In the distance, a contingent of Shamans was pitching camp. From afar, a ten-zhang-tall terrace could already be seen, still under construction. This was the main camp's altar; its sheer scale made clear that they intended to clash head-on against the domain.
Tens of thousands of the Shaman host deployed outside the domain, fronted by a dark, dense mass of common warriors.
Viewing them through the Qi-Gazing Technique, Wei Yuan saw green qi constantly billowing from these ordinary Shaman warriors, entwined with flashes of bloody light. Though their strength was at the very bottom, the green qi seeping from their bodies was even denser than that of the nobles and Shaman Scholars.
This was the green qi revealed by the Qi-Gazing Technique, which meant these cannon fodder altered heaven and earth far more drastically than the nobles and Shaman Scholars did. No wonder the Shamans brought swarms of cannon fodder into every battle; after all, they reproduced quickly, and no amount of deaths brought them grief.
With tens of thousands of common warriors present, the green qi they gave off resembled a slowly churning tempest, forcing the domain back by a full li.
Deep, desolately echoing horns blared from the Shaman ranks as their army began a slow advance. Meanwhile, another Shaman force of roughly ten thousand appeared on the western flank, sweeping in from the side.
Wei Yuan mounted his steed, expression solemn. This was a battle of life and death; whether they could secure a foothold depended entirely on this fight.
Behind him, the sixteen young masters and ladies were already clad in full armor.
Constrained by the terrain directly ahead, the main Shaman army was forced to narrow its front, its flanks scrambling up the hills, leaving what was once a disciplined formation somewhat disorganized. Carrying rolling waves of green qi, the mass of Shamans surged forward and crashed straight into the domain. Green qi and the human world's clear qi met like oil poured on fire, instantly boiling into turmoil!
From within the center army, an elevated platform slowly advanced alongside the troops. Atop it stood a bear-like Shaman Scholar pounding furiously on a human-skin war drum. With every beat, a spark of bloody light flared across many of the Shaman warriors.
Five pillars also stood upon the platform, each with a person bound to it.
Like a green python, the Shaman army slithered into the domain. After penetrating ten li, the green qi shrouding them had mostly worn away. At that moment, the horns blew once more, and the Shaman vanguard launched their charge, howling wildly as they hurled themselves toward the human positions!
By now, the trenches Wei Yuan had prepared in advance crisscrossed the ground—one level on the surface, and another subterranean level beneath.
The Shaman warriors swept in like a green deluge, instantly engulfing the entire front! The resistance of the human cultivators flickered like sparse sparks, quenched in the blink of an eye.
Suddenly, a colossal pagoda manifested midair, bearing down from the heavens to pin nearly half the battlefield's Shamans in place. Seeing the enemy's opening assault rage too fiercely, Ji Liuli had no choice but to intervene ahead of time. This time, she cast aside all intent to kill, converting it entirely into pure suppression; yet even so, she could only hold down seven thousand Shamans.
The enemy was simply too numerous, and over ten thousand more continued to surge forward without pause.
Sand and wind rose once more as Bao Yun was also compelled to strike. By now, the human cultivators had fallen back into the trenches, leaving the surface crawling with Shamans. Her gale of sand blew three feet above the ground, precisely intercepting the Shamans.
Bao Yun exerted every ounce of strength to widen her range, enveloping as many Shaman warriors as possible. Though this prevented her from outright slaying even ordinary warriors, the churning sand still inflicted agonizing pain and hindered the enemy's movements.
On the flank, a wall of flames hundreds of zhang wide suddenly roared to life. Xiaoyu stood sword in hand behind the fire, coldly facing the oncoming horde. Behind him were merely two hundred human cultivators.
The wall of fire blazed with exceptional fury; Wei Yuan had previously ordered countless large trees felled and stacked here as a defensive barricade, laced with gunpowder to fuel the blaze. When the Shaman flank arrived, Xiaoyu had needed only a single sword strike to ignite the entire line.
Confronted by the roaring inferno, this wing of Shamans was thrown into disarray. Those relying on their cultivation to vault over the wall met Xiaoyu head-on. Only now did the Immortal Sword Great Sun display its fearsome majesty; fiery lotuses drifted through the air, burning seven or eight warriors to cinders in a single breath.
Helpless, the Shamans had no choice but to split into two columns, detouring around the fiery wall and clambering over the hills on either side. Soon, however, patches of fire flared up across the slopes, forcing the Shaman host to divide further into a dozen smaller squads that wove between the bonfires.
By nature, the Shamans feared fire and could scarcely endure scorching heat. By the time they traversed the burning ground, every warrior was drenched in sweat, half their dharmic powers already depleted. Seeing the Shamans' advance hindered, Xiaoyu immediately led all his cultivators charging from their positions, striking toward one detachment of the enemy.
This flank of ten thousand had been fractured again and again. Now, Xiaoyu and his two hundred cultivators faced merely a thousand or so warriors, while the rest were still navigating the blaze, and the detachment on the opposite hill would need time to arrive.
On the main battlefield, the bear-like Shaman Scholar atop the platform bellowed repeatedly and lopped off the heads of three sacrifices on the pillars in a single breath!
Hot blood spurting from human necks drenched his entire body. Rearing his head to the sky, the man-bear roared as a pillar of crimson light erupted from his mouth, sending ripples of bloody rings echoing out along its path.
Above the battlefield, a pitter-patter of blood rain abruptly fell. The domain began to tremble. Wherever the raindrops struck the giant suppressing pagoda, large craters pitted its surface, riddling it with holes in an instant. Down below, as the Shaman warriors were touched by the blood droplets, crimson light gleamed across their bodies, boosting their strength by ten percent in an instant.
Beneath the rain of blood, the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda's suppressing force shook violently. However strong Ji Liuli might be, she was only one person, unable to match a curse fueled by blood sacrifice. Yet she held on bitterly; every breath she prolonged her hold meant fewer human lives lost.
Countless Shaman warriors roared with surging morale, howling like mad beasts as they leaped into the trenches like frogs to seek out the humans for slaughter!
At that moment, Qingming trembled. Countless motes of light rose from the earth. Every human cultivator instantly felt an astonishing power surge into their bodies, causing their cultivation to climb steadily until it reached an unprecedented height! Many cultivators at the completion of Body Casting even sensed the presence of a Dao Foundation!
Those were the Dao Foundations they had yearned for in their dreams—not only could they sense them, but they could also invoke them and wield them against the enemy!
In that instant, every human cultivator almost believed they were dreaming. Yet the Shamans suddenly rendered fragile before them, and the Dao arts they could now cast at will, told them this was no illusion!
Ephemeral Multitude!
At this moment, almost every human's power doubled, with the lower their cultivation, the greater the boost. Battling the Shamans now were no longer ragtag Western Regions cultivators, but warriors rivaling the world-renowned Nine Armies of Great Tang!
Naturally, these cultivators could only match the Nine Armies of Great Tang in individual combat prowess; in cohesive formations and battlefield tactics, they were far behind. Yet the battle had devolved into a trench melee where tactics mattered little.
A mere Shaman cannon-fodder force could never contend against the equivalent of the Nine Armies of Great Tang. In the blink of an eye, Shaman warriors across the positions were cut down in swathes, their casualties rocketing by the thousands. On the flank, Xiaoyu and his men slaughtered all the Shamans who had cleared the flames, turned to wipe out the detachment rushing over from the other side, and then plunged directly into the burning ground to continue the butchery.
Bearing the heartache, Wei Yuan averted his gaze from the slowly receding azure water in the Qingming pool. Leveling his long spear forward, he led all the young masters and ladies charging toward the Shamans' rear camp!
Though few in number, this troop of riders moved as a single entity. The clear domain followed them like a shadow, and a radiant band of clear light appeared above the cavalry, piercing through the wind as they advanced!
The bear-like Shaman Scholar atop the platform had not initially intended to pay heed to this small band of riders, but seeing their astonishing speed and towering momentum, his composure shattered in an instant.
The altar under construction could never be defiled by the clear domain of the human world, or it would have to be dismantled and rebuilt from scratch. Should this troop of riders reach the base of the altar, even slaughtering every last one of them would be too late.
The man-bear immediately slaughtered another human sacrifice on the pillars while beating the war drum. Receiving the command, half of the Shaman rear army split off at once to intercept Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan used the Jade Mountain to clear a path, charging through the breach blasted open by the mountain. In the blink of an eye, he tore straight through the hastily arranged rear army, leaving hundreds of corpses in his wake. Without pausing for a moment, the entire troop bore down directly upon the camp's altar.
Frantic, the man-bear slashed open his own chest with a blade, spraying blood like a fountain. In an instant, crimson light flared across all five thousand Shaman rear troops. Their speed and strength surged violently as they poured forth en masse, relentlessly pursuing Wei Yuan and his dozen or so riders.
As Wei Yuan charged up to the camp's perimeter, the rear troops behind him had turned blood-eyed and rabid, sprinting at breakneck speed. The camp itself was in utter chaos as everyone converged toward the altar, bracing to withstand the cavalry's charge with their own flesh and blood.
Wei Yuan pointed toward the sky, and the Jade Mountain manifested once more. Yet instead of crashing into the altar, it hurled backward into the pursuing rear army! The entire band of riders wheeled around immediately, plunging into the gap carved out by the Jade Mountain.
Moving as one, the riders accelerated to top speed in an instant. The rear troops had been pursuing like madmen, and the two forces collided violently. Amid sickening thuds and cracks, dozens of Shamans blocking the way were sent flying, bones shattered and tendons snapped.
In an instant, the two forces passed through each other. Unable to arrest their momentum, the entire Shaman rear guard surged forward another hundred zhang before grinding to a halt. Many still could not fathom what had happened, wondering why the enemy had vanished into thin air.
By then, Wei Yuan was riding at the forefront, charging directly toward the bear Shaman on the high platform.
With the rear army lured away, the center army was laid completely bare before Wei Yuan. Because the center army housed many human sacrifices and slaves meant for battlefield blood sacrifices, its strength was weaker than its numbers suggested. Yet if a Great Shaman presided over it, possessing a personal guard, the center army would instead become the strongest of the three.
Right now, there was no Great Shaman in the army, making the center army the weakest. The prey had exposed its soft underbelly!
Wei Yuan's speed grew faster and faster, hurtling toward the center army like a shooting star.
Yet just as the platform came into view, nearly tangible crimson light suddenly erupted from many warriors beneath it. Their eyes turned hollow as they turned their heads in unison, staring at Wei Yuan with blood-suffused gazes.
A Great Shaman's personal guard!
Wei Yuan reined in his steed at once. The blood-colored warhorse whinnied loudly, rearing onto its hind legs and treading the air for a few paces before coming to a stop. The riders behind fell into disarray as several young masters and ladies overshot, veering to either side before circling back.
Wei Yuan did not look at the bear Shaman on the platform; instead, he felt an itch on his left arm. He unfastened his bracer and ripped his sleeve open. To his surprise, blood was seeping from every pore on his arm. It was not Wei Yuan's original pinkish blood, but a dark crimson that reeked of a pungent stench.
The oozing blood coalesced on its own, forming an eye. It blinked several times and abruptly shrieked in a shrill voice: "I saw it! I saw it! He has no immortal methods—it's all a lie!"
Wei Yuan wiped his hand across it, clear light shining from his palm. With a shriek of agony, the bloody eye dissolved into clear smoke.
Before Wei Yuan, the silhouette of a three-eyed blood python dozens of zhang long took shape, though only its left eye was open while the other two remained tightly shut. Beneath the blood python stood a rather slight figure draped in red robes, face hidden from view.
A Great Shaman!
The Great Shaman looked at Wei Yuan as though looking at a corpse and said, "Trivial parlor tricks, and you thought you could deceive me? Since you possess no immortal methods, you can go and die!"
Seeing Wei Yuan look left and right, the Great Shaman sneered, "There is no need to keep looking. No one can come to your aid now."
Yet Wei Yuan showed none of the panic the Great Shaman expected. Instead, he smiled faintly and said, "I wasn't looking for help. I was only looking for witnesses."
With that, Wei Yuan drew a long, deep breath like a whale swallowing the ocean, his aura soaring higher and higher!
At that moment, the Qingming domain expanded back to its original boundary, encompassing this very ground.
The power of Qingming, Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, Jia Wood Life-Mystic, and the power of Ephemeral Multitude stacked layer upon layer. With each added layer, Wei Yuan's aura rose another notch. Throughout the earlier battle, Wei Yuan had been bestowing enhancements upon everyone else, fighting in physical form without a single buff on himself. Only now did he unleash his full arsenal.
As the Lord of Qingming, Wei Yuan could bestow potent enhancements upon others, but the power when applied to himself was truly staggering.
This was still not the end. Wei Yuan manifested Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, then swept it back inward, channeling the boundless power of heaven and earth into his own body!
In this instant, Wei Yuan's aura was propelled to heights never before seen. Above his head, a colossal shadow faintly loomed. No one could tell what lay within that shadow, but its sheer expanse of over a thousand zhang was enough to strike terror into anyone's heart!
Wei Yuan rose slowly into the air, looking down upon the three-eyed blood python below. His voice shook heaven and earth as he roared, "Why would I need immortal methods to kill the likes of you? Taste my spear!"
Wei Yuan took a single stride forward and arrived right in front of the Great Shaman. Both spears thrust forward in unison, bearing the power of heaven, earth, rivers, and mountains—infinitely heavy, infinitely swift, warding off all dharmic arts!
The Great Shaman raised his arms to block, but the moment they met the weapon tips, both arms instantly shattered, leaving him to watch helplessly as the long spears sank into his chest.
Dao power pulsed slightly from Wei Yuan's hands. With two muffled bangs, two bloody holes blew out of the Great Shaman's back as the spearheads burst through his flesh amid a shower of blood.
Wei Yuan threw his full weight into a tackle, plummeting from the sky with the Great Shaman. They crashed to the ground together, the two gun barrels pinning the Great Shaman firmly to the earth. He then leaped to his feet. A withered branch appeared in his hand, and he drove it straight into the blood python's head!
The blood python thrashed frantically, but under the suppression of the terrifying shadow above Wei Yuan's head, it could not shake off the withered branch no matter how hard it struggled.
Wei Yuan turned his head and barked at the dumbfounded young masters and ladies, "What are you standing there for? Strike! Scrape up whatever credit you can!"
Only then did the young masters and ladies snap out of their stupor. Forcing down the terror in their hearts, they channeled their Dao power with everything they had, raining a barrage of scattered Dao arts upon the Great Shaman.
Chapter 156