This mishap took both shamans and human completely by surprise.
Wei Yuan was surprised that in such a short time—strictly speaking, less than twenty years—Yaolan had actually cultivated a divine ability exclusive to Heavenly Shamans. For an ordinary Heavenly Shaman, that span should have been two hundred years.
Yaolan's Heavenly Shaman divine ability weakened an opponent's defense; before her fist, even steel would turn into tofu. It was a rare lethal technique—utterly unadorned, pure utility. Thus, when she kissed him, Wei Yuan's skin became thin as paper, tearing at the slightest pressure. What surprised both Yaolan and Jiumu was the exact same thing: that Wei Yuan's skin was actually so thin.
Looking quite pained, Jiumu asked, "Where is your Desolate Roar?"
The moment the words left its mouth, Jiumu suddenly realized something and immediately changed the subject. "I'll go fetch Tianyu in a bit. You haven't been back in a while; that fellow has changed a lot."
Yaolan nodded as well. "I can't say whether his changes are good or bad either. He has picked up a lot of habits from the humans now. Take a look in a moment and give us your judgment."
Wei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and nodded. "Rest assured. If he's gone astray, I'll straighten him out."
"Let's go. Back to the fortress first."
Jiumu was just about to use a divine ability to teleport them straight back to the fortress when Wei Yuan suddenly stopped. He looked up at their surroundings, then took a deep sniff. A faint, eerie vitality permeated the air, instinctively making Wei Yuan feel tense and uneasy.
Normally, such faint vitality came from microscopic organisms invisible to mortals. Yet the Desolate Realm possessed none of those microscopic organisms that were ubiquitous in the mortal world, and yet Wei Yuan truly sensed vitality here.
Expressed in terms of the technology of the world beyond the heavens, it was as if the air itself had gained life and was about to stir awake.
Chilled, Wei Yuan asked, "What is this...?"
Jiumu said, "This vitality originates from the Heavenly Pillars. They are scattering life across the entire Desolate Realm. Who knows what they intend."
Jiumu extended two tentacles and placed them on Wei Yuan and Yaolan. This time Wei Yuan did not resist. The scenery shifted before his eyes, and they appeared inside the fortress of old.
With the passage of the years, the fortress had grown taller and grander than when Wei Yuan first left, but the number of Strength Shamans inside had dwindled. Most were resting in their chambers, conserving their strength, while the few walking about were listless. Across the entire fortress, only one place was relatively lively: a dozen or so Strength Shamans gathered together drinking, slurring curses at the Ancestral Shaman.
At the head of the room sprawled a mountain of flesh, upon which grew several lovely little shamans—none other than Tianyu. But the seat upon which Tianyu perched was rather peculiar. Beneath him was a lotus seat, beneath the lotus seat an altar, and before the altar sat an offering table bearing an incense burner and an ancient bronze lamp.
Wei Yuan froze in astonishment. Had Tianyu taken up his old mantle of setting up an altar to lecture on the Dharma? Only, back then Wei Yuan had set up the altar to expound the Dharma, whereas Tianyu set up an altar to have the Strength Shamans worship him.
Tianyu's ritual layout was actually remarkably meticulous and complete. From the design of the lotus seat to the etiquette of the ritual vessels, everything conformed to the Great Dao; even an orthodox lineage of the Pure Land could do no better. One wondered who had designed it for him.
And yet, hurling curses at the Ancestral Shaman seemed to be part of Tianyu's liturgy as well. From this perspective, what Tianyu was running was purely an evil cult. Wei Yuan had never imagined that the Desolate Realm had become so open-minded that anyone could curse the Ancestral Shaman as they pleased.
He carefully examined heaven and earth, discovering that there were actually two and a half Heavenly Shamans in the Desolate Realm. One was naturally Jiumu, who had guarded this place for ages and had long established immense karmic ties with the realm. Jiumu's authority actually stemmed from the Ancestral Shaman, who had used supreme divine abilities to strip away portions of authority from the Great Dao of the Desolate Realm and bestow them upon Jiumu.
Yaolan went without saying: she was the Desolate Realm's native Heavenly Shaman and naturally wielded immense authority. Judging strictly by authority over heaven and earth, Yaolan was not in the least inferior to Jiumu, an established Heavenly Shaman blessed by the Ancestral Shaman.
The remaining half of a Heavenly Shaman was Wei Yuan himself. Wei Yuan held a fair share of the Desolate Realm's authority, and could have even more if he wanted it. In the past, the Desolate Realm had practically chased him down to force authority into his hands, driving Wei Yuan to flee in panic.
On the shaman domain's side, Wei Yuan not only had the Desolate Realm, but also a kingdom in the Nether Cold Realm. Looking at it now, however, these were not merely divine abilities and resources; they were burdens as well. When the time came for Wei Yuan to ascend to immortality, he would have to settle the karma of both realms. Otherwise, he would have to ascend while dragging two domains along—something not even the Ancestral Shaman could accomplish.
Calculated this way, the combined authority of Wei Yuan and Yaolan already surpassed Jiumu's. In other words, the Ancestral Shaman had nearly completely lost control over the Desolate Realm. Wei Yuan realized at once that if the Desolate Realm had a few more Strength Shamans—say, a hundred thousand—then the realm could produce another Heavenly Shaman.
Once they were seated in Jiumu's palace, Wei Yuan stated the purpose of his visit: the truth behind the Liao Clan's calamity, and the secrets of the Immortal Tier.
Jiumu did not answer immediately, asking first, "Who told you those words?"
"Silver Moon Great Khan," Wei Yuan answered without concealing anything. The two Heavenly Shamans before him were comrades who had walked through life and death with him; Silver Moon Great Khan was, strictly speaking, a stranger.
"Silver Moon... Ah, the one who just returned from reincarnation." Jiumu pondered for a moment before speaking. "Silver Moon's branch is very peculiar. For tens of thousands of years, they have hovered on the fringes of the Golden Tent Khanate Court. Several times they clearly had the opportunity to take control of the Golden Tent, yet failed mysteriously every time. However, his warning was correct. The Liao Clan's Immortal Tier is not weak at all; in fact, they are strong—so strong that we must face them with all our might, and even then we constantly face the risk of extinction."
Wei Yuan was stunned. In a sense, the Ancestral Shaman could be called the foremost power of this world; how could the Liao Clan push the shamans to the brink of extinction?
Jiumu signaled to Yaolan, who then said to Wei Yuan, "I need to isolate karma. Give me a hand."
Yaolan immediately mobilized the power of the Desolate Realm, forming a space that severed the inside from the outside. But her isolation was too thorough: it cut off not only karma, but past and future as well, exceeding her strength. Wei Yuan lent his support with his share of the Desolate Realm's authority and employed his divine abilities of time, causing the flow of time to alternate between fast and slow, thereby completing the barrier.
With the barrier complete, Jiumu seized the moment when the flow of time slowed down and spoke swiftly: "For a million years, the Immortal Tier of Northern Liao has been on the offensive, while we have only resisted and counterattacked. Ground battles are merely an insignificant fraction of the struggle between our two races. The Liao Clan's weapon is calamity!"
Yaolan was stunned as well; evidently, this was the first time she had heard these secrets.
Jiumu said solemnly, "The truly formidable Immortal Tier beings of the Liao Clan have done only one thing day in and day out for hundreds of thousands of years: bringing calamities down upon the heads of other races. Over the past several hundred thousand years, they have struck four times in total.
"Four hundred thousand years ago, they struck for the first time, and thus the Nether Cold Realm came to be. It was also then that the Ancestral Shaman merged with the Heavenly Dao. Outsiders thought the Ancestral Shaman was seeking the Dao, but in truth, at least part of the reason was to fend off the endless demonic creatures pouring out of the Nether Cold Realm. Thereafter, the Ancestral Shaman ordered his own descendants to enter the Nether Cold Realm and establish kingdoms, returning those kingdoms to the Nether Cold Realm upon death in order to slow the rate of the realm's demonization.
"Over two hundred thousand years ago, they struck a second time, but the humans unexpectedly did not cooperate. The Ancestral Shaman seized the opportunity to counterattack, which was the Liao Clan's only failure. The Spirit Language Realm appeared as a result, though its conditions were far better, and the Ancestral Shaman still dispatched a portion of our people to garrison it. That is the origin of the Spirit Shamans. Over a hundred thousand years ago, the Liao Clan shifted their target to the Sea Li, and from then on, the Sunken Abyss came to be.
"One hundred thousand years ago, they set their sights on us once more, and the Desolate Realm became what it is today. Back then, to contain the Heavenly Pillars, the ancestor of our Strength Shamans partially merged into the Heavenly Dao of the Desolate Realm, falling into a prolonged slumber ever since. Only after that did the Desolate Realm become hospitable enough for the Shaman race to survive, and a portion of our clan began to enter the Desolate Realm. From that point on, the Strength Shamans came to be."
Chapter 1295