On the battlefield, aside from the exceptionally fierce duel between Wei Yuan and Ju Ling, the other Great Shamans and human dharma idols exercised considerable restraint, their clashes breaking off upon initial contact.
At this moment, countless supreme experts were engaged in a savage struggle beyond the heavens. If mere Great Shamans or dharma idols fought with too much reckless abandon, some mighty figure overhead might take offense and strike them down with a stray spell across the void.
The battle on the ground was as gruesome as ever. The hundred-li front resembled a colossal meat grinder, continually reaping lives from both sides. Unlike before, dull red lights now flickered across the terrain, faintly illuminating the surrounding dozens of feet.
Some of these red glows emanated from battlefield lamps, while others came from specially crafted illumination rounds.
These illumination rounds differed little from ordinary bullets. Once fired, they cast a dim red luminescence that could persist for up to two hours.
This was the fruit of Sun Yu's research. Most Shamans had poor visual discrimination against this specific red light; what humans could see clearly appeared to Shamans as a hazy mist, obscuring everything within the surrounding perimeter as well.
The Shamans launched most of their campaigns at night, making battlefield illumination a vital subject of study. Fortunately, Sun Yu had devoted himself to researching the Shamans, allowing him to achieve a swift breakthrough.
After battling Ju Ling for so long, Wei Yuan realized that the creature had already quietly unfolded a portion of its mindscape world around them. Its mindscape was shapeless and intangible, perceptible only as a faint, moist vapor. Yet within this mindscape, Ju Ling moved at an uncanny speed bordering on teleportation, leaving Wei Yuan with no viable way to hit it other than his lightning spells.
Dusk of the Immortal Path required striking the opponent to take effect. Since Wei Yuan could not even touch Ju Ling, how could he hope to land it?
A thought stirred in Wei Yuan's mind, recalling several techniques for mindscape combat recorded in Daoist manuals. He had read those texts originally just to broaden his horizons, but now they would prove useful.
Wei Yuan manifested the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, and scenes of bustling human prosperity spread across Qingming. He immediately sensed something foreign infiltrating the manifested domain and promptly ordered it cleared.
Within the dharma idol of the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, several persistently patient fishermen suddenly let out gasps of surprise as nearly every fishing rod dipped heavy!
Their shouts and clamor drew countless latent anglers swarming to the waters. Joining forces, they dragged several grotesque, colossal fish onto the shore.
These great fish were exceedingly ferocious, flopping violently. One lunged suddenly, biting a man clean in half!
The mortals showed no fear. Falling upon them with knives and axes, they hacked the strange fish into pieces in the blink of an eye. The fish flesh reeked foully, so the mortals carried the chunks to the nearby fields and buried them as fertilizer.
By then, mortals poured forth continuously from the city. Hundreds of anglers lined the shore, hoisting grotesque fish out of the water one after another.
These strange fish were the concrete manifestations of Ju Ling's mindscape world. Now that the two mindscape worlds overlapped and clashed, the conflict had devolved into a contest between strange fish and mortal anglers.
Evidently, there were far too many anglers in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. With many unable to find room to cast a line, some busied themselves crafting new rods, while others experimented with different materials to bait the fishing spots.
Shock and fury gripped Ju Ling. Letting out a shrill roar, it intensified the manifestation of its mindscape world.
Amidst the fierce struggle, its mindscape was steadily eroded and devoured by the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. Patches of moist vapor vanished at an ever-accelerating pace.
Wei Yuan also noticed that the weakening of Ju Ling's mindscape was proceeding at an abnormal rate, far beyond what simple anglers could achieve. Sweeping his divine sense across the sea within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, he discovered countless strange fish swimming toward a single location as if drawn by an irresistible lure.
At the bottom of that sea lay a colossal dark-green stone sphere, its surface riddled with bottomless apertures. Upon reaching it, the strange fish wriggled into the holes one after another and vanished.
With every fish devoured, a wisp of blood-red mist shot from the top of the stone sphere. As it consumed more and more, the area above the sphere turned into an ocean of blood!
This dark-green stone sphere was the ancient spirit plant originally gifted to him by Tianyu. Wei Yuan had never imagined that it required devouring the mindscape worlds of other cultivators to grow. At this moment, the life force within it grew increasingly vibrant and dynamic, reaching a critical threshold in an instant!
The stone sphere's suction surged abruptly, dragging all the strange fish within several hundred yards toward itself and swallowing them in a single gulp. It expanded rapidly, its apex splitting open to unleash thousands of radiant motes of light!
These tiny flecks of light shone in diverse hues, like a rainbow-dappled fountain in the sunlight, brimming with the intense joy of new life. Wei Yuan could distinctly sense the elation permeating his dharma idol world.
The dazzling fountain lasted several breaths before subsiding. Countless tiny lives drifted through the sea of blood, absorbing nutrients and growing steadily.
The dark-green stone sphere had been reduced to an empty husk, from the center of which sprouted a tiny bud resembling black jade.
The battle outside remained fierce, but whereas Wei Yuan had previously been on the defensive, he had now regained significant ground. The depletion of its mindscape placed a heavy burden on Ju Ling, and Wei Yuan could clearly sense its massive expenditure of dharmic power.
Ju Ling was terrified and enraged. Its mindscape world was meant to assist spellcasting and ill-suited for offensive combat, yet it never imagined it would be suppressed by the mindscape of a mere dharma idol cultivator—not only suppressed, but continuously torn apart and consumed!
Within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, a group of adventurers and gourmands gathered, debating how best to cook this bizarre fish meat to make it palatable.
They even rounded up a few people weary of life and harboring suicidal thoughts, along with those who spent their days railing at heaven, earth, and thin air, intending to feed them first to see if it offered an escape from living in misery.
Others clustered around the prospective poison-tasters, babbling endlessly to persuade them to convert to their respective faiths, preaching that a bit of suffering in this life mattered little when the afterlife promised great blessings in holy lands, paradises, pure lands, immaculate realms, or utopias.
The names of these afterlife realms differed, but their promises were largely identical. These preachers all shared a common trait:
They declared themselves divine emissaries, prophets, apostles, guides, ferrymen, and the like—each proclaiming to be the sole true messenger before God, while dismissing everyone else as frauds.
Wei Yuan had no time to mind these eccentric happenings within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. He continued tangling with Ju Ling, biding his time patiently.
Down on the ground within New City, the vice general tasked with the garrison opened the written order handed over by Feng Chutang. Finding Cui Yu's signature genuine and verified, he gave a bow to Feng Chutang and turned to make arrangements.
From start to finish, he uttered fewer than ten words.
The city defense forces of New City and their officers were comprised entirely of Xu family youths. They rarely spoke, resolving straightforward matters with a mere glance, as though sharing an unspoken connection.
Even after witnessing this multiple times, Feng Chutang still felt a chill down his spine. These Xu family youths felt like monsters draped in human skin, their true nature entirely inscrutable.
Before long, the vice general returned leading one hundred young maidens, each bearing a noticeable swelling in her lower abdomen.
At a gesture from the vice general, all the maidens stripped off their clothes and stood still, allowing Feng Chutang to inspect them clearly. Feng Chutang gave a nod, whereupon the nearby soldiers removed their armor and donned it on the maidens instead. Feng Chutang then escorted them out of New City.
Outside the city walls, several hundred-man units were already waiting. The maidens, clad in warrior armor, were divided among these units. The contingents then departed into the night, heading toward various frontlines and vital outposts.
Only after the last unit vanished from view did Feng Chutang fly back toward his quarters, his pace visibly heavier.
Chapter 512