War

In the Wu domain, within the canopy of an ancient tree, a pair of eyes suddenly snapped open and fixed upon the distance. A troop of human cavalry appeared there, trotting at a controlled, measured pace, their military qi coalescing into an aura that clung tightly to the ranks. Watching the mounted troop draw near, a figure sprang from the tree, unfurling a pair of wings to take flight into the distance. But a streak of falling fire abruptly plummeted from the sky, engulfing its silhouette. With a single Daoist art, Wei Yuan eliminated the Shaman scout. He had already lost count of how many he had disposed of along the march. Leading this small cavalry vanguard, his strategy was simple: push forward, push forward, and push forward again. Even when encountering villages and towns along the way, they did not attack, leaving them all for the following forces. Wei Yuan's divine sense suddenly stirred, detecting a Shaman force moving along another road several thousand zhang away, traveling in the exact same direction as his own. He immediately flew over to scout. It was a migrating tribe, numbering over twenty thousand in total and carrying several hundred boat-carriages. There were roughly five thousand armored warriors among them, along with a mobile altar constructed atop an eight-wheeled wagon. Wei Yuan promptly returned to his detachment. The entire unit wheeled, cutting diagonally across to the front of the Shaman tribe to seize a low hill. The Shaman tribe was thrown into turmoil, scrambling frantically into formation. A Great Shaman among them mounted the altar and commenced a cumbersome ritual. Just then, the thunder of hooves erupted from the rear of the Shaman column as two thousand-man cavalry battalions charged into their flanks and back! Only then did Wei Yuan launch his assault. Attacked from three sides, the enemy shattered in an instant. Wei Yuan battered the Great Shaman to death's door with more than a dozen successive Daoist arts, then dragged him back to the ranks so the heavenly merits could be shared. With the battle decided, Wei Yuan continued leading the vanguard deeper into enemy territory, leaving two cavalry units behind to begin an indiscriminate slaughter of the surviving Shamans. The first rule of engagement Wei Yuan had laid down for this campaign was to execute every single moving Shaman within the Land of Rain. Barely an hour later, within the projection of Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, the enemy markers around the two cavalry units had vanished almost entirely; only a thousand-odd Shamans had managed to flee into the mountains. Without even pausing to sweep the battlefield, the two cavalry units set off in two other unexplored directions. Four hours later, another Shaman force appeared. Though horrified by the gruesome sight of the battlefield, they could not resist scavenging the valuables scattered across the ground. Consequently, they were spotted from behind by a third thousand-man cavalry battalion passing through, which ambushed them and cut down more than half their numbers. After defeating the enemy, this cavalry unit similarly bypassed cleaning up the battlefield and pressed onward. Wei Yuan had a clear objective for this campaign: the Land of Rain city located several hundred li away. That city possessed a history spanning over a millennium, housing hundreds of thousands of Shamans within its walls, while over a million more were scattered throughout the surrounding villages and towns. Wei Yuan strictly adhered to the plan, pacing their speed to conserve the horses' stamina. Any Shaman groups encountered heading toward that city along the way were eliminated on the spot. If these small bands were permitted to coalesce, their numbers would become substantial, and allowing them to take refuge within the city walls would pose immense trouble. Only when they were within the final twenty li did Wei Yuan command his troops to charge. By now, the terrain had smoothed into gentle rolling hills, where low-lying ponds were studded with countless wooden poles—the water paddies upon which the Shamans relied for their livelihood. Village cottages dotted the fields, their structures designed half-submerged in the water. A faint green vapor rose from the cottages, continually diffusing into the surrounding world. The Shamans laboring in the fields straightened up, staring blankly at the galloping Qingming Iron Cavalry, completely at a loss as to what was happening. Only after a few moments did someone finally react, screaming in terror and fleeing back toward the settlements, ringing the alarm bells and igniting signal beacons. All at once, more than a dozen pillars of signal smoke shot up in succession, leading directly toward the city! Riding at the fore, Wei Yuan could already see the city in the distance. Alarm smoke had begun to billow within the city as bells clanged in disarray, and the massive gates were slowly grinding shut. Crowds of Shamans scrambled frantically to push through the gates, while those who could not make it in time scattered in panic across the surrounding countryside. Wei Yuan had arrived so abruptly that the city's defensive ward had not even had time to activate. Seeing the gates closing, Wei Yuan soared into the air and landed directly atop the city wall. Simultaneously, two small figures darted from his person, pouncing back and forth with lightning speed, cutting down swathes of Shaman warriors wherever they passed. Two warriors of the Great Shaman tier charged forward in shock and fury to meet him. Yet the moment one poked his head out, Wei Yuan riddled him with Flawless Transmigration. After ascending to the dharma idol realm, Wei Yuan's firing rate with Flawless Transmigration had increased accordingly; an entire magazine of twenty flying swords could be emptied in a single second. Faced with such ferocious firepower, ordinary Great Shamans stood no chance. The other Great Shaman was assaulted back and forth by the two nimble little figures, torn to shreds within mere moments. By then, the cavalry had reached the base of the wall. Several troopers struck the wall with heavy warhammers, chiseling out holes into which they packed explosives. Amid a deafening roar, half of the gate tower collapsed, shattering the defensive ward in the process. The cavalry packed in another round of explosives, completely blasting down both massive gates. With that, the cavalry charged into the city like wolves among a flock of sheep! Wei Yuan rose into the air and surveyed the entire city. A brand-new city defense layout quickly materialized within Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, continuously filling in details. The flying marten and the cat darted along the city walls, deliberately destroying large bed crossbows, other siege engines, and the key nodes of the defensive array. They moved with blinding speed; three Great Shamans gave chase in desperation, yet could never hope to catch them. Wei Yuan soon spotted the location of the altar, prompting the cavalry inside the city to instantly change direction and charge toward it. Chaos had already engulfed the city; small bands of Shaman soldiers had no idea what was happening, nor did they even know where the enemy was. Seated atop the altar was an elderly Great Shaman, submerged entirely in a pool of blood. The entire altar radiated a hazy crimson light as bloody vapor ascended. In Wei Yuan's eyes, faint, almost imperceptible strands of power were rising from the altar and dissolving into the surrounding world, while the world responded by returning a measure of origin qi, channeling it continuously into the blood shaman's body. This exchange appeared to be the fundamental essence of sacrificing to heaven. Wei Yuan watched quietly for a moment without immediately intervening. Rare was the opportunity to observe a Shaman sacrificial rite so closely. This particular sacrifice was clearly of extraordinary scale; several hundred human heads and corpses were laid out around the altar, the vast majority of them young and robust. The blood flowing toward the center of the altar teemed with vibrant vitality. Yet after passing through the blood pool, what drained out from the bottom was a thick, pale white liquid, discarded as waste water while the vitality had completely vanished. Under Wei Yuan's observation, the vital energy within the fresh blood was seemingly offered entirely to heaven and earth rather than consumed by the old shaman. What the old shaman absorbed was merely the origin qi returned by heaven and earth in exchange. Once Wei Yuan secured the altar, the cavalry shifted targets, fanning out into ten hundred-man companies to secure the various key locations Wei Yuan had scouted. The vanguard cavalry was comprised entirely of Dao Foundation cultivators, each equipped with a flying-sword gun. Small Shaman detachments of two or three hundred were crippled at first contact; any hesitation on their part meant total annihilation. From time to time, the troopers hurled explosives into nearby structures, bringing entire buildings down in a few blasts. The massive commotion across the city finally caught the attention of the old shaman on the altar. As the blood qi rippled, he slowly opened his eyes, attempting to awaken from the ritual. Seeing this, Wei Yuan ceased observing. He fetched a crate of explosives and hurled it straight into the blood pool. With an earth-shattering detonation, a column of blood erupted dozens of zhang into the air. The old shaman's body was blasted skyward, tumbling through the air like a tattered rag doll. Wei Yuan pointed toward the sky, and streak after streak of falling fire descended, engulfing the old shaman in an instant! When the smoke cleared, the surface of the altar was in absolute shambles, every spell formation obliterated, the blood scorched into vast patches of blackened char. All four of the old shaman's arms were gone, his withered, aged body curled in agony. Wei Yuan glanced at the city, then considered the state of his troopers. Deeming that dividing this small sum of heavenly merits would be awkward, and that a mere hundred merits was hardly worth the trouble, he simply flicked out a water blade, snuffing out the old shaman's sea of consciousness. Nowadays, the noble house scions serving under Wei Yuan each possessed a substantial hoard of heavenly merits. There was no longer any need to disrupt their current combat flow for just a few or a dozen points; gone were the days when their eyes turned green with greed at the mere sight of merits. With the altar destroyed and the cavalry initiating indiscriminate sweeps, the entire city plunged into utter mayhem. The Shamans had no conception of how many enemies had arrived; all they heard were the continuous crack of gunfire, roaring fires, and relentless explosions as one grand building after another came crashing down. At this, Wei Yuan felt a degree of relief. If Shaman architecture had incorporated steel rebar as Xu Wenwu had described, these structures would never have collapsed from a single explosion. The cavalry split up once more into squads of twenty to thirty, advancing street by street. Whenever they encountered a Shaman force, they unleashed a direct volley, leaving the ground strewn with corpses within moments. Against Shaman commoners and ordinary warriors, flying swords were devastatingly lethal; severing limbs or piercing through three or four people in a single shot was commonplace. Whenever they encountered buildings where Shamans lay in ambush or hid, the troopers simply tossed in explosives to bring the entire structure down, burying all within. From time to time, Shaman warriors would fight with their backs to the wall, desperately charging into close quarters with the troopers, only to realize in despair that every single one of these heavily armored, finely armed horsemen was a Dao Foundation cultivator! Wei Yuan drifted slowly through the air, periodically reinforcing the forces below with the power of Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains. Whenever he spotted enemy troops attempting to assemble, he hurled several Falling Fire Arts down, scattering them instantly. There had been six Great Shamans in the city in total; by now, three were dead and the other three had fled. Though Wei Yuan appeared at ease, his mana was depleting at a rapid pace. Most of his mana went into replenishing the army's military qi; otherwise, leaving the troopers directly exposed to heaven and earth in the Wu domain would severely diminish their strength. Just then, a towering aura of military qi manifested in the distance as the main army of twenty thousand mounted infantry finally arrived! From the moment Wei Yuan's vanguard breached the city to the arrival of the main force, scarcely two hours had elapsed. Yet due to a minor mishap on the road, the main army was still a quarter of an hour behind schedule. With the main force's arrival, any remaining uncertainty vanished; the entire city fell into Wei Yuan's hands. Leading the main body was Cui Yu. After organizing his troops to take over the city and sweep the battlefield, he sought out Wei Yuan, marveling with deep emotion, "How was it this easy? Have the Shamans grown so weak?" Wei Yuan blinked. "Easy? What part of this was easy?" Cui Yu replied, "Think about it. Ever since marching out of the boundary, the army just kept moving along without facing a single fight—though quite a few wagons broke down. And then we get here, walk right into the city, and wrap things up." Only then did Wei Yuan understand. From Cui Yu's perspective, this battle had simply consisted of three steps: setting out, entering the city, and occupying it. For a city inhabited by hundreds of thousands of Shamans and cultivated over a millennium to fall into their hands just like that seemed almost like child's play. Wei Yuan patted Cui Yu on the shoulder. "It won't stay easy. The real war is yet to come." As the main infantry force filed into the city, the Shamans realized all hope was lost and fled through the four gates in every direction. Wei Yuan refused to allow any civilians to remain, driving them all out of the city and cutting down anyone who moved too slowly. In Wei Yuan's eyes, the only difference between a Shaman civilian and a warrior was whether they held a weapon in their hands; in times of war, he drew no distinction whatsoever—if it moved before him, it died. Next, the infantry set about dismantling the city's defensive ward, gathering spoils of war, and recovering surviving human sacrifices, while the cavalry began their rest and reorganization. Twelve hours later, a supply convoy arrived at the city precisely on schedule, replenishing the vanguard cavalry's expended flying swords, ammunition, and explosives. Twenty-four hours later, a heavy supply convoy laden with provisions and bulk materials arrived on time, resupplying the forces with five days of military rations. The commanders of both supply convoys were former officers from either the Xu family private armies or the imperial military, who had advanced to the Dao Foundation realm in Qingming and subsequently dedicated themselves wholeheartedly to the cause. For them, this was also an unprecedented experience of warfare. The march routes had been distributed well in advance, detailing precisely when they were to reach each specific node. They simply marched according to the plan, unloaded at their destination on time, and returned to load up fresh cargo, just like merchants operating in peaceful lands.