Faced with Raymond Lei's renewed attempt to recruit him, Ian Song still smiled and declined, which left Raymond quite regretful.
Seeing that he couldn't recruit Ian, Raymond Lei stopped dwelling on it and brought up another matter: "By the way, I heard you created three battle formations. Can we promote them throughout the army?"
"Of course!"
As he spoke, Ian handed over the written descriptions of the three formations. With these, future battles against the Devil Race would see far fewer casualties, and those who survived thanks to the formations would naturally remember Ian as their creator.
His third mission was to unite the Human Race and become its leader, so building up his reputation was absolutely necessary. The more prestige he accumulated now, the greater his future advantage.
Raymond Lei, as the commander of a million troops, naturally had some expertise in formations himself.
After reviewing the three formations, he couldn't help but slap the table in praise. He then handed the formations to Fiona Li, instructing her to promote them throughout the patrol army right away.
"Little Huang, you really made a huge contribution this time. Tell me, what kind of reward do you want? As long as it's within my power, I won't refuse!" Raymond Lei said with a warm smile.
He wasn't lacking in techniques or martial skills, nor was he short on silver. As for weapons, he already had two ninth-grade spirit artifacts—definitely no shortage there.
As for military authority, he had just turned down Raymond Lei.
That left only beauties.
But this was the battlefield—where would he find beauties? Even if there were any, Ian wasn't desperate enough to want them right now.
So, he really didn't need anything.
So he said, "Every Devil I kill might mean one less human sacrificed. Killing Devils on the battlefield is my duty—so I don't need any reward!"
"Alright, since you say so, I won't reward you!" Raymond Lei said, a bit regretfully. He actually knew there was nothing he could truly offer Ian, but he added, "If you ever need anything, go straight to Fiona Li. If she can't handle it, come to me! Here, take this command token—with it, you can visit Commander Headquarters anytime!"
"Thank you, Commander!" Ian quickly put away the command token and expressed his gratitude.
As they left Commander Headquarters, Fiona Li said enviously, "The Commander thinks so highly of you—if you stayed here, your future would be limitless!"
Ian just smiled modestly, but inwardly thought, My journey is to the stars and seas—how could I ever settle for a single battlefield?
After saying goodbye to Fiona Li, Ian headed straight back to the large compound where his unit was stationed.
To his surprise, the soldiers hadn't gone out drinking or chasing women—they were all diligently training.
"Captain, you're back! How did it feel to be received by the Commander?"
Yoon Zhengyang nodded and asked, "Yeah, is the Commander fierce? Does he really radiate killing intent?"
As soon as Ian appeared, the group quickly crowded around him, all talking at once.
"Don't be ridiculous, the Commander is actually very easygoing—not fierce at all!" Ian glared at Yoon Zhengyang, but to satisfy everyone's curiosity, he gave a quick rundown of what happened, only sharing what was appropriate and keeping the rest to himself.
"Captain, how long are we staying in the city this time?" Liam Liang asked.
Ian thought for a moment and said, "Let's stay ten days. For the first three, you can play however you want. After that, we'll train formations three hours a day."
"Long live the Captain!"
"Long live the Captain!"
......
Hearing they could play freely for three days, the soldiers howled with joy, grouped up and headed for the tavern, planning to drink and then visit the brothel.
Actually, the brothel also serves food and drinks.
But the portions are smaller. These soldiers are used to guzzling wine and wolfing down meat, so they usually drink at the tavern until evening before heading to the brothel.
Lance Xuanyuan may be on the battlefield, but he has informants in Blood River City.
When he heard Ian was personally received by the Commander, he felt uncomfortable—even he hadn't been granted an audience yet, but that kid beat him to it. How infuriating.
During this period, Yoon Zhengyang and the other six have fully integrated into the veterans' circle.
So they also went out drinking, leaving Ian alone in the compound.
He still hadn't fully grasped the sword-dao notebook gifted by the Venerable Dragon Sword, so he planned to use the break to study it and further improve his swordsmanship.
For three days, the squad played so hard they forgot all about home.
But starting on the fourth day, they buckled down and began serious formation training. These battle arrays could save lives and earn battlefield merit—slacking off would be irresponsible.
Ian set the rule at three hours of training a day, but most of them practiced for five.
In the blink of an eye, ten days passed.
Inside the room.
Sitting cross-legged on his bed, Ian slowly opened his eyes. After ten days, his swordsmanship had improved further, but he still hadn't fully mastered it—he'd need more time.
That night.
With a thought, Ian vanished from his room and appeared on the Blood River battlefield, blinking twice more to arrive at the riverbank.
Just as he expected, the entire battlefield had been unusually quiet these ten days.
This made Lance Xuanyuan, who wanted to kill Devils and earn points, anxious. If not for the Blood River blocking him, he might have led his troops deep into Devil territory.
With a flicker, Ian disappeared again.
When he reappeared, he was already on the far side of the Blood River.
Activating his Clairvoyant Vision, Ian spotted two patrol squads.
Both patrol squads had doubled in size, and now their captains were Strongarm Bull Devil Grandmasters.
Clearly, his last assassination had made the Strongarm Bull Devil clan much more cautious.
With a thought, Ian appeared in the middle of a patrol squad.
He instantly activated his domain, enveloping all fifty-plus Strongarm Bull Devil patrol soldiers.
"Kill!"
He felt no sympathy for Devils who treated humans as food. Wielding Purple Thunder, he slaughtered all but one of the fifty-plus Devils in his domain within three breaths.
Following his usual method, he used Puppet Mastery Divine Art to enslave the last Devil, then interrogated him.
Warlord Brock's death alarmed the Strongarm Bull Devil high command.
This area was the domain of the Ninth Prince of the Strongarm Bull Devil royal clan.
The king of the Strongarm Bull Devils was King Magnus Ironhorn. He had more than twenty sons and seven or eight daughters.
Among them, the First, Third, Seventh, Ninth, Fourteenth, and Nineteenth Princes were the most favored—all Martial Saints with their own fiefs.
The Blood River region stretching one hundred thousand li back was Prince Darius Ironhorn's territory. He was a mid-stage Martial Saint, but his combat power rivaled late-stage Martial Saints.
His fief held over eighty million people and he commanded 1.5 million Strongarm Bull Devil soldiers.
His overall strength ranked second among the six princes with fiefs.
Warlord Brock, whom Ian assassinated, was once Prince Darius Ironhorn's personal guard. When word of the assassination reached him, the prince was furious. Three days later, he sent another personal guard, Sam, to replace Brock, and secretly dispatched two late-stage Great Grandmaster Devil experts to protect him.