I Am Karmic Luck

In the span of a single day, the army marched twelve hundred li, arriving at nightfall at the campsite left behind by Cui Yu. As the army pitched camp, Tianyu also arrived with a thousand Power Shamans to rendezvous with Wei Yuan. This time, Tianyu rode no carriage, nor was he accompanied by that retinue of young, beautiful shamans. Clad in heavy steel armor and wielding a massive battleaxe the size of a tabletop, his gear alone looked to weigh several thousand jin, and his killing intent was so dense it seemed on the verge of overflowing. The moment he saw Wei Yuan, Tianyu barked, "I know everything that happened! Last night, the Leize Tribe sent over three hundred severed arms—all of them belonging to Power Shamans from our tribe! "The elders drank their fill of wine last night and set out one after another to battle their old rivals from Leize. I brought the toughest little bear cubs in the tribe with me this time. The council of elders gave me one mission: slaughter every last defender of the Leize Tribe, roast them into dried shaman jerky under the desert sun, and hang them beneath the gate tower so those Nether Shamans can see what happens when they cross us!" Wei Yuan gave Tianyu's shoulder a heavy slap and said, "Excellent. My thoughts exactly! But can you still fight right now? If you can't, tell me early so I can arrange for someone to protect you." Tianyu's roar boomed like thunder: "Look at me! Do you think someone like this can fight or not?!" At this moment, Tianyu stood well over ten feet tall. If Wei Yuan were standing on the ground, he would barely reach the giant's navel—assuming he still had one—unable even to brush his pectoral muscles. Although Wei Yuan was somewhat unused to Tianyu's sudden change in style, the military situation was pressing, so he said, "Losing two battles in a row is highly unusual. The warriors of your tribe excel at night combat, so have all of them set up defensive patrols tonight. Then find a trustworthy shaman who moves like the wind to come with me. We're going to the front lines to see what is really going on." Tianyu thumped his chest, his steel armor ringing like a tolling bell. "I move like the wind!" Wei Yuan was speechless. "They also need to move silently." Tianyu thumped his chest again, the booming sound shaking the surroundings. "I move silently!" "And be skilled in stealth." "I am skilled in stealth!" Wei Yuan looked at the mountain-like Tianyu, utterly at a loss for words. In the Desolate Ancestor Tribe, the higher a shaman's status, the more obligated they were to charge at the very front; thus, Tianyu refused to be left out of anything. After a moment's thought, Wei Yuan said, "Fine, then! Take twenty warriors and my token, and make haste to Cui Yu's camp. Establish contact first and figure out what happened there. None of the scouts I sent out have returned." "No problem, leave it to me!" Tianyu agreed readily, then asked, "We go draw out the enemy, so what's your backup plan?" Wei Yuan had not expected Tianyu to actually use his head. He replied, "The backup is me. I'll follow behind you. If the enemy ambushes you, I can hit them with a vicious blow." "Good! The harder, the better! But forget about bringing twenty warriors—they'll only slow down my sprint! Do we set off right now?" Wei Yuan hurriedly grabbed Tianyu, having him first clarify the chain of command with his tribal warriors, and then assigned tonight's defensive duties and positions. Only after everything was properly arranged did Wei Yuan pat Tianyu's shoulder, signaling that he could depart. Tianyu looked quizzically at Wei Yuan's hand. He was already this tall—how had the man reached his shoulder? Looking closer, Tianyu finally noticed that Wei Yuan had been floating in midair the entire time. Tianyu strode out of the camp and broke into a mad sprint. He moved in a straight line, completely indifferent to the terrain. He leaped clean across drops of dozens of feet, taking to the air for short bursts of flight only when the terrain was too rugged. In Tianyu's current state, his flying speed was far inferior to his ground sprint—or rather, he skimmed just above the earth. Whenever he pushed off the ground, the space within a certain radius of his footing would solidify and become immensely rigid. Thrusting off with full strength, he shot forward like a rocket. Only after he left did the space return to normal, leaving not a trace upon the earth; not even the softest blade of grass was bent or broken. Were it not for the lingering, searing aura of the Desolate Domain about him, Tianyu would truly have been running like the wind, coming and going without sound or trace. Wei Yuan trailed far behind Tianyu, preparing to ambush any ambushers. Tianyu's speed was already astonishing, but Wei Yuan was even faster, relying entirely on his monstrous Dao power to forcefully propel himself forward. In the blink of an eye, the man and the shaman had covered nearly a thousand li and were less than a hundred li from Cui Yu's temporary camp. At that very moment, murderous intent surged violently out of the darkness. Tianyu's body jerked to an abrupt halt as he slammed violently into an invisible, transparent wall. Amid a thunderous roar, his massive frame was bounced backward, his steel armor flattened by the impact! Flattened alongside the steel armor was Tianyu's face; even a Power Shaman's flesh could not withstand slamming into a mountain at full speed. Now his face was remarkably flat and unremarkable, looking like a paving brick. The night seemed to come alive as countless tendrils of black mist crept forward, wrapping around Tianyu and instantly making his movements agonizingly sluggish. The black mist was actually composed of countless slender strands resembling hair, tightly constricting him. Tianyu let out a roar, and the monstrous physique he had forged from downing countless barrels of pills erupted with all its might as he struggled with everything he had! Yet the tenacity of the black strands surpassed imagination. Only a fraction snapped, while many dug right through his steel armor and cut deep into his flesh! At that, as wild as Tianyu was, he ceased struggling blindly. Any harder and he might sever his own limbs. Raging flames suddenly erupted from his body, nearly pure white with only a trace of crimson lingering within. This was the fire of the Desolate Realm, domineering to the extreme. Sure enough, quite a few of the black threads were scorched away, but they burned rather slowly. Clearly, those lying in ambush had no intention of giving Tianyu an easy escape. Suddenly, a drone hummed through the air like a murmur of the Great Dao of Absolute Silence. A twenty-foot ballista bolt pierced the night, shooting straight toward Tianyu! The surprise attack struck so swiftly that Wei Yuan, trailing far behind, was caught off guard. By the time he moved to intervene, it was already too late; he could only pray that Tianyu was blessed with immense fortune and could survive this ordeal. Wei Yuan wheeled around and lunged toward the source of the bolt. Whether he could slay the Great Shaman manning the ballista was secondary; what mattered was destroying this spirit treasure-grade colossal ballista. No longer concealing himself, he sprinted at full speed. Yet, all at once, the world before his eyes seemed to dim, and a blade-light capable of absorbing all surrounding illumination swept in, flashing across Wei Yuan's waist and severing him in two! Wei Yuan was profoundly shocked. Broad swaths of his severed waist began to disintegrate into nothingness. This single blade-light carried the terrifying might to obliterate a Scenery Command expert in one stroke! This was the true killing strike of the night—the trap had been laid for Wei Yuan all along! Wei Yuan's mouth worked soundlessly, his face filled with shock and indignation. Despair and struggle nearly spilled from his eyes, his expression brimming with desperation to live. He reached out as if to grasp something, but his fingertips caught only empty air. A figure emerged from the night, gripping a slender saber whose blade was utter darkness, devouring all light around it. This was a young shaman, wielding a peerless demonic armament, his face radiating inborn confidence. He seemed almost indistinguishable from the heaven and earth of the Wu domain. In this moment, he was heaven, he was earth, looking down from on high upon the countless tiny, lowly beings between heaven and earth. The reptile cut in half before him was merely one of them. "Wei Yuan? Heh, everyone claims how formidable you are, but you're nothing special after all. Before heaven and earth, you are nothing more than an ant..." A voice suddenly sounded behind him: "That's what all the ants think." The young shaman's vision suddenly shifted. Only then did he see that the agonizingly thrashing Wei Yuan had neither flesh nor viscera at his waist—it was actually a manifested puppet! He whirled around immediately, only to see a greatsword completing a circle, followed by an irresistible force dragging him toward its edge! Unfazed in the face of peril, the young shaman raised his demonic blade to meet the sudden thrust of the greatsword. As blade met sword, a mighty force surged from the greatsword like a raging tide, instantly scattering a portion of the black mist enveloping his body! The young shaman violently spat a mouthful of blood, shocked and enraged. He had never imagined that, even blessed with karmic luck, he would still be outwitted by Wei Yuan! The sword's power was so terrifying that he was forced to expend his own karmic luck to offset part of the damage; otherwise, even a Nether Shaman would have been gravely injured trying to take such a strike head-on. Yet Wei Yuan suddenly roared, and a second terrifying tide surged from the greatsword, instantly engulfing him. From within the tide rose a giant black bird, pecking downward viciously and scattering more than half of his near-tangible karmic luck! The black bird tore a translucent figure from the young shaman's body, attempting to rip it free, but failed. As the Dao power behind the strike was exhausted, the bird let out a cry and reluctantly vanished. To the young shaman's ears, that bird's cry was the most terrifying thing in the world, nearly freezing him numb from the inside out! At that moment, a massive veil of black mist cascaded from the heavens of the Wu domain onto him, finally dispelling the chilling desolation and terror. The long demonic saber once again radiated formidable power, floating before him to protect its master of its own accord. Wei Yuan looked at him and said, "So there was a child of karmic destiny hiding here. No wonder my people lost two battles in a row. Heh, you think just because you're a child of karmic destiny, victory is guaranteed? Do you know who I am?" "Who are you?" Wei Yuan sneered, "I am karmic luck!" The young shaman trembled with fury. How could he be humiliated so casually? Before he could retort, Wei Yuan's voice turned chillingly grim. "Tomorrow at noon, when my army arrives, I will crush your battle formation, shatter your karmic luck, and slay you between heaven and earth!"