Wei Yuan leveled the cannon and blasted a fierce shot directly at Shu Li's avatar.
Shu Li's avatar flicked his sleeve and unfurled a scroll. In an instant, the painting swallowed the cannon shell whole, silencing it completely and cutting off Wei Yuan's connection to the projectile.
Taken aback, Wei Yuan thought to himself, *Such a magical treasure exists?*
He fired several more shots in rapid succession, but Shu Li's avatar intercepted every one of them with the scroll. Seeing that bombarding the avatar was futile, Wei Yuan swiftly swiveled the cannon's muzzle toward three Shaman Scholars watching the commotion in the distance and fired right between them!
This time, a thunderous roar boomed as he had hoped. The three Shaman Scholars were sent flying through the air, cast straight into reincarnation.
Immediately following that, Wei Yuan unleashed a relentless barrage of shells, throwing several Great Shamans into utter disarray as they scrambled frantically for cover. Though battered and bruised, they were only wounded, not killed.
With their reflexes, Great Shamans were normally just barely capable of intercepting or dodging incoming shells, but Wei Yuan had emulated Tianyu's manual reloading technique. His firing rate was blisteringly fast, leaving the Great Shamans helpless to retaliate.
Seeing that he had no better way to finish off the Great Shamans, Wei Yuan turned his sights back toward the Shaman Scholars. Shu Li's avatar could maintain his composure no longer. With a furious roar of "Insolence!", he spread the scroll wide. The painting instantly stretched dozens of zhang in length, intercepting all the incoming shells.
Shu Li's avatar then drew out a gilded ring and hurled it viciously at Wei Yuan. Undaunted, Wei Yuan snatched up a massive chunk of raw nether iron ore and smashed it heavily against the incoming ring!
With a deafening clang, the gilded ring proved unable to withstand the crushing weight of over a hundred thousand jin of nether iron. Subdued by that raw, brutish force, it flew wobbling back into the avatar's grasp.
Looking down at the small dent on the ring's surface, Shu Li's avatar winced with heartache. This small blemish was no minor flaw; it had compromised the integrated formation array refined into the artifact. Repairing it would require several years of painstaking nurturing.
The gilded ring was a peak-grade magical treasure weighing eighty thousand jin on its own, capable of unleashing nearly a million jin of crushing force when thrown. For Shu Li, whose physical form was not his strength, it was a potent countermeasure against physically formidable foes.
Yet who could have foreseen running into a freak like Wei Yuan, someone capable of snatching up and swinging over a hundred thousand jin of raw nether iron with pure brawn? Although a massive crater had been gouged into the nether iron, it was unworked ore to begin with; breaking it apart only saved labor and made it more valuable.
Wei Yuan began firing erratically, blasting a shot here and another there, forcing Shu Li's avatar to dash back and forth until he was exhausted just keeping up.
Suddenly, Wei Yuan fired a long-range shot toward a young Shaman Scholar who was accompanied by several guards.
Shu Li's avatar blanched in terror. He hastily flung his scroll across the distance to provide protection, while flying toward the young scholar at top speed.
The moment the avatar made his move, Wei Yuan moved as well. He dove straight down from the summit of Nether Mountain, lunging in the opposite direction toward two wounded Great Shamans.
The two Great Shamans had never expected Wei Yuan to descend on them so abruptly. In their panic, they scattered in separate directions. Wei Yuan had already brought out his multi-barreled sword-cannon, unleashing a torrent of flying swords that pursued the more severely wounded Great Shaman.
How could a Great Shaman outrun flying swords? In the blink of an eye, he was blasted out of midair, his fate unknown.
Seeing Wei Yuan pursuing the other Great Shaman, Shu Li's avatar felt his eyes nearly tear with rage. He rushed back at full speed to intervene, casting the scroll straight down to envelop Wei Yuan from above!
A greatsword suddenly appeared in Wei Yuan's grip. He planted it forcefully into the ground before him. An invisible wave rippled outward, miraculously holding the scroll at bay and temporarily preventing it from descending.
Immediately after, Wei Yuan turned with the greatsword behind his back. The blade discharged force in two distinct, rhythmic surges, and in an instant, he was already right above the head of Shu Li's avatar!
Shu Li's avatar was shaken to his very core. The two of them had clearly been separated by a hundred zhang, yet this strike carried an obscure, unfathomable aura that erased the distance between them in an instant. This was an exceedingly profound technique of Close Yet Worlds Apart, already imbued with a touch of the karmic realm.
In the razor-thin margin between life and death, an enormous golden beast head abruptly materialized around Shu Li, rising to meet the descending greatsword!
The greatsword carved a dark-silver arc through the air, cleaving the beast head clean in two! Wei Yuan's aura plunged by nearly half like a drained reservoir. The avatar's face drained of color as his golden hair-clasping crown cracked with a sharp snap and tumbled to the ground, leaving his long hair to cascade loose over his shoulders. A thin line of blood parted down the center of his forehead and face, running all the way down to his chest.
Next, his outer robe and sash burst apart in an instant, and one of his earrings shattered to dust. Three superior-grade defensive magical treasures were completely destroyed under this single technique of Sweeping the Four Barbarians.
As for that golden crown, it had even birthed an artifact spirit, making it a true Scenery Command spirit treasure. Yet under this very sword strike, it too was cleaved apart, and its artifact spirit was thoroughly extinguished.
Wei Yuan let out a sigh and said, "Failing to kill you with this strike means taking your life in the future will be far harder."
Shu Li's avatar looked utterly livid, his fingertips trembling slightly. The sheer might of that strike had exceeded all imagination; had it been even fifty percent stronger, it likely would have slain him on the spot.
Yet standing within his own kingdom, Shu Li felt no lingering dread. He pointed a finger at Wei Yuan, and waves of realm power bore down upon him, pressing his aura steadily downward.
Wei Yuan turned on his heel and fled toward Nether Mountain.
Shu Li's avatar pursued him without haste, layering binding forces onto Wei Yuan one after another. In the blink of an eye, Wei Yuan's body felt as though it weighed over a hundred thousand jin, robbing him of flight and leaving him to sprint across the ground.
Seeing his quarry nearly in hand, the avatar flung out a yellow ribbon that coiled tightly around Wei Yuan's waist, then hauled back with all his might. The rear end of the ribbon branched into a dozen silk cords—some wrapped around stone pillars, others tethered to colossal beasts. Pulling in unison, they actually dragged Wei Yuan back a step!
Shu Li's avatar then cast out another net, letting it fall directly over Wei Yuan to wrap him securely. Yet as Wei Yuan struggled with all his might, the net's cords actually showed signs of snapping!
At this sight, the corner of the avatar's eye twitched. This Dragon-Binding Net had once snared a fledgling flood dragon at the Scenery Command level, and even that creature had failed to break free; now, Wei Yuan was tearing its cords apart. Was Wei Yuan's primordial spirit truly this formidable?
Just as the avatar concentrated fully on controlling the Dragon-Binding Net to capture Wei Yuan in one fell swoop, his vision suddenly plunged into pitch-black darkness. He could see nothing, and his ears heard not a whisper of sound.
Within this absolute darkness, a rounded, scalding body seemed to press up against him. Before Shu Li's avatar could fathom what was happening, an irresistible, overwhelming force crashed into him, snapping him in two at the waist with a sickening crack!
The avatar tried to cry out for help, but could make no sound. A chill sliced across his throat, his primordial spirit instantly cleaved in two, and both halves dissolved into nothingness.
The Dragon-Binding Net wound around Wei Yuan suddenly lost its potency. Without a master to guide it, it turned sluggish and inert. Wei Yuan slipped out of the mesh with ease, gave himself a shake, and the realm power suppressing him began to dissipate.
By then, the darkness shrouding the avatar was thinning away. Feng Tingyu crouched beside the strangely contorted remains of Shu Li's avatar, clutching the demon blade Qiyue, poking the corpse here and there with the tip of the blade.
The demon blade could not help but chime in, "He's as dead as dead can be! If you keep poking him, you won't even save enough materials for alchemy!"
"Qiyue is right; don't waste the materials." Wei Yuan drew in what little remained of the avatar's primordial spirit with a beckoning hand, then glanced around. By now, every Great Shaman and Shaman Scholar was fleeing in all directions.
The young Shaman Scholar whose life Shu Li's avatar had just bought at the cost of his own had already fled without a trace, not even bothering to look back.
Seeing that no Shamans or legion beasts remained nearby, Wei Yuan called out, "All right, come on out. Clean up the area and see if there's anything left we can use."
Longying, the Civil and Military Dragon Guards, Xu Henshui, Sun Yu, and Yu Zhizhuo emerged from their respective hiding spots, loosely encircling the spot where Shu Li's avatar had fallen.
While excavating through the peak of Nether Mountain, Wei Yuan had secretly opened two other exits elsewhere. As he engaged Shu Li's avatar in fierce battle, the others had slipped out through those exits under the cover of concealment talismans, waiting at designated positions for an ambush. In the end, Feng Tingyu had restrained the avatar with her dharma idol and executed him with the demon blade.
The group searched for a while but found nothing exceptional, coming away with only a net and the damaged gilded ring.
Wei Yuan felt helpless as well. Concealment talismans capable of evading the realm power of a Nether Shaman's kingdom were exceptionally expensive and lasted only a short time. Yet it was the only viable method; having no other choice, Wei Yuan had redeemed over a dozen of them in one go, agonizing over the cost.
At that moment, the remains of Shu Li's avatar suddenly dissolved, and a scroll rolled out onto the ground.
Chapter 634