"So, I shouldn't go?"
"You should go, but there is no need to rush."
Youfeng pondered for a moment and said, "It will take time for my Dharma body to fully awaken. When the time comes, you two will accompany me."
Long Zhe and Huiye bowed together, then vanished from the space.
At Fengmang Fortress, Wei Yuan looked up at the vault of heaven, an indescribable sensation stirring within him as he watched the churning red. It felt as though a pool of living flesh and blood were crawling and writhing across the sky, spreading over a wider and wider expanse.
Suddenly, the entire Desolate Realm shuddered violently, as if another world had slammed into it! Dark crimson covered more than half the sky, blotting out all three suns. Temperatures plummeted rapidly, and the earth began radiating heat, resisting the mounting chill.
A beam of dim light shone into the fortress. Wei Yuan and the many Power Shamans beside him looked back to see two colossal figures materialize in the sky. One resembled an octopus, with an eye growing on each of its eight tentacles. The other had the lower body of an earth dragon, its four legs treading empty air, while its upper body sprouted six arms, each gripping a different weapon.
Raging flames blazed across the six-armed Heavenly Shaman from head to toe; it was his radiance that illuminated the dark fortress.
"Lord Yanmo has come too!" The Power Shamans in Fengmang Fortress erupted in cheers, convinced that victory was assured in this battle.
Yet up in the sky, both Jiumu and Yanmo wore exceptionally grim expressions. Looking around, they saw no signs of any other Heavenly Shamans arriving.
"Those bastards, they really are leaving us to die!" Jiumu cursed vehemently, spewing a continuous torrent of profanities.
Yanmo's expression was icy as he said, "It seems there are only a few of us. They want to force the Ancestor of Steel to awaken, but even if we throw away the Desolate Realm, we can never let them have their way! Tell the little ones down there to run. I'm afraid this place cannot be held."
Jiumu sighed. "I fear it is already too late."
Unfurling their colossal bodies along with vast phantoms of worlds, Jiumu and Yanmo charged toward different Heavenly Pillars. Their arrival was like poking a hornet's nest; instantly, three thousand-foot flame demons flew out from each Heavenly Pillar to intercept Jiumu and Ronglong, locking them in battle.
Ronglong looked down at Fengmang Fortress, then flew toward the Heavenly Pillars as well. In midair, he revealed his true form—a terrifying dragon a hundred li long that left scattering sparks of flame in its wake.
Yet the outer shell of that motionless Heavenly Pillar suddenly peeled away, and three more Heavenly Shaman-level flame demons flew out from within!
In an instant, worlds rose and fell, locked in relentless warfare against one another. The firmament was filled with bizarre, kaleidoscopic spectacles, rendering the Heavenly Shamans and flame demons fighting at the center completely invisible.
Across the land, countless flame demons swept forward like a tidal wave, too numerous to count. Judging by the speed of their stampede, Wei Yuan knew the Power Shamans in the fortress had no hope of escaping.
The flame demons split into multiple prongs, charging toward different fortresses, with one host bearing straight down upon Fengmang.
"There is no outrunning them! Prepare for battle!" Wei Yuan shouted. The surrounding Power Shamans responded in unison, sprinting to their battle stations to brace for the attack.
Atop the main gate tower, a heavy ballista was slowly drawn to full cock. A flash of light erupted, and a sharp bolt traversed ten thousand feet like lightning, blowing apart an opposing Scenery Command-level flame demon in a single strike!
This was the colossal ballista Wei Yuan had crafted at the cost of a vast amount of karmic luck, powerful enough to slay a Scenery Command flame demon in a single shot. Yet the Desolate Shaman manning the ballista could find no joy in it at all. Slaying ordinary flame demons now, no matter how many, was meaningless; if the battle at the Heavenly Shaman level was lost, every Power Shaman here—save for a rare Desolate Shaman or two—would perish in the demon tide.
While fighting off the flame demons, Wei Yuan kept an eye on the battle around the Heavenly Pillars. The Heavenly Shaman-level battlefield had already expanded across thousands of li, even obscuring the Heavenly Pillars themselves.
The mindscape worlds of the flame demons were unmistakable—all bizarre worlds of pitch blackness, deadly silence, and infinite internal heat, practically identical to one another. Yanmo's world was one of molten volcanic lava, while Jiumu's was a world of volcanoes and hot springs. Yet from the ebb and flow of their worlds, it was clear that Jiumu was at a complete disadvantage, his mindscape world continuously eroded by darkness and intense heat.
Yanmo was only at a slight disadvantage; his volcanoes erupted ceaselessly, soon leveling and filling one of the dark, superheated worlds.
Ronglong's world was vastly larger, containing volcanoes, magma fields, lakes, and heat-resistant forests and creatures. His mindscape world was putting up a bitter defense, while a colossal dragon of magma and fire tore relentlessly at the dark worlds, ripping away chunks of those bizarre realms like straw and flinging them aside.
Though the colossal magma dragon possessed terrifying might, Ronglong was not a Heavenly Shaman after all, lacking the empowerment of Heaven and Earth's authority. Compared to the other two Heavenly Shamans, his mindscape world was far more fragile. Vast swathes of darkness spread like ink in water, steadily dissolving and staining Ronglong's mindscape world black.
Just then, a quiet shift occurred in the firmament. A vast expanse of abyssal flames emerged, refining and burning away the dark crimson, whereupon a giant black-winged bird soared forth from the fire. Its wings spanned several hundred li, and every flap kicked up gale-force winds across the ground below.
Wei Yuan felt a jolt of alarm and immediately reined in his aura.
At that moment, a terrifying wave of divine sense swept across all of Fengmang, fluctuating unpredictably between icy chill and scorching heat, leaping ceaselessly between extremes.
Beneath the giant black-winged bird's pinions were two other figures, but their hundred-zhang Dharma bodies were like tiny insects compared to the immense bird.
Yanmo roared, "Youfeng, you are finally here! Hurry and take over—Jiumu and Ronglong can't hold out much longer!"
He shouted several times, yet the giant black bird hovered motionless in the sky, merely watching the battle with cold detachment.
Yanmo's tone changed. "Youfeng, you're leaving us to die?!"
Youfeng still gave no answer.
Jiumu let out an enraged laugh. "They want to wait until our foundations are damaged, or until we even drop a realm, just so seats will be freed up for them!"
Yanmo barked in fury, "Youfeng, how dare you?!"
Youfeng finally spoke, saying coldly, "Yanmo, what kind of thing do you think you are to yell and scream at me? What I choose to do requires no meddling from you."
"If we make it through this tribulation, I am not done with you—" Jiumu's furious rebuke was cut short as a massive burst of darkness detonated in his mindscape world, choking off his voice.
Just then, muffled thudding sounds resonated between heaven and earth—thump, thump, thump—like the heartbeat of some gargantuan behemoth, or something colossal pounding upon the Desolate Realm's gates.
Wei Yuan's blood surged in rhythm with those thuds, rising and falling like the tide. One moment his body swelled as if on the verge of exploding, and the next he felt an emptiness so ravenous he wanted to devour everything before his eyes.
Beside him, a Power Shaman suddenly let out a bloodcurdling scream and burst entirely apart, spattering blood all over Wei Yuan's body and face!
Wei Yuan looked in horror toward the Heavenly Pillars, only to see that segment of the sky bulging downward. With each heavy thump, the bulge grew more pronounced, dragging the entire firmament toward it.
Then a point of light appeared, instantly bleaching the entire Desolate Realm in deathly white! Even Wei Yuan was nearly blinded, unable to see a thing.
Only after a long while did the white light gradually transform into flames. The fire crawled and surged slowly like a mushroom cloud expanding, gradually spreading over half the Desolate Realm.
The Desolate Realm had been set ablaze?!
Wei Yuan stared at the scene in disbelief. The raging fire had already spread tens of thousands of li, far beyond the reach of his divine sense. The entire world over there was beginning to burn.
At the fiery heart of the sky, a distinct rupture tore open. A colossal black-and-red conical object thrust into the Desolate Realm from beyond the heavens, extending joint by joint, reaching toward the earth.
Shocked and enraged, Yanmo bellowed, "A fourth Heavenly Pillar?! Youfeng, are you still going to just watch the show? Aren't you afraid of the Heavenly Shamans' censure and the Ancestral Shaman's wrath?!"
Chapter 930