One colossal fireball after another rose into the sky, clearing swathes of Ji soldiers and Dao soldiers. The imperial troops of the State of Ji had long since scattered in panic, yet the raining missiles left them with nowhere to run, as if the entire world had been turned into a blazing purgatory.
A missile detonated beside Xu Wenwu, blasting him backward through the air to skid dozens of zhang across the dirt. As he struggled back to his feet, he saw another missile plummeting from the sky, plunging straight toward him.
Xu Wenwu gave an easy, unrestrained smile. Just as he prepared to close his eyes and await death, a familiar silhouette suddenly materialized at his side. A hand reached up, bracing against the falling missile, and the ordnance detonated right within his grasp.
A massive fireball illuminated the battlefield once more. Yet as that person's five fingers closed, the fireball suddenly reversed from violent expansion into collapse, drawn entirely into the palm of his hand.
Dazed, Xu Wenwu only now saw clearly that the newcomer was Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan parted his fingers slightly. Several streams of fire shot out, piercing over a hundred zhang into the distance. With a subtle rotation of his fist, the fiery torrents swept across the field, setting whole swathes of Dao soldiers ablaze.
The flames shooting from between Wei Yuan's fingers were no longer the original fire of the missile explosion. Infused with flecks of golden light, they had been imbued with Wei Yuan's mutated Grand Sun True Meaning. This mutated solar divine fire of the Desolate Realm carried an eerie vitality, rendering the flames capable of consuming anything and burning with extraordinary persistence.
The moment the Dao soldiers were touched by it, they instantly turned into human torches, their very Dao force serving as fuel to feed a ferociously intense blaze.
Wei Yuan pointed one finger toward the sky. A speck of fire soared into the night, burning brighter and brighter. By the time it reached a height of a thousand zhang, it had expanded into a scorching, sinister sun!
This crimson orb glowed with an unnerving, piercing radiance. Every sentient being bathed in its light felt a restless, violent fever wash over them, an almost volcanic vitality surging through their bodies—yet this vitality fostered wild, frantic growth that led inevitably toward ruin.
This was originally a surprise Wei Yuan had prepared for his next formidable foe, drawn from the bizarre vitality of the Desolate Realm's Heavenly Pillars. It was a true meaning that stood virtually on par with the Great Dao's origin, possessing boundless power. Yet right now, Wei Yuan cast all hesitation aside and unleashed it directly.
The sinister sun abruptly burst, transforming into a deluge of tens of thousands of fiery droplets that rained down upon the earth. In an instant, it was as if a Dharma-ending age had arrived and heavenly stars were crashing down. Streaks of fire slashed across the night sky, putting on the grandest display of fireworks between heaven and earth.
Every speck of flame seemed possessed of its own will, unerringly seeking out surviving Dao soldiers and reducing them to ash in an instant. In the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of Dao soldiers were turned into roaring torches.
High above in the night sky, Cangwu's face shifted at the sight of the sinister sun. A mixture of lingering fear and relief crossed his features, and he muttered to himself, "No wonder the master instructed me to press this useless Xu Wenwu so hard. It truly flushed out Wei Yuan's real trump card! What on earth is that sun? It's so bizarre that even I wouldn't want to touch it!"
By then, barely ten thousand Dao soldiers remained—not even one in ten—and they melted away into the darkness. Any surviving imperial troops of the State of Ji had fled without a trace long ago, leaving behind only a field of blackened corpses.
Once the Dao soldiers had retreated into the distance, Cangwu reached out to draw back what was left of his soldier bean. The fragment was less than half its original size, mostly charred and blackened with only a sliver of green remaining. Immortal though Cangwu was, a look of profound heartache showed on his face. He stowed the meager remnant into his gourd to nurture it before departing.
In the center of the battlefield, only Xu Wenwu and Wei Yuan remained. Xu Wenwu stood in place. Though his aura was frail, his gaze burned as bright as a torch. He stared in silence at the spot where the sinister sun had been. Even though it had detonated completely, an eerie afterimage still hung in the air, lingering stubbornly without dispersing.
Xu Wenwu suddenly shivered, barely daring to look at it any longer.
Tearing his eyes away, he said to Wei Yuan, "That was your hidden trump card just now, wasn't it? Why did you use it here? Did I ruin your grand plan?"
Wei Yuan replied, "Yes. Kept hidden, it could have killed at least one Scenery Command master, maybe up to two or three. Now it only killed tens of thousands of Dao soldiers. It'll be much harder to trick a Scenery Command expert in the future."
Xu Wenwu had gained enough insight by now to understand that while the sinister sun was terrifyingly powerful, it required a slow windup and had to be disguised as ordinary True Fire of the Sun.
Once touched by the sinister sun, not even a Scenery Command cultivator could withstand the terrifying power of the Heavenly Pillars' vitality. But once enemies learned the secret, they would flee the moment they caught sight of it. Only a first, unexpected strike would yield the greatest harvest.
Xu Wenwu felt uneasy and wore an ashamed look. "It's all my fault. I ruined your plans."
Wei Yuan smiled faintly and clapped him on the shoulder. "What kind of nonsense is that? We knew each other before Qingming even existed. After walking all these years together, we've long been brothers. Scenery Command masters can be killed sooner or later, but right now, I felt that staying here to hear why you refused to leave was far more important."
"You could have just pulled me out."
"You were willing to call down missiles on your own head rather than retreat—there had to be a reason. I wanted to hear that reason before taking us away. And only the sinister sun could wipe out those Dao soldiers in an instant, so I used it."
Xu Wenwu felt both sheepish and deeply moved. After a moment of silence, he asked, "Can I ask first... why were there no reinforcements?"
Wei Yuan paused in thought, then laid out his entire rescue sequence without holding anything back.
Xu Wenwu asked with a trembling voice, "So those brothers were destined to die from the start?"
With a heavy expression, Wei Yuan gave a slow nod, offering no excuses.
Such an arrangement was the optimal solution for the overall situation. Even the missiles Xu Wenwu had called down had originally been prepared for the breakout of the central camp garrison. Instead, Xu Wenwu had summoned them all to bombard his own position. The missiles had reaped a magnificent toll, but at the cost of Xu Wenwu's life; had Wei Yuan arrived a step later, Xu Wenwu would have already entered the cycle of reincarnation.
Xu Wenwu fell silent for a time before speaking: "Benevolence does not command troops. I understand. As long as the brothers died for something worthwhile, there are no regrets. You didn't do anything wrong."
Wei Yuan said, "Neither did you. Let's go."
"What about our brothers' bodies?"
Wei Yuan sighed. "We can't bring them back. We can only let them rest here forever."
With that, Wei Yuan flicked out a thousand sparks of fire, carrying the pure aura of the Flame God Flower, reducing the remains of all the fallen Qingming soldiers to ashes. Meanwhile, he gathered all the Yin souls on the battlefield into the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven.
With this done, Wei Yuan left with Xu Wenwu, returning to Guantun County a short while later. Within the county, an elite cavalry force had already assembled, conducting final checks on their gear.
Taking advantage of the few moments remaining before departure, Wei Yuan asked, "Why were you suddenly so brave this time?"
Xu Wenwu offered a bitter smile. "In your plan, I was supposed to escape on my own, right? At most, fight until the very end, and then run."
"That's right."
"I don't know why either. Seeing so many brothers fall before my eyes, an overwhelming rage just surged up in me. In that moment, fear didn't even cross my mind. All I wanted was to butcher every enemy before me to avenge my brothers! To be honest, when the missiles came down, I was calm. Even happy."
Wei Yuan was at a loss for words. He sighed. "This battle truly went beyond our expectations. I never anticipated the rebels and imperial troops would suddenly join forces, leaving us with no time to do anything but scramble to respond. This isn't the first time, nor will it be the last.
"Our true opponents are Immortals, and more than one at that. When Immortals lay out a game, they always place their pieces where we least expect, striking at our weakest points. It's impossible for me to foresee every outcome; we can only adapt to each move as it comes. In future battles, you must do your utmost to preserve yourself. You're worth far more alive."
Xu Wenwu nodded. "I went through the battle in the Land of Rain too, don't worry. But using your trump card today... will it really be alright?"
Wei Yuan chuckled. "A trump card is meant to be played eventually, sooner or later. Besides, once one is spent, we can find a way to get another. And if we really don't have one, then we fight them head-on."
A surge of heroic vigor rose in Xu Wenwu's chest, and he said heavily, "Good! Then let's fuck 'em up!"
Wei Yuan laughed out loud. "Tend to your wounds first. It's time for me to move out."
By then, the ten thousand elite cavalry had formed ranks. Wei Yuan flew into the air, blending into the cavalry's martial aura. Then the army marched out of the city, surging eastward in a mighty torrent.
At midday, Wei Yuan led the iron cavalry to the central camp, launching a pincer attack alongside the garrison from within and without. In the midst of the battle, Wei Yuan pointed to the sky, and a faint sinister sun ascended, hanging motionless above. Afterward, Lu Jiande was nowhere to be seen, and Xiao Jingyuan never showed himself. The clash between several hundred thousand troops on both sides was left entirely to those below the Dharma Idol realm.
Among the rebel ranks, the number of grey-clothed Dao soldiers was pathetically small, numbering merely twenty to thirty thousand. Under the pincer attack of the iron cavalry, they collapsed in short order.
Wei Yuan focused his strikes on the main rebel force. Although the primary host of the imperial army was close at hand, their battle cries shaking heaven and earth, they did not dare draw near, watching helplessly as the rebels were shattered.
Not only did Wei Yuan rescue the besieged garrison, but he also packed up the camp right before the eyes of the several hundred thousand imperial troops, taking the supplies and the bodies of the fallen before departing at a leisurely pace.
The hundreds of thousands of imperial troops simply looked on in dead silence, terrified of drawing Wei Yuan's attention.
By the time he returned to Guantun County once more, Wei Yuan nearly collapsed to the ground. Rushing back and forth through multiple bloody battles, he was completely exhausted, his strength running dry. He summoned two dharma idol warriors to support him, hurried to the medicine-dispensing machine, and swallowed several hundred Dharma Idol qi-replenishing pills in a single breath before finally catching his wind.
Next came the reckoning of battle results. In this great clash, Qingming forces had deployed ten thousand elites and lost nearly three thousand—a grievous loss indeed. Most casualties had been inflicted by the grey-clothed Dao soldiers.
On the State of Ji's side, two Scenery Command cultivators had fallen, the rebels had suffered fifty thousand casualties, and the main imperial army had suffered a hundred and fifty thousand. Furthermore, nearly a hundred thousand grey-clothed Dao soldiers had been destroyed. Wei Yuan had realized long ago that these grey-clothed Dao soldiers were no ordinary creations and came at a steep cost to summon; killing Dao soldiers was far more effective than slaughtering mortal soldiers, and doing so incurred no karmic debt.
As the Qingming troops' equipment grew increasingly formidable, it had begun to show in the casualty figures. On an actual battlefield, a dozen fully armored Qingming warriors facing light-armored or even unarmored troops from the imperial or rebel forces could easily crush a hundred opponents.
What other weaknesses remained across the defensive line? Wei Yuan reviewed the defensive deployment map in his mind, falling into deep thought. A realization struck him, revealing the lingering vulnerability: the enemy's high-level cultivators might personally step in to slaughter common soldiers!
Qingming's heavy-armored infantry feared neither blade nor sword, but they feared Daoist arts. Cultivators like Mo Fentian were the ultimate bane of heavy infantry; a single manifestation of his sea of dragon flames could send thousands of heavy troops straight into reincarnation.
As for karmic debt, an opponent capable of massacring tens of millions of mortals certainly possessed ways to dissolve or even transfer it.
Wei Yuan pondered for a long time. In the end, he decided to distribute the few million points of mortal fortune remaining on him, bestowing it upon the frontline soldiers and civilians. This would raise the price the enemy would have to pay to slaughter them as much as possible, thereby improving their chances of survival.
As for Wei Yuan himself—originally, he had never relied on mortal fortune to fight.
Chapter 1053