"Watch the spear!"
Wei Yuan gave the pair opposite him no opening at all. With a sharp shout, the Crimson Night Immortal-Slaying Sword swept in a full circle, instantly unleashing an infinite pulling force ahead that dragged everything before him toward the tip of the blade.
This stance of the Sword of Ten Thousand Generations and Autumns carried tremendous majesty.
Xiao Jingyuan and the Supervisor of the Embroidered Uniform Bureau vanished in an instant once more, slipping beyond the reach of the vortex. But the Duke of Cao, who had originally been far off, suddenly appeared right in front of Wei Yuan, careening straight into the Crimson Night Immortal-Slaying Sword with a look of utter bewilderment on his face!
Fortunately, the Duke of Cao was quick on his feet and had a trump card of his own. His robes billowed out until he resembled a round ball, hurtling toward Wei Yuan's sword tip before bursting into a swarm of butterflies that filled the sky. Meanwhile, the Duke of Cao—his fair, plump body left stark naked—shot away in an instant. Beside himself with fright, he glared at the Supervisor of the Embroidered Uniform Bureau, his eyes blazing with fury.
Xiao Jingyuan's heart chilled. So the supervisor had concealed a technique of displacement and substitution, able to swap positions even with someone of the same cultivation tier! Had Wei Yuan's spear thrust—no, sword strike—not frightened it out of him, Xiao Jingyuan would likely have fallen victim to this treacherous trick.
The bureau supervisor's expression was just as grim. When Wei Yuan thrust his spear—no, swung his sword—he had felt an intense killing intent and caught the scent of death! That instinct alone had driven him to trigger the divine ability and pull the Duke of Cao into his place. It wasn't that he hadn't wanted to pull Xiao Jingyuan; rather, that old fox had dodged even faster than him.
Now that his hidden move had been exposed, scheming against Xiao Jingyuan in the future would be nearly impossible, and he had made a mortal enemy of the Duke of Cao to boot. Though he had never held the duke in high regard, the fewer adversaries of that stature one had, the better.
"Take another spear thrust!" Wei Yuan brought his sword down in an overhead slash toward the bare-naked Duke of Cao.
The sword had barely begun its arc when the three Scenery Command cultivators scattered like birds and beasts. Yet Wei Yuan clung tightly to the Duke of Cao's heels. Extending the Crimson Night Immortal-Slaying Sword to its limit, he managed to prick the duke's pale buttocks.
The Duke of Cao let out a wretched scream. In a flash, his figure moved like lightning, twisting and darting several times before disappearing so fast that even Wei Yuan could not catch him.
Wei Yuan immediately spun around, cast Xiao Jingyuan a pointed look, and charged straight for the bureau supervisor. The supervisor's movement technique was equally swift and unhurried; he instantly unleashed his footwork, flashing nine times in succession!
After the ninth flash, Wei Yuan was already standing right in front of him!
The supervisor's face, naturally pale, turned ghastly white. He flicked the jade thumb ring from his hand toward the distance just as Wei Yuan severed his head with a single stroke!
Yet when the head hit the ground, it turned into an official's hat, and the collapsed body left behind only the outermost layer of official robes. Far away, the jade thumb ring spewed a plume of smoke, coalescing into the supervisor clad only in his moon-white undergarments.
His complexion was paper-pale now, his lips as white as the cosmetic powder dusting his face. He stared at Wei Yuan, unable to fathom how his peerless movement technique had somehow deposited him right before the man. Even he himself never knew where the movement technique would land him at its end; even if Wei Yuan possessed the divine ability of Mind Reading, there should have been no way to predict or counter it.
Wei Yuan naturally had no intention of telling him that the real reason came down to just three words: plain bad luck.
With a glance toward Xiao Jingyuan that seemed both casual and deliberate, Wei Yuan flew toward the bureau supervisor once more. This time, before he even arrived, the crushing weight of his mindscape world bore down from above!
The supervisor cried out inwardly in alarm. With the cautionary tales of Ling Canglan and Su Wuwang before him, he dared not unfurl his own mindscape world at all. He could only flee for his life, while in his heart, his hatred for Xiao Jingyuan, who was standing by and doing nothing to help, reached an absolute zenith.
In the distance, Xiao Jingyuan stood among his troops, surrounded by orderly battle arrays, drawing upon the martial qi of the army to bolster himself. Narrowing his eyes, he watched the two figures chasing each other through the air, their trajectories blurred beyond clarity, his thoughts inscrutable.
Beside him, a young general at the perfection of the dharma idol stage whispered, "Godfather, are we not going to help? I fear the supervisor will hold a grudge and make trouble for us later."
Xiao Jingyuan's expression remained unchanged as he replied, "As for grudges, he held one long ago; one more won't make a difference. Besides, someone like him lacks the power to make trouble for me. The one who wants to make trouble for me is the King."
The young general's face shifted slightly, and he dared not speak another word.
By now, the supervisor was being hounded with nowhere to flee, no route to heaven and no door into the earth. In his heart, he cried out in frustration: *What are the immortals doing? They said our side had an overwhelming advantage in immortals! Could it be that all those extra immortals are just useless freeloaders?*
Curse as he might in his thoughts, he dared not utter a single word aloud. Under Wei Yuan's relentless pursuit, he could only flee frantically; if he lagged by even a fraction, the Duke of Cao had already shown what lay in store.
Meanwhile, over a million soldiers of the State of Ji could only watch helplessly as Wei Yuan displayed his awe-inspiring might, treating the vast army as though it were nothing and paying no heed whatsoever to the distribution of martial qi.
Wherever Wei Yuan passed, it was like a hurricane sweeping across the land, scattering the martial qi in all directions. Even the concentrated martial qi of an array tens of thousands strong could not impede him in the slightest. As the martial qi dispersed, the soldiers below were plunged into disheartened dismay, their morale plummeting to rock bottom.
Many dharma idol generals were gripped with doubt: *This is a dharma idol? We are dharma idols too, so how can the difference between us be so vast?*
Whatever the case, having Wei Yuan tear through their formations like this was no different from a slap to the face before all eyes. The Ji army's morale hit rock bottom in an instant. Many of the frontline soldiers locked in bloody combat began retreating of their own accord. Officers tried desperately to suppress the rout, executing those who led the retreat at every turn. In the blink of an eye, several hundred had been beheaded, yet they still struggled to stem the tide.
Gunfire crackled endlessly across the battlefield. Spread out across hundreds of li of trenches, even over a million soldiers on both sides seemed sparse.
Many Ji soldiers discovered entrances leading underground, but whenever they went in to investigate, no matter how many men went down, not a sound ever returned. Yet if they left the entrances unattended, a squad of Qingming soldiers might charge out at any moment, scything down soldiers by the sheet with a volley of canister shot.
Only the grey-robed Dao soldiers dared charge inside, and whenever they did, sounds of fierce slaughter and agonized screams would follow.
Seeing the Ji army's morale on the verge of total collapse, Cangwu's expression shifted repeatedly. Several times he raised his hand, pointing his fingertips toward Wei Yuan, only to slowly lower them again.
By now, all of Wei Yuan's secrets seemed laid bare before him. He had little mortal karmic luck, and though his cultivation level was concealed, whether it was dharma idol or Scenery Command made no difference in Cangwu's eyes. The only thing remaining was a blurred mass at his core, impossible to discern no matter how hard Cangwu looked—which had to be Wei Yuan's hidden trump card.
That Wei Yuan possessed a trump card was hardly surprising; it would have been surprising if he didn't. The question was, what was this trump card?
An immortal's intuition told Cangwu that now was an excellent opportunity to kill Wei Yuan, and that there would likely be no disastrous repercussions. But intuition was merely intuition. As sharp as an immortal's intuition might be, it was equally susceptible to interference and misdirection.
Cangwu could not help but think of Liumiao—that fellow of ordinary origins and supreme talent. Liumiao had begun as a mere child of an impoverished family, one whom nobody expected to even attain a dharma idol. Yet he had hacked through thorns and brambles every step of the way, seizing opportunity after opportunity on the knife-edge between life and death, daring extraordinary risks until he finally attained immortality.
One could say his life was a legend in itself, the pinnacle of popular tales where a poor youth rose against the odds to become an immortal.
Yet because of a single lapse in judgment, Liumiao had perished under Wei Yuan's world-shaking sword strike. All his legends came to an end right there, looking more like a joke in hindsight.
Cangwu asked himself: Was his talent higher than Liumiao's? Was his willpower stronger than Liumiao's? Were his immortal arts and divine abilities more profound than Liumiao's? None of the above.
The only advantage he held was that he was seven hundred years younger than Liumiao.
A full seven hundred years—Cangwu was utterly unwilling to die.
He tried his utmost to see through the heavenly secrets Wei Yuan had concealed, but it was beyond his power; he could not even stir the shroud of mist. The more Cangwu looked, the more alarmed he grew, realizing that the tier of existence shielding that mist clearly surpassed his own.
To be concealed by a method of such lofty standing could only mean that whatever lay hidden was of an even higher tier. Cangwu finally lowered his hand and transmitted a voice command below.
Within the Ji army formations, all the Scenery Command cultivators vanished, even Xiao Jingyuan disappearing without a trace. Wei Yuan, still vigorously pursuing the supervisor, found himself without a target.
Without Scenery Command cultivators to protect it, the vast army was meat on a chopping block. Wei Yuan would not slaughter ordinary soldiers, but he had no qualms about wiping out every dharma idol. Though the three-eyed bird head was a bit stuffed, its belly surely had room for dessert.
Wei Yuan was not about to be courteous. Just as he prepared to strike at the dharma idol generals, countless wisps of grey qi descended from the sky, bestowing a strand upon every dharma idol.
Wei Yuan reached out across the void, seized a dharma idol general, and executed him on the spot before all eyes. He then collected the dharma idol and hurled the corpse back toward his own army's battle array. His technique was practiced and deft, like slaughtering a chicken.
After slaying this dharma idol, Wei Yuan sent that strand of grey qi into the Yellow Springs, held it out to the Heavenly Demon, and said, "Eat it."
The Heavenly Demon refused on the spot: "Never! Don't even think about it! Act like a human!"
This grey qi was formed from death qi and curses, which aligned closely with the nature of heavenly demons. Wei Yuan had originally thought it would be a great tonic for the demon, never expecting the creature to dread it like venomous snakes and scorpions.
"Why? Don't you usually love eating this sort of thing?" Wei Yuan asked.
The Heavenly Demon tried hard to explain from a human perspective: "It's like someone who likes stinky tofu—it smells foul, but it tastes delicious. But this crap smells foul and tastes foul! No matter how much someone likes stinky food, they wouldn't want to eat shit, would they? This stuff is worse than shit!!
"Take it away! Keep it away from me! Wait, you stay away from me too! Float up, don't stand on my ground! You touched that thing—you're already dirty!"
Only then did Wei Yuan understand. The methods of an immortal truly were never simple.
Watching Wei Yuan depart, the Heavenly Demon finally wiped cold sweat from its forehead. Fortunately, Wei Yuan had actually listened to reason this time and acted somewhat like a human being.
Chapter 1061