Outside the domain, Phantom fumed with rage and shouted, "What an arrogant junior! I'll go teach him a lesson!"
The Great Shaman beside her said coldly, "I advise you not to."
"Are we just going to watch this junior spout wild talk?"
"If you go, it won't be wild talk anymore."
Phantom raged, "Do you think I...?"
Without waiting for her to finish, the Great Shaman said, "Precisely!"
Phantom was struck speechless for a moment. After a pause, she said, "Fine. Even if I can't, surely there will be no issue if you take the field, Lord Yanlong?"
Yanlong said flatly, "If it were outside the domain, it would be easy enough. But right now, this is his home turf. Even I have no certainty."
Phantom was astonished; she had never expected Yanlong to hold Wei Yuan in such high regard.
Yanlong was an outstanding figure among all the Great Shamans of the Shaman race, seen as someone with the potential to become a Heavenly Shaman. Now, separated by an entire major realm, he actually felt no certainty? Phantom could not understand it. It was merely home-field advantage; how much of a boost could it possibly grant?
Yanlong added, "Besides, even if I wished to try, I'm afraid I could not. Someone has come to play chess with me."
Phantom suddenly felt the surrounding temperature soar as if she were inside a smelting furnace, agonizingly stifling. Flames abruptly flared up on her outer robe. Startled, Phantom spread her magic power to shield her whole body, only then extinguishing the flame.
At this moment, the surrounding space was filled with scorching Dao power. This Dao power was exceedingly domineering, to the point that it had actually ignited Phantom's magic-treasure-grade outer robe.
She whipped around and saw an old Daoist standing behind her at some unknown moment, smiling with exceptional warmth and amiability.
Stroking his beard, he said, "This humble Daoist is Fenhai. I have long heard that Great Shaman Yanlong's magic power reaches the heavens and that you hold unique insights into the Dao of Heaven and Earth. Since we have met today, how about a game of chess?"
Yanlong asked, "Is the one inside your disciple or granddisciple?"
Fenhai said candidly, "Indeed he is. Young people simply love to speak the truth, which at times inevitably rubs folks the wrong way. If the two of you have nothing else to attend to, why not join this old Daoist for a game of chess to see each other's comprehension of the Dao of Heaven and Earth? If you two insist on fighting, this old Daoist can keep you company as well. It is just that quite a few from our human race have arrived today; please do not blame us for outnumbering you."
Yanlong smiled and said, "You certainly have good luck. Fine, let us play a game. It is enough for me to keep you company." With that, he waved his sleeve, and both he and Fenhai vanished from sight.
Left behind, Phantom looked at Wei Yuan on the high platform from afar, feeling tempted to go over. But recalling Yanlong's words, after hesitating again and again, she ultimately remained in place, unmoving.
Meanwhile, in the dungeon beneath the main peak, a beautiful woman appeared beside Tianyu. Across her shoulders, several petal-like delicate wings unfurled, exquisite as a dream or phantom illusion.
Tianyu gazed toward the battlefield, his face filled with yearning. "Heh! 'Is there any Great Shaman who dares fight me?!' What spirit! Truly worthy of the man who defeated me! If only I were standing up there, saying those words—how great would that be?"
The woman said coldly, "Then I'd be collecting your corpse. Stop babbling and leave, quickly!"
Tianyu shook his head. "No, I can't just leave like this. That man has such heroic spirit, and no matter what, I only suffered a narrow defeat last time. If I leave like this, wouldn't that make me a deserter? I must settle on a proper ransom with him and walk away with my head held high. Only then will I have the face to challenge him again in the future, turning him into a stepping stone on my path to the heavens."
The woman said impatiently, "With that measly ransom of yours, can't you just pay it yourself? Leave him a couple of magic artifacts off your back—could he possibly refuse?"
Tianyu sneered. "Am I, Tianyu, so cheap?"
The woman said helplessly, "Then how much do you think you're worth? You only made it onto the Power Shaman Rankings because a few people advanced to Great Shaman this year!"
Tianyu sneered disdainfully, "That man's condition was for the Shamans to withdraw their army!"
The woman was stunned. "Is that man sick in the head?"
Tianyu said, displeased, "A human sage once said, 'A gentleman will die for the one who recognizes his worth!' This man thinks so highly of me, so how could I just sneak away?"
The woman gave him a deep look. "You're not right in the head either. Your sister paid a steep price to hire me to rescue you, but I only agreed to make a move once. If you don't come with me now, you won't have another chance."
Tianyu said resolutely, "I'm not leaving."
A slender beam of light suddenly shot from the woman's eyes, landing on Tianyu.
"What did you do to me?"
"Nothing, just took a look at your fate over the next few days. I'll ask you one last time: are you leaving or not? If you don't leave, you will regret it."
Tianyu shook his head.
With a wave of the woman's hand, all the artifact chains binding Tianyu shattered. She then said, "Now you decide for yourself whether to leave or stay. I'm off to seize the boundary stone."
High in the sky, atop a wisp of ethereal cloud, two old men were playing weiqi. Both placed their stones swiftly, and one had already fallen into a disadvantage.
The old man with the upper hand stroked his beard and smiled. "Brother Wang, your family has gained another qilin prodigy. This is a joyous occasion, so it is only right that you lose this game of chess to me."
Down on the battlefield below, Wang Yu's eyes were tightly shut, bloody tears streaming incessantly from their corners. Yet as though he possessed a Heavenly Eye, the spear in his hand was so swift its traces could not be seen. The Dao power on the spear was concentrated to an extreme, extending past the spearhead by no more than a finger. His thrusts were also exceptionally concise—a simple jab and withdrawal—yet every thrust claimed a soul. His spearmanship had already begun to bear traces of the great Dao returning to ultimate simplicity.
Regardless of the quality of Wang Yu's Dao Foundation, this spearmanship and mastery of Dao power alone far surpassed those of ordinary aristocratic scions. Even with a Mortal Tier Dao Foundation, he would still be heavily relied upon.
The losing old man looked sour and said coldly, "Isn't the one from your Cui family even better? Otherwise, why would your venerable self bother watching from up in the heavens?"
The winning elder chuckled heartily. "Cui Yu indeed has a bit of the flavor of returning to simplicity and truth. In the future, there might even be a glimmer of hope for him to achieve True Monarch. On top of that, he is a fine hand at both commanding troops and administering a city. It is only right that I come over to keep watch over him; after all, we cannot let such a fine child truly perish here."
On the battlefield below, a blazing sun suddenly rose, entwined with bright arcs of blade light that cut down all the approaching Shamans.
Immortal sword in hand, Cui Yu led fifteen hundred cultivators with Dao Foundation combat strength, cutting viciously into the flank of the Shaman main army, the spearhead of their charge pointing straight toward the high platform. Both the point of entry and the timing were flawless.
In their ranks were also the two great experts Xiaoyu and Feng Tingyu; the Shaman Dao Foundation powerhouses were utterly unable to stop the two fighting in tandem. How terrifying were fifteen hundred cultivators with Dao Foundation combat strength? In the blink of an eye, Shamans were wiped out in swathes.
Yet although the Shaman commander had fled into his personal guards, the army did not collapse as Wei Yuan had anticipated. Five Shaman captains suddenly surged with imposing aura, their cultivation climbing step by step, and distinct military banners were raised beside them. In a flash, ten military banners stood erected across the front and rear forces, and one of the banners stood notably higher, taking over command authority.
This Shaman force had originally functioned as one entity. Now, though divided into ten units, it remained as cohesive as a single whole, merely with a new commander. The transition of commanders was as smooth as flowing water; had Wei Yuan not been standing atop the high platform, he would have thought the commander had never changed at all.
Formidable though the Shamans were, the humans were not weak either. Cui Yu commanded with calm poise, methodically directing his troops to encircle and slaughter the Shamans, already showing the bearing of a great general.
The elder of the Wang family said, "Xiaoyu is also remarkable. Did no one from the Xiao family come?"
A woman in palace dress, cold as frost, manifested and said indifferently, "You all knew full well that I had arrived. Why bother saying such things?"
The Cui family elder stroked his beard and smiled. "We old friends haven't seen one another in many years. Who would have thought we'd gather so completely here? The Bao family is an old acquaintance as well, though that fellow dislikes bustle and is watching from the heavens by himself, so we'll leave him be. But why have people from the Xu family and the Li family also come?"
A middle-aged man stepped slowly out of the void, remarking flatly, "I heard that a boy worthy of matching Yi'er appeared here, so I came over to see. As for why Brother Li came, I do not know."
The Cui family elder nodded. "Wei Yuan? That child already possesses the poise of a great master. But Xu Yi already gives the feeling of having been reborn; the two of them are indeed three-tenths matched."
The palace-robed woman suddenly asked, "Could that boy have anticipated that we were here, deliberately letting the children fall into peril to bait us into acting?"
Everyone's expressions tightened, and together they looked downward.
By now, Wei Yuan was locked in bitter battle, yet he still managed to free a hand to bestow karmic luck upon Xiaoyu, Cui Yu, and Feng Tingyu, before replenishing another strand of karmic luck upon the young masters and mistresses of the sixteen clans.
In that brief instant of distraction, Wei Yuan was slashed twice in succession, the wounds temporarily unable to close on their own.
Someone said, visibly moved, "If this old man is not mistaken... was what Wei Yuan just distributed karmic luck?"
Chapter 193