Mythical Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1666: Chapter 1605: The Enemy Army Surging Like a Tide

”Indeed, I’m not the only one who can play the zither, but at my level, there are fewer than five in the world, and among those, I’m probably the only one who can also go to the battlefield.” Zhou Yu said proudly, ”Cai Zhaoji can also do it, but would you let her go to the battlefield?”

”If you don’t speak, no one will take you for a mute.” Chen Xi said, annoyed, ”We’ll switch later on, but speaking of which, I remember Zijian telling me that Zhaoji’s zither music can indeed influence the performance of the military formation.”

”It’s not just about influencing, but the resonance of the zither music can deepen many effects. Even the most ordinary Qin Master can create an effect on specific people with certain pieces. It’s just that at my level, it becomes more universally applicable.” Zhou Yu said with a touch of pride.

Chen Xi nodded, ”You’re quite talented, is there anything you can’t do?”

”If there is, I wouldn’t tell you.” Zhou Yu rolled his eyes and said.

At this moment, Chen Xi suddenly asked, ”Actually, isn’t the meaning of this military formation more about using the power of miscellaneous soldiers to support the elites, and weaken the enemy’s Inner Qi to benefit our army?”

”Indeed.” Zhou Yu smiled and said, ”But how do you get the General’s Formation to work on the enemy? You know all military formations are based on our own soldiers.”

Chen Xi raised an eyebrow. As Zhou Yu spoke, Chen Xi couldn’t help but recall something about Zhuge Liang.

Li Youu had taught Zhuge Liang a slew of military formations, all transformations of his Eight Gates Heavenly Lock. With Zhuge Liang’s outstanding talent, he naturally learned them all. Then Li Youu gave Zhuge Liang a bunch of unfinished military formations to research on his own.

From Zhuge Liang’s previous experience learning from Li Youu, this basically meant that Li Youu thought Zhuge Liang could now graduate in this aspect, and the remaining part was up to Zhuge Liang to gain more experience.

After all, just relying on learning without having his own core, no matter how well he learned, he would just be another Li Youu. And although Li Youu was already quite the monster, apart from not being able to defeat second-class experts on horseback, he had no weak points in other aspects. If all subjects were assessed out of a hundred, Li Youu was probably at around ninety-six.

However, what Li Youu wanted to cultivate was not a jack-of-all-trades with no weaknesses but instead wanted to make Zhuge Liang an ultimate all-rounder with potentially full scores in all subjects, an unrivaled polymath, one person surpassing a dozen super first-class Civil Officials.

Although Chen Xi thought this was completely meaningless, he very much agreed with Li Youu’s approach of letting go after cultivating to a level of ninety, allowing Zhuge Liang to find his own path forward.

Naturally, after teaching the Eight Gates Heavenly Lock, Li Youu let Zhuge Liang self-learn, and Zhuge Liang was no pushover. After being forcefully graduated, he abandoned the complete path of the Eight Gates Heavenly Lock and blazed his own trail.

Upon discovering this, Li Youu didn’t punish Zhuge Liang. Instead, he appreciated Zhuge Liang’s ambition, then provided a bunch of ancient formation material for Zhuge Liang to study. Zhuge Liang then conceived of another completely different military formation method, not taking the conventional path.

The military formation conceived within this idea was named the Eight Formation Diagram by Zhuge Liang, which reflects how confident he was beneath his youthful appearance. It’s important to know that in this world, the normal evolution of military formations is more about remodeling rather than complete innovation.

Generally, those trying to innovate have failed, but when Zhuge Liang informed Li Youu of his military formation, it completely overturned Li Youu’s perspective. Other military formations were constructed centered around mobilizing one’s own soldiers, while the core of the Eight Formation Diagram was to manipulate the enemy...

This was simply heaven-defying. Yet Zhou Yu’s words to Chen Xi pretty much conveyed the same idea, making Chen Xi curious if the new generation was just this unconventional?

”Though I don’t know how to get the General’s Formation to act on others, there is a kind of military formation that forces the enemies, oh, manipulates the enemies to form a formation.” Chen Xi said proudly.

As to whether Zhuge Liang had solved that formation, it’s not important right now. Later will do, anyway. Uniquely, the Eight Formation Diagram will surely be birthed from Zhuge Liang’s hands, and Zhou Yu’s formation here gives Zhuge Liang something to reference, which is a nice bonus.

Zhou Yu couldn’t help but be astonished as he never thought military formations could be played this way. However, he then thought of something—if one could manipulate enemies to form their preferred military formation, wouldn’t they have already overwhelmed the enemy long before? Would there be a need for the formation to be maintained?

”Oh, indeed, it’s a good concept.” Zhou Yu’s mind turned, and he then laughed, saying, ”I should take some time to research it. It sounds pretty interesting, but I don’t know how to achieve it.”

”Uh, Gongjin, did you hear something?” Just as Chen Xi was about to speak, he suddenly heard a series of rumbling sounds, turned his head to look at the sky startled, not seeing dark clouds—why were there thunderous sounds?

”I think I heard it too.” Zhou Yu nodded and said. The two then exchanged a glance, seeing the surprise in each other’s eyes. Zhou Yu immediately stood up, ”Archers, prepare. Elite of Danyang, hold fast for defense!”

”How could they arrive so fast?” Chen Xi said a bit frantically, ”When calculating the troops before, we knew the Northern Huns certainly had an elite force wandering outside, previously estimated to have gone to deal with the Miscellaneous Hun. But how could they return so quickly?”

”Being able to arrive now indicates that they must have seen the flames and rushed over. This distance can’t be more than sixty miles!” Zhou Yu said with a grave expression.

”Duan Wei, prepare yourself!” Chen Xi could no longer care for anything else, immediately shouting to Duan Wei, who was protecting him.

”I vow to keep Marquis Chen safe!” Duan Wei shouted.

”Alright, just ensure we don’t scatter when charged. I believe the Xiliang Iron Cavalry could definitely break through without dispersing. So, absolutely do not split forces.” Chen Xi instructed Duan Wei.

Then, with a sound of the zither, Zhou Yu activated the Legion Talent, while Chen Xi, like before, bestowed the invigorating morale effect of Victory Determination to the army, and Zhou Yu reinforced Mental Concentration for a calm mind.

The original military formation also suddenly became internalized, with dense longswords and great shields at the perimeter and archers inside fully prepared. The Elite Troops of Danyang and Li Yan were ready outside to resist the cavalry.

Cheng Pu and Li Yan also successively activated their Legion Talents for their own soldiers. The Elite Troops of Danyang instantly entered a state with an earlier near-step into Military Spirit insight. This time, after being imbued with three layers of Legion Talent, the Danyang elite immediately entered into the Ultimate State.

Just then, led by a few Northern Huns Soldiers, the Miscellaneous Hun surged like a tide as if to engulf everything in front.

”The situation is pretty dire.” Zhou Yu suddenly laughed and said, ”But to think they could break us down like this—ha, they are just overthinking!”