Xiaoyu stood at the prow of the flying boat, watching the armored torrent surging northward below. A flicker of puzzlement crossed his eyes. "Why does it look like there are fewer armored war chariots than before? And their design seems strange—I've never seen that model."
Beside him, a young vice general said, "My lord has been overseas for a long time. You haven't been back to Qingming in two years, have you?"
"Four years."
"Ah, that explains it. This is a newly organized force from within the domain, fully outfitted with the newest generation of armored land-travel flying boats. The old-style chariots were either six-wheel or eight-wheel drive, but these land-travel boats are driven by sixteen templates. Their speed is vastly increased—they can easily run down opposing Dao Foundation cultivators and outpace even the finest Liao horses."
"So that's how it is." Xiaoyu didn't entirely understand, but nodded as if he did. Then he asked, "It seems there are rather few main battle chariots as well."
The vice general explained, "The old-style chariots are too slow and inflexible. So now, the core combat unit of the new-generation armored forces is the heavy-armored template. Those chariots are only used to defend positions and protect baggage trains, or as field fortifications when necessary."
Xiaoyu nodded and swept his gaze over the artillery units towed behind the chariots. "Do their attack targets cover Dharma Idols now?"
"Your Excellency's insight is keen. One of this force's key targets is indeed enemy Dharma Idols. However, our chariots cannot yet catch up to a Dharma Idol on the move, so they can only come into play during positional battles and defensive warfare."
Xiaoyu grunted noncommittally.
Yet within his sea of consciousness, Xiaoyu and Star Lord Shaoyang looked at each other in silence. After a moment, Xiaoyu asked, "They don't even need us for Dharma Idols anymore? Does that mean we can only fight Scenery Command? If you duel a Scenery Command one-on-one, can you win?"
Star Lord Shaoyang replied, "An early-stage Scenery Command is naturally no problem. But middle-stage cultivators already possess a true spirit, and without a physical body, I would lose far more often than I win."
"So we can handle two early-stage Scenery Commands, and with the boost from military qi, we might hold our own against a middle-stage one. But the enemy isn't going to accommodate our cultivation level."
Star Lord Shaoyang abruptly changed the subject. "Tell me... do you think that fellow is already developing weapons to deal with Scenery Command?"
Xiaoyu jolted in shock.
The army of a million rolled into the Three Rivers Khanate. Batu had received his orders long in advance, establishing supply centers every thousand li along the route, fully stocked with food, water, and ugly women.
Yet most of his painstaking efforts came to naught. The Qingming army brought their own rations and sent all the women back, taking only drinking water and sleeping for just four hours before resuming their march.
Pausing only briefly at each depot, the Qingming army pressed northward at over a thousand li a day. They soon traversed the snowy mountain passes and continued north, their spearhead pointing straight at the Blue Sea—the largest oasis along the southern border of the Liao domain.
At the center of this oasis lay an immense freshwater lake spanning several hundred li, sustaining nearly a hundred million Liao people around it. In every major war, the Silver Moon Great Khan could easily conscript more than a million elite cavalry from this land.
Word of Qingming's northward march swiftly flew across the snowy plains and reached deep into the Liao domain.
On the northern tundra, a sea of military tents stretched without end. The Silver Moon Great Khan stepped out from his grand yurt and looked west. There, the sky was completely shrouded in dense, leaden-green clouds, pitch-black beneath as if night had fallen—a stark contrast to the endless clear skies and gleaming snow on the Liao side, as though two separate worlds collided.
Suddenly, a surge of cloud erupted from the leaden clouds, morphing in an instant into a whip of cloud a hundred li thick and several thousand li long that lashed viciously into the depths of the Liao domain!
A shrill shriek tore through the ears of every Liao clansman. Soldiers collapsed, clutching their heads in agony and writhing on the ground. Even a soldier within the Silver Moon Great Khan's line of sight suddenly collapsed, both hands clawing at his own throat; after a few agonizing convulsions, his mouth gaped open, and he spat out a still-beating heart!
A shadow crossed the Silver Moon Great Khan's face. He flicked a ball of glacial flame, reducing the soldier to ashes.
To kill a soldier right before his eyes—such divine power was truly earth-shattering! Across the encampment, screams rose and fell in waves. With a sweep of his divine sense, Silver Moon knew tens of thousands of stalwart warriors had perished.
His camp held nine hundred thousand iron cavalry in all; the loss of a few tens of thousands was nothing major in itself. The problem was that the enemy had not even been aiming for him.
The river of black cloud stretched across the sky like an inky dragon, thrusting recklessly deep into the Liao domain. Wherever it passed, heaven and earth were instantly warped into the Wu domain! Even Silver Moon's camp was not spared; nearly half of it was twisted into the Wu domain.
Silver Moon was an Immortal Monarch, yet he could barely withstand the aftershocks. Such was the might of a strike from an Ancestral Shaman!
From the depths of the Liao domain rose four beams of light. Among them stood two towering, colossal figures, alongside a dharma artifact resembling a bracelet, and finally a pure beam of radiance. Only by striking together did they manage to intercept the Ancestral Shaman's blow.
Silver Moon watched those two colossal figures, his pupils contracting slightly before a spark of burning ambition flared in the depths of his eyes.
"Sooner or later, it will all be mine..." The murmur went unheard.
"Great Khan, disaster has struck!" An abrupt shout snapped the Silver Moon Great Khan back to reality.
A Scenery Command cultivator flew over, landing before Silver Moon and dropping to one knee. Presenting an urgent dispatch, he said, "Qingming has mobilized a million troops and invaded the Blue Sea! King Tuli of the Southern Court has assembled four hundred thousand iron cavalry to resist them. But the disparity in forces is too great—we beg the Great Khan to dispatch reinforcements immediately!"
Just then, heaven trembled and the earth sank. The ground shook violently as the sea of clouds in the west roiled. Countless Shamans surged out from beneath the clouds. Though Silver Moon's camp did not bear the brunt of the onslaught, it too was targeted.
At the crest of the clouds, several eerie, gigantic figures emerged. One of them, an immensely colossal dark firebird, spread its wings and showered trails of fire-rain in its flight. Everywhere it passed turned into a sea of fire; Liao warriors shrieked endlessly in the flames, reduced to cinders along with their horses in the blink of an eye!
Silver Moon's expression grew grim. He gritted his teeth. "Why now of all times...? What on earth is that fool Tuli doing? The humans attacked, so why is this only being reported now?!"
The messenger hurriedly replied, "It is not Tuli's fault, but rather that the humans arrived far too quickly this time! From dispatching their army to reaching the borders of the Blue Sea, they took only a month!"
"Covering tens of thousands of li in just a month? Does he take me for someone who has never led troops?!" But Silver Moon had no time to dwell on details. Unbuckling his saber, he tossed it to the cultivator and barked, "This carries the power of one of my strikes. Deliver it to Tuli and tell that useless waste to keep the humans outside the oasis! If he fails, he needn't bother seeing me again!"
With that, the Silver Moon Great Khan leapt into the air, transforming into a thousand-zhang silver wolf to intercept the Nether Phoenix and clash fiercely against it.
Yet with an Ancestral Shaman entering the fray, the Liao Clan's immortal-tier forces were at a distinct disadvantage, forced back step by step. On the ground, the Shaman army did not possess numerical superiority, yet under the potent blessings of the Heavenly Shamans, they continued to shatter the Liao ranks layer by layer, steadily advancing.
Along the edge of the Blue Sea Oasis, hundreds of thousands of Liao iron cavalry deployed, forming a mobile front stretching over a hundred li to block the surging torrent of steel.
Xiaoyu was no stranger to dealing with the Liao Clan and knew their tactics well. He immediately positioned the old-style heavy war chariots along the center front, with heavy-armored template warriors stationed before them. On the flanks were light chariots, while the artillery and the new heavy flying-sword launchers designed specifically against Dharma Idols were stationed in the rear. Behind them all, he concealed the newest high-speed landskiffs.
As war horns blew from the Liao ranks, massive cavalry contingents charged across the hills and plains. A formidable cavalry force abruptly appeared on their left flank; in an instant, the Liao formation shifted weight to the left, clearly intending to concentrate force and break through on the wing.
Xiaoyu gave a cold sneer and directly ordered the heavy artillery to fire, saturating the advance routes of the Liao cavalry with concentrated bombardment. Firepower defense had become standard Qingming doctrine.
Yet no sooner had Xiaoyu issued the command than a sudden chill gripped his heart—a biting killing intent had locked onto him! In the next instant, an unremarkable cavalryman in the Liao ranks drew a crescent-shaped short blade and slashed downward through the air toward Xiaoyu, ten thousand zhang away!
In a flash, Xiaoyu's connection to heaven and earth was severed completely. His mindscape world turned into stagnant water, illuminated through and through by frigid moonlight.
Chapter 1376