Chapter 215: The Cannon Fodder’s Debacle

Translator: Minotauruz

These assailants had always been running about busying themselves within the competition grounds, and they had naturally never witnessed the formidable strengths of Jun Xiaomo’s formation arrays.

In fact, even the members of the audience felt that Jun Xiaomo’s abilities and understanding of formation arrays was extremely limited, as though she had only tapped on the tip of the iceberg.

Thus, when Jun Xiaomo’s Fettering Array bound and locked in place the buffoons who had mindlessly charged towards them, before using layers and layers of formidable formation arrays to torment them so much that they began to cry and howl and even call for their mother, several members of the audience began to get shivers down their spines – This lady is far too fearsome. How in the world did she become so proficient with her formation arrays? Even the disciples in the Purple Hut Sect who are known for their formation arrays can’t hold a candle to her.

During the course of the torment, Jun Xiaomo had only slightly adjusted the formation array from time to time – adding a stone to the formation array, removing a twig, shifting some spirit stones about. Yet her actions had resulted in incredible changes to the environment within her formation array. Crackles of earsplitting thunder would ring out and lightning flashed, before it changed to a vicious windstorm, and then yet again to snow and hail. This was completely out of the ordinary, and every change of the environmental condition would bring with them incredible powers of devastation.

Amidst the chaos within the formation array, nobody in the audience was able to peer into what exactly was going on within the formation array. Notwithstanding that, they could hear cry after cry of tragic groans and lamentations, each of which were incredibly shrill and bloodcurdling.

This caused everyone’s hearts to shudder in shock.

Array masters were separated into different classes. Those who were able to discard their books and manuscripts on formation arrays and set up simple formation arrays in real life were considered to have just passably stepped onto the paths of becoming an array master.

Those who were able to build on such a foundation and set up slightly more complicated formation arrays, such as the offensive arrays or the Fettering Array used by Jun Xiaomo, would be considered a first-grade array master.

What Jun Xiaomo was doing right now, which was to use elements of her environment together with the resources on hand to create formation arrays, and even adjust her formation arrays from time to time, was something that had surpassed the abilities of most third-grade array masters.

What level had Jun Xiaomo’s understanding of formation arrays already reached? Not even Jun Xiaomo knew this answer, much less anyone in the audience. But this did not prevent her from using form after form of her formation array against her assailants.

The Dragontiger Sect’s sect leader had already come looking for Jun Linxuan on the second day of the group battles. Right now, as he watched the present scene unfold before his very eyes in the water screen, he laughed heartily as he remarked to Jun Linxuan, “Your daughter is truly as outstanding as you are. Just look at her. She gives off the air of a great general that can hold her own against ten thousand.”

Jun Linxuan revealed a faint smile on his face, yet he sighed helplessly in his heart –

Had he failed as a father for being too unconcerned about his own daughter? He was unaware of where his daughter had learnt all these strange abilities from after all.

Regardless of what the audience members were thinking, Jun Xiaomo’s torment of the assailants finally ended after approximately one hour.

As soon as the immense winds and lightning within the frightening formation array dissipated, the appearances of these assailants finally became clear for all to see. Many of them had been tormented so harshly that they had passed out completely, leaving only slightly over ten stronger disciples who remained conscious. That said, these disciples who were conscious were no longer standing and squaring off against Jun Xiaomo with the aggressive attitude that they wore earlier. All of them were lying in a tragic state on the ground with faces scrunched up tightly as they clutched at the respective parts of their bodies that were experiencing the most pain right now. Their clothing was dishevelled and covered with dirt.

In fact, there was not a single part of their respective bodies that did not feel an ounce of pain. Their skin had even been burnt to a charred crisp by the lightning strikes earlier together with their clothing. The sight that had just unfolded gave an impression that was no different to that of a pile of corpses.

It was almost as though these disciples had just been put though the test of tribulation lightning.

Of course, there was no way that Jun Xiaomo could create formation arrays to call upon tribulation lightning with her present abilities. That said, this small-scale formation array was far more than enough to teach the assailants a good lesson.

“What’s the matter? Do you still intend to butt heads with me?” Jun Xiaomo walked over to one of the still-conscious disciples as she stared down at him from up high.

“I...I’ll speak. I’ll confess everything to you...” Seeing that the Eternal Summit Sect disciples had not made their appearance after such a long time, the disciples who had been so severely tormented could no longer bother to keep mum about their secrets.

They knew that they might not even be able to leave these marshlands with their lives intact if they continued to be stubborn. After all, none of the participants were prohibited from killing other disciples during the course of these group battles. That said, participants generally would not kill another disciple if there was no need for the same, because doing so would invariably create a rift between the two sects and even spark a war between the sects.

Thus, the assailant began to reveal everything to Jun Xiaomo, from how the Eternal Summit Sect disciples had rescued them to Du Yongxu’s final command to attack the campsite and create as much of a disturbance as they could so that the Eternal Summit Sect disciples could take the rest of the Heavenly Peak faction by surprise and round up everyone.

The only problem was that the Eternal Summit Sect’s disciples had not appeared despite the fact that they had been tormented for such a long time. This meant one of two possibilities:

The first possibility was that the team from the Eternal Summit Sect realized that they were no match for Jun Xiaomo’s faction, and they had decided to retreat. The other possibility was that the Eternal Summit Sect had simply been making use of the other teams following them, and they had never thought about rescuing them to begin with. In other words, the team from the Eternal Summit Sect had been using them no more as a probe or a cannon fodder to begin with.

Whichever possibility it was, the coalition of assailants formed by the three teams couldn’t help but have the sudden urge to call out the Eternal Summit Sect’s disciples and beat an answer out of them.

But that was only if they had the ability to call them out and beat them up.

Jun Xiaomo had already suspected that the Eternal Summit Sect’s disciples were behind all of this. Thus, when she finished listening to the assailant’s confessions, she only raised her eyebrow slightly, before glancing nonchalantly towards where the Eternal Summit Sect’s disciples were hiding as she grew taciturn.

After all, she knew that there was nothing else she would be able to get out of these assailants.

“Martial brother Chen, I think it will suffice if we seize the identity tokens of these disciples and disqualify them from these group battles. What do you think?” Jun Xiaomo looked over at Chen Feiyu as she inquired.

“We’ll do as martial sister has suggested then. They didn’t manage to cause us too much harm after all.” Chen Feiyu nodded his head.

“Thank you...thank you...thank you...” On the ground, the leader of the teams of assailants forcibly sat up and bowed fervently to thank Jun Xiaomo for her mercy. It was as though they were afraid that Jun Xiaomo would continue to torment them if they failed to show appreciation for Jun Xiaomo’s mercy at this point in time.

Wei Gaolang brandished his fists as he walked over to the leader’s side and...knocked him unconscious with one blow.

“Tch. So noisy. He was so aggressive and headstrong earlier, yet all he knows to do now is to fervently thank martial sister. He’s practically a spineless coward.”

Wei Gaolang began to grow even more disdainful of the members of these sects who went along with whichever way the wind blew.

Jun Xiaomo chuckled, but she did not restrain Wei Gaolang’s action. Then, with the help of her other martial brothers, they removed the identity tokens of all these assailants. As a result, the Dawn Sect’s standing in the group battles shot upwards and drew even closer to the Eternal Summit Sect that was still in first place.

On the other side, Du Yongxu’s martial brothers minced towards him as they asked, “Young master, what do we do now? Those bunch of people earlier were completely useless. They were defeated before they could even achieve anything. Do we still attack in accordance with our earlier plans?”

Du Yongxu squinted his eyes and deliberated for a moment before he responded, “Did all of you bring the talismans that renders you invulnerable from the effects of formation arrays?”

“This...we did bring them, but do we really have to resort to these talismans?” The Du Clan disciple responded with hesitance.

These talismans were not things that could simply be created out of the blue. In fact, these Array Invulnerability Talismans were items that could fetch a hefty price in auction houses. Cultivators who enjoyed venturing into unchartered territories would generally purchase and keep a few of these Array Invulnerability Talismans as a mainstay in their Interspatial Rings. After all, these Array Invulnerability Talismans might end up saving the lives of these thrill-seekers in moments of dangers.

The Du Clan disciples were hardly lacking in precious resources. Ever since they were born, they were already granted access to the insurmountable riches within their sect and given access to these precious resources. The Array Invulnerability Talismans was one of these resources, and each and every disciple would be given three of these.

The only problem was that using one of these Array Invulnerability Talismans in such a small battlefield seemed like a complete waste. Did they really have to resort to such measures? They were only dealing with the disciples from measly Secondary Sects after all.

And to top it all off, the disciple with the highest cultivation level was only at the eleventh level of Qi Mastery.

“I’m sure all of you have witnessed it for yourselves earlier. Jun Xiaomo’s formation arrays isn’t something that we can treat lightly. If the Heavenly Peak disciples comprised of only the other disciples in their team, then there’s naturally no need to deal with them so seriously. However, they presently have the augmentation of talismans and formation arrays backing them, so our odds of victory are much less certain than it otherwise would have been. If we rushed headlong into the fray like what the other teams had done earlier and find ourselves bound by Jun Xiaomo’s formation arrays, no amount of strength or cultivation prowess would enable us to worm our way out of that situation.” Du Yongxu broke down the situation and explained rationally.

He was a proud man, but that did not mean that he was a brainless buffoon. As he observed how Jun Xiaomo’s faction had disposed of the other teams, he had at the same time discreetly communicated with Du Ruiguang through the Du Clan’s unique Transmittance Talisman. At that time, Du Ruiguang had admitted that even he would be unable to employ formation arrays to the level of proficiency that Jun Xiaomo did.

After all, Du Ruiguang had channeled his time and attention towards the management of his clan as well as increasing his own cultivation levels. The disciplines of talismans and formation arrays were naturally things outside of the scope of his consideration.

“Even the Clan Head is helpless against Jun Xiaomo’s formation arrays?”

“Father has mentioned that only array masters at the third-grade or higher would be able to understand the profundity of what Jun Xiaomo had done.” Du Yongxu related to the other Du Clan disciples.

“Third-grade?!” The Du Clan disciples drew a cold breath, “Generally speaking, a cultivator would need to hone his skills for at least two hundred to three hundred years before they can qualify as a third-grade array master. How in the world did Jun Xiaomo achieve all this?!”

“Who knows? She’s full of secrets.” Du Yongxu gazed beyond the disciples of the Heavenly Peak faction and trained his eyes on Jun Xiaomo and her striking red garbs. His eyes darkened.

It suddenly occurred to him that perhaps it might be far more exciting and thrilling to dig up these deeply hidden secrets within Jun Xiaomo’s heart rather than to kill her immediately.

If I’m able to tear apart her pretenses and expose her layer upon layer of deeply hidden secrets to her world, wouldn’t she appear uncharacteristically frantic and distraught? That would be far more exciting, wouldn’t it?

A wicked smile crept up the corner of Du Yongxu’s lips, and nefarious intentions were written all over his face.

Jun Xiaomo suddenly shivered, and she furrowed her brows.

“Martial sister, what’s the matter? Are you feeling cold?” Wei Gaolang noticed Jun Xiaomo shiver.

“It’s nothing. It could just be a conditioned reflex.” Jun Xiaomo shrugged it off. After all, how could a cultivator catch a cold so easily? They were not mere mortals who did not have the protection of spiritual energy after all.

“Conditioned reflex?” Wei Gaolang scratched his head in confusion.

Since he was unable to understand her response, he decided to shelf that thought for now.

“Oh, that’s right, martial sister.” Wei Gaolang recalled something else, “Have all of our formation arrays been depleted? If there are still hidden enemies, shouldn’t we set up new formation arrays?”

He had earlier been so impressed by Jun Xiaomo’s formation arrays that the first thing that came to his mind to deal with any remaining opponents was to resort to formation arrays once more.

Jun Xiaomo thought about it, before she suddenly smiled, “There’s no need.”

“No need? Why?”

“You’ll know when the time comes.” Jun Xiaomo patted Wei Gaolang’s head, “We’ve already used sufficient formation arrays for now.”

“Oh...” Wei Gaolang couldn’t understand formation arrays, so he simply nodded his head. Since his martial sister had concluded that it was enough, then it must be enough.

The truth of the matter was that Jun Xiaomo’s formation arrays had indeed been completely spent after that one use the last time. However, now that she had given it some thought, she believed that there was no need to set up any more formation arrays.

Her opponents were hidden and moving in the dark, while they were exposed in the light. Their opponents had clearly sent the other teams earlier as cannon fodder to test out their formation arrays, and they would undoubtedly have thought up of some countermeasures against her formation arrays. Thus, Jun Xiaomo firmly believed that after one use, these formation arrays would no longer be an appropriate countermeasure against their opponents.

Setting up the same formation arrays to deal with her opponents right now might just be a waste of spirit stones instead.

Having made up her mind, Jun Xiaomo began to think of a new way to “welcome” the vermin that were hidden in the dark.