A giant a full five zhang tall bounded down the mountainside in massive strides, shaking the earth like a rolling boulder as he thundered toward the ant-like humans before him.
Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his calf, as if he had been viciously bitten by some insect. He glanced down to find a basin-sized wound gaping on his leg, a large, guardless flying sword lodged deep inside.
In the distance, a squad captain at the perfection of the Dao Foundation lowered a seven-foot sniper flying-sword gun, his face etched with shock. That shot possessed enough power to wound a dharma idol, and it had indeed struck its mark, yet against a creature of such colossal size, the injury was little more than a scratch.
Enraged, the giant charged ahead. A single stride covered ten zhang; a thousand zhang vanished in the blink of an eye.
Then the cannons roared. Shell after shell exploded across his body, each blast tearing away a chunk of flesh.
Though each blast inflicted only minor damage, over a dozen infantry guns took turns bombarding him in a relentless barrage. When the giant reached a point less than a hundred zhang from the human lines, the accumulated damage finally brought him to a halt. He flailed his arms to ward off the incoming fire, staggering back repeatedly and knocking over another giant behind him.
A shell detonated squarely against his face, reducing his nose to a bloody crater and mangling both of his beady eyes into a gory pulp. With an agonized howl, the giant hurled the stone hammer in his hands forward before crashing down like a fallen tower.
The massive stone hammer whipped through the air, whirling violently as it hurtled forward. Several Dao Foundation perfection captains lunged to intercept it, only to be batted aside on contact. The hammer smashed into the earth, sending a swath of Dao soldiers tumbling, with over a dozen crushed beyond recognition.
Infused with divine abilities unique to the Mountain Folk, that stone hammer weighed tens of thousands of jin and carried devastating fury when thrown in the giant's dying moments. Had all the Dao soldiers present not been bound together as one through the Dao Soldier Hall—their offense and defense immensely boosted—that single blow would have claimed hundreds of lives, rather than just over a dozen dead and several dozen wounded.
The lead mountain giant had possessed a cultivation at the perfection of the dharma idol stage, his frame visibly larger than those of his companions, built to be a vanguard champion. Even so, he had fallen under the blistering firepower of countless Dao soldiers and infantry guns.
As the following giants pressed forward, a shell detonated beside one of them, knocking him into a clumsy stumble that sent him lurching forward several paces, scraping the skin on his leg.
The Qingming Dao soldiers began a disciplined, orderly withdrawal. In the rear, the artillery fired at full throttle to stall the giants' advance, while the soldiers fired continuously as they fell back.
Ordinary Dao soldiers could not harm the mountain giants, but the captains at the perfection of the Dao Foundation could. Though each shot caused limited injury, concentrated firepower was a different matter. Under the relentless barrage of a hundred captains, a second giant soon collapsed, followed shortly by a third.
The battle formation continued its orderly retreat along the road, drawing the Mountain Folk after them until the pursuit stretched into a long, thin column through the narrow valley. Many smaller Mountain Folk bounded across the slopes flanking the pass, loosing arrows into the human ranks as they ran. The Dao soldiers raised their weapons and returned fire.
In this long-range exchange, flying-sword guns held an absolute advantage over bows and arrows. The Mountain Folk's arrows could do nothing against the refined armor laced with nether iron worn by the Dao soldiers.
After retreating several li, dozens of high-yield flying missiles suddenly whistled through the air and slammed into the center of the Mountain Folk column. The valley erupted into a sea of flames, cleanly severing their forces in two.
Immediately, several thousand Dao soldiers in the front ranks launched a countercharge, supported by fire from the rear ranks. Bolstered by heavy artillery, they devoured the Mountain Folk vanguard in mere moments, wiping out over a dozen giants and several thousand Mountain Folk warriors.
Stunned by this sudden, crushing strike, the Mountain Folk dared not pursue. They could only watch helplessly as the Dao soldiers drew away, retreating into a fortified pass prepared long in advance to establish their defensive positions.
Vast swarms of Mountain Folk continued to pour into view, blanketing the mountains and plains.
The pass wall Wei Yuan had constructed was not particularly high, but it was exceptionally wide and lined with heavy cannons. The mountaintops on both flanks were likewise packed with dense fire points, holding a garrison that actually exceeded the forces within the pass city itself.
The Mountain Folk were born mountaineers, even more agile than apes, meaning steep terrain posed no obstacle to them and rendered standard battlements utterly useless. Wei Yuan had therefore embraced a doctrine of defense through firepower. Sustained by the continuous empowerment of the Dao Soldier Hall, each of these Dao soldiers possessed offensive and defensive power comparable to the Dao Foundation, and all were capable of wielding flying-sword guns to maintain a defense through overlapping fields of dense fire.
Yet the Mountain Folk seemed endless, and the very world began to warp around them. The elemental forces of Earth and Metal surged violently, suppressing Wood and Water. A true supreme expert among the Mountain Folk had arrived—one capable of altering heaven and earth wherever they walked!
Atop the pass wall, Wang Hu, dressed in the plain uniform of a Dao soldier, wore a grave expression as he watched an unusual mountain giant surrounded by a cluster of his kin. Standing seven zhang tall with long arms and short legs, this giant was covered in dark fur tipped with gleaming silver.
He possessed six eyes, two of which were set on the sides of his head, currently surveying the pass city. Several small Mountain Folk stood upon his broad shoulders, projecting illusory recordings of the earlier skirmish for him to study.
Rather than attacking immediately, the six-eyed giant pointed to either side, directing large detachments of Mountain Folk warriors to bypass the pass along the flanks and encircle it from behind. He himself remained where he was, watching the combat projections with meticulous care and occasionally having them replayed, showing no eagerness to rush into battle.
Once enveloped by the Mountain Folk, the pass city garrisoned by Wang Hu and fifty thousand Dao soldiers became an isolated outpost. Yet Wei Yuan had already stockpiled sufficient ammunition, food, and water within its walls to hold out for months.
In the center of the pass city stood a temporary Dao Soldier Hall, housing nothing but a statue of Wei Yuan leaning upon his sword. At this moment, the statue radiated a soft glow, ripples of light lapping against it like water, having already risen to its waist.
Tens of thousands of ethereal threads stretched through the void, anchoring themselves to the statue and blending seamlessly together.
High above, Wei Yuan came flying in. Gazing down at the sea of Mountain Folk below, a single sweep of his sight allowed him to tally their strength.
Just within his immediate field of view, there were over five hundred thousand ordinary Mountain Folk warriors and more than two hundred giants, including two at the Scenery Command level. And judging by the elemental upheaval rippling through heaven and earth, an Immortal Monarch of the Mountain Folk had very likely arrived.
Wei Yuan flew down into the pass city. Sweeping his divine sense across every fortification and finding no flaws, he felt reassured. He flashed to Wang Hu's side and placed a command token in his hand.
Wang Hu forced a drop of essence blood from his fingertip onto the token. In an instant, another ethereal thread split off from the statue and linked directly to him. Wang Hu's aura surged dramatically before sinking into something fathomless and inscrutable. His frame did not expand; instead, it contracted slightly, leaving him only two heads taller than Wei Yuan.
Above his head, the Mountain-Moving Great Ape manifested, but its coat had turned snow-white, its eyes clear and bright red like a pair of polished rubies.
This token represented the highest authority within the Dao Soldier Hall beneath Wei Yuan himself. Its bearer could draw upon a portion of the strength of all surrounding Dao soldiers, gaining an immense boost in power. Wang Hu was already at the perfection of the dharma idol stage; with this reinforcement, he could now contend with Scenery Command cultivators.
Wang Hu stretched, acclimating to his newfound might, and said, "Leave this place to me. But there are certainly more Mountain Folk than just what we see. I can feel an immortal holding down the rear."
Wei Yuan said, "I'll find a way to deal with the immortal. Are you confident against those two Scenery Command giants in front of you?"
"Against two, I can protect myself; against one, I can take the upper hand. But with their vitality, I probably won't be able to kill them."
"It is enough to tie them down," Wei Yuan said. "Our primary objective in this battle is to slaughter the ordinary Mountain Folk, and among the giants, target only the weakest."
"Why is that?" Wang Hu was somewhat puzzled, as this ran counter to conventional human military doctrine.
"Perhaps our understanding of the Mountain Folk has been slightly off all along. In short, prioritize killing the ordinary Mountain Folk, even if it means paying a price. As for the exact reason, we won't know the answer until this battle is over," Wei Yuan replied.
Wang Hu nodded and set about reorganizing the defenses.
Wei Yuan did not linger, flying straight back toward the front line. As he traveled, his divine consciousness entered the Pure Land. Walking into the small temple, he silently regarded the seventh stick of incense in the censer. On either side of the seven sticks, the faint silhouettes of two pure incense sticks had already taken shape.
Wei Yuan looked at the empty lotus seat; his body could already faintly anticipate what it would feel like to sit upon it. The little monk Honglian and the fake monk Liandeng stood on either side—one composed and still, the other not daring to meet Wei Yuan's gaze at all.
After standing in silence for a brief moment until his physical body had returned to the front lines, Wei Yuan let out a soft sigh, turned, and withdrew from the Pure Land.
The moment he had unleashed the red lotus karmic fire to wipe out the majority of the grey-robed Dao soldiers, the seventh stick of incense had manifested.
And as an accompanying revelation, a secret had naturally unfolded in Wei Yuan's mind: the ordinary, small-statured Mountain Folk that humanity had always overlooked were, in truth, the real linchpin of their entire race. The Mountain Folk had been scheming toward an enormous ambition, and should they succeed, they would likely bypass all other alien races to become humanity's greatest threat.
The remaining two sticks of pure incense were the price of Wei Yuan knowing the Mountain Folk's secret.
This was an open scheme.
Chapter 1059