The man continued his report: "It's that new guy who arrived at the village this morning. I think he came from the same place as that girl. He tied her up in ropes and dragged her away from the village."

Mao Quanzhou frowned as he commented on the news: "Strange. With what's going on, the villagers should have stopped him from taking her away."

The man described what he saw: "Yes. That's what actually happened, vice-leader. The villagers caused a huge ruckus to stop him, but once he flaunted out a token, they became silent and let him do as he wants."

Mao Quanzhou: "I see. That explains it. He must come from some big sect in the city or kingdom neighboring the Warland Thicket. When the villagers know where he's from, they must be afraid and choose to let her go, instead of offending the sect. That girl should come from the same place. It's no wonder why she's so capable giving her young age. Did you send someone to follow them?"

The man nodded: "Yes. But after half an hour, we lost sight of them. They were too fast. Should we send another squad to follow them?"

Mao Quanzhou: "No. They'll be long gone before we can catch them. What about Xiong Fan and his squad? Are they back yet?"

The man answered: "No. I've not seen them since last night."

Jiu Hao: "What are they doing?!" He was enraged, but for a different reason, he should be infuriated. He thought that they must be having some fun and angered them for not inviting him.

Mao Quanzhou waved his hand, ignoring his leader's stupidity, and ordered the man: "Never mind, we'll raid the village without them. Without that girl interfering, they have no hope of fighting us in the first place. Tell everyone to prepare for the raid!!"

The man firmly took the order: "Yes, vice-leader!!" He quickly left the room to carry out his task.

Completely ignored, Jiu Hao dumbly stood there.

Mao Quanzhou walked to the door's exit and turned to Jiu Hao: "What are you doing?! It's your time to lead our men to battle!!"

The fire was re-lit in his eyes as Jiu Hao rushed out of the room and roared: "You despicable sons of vulture, RISE!! Today, we will drink some ravens' blood!!" Following that, he charged out of the camp all by himself.

The rest of the bandits who were still preparing themselves under the vice-leader's order did not know what to do, so they turned their eyes to Mao Quanzhou only to see their vice-leader face-palmed himself as he shook his head.

Currently, all villagers were preparing for the second step of the plan: Formation.

Formation was a method cultivators used for various purposes.

Depending on each formation, one could do many things such as increasing one's own strength, barring enemies from entering the area, improving the possibility of making pills or reinforcing weapons, and many others.

To create a formation, one could simply use Theríon to draw a magic circle of that formation. So, as long as you knew how to draw a formation and had Theríon, in other words, were cultivators, you could create a formation anywhere you like.

Formation's power depended on how much Theríon was poured into the formation. That was why a formation made by the stronger cultivators could exude more power.

Nevertheless, formations could also be empowered by any source of energy. The simplest source of energy was the monster core. By adding a monster core as the formation's catalyst, you could increase the effect of the formation.

With how convenient things became after using the formation, many wished to learn as many formations as they could, but it was easier said than done.

The most basic level of formation might be simple enough for anyone to learn. However, the more complex and advanced the formation was, the higher concentration, accuracy, and mental toughness it required.

Even so, learning was always easier than creating something from nothing, as researching new formations was the hardest part about the formation.

Luckily, Feng Luotian learned plenty of formations during his past life. And in the meeting earlier, Feng Luotian explained how the formation worked and taught some of the most basic examples for the villagers to learn.

The second part of the plan was [Theríon Augmentation Formation].

This formation had two types of magic circles.

One was the ground mark, and another was the body mark.

To create this formation, the villagers were required to draw the ground marks on the ground and form its area of effect. And each ground mark could not be more than ten meters apart.

However, to receive its effect, they needed to draw the body mark on their bodies.

Once they had the body mark, anyone who stood within the formation's AOE would have their Theríon strengthened and have the power to contend against stronger cultivators, albeit not cross-level.

But Feng Luotian did not stop with just that. He suggested the villagers imbue the formation with monster cores that were Four Fangs or higher, making anyone in the formation able to fight cultivators with one level higher.

However, this was limited to those under Four Fangs. Someone like Wu Neng or stronger cultivators in the village would only receive small benefits from the formation.

Fortunately, the village was small and only forty-some of those ground marks were needed, so the village only spent forty-some of such monster cores for this formation. As for the rest of the monster cores, Feng Luotian had another plan for them.

Of course, they could not let those bandits know what they were doing. They acted as if they were on their usual chores, watching clothes and cooking, but once they were inside their hut, they began to carry out the plan.

All of these were instructions provided by Feng Luotian.

When others were preparing the [Theríon Augmentation Formation], two kids, Wu Xin and another girl whose face looked just like Wu Ya were playing at the village's entrance while drawing something to the ground.

When the villagers finished preparing themselves, the Vulture Bandit Troupe arrived in front of the village.

With exceptions of the leader, vice-leader, and other Five Fangs or higher bandits, the rest followed behind in panting breaths. They could finally catch up to their dumb leader.

Jiu Hao: "Hand over the item, or else you'll all die today!!" Not wasting any more words, he got straight to what he had in mind.

All villagers were hiding inside their huts and no one answered. Only a sound of wind breezing was heard after Jiu Hao's scream.

Jiu Hao shouted again: "Come out here and hand me the item!!"

Nothing happened.

It was like he was talking to a forsaken village.

Mao Quanzhou talked to the man who was assigned to be a lookout over the village: "Have they all left?"

The lookout answered: "No, vice-leader. They're all in their huts."

Mao Quanzhou furrowed his brows: "What were they doing before we arrived?"

The lookout reported: "Nothing, vice-leader. They were only doing their usuals."

Mao Quanzhou: "Are you sure?"

The lookout confirmed: "Yes, vice-leader. I'm sure."

Mao Quanzhou gave an order: "Okay. Fourth and Fifth squad, go get the item. Kill anyone who's in your way. As for you, Jiu Hao, stay put!!" Someone who did not know them would definitely think that he was the one in charge, not the Eight Fangs Fighter who was obediently waiting as ordered.

"Yes, vice-leader!!" The assigned squads nodded and charged into the village.

This situation was somehow quite bizarre, so Mao Quanzhou was using their two weakest squads to probe the village whether the villagers were all scared and did not dare to come out, or …