The group quickly formed ranks. From a thousand zhang away, they unleashed a barrage of ranged artifacts, and at five hundred zhang, they began firing round after round of Daoist arts. They were hurried yet orderly, adhering strictly to form.
Yet this Shaman unit was formidable, pressing forward swiftly beneath a blood-red light barrier. Several volleys of attacks from Cui Yu and his party brought down only several dozen ordinary Shaman warriors.
At a hundred zhang, the Shaman unit abruptly halted. Five Shaman Scholars chanted an incantation in unison, and Cui Yu and the others were instantly dyed in a murky, blood-like crimson. Many of those with lower cultivation coughed up mouthfuls of blood. Inside the blood spat out by the sweet-looking girl, countless rice-sized insects squirmed!
Her face went stark white. With her stomach churning violently, she fell to the ground, vomiting uncontrollably.
Cui Yu’s expression turned grim. Gritting his teeth, he said, "Half the guards form a rearguard! We retreat!"
More than seventy guards remained in the company. Most stepped forward of their own accord, prepared to cover the rear. Cui Yu pulled back the youngest, the physically weakest, and those with promising Daoist futures, then prepared to order the retreat.
The thirty guards designated for the rearguard stepped forward as one, ready to fight to the death.
Just then, a colossal burning cauldron resembling a small hill materialized in the sky, hurtling down toward the Shaman formation! Seeing the cauldron crash down with ferocious momentum, several Shaman Scholars immediately scattered. The moment the scholars broke formation, the cohesion collapsed, and all the Shaman warriors fled in every direction.
With a deafening boom, the burning cauldron struck the earth, throwing up towering flames, yet it only gouged a shallow crater into the ground. Standing several zhang high, it looked terrifying, but its actual force was remarkably feeble; even a direct hit on a Shaman Scholar would have inflicted only minor injuries.
However, the Shamans fleeing outward suddenly looked up to discover that over a dozen fiery cauldrons had appeared overhead at some unknown moment. They had already descended a considerable distance and were arriving directly atop their heads as they fled right beneath them!
The power of this second wave was genuine. In an instant, the Shamans suffered catastrophic casualties.
Then came a warhorse's neigh, resounding like the roar of a dragon and the cry of a tiger. A blood-red steed measuring twelve feet tall entered everyone's view. Smoke rose from its four hooves as it trod on clouds. Astride it was a lone rider leveling a spear, who charged straight into the Shaman ranks. In an instant, he tore through their formation, leaving more than a dozen corpses in his wake!
As he turned his mount, a Shaman Scholar hung impaled on his spear, still struggling.
*Wei Yuan?* Cui Yu clearly made out the rider's appearance, yet he hardly dared believe his eyes.
Wei Yuan spurred his horse again, once more piercing straight through the Shaman formation. This time, a different Shaman Scholar struggled on his spear point. The man’s lower abdomen was run through—a wound not immediately fatal—leaving him screaming in agony.
The remaining two Shaman Scholars broke completely. Turning on their heels, they fled, shouting orders for the warriors to hold the line and fight to the death.
Wei Yuan clamped his legs tight, and the blood-red warhorse leaped into the air, sailing straight over the Shamans' heads. Pursuing one of the fleeing scholars, Wei Yuan thrust out his spear and ran him through as well.
Only then did Cui Yu snap back to reality. Raising his longsword, he shouted, "Charge!"
Their morale surging, everyone surged forward with all their might, scattering the remaining Shamans in the blink of an eye.
Wei Yuan rode back, two Shaman Scholars skewered on his spear, and called out from a distance, "Is that Brother Cui Yu?"
Cui Yu replied, "It is indeed! Years have passed, and you have finally achieved great mastery in the Dao, Junior Brother Wei. Truly a dragon among men!"
Wei Yuan dismounted, casually handing his spear to a young woman nearby, and walked up to Cui Yu with a smile. "You look as dashing as ever, Brother Cui! If not for your righteousness back then, I would never have attained what I have today."
Praised like this, Cui Yu actually felt a bit embarrassed.
Setting up the public account had been Bao Yun’s idea, and she had provided the bulk of the funding for Wei Yuan. Cui Yu had helped as well, but far less than Bao Yun and Xiaoyu. Yet Wei Yuan’s words made it sound as though Cui Yu were the indispensable benefactor.
In front of all these young men and women, Cui Yu could hardly correct him. He could only nurse his shame in secret and accept the compliment.
The young woman handed the spear lacked great strength, and two writhing Shaman Scholars were still stuck to it, throwing her into flustered panic and eliciting screams. Two young male cultivators rushed over to assist. Each pinning down one scholar, the three of them combined their strength and finally managed to hold the spear steady.
Wei Yuan embraced Cui Yu, then asked, "Why did you come after all?"
Cui Yu was taken aback. "It seems you already know? But you wrote to me, so of course I was going to come, no matter what the old men in the clan said! If there’s no aid, then there’s no aid; having these brothers and sisters is enough!"
Cui Yu then brought forward the young clan scions and introduced them to Wei Yuan one by one.
These youths all hailed from prestigious, prominent clans and were Cui Yu’s closest companions. Initially, Cui Yu had recruited eighteen of them, bringing along eight hundred guards in total. Yet as soon as they reached the border of the Western Regions, they suffered frequent ambushes by Shamans. After several bloody battles along the way, most of their guards had perished, leaving fewer than a hundred survivors. Two of the scions had also met misfortune, falling on the battlefield with neither body nor bones remaining.
Among the survivors were two with Heaven Tier foundations, while the rest were Earth Tier. Even the two Heaven Tier cultivators had only barely made the mark, not at all comparable to a powerhouse of that tier like Cui Yu.
Beyond innate talent, those born of direct family branches among these young masters and ladies were heavily overshadowed by brilliant siblings, while the two with Heaven Tier Dao Foundations hailed from cadet branches, inherently placing them a notch below the direct lineages. Consequently, their standing within their households was awkward and suspended in limbo. No matter how hard they worked, they saw no path forward, making it easy for them to drift into lives of idle privilege.
It was precisely for this reason that Cui Yu had brought them out to temper themselves.
This was no place to linger. Wei Yuan had the guards carry all the Shaman corpses and return to the domain together.
Having survived several life-and-death battles, the sixteen remaining youths now carried faint traces of murderous aura, the idle arrogance of their former lives mostly burned away.
Though Cui Yu said nothing, Wei Yuan could sense the heavy weight in his heart. The deaths of two close companions had burdened him severely; who knew how many times he had blamed himself during this journey?
Wei Yuan knew such pain could not easily be consoled. Only time would allow it to fade.
A short while later, they returned to the domain. At present, it remained mostly barren ground. Wei Yuan instructed people to lead the guards away for medical treatment and had several houses urgently erected in a designated area for the clan scions.
Though these young masters and ladies had shed much of their pampered air, they were still accustomed to a life of privilege. He could not leave them sleeping in the open.
Next, Wei Yuan had the Shaman corpses laid out in a designated area. Several thousand Shaman corpses were already stored in the mortuary area, their poison and mystic force long dissipated. Yet with the current shortage of hands in the domain, there had been no time to process them.
Beholding the rows of neatly arranged Shaman corpses, these young masters and ladies, who believed they had already witnessed life and death, turned pale.
Shortly after, Cui Yu met Xiaoyu and Bao Yun, surprised that they had come as well. After brief exchanges of pleasantries, they turned to the matter at hand.
On the whole, the sixteen clan scions Cui Yu brought possessed decent talent. Having rarely endured hardship in the past, their cultivation progressed slowly, and a few lingered at the early Dao Foundation stage.
Wei Yuan’s hopes for provisions and materials also fell through. After continuous bloody battles, most of the guards had fallen. To lighten their burden, Cui Yu had discarded nearly all their baggage and supplies, traveling light.
Hearing this, Wei Yuan felt that while the guards were indeed helpful, the young masters and ladies were far more trouble than they were worth.
When Wei Yuan wrote the plea for help, he had not anticipated the current stance of the great clans. He had envisioned Cui Yu arriving at the head of dozens of aristocratic companions and thousands of guards, sweeping across ten thousand li in a grand display of reinforcements. That way, honor would be satisfied, battles fought, merit points earned, and the domain defended, after which they could return home.
The reality had diverged sharply from what Wei Yuan imagined!
Wei Yuan pondered for a moment before saying, "Perhaps it’s better if they go back?"
Xiaoyu chimed in, "I think so too. Those fellows are useless, and we’d have to protect them in a fight. It’s trouble whether they’re wounded or killed."
Cui Yu did not answer immediately. Instead, he said, "I’ll call them over and see what they have to say."
Wei Yuan nodded. Cui Yu rose and departed, returning shortly with the young masters and ladies to the main peak.
"Wei Yuan, Xiaoyu, and Bao Yun—they are all my fellow classmates," Cui Yu introduced first.
The young scions were thrilled, yet they stood decorously, not daring to step out of line, hardly daring even to breathe loudly.
Wei Yuan aside, Bao Yun and Xiaoyu were simply too famous—the pinnacle of what idle clan youths could ever aspire to become. Everything these youths relied on, Bao Yun and Xiaoyu possessed as well, and by several tiers higher.
Cui Yu said, "They feel it is too dangerous here and that you would be better off returning. What do you think?"
A young woman gathered her courage and said loudly, "If we leave now, wouldn't Brother Wang and Brother Li have died for nothing?"
Another young man said, "A man must take to the battlefield eventually in this life. Even if we die, it’s only a matter of sooner or later! We have already seen blood, and people have died. I won’t leave."
This had been well within Cui Yu’s expectations. Those who had followed him all the way here would naturally not leave so easily. Anyone inclined to flee would never have been brought along in the first place.
Hearing their resolve, Bao Yun and Xiaoyu found it difficult to object further. Once they fought a few battles, these young masters and ladies would come to understand what true war was like.
Cui Yu turned to Wei Yuan. "We have only one question now: are there many merit points to be had here?"
Wei Yuan said, "There are plenty of heavenly merits. If your luck holds, you might even manage to scrape together a few."
Wei Yuan had intended this as a warning, yet hearing it, the young scions grew extraordinarily excited. To earn heavenly merits at their age, even just a few points, was an immense honor!
Heavenly merits were by no means easy to obtain. Back then, when Wei Yuan had executed his Counter-Slay and wounded the Northern Liao snow eagle, he had received only ordinary merit points, not heavenly merits. It was Zhang Sheng, who repelled the snow eagle with a single sword strike, who earned heavenly merits.
Thus, hearing Wei Yuan’s words, they refused to leave under any circumstances.
Wei Yuan had his own ways of dealing with them. "If you wish to stay, that is fine. But I will state the harsh truth upfront: military orders on the battlefield are as unyielding as mountains! You must do whatever I assign you to do! If anyone acts on their own initiative or disobeys orders, I won’t bother speaking of military punishment—you will simply pack your things and leave on your own!"
Goaded by Wei Yuan, the youths grew fired up and immediately agreed.
Xiaoyu shook his head inwardly, thinking to himself that these fellows had weathered few storms. They had no idea how treacherous the world was—and even less idea of how treacherous Wei Yuan could be. He could guess with his eyes closed what Wei Yuan planned to do with them next.
Chapter 149