A month passed, and everyone finally recuperated.
Having won twice in a row, the morale of the Gu Dao Immortal Pavilion was soaring.
After recovering their peak strength, the four legion commanders met again.
"Gentlemen, what are your suggestions for what comes next?" asked the first commander.
The second commander, sitting beside his deputy, said, "I think we should strike while our morale is high and advance towards their city."
"I think our old methods are still good," said another.
"We hold the advantage now, and we can use it to defend the city," said the fourth commander.
"Third commander, what are your thoughts?" the first commander looked at A Xiang.
"I agree with the fourth commander's opinion."
"We currently hold the advantage, and the enemy will definitely make further moves to win."
"We should play it safe, steadily grinding down their effective strength."
"It's not too late to consider an offensive once the gap widens."
Listening to A Xiang, the first commander nodded slightly. "Then we will defend for now and see what other actions the enemy takes."
"Do you know about space immortal artifacts refined from the world?" Qin Hanchu asked.
"Of course, we know," replied the first commander.
"We need to guard against them using space immortal artifacts for a surprise attack."
"Once space immortal artifacts are used, the enemy's legions can approach without a sound."
Hearing this, everyone nodded slightly.
While space immortal artifacts were precious, they were not uncommon.
The possibility Qin Hanchu mentioned was indeed something to guard against.
"Gather all formation experts and set up formations around the city."
"With these formations protecting us, we will have time to react."
The first commander made a very wise decision.
Setting up formations outside the city would be beneficial from any perspective.
In the following days, formation experts from the four legions worked together to deploy formations outside the city.
In just one month, thousands of formations were added around the city.
Under the coverage of these formations, the city's defensive perimeter was extended by tens of miles.
Another month passed, and scouts reported!
The enemy had made new moves.
This time, the enemy had split into several small teams.
Each team consisted of a thousand men, and they were arriving in a scattered manner.
In the main hall of the City Lord's mansion, the first commander mused, "What are they trying to do? Aren't they afraid we'll pick them off one by one?"
"It is indeed a bit strange," the second commander said.
Qin Hanchu, however, looked cold. "Immediately contact the scouts and tell them to retreat! Their objective is to ambush our scouts. Once we lose our scouts, we lose our eyes, and for a while, we won't know their movements."
"That makes sense!"
The first commander and the others suddenly understood.
The enemy splitting into groups was meant to divide the scouts' attention.
If the enemy were a large force, the scouts would maintain a safe distance.
But by splitting into groups, the scouts couldn't possibly keep track of all the groups' movements.
The scouts would unknowingly be surrounded, and by then, escape would be impossible.
The first commander quickly took out a transmission jade slip to contact the scouts, but received no response.
It was clear the scouts had already met their demise.
With so many enemies ambushing a few dozen scouts, these scouts had no chance of survival.
"It's too late, they've likely already been killed," the first commander said, having contacted all the scouts without a response.
"This means we have lost our source of intelligence."
"I'll send people out right now to investigate their whereabouts," said the fourth commander.
A Xiang looked at Qin Hanchu. "What are your thoughts?"
Qin Hanchu replied, "We can't send any more scouts."
"You mean they will intercept our scouts?" the first commander asked.
"Although there are only a few dozen scouts, losing two waves is still a considerable loss."
"If I'm not mistaken, they should have been inspired by us."
Qin Hanchu, having studied operational psychology when he was on Blue Star, had a clearer view of the battlefield situation.
"What do you mean?" the fourth commander asked, puzzled.
"They must have found out about our construction of formations."
"They are very likely setting up formations on the battlefield as well."
"Once their formations are completed, our movements will be severely hindered."
"In the upcoming battles, this could lead us into a trap." Qin Hanchu explained.
A Xiang asked, "What do you think we should do?"
"Leave three thousand men to guard the city, and the rest will charge directly."
"The goal isn't to kill the enemy, but to prevent them from having the opportunity to hide formations on the battlefield." Qin Hanchu said.
The first commander looked at everyone. "What do you say?"
A Xiang replied, "I naturally support my husband."
"I also think we should take the initiative to attack," the second commander said.
"I second that," said the fourth commander.
Seeing that everyone agreed, the first commander immediately gave the order to depart.
Half an hour later, seventeen thousand men majestically flew out.
This time, everyone was traveling at their fastest speed.
All seventeen thousand men were integrated into A Xiang's Great Luo Heaven Formation.
At this moment, Long Mu was arranging formation experts to deploy formations in different areas.
He had indeed been inspired by the Gu Dao Immortal Pavilion and wanted to use pre-deployed formations to turn the tide.
As soon as the army from the Gu Dao Immortal Pavilion emerged, he received a transmission from his scouts.
He had expected the Gu Dao Immortal Pavilion to send new scouts to gather information, but he hadn't expected them to charge out directly.
"Rally immediately!"
Long Mu hastily contacted his subordinates, ordering them to temporarily abandon their formation deployment.
Simple formations only took a short time to complete, but the engineering effort required to affect an army of tens of thousands was immense.
It would take at least half a month for the formations he planned to be completed.
And the army from the Gu Dao Immortal Pavilion was rushing forward at the fastest possible speed.
Although it would take the Gu Dao Immortal Pavilion at least half a month to arrive, they were currently dispersed across more than ten areas.
If they couldn't rendezvous in time, they could be defeated by the Gu Dao Immortal Pavilion's army one by one.
By then, even if the formations were completed, the gains would not outweigh the losses.
Therefore, Long Mu had no choice but to temporarily abandon the formation deployment and consolidate his army first.
When Qin Hanchu and the others arrived, Long Mu had already led his men to retreat near the city of Yue Lang Immortal Pavilion.
"What do we do now?" the second commander asked Qin Hanchu.
"We will split up by legion, and within a safe perimeter, we will have formation experts build killing formations and illusion formations."
"As long as the enemy doesn't engage, we will leave formations everywhere."
"While deploying illusion formations, we will try to locate enemy scouts and disable their eyes." Qin Hanchu said thoughtfully.
"Are these formations we're deploying useful?"
"If we don't take out the scouts, won't the locations of the formations be exposed?" the first commander raised a question.
"These formations are for harassing them."
"If they don't want to be surrounded by formations, they will definitely charge out to interrupt our progress and destroy the formations we leave behind."