Do I Need to Pick a Time to Beat You?

Above the Sea of the Moon, Wei Yuan stood aloft in the air, radiating an effortless, dashing grace. Every wisp of the surrounding wind shifted in harmony with his will, fluttering the hem of his robe and the strands of his hair just enough to convey elegance without a hint of frivolity. Below him, over three hundred thousand troops and tens of thousands of templates stood in solemn silence, drawn up into immaculate battle formations. On the distant horizon, the Silver Moon Great Khan appeared in the likeness of a youth. Striding at an easy pace, he closed the distance to Wei Yuan in mere steps before speaking: "Wei Yuan, I have always treated you with sincerity. Why launch a surprise attack on my royal court without cause, and even desecrate my ancestral shrine? By the teachings of your human race's sages, your conduct is utterly devoid of righteousness—a betrayal of virtue and trust!" Wei Yuan answered calmly, "What the sages said of virtue, propriety, and righteousness was spoken for human ears; those are rules internal to our human race. When dealing with alien clans, I live by only one principle: do I need to pick a time to beat you?" No matter how deep Silver Moon's cultivation ran, he could not keep a flash of fury from crossing his face. "Good, very good! I hope you do not live to regret this! Calamities always pass in the end." Wei Yuan replied, "The calamity will pass, but you may not." Wasting no more words, Silver Moon conjured a wolf-toothed scimitar into his hand and cleaved downward straight at Wei Yuan's head with a ten-thousand-zhang arc of blade-light! This strike, unleashed in cold fury, carried the full measure of his power. It was noticeably stronger than anything Nine Eyes could muster, on par with an all-out strike from Immortal Zhao Li. Yet what the blade-light crashed into first was the mountain-thick military qi. What was more, Qingming's military qi stood square, upright, and solid to a degree rarely seen in all the world. The moment the arc cleaved into the military qi, it was ground down layer by layer, sheared of a full ten percent of its might! A massive black shield then appeared in Wei Yuan's hand. Formed by drawing upon the immortal power of the youthful immortal corpses within the jade coffins, it countered Silver Moon's blade-light with exquisite precision. The giant shield shattered upon impact, shaving away another ten percent of the strike. Immediately after, Wei Yuan flicked out a drop of water from the yin spring. This fist-sized globule held an immense store of karmic fortune. Though Wei Yuan could not yet utilize it properly, activating it proved enough to strip away another thirty percent of the blade-light. Faced with an attack diminished to half its original strength, Wei Yuan simply mobilized the power of his domain in a downward suppression, receiving the blow with effortless ease. His robes and hair fluttered lightly, lending him the poise of an immortal transcending the dust. Wei Yuan smiled faintly. "Again. Put a bit more strength into it—I can still take it." Silver Moon slashed twice more, yielding the exact same outcome. Once one reached the immortal realm, methods of battle actually grew less convoluted. Decisive battles between grotto-heavens were the most common recourse, whereas the flashy, intricate Daoist techniques of the Scenery Command stage became utterly useless for the most part at the immortal tier. The trouble was, how long had it been since the grotto-heaven duel between the Wise King of the Left and Yanshi? In the vast span of an immortal's lifetime, it had practically happened yesterday. Any immortal with a shred of sense would never choose to clash grotto-heavens with Wei Yuan. With a scale like Wei Yuan's, it might have been manageable if his foundation were divided across several dozen grotto-heavens; but concentrated into just one, it was downright terrifying. Without a grotto-heaven duel, their only option was a raw contest of immortal power. Silver Moon had unleashed three consecutive strikes in hopes of pitting his Dao power against Wei Yuan's with the backing of heaven and earth, testing Wei Yuan's true caliber. Yet Wei Yuan had just destroyed his ancestral shrine, effectively shattering the royal court's domain power and drastically gutting the blessing of heaven and earth. Not only did Wei Yuan possess military qi for defense, but he also held targeted treasures excavated from the ancestral shrine to burn as expendable materials. His military qi was inexhaustible and ever-renewing, and the underground stockpile of consumables from the ancestral shrine was vast; Wei Yuan could flick out thousands more drops of that yin spring water without breaking a sweat. Silver Moon's expression darkened, and he turned to leave on the spot. He had already grasped the heart of the matter. Setting aside the expendable treasures—which carried latent risks and could not be used indefinitely—the crux was the military qi. That power regenerated without limit. Clashes between immortals were never settled in a strike or two; they routinely dragged on for months or even years. If the military qi shaved ten percent off Silver Moon while buffing Wei Yuan by ten percent, that advantage would compound over a protracted war into an insurmountable chasm, more than enough to bury Silver Moon without a grave. Furthermore, the military qi shielded Wei Yuan, allowing him unhindered passage throughout the Liao domain. It rendered him immune to karmic-tracking curses and dulled the effects of insidious hexes. Even an ambush by an Immortal Monarch would struggle to deal him a crippling blow. This was Silver Moon's first direct confrontation with Wei Yuan, and only now did he truly appreciate how utterly repulsive Qingming's military qi was. It was everywhere, at all times, constantly chipping away at you from every angle. Before Qingming, military qi of this caliber had never existed. Silver Moon's figure flickered, reaching the horizon in the blink of an eye. Wei Yuan called out languidly from behind, "Safe travels, Great Khan! Hurry along and mobilize your troops. Only when you have your own military qi will it be a fair fight!" Silver Moon ground his teeth in fury. A cryptic symbol surfaced within his left eye, bringing him to the very brink of deploying his ultimate trump card. Yet as he looked up toward the vault of heaven, at those unfathomable heights beyond the reach of divine sense, several colossal, unimaginable figures looked down upon the Liao domain. The symbol in Silver Moon's eye faded away once more. The moment he returned to the main camp, Silver Moon immediately pulled troops from all points along the defensive line, cobbling together an army of a million to roll south in an effort to reclaim the royal court. A round trip like this would inevitably cost him a month; Silver Moon no longer harbored any hope that Wei Yuan would leave anything behind for him. As columns of Liao iron cavalry began marching out of the camp toward the south, a murderous glint surfaced on Silver Moon's face. He said coldly, "Go see what those three useless fools from the Shuangya Clan are doing! They were ordered to intercept the humans, so how did they allow so many enemies into the Sea of the Moon?" "Wait!" A tall, hideous Liao woman strode over. She possessed a pair of bizarre, dark-red eyes, along with long, pointed ears and hair as sleek as silver silk. The Liao Clan had always considered short, square, thick ears to be the standard of beauty, as immortal artifacts refined from such ears yielded peerless might. Though this woman was unsightly, Silver Moon dared not show the slightest disrespect. Suppressing his temper, he said, "I must reclaim the royal court. Time is of the essence. What is it?" "For the enemy to seize your royal court without making a sound, they are certainly no simple matter. Going like this will likely end in failure. How about I accompany you? In any case, Youfeng will not be able to act for a while." Silver Moon hesitated for a rare moment, then said helplessly, "I truly wish you would, but I can no longer afford the price to enlist your aid." The Liao woman replied, "I could also go using my Star-Rock body." Silver Moon offered a bitter smile. "My ancestral shrine has been breached, and all the yin spring water within has fallen into enemy hands. I cannot even afford your Star-Rock body." "You may defer payment on credit and settle it later with other goods. However, by the rules, the cost will be doubled. This is the Living Buddha's decree; none may violate it." Silver Moon drew a deep breath. "I cannot afford it. Forget it, then." Only after Silver Moon had walked far off did another Liao woman—one of breathtaking beauty—reveal herself. She remarked, "That fellow actually refused the bait! Hmph. Being too clever isn't necessarily a blessing. Yuezhuang, without your help, I doubt he will survive the trial before him." "Leave it be. Beneath the shadow of this calamity, I dare not make any grand moves either. I can only do what I can." "It truly is strange. A fellow who reincarnates time and again yet can never advance his cultivation—why does the Little Living Buddha hold him in such high regard?" "Matters concerning the Living Buddha are best left unquestioned. Our top priority right now is to capture Hongmo and return her to her proper place." "But the calamity—" "—Let Hongmo live a little longer first."