The Shamans' retreat was not due to an inferior tactical position on the battlefield, but rather because their military qi had been violently destabilized, prematurely exhausting the sacrificial power used to anchor their morale. In the end, Wei Yuan did not have to fire his Yang bullet, though the Nether Shamans and Hongye on the opposing side had already seen it with utter clarity.
Atop the main peak, Su Xuejing stood with his hands clasped behind his back. He had entered a state of communion with heaven and earth, prepared to strike with his sword at any instant, yet the opportunity had never presented itself.
Looking up at Wei Yuan bathed in the morning sun, Su Xuejing praised, "A peerless talent such as this is worthy of being named alongside me."
Standing nearby, Zhang Sheng remarked coldly, "A whole night of fighting, and you didn't strike a single blow. What would you be named alongside him for—a contest of patience?"
Su Xuejing maintained an aura of detached harmony with heaven and earth as he retorted, "What do you know? I nurture my sword between heaven and earth; if it strikes, it must be to slay a formidable enemy standing upon the summit of Kunlun. When that sword is drawn, it will shake heaven and earth, shining brilliantly across the cosmos. Sword and mind are one—it is no butcher's cleaver! How could it stoop to slaying mere filth?"
Zhang Sheng sneered. "If you haven't struck a single blow, what difference is there between having that sword and not having one? No matter how finely you nurture it, aren't you just blowing your own horn? If my four swords were still here, I'd have shown you long ago what true slaughter looks like. Would you still have room to sit here offering grand critiques? Talk all you want, but aren't you just afraid to draw your sword? After all, if you fought and lost, how embarrassing that would be."
Su Xuejing flew into a rage. "You say I haven't struck a single blow, but where are your four swords now?!"
Beside them, Shangguan Qianmo coughed lightly. Su Xuejing suddenly came to his senses, realizing that his words were tearing open an old scar, an act truly beneath him. Yet ever since he began debating the Dao with Zhang Sheng, he found himself repeatedly unable to suppress the wicked temper flaring up within him.
This Zhang Sheng clearly possessed a profound mastery of the sword Dao and was an unrivaled genius, yet she excelled at being utterly unreasonable and nitpicking every last word. Whenever Su Xuejing debated the Dao with her, if he uttered so much as a single superfluous word, she would latch onto it, often dragging the debate on for nearly half an hour.
Whenever he listened to Zhang Sheng speak for too long, Su Xuejing had an overwhelming urge to draw his sword.
Indeed, nothing in heaven and earth was ever flawless. A remarkable woman like Zhang Sheng—whose natural talent, wit, discernment, and beauty were all unmatched in the world—simply happened to be born with one mouth too many.
Turning his eyes back to Wei Yuan, Su Xuejing felt that Wei Yuan had fine looks, immense strength, and overflowing talent—and above all, he spoke with pleasant charm. They were master and disciple from the same lineage, yet how could the difference between them be so vast?
Wei Yuan still hovered in midair, bathed in the morning glow like a true immortal descending into the mortal world.
Now that the Shaman army had broken and fled, the morale of the humans surged to the heavens. War cries shook the earth as they pursued and slaughtered the retreating foes along the way. Wei Yuan was sorely tempted to charge to the front lines and join the chase himself, but doing so would reduce him to a mere brute, undoing at once the glorious image and invincible presence he had worked so hard to establish.
Unable to intervene directly, Wei Yuan covertly dispatched the dragon guards and all enlightened warriors to lead the pursuit, while simultaneously launching more than a hundred flying missiles in a single volley.
Amid their panicked rout, none of the Great Shamans had the leisure to intercept the volley. Thus, the numerous missiles slammed solidly into the ground, reaping tens of thousands of lives.
The pursuit extended only ten li beyond the domain boundary. Among the Shamans were cunning figures who cast blood curses to cover their retreat. Because the blood curses did not fall upon Qingming, Wei Yuan lacked the karmic cause to retaliate and had no choice but to let them go.
Seeing another human victory, Su Xuejing was in high spirits. He casually turned to Shangguan Qianmo and asked, "How did your weiqi matches with Wei Yuan go earlier? Who won and who lost?"
Shangguan Qianmo's face darkened slightly, though Su Xuejing failed to notice.
She said flatly, "There was no time. We only played a few casual games, and none lasted more than a hundred moves."
"Oh? How was his skill and style?"
"Quite unconventional and full of novel ideas."
Su Xuejing immediately grew intrigued. "I recently acquired a manual titled *Ten Doodle Matches*, though sadly it only contains the fourth and fifth games. Having studied them, I've gained considerable insights, which makes this the perfect time to test my hand against Wei Yuan. If I can train him up, I might have an opponent in the future."
Shangguan Qianmo's gaze grew deep and distant. "Martial Uncle, are you abandoning me?"
Su Xuejing was instantly seized with guilt. "Your play can no longer keep up with mine, so playing with you offers little benefit anymore. Right now is a critical period for my breakthrough; every shred of enlightenment is immensely precious, and I truly cannot afford any distractions."
Shangguan Qianmo sighed softly. "Understood. Since I am no longer of any benefit to Martial Uncle's Dao heart, I naturally must not waste your time."
Su Xuejing felt a throbbing headache, unable to understand why this martial niece of his had suddenly turned so sarcastic today.
By this point, the radiant light around Wei Yuan finally dissipated, and he descended to attend to the aftermath of the battle.
Though the clash had lasted only from midnight until dawn, the fighting had been extraordinarily brutal. Almost every dharma idol cultivator on the Qingming side bore wounds.
The left flank under Li Zhi's command had met an unexpectedly fierce assault. While the mortals of Qingming held firm, Li Zhi's Zhenshan Army had fallen into disarray. After taking twenty percent casualties, the Zhenshan Army lost its cohesion, and men from the rear lines began to flee in droves.
Acting decisively, Li Zhi drew his sword and executed several officers leading the desertion, then personally charged into the fray. The radiance of the Human King Cauldron and the Yanhuang Sword swept across the battlefield, stabilizing the battle lines until the Shamans finally retreated.
Even so, Li Zhi's armor was shredded; he had sustained seventeen wounds and nine curses, and the blood leaking from his wounds had turned completely green.
The moment the Shaman army pulled back, Li Zhi collapsed backward onto the ground.
The two dharma idol cultivators with him were also covered in wounds, and in their alarm, they rushed forward to treat him. Though three dharma idols had arrived originally, one had been ambushed from a hundred zhang away by a Great Shaman who lashed out a sticky tongue to snare him, dragging him bodily into the Shaman ranks, never to be seen again.
Fortunately, despite the severity of the wounds suffered by Li Zhi and the two dharma idols, the bestowal of heaven and earth continually replenished their origin qi, keeping them out of immediate mortal danger.
In the medicinal garden, Old Daoist Chuhe was pale, his hands trembling as he tended to the flying sable's injuries. One of its forepaws had been nearly severed, hanging on by just a sliver of skin and flesh.
As the old Daoist treated the wound, he muttered incessantly, "Forgive me, forgive me... Sun Yu only knows how to treat people, and right now he's unconscious, so this old Daoist has to do it himself. What kind of bastard could strike with such cruelty?"
The cat was also covered in wounds, barely in better shape than the flying sable. A section of the snake's tail was missing entirely, and the cat was busy licking its wound.
This battle had been perilous. Although Perfected Chuhe had been determined to fight, Wei Yuan had kept him pinned strictly inside the medicinal garden, forbidding him from taking a single step outside.
Thankfully, Wei Yuan had possessed such foresight; given the horrors of the night's battle, the old Daoist might well have perished unnoticed in some forgotten corner.
Returning to her quarters, Zhang Sheng closed the door and lay down upon her bed. In the aftermath of a major battle, tasks piled up endlessly, and the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World was precisely when hands were needed most. Unable to take the field herself, she intended to assist Wei Yuan with worldly affairs.
Yet this time, upon entering the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, she did not appear in the Academy's great hall. Instead, she found herself standing in the center of an immense black-and-white formation plate, right at the array eye. There, alongside her, was the massive phantom of a Nether Shaman, silently howling in agony as specks of starlight drifted from its form.
Zhang Sheng felt a sudden stirring in her heart. Looking up at the sky, she saw a speck of tribulation cloud manifest beyond the heavens, arriving directly over her head in an instant!
A thought struck her. Having witnessed two brutal battles in succession, she had gained fresh insights into the grand momentum of heaven and earth and the mortal cycle of life and death; then, debating the Dao with Su Xuejing had finally patched the last missing link in her Dao heart. Yet she had never expected that simply entering the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World would summon a heavenly tribulation!
It was only the casting of a Dao Foundation—how could it possibly draw down a heavenly tribulation?
Yet the tribulation cloud above was real, locked unerringly onto Zhang Sheng. This was indeed the heavenly tribulation for establishing a Dao Foundation; whether she welcomed it or not, it had arrived.
Within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, none of her dharma treasures were at hand, forcing her to endure it relying purely on her origin soul. In truth, even if she could have used them, it would have made little difference—the few treasures she owned amounted to next to nothing.
Zhang Sheng had never seen this Yin-Yang Great Array before, but she could feel that standing at the array eye linked her directly to the formation and to the mysterious Shaman beside her.
The tribulation cloud fully formed, and a thick bolt of heavenly lightning crashed down. Zhang Sheng's pupils narrowed sharply; the ferocity of this heavenly tribulation was on par with the tribulation for ascending to the dharma idol realm!
The moment she saw the lightning, Zhang Sheng knew that the Dao Foundation she was about to condense had something amiss with it—it had likely infringed upon the taboos of heaven and earth.
Under normal circumstances, she should have returned to the mountain gate of the Palace of Grand Beginning, asking True Monarch Yanshi to lay out formations and Patriarch Xuanyue to provide protection, relying on the sect's sacred grounds, the Sky Azure Hall's secret realm, and defensive arrays to withstand the tribulation.
Yet here, there was only this Yin-Yang Great Array of unknown purpose.
Still, having weathered great storms in her life, Zhang Sheng swiftly steadied herself, focusing all her strength on protecting her origin soul.
Though the heavenly lightning was thick, it carried no other peculiar properties. As it struck, the entire Yin-Yang Great Array activated, weakening the lightning's power by thirty percent. Zhang Sheng's estimation of the array instantly rose.
A heavenly tribulation was the direct manifestation of the Heavenly Dao's will. Other arrays could at best be described as approaching the Dao, whereas heavenly lightning *was* the Great Dao itself. Consequently, even the most formidable arrays could rarely weaken a tribulation's power by more than twenty percent. How could this array within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World surpass even those laid by True Monarch Yanshi?
Wei Yuan's figure abruptly materialized beside the Yin-Yang Great Array. The moment he saw the tribulation lightning strike, his expression changed drastically. He knew full well that Zhang Sheng's current fleshly body could never withstand such a tribulation—only someone like him stood a chance.
Yet he had arrived too late; the lightning had already fallen.
However, in addition to Zhang Sheng, the array eye held the remnant soul of a Nether Shaman. Though merely a remnant, it remained far more powerful than Zhang Sheng, its soul mass thousands of times greater than hers. As the tribulation lightning struck, an arc of it inevitably split off, blasting into the Nether Shaman's remnant soul!
The remnant soul had already been tormented day and night by the array, and now, struck by a bolt of heavenly lightning, it let out a shriek of agony, shedding hundreds of sparks.
Zhang Sheng trembled violently, enveloped in lightning and fire. This was the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, not the outside realm; without a physical body to shelter her, her origin soul had to endure the brunt of it alone.
A moment later, as the residual power of the first lightning strike passed, Zhang Sheng reached out with both hands. From nothingness, an immortal sword gradually materialized.
Wei Yuan breathed an immediate sigh of relief. It seemed she had weathered this hurdle.
In the blink of an eye, the immortal sword took solid shape in Zhang Sheng's grasp, radiant light illuminating everything for a hundred zhang around! The sword was exquisitely formed and dazzlingly bright, its blade faintly traced with the outlines of soaring dragons and running beasts.
Yet the more Wei Yuan looked at the sword, the more familiar it felt. Over the past year and more, he had seen at least seven or eight hundred of them. It was none other than the signature Dao Foundation of Qingming: the Great Bright Demon-Subduing Sword!
While the sword in Zhang Sheng's hands was flawless in every aspect, and the shifting shapes of dragons and beasts endowed it with unmistakable miraculous properties, it was still, undeniably, a Great Bright Demon-Subduing Sword.
Wei Yuan could scarcely believe his eyes. Was his master truly going to prove her heart of invincibility through the Great Bright Demon-Subduing Sword?
Right then, Wei Yuan noticed that the heavenly tribulation was far from over. Holding her newly forged Great Bright Demon-Subduing Sword, Zhang Sheng stood waiting for the second bolt of lightning to fall.
Chapter 503