Nearly two years had passed, yet the Seventh Garrison City that Wei Yuan had taken over back then remained largely unchanged, much as it had been when he left. The only differences were that the city walls were taller and thicker, the trenches and redoubts outside the city were more numerous, and the three garrison cities were now completely linked together.
This defensive line ran more than ten li deep, filled throughout with pre-established overt and covert firepower emplacements, and honeycombed with countless bunker caves interconnected with one another—it was practically a forbidden zone for life.
On the ground battlefield, both sides had been locked in a stalemate for quite a while. The Palace of Grand Beginning's Dao soldiers did not sortie, and the Northern Liao iron cavalry could not force their way in.
The others had returned to Qingming with Wei Yuan one after another, and Ji Liuli had even accompanied Wei Yuan to wipe out the world fragment, but Feng Chutang alone was detained and unable to leave. So long as Feng Chutang did not depart from the Northern Mountain Gate for a single day, the Wise King of the Left refused to withdraw.
Upon returning to the Northern Mountain Gate, Wei Yuan went to see Immortal Monarch Yanshi immediately. Yanshi sat by the cliff edge, fishing by himself, only with shimmering multicolored light floating across his body from time to time.
Wei Yuan finally understood now that this was not light and shadow deliberately conjured by Yanshi to set off his own image, but rather the result of clashing with an opposing immortal, occasionally unable to fully contain his immortal power.
Seeing Wei Yuan arrive, Yanshi said, "The bait has been cast well enough. The current battle before us has gone on for over four months now. Everyone rotates into the fray, and all our trump cards have long been laid bare. Which world will rotate in next can be guessed with eighty to ninety percent accuracy. During this time, every day I had to calculate meticulously to pinch and save every bit of immortal power. Bit by bit, enough has accumulated now.
"You came secretly this time, and you will take the field in a day or two. You will disguise yourself as one of my minor worlds rotating into battle. I shall give you that world's aura and the disguising array right now, but you must wait until right before deploying to set up the array, otherwise the other side might easily sense it."
Yanshi explained the disposition in detail. The crux was that Wei Yuan would stand in for one of the minor worlds. Because Immortal Monarch Yanshi had few minor worlds, but each was of extremely high rank, whenever a rotated minor world appeared, the enemy would first send a golden world to hold the line and stabilize their footing, followed by other worlds moving in to besiege it.
Wei Yuan was to exploit this time gap, holding his ground during the interval when the golden world advanced alone, and then flee before the other grotto-heavens converged in siege.
That way, Yanshi would have two available grotto-heavens in hand, enabling him to fight two against one to strive for a quick victory, swallowing at least one of the enemy's silver grotto-heavens.
Both strategy and tactics sounded sound enough; if there were flaws, Wei Yuan couldn't spot them anyway.
Wei Yuan then asked, "Has the enemy I am to face been confirmed? Are there corpses or other samples of them?"
"The grotto-heaven you are to face belongs to the Mirage Demon clan of the Forest of Stars. Corpses naturally exist, but what do you want them for?"
Wei Yuan said, "Your disciple recently developed a curse technique that is fairly formidable. However, it requires the flesh and blood of the target's kin as a catalyst. The more catalysts there are, the better the effect."
Immortal Monarch Yanshi said, "Several hundred corpses should still be stored in the warehouse. I'll have someone send half to you in a moment."
"Why did you keep so many corpses?" Wei Yuan was taken aback as well.
Immortal Monarch Yanshi said blandly, "I had originally prepared a curse to whittle down that clan's fortune. As it turned out, I accidentally prepared a few too many corpses. Since you need them, it works out nicely."
Even Wei Yuan felt a slight chill run down his spine upon hearing that.
Taking the materials, Wei Yuan returned to his quarters and began studying them. The rotating world Wei Yuan was to face in this round belonged to the Mirage Demon clan. Their habitat was hot and watery, teeming with marsh life. By human standards, the Mirage Demons were beautiful yet eerie, adept in heart-bewitching arts, though physically quite fragile.
In addition, the Mirage Demons were well-versed in the Dao of karmic luck, possessing the ability to turn misfortune into fortune.
Reading up to this point, Wei Yuan felt his scalp tingle. For a race so proficient in the Dao of karmic luck, Immortal Monarch Yanshi could still shave away their fortune. Who else in this world, then, could not have their karmic luck whittled away? Opposing Immortal Monarch Yanshi, one probably wouldn't even know how they died.
Just then, a gentle voice sounded at the courtyard gate: "Junior Brother Wei Yuan, Patriarch ordered me to deliver some items to you."
Wei Yuan stood up and walked out into the courtyard, where he saw a middle-aged Dharma Idol cultivator holding out a treasure pearl and explaining how to use it. After thanking him, Wei Yuan took the pearl and activated it in the courtyard according to the secret art. In an instant, over a hundred corpses appeared within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, landing inside the Genetic Engineering Research Institute.
These corpses had originally been creations of a mindscape world, possessing no physical form in this realm, which was why Wei Yuan could directly take them into the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World.
The Genetic Engineering Research Institute had long been awaiting this batch of materials. Immediately mobilizing all personnel, they first selected four corpses of differing sexes and ages to wheel into the laboratory, and then picked another four as control specimens. Finally, sixteen corpses were chosen as basic raw materials, for otherwise cultivating biological particles from scratch would take far too long to make the deadline.
Half of the remaining corpses were cryogenically preserved as stock. The other half was handed over to other institutes for research, including the Transcendent Life Research Institute, the All Beings Are Equal Research Institute, and so on.
With two days left until the great battle, every facility went all out in their research. The computing power of the entire Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World was tilted their way, to the point that the processing of affairs across the rest of Qingming lagged noticeably.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and the time arrived for Wei Yuan to deploy.
The hour had come. Peals of bells tolled within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, and the mortals setting forth to battle activated their karmic luck armor. The land of Central City rose three zhang, and along the outer perimeter of the city, seawalls five zhang high had been erected.
Wei Yuan then flicked his finger. A grand array in the city lit up, spouting streaks of gold light tinged with multicolored resonance straight into the heavens. In the blink of an eye, the golden light enveloped the entire Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, turning the vault of heaven a brilliant gold.
Then, the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World trembled faintly before falling still. Wei Yuan's divine sense leaped out of the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, only to see a sphere—golden with shimmering multicolored immortal resonance—streaking menacingly through the celestial sky, charging into the battlefield. From the opposite side, a golden minor world immediately flew forth, accompanied by a silver one and seven or eight multicolored minor worlds advancing to meet it.
At that moment, atop the highest peak of that golden star, stood over a dozen Mirage Demons. Dressed in long robes, their dark-silver hair pooled on the ground like snow; the oldest among them had hair trailing several zhang behind them.
A Mirage Demon with pure white hair asked, "Is the Heaven-Cleaving Axe ready?"
"Everything is in place."
The pure-white-haired Mirage Demon said slowly, "The other side also possesses an immortal offensive art, named the Xuanhuang Bell. It is of the same rank as our Heaven-Cleaving Axe, both being immortal arts of three hundred and sixty-one sub-arrays. It is said that the opposing World Lord can already wield ninety sub-arrays of the Xuanhuang Bell. We must by no means be careless. For the first axe strike, we shall only employ eighty sub-arrays, keeping our world power well in reserve."
A young Mirage Demon asked in some confusion, "Great-grandmother, you can wield a hundred and twenty sub-arrays of the Heaven-Cleaving Axe, and the opposing world looks even more formidable than ours, so why does his Xuanhuang Bell only have ninety sub-arrays?"
The pure-white-haired Mirage Demon explained patiently, "That is because he has also cultivated a Three Pure Ones Sword, which is at the level of sixty sub-arrays. Its might cannot be underestimated. If we pour all our strength into attacking his Xuanhuang Bell and he takes the opportunity to slash at us with that sword, we will suffer a grave loss. In immortal combat arts, we need only make sure we commit no errors; as for army formations, we will focus primarily on defense, stalling for time and awaiting reinforcements from the other grotto-heavens."
"Great-grandmother, every time we fight, we defend, defend, and defend again. Look at the other grotto-heavens; they frequently charge into enemy worlds and plunder plenty of fine things. We've fought so many battles, yet have gained nothing."
The other Mirage Demons' expressions changed in alarm, and they hastily scolded the youth.
The pure-white-haired Mirage Demon was not angered, however, still maintaining her patience as she said, "What you see are only the examples of those returning with plunder, but those grotto-heavens that suffered defeat in war can never be seen again. That is why you think plundering is guaranteed to succeed."
The young Mirage Demon seemed to only half understand, but with the great battle imminent, voiced no further questions.
Meanwhile, within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, Wei Yuan stood beneath the vault of heaven with a solemn expression, awaiting the collision of the two worlds.
One hand was clasped behind his back, while a tiny, golden ancient bell hovered above his right palm. Standing suspended in midair as the celestial wind fluttered his sideburns and robes, he truly appeared as graceful as an immortal.
This wind was whipped up by Wei Yuan himself. Had his cultivation not been insufficient, and had immortal music swirling around him and heavenly flowers raining down not been somewhat embarrassing, Wei Yuan certainly would have arranged for those as well. The Creation Immortal Venerable, fearing neither tyrant nor titan, engaging in his first battle against a top-tier grotto-heaven was destined to go down in history.
Therefore, his image at this moment was of paramount importance. Rather than letting posterity speculate out of thin air, he might as well adjust himself to perfection right now and leave behind an impeccable impression.
At this moment, the hand Wei Yuan held behind his back was trembling slightly. On the ground, two hundred and fifty-six sub-arrays were circulating with light, ceaselessly siphoning world power and channeling it into Wei Yuan's body. The burden was so heavy that it far exceeded Wei Yuan's imagination. If the battle were delayed even a moment longer, he wouldn't even have the strength left to keep blowing the wind.
Chapter 801