Wei Yuan stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his gaze fixed on the Shaman archery formation not far away, now engulfed in a sea of flames. Cannon shells from the infantry guns struck with pinpoint accuracy, detonating squarely wherever the enemy was densest. This was not due to the gunners' exquisite skill, but rather the result of Wei Yuan guiding each shot from midair with his divine sense.
In the blink of an eye, Wei Yuan had directed over a dozen salvos from the infantry cannons, killing or wounding three to four thousand archers, while Qingming’s side suffered merely three dead from stray arrows.
Lei Dong flew into a towering rage. Never had he imagined Wei Yuan would possess so many cannons, nor that the bombardment would be this fierce.
When he attacked Cui Yu, he had launched a midnight surprise raid and blown up Cui Yu's ammunition wagons directly. As a result, after falling back to defensible terrain to hold out for reinforcements, Cui Yu had been left with only five or six cannons and barely twenty-odd shells.
Having no other choice, Cui Yu could only fire a shot or two when the Shaman army drew close and packed tightly together. Consequently, Lei Dong and several Nether Shamans had assumed that cannons were rare, specialized magical treasures deployed only on occasion.
Only upon encountering Wei Yuan, where cannon shells poured down as though they cost nothing at all, did Lei Dong truly experience what it felt like to be smothered under saturating fire.
Infuriated, he personally drew his bow and nocked an arrow. The arrow shot out like a bolt of lightning, blowing an infantry gun apart in an instant and blasting away the two Power Shamans guarding it along with several gunners.
Immediately following that, Lei Dong saw a wisp of gray qi, so faint it was barely perceptible, drift into the air and float toward him, sending his fury flaring to the heavens!
He had killed only a handful of people and already tainted himself with karmic debt? It could only mean every one of these men carried karmic luck! Wei Yuan had placed these luck-bearing individuals on the front line deliberately for him to slay, clearly seeking to trap him in karmic debt and obstruct his path of cultivation!
Yet after that burst of rage, Lei Dong regained his composure and let out a cold sneer toward Wei Yuan. How could he, Lei Dong, be so easily sabotaged? With a twitch of the demon blade behind his back, it absorbed that wisp of karmic debt. He then drew his bow once more and blew up another infantry gun!
Firing several arrows in succession like this, slaughtering a hundred gunners and more than twenty Power Shamans, Lei Dong finally felt his mood settle slightly.
At this moment, the silver-haired shamaness suddenly looked up at the sky and said, "Those old bastards really have come."
The eagle-headed Nether Shaman chimed in, "I shall go meet the Sun of the Great Desolation again and see if his shamanic arts have made any progress."
The eagle shaman took to the skies first. The silver-haired shamaness and the flying serpent also soared upward, each seeking out their old adversaries to clash in battle beyond the heavens.
The serpent-bodied Nether Shaman possessed a massive physique and moved the slowest. When its body fully unfurled, it stretched over thirty zhang long, soaring upward like a flood dragon!
Suddenly, a red shadow flashed across the sky.
The serpent-bodied Nether Shaman let out a wretched scream that echoed across the plains. A half-zhang section of its tail tip sheared away from its body and plummeted to the ground, blood raining from the sky in a crimson deluge.
Compared to the serpent body dozens of zhang long, this half-zhang tail tip seemed insignificant, but on it grew a deadly venomous stinger. It was normally kept hidden inside, springing out abruptly only during fierce combat to catch enemies off guard.
Now that its tail hook was severed clean off, the Nether Shaman was in such agony it nearly plunged from the sky. Daring not linger a moment longer, it turned and fled toward the depths of the Wu domain.
Meanwhile, that faint wisp of red vanished in a flash, as though it had never appeared at all.
Shocked and enraged, Lei Dong shouted, "Despicable humans again! Sun of the Great Desolation, you collude with humans and betray the Wu domain! I will denounce you at the City of Heaven!"
High in the sky came the rumbling, thunderous voice of the Sun of the Great Desolation: "Nonsense! These humans..."
Before the Sun of the Great Desolation could finish, Tianyu suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, "These humans are all bodyguards and enforcers I hired! Wherever I am, that's where they must be! Whomever I tell them to hit, they hit! Right now, this richest man of the Eastern Desolation finds you an eyesore! Men, wipe out those low-blooded mongrels across from us for me!"
Expressionless, Wei Yuan responded, "Yes, my lord!"
Tianyu roared, "Louder, I can't hear you!!"
Wei Yuan cast a frigid glare at Tianyu, and Tianyu's swagger instantly deflated.
In the sky, it took a moment for the Sun of the Great Desolation to catch on before he burst into hearty laughter: "Right, right! These humans are all enforcers of my tribe! What, does your Leize have a problem with that? If you've got the ability, go hire some yourself! I won't waste more breath on a whelp like you; this old man still has eagle feathers to pluck!"
The Nether Shamans departed to battle each other, while that singularly eerie red-robed killer never appeared again. An additional Nether Shaman had emerged from the Desolate Ancestor Tribe; instead of intervening in the battle below, he flew beyond the heavens to assist the fight.
Lei Dong had a chest full of fury with nowhere to vent. Ever since he had become endowed with karmic luck, when had he ever suffered such humiliation? Even the Nether Shamans who once stood high above him had to treat him with utmost courtesy whenever they met him, lest they court disaster.
In his earlier years, any peers who had ostracized him, or even merely cast him a sour look, were now buried beneath sacrificial altars, reduced to material for the blood pool. Those women he had once fancied who had shown no interest in him were now all swept into his harem, whether willing or not.
Among them was a fierce-tempered shamaness whom Lei Dong had expended immense effort to obtain, using all manner of threats against her clansmen. Afterward, Lei Dong installed her husband in the harem as well, specifically tasking him with guarding the palace where she resided, forcing him to watch and listen from the side. Formidable ancient restrictions were placed upon Lei Dong’s harem; acting behind his back was utterly impossible unless he deliberately allowed it.
Having enjoyed such smooth sailing for just over a year, Lei Dong had nearly forgotten what life was like before he received his karmic luck.
His cultivation had also met with adventure after adventure. The old Nether Shamans of his tribe poured out everything they knew to teach him, and the food he ate was even finer than Tianyu’s. In a mere two years, he had advanced to the realm of blood shaman perfection, just one step away from reaching Nether Shaman.
Establishing a domain in the Nether Cold Realm required considerable time, demanding both opportunity and strength in equal measure. Thus, Lei Dong had not yet had the chance to ascend to Nether Shaman. Yet right at this critical juncture of advancement, Wei Yuan had delivered himself to his doorstep.
On one hand, Lei Dong was thoroughly enraged; on the other, as he stared at Wei Yuan, his mouth watered the more he looked.
Though he had been a child of karmic destiny for only two years, he had long developed an arrogance that held himself above all, believing that everything in the world rightfully belonged to him.
Lei Dong knew in his heart that if he could seize Wei Yuan’s karmic luck and sacrifice it to heaven and earth, the world would surely be overjoyed. Perhaps some Nether Shaman might even discover an ancient rite to transfer their own domain directly to him.
By now, except for the rearguard, the entire Leize army had mobilized. Ten thousand cavalry deployed on both the left and right flanks, charging menacingly toward Wei Yuan. Yet the more Lei Dong observed, the more awkward it appeared: his right flank seemed overstocked with troops, while his left flank appeared somewhat weak.
Yet once a vast army was set in motion, turning back was difficult. Lei Dong lacked the masterful skill required to command large forces as effortlessly as moving his own limbs, so he could only allow his troops to advance according to the original plan.
Wei Yuan harbored no concern whatsoever for his seemingly weak left flank. With a thought, his right-flank armored cavalry pushed slowly forward. Accompanied by roaring engines, three war chariots took the lead and charged forth.
Seeing these three iron boxes, the venomous lizard riders were momentarily taken aback, but then charged directly toward the chariots.
A burly venomous lizard rider leveled his lance, charging at full speed, and slammed violently into the chariot's flank! In a colossal crash, the rider flew straight off the back of his poisonous monitor, soared over the chariot, and crashed to the ground on the other side, his bones shattered and tendons snapped.
One venomous lizard rider after another slammed into the chariots at full speed, yet their lances and scythe-blades could not damage the chariots' armor, which was as thick as a man's palm.
The cannons mounted on the chariots fired frantically. Yet the surrounding venomous lizard riders were simply too numerous; blast away a dozen, and dozens more swarmed behind them.
Each poisonous monitor weighed several thousand jin. Crashing in at full speed, they jolted the chariots to brief halts, jarring the cultivators inside to utter misery. Under the relentless impacts of the poisonous monitors, all three chariots were knocked to a standstill, and Shaman warriors soon swarmed over them, attempting to drag the human cultivators out.
At this moment, several clouds of fire materialized out of thin air, showering a vast sheet of flowing flames downward. The chariots were immune to fire, but the Shaman riders were plunged into a sea of flames. One by one they ignited, turning into flaming shamans and collapsing with wretched shrieks.
This was Wei Yuan's doing. In a single stroke, he wiped out hundreds of Shaman riders and cleared the ground around the chariots. Then, a hazy glow enveloped the main host of the Dragon Wing iron cavalry, enhancing both their strength and endurance as they launched their charge.
Merely three thousand iron cavalry were enough to shake the earth, striking panic across the faces of many Shaman riders. They might be unfamiliar with chariots, but they knew all too well the combat prowess of human riders encased head to toe in iron armor.
Before the two cavalries even collided, the Dragon Wing riders raised their fire guns in unison and fired a volley. The fire guns they were equipped with had now been switched to newly developed canister shot; each blast unleashed a storm of iron pellets.
Caught off guard, many venomous lizard riders were pelted by the iron pellets. These pellets could only inflict minor wounds upon their bodies, yet for reasons unknown, many who were struck tumbled straight off their mounts, thrashing, howling, and writhing in excruciating agony.
The formation of the venomous lizard riders fell into utter disarray. Wei Yuan led the Dragon Wing iron cavalry to drive straight through the center, cutting through the Shaman cavalry formation in an instant and leaving behind hundreds of dead Shaman riders in their wake.
Wheeling around, the Dragon Wing cavalry loosed another volley of canister shot. In the blink of an eye, another five to six hundred venomous lizard riders tumbled to the ground, writhing in pain. Without hesitation, Wei Yuan led his cavalry to punch through the Shaman battle array once more, returning to their original position.
Back and forth in two charging sweeps, the Leize army's entire left flank began to crumble. Fortunately for Lei Dong, the three war chariots remained immobilized, salvaging a shred of dignity for him.
Just then, artillery shells began raining relentlessly into the Shaman cavalry array, blowing clusters of riders off their mounts just as they tried to assemble. Next came a burst of long laughter that rang to the clouds, drowning out the battle cries and shrieks across the field, overpowering even the roar of the infantry guns:
"Hahahaha! Today the Desolate Ancestor Tribe goes on a killing spree! I, Tianyu, will surely crush that inferior, low-grade shaman opposite us who stole my karmic luck!"
Amidst a thunderous roar, a peculiar war chariot surged out from Wei Yuan's battle formation. This chariot was noticeably larger than the others, and its armor was astonishingly thick.
The chariot possessed no treads; instead, three Power Shamans stood on each side, with only their thick legs visible. These twelve hairy, thick legs strode furiously. Carrying the chariot that weighed over a hundred thousand jin, they moved like the wind, proving even nimbler and swifter than Wei Yuan's Dragon Wing heavy cavalry.
Where the turret should have been, Tianyu sat perched. His lower half had not yet fully regenerated, allowing him to slot into the turret opening like a glove. Right now, he gripped the infantry cannon with his right hand and loaded shells with his left. His motions were swift as the wind, blurring into afterimages.
With Tianyu personally hand-loading the shells, the infantry cannon's firing rate was unbelievable. Everything within several li around was fair game for Tianyu's hunt. Any Great Shaman of Leize who dared show his head was immediately driven into frantic flight by a succession of exploding shells.
At the rear of the chariot was Xu Wenwu. At the moment, while reinforcing the chariot with his own Dao Foundation to provide an all-around boost to its performance, he passed shells to Tianyu, panting from exhaustion. Even so, Tianyu still complained that he was too slow.
"Aiya, off by just one shot! That little whelp got away! Old Xu, why are you petering out already? Didn't you eat breakfast this morning?! Put your back into it! When this is over, I'll find a couple of cute little shaman girls to give you a massage!"
The firepower of this war chariot was simply too overwhelming. Wherever it roamed, even Great Shamans were forced to flee with their hands over their heads, and the rest of the Shaman troops stood no chance at all. In the blink of an eye, the entire Leize battle array was thrown into turmoil, showing signs of chaos.
Tianyu felt that in all the battles of his life, he had never felt so triumphant. Charging in and out amidst a host of ten thousand warriors was a marvelous thrill—more exhilarating than eighteen pretty shaman girls put together.
High-spirited and full of swagger, he looked around and momentarily couldn't even find an opponent. He chuckled, looked back at Xu Wenwu, and asked, "Old Xu, by the saying in that world of yours, this counts as six-wheel drive, right?"
Chapter 622