Feicui Long finishes installing the formation here too, then looks at the sky and simply determines that it is time to set up camp. Although his wild wind mare is fast and has potential to reach the Astral King Realm, at this moment in Elemental Realm Grade 9, she can only reduce the time to cross the forest to 3.5 days. And for the first 5 formations that must go along the path dividing the forest, there has to be a distance of more or less a day between each, in summary it takes 12 hours to go to each place and it is already getting dark.
Feicui Long sets up the fragmented formation, then his tent, and then pulls out an artifact shaped like a pot and pours in water along with several ingredients like vegetables and meat, then he closes it and waits calmly.
Irina, who also finishes setting up her tent, looks at this, astonished and incredulous, and says: "Young master, why do you like to waste money on this kind of thing? You know refiners-smiths and the various forces would not like to waste energy materials to create an artifact that works like a pot just for cooking, much less give them to every soldier."
Feicui Long, amused, says: "I do it for three reasons, Irina. The first is simple: morale. If your troops always have to eat dry food or are forced to eat raw meat, morale will drop and believe me, you never want that to happen. Having decent food helps keep them happy and positive, something crucial for war."
Without either of them noticing, the shadow from earlier finally begins to move, emitting grotesque and guttural sounds as the day ends, still a few kilometers away from reaching them...
Irina, who had been a mercenary, replies: "That I understand, but even so I feel it's a huge waste of money just for that. Also, this and that water filter are grade 6 to 7 mortal quality artifacts. I can't imagine a grand refiner-smith, master of inscriptions, doing this willingly."
Feicui Long says: "Even if morale isn't enough for you, that's where the second and third reason come in. The second reason is loyalty. Rewarding and giving things to your soldiers, in addition to tools that improve their quality of life, will make them more loyal. In fact, on Earth there was once an empire nicknamed the eternal empire that had many rebellions during its time as a republic, and it's because the soldiers were paid a pittance. They were so poorly paid that the poor loyal soldiers ended up being paid mostly by their general. In the end this caused the soldiers to be loyal to the generals and not to the nation."
Irina raises an eyebrow as if she had heard something stupid and says: "But young master, your main troops have a pact, a contract with you that even uses one of the 4 most powerful seals of all linked to the Absolute Heaven. They cannot be freed except in one of three ways: you release them, they die, or they use a fragment of the Absolute Heaven law, something extremely expensive that I don't even think Supreme rank forces in this world can afford."
Feicui Long nods and says: "That's true, but I still want them to be loyal to me in their hearts. I want them to trust me. Now, moving on to the third reason, it's practicality. The pot and the filter prevent microorganisms from making the troops sick or harming them, and while it's true that cultivators are very unlikely to get sick like a mortal unless they are weakened, seriously injured, or the microorganism enters directly into the body, which even disappears completely as cultivation increases in the Spiritual Palace Realm..."
The strange shadow continues moving in the darkness at high speed, moving with those same crackling, grotesque, and guttural sounds, moving between the trees or jumping on them if necessary to avoid potential enemies. Little by little, its target is getting closer.
Feicui Long pauses for a moment to lift the lid and add salt and pepper, then continues: "Even so, it's better to prevent, especially because of the energy microorganisms, which can indeed make a cultivator sick. The pot, for its part, has a formation that uses the core of a flame wolf to produce internal heat, enough to kill energy microorganisms, while the filter has a kill-energy-microorganism formation."
Irina, a bit frustrated, says: "But didn't you give everyone 3 spatial canteens, each with a thousand liters? And aren't there energy microorganisms that can withstand that temperature?"
Feicui Long, understanding what she means, adds: "Yes, but that water won't last forever if it's a long campaign. How long will that water last them? They'll need to drink water and to do that they'll have to find a body of water, some with many disgusting things. As for the last point, yes, but those live in environments rich in fire energy, which aren't exactly common outside a volcano or a desert."
Feicui Long finishes his explanation and says: "Besides, that's not the only practical part... there's also hiding. To cook, you had to make a fire pit by digging underground, right? But even so it wasn't enough to avoid energy beasts. This pot not only heats without fire, it also has an encapsulation and concealment formation that prevents it from being detected when cooking. If you don't believe me, try to sense it."
The shadow can feel it. Its target is only a few hundred meters away. Its instinct tells it that... no... something else, something superior tells it that. It has to search the area to find it.
Irina lifts her other eyebrow and tries it, then she is left with her mouth open and says: "It's true! How the hell…"
Feicui Long only smiles and starts serving the food, but Irina then remembers something that happened that tragic day in that cursed contract… and she asks: "Young master, could someone detect the pot even with a concealment formation?"
Feicui Long pauses for a moment and replies: "Yes, even if they can't feel the energy running through it, but it's a very rare way and only a few beings are capable of using it, since it requires being extremely perceptive to the changes in the energy concentration of the surroundings, and if one is capable of doing that, forget about finding the pot, that being already knows you're there even without it."
Irina, a bit serious and sad: "But how is that possible?"
The shadow then notices it, a change so low that even she couldn't detect it makes her point in that direction, but that something else can, and with it finally sees them, but as a natural hunter the shadow… well, it wasn't even born at some point, it can't remember, it only knows that it must wait a little longer...
Feicui Long notices that it is probably related to a painful memory and says: "All existing beings, living or undead, absorb energy even without doing it actively, even mortals without cultivation. It's something natural that cannot be avoided, although of course it is very small in mortals, but the concealment formation of the pot is capable of making that impact even smaller than that of a mortal."
Irina then asks the last question of the night: "So how can you hide from a being like that?"
Feicui Long sighs and says: "If you use an external dimension or if you have abilities like merging into shadows or earth swimming that let you fuse with those elements. Other than that, it's only running away or placing yourself in a place it can't reach or directly facing it."
Feicui Long and Irina go to sleep in their tents calmly, although Irina for her part remains sad, immersed in her memories, but both notice something, a shadow moving side to side, with a pair of yellow eyes shining in the darkness of the night…
…
The next day Feicui Long wakes up and notices something strange at the edge of the formation. There are deep claw marks all over the place and inside the formation a few severed claws can barely be recognized as claws.
It seems that an energy beast has tried to enter and has lost its claw due to the attack formation, but something makes him frown. In one of his lives he has been a hunter, he hasn't been very powerful, but he has encountered multiple species of beasts and has learned to follow tracks and signs, even footprints, in addition to identifying them, but right now he can't tell what kind of beast these claws belong to...
Irina, who has just gotten up, asks him: "Is something wrong, young master?"
Feicui Long shakes his head and quickly packs up the camp, because they have to continue on their way, so when Irina is ready, they quickly mount the wild wind mare.
Without noticing the shadow that has been following them since yesterday and much more now that there are two of them, each one emitting those horrible sounds to the ear, but for some reason different from each other…
Feicui Long uses the light steps spell on his mare to reach two of the places on the path to set up the formations. In the process not much really happens, his work is unexpectedly calm, maybe too calm… but even so just some other beast trying to test its luck, but nothing more.
Feicui Long sets up camp again and just in case pulls out his watcher golems. These little ones barely take up any space of his current golem limit. He would need about 100 or 200 to take up a single slot. Besides that, now he doesn't only use earth ones, but also some made of rock and wood. Also, all of them are enhanced with eyes from energy beasts and monsters with the ability to see at night. They are an extra layer of security.
While Feicui Long and Irina sleep, the two shadows surround the formation. One of the shadows clearly lacks something… in its front part a limb is missing, but even with all that, it's as if it isn't capable of feeling any pain at all. Even so, the shadow knows the formation will kill it…
So the two shadows retreat momentarily, only to return a few minutes later with several energy beasts in the Elemental Realm chasing them. Then the shadows climb the trees and seem to vanish in the darkness…
The small group of energy beasts doesn't notice the danger and crashes head-on into the formation, activating it completely, and even though there are several of them, the formation annihilates them all. After all, this fragmented formation has been improved with Feicui Long's cultivation increase and now can deal with Ascended Realms.
…
Feicui Long gets up the next morning and finds Irina contemplating a horrifying scene: about 20 to 30 beasts lie dead at the edge of the formation. Feicui Long frowns even more, especially because although Irina hasn't noticed, the beasts bear wound marks from claws of the same type as yesterday.
Feicui Long quickly checks the watcher golems and all are intact. As for what happened yesterday, he sees it all, but he cannot see who brought the energy beasts… it's something super strange.
Even so, he doesn't let himself get distracted. That same day Feicui Long sets the last formation on the path at the entrance of the Leechwald Forest on the side facing the barony, and then heads to place the first one in the northeast sector...
Before, when he came here, no shadow followed them, but as soon as he moves away from the entrance three shadows follow them again, each making those sounds, but this time the differences between each sound among the shadows are much more noticeable...
That night, after establishing the sixth formation out of nine and setting up his camp, as well as deploying the watcher golems, Feicui Long uses summoning for the first time not to create contracts but to use his skill, and with it he summons a floating watcher. It is a small being similar to an octopus with a single eye, but its eye is capable of detecting special beings that hide through invisibility or the use of elements.
But to Feicui Long's surprise absolutely nothing happens. It is almost as if the beast or thing that has been attacking his camp becomes aware of the small and insignificant watcher's capabilities...
Even so, when Feicui Long wakes up he sees the forest full of claw marks that clearly weren't there before...
Feicui Long and Irina continue on their path, six shadows crawling over the snowy forest ground stay right on their heels...
…
The two days before, Feicui Long has already noticed the pattern. Something is clearly following them and he is growing angry, especially since Feicui Long summons three more floating watchers to monitor the camp. The forest around their camp seems like it has been through a hurricane, fallen trees, dead and mutilated beasts leaking a black and putrid blood.
Now only three of the nine formations remain to be placed… but he feels they will attack soon. His instincts tell him so. The problem is… the last location is a bit far and a little hard to access, as it lies on a hill covered in small rocky ravines. There's no way to reach it by day unless they stop halfway and rest or barely arrive to set up the fragmented protection formation. Even so, he doesn't feel very safe, not even fighting in daylight.
Because whatever it is that is chasing them is not only growing more impatient but also more arrogant in making these displays of power. Irina for her part has already noticed what has been going on ever since what happened after placing the sixth formation, and for some reason she feels a bit nervous.
But he doesn't care. Whatever it may be, if it gets in his way and his goals, he will eliminate it, be it an energy beast, monster, demon or divine being, no one will stop him from achieving what he desires. Absolutely no one.
Feicui Long mounts his mare along with Irina and sets off, being followed by ten shadows with yellow eyes and irises red like blood…