Wei Yuan and the flying sable had slain all the colossal beasts, but several meticulously constructed earthen redoubt zones were also ruined, flooded everywhere with virulent black water where humans could no longer tread.
By this point, the human mighty figures held a decisive advantage, and on the ground battlefield, no Great Shaman could stand against Wei Yuan. He began redeploying his troops, simultaneously committing his final trump cards to the field.
These were two thirty-thousand-strong legions. Their ranks were impeccably ordered; all wore breastplates and bore no shields. When encountering the Shaman army, they closed in while firing on the advance. If the Shamans managed to charge up to their battle lines, the front rank held them off with bayonets while the flanking units surged forward to catch the enemy in crossfire.
Of the two legions, one was composed of handpicked warriors of diverse backgrounds, while the other consisted entirely of Xu family youths. Each legion had its own strengths: the mixed legion had a higher average cultivation level and superior individual combat prowess.
The Xu family youths, on the other hand, moved in lockstep unison, entirely devoid of fear. Even when enemy blades and spears plunged into their flesh, their expressions did not change and their hearts did not skip a beat; they simply kept firing.
Organized by tribes, the Shaman warriors charged forward in entire tribal waves. Yet the most successful among them only managed to thrust a few hundred warriors into the mixed legion's formation, only to be run through by bayonets one after another.
The Xu family youths, meanwhile, were like cold harvesting machines. Gunfire rolled in an unbroken cadence. The tens of thousands acted as a single body; listening closely, one would even find that the rhythm of their gunfire was in perfect harmony throughout.
Having formed Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, commanding these tens of thousands was no longer a burden for Wei Yuan. Although the Xu family youths were somewhat weaker in individual cultivation, their effectiveness on the battlefield far exceeded that of the mixed legion.
After several rounds of combat, even the Shamans were shaken, instinctively shrinking away from these demonic foes. More and more tribes turned their assault toward the mixed legion.
The two legions, one on the left and one on the right, gradually drove deep toward the rear of the entire Shaman battle line, slated to link up behind the Shaman forces besieging Ding'an City.
The commanding general of the Shamans saw through Wei Yuan's scheme and hastily redeployed troops to halt the two legions.
Yet these were two purely offensive legions. After grinding combat up to this point, few organized Shaman archer units remained. Whenever archers were spotted, Wei Yuan would immediately hurl a Jade Mountain down upon them. Without archers, the greatest threat to these two legions was gone.
Wei Yuan released unit after unit, firmly pinning down the main Shaman army and throwing their movements into disarray, leaving them unable to divert more troops to check the two legions' assault.
The battle entered a brief stalemate. Unhurried, Wei Yuan patrolled the field, directing operations while neutralizing archer units and wounding several Great Shamans in succession. He deliberately slowed the tempo of the engagement so the Shamans would commit more troops to intercept the two elite legions.
On the outer edge of the battlefield, the faint thudding of horse hooves suddenly sounded. The drumming grew louder and louder as military qi surged into the heavens—a force of heavy cavalry appeared behind the Shamans!
These were the Dragon Gallop and Dragon Wing armies. Wei Yuan had dispatched them from the very start of the battle, sending them in a wide sweep outside the territory's perimeter to circle back and strike the Shaman rear. They had long been in position, but only now did Wei Yuan order the attack.
The first to be enveloped was the Shaman western column. This force had pushed deep into Qingming, and after repeated bloody clashes, it had already suffered tens of thousands of casualties and was visibly shaken. Now that their route of retreat was cut, this Shaman army's military qi showed signs of fracturing, and the soldiers' will to fight was gone.
Seeing the dire situation, the commander of this force detached twenty thousand warriors to attack the Dragon Gallop and Dragon Wing armies in an attempt to reopen an escape route.
Yet the two armies split: the Dragon Gallop troops dismounted and formed ranks to hold the ground to the death, while the Dragon Wing cavalry bypassed the twenty thousand warriors and charged straight into the rear of the main Shaman army!
In a vicious bloodbath, the Shaman warriors knew they had reached a life-or-death juncture. Their blood ignited with wild ferocity, and they fought with reckless abandon. Yet no matter how fiercely they struck, the five-thousand-strong Dragon Gallop formation remained rock-solid and unshaken. The Shaman commander committed another twenty thousand to reinforce the assault, but it was to no avail.
In the blink of an eye, thousands more Shaman corpses piled up before the Dragon Gallop battle line. Seeing that the path of retreat could not be breached, the warriors of the western column finally fell into chaos.
A cold gleam flashed in Wei Yuan's eyes. The time had come!
A peculiar buzzing suddenly sounded within Ding'an City. Dozens of Dao Foundation cultivators wheeled two colossal ballistas into their firing positions. The colossal ballistas had long been primed; the instant they locked into place, they discharged, and their colossal bolts vanished in a flash!
The faces of the Great Shamans besieging Wei Yuan abruptly drained of color. They turned to flee, but it was already too late.
In an instant, Wei Yuan manifested Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. Amid the bustling panoramas of the mortal realm, allies received buffs while enemies suffered across-the-board enfeeblement. Although the magnitude of the enhancement did not equal Outlaw of Heaven and Earth, the dharma idol Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World covered a vast area and had no limit on the number of targets it could enhance.
Shrouded by Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, the Great Shamans were slowed by thirty percent. In the next moment, two of their bodies blew apart as they were obliterated by the colossal bolts.
The remaining Great Shamans were terrified out of their wits, each executing life-saving techniques to flee.
Just then, a white streak flashed through the air as the flying sable sank its teeth into one Great Shaman, who screamed piteously as his massive form plummeted directly to the ground! The cat appeared as well, clawing deep into the back of another Great Shaman, while the snake coiled around the tail of yet another Great Shaman, dragging him down and severely impairing his movement. In midair, eight immortal swords manifested with awe-inspiring might, encircling one Great Shaman and hacking away in wild slashes.
Wei Yuan aimed to wipe out this entire clutch of Great Shamans in one fell swoop!
Yet unexpected mishaps always occur. The last Great Shaman swung out a massive palm, swatting all eight immortal swords away and breaking free, leaving only Old Daoist Chuhe coughing up blood in midair.
Intent on finishing off the three intercepted Great Shamans, Wei Yuan could not spare attention for the one that escaped, watching helplessly as he fled back to the main Shaman army.
The moment Ding'an City's colossal ballistas showed themselves, the Great Shamans feared for their lives. Every one of them pulled back into their military qi, daring no longer to venture out for skirmishes and melees.
Staccato blasts of war horns sounded incessantly across the Shaman army as the host began to withdraw.
Wei Yuan suddenly looked up. Beyond the heavens, terrifying auras appeared, as if multiple gazes were piercing through countless obstacles and looking over from across who knew how many worlds.
A freezing chill instantly gripped Wei Yuan's entire body. His divine sense shuddered, and his sea of consciousness felt frozen solid! Wei Yuan immediately retracted his dharma idol, reined in his aura, and stood dead still.
The flying sable vanished in a blur, burrowing underground. The cat disappeared into the chaos of the army, while the snake slipped into a pile of corpses.
Only Perfected Chuhe, having finished coughing up blood and utterly clueless about what was happening, manifested eight dazzling, murderously radiant immortal swords once more, hunting around for his next opponent.
Several terrifying wills swept over the earth. That freezing, clammy, murderously oppressive dread passed over everyone's heart. The stronger one was, the more their heart palpitated with terror, not daring to move a fraction for fear of being detected.
Those wills also swept past the brazenly swaggering Perfected Chuhe—and simply treated him as thin air.
Several figures abruptly appeared in the sky, and then five streaks of nether light shot away in an instant. The human True Monarchs also appeared one after another, every one of them holding their breath and cloaking their presence, motionless.
Those terrifying wills seemed drawn by the fleeing nether lights and instinctively gave chase. Yet after pursuing them for a thousand li, they seemed to encounter some barrier, then faded and vanished.
Only then did Perfected Chuhe finally realize that an eerie silence had fallen over the battlefield. While he was still trying to make sense of it, everything suddenly came back to life, leaving him thoroughly bewildered.
The Shaman army commenced a full retreat, casting blood curses along the way to prevent human pursuit. The central army and eastern column both managed to pull out, but with the western column's rear severed, all but a few who fled across the mountains were utterly annihilated.
As the Shamans withdrew, the human True Monarchs remained entirely motionless, like frozen statues.
Only after a full twenty-four hours did the young monk finally chant a Buddhist invocation and say, "Truly, there is a great terror. It scared this humble monk to death."
Chapter 439