Xiaoshuai’s Toy
“Here. This is my prized femur.”
Mu Yu gulped, hoping it’d erase the awkwardness of being given someone’s cold bone to wave around, not to mention it had the potential to be highly coveted as a weapon. “What should I do if I accidentally break your bone?”
“Be extra careful not to break it, then,” seriously answered He Liankong.
“While skeleton soldiers’ are constructed from soul items, the other parts are ordinary bones, meaning you need several hundreds of souls working in tandem with each other. Us four leaders take turns acting as commander, striving to maximise the potential of our skeleton soldiers. In that vein, we must be constantly analysing each joint’s condition to adjust on the go. The fiends tend to specialise in…
“Every soul’s reaction time will vary, reflected in the clumsy movements. All skeleton soldiers undergo demanding training to ensure they have their rhythm down; else, not matching each other’s pace would leave us vulnerable.
“Each leader has their own approach of training their team. Nevertheless, one thing in common that we all do is get to know our team as best as we can for it is paramount to directing. Come, I’ll introduce you to my subordinates.”
“I won’t need to borrow any souls; I just need to borrow soul items.”
“How are you going to control soul items without souls?”
Mu Yu twined formation lines around himself. “I also happen to be a formation caster.”
“I know some of our sect members research formations, but… how proficient are you with formations?”
“Not too shabby, I suppose?”
“’Not too shabby” isn’t the answer I was after. There aren’t any formation casters’ souls here, but I have some knowledge. Unless you’re a Greater Heaven Stage formation caster, you’ll struggle to control the skeleton soldier in combat.”
“Just… Ask them to bring their soul items and bones over first. In the meantime, I will figure out the formation. You’ve spent years fighting, so giving me a few hours won’t hurt.”
Once the pile of bones arrived, Mu Yu questioned, “Xiaoshuai, you done with your draft?”
“Coming, coming.”
Xiaoshuai passed Mu Yu a sheet of paper he formerly used to wrap up drumsticks. Ink? He just squeezed red berries for ink. Besides a variety of postures, Xiaoshuai even explained which part did what and how to operate it, albeit simplified. Instead of putting himself through the torment of listening to a long-winded explanation, Mu Yu cast Gentle Wind Interlinked Hearts to instantly transfer Xiaoshuai’s thoughts over.
“We’re going to have two forms, which is why we’re naming it ‘Transformer’. I’m going to leave the spiritual energy expenditure maths to you. Draw a Lightning Swift Snakes formation here. Let’s see if we can zap the fiends. Draw a Heavy Formation on the arms. Draw a Water Ditch Extradition Formation on the chest for defence. We can use a Shadow Puppet Formation to draw over bones nearby and alter our shape at will. Follow my directions, and you’ll win every match.
“You can’t cast Gentle Wind Afterimage on its hands; you must cast it on its legs as I’m worried other soul items won’t be able to handle the compressive pressure. Elder He Liankong’s femur should be able to tolerate it, in saying that. Also, I need to cast a Gentle Wind One Line to Heaven Formation just in case. Also, I want to add other forms…”
Mu Yu rejected the dragon vine’s request to join the fight out of fear of the fiend souls harbouring animosity toward it.
“He Liankong, do you really have so much faith in Mu Yu?” Mu Mengfei glided over to inquire.
“It’s getting tougher and tougher for us to beat the fiends. To be candid, we’ve hardly created anything innovative when it comes to our skeleton soldier designs. To the contrary, the fiends have continued to up their game. As a living human, Mu Yu can use his spiritual energy to increase the skeleton soldier’s output. That’s what I’m betting on.”
“I just don’t feel confident about this. He’s not even using a single soul soldier; how is he going to control the soul items nimbly?”
“Soul soldiers are only there to assist. Mu Yu’s knowledge of formations should be able to replace them. I have to trust my fellow junior. Besides, there’s no harm in giving him the chance to gain experience even if he does lose. We’ve lost plenty of matches as it stands.”
“I’m not convinced that’s all you have in mind. I know you’re planning to have him do that…”
Hearing Mu Mengfei’s sigh, He Liankong lowered his face as he stole a glimpse of Mu Yu and then nodded.
Mu Yu drew a green formation in his hand and installed it in all of the bones, levitating the bones. He started shifting around the bones and said, “Xiaoshuai, time to work.”
“Roger!”
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