After leaving the barracks, Zhang Xuan swiftly led the Otherworldly Demon toward the room with the mirrors.
“Commander, what’s wrong?” Seeing how careful the Commander was being, sealing the entire area completely such that not even the slightest aura could leak out, a serious look appeared on the face of the Otherworldly Demon.
“It’s like this…”
Stroking his lower jaw, Zhang Xuan casually walked up to the Otherworldly Demon when all of a sudden, a demonic blade materialized in his hand and sliced right for the Otherworldly Demon’s neck.
“…”
Not expecting the Commander to make a move on him suddenly, the Otherworldly Demon swiftly backed away. No matter what, he was still a Great 3-dan Intuitive Impulse cultivator and had been through many battles. Despite being caught off guard, he did not become flustered.
Padah!
However, barely after taking two steps back, a massive brick crashed down on his head and reduced him to a flat pancake.
Given how even the Sempiternal realm Commander had been rendered completely helpless under the crushing might of the Golden Origin Cauldron, how could this Intuitive Impulse realm Otherworldly Demon stand a chance? It was a one-hit KO.
Puhe!
The Infernal Blacksaber swiftly flew forth and devoured the Otherworldly Demon’s blood and soul.
Without much hesitation, Zhang Xuan returned to the main tent and beckoned the other Intuitive Impulse realm Otherworldly Demon out. “You, come out for a moment!”
Five minutes later, he stepped into the main tent once more and said, “The three of you, follow me!”
The three Aureate Body realm Otherworldly Demons followed the Commander out, leaving the two Introspective Convalescence realm fellows staring at one another blankly.
Aren’t we supposed to be discussing a matter of some sort?
Why are we being called out one after another?
Their doubt did not last too long. The Commander walked back into the main tent with a satisfied look on his face. As soon as he entered, he set up an isolation barrier around the tent and said, “I had some missions to delegate to them, so I had to meet them privately. It’s finally your turn…”
The two Introspective Convalescence fellows immediately got to their feet, fearing that they would miss a single word about this highly secretive mission.
Hu!
Before they could react, a cold glint sliced through the air, and two heads fell to the ground.
Till their final breaths, they could not understand why the Commander would make a move on them.
Zhang Xuan might still have some problems trying to deal with Sempiternal realm cultivators, but Introspective Convalescence realm cultivators were already a ‘one shot, one kill’ to him.
After dealing with the seven of them and disposing of their corpses, Zhang Xuan beckoned a guard stationed outside to come in.
“Gather all of the Great Sage experts in our camp for a meeting!” Zhang Xuan ordered.
“Commander, there are only seven Great Sage Vice Commanders in our camp. You called out five of them earlier, and the remaining two… were in this tent,” the guard replied with a doubtful frown.
Earlier, he had seen the Commander calling out five of the Vice Commanders one after another, so there should still have been two more Vice Commanders in the main tent. Why would they suddenly disappear without a trace?
The guard was only at Saint 7-dan. Considering how even the Great Sage 3-dan Intuitive Impulse realm Vice Commanders were unable to see through his disguise, there was no way that the guard could have done so.
It was unthinkable to him that their Commander would have already been killed.
“Good!” Zhang Xuan had just been verifying the matter to be safe. Since it was confirmed that there were only seven Great Sages in the camp, he was saved a great ton of trouble. He stood up and instructed, “Inform all of the soldiers to gather before the main tent!”
“All of the soldiers?”
“That’s right, everyone. This includes those who are resting, patrolling, and on sentry. Get all of them here!” Zhang Xuan waved his hand grandly.
“Yes, Commander!”
The guard quickly left the area and sounded the assembly horn.
Ten minutes later, when Zhang Xuan walked out of the main tent, he saw countless Otherworldly Demons standing neatly in a formation.
With just one glance, Zhang Xuan’s eyebrows had already shot up in astonishment.
There had to be over ten thousand Otherworldly Demons before him.
It was fortunate that he had not made a move recklessly earlier. Otherwise, a collaborative formation consisting of over ten thousand Saint 3-dan Otherworldly Demons would have been more than enough to render a Half-Ancient Sage powerless.
It was truly a wise decision from Sword Saint Xing to retreat. The Zhang Clan was not weak, but against such a huge army, they would still lose at least half of their entire force even if lady luck was shining on them.
Suppressing his shock, Zhang Xuan bellowed, “General Auer!”
“Yes, Commander!” General Auer stepped out of the formation and clasped his fist.
“Get your men to bring the item that I just set up over here!” Zhang Xuan waved his hand.
“Yes, Commander!” General Auer had no idea why the Commander had issued such a command, but it would be insubordination to oppose an order from a person of a higher rank.
Thus, he quickly led a group of people and left the area.
Several minutes later, the stone platforms and mirrors were moved over.
“Divide yourself into groups of a thousand, and each group will take one of these artifacts. I want the members of each group to get into a line and hold hands with one another. The person at the front is to place their hand on the mirror!” Zhang Xuan commanded.
“Groups of a thousand?”
“Get into a line and hold hands with one another?”
All of the soldiers were confused.
Were they going to practice some kind of new formation or something?
But… why did it sound so shady?
They had never heard of any formations that required cultivators to hold hands with one another!
Unable to take it any longer, another Otherworldly Demon wearing a black helmet similar to that of General Auer stepped forward and said, “Commander, the Zhang Clan has been eyeing us warily all this time. If they launch an attack while everyone is here holding hands with one another, it could end in a catastrophe!”
The other soldiers also turned intrigued gazes over.
“You fool!” Zhang Xuan’s face darkened as he roared in fury. “This is the battle plan that I have just designed with the other Vice Commanders. Do you all know what these mirrors are?”
“No, Commander!”
“These mirrors do look a little extraordinary, but I can’t figure out what they are used for…”
The crowd shook their heads in response.
If not for the fact that Zhang Xuan had come into close contact with seers in the past, he would not have been able to deduce the purpose of these mirrors. Considering that these soldiers and officers were unlikely to have ever met human seers before, there was no way that they would be able to recognize these mirrors.
“These mirrors are the treasures of the human’s Seer Guild! They are able to provide concealment from the heavens, hindering even Intuitive Impulse cultivators from discerning your presence. The reason I want you to stand in a file and hold hands with one another is to conceal your killing intent and auras so that we can sneak into the fortress of those pesky humans and catch them off guard! Does everything make sense to you now?” Zhang Xuan said with an authoritative wave of his hand.
“Sneak into the fortress of those pesky humans? Does our Commander intend to launch a surprise assault?”
“It’s able to conceal our killing intent and auras? That’s incredible!”
“If we could successfully pull off this surprise assault, we will become celebrated heroes of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe!”
Hearing the effects of the mirrors, the faces of the Otherworldly Demons flushed crimson as they trembled in agitation
They also knew that a direct confrontation with the Zhang Clan would result in heavy casualties. If they could pull off a surprise assault, their chances of survival would be much higher. Perhaps, they might even accrue significant military contributions as a result of the operation and be handsomely rewarded for their effort!
“If you get what I’m saying, hurry up and do it! Ensure that there aren’t any artifacts in between that would terminate the connection. If anyone reveals our location to the master teachers because they aren’t holding the hand of the person next to them tightly enough, they’ll be the sinner of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe. That person will be executed on the spot!” Zhang Xuan commanded authoritatively.
“We’ll be putting everything into this surprise assault. This operation must end in a success; no failure is permitted. Understood?”
“Yes, Commander!” The Otherworldly Demon soldiers nodded with looks of agitation on their faces.
“Very well!” Seeing that his soldiers had received his orders, Zhang Xuan waved his hands grandly and said, “Prepare the formation!”
Hualala!
The massive army immediately divided themselves into groups of a thousand, and the strongest soldiers of the group stood at the front of each file, placing their hands in direct contact with the mirror. The others held hands with one another with iron-tight grips, and the file extended for several hundred meters.
“Good!” Zhang Xuan nodded in satisfaction.
He was just about to give a motivational speech when he suddenly heard a gale sounding above. Raising his head, he saw a figure appearing right before him.
“Commander Heng Jiang, what are you doing?”
