The history of the Desolate Realm naturally could not bypass the flame demons, and the flame demons had emerged alongside the Heavenly Pillars.
At the far reaches of the distant Desolate Realm stood three indescribable Heavenly Pillars; only Heavenly Shamans had ever drawn near to them.
According to the records, each Heavenly Pillar spanned a thousand li, their true height utterly unknown. Countless flame demons poured forth from within them, forming vast, surging armies that relentlessly assaulted the Shamans' domain.
The flame demons were visibly far better adapted to the Desolate Realm than the Shamans. Moreover, they had erected colossal, magnificent cities, forging and breeding innumerable behemoths of war. Diverse breeds of qinlong, desolate insects, and war beasts served as their steeds and chariots.
Historical chronicles noted that roughly every hundred years brought a period of unrest from the Heavenly Pillars, during which the number of flame demons would surge drastically and their onslaughts would crash in like tidal waves. Every three thousand years witnessed a great upheaval—a catastrophe for the entire Shaman race that the Power Shamans could never hope to withstand alone, requiring reinforcements from the other Shaman branches.
In recent years, the mainstay of support had been the Sacred Shamans, followed by the Spirit Shamans. Because the Nether Shamans were countered by both the Desolate Realm and the flame demons, they rarely set foot there.
Next were dossiers on various flame demons and desolate beasts. Having finished reading, Wei Yuan set down the book and paused to review and reflect on what he had learned.
From the historical records, the flame demons clearly possessed extraordinary spirituality. In the phrasing of the otherworldly realms, they had founded a civilization of considerable sophistication.
Yet judging from the materials, the Power Shamans seemed largely indifferent to civilization. While they recorded the flame demons' various divine abilities and weaknesses in meticulous detail, their accounts of the demons' language, art, architecture, and manufacturing were exceedingly sparse. Language, in particular, was covered by a mere two volumes, which analyzed barely two hundred vocabulary words combined.
For the Power Shamans to have fought the flame demons for hundreds of thousands of years and deciphered only that much of their tongue was frankly abysmal. Even if the claim that Power Shamans lacked brains held some truth, Wei Yuan found it impossible to believe that Desolate Shamans and Heavenly Shamans could also be so brainless as to never think of deciphering their enemies' language.
Within the Great Tang imperial court, seventeen dedicated palaces existed solely to compile and record foreign races' spoken and written languages, paintings, sculptures, histories, and more. Whenever a major foreign race appeared, another palace was constructed.
Every anomaly had an underlying reason. Wei Yuan noted this down, intending to seek answers at his leisure.
The flame demons had built several nests near Fengmang, each housing anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of them. They possessed mysterious means of communication, frequently mobilizing from multiple nests separated by over a hundred thousand li to arrive at a single point simultaneously, miraculously coalescing into a million-strong army to storm the great Shaman fortresses.
The flame demons concentrated their primary forces on the major fortresses, deploying colossal hordes directly into their interiors during every large-scale assault. The entire fortress would turn into a slaughterhouse, leaving both sides with grievous casualties by the battle's end.
This war with the flame demons had continually bled the Power Shamans dry; over the countless years, an untold number of promising Power Shaman geniuses had been cut down before their prime.
By contrast, the situation in the Nether Cold Realm was far more tranquil. As long as the Nether Shamans did not actively provoke them, the otherworldly monstrosities roaming the realm seldom paid heed to the Shaman kingdoms.
After taking control of a realm within the Nether Cold Realm, Wei Yuan had specially dispatched multiple scouts to conduct comprehensive observations and gather data. He discovered that the otherworldly monstrosities were not wandering aimlessly; rather, they seemed occupied with some great labor. But what exactly those colossal creatures, often tens of thousands of zhang tall, were busy with was far beyond the comprehension of humans smaller than ants.
Having studied the flame demon archives, Wei Yuan turned his attention to the history of Fengmang.
The fortress's chronicle was documented in astonishing detail, with an unexpected clarity and method. It laid out its strategic orientation, site selection, defense networks, divine ability pairings for Power Shamans, combat tactics, and logistical supply lines from numerous angles. Furthermore, several dedicated volumes detailed distinct cultivation paths for an ordinary Power Shaman, tracing their growth from raw recruits all the way to peak Desolate Shamans.
There were six broad developmental routes, each emphasizing a different aspect: some prioritized defense, some melee combat, some support, and others balanced speed with lethal striking. Every route was accompanied by exhaustive, structured plans and explanations.
Rather than a chronicle of Fengmang's growth, these hundred-odd volumes were more akin to a personal development strategy formulated by Ronglong himself.
Even in Wei Yuan's eyes, this was a breathtakingly ambitious scheme: to mold ordinary, newly ascended Power Shamans into formidable warriors who each possessed distinct specializations and coordinated seamlessly, yet could hold their ground alone.
These paths could reliably cultivate a warrior to the perfection of the Dharma Idol stage. Whether one could break through to Desolate Shaman depended on luck and natural talent, but Ronglong had already mapped out the subsequent journey for Desolate Shamans as well.
At this point, Wei Yuan saw through Ronglong's design. Ronglong was treating the Desolate Realm as an anvil and the flame demons as a hammer, relentlessly forging raw Power Shaman blanks into perfected Dharma Idol warriors. Fengmang's overall strength would naturally grow in step.
For a Power Shaman to advance from the initial stage to perfection, even in an environment as extreme as Fengmang, typically required anywhere from fifty to two hundred years.
Yet Ronglong clearly possessed immense patience and resolve, advancing step by step, slowly and unswervingly. Once he planted his foot forward, none could make him take a single step back.
Wei Yuan could not help but marvel. Only such a grand strategy truly deserved the praise of being 'as steady as a forest.'
If Ronglong were granted another few centuries, Fengmang would likely harbor not a mere thousand-odd Power Shamans, but a thousand-odd perfected Power Shamans! Their loyalty to Ronglong would be unshakable; by then, they would constitute a force capable of swaying the entire Power Shaman race.
In the future, once the paths were proven and mature, the system perfected, and supplies abundant, the number of Power Shamans trained would no longer be dozens or hundreds, but thousands upon thousands! At that point, Fengmang would resemble a gargantuan machine, perpetually swallowing novice Power Shamans and spitting out perfected warriors of terrifying combat prowess.
Just then, the doors of the Library Hall creaked open, and Ronglong himself strode inside. He glanced at Wei Yuan, then at the sheets of jade paper spread out before him. Picking one up at random, he skimmed it, set it back down, and said, "Yanhu told me you wanted to read through the archives. I assumed you'd merely look up the flame demons' physical weaknesses. I never expected you to read through these tedious matters. You truly are quite different from the other Power Shamans."
Wei Yuan felt a sharp jolt within, though his expression remained unruffled. "I was never quite like them to begin with."
Ronglong picked up a stone box before Wei Yuan, withdrew a sheet of jade paper from his robe, and placed it inside. "This is a book I just finished writing. It belongs in this slot, so don't mix it up. Carry on reading. If you have any questions, feel free to come find me anytime."
Wei Yuan asked, "You wrote the fortress's history yourself, didn't you? You are quite different from the other Power Shamans as well!"
The corner of Ronglong's mouth twitched into what passed for a smile. "There's nothing else to do here. Aside from fighting, there is nothing. So when I have spare time, I jot down a few thoughts and record what has happened. Perhaps one day, when Fengmang is no more, these records might survive to let later generations know that such a small fortress once existed in the Desolate Realm, and that an obscure band of Shamans spent centuries here holding back the otherworldly monstrosities that sought to invade our home realm."
"How could Fengmang ever fall?"
Wei Yuan had intended to seize the opportunity to flatter Ronglong's far-reaching vision, but before he could say more, Ronglong cut him off. "Back then, more than one Heavenly Shaman perished. A tiny fortress like ours could naturally be wiped out in an instant. For thousands of years, the flame demons' tactics have never changed, allowing us to find patterns, establish a new fortress, and hold it successfully for centuries. But what if the flame demons change?"
Wei Yuan felt a chill run through him.
Without another word, Ronglong turned and left the Library Hall.
Wei Yuan picked up the newly deposited volume and read it closely. It covered equipment commonly used against flame demons with noticeable efficacy. The book not only listed dozens of different pieces of gear, but also synthesized their common underlying traits and attempted to explore the difficulties of production and the costs of forging.
The final section was rather vague and muddled; it tentatively proposed a few ideas, indicating broad directions for reducing difficulty and expense. Yet on how to actually lower them, it offered only indistinct conclusions, some of which were outright flawed. Evidently, Ronglong understood very little about artifact forging.
Wei Yuan set aside this freshly penned piece and continued reading through the rest. During this time, Yanhu slipped in once, but upon seeing Wei Yuan engrossed in reading, chose not to disturb him and quietly slipped back out.
Within Wei Yuan's sea of consciousness, countless fragmented images pieced together, gradually sketching out the million-year evolution of the Desolate Realm. Yet many vital elements were still missing from this magnificent historical tapestry. Where had the flame demons originated? What was the true relationship between the Desolate Realm and their home realm? And most crucially: were the flame demons merely a race, or a civilization?
The living beings of any realm were an epitome of Heaven and Earth's Great Dao. Sentient beings in particular allowed one to glimpse the profound workings of the Great Dao normally concealed beneath the surface.
As he reviewed the data on various desolate beasts and flame demons, what Wei Yuan saw was the fundamental essence of the Desolate Realm. His understanding of this world deepened, and he became aware of certain deficiencies within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World.
At present, the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World was grand in scope but lacking in propulsion, and the greatest source of that drive was the power of the fire element.
If all fire elemental power were drained away, the entire realm would plunge into freezing stillness—a state known as the Return to Silence. Yet if fire power were overly abundant, it would end up like the current Desolate Realm, growing increasingly volatile. Ultimately, all things possessing spirit and form would disintegrate; no further spirituality would ever arise, and tangible matter would recombine until all transformation ceased, freezing into a dead, silent expanse.
Immortal Monarch Tinghai had once authored a treatise. Drawing on celestial deductions, he posited that one day in the future, when the immortal heavens were utterly extinguished, the only thing remaining in the universe would be iron.
That treatise was among the few Wei Yuan found completely incomprehensible; from beginning to end, not a single sentence made sense to him. To prove his conclusions, Immortal Monarch Tinghai had even invented dozens of brand-new symbols with distinct functions, adding a note that their precise meanings and applications would be explained later in detail.
Yet before that explanation could ever be written, Immortal Monarch Tinghai had fallen, leaving those treatises as enigmatic scriptures that nobody could decipher.
Wei Yuan had once taken one of the treatises to consult Yanshi, only to realize he had no idea where to even begin asking, while Yanshi had no idea where to begin explaining, and so the matter had simply been dropped.
Deep in the subterranean vault, time slipped by untracked by sun or moon. After an unknown span, the ground suddenly vibrated faintly—the flame demons were attacking once more.
Chapter 897