With the army charging at full speed and pursuers closing in from behind, changing formation again wasn’t impossible—but doing so would plunge everything into chaos. They were already at an overwhelming numerical disadvantage. If disorder set in now, how could they possibly withstand the mountain leopard pack’s assault?
A chill crept into Jin Yang’s heart.
For the first time, regret surfaced.
Why had she listened to that human?
If they had remained in the circular formation, they could at least have held out longer. They wouldn’t have fallen into such a desperate predicament. But now, there was no undoing it. Her personal strength alone could not change the situation.
She was Eighth-Rank—close to Ninth-Rank. If she chose to leave, she could break out on her own. No mountain leopard here could stop her.
But could she leave?
The five hundred Capricorn warriors behind her were her direct line, her personal guard. If she abandoned them and fled alone, she would no longer be worthy of leading the Capricorn clan.
If death was inevitable, then so be it.
She would die in battle.
As that resolve crystallized, the long golden horns on Jin Yang’s head finally blazed with light. She lifted her spear, golden radiance surging along its length.
Even if she died, she would drag those three Leopard Shamans down with her!
“Calm down!”
Fa Hua’s voice rang out in her mind.
In the very next instant, the world seemed to lurch violently. Everything spun, twisted, and then snapped into a completely different state.
She thought she heard a muffled grunt from Fa Hua through their mental link. Immediately afterward, a deafening command thundered through the minds of every Capricorn warrior—including her own:
“Launch the attack!”
Yes.
In that instant, everything changed.
The triangular formation that had been charging straight toward the three Leopard Shamans underwent a dramatic reversal. It was as if the triangle itself had flipped over on the ground. The spear tip—Jin Yang—suddenly became the rear, and the entire formation inverted.
The original triangle vanished.
A reversed triangle took its place.
It defied all conventional logic of battlefield maneuvering.
For a brief moment, even the three Leopard Shamans stared in stunned disbelief.
The poisonous rain fell, splattering harmlessly onto empty ground.
Before their eyes, the Capricorn clan’s formation was already surging in the opposite direction—straight toward the lake—while a massive number of pursuing mountain leopards had gathered tightly behind them.
Pfft!
The spearhead led by Jin Yang slammed into the mountain leopard pack like a hot knife through butter.
The reversal had been far too sudden. By the time the leopards realized something was wrong, Jin Yang was already among them—her speed completely unbroken.
With a single crushing impact, more than fifty mountain leopards were killed outright by the spearhead charge. Others rushed in from behind, only to be caught off guard and cut down in quick succession.
On both flanks, towering columns of water erupted from the ground, sweeping aside mountain leopards trying to close in. The path ahead was forcibly cleared, allowing the Capricorn warriors to charge forward at full speed.
Meanwhile, the three Leopard Shamans had just completed their spells, fully expecting to watch the Capricorn clan plunge headlong into their poisonous rain.
Instead, their magic struck nothing at all.
In such a short span of time, how could they possibly complete another large-scale spell?
Everything had happened too fast.
Fa Hua—the architect of it all—looked deathly pale.
The Divine Codex in his hands was open to the Sixth Page. On the front side was Clone; on the reverse side was Mass Mirror Image.
Without Lan Ge’s amplification, he could never have instantly reversed the positions of five hundred Capricorn warriors and completed a full mirror inversion. The expenditure was staggering. In that moment, Lan Ge had been forced to lend Fa Hua all of his Elemental Magic, leaving him unable to continue attacking.
But it had worked.
This was the art of command.
This was the terrifying strength of the Law Domain’s Kingdom of Order in large-scale warfare.
Under Fa Hua’s control, the five hundred Capricorn warriors were no longer individuals. They had become a single entity—entirely within his grasp.
By the time the three Leopard Shamans fully recovered and hastily recalled the poisonous rain, the Capricorn formation had already punched straight through the pursuing mountain leopards and reached the edge of the lake.
Jin Yang let out a thunderous roar.
“Mu Tong! Ha!”
Exhilaration surged through her. Her spear was drenched in mountain leopard blood. That single breakthrough charge had killed no fewer than three hundred of them. Combined with earlier losses, the mountain leopards’ casualties had already exceeded five hundred.
Kill one to break even. Kill two to profit.
Even if the Capricorn clan were wiped out, they had broken even.
Jin Yang had no idea how Fa Hua had done it. But her trust in him had risen to its absolute peak.
The formation shifted again.
The rear of the triangle folded inward, rapidly reshaping into a new spearhead. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a spindle-shaped formation.
And this time, the tip of that formation was no longer Jin Yang.
It was Fa Hua.
“Kill!” Fa Hua roared.
The Divine Codex flipped back to its front side. The Fourth Page opened—Holy Spirit Body!
Wisdom Shield in his left hand, Wisdom Sword in his right, Fa Hua surged forward with overwhelming momentum.
The rear became the front.
In barely ten seconds, the formation halted, reversed, and charged again.
The speed of these maneuvers was so extreme that the pursuing mountain leopards couldn’t react in time.
With Fa Hua’s current cultivation and mental strength, he could no longer perform another full mirror inversion. But the mountain leopard pack behind them was slower now, giving him ample room to adjust the formation and launch another decisive charge.
“Mu Tong! Ha!” Jin Yang roared from the rear.
The Capricorn warriors’ morale soared to its absolute peak.
“Mu Tong! Ha!”
Amid the unified battle cry, they charged once more—but this time not toward the Leopard Shamans.
Instead, they veered sharply and plunged into a narrow mountain ravine.
This ravine marked the lowest point of the basin. It was the ideal escape route—perfect for breaking encirclement while avoiding the Leopard Shamans’ large-scale spells.
In just a few short minutes, the mountain leopards had suffered devastating losses.
The three Leopard Shamans were both shocked and furious. Bloodthirst, frenzy, and every amplification curse at their disposal were unleashed at once. Vast numbers of mountain leopards converged from all directions.
Trying to run?
After taking such losses, how could the Capricorn clan be allowed to escape?
This ambush had been carefully planned to annihilate the entire Capricorn force. Otherwise, how could they endure the clan’s inevitable retaliation?
The Capricorn clan might not rank among the Eight Great Demon clans, but their status was exceptional. The Ancestral Court’s Law Enforcement Elder came from the Capricorn clan.
The Leopard Shamans had no intention of letting them leave the Tiansheng Mountain Range.
Mountain leopard packs surged in from every direction.
At the forefront, Fa Hua led the charge as the formation pressed onward.