Tank Infantry 2

On the battlefield,

The paper figures had all reached late-stage Qi Refining, and their leader had even reached the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refining.

Likewise, they were extremely well equipped with concealment spells and concealment artifacts. Spaced far apart, Hua Bing could no longer pinpoint their exact locations and concentrate fire with a single sweep of the Electromagnetic Induction Wave Technique.

It often took several repeated scans to determine precise coordinates before she could issue an attack order.

Yet in those few seconds of delay, the enemy had already advanced several hundred meters, rendering the original coordinates obsolete.

"Probe this coordinate area with firepower!"

There was a trace of panic in Hua Bing's voice.

The tank artifact's main cannon switched to high-explosive shells. Sun Xiao and the other five immediately understood the order and each fired probing shots into a designated area.

Boom!

The shell exploded in the near air. Hundreds of high-speed fragments imbued with spell-breaking properties blanketed an area over thirty meters wide, while the heavy machine guns fired twenty consecutive bursts, casting a net of fire across a hundred-meter stretch.

In one patch of empty air, transparent ripples appeared, followed by blooming blood, shattered limbs, and a shield artifact flying backward.

In several other places, among the trees and along the shallow ground, faint prone silhouettes were exposed.

They were scattered extremely far apart, with at least a hundred meters between each person.

"Fire at these coordinates!"

Hua Bing's expression turned calm. A high-explosive shell struck the target point, while the other six heavy machine guns rattled in rapid fire, forming an impenetrable net of death that swallowed the cultivator using a shallow earth-escape technique. Mud mingled with blood.

Boom!

Ratatatata!

Shell casings flew through the air. Tank main cannons fired in orderly succession, while heavy machine guns continued their relentless bursts. One late-stage Qi Refining cultivator after another whose traces had been exposed was torn apart by concentrated fire.

"That's how it should be."

Zhang Dingjun nodded slightly. "Information is the lifeblood of us Immortal Sect cultivators. We must pay any price and use every method to obtain information about the enemy."

"To lose battlefield intelligence is to lose one's life."

There was meaning behind his words.

On the battlefield, Hua Bing's expression changed, revealing panic. She hastily formed hand seals, and a shield rose up, covering her completely.

Whoosh!

At that very moment, an azure flying sword appeared out of nowhere. Carrying a shrill whistle through the air, it nimbly bypassed the heavy artifact shield and pierced through her seventh-level Qi Refining spell barrier as easily as an eggshell.

It lightly tapped her throat.

Then, at a speed impossible for an Internal Energy Realm cultivator to track, it circled around once, reaching each of Sun Xiao and the others.

They only felt a chill at their necks and had no choice but to stop pulling their triggers.

"We lost."

Hua Bing, Sun Xiao, and the others wore bitter expressions.

The murmurs among the observing students fell silent. They had just been slaughtering their enemies—how had it suddenly ended?

Not one of them had been able to detect the sword cultivator lying in ambush.

"Let's review it."

After Hua Bing's squad returned, Zhang Dingjun projected a large screen before everyone. It displayed the battle from a third-party perspective.

Jiang Ding observed carefully.

This cultivator squad was a standard twelve-man unit. The highest was at the ninth level of Qi Refining, while the lowest was at the seventh level.

From the very beginning, one sword cultivator had broken away from the main force at a great distance and circled in from another direction to flank them.

It was clear that this sword cultivator had attained an extremely high level in concealment and aura-suppression spells, and he also wore high-quality concealment artifacts.

The first-order infantry Spirit-Particle Radar carried by Hua Bing's tank, combined with the scouting waves emitted by the Electromagnetic Induction Wave Technique, had scanned over him twice, yet he had evaded both.

An opponent like this could only be discovered by repeatedly scanning with tightly focused radar waves.

In this way, while his comrades drew their attention, the sword cultivator penetrated to within five hundred meters of Hua Bing. An azure flying sword carrying a concealment spell shot forth, erupting only when it neared its target and taking the enemy commander's head.

"The data is wrong, Teacher."

Wu Tianli suddenly pointed at the sword cultivator.

"This distance is wrong. A ninth-level Qi Refining cultivator's divine sense has a range of around ninety meters. Even if this extraterritorial cultivator had encountered some fortuitous opportunity, a little over a hundred meters should be his limit. How could he launch an attack from more than five hundred meters away without the slightest drop in power?"

Zhang Dingjun smiled but said nothing.

"It's a blood-refined artifact."

Hua Bing said softly, "Something similar to a natal artifact, refined with additional essence blood. The recent issue of the Immortal Sect Science and Technology News published an article saying that extraterritorial cultivators have recently begun trying to popularize these blood-refined artifacts among low- and mid-level cultivators to expand their attack range."

As for a ninth-level Qi Refining cultivator breaking her shield with one sword strike, there was nothing strange about that.

His cultivation was already two levels higher than hers, and he specialized in offensive spells. That was different from the Immortal Sect cultivators' amateur defensive and offensive spells.

"So that was it."

Zhang Dingjun sighed. "Extraterritorial cultivators have also been evolving over the years. The fine old scene of Qi Refining cultivators launching attacks in dense battle formations has vanished like yellow cranes gone forever."

"Especially their sword cultivators and elite spell cultivators. They are already powerful to begin with, and when paired with concealment artifacts and superior concealment spells, first-order infantry radar waves can no longer easily detect them. Once they close in, it becomes a massacre."

"Teacher, that's not necessarily true. There's no need to frighten us."

Hua Bing refused to accept this. "In actual combat, several squads usually fight together. At that time, we will have specialized second-order armored radar command vehicles, as well as commander-type cultivators who graduated from Big Dipper University and other defense universities among the Seven Sons of National Defense, specializing in the Electromagnetic Induction Wave Technique. These few extraterritorial cultivators would be wiped out in an instant."

The students' deathly pale faces finally looked somewhat better.

Though school and television repeatedly mentioned such things, when faced with a battlefield truly drenched in blood, they could not help but feel afraid.

Zhang Dingjun neither confirmed nor denied it, and did not refute Hua Bing's words.

The Immortal Sect's foundation was far too weak compared to the Nine Great Immortal Sects!

With a cultivation history of barely ten thousand years and scarce resources, when thirty-six tank detachments of the Immortal Sect gathered into a tank battalion, equipped with second-order Spirit-Particle Radar armored command vehicles and professional commanders, there was only one possible reason—

They were facing Foundation Establishment cultivators!

There was no helping it. Whether low-level, mid-level, or high-level, Immortal Sect cultivators lagged behind in numbers across the board. Their opponents would not politely fight them at the same realm.

There was no need to tell such things to students still enjoying their beautiful campus lives.

His own teacher had done the same back then.

"Alright, the review discussion ends here."

Zhang Dingjun waved his hand. "Wu Tianli will take over the second squad, Zhou Lingjun will take over the third squad. The exercise will continue. The first squad will rest for one round, then rotate in turn. This opportunity is rare; everyone must participate in the exercise once during this class."

"Yes!"

The students answered in unison.

Regardless of gender, all of them carried heavy machine guns, with four or five belts of ammunition draped over their bodies, and followed their temporary commanders onto the battlefield.

As for Jiang Ding, who held an anti-materiel sniper rifle, he was called aside.

"After observing this round of exercises, what do you understand about the role of reconnaissance infantry?"

Zhang Dingjun asked concisely.

"This..."

Jiang Ding carefully considered the battle scenes from earlier.

"Counter-reconnaissance? Sniping important targets with high concealment capabilities, roaming beyond the battlefield, protecting our own commander, and killing the enemy the instant they expose themselves while attacking?"

"Of course, it would be best to have the Innate Realm. Otherwise, firing one shot takes ten or twenty minutes, even dozens of minutes, and it would be useless."

Jiang Ding added.