Chapter 164: Army formation.
Yao Jun silently followed the soldier in gray armor, walking past orderly rows of tents. The closer they were to Diana's tent, the more luxurious the tents were, many of them even more luxurious than Diana's, with most of them made out of what seemed to be a strange type of brown leather covered in runes. Glancing into the two closest tents, the tents belonging to the Legion Commanders, Yao Jun could see that they even contained small gardens and cubes of ice that kept what seemed to be wine cooled. They were far more luxurious and decadent than Diana's simple tent.
While they were walking, Yao Jun was also keeping a vigilant eye on the surroundings, silently noting places where there were less tents and people, just in case he ended up needing to escape at a moments notice. Yao Jun also glanced at the earth beneath him, noticing that it was rather dry, dust being pushed aside by every step.
When the gray armored soldier stopped walking, the tents around them were no longer lined up in rows, but rather formed into separate large circles. The tents here were also much smaller and made out of a light green type of cloth that seemingly only served to keep the wind and rain out. As Yao Jun was checking out the various circles of tents, the soldier that had brought him here spoke up for the first time.
“The squad of Captain Azemar live in the tents over there.”
The voice of the soldier was husky and dark, and he turned to leave immediately after he finished talking, leaving Yao Jun standing alone. The circle that the soldier pointed at stood a small distance away from Yao Jun and contained a little over 100 tents, so Yao Jun guessed that there was about 10 soldiers in each tent. There was a slightly larger tent placed at the center of the rest of the tents, most likely belonging to the Squad Captain.
Yao Jun swept the surroundings with one last glance before he started walking towards the circle of tents. Jumbled voices and sounds of people moving rapidly started to reach his ears after he got a little closer to the tents, so he guessed that the squad was either greeting each other or currently training.
Once he stepped into the circle, he could see that there was a large group of people gathered around the tent placed at the center, everyone clad in full armor. Yao Jun counted about 1000 people, with almost everyone clad in murky green armor covered in small thorns and engraved with leaves and vines. Since everyone was clad in murky green armor, Azemar, who was clad in bright green armor, stood out and was easy to spot.
Azemar was standing a small distance in front of the large group of people, his arms crossed in front of his chest as he shouted orders at them. As the soldiers moved, Yao Jun could see that some of the engravings on their armors were lighting up, the Qi of the soldiers slowly gathering together. Some of the soldiers spotted Yao Jun as he moved closer, so they halted their training and looked at him with curious gazes.
Azemar also turned around, his eyebrow twitching slightly as he spotted Yao Jun. He looked at the approaching Yao Jun with an expression that contained a mixture of pleading and awkwardness, since he was standing a bit ahead of everyone else, Yao Jun was the only one who could see his expression. Yao Jun could somewhat guess at what Azemar was thinking, so when he reached a spot not far from Azemar, he stopped walking and gave a slight bow.
“You should be Captain Azemar, correct? I am Yao Jun, and I have been appointed to your squad, I will be in your care in the future.”
Azemar let out a stealthy sigh of relief when he saw how Yao Jun introduced himself. No one in this squad knew about how easily Yao Jun had beaten him, and he would prefer they never learned of it. After all, he had to keep his dignity as squad captain or no one would be willing to follow his orders. Since Yao Jun had given him face, Azemar of course had to give Yao Jun some face as well.
“Indeed, I am Berthol Azemar, but you can just call me Berthol. You should be unfamiliar with how things work in the army, so you can lodge with me in the captain's tent, I will fill you in on everything you need to learn.”
The other soldiers looked at Yao Jun with a sliver of envy after hearing Azemar's words. To sleep in the captain's tent meant that one would have plenty of space, as the only other person in the tent was the captain. They on the other hand had to squeeze in 10 people in each tent, each having just enough space to sleep. Yao Jun gave a nod at Azemar's words, glancing at the soldiers behind him before giving another small nod.
“I see that training has already begun, forgive me for being a bit late.”
Yao Jun had only joined the army to gather information, he had no interest in showing off his power and taking over as the commander. The less anyone knew about his actual power, the easier it would be for him to surprise the enemy leaders and take their heads. Because of that, he was fine with pretending to be a normal soldier. Azemar took a step forward, letting out a light laugh and patting Yao Jun on the shoulder.
“It was because of General Diana that you were late, so don't worry about it. Do you have your armor with you? If you do, you should put it on and read through this. Once you have memorized the information, jump in and see if you can get a feel for the formation. This is the formation we will use when the battles begin, so memorizing it is important.”
Azemar swiped his interspatial ring, taking out a light green crystal that glowed with a weak light, handing it to Yao Jun. Yao Jun gave a small nod of his head and walked to the side, sitting down on the ground and sinking his mind into the crystal. The crystal worked much like the jade slips he used on his own planet, containing a large amount of information that one could read by inputting their Qi and a bit of their mind into the crystal.
The information within the crystal was about the formation that the army used while battling. The arrays within the soldiers armors would merge together all the Qi of the people in the formation, allowing them to tap into each others Qi to increase their attack and defense.
Yao Jun rapidly memorized the way to use the formation, standing up and putting on the armor that Leylan had given him. Since Leylan knew that Yao Jun was going to the army, he should have made it so that the armor can work with the formation of the army. He cringed slightly when he put on the armor, it's gaudiness putting him off, but he could only deal with it for now.
He joined up with the soldiers who were currently training, finding a spot where he had some room to move. Once he activated the formation, he could indeed feel his Qi being dragged out of his body, merging together with the Qi of the others. But as he trained a little, working on moving around the Qi and producing a few fake attacks and putting up a defense, he could not help but furrow his eyebrows, a low mutter escaping from his lips.
“It truly is a wonderful formation, but it seems like my Qi is not able to fully merge with the Qi of everyone else, lowering how much Qi I can use and how fast I can utilize it. Seems like going without the formation is better for me.”
Yao Jun had noticed that no matter how much he activated the formation, his Qi would not fully merge with the Qi of the others, a part of it always flowing back and preventing him from using the formation to its fullest. But Yao Jun did not mind this too much, as he was planning on moving on his own anyway. After everyone had spent a few hours training, getting accustomed to the feeling of drawing upon everyone's Qi, Azemar let out a loud shout.
“Alright everyone! That is enough training for now, can't have all of you end up too tired, otherwise we won't be able to train tomorrow. Yao Jun, let me show you where you will be sleeping.”
The other soldiers dropped to the ground in sitting position, letting out a few heavy breaths. They were accustomed to leisure training in the clan, so experiencing training like this for the first time left them rather weak. Yao Jun gave Azemar a nod and followed him to the central tent.
The inside of the tent was rather simple, containing a single bed, a mannequin where one could hang their armor, a table and three chairs, as well as a place to hang ones clothing. Azemar took of his armor, placing it on the mannequin, and then turned to Yao Jun, giving a slight bow.
“Thank you.”
Yao Jun sat down on one of the chairs, waving his hand towards Azemar. Since Diana had put him into Azemar's squad, he could guess that Azemar knew that Yao Jun was not here to join the army for the same reason as the other soldiers.
“No need to thank me. I am here for my own purposes, not to screw up the chain of power.”
Azemar raised his head after hearing Yao Jun's reply, giving a slight nod of his head. Just like Yao Jun guessed, Diana had already told Azemar a little about Yao Jun, even telling him to keep an eye on him and his performance. Azemar swiped his interspatial ring, taking out a bed that seemed like it was made for people of his race. He placed the bed at the other side of the tent and sat down on the other bed.
“You can take that bed there, I will take that one. If there are things you require, you can tell me and I will bring it along to Division Leader Bathory. She will be able to acquire just about anything.”
Yao Jun gave a nod of his head, sitting down on the bed. It was quite a bit harder than the one he had used while inside the World Tree clan, but as he was going to cultivate instead of sleeping, it mattered little to him. Yao Jun turned his head, looking at Azemar as he explained what he was going to do.
“I will participate in the future training, but during actual battles, I might choose to move on my own. I was originally not part of the formation, so it will still be able to function at full power.”
Explaining everything to Azemar ahead of time would allow him to be prepared for it once it happened during battle. Azemar's eyebrows furrowed slightly after hearing Yao Jun's words, but once he remembered how easily Yao Jun had beaten him, he could only let out a sigh and shake his head.
“That... Okay. With your strength, you should be fine even without the formation.”