Chapter 108: Patrol teams

——(POV third person, meeting tent)——

"Now that everything is ready in the fort, we can talk about our strategy for these fights." Hu Anjing said. The representatives of the seven holy lands were here. A couple of disciples from the smaller powers were also selected as the representatives of those participants. Other disciples were standing around the table to hear the meeting as this would affect everyone and having first-hand information on these sorts of things is the key to having a successful operation.

"Junior uncle, please." Hu Anjing said and asked Li Huang to continue the talks as he came up with the plan for everyone present here.

"There is no one here that is not suitable to fight so my plan is not to tell you how to fight because if you were not able to fight, you wouldn't be able to reach the final 100 that entered the [Eternal Wail Trial]."  Li Huang said and glanced at everyone at the table. He didn't want to teach them fighting and also didn't want to wound their pride by suggesting so.

"But what I want you to do is to do everything in your power when you are fighting. Some things are natural so I don't waste time on them. Divine Arrow sect disciples and White Moon sect disciples will man the towers as they are best suited for this task." Li Huang said and looked at Hou Shuqing who nodded at him and He Junli who frowned.

"Why should we do that?" He Junli said as she didn't like to be bossed around. Well, more like she liked to boss others, not the other way.

This didn't go unnoticed by Li Huang who didn't like the attitude that He Junli had from the very beginning.

"What advantages would you have in a close-range fight?" Li Huang said and gave a second to He Junli to answer.

"If you don't have some solid reasoning and logic to refute my words, please don't interrupt me again as every minute that is wasted could result in someone's death." Li Huang said and with his words made others also look at He Junli with a bit of resentment. Truly she shouldn't have said anything when she didn't have anything to back it with.

He Junli clenched her fists under the table and didn't say anything. She wasn't stupid and knew that if she continued talking like this she would only lose face for the White Moon sect. Also in truth, she wasn't opposed to manning the towers but she didn't want others to tell her what to do.

Li Huang could see that He Junli didn't plan to continue so he continued with his plan.

"Other sects can also join these holy lands if they are good at ranged attacks. You have to work under the supervision of one of these holy lands as they are responsible for you." Li Huang told the disciples of smaller powers that they can choose how to act as they know their sect's strength the best. He didn't want to waste time getting to know each and every sect that these disciples came from.

"Other holy lands like our heavenly sword sect are most effective at close-ranged fights so that is what we do, except the Temple of Emptiness." Li Huang said and looked at Xuan Muni who had his eyes closed the whole time.

"I have heard about the [True Dharma Eye] formation of the Temple of Emptiness, it would help us greatly if you can do this for everyone." Li Huang asked Xuan Muni. If they could use this formation, the fight with the beasts will get much easier.

"Yes, I would have suggested that we do the same. Our temple will create this formation but we might need some materials…" Xuan Muni said. This setup would need the monks to create a formation first and then sit in some locations of it to activate it. Once activated, you could sense a very big space and this would help everyone to know what is going on in the surroundings so that they can act fast when a beast horde is just on the edge of the [True Dharma Eye] formation's detection range.

"You don't have to worry about that, we will set this formation in the keep and project the Qi sense map on top of the keep so that everyone can see it." Li Huang said and everyone nodded as they too were okay with this plan.

"So with this, all the assignments are done. Let's get out of here alive." Li Huang said and got out of the tent.

The other also stood up and the disciples that were from the smaller powers talked to holy land representatives to get into their teams. Hu Anjing got out of the tent and stood beside Li Huang.

"What are you thinking about?" Hu Anjing asked Li Huang who was looking at the horizon.

"…I'm thinking that the old man could have killed us all if he wanted too but why didn't he?" Li Huang asked. He was puzzled about this from the beginning. He knows that someone who can create such a thing like this trial, is not an ordinary person and even if this is only a projection, he must be able to inflict pain on someone as weak as them.

"Maybe he doesn't have enough energy to do so?" Hu Anjing said unsure. She didn't think about this until now and if you look at it it is weird to say this is your punishment and all they face in a day was about 20,000 beasts that could barely count as a threat to the number of disciples in the fort. Well, if they were not united that would be another story.

"That could be it but I think this too might be a test of sorts…" Li Huang said.

"Anyway, let's make some teams to patrol the outer walls." Li Huang said and changed the subject. It is not a good practice to talk about hypotheses when you don't have enough evidence to build on them. When someone as paranoid as Li Huang thinks like that, there must be some truth to it.

'I think I am forgetting something but I don't know what…' Li Huang thought.

——(POV third person, somewhere outside the fort)——

Sound of heavy objects hitting the ground one after another could be heard in the surrounding. The beasts wouldn't come close to here if they didn't number in the thousands as these sounds to them showed that this was the territory of a powerful beast. What's more, the maniacal laughter that could be heard every once in a while added to the scariness of this place.

This powerful beast was none other than Cai ZhenKang who was cutting down tree after tree left and right. As he learned from Li Huang he would collect the logs as he went so he didn't have to go back on the path that he already was.

What Li Huang forgot about was Cai ZhenKang. Even his fellow disciples didn't say anything as they thought their senior brother was being cool by not showing up for an official meeting. They would giggle every once in a while but that was it.

On the other hand, Cai ZhenKang didn't know about the meeting and collected so much wood that he filled a storage ring to the brim with logs. There was so much wood there that even if they were to rebuild everything they wouldn't run out of logs.

"I think I have to go back, they surely would struggle to handle things when I am not around." Cai ZhenKang nodded to himself and started walking back toward the fort.

——(POV third person, inside the fort)——

It was decided that every holy land that is going to go outside, would create two teams of four so that they can distribute the strong participants somewhat evenly. From the heavenly sword sect, Li Huang and Hu Anjing decided to form a team as they were the strongest disciples there. Hu Anjing took Ye Ling into her team at the first moment so Li Huang had to explore his options. He chose Mo Hui, the twin blade user, and Lai Xinyue as his team's members. He was looking for the forth member that he heard someone.

"Young master Li, can I join your team?" Lang Yingmin said as she stood in front of Li Huang. She was the disciple that learned a bit of the weapon Qi control from Li Huang.

Li Huang turned to face her. Lang Yingmin is one of the strong disciples here so he didn't have any problems adding her to his team.

"I don't have a problem with that, but isn't your sect supposed to man the walls and towers?" Li Huang couldn't find a reason for Lang Yingmin's request to be on a patrol team when her fellow disciples would occupy the walls.

"I was told that I can go and find some other place to be as they have a replacement for me." Lang Yingmin said with a straight face.

'Damn, White Moon sect disciples are scary...' Li Huang couldn't believe his ears.