Zhang Sheng possessed a total of five hundred and twelve immortal swords, each with a fixed rank and station; they had not been cultivated at random. If even a single blade were missing, his path would be flawed—even the most trifling imperfection still left it incomplete.
Wei Yuan knew better than anyone how arduous it was to rebuild one's Dao heart after it had shattered, and to embark upon an immortal path far stronger yet far steeper than before. He understood in his heart that if Zhang Sheng's Dao heart suffered a blemish this time, he might never recover. His immortal path would be severed forever, unable even to cross the threshold into a dharma idol.
For an all-reaching path to the heavens to be cut short twice in succession could only be interpreted as heaven's will. Yet when Ancestral Shamans made moves and Heavenly Shamans served as pawns, calling it heaven's will was hardly an exaggeration.
Thus, the moment Wei Yuan caught sight of Zhang Sheng's Dao sword, he knew he had no choice at all.
That sword held the path of two men.
***
Wei Yuan had walked only a short distance before realizing something was wrong. The three overlapping suns in the sky generated an irresistible penetrating force, as though shining straight into his viscera. The blood and organs within his body heated up in tandem. Furthermore, the heat did not seep inward from without; it roasted inside and out simultaneously.
In the blink of an eye, Wei Yuan's internal organs and blood were heated to the point of boiling water. His blood had already turned a nearly transparent pale pink, so heat of this degree was not yet fatal to him. Even so, the temperature continued to climb relentlessly, rising far beyond that of the ambient surroundings.
Knowing full well that those three suns were deeply sinister and that he could not remain exposed to their light, Wei Yuan hurried beneath a weathered stone terrace. There, under the overlapping sunlight, he found a sliver of shade and temporarily took shelter.
Yet the Great Wilderness Realm had three suns, each hanging at a different angle, making it extraordinarily difficult to find any shade at all. As the suns shifted, Wei Yuan watched his refuge shrink by the moment; soon, the hiding spot would be useless.
Wei Yuan poked his head out to examine the suns in the sky, suddenly puzzled. Given their angles, there shouldn't be so complete an absence of blind spots. But when he cast another glance at the colossal celestial body, he saw that it too was reflecting sunlight, and understanding dawned at once.
Looking back out across the sparse, weathered rock terraces scattered over the wasteland, he realized that finding a sliver of shade right after arriving had been a stroke of remarkable luck.
Now that he had confirmed this was the Great Wilderness Realm, Wei Yuan suddenly felt far less inclined to put in effort.
With that, he pinched the earth into stone, molding a small statue of Tianyu in the blink of an eye. After a brief recollection, he infused a wisp of Tianyu's aura into the sculpture, bowed three times in succession, and spoke aloud: "Tianyu, if you can hear my call, hurry up and appear before me!"
He waited a moment. The shade had dwindled to half its original size, yet the statue showed no reaction whatsoever.
It seemed the worship ritual was flawed. Recalling the rites of sacrifice from the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, Wei Yuan bowed three times anew and said, "Lord Tianyu, please appear before me. My deepest gratitude to your entire family."
Still, there was no response.
Wei Yuan tried several more times, going so far as to thank the parents of the Sun of the Great Desolation, but it remained entirely futile. He had no choice but to give up. Either Tianyu was too far away, or this routine simply did not work in the Great Wilderness Realm.
Wei Yuan sighed and circulated his divine sense. Fortunately, the formidable divine sense tempered through years of multi-tasking was still intact, allowing him to split his mind effortlessly into one thousand and twenty-four tasks. With intellect and wisdom like this, he would surely rank among the very best across the entire Great Wilderness Realm.
Gripping his spear, Wei Yuan stepped out from the shade and headed into the depths of the Great Wilderness Realm, ready to show the Power Shamans here the true meaning of wisdom.
***
High above in Immortal Heaven, Yanshi sat in his courtyard, nursing his sullen anger all by himself. Though this was deemed the best possible outcome—and the two ancestral swords had been preserved—the inability to cut down a few meddlesome immortals left him choking on indignation.
Yanshi had never imagined that after cultivating immortality for hundreds of years, the day would come when his hands shook with sheer rage. His Dao heart felt anything but clear.
Yet given the situation at the time, this truly was the best conclusion. Even the Old Ancestress of the Bao family, who had not shown her face for centuries, had stepped in only to mediate a mutual concession. Yanshi understood well enough that the temptation to break the stalemate was simply too immense.
His mind could grasp the logic, but his gut refused to swallow the grudge.
Just as he was brooding alone, a knock suddenly sounded at the courtyard gate. Yanshi gave a start, instantly turning vigilant. Walking over, he pulled open the gate to find a green-eyed, bald woman standing outside, cradling an unremarkable long spear in her hands.
With his piercing vision, Yanshi recognized at a single glance that this spear was a Dharma treasure consecrated with Wei Yuan's heart's blood, and that its artifact spirit had been enlightened by Wei Yuan himself.
The green-eyed woman said, "Great Khan Silver Moon sent me to repay a favor. Combining his power with yours, this spear can be delivered to Wei Yuan's side."
Yanshi's pupils constricted as he said slowly, "So the Great Khan's mastery over the Dao of Karma runs this deep as well."
"He is still a step behind you," the green-eyed woman replied. "Which is why he needs you to send the spear on its way."
Both were immortals, and the moment Yanshi took the spear, he understood. Silver Moon had already used his formidable karmic power to attach the divine ability [Protect Master] to it. If Yanshi added [Rift Void] and cast the weapon into the void, it would naturally find its way back to Wei Yuan through the unseen workings of fate.
Terrified that Wei Yuan might meet with misfortune, Yanshi wasted no time. He brushed his hand across the shaft, adding another sheen of light to the spear. Then, with a thrust of his arm, he hurled it into the void.
"Wait a moment—" the green-eyed woman called out a beat too late.
"What is it?"
The green-eyed woman wore a peculiar expression. "Is your aim accurate, Immortal Monarch?"
Yanshi replied with pride, "Dead accurate, of course!"
"If it's too accurate," she asked, "won't it impale Wei Yuan?"
Yanshi froze, then let out an awkward laugh. "Well, that..."
Just then, a sudden twitch stirred in his heart. He felt that the spear had struck something, achieving no small measure of success.
"What happened?" the green-eyed woman asked.
"Nothing." Yanshi would certainly never admit that his throw had just wiped out thirty thousand of Wei Yuan's human luck.
***
In the center of an unimaginably vast and towering hall, twelve chairs were arranged in a circle. Before each seat stood a brazier. At present, only seven of the braziers burned; the remaining five were extinguished, leaving the thrones behind them shrouded in darkness.
Huiye sat upon one of the chairs, her brazier burning with a dark silver glow that barely illuminated her own form.
"...I attempted to slay Wei Yuan, but unexpectedly discovered that he carries a colossal sea of karmic luck. Striking him down would have invited a terrifying backlash of karmic debt."
Before Huiye could finish speaking, an extraordinarily burly Heavenly Shaman—at least a dozen times larger than she was—cut her off with a sneer: "You dared not strike because you feared backlash? It seems your loyalty to the Ancestral Shamans is remarkably thin. You Nether Shamans have committed error after error of late, and your allegiance is questionable at best. Why don't you surrender one of your Heavenly Shaman seats? In my view, the Nether Shamans no longer deserve to hold four!"
Huiye was furious. She snarled back, "Since when have you Desolate Shamans grown so arrogant? If you ask me, granting you three seats is already too generous! If sheer strength alone made a Heavenly Shaman, we might as well leash a few behemoths to the chairs!"
The colossal shaman erupted in wrath. "Who are you calling a behemoth?!"
Another shaman interjected, "Yanmo, hold your tongue and let Huiye finish."
The Heavenly Shaman named Yanmo whipped his head around, roaring, "Long Zhe, you're as weak as a bug! What right do you have to tell me to shut up? Even if you and Huiye were tied together, you still couldn't beat me!"
Long Zhe snorted and said no more.
At that moment, another shaman, before whom burned a white-gold flame while his figure remained concealed within dense mist, spoke: "Silence."
He clearly possessed immense authority; though unwilling and resentful, Yanmo held his tongue.
Huiye continued: "...I could only infiltrate with a single Dao Foundation. Mighty as that Dao Foundation was, it remained a Dao Foundation after all. Faced with his vast karmic luck, the probability of failure in a forced kill exceeded ninety-five percent..."
Yanmo could not help chiming in again: "A Heavenly Shaman unable to kill a mere dharma idol—what a joke! Couldn't you have sent a dharma idol over?"
This time Huiye did not hold back, retorting fiercely, "Then why don't you send a dharma idol in? Right into Qingming, right this instant! Well? Do you dare? Can't you manage something so simple?"
Flames abruptly erupted from Yanmo's body as he said coldly, "And what if I do?"
"Qingming has no realm lord right now, so it cannot trigger the Peerless Dao Domain—it is practically defenseless. Go ahead and try! If you pull it off, we Nether Shamans will yield a seat to you!"
"Fine!!" Yanmo had just started to rise when a shroud of white-gold mist fell over him, instantly sapping all his strength and dropping him back into his seat.
The faceless shaman said, "The state of Qingming is exceedingly bizarre. Our old friends from the Liao Clan have very likely laid a trap, waiting for you to charge in. Yanmo, if you rush over like that, you will return only to sleep for at least five hundred years. In that case, this seat will have to be handed to another shaman."
Yanmo froze, a sudden wave of lingering dread washing over him.
The mist-shrouded shaman then turned to Huiye. "You knew this, yet you still egged Yanmo on. That is very improper. I generally do not interfere in disputes between Heavenly Shamans, but on one condition: do not stage them before my eyes. If there is a next time, I will revoke one of the Nether Shamans' seats."
Huiye felt a twinge of fear and said, "Don't you Sacred Shamans already have an empty seat?"
"One more would not be out of the question."
Huiye immediately adopted a well-behaved posture. Stealing a glance at Yanmo, she suddenly made a mocking face at him.
Flames instantly flared from the top of Yanmo's head!
In his eyes, Huiye was already hideous, and casting a coquettish glance made her the ugliest creature across all the shamanic realms. The insult stung far worse than being cursed to his face. He wanted nothing more than to charge over and beat her to a pulp, but wary of the Sacred Shaman, he held back with great effort.
Huiye continued, "To ensure the mission's success, I played every trump card I had, using his master's path as bait to banish him."
"You banished the bait as well?"
"Yes, Lord Minglei."
Minglei, who hailed from the Sacred Shamans, pondered for a moment before asking, "Did you employ any special techniques during the banishment? What are the odds that he and the bait ended up in the same realm?"
"No special techniques were used, so the chances of them being in the same world are exceedingly slim."
"...Is that so?"
Huiye felt an invisible gaze settle upon her, a chill so profound that her hair danced without wind, making her feel as though she were standing beneath a colossal thunderbolt! In that instant, she caught the scent of ultimate demise.
Yet in the end, Minglei withdrew his gaze and said, "You handled it well. So long as he and the bait are not in the same realm, his hopes of return are meager. A man like Wei Yuan will never turn back until he recovers his master's path.
"However, an unlikely chance remains a chance. Therefore, every tribe must inspect the realms under its dominion. Whoever allows him to slip through and return shall surrender their seat voluntarily. Let me remind you: Wei Yuan possesses immense karmic luck and will be remarkably difficult to deal with. Do not underestimate him simply because his cultivation is not high."
The Heavenly Shamans nodded in agreement. A shaman who had not spoken until now asked, "How much karmic luck does Wei Yuan possess?"
All eyes fell upon Huiye. This was a critical question. Without hesitation, Huiye answered, "At least one million."
The Heavenly Shamans were visibly stirred, though none spoke. Yet several immensely powerful divine senses could be felt rippling outside the hall, already mobilizing subordinates to begin investigations.
Finally, Minglei asked, "Is there anything else that requires special mention?"
Huiye recalled something and said, "There is one very bizarre matter. After banishing Wei Yuan, a strange bird suddenly appeared and laid an egg upon that Dao Foundation."
The Heavenly Shamans were astonished. How could anything lay an egg upon a Dao Foundation? But Huiye promptly raised a finger, and above the great hall materialized that full moon. Sure enough, an egg rested upon its surface.
The gathered Heavenly Shamans exchanged glances. The egg gave them an utterly bizarre feeling: it was clearly right there, yet entirely intangible. No matter how they swept it with their divine senses, there was nothing but emptiness.
Minglei suddenly let out a heavy snort, evidently incensed.
All the Heavenly Shamans turned to look at him. Strands of white-gold lightning flickered within the mist enveloping Minglei's form. Only after a long pause did he speak:
"I managed to decipher a message from it. It says... first, let's test your mettle."
Chapter 867