The ground battlefield was neither as lofty and unpredictable as the Scenery Command duel beyond the heavens, nor as cautious and guarded as the clashes between the airborne dharma idols and Great Shamans; it remained just as brutal and merciless as the previous two battles.
Whistling missiles filled the sky, blasting countless Shamans into the air. When the defenders in the frontline fortifications were wiped out, artillery and missiles would carpet the positions to purge them, and during the brief lull, the next wave of men would charge forward to reclaim the ground. Once they fell, the area was bombarded again, and the cycle repeated endlessly.
In the memories of countless mortals, nothing remained except huddling in shelters, listening to the tremors of the earth and the deafening explosions outside. Amid the thunderous roar, the world felt as though it stood a mere step away from collapse. Then, at a given moment, they would charge onto the battlefield, and what followed was a desperate, bloody slaughter.
Then, the surrounding Shamans only seemed to multiply no matter how many they killed, more and more, until a Shaman finally plunged a weapon into their flesh.
They did not know how many had died before them, nor whether they would survive after charging in. All they knew was the killing taking place right before their eyes on this small patch of ground.
Even when they charged into the positions and saw corpses piled like mountains, they had no time to think or feel fear; the enemy would appear before them in an instant.
The strength that suddenly descended upon them also sent blood surging through their veins and dulled their pain; even when gravely wounded, their only thought was how to drag the foe before them into death with them.
Such was the full combat experience of a mortal warrior.
In the long scroll of history, throughout their entire lives, they had only ever glimpsed a few tiny windows.
The battle between Wei Yuan and Ju Ling continued. Overall, Wei Yuan was still at a disadvantage, but ever since he had gained the upper hand in the struggle between their mindscape worlds, he had recovered substantial ground. With the backing of Qingming, although Wei Yuan consumed more energy than Ju Ling, fighting on for another dozen days would be no problem.
By now, the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World had begun analyzing Ju Ling's combat style and casting habits, deliberately herding him toward where his mindscape world was being devoured.
Soon, Ju Ling fell into the trap.
After a flicker of movement, he suddenly realized that nearly all of his mindscape world around him had vanished in an instant, leaving only one or two fragments. He instinctively shifted to one of them, only to find that Wei Yuan was already waiting there!
Given a fifty-fifty chance, Wei Yuan's intuition almost never failed. The instant Ju Ling materialized, Brutality, tipped with a faint dusky glow, plunged into the base of his tail, nearly severing it completely!
With a shriek, Ju Ling blinked away in flight. That spear strike gave him his very first shiver of mortal terror. Fortunately, the lifespan-shaving effect of Dusk of the Immortal Path did not seem quite as fearsome as the legends claimed—a single strike had only stripped away ninety-odd years of his life.
Yet no matter how small, lifespan was lifespan; once gone, it could hardly ever be recovered. Ju Ling was utterly unwilling to suffer a second thrust.
In the battle that followed, he became cautious in the extreme. Yet somehow, in the course of pursuing Wei Yuan, he fell into another trap and took another hit. This strike did not cut deeply, but Dusk of the Immortal Path shaved off another ninety years of his lifespan!
Having lost nearly two centuries of life for no discernible reason was more than even a Spirit Shaman with an exceptionally long innate lifespan like Ju Ling could bear. He began asking Hongye if they could call a truce.
Hongye remained unmoved, merely ordering him to keep fighting. Wei Yuan was clearly still at a disadvantage, and if the battle dragged on, Wei Yuan should be the first to break. But along the way, Ju Ling had no idea how many more strikes of Dusk of the Immortal Path he would have to endure.
Wei Yuan carefully maintained the equilibrium of the battlefield, directing at least half his attention to the ground. Without him coordinating and commanding from the center, bestowing Ephemeral Multitude at critical moments, the ground battlefield would have collapsed long ago.
Mortals were simply no match for ordinary Shaman warriors; only with the blessing of Ephemeral Multitude could they hold the defensive lines and trade blows back and forth.
Wei Yuan was still waiting. Since four streaks of purple qi had already arrived, the four grandmasters should be reaching the field soon. They would be an unpredictable variable in this entire war, one that no one could foresee.
Hongye seemed to grow impatient. He slowly rose, then lifted his right hand—in his palm rested a red lightning orb!
Above Ding'an City, countless drifting leaves suddenly appeared. Each leaf was thin as a cicada's wing, lustrous red and translucent, shedding a faint glow.
Yet within the city, both sides were fighting with reckless disregard for their lives, and neither noticed the change in the sky. Countless red leaves gathered together, tangling into a colossal sphere of red foliage over a hundred feet across. Streaks of blood-red lightning began surfacing across the sphere, clawing outwards as they radiated terrifying power!
Wei Yuan's expression changed, and he tried to rush over, but Ju Ling pinned him down relentlessly.
Within a few breaths, the red lightning orb coalesced. Everyone in the city suddenly felt their hairs stand on end. Looking up simultaneously, they saw a dark red, fully translucent sphere wrapped in countless arcs of lightning descending, sinking soundlessly into the ground!
The center of Ding'an City suddenly surged upward as though heaved apart by an invisible colossus. Innumerable blood-red lightning bolts crept in all directions like spiders and insects, and waves of shockwaves rippled outward layer upon layer. Humans and Shamans alike warped like ripples the moment the shockwave washed over them, their gazes freezing instantly.
Ding'an City rose and fell several times like soft dough made of mud. From the second upheaval onward, hardly any signs of life remained in the city.
At this moment, Ding'an City lay completely outside the domain, so the Wei domain could not even activate the defenses of the Peerless Dao Domain.
Within the city, a tiny, brilliantly shining Jade Mountain suddenly manifested, firmly shielding the slender figure inside against the rolling waves of shockwaves!
Wei Yuan's face went completely pale. Bao Yun!
Wei Yuan had originally told her to take shelter in the newly built fortifications behind Ding'an City and direct the battle from there. He had not expected her to sneak quietly into Ding'an City to direct from the front.
This reduced communication delays and made responses faster and more precise, but it also placed her in extreme peril.
In the distance, an eerie smile touched the corners of Hongye's mouth. In an instant, he transmitted a thought to Wei Yuan:
"Expend your magical treasure, and I'll spare her!"
Without hesitation, Wei Yuan replied with a single "All right," then took out the Yang Bullet, loaded it, and fixed his gaze upon Ju Ling. A flicker of bitterness showed in Ju Ling's eyes, and he stopped dodging.
Just then, Hongye suddenly flicked his finger. The ring on his thumb instantly turned into a bright, clear red maple leaf that materialized right in front of Bao Yun and sliced downward!
Hongye burst into laughter. "Keep your magical treasure—I lied to you!"
Wei Yuan was aghast. He hurled himself forward to save her, but it was already too late.
The red leaf drifted as though tossed by the wind, tracing a graceful arc and leaving behind a thin, bright crimson trail in the air as it swept through Bao Yun's body!
The small Jade Mountain suddenly became covered in fissures like cracked porcelain, then shattered and exploded with a dull thump. Bursts of sparks instantly ignited over Bao Yun's body. In a flash, over a dozen protective treasures and talismans were triggered, only to be overwhelmed beyond their capacity and destroyed.
It all happened too fast. Amid the crackling detonations, Bao Yun instinctively curled inward, fear finally appearing in her eyes. When all was said and done, she was just a young woman under twenty; in her entire life, aside from the martial test, she had never directly faced death.
Yet she clenched her teeth tightly, and despite her terror and agony, she did not utter a single sound.
Hongye sneered. "She may have survived the Starry Sky's Decay, but she cannot escape my natal curse kill. How about that? Everything you love and cherish, I will destroy before your eyes one by one! But if you hand over Qingming, all of this can be avoided. This one can no longer be saved, but as for the others—"
Before his words had finished, the phantom of a towering ancient tree suddenly appeared over Bao Yun. A red line then manifested across the trunk, and the massive tree slowly split in two along the red line, crashing down with a roar.
Taking advantage of the opening, Bao Yun's figure flickered and vanished from where she stood, having simultaneously activated magical treasures of concealment and teleportation.
Hongye was slightly surprised. "To think she had such a death-substituting measure! But even if you got away this time, what about next time? What about the others? Do they all have death-substituting measures like this?"
A sinister look rose in Hongye's eyes as he concluded, "I will say it once more: hand over Qingming, and I will let all of you leave. I only want that boundary stone!"
With a thunderous rumble, the battered and broken Ding'an City collapsed entirely, reduced to flat ground.
Chapter 513