The battles continued, and eventually, Yasenia fought all seven enemy temples. When she fought the Large Temples, Yasenia needed to use her [Tyrant Warlord Intent Domain] to win comfortably. However, when she fought against the medium and small temples, the dragoness didn't step forward herself.
Ultimately, she fought in seven battles, personally participating in four and winning all of them.
"The fourth trial has ended. You will be rewarded according to your final position."
"First place: Yasenia Dravory, 17 points. Reward: the first three levels of the [Immortal Big Dipper Battle Formation]. One [Focus of The Seven Colors Pill]."
"Second Place: Guo Yantao, 10 points. Reward: the first two levels of the [Immortal Big Dipper Battle Formation]. One [Focus of the Six Colors Pill]."
"Third Place: Tang Zhihui, 8 points. Reward: the first two levels of the [Immortal Big Dipper Battle Formation]. One [Focus of the Five Colors Pill]."
…
From there, the rest received the first level, with one less colored pill per position, and one colored pill being the minimum.
"What is that pill?" Yasenia was curious. She had not expected to receive such a reward. Thankfully, when the pill bottle appeared together with the first three scrolls for the battle formation, there was a paper with the effects written on it.
"[Focus of the Seven Colors Pill] is a One-Star Supreme Rank pill with the effect of increasing focus for 1 hour. It also gives a great amount of energy, helping with cultivation…" Yasenia read those words and was slightly confused. 'It does sound good. Moreover, it is a Supreme Rank pill. So, the effects can't be mediocre.'
She kept the pill bottle in her ring and then looked at the three scrolls for the Battle Formation. Each one had the instructions on how to build one layer of the Battle Formation. Meaning, Yasenia could create groups of 343 people now.
"Other than that… The skills I can use are [Big Dipper Onslaught] and [Big Dipper Cradle]. They appear to be the basic defensive and offensive skills."
With that in mind, Yasenia quickly began studying them. As she expected, the voice reached them right after she started.
"You have one week to study your scrolls. After that, the Trial of the Fractured Terrain will begin. During the Fifth Trial, you and your army will be thrown into a place with complicated terrain. Your objective is to gather as many [Fracture Pages] as possible. For each 100 fracture pages, you will receive a part of the next volume of the [Immortal Big Dipper Battle Formation]. The person with the most fractured pages will receive one extra level."
Yasenia hummed, her eyebrows gently furrowed as she pondered. "The terrain must be very dangerous… I wonder, will it be correct to separate or not during the trial?"
Regardless, Yasenia didn't focus excessively on that yet. She only had one week to learn how to deploy the Battle Formation, so she had to do her best.
A wave of her hand unfurled the first scroll, and she chose seven random people from her army to practice her commanding skills. After all, Yasenia herself wouldn't participate in the Battle Formations. She would be an outside force because she needed to coordinate her army.
For a Battle Formation to function, several conditions needed to be met. The first and most important was that the person in the formation core must know the formation exceptionally well. After all, while the minds of everyone in the Battle Formation were intricately mixed, you still needed a "main consciousness" to make decisions.
Otherwise, it would be a mess.
The second thing was that, if the person guiding the Battle Formation was not part of it, that person's control and understanding needed to be superb. After all, if their commands disrupted the flow of energy between the people connected within the Battle Formation, it would result in formation collapse.
The final condition, and no less important, was that everyone in the Battle Formation needed to have similar strength. Now, that didn't mean that they needed to be on the same level, but, at the very least, they needed to share realms. The closer their cultivation level and strength, the more effective it would be. If one had to point out an exception, it was only when the person in the Battle Formation Core was the one with a non-uniform strength.
"With the army that we were given, it is clear that we've been given an advantage. All the cultivators in this army have identical strengths, and overall, they are all single-minded towards us. They are, in a way, a perfect army in an ideal scenario. So, what I need to focus on is my own understanding so that I can command them well."
With that in mind, Yasenia ordered them to form groups with people with the same skills. So, those with the [Star Dome] would form groups together, and the other skills did the same.
After Yasenia finished dividing the groups, she counted a total of 49. "Forty-nine groups… This is good enough. I can be quite flexible thanks to this. The groups composed of people that had defensive skills are 16. The rest are all offense-focused groups. If that's the case, let's focus on teaching the [Big Dipper Cradle] to the offensive and mobility groups and the [Big Dipper Onslaught] to the defensive groups."
Yasenia's idea was to balance the army. Yasenia didn't need more extremes; she required flexibility. After all, if there are group battles in the future, she might be the one outnumbered. She couldn't afford to lose her offensive groups because they lacked sufficient survival skills.
With that in mind, the dragoness practiced constantly. At first, she had thought of using the pill to learn and adapt better.
However, she didn't in the end. The reason was that her own comprehension of Battle Formations seemed to be impeccable. Being someone with an evolved War Intent, such things were her specialty.
A week was not enough for her to become flawless, but it was enough for her to avoid mistakes.
By the end of the week, Yasenia moved the 49 groups with grace and ease. Her commands flowed fluidly, having lost all the awkwardness there was in the beginning.
"One week has passed. Please step into the teleportation formation."
Yasenia looked over and muttered. "As expected, we are going in with our real bodies this time around. No projections, actual battle."
She didn't hesitate, commanding the 49 groups to follow behind her.
After everyone stepped inside, a white flash covered her sight. An instant later, Yasenia appeared in the desolate place where she first found the temples. "Hm… Are we outside the temples?"
Yasenia looked back, but she didn't see the majestic temple she had entered at first. "That temple was large enough to be spotted from a very long distance away. Since I can't see it, this place must only be similar to the one before."
While she pondered, an earthquake hit the land. The trembling started bearably, quickly escalating into an earthquake of ridiculous magnitude. Yasenia feared that even continents would split apart under the force of the quake.
Her senses were alert, always looking around. It was a few seconds into the quake when she noticed that the land below them was splitting. "Defensive formation!"
With her shout, all forty-nine groups used their defensive methods. The offensive groups used the [Big Dipper Cradle], while the defensive groups used their skills. Yasenia used [Celestial Aegis] below her, coating her body with [Celestial Dress].
Then, a pillar of astral fire surged upward from the cracks, enveloping a terrifyingly large area. Yasenia's face crumpled as the heat and strength of the fire were anything but ordinary. "Move!"
Everyone quickly followed Yasenia's lead, escaping the area with the astral fire mostly unharmed. "Thankfully, I had them learn defensive skills. Otherwise, I would've been in trouble."
Looking around, Yasenia quickly spotted a few strange lights shooting to the sky from the astral fire surrounding them. "Hm? Follow me."
She locked onto one of them, keeping a check on the others that were within her sensing range. It didn't take her more than five minutes to arrive at the location. Once there, she saw a large meteorite embedded into the hard ground.
"What is this?" The dragoness approached cautiously. Once she was 100 meters away from the meteorite, she heard the voice of the trail maker.
"Congratulations. You've found one [Broken Fragment]. You can break it to look inside and find different treasures."
Yasenia blinked and punched it lightly. The rock with glowing runic marks split open, revealing an empty core where a few items rested. Picking them up, Yasenia heard the voice again.
"You've found 3 [Fracture Pages], 2 [Area Healing Talismans], 1 [Thunder Strike Talisman]."
"Oh!" Yasenia nodded a few times. "That's great. I was thinking that I wouldn't be able to find something of value other than the requirements. However, it seems that there is an opportunity beyond the 'Big Prize.'"
With proper motivation, Yasenia rushed toward all the [Broken Fragments] she had been keeping an eye on.
The dragon quickly hoarded treasures, her pockets fattening quickly. Our dragoness's tail wagged happily as she collected treasures, until a few moments later, one of the Broken Fragments acted strangely.
Yasenia's anticipatory look changed quickly, and she shouted. "Defensive formation!"
BOOM!!
An explosion rocked the place right after, a terrifying aura spreading from the center of the broken fragment. That aura gathered together, spiraling into the sky. Then, a deafening roar echoed around.
ROARR!!
Yasenia looked up warily as a dragon figure appeared from the middle of the explosion. The western dragon was made out of astral flames, looking at Yasenia's group with murderous eyes.
Feeling challenged, our dragoness looked up with cold eyes as well. Then, as if both sides had planned it, they took a deep breath at the same time.
"[Celestial Dragon Breath]!"
One multicolored flaming beam and one galaxy blue beam rushed against each other, colliding right in the middle with ridiculous force.
Yasenia's eyes flashed with surprise when her attack was blocked by the other dragon. 'Strong! Its Dragon Breath is equal to mine.'
Knowing that this thing was probably the enemy that her army needed to deal with, Yasenia began giving orders. "Defensive groups, make sure to spread out. Offensive groups, prepare to unleash your attacks. If defensive groups see the chance, unleash [Big Dipper Onslaught]."
With that, Yasenia's fifth trial truly began, and its dangers started to reveal themselves.