154: Chapter 154 Slaying the Demon General, Arriving at the Front Lines (1)

A Yao Beast with a body nearly three times larger than an ordinary fish monster burst out of the water from the left side of the ship.

The seawater it brought up as it broke the surface slammed onto the deck on the left—half a row of people standing in the left formation position were knocked down by the surging water.

After the water receded, the people on the deck saw it clearly—a three-story-high body, scales dark with a hint of dull green, and pectoral fins that, when spread, covered the area from the left side of the ship to the center of the deck.

It did not have a fishbone blade in its mouth—its teeth were weapons in themselves.

Four rows of teeth, upper and lower, were turned outwards from its lips—stuck between the teeth was half a rib, torn from some unknown corpse.

The Yao Beast's webbed feet stepped onto the gunwale—the wooden planks of the gunwale emitted a continuous cracking sound under its weight.

It stepped from the gunwale onto the deck—the deck sank nearly two inches the moment its first foot landed.

Lu Changyuan moved his hand away from the gunwale.

He took half a step back—not towards the cabin, but towards the array eye position in the very center of the deck.

His soles stepped into the Qi induction position—a spot engraved with a miniature Array Pattern on the deck; once stepped upon, the Array Pattern lit up from beneath his feet with a faint circle of pale golden light.

Then, he stopped his feet.

His sword was still in its scabbard.

A thin layer of Geng Metal Sword Intent began to condense on the blade—pale gold, invisible in the moonlight, only detectable by the chilling air around the mouth of the scabbard.

The Yao Beast's webbed foot pressed a second footprint onto the deck—the wooden planks cracked from the center of the footprint outwards, with cracks spreading like a spiderweb for two feet from the edge of the webbed foot.

It stood on the left side of the ship, its massive body blocking half of the moonlight—half the people on the deck stood in the moonlight, while the other half stood in the shadow it cast.

The people in the shadow raised their shields by half a foot—the top edge of the shields covered their noses, revealing only their eyes.

Their eyeballs reflected a faint light in the shadows above the shield's edge—the whites of their eyes reflected the moonlight, and their gaze was fixed entirely on that Yao Beast.

Lu Changyuan stood on the Qi induction position.

The Qi induction position was engraved at the array eye in the very center of the third ship's deck—the Array Pattern spread outwards from beneath his feet, layer by layer, connecting with the array bases of the nine small circular arrays by the fifth circle.

After he stepped on it, the Array Pattern lit up—not all at once, but starting from the circle beneath his feet, lighting up layer by layer outwards.

After the first circle lit up, it took about one breath for the second circle to light up—the Qi flowed through the Array Pattern at an extremely slow speed, like winter honey flowing in a trough.

By the time the third circle lit up, the light of the Array Pattern had already spread to the boundary between the Third Squad and the Fourth Squad's formation positions.

This battle formation taught by Luo Qingcheng had a Qi induction position—once someone stood on it, the Qi of everyone in the formation would flow towards the Qi induction position in an extremely slow but continuous manner.

The amount of Qi a person's Dantian could output per minute was limited—but this battle formation gathered the portion of Qi that naturally dissipated from the Dantians of all the soldiers forming the array.

The amount of Qi dissipated by each person was extremely small—the amount dissipated by a Qi-refining stage Cultivator was not even one-tenth of what their Dantian output.

But with two hundred and seventy people combined—each person's tiny wisp of dissipated Qi gathered into an extremely fine stream within the Array Pattern.

The stream flowed along the Array Pattern towards the Qi induction position—it did not flow fast, advancing only about two circles of the Array Pattern per breath.

From the outermost circle of the formation position to the Qi induction position—it took ten breaths.

Lu Changyuan stood on the Qi induction position.

He could feel the Qi gathering—not as a surging force pouring into his Dantian, but as heat permeating upwards from the soles of his feet.

The Yongquan acupoint on the soles of his feet was heating up—the temperature was not high, like stepping on a stone slab that had been baking in the sun for half an hour.

The heat spread upwards from the Yongquan acupoint—ankles, calves, knees, thighs—the speed of the upward spread was as slow as the speed at which the Array Pattern lit up outwards.

The Yao Beast did not wait for him.

The Yao Beast turned its head—as it turned, it stirred up half a circle of water vapor.

The mist on the sea surface was dispersed in a semi-circle by the motion of its head turning—after the mist cleared, the moonlight shone on its face.

Its face was not a human face—the mouth took up most of its face, lips turned outwards, four rows of teeth protruding from beneath the lips.

Its eyes were vertical pupils—the gray-green vertical pupils narrowed into two vertical lines in the moonlight.

It locked onto the direction of the bow—locking onto the position where Lu Changyuan stood.

It took a step forward.

That step landed—the wooden planks on the deck shattered into two layers.

Not cracked—shattered.

Splinters splashed up from beneath its webbed feet—the height of the spray exceeded two feet, the edges of the wood splinters bearing old knife marks from being slashed by fishbone blades previously.

The old knife marks tore downwards the moment they shattered—a piece of wood plank that had been slashed twice shattered into three pieces under its weight.

Commander Cai stood in the Fifth Squad's formation position to the left of the Yao Beast.

His face was covered in fish blood—not his own.

Other people's fish blood dripped down from his forehead, flowing over that old scar—the skin at the edge of the scar turned a darker color after being soaked in fish blood, and the line of the scar extending from his cheek down to his chin was even more prominent in the moonlight.

He tucked his smoking pipe into his waistband—the pipe bowl was still hot, pressing against his ribs through his clothing.

He snatched a short spear from a young soldier nearby—the tip of the spear had been bent by half an inch, and he used his foot to step on the tip and straighten it.

Then he switched the short spear from his right hand to his left—his hand regripped a shield picked up from the ground.

The front of the shield had five marks from being slashed by fishbone blades—the deepest one had cut in by half an inch, but it hadn't penetrated.

"Protect the array eye—" his voice rumbled from deep within his throat.

The guttural sound drowned out the breathing of everyone on the deck.

"The position he is standing on cannot be touched!"

The people in the formation heard it.

The Old Veteran of the First Squad pressed his shield another half inch into the drainage groove—the bottom edge of the shield clicked into the groove previously bitten by the fish monster's teeth, locking even tighter.

The people of the Second Squad moved a step towards the center—narrowing the distance between the small circular formations, the nine small circular formations retracted towards the center by nearly a foot.

The large circular formation became tighter after retracting—the gap between each formation position shrank from two palms wide to one palm wide.