Truthfully, he admired Gongsun Cha very much. This person that look even younger than him was a beginner among beginners. It could be seen from the terrible and disorganized training at the start. Ma Fan had assumed that his little life had been in danger now that he had landed in the hands of a greenhorn and hadn’t expected Gongsun Cha to quickly fulfill his role. The messy training had quickly become neat and organized.

These days, everyone had shifted from their rebelliousness and terror induced submission, and gradually showed true respect and compliance. Everyone had climbed over mountains of corpses. They might never had heard of these methods before, but they could tell if it was useful or not.

In a group like this, as long as you could continuously lead everyone to victory, and everyone’s lives had some guarantees, no one would rebel.

Ma Fan was the first person to realize that the tactics Gongsun Cha had set up were useful. Before everyone else had understood this, he had started to rigorously train until he could he could meet Gongsun Cha’s demands.

In secret, everyone called Gongsun Cha “Lil’ Miss Gongsun” because he looked feminine and delicate like a woman. This also included a portion of maliciousness and slander. No way around it. They couldn’t defeat him so they could only vent in private.

Of course, no one dared to say the name in front of him. Lil’ Miss might be feminine but he was a vicious female.

Staring at the chaotic battle, the words that Gongsun Cha had keep on filling into his ears appeared in Ma Fan’s mind.

“You have to notice the distance between the enemy’s troop ... ...”

“You have to notice the offensive rhythm of the enemy ... ... after each strong attack, there would be an extremely short time where their ling power cannot catch up, this is when the enemy is the weakest ... ...”

“You have to notice the important targets of the enemy ... ...”

“You need to have battlefield awareness ... ...”

... ...

All of this was extremely strange and unfamiliar to him.

“Such a troublesome Lil’ Miss,” Reflexively muttering, he already reached the border of the battle.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he glanced at the leader of the other side. He was extremely eye-attracting, pressuring down a combat unit by himself. Ma Fan did not go immediately to give aid. The three people were on the disadvantage, and seemed very bad off, but the three person formation had not become messy, and they could support themselves for a while.

Just a this time, he noticed there were some people whose ling power was boiling. It was clearly the early signal for strong sword moves being cast.

Usually, the stronger the sword move, the longer it took to prepare.

However, the combat unit they were facing evidently were also preparing a big move. No matter which side, the xiuzhe all instinctively chose to distance themselves. The collision between great moves were very strong, and could affect others.

A light flashed through Ma Fan’s eyes. Rather than retreat, he slowly neared the two sides.

———

“Taste ye’s [Crimson Rainbow Sword]!” A crimson sword light rose with a howl.

“Ha ha, me too, [Great Ling Sword Axe]!” A blue sword energy that was half sword and half axe appeared and heavily sliced down!

“[Bat Ghost Crying]!” Seven or eight black sword energies shaped like bats made flapping sounds as they drew out a strange curve and headed to the three people.

The three members of the combat unit did not panic, maintaining the Three Talent formation. At the beginning of the battle, they had been panicked, but as they gradually familiarized themselves with the wondrous energy connection unique to the Three Talent Formation, their cooperation grew, and their confidence also grew.

The great moves of the other side did not make them lose focus.

Even usually, one-on-one, they were not afraid, much less now, when they had the aid of the Three Talent Formation.

The leader of the three was Lei Peng. Before he was tamed by Lil’ Miss, this guy had been the most vicious and rebellious of them all. Now that someone had ran in front of him and boasted, he instantly got angry. His copper-bell sized eyes stared angrily, his fan-sized large hands opening. Pointing at the three people in front of him, he hatefully spat out.

“Get them!”

The other two people were also full of murderous intent. Everyone had made their way through rivers of blood. Who didn’t have some fire?

Who didn’t have killing moves?

One of them had a serious expression, his hands were covered in balls of blue light. The blue lights became darker, and smaller until they were just covering his hands. But this blue light was very concentrated and seemed like water.

The two hands punched out, two bright blue fist energies leaving his hands, growing as they moved. A concentrated energy covered the landscape.

[Sky Wave Fist]!

Zong Ru was the only Dhyana of the group. To be able to establish himself in this group, he naturally had his unique qualities. As he attacked, it instantly showed his exceptionalism.

At his side, his fellow that was called Nian Lu coldly snorted. He raised his hands up towards the sky, his figure spinning on the spot. His speed increased until his figure became a blur. Above his head, a lotus flower formed with astonishing speed. Flower bud, open, bloom!

The faint sword essence was like the sway of the lotus flower, making people uncontrollably attracted to it. Suddenly, a snowy white lotus flower petal tipped in pink fell off. After that, the flower petals fell off, one after the other, until all of them fell off.

One flower petal was one sword energy. Seven or eight white sword energies with a hint of pink, eighty percent serenity, twenty percent enchantment, formed.

Nian Lu’s ultimate move [Lotus Flower Fall]!

Lei Peng naturally did not want to be left behind. He was holding a black sabre in his hands. With both of his hands, he raised the black sabre above his head, and breathed.

A heavy strike!

A black sabre energy shot at the three opposite them. A vicious and brutal energy was like a ferocious tiger opening its jaws.

[Abyss Beast Soul-Eating Sabre]!

Killing move against killing move!

Blue, red, white, black ... ... multi colored streams of energy flew everywhere. The faceoff between six ningmai had caused the region between the two sides to become turbulent and distorted with ling power . No one dared to near. If they were sucked in, even their bodies may not remain.

Lei Peng and the two wavered slightly. Of the opposing three, two had began bleeding from their mouths and noses.

Without a doubt, Lei Peng and the others had slightly won.

A sabre xiu, a sword xiu, a Dhyana xiu, this kind of combination was unique among the forty people.

———

The faces of the enemy three were uncertain, and a desire to retreat began rising.

This kind of full force collision did not have any technique. The difference in strength could be easily seen.

The xiuzhe with the [Crimson Rainbow Sword] moved his eyes. Since their side had more people, why should the three of them take the risk? He was just going to call for his fellow to come over when he had a feeling in his heart!

He couldn’t help but turn his head.

A person, carried by countless flickering images, silently appeared beside him.

Ambush!

His expression changed. Just as he was going to speak, the voice that reached his mouth was shoved back by the afterimages that filled his vision.

A flying sword hit his ling armor without a sound.

Destructive ling power furiously flooded his body.

[Illusory Shadowless Sword Of Destruction]!

The fourth-grade ling armor on his body was like paper, instantly breaking into pieces. It was as if he was hit directly with a large hammer, his body flying like a sandbag towards the other xiuzhe!

This xiuzhe changed expression and wanted to catch his fellow.

“Careful!”

Before he finished, under the body of his fellow that was flying over, a silent light flashed. When he could respond, a flying sword that gave off no light was three zhang away from him.

Damn it!

He hurriedly put up his flying sword.

The swords impacted, ding, a small sound of collision.

His body shook, the blood in his face suddenly leaving his face. His eyes were full of disbelief, his eyes slowly becoming empty.

The remaining xiuzhe was also pale, and wanted to retreat.

Pew!

A white sword energy that had a hint of pink at the tip passed through his chest. His pupils suddenly expanded. He saw the smear of cold smile at the corner of Nian Lu opposite him.

———

Ma Fan’s ambush had shocked the entire field. He had successfully bought time for the Lei Peng’s group to breath. Nian Lu had made an ambush, and the panicked enemy had fallen.

Ma Fan suppressed the roiling of the ling power inside his body. Having continuously cast [Illusory Shadowless Sword of Destruction] twice while flying at high speed, he couldn’t help but feel a lack of strength. He didn’t go to see if the other had lived or not, hurriedly starting his illusory movement method and disappeared.

From the collision of the two side’s killing moves, to the three people losing their lives, the sudden change shocked many people. Ma Fan took the chance to escape.

His illusory movement method was most skilled at confusing the enemy. The more chaotic the battle, the more beneficial it was to him.

Ma Fan’s entry slowly caused the balance of battle to tilt towards their side. The monstrous training regime of the past while had started to show its power. The combat units started to help cover and aid each other.

Everyone slowly became more used to cooperating with Ma Fan.

The more tense the situation, the more advantageous it was for Ma Fan to attack. He was accurate each time. Without knowing it, the advantage grew on their side.

———

Bao De felt that this fight today was terrible. Their side clearly had the advantage in numbers, but as they fought, they grew more tired. He felt as though they had entered quicksand and were unable to use their strength.

It wasn’t evident in the beginning, but as they fought, the feeling of weakness became even more clear.

The other side was three people, all clearly ningmai first stratum, but they managed to stop him. The other side’s tactics were very soft, not daring to face him straight on. He felt he wanted to spit blood.

Every time he was going to defeat the three, that person who came out of nowhere would come and disturb him, making his rhythm pause.

Because of this pause, the advantage he had managed to build up would disappear and he had to start from the beginning.

After fighting for so long, he saw the hints. The three were cooperating very well. One offensive, one distracting, and one defensive, and the offensive and defensive would frequently change positions. At the beginning, he had assumed he could quickly get rid of the enemy, but they had managed to stand up until now. He felt quite embarrassed, and his attacks grew stronger, but he hadn’t assumed it got more annoying the more he fought!

Other than the three he was facing, he still had to watch out for the annoying guy that appeared out of nowhere and was as irritating as a fly.

He dared to disdain the three in front of him, but didn’t dare to underestimate Ma Fan.

That guy was ningmai second stratum!

F*** it, this was no way to fight!

Translator Ramblings: This is the first chapter that Zuo Mo doesn’t appear. A blow-by-blow accounting of a fight won’t happen frequently in this story but this one was probably because Fang Xiang wanted to highlight the changes in the people and their shift in perspective as well as what Lil’ Miss is doing. Gongsun Cha is an important character for Fang Xiang and giving side characters development can be difficult if the author just sticks exclusively to the point of view of the protagonist and his area of influence.

The Three Talent Formation in this chapter is just a triangle with each person at the corners who then move around in sync in predetermined steps. However, it is actually the name of a true battle formation used during the Ming Dynasty. See the baidu page. It was used because it could increase firepower and decrease damage at the same time.

Thank you for all your comments!