Chapter 10: On the Combination of Expectation Management and Magical Combat Practice |
Wang Rongyuan's earth escape technique seemed clumsy, but it was brimming with details—details that many sect disciples probably wouldn't even understand.
The first rule of the Wang Clan's secret manual for magical combat: run first!
Running first might seem cowardly, but it was actually a profound wisdom.
If the opponent was strong and you couldn't win, running early allowed you to seize a speed advantage, greatly increasing your chances of a successful escape.
In a situation where both sides were evenly matched, running first could feign weakness. By showing weakness and then suddenly turning around to strike, you could snatch the initiative.
If you had a massive lead in strength, running first was a good way to test if there were other opponents hiding in the shadows.
Observers waiting for the right moment would likely reveal themselves to give chase once they saw you run. Wouldn't that prevent you from capsizing in a treacherous gutter?
If there were no hidden observers, running a few steps first wouldn't stop you from turning around and catching up to the unlucky fool across from you.
In short, no matter how you looked at it, running first was a decision where the benefits outweighed the risks.
But if it were Yulou, with his modern mindset, he would see even more of the underlying logic.
For instance, running first and showing weakness was actually a specialized form of expectation management.
In modern workplaces and life, managing expectations—both your own and others'—was an incredibly deep and complex science, existing practically as a holy grail in corporate struggles.
Applying the logic of expectation management to the magical combat strategy of "running first" actually worked perfectly.
Running first to show weakness meant managing the enemy's expectations!
That Wondrous Peak Mountain cultivator who yelled, "A middle Qi Condensation cultivator still wants to run?" had clearly been successfully managed by Wang Rongyuan.
Predicting the enemy was very difficult; in random encounters, you couldn't foresee your opponent's strategies and unique methods.
How could you predict the enemy when you knew absolutely nothing?
But by actively guiding them and using your own controllable actions to manipulate the enemy's behavior, you could guess their next move based on the expectations you set.
This was the practical application of expectation management in magical combat—achieving enemy prediction through proper expectation management!
Being half a step ahead was still being ahead!
Cultivators reacted and moved incredibly fast; half a step could mean the difference between life and death!
Seeing the middle Qi Condensation Wang Rongyuan drill into the ground with an earth escape technique, the three rogue cultivators quickly surrounded the area, deploying various methods to track his movements.
Underground, Wang Rongyuan popped a Spirit Opening Pill. Fighting one against three, he was restoring his mana before the clash even began. This was the difference between having a family inheritance and not having one!
Then, he mobilized a wooden puppet he had planted the moment he crashed down from the sky, making it reveal itself in the opposite direction of his actual location.
Run first to bait the hook, then use the wooden puppet to fake an opening!
"Over there! Hurry and block him! Don't let him get away!"
The Qi Refining Perfection stage Wondrous Peak Mountain cultivator was the quickest to notice the wooden puppet. Pointing in its direction, he alerted his two companions.
The three rapidly flew toward the wooden puppet.
Due to the difference in their cultivation bases and initial entry angles, their formation while flying on their artifacts naturally arranged itself: the Wondrous Peak Mountain cultivator took the lead, the tenth layer of Qi Refining rogue cultivator was in the middle, and the eighth layer of Qi Refining rogue cultivator trailed at the back.
The perfect opportunity to strike presented itself just like that. How could Wang Rongyuan let it slip away?
"Watch out!"
Two thick wooden vines shot up from the ground, lunging straight at the eighth layer of Qi Refining rogue cultivator flying in the rear.
This was the Swift Vine Spell, commonly used by Qi Refining wood spirit root cultivators. It focused on being fast, accurate, and ruthless. If your defenses were lacking or your fire spell counter was too slow, a single touch would spell doom.
The eighth layer of Qi Refining cultivator reacted with a backhand, casting two Fire Shot Spells to shield his front.
However, the tenth layer of Qi Refining rogue cultivator ahead of him subconsciously summoned a circular defensive artifact, intending to help block the attack for his little brother.
This was the real opportunity!
The ground exploded with a deafening boom, sending dirt flying into the air.
Before the sound even reached the ears of the tenth layer of Qi Refining rogue cultivator, a cyan-red Medicine King Pestle smashed into him from below.
The seventh rule of the Wang Clan's secret manual for magical combat: if you must fight one against three, kill the one in the middle of the pack first!
The strongest was undoubtedly the hardest to kill; targeting him would waste an opportunity. In magical combat, every opportunity was crucial.
In a one-against-three situation, the meaning of "never let a chance slip" was incredibly concrete.
The slightest mistake could lead to disaster—death and the extinguishing of one's dao!
As for the weakest, he knew he was the weakest, so he was definitely the most vigilant, fearing he'd be picked on as the soft target.
With the opponent constantly on guard and no massive gap in strength, striking the weakest might also yield no results.
Therefore, killing the one in the middle became the option with a relatively high success rate.
Wang Rongyuan's choice was ingenious: he first used the Swift Vine Spell to attack the weakest at the eighth layer of Qi Refining.
Upon realizing the tenth layer of Qi Refining rogue cultivator was trying to save his companion, he made a prompt decision to go all-in!
Going all-in was a kind of wisdom, and even more so, a kind of courage!
Uncle Rongyuan lacked neither wisdom nor courage!
"Fuck, the tenth layer of Qi Refining!"
By the time the second brother at the tenth layer of Qi Refining realized Wang Rongyuan's cultivation base was the same as his, it was already too late!
To be precise, it was far too late.
The high-grade magical artifact, the Medicine King Pestle, was crafted primarily from eighth-grade green flower agate with a ninth-grade blood wood handle. It was refined with a full twenty-one layers of restrictions. It specialized in breaking through magic with brute force, rendering it practically indestructible among items of the same tier!
Being a rogue cultivator also at the tenth layer of Qi Refining, he was already controlling two magical artifacts and simply didn't have the time to block Wang Rongyuan's pestle!
Under the horrified gazes of the two rogue cultivators, the cyan-red Medicine King Pestle pierced right through their companion's chest. When it emerged, it was entirely blood-red.
Looking down at his gaping chest, the tenth layer of Qi Refining rogue cultivator cursed.
"Liar!"
Then, having lost their master's control, the flying artifact and the defensive artifact plummeted to the ground alongside their master, whose body hadn't even gone cold yet.
"Fellow Daoist, we were just playing a joke on you. Who exactly are you?"
The Qi Refining Perfection stage Wondrous Peak Mountain cultivator was both shocked and furious. He truly hadn't expected his three brothers to fall into such a trap today!
The Swift Vine Spell was a feint, the wooden puppet was a fake, and the fifth layer of Qi Refining was completely fabricated.
The Red Lantern Illumination Sect, Dripdrop Cave—they were all fake!
The wooden puppet that had drilled out of the ground to complete its task clearly had no expression on its wooden face, but the Wondrous Peak Mountain cultivator seemed to see it smiling.
Smiling at the three of them, mocking them for being three massive idiots!
If Wang Rongyuan paid any attention to the Wondrous Peak Mountain cultivator's bullshit, he would be a massive idiot too.
He didn't just ignore the Wondrous Peak Mountain cultivator's words; he didn't even have the slightest intention of emerging from the ground.
He was going all in on the earth-escape playstyle. If they had the guts, they could land and fight his earth-wood spirit root!
Either don't make a move, or exterminate them all!
Retracting the Medicine King Pestle, Wang Rongyuan reversed his hand and summoned two special low-grade magical artifacts—Donkey Mane Sachets.
The Wang Clan excelled at raising donkeys. Relying on their wood-attribute spiritual donkeys, they had sustained themselves for over a thousand years without interruption.
Naturally, they had developed the various spiritual materials found on spiritual donkeys to the extreme.
Even though the Donkey Mane Sachet was merely a low-grade magical artifact with five layers of restrictions and had zero offensive or defensive capabilities—even decent mortal iron could destroy it—
As long as different substances were placed inside, its effects were another story entirely.
As the two sachets flew rapidly, hugging the ground, the pale yellow Lust-Provoking Incense began to permeate the battlefield.
In a game, this would be called soft crowd control. It seemed to have little impact, but as long as it stacked enough times, the opponent would be affected!
"Fine! If you want to fight to the bitter end, don't blame me for not holding back!"
The Wondrous Peak Mountain rogue cultivator at the Qi Refining Perfection stage was experienced. Catching a glimpse of the bigger picture, he understood Wang Rongyuan's maneuver.
He summoned a mid-grade magical artifact—a white cloud handkerchief. The handkerchief hovered in the air, raining down dense drops of water.
You use scent to control me? I'll use water arts to break your Lust-Provoking Incense!
"Third Brother, let's use fire lightning together! If he won't come out, we'll bomb this dirt rat to death!"
Before the sound even reached the ears of the rogue cultivator at the tenth layer of Qi Refining, a cyan-red Medicine King Pestle smashed into him from below.
The seventh rule of the Wang Clan's secret manual for magical combat: if you absolutely must fight one against three, kill the one in the middle first!
The strongest was undoubtedly the hardest to kill, so targeting them was a waste of an opportunity. In magical combat, every single opening was critical.
In a one-versus-three scenario, the concept of 'now or never' became incredibly literal.
Any mistake could lead to disaster—death and the fading of one's Dao!
As for the weakest, he knew he was the weakest, and was therefore the most vigilant. He was terrified of being picked off as the soft target.
With that opponent on high alert and lacking a massive gap in strength, attacking the weakest might yield no results.
Therefore, killing the one in the middle became the option with the highest relative success rate.
Wang Rongyuan's choice was ingenious. He had first used the Swift Vine Spell to attack the weakest at the eighth layer of Qi Refining.
Once he noticed the rogue cultivator at the tenth layer of Qi Refining attempting to save his companion, he decisively went all in!
Going all in was a form of wisdom, but even more so, it was courage!
Uncle Rongyuan lacked neither wisdom nor courage!
"Fuck, tenth layer of Qi Refining!"
By the time the second-in-command at the tenth layer of Qi Refining realized Wang Rongyuan shared his cultivation base, it was already too late!
To be precise, it was far too late.
The high-grade magical artifact, the Medicine King Pestle—crafted primarily from eighth-grade green flower agate and fitted with a ninth-grade blood wood handle—contained exactly twenty-one layers of restrictions. It specialized in breaking techniques with raw power, rendering it virtually indestructible among its peers!
Facing an opponent at the tenth layer of Qi Refining while actively controlling two artifacts, the rogue cultivator simply couldn't block Wang Rongyuan's crushing strike in time!
Under the horrified gazes of the other two rogue cultivators, the cyan-red Medicine King Pestle smashed straight through their companion's chest. When it emerged, it was completely dyed blood-red.
Looking down at his gaping chest cavity, the rogue cultivator at the tenth layer of Qi Refining cursed.
"Liar!"
Then, having lost their master's control, his flight and defensive artifacts plummeted to the ground alongside their not-yet-cold owner.
"Fellow Daoist, we were just joking with you. Who exactly are you?"
The Qi Refining Perfection cultivator from Wondrous Peak Mountain was both shocked and furious. He never could have imagined that his trio of brothers would be outplayed like this today!
The Swift Vine Spell was a feint, the wooden puppet was a fake, and his aura at the fifth layer of Qi Refining was fake too.
Red Lantern Illumination Sect, Dripdrop Cave—all of it was a lie!
The wooden puppet that had drilled out of the ground to complete its mission clearly had no expression on its face, yet the Wondrous Peak Mountain cultivator swore he saw it mocking him.
Mocking his trio of brothers for being absolute idiots!
If Wang Rongyuan bothered to reply to the Wondrous Peak Mountain cultivator's nonsense, he would be an idiot too.
Not only did he ignore the Wondrous Peak Mountain cultivator's words, he didn't show the slightest intention of emerging from the earth.
He was going to play the earth escape style all the way. Let's see if you have the guts to land and fight an earth and wood spirit root cultivator!
Either don't make a move, or eradicate them completely!
Retracting the Medicine King Pestle, Wang Rongyuan summoned two special low-grade magical artifacts: Donkey Mane Sachets.
The Wang Clan excelled at raising donkeys. Relying on wood-attribute spirit donkeys, they had sustained themselves for a thousand years without decline.
Naturally, they had developed the use of various spiritual materials from these spirit donkeys to the absolute limit.
Even though the Donkey Mane Sachet was merely a low-grade magical artifact with five layers of restrictions, possessing no offensive or defensive capabilities and easily destroyed by decent mortal iron...
As long as different fillings were added to it, its effects were a force to be reckoned with.
As the two sachets flew rapidly close to the ground, the pale yellow Lust-Provoking Incense began to permeate the battlefield.
In gaming terms, this was called soft control. It might seem like a minor distraction, but if stacked enough times, the opponent would succumb to its influence!
"Fine! If you want to fight to the bitter end, don't blame me for not holding back!"
The Qi Refining Perfection rogue cultivator from Wondrous Peak Mountain was experienced. Catching a glimpse of the bigger picture, he immediately understood Wang Rongyuan's strategy.
He summoned a white cloud handkerchief, a mid-grade magical artifact. The handkerchief hovered in the air, and a dense shower of water droplets began to fall.
If you use fragrance to control me, I'll use water arts to break your Lust-Provoking Incense!
"Third Brother, hit him with fire lightning! If he won't come out, we'll blow this dirt rat to pieces!"