Decoration

The battlefield remained largely as it had been left. No one had touched the most vital areas, such as the high platform where the Great Shaman's corpse lay, waiting until Wei Yuan returned before beginning to sweep the field. Wei Yuan leaped onto the platform and saw the Great Shaman's corpse still lying in place, his outer robe riddled with holes bored out by flying insects. Wei Yuan materialized a longsword and slit open the robe, exposing the body beneath. It was an emaciated frame with an extraordinarily large head. Besides two huge primary eyes, six smaller compound eyes lined his forehead. His scalp was covered in wrinkles and sparse, long hair. He possessed four arms, though the pair beneath his armpits was exceedingly frail and thin. His body was similarly furrowed with wrinkles like the withered branch of an ancient tree, riddled with tiny holes that made it resemble a humanoid insect hive. Under Wei Yuan's focused gaze, a distinct cluster of deep green light glowed inside the Great Shaman's chest, intensely unsettling to look upon. Nearby in the chest was another, slightly smaller cluster of pale green light. Wei Yuan swept his blade down. As the edge of Immortal Sword · False Sun sliced across the Great Shaman's body, it left only a faint white mark, failing to breach the flesh at all. Wei Yuan gathered his strength and struck several times in succession, managing only to carve out a shallow cut. In physical toughness, this body was equal to Wei Yuan's own, if not superior. Yet Wei Yuan possessed a true flesh-and-blood body, whereas what this shell of the Great Shaman actually was remained hard to say. Once a breach was made, it became easier. Only after hacking over a hundred times did Wei Yuan finally cleave open the Great Shaman's chest. The interior of the body was likewise full of honeycomb-like pores, except for a fist-sized cavity at the center containing a mass of yellowish-green jelly. Though Wei Yuan did not know what this substance was, its exceptionally dense Dao power clearly indicated it was an extraordinary treasure. The glow of spiritual power within the Great Shaman's skull was even stronger, but the cranial bone was so hard, and lacking a suitable weapon at hand, Wei Yuan had no easy way to breach the head. Just then, Yun Feifei handed over a flying sword from the side. This was her personal magical artifact, a high-grade artifact whose material quality was several times stronger than the materialized Immortal Sword · False Sun. Empowering the flying sword with the Sun, Wei Yuan hacked over a dozen more times before finally splitting open the Great Shaman's head. The skull gleamed with a metallic luster, but inside it was entirely hollow—there was no brain matter, only a gigantic white pupa occupying the entire cranial cavity. Now stripped of the skull's enclosure, the pupa transformed in Wei Yuan's vision into an orb of deep dark-green light. Despite such a somber shade, looking at it proved blindingly piercing! With just a single glance, Yun Feifei cried out in shock and covered her eyes, tears streaming down her face. The white pupa rose and fell slightly, but showed no other movement. Wei Yuan pondered for a moment, then fitted the cranial bone back into place to seal the pupa inside, after which he severed the Great Shaman's head—it made for a natural container. Having inspected the corpse, Wei Yuan was now even less certain whether this Great Shaman was truly a Wuren or something else entirely. Judging purely from what he had seen, that white pupa seemed much more like the Great Shaman's true form. Aside from the Great Shaman's body, the ground was littered with the corpses of flying insects. Some still drifted with faint wisps of green smoke, which rose high into the air before transforming into threads of spiritual rain that drifted down. Wei Yuan picked up one of the insect corpses. It was the size of a finger, equipped with large mandibles and a venomous stinger, its carapace bearing metallic stripes that made it appear ferocious. Though its spiritual energy had vanished completely, the dead bug remained hard as iron; when Wei Yuan squeezed with force, it did not give at all. Wei Yuan told Yun Feifei to collect all the insect carcasses; they would likely make quite good materials for crafting artifacts, and might even serve as catalysts for certain potent Wu curses. The drum on the platform was wreathed in swirls of dark red qi. Wei Yuan inspected it and discovered the drumhead was crafted from multiple layers of cultivators' human skin, while the drumsticks were made from cultivators' thigh bones. A single beat of this drum could intimidate low-cultivation humans and amplify the power of Wu curses. Besides the human-skin drum, there were many ritual implements and decorative ornaments. Setting aside their intended functions, the materials were exceedingly rare. Lastly, there was the platform itself. It had been built from yin wood that had lain buried for a millennium in a subterranean land of extreme yin. Harder than iron and capable of conducting spiritual power, it was in itself a rather high-grade material, yet it had been used merely to erect a platform, showing just how wealthy the Wu race was. It was only a pity that the shaman nobles had fled too quickly; Wei Yuan had not caught a single one, leaving a touch of regret. With the platform cleared, the routine sweeping of the battlefield began. The Wu forces had left behind several thousand corpses along with more than two hundred venomous lizards, their dark green blood soaking vast swathes of land. The blood of many Wu tribesmen was fiercely toxic; spilled upon the earth, it rendered the ground barren, allowing only certain poisonous weeds and trees unique to the Wu domain to grow. Fortunately, the battlefield lay within the Qingming domain. The toxic blood was being steadily transmuted and would be completely purged before long. *** Within the Palace of Grand Beginning, Pei Tinghai had fished for half a day and returned empty-handed. By now, the game of go was drawing toward its close, yet victory remained undecided, the black and white stones clashing at their fiercest. Just as he intended to step over and watch the game, a hazy plume of azure qi suddenly manifested above his head, followed by threads of immortal rain that fell and were absorbed into his dharma body. Surprise showed on Pei Tinghai's face. "Another gift from heaven and earth? Did he slay another dharma idol?" He walked over to the water basin and washed his hands once more. The water in the basin remained crystal clear, without a single trace of foul blood this time. *** In Sky Azure Hall, True Monarch Xuanyue sat before a desk, holding a sheet of jade paper in one hand while silently calculating with the other. He suddenly looked up and said, "Since you have come, why not step inside for a chat?" The courtyard gate was pushed open, and a middle-aged cultivator stepped inside. His build was ordinary, neither tall nor burly, yet the scenery around him distorted faintly, showing that his physical body had reached an unfathomable level of cultivation. Seeing him, Xuan Yue tucked away the jade paper without showing any reaction and said, "What brings the Hall Master of the Bright King here today? Could it be you've come to collect debts early?" The middle-aged cultivator waved his hand repeatedly. "This Zhao is a man of his word—how could I collect before the due date? My Hall of the Bright King hasn't fallen on hard times to that extent. My visit today is merely because it's been so long since we last met; I thought we might catch up on old times." "Didn't we just see each other three months ago?" The middle-aged cultivator laughed heartily. "One day apart feels like three autumns, let alone three months!" True Monarch Xuanyue's face darkened. "What are you really trying to say?" The Hall Master of the Bright King blinked in surprise. "Brother Daoist Xuanyue, why be so distant? You weren't like this before." True Monarch Xuanyue snorted coldly. "I merely owe you some silver. At worst, I'll simply pay you back." Seeing True Monarch Xuanyue suddenly turn rigid, the Hall Master of the Bright King waved his hands in haste. "I told you, there is no need to repay it early! I truly have an audacious request in coming here. Would you consider letting Wei Yuan become a nominal disciple of my Hall of the Bright King?" "Out of the question!" "A guest advisor?" "No!" "A nominal elder?" True Monarch Xuanyue looked at the middle-aged cultivator with growing suspicion, sizing him up and down. He wondered if this fellow had suffered cultivation deviation. An elder of any hall had to be in the late stage of dharma idol. Even Perfected Fenhai, formidable as he was in combat, could not become an elder because his cultivation realm was not high enough. A nominal elder was still an elder; letting a mere Dao Foundation disciple like Wei Yuan become an elder was simply a joke. The Hall Master of the Bright King sighed. "Ah, forget it. If Brother Daoist is unwilling, so be it. But there is another matter where I need Brother Daoist's help. If you agree, I can unconditionally extend your past debt by fifty years, and lend you an additional two million!" Such a good deal existed? Instead of delight, True Monarch Xuanyue felt only deeper suspicion, staring at the Hall Master of the Bright King in silence. The Hall Master of the Bright King continued, "Actually, it's just a small thing. In the Hall of Myriad Manifestations, that boy Wei Yuan's Dao Foundation is just sitting there looking a bit lonely, so I was thinking if we could add a little decoration to it." True Monarch Xuanyue asked suspiciously, "Just that? When did your Hall of the Bright King become so wealthy? What kind of decoration do you want to add?" "Like this!" With a grand wave of his hand, the Hall Master of the Bright King conjured an image before them. In the image was Wei Yuan's Dao Foundation, Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains. Only now, beneath the boundless continent, were four Herculean strongmen—two men and two women—each bent double with bulging muscles, bearing the continent upon their backs. And across the chests of all four strongmen were emblazoned three large characters: Hall of the Bright King! "This... this..." Even with his heaven-reaching Dao power, True Monarch Xuanyue was left dumbstruck. The Hall Master of the Bright King coaxed him with earnest persuasion: "It is a bit shameless, but the embarrassment falls on Wei Yuan and my Hall of the Bright King—mostly on Wei Yuan, really! It has nothing to do with Sky Azure Hall. As long as Brother Daoist agrees to this, your repayment period can be deferred by fifty years, and I'll lend you another two million. The immortal silver is already right here." With that, the Hall Master of the Bright King set a jade bracelet upon the table. This was no empty promise, but cold, hard immortal silver placed right before his eyes—an extraordinary shock to one's Dao heart! Xuan Yue hesitated, unable to fathom what medicine the Hall Master of the Bright King was peddling. "I'll also dispatch an immortal foundation disciple to accompany Wei Yuan on his travels for ten years!" The Hall Master of the Bright King raised the stakes once more. Now Xuan Yue was genuinely tempted. No hall possessed more than a handful of immortal foundation disciples. Having such a core disciple of the Hall of the Bright King by Wei Yuan's side meant that no matter what danger Wei Yuan encountered, even if only to rescue their own disciple, the Hall of the Bright King would do everything in their power to help. This was equivalent to securing a powerful ally out of thin air. After weighing it over and over, True Monarch Xuanyue still shook his head. But his head had only just begun to sway when the Hall Master of the Bright King declared with ironclad finality: "Five million!" True Monarch Xuanyue's head suddenly seemed to sprout a consciousness of its own, developing thoughts of its own, and gave several forceful nods.