Even among the Mountain Folk were those willing to die for their cause. That was the conclusion Wei Yuan reached after observing the effects of the artillery bombardment.
With the Qingming Army's offensive stalled, Wei Yuan mobilized the heavy artillery, opening fire with full force to relentlessly pound the Mountain Folk positions in an effort to blast open a breach.
Yet the Mountain Folk came on wave after wave, raising walls of rock and shields of stone with their innate divine abilities to weather the bombardment. Though the stone shields were swiftly shattered beneath the shelling and the Mountain Folk behind them turned to corpses, fresh ranks stepped up the moment those before them fell.
Once the shelling ceased and the Qingming troops surged forward, countless Mountain Folk emerged from god knew where, charging into the Qingming forces to engage in close combat.
In a close-quarters melee, Qingming still held the advantage. The quality of Qingming's armor clearly surpassed that of the Mountain Folk, who were renowned for ironworking, and the troops were widely equipped with pistols loaded with buckshot. Even if the buckshot struck friendly forces by mistake, so long as the distance was not too close, it could not penetrate standard Qingming armor—whereas the armor and shields of the Mountain Folk stood no chance.
Yet the Mountain Folk who rushed into the fray cast life and death aside. Large units threw themselves in unending charges against the chariots; dozens even rushed forward in relays, using their racial talent to turn into stone and bury entire chariots whole.
The power of earth summoned by the multitude of Mountain Folk burning their own vitality diffused outward, causing stone to grow even inside the chariots. In this manner, though the Mountain Folk often paid the grievous price of several hundred lives to bury a single chariot, they remained fearless, and more and more Qingming chariots were disabled on the front line.
Wei Yuan concentrated all his heavy artillery along a frontage of less than ten li and assaulted them fiercely for an entire afternoon, launching over a dozen successive attacks, only to be thrown back each time.
Along that narrow frontage of advance, the Mountain Folk poured in three hundred thousand men over half a day without yielding half a step.
Only five li to their rear, Mountain Folk were frantically building fortifications, and a defensive line was visibly nearing completion.
Once this defensive line was established, the Mountain Folk would secure their footing and their casualties would drop drastically, freeing them from having to pit flesh and blood, broadswords, and shields against Qingming's artillery and bullets as they did now.
Wei Yuan appeared once more above the Mountain Folk battle array, charging straight into their army aura. Two Scenery Command Mountain Folk instantly appeared nearby, preparing to strike with the empowerment of their army aura.
Yet a crimson sun rose into the sky, and the Evil Sun true intent instantly sent a shudder of terror through the two Mountain Folk Scenery Commands. Without a second thought, they retreated at once.
However, they had already received guidance from an immortal and knew that activating the Evil Sun true intent carried an enormous cost for Wei Yuan, so they pulled back without leaving entirely.
A thing as fierce and baleful as the Evil Sun would become impossible for Wei Yuan to control and seal if unleashed for too long, after which he would be consumed by it himself. Thus, several Mountain Folk Scenery Commands hovered far in the distance, waiting to swarm him the moment he could no longer hold out and withdrew the Evil Sun true intent.
Seeing the stance of the Mountain Folk Scenery Commands, Wei Yuan naturally understood their intention. But his aim in driving them off with the Evil Sun true intent had only ever been to keep them from meddling in the battle for the moment.
Another massive dark yellow star emerged in midair, and a crushing weight instantly fell upon the defensive line under construction below, freezing all the Mountain Folk in their tracks.
Yet the Mountain Folk were a race naturally aligned with the element of earth, exceptionally resilient against such earthen weight. Many Mountain Folk of respectable cultivation simply cast spells to conceal themselves within the soil and rock, relying on the earth itself to withstand the crushing pressure of the grotto-heaven.
Even so, the Mountain Folk Scenery Commands—whether ordinary or giant—wore expressions of shock.
Wei Yuan was now displaying the power of two grotto-heavens simultaneously. Having two grotto-heavens was one thing, but being able to manifest two at once was an entirely different realm of mastery!
A moment later, the Scenery Commands reconsidered: was possessing two grotto-heavens an ordinary feat to begin with? They had not even touched the threshold of a grotto-heaven.
Fortunately, the Thick Earth Grotto-Heaven aligned precisely with the Mountain Folk's earthen nature. At this moment, its suppressing power was broad rather than focused, making it arduous to kill even Mountain Folk Dao Foundations. Thus, the Scenery Commands were not worried about the battle, assuming Wei Yuan had simply been driven to desperation. Using earth-element power against the Mountain Folk was sheer folly.
Yet right at that moment, countless black specks suddenly flew out from the massive star!
The tiny dots, resembling a swarm of insects, swelled rapidly the instant they left the great star, ultimately turning into mirage demons several zhang tall!
The mirage demons were virtually endless. Several Mountain Folk tribal chiefs at the dharma idol stage were terrified and rose to fight back, only for several mirage demons to pounce upon them, passing straight through their bodies and dragging their souls out!
There were actually Scenery Commands hidden among the mirage demons? And more than one?
After several years of recuperation and replenishment, the mirage demons—whose reproductive rate far outstripped that of rabbits—had multiplied explosively. Unleashed now, they seemed inexhaustible, over ten million pouring out in an instant.
The Mountain Folk possessed resilient bodies and were adept at defending with earth and stone, but their defenses regarding divine sense and soul were far weaker, not even half that of the Shamans. Mirage demons were naturally skilled in illusions and divine sense attacks, and at this moment they existed between the ethereal and the corporeal. They could slip through a hole in the earth no larger than a pinprick, plunging directly into the bodies of the Mountain Folk.
Any Mountain Folk pounced upon fell into an illusion immediately, stripped of all resistance. The vast majority plunged into a mating frenzy, while a few went wildly berserk. And once they fell into an illusion, their innate divine abilities would naturally unravel; the earthen power within those previously hidden in the earth and stone instantly materialized, filling their bodies and internal organs with solid earth and rock, crushing them to death on the spot.
The surrounding Mountain Folk powerhouses were horrified. Intimidated by the Evil Sun, the Scenery Commands could only close in together, while hundreds of dharma idol experts charged forward to battle the mirage demons.
Wei Yuan waved his hand again, scattering a swath of emerald green spiritual wood twigs that transformed into Dao soldiers the moment they struck the ground. Over a hundred Dao soldiers rapidly shifted their appearances. Around one of them, dozens of pale gold immortal swords suddenly materialized and shot forth, piercing through the Mountain Folk dharma idol charging at the fore and killing him instantly!
Above another Dao soldier's head, specks of starlight appeared—a total of three hundred and sixty stars, forming a formation of their own. At the center hung a purple imperial star, presiding over the entire array.
Boundless stars surged out like a river of light, washing over a Mountain Folk dharma idol, shattering his defenses in an instant and striking him dead on the spot.
The hundred-odd Dao soldiers Wei Yuan cast out each possessed their own spirituality and distinct dharma idols. Among them, the pale gold sword formation, the Zhou Heavenly Stars, and an idol resembling a tangled skein of black thread were particularly striking.
Hundreds of dharma idols on both sides immediately engaged in slaughter, and in the blink of an eye, over a dozen fell. But when the Mountain Folk died, they died for good, their dharma idols vanishing into nothingness. On Wei Yuan's side, only Dao soldiers were lost, expending mere materials. How could the two be compared?
A Mountain Folk dharma idol skulked about furtively, suddenly reaching out to strike the back of a spiritual wood Dao soldier, instantly reducing it to yellow sand.
This was already the fourth spiritual wood Dao soldier he had slain through an ambush. Just as he moved to approach a new target, his vision blurred, and an ordinary-looking young girl appeared before him.
The Mountain Folk dharma idol was startled and prepared to retreat, only to see the girl point a finger at him, her eyes turning one black and one white in an instant.
A wisp of breeze shot from her fingertip, carrying wave upon wave of aura rippling within it as it blew across him.
In a flash, numerous true intents descended upon him—Blazing Fire, Deep Water, Immortal Orchid, Jianmu, Azure Lotus, Samsara, Yellow Springs, Universal Salvation, Taiyin. Layer upon layer, like blowing sand wearing down stone, they ground away all of this powerhouse's disguises, laying bare his true Scenery Command essence as a solitary golden peak manifested in his mindscape world.
Yet the layers of true intent were like an ocean, eroding the golden peak away. In the span of a breath, that vast mindscape world weathered into nothingness, and a Scenery Command of his generation perished then and there.
Across the battlefield, all the Mountain Folk were stunned. This Scenery Command was a figure of considerable renown who had always excelled at self-preservation; no one had imagined he would fall so cleanly!
The girl instantly withered, turning into a piece of charred wood before disappearing.
The Mountain Folk Scenery Commands closing in silently crept back to their original positions. None had anticipated that Wei Yuan still held such a trump card, and all secretly rejoiced that they had not rashly stepped forward to court death.
They had all understood the girl's method of attack: unleashing an influx of immortal spirit aura of the highest standing, she detonated the entire Dao power of a dharma idol cultivator in an instant—essentially a self-detonation—to completely scour away the opponent's mindscape world with sheer overbearing force!
Wei Yuan flicked out another feather. With a sharp crow, the immortal chicken appeared, pecking at the Mountain Folk dharma idols on the ground one by one, like pecking at insects.
At this, the fighting spirit of the Mountain Folk dharma idols collapsed entirely, and they scattered in flight.
Deprived of the Mountain Folk's support, the defensive line that had taken nearly a full day to construct collapsed under the heavy pressure, reduced once more to barren ground without a shred of cover.
Just as the immortal chicken was displaying its divine might, a voice suddenly rang out from Beyond Heaven: "Base beast, you dare run rampant?"
A beam of grey light laden with the aura of decay shot down from Beyond Heaven, aimed straight at the immortal chicken! It was Cangwu striking across the void, exerting his full power.
True Monarch Chuhe nearby was horrified. Without a moment's hesitation, he unfurled his vividly colored mindscape world over the immortal chicken, intending to use his own body to block the immortal's strike!
Combat was never Chuhe's forte. Not to mention Cangwu striking with full power, Chuhe would surely die even if the immortal used a single fraction of his strength. Yet Chuhe lunged forward nonetheless to shield against the blow.
A sigh sounded in the void, and a figure appeared, intercepting the grey light. He was thrown back ten thousand feet, his aura plummeting by more than half. Yet he was an immortal after all; though gravely wounded, he had caught the strike.
Cangwu had not anticipated this development either, and said in astonishment, "Little State Preceptor?"
The figure was none other than the Lesser State Preceptor of Northern Liao. Ignoring Cangwu, he merely looked back at the immortal chicken, gave a soft sigh, and said, "In the future... I will no longer be able to look after you. Take care of yourself. Before you grow up, take no more risks; many people cannot be trusted."
With that, the Little State Preceptor glared fiercely at Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan was surprised as well, feeling rather sheepish, and quietly slipped the Blue Lamp Before the Buddha back into his sleeve, a tiny green lotus still floating within the lamp dish.
The Lesser State Preceptor of Northern Liao said no more, drifting away with an air of unburdened grace. Only just before reaching Beyond Heaven did his body suddenly sag as he coughed up a mouthful of blood, after which he stepped into Beyond Heaven, never once looking back.
Chapter 1068