Guantun County was already a scene of bustling activity. Of the five hundred Dao Foundation warriors who should have been guarding the ramparts, four hundred were busy inside the county town uncrating crates, carrying searing Desolate Realm rocks that almost smoked with fire to designated positions, and planting trimmed century-old spiritual wood into preset array formations.
Wei Yuan sat upright in the center of the Spirit Recovery Array, drawing on the array's power to restore his Dao force. In his hands, he held a rice bowl filled to the brim with grape-sized Qi-replenishing pills. Holding the bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other, he shoveled the pills into his mouth like rice, tilted his head back, and swallowed them whole.
From his abdomen came a rapid series of faint crunches as the pills were crushed to powder, ignited by Dao force, and converted into billows of spiritual qi that his physical body directly absorbed!
Yet Wei Yuan's sea of consciousness was simply too vast, his flesh too formidable, and his reservoir of Dao force as boundless as an ocean. Even with this desperate replenishing, it was like dumping buckets of water into a pond; the level rose only gradually.
Nearby, several cultivators swiftly cracked open medicine chests and pill bottles, pouring flask after flask of pills into large bowls and serving them before Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan was about to dig into another bowl when he suddenly remembered that many of the Dao soldiers doing chores in the city were being actively piloted by people!
Countless pairs of eyes were watching him! Wei Yuan immediately set down the large bowl, straightened his posture with military rigidity, and lightly tapped his finger. The pills instantly pulverized and dissolved, turning into two streams of white vapor that he drew gracefully into his nostrils.
Only this method of ingestion carried an air of transcendent immortal poise. The only problem was the speed—in the time it took to inhale a single bowl, he could have shoveled down three.
Besides, the lungs were not as robust as the stomach, making absorption slower as well.
The thirteen dharma idol Dao soldiers had stood motionless, slowly gathering and escalating their power. But suddenly, an inconspicuous soldier on the outermost fringe formed an incantation gesture. Above its head, a golden immortal sword split from one into two, two into four, multiplying in the blink of an eye into sixty-four flying swords that shot toward the rebels like lightning!
Where the flying swords pointed, rebels—whether dharma idol commanders or Dao Foundation warriors—were scared out of their wits and scrambled out of the way. Yet the flying swords were not aimed at them at all. Veering toward every direction, they plunged straight into the mindscape world!
Wood fed the fire within these swords, which were further imbued with lightning arts. As they struck the mindscape world together, Liu Heihu let out an agonized shout!
Seeing one of their number make the first move, the remaining twelve dharma idol Dao soldiers took action as well. Blasting forth all manner of bizarre, unfathomable Dao arts, not a single one targeted the rebel troops; every strike struck directly at Liu Heihu's mindscape world!
Liu Heihu's groans instantly turned into blood-curdling shrieks. Two trails of blood leaked from the corners of his eyes, and his aura plummeted.
Under the coordinated ambush of thirteen immortal manifestations, his mindscape world took devastating damage in an instant. In particular, a plume of pure indigo flame and several crimson sword rays inflicted an astonishing degree of destruction, practically tearing two gaping holes straight through it.
Even as a Scenery Command cultivator, Liu Heihu could never withstand an onslaught from thirteen immortal manifestations. A retreat instantly crossed his mind, and he sought to flee.
Seeing Liu Heihu pull back, Wei Yuan grew anxious. Casting his image aside, he stuffed a fistful of pills into his mouth, flew up to the battlement, and barked indistinctly around his mouthful, "You coward, stay right there!"
Liu Heihu sneered. "I leave when I want. You think you can stop me?"
Wei Yuan was about to reply when a sharp crack sounded beside him—a fissure opened along the flagpole of the grand banner.
Wei Yuan's expression shifted, and then he suddenly became calm and composed. "Why should I stop you? Once I scatter your army, you'll be nothing at all."
Liu Heihu turned pale in an instant and blurted, "How do you know that?!"
Wei Yuan scoffed with a cold smile. "Borrowing the collective might of the masses while secretly siphoning their destiny and vitality to empower yourself—gaining grand power through such demonic tricks, is it not obvious at a glance? Besides, your technique is crude and primitive, horribly inefficient, devoid of beauty, and completely unmasked. One look tells it's no supreme Dao path! In my Palace of Grand Beginning, there are at least three or four similar techniques, and any one of them is far more exquisite than yours!"
Liu Heihu was skeptical, yet Wei Yuan did not look like he was lying. For a moment, a trace of yearning for the Palace of Grand Beginning actually sprouted in his heart.
Wei Yuan wasted no more words. He directed his Dao soldiers into an all-out assault, cutting down the enemy. The thirteen immortal manifestation Dao soldiers fixated their slaughter exclusively on Liu Heihu's mindscape world. Having suffered a bitter blow, Liu Heihu dared not be careless; he concealed most of his mindscape world, manifesting only the offensive facets to trade blows with the thirteen immortal manifestations.
Under normal circumstances, facing thirteen celestial-grade dharma idols, Liu Heihu would have suffered certain defeat. But Dao soldiers were not true dharma idols after all. After the second round of attacks, their aura began to ebb, regressing to Heaven Tier. After two more exchanges, they fell to Earth Tier, whereupon Liu Heihu shattered them one by one with heavy palm strikes.
Yet by then, the rebel army's martial spirit had fractured; defeat was already sealed. Liu Heihu swept his divine sense outward and found casualties nearing twenty percent. Even with his mindscape world anchoring them, large-scale routs began to spread.
Liu Heihu was also thoroughly exhausted. Repelling the thirteen immortal manifestation Dao soldiers had drained nearly all his Dao force, while Wei Yuan simply stood inside the county town, refusing to step foot outside—or even move an inch away from the soldiers bathed in karmic luck. Any attack on Wei Yuan would inevitably drag those soldiers into the blast.
Liu Heihu snorted. Recognizing that the day was lost, he resented Wei Yuan's cunning while harboring deep dread, marking Wei Yuan as one of his greatest lifelong adversaries. With a command, he sounded the gongs for retreat.
Wei Yuan had no intention of letting him off. He immediately channeled what little Dao force he had left, summoning over ten thousand pixel Dao soldiers and three hundred Wood Element Dao soldiers to pursue and slaughter the retreating rebels!
The rebels were a rabble to begin with, and with their morale shattered and knowledge that their pursuers were expendable constructs summoned by Dao arts, who among them would risk their lives? Thus, the retreat turned into an utter rout in the blink of an eye. Everyone fled for their lives; they might not outrun the Dao soldiers, but they only needed to outrun their comrades.
Just then, a colossal hand materialized in the sky, sweeping across the battlefield from left to right. Semblant yet ethereal, it passed over the rebels without them noticing a thing, while Wei Yuan's Dao soldiers all detonated and perished, delivering severe backlash to the divine consciousness of their pilots.
Wei Yuan remained standing upon the city walls. He called out in a clear, resounding voice, "For a senior of your standing to strike against mere foot soldiers is rather beneath your dignity!"
The sky suddenly dimmed. The sun sank away, and the dome turned pitch-black, speckled with glittering stars. An unknown illumination lit up heaven and earth, illuminating all creation.
Above the night sky appeared a handsome youth with billowing wide sleeves, hovering in midair. Looking down, he declared coldly, "There is nothing here for you. Pack your belongings and get out of the State of Ji! Right now! Immediately! Out of respect for Yanshi, I can overlook your earlier petty offenses for now."
Wei Yuan sneered. "If I leave, Senior can reap the common folk of Ji as you please?"
The youth frowned slightly, impatience creeping into his voice. "They are merely one part of a grander game, who happen to be in the way."
Wei Yuan scoffed. "Their luck truly is wretched—born in the State of Ji, cursed with a scoundrel King of Ji and a bastard immortal!"
The youth was infuriated. A bright blue light flared in his eyes, and he said coldly, "I know you still hold a yin bullet in your hand. But if you think you can threaten me with that, you are dreaming! —What are you doing?!"
Wei Yuan raised Compassion and abruptly fired a shot at the youth!
The shot was lightning-fast. Yet the youth was a true immortal, descending in person with his Immortal Heaven, virtually omnipotent. With a slight tilt of his body, he effortlessly dodged the incoming bullet.
Yet as the bullet entered the void behind him, it was as if it sank into transparent glue, its speed abruptly dropping. Then a twilight glow emanated from the bullet tip, saturated with bleak, desolate solitude—like a lone traveler walking an ancient path beyond the frontier, where as far as the eye could see, there was only the setting sun, yellow earth, and a solitary ancient tree.
The youth's face changed instantly. "A yin bullet?!"
Though the bullet had not directly struck his dharma body, it had penetrated his Immortal Heaven, counting as an indirect hit. While its lifespan-shaving effect was reduced to a mere tenth of its full power, it still sheared off a thousand years of lifespan in total, apportioned over a hundred years. Worse, it disrupted his Immortal Heaven—the primary world of the youth's transformed manifestation, Immortal Monarch Liumiao. Now time within his primary world fell into disarray, some spiritual beings aging while others remained unchanged, plunging everything into panic.
The chaotic Immortal Heaven dragged down his cultivation as well, causing the youth's aura to drop by an almost imperceptible margin.
Shocked and enraged, the youth could no longer maintain his composure. He had never imagined that an extraordinarily precious yin bullet would be expended in such a manner—and used on him! Before he came here, that person had said nothing about this!
A disordered Immortal Heaven was neither an existential catastrophe nor a minor inconvenience. Sorting out the Immortal Heaven would take several decades, during which not only would his cultivation be impeded, but his combat prowess would also be compromised.
The youth glared at Wei Yuan. Seeing that Wei Yuan still adamantly refused to step outside the county town, he could only grit his teeth and say, "You certainly are cautious!"
Wei Yuan replied, "Senior flatters me. If I weren't cautious, I would have entered reincarnation long ago."
"And how did you see through it?"
"This junior was born with sharp intuition."
The immortal youth naturally did not believe Wei Yuan's nonsense. Having weathered countless storms, he had already regained his calm and composure. He asked, "A yin bullet is so precious. Why did you use it so lightly?"
Wei Yuan smiled. "An innocent man gets into trouble for possessing jade. With a yin bullet in my hands, all you seniors felt uneasy. It was better to use it early—after all, I have better things in hand now."
The immortal youth looked thoughtful, giving no indication of whether he believed it or not.
After a slight pause, he asked again, "You drew this karmic luck from Guantun County and bestowed it right here, but why was the backlash of karmic debt so severe? Even if I had personally slaughtered the entire county, the karmic debt wouldn't have been anywhere near this high."
Wei Yuan smiled and offered no answer.
The immortal youth said at once, "Answer this question for me, and I will hand over the people of the neighboring three counties to you."
"Seven counties. And both the people and the boundary stones must be delivered."
The immortal youth frowned slightly, but soon replied, "Agreed."
Wei Yuan said, "Assuming Senior would not deceive me, I shall tell you. Karmic debt, at its heart, is offending Heaven. Mortals are but specks of dust between heaven and earth; killing thousands or tens of thousands incurs little karmic debt, and with Senior's methods, you naturally have ways to dissolve it.
"However, once karmic luck is bestowed upon them, they gain the acknowledgment of heaven and earth. Even if that karmic luck originally came from them, once channeled through my hands and blessed upon them, they exist in a state of being favored by karmic luck, completely different from before. To kill them then is to directly offend heaven and earth, so naturally the karmic debt multiplies manifold."
The immortal youth frowned. "No. Even then, it wouldn't produce so much karmic debt."
Wei Yuan chuckled. "When you commit evil, how could merely paying the original cost ever be enough? Shouldn't there be a bit of a fine?"
Chapter 972