Benefits

With Silver Moon dead, the barrier blocking the calamity vanished, and vast swarms of calamity warriors charged toward the rear of the Liao cavalry. At the front, the Liao warriors suddenly realized the blessings upon them had disappeared, while streaks of Buddhist radiance cascaded from the sky like rainbows, bestowing vast swathes of blessings upon the Qingming soldiers. Many Liao immediately broke into tears; this shift plainly meant Silver Moon had fallen in the duel of dharmic arts. Despair did not break their resolve, but some among them were unwilling to die like this, fleeing across the ridges and mountains to either flank. By this point in the battle, only tens of thousands of surviving Liao cavalry remained—less than one in ten of their original numbers. With successive taps of his finger, Wei Yuan summoned dozens of lightning bolts crashing down, striking down every escaping Liao dharma idol and Dao Foundation cultivator one by one. Having fought to such a stage, Wei Yuan made his bottom line crystal clear: not a single Dao Foundation cultivator would leave alive. Yet many ordinary Liao horsemen, after fleeing to the high ground on both flanks, reined in their steeds and looked back. Their eyes blazed with hatred, clearly intent on watching the army of the calamity swallow the Qingming forces whole. Yet since Wei Yuan had dared to intercept Silver Moon, he had naturally prepared well in advance. Wei Yuan waved his hand, bringing down a golden-red curtain that shut out all the Liao cavalry. In the next instant, he issued thousands of orders down to the hundred-man squads. Every hundred-man squad knew precisely what it needed to do, requiring only that they bury their heads in execution. The Qingming army along the defense line moved with rapid precision. Golden Pellet cultivators severed the connections between the steel wall plating and the war chariots, while the heavy chariots retracted their support mode and wheeled around on the spot. Ordinary soldiers who had yet to acquire templates had no time to enter the chariots, so they scrambled directly onto the hulls, securing themselves fast to the vehicles. The template cultivators of Qingming were legion. They swept through to handle the rearguard and, amid the frantic rush, carried away all the wounded and the corpses of the fallen. Then, amid rumbling roars, chariot after chariot fired up, retreating toward the distance like an ebbing tide. From holding a defensive stance to a full-scale withdrawal took a mere two quarters of an hour. Just as the calamity army crested the horizon, the entire Qingming army was already withdrawing, having no intention of clashing with the calamity. Within Qingming, heavy chariots were considered sluggish, yet on long-distance hauls, their speed outstripped even Liao horses. Seeing that they could not catch up, the calamity warriors gradually slowed to a halt. Boundless Radiance appeared beside Wei Yuan, watching the steel torrent surging southward below, and marveled, "Such a formidable army, and directed as effortlessly as one's own fingers—truly unimaginable!" Wei Yuan said, "The Bodhisattva has yet to say why you came." Boundless Radiance said, "Even had I not come, you would have won all the same. Thus, my coming here was merely adding flowers to brocade, hardly sending charcoal in the snow." Wei Yuan said with a solemn expression, "Had the Bodhisattva not come, our losses in this battle would have exceeded five hundred thousand, whereas our casualties stand at only a hundred and fifty thousand. Those three hundred and fifty thousand lives were saved by the Bodhisattva. That is sending charcoal in the snow! But as to why the Bodhisattva came, please enlighten me. Otherwise, going forward, personal sentiments might remain sentiments, while public duty remains public duty." Boundless Radiance said, "Why are you so impatient? Very well, I shall tell you two things. First, the matters of the past: before and after my attainment of the Dao, karma was severed. Whatever my mortal vessel did in that lifetime has nothing to do with my spiritual status, nor did my spiritual status interfere. Do you understand?" Wei Yuan nodded. This was common knowledge regarding the reincarnation cultivation of mighty figures. Back then, Immortal Venerable Suchan must have understood it as well. Aside from what Suchan had specifically entrusted to him, it was not his place to meddle in karmic entanglements of the older generation. Boundless Radiance continued, "Only because the Martial Ancestor sealed off the world and struck down the Immortal Lords is the immortal realm so vibrant today, no longer suffocating in stagnation as the few great Immortal Lords endlessly reincarnated and took turns holding sway. During this period of interdiction, should any foreign Immortal Lord enter the human realm, they would trigger retaliatory strikes prepared by the Martial Ancestor. Vast though this realm is, those capable of withstanding a strike from the Martial Ancestor do not even fill the fingers of one hand. "Yet with such an arrangement, when the restriction breaks, the Human Clan will not have even a single decent Immortal Lord. The Venerable Lord is actually half-crippled; though able to linger on his last legs, suppressed under the interdiction for so many years, his injuries will only continue to worsen. Immortal Lord Liuli hovers between life and death, having merely sealed away a single strike before his passing. Those like Nanji have long since become lonely ghosts and wandering spirits; last time, Nanji even sought to reincarnate into your son. Completely devoid of a Dao heart—truly laughable. "The Martial Ancestor naturally foresaw such a predicament and made corresponding arrangements. By coming to assist you, I can use this merit to trade with the Martial Ancestor, obtaining a slight elevation in my spiritual status. This is my benefit. Anyone else who did so could likewise elevate their status, though the opportunities are limited—likely no more than three times. Beyond that, the Martial Ancestor seems to have prepared other secret trump cards, which even I know nothing about." Lost in thought, Wei Yuan asked, "If elevating one's status is such a good thing, why didn't anyone else come? And the Bodhisattva paid a tremendous price to come here—where was that price paid?" Boundless Radiance said, "Naturally, there are those who wished for you to die in the Liao domain—or at the very least be heavily wounded, preferably to the point of ruining your foundation. How could raising their status by a sliver compare to your death? The relationship between Silver Moon and the Young Living Buddha of Esoteric Buddhism is murky and tangled, yet in several past crises, it was the Young Living Buddha who stepped in to save him. Many were hoping you would die at the Young Living Buddha's hands. "In coming this time, I had originally prepared to clash with the Young Living Buddha, but for reasons unknown, he never made a move, which is truly a pity. The preparations I made had a time limit; even unused, they will dissipate. On the other hand, by coming here, I naturally earned the malice of those who wanted to see you dead. That is no mere slight—they have become my Dao enemies." Wei Yuan said, "I consider myself detached from worldly contention, wishing only to make life better for mortals. Why do so many people still wish for my death? Aside from enjoying showing off a few divine displays now and then, I have no real flaws." Boundless Radiance gave a faint smile and said, "It is quite simple, really: no one wants another Martial Ancestor pressing down on their heads." Wei Yuan let out an "Oh," then said, "That is not up to them." Boundless Radiance said, "I have manifested in the Liao domain for quite some time. If Esoteric Buddhism detects me, trouble will follow. Now that matters are concluded, I ought to take my leave." Wei Yuan offered a bow and watched as Boundless Radiance vanished. Matters developing to this point had far exceeded Wei Yuan's expectations. His original plan had been to bottle up Silver Moon at the mountain pass, forcing him to mount a frontal assault on Qingming's defense line first. By the time Silver Moon realized he could not break through and chose to split his forces to take a detour, he would have already suffered grievous losses. And once he made a wide flanking detour, Wei Yuan would simply withdraw his army. In truth, the objective of this battle had originally been merely to wipe out two hundred thousand Liao cavalry, thereby buying a bit of time for Chuhe's frost-grass virus to spread. Once they successfully withdrew south, tallying the whole campaign would have been equivalent to storming into Silver Moon's lair, hacking down the roof beams, smashing everything in sight, and making off with valuables and plain-looking captives. Such losses would take at least a dozen years to recover from. With a dozen years of buffer, Qingming's strength would climb yet another tier. Moreover, Wei Yuan would hardly sit idle during those years; he would surely make foray after foray deep into the steppes, burning, looting, and casually exhausting a bit of Chuhe's merit along the way. The plan had been flawless. Yet the calamity had descended without warning, driving Silver Moon into a dead end. Adapting to the shift, Wei Yuan altered his plan to devour the lion's share of the million Liao cavalry, though he had never expected to actually claim Silver Moon's life. What followed was even more unexpected: Silver Moon did not flee, choosing to fall rather than abandon his million Liao cavalry. It seemed those million horsemen carried immense significance for him, and his remark about being a plaything in the Buddha's palm seemed well worth digging deeper into. And lastly, that Silver Moon's corpse was dragged underground by the calamity was yet another surprise. At this moment, beastly roars and loud hammering echoed within the Spirit Herding Ring. The youthful Silver Moons inside the black jade coffins were struggling desperately, rattling their iron chains in an effort to break free. Xiao Bai crouched on high ground, his back arched, continuously emitting threatening growls, appearing extremely tense. Only when Wei Yuan's divine sense swept across did Xiao Bai nearly leap out of his skin before transmitting a clear thought: "You're finally here! What in the world are these freaks? Scared the life out of me!" Losing Silver Moon's corpse was no great loss. Although the residual immortal power in each youth's remains was less than ten percent of Silver Moon's, together they already equated to three Silver Moons. Wei Yuan manifested his figure and inspected the coffins one by one. The more he looked, the clearer a thought grew in his mind: Perhaps these were the real Silver Moon. In each cycle of reincarnation, he had been slain, then sealed beneath the ancestral shrine. After enough times, the thing outside gradually became Silver Moon, while those lying here became the counterfeits.