Shaman City lay close at hand. With the grand defensive formation breached, the entire city was completely undefended; as long as one concealed oneself nearby, one could extend their divine consciousness into it without restraint.
Originally, the three Great Shamans had taken turns shielding the entire city with their divine consciousness, constantly sweeping the surroundings to prevent Wei Yuan's scouts from prying. But this time, it was Wei Yuan who had sneaked over in person to investigate.
With his formidable origin soul, Wei Yuan restrained his aura and drew within three li of Shaman City before barely provoking any awareness from the Great Shamans.
Even Great Shamans could not maintain full divine consciousness coverage at all times; only Nether Shamans could manage that.
Wei Yuan observed for a short while and discovered that the Great Shaman currently on watch swept the surroundings with divine consciousness roughly once every ten minutes. Calculating the interval, Wei Yuan lit a stick of incense inside a small mountain cave and placed a dharma-idol-grade spiritual material within.
This was emulating Sun Yu's past feat of sweeping through the rival treasure hunters.
Wei Yuan crept to the edge of the city, scaled the wall, and peered inside.
Thick smoke still billowed within Shaman City, and nearly all the Shaman soldiers were rummaging through the rubble for survivors. The city square was already carpeted with corpses, and even more were being transported in.
Several other open grounds were packed with the wounded, where some Shaman Scholars were casting shaman arts or pouring medicinal decoctions down their throats. Beside the square, several large cauldrons had been set up, boiling decoctions brewed from unknown ingredients.
The areas where the injured were placed were sharply divided. The largest square held a mere few hundred Shamans, yet nearly all the healing Shaman Scholars were stationed there, with the boiling cauldrons right by their side. Every Shaman in that square wore ornate garments, clearly individuals of rank and status.
Several other clearings were crammed with more than ten thousand people, and new wounded were continually carried in. From their clothing, those lying here were commoners. Only a few Shaman Scholars patrolled back and forth, rarely offering treatment. The lightly wounded were left to heal on their own, and the severely wounded waited for death; only when an injury was neither too light nor too grave and could be treated with ease would the esteemed Shaman Scholars begrudgingly bend down to help.
The Shamans piled in the final square were barely clothed. Their expressions were dull, and their physiques differed little from ordinary humans, bearing few features of divine beasts. Among the Wuyu Clan, this was a mark of inferior bloodlines and incomplete evolution. There were no Shaman Scholars here at all; all the wounded Shamans were left to live or die on their own, sustained only by the city-wide vitality art cast by the Great Shaman, hanging on by a thread as they awaited a miracle.
The Shaman Scholars responsible for healing were only a minority. Far more were bustling over the altar, replacing the blasted sections with jade-like formation bricks, while specialized scholars lay prone across them, chiseling out shaman formations.
Wei Yuan counted roughly sixty Shaman Scholars on the altar. Their robes were different yet again, all dark silver. They were the equivalent of human formation masters—held in high esteem and solely responsible for constructing altars.
At this moment, the altar remained unrepaired. In its center sat a Great Shaman, from whom dense blood qi constantly billowed. The crimson haze permeated all of Shaman City, replenishing a trace of vitality to every single Shaman.
The other two Great Shamans did not show themselves. One was obviously nursing wounds—having taken that strike from Wei Yuan was no easy ordeal. The other was likely inside a secret chamber, using divine consciousness to maintain vigilance over the surroundings.
Taking advantage of the turmoil within the city, Wei Yuan leaped down from the wall, grabbed a filthy outer robe to slip over himself, and walked toward the altar.
Right now, Shaman City was filled with groans, shouts, and weeping; no one had the spare attention to notice a fellow dressed like a slave. It was not until he reached fifty zhang from the altar that Wei Yuan was stopped by Shaman guards. The altar was sacred; only nobles, scholars, and sacrificial offerings could touch it. Common Shamans were not even allowed near.
Wei Yuan stepped back compliantly, counted the time, and waited patiently.
The Great Shaman's divine consciousness, vast as a surging river, swept past the outskirts of the city once more. But this time, it clearly paused, then focused upon that small mountain cave, having evidently spotted the spiritual material Wei Yuan left behind.
The Great Shaman's divine consciousness scanned it repeatedly. Suddenly, a roar of agony erupted from somewhere beneath Shaman City, followed by an explosion of earth. A Great Shaman burst forth clutching his head, tumbling in midair in excruciating pain.
After its last use, the cultivators of the Palace of Grand Beginning had heaped praise upon the Soul-Eroding Incense. Encouraged by this, Sun Yu had devoted himself to three days of painstaking study after the battle.
With ample Nether Soil currently in hand, he had successfully refined the recipe for the Soul-Eroding Incense, drastically enhancing its toxicity to the point where it could even corrode dharma idols, and renamed it Demonic Soul-Eroding Incense.
Judging by the Great Shaman writhing in midair, the potency of the Demonic Soul-Eroding Incense far exceeded what Sun Yu had claimed. That Martial Uncle Sun was admirable in every respect except his habit of modesty, perpetually underestimating the efficacy of the things he concocted.
As the sudden disruption unfolded, the Great Shaman on the altar had yet to understand what was happening when he abruptly sensed an intensely familiar, violent surge of dao power. Then he watched the flagstones before him crack open, and a brilliant golden column of water tore through the altar floor, slamming fiercely into him!
The altar was hollow, containing a subterranean blood pool to store sacrificial power and essence blood. Thus, Wei Yuan's Golden Light Water Blade Art punched straight through the altar from below, striking squarely into the Great Shaman's vitals!
The Great Shaman was in the midst of sustaining the shaman art covering the entire city, and interrupting it required a moment. But now, it was as if he were sitting atop a high-speed drill—how could he remain seated for even an instant?
With a furious roar, the Great Shaman shot into the sky, blood spraying from his entire body and leaving a long trail of gore trailing from his lower torso.
Wei Yuan inwardly sighed with regret. The flaw of the Golden Light Water Blade Art was its lack of flexibility; once cast, the user was rooted to the spot. Seizing the last bit of his power, he swept the water blade left and right, wrecking the altar nearly to ruins and clipping a dozen silver-robed Shaman Scholars along the way, sending them to the afterlife.
Then, his dao power spent, Wei Yuan turned and fled. Once outside the city, he did not forget to scoop up the spiritual material, extinguish the half-burned stick of Demonic Soul-Eroding Incense, and tuck them into his pouch.
The Shamans in the city reacted swiftly. Several dozen nobles and scholars rushed out in pursuit, but only a few li past the gates, a giant python abruptly burst from the soil, swallowing several nobles in a single gulp!
Having landed its strike, the giant python burrowed back underground and vanished.
The Shamans pressed on, only for a striped tiger to leap from the woods, its claws shattering several scholars' bones and sinews before it darted back into the forest and disappeared.
Despite repeated ambushes, the scholars and nobles gave chase relentlessly. The boy fleeing ahead had destroyed their altar; from a human perspective, that was equivalent to someone spitting on the ancestral tablets in one's family shrine before a crowd—a slight that demanded pursuit to the ends of the earth.
The scholars and nobles capable of keeping up were all remarkably powerful and swift, covering dozens of li from Shaman City in the blink of an eye. At that moment, countless Dao Foundations suddenly manifested around them. Cui Yu, expressionless, raised a hand and pointed at the group of Shamans, and the gathered cultivators instantly charged forward to slaughter them.
Among the cultivators were many from the Cui family, but fighting ten to one at this moment, every last one was exceptionally fierce.
Outside Shaman City, an old Daoist was peeking and craning his neck furtively. Yet just as he reached the foot of the city wall, his eyelids twitched uncontrollably. The old Daoist realized that formidable measures remained within the city, leaving him no choice but to abandon the notion of claiming all the heavenly merits for himself.
Only now did he understand why Wei Yuan had turned and fled the moment his strike landed, refusing to act even when an opportunity to slay a Great Shaman was within reach. The old Daoist could only inwardly curse Wei Yuan for his cunning; ever since arriving in Qingming, he had not once managed to monopolize the spoils.
Chapter 251