The three discussed their attack strategy briefly, waited a little longer, and took to the skies one after another once they estimated that Zhang Sheng was about to arrive.
Wei Yuan took the lead, flying straight above the Shaman camp. The Shaman camp immediately stirred with commotion as sentries spotted him, and several Dao Foundation warriors soared into the air to intercept him.
Wei Yuan did not even glance at them. In an instant, he manifested Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, while the tender sprout appeared above his head.
The manifested range of Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains instantaneously expanded to five hundred zhang, barely covering half the camp. Several Shaman warriors who had just taken flight screamed in unison, and two plummeted back down. Chaos erupted throughout the encampment as countless warriors scratched wildly at their bodies and poured out of the barracks.
At that moment, the Exquisite Treasure Tree appeared above Wei Yuan's head, merging into one with the sprout. The manifested range of Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains abruptly swelled to two thousand zhang, and five hundred zhang around Wei Yuan completely became a mortal clear domain!
Cries of shock and screams tore through the Shaman camp. Many warriors who had charged out collapsed headlong, writhing in agony as wisps of green smoke began rising from their bodies.
Layers of green miasma churned within the encampment, while wisps of clear qi continuously drifted down from the mortal clear domain above. Each strand of clear qi that fell ignited vast swathes of green miasma. Shamans within this perimeter who lacked sufficient strength were engulfed in smoke and burned to a charred cinder!
This was merely the prelude to Wei Yuan's onslaught. Pointing a finger toward the sky, he manifested the Jade Mountain and brought it crashing straight down toward the sacrificial altar at the center of the camp!
Furious shouts and curses rang out across the camp. Dozens of Dao Foundation warriors rose into the air together, joining forces to attack the Jade Mountain above. Watching the flustered, enraged Shaman experts, Wei Yuan remained expressionless, simply driving his Dao power to bring the Jade Mountain down with all his might!
Dozens of multi-colored streaks of light collided violently with the Jade Mountain and exploded, sending a ring of light rippling through the air and expanding a thousand zhang into the distance.
Many Shaman experts were hurled backward; a few of the strongest merely sank slightly. But three or four warriors froze in midair, motionless—moments later, countless jets of blood erupted from their bodies, and they plunged toward the ground, shaken to death on the spot!
Tumbling back into the high sky, the Jade Mountain grew dim. Wei Yuan grunted, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. Clashing head-on with dozens of foes of the same cultivation realm was no easy feat even for him.
Yet, acting as though he felt nothing, he recalled the Jade Mountain, raised a hand, and pointed. A new Jade Mountain appeared in the sky, crashing down once more with savage ferocity!
Caught off guard, the Shaman warriors cried out or roared in fury, forced once again to defend the altar.
The Jade Mountain struck the beams of light once more, instantly scattering half of them, sending forth a ring of light even more dazzling and expansive than the last!
This time, the Jade Mountain bounced back into midair and shattered before Wei Yuan could recall it. Wei Yuan's face turned pale, the blood at the corner of his mouth growing more noticeable.
The Shamans fared no better: two of the weakest Dao Foundation combatants exploded, while five others were shaken to death on the spot and tumbled from the sky.
Taking a deep breath, Wei Yuan unleashed his Dao power—far surpassing that of his peers—pouring it out like a torrent, and yet another Jade Mountain manifested in the sky!
The oldest, most powerful Shaman elder shouted something loudly, and a dozen or so shaman casters converged from all directions upon the altar to guard it together.
Their status was far higher than that of the warriors, so they usually hid among the troops to launch sneak attacks, which they euphemistically termed the 'primary offense.' Grunt work like charging at the front and head-to-head combat fell to the warriors. But now the altar was in jeopardy, and inside it lay the blood sacrificial power prepared for the Great Shaman's curses. Unable to hide behind the lines any longer, they were forced to come forward and protect it together.
At this point, no one could spare the attention to attack Wei Yuan; they could only throw everything into withstanding the Jade Mountain. Otherwise, a single blow from that mountain would obliterate the altar.
The Jade Mountain descended for the third time, and five shaman casters coughed blood and died.
Wei Yuan's Dao power surged like a flood; the Jade Mountain manifested a fourth and fifth time.
By the time the Jade Mountain came screaming down from the heavens for the sixth time, the surviving shaman casters could no longer bear the pressure and terror. Screaming, they scattered in flight, and many warriors fled with them. In an instant, only three Shaman warriors were left above the altar!
The Jade Mountain whistled past, leaving three clouds of blood mist in its wake.
Then the earth shook violently; the entire encampment seemed to leap. Dirt around the altar shot more than ten zhang into the air, and a shockwave rippled out in all directions across the ground.
Moments later, the smoke and dust cleared. A massive crater lay at the center of the camp, its bottom bubbling with blood and gore. The altar was nowhere to be seen.
Wei Yuan finally couldn't hold it in and violently spat out a mouthful of blood. But his task was done, and he immediately withdrew.
Ji Liuli glanced at Wei Yuan with complex emotions in her eyes. Without her realizing, had the little guy already grown to such an extent?
The Jade Mountain was ferociously peerless, an unmatched weapon for breaking formations and laying siege. After several consecutive slams of that mountain, even Ji Liuli herself would not want to take it head-on.
Below, while the Shamans were still in chaos, a gigantic pagoda manifested in the sky, suppressing the entire camp!
All the bells hanging from the eaves of the nine-layered pagoda chimed in unison. Countless soul fires drifted through the camp as souls were forcibly ripped from bodies and drawn into the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda.
Above the pagoda, the Seven Marvels Treasure Tree appeared once again, its countless tassels draping down to envelop the camp. Although the camp was too vast to completely sever from heaven and earth, only a fraction of the surging blood qi, grievances, and soul power could escape. Then a gale rose within the camp, carrying countless grains of flying astral sand that turned Shamans one after another into sand piles.
Many Shamans were already struggling desperately against the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda's reaping of their souls, but when the gale and sand swept over them, they could no longer restrain their souls. Soul after soul left their bodies, and they fell in swathes.
After a brief respite, Wei Yuan had returned the Jade Mountain to its place and came back.
He charged alone into the encampment, snatched up a spear, and swept through the battlefield. Wherever enemies congregated, he charged straight in and scattered them. Whenever a Dao Foundation shaman caster revealed themselves, Wei Yuan cut through all obstruction to slay them.
After several passes back and forth, none of the Shaman warriors or casters dared to show their heads. But they soon realized their mistake—even with a Dao Foundation, they could not endure long against the astral sand and suppression. By the time they realized it, however, it was already too late.
With dual suppression from above, Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains manifested below, and Wei Yuan forcibly breaking up any group that tried to gather, the entire camp fell completely silent in less than a quarter of an hour.
Zhang Sheng had arrived at some unknown point. Silently surveying the devastated encampment, he said only a single sentence: "That will do. Let us go."
Ji Liuli and Bao Yun withdrew their Dao Foundations. With no time to inspect the camp for spoils of war, the group retreated into the air. With the altar destroyed, any Great Shaman within a certain range would surely sense it. While they might not arrive in time in person, their remote retaliation would soon follow.
On the return journey, the atmosphere turned somewhat somber for reasons unspoken.
Ji Liuli suddenly stopped and asked, "There are still a few tribes nearby. How should we handle them?"
Zhang Sheng hovered in the air, gazing into the distance without speaking. Bao Yun remained silent as well, simply looking at Wei Yuan.
At this moment, Wei Yuan suddenly understood something of the true meaning behind the Three Questions of the Immortal Monarch.
For certain things, right and wrong did not matter, nor did good and evil. What mattered was that someone had to do them, and someone had to bear the karmic burden.
Wei Yuan suppressed all emotion in his heart and said, "A raid. Set a limit of half an incense stick's time—kill as many as we can. It is best to kill enough that they never dare return."
Bao Yun replied, "Half an incense stick is a bit long. Two minutes. Leave some time for the other tribes; there are several small ones nearby."
Bao Yun had grown very fond of using the time measurements from Xu Wenwu's world, which were far more meticulous and precise.
"All right," Wei Yuan nodded, and was the first to fly toward the Shaman settlements.
Moments later, a cluster of villages appeared before Wei Yuan.
Ahead, at the confluence of two rivers, stood a large village inhabited by roughly ten thousand souls. Scattered around it were over a dozen settlements of varying sizes.
Wei Yuan suddenly felt an itching numbness in his nose and mouth, and the surrounding air grew choking. Circulating his Qi-Gazing Technique, he saw green miasma continuously rising from the villages in his sight. The larger the settlement, the denser the green miasma, which constantly spread outward and slowly altered the natural environment of heaven and earth.
On a hill in the distance, alternating bands of light and dark green stretched across the slopes. Those were terraced fields once constructed by humans, now abandoned and overgrown with shrubs, vines, and weeds, giving the hillside a striped appearance from afar.
The staple grains and meats required by the Shamans were mostly planted or raised in water, making hills and slopes essentially useless to them.
Conversely, the poisonous, swampy waters of the Wu domain were useless to humans, as nothing could grow in such toxic mire. Thus, settlers initially had to clear slopes into fields, and only after heaven and earth slowly shifted and the standing water receded could they begin converting the lowlands.
Newly cleared fields were nothing but mud, with toxic water spewing from underground from time to time. It often took over a decade of repeated cultivation for the original marshland to become acceptable farmland. Turning it into truly fertile fields could take several decades.
The terraced fields layered across that hill were recorded in the local gazetteers, which Wei Yuan had specifically studied before heading west.
That was the territory of Jiao County, established two hundred years ago as a border county of Ningxi Commandery. By the time Xu Zhijie took office as commandery governor, the county had grown to a population of one hundred and ten thousand. Those terraced fields on the hills had been cultivated for over two centuries, long since becoming fertile soil that sustained the hundred thousand people of the county. Yet now, after only two or three years of abandonment, centuries of effort were completely undone.
"Prepare to strike. I'll go first!" Wei Yuan said, flying straight toward the largest village.
Within the settlement, Shamans could be seen kneeling in the open square, praying toward the idol at its center. Densely packed, there were at least a thousand of them at a glance.
This was the custom of the Shamans: worshiping the gods and heaven and earth at dawn, after which most would rest until dusk before rising to begin their nocturnal labor.
Wei Yuan felt a faint sliver of hesitation, but then pointed above the village and manifested the Jade Mountain. Once that mountain came down, none of the Shamans in the square would survive.
A hazy drizzle of rain suddenly drifted out from Wei Yuan's side, floating down into the crowd of worshiping Shamans. Innumerable Shamans had time only for a single shriek before collapsing dead.
Wei Yuan turned his head to see cyan sword qi streaming continuously from between Zhang Sheng's brows, transforming into threads of rain that drifted down upon the village.
Noticing Wei Yuan's gaze, Zhang Sheng said blandly, "Your master has done this many times, so this time, I shall make the first move."
In such matters, heaven and earth had long held their rules: whoever struck first bore the heaviest karmic burden.
Hesitating no longer, Wei Yuan manifested the Jade Mountain and brought it crashing fiercely down.
Chapter 142