Chapter 121 Forging the Array Foundation! Setting the Bait!

“Where’s Grandpa Hei?”

“Sir, the elderly cyborg left a message saying he went to a meeting.”

“Alright, never mind him,” Wang Jixuan said. “I was originally thinking of asking him to join in, so that we would be more confident in taking down Mo Feng. But it’s fine… Let’s have a meeting first.”

Ling Tong asked, “Do we need to mobilize other humanoid mechs?”

“Not for now. I only trust a few of you here for the time being.”

Wang Jixuan thought for a moment:

“Red Serpent can also join our special team later.”

“Okay.”

Ling Tong responded simply, brought up a dialog box on her left mechanical arm, coordinated with the command system, temporarily detached herself from the humanoid mech array, and reported the movements of her squad to her direct commander.

Everyone quickly took their seats and were about to start the meeting when Ling Tong received an order from the frontline command.

She looked up at Wang Jixuan: “The frontline commander said that you should try not to participate in the battle.”

Master Wang pursed his lips: “Can I not take his orders?”

“Theoretically speaking, in the current command structure, your immediate superior is Dongfang Zhenghong, as long as he doesn’t issue any orders…”

Buzz!

Ling Tong’s robotic arm trembled slightly, and a new command popped up.

“Hmm… The Commander-in-Chief personally ordered that you are free to do as you please.”

Ling Tong’s expression was slightly puzzled.

Master Wang chuckled: “Does this commander-in-chief, whom I’ve never met before, trust me too much, or does he not care about me much?”

“It must be the former!”

Zheng Shiduo chuckled:

“The Commander-in-Chief must have discovered your greatness!”

“Don’t pull it up so high.”

Wang Jixuan cleared his throat and looked at Beta, the tree spirit, standing to the side.

Beta the Tree Man immediately stood up straight, tense.

“Come and sit down, don’t be nervous.”

Wang Jixuan revealed a kind smile:

“Don’t worry, we’re all good people. We just want to borrow your abilities and, incidentally, establish some initial mutual trust between us.”

Tree Man Beta swallowed hard and sat down stiffly opposite Wang Jixuan.

The tree-man had a feeling that this guy in front of him had some… indescribable intentions towards him…

His intuition has always been quite accurate.

Wang Jixuan coughed lightly and said quickly:

“Time is of the essence; we must make all the necessary preparations before the Mo Feng Squad launches its second attack.”

“We cannot trust any promises from the enemy; she is very likely to use a feint, so we need to find a way to take the initiative.”

“Peony, create a holographic model of the surrounding terrain, 300 kilometers in diameter.”

“Yes, sir.”

With a serious expression, Mudan brought over several disc-shaped instruments, made some minor adjustments, and mapped out the terrain over a distance of several hundred kilometers.

Fort No. 82 is embedded in the strata of the desert edge, and a large minefield is marked nearby;

There are some winding passages underground, most of which have been deliberately destroyed, which is proof that the Blade Beasts were once active in this area.

“When the opponent made their first attack, I could roughly sense that the psionic energy was coming from this direction.”

Wang Jixuan took a laser pointer and circled an area in the desert.

“At a distance of fifty to eighty kilometers from the fortress, this psionic energy is scattered, which means it has been amplified by instruments.”

“According to the information that Mo Feng revealed—or perhaps it was false information she deliberately threw out to mislead us—a spiritualist who can activate such a low-level Gu needs her to amplify it.”

“After the last attack, they quickly left the area.”

“This is all the information we currently have.”

“Everyone, please share your thoughts.”

Zheng Shiduo stroked his chin and muttered, “The military has already dispatched dozens of teams to explore and deploy detectors in this ring-shaped area. Moreover, we can’t mobilize too many humanoid mechs right now, and we also need humanoid mechs stationed in other areas to guard against attacks from the Blade Beasts.”

Ling Tong simply said, “I can equip the Blade Type III armor later to fight against psionicists.”

Peony cautioned, “This Mo Feng is capable of flight. When they launch another attack, it will most likely be from an altitude of several thousand to ten thousand meters. Furthermore, we know nothing about her team members.”

“Um, um…”

Tree-man Beta said weakly:

“Her team usually consists of six people. According to the Destruction Squad’s standards, they are at least B+ level, and there should be two or three A-level members, all of whom are the most offensive type. This is completely different from our investigation team.”

“If you want to deal with her, you also have to be wary of her squad.”

Wang Jixuan nodded: “Thank you for the reminder. It’s alright. As long as we can find them and lure them into an area, her team members will be no threat.”

Ling Tong asked, “Should we use high-intensity bombing? They will definitely be on guard.”

“no.”

Wang Jixuan simply said:

“My current idea is to set up a trap to lure her in, and keep the other humanoid mechs as far away from that area as possible to give them a sense of security.”

“Mo Feng is a bit arrogant, we can take advantage of that.”

Beta asked in a low voice, “Didn’t we say we’d wait for our captain to give us the information?”

That’s not really important.

“Even if she locks onto Mo Feng, Mo Feng might not necessarily land on the ground. The area for aerial combat is too large, and we won’t be able to make our move.”

Wang Jixuan said with a smile:

“My elders taught me a little trick.”

“When I find a rare treasure at a stall, and the stall owner doesn’t notice it, I try to act naturally, buy other things from his stall, and casually bring this treasure back as a bonus.”

“Actually, it’s about finding this extra bonus.”

Wang Jixuan raised an eyebrow as he spoke.

Tree-man Beta’s Adam’s apple bobbed: “Um, if there’s nothing else, I’ll go first…”

“Don’t worry, I won’t detain you.”

Wang Jixuan turned his head and said:

“Ling Tong, is there any peach wood in Fortress 82? The older the better. If not, collect it from various places as quickly as possible and secretly send it here.”

“Peach wood? Peach tree?”

Ling Tong retrieved several pictures from the database and showed them to Wang Jixuan.

“This is it.”

“I’ll have them go find it right away.”

Wang Jixuan looked at Mudan: “Prepare three simple processing tables. We’ll be processing this peach wood later.”

“Yes, sir.”

Zheng Shiduo asked, “Brother, what am I doing?”

“Prepare some nutritious food for Beta; he might be a bit tired later.”

Tree-man Beta twitched his nose, looking like he was about to cry.

Although he was an A-level, he felt absolutely no sense of security in front of these guys!

Wang Jixuan was indeed not good at commanding battles. He wanted to say a few words of encouragement to the team, but what came out of his mouth was:

“Let’s leave it at that for now.”

“In short, our next strategy is to set up bait and traps to lure Mo Feng into them. In order to increase the probability of the fish taking the bait and to reduce the risk of exposure, we should try to complete this battle with just a few of us.”

“I’ll take care of the traps.”

Ling Tong said with some concern, “Isn’t this too risky?”

“It’s not really a risk,” Wang Jixuan whispered. “I’ll explain the details to you privately later; I can’t say it now.”

She nodded slightly, her fair swan neck and the collarbone faintly visible beneath her collar creating a breathtakingly beautiful sight.

“Let’s discuss the first item: create a bait.”

…

The temporary supply station quickly became lively, but the black instructor had disappeared.

Wang Jixuan vaguely felt that this second-generation half-human mecha was intentionally avoiding being with a group of juniors, which would diminish its own sense of authority.

The latest novels are first published on 69shuba!

Grandpa Hei does seem to care a lot about these things.

Because Beta the Tree Man was present, Wang Jixuan did not formulate specific tactics in front of him, nor could he reveal any information related to the formation.

The only thing Beta needs to do is to take root in the desert, unleash his abilities, and transform into a ‘human tree,’ sprouting branches from his arms, back, and head. Then, he can graft peach wood onto these branches to cultivate spirit wood in large quantities!

Ling Tong found a fifty-year-old peach tree in Fortress No. 82 and cut off all the peach branches;

Zheng Shiduo brought over a bunch of nutrient solutions (legitimate ones) and provided nutrition for the tree-man Beta from the side;

Wang Jixuan secretly placed a spirit-releasing array in a box in the corner to increase the concentration of spiritual energy around the treant Beta, and also to observe the ‘passive interaction’ between the psychic and the spiritual energy.

They cannot actively absorb spiritual energy, but spiritual energy can slowly replenish their spiritual power, which is quite good.

In other words, if psychics live long enough, they may find a way to absorb spiritual energy themselves.

‘That’s something we have to be wary of. Although Old Man Black said that psionicists haven’t achieved that yet, the Psionic Capital might already possess the technology.’

Soon, Wang Jixuan witnessed firsthand how high-quality peach wood, comparable to a hundred-year-old beginner-level spiritual root, grew on Beta at a visible speed.

this?!

This was the first time that Master Wang felt moved by the word “spiritual energy”.

So many materials for ritual implements!

He can take this opportunity to get a peach wood sword specifically for unleashing lightning magic!

Although the Thunder Magic Fighter would waste a lot of magic power because he currently has too little magic power in his body, it is not very practical at this stage;

But when it comes to magical artifacts and treasures, the more the better!

My darling, cough, my good boy!

The Taoist priest stared at the tree-man Beta with shining eyes, already considering forcibly keeping him there, but…

‘Aunt Dragonfly is someone I can befriend; there’s no need to completely offend her. This collaboration has been a good start, and we can continue to cooperate in the future.’

Wang Jixuan crossed his arms and watched as the peach branches grew to the thickness of an infant’s arm, reaching the limit that the Tree Man Beta could unleash, before he began to harvest them.

The foundation materials are here!

“We’re still short a lot, keep pushing! Can you handle it, Beta?”

“Of course,” Beta the Tree Man smiled smugly, “I can activate it twenty times in a row!”

He really loved this long-lost feeling of being needed.

Wang Jixuan said seriously, “You still need to pay attention to rest. You should only do it 20 times in 6 hours. Don’t exhaust yourself.”

“Don’t worry, sir! Beta guarantees the mission will be accomplished!”

‘What a kind tree.’

Wang Jixuan was quite moved and sighed, then turned and went to the supply vehicle to get some talisman water to relieve the guy’s pain from the bark growth.

The scene changes.

Six hours later.

Exhausted and unconscious, Beta the Tree Man put on earplugs, lay down in the back seat of the SUV, and slept soundly with a confident smile on his lips.

This guy is definitely exhausted.

Four sewing machine-shaped workbenches were set up inside the supply station, and the four people sat down in turn.

Wang Jixuan took out a few simple drawings and assigned Ling Tong, Zheng Shiduo, and Mudan to each be responsible for a part of the ‘assembly line’, and they began to process bundles of high-quality peach wood.

Wang Jixuan kept the dozen or so pieces of the best quality peach wood for later use in making artifacts.

Over the past six hours, Wang Jixuan had been busy. He improved the array base, devised a simplified diagram of the thunder array, and came up with a trapping array to complement the killing array—the Bewildering Yellow Sand Array.

Mo Feng can fly and disappear into the ground; if her attack misses, she can simply escape.

Then let’s just create a trap formation to increase our margin for error!

The Misty Sand Formation only requires five basic formation bases and six ‘extended’ formation bases to achieve its full potential in a desert environment.

The Thunder Lord Demon-Slaying Array requires at least thirty-six basic array bases. The more ‘expanded’ array bases the better, and it can be expanded to a maximum of three hundred and sixty cycles, unaffected by any weather conditions.

In addition, Wang Jixuan took advantage of these six hours to replenish his talisman inventory and prepared dozens of pure crystal cores for Ling Tong.

“Let’s begin,” Wang Jixuan said in a deep voice.

With a stern face, Zheng Shiduo picked up a piece of peach wood, cut it into 20-centimeter-long pieces with a cutting machine, quickly peeled it with a knife, and handed it to Ling Tong beside him.

Ling Tong’s robotic arm was equipped with a carving knife. Following the pre-set program, it cut the wooden block into semi-circles and semi-squares to create a mortise and tenon structure, which was then handed over to Mudan.

Peony held a special demon-slaying dagger inlaid with a crystal core. She rapidly carved intricate patterns on the wooden blocks. As a mechanical being, her hands did not tremble and her precision was extremely high, so the patterns she carved were flawless.

Wang Jixuan proceeded to the final stage – building with blocks.

Soon, a cylindrical array base with a hollow structure appeared in Wang Jixuan’s hand, only forty centimeters high.

Wang Jixuan took a deep breath and exhaled a burst of vital energy towards the array base, and the various restrictions on the array base were quickly illuminated.

He took out two crystal cores and carefully embedded them into the array plate inside. A shallow ripple appeared on the array base, which then returned to calm, just like an ordinary wooden stake.

Mission accomplished!

Wang Jixuan looked up at his three teammates beside him: “Keep going, we need to make at least seventy-two more.”

Zheng Shiduo asked curiously, “Is this a psionic bomb?”

“No, you’ll find out soon enough.”

Wang Jixuan glanced at the three hundred crystal cores in the box beside him, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.

Killing Mo Feng is unlikely to yield any substantial results.

But if I don’t kill Mo Feng, my Dao heart will be truly uneasy!

Since the military is still hesitant to go to war with the psionicists, let’s give them a push!

‘We also need to prepare two array eyes; the crystal cores of these general-level blade beasts will come in handy.’

The temporary supply station is not far away.

On a sand dune, the black instructor sat in a flying vehicle, looking at Wang Jixuan and the others on the screen, and couldn’t help but tilt his head.

“Did this guy somehow obtain the inheritance of an entire civilization?”

The black-clad instructor scratched his head, still somewhat conflicted.

His dilemma was that the battle plan submitted by Ling Tong was too risky, as Wang Zheng, their most valuable “resource,” was to be used as bait.

However, the black instructor was prepared. He turned his head to look at the second alloy box with an X symbol next to him and sighed softly.

“I’ll have to break this principle a little.”

The black instructor pulled at his fingers, and a projection screen appeared in front of him that only he could see. He made some minor modifications to the battle plan submitted by Ling Tong and clicked “agree”.

“Comrade Zheng Shiduo has made outstanding contributions, remaining steadfast in his stance despite numerous trials, upholding military principles, and making significant contributions to humanity’s fight against the Blade Beasts. Therefore, the X-Armor is hereby approved for temporary deployment on Zheng Shiduo to complete this operational plan.”

About two hours later.

In the stratosphere, inside the cabin of a stealth aircraft, Mo Feng, who was applying a face mask, was suddenly startled by the cheers of her teammates.

“Captain! They’ve agreed to the terms! Hand over Feng Bangjie and the special task force members first!”