Chapter 51: Chapter 51

With Waynes’s command, the squad of Knights who had been reining in their horses to block the enemy instantly charged forward, carrying tremendous momentum as they collided with those force-grown Wastelander children.

“Kill!”

But the Knights’ speed was scarcely affected. A few flashes of cold steel passed, and the heads of those Wastelander children tumbled to the ground.

Following that, the Knights charged into the black shroud formed by the spreading black qi from the Wastelander elders’ hands, without reducing their speed or showing the slightest fear.

The black qi obscured the Knights’ figures. From afar, Ron and the other apprentices watched. Although they all understood that the Knights must have been confident to act so boldly, they still couldn’t help but worry for them.

There were no sounds of combat, no sounds of collision from within the black shroud. Only a series of dull yet extraordinarily uniform hoofbeats echoed out, the sound of warhorses rapidly stampeding across the snow.

However, one thing was peculiar. The area covered by the black qi canopy was clearly quite limited, yet those hoofbeats sounded as if they were coming from a very distant place.

After a continuous barrage of rhythmic and dense hoofbeats, the black qi began to thin out. From a distance, Ron could already make out the blurry figures of the Knights.

By this time, they had slaughtered the Wastelander elders until only the final four remained. But when it came to these last four, they ceased their killing, instead riding their horses in a circle to surround the four Wastelander elders in the center.

At this point, Waynes turned his horse around and came before Ron and the crowd of apprentices, commanding from his elevated position: “Go, kill those Wastelanders!

“For every one killed, everyone will be rewarded with one Inheritance Ceremony! Those who are still standing at the end of the battle will each be rewarded with two vials of Ignition Potion!”

Hearing that the rewards were Inheritance Ceremonies and Ignition Potions, every apprentice’s eyes lit up. They quickly organized their squads, and the members of the temporary first squad that had existed up until now all returned to their original teams.

Thus, the six squads formed their own formations, while simultaneously composing a larger Battle Formation with one another, and strode rapidly toward the front.

…

Upon reaching the black qi canopy, the squads at the front slightly slowed their pace, but ultimately gritted their teeth and walked in.

The Blood and Fire Squad was in the second echelon. When Ron entered the black qi canopy, he heightened his vigilance to its absolute peak. From a distance earlier, he hadn’t been able to see clearly, but now that he was up close, he could see with perfect clarity:

This black qi canopy was fundamentally composed of countless constantly writhing Pollution Secret Patterns.

The instant he steeled himself and stepped into the black qi canopy, Ron felt as if something had smashed into his head, leaving him feeling somewhat dizzy.

Furthermore, this black qi canopy seemed to genuinely blot out the sky and sun. The light outside had been fairly bright, but the moment they stepped inside, it was as if night had fallen.

Within five steps, they could still barely make things out, but beyond five steps, it was exceptionally gloomy.

“Whistle, whistle, whistle!”

Ron heard the whistles from the squad ahead. He similarly bit down on his own bone whistle, using the whistles to determine positions and maintain contact with the other squads.

But within the black qi canopy, the normally highly penetrating sound of the whistles also seemed to become hazy. Fortunately, bone whistles didn’t just transmit information through the volume of the sound, but also through variations in intermittent frequency.

This allowed them to communicate flawlessly without error even inside the black qi canopy.

Following the directions in their memories, the six squads moved rapidly while continuously exchanging information. Yet, an accident still occurred:

“Justin, how far do you think we’ve already traveled?”

“About a li, surely!” [1]

“But you saw the black qi from the outside. Its coverage area is definitely not a li, right?”

“Mm.”

Afterward, the group fell silent. They continued forward for several dozen paces before the squad ahead finally stopped. They sent out a signal:

“Close in on us!”

Because the six squads had maintained contact the entire time, the convergence didn’t result in any situation where distances inexplicably stretched. Upon drawing near, Ron heard a group of people grumbling:

“I knew the rewards this time wouldn’t be that easy to get!”

“Think of something! How are we supposed to complete the mission now? Don’t even think about giving up. Even if you wanted to, are you certain you could find your way back?”

In a few brief exchanges, the group managed to temporarily unify their thoughts: continue the mission, and refuse to rest until it was complete.

“We’ve been walking for so long. Has anyone made any discoveries? Speak up, let’s all reference them together.”

“Does finding that it’s very quiet here count?”

“It counts. Anything else?”

“I’ve noticed that my perception has weakened. Whether it’s hearing, vision, or touch, even my intuition has become blunted and sluggish.”

The one speaking was Dimi. Over the past month of training, he hadn’t performed particularly outstandingly in combat. Instead, he was exceptionally sharp when it came to searching for objects and perception.

So later on, he simply volunteered to develop in the direction of a lookout and sentry, only taking on a supporting attack role in combat.

When each squad had drawn members to form the temporary lookout squad earlier, Dimi had been one of its members. At this moment, his words immediately earned everyone’s agreement.

Consequently, someone asked:

“Dimi, can you discern the terrain features within this area?”

“It’s a bit difficult. Do any of you still have javelins on you?” Dimi asked.

Earlier, to cover the Blood and Fire Squad’s charge out of the sentry post, every squad had thrown their javelins. Although they had been thrown at an ordinary wolf pack, breakages were inevitable, which was why he asked.

“I still have one.”

“I have two.”

…

The thirty men reported the number of javelins they either held or had recovered. Dimi tallied them up briefly, and a trace of relief finally appeared on his face. He continued:

“I need you to follow my signals and use the javelins as markers. Pick any direction for now, and let’s move!”

“Alright, we’ll follow your lead!”

The others didn’t have any better ideas for the time being, so they could only go with this for now, at least until they sorted out the positioning within this area.

…

Thus, everyone quickly sprang into action. The various squads still formed their own formations, then maintained contact with the other squads through bone whistles to compose a larger Battle Formation.

The thirty men moved rapidly within the black qi canopy. After covering a certain distance, Dimi would instruct one squad to plant a javelin into the ground.

During this process, everyone also changed directions a few times, ensuring that they formed a sufficient two-dimensional dot-matrix map.

…

At the same time, outside the black qi canopy, Waynes had already dismounted from his horse. Morris and the other six instructors had arrived by Waynes’s side at some unknown point.

“How long do you think they’ll need to kill those Wastelanders?” Waynes pointed at the group of apprentices milling about within the black qi canopy and asked their instructors.

“From the looks of it, they seem to have found a method to navigate within a Domain of Chaos. This Domain of Chaos hasn’t connected with other chaotic domains yet, so its area is limited. I believe they will complete the mission very soon. When the time comes, Young Master Waynes, you can’t go stingy on the Ignition Potions!”

Upon hearing this, Waynes immediately burst into laughter. “You lot! You really spare no effort to secure benefits for your apprentices. Rest assured! Even if every single one of them manages to stand at the very end, that’s only sixty vials. That much potion is well within my means.”

…

[1]: A li (里) is a traditional Chinese unit of distance, approximately equal to 500 meters (about 1,640 feet).