Deep in the grasslands of the northern reaches, a small detachment of riders galloped at full tilt. Like a pack of frostwolves across the boundless earth, they pierced through multiple defensive lines of Western Jin and Northern Liao, pressing steadily north.
Late one night several days later, dozens of silhouettes crept toward a magnificent golden yurt, completely unnoticed by the tens of thousands of Liao Clan riders camped outside. They burst into the great tent and lunged at a corpulent, towering man who lay asleep amidst a dozen women.
Only when sharp blades drove deep into his flesh did the man awaken from his drunken stupor, but it was already too late.
Moments later, a youth drenched in blood strode out of the golden yurt holding a severed head. He threw his head back and howled at the moon as boundless momentum erupted within him, coalescing into a thousand-zhang giant wolf!
The giant wolf leaped into the air, treading empty space as it charged straight into the full moon. High above, a vivid silver rim appeared around the lunar disc!
The youth's roars grew louder and louder, carrying farther and farther until they resonated across thousands of li. Thus, every tribe along the western slopes of the Sacred Mountain knew that their Great Khan had returned once more from the realm of the dead!
By the time the youth ceased his long howl, the surrounding ground was covered with kneeling tribesmen. He re-entered the golden yurt and rummaged through the collection of the usurping false khan, eventually unearthing a skull encrusted with countless jewels. The skull was nearly transparent, and within it swam a tiny true dragon.
Cradling the skull, the youth watched the creature swimming inside. Though no larger than a little finger, it possessed complete whiskers and tail—a true dragon in every sense.
Beside the youth, an old shaman—looking frail enough to drop dead at any moment—had appeared without a sound, accompanied by a woman a head taller than an ordinary Liao Clan man. Power surged through every inch of her frame, and three gold rings were pierced through one of her nostrils.
Her eyes had no pupils, consisting entirely of seamless silver-white.
"Genuine dragon qi has already been nurtured within," the old shaman murmured slowly. "Must we truly give it to those people of the Southern Dynasty?"
A startling light flared in the youth's eyes. "In ancient days, even the true dragons of the human race were slain by our ancestors. What is there to fear from a sliver of dragon qi? As the heir to the Silver Moon Khanate, what I have promised must be done!"
He handed the crystal skull to the silver-eyed woman. "Deliver this to that king of the Southern Dynasty. Tell him my promise is fulfilled. Warn him to prepare himself—before long, I will personally reclaim this relic, along with all his consorts and daughters, straight from his royal palace!"
***
Outside the city of Yingdu, at Jingang Zen Temple.
The King of Jin stood before a pool encircled by gold-and-jade railings, gazing up at the full moon, lost in thought. Tonight's moonlight was exceptionally crisp and cold, as though coating the earth in a layer of silver frost.
The space before him suddenly rippled like water, and the silver-eyed Liao woman stepped through. She walked straight up to the King of Jin, leaned forward slightly, and looked into his eyes. Her nose twitched, and in a somewhat clumsy, grating voice, she said, "So... filthy..."
It was as if she had not spoken for a long time; her tone was stiff and her voice muffled. "The Great Khan told me to give this to you. He says he will soon take it back himself—along with all your women—from your royal palace!"
Accepting the crystal skull, the King of Jin said indifferently, "My ancestors founded this state a millennium ago; it will certainly not fall in my hands. Since that master of yours barely managed to crawl back from the grave, he had best hide away in the north. That way, he may yet cling to life for a few more years."
Murderous intent flashed in the Liao woman's eyes. In a rigid voice, she said, "I have changed my mind. I am taking your head back right now!"
Long, gleaming, razor-sharp claws sprang from her fingers. At the same instant, their surroundings transformed in a flash, shifting from the lavish Jingang Zen Temple to a snowy northern forest. In the distance stood a mountain cloaked in ice and snow—none other than one of the nine sacred mountains of Northern Liao.
Standing amidst the northern landscape, the King of Jin found himself instantly targeted by the entire world. Far from striking back, he could not even lift a single finger. This woman had actually reached the realm of projecting her mindscape world outward! In this realm she had manifested, she was the sole immortal and god!
She clawed straight for the King of Jin's throat, the blades on her fingers capable of cleanly severing his head with ease.
Several strands of blue-green hair appeared from nowhere, winding around her hand and blade-claws. The silver-eyed Liao woman had already clenched her fist, yet the blades remained suspended where they were.
Without her even realizing it, the blue-green strands had sliced off all her fingers!
The Liao woman snapped her head around, only to see a woman with blue-green eyes who had somehow appeared within her mindscape world, strolling gracefully through the snowy forest. The mindscape world had no effect on her whatsoever.
The newcomer possessed a head of blue-green hair that cascaded all the way to the ground like a waterfall.
Upon touching the snow, the strands seemed to take on a life of their own, slithering rapidly forward across thousands of zhang to wrap around the Northern Liao woman.
With a swift cinch, the blue-green strands sliced the Northern Liao woman's body into countless fragments. Only a single head tumbled down, landing precisely in the blue-green-eyed woman's hand.
The myriad strands retracted and vanished, leaving her head bare and bald once more. She glanced down at the severed head, its face still frozen in lingering shock and horror.
"This thing is useless. Send it back." Drawing a hand through the air before her, she opened a ripple in space and tossed the head inside.
***
In the northern plains before the golden yurt, the Liao woman's head abruptly appeared, dropping right at the youth's feet!
The youth's expression shifted drastically. His hair and beard drifted upward, gradually turning silver! Eyes blazing with fury, he pointed toward the sky, and an illusory phantom of the full moon descended from the heavens into his body.
Drawing the scimitar at his waist, the youth slashed forward with savage fury, unleashing a surging tide of saber light! The beam thrust forward several zhang before vanishing into thin air.
At that exact instant, a roaring expanse of saber light stretching tens of thousands of zhang burst across the sky within the yet-to-dissipate mindscape world. It split in two: one cleaving toward the blue-green-eyed woman, the other toward the King of Jin!
The blue-green-eyed woman said calmly, "The medicinal guide has been received. Our accounts are settled. Please return."
Her fingers formed the flower-pinching mudra as a hazy blue-green glow lit her fingertip, and she gave a light flick. As her finger snapped forward, a long saber materialized before her, and her fingertip struck the tip of the blade dead on!
At once, the sky-filling saber light vanished without a trace. The mindscape world of the Sacred Mountain's snowy forest finally shattered, and Jingang Zen Temple reappeared.
The blue-green-eyed woman reached out and grasped at empty air. The Northern Liao woman's countless tiny flesh fragments and blood flew into her palm, condensing into a jade-white pill with two crimson veins of blood slowly writhing across its surface.
She handed the pill to the King of Jin. "It is almost time for morning chanting."
The King of Jin took the pill, cast a glance at the conspicuously silver-rimmed full moon in the sky, then turned and followed her back toward the main hall.
In the gold-and-jade pool, a lotus flower suddenly blossomed under the moonlight. Its petals were pitch-black.
***
Within the Qingming Domain, Wei Yuan had been staring at the sand table before him for a full two hours.
At the center of the sand table lay Shaman City; at present, the domain's boundary was still ninety li away from it. The city was rendered in exquisite detail, even showing minor features that could not be seen from beyond the walls.
Over the past two hours, Wei Yuan had simulated dozens of assaults on Shaman City within his consciousness, trying various tactical schemes.
Yet he remained dissatisfied with how the Shamans responded in his simulations. Only after modeling the siege did he realize how little he knew about the Shamans currently inside the city, especially regarding the Great Shamans.
Still, testing their strength was simple enough. Wei Yuan left his quarters to find Yu Zhizhuo, pulled several steel cylinders from the storeroom, and mounted them onto a launching array.
Operating it personally this time, Wei Yuan watched the steel cylinder get detected several dozen li from Shaman City. Several fiercely sharp attacks immediately shot into the sky from within the city to intercept it. Clearly, the previous bombardment had left a deep impression on the Great Shamans; refusing to take any chances, they mobilized their full might the instant the projectile appeared.
The cylinder twisted and maneuvered to evade as best it could, but after traveling ten-odd li, it was cleaved in two by a blood-red saber light. The cylinder broke apart, completely empty—it was merely a dummy with no explosives.
Immediately after, a second steel cylinder shot forward. The Great Shamans moved to intercept it as before, but this time it detonated abruptly in midair, blasting apart all surrounding saber beams and sword qi. Several Great Shamans inside the city groaned, evidently suffering considerable backlash.
Amidst the blast's aftershocks, yet another steel cylinder slipped noiselessly through the smoke and arrived directly over Shaman City. Bedlam erupted at once as civilians and ordinary warriors scrambled in every direction seeking shelter. Then, from the sacrificial altar, a streak of purple lightning leaped into the air and blasted the cylinder to pieces.
Through this round of probing, Wei Yuan deduced that there were currently four Great Shamans in Shaman City. One of them had held back until the very last moment to strike, and seemed half a notch weaker than Yanxin had been.
If their defenses amounted to only this, his chances were very good. Even so, Wei Yuan decided to pressure the Shamans further to see what other trump cards they held. He loosened his restraint on the domain, and the Qingming Domain began expanding rapidly, advancing toward Shaman City at ten li a day.
Ever since Wei Yuan advanced to the middle Dao Foundation stage, Qingming's nurturing capacity had grown accordingly. In truth, it could now cover over two hundred li, just enough to encompass Shaman City.
Having applied pressure to the city, Wei Yuan accompanied Yu Zhizhuo to the Weaponsmith Workshop to inspect the newly upgraded steel-cylinder artillery shells.
By now, the Weaponsmith Workshop had grown several times its original size. Four massive furnaces stood within, producing over twenty thousand jin of molten iron each day. Around each furnace sat four Dao Foundation cultivators who had cultivated the Immortal Sword · False Sun, fully engrossed in polishing their Dao Foundations and advancing their cultivation.
To his surprise, Wei Yuan spotted Ren Suxing.
Ren Suxing was currently holding a freshly forged breastplate, inspecting it with his divine sense. Finding no flaws, he tossed it into a crate nearby. With his cultivation at the perfection of Dao Foundation, a single sweep of his divine sense could detect the tiniest imperfection. Holding a glowing red, blazing little hammer, he immediately tapped out minor defects himself; anything beyond fixing was cast onto the scrap heap to be melted down and reforged.
With his profound cultivation, no breastplate remained in his hands for more than three breaths. A single man was able to keep pace with nearly all the iron-forging machines.
"Why is he here?" Wei Yuan asked.
"He originally came to forge iron, but his Dao Foundation isn't fire-attuned. Still, his divine sense is exceptionally sharp, so I had him inspect the breastplates. He's been at it for a while now. Heh, ever since he joined, output has shot up quite a bit."
Wei Yuan found it puzzling that Ren Suxing was willing to do such basic, repetitive manual labor, but as long as he was willing, it was a good thing. Saying nothing further, Wei Yuan followed Yu Zhizhuo into the storehouse to inspect all the newly manufactured shells. As expected of a senior cultivator from the Hall of Heavenly Craft—and having been thoroughly influenced by Sun Yu—Yu Zhizhuo had taken the insidious malice of the new shells to an entirely new level.
A short while later, Wei Yuan walked out of the storehouse and immediately convened the cultivators of the Palace of Grand Beginning for a council.
Once everyone had arrived, Wei Yuan announced, "Though Eldest Senior Sister has not yet returned, opportunities are fleeting, and we can wait no longer. Time waits for no one. We muster our forces today, and tomorrow we march on Shaman City!"
Next, Wei Yuan spoke with fluent confidence over the sand table model of Shaman City, laying out every detail of the offensive plan and fully relishing the joys of armchair strategizing and holding meetings.
***
Elsewhere in the domain, Fei Yutong and a senior brother from Sky Azure Hall were discussing several cultivation conundrums beneath the setting sun. The senior brother suddenly looked toward the main peak, and Fei Yutong followed his gaze, seeing several streaks of light shooting off across the domain.
"I wonder what grand matter they're conferring about now," Fei Yutong remarked.
The senior brother scoffed. "The only ones who get to confer are the core people of the Palace of Grand Beginning. Setting the others aside, Cui Yu, Wang Yu, and Xu Yi only arrived a little before us, and their cultivation is neck and neck with ours. Yet they take part in every single meeting, while we haven't been invited once in all the time we've been here. Looking at it this way, we're the outsiders! I really wonder whether Great Domain Lord Wei even treats us as fellow disciples."
Fei Yutong didn't dwell on such grievances. "Senior Brother Wei surely has his reasons, and we really do still need tempering."
The senior brother retorted, "The domain belongs to Sky Azure Hall, not to him alone."
Chapter 327