The instant the inky jade sphere condensed by Xu Yuan's nameless art vanished from his fingertip, a godlike, eerie blue silhouette on the distant horizon burst into the sight of the Beifeng officers.
Swift as a startled swan, traversing several li in a breath, the Source Qi pressure brought by the eerie blue escaping light nearly churned the heaven-and-earth Source Qi across the southwest into a turbulent tempest.
Beneath the Barbarian Sacred City, the white-armored square phalanxes stood solemn and orderly. In the hands of myriad soldiers, blades gleamed with a cold, sinister sheen under the mingling crimson glow and azure light.
Were they afraid? Naturally.
"Saint"—a title they scarcely dared look up to, let alone confront.
Yet now, one had truly manifested before their very eyes.
Within the ranks, every armored soldier's heart pounded like a war drum. Under the crushing weight of that aura, the saber hilts gripped tightly in their hands offered not a shred of security. Even so, not a single voice broke from the massive formation, nor did anyone dare break ranks.
This was the pride of the Beifeng Army as Great Yan's elite. It was also their resolve, shared with Her Highness who oversaw the ranks to face death alongside them, and above all, their intimate understanding of what consequences a collapsing military array would bring.
In this suffocating, grim quiet,
the godlike figure of Chi Feng streaking across the horizon suddenly faltered. A flash of astonishment flickered through his eerie blue pupils.
He actually sensed a premonition of danger.
The feeling struck abruptly, yet with extraordinary intensity.
Subconsciously, Chi Feng violently tilted his head aside.
And in the very next instant,
as if teleporting,
a sphere of inky jade—so deeply crimson it bordered on pure pitch—abruptly materialized where his head had been just a moment before!
Time seemed to freeze in this single heartbeat.
Within his eerie blue light,
Chi Feng, head tilted, eyed the sudden appearance of this inky jade out of the corner of his eye, pure terror flitting across his eerie blue pupils.
From this inky jade, he felt the breath of death.
Moreover,
Saint though he was, this sphere had managed to reach his face without him perceiving it in the slightest.
In the space of a thought, time resumed.
The inky jade shot past, grazing the Barbarian King's head, and continued hurtling toward the boundless darkness of the Land of Utter Darkness.
Following this turn of events, Chi Feng's flight—originally covering dozens of li in an instant—froze dead in midair.
The massive shockwave unleashed by the Barbarian King's sudden halt instantly shattered and warped the ice sheet below. Yet before the turbulence could fully roar out, the wind pressure borne from the silent flight of the inky jade arrived in its wake.
Accompanied by an earth-shattering rumble—like towering waves kicked up by a streak of light skimming the ocean's surface—the ancient, timeless ice sheet of the Land of Utter Darkness cracked open into a vast trench along the inky jade's trajectory.
As everything settled,
standing in the void, Chi Feng cast a somber gaze toward their Sacred City.
Beneath the Sacred City, the white armors stood grim and formidable.
Above the Sacred City, a blood-red robe billowed like a waterfall.
Watching his nameless art miss by a hair's breadth, Xu Yuan felt little disappointment. He raised his hand, gripped empty air, and yanked downward with sudden force.
"......"
Seeing Xu Yuan's gesture from afar, Chi Feng's pupils contracted violently.
But it was already too late.
The inky jade appeared right before him without any warning.
Silently,
across the sky southwest of the Barbarian Sacred City, a black sphere over a hundred feet in radius instantly materialized, swallowing Chi Feng's towering figure whole.
"......"
At the sight,
a well-measured breath of relief showed in Xu Yuan's eyes.
In Cangyuan, he had never used this nameless art against the Barbarian King.
After all, there was only one world line where the Barbarian King served as the final boss. With hundreds upon thousands of cultivation arts in the game, would he have used the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art across all those playthroughs?
Clearly impossible.
Well, he had used this move against that old man of his in the Imperial Capital back then.
A direct hit emptied more than half his health bar on the spot.
Although the Barbarian King's health bar in Cangyuan was considerably thicker than his old man's,
there was still a disparity even among Saints. He wondered whether a direct hit from the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art's final nameless technique could instakill the Barbarian King outright.
Thinking of this, a trace of helplessness flickered through Xu Yuan's eyes, and he sighed softly.
If only reality were as simple as a game, but unfortunately, it wasn't.
Lowering his gaze slightly, Xu Yuan looked at his right arm.
The moment the blood-red, near-black sphere left his hand, his entire right arm had gone numb. Blood seeped through cracked skin; not an inch remained intact.
Fortunately, he was an aberrant ghost now. Almost in an instant, his arm began to regenerate, and the cracked skin knit itself whole in a flash.
This was probably the difference between humans and aberrant ghosts.
At the thought,
Xu Yuan clutched his restored right hand, a smirk curving his lips.
Humans were fragile and feeble, while aberrant ghosts were brimming with martial vigor!
"Brat, don't tell me you actually think aberrant ghosts are strong?"
"..." Xu Yuan.
Hovering to one side in the void, Luo Xiran read his expression and chuckled melodiously:
"An aberrant ghost's regenerative ability is strong, but did you think that came without a price? Once your aberrant ghost transformation is complete, your meridians will twist into a slush and gradually melt over time. You will no longer be able to channel the secret arts and incantations of a human body. In other words, an aberrant ghost's strength wanes as time passes. The ultimate end is to become like Qi—reduced to fighting with brute physical strength alone."
"......"
After a momentary silence, Xu Yuan said, "Why haven't you left yet?"
Luo Xiran: "......"
Giving him a helpless glare, Luo Xiran lifted her hand slightly. Ribbons of crimson silk seeped from her slender, supple fingertips:
"The little girl down there was worried about you, so I had to stay with you. But rest assured, I split off nearly half the fungal armor and left it with your sweetheart."
Hearing this,
Xu Yuan eyed the ribbons slipping into his sleeves, his gaze slightly wary.
"Xiran, once this stuff enters my body, am I going to have to peel it off all over again later?"
Luo Xiran withdrew her hand, tapped her chin, tilted her head, and narrowed her lovely eyes, her long hair drifting in the wind.
Like a cunning vixen, she laughed melodiously:
"What, is my dear brother scared?"
"Yes."
"......" Luo Xiran.
Shaking her head in mild exasperation, Luo Xiran glanced toward the distant black sphere and said lazily:
"Whether it melds with you is up to you. If you don't need it to, this fungal armor will merely supply you with life origin."
With that, the lake-blue silhouette vanished into the void.
And the dark sphere over a hundred feet in radius beneath the distant sky dispersed with the wind at that very moment.
Yet what disappeared along with it was Chi Feng's tall, burly form.
Seeing this,
the Beifeng officers, who had been trembling at the aftermath of supreme powerhouses clashing, felt a surge of exhilaration in their hearts.
"Is he dead? Where did the Saint go?"
"Slaying a Saint... from the Transcendent Realm? Who on earth is that up there?"
"No way... Did a Saint just die like that?"
"Ah... seems he really is going to snatch Her Highness from her wedding! If he can fight a Saint in the Transcendent Realm, once he becomes a Saint..."
As the hushed murmurs spread among the officers, Li Qingyan's hoarse voice, steeped in killing intent, rang across the army:
"Silence! Take the second Jinqi Pill!"
The Beifeng officers, whose tension had just begun to ease, immediately tensed up once more.
As the pills were swallowed, the aura of the military array surged violently. The phantom of the White Kite crouching on the ground turned distinctly more solid.
Tension peaked. The biting wind whipped up falling snow, carrying a chilling killing intent.
"......"
Hovering in the void, Xu Yuan stared unblinkingly at the sky where Chi Feng had vanished without leaving so much as a corpse. His heart was placid, but a natural trace of suspicion lingered in his eyes.
Having broken through to Saint, the Barbarian King could indeed use that move now.
Murmuring to himself, Xu Yuan looked down at the breathtaking woman in red upon the city wall, once again clad in brownish-red fungal armor, his tone grim:
"Qingyan, can you sense the Barbarian King right now?"
"......"
Silence.
Li Qingyan gave no answer, her phoenix eyes wreathed in fiery flames as they constantly scanned their surroundings.
She couldn't sense him.
This was her first time confronting a Saint with the might of a military array, but that did not mean she lacked theoretical knowledge.
Historical chronicles recorded instances of slaying Saints through the might of military arrays—and far more than just one.
According to past precedent,
bolstered by the current power of the military array, her five senses had been drastically enhanced; she should have been fully capable of detecting a Saint.
Yet at this moment, she still could not sense the newly ascended Barbarian King.
She didn't know whether the Barbarian King had fled, or was quietly closing in on them using some peculiar technique.
A Saint lurking in the dark posed an incomparably greater threat than one charging in broad daylight.
At the thought, hesitation flashed through Li Qingyan's eyes.
Should they... take the third Jinqi Pill?
Amid her thoughts,
Li Qingyan's red lips parted slightly, and her low, hoarse voice rang out once more before the dead-silent Barbarian Sacred City:
"Consecrate Great Yan's majesty with barbarian blood! Execute them!"
At her word,
the armored soldiers in the vanguard raised their ancient ingot sabers high, their edges gleaming with chilling white light under the array's enhancement.
Meanwhile, Xu Yuan and Li Qingyan vigilantly scrutinized every tiny ripple in the air around them.
The Barbarian Sacred City had once housed a million barbarians; now, slaughter had reduced them to the two thousand-odd remaining before the battle lines.
These were all children and concubines of high-ranking barbarian figures, spared specifically to be interrogated for the locations of the remaining barbarian tribes.
Neither Xu Yuan nor Li Qingyan knew for certain whether the Barbarian King would risk his life for them.
Still,
it was worth a try.
*Slash!*
Where the saber arcs flashed, over a hundred barbarian heads tumbled to the ground.
Headless corpses collapsed onto the snow. Scalding, dark blood splashed into the bleak cold, kicking up plumes of white vapor before freezing solid in the next instant.
*Slash!*
A second batch was brought forward.
*Slash!*
A third batch.
A fourth batch.
A fifth batch.
The... all were executed.
Licking his lips, Xu Yuan sensed how thorny things had become.
As a hot-blooded combatant capable of breaking through mid-battle, shouldn't Chi Feng have recklessly charged out to save them right about now?
"Is this Barbarian King really so cold-blooded?"
"Not cold-blooded—calm."
Luo Xiran's voice transmitted directly into his intent-soul, carrying a note of gravity:
"With the first drumbeat, courage mounts; with the second, it falters; with the third, it exhausts. That Barbarian King understands all too well how to deal with you.
"Moreover, even if he could forcefully break the array and butcher all of you with a Saint's might, none of his clansmen before your ranks would survive the aftershocks. Not to mention, he has already broken through to Saint. So long as he lives, he can harass your Great Yan indefinitely. A small city today, a commandery tomorrow—low-tier city-protecting arrays cannot keep a Saint out.
"By the time you dispatch Saints of equal caliber to hunt him down and kill him, your dynasty would likely have suffered millions, if not tens of millions, of casualties."
At this point, Luo Xiran's voice paused slightly, tinged with amusement:
"Oh, I almost forgot. You brat are on close terms with the Saintess of our Overseeing Heaven Pavilion. If she's willing to divine the Barbarian King's whereabouts for you, you could gather manpower and go—"
While surveying his surroundings, Xu Yuan replied in his mind:
"She cannot see the future."
Luo Xiran paused, puzzled:
"Cannot see? Since she has already been named the Saintess, that means her Heaven-Deducing Art has already—"
"Not because of that," Xu Yuan cut in. "According to her, the Great Calamity of the realm is upon us."
"......" Luo Xiran fell silent.
Xu Yuan had no patience to attend to the mood of this ancient sworn sister; the situation they found themselves in was already exceedingly precarious.
If the Barbarian King engaged in hit-and-run harassment without directly committing to battle, it would be a dead end for them.
This was the absolute suppression a powerhouse held over lower-tier cultivators.
Because the soldiers below needed sleep, needed rest.
Dragged on for a day, exhaustion would set in. Relying on their cultivation arts, they might barely hold out for two. By the third day, the battle would be over without a fight.
To break the deadlock, either Marquis Wucheng had to return with his army,
or...
At that, Xu Yuan looked down at his trembling fingertips.
The Source Qi circulating within him was already nearing the point where he could no longer suppress it. The inky blood sphere he had unleashed earlier was merely the first phase of the nameless art.
Suddenly,
Li Qingyan sighed upon the city wall, as if having made up her mind. Parting her red lips, her voice resonated outward:
"If you wish to survive, consume all the remaining Jinqi Pills in your hands.
"I... shall live and die with you."
As she spoke,
strands of hair drifted against her temples. Li Qingyan's slender, graceful silhouette pressed her blade downward with valiant composure. Patterns rippled outward across the crimson blade, and a thin veil of light coated the hefty steel...
And with her movement, the gigantic White Kite crouching before the Barbarian Sacred City slowly rose to its feet.
A desperate gamble.
This was what she had intended from the very start.
One strike to decide life or death.
As her words faded completely, the forest of white armor fell silent for a heartbeat, followed by faint rustling sounds...
"......"
Xu Yuan watched from the sky above.
This concealment technique used by the Barbarian King after attaining sainthood was virtually undetectable.
A thoroughly shameless stealth ability: he could hit you, but you couldn't see him.
In Cangyuan, unless an attack landed on him, he would remain invisible and hit you continuously.
Yet Xu Yuan wasn't sure whether Li Qingyan's all-or-nothing gamble would prove futile.
After all, military arrays never existed in Cangyuan.
Amid his thoughts,
the spiritual vision forged from four blended energies of humans and aberrant ghosts suddenly let Xu Yuan sense a ripple.
Close—so close he could scarcely believe it.
Chi Feng had walked silently before him and raised a hand.
"..." Xu Yuan.
Seeing this, the gravity weighing on Xu Yuan's heart vanished.
The reason he had remained standing alone in the void was precisely to bait the Barbarian King into attacking him.
The moment Chi Feng struck, the nameless art pushed to its limit within his body would release itself automatically.
In short:
self-detonation.
His aberrant ghost body gave him the confidence to attempt this.
Yet as things stood, it seemed that wouldn't be necessary.
Spiritual vision allowed him to see the Barbarian King who had vanished into nothingness.
Divine radiance swirled within Chi Feng's fist, the terrifying might of a Saint concealed beyond perception.
Silently, Xu Yuan sent a quiet voice transmission:
"Qingyan, stop."
"......"
His sudden voice caused her to glance up reflexively.
In an instant,
an inky jade sphere a thousand feet in radius erupted into being across the sky!
Chapter 319