Though the Shaman commander was shocked, Wei Yuan had charged into their ranks alone; the impact was limited. The commander immediately quickened the drumbeat. Half of the army surged forward in a charge, while the other half remained as unmoving as a mountain.
Even with only half their forces advancing, their numbers still more than doubled those of the domain's defenders.
Another horn sounded. All of the domain's defenders halted and drew into dense formations, bracing for the clash. Just as the two armies were about to collide, the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda plummeted from the sky.
In an instant, the green qi of the Shaman forces thinned by thirty percent. Yet the green qi was seamlessly united; though heavily suppressed and abraded by the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, it was far from breaking. Above the battle formation, the green qi condensed into clouds, astonishingly holding aloft the Nine-Layer Demon-Suppressing Pagoda and preventing it from falling any further.
Ji Liuli was formidable, but her opponent this time was a full twenty thousand of the Shamans' northern frontier elite. To scatter thirty percent of their heaven-and-earth origin qi in a single blow was already nothing short of astounding.
A thread of azure rain, fine as a strand of hair, pierced through the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda and shot toward the Shaman general atop the high platform.
The instant this thread of rain struck the army's green qi, it erupted with boundless sword qi. Innumerable sword rays shredded the surrounding green qi, forcefully gouging a hole dozens of yards wide straight through the green mountain. Yet the green qi was simply too vast and dense. Even after exhausting every shred of its power, the sword qi failed to reach the Shaman general, and the cavity began to slowly refill.
Watching the hole close up, the Shaman general's expression turned grim. Guarding him was an army of twenty thousand!
That person had nearly pierced right through the army's collective qi with a single strike. Had that sword fallen upon his body, he likely would have suffered grave injuries on the spot. Moreover, he sensed a chilling aura within the sword qi that made his Dao Foundation tremble.
Yet before the breach gouged out by the first sword qi could close, another sword ray lit up before his eyes—meandering, weaving, like a weeping lament. It seemed hesitant and reluctant, turning back three times with every step, yet in reality it was unbelievably swift, shooting straight into the hollow carved by the previous strike.
As if endowed with gravity, this sword ray drew in all the surrounding green qi, silently annihilating it. Sweeping through the endless green qi with destructive abandon, it slashed all the way to within three feet of the Shaman general!
Staring at the sword ray right before his face, the Shaman general turned ice-cold, frozen in place!
Just then, the sword ray flickered several times and gradually vanished. It had exhausted all its power, falling short by a mere three feet.
Even after the sword ray disappeared, the Shaman general's body remained rigid. His intuition screamed that a third or even a fourth strike would follow, and that he was surely a dead man!
In that final moment, he suddenly understood what it truly meant to claim an enemy commander's head from amidst tens of thousands of troops. In that person's hands, how could it be so effortless?
Yet no follow-up sword strike came.
The Shaman general suddenly felt the relief of having cheated death, breaking out in a cold sweat. The army's green qi gradually coalesced, sealing the corridor carved out by the sword strikes.
By then, the two armies had slammed together into a chaotic melee. The moment the clash began, both sides were stunned by the sheer ferocity of their foe.
For Wei Yuan's forces, the domain was now their only home. Every family member and loved one lived within it; where they stood was the ground of final defense, and they could not yield a single step. In terms of savagery and disregard for death, they believed they had no equal in the world.
Yet the Shaman force facing them was an elite host of the realm, having fought several of the Liao Clan's renowned iron cavalry divisions across the northern frontier without falling behind. They had once fought eight battles across ten days, suffering more than half casualties while still fighting to the death without retreating.
When two such armies collided, there was no room for clever tricks—only grinding, brutal, desperate slaughter!
When the front rank fell, the rear rank stepped up. When the common soldiers were spent, the officers plugged the line.
Whole squads were wiped out on both sides. The soldiers had long since seen red, their minds emptied of all thought, left only with the mechanical thrusting, slashing, withdrawing of blades, and thrusting and slashing again, until they could no longer stand.
Wei Yuan closed his eyes and forced himself to count three breaths before stirring his divine sense.
*Clang!* A bell toll rang across the battlefield!
Several more chimes followed, and an indescribable sensation suddenly enveloped the field. Every human warrior's morale surged instantly, each transforming into a killing machine, their overall strength unexpectedly surpassing the Shamans before them by a cut above.
Ephemeral Multitude!
Wei Yuan had already spurred his mount, trailing a platinum slipstream as he charged once more into the Shaman main formation!
Xu Yi reacted fastest. With a shrill cry, she charged out directly behind Wei Yuan, followed in a swarming rush by the young scions of the prominent families, who yelled wildly as they followed Wei Yuan's charge. Two hundred cavalry swept in after them.
Wei Yuan roared like thunder, swinging his spear in a full circle. A cascade of platinum light exploded in a ring, clearing another corridor through the middle of the mounted troops barring his way. He then burst through the gap, his spear leveled straight at the Shaman general atop the high platform!
The two hundred-plus riders rode like wind and lightning, following close behind Wei Yuan through the breach. This thousand-man cavalry unit, renowned under heaven, was rendered completely useless at this moment.
Wei Yuan's momentum had gathered to the brim, but glancing back, he realized that everyone had charged in after him. He distinctly remembered never giving such an order!
There was no turning back now. Wei Yuan had no choice but to bestow a thread of karmic luck upon all two hundred riders behind him, and two threads upon the sixteen young masters and ladies of the prominent families.
Though imparting karmic luck took only an instant, Wei Yuan felt that his indomitable momentum had suffered a slight hiccup—as though the Heavenly Dao numbered fifty, forty-nine were fixed, and he had faltered on the one that slipped away. Falling short by even that tiny sliver felt indescribably frustrating.
With nowhere to vent his irritation, Wei Yuan thrust his spear toward the sky and let out a furious roar, astonishingly calling down a bolt of platinum lightning from the clear sky!
The lightning struck the spearhead dead-on, instantly igniting the weapon with thunderous flame, rendering him completely unstoppable!
Wei Yuan plunged once again into the Shaman main army. This time, he had no intention of turning back, driving straight toward the high platform.
The bloodlust of countless Shaman warriors was also ignited. Throwing their lives away, they moved to block Wei Yuan. Those who could not stop him simply threw themselves upon him. In the blink of an eye, Shaman warriors were clinging to all four hooves of the blood-colored warhorse. Many more leapt high into the air, hurling themselves straight at Wei Yuan!
Wei Yuan's spear moved so swiftly it blurred into phantoms, while the blood-colored steed kicked and bit in tandem. Man and horse pushed upstream against countless Shamans.
Wei Yuan's pace grew slower and slower, yet he continued to press forward.
Atop the high platform, the Shaman general stared fixedly at Wei Yuan, the hairs all over his body standing on end, unsure whether he felt fear or excitement. Suddenly looking up, he discovered that at some point, a Jade Mountain had appeared above his head!
The Jade Mountain hung suspended, poised to drop.
*Another one trying to take a commander's head from amidst tens of thousands of troops?* The Shaman general was both shocked and enraged, feeling that as a general, fortune was simply not on his side today.
Terror finally overtook him. He leaped down from the platform and vanished into his personal guard.
Wei Yuan's spirits lifted. With a roaring shout, platinum radiance erupted once more from the ground for dozens of yards around him, with some pillars of light shooting hundreds of feet straight into the air! Every Shaman struck by the pillars began to burn.
Yet among the hundreds of ignited Shaman warriors, not one cried out. They continued their suicidal assault against Wei Yuan.
Filled with solemn respect, Wei Yuan dismounted. Spear in one hand and sword in the other, he ended his foes strike by strike, climbing the high platform step by step.
When he stood atop the platform, no enemies remained around him—only a path paved with corpses.
Wei Yuan shoved over the human-skin war drum and crushed it beneath his heel!
In that moment, he looked around to find himself entirely alone.
Wei Yuan aimed his spear at the sky. This time, a platinum beam shot from the spearhead straight into the heavens, visible for a hundred li! Another bolt of lightning plummeted from the clear sky, igniting both the spear and Wei Yuan together.
Feeling an infinite reservoir of thunder and fire within him with no outlet, Wei Yuan released a long, piercing howl that shook the highest heavens. Then, standing tall with spear leveled, he said word by word, "Wei Yuan of the Sky Azure Hall is here! Does any Great Shaman dare fight me?!"
Empowered by Qingming, the voice carried across hundreds of li.
Wei Yuan waited for a moment, yet no answer came.
At this very moment, Wei Yuan suddenly felt that vast as the world was, true heroes were few and far between.
Many who held lofty stations had merely been born earlier and lived longer. If those white-haired wretches and gray-bearded old scoundrels were born in this day and age, they would have long since faded into the crowd of ordinary men.
Chapter 192