was way more profound than it appeared at first.
"When you begin, you think that this just means that all the fighters have to breathe in sync. This way, your battle formation is perfectly balanced and the flow of Qi within is perfect. As such, it's very easy to control and modify. Then, you must also think about the fact that their cultivation should be very similar, or even identical for it to work perfectly. Because, even if they breathe the same way, the effects will depend on their respective cultivation. Although they may have the same level, it doesn't mean their cultivation is strictly identical.
"Even then, you're just scratching the surface. The point is not that the cultivators breathe in the exact same way, but that their breathing is harmonized. Imagine different instruments playing together. They must not all play the same partition, but they must complement each other. That's the same thing here. And it's not just about breathing, it's about everything else. When you control such a battle formation, you must be able to immediately tell which cultivator should occupy which position so that the battle formation is optimized. Even better, you may switch the roles in the middle of the fight according to how they react.
"A Spirit Warrior is better at that of course. Not only can he send telepathic instructions, but he can even guide their minds and their Qi in the middle of the battle to tell them how they should breathe or circulate their Qi. According to my father, they can even take the mental state of the soldiers during a battle in consideration and position them accordingly.
"Then, you don't have just a bunch of fighters helping each other. Each one amplifies the strength of the others. My father once used seventy-two 6th-grade Mortal Warriors to force a demon that was on the level of a 1st-grade Spirit Warrior to run. This was a close call still, but not one soldier died and the enemy fled. For me, that's a win!"
-
Finally, after more than a month, the group reached Yinmen City. From up there, Cao Yun recognized the city, the auction hall, the shop of Feng Yingyue, the house of the Huang family and the residence of City Lord Dun Mofan.
But it had changed a lot as well. There was no one in the streets. Many fortifications had been built around the city as well. Several towers with archers and various war machines had been erected. As soon as the Silver Winged-Lion appeared in the sky, a few Three Bow Ballistae aimed at the demonic beast. To be honest, they were not a threat to a 4-core demonic beast, but it still wasn't pleasant neither for the beast nor its riders.
From the city, Dun Mofan ascended into the sky. With his senses, he had immediately been able to sense that the beast was transporting a few disciples of the Wubei Sect. And there was a familiar feeling. He gestured for the archers to calm down. Then, with his sight, he was able to understand why one of the disciples felt familiar, he had recognized Cao Yun. But he was speechless. He had last seen the boy more than a year ago when he was still a 5th-grade Mortal. And right now, he was an 8th-grade Mortal. Such a cultivation speed was not unheard of, but most cultivators took a year or more to cross one grade of the Mortal realm.
Of course, cultivators in the Wubei Sect were faster as they had great teachers, many resources and were already recognized as being more talented. But still, Dun Mofan was amazed. However, he didn't let it show. This was a nice surprise, but the situation was almost desperate for his little city.
*银门 (yínmén) "Silver gate" =/= 阴门 (yīnmén) "vulva"