Military Formation

Songyi City lay in the south.

The area was full of mountains and hills, making it ideal for bandits to hide.

Some of the main roads along trade routes had soldiers stationed at regular intervals to ensure supplies could pass through unhindered.

Even so, bandits still ran rampant.

The bandits worked together, using feints and diversions to keep their enemies guessing. They had all sorts of tricks up their sleeves.

"Kill!"

Han Mo led his soldiers in pursuit of the bandits fleeing for their lives.

Their murderous shouts echoed through the woods.

"Come on, move faster! Once we reach that valley, we'll be safe!"

The man at the front bellowed.

He was a burly man in his forties, his face marked with several scars. He looked every bit the ferocious villain.

Han Mo swung his saber and slashed.

He unleashed the Six Harmonies Saber Technique with astonishing force, and looked ready to cut down another bandit.

"Damn it, get out of my way!"

The man roared and charged at Han Mo, swinging the spiked club in his hands.

The huge club whistled through the air as he swung it.

He was powerful, already at the peak of Organ Refining.

Born with extraordinary strength, he was far stronger than Han Mo, and his overall strength was considerably greater as well.

Against a formation of elite City Guard soldiers, the bandits were nothing but a rabble, no match for their opponents even for a single exchange.

But in a one-on-one fight, the burly man wasn't the least bit afraid.

Whoosh—

The wind howled as the huge spiked club came crashing down toward Han Mo's head.

"Hah!"

Han Mo shouted and brought his saber around to meet the man's mighty blow.

Clang!

The crisp ring of metal on metal rang out. A terrifying force traveled up the blade, numbing the hand gripping Han Mo's saber.

"What incredible strength!"

Han Mo was secretly astonished.

The force behind that strike was much greater than anything the man had shown earlier.

But Han Mo wasn't a pushover either.

He turned his wrist and guided the spiked club with the flat of his blade, drawing it down to the lower right and dissipating its force.

At the same time, he retreated several steps and shouted, "Form up!"

The ten elite soldiers following behind Han Mo moved swiftly and in perfect unison. They rapidly changed positions, forming a special formation.

It was a miniature military formation made up of ten soldiers.

The instant the formation took shape, their auras joined together, and a terrifying killing intent spread through the air.

"Kill!"

The soldiers roared. A dense killing intent poured from them.

Their killing intent combined with their essence, energy, and spirit, condensing into a special kind of energy.

Bound together by the military formation, this energy gathered around Han Mo, their commanding officer.

Vast baleful intent coalesced around him. His aura surged, his physical strength soared, and his whole body brimmed with explosive power.

In that moment, his strength broke past the peak of Organ Refining and reached the Blood Energy Realm.

Yet not a trace of blood-energy fluctuation came from Han Mo.

The special energy condensed from the ten soldiers' essence, energy, and spirit, combined with their killing intent, gathered in him and took the place of blood energy, granting him the equivalent of Blood Energy Realm strength.

"Fall back! Every one of you, get the hell back!"

"I bought you time so you could escape! What are you standing around for?"

The burly man roared.

Facing Han Mo, whose aura continued to rise until he broke into the Blood Energy Realm, he was no match at all.

Whoosh!

Han Mo gripped his saber, his killing intent cutting through the air.

A sharp flash of blade light streaked through the woods. Terrifying killing intent followed the blade as it slashed toward the burly man.

Clang!

The burly man hurriedly raised his spiked club to block.

His natural strength was no match for Han Mo, empowered by the military formation.

A terrifying force surged through the blade.

The burly man was sent flying by the tremendous impact.

Thud.

Thud, thud, thud.

Pfft—

He smashed through the trunks of two trees before finally stopping. A mouthful of blood spilled from his mouth.

"Damn it, forget it!"

"Charge! We'll live if we make it into Lion Valley!"

The burly man turned and ran, no longer caring about the brothers he had left behind.

"Kill!"

The soldiers roared again.

They rapidly changed formation. Han Mo's aura weakened somewhat, while the aura of each soldier slowly grew stronger.

They maintained their formation and continued the pursuit.

The bandits left behind were no match for the fully armed elite soldiers.

Under the soldiers' blades, they fell one after another like blades of grass. More than twenty were killed in moments.

After pursuing them for several hundred meters, the forest around them grew denser.

"Stop!"

"Don't pursue them any farther."

Han Mo halted and shouted.

"My lord, I scouted ahead. There's a swamp up there. If we keep going, we can wipe out this whole bandit gang!"

A soldier behind him stepped forward and said.

"I know there's a swamp up ahead."

"But do you think this gang of bandits doesn't know that?"

"They know this area better than we do. They also had a chance to flee somewhere else, but they deliberately headed this way. They're obviously trying to lure us into a trap!"

"Withdraw!"

"We'll have plenty of chances to kill them later. There's no need to take a risk," Han Mo ordered loudly. "Return to the main road and resume your posts. Scouts, keep tracking the bandits' movements!"

"Yes, my lord!"

"Damn, that guy really is cautious."

The burly man, who had just taken a beating, was hiding in the woods. Seeing Han Mo retreat, he cursed under his breath.

"I told you Han Mo was a cautious man who wouldn't fall for it, but you wouldn't listen. Now you've taken a beating for nothing, haven't you?" said the man beside him.

Had Han Mo been there, he would have recognized the man.

It was Xing Penghai, another Centurion in the City Guard!

"Pang Yuanfeng, if you'd listened to me earlier, you'd have already wiped out most of his forces," Xing Penghai said with a cold laugh.

"Hmph. You're both in the City Guard. Who knows if this is a trap?" Pang Yuanfeng replied with a cold snort.

He rolled his wrists, feeling a slight numbness in both arms.

He had taken Han Mo's blow head-on, and the terrifying force had split the skin between his thumb and forefinger.

"You've seen the sincerity of the Xing Family for yourself. If we really meant you harm, we'd have acted already."

"If you'd followed the plan I gave you earlier, you'd have succeeded by now," Xing Penghai said calmly.

"Lads, come out! We're heading back."

"Damn it, I took that hit for nothing."

Pang Yuanfeng ignored Xing Penghai and shouted into the woods.

As soon as he spoke, more than a hundred burly men carrying weapons charged out of the woods and followed Pang Yuanfeng into Lion Valley.

"Truly, the greed of man is like a snake trying to swallow an elephant. You think you're fit to get your hands on a military formation secret technique?"

Xing Penghai watched Pang Yuanfeng disappear into the distance and sneered.

He moved and followed into Lion Valley.

Lion Valley was crowded with bandit gangs. If this one wouldn't cooperate, he could find another that would.

No. 33, Jin Dong Street.

The sound of blades slicing through the air came from the courtyard.

Lin Zheyu gripped a sharp saber and practiced the Six Harmonies Saber Technique.

The saber was three feet and nine inches long, its blade engraved with a python design. Its edge was razor-sharp.

Weapons were controlled items in Songyi City, and ordinary people couldn't buy them. Han Mo had given him this saber. It had been registered, so it was legal.

But that only meant it wouldn't be confiscated when he entered or left the city. He still wasn't allowed to use it inside the city.

The Six Harmonies Saber Technique was the main cultivation technique Han Mo practiced, and he had taught it to Lin Zheyu some time ago.

After training for a while, Lin Zheyu had made considerable progress and had reached the proficient level.