These newly arrived dharma bodies appeared ordinary, but the moment they entered the fray, they instantly turned the tide of battle.
Two of the dharma bodies took action, but their strikes were aimed entirely at their own side. They flicked out radiant spheres of light that slammed into the heavily damaged dharma puppets, restoring them completely in the blink of an eye.
These two were, naturally, True Monarch Danming and True Monarch Zhidan. The alchemy the Xu family's alchemists had accumulated over years in the outer world was something the two True Monarchs understood at a glance and mastered with ease. They immediately innovated upon it, designing their own dharma bodies by hand, which led to the creation of these two unique vessels.
The appearance of these two dharma bodies instantly sent the morale of every cultivator soaring. No longer hesitating or holding back, their combat effectiveness skyrocketed. Without having to stay constantly on the lookout for a chance to flee—knowing they could be pulled back even from the brink of death—their attacks naturally gained tremendous power.
The two True Monarchs covered nearly a quarter of the entire battlefield, and in the turn of a hand, the momentum shifted decisively in Wei Yuan's favor.
Elsewhere, wherever a heavy hammer struck, flames rose and immortal light surged. The breaches and structural damage that countless enemy armored warriors had sacrificed their lives to carve out were mended at a pace visible to the naked eye!
This dharma body swung his massive hammer. With just over a dozen strikes, a war fortress was restored good as new. Moving on to the next, he reinforced three teetering fortresses in mere moments, while the gigantic pack on his back vanished. He immediately flew back to the base, and moments later reappeared in the sky, carrying another massive pack.
Her expression as cold as frost, the woman placed three stones in rapid succession. Instantly, three squads of silver-armored warriors manifested. Fiercely lethal and swift as the wind, each squad charged toward a different individual.
At that moment, an ordinary dharma body happened to cut right through the middle of one squad of silver-armored assassins. Raising his blade, he sheared one armored warrior clean in two at the waist. Half of the silver-armored squad immediately broke off to pursue him, but the dharma body stepped east, dodged west, and caused every attack to strike empty air. His evasion was most peculiar: he dodged in advance, so their attacks merely struck where he had stood, rather than reacting and evading only after they attacked.
This dharma body was slick as an eel, yet his strikes were insidious and venomous, with almost every blow aimed below the belt. Although the armored warriors had no vital organs to speak of, their legs were essential for mobility.
In just a brief moment, half of the silver-armored squad had their lower bodies severed, left crawling frantically in all directions. Leaving the mop-up to other dharma bodies, he set off to hunt down the remaining half of the squad. Aside from these special dharma bodies, the newly deployed puppets were generally far superior to average combatants, tipping the scales of the battle even further.
The woman gave a cold huff. Her fingers flew as she placed stones across the board, summoning rank upon rank of towering black-armored giants. Just blessing these giants with immortal spells cost her seven or eight white stones. In the end, she grabbed a whole handful of white stones and scattered them straight onto the board!
She intended to end this swiftly through sheer overwhelming numbers, granting Wei Yuan not the slightest opening.
As that handful of white stones rained down, ordinary armored warriors appeared in massive waves, among which another squad of silver armor charged out to resume the pursuit of the giant-hammer-wielding Hall Master of Heavenly Craft.
By then, the Hall Master had repaired two more war fortresses and retreated into the base. But in the next breath, hundreds of dharma bodies surged out from the base—every single one wielding a heavy hammer and bearing a massive pack.
The silver armor was momentarily at a loss. Seeing this host split into dozens of detachments and fly toward different fortresses, the silver-armored warriors had no choice but to break into dozens of small teams to pursue them separately.
One hammer-wielding team reached the edge of a fortress. The Hall Master of Heavenly Craft no longer concealed himself; whirling around, he brought down his hammer in a single crushing blow that obliterated most of the silver armor pursuing him. A second strike wiped out the rest. He then finished repairing the fortress before any other enemies could arrive. Just as he braced himself to face the next assault, his dharma body suddenly moved on its own, ducking inside the fortress.
All the hammer-wielding, pack-carrying dharma bodies darted inside as well. Then, bursting out simultaneously, they rushed toward different war fortresses, once again depriving the incoming silver-armored pursuers of their targets.
When the next wave of dharma bodies took to the sky, every one of them wore a petite alchemical furnace at their waist, identical to those of True Monarch Danming and True Monarch Zhidan.
To Wei Yuan, this was merely a matter of casually slapping on a decorative module.
The disciples sent as reinforcements from the Palace of Grand Beginning and the Sword Palace were the cream of the crop. Even against the silver armor, they held the upper hand. Though individually no match for the newly summoned black-armored giants, banding together in groups of a dozen or so into battle formations, they could easily hold their own. They pinned down every last black-armored giant, sparing the various abbey deans and hall masters from needing to step in. This left the hall masters free to use great cleavers on chickens, rampaging through the rear lines to reap immense tallies.
Yet the woman cast down another handful of white stones. Armored warriors blanketed the sky and earth, with even more black-armored giants among them. At that moment, Wei Yuan's voice echoed through the minds of every dharma body: "The final battle has commenced. All combat units are to adhere strictly to orders. No disobedience!"
Surging music suddenly arose from the Land of Vitality. A colossal world flickered into view, subtly warping reality itself, as countless war fortresses and endless legions of dharma bodies rose into the sky—their numbers vastly exceeding the woman's expectations!
Wei Yuan pushed the computational power of Flourishing of the Many Realms to its absolute limit. All of his divine senses erupted at once, plunging many of his avatars and split souls throughout Qingming into deep slumber.
In this instant, the tiniest corner of the battlefield fell under Wei Yuan's precise calculations. Every dharma body received a relentless stream of commands, detailed to the extreme—even down to instructions like unleashing four flying swords in succession toward a specific coordinate half a breath later.
Above and below, all the war fortresses and dharma bodies seemed to merge into a single entity, executing one inconceivable tactic after another. For instance, wherever a large contingent of armored warriors attacked, the local dharma bodies would fall back to create an indentation; the moment the enemy surged in, the mouth of the pocket would abruptly snap shut, followed by a kaleidoscopic barrage from every direction that annihilated the unit in an instant.
Traps of this sort were not fixed, but manifested anytime and anywhere. As for standard maneuvers—like rotating wounded units off the front line while pristine dharma bodies filled the gaps—they were executed as second nature.
Star sand fell like pouring rain as casualties among the dharma bodies surged. Wei Yuan drew all the falling star sand to himself, directly swallowing and refining it until his innards were stained with an inky, dark-blue hue.
At this point, Wei Yuan could no longer forge new dharma bodies. Merely repairing the damaged bodies that returned, and replenishing their Dao arts and magic treasures, consumed every ounce of his energy.
Casualties began to mount among the Palace of Grand Beginning disciples as well, quickly reaching double digits and rising fast. Wei Yuan suppressed all the heartache and fury beneath an icy exterior, thinking strictly from the sole perspective of maximizing their chances of final victory.
Inside a war fortress that had held out from the very beginning, Feng Hanzhou's dharma body cursed once more: "How much longer do I have to hold back?! That old scoundrel Xuanyue has already gone through three dharma bodies, while I'm still stuck here slowly whittling away sword by sword!"
A dharma body beside him replied, "Endure a little longer, just a little longer. The opponent is almost out of stones, and her final trump cards are coming. Only by stepping in then can you be the pillar that steadies the sea."
Only then did Feng Hanzhou reluctantly suppress his temper and continue fighting. Immortal light radiated from the woman's eyes, and beams of varied hues shot in every direction. The armored warriors ceased fighting individually, reorganizing into coordinated squads. They were attempting to mimic Wei Yuan, utilizing micromanagement to maximize their combat power and turn the tide.
Having adjusted their lines, the two sides clashed once more. In an instant, stars fell like rain, yet the casualties among the armored warriors remained just as horrific; the woman's all-out micromanagement proved no better than doing nothing at all.
The entire Land of Vitality had become a meat grinder of terrifying efficiency. Seeing that very few white stones remained in the woman's hand and that she was out of hidden reserves, Wei Yuan held back no longer. He unleashed the most efficient killing mode, driving the immortal power casualty ratio straight to one to five, with the gap widening by the moment.
By now, only three white stones remained in the woman's hand.
Wei Yuan finally spoke: "A well-fought contest."
Premature celebration was indeed the ultimate taunt. The woman's face went frosty, and she said coldly, "Did you think these were all the pieces I have?"
"What else?" Wei Yuan stared at the five white stones in her palm.
"Everything on the table is a piece!" She picked up the stone bowl and placed it directly onto the board!
In an instant, Chaos shuddered, and four thousand-zhang-tall colossal spirits strode forth. Only then did the five stones in her hand drop one by one, blessing the four colossal spirits with immortal spells. Once empowered, every one of them possessed strength on par with the immortal rank!
And at that very moment, Wei Yuan flicked out a single grain of star sand.
Chapter 1451