A missile descended first, detonating directly in the sky above the foremost fort.
This bastion had already fallen completely into the hands of the Shaman soldiers. Many commanders and nobles from their rearguard had filtered in, curiously examining the internal layout of the defenses.
The fortified line Wei Yuan had established across this sector comprised four successive tiers. The Shaman host had already seized the first two tiers, totaling six small forts, and was currently besieging the third tier held stubbornly by Wei Yuan.
Consequently, the Shaman Scholars and nobles in the rear believed the position was entirely secure. Not in their wildest dreams did they expect disaster to fall from the heavens. The missile detonated in midair, wiping out every Shaman inside the fort with a single strike and scouring clean all the Shamans standing along the walls.
One missile after another rained down, inflicting catastrophic casualties on the Shamans assaulting the fortified sector. All three small forts of the second tier received their share of strikes; the Shaman forces around them were utterly eradicated, severing the entire legion into two isolated halves.
Wei Yuan had long since mobilized ten thousand elites and fifty thousand mortals to rush forward, and they arrived upon the battlefield at that very moment.
Taking advantage of the Shaman forces being cut off from front to back, while none of the Great Shamans had yet managed to clamber to their feet, Wei Yuan activated Ephemeral Multitude, bestowed Outlaw of Heaven and Earth, and manifested Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains. Beneath this triple empowerment, his troops transformed into ravenous fiends of slaughter. Felling a foe with every blade stroke, they cut down the entire Shaman vanguard in the blink of an eye!
This column of Shaman advance troops was sliced away layer by layer, like bean curd meeting a razor-sharp cleaver.
The heavens whistled incessantly as a relentless barrage of missiles hammered into the center of the legion before Wei Yuan.
This time, Wei Yuan showed no mercy, slamming more than ten consecutive missiles into the exact same spot. When the fire and smoke finally drifted apart, the central command standard of the legion slowly toppled. The legion commander feebly clutched at the great banner, yet his strength failed him, and he crashed down alongside the flag.
The legion commander was a Great Shaman of formidable combat prowess, yet he had first been buffeted by the shriek from beyond the heavens, only to be struck by more than ten missiles in succession and blasted to death where he stood. The corporeal forms of two other Great Shamans had not been sturdy enough, leaving them blown to smithereens without a trace of bone remaining. Within a hundred zhang of the central command, the ground was reduced to scorched earth; not a single Shaman survived.
Deprived of their legion commander and battle standard to hold them in check, the Shaman warriors woke as if from a dream, their fearless resolve evaporating. The hellish carnage surrounding them instantly plunged countless warriors into sheer terror, and they began screaming and scattering in every direction to flee.
Wei Yuan had long understood that the Shamans were often not truly fearless in the face of death; rather, they were driven to fight to the bitter end like mindless puppets. The true core controlling an entire legion was its commander and its standard, followed only secondarily by the altars.
Yet knowing this in the past was one thing; countering it was another, as he had lacked any effective means. Now, armed with missiles of tremendous destructive force that were difficult to intercept, and seizing the moment when the Great Shamans were critically wounded, Wei Yuan had shattered the legion's central command in one fell swoop.
Disarray rippled through the Shaman vanguard, cascading into a full-blown rout within moments.
Wei Yuan immediately led his forces in pursuit to drive the broken Shaman lines before them, while ordering reserve units on standby to reoccupy the small forts. Mighty Dao Foundation cultivators hoisted new defensive cannons into position, while crates of ammunition were hauled inside, swiftly reestablishing the line of defense.
From Hongye's vantage point, his entire left wing was visibly collapsing.
Of the three legions on that side, one had already routed once, and another had suffered devastating losses, entirely stripped of its fighting capability. Only a single legion remained relatively intact, yet it was also the weakest in combat strength; under the impact of the retreating routed troops, its rearguard—composed entirely of Shaman Scholars and nobles—fled without striking a blow.
Three legions, numbering a full two hundred and ten thousand warriors, defeated just like that?
Hongye was so incensed that black spots swam before his eyes. He longed to cast a blood curse to dissolve every Shaman Scholar and noble in that rearguard into foul blood. Yet he knew he could not do so. If he truly committed such an act, the Land of Rain might very well find itself ruled by a different Shaman.
Beneath his fury, Hongye also sensed grave danger.
The collapse of the left wing left the flank of the central legion entirely exposed. If Wei Yuan, now leading over a hundred thousand warriors, were to disperse the routed troops and pivot to strike the central legion's flank, the central legion would likely crumble as well.
The central legion was currently throwing everything it had into besieging Ding'an City, and both sides had descended into an exceptionally brutal, bloody meat grinder.
Whenever the Shaman host wiped out the defenders on the ramparts and prepared to push deep into the breach, a salvo of missiles would plummet down, cutting the vanguard off from the center. Then, artillery fire from the high towers behind the city would sweep across the walls, blowing every Shaman atop them to pieces.
Once the shelling ceased, a fresh wave of defenders would mount the ramparts and man the fortifications, resuming the siege battle anew.
Hongye had already lost track of how many times this cycle had repeated. By now, the Shaman warriors at the front lines were gripped by sheer terror, desperately struggling against their suppression in hopes of fleeing. It was solely the domineering pull of the altars that forced them to continue storming the city with utter disregard for life and death.
Yet the sacrificial power accumulated within the dozen-odd altars along the frontline had already been depleted by half, before they had even managed to unleash a single proper blood curse.
If the Shamans had altars to suppress their instinctual fear, the humans clearly possessed analogous means.
Hongye observed that every defender mounting the walls had bloodshot eyes, fighting like madmen. Many would drag a Shaman down off the parapets with them even after taking multiple blade wounds. Others, fully aware that artillery fire was about to blanket their position, made no attempt to take cover; instead, they burst into wild laughter, gripping the Shamans beside them in an iron embrace so they might be blasted to smithereens together.
Yet what Hongye found most intolerable was that Wei Yuan had actually restored the defenses of the six small forward forts. Countless Shaman warriors had braved concentrated artillery fire and clambered over mountains of their comrades' corpses to seize those positions. Was everything now to be reset to how it began, forcing them to fight through the fortified sector all over again?
Hongye spoke abruptly: "I need to use that item now."
The Sacred Shaman beside him replied, "Are you certain you wish to use it now? The grand battle has only just begun."
"Right now! This is when Qingming holds the most living souls, and thus when its effect will be greatest. I will make them understand the fate of those who dare defy the Ancestral Shaman—and who dare defy me!"
The Sacred Shaman remarked, "There was really no need to add that last half. In my view, you have little hope of ever becoming a Heavenly Shaman, let alone entertaining wild delusions of replacing the Ancestral Shaman."
A perilous glint flared in Hongye's eyes. The Sacred Shaman immediately stepped back to put distance between them, saying, "What do you think you are doing? I was merely speaking the truth."
Hongye reined in his murderous intent and asked, "Where is the target I am looking for?"
A projection of Qingming materialized before the Sacred Shaman, marked with several cities. One of the cities was exceptionally large, its aura of living souls glowing with extraordinary brilliance.
"This is Yong'an. It holds the largest population at present."
Hongye clearly had no desire to waste words on him. "Very good. Begin."
Two additional pairs of arms emerged from the Sacred Shaman's ribs, each clutching a different ritual implement. Then, flecks of starlight drifted from his brow and settled upon Hongye.
Hongye's expression twisted, his whole body trembling as if in excruciating agony. Above him materialized the colossal form of a behemoth—vast and heavy-limbed, resembling an enormous elephant crowned with the head of a dragon.
Yet at this moment, layers of chains were bound tightly around the behemoth, burning with dark flames that pinned it completely motionless.
As the flecks of starlight conjured by the Sacred Shaman fell upon the chains, they gradually pried them open slightly, and the dark flames sputtered nearly to extinction. Though the dragon-elephant behemoth was not yet free, it was able to shift slightly.
Hongye snapped his eyes open. Infinite, layered imagery appeared within his pupils, bottomless and unending.
He produced a bright red glazed bead and crushed it with forceful vigor. A surging column of blood qi soared straight into the clouds! Within moments, the cloud cover spanning all of Qingming turned a murky crimson, and even the few patches of blue sky were blotted out by the encroaching sea of blood-red clouds.
This was a blood curse capable of blanketing an entire domain!
Wei Yuan immediately gave the order for every city to activate its defensive arrays against blood curses, while instructing the mortals to take medicine. Yet medicine capable of resisting blood curses was scarce; only a small portion of the commoners could receive a single pill.
Misfortune never arrived singly. Before Wei Yuan, an autumn leaf suddenly drifted down. Slender and blade-like, it was half withered to yellow, with a faint trace of crimson tracing its veins. Wei Yuan reached out to catch it, only for the fallen leaf to graze across his palm, coming within a hair's breadth of cutting through his skin.
Sharp enough to pierce his skin?
The leaf in Wei Yuan's grasp dissolved into nothingness, yet more leaves drifted in the air around him. Autumn leaves fluttered down across the battlefield, and across the entire domain, it was as though late autumn had arrived, with red leaves descending thick as snow.
Throughout the battle formations, warriors continually cried out in agony as they accidentally brushed against the red leaves, collapsing to the ground. Yet the falling leaves were not thickest here; they fell in greatest numbers over Yong'an!
Above the city, skies of red leaves drifted down like a sorrowful, picturesque tapestry.
Yet the people within the city had no leisure to admire the scenery. The instant a red leaf touched flesh, it opened a horrific wound. Many collapsed and died without a sound. The survivors shrieked and scrambled into their homes, only to discover in despair that walls could not keep the red leaves out—autumn leaves drifted within the rooms as well!
Blood flowed everywhere, staining the streets crimson; the gutters ran thick with congealed gore.
Many were already dead, yet their corpses continued to be sliced apart by the falling red leaves, carved into ever smaller pieces.
In the span of an instant, Yong'an was reduced nearly to a desolate land of death!
Wei Yuan flashed into the sky above Yong'an. With a single glance, he determined that civilian casualties exceeded a hundred thousand, with entire households slaughtered without a sole survivor.
These drifting leaves were plainly Hongye's handiwork. Wei Yuan had known he was powerful, but never imagined he could be this terrifying! Seeing that the sky full of drifting leaves showed no sign of abating, Wei Yuan burned with anxiety, yet found himself without a countermeasure. He could only channel the power of Qingming as hard as he could, hoping to suppress it with the might of the domain.
However, half of Qingming's power had already been consumed by Ephemeral Multitude, and the remainder was stretched thin merely resisting the domain-wide blood curse; contending with the drifting leaves on top of that was simply impossible. Moreover, among the divine wonders of Qingming, none were suited for countering such an autumn-leaf art.
Down in Yong'an, fleeing mortals collapsed abruptly mid-stride, their remains severing apart into large pieces, which then gradually split into smaller shreds.
Wei Yuan felt hot blood rush straight to his crown, his fury completely unvented. He was ready to pour out all his karmic luck and set out alongside Maiden Yin-Yang to slay Hongye!
At that very moment, the Qingming immortal stone suddenly jolted. The countless streams of azure qi Wei Yuan had gathered within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World were siphoned into it like a hundred rivers converging into the sea. In an instant, more than a hundred thousand streams of azure qi were swallowed clean by the immortal stone.
The Qingming immortal stone immediately radiated brilliant light. As celestial music arose, a hundred birds and immortal fowl circled in flight, and heavenly maidens and moon maidens danced in the air.
At the center of the immortal stone, above a jade-blue sea, an immortal sat cross-legged, his aura lofty and profound, coexisting with heaven and earth.
Having absorbed the mortal luck Wei Yuan had accumulated over many days, the final divine wonder of the Qingming boundary stone finally manifested. It was none other than the Peerless Dao Domain.
Chapter 495