Taking Turns to Attack

At dawn on the second day after they made camp, a long horn blast pierced the sky, and the camp gates thundered open. The Cloud-Pattern Cavalry took the lead, charging out like arrows loosed from a bow.

The Enforcement Team, vassal cultivators, and hired Rogue Cultivators followed close behind, surging out in a mighty torrent like a river bursting its banks.

Lu Zhao, however, remained in camp. He did not need to fight that day. He had only one task-to produce Ironwood Guards in large quantities.

The order issued three days earlier, together with the movements of the other divisions-the Artifact Division rushing to manufacture large Magical Artifacts, the Pill Division producing Grain-Repelling Pills, Spirit-Recovery Pills, and Spring-Rejuvenation Pills in batches, and the Formation and Talisman Divisions stockpiling Formation Plates and Talismans for a protracted war, especially the Spirit Gathering Formations spread throughout the camp-all pointed to one clear fact.

The Zhou Household is preparing for a protracted war.

Lu Zhao understood, his hands never stopping as he processed puppet materials. The measure allowing participating cultivators to cultivate in the Spirit Gathering Formations for free each day according to their cultivation level further confirmed what everyone already agreed on: the curtain had risen on a grueling war of attrition.

Near the end of the late-afternoon watch, the cultivators who had gone out to battle returned to camp one after another. Seeing the unconcealable exhaustion and helplessness on their faces, Lu Zhao knew the day's gains had been meager.

Sure enough, word arrived: more than a dozen Mountain-Hunting Ballistas had roared all day, and over a thousand cultivators had taken turns attacking, pouring down Magical Artifacts, spells, and Talismans like a torrential rain. Yet the Market District's protective formation had remained unshaken, without so much as a ripple.

The following morning, a new order reached the Hundred Arts Battalion: "Two thousand Qi Refining cultivators will be divided into ten teams. One team will attack the formation each day. Cultivators of the Hundred Arts Battalion must also take the field!"

A month later, under the protection of the Cloud-Pattern Cavalry, Lu Zhao withdrew to camp with the rest of the Hundred Arts Battalion. This had been his third time on the battlefield.

Over that month, he had witnessed the terrifying sight of more than a dozen Mountain-Hunting Ballistas, each as large as a house, firing in unison-if any one of those enormous bolts were shot at him, he would have no chance of survival.

Even more staggering was the combined spellcasting of two hundred cultivators: fireballs screamed across the sky, Ice Cones glinted with cold light, and huge boulders hurtled amid wind and thunder... Countless Magical Artifacts, Talismans, and Five-Element Arts merged into a torrent of destruction, continuously bombarding the same area of the formation.

A quarter of an hour later, the Magical Artifacts flew back into their owners' hands with their spiritual light dimmed, while the Talismans and spells dissolved into specks of starlight in the air.

A round of attacks like this was repeated every two hours. By the end of the day, Lu Zhao felt as though his muscles and bones were about to fall apart, and his magical power was nearly exhausted. Yet the Market District's formation remained as steady as a mountain, without moving a fraction.

Thankfully, I only have to take a turn once every ten days. Otherwise, even a man forged of iron couldn't endure it.

Inside his quarters, Lu Zhao silently counted himself fortunate. The Market District could not possibly be breached anytime soon; everyone who had experienced the fighting firsthand now agreed on that.

Lu Zhao's thoughts rested more on his own cultivation. During the month or so spent traveling here, his cultivation had all but stagnated. Now that the situation had stabilized somewhat, improving his strength could not wait.

Over the past month, he had entered a Spirit Gathering Formation to cultivate every day without fail, supplemented by three Ice Jade Pills and three Middle-Grade Meridian-Guarding Pills each month. His long-stalled cultivation had finally begun to budge again. He estimated that, if he could maintain this pace, he would break through to the sixth level of Qi Refining in about a year.

Hopefully, this Market District won't be breached until after I break through to the sixth level of Qi Refining. This was Lu Zhao's deepest hope at present.

He knew that even if the formation fell, the Market District's cultivators would fight like cornered beasts, and a bitter battle was inevitable. Every bit of strength he gained would give him a better chance of surviving. He had already made a private resolution: if progress went poorly over the first nine months, he would spare no expense buying pills. He had to complete his breakthrough within a year!

In the days that followed, Lu Zhao's life became almost rigidly routine: he took the field once every ten days, then entered a Spirit Gathering Formation to recover after exhausting his magical power.

For the next nine days, he spent half his daytime cultivating and the other half crafting Ironwood Guards-the intensive, repetitive crafting actually pushed his success rate up to twenty-five percent. At night, he devoted four hours to the Flowing Cloud Sparrow and Frost Rat Puppet, then set aside another two hours to study the Formation Fundamentals he had bought from Chen Moyang. The remaining time went to seated meditation and regulating his breathing, restoring his mind and spirit.

One month, two months... All the way through the fifth month, Lu Zhao lived at this tightly wound pace. The turning point came in the sixth month-that seemingly indestructible formation finally rippled for the first time!

During an earth-shaking volley, an enormous bolt from a Mountain-Hunting Ballista slammed into the light barrier. The surface of the formation, which had always been as smooth as a mirror, actually spread into a clearly visible ring of ripples, like a drop falling into a pool!

"It's breaking! It's about to break!"

The Zhou Household's camp instantly erupted in wild joy, roaring like mountains and seas. After half a year of futile bombardment, they had finally torn open a sliver of hopeful light!

Yet after that brief elation, the formation fell still again, as though that ring of ripples had been an illusion. No one knew whether the cultivators inside had reinforced it in an emergency or whether that earth-shaking shot had truly been a lucky fluke.

But the spark of hope had already been sown. The cultivators no longer cast spells mechanically like puppets on strings. Instead, they poured in all their strength, each displaying their Divine Abilities. The brilliance of spells filling the sky surged, and the spiritual radiance of Magical Artifacts shone brighter as they struck the formation with unprecedented resolve.

Lu Zhao held nothing back either, driving the Thousandfold Overlapping Waves Art at full power! Seven surging layers of water-spirit ripples overlapped like blades and slashed viciously at the light barrier-three months earlier, this art had reached Minor Accomplishment at six layers. Now, after three months of arduous practice, it had finally attained the power of seven layers!

He was confident that, paired with the Hundred Waters Dharma Disc, this strike already rivaled the power of a ninth-level Qi Refining cultivator, though he could unleash only a scant few such attacks.

This furious bombardment continued for another month. At last, the ripples appeared again!

This time, they were no fleeting bloom. Across the light barrier, ripples spread one after another, layer upon layer, rising and falling in succession!

"This damned turtle shell is finally going to shatter!" A scar-faced middle-aged cultivator brandished his saber and let out a long cry. The surrounding cultivators likewise shouted in excitement, "The formation is about to fall!"

Yet the Zhou Household's leaders, gazing at the violently fluctuating light barrier, did not order them to press their advantage and intensify the offensive. The frequency of attacks remained unchanged, as though they had not noticed the formation's dramatic change.

Meanwhile, inside the camp, in the Hundred Arts Battalion's Pill Division, Lu Zhao was discussing something with someone.

"Fellow Daoist Zhou, the price of these Ice Jade Pills is rather frightening."

"Even if pills are hard to come by these days, you cannot raise the price like this. A mere twelve Ice Jade Pills cost sixty Spirit Stones-nearly twice their original price!"

A middle-aged man in an indigo Daoist robe, his face slightly dark, spoke.

"You are mistaken, Fellow Daoist Lu. Are you still selling your puppets at their original price? If I weren't indebted to you for the favor of selling me puppets, I wouldn't be willing to sell even these twelve Ice Jade Pills."

Lu Zhao argued at length with the Alchemist, bargaining with all his might. In the end, left with no choice, he could only grit his teeth and buy the pills for fifty-five Spirit Stones.

Though the expense pained Lu Zhao, he thought of how his most important task now was to reach the sixth level of Qi Refining as quickly as possible, so he forced himself to bear it and said no more. He already had a premonition that the all-out assault was probably not far off.