Dropped right into the center of the enemy camp, this plan always started with them being completely surrounded. They had to attack with a reasonably small force to start with or there’s no way the enemy wouldn’t see them coming from afar. The other Airships were already moving in to support them, but there was going to be a period of time where they were completely on their own in enemy territory.

The commander of this group, a small woman, smiled brightly and didn’t have to even give a command. As soon as her energy flared up the others in her group immediately responded, changing their positions and linking their Qi to create a battle formation. Just like the Million Scale Shell the Dragoons used, or the Shifting Swarm that those experts from the Inner World used to save Sage all those years ago, this group of elites had a Battle Formation they’d become experts at. Given how many people were involved, a record of that battle had been left behind on the Inner World and one of Sage’s descendants had studied it.

The power of the Shifting Swarm Formation was very impressive, but it was also rife with weaknesses. Somewhere along the way one of the early researchers of the clan had created a new Battle Formation to make up for the problems. The name they chose was exceedingly simple, ‘Shifting Scales’, as it was mainly a combination of the Shifting Swarm and Million Scale Shell. The Shifting Swarm allowed those involved in the Battle Formation to pool their energy and instantly send it to one person in the group. Whoever the best person to defend against an attack was could use the pooled strength of everyone in the team. Whoever had the best position to attack could then strike with the full force of all their allies. Yet, as powerful as this was, it required deep discipline to trust your allies to protect you while your Qi was being gifted to another. It also took careful training to build a deep level of cooperation so they could all send their Qi to the same person in unison.

Without many years of focused training, the Shifting Swarm was useless, and even with all that training it was quite dangerous. To make up for its shortcomings, they incorporated the defensive barrier and compartmentalized nature of the Million Scale Swarm. This Battle Formation was used by the Dragoons to create giant shield-like scales that could overlap with each other and build a large defensive barrier. The advantages of it were its equal effectiveness against all types of attacks and that if one scale was destroyed the whole barrier didn’t fall. The person forming the scale could just be swapped out for another one and a new scale formed. It was a bit unusual because it didn’t combine all the participants' Qi into a single powerful shield like most barriers which meant it couldn’t resist powerful attacks as well, but it was still able to create an airtight barrier when all the scales were intact. It also distributed the force of attacks over a large number of scales, just at a smaller ratio.

If someone was trying to overpower a defensive barrier they usually would have to completely deplete the ‘hit points’ of the whole forcefield to knock it down. The Million Scale Shell on the other hand was more like many small shields. An attack upon one of them would have ninety percent of its damage redistributed to the shields nearby, and take the remainder of the damage itself. If that ten percent was enough to defeat a single shield that individual scale would shatter while leaving the rest of the barriers intact.

Rather than the full Qi production of every participant, the Shifting Scales was a controlled contribution. Those involved could devote as much or as little energy as they wished. This Battle Formation required a clear leader and that leader could choose when to ‘shift’ which was the moment when those involved could infuse Qi into the formation. This input of energy was then redistributed by the leader to either defense or offense. For defense, the Qi was equally spread to the participants, creating a barrier around their body in the shape of a triangular prism. These defensive barriers could combine with five others to create a singular hexagonal prism shaped barrier with a single health pool, but also similarly to the Million Scale Shell as these hex shaped ‘columns’ could link up with each other to distribute damage. The leader also had the option of using the ‘shifted’ energy offensively by distributing some of it to a single member of the formation.

The Shifting Scales Formation traded efficiency for versatility. Those involved in it didn’t become completely defenseless in order to empower their companions, but there was still the option of using the same tactics as the Shifting Swarm if needed. It was much more forgiving and could be used by any team, but still had the room for true experts to become very powerful with its assistance.

It was especially powerful when in the hands of this specific elite unit. The commander, that small woman, didn’t have to say anything for her team to group into six-person squads. She raised her hand and energy fluctuated around them. The Formation Armor they wore took care of the heavy lifting to create the Battle Formation. Each of them had also trained extensively to create it without the help of the armor in case it was destroyed, but relying on the armor was much less mentally taxing. The armor covered their torsos and the lower half of their limbs, but most of them wore clothing underneath it, but there were a few with exposed parts of their thighs and upper arms. For these few a sudden change became far more obvious when thick blue veins formed all over their bodies. These veins were apparent on all of their heads and necks, it was simply more prominent on those with more exposed skin.

This team followed in the path of Jiao, each and every one of them forgoing the usual poison resistance of those in the Lang Clan to instead voluntarily dope themselves. It was a rarely used technique of the Zhu Clan that Jiao was from, mainly consisting of a special poison that pushed the body past its limits which was delivered through a tiny breed of spiders. This poison could temporarily give them great power, but it also caused a long period of weakness afterwards as the user had to first detox and then recover from all the damage it caused to their bodies. In the Lang Clan it gained new life as their Mantis bodies could greatly mitigate the downsides. To use it, they had to choose not to circulate their Poison Meridians on purpose. As soon as they didn’t need the boost any longer they could just relax and let the Poison Meridians act on their own to remove all the poison affecting their bodies. Removing the poison so quickly reduced the after effects they would suffer and also recycled the poison to be used again later. Additionally, their bodies also healed faster than a human’s did because of their stronger beast physique and the self healing powers that had come from that humble little Fat Grass Worm.

The whole team of ninety six were suddenly sheathed in a glowing energy barrier with large blue veins standing up on their skin. Their tactics were similar to those Jiao displayed earlier, except they worked as a team. With the overwhelming might of their physical bodies they could afford to infuse a large portion of their Qi into the group and still be able to fight with high strength.

Compared to the other bases, these poor members of the Yi Yang Group were destroyed completely in just a few minutes. The formations of mind controlled guards could only survive a couple strikes against their shields before the teams of six violently tore them away and then used their bare hands to rip their bodies apart. Each of these bases had only ten to twenty Core Formation Cultivators defending them, so when these ninety six working in unison showed up, the defenders were helpless to resist them. What was worse was that the leader’s team of six didn’t even act. Merely remaining near the center of the battlefield and watching emotionlessly.

It was only near the end of the battle when she finally made a move. She raised her hand and released a special flicker of energy. When she did, the whole team sent a wave of Qi into their Formation Armor and the leader used it to empower the barriers around them. Just as she did, phantasmal swords fell from the sky like rain. These glowing energy weapons spun and danced as they fell chopping and stabbing at the barriers around their team. The attacks persisted for less than a minute before the spectral swords faded away, but the barriers around the team held.

When the attack faded, the leader’s squad shot forward at lightning speed, smashing through the wall of one of the buildings and snatching a group of the Yi Yang Group’s leaders. They’d made a last ditch attempt to activate a powerful offense Formation Array, but they only ended up giving away their own positions without any result.