Tank Infantry

After explaining it several times,

and confirming that Jiang Ding understood most of it, Zhang Dingjun had him record the lesson with the miniature computer built into his camouflage combat uniform before leaving.

He was still needed by the Qi Refinement squad.

After the round of questions and answers, Jiang Ding suddenly understood the Minor Breath-Concealing Technique. Instinctively, he circulated his meridian energy, forming one complex structure after another.

It was incomparably smooth. None of the spell structures suddenly collapsed.

Jiang Ding's heart stirred. He controlled the military drone attached to his camouflage uniform and projected its viewpoint onto himself.

It found nothing.

After searching around, it could see Li Junhao, Sun Xiao, and the others. Once magnified, it could even make out the freckles on their faces, yet it could not find anyone named Jiang Ding.

Jiang Ding sent an order. The military drone repeatedly scanned the small area with miniature radar waves. Only after a full minute did a blurry humanoid phantom appear at a firing position.

That strong?

Jiang Ding froze for a moment, then understood why.

[Scout-1 Camouflage]

High-grade special artifact, woven and inscribed with a Tier-One Breath-Concealing Formation. It had to be used together with the Minor Breath-Concealing Technique. Once cultivated to the minor accomplishment stage, it could conceal one from the divine-sense scans of Qi Refinement ninth-layer cultivators, and could also partially block the tank's built-in Tier-One infantry radar scans.

The set he wore was not ordinary camouflage for disposable infantry. Combined with the Minor Breath-Concealing Technique, it was simply terrifying.

Of course, that only applied to mortals.

At present, within a cultivator's divine-sense range, under the Immortal Sect cultivators' tank-mounted Spirit-Particle Radar and the Electromagnetic Induction Wave Technique, this concealment was barely any different from being exposed.

Jiang Ding gained an insight.

As he carefully experienced the Minor Breath-Concealing Technique enhanced by the reconnaissance camouflage, countless realizations surged through his mind. Many spell structures that had once felt obscure and difficult, which he could only copy by rote, now revealed their principles through comparison.

Who knew how much time passed.

Rumble—

Rumble, rumble—

The heavy roar of tank engines came from the horizon. Groups of steel fortresses in beige camouflage drove over from afar, more than ten of them charging in a clustered assault with an overwhelming momentum.

Looking closer, a Qi Refinement student sat cross-legged atop each tank's hatch.

"Everyone, assemble."

Zhang Dingjun jumped down from one of the tanks and clapped his hands. "This lesson is about tanks and accompanying infantry. Tanks are responsible for cover, fire support, and targeted elimination."

"Six accompanying infantry are responsible for using heavy machine-gun fire nets to disrupt formations, clear out hostile martial artists and low-level cultivators with poor mobility, assist tanks in killing high-value targets with fire nets, or use fire nets to help drain the mana of extremely high-value targets."

"First squad, you will follow Hua Bing's tank."

Zhang Dingjun pointed.

"Yes!"

Sun Xiao and the others answered loudly, excitement visible on their faces.

Training under an early Qi Refinement cultivator was vastly different from training under a late Qi Refinement cultivator.

The tank drove off, with Sun Xiao and the other five students following behind it in perfect parallel formation. It was a standard marching formation.

Jiang Ding and the others watched intently.

He noticed Hua Bing, seated cross-legged atop the tank hatch, form a hand seal. Wisps of cyan breeze appeared around Sun Xiao and the others, immediately making their steps much lighter.

The Tier-One Gale Technique, a group military formation enhancement.

Her skilled display of group spellcasting showed her superb casting technique. Even direct disciples of Golden Core sects beyond the realm might not be able to do this.

"Combat formation!" Zhang Dingjun shouted.

The six behind the tank spread out, forming two small triangular formations along its rear flanks, each person separated by more than twenty meters.

Jiang Ding and the other observing students no longer watched with their naked eyes, instead focusing on their respective military drone views.

Four or five kilometers away, twelve paper figures suddenly emerged from the ground. They lurked among the trees and grass, moving cautiously as they vividly imitated a mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivator leading eleven early-stage Qi Refinement cultivators into battle.

Training paper dolls, products of industrialized cultivation manufacturing. They had no offensive power, but could simulate the speed and movements of all kinds of enemies. They cost dozens of times more than target dummies.

"Area (214, 22), volley fire."

Hua Bing's cool voice rang through First Squad's communications channel. Jiang Ding and the others could receive it as well, but could not speak. It was for observation and study.

"Yes!"

Without the slightest delay, Sun Xiao and the other five fired at that area in ten-round bursts.

In an instant, from the drone's view, sixty heavy machine-gun bullets carrying faint spell-breaking properties flooded that patch of forest. Trees snapped with sharp cracks, and wood chips flew everywhere.

The paper figures representing Qi Refinement cultivators were instantly torn apart—the shields of early- and mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivators were thinner than paper before heavy machine guns.

Only the paper figure with the aura of a mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivator had been alert beforehand and dodged most of the bullets.

A sheet of paper representing a defensive artifact floated up, barely deflecting a bullet that was about to hit it. The figure survived by luck, while the defensive artifact was instantly scrapped.

The paper figure fled the area even faster.

"The script is exaggerated,"

someone complained over the public channel. "Mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivators aren't that alert. Their divine sense only reaches thirty or forty meters at most, which hardly amounts to anything."

"Not necessarily. According to battlefield recordings, mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivators with this kind of instinctive warning in life-or-death situations do show up from time to time."

Jiang Ding did not join the discussion. He stared intently at that paper figure.

Any cultivator capable of such a feat could be considered an elite.

Bang! Bang!

Two shots rang out from a high-low dual-purpose vehicle-mounted artifact machine gun. They were rapid, precise bursts that happened to seal off the mid-stage Qi Refinement paper figure's unavoidable path. Both hit, blasting it into a sky full of paper scraps.

"Good!"

The crowd could not help cheering.

"Not bad."

Zhang Dingjun also praised them over the public channel. "Qi Refinement students possess divine sense, calculation abilities, and observation skills far beyond ordinary students, so you must make use of them. Predict gaps in the squad's fire encirclement, where the enemy might flee, and so on."

After that, the enemy types changed continuously, growing stronger.

There were paper figures all bearing the aura of martial artists. They moved slowly, but there were many of them. Carrying cold weapons such as sabers, spears, swords, halberds, and bows, they surrounded the tank from every direction.

"This also needs to be kept in mind."

Zhang Dingjun said coldly, "Cultivators beyond the realm have an enormous divide between immortals and mortals. Even 'ants' is insufficient to describe it. Both righteous and demonic cultivators have examples of driving great numbers of mortal martial artists before them. They are not even limited to martial artists—old people, the weak, women, and children can be crudely processed in batches into monsters such as zombies and ghosts, then used to deplete our ammunition reserves."

Many students showed expressions of pity.

"You only need to remember one thing: people beyond the realm have nothing to do with us. Forget enemies on the battlefield—even civilians, if they stand in our way, what does it matter if we kill them all?"

Jiang Ding frowned.

He heard a sea of blood behind those words.

But he could not say anything. Zhang Dingjun's words did not conform to the Immortal Sect's politically correct doctrine of unity between cultivators and mortals. If someone reported him, he would face some trouble. It was also said with good intentions.

Hua Bing's squad fought their way through obstacle after obstacle.

There was a twelve-man squad composed entirely of mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivators. Most of them could use spells such as invisibility and earth escape, yet Hua Bing still easily detected them with the tank's built-in Tier-One Spirit-Particle Radar, then wiped them out with tank shells and concentrated fire from anti-aircraft artifact machine guns and heavy machine guns.