A speck of green light emerged in the distant sky, and a Nether Shaman barely ten feet tall flew over, coming to a halt just outside the domain.
His face was densely covered in scales, with dozens of bean-sized eyes concealed within the crevices between them, making it impossible to tell which was the primary eye.
Standing so close, this Nether Shaman flaunted a flamboyant aura, his entire body reeking of potent medicinal aromas. With a sweep of his divine sense, Wei Yuan identified several well-known life-extending medicines.
This Nether Shaman had a peculiar physique: an oversized torso with six short limbs and a trailing long tail, yet in total size he was noticeably smaller than typical Nether Shamans. Wei Yuan had encountered a fair number of Nether Shamans, but he had never seen this race before. His aura differed from that of the others as well, carrying an uncanny deceitfulness.
Before Wei Yuan could respond, the voice of True Monarch Xuanyue rang out: "Where did this shelled reptile crawl out from? Someone like you thinks he's worthy to challenge this old Daoist's granddisciple? Come, come, come! Let this old Daoist test his hand first and see how many strikes it takes to smash that battered shell of yours!"
Jade-colored ribbons of light coiled around True Monarch Xuanyue, making him look like a true immortal descending to the mortal world. The sky was pitch-black, and the full moon hid behind the clouds, casting down a cool, quiet radiance that illuminated his solemn, severe face. As the jade ribbons trailed misty moonlight and fluttered about, divine power surged over them, dense enough to feel almost physical.
True Monarch Xuanyue's voice suddenly sounded by Wei Yuan's ear: "The Shamans used a secret art to shroud the Shattered Lands beneath the Iron Curtain of the Vault of Heaven. The gaze of the extra-celestial monsters is temporarily blocked off, and what follows will be an all-out battle of Scenery Command. You must be exceedingly careful!"
Wei Yuan had already sensed something amiss with heaven and earth the moment that strange Nether Shaman appeared, and seeing True Monarch Xuanyue step forward so openly, he had guessed eight or nine parts of the truth.
Now, receiving True Monarch Xuanyue's warning, Wei Yuan could not help but remark, "Is such a grand display truly necessary?"
Xuanyue replied, "The Shamans are by no means fools. Many Nether Shamans and Sacred Shamans are far cleverer than humans. Since they have done this, it is absolutely necessary. Perhaps you, or Qingming, possess special value to them."
Before Xuanyue could offer any further counsel, two Nether Shamans materialized before him and said, "The unfinished battle from last time can now resume."
The three figures vanished in an instant, departing into the heavens to wage their battle.
As the strange Nether Shaman slowly advanced toward Wei Yuan, two dignified elderly men suddenly appeared in midair, barking, "You wish to resort to violence? Have you asked us first?"
These two old men were the two Scenery Command elders dispatched by the Cui family. Yet the Shamans had prepared thoroughly, and another two Nether Shamans rose to intercept them.
High in the vault of heaven, a white-robed Sacred Shaman appeared and called out to Wei Yuan from afar: "Ju Ling is your opponent. Do not entertain any other thoughts. Everyone on your side has their own match, and a single slip could mean their demise. Oh, right, the ground battle will proceed as usual!"
The Shaman army had already entered the range of the city defense artillery. Cannonfire began to rumble, and bursts of blazing flame detonated within their ranks, blowing countless Shaman warriors into the sky. Yet under the pounding rhythm of the Heaven-Upholding War Drums, the Shamans' eyes turned pitch-black. Frenzied and agitated, they charged recklessly toward the human lines.
Wei Yuan was calmer than ever. At this moment, his side still had three Scenery Command combatants: Zhu Yuanjin, Wei Boyang, and Bao Manshan. On the Shamans' side, aside from Ju Ling who had been specially prepared for Wei Yuan, there remained a Sacred Shaman, three Nether Shamans, and a Desolate Shaman. At a time when Scenery Command figures could unleash their full might, the Shamans held an overwhelming advantage.
The peril of this battle far exceeded any previous engagement.
Wei Yuan quietly sent a voice transmission to Bao Yun: "Stay inside the fortress behind the city. Do not show yourself."
On a battlefield traversed by Scenery Command masters, someone who had not yet formed a dharma idol like Bao Yun was exceedingly fragile. A stray strike across the void could claim her life at any moment.
Just as Wei Yuan found himself unable to calculate a viable countermeasure, a serene, winding ray of sword light suddenly pierced the sky, thrusting straight at the Sacred Shaman!
Su Xuejing?
Wei Yuan had never expected that far from leaving, the man would step forward and directly challenge the opposing Sacred Shaman!
The Sacred Shaman casually waved a hand to intercept the sword light, but to his surprise, it split from one into two, and two into four, transforming in the blink of an eye into hundreds and thousands of beams that gathered and dispersed in shifting brightness. It took considerable effort for him to finally extinguish them all.
With a darkened expression, the Sacred Shaman said, "You are not even Scenery Command, yet you dare fight me?"
Su Xuejing stood suspended in the void and said, "If I were a Shaman and had attained Sacred Shaman at this moment, I would surely rank among the top five throughout history. You are merely second-rate among Sacred Shamans. Fighting two realms apart is the only way this becomes remotely interesting. Were we of equal realm, would you even be worthy of me drawing my sword?"
The Sacred Shaman's face turned livid with rage. Without another word, he pinched a fragment of sword light before him, and both he and Su Xuejing vanished instantly.
At that moment, Wei Boyang, Zhu Yuanjin, and Bao Manshan revealed themselves at once. All three were adept at surprise assaults and had previously joined forces to slay a Nether Shaman, so the Shamans naturally had tailored arrangements for them.
Yet resplendent Sovereign of Men qi suddenly surged from Wei Boyang's body. Sweeping his long saber, he deftly drew away the two weakest of the three Nether Shamans, leaving the strongest one to his companions.
Seeing Zhu Yuanjin and Bao Manshan watching hungrily, the Desolate Shaman who had been beating the war drum was forced to set down his mallets and move to intercept Bao Manshan.
With that, no obstacles remained before Ju Ling. Meanwhile, in the center of the Shaman army, Hongye sat motionless, gazing coldly at Wei Yuan.
Ju Ling cast off his green robe, exposing a body coiled into a mass like a seahorse. Two pairs of wings unfurled from his back, and with a light flap, he was right before Wei Yuan!
Wei Yuan slashed his spear horizontally, the Crimson Night Immortal-Slaying Sword on its tip drawing a thin, bright-red line to bar Ju Ling's path. At the same time, he pointed skyward with his right hand: thirty falling lightning strikes stacked together in an instant, crashing violently onto Ju Ling.
Countless water bubbles suddenly blew from Ju Ling's long, pointed snout at an unbelievable speed. With no room to evade, Wei Yuan took more than a dozen hits! The bubbles detonated upon contacting Dao power, each carrying the force of a strike from a dharma idol. Even with the terrifying resilience of Wei Yuan's body, the shock rattled his blood and qi.
Yet Ju Ling fared no better. Each of Wei Yuan's thirty lightning strikes matched the full-power blow of an immortal foundation cultivator at peak perfection. Furthermore, they fell instantaneously and were impossible to dodge. Taking the full brunt of thirty strikes in a fraction of a second, Ju Ling had several scales blown backward.
Both went all out, exchanging hundreds of Dao arts and Shaman arts in the span of a breath, each deploying nearly a hundred different techniques.
Through this round of probing, Wei Yuan discovered that his opponent cast shaman arts with lightning speed, without the slightest hesitation between them. A sequence of arts could be completely independent or seamlessly linked together, multiplying in power step by step. Ju Ling wielded all of them as instinctively as breathing, every spell manifesting the instant the thought arose.
After only a few breaths of combat, both had taken over a hundred spells from each other. Ju Ling's arts were ever-shifting and unpredictable; Wei Yuan had suffered dozens of different shaman arts, leaving him afflicted with seven or eight curses and over ten lingering arts that steadily eroded his body.
Wei Yuan's mastery of spellcraft fell far short of his opponent's, and most of his Dao arts proved useless. Upon realizing this, he switched to using only the Falling Lightning Art, slamming dozens of strikes onto Ju Ling's head with every passing breath—monotonous, but undeniably effective.
To onlookers, a storm of magic power had erupted around the two, churning with an unimaginable amount of energy as it soared straight into the sky.
A thought struck Wei Yuan, and he shouted, "You are a Spirit Shaman!"
Ju Ling let out a strange, shrill laugh. "You are sharp. That's right, I am a Spirit Shaman. Now, guess how much lifespan I have?"
"Ten thousand years?"
"Thirty thousand!"
Wei Yuan was startled! That lifespan was on par with an immortal's, even exceeding that of some immortals!
Ju Ling was indeed an opponent prepared specifically to exhaust the Yang Bullet. Moreover, he possessed terrifying speed, alongside countless arts that allowed him to change direction, alter velocity, and teleport in an instant, clearly betting that Wei Yuan's single spear shot would miss.
Countless possibilities flashed through Wei Yuan's mind, and the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World delivered the answer at once: the Shamans likely did not know the Yang Bullet had the attribute of guaranteed hit, or they would never have dispatched Ju Ling. His speed and evasion were utterly meaningless before an immortal-grade guaranteed hit.
Ju Ling possessed such a vast lifespan solely because of the unique gifts of his race. In all other respects, he was slightly weaker than typical Nether Shamans, though it remained unknown what hidden innate arts he possessed as a Spirit Shaman.
A plan instantly formed in Wei Yuan's mind. A speck of dim yellow light ignited on the tip of the Crimson Night Immortal-Slaying Sword, casting his smile in a particularly fierce glow.
"Then guess how much lifespan this spear strike of mine can sever?"
Ju Ling clearly sensed the horror within that speck of dim yellow light and lost his composure, crying out, "How can you still use the spear?"
"Guess!" Wei Yuan's smile grew even more radiant.
Ju Ling's mission was to neutralize Wei Yuan's Yang Bullet. Yet Wei Yuan could still use Dusk of the Immortal Path, which was not a single-use treasure but a spear technique Dao art that could be cast repeatedly. Even if a strike cost him only a hundred years of life, Ju Ling was unwilling to take it.
Ju Ling grew exceedingly cautious, seeking only to avoid mistakes rather than achieve victory.
Wei Yuan did not press hard either, trading blows back and forth. Though he remained at a slight disadvantage, an occasional flick of Dusk of the Immortal Path forced Ju Ling to retreat.
Wei Yuan had already channeled four streams of purple qi into Maiden Yin-Yang, and he was now waiting for an opportunity for the decisive strike. He did not harbor hopes that Yin-Yang could kill Ju Ling outright, but dealing a grievous wound was well within reach. It was just that Ju Ling was slippery and difficult to pin down, so Wei Yuan continued sparring with him while dividing part of his divine sense to direct the ground battle.
Far in the distance, Hongye sat firmly in the rear with no intention of making a move, his thoughts inscrutable. Yet Wei Yuan did not dare let down his guard. Hongye had once been targeted by a Heavenly Shaman, and Tianyu had specifically warned Wei Yuan to beware of him.
Wei Yuan was waiting for Hongye to activate a blood curse or some other great curse. Once karma was established, he could retaliate through the Unrivaled Under Heaven Dao domain to reinforce the connection. With a tight karmic link, Hongye would have no escape from the Yang Bullet.
A moment later, the Shaman vanguard slammed into Ding'an City, sweeping around the left and right flanks along the same routes as before with even greater numbers. However, Li Zhi's Zhenshan Army was already heavily depleted, and the frontline redoubts to the east had all been leveled.
As in the previous two battles, casualties among the predominantly civilian defenders surged instantly. Wei Yuan took a brief moment to bless them with Ephemeral Multitude, which only barely allowed them to hold their ground.
In the darkness of the night, Feng Chutang flew somewhat sluggishly toward New City.
Chapter 511