At the castellan's manor in Ding'an City, Wei Yuan and Bao Yun stood side by side. Across their forward field of view lay a vast, boundless expanse of green.
Dark clouds blanketed the sky. Though it was high noon, the light was as dim as dusk, and wisps of green qi drifted down incessantly from the clouds, making heaven and earth seem all the more murky and fathomless.
Having dealt with the Shamans for so long, Wei Yuan naturally understood that the vision of most Shamans was unlike that of humans. While the pervasive green mist obstructed human sight, the Shamans could see much farther through it.
Military qi surged like rolling mountain ranges, advancing steadily. Beneath this canopy of military qi marched endless Shaman ranks, making the ground tremble underfoot.
Fully two hundred thousand Shamans had appeared outside Ding'an City. A force that in the past would have been enough to trample all of Qingming flat did not even qualify as a vanguard now. Based solely on what Wei Yuan had seen with his own eyes and the calculations processed by Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, the arriving Shamans already exceeded ten million, with a full 1.8 million combat soldiers among them.
Atop the walls of Ding'an City, some warriors turned pale at the sight of such formidable military might, trembling faintly.
Bao Yun remarked, "It seems they want to probe first and test the mettle of our defensive system."
Wei Yuan nodded. "Prepare for battle."
Bao Yun returned to the main hall of the castellan's manor. Before her lay a massive sand table map, flanked on both sides by crowds of officers.
Behind Bao Yun stood two inconspicuous Dao Foundation warriors, yet everyone subconsciously glanced back at them from time to time. By now, the higher-ranking officers all knew that whenever such Dao Foundation warriors were present, it meant the Domain Lord could hear everything and see everything.
Bao Yun stepped out onto the balcony, leaning against the railing to look into the distance. Ding'an City's walls were not high; from her vantage point, she had a clear view of everything outside.
As the Shaman host drew nearer, domain power suddenly descended. Everyone in the city instantly felt their bodies lighten. Their fear was swept away, and they even gained a surge of strength. Outside the city, the green mist began to thin and recede, widening their field of view, yet the distant Shaman military qi did not waver in the slightest.
Only in a clash on this scale did the true role of military qi reveal itself.
When an elite army's military qi coalesced like mountains, domain power could scarcely shake it, and large-scale spells were significantly weakened. Anchored by military qi, an army could campaign for thousands of li across enemy lands. Pitting formation against formation and relying on infantry combat was the only truly effective way to whittle down an opponent's military qi.
From the Shaman center army, an altar was wheeled forward and brought to a halt dozens of li away. Several dozen Shaman priests mounted the platform and began a ritual. Soon after, dozens of gigantic beasts emerged from the center army, lumbering slowly toward Ding'an City.
Bao Yun made a silent calculation, then ordered, "Evacuate the battlements!"
The defenders on the walls immediately withdrew from the array formations. Some sprinted toward the city center, while others took cover beneath the watchtowers, all retreating into their designated shelters.
Wei Yuan had entrusted full command of Ding'an City's offensive and defensive operations to Bao Yun, which allowed her to rapidly gather karmic luck. With the Dao Foundation warriors he left behind to assist her, Bao Yun's military orders could be transmitted instantly to every corner of the city. Furthermore, Bao Yun was no slouch when it came to leading troops; even if Wei Yuan took the field in person, his siege defense would be on roughly the same level.
As a ray of blood-red light shot skyward from the Shaman altar, a vast expanse of blood clouds suddenly formed over Ding'an City, followed by wisps of falling blood rain.
A blood curse was the Shamans' most common method for cracking fortifications. Ordinary defenses were entirely useless against such curses; even hiding underground was futile. One could only resist it through domain power, the city-guarding grand array, and one's own spellcraft and Dao power.
Thus, Bao Yun had deliberately established nodes of the city-guarding grand array across every section of the defense positions. Because these nodes covered only the shelters, their defensive strength was greatly enhanced, drastically weakening the power of the blood curse. The node shelters were also stocked with essential wound medicine and various purification pills, allowing severely wounded soldiers to rest and recuperate.
Qingming now had a new protocol for dealing with blood curses. At the opening of battle, before the blood curse descended, all frontline warriors were to take cover in the shelters—not merely to evade the first wave of the blood curse, but also to ingest pills that resisted curse erosion.
Though these pills had been rushed out by Xu Henshui and were a stripped-down version that omitted many precious medicinal ingredients to facilitate mass production, they still granted consumers a tremendous surge in resistance over the following two hours, effectively warding off the blood curse. Furthermore, after the recipe's adjustment, Xu Henshui could produce over a thousand pills per cauldron, while his fellow sect members could yield six to seven hundred.
Wei Yuan had also tried concocting two cauldrons. His first batch produced only eight hundred-some pills, restoring Xu Henshui's confidence.
Yet after full optimization by Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, Wei Yuan's second batch directly yielded over nineteen hundred pills, once again eliciting a glare of fury from Xu Henshui. Still, even when throwing a tantrum, Martial Uncle Xu was more beautiful than the vast majority of women.
Whenever he saw Xu Henshui grow angry, however, Wei Yuan could not help but think of Zhang Sheng. Master would surely be exceptionally beautiful in a fit of rage as well, but alas, Zhang Sheng had an easy temper and virtually never lost her cool—when she was angry, she simply slashed with her sword.
As the blood rain fell without pause, another hazy barrier of light appeared over the city, beginning to intercept it. This marked the official activation of Ding'an City's grand defensive array.
Upon penetrating the light barrier, droplets of blood rain dissolved into a faint reddish mist. Led by their officers, the warriors charged out from the shelters and returned to their battle positions.
Each warrior emanated a hazy, clear light. When the blood mist settled upon them, the clear light dimmed slightly. Only when the light vanished completely would a warrior collapse and die in agony.
Officers with Dao Foundation cultivation patrolled back and forth across the positions through the blood rain. Whenever they spotted a warrior whose protective clear light was nearly extinguished, they ordered them to quickly retreat into a shelter. A soldier from the reserve units waiting in the shelter would then step forward to take their place on the line.
Under this brand-new defensive system, the power of the Shamans' blood curse was largely negated; only a hundred defenders fell after a full quarter-hour.
Seeing the blood curse prove ineffective, the Shaman vanguard began to advance. The army bore down upon Ding'an City in an overwhelming wave. Tens of thousands of cavalry wheeled around to the flanks, attempting to bypass the city and strike deep into the domain.
Every dozen or so li, however, Wei Yuan had constructed a small military redoubt. Shaped like a blooming flower, each extending petal was deployed with short-barreled cannons.
When the Shaman cavalry attempted to pass between the redoubts, they were immediately met with ruthless bombardment from the short-barreled cannons. Qingming's cannon shells had recently been improved: the powder charge was increased, and though the shrapnel count was comparatively reduced, the destructive power was far greater. In an instant, the Shaman cavalry were blasted off their mounts, men tumbling and lizards sent sprawling.
Caught under cannon fire, the Shaman cavalry vanguard was thrown into disarray and had no choice but to pull back, leaving behind hundreds of corpses.
Atop Ding'an City, several cannoneers loaded a shell into a short-barreled cannon. After brief aiming, they fired a round. The gun commander saw a plume of fire blossom amidst the Shaman ranks, blasting more than a dozen Shaman warriors into the sky. Excited, he leaped up, roared, and flashed an obscene gesture toward the Shamans.
"Look out!"
Before the gun commander could react to the frantic shout behind him, a heavy arrow ripped through the air and pierced straight through his body in an instant—his breastplate failed to slow it down in the slightest!
Ten li away, within the Shaman host, a muscular brute baring two tusks lowered a colossal bow with a ferocious grin. Having felled an enemy with an arrow from ten li out, he was thoroughly pleased with the shot. He smoothly drew another heavy arrow and calmly nocked it to the string.
A whistle suddenly rang out beside him. Turning his head, he saw a four-eyed Shaman sharpshooter with a snake's head dozens of yards away loose an arrow as well. Like a shooting star, the arrow grazed past a short-barreled cannon and impaled the two men behind it into a skewer!
The two Shaman sharpshooters exchanged a glance, their eyes blazing with battle lust.
As both drew their bows again and searched for their next targets, they saw the human cannoneers atop the wall suddenly lift two steel shields and mount them onto the cannon frame.
Unwilling to concede, each loosed another arrow, but the heavy arrowheads barely pierced through the shields, giving the cannoneers behind them quite a fright. These arrow shields on the cannons were three fingers thick; even heavy Shaman arrows could hardly punch through them.
With the shields attached, the cannoneers cast aside all apprehension, loading and firing frantically to bombard the assaulting Shamans.
Cannon shells exploded continuously within the Shaman formations, blowing open gap after gap. From the city walls, flying swords began to shoot forth, strafing the frontline warriors. The flying-sword guns had also been fitted with arrow shields, but these were not as thick as those on the short-barreled cannons. Consequently, the Shaman sharpshooters abandoned targeting the cannons and began picking off the flying-sword guns one by one.
At this moment, dozens of colossal beasts charged out from the Shaman ranks, hurling leather balls the size of tabletops toward the city walls with great force. Ding'an City had already weathered such attacks in the previous engagement, so they had countertactics ready.
The dharma idol cultivators stationed in the city intercepted a portion of them; Dao Foundation officers intercepted others with flying-sword guns; and finally, the defenders on the walls fired at them with fire guns.
Under multiple layers of interception, most of the dozens of leather balls were blasted apart, and only a dozen or so struck the walls. But by now, the city's fortifications had been reinforced once again, with protective steel plates installed across the roofs. When the balls hit the plates, they burst and spilled black liquid, which began to corrode even the steel.
However, corroding completely through the steel plates was not something that could happen in a moment. Various Dao Foundation captains were already casting all kinds of Dao arts—some washing it down with water, some blowing away the black liquid with wind, and others casting spells to neutralize the toxicity.
Frontline warriors had generally been issued leather coats soaked in medicinal oils. Having put them on, they suffered no harm even if occasionally splashed with the black liquid.
The Shamans naturally refused to relent. The giant beasts hurled leather ball after leather ball. Possessing monstrous strength, they could throw the balls into the city from ten li away, whereas the short-barreled cannons had limited range and could not reach the beasts at all. Fortunately, the leather balls were large targets and moved slowly; well-trained Dao Foundation cultivators wielding flying-sword guns could intercept them effectively. Wei Yuan had even dispatched his scholar dharma idol to the city wall, where the barrage of its rotary flying-sword autocannon shot down over a hundred leather balls in succession.
Seeing that this round of the enemy's attack was achieving little effect, the officers had just breathed a sigh of relief when they suddenly noticed the Shaman sharpshooters uniformly switch to a kind of heavy arrow never seen before. The front of each arrow was fitted with something like a cylinder. Then, hundreds of these heavy arrows came arching down in a volley.
Because steel plates had been added atop the rampart defenses, both officers and warriors paid little heed to the lobbed heavy arrows, firing desperately at the Shamans closing in on the wall to inflict maximum casualties before they could mount the ramparts.
When the heavy arrows landed, they suddenly detonated one after another. A continuous sheet of flames instantly engulfed the city wall. Amidst the fire, steel plates flew in all directions, and defending warriors could be seen blasted high into the air at every moment!
Chapter 483