Altering Heaven and Earth!

As Wei Yuan continued northward with the vanguard, the silver frost grass in his vision finally began to thin, replaced by a species of grass that bloomed with tiny white flowers no larger than grains of rice. Countless hundreds of millions of tiny white blossoms gathered together, unswaying and silent. Each held open a faint glimmer of light, casting a hazy halo across the earth like moonlight, like flowing water, unfurling a world that seemed to belong only in dreams. All was hushed in absolute silence, heaven and earth gently buoyed by this white light. Stepping into the meadow, Wei Yuan felt as though he were treading upon thick velvet, or skimming atop a thin film of water. With every step, the little white flowers bounced away from the sides of his boots and closed back in behind him. Stray petals occasionally clung to the hem of his robe, only to be swept away at once by the breeze. He looked down. His shadow fell across the blossoms in a pale blue-gray, not holding a solid shape, but flowing away like water. Walking across this grassland was like treading upon flowing moonlight. At the furthest reach of his divine sense ahead stood two cities. Across the vast prairie, however, herds of grazed cattle and horses were rarely to be seen; only a few spirit beasts galloped freely across the sea of grass. Wei Yuan descended, bent down, and plucked a small stalk of grass, examining it closely. Its roots and stem were tender, its petals thin as cicada wings, yet within it lay an extremely faint trace of spiritual qi. According to intelligence reports, this star-moon grass was the Silver Moon Great Khan's natal entity. Whenever Silver Moon went to reincarnate, vast swathes of it would wither. Once Silver Moon returned from reincarnation, the star-moon grass would bloom across ten thousand li once again. Crossing this boundary line led straight into Silver Moon's royal court, the Moon Sea. Wei Yuan straightened up and gave the order to split their forces into two routes, advancing at full speed to launch separate assaults on the two Liao Clan cities. He split this single command into several hundred smaller orders, transmitting them directly to the corresponding units. The army of three hundred thousand instantly divided into hundreds of smaller units, each moving independently yet maintaining a wondrous overall harmony. Then, like two swarms of hornets, they surged at top speed toward the cities hundreds of li away. The Liao Clan cities upon the Moon Sea were fortified only with low walls. The buildings within were no taller than five stories, constructed of earth and wood. Most of their outer walls were painted white, while the rooftops were brightly multicolored. Viewed from afar, they looked like mottled patches of color, lending fiery warmth to this cool, dreamlike world. Outside the city, a young Liao girl was playing a bamboo flute. The notes drifted clear and plaintive as several pure-silver Liao horses wandered freely nearby. Whenever they strayed beyond earshot of the music, they would turn back on their own. One of the horses suddenly pricked its ears, listening to something, and humanlike terror and bewilderment soon filled its eyes. Letting out a long whinny, it dipped its head, picked up the girl by her clothes with its teeth, and set her upon its back. The Liao horses turned their heads in unison toward the distance, where the sky was gradually taking on the metallic sheen of cold steel. At the same time, the ground began to tremble faintly, and countless birds and beasts burst from their hiding places, fleeing in panic. The azure expanse at the horizon was shifting rapidly, closing in with terrifying speed. The young Liao girl did not know that such a phenomenon was called military qi, but several Liao horses of spirit beast grade recognized it immediately. Whinnying in distress, they spun around and galloped straight for the city. The city's tranquility shattered. The herd of spirit horses charged directly into the city lord's estate, but the girl stammered and could not explain clearly. The city lord patiently pressed for details. By the third time he asked, a young cultivator rushed inside, shrieking in terror, "Military qi has appeared outside the city—horrifically terrifying military qi!" "Military qi!" The city lord blanched in shock. Flying straight outside into the sky, he saw azure military qi rolling forward, blotting out the heavens, and his face instantly turned the color of ash. Several tribal elders flew up as well, their complexions draining of color at the same sight. "Give the order at once! Close the city gates, and have all men take up bows and arrows to man the walls!" an elder in the prime of his life urged anxiously. Yet the city lord slowly shook his head. "Do not close the gates. We... surrender." "What?! What if the enemy massacres the city?" "We leave it to fate. The rest of you, flee at once—there is still time. I will stay behind. Someone must fall into their hands." The Qingming army advanced until it was several tens of li from the city, finally slowing its pace. The hatch doors of the land-traversing flying boats swung open, releasing countless heavy-armored template warriors. Led by Golden Pellet cultivators encased like steel cans, they flew toward the city like a swarm of steel locusts. The city lord went forward to meet them, spreading his hands wide to show he bore no hostility. Then he called out loudly, "Who are you? Where do you come from? The city is undefended—please do not use force!" Wei Yuan's figure manifested before him. "I want a map of the entire Moon Sea. Furthermore, every cultivator in the city at or above the Dao Foundation realm must surrender as a captive to march with my army. You have half an hour. Accomplish this, and your city will be spared. Fail, or stall for time, and the city will be slaughtered." Wei Yuan spoke with utter nonchalance, yet the city lord shivered instinctively. Not daring to tarry, he turned and rushed back into the city. Wei Yuan did not march the army into the city. Instead, he deployed several hundred heavy cannons outside and waited quietly. Just as the half-hour limit drew near, the city gates slammed shut! Countless Liao warriors mounted the walls, and a general pointed a saber toward Wei Yuan from afar, cursing, "Lowblood mongrel, you dare demand our surrender? You're not worthy!" Wei Yuan did not bother trading insults. Turning his head, he ordered, "Prepare bombardment. Half an hour." In an instant, hundreds of heavy cannons thundered. The roar of cannon fire and explosions became the only sound between heaven and earth, and the exquisite city was engulfed in a sea of flames in the blink of an eye! Half an hour later, the bombardment ceased. The Qingming warriors deftly loaded the heavy cannons back onto the chariots, and the main host struck camp, continuing their march deeper into the Moon Sea. The location of the royal court was no secret; it had already been extracted under interrogation from captured herders earlier, and cross-referencing it with the roads outside the city confirmed the general direction. The city had been beautiful and exquisite, yet it could not withstand the devastation of heavy cannons and was now reduced to ruins. Wei Yuan did not send anyone inside; he simply broke camp and pushed onward toward the royal court. In this manner, Wei Yuan spent at most two hours at each city. Only one small town genuinely surrendered, yielding several Dharma Idols and hundreds of Dao Foundations as captives marching with the army. The remaining five cities were all reduced to ruins beneath artillery fire. Seven days later, a force of heavy cavalry clad head-to-toe in silver armor appeared before Wei Yuan. This was Silver Moon's Khan's Tent Imperial Guard—the elite of the elite, the core of his direct lineage, over half of whom were kin bound to Silver Moon by blood. This heavy cavalry was magnificently equipped and possessed formidable combat strength, boasting on average one Dao Foundation cultivator for every twenty riders. Their only shortcoming was their sheer lack of numbers: a mere three thousand riders in total. With a wave of his hand, Wei Yuan deployed thirty thousand heavy templates. Within half an hour, the imperial guard was wiped out completely, with Qingming suffering fewer than a hundred casualties—over half of which were caused by the self-detonations of opposing Dao Foundations and Dharma Idols. At this point, Silver Moon's royal court had no resistance left to offer. A day later, Wei Yuan strolled into Silver Moon's grand council tent and settled into the ornate throne Silver Moon usually occupied, testing the feel of the North Sea Frost Moon cold jade beneath his hands. Four Liao women with delicate, fair features walked in. One offered fruit, another served tea, while the other two lifted Wei Yuan's legs onto their laps, gently massaging them. The Liao Clan's standard of beauty favored the back of a tiger, the waist of a bear, the hide of a dragon, and the talons of an eagle—above all, brawn and vigor. The tougher the skin, the better; what they despised most was fair, delicate flesh so tender a breath could break it, for such skin could never withstand the northern gales. The royal court's khan tent was the very pinnacle of Silver Moon's dominion, yet having to scrape together eight "ugly women" on short notice who conformed to human aesthetics had truly stretched their capabilities to the limit. Leaning back against the throne, Wei Yuan addressed the crowd of royal court high nobles who hadn't managed to flee in time: "I happen to have a great fondness for nobles, so you need not fret. Everyone has a chance to buy their life—" Midway through his sentence, Wei Yuan suddenly sat up straight and barked at a Liao noble on the outermost fringe, "Who told you to hide a shadow-recording orb in your bosom?! Men, drag him out and behead him!" That Liao noble's shadow-recording orb had clearly remained tucked in his breast and had never been taken out. Yet he could not utter a single word, his mouth already sealed by Wei Yuan. Moments later, a bloodcurdling scream rang out from outside the hall. An attendant soon carried the shadow-recording orb forward and presented it to Wei Yuan. Sweeping it with his divine sense, Wei Yuan found that the orb contained nothing more than that noble carousing with other Liao men and women, muscles colliding with loud thuds in a thoroughly eye-searing display. Only then did Wei Yuan put on a smile once more, turning back to the nobles: "Now, let us return to the matter of buying your lives—" Wei Yuan left it to these nobles to devise their own methods for buying their lives. Counting the one just now who had concealed a shadow-recording orb with the supposed intent of capturing illicit acts of the realm lord, Wei Yuan had already executed three nobles. The previous two had spoken insolently, and Wei Yuan had indulged them not in the slightest: he had slaughtered them right in front of the assembled nobility, and right before their eyes, had collected their souls, frightening the wits out of every high noble present in an instant. These high nobles who dwelt in the royal court had bloodlines protected by Silver Moon; even in death, they stood a high chance of successful reincarnation and awakening their past-life memories. Thus, for them, so long as they could cultivate to Scenery Command, they could reincarnate at least seven or eight times—equivalent to living tens of thousands of years, bordering on immortality. Who would truly wish to die? Those who had openly defied Wei Yuan had drawn their courage from precisely this. Their thinking was that the worst outcome was simply going to reincarnation; having died so fiercely and unyieldingly, the Great Khan would surely guide their reincarnation in person, making it nothing more than a grand dream. Yet how could Wei Yuan not know this? Gathering up their souls with effortless ease, he showed these haughty high nobles in no uncertain terms that Silver Moon was far beyond the horizon, and when it came to snatching souls, the khan could never outcompete Wei Yuan. With that, every single high noble fell to their knees without a shred of hesitation, fully demonstrating just how sensible these old fellows of generational reincarnations truly were. As for the one carrying the shadow-recording orb, that had been purely collateral misfortune. Seeing how astonishingly pliable these high nobles were, Wei Yuan changed his mind on the spot and decided against executing them. Backbone among these fellows was virtually nonexistent; leaving them to continue ruling this land was far more useful than slaughtering them. Wei Yuan knew well that he could not hold the Moon Sea for long; taking the royal court had already been an unexpected bonus. Since he would soon depart, he certainly had no intention of doing the Liao Clan the favor of wiping out their entrenched noble clans. Having subdued the high nobles, Wei Yuan pointed out four clear paths to survival: first, one high-grade spirit treasure per person, or magic treasures of equivalent value; second, Scenery Command-grade spirit medicine equal to their own body weight; third, surrendering two Scenery Command-grade cultivation seeds from their own clan; or fourth, successfully identifying six Scenery Command-grade cultivation seeds from another clan. Sure enough, once the terms were announced, during the first moment all the clans exchanged discreet glances, colluding with one another. In the second moment, someone stepped forward willing to surrender two cultivation seeds from his own clan, and that single act raised the curtain on a catastrophe. As it turned out, the two seeds he handed over were, by blood, from a branch so distant it could hardly be called family—yet they were direct descendants of another noble house! The grand chieftain of that rival house flew into a rage on the spot, directly outing all three genuine cultivation seeds of the first noble's household, then making up for the remaining three with spirit medicine. Having failed to pull off his trick and instead losing the three talented juniors he valued like his own life, the first noble was consumed with fury. He promptly fingered the rival house's two remaining genius seeds, and in passing, threw in two more genius seeds from one of their branch families as well. The maternal clan of those last two genius seeds wielded formidable influence. Enraged, they turned around and named several elderly peak Dharma Idols from the initial noble's clan, offering the justification: "They possess the makings of Scenery Command." At this point, matters spun utterly out of control. Even a clan widely recognized in the royal court as harmless peacemakers, as well as the most venerable Grand Elder, could not escape. Not only did all the talented youths of their households end up on the list, but not a single peak Dharma Idol was spared either. The only reason everyone targeted these two households was simple: "We're already this miserable, so why should you get off easy?" Thus, among Wei Yuan's entire scheme for buying their lives, the fourth option was the true soul of the design. Seeing the situation spiral into utter chaos, Wei Yuan wasted no more time. He sent his subordinates out with the lists to round up the Liao house by house, while he prepared to tour the khan's tent of the royal court at leisure. Before departing, however, he specifically instructed the cultivators in charge that if any high noble was found to possess exceptional prestige, they were to be subdued immediately and held in solitary confinement. In short, they could not be allowed to unite. The core structure of the royal court's khan tent was the tent-like grand hall where Wei Yuan currently sat. It was itself an immortal artifact; seated within, Wei Yuan could feel constant hostility and suppression. At present, fully one hundred thousand warriors were garrisoned around the hall, using their military qi to counter the pressure of the royal tent so that the Qingming cultivators could walk about within it unhindered. Next came Silver Moon's sleeping palace and the Ancestral Shrine where past generations of ancestors were worshipped. Silver Moon's living quarters were remarkably austere. Aside from having more rooms and covering greater ground, they were little different from those of other Liao elders and khans, and were in fact less extravagant than several of them. Wei Yuan took a stroll through the compound. A small portion of the central tents was quite clean and filled with rich fragrance. The quarters of the servants and guards, however, possessed an odor that was truly touching to the senses. Wei Yuan swept the entire palace with his divine sense, yet among the six hundred-odd rooms, he discovered no extraordinary treasures, nor did he find any hidden chambers. It seemed Silver Moon had indeed given away all his personal wealth to soldiers who had rendered great service, just as the records claimed. To Wei Yuan's eyes, however, there was another explanation. Personal wealth was not something one gave away entirely without reservation; when it came to natural treasures vital for cultivation, lifespan-extending medicines, and karmic luck treasures, Wei Yuan simply did not believe Silver Moon could surrender them all. On average, Silver Moon reincarnated once every millennium, often vanishing without a trace for centuries at a time. Over such vast intervals, no matter how rare a treasure, it would eventually fall into someone else's hands to fondle; no matter how vigilantly he guarded his harem, he could not stop himself from wearing a cuckold's green hat. Thus, Silver Moon took a pragmatic view: he simply gave away all his fortune and dismissed his harem before reincarnating. When he returned once more as a reincarnated soul child, he would start afresh from scratch. Over such prolonged spans, ordinary Liao clansmen believed Silver Moon was struggling against the delusion of the womb, but Wei Yuan now understood clearly that Silver Moon had long since reincarnated successfully and was accumulating foundations under various identities. Since he underwent continual reincarnation, he could not possibly have genuinely discarded all treasures. The most precious among them were likely sealed away somewhere by Silver Moon, to be brought forth as circumstances required. In this life, Silver Moon had not been revived for long, and with the Shaman-Liao war coinciding with the descent of the Great Tribulation—drawing even ancient monsters like the Ancestral Shaman and Liao Ancestor out of their usual slumber—Silver Moon naturally dared not utilize any treasures of dubious origin. Having found nothing in the sleeping palace, Wei Yuan proceeded onward to visit the Ancestral Shrine. The layout of the Liao Clan's Ancestral Shrine was a four-sided stepped tower. Its base measured three thousand zhang long and wide and five hundred zhang tall; its second tier was two thousand zhang across and three hundred zhang tall; and its third tier was one thousand zhang across and one hundred zhang tall. The moment Wei Yuan stepped onto the grounds of the Ancestral Shrine, the colossal structure seemed to come alive, like a giant thousands of zhang tall looking down coldly upon Wei Yuan. Several towering figures emerged alongside it, peering down at Wei Yuan in unison. These were the ancestral spirits of Silver Moon's line—not true souls, but spiritualities born of hundreds of thousands of years of ceaseless sacrificial worship. In a flash, Wei Yuan's body sank heavy, his skin feeling as though it were being pierced by ten thousand steel needles. At the same time, his nostrils caught a scalding, spicy-rich fragrance that rushed aggressively to corrode his internal organs. The power of the ancestors, hundreds of millions of living beings, and even heaven and earth stood together in opposition to Wei Yuan, seeking to suppress and crush him. Had an ordinary Scenery Command cultivator stood here, their Dao heart would likely have buckled within a single stick of incense, driving them mad to their death. Yet Wei Yuan remained entirely fearless. Looking up at those gigantic figures, he said softly, "So this heaven and earth of yours still longs for my death after all. Unfortunately, I am no longer the man I was back then." At this moment, Wei Yuan felt as though he had crossed several decades of time to merge as one with the youth who had ridden the wind south all those years ago, facing the deepest and most undisguised malice of heaven and earth just the same. In his ears, Zhang Sheng's voice seemed to echo once more: "Then alter heaven and earth!" Wei Yuan rose slowly into the air. Across a thousand li around this place, a corner of heaven suddenly tilted down, and boundless spiritual qi converged entirely toward Wei Yuan, condensing into a long spear in his hand! Pouring forth every ounce of his power, Wei Yuan's mindscape world materialized in faint outline, and for an instant across ten thousand li, everything shifted into his domain! In this moment of altering heaven and earth, the spear left his hand, turning into a beam of light that plunged into the Ancestral Shrine! The Ancestral Shrine suddenly swelled outward, then contracted back to its original shape, swelled again, and contracted once more—seven times in succession. The ethereal spirits all let out agonizing shrieks as the Ancestral Shrine blew apart with a deafening roar like an erupting volcano, and the ancestral spirit tablets from the highest tier were hurled tens of thousands of zhang into the sky!