Chapter 269: Chapter 268: Zhu Qing’s Acquaintance!
Translator: 549690339
Soon, the formation of five teams was completed, each led by Zhu Qing’s Team One, Qin Jingshuo’s Team Two, Du Gang’s newly-promoted Team Three of Controllers, and Team Four led by Yao Anfu.
Du Gang didn’t recognize the leader of Team Five, who wasn’t particularly well-known.
Most of the strong individuals had already joined the other teams.
Besides himself, Zhu Qing’s team had several strong individuals who were powerful from the first layer of the abyss and chose to join his team.
Unlike Zhu Qing, Qin Jingshuo led a team with the most people possessing two hundred units of divine power, and they all came from the second layer of the abyss, amounting to over one hundred members.
If Zhu Qing wasn’t in Team One, judging by average strengths, Qin Jingshuo’s team would be stronger overall.
On Du Gang’s side, the majority of members were his classmates, each having just reached the level of Controller.
“Du Gang, I hope your Team Three won’t hold back the rest!”
Yao Anfu didn’t speak, but a man from their team with dark features resembling charcoal spoke nonchalantly.
This was someone from the Li Family!
Recognizing the distinctive features of the man, Du Gang identified him.
“Thank you for the reminder!”
Without showing any anger, Du Gang turned his head to Zhu Qing and asked, “Will this time’s contribution points be divided according to the preservation of each array?”
Zhu Qing nodded, “Yes, this time, contribution points would be calculated based on the defensive order of the arrays. Of course, those who hold and those who don’t hold will be awarded differently… the military will send representatives to monitor…”
At this time, a group of five soldiers in military attire approached from the nearby high tower.
“We are responsible for recording your respective situations and ultimately determining the contribution…”
One of the soldiers stepped forward, “During the recording process, we will not participate in the battle, we will neither assist you nor engage in any irrelevant activities…”
“In addition, any bribery will decrease your contribution weight…”
The soldiers quickly listed some cautionary points—all to ensure they independently complete this battle.
After discussing, the five soldiers split up and joined the five array teams.
“If we succeed this time and drive the Demon Clan out of Big Dragon Pit, how would we distribute the Challenge of Big Dragon?”
Zhu Qing laughed, “That’s easy, each team gets a day…”
He squinted his eyes and looked at Du Gang, understanding his intentions and awaiting his response.
Du Gang smiled, “Both you and Qin Jingshuo returned from the second layer of the abyss, even if the Challenge of Big Dragon was given to you, it would be useless. However, our team has never done the Challenge, so, what about a switch?!”
“Our team’s merits could be given to you in exchange for the Challenge of Big Dragon…”
Qin Jingshuo, without a doubt, fully agreed with this situation. His team all came from the second layer of the abyss, none of them were interested in Challenge of Big Dragon. Since Du Gang was willing, he naturally had no objection.
Zhu Qing turned to Yao Anfu and laughed, “Yao Anfu, what about your team? Would you like to use merits to exchange for the Challenge of Big Dragon?”
Yao Anfu snorted, saying indifferently, “No need, most of our team are close to completing their first layer abyss vitalizing, there’s no necessity…”
Indeed for them, the essence of Big Dragon is free, it’s just a matter of when they fill it up, merits are more valuable.
The fifth team was likewise, clear about the value of essence and merits.
Du Gang coughed and laughed, “In that case, how about you give us all of your Challenge of Big Dragon quotas, and in this war, the four of your teams can split the merits of Team Three?!”
“Agreed!”
None of the four other teams objected and directly agreed.
People like Long Aoshi were a little puzzled, unsure why Du Gang let go of the merits.
However, they knew what was at stake and didn’t openly question him. Instead, they used private messages to voice their doubts.
Du Gang responded to each of them with a faint smile.
“It is just merits, which can be exchanged for a few Divine Crystals at most. These are resources that we can take out. The essence, it seems, is something internal to the abyss that cannot be taken away. However, for people like us, this essence is equivalent to time, it can save us time…”
“Do you plan to spend decades, or even centuries, slowly slaying monsters and absorbing their essence here, or do you want to absorb the essence of the first layer of the abyss as soon as possible and then move on to the second layer?!”
For these talented individuals, the second layer is definitely stronger than the first, which means they can witness more and gain more. Therefore, they largely agreed with Du Gang’s argument.
They didn’t care much for Divine Crystals, but speeding up the cultivation of Divine Power was exactly what they needed at the moment.
For young talents, time is their biggest enemy, not because there isn’t enough of it, but because it passes too slowly!
Therefore, when Long Aoshi and others thought carefully, they realized this was true. Now they had this opportunity to save time, otherwise they would have to spend decades or even longer, like others, accumulating Divine Power.
In fact, Du Gang also had his own selfish motives, mainly because of Big Dragon and Qiao Bing.
He had promised these two that he would help them accumulate at least two thousand Naer units of divine power, and now seemed to be the perfect opportunity.
Based on the current split of the Big Dragon’s essence among more than a hundred people, the two of them should be able to accumulate the third-level essence in at most a month.
Moreover, the essence that Du Gang himself had snatched, he planned to give to these two, so the speed would be even faster.
“Since everyone has no problem, let’s set off!”
After receiving a satisfactory answer, Zhu Qing took the lead to lead the team to the front line.
As they, the Controllers, set off, the nearly one hundred thousand Destroyers and other operators who had gathered also began to set off.
After having gone through so much warfare, both sides had long learnt to cooperate in group combat, so marching now posed no difficulty.
In just one hour, everyone had gathered in front of the Big Dragon Pit.
Outside the Big Dragon Pit, the Demon Clan’s battle line stretched for over ten miles.
On the human side, they were not to be outdone. Apart from the Controllers in the central position, other strong individuals of various levels were filling the gaps.
Without much delay, a long single-line formation was successfully deployed, facing the Demon Clan across a distance.
However, no one dared to make a rash move.
In such a war, victory often depends on the people in the central area. If the Controllers win, then the war is won; if the Controllers lose, then the war is lost.
Controllers. They are the ones who decide the outcome of the conflict!
At the very center, Du Gang and others, according to Zhu Qing’s instructions, took their flag-post positions in an orderly manner.
The position they chose was basically led by the first team. The second and third were on both sides, forming the front flanks, while the fourth and fifth were at the back.
“Everyone, the Big Dragon will respawn in two hours. We’ve agreed to start the battle half an hour from now!”
Zhu Qing, before leaving, whispered to the leaders like Du Gang.
“No problem!”
Du Gang responded in a low voice, still toying with the flag in his hand.
He was quite curious about this thing. Back in his time at White Dragon Mountain Universe State, the Jiang Family had once sent an Array Master back, which had caused him quite a bit of trouble at the time. Thankfully, his divine skills were stronger, otherwise he might have been trapped in space unable to escape.
The flag in his hand seemed unremarkable, a plain yellow colour with a single golden character on it and no vibration at all.
If he didn’t know that this was the thing that Zhu Qing was planning to turn the tide with, he would have doubted its authenticity.
Soon, everyone arrived at their predetermined positions and began to wait quietly.
“Du Gang, can we win?”
Long Aotian and others felt a bit uneasy because the Demon Clan on the opposite side seemed to be unusually large in number, and its imposing manner was dreadfully fearsome.
It was mainly because this was their first time encountering such a situation, making them feel inherently weak.
Du Gang laughed lightly and said, “Pay attention. When the battle starts, the gods should ascend into the air right away. Keep them halfway in the sky, but remember, their physical bodies may die, but at all means, the gods must not die…”
With that, he continued, “If you find a powerful god from the Demon Clan, don’t resist. Just run away…”
“Wouldn’t that be too cowardly?”
Long Aotian frowned. This really didn’t suit his character…
“There will be no lack of firewood if the green hill remains. It’s not cowardice, it’s called understanding the significance of the circumstance!”
Du Gang laughed, adding another word of encouragement.
His words were addressed not only to Long Aotian but also to other students. After all, this was their first time here, and there were many things they didn’t know.
If they foolishly used their gods to fight and ended up being extinguished, they would surely die.
Sure enough, the others gratefully looked at Du Gang when they heard this.
At the same time, they couldn’t help but sigh with relief in their hearts. Thankfully, they had Du Gang with them, otherwise, they would have taken many detours!
Half an hour passed quickly. Zhu Qing, who was situated at the forefront, suddenly leaped up.
“Set up the formation!”
The moment Zhu Qing jumped up, he yelled out and simultaneously activated the flag of the array in his hand.
Upon seeing this, Du Gang and the other four captains also activated the array flags they held.
“Boom!”
Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth; the five-element array flags released five different elements at this moment, causing changes in the entire space.
“Hum hum hum!”
At this moment, the five different colors representing different elements were all linked together, as if they were originally one.
“Zing!”
With the five elements connected together, a giant pentagram appeared.
This pentagram was irregular, with each star containing well over a hundred people.
“Advance!”
Just as the array was erected, Zhu Qing couldn’t wait to give orders and issued an attack command.
Soon, the team at the first eye of the array set off.
Du Gang was surprised to discover that even though none of the others moved, the pentagram they were in was also moving, and their positions had shifted.
“Goodness, is it that magical?!”
Du Gang exclaimed without hesitation and quickly led the students to follow suit.
“Wha?!”
On the other side, all the Controller-level members of the Demon Clan were stunned.
Looking at this colorful array, they were both curious and apprehensive.
They knew that an array was a very powerful method, originally only existing in the upper hierarchy, they didn’t expect to encounter an array now.
“Don’t be afraid, this is a five-element array. We just need to break it at the corresponding eye of the array…”
The Demon Clan member at the forefront, who was well-informed, recognized the origin of this array instantly.
This Demon Clan member was also someone who had come down from the upper abyss. From this, it can be seen that such arrays are not uncommon in the upper space.
Soon, the Controllers from the Demon Clan side also split into five groups according to the corresponding method of breaking the formation and rushed towards the five corners.
“Zhu Qing, the demons know about your array. What do we do now?”
Qin Jingshuo asked with a frown.
Zhu Qing smiled and said, “I anticipated this. This five-element array of mine will grow stronger with time. After one hour, our combined strength will increase by one time. After two hours, it will be two times…”
“As long as you guard the eye of the array, there will be no problem!”
“That’s good then!”
Everyone was relieved all at once.
Moreover, the good news was that the Controllers of the Demon Clan were clearly more numerous. However, most of the Controllers had gone to the first eye of the array.
Most of the other formations had as many people going to them as there were humans guarding them.
Seeing this, Du Gang started to ponder.
“So, as long as the main eye of array one isn’t broken, the array won’t be broken?”
He has long known that Zhu Qing must be holding something back.
“Moreover, there should be more than just this, right?”
He guessed that the people in the first eye of the array probably received more bonuses than those in the other arrays!
Just as he was thinking, the demons assaulting their part of the array had already arrived.
“Hurrah!”
These demons still maintained a lot of ferocity and upon arrival, they immediately began to charge.
Du Gang proactively went to stop the strongest demon in the lead.
The others followed suit, each standing against an opponent, and the battle began.
“Just 100 Naer of divine power?!”
At their first exchange, Du Gang already knew the upper limit of his opponent’s strength.
This is the so-called guarding the eye of the array?
He was somewhat speechless, Zhu Qing was indeed hiding something. He suspected that even if all the people in the other four array eyes died, the array would still not break.
If it was like this, then Zhu Qing would undoubtedly earn a lot of merits as his difficulty was the greatest!
Not only that, but there should be other benefits!
At this moment, within the first eye of the array, Zhu Qing recognized the leader leading the attack on the demon faction. He was stunned because he recognized this demon.
“Liao Ba!”
Zhu Qing suddenly blurted out a phrase in the language of the Demon Clan.
The people around him didn’t find it strange because some of them had also learned the language of the Demon Clan. The only thing that made them curious was that Zhu Qing seemed to know this demon.
After hearing this familiar voice, Liao Ba felt a bitter feeling inside.
He didn’t expect, that having returned to the first layer of the abyss, he would still encounter this guy…