Several overwhelmingly powerful divine senses had locked onto Wei Yuan the moment he left the protection of the military qi and defeated the three Great Shamans. However, they had not anticipated that he would be so fast, and he had still managed to break through the final barrier.
Wei Yuan had already counted the divine senses locked onto him. There were three out in the open and another faint and elusive one. Yet beyond these four, an intense sense of alarm still arose in his heart—and the source of that alarm did not come from these Nether Shamans at all.
Having clearly seen the Shaman lands, Wei Yuan turned around and fled at once.
Several overwhelmingly powerful auras were already converging from all directions, the closest less than a hundred li away from him. Moreover, along the return path, several Great Shamans stood arrayed in strict battle formation. If they could delay Wei Yuan for even a fraction of an instant, the other Nether Shamans would arrive.
Wei Yuan immediately cast out several booster tubes, activated them, and shot them in all directions, with one even darting straight toward the distant great lake. He then reined in his aura, attached himself at random to one of the booster tubes, and accelerated southward.
This move was clearly outside the Nether Shamans' expectations. In the direction of the great lake, a cloud of blood suddenly materialized, intercepting the booster tube flying toward it. The booster tube melted in an instant, turned into a puddle of black liquid, and vanished. Seeing that Wei Yuan was not in that direction, a Nether Shaman manifested, roaring in fury yet unable to do anything about it.
Attached to the booster tube, Wei Yuan escaped several dozen li in the blink of an eye. From time to time, the formidable divine senses of Nether Shamans swept over this booster tube, but none saw through his disguise.
All the booster tubes were part of Wei Yuan's Dao Foundation, so in the distant Nether Shamans' perception, it seemed as if several Wei Yuans were fleeing at high speed.
They also knew that the vast majority had to be decoys, yet they could not tell them apart.
This was the strategy Wei Yuan had planned long beforehand. If it were only himself, he would not be able to run far in the realm of the Wu domain before being detected. His stealth capabilities were insufficient to deceive Nether Shamans entirely; if they searched with all their might, they would inevitably spot some trace, converge to encircle and intercept him, and capture him before long.
Now, however, with these booster tubes muddying the waters, the situation was completely different. The Nether Shamans had no idea which one to pursue, so they had no choice but to chase after every single one.
Flying another several dozen li, Wei Yuan suddenly hurled out several bundles of booster tubes, each bundle made of three tubes lashed together.
Carrying Wei Yuan's aura, these booster tubes shot off in different directions once more, and all the Nether Shamans turned their gaze toward them in an instant. Evidently, this aura that had suddenly split apart had to be where Wei Yuan's true body was.
After these booster tubes flew for a moment, one bundle suddenly broke apart, its three booster tubes each flying in a different direction. In that split second, all the Nether Shamans shifted their focus there, certain that this was where Wei Yuan's true body was, and immediately changed course to give chase.
Wei Yuan waited briefly, then took out a great many booster tubes and tied them together into one bundle. Then, with sixteen booster tubes firing at full blast, Wei Yuan surged with a sudden burst of acceleration, rocketing straight toward Qingming!
A cold snort sounded in Wei Yuan's ear, and from the air, a column of azure water suddenly came crashing down. Hovering between substance and illusion, the water column fell straight toward Wei Yuan's sea of consciousness!
Wei Yuan groaned. His figure sank and his aura plummeted, yet his speed did not slacken in the slightest. Having endured this strike delivered across the void by the Shamans, he had already broken through the encirclement and fled back into Qingming.
Within Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, alarm bells chimed in frantic succession. Everyone still inside had their connection severed, jolting awake from their slumber.
As for the mortals who inherently belonged to Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, they set down their work and all ran in one direction. The earth shook ceaselessly as the ground cracked open, several fissures linking together to form a bottomless trench.
Across the distant lands, an azure waterline appeared, surging forward like an apocalyptic deluge from ancient legends. And the chasm in the ground lay right in front of the advancing flood.
Gleaming with lights of every hue, countless mortals carried heavy stones in their arms, rushed to the edge of the chasm, and built a low wall out of stone. Beams of light rained continuously upon the low wall, fusing the scattered stones into one with the earth to become a natural bulwark.
The light upon the mortals and the beams showering the low wall all came from the various immortal plants. Faced with this world-extinguishing flood capable of destroying everything Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World had achieved since its inception, every single immortal plant was doing its utmost.
Wei Yuan's divine sense descended, and he promptly discovered that one corner of the land had already turned into a vast ocean. In the center of the sea stood a towering peak formed of azure water, easily a thousand zhang tall!
The seawater at the center was rushing in all directions, and the waterline surging toward the city of Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World was still dozens of zhang high!
Wei Yuan immediately adjusted his dharma idol world, elevating the central region, lowering the northwestern corner, and restricting the azure water from flowing too swiftly. This measure, akin to reshaping heaven and earth, caused Wei Yuan's Dao power to plummet rapidly.
Wei Yuan had initially assumed this column of azure water was a strike from a Nether Shaman, which was why he had chosen to withstand it head-on. Little did he expect that this column was actually near to the Dao itself; seemingly modest in volume, the dharmic power contained within was practically inexhaustible, directly forming a vast ocean in Wei Yuan's mindscape world and raising an apocalyptic deluge!
It was only when the azure water column crashed into Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World that Wei Yuan realized the one who had cast this art was not a Nether Shaman at all, but a Sacred Shaman!
By this time, Wei Yuan had returned to Qingming. He rushed straight toward the boundary stone, entered the secret chamber, and sat beside the stone, drawing upon the power of Qingming and the entire domain to suppress the flood.
To accelerate the process, Wei Yuan narrowed the area of elevated central land and continued lowering the terrain of the northwestern corner. Bolstered by the domain, he cast down stream after stream of azure light. Myriad vines sprouted from the low wall, growing at breakneck speed and pulling the entire wall higher and higher.
The mortals now moved like the wind, the stones in their hands replaced by massive hollow stone blocks. The entire wall rose taller and stretched outward swiftly, enclosing more than half the city in the blink of an eye.
The flood finally arrived.
The crest of the flood was still ten zhang high when it reached the chasm. Tremendous torrents poured into the trench, letting loose an earth-shattering roar. Yet Wei Yuan knew that this chasm could not hold much water; the wall still had to be built.
Observing the water level and the speed at which the chasm was filling, Wei Yuan once again narrowed the area of ground to be raised.
At this point, only Maiden Yin-Yang was left capable of directing the mortals. Under her orders, the mortals immediately adjusted the direction of the wall according to the newly designated elevated perimeter, finally closing the wall just as the floodwaters completely filled the chasm.
Water still overflowed the top of the wall and poured into the city, but as the central ground continued to rise, the top of the wall gradually leveled with the water surface. By then, the water in the city was already waist-deep.
Wei Yuan exhaled a long breath. It was finally under control. At this moment, his mindscape world was a boundless expanse of ocean, with only a small city at its center slowly rising higher, bit by bit.
Only now was the full might of that azure water column truly revealed: it held nearly a third of a Nether Shaman's total dharmic power. By now, Wei Yuan had exhausted his own Dao power. Having raised the city's ground above the water's surface, he ceased altering the terrain and walked out of the secret chamber.
The cultivators of the Palace of Grand Beginning were all standing guard outside the secret chamber, breathing a sigh of relief when they saw Wei Yuan emerge. Wei Yuan smiled wryly. "I'm fine. Let's talk in the council hall. The Shamans are playing for keeps this time—they even deployed a Sacred Shaman. We are in serious trouble now."
Moments later in the council hall, Wei Yuan manifested the scene he had witnessed beyond the barrier. Seeing a colossal canal that stretched for at least several hundred li even within the projection, everyone wore grave expressions.
Wei Yuan said, "First, we must figure out what this canal is meant for."
Chapter 473