Chapter 48: A breather

"I thought I was going to die for sure, phew"

"Who didn't?"

"Thank you, fellow Daoist"

All the cultivators looked at him with thankful eyes.

Gu Qing Shan sincerely clasped his fist: "My strength is meager, only my formation skills are a little bit of use, so later in battle, please spare a thought for me"

He has already confirmed, all of them are Foundation Establishment realm.

Amidst a sea of demons, to cooperate with a group of cultivators stronger than himself, Gu Qing Shan is basically walking on thin ice.

The cruelty of man, he has already experienced many times.

Gu Qing Shan's words seems very sincere, making the cultivators hold a better impression of him.

One of them said: "No worries, we all followed General Sun Zhi here, all we need to do is defend and soon the General will come to aid us"

Another said sorrowfully: "We were careless to be discovered by the demons suddenly appeared, otherwise we wouldn't be in this situation"

Gu Qing Shan silently sighed, but didn't say anything about it.

Everyone there started talking with Gu Qing Shan, as Gu Qing Shan was quite well-versed in this world's culture, he was able to keep a sense of harmony with everyone.

Normally, Foundation Establishment cultivators wouldn't even bother to look at qi training realms.

Gu Qing Shan was able to mingle with a bunch of Foundation Establishment cultivators like this is mostly because he just saved their life on the verge of death, as well as being thought of as a powerful formation user.

On the battlefield, formation users are both rare and highly welcomed.

Thanks to that, the group wouldn't consider Gu Qing Shan to be fodder and make him go in front of the group as a scout.

In any other place, at any other time, these cultivators could very easily kill him as they pleased.

As they all slowly recovered, the leader cultivator finally asked: "The formation is decent enough, so how long can it hold out for?"

As soon as he spoke up, the rest of them became silent.

It was only now that Gu Qing Shan had the chance to carefully evaluate him.

This person looks to be about 20 years old, his eyes are cold yet bright, on him was a light blue armor, his hands holding a long fan. The clothes seem to be extremely clean, he fought the demons for so long yet not even a speck of blood was seen on him.

Fire and Wind element users like to use fans as weapons, but Water-element users who uses fans are quite rare.

His light blue armor naturally creates a layer of frost around himself, forming a cold breeze in the air.

Quite a good frost armor, just this one armor probably costs a few hundred thousand low-tier Spirit Stones.

Such a person has to be a direct disciple of a large sect. (1)

Gu Qing Shan silently raised his opinion of this person and answered: "The formation can hold for about half an hour"

Everyone felt a bit relieved.

Half an hour is enough to recover quire a large chunk of spirit energy, it would also somewhat remedy their loss of stamina.

The leader person's face slightly relaxed and ordered: "Everyone recover your strength on the spot, we'll move in half an hour"

He tapped his Inventory Bag, taking out a few pills full of spirit energy and gave to everyone, including Gu Qing Shan.

When Gu Qing Shan received the pill, he smelled it a bit and was surprised.

"Such a good pill, it's a waste for a qi training realm to use" he said.

"It's fine, right now is a dire situation, just use it to recover your spirit energy" the other person answered.

"Then thank you" Gu Qing Shan nodded as he hears that and didn't hesitate.

This is a top-grade Crimson Crane Qi Holding Pill, the price for each must be thousands, no, up to ten thousand gold!

It's an incredibly valuable pill, not only could it quickly and stably recover spirit energy, it would also not have any side effects on the body, very highly praised by people in the cultivation world.

A single one of this pill is enough to be used as a life-saver in battle.

To be able to casually give one out to everyone here, means that this person is not only a person of great character, but also that he's from a higher upbringing.

He is only a few years older than Gu Qing Shan, but his tone of voice is already grown up and fluid, only that his eyes are a bit cold, his face shows a hint of purposeful detachment from everyone.

As he noticed Gu Qing Shan's eyes on him, he clasped his fist: "I am Leng Tian Xing, direct disciple of Yao Guang Sect, hereby thank you for your reinforcement"

Yao Guang Sect? (TN: lit. Origin Light Sect)

Just as I thought, Gu Qing Shan silently confirmed.

This is a large monster of a sect in the cultivation world, their tradition goes back a few hundred thousand years, one of the sects that everyone has heard about in the cultivation world.

However, such a brilliant person was never heard of, so he must've died in this place in the other life.

But not just him, even Gu Qing Shan couldn't guarantee his own survival in this desolate destroyed world.

Gu Qing Shan silently exhaled, then also clasped his fists: "I'm Gu Qing Shan"

Leng Tian Xing returned the gesture: "Nice to meet you"

Both of them are not people who would talk much, after their little chat, they returned to meditating and rest.

Very quickly, everyone closed their eyes and went into deep meditation.

Gu Qing Shan tapped his Inventory Bag, took out the military qi training method booklet and turned the pages.

On the War God UI, he glanced at the amount of Soul Points.

"To comprehend qi training 7th stage: Shen Tang breakthrough method, Soul Points cost: 6"

"Comprehend"

"Comprehension completed, Current Soul Points: 21/7"

After that, Gu Qing Shan swallowed the valuable Crimson Crane Qi Holding Pill, together with 3 mouthfuls of demon snake blood.

Right now if he doesn't take the chance to break through, it is very possible for him to just die on the spot, so he has to at least attempt it.

Taking advantage of the Crimson Crane Qi Holding Pill's powerful effects and the enhanced senses from the demon snake blood, Gu Qing Shan just might be able to break through stage 7 right now.

Time quickly passed.

Inside the formation, a tiny wave of spirit energy slowly ripples, like throwing a stone into the calm water.

Gu Qing Shan used Soul Points to breakthrough, so he immediately recovered his spirit energy to full.

This little bit of inconsequential change also affected the environment a bit.

Feeling the essence of the world around them changed, everyone opened their eyes in surprise.

Leng Tian Xing's face slightly relaxes a bit, saying: "Congratulations friend, seems like you've benefited"

Gu Qing Shan wryly smiled and shook his head: "It's still only qi training stage 7, and I still have to thank your pill"

"No need to be reserved, our lives were saved by you after all"

"Don't mention it, don't mention it"

Everyone there congratulated him.

You could feel their spirit raised as they looked at each other in joy.

Every time a cultivator reached a new realm, the spirit essence of the world will wash through their bodies, recovering the spirit energy that they've used until the amount in their Dantian becomes full.

A pill's power is slow and steady, how would it even compare to a gift from the world?

Gu Qing Shan breaking through means that in just a few seconds, the spirit energy he used for formations has already fully recovered.

And since he broke through qi training stage 7, his total spirit energy should have also increased by 30%.

What does a formation user who have recovered to his peak condition mean?

It means that Gu Qing Shan could potentially use that formation he just used once again ———-possibly twice, because his total spirit energy was increased by a large margin.

All cultivators here understand very clearly just how good the formation was.

To be able to completely hide their presence among a sea of demons, it's completely a life-saver.

That way, everyone's chance of survival increased another bit.

Of course, they don't know that Gu Qing Shan doesn't actually know how to arrange formations.

"Since that's the case" Leng Tian Xing stood up "we can break through the encirclement to go towards the Northwest direction, there is a cave there where General Sun Zhi had arranged a base with a permanent Invisibility formation, it can provide a place for us to rest and fully recover"

"Good"

"Deputy Leng is the smartest of us all, I agree"

"Roger"

The rest of them replied.

Gu Qing Shan silently checked his map, seeing that the place where they wanted to go was the same as his, he was able to calm down.

Right now the demons have already scattered about, only a few demons that still couldn't settle down and are still fighting left

Leng Tian Xing started pointing to each person and gave them their missions: "Wu Jin, Ma Liu, you two are the vanguards, Wang Cheng, Luo Xiao, you two take care of the side"

He looked at Gu Qing Shan and asked: "You're the formation user, so you can stay at the middle and protect yourself, any problems?"

Gu Qing Shan didn't hesitate and answered: "No problems"

In the middle of a demon encirclement, it's dangerous no matter which direction it is, only the middle of the crowd will be the safest place.

Gu Qing Shan's formations are much stronger than they had thought, numerous demons still couldn't find their presence at all, so in a life-and-death situation, he could once again save all their lives.

The Sword cultivator called Wang Cheng suddenly asked: "What about you, Deputy Leng?"

Leng Tian Xing answered without changing his expression: "I'll be at the back, responsible for back guard"

The back is the most dangerous position in a retreat, yet Leng Tian Xing was willing to take it on himself.

This was a reason for everyone's admiration.

After Leng Tian Xing arranged the positions, he clasped his fist and looked around: "If we can get out of this dire situation, I will personally invite all the brothers here to join Yao Guang Sect, as our stewards"

Note:

(1) direct disciple: this is a special position, as being the direct disciple of a sect will always mean they're the direct disciple of the sect's Master, meaning he or she is the next sect Master-in-training.