Manifestation

There were many cultivators like Cui Yu hidden among the front-line troops, dedicated specifically to steering guided missiles. Each could control at least four submunitions simultaneously, and a select few could command eight. The two sides clashed from midnight until broad daylight, and only when the heaven-and-earth power of the Shamans receded somewhat did their forces withdraw. This battle had been fierce yet unremarkable, devoid of decisive duels between paramount figures or horrifying incantations such as the collapse of starry vaults and the wilting of the world. Worth mentioning was that the young monk Honglian had returned to the field, slaughtering another eleven thousand enemies in this fight before the Peacock Buddha Mother carried him away to rest. Standing firmly at the vanguard, Wei Yuan concentrated on striking down the Shamans' master archers using Daoist arts, Jade Mountain, and guided missiles. Though he had slain just over two thousand enemies—not an exceptionally large tally—more than eighty were master archers, along with one Great Shaman archer. The fourth engagement was an entirely grueling war of attrition fought strictly through positional warfare. In the end, the Shamans left behind two hundred thousand corpses, while Qingming suffered another seventy thousand fallen. After this battle, the Shamans continued to press forward, advancing their front line to within seventy li of Qingming. There, they undertook massive construction of defensive earthworks and deployed their battle line. At this distance, a forced march would bring them directly to Qingming. Yet before the Shamans' overwhelming advantage in numbers, Wei Yuan was powerless to stop it and could only watch them set up their positions. By extending their front line, the Shamans could deploy more troops and launch coordinated strikes along multiple avenues with greater ease. This forced Wei Yuan to defend a much longer line and commit more defenders. At the same time, the longer the battle line stretched, the heavier the attrition grew on both sides—and the faster Qingming would bleed out its last drop of blood. Wei Yuan naturally refused to sit idly by and wait for death. He constantly launched missiles to probe and bombard the Shaman defensive line. By this point in the war, ordinary warriors from the Land of Rain were in ample supply, but shortages were beginning to show in master archers and Great Shaman archers. Furthermore, under Wei Yuan's relentless missile strikes, Great Shaman archers hardly dared to show their faces anymore. This was especially true after Cui Yu claimed two of their lives with flying swords. Whenever they popped out to loose a few arrows, they had to duck back into hiding and relocate immediately; if they lingered for even a moment longer, a missile would inevitably rain down upon their heads. Even though guided missiles were exorbitant—and no shared economic system existed between humans and Shamans, leaving not even Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World able to calculate how many missiles a Great Shaman archer was worth—missiles felt no fear, whereas Great Shamans did. Wei Yuan was certain that not a single Great Shaman archer was willing to trade his life for Wei Yuan's missiles, not even at a ratio of one for ten. Sure enough, after several Great Shaman archers were killed, the Shamans' missile interception efforts were drastically diminished. From time to time, Wei Yuan's missiles struck square into the Shaman ranks, obliterating entire sectors. The bombardments sowed pervasive panic among the Shamans, causing the sacrificial power expended to suppress their wavering morale to surge sharply. The Shamans were not about to take this lying down either; they periodically covered the advance of behemoths to hurl leather balls filled with toxic water toward the domain. As the war settled into a stalemate of mutual attrition, Wei Yuan finally gained a brief respite to deal with a mess of assorted affairs. Three days after the fourth battle ended, Wei Yuan at last found the time to take stock of the entire domain once more. Due to True Monarch Huangyun's dissolution, Qingming's ultimate maximum range had expanded from ten thousand li to ten thousand five hundred li. The current stage's limit had expanded from one thousand li to fifteen hundred li. Before hitting this cap, Qingming would continue to expand at a rate of several li per day; once it reached the threshold, it would require a period of nurturing to elevate the boundary stone's tier. The constant casting of Fleeting Sentience across several consecutive battles had already drained Qingming's accumulated nurturing power completely. Had it not received True Monarch Huangyun's source power, the Qingming Domain would likely have shrunk to under three hundred li by now. Although the fourth battle had been subdued, the drain on Fleeting Sentience was not in the least diminished. The extra nurturing power brought by True Monarch Huangyun's passing was already fully exhausted. Such was the terrifying attrition of total war: even the lingering legacy of a True Monarch could only sustain a single battle. However, over a million Shaman corpses were currently being converted within Qingming. The spiritual qi throughout the domain climbed steadily, and its richness grew at a rapid pace. These Shaman corpses had all ultimately turned into nourishment for this world. If nothing else, the rate at which Qingming accumulated nurturing power was already twice what it used to be. The population of mortals within Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World had surpassed five hundred thousand. Dao Foundation warriors formed from Shaman souls numbered more than five hundred, with over thirty having awakened their intellect. By now, the land surrounding the cities had run short again, forcing Wei Yuan to expend Dao power constantly to raise more terrain. With the growing number of mortals in Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, not only did its response speed increase significantly, but the answers it provided also became increasingly unpredictable, gradually breaking free from the conventional wisdom of this world. For instance, the defensive network based on interlocking fire suppression used in the fourth battle was completely unprecedented. Post-battle results proved its efficacy: a makeshift defensive position built in under ten days had achieved a casualty exchange ratio close to one-to-four, marking a distinct improvement in defensive efficiency. The fighting had merely been more deadlocked along Li Zhi's defensive sector. Even reinforced by the Zhenshan Army, his forces suffered over twenty thousand casualties while eliminating only forty thousand Shaman soldiers, which dragged down the casualty ratio of the overall battle. By this point in the war, Qingming had lost six hundred thousand soldiers, while the Shaman army had suffered 1.3 million dead. Thanks to the replenishment of a hundred thousand displaced mortals from Western Jin along with refugees from Zhao, Qingming still maintained a population of 1.5 million. However, over a hundred thousand original Qingming residents had already fallen in battle, and most of the initial eighty thousand death-sworn soldiers had become spirit tablets in the Hall of Heroic Spirits. The main force had suffered over fifty thousand casualties, but through multiple rounds of reinforcement, it still stood at one hundred and fifty thousand. The heavy-armored elite had lost five thousand and only received two thousand replacements. Wei Yuan brought up the roster and began scanning through it swiftly, circling potential candidates to replenish the heavy-armored elite. *** Palace of Grand Beginning, Hall of Myriad Manifestations. A middle-aged Daoist led over a dozen young children into the Hall of Myriad Manifestations. The moment they stepped through the hall's doors, the youthful children were struck with overwhelming awe at the magnificent spectacle of an earthly continent bearing a river of stars, crying out in an unbroken chorus of gasps. The middle-aged Daoist said gravely, "Infinite wonder awaits upon the road to immortality! What you see before you are the Dao Foundations once achieved by our predecessors. Every Dao Foundation is a mirror, the synthesis of that cultivator's celestial timing, fortune, cultivation, and comprehension at that moment. Look up: at the heart of that river of stars lies an immortal foundation." A young girl, looking all around, suddenly asked, "Teacher, is this continent just an ornament?" The Daoist smiled faintly. "This, too, is a Dao Foundation." The children gasped in astonishment, unable to imagine what manner of person could possess such a Dao Foundation. A porcelain-doll-like little boy piped up, "There are four mighty warriors over there! They're wearing so little! Is that a Dao Foundation too?" Beneath the four corners of the continent stood four muscular warriors, two men and two women. While rather attractive in appearance, they gave the impression of being pure muscle from the neck down. These four warriors held aloft the entire continent, looking remarkably impressive. Whenever new disciples entered the Hall of Myriad Manifestations, they invariably asked about them. The middle-aged Daoist's face darkened slightly. He snorted and said, "Those are from the Hall of the Bright King. If your brains ever get fried from cultivation one day, you can head over to the Hall of the Bright King." "There's writing here!" one child suddenly exclaimed. The children ran over to a statue of a female warrior, bare-chested with only a strip of cloth wrapped around her waist. Before the statue was inscribed a line of large characters: *Why bother using your brain to cultivate? The Great Dao lies right before your eyes!* Beneath it was another line: *Bright King cultivation flows as natural as water.* "Stop looking at that useless nonsense!" The Daoist was practically about to roar. Just then, a young girl pointed toward a spot at the bottom of the starry river and cried, "An immortal sword just appeared over there!" "Another new Dao Foundation?" Intrigued, the Daoist flew up with his young disciples. Going over to inspect it, he saw a dark-red immortal sword coalescing from ethereal to solid, having just taken shape. Faint flames burned around the sword, radiating heat, and the Daoist found it oddly familiar. Though none of these young children had formed their own Dao Foundations yet, quite a few hailed from esteemed lineages and possessed remarkable discernment. Right away, a young boy said, "Huh! That sword looks a bit like the Immortal Sword Great Sun! I've seen Uncle Xiaoyu use it!" The Daoist swept his divine sense over it and found the newly appeared immortal sword's information: *Immortal Sword · False Sun, Mortal Tier Dao Foundation, pending evaluation.* "False Sun?!" For a moment, the Daoist nearly suffered a lapse in his Dao heart and let slip a curse. *How could such a Dao Foundation even exist? This is a cultivator of the Palace of Grand Beginning, after all—do they have no shame whatsoever?* Since the Dao Foundation manifested in the Hall of Myriad Manifestations, the creator was evidently a disciple of the Palace of Grand Beginning. And having a name meant the cultivator had personally bestowed it upon forging the Dao Foundation. Naming the immortal sword "False Sun" was a blatant admission that it was an outright knockoff of Great Sun, without even pretending otherwise. With an ashen face, the Daoist was ready to go track down this newly minted disciple. How could such scum of the cultivation world be permitted to linger in the Palace of Grand Beginning? "There's another new immortal sword!" The children's shouts pulled the Daoist back to reality. He looked over to see a rather fine-looking immortal sword with flashes of lightning continually shimmering across its blade. Yet judging by its position, it was clearly on the lower end of the Mortal Tier. The Daoist swept his divine sense over it, once again enraged. *Immortal Sword Thunder Silk—what kind of ridiculous name is that?* While this sword carried the power of lightning, its actual might was pitifully low. Flashy without substance, it was the very definition of a cheap showpiece. "There's another one here..." "Over here too!" The children chattered excitedly, eagerly pointing out their new discoveries. And so, Azure Silk, Black Silk, White Silk, Gentle Spring, Flowing Water, Gentle Breeze... one Mortal Tier immortal sword after another materialized in rapid succession, filling the void between the starry river and the earth below. At first, the Daoist was incensed, but he soon sensed that something was amiss. How could so many new disciples be forging their foundations at the exact same time? And why were these Dao Foundations all unprecedented pieces of rubbish immortal swords? At that moment, several figures abruptly appeared inside the Hall of Myriad Manifestations, each bearing an aura as imposing as towering mountains. Startlingly, every True Monarch remaining on the home mountain had arrived! "Not since Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains manifested more than two years ago has the Hall of Myriad Manifestations trembled like this. This old man must see for himself what extraordinary Dao Foundation has emerged!" "Though our Palace of Grand Beginning has weathered storms in recent years, our karmic luck is indeed unceasing. Another peerless disciple has appeared!" "Strange. Among the disciples admitted in recent years, I have not heard of anyone possessing earth-shattering talent. Could someone have burst into prominence overnight?" "I wonder which hall has been blessed with such fortune." "Oh, there truly are many new Dao Foundations appearing. Eh? Here is yet another immortal sword..." Gazing at the Great Bright Demon-Subduing Sword that had just surfaced, the True Monarchs all fell into profound silence. *** Western Regions, Qingming. In the midst of taking stock of Qingming's assets, Wei Yuan suddenly felt the heavenly tribulation within Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World dissipate. Zhang Sheng had successfully forged her Dao Foundation. Wei Yuan instantly entered Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World and appeared outside the Yin-Yang Blast Furnace Array. At that moment, the final immortal sword before Zhang Sheng was merging into the throne. From its beginnings as a chair formed of several dozen immortal swords to now incorporating hundreds of them, it had completely transformed into a towering throne. Its back flared out like a peacock fanning its tail feathers, bristling with countless blade points several zhang high! Zhang Sheng rose leisurely, and all the immortal swords flowed like water into her body, vanishing from sight. "How many... immortal swords is that?" "Five hundred and twelve in total." Though Wei Yuan had prepared himself, hearing that Zhang Sheng had truly cultivated over five hundred immortal swords still left him profoundly stunned. He could only say, "Teacher, you are formidable." Then Wei Yuan suddenly remembered something and asked, "Your immortal swords... wouldn't happen to manifest in the Hall of Myriad Manifestations, would they?" Zhang Sheng's vision suddenly went black!