A little further away, a procession of priests led by a crane-headed man was circling around them.
There are countless other teams approaching this direction from other directions.
After a moment of surprise, Wen Jing quickly realized, "Because I have now become a 'power,' and a newly emerged external power at that, my actions have attracted reactions from other powers."
In the first palace, since everyone was a commoner, after each of her moves, her opponent only had another single piece nearby, unrelated to her.
In this second palace, various factions reside.
When Wen Jing first entered, he was alone and only attracted the attack of the nearest force.
Now that she has gathered the enemy's subordinates and become a new force, she represents a different level of influence and attracts far more attention.
"The chess game in this palace is not a simple contest of strength like the previous ones, but a confrontation between forces, a battle for supremacy."
Wen Jing's compound eyes, possessing a panoramic view, took in all the changes on the chessboard, imprinted them in his mind, and didn't miss a single one.
When all movement ceased, the entire chessboard layout changed.
"One, two, three... There are a total of twelve legion forces, with six teams of artisans and three teams of priests. It seems there must be a reason why they are jointly protected by the legions, right?"
With suspicion in mind, Wen Jing led eleven chess pieces and rammed into the nearest wolf-headed chess piece.
"Da da da..."
The sound of chess pieces falling rang out continuously, as both sides deployed their 'troops' to a single square.
The world changes in an instant.
There were no complicated terrains or fortifications; the two armies stood on opposite sides of a flat stone platform, facing each other.
The tiger-headed man on the opposite side roared and led more than twenty wolf-headed men to charge forward.
Seeing this, Wen Jing immediately gave orders to the wolf head he controlled.
"Back off."
She didn't want these soldiers, who could increase her movement range, to be wasted.
If a creature possessed more complex intelligence, it might have hesitated at this moment. However, these wolf-headed chess pieces simply followed the rules of the game, and with the addition of Wen Jing's unique mental power 'commands,' they were completely obedient.
As their own wolf-headed warriors retreated, Wen Jing Jingyi took the lead, knocking aside the attacking enemy wolf-headed soldiers and heading straight for the tiger-headed warrior in the group.
"When!"
The tiger-headed man raised his weapon to meet the attack, and the bronze axe in his hand split open beneath his blade-like forelimb.
Ke Wen Jing knew the strength of his attack.
This bronze axe is of much better quality than the tiger-headed spear she encountered last time, and it's about the same quality as the one she encountered in the craftsman competition... Wait, a craftsman!
Wen Jing immediately had an idea.
The next moment, she did something that made the fierce tiger-headed man opposite her dilate his pupils and turn his ears.
"Boom!"
The alien insect, which had been fighting with its forelimbs as double-edged swords, suddenly opened its mouth wide and bit off half of the bronze axe in front of it, just like biting into a biscuit.
He took a bite and didn't stop.
After two or three bites, the bronze axe disappeared directly into her mouth.
Unfortunately, the weapons here, like those in the craftsman's challenge, are 'fake'; they disappear immediately upon entering the mouth and are not real Ancient Wilderness materials.
However, the shock this caused was extraordinary.
"Waaah--"
The tiger-headed man's hair stood on end, and he retreated several steps, still clutching the remaining half of the bronze staff.
Wen Jing's actions directly transformed what was just a respectable battle of cold weapons into a terrifying spectacle.
But she also confirmed her suspicions.
"Despair!"
The tiger-headed man who had retreated tore away the broken bronze staff, and the next moment, a brand-new bronze axe appeared out of thin air in his hand.
"Just as I thought."
Seeing this, Wen Jing naturally understood that once non-warrior-type chess pieces evolved into forces, they brought logistical support.
This is also why the legion had to stand in front of the craftsmen.
"Therefore, we still need to seize the artisan corps as soon as possible, not only to strengthen ourselves, but more importantly, to prevent other legions from being strengthened."
Each wolf-headed man here is about as strong as a frost-covered giant spider, while the tiger-headed men are even stronger elites.
Even though Wen Jing's basic attributes are only half of what they used to be, her various special characteristics remain, and her combat power is not on the same level as when she had the same attribute values in the past.
The Zerg charged forward with Gravitational Field, causing all incoming attacks to veer off course.
The tiger-headed man was like a drunkard, moving sluggishly. Even with logistical support, he couldn't play a significant role and was quickly killed by Wen Jing.
With their leader dead, the remaining twenty-odd men began to rout.
The wolf-headed men who had retreated earlier surrounded them under Wen Jing's orders. After killing eight resisting wolf-headed men, sixteen more prisoners joined the ranks.
Wen Jing's team quickly grew to twenty-seven members, becoming a major force in the region.
Back on the chessboard, the other pieces began to move and arrange themselves again. The legion that had been blocking them from the side seemed to be assessing their strength; even though they could have moved, they stayed in place, contracting their formation and not continuing their attack.
However, the crane-headed priest chess piece that had previously circled around caught up.
Now that Wen Jing's team has expanded, their maximum range of movement has increased by four squares. They can choose to catch up with the artisan group or launch a counterattack to provoke the priest group.
Of course, after calculating the time, she didn't choose either option and opted to return to where she was.
One must eat one bite at a time. Currently, Wen Jing is focusing most of his energy on learning combat techniques and secret skills.
After evolving the Consciousness Diversion, her learning goal in Azure Jade for the past three months changed from reaching the mastery level to maintaining the mastery level and striving for perfection.
However, before Wen Jing could explore the Chime Bells World again... or rather, the Chess Game World, something else happened first.
Two days later, in the Energy Structure Method class.
Wen Jing's gaze swept over the group of Ocher Soil classmates, then paused, realizing something was amiss.
"Huh? Why didn't Ji Shuang come today?"
The Energy Structure Method is a crucial secret technique that, under normal circumstances, even if the exchange students in Ocher Soil are certain they cannot learn it within three months, they certainly will not be absent. The more they learn now, the greater their chances of successfully learning it on their own later.
Moreover, under Wen Jing's guidance, the exchange students from Ocher Soil who attended classes with her this month have all gradually reached the basics, so there is no reason for them to be absent.
Upon hearing her question, everyone hesitated.
Seeing this Wen Jing frowned. "What happened? She didn't return from her journey through the Ancient Wilderness?"
"No, no," Song Zhi quickly denied, then paused and explained, "She was injured during an expedition while teaming up with the Azure Jade Operations Department, and is currently recovering."
Eve, who was standing to the side, hesitated for a moment, but finally couldn't help but speak up:
"They've gone too far! They're trying to kick Xiao Shuang out of the exploration team while she's injured during the expedition. Xiao Shuang put in a lot of effort and got injured, and she's only getting basic compensation."
"The exploration of that world is just one step away from yielding rare treasures, and now they want to replace their own people in the lead so they can monopolize the biggest spoils."
Chapter 144
With each sentence Eve spoke, Song Zhi's expression grew more awkward.
On the one hand, this kind of temporary kicking out operation has also been staged in the Student Council of Ocher Soil, and the person involved was Wen Jing. The difference is that Wen Jing was not injured, but was directly kicked out of the team by those short-sighted guys.
On the other hand, since the start of the exchange activities, Ocher Soil has always been in a naturally weaker position in front of Azure Jade.
Even though those who could come to Azure Jade for exchanges were already the elite among the students of Ocher Soil, their strength was still far from enough to compete with Azure Jade's Operations Department.
The thirty third-year exchange students, including Ji Shuang, are different from the second-year exchange students Wen Jing is teaching. The second-year students only need to study, while the third-year exchange students need to team up with the Azure Jade Student Council Union to complete the exploration.
Because the Locator Stone are only backward compatible, it's not that the stronger you are, the more treasures you can find. When Azure Jade students discover valuable resource points with secondary exploration value, they can only team up with Awakened are weaker than themselves.
To maximize your gains, teaming up with exchange students from the Red Earth Academy is a win-win combination.
This is also an indicator of the exchange activities.
During the last exchange student activity, Song Zhi also led the team. Because some members of the Azure Jade Operations Department were injured during the exploration, many people in the Azure Jade Operations Department had a lot of complaints about them.
When Song Zhi paid the apology out of his own pocket, others still mocked and ridiculed him.
It was only when the news of Wen Jing's breakthrough in the Trial Tower shocked all the schools that they were able to stand up straight.
Song Zhi felt awkward about bringing up Ji Shuang's matter this time and originally wanted to gloss over it.
But Eve spoke up, and he sighed and explained:
"Procedurally, the Azure Jade Operations Department did not violate any rules. The environment of that world requires an Awakened with ice-type talent. Among our exchange students this time, only Ji Shuang is ice-type, and there is no one who can replace her, so we cannot refute them."
Upon Wen Jing, Wen Jing immediately said, "Ice element, I'll just go to her location, that'll solve it."
Since we were just one step away from reaping the rewards, it would be such a pity to miss the opportunity.
"That won't do, you're still seriously injured!" Everyone around shook their heads in unison.
This is why Wen Jing didn't ask, and why no one else brought it up.
When she first Azure Jade, she displayed mysterious and powerful ice-based abilities.
In the past, people might have thought of complaining to Wen Jing about this, since she had become their pillar of support.
However, Wen Jing recently experienced a return timeout and is still in a serious condition. Talking to her about this again would be like putting her on a pedestal.