For the Greater Good

With every reset Xu Wenwu underwent, Hongmo's aura fell a notch. Moreover, the resets grew increasingly rapid, and soon the rate of her magic power depletion reached an intolerable point. Yet abandoning Xu Wenwu would mean the failure of her samsara salvation, and Xu Wenwu would simply return to Wei Yuan's side. He was like a leech, steadily and incessantly bleeding Hongmo dry. Such a creature was a far greater blow to her Dao heart than to her magic power. In the brief moment Hongmo hesitated, Wei Yuan captured Xu Wenwu alive three more times, and Xu Wenwu died in battle twice. In just a short quarter of an hour, the magic power Hongmo had expended on Xu Wenwu was seven times what Wei Yuan spent! When Xu Wenwu was surrounded, he panicked; when ambushed, he panicked. Whenever the tide of battle turned against him, he wanted to run, and if running proved impossible, he surrendered. That was during combat; when there was no fighting, he was busy checking whether there were any pretty female soldiers in the ranks, or wondering what he would eat next and where he would sleep. In short, he was mud that could not stick to a wall. As his direct superior, Hongmo nearly suffered a collapse of her Dao heart. Yet Xu Wenwu clearly possessed tremendous karmic luck and profound karma; recklessly killing him carried unpredictable consequences. If Xu Wenwu had been even slightly useful, Hongmo would have personally eradicated him without hesitation. But seeing the state he was in, she felt that losing even a single hair over him was an utter loss. Seeing Xu Wenwu decisively surrender once again before a honey trap, Hongmo finally decided to spare him—and spare herself. Yet in the very next instant, Xu Wenwu reappeared before her, ready to receive his mission. This time, the reset had not been initiated by Hongmo, but by Wei Yuan. Evidently, after weighing the costs, Wei Yuan decided that the meager bit of Dao power required to reset the process could be completely recovered. Hongmo was furious, but she could only forcibly halt the Samsara Calamity Extinction Art. The black-and-red flames around Xu Wenwu's dharma idol flickered out. His physical body opened its eyes, regaining clarity. The moment he snapped to his senses, Xu Wenwu saw countless missiles hurtling under his own guidance to bombard the battlefield boundary, and his face turned pale with fright. Then he saw Wei Yuan's colossal face spanning the heavens and earth, looking down at him with indifferent eyes. Xu Wenwu regained his memories, remembering everything he had done and experienced while under control. His heart shuddered, his legs went limp, and he hurried to blurt out, "Bro, listen to me, I can explain—" "No rush. We'll talk after the battle." Wei Yuan waved his massive hand, replenishing Xu Wenwu's karmic luck before having him resume bombarding Heavenly Bone. Meanwhile, Wei Yuan continued directing the four grand formations, endlessly producing sword qi to slash at the Dharma God. Though Wei Yuan appeared at ease, he was actually exerting his full strength. The Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven was the developmental core of his realm world, but it possessed no innate combat function. The Evil Sun Heavenly Pillar served only as a deterrent and could not truly be deployed. The campaign against the two Metal-phase and two Fire-phase grotto-heavens was proceeding very smoothly, with Han Li and Jun Weizhi each leading a contingent to systematically slay the cultivators within. Yet the primary reason conquering the grotto-heavens went so smoothly was that Wei Yuan channeled the power of his realm world into them, forcibly overriding their internal environments. Furthermore, Wei Yuan used the power of his realm world to suppress five grotto-heavens, continuously shook the strongest Metal-phase grotto-heaven, and suppressed thirty percent of the Dharma God's strength—all drawn from the Central Spirit Manor. At this moment, the Central Spirit Manor was outputting power at full capacity, holding nothing back. The only trump cards left in Wei Yuan's hand were the Seventh Azure-Backed Pale Dragon Cave Heaven and the sword strike Zhang Sheng had deliberately held in reserve. The Seventh Cave Heaven possessed the power to warp time, offering immense utility in both offense and defense. Wei Yuan intended to save it to coordinate with Zhang Sheng's lethal strike, as well as to guard against the Pure Land's Immeasurable Bright Light. In a battle of this scale, judging others by his own standards, Wei Yuan felt it was impossible for the Pure Land not to play dirty from the shadows. If the Pure Land intervened, it would most likely be the Bodhisattva of Immeasurable Bright Light. That Bodhisattva struck with ruthless force and held authority over time; if she struck and Wei Yuan failed to intercept her in time, lives would almost certainly be lost. For now, Wei Yuan was waiting: waiting for Heavenly Bone and Hongmo's magic power to deplete, and waiting for the conquest of the grotto-heavens to conclude. On the outer battlefield, Immortal Monarch Yanshi commanded an eight-against-three advantage, thoroughly dominating the engagement. The Wise King of the Left was struggling bitterly to hold on, and his defeat was only a matter of time. In the blink of an eye, several days slipped by. Wei Yuan's dharma body seated in the Sea of Bitterness suddenly opened its eyes. In his vision, the Dharma God's aura had finally dropped to the critical threshold, and the success rate of a fatal strike had reached twenty percent. The two Dharma Gods continued fighting as usual, showing no outward abnormality. They, too, sensed something, but they did not believe Wei Yuan's strike could succeed. Wei Yuan pointed a finger as ordinary as before, but the channeled sword light froze in midair for an instant. Then, it flared brilliantly, bright enough to blind! Three more sword lights materialized out of nowhere, converging into the first. The four sword lights merged into one, transforming into a torrent that spanned the firmament and cleaved toward Heavenly Bone! Wei Yuan finally mobilized the power of time, drawing forward the three sword lights that would have occurred breaths later and merging them into one. The probability of cutting Heavenly Bone abruptly surged to forty percent! Yet another thread of sword qi, clear and fine as silk, joined the torrent of light, instantly pushing the kill probability to eighty percent! Finally, Wei Yuan's sea of karmic luck plummeted as tens of millions of human luck vanished, pushing the probability straight to ninety-nine percent! The sword light that spanned heaven and earth suddenly caved in, collapsing into a palm-sized sliver of sword qi that bypassed all defenses and sank into Heavenly Bone's body. Hongmo's female form and Heavenly Bone's skeletal form shrieked in agony at the same time. Two overlapping colossal silhouettes appeared over the dharma form, both wrapped in dense sword light that continuously sliced them to pieces, reconstructed them, and sliced them again. Amidst an earth-shattering boom, that sinister dharma form blew apart. Then, countless fragments reassembled, ultimately turning back into two separate Dharma Gods! The fusion between Heavenly Bone and Hongmo had finally been broken. Combined, the auras of the two Dharma Gods were actually considerably stronger than when they had been fused. But at this moment, grayish-white vapors continuously drifted down from the heavens, falling squarely upon them. Vast swathes of withered, decrepit vapors also drifted through all of the Wise King of the Left's grotto-heavens. The moment living beings within touched it, the weak died on the spot, and even the strong were instantly grievously wounded. The defensive lines that had been bitterly resisting Wei Yuan's realm-world army crumbled in an instant. The power of the realm world surged in like a flood, tearing through the final defenses of the Wise King of the Left's grotto-heavens, and several grotto-heaven cores were on the verge of emerging. Once the cores were refined, these grotto-heavens would belong to Wei Yuan. Only the Metal-phase grotto-heaven that was still being shaken remained relatively intact, but everyone knew that once Wei Yuan freed his hands, its fate would no longer be in its own control. It was not just the grotto-heavens; a gray light surfaced across the Wise King of the Left's true body in the immortal heaven. Flecks of withered decay emerged from the void and settled onto him, aging him hundreds of years in an instant. With his Dharma God shattered in a single blow by Wei Yuan, the Wise King of the Left immediately breached his Dao oath, suffering the tribulation of the Five Declines of Heaven and Man. The overall strength of all his grotto-heavens plummeted by nearly half in an instant, and the eight great grotto-heavens deployed in battle were on the brink of total annihilation. Conversely, Hongmo and Heavenly Bone's strength rose rather than fell. Baring their fangs, the two Dharma Gods conferred briefly before launching a furious assault against Wei Yuan. After all, it was the Wise King of the Left who had breached the Dao oath, not them. All the consequences were his to bear; all they cared about now was slaying this formidable enemy, Wei Yuan, or at least wounding him if killing proved impossible. Wei Yuan, however, did not advance; instead, he withdrew, continuously mobilizing the power of the realm world to suppress the two Dharma Gods. Bao Yun, Feng Tingyu, and Ji Liuli held back no longer either. At the same time, Wei Yuan drew upon the power of the Central Spirit Manor to heavily reinforce the borders of the battlefield, preparing to forcibly trap the two Dharma Gods. Wei Yuan's intentions were plain as day, yet the two Dharma Gods felt secure in their backing, confident that Wei Yuan could never truly keep them here. At this critical juncture, Wei Yuan suddenly opened his mouth and intoned a Buddhist syllable! In a flash, Xu Wenwu found himself back in that cold, damp command post. But this time, the beautiful female commander's expression was exceedingly grim. Unless she broke this stalemate, Hongmo could not leave! With one hand pinning Hongmo, Wei Yuan brought his other massive hand crashing down from the heavens toward the Wise King of the Left's five grotto-heavens, preparing to refine them in a single stroke. Right at that moment, three figures appeared in the immortal heaven: an old monk, Duke Yansheng of the Academy, and Cui Zhengxing. Cui Zhengxing raised his hand and pressed down lightly, causing the grotto-heaven battlefield to stall for a fraction of an instant. Then he projected his voice clearly: "The great calamity draws near, and the Liao Clan holds profound influence over how it unfolds. If you two show no mercy, the Liao Clan may be provoked to great wrath, and when the great calamity arrives, our human race will surely suffer immense catastrophe. "Therefore, for the sake of the bigger picture, please grant this Cui some face. Take one grotto-heaven each and return the rest. In this way, punishment will have been duly served. What say you?" These words left even Wei Yuan momentarily stunned. Yet the Wise King of the Left grew belligerent, declaring darkly, "You people have already forced me to breach my Dao oath, and you still want to take my grotto-heavens? Keep dreaming! If you do not return every single one of my grotto-heavens today and repair all the damage, I will never let this matter rest! When the day of the great calamity arrives, I will ensure your lands are scorched for ten thousand li, with casualties beyond count!" A hush fell over the immortal heaven. The immortals of the human race actually maintained complete silence. Those who felt their tempers flare were forcibly reined in by the so-called mature and prudent figures among them. Wei Yuan's divine sense swept across the immortal heaven, and he instantly understood. He asked, "So, if we win, it doesn't count, but if we lose, we deserve it?" Cui Zhengxing gave a light cough and said, "It is merely for the greater good. After all, though the human race across the world is divided into nine states, we share the same breath and blood—" "Fine, I'll consider the greater good!" Wei Yuan cut Cui Zhengxing off directly. Clenching his massive hand with force, he crushed one of the Wise King of the Left's grotto-heavens and refined it in an instant! Immediately following were three more thunderous booms as the other three grotto-heavens were crushed one by one in Wei Yuan's grasp.