Confronted by Wei Yuan’s gaze, which felt sharp enough to pierce right through his sea of consciousness, Tianyu laughed sheepishly for a good while before explaining, "Well, isn't it only because it's practically impossible that I let my mind wander now and then? On top of that, your worship made me suffer so miserably that it curdled into a little obsession."
Wei Yuan nodded, accepting the explanation without pressing the matter. It was obvious from those projected scenes that Tianyu relished the chase—hurling threats while hunting him down—and craved the grand finale of pinning Wei Yuan beneath his boot while roaring at the heavens.
Every scenario culminated in that same climax, even if the paths differed. And invariably, right after trampling Wei Yuan and roaring to the sky, a fresh round of hunting would begin all over again.
Seeing that Wei Yuan was not angry, Tianyu hastily steered the conversation away: "How on earth did you end up in the Desolate Realm all of a sudden?!"
"I was careless and caught Huiye's banishment, so I was flung here," Wei Yuan said.
Tianyu frowned. "That makes things tricky. Leaving this place is no small ordeal; you have to go through a portal. A few days ago, Lord Jiumu suddenly gave word to strictly verify the identities of all shamans passing through the portals. Getting you out now will probably take some doing."
"What's the situation at the portal? Can we force our way through?"
Tianyu blurted out in haste, "Don't even think about it! The exit opens into the City of Heaven. Even if you made it through the portal, the moment word reached the City of Heaven, not even an immortal could escape. We need to think this through carefully. Let me ponder for a moment..."
Tianyu racked his brains, coming up with nothing.
It was Wei Yuan who asked, "Do shamans ever smuggle themselves across?"
Tianyu slapped his thigh. "Right! How could I forget that! I've heard that every year, some criminals manage to smuggle themselves out and slip back to the Wu domain. Hmm, let me ask around. If that's true, it means there's an established racket in place, and the topmost figure taking the lion's share is bound to be Lord Jiumu himself. Rest easy. Anything money can solve isn't a problem. If other shamans can leave, so can we."
"We can't leave just yet," Wei Yuan said. "My teacher's Dao Sword was banished as well, and it likely fell into this realm. I want to find it before leaving."
Tianyu probed for details for a while, only to learn that the Dao Sword was one of Zhang Sheng's Dao Foundations. He was immediately stumped. "That... isn't even an ordinary object, is it? How are we supposed to find it? Can't she just let it go? Your teacher already has several hundred immortal swords; does she really need this one?"
Wei Yuan said solemnly, "She needs this one. Only this one will do. This Dao Sword carries innate destiny and karma. Without it, it would be like an ant hole in a thousand-li dike..."
"'A dike of a thousand li collapses from an ant hole.' I understand plain human speech; you don't have to explain it so laboriously," Tianyu cut in.
Wei Yuan smacked his forehead and said, "I've been dealing with too many dimwitted shamans lately, so I forgot. In any case, that's what it means—it must be recovered. It is my teacher's only obsession in life, and I don't want a lingering regret in her heart for thousands of years to come."
Tianyu said, "Wait, you just said thousands of years... Without this sword, is her ascension to immortality in jeopardy?"
Wei Yuan shook his head. "Ascending to immortality won't be a problem, but she wouldn't be able to defeat the First Heavenly Shaman."
Tianyu fell silent, then said, "Hold on a moment. Allow me to meditate a little."
Without waiting for Wei Yuan's consent, he closed all eight of his eyes. He meditated for a full quarter-hour, running through several of his tensest, most thrilling hunt scenarios in his mind. Only after steadying his Dao heart did he open his smallest eye and say, "Since you are human, could you speak human speech from now on?"
Wei Yuan confirmed once more that Tianyu's command of human speech was exceptionally high.
"That thing... what does this Dao Sword actually look like?"
Wei Yuan said, "It possesses innate spirituality, and having been banished here, its karmic ties with Teacher are severed. In this world, it might manifest as an unbonded spirit, capable of taking myriad shifting forms."
Tianyu said, stunned, "Then how do we find it?"
Wei Yuan said, "I made a grand vow. My karmic bond with it is profound, far too strong for mere banishment to sever. Under the power of that vow, it will naturally draw closer to me through all manner of coincidences."
Tianyu opened another eye and said, "If I didn't know it was you, I'd swear you were a swindler. Those bald thieves sound exactly like you when they're scamming people out of their money."
Wei Yuan was taken aback. "Is it that obvious?"
"Just now when you said that, you practically radiated a solemn, holy visage!"
A flicker of worry crossed Wei Yuan's face. He seemed to have been subtly influenced without realizing it. Yet there had been no other way; without making a grand vow, he could not establish a karmic connection.
Back then, Wei Yuan had pressed Huiye relentlessly and offered himself up as bait before she banished the Dao Sword. Had she kept the sword in her hands instead, with all the bizarre methods at the shamans' disposal, any tampering during Zhang Sheng's heavenly tribulation would have put her in mortal peril. The earlier tribulations might have been manageable, but she would never have survived the tribulation of ascension.
Thus, Wei Yuan had stepped onto the board himself, prompting Huiye to banish the Dao Sword and thereby seizing a slim chance of survival.
Noticing Wei Yuan's troubled expression, Tianyu turned serious. "Did you fall prey to some underhanded trick by those bald thieves?"
"It's nothing. I just ran into a few monks who claimed I was born with past-life wisdom and insisted that I join the Buddhist path."
Tianyu roared with laughter. "I thought it was something serious! Isn't that simple? Now that you're here, I'll take you out to eat, drink, and make merry every day. Feast your eyes on peerless beauties from every race in the world, and won't that Buddhist nature be washed right out of you?"
Wei Yuan smiled bitterly. Wouldn't that just push him straight toward the lotus seat of the Buddha King? Yet if he refrained and remained ascetic, his visage would only grow increasingly dignified and solemn.
"Forget it, let's not dwell on that. Business first."
Tianyu asked, "What do we do next?"
Wei Yuan said, "During this time, I've gained some comprehension of sacrificial power and grasped many of its mysteries. When I forge artifacts using the Heavenly Luck Spirit Forging Method, various kinds of spirituality are born beneath my hammer. As long as I forge enough, and the forged artifacts are of sufficiently high grade, it may draw the Dao Sword toward me. If I can forge an immortal artifact, it will certainly attract the Dao Sword."
"Karmic destiny angling!" Tianyu grimaced in pained realization. He too had been hooked and reeled in by Wei Yuan's karmic luck. Summoning through worship was, in essence, also a form of karmic destiny angling.
"Precisely that method," Wei Yuan said.
Tianyu stroked his chin in thought. "An immortal artifact... Let me think. This place doesn't have materials good enough for that. Oh, by the way, your moniker is quite ostentatious, brimming with the swagger of our Power Shamans. Aren't you afraid of being exposed?"
Wei Yuan pointed to himself. "Take a closer look."
Tianyu opened two more eyes and looked closely, only to be struck with shock. Seated before him was unmistakably a shaman—one who merely looked somewhat similar to Wei Yuan.
Yet at Wei Yuan's level of ugliness, no shaman would ever look closely. Thus, whether he resembled Wei Yuan mattered not in the least; any shaman would only remember: that guy is hideously ugly, nothing more.
Even now that Tianyu examined him in earnest, he still felt Wei Yuan was a Power Shaman, radiating the scent of a Power Shaman inside and out.
Tianyu opened his remaining eyes as his body emitted a low buzzing drone. The vibrations fell upon Wei Yuan, eliciting a resonance unique to Power Shamans.
Tianyu suddenly felt an eerie chill, his expression gradually shifting. "...Lord Jiumu?"
"If I were Jiumu, you'd already be dead. Aside from me, who else could worship you all the way here?"
Only then did Tianyu fully believe the person before him really was Wei Yuan. After staring closely for a long time, he nodded. "Even I couldn't tell. This disguise is truly something."
In truth, Wei Yuan had been full of flaws at the start. Later, spending day and night with Zhengang and Hunter Thirty-One, he had quietly adjusted his physical body. Now, the outer layer of his flesh was genuinely shaman blood and flesh; only by slicing him open could one discern what lay within.
Tianyu thought for a moment and said, "With this disguise, we can head to the War Domain. Pack your things; we'll talk on the road."
Wei Yuan had Hunter Thirty-One and Zhengang pack all the valuables onto the carts in preparation for departure. When he saw nearly a hundred thousand jin of desolate iron carried out batch after batch, even Tianyu was stunned. "This much?! You earned all of this during this short time?"
"Yes."
"This... Alright! Let's go to the War Domain and make a fortune!" Tianyu's confidence surged instantly.
Hearing that Wei Yuan was leaving, the market master rushed over, intending to stop him, but was shoved aside by Tianyu's guards.
The Desolate Shaman serving as a guard sneered, "My lord is the Star of the Desolate Ancestor, the Strongest Power Shaman Under a Century Old, the Foremost Power Shaman of the Desolate Realm, the King of Brocade, the Master of Fine Wine, Traveler of Eight Realms, the Fastest Rising on the Wealth Ranking... the esteemed Lord Tianyu! Do you recognize him now?"
The market master's face turned grim. Though the titles sounded bizarre, just the moniker 'Foremost Power Shaman of the Desolate Realm' was enough to intimidate him into not using force.
A title like Foremost Power Shaman of the Desolate Realm was not something just any shaman could claim; had he been even slightly weak, he would have been beaten to death long ago.
A moment later, Tianyu's convoy set off again, leaving the market behind and heading toward the War Domain. Only after Wei Yuan departed did the market master and the Shaman Hunters of this region realize that nearly all the desolate iron in the area had been carried off. Every shaman was left flat broke, holding gear but not a single piece of currency. The entire region suffered a depression that lasted decades before it slowly regained its vitality.
Along the way, Tianyu explained the details of the War Domain.
The interior of the Desolate Realm had several types of terrain. The vast stretches of wasteland were known as the Perilous Domain, where criminals were dumped. The market where Wei Yuan had landed was part of one such Perilous Domain.
Additionally, the Desolate Realm harbored many bizarre, terrifying, and mighty creatures that constantly launched assaults against shaman-controlled territories. In response, the Power Shamans had erected several massive cities for defense. These grand cities were the War Domain, where conflict raged incessantly. Earning military merit in that warfare was the sole way to exchange for several rare resources unique to the Desolate Realm.
The number of Power Shamans in the War Domain far exceeded that of the Perilous Domain. Moreover, most hailed from nobility, possessing noble status, immense wealth, and formidable combat strength. Tianyu had originally been operating in one of those major cities, only to be struck down by Wei Yuan's worship and forced to travel tens of thousands of li to the Perilous Domain just to meet him.
Yet there was still one thing Wei Yuan couldn't quite understand, so he asked, "Why do you have the title of Foremost Power Shaman of the Desolate Realm?"
"Power Shaman, not Desolate Shaman. I gave myself that title on the road here."
Wei Yuan looked at Tianyu's bombastic frame, sensing an air of being beefy rather than truly potent. Furthermore, this fellow spent day and night tangled up with dozens of Little Pretty Shamans; where would he find the time for life-or-death tempering? If even Tianyu could be the foremost Power Shaman of the Desolate Realm, the strength of Power Shamans would need to be reevaluated.
Wei Yuan asked, "Have you gotten that good at fighting? Aren't you afraid someone will come challenge you?"
To his surprise, Tianyu burst out laughing. "Afraid? Not at all! Anyone who wants to challenge me will have to get through you first!"
Chapter 884