"Heavenly Fire Descends!" bellowed the irascible Gang Master Duan as he launched the first strike. He spread his arms wide, and a thick pillar of fire surged from his body, shooting straight into the heavens.
The pillar diffused across the night sky, painting the cloud deck in splendid crimson aurora and illuminating the entire imperial capital.
Immediately after, fireballs pierced the clouds, descending like a carpet barrage over the official roads and wilderness outside the city walls—a truly magnificent spectacle of heavenly fire descending upon the mortal realm.
Letting the fiery meteors crash around him without bothering to dodge, Tuoba Guanghe sneered, "Petty tricks."
Whenever a stray fireball struck him, it merely scorched his skin black, only for the wound to heal within breaths.
Fu Qingyang pressed his index finger lightly downward. Like a puppet on strings, Gang Master Duan, engulfed in roaring flames, swooped toward Tuoba Guanghe.
Xiao Yuan swept both hands through the empty air to manifest a ritual altar. Placing a straw doll that had transformed into Gang Master Duan's likeness onto the altar, she formed hand seals, lowered her head, and began muttering incantations in the manner of a pilgrim paying respects at a Buddhist temple.
Meanwhile, the Palace Mistress raised her voice, singing a rousing, impassioned melody.
The flames enveloping Gang Master Duan's body abruptly flared.
The muscles along Tuoba Guanghe's back swelled. Surging vigor flooded into his eight arms, turning into fists of solid astral qi that he hurled forward.
*Boom!*
Eight astral fist blasts slammed into the diving Gang Master Duan, tearing him into tens of thousands of scattered embers.
Yet Gang Master Duan reappeared soundlessly behind Tuoba Guanghe, pressing his palms against the commander's knotted, metallic back.
Given Tuoba Guanghe's rank, he shockingly failed to notice the enemy slipping behind him in time.
Xiao Yuan's Fortune Blessing had masked the ripples of his Fire Traveling, ensuring Gang Master Duan's ambush succeeded.
With her Dominator-grade standing, guaranteeing success in such minor details was well within her capability, though it would inevitably fail if used to dictate the final outcome of the war.
*Crack, crack, crack...*
White frost condensed on Tuoba Guanghe's back and rapidly spread.
Fire Stealing!
A Dominator-stage Fire Master's ability allowed them to steal both tangible and intangible fire, the latter representing "temperature."
Gang Master Duan siphoned the temperature from Tuoba Guanghe's body, freezing his internal organs.
The moment the strike landed, Gang Master Duan retreated immediately, refusing to linger by Tuoba Guanghe's side for even a moment.
Though Fire Masters possessed immense confidence in close-quarters combat, facing an Ancient God of War of the Grandmaster tier was an entirely different matter.
*Crack, snap...*
Tuoba Guanghe's body stiffened, his joints feeling as if they had been filled with lead.
Seizing the opening, Fu Qingyang, empowered by the song, transformed into a sharp streak of sword light. He shot forward with a whistle, his sword-fingers striking Tuoba Guanghe's chest, where the brittle crunch of shattering carapace rang out.
A spiderweb of cracks fractured the commander's steel-like muscle.
Tuoba Guanghe's eyes bulged as his blood surged through his vessels like a roaring river to disperse the chill... Yet at that very instant, starlight flared behind him.
Commandery Princess Yinyao, having prepared for this moment, stepped out from the starlight. Dense, black-smoke yin qi billowed behind her.
From the yin qi shot a deluge of Spirit-Sealing Talismans, pelting Tuoba Guanghe's back like a violent storm. Accompanied by the thunderous drumbeats, the Northern Territory's foremost martial artist, who had only just neutralized the chill, found his thoughts turning sluggish.
He felt as though he had just awakened from a heavy hangover, plagued by dizziness, a pounding headache, and hampered reflexes.
The impairment was not crippling, but it was far from negligible. After all, the Spirit-Sealing Talisman was one of the core abilities of Spirit Talismans, and Bewitching Demons were fairly average in spirit fortitude, lacking the overwhelming spiritual might of Voidwalkers or Day Wanderers.
Consequently, he was affected.
Fu Qingyang flicked his finger, sending a bead of blood flying through the air toward Xiao Yuan.
This was Tuoba Guanghe's blood, covertly gathered during the earlier clash.
Xiao Yuan reached out to catch the blood bead and guided it into the straw doll. The straw doll instantly morphed into Tuoba Guanghe's appearance.
Next, she took a prepared talisman with black runes on a yellow background and slapped it onto the straw doll's torso.
Black fire flared on the straw doll, making it tremble incessantly.
Tuoba Guanghe, his mind groggy, erupted into black flames. He let out a rare, agonized growl, seemingly enduring excruciating torment.
"Hah!"
With a ferocious bellow, Gang Master Duan condensed a blinding white fireball in his palm, flashed in front of Tuoba Guanghe like a shifting shadow, and slammed it viciously into his chest.
*Boom!*
A tremendous explosion blasted the Level 9 God of War backward. The expanding blaze rose like a miniature nuclear blast, throwing a mushroom cloud a hundred meters into the sky.
The shockwave expanded with ferocious speed, sweeping away dust, corpses, and fragmented weapons left behind by the battle.
With a large patch of his chest charred black, Tuoba Guanghe instantly shook off all negative ailments. Upon advancing to Ancient God of War, the passive skill "Bloodthirsty Rampage" underwent a qualitative evolution.
Once taking a certain threshold of damage, his soaring battle intent ignited, purging all states of stun, restraint, freezing, and immobilization.
Fu Qingyang, the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter, Commandery Princess Yinyao, and Gang Master Duan charged Tuoba Guanghe simultaneously from four directions.
Tuoba Guanghe formed hand seals to manifest his Wisdom King Dharmakaya, transforming into a pitch-black, solemnly adorned avatar.
Suddenly, a mud-like sludge oozed from the top of the ink-black dharmakaya's head.
The avatar, previously as solid as an impregnable fortress, rapidly thinned as if corrupted by severe foulness.
In the distance, Xiao Yuan had smeared a layer of incense ash over the head of the straw doll in her hands.
This was the corruption of a defiled evil spirit.
The four Dominators' strikes landed squarely on the dharmakaya, shaking it violently until countless fractures webbed across its already translucent form.
*Roar!*
Tuoba Guanghe raised his head and unleashed a deafening roar. Several hundred meters away, the city walls groaned, cracks snaking across the stone.
The eardrums of all four Dominators ruptured simultaneously, followed by a wave of nauseating disorientation.
Tuoba Guanghe dismissed the dharmakaya and lashed out with all eight arms. He parried Fu Qingyang's sword-fingers with a broadsword, skewered Gang Master Duan's chest with a spear, and thrust a longsword at the Palace Mistress, while his remaining four arms slammed Commandery Princess Yinyao into the dirt. Grabbing her wrists and ankles, he wrenched with savage force.
The sound of tearing came from Commandery Princess Yinyao's limbs.
At that moment, a dense thicket of threads swept in, winding tightly around Tuoba Guanghe's limbs and torso.
Tuoba Guanghe raised the arm holding the sword to slash through them, only to find the breathtaking beauty's eyes brimming with tender allure, her cheeks flushed, and her luscious lips appearing like the sweetest delicacy in existence.
A fierce rush of possessiveness, adoration, and pity overwhelmed him in an instant. The sword hung suspended mid-strike, refusing to fall.
In that single moment of hesitation, Commandery Princess Yinyao dispersed into starlight, escaping the fate of being torn limb from limb.
The scene of Three Heroes fighting Lü Bu... no, Four Heroes fighting Lü Bu unfolded outside the walls. Tuoba Guanghe used three heads to survey all directions and eight arms to fight every angle, taking on all four without yielding an inch of ground.
Besieged by four Dominators, he showed not the slightest trace of fatigue or decline.
An Ancient God of War excelled most at group battles; to him, facing one person or four made no difference.
In contrast, the Southern Dynasty camp saw Fu Qingyang, Gang Master Duan, and Commandery Princess Yinyao suffer severe blow after blow. Fu Qingyang possessed Insight, yet could not evade explosive astral fist blasts or sonic waves. The latter two lacked adequate cultivation and, as fellow close-combat classes suppressed by a higher-ranking Ancient God of War, nearly perished multiple times. They were kept alive solely by the Palace Mistress's abundant healing, which repeatedly dragged them back from the brink of death.
*Thump, thump, thump...*
Atop the city walls, two trails of bloody tears ran down Zhang Yuanqing's cheeks. Blood leaking from his nostrils and mouth mingled together, dripping steadily onto the runed, bluish-black beast hide.
The battle had reached a fever pitch, and he dared not pause his drumming for even a single beat.
At first, he had still possessed enough wit to complain internally: *Four on one and you still can't win? Are you all useless? It's just a Level 9 Ancient God of War, why is this taking so long?*
Later, it became: *Faster, hurry up, I can't hold out much longer... Can I take back that line about the emperor guarding the gates!*
Later still, his mind held only one thought: *Save me...*
By now, even those few thoughts were gone. He had slipped into a semi-conscious trance, beating the drum purely on sheer willpower, liable at any moment to pass out from the agony of his soul tearing apart.
Fu Qingyang, who had been monitoring Yuanshi's condition the entire time, suddenly said, "Are you ready? Yuanshi is at his limit."
The hem of the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter's gown abruptly burst apart. Thousands of red strings whipped outward, binding Tuoba Guanghe until he was wrapped like a zongzi.
Tuoba Guanghe surged his internal qi, tensing his muscles to snap the red strings, when a baby's cry suddenly echoed from his abdomen.
"*Waa, waa...*"
The cries escalated from faint to piercing. Tuoba Guanghe's belly swelled rapidly, ballooning within moments into the belly of a woman in her third trimester.
Ever since the battle began, the Palace Mistress had been attempting to impregnate Tuoba Guanghe. Given the massive gap between their levels, every attempt had ended in failure, yet the pregnancy energy had stealthily accumulated, finally causing Tuoba Guanghe's uncooperative belly to swell.
As the infant took shape, Tuoba Guanghe's strength ebbed like a receding tide.
As if prearranged, Xiao Yuan in the distance first deployed the straw doll and smeared incense ash across it, causing foul, mud-like liquid to pour from Tuoba Guanghe's scalp, eroding his strength even further.
She then caught a blood bead flicked over by Fu Qingyang and smeared it onto the straw doll.
*Whoosh!*
Black flames erupted over Tuoba Guanghe's body.
Gang Master Duan seized the opportunity to repeat his earlier tactic. Pressing his palms against the back swathed in red strings, he activated Fire Stealing, siphoning Tuoba Guanghe's warmth and freezing his blood vessels and internal organs.
Fu Qingyang aligned his fingers into a sword, stabbing toward Tuoba Guanghe's chest.
Right then, he abruptly sensed lethal danger and barked, "Retreat!"
In the next instant, Tuoba Guanghe's aura collapsed inward, vanishing without a trace. Moments later, an unimaginably potent suction erupted from within him, drawing in every living entity in the vicinity.
The Palace Mistress and Xiao Yuan, having kept their distance, broke away immediately upon hearing the warning. Commandery Princess Yinyao, being a yin creature rather than a living being, remained unaffected by the vortex's pull.
Gang Master Duan, stuck in direct physical contact, failed to disengage in time. Caught in the vortex, he was plastered firmly against Tuoba Guanghe's back.
His skin lost its luster, his flesh rapidly withered, and his vital blood poured into the vortex like a breached reservoir.
Simultaneously, plumes of blood mist soared into the sky from within the city walls, drifting outward in ethereal trails before swirling into Tuoba Guanghe's body, pulled by the vortex.
These were the vital blood of ordinary soldiers and citizens. Because of the distance, powerful Saints remained unaffected, and only a tiny portion of Transcendent vital blood leaked out, but ordinary mortals were drained dry of their essence in an instant, turned into fuel.
Tuoba Guanghe's flagging aura surged upward like a raging tide.
A Bewitching Demon's Bloodthirsty Rampage required killing to trigger in the Transcendent and Saint stages. But upon reaching the Dominator stage, the skill underwent a qualitative leap, allowing the user to forcefully drain the essence of living beings beneath their tier across distances.
Of course, the vitality of commoners alone was not enough to restore him so quickly; it was Gang Master Duan's vital blood that served as the primary tonic.
Fu Qingyang, the Palace Mistress, and Xiao Yuan paled.
Tuoba Guanghe was a Level 9 Dominator. Under the suppression of his status, entering the vortex would inevitably result in their vital essence being drained—something no defensive item could prevent.
As an Arbiter of Fate, the Palace Mistress did not fear being drained dry, but stepping in to rescue Gang Master Duan would make her little more than a delivered blood pack.
Only Commandery Princess Yinyao tirelessly pelted him with spells, though the damage dealt was pitifully negligible.
*No, if this goes on, all our efforts will be in vain...* Gang Master Duan felt a weakness unlike anything he had experienced since stepping into the Grandmaster realm.
He felt like an old man on the brink of death, tottering and decrepit, liable to faint and die of exhaustion at any second.
Yet even as his body deteriorated, the fierce pride inherent to a Fire Master burned like a blaze, growing hotter and fiercer by the heartbeat.
Gang Master Duan suddenly recalled his youth. His father had died early, leaving him to be raised by his widowed mother. When he was twelve, a local tyrant who lusted after her beauty forced his way into their home, driving her to jump down a well to her death.
With help from the neighbors, he took his grievance to the magistrate's office, but to no avail.
Gang Master Duan silently buried his mother, stole Butcher Wang's cleaver, crept into the tyrant's home under cover of darkness, and hacked him to death.
*Spirits may watch three feet above, but justice has always rested on the blade's edge.*
From then on, he was a wanted outlaw, embarking on a life lived on the razor's edge of the jianghu.
Rising from humble beginnings and abiding among the common folk, he spent decades braving life and death without ever ceasing to champion the weak against the strong. Corrupt officials he executed on sight; bullies he wiped out wherever he found them. He had never questioned the meaning or purpose behind his half-lifetime of killing, simply unable to forget the icy chill of his mother's lifeless body.
Until that day Wang Beiwang came to visit, declaring: *The greatest chivalry lies in serving the nation and the people!*
It was the finishing touch that brought the whole picture to life, bringing sudden enlightenment.
Gang Master Duan snapped his head up to glare at Zhao Shun on the battlements. Mustering every scrap of his remaining strength, he roared fiercely:
"Zhao Shun!
"If the Son of Heaven can guard the nation's gate, so can a commoner! You have failed the common folk for twenty-four years! If you indulge in pleasure and torment the people ever again, I will not spare you even as a ghost!"
In his semi-conscious stupor, Zhang Yuanqing's lips moved feebly, but no one could hear what he said.
*Boom!*
He self-detonated!
A blinding blaze erupted outside the city. Never in this world had there been a fire so dazzling, forged from decades of a martial magnate's glories, sorrows, and passions.
The flames instantly engulfed Fu Qingyang, Yinyao, and the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter.
Accompanied by a deafening roar, the shockwave rolled outward in every direction. The moment it crashed into the city wall, the five-hundred-year-old ramparts of the Southern Dynasty capital came crashing down.
The streets and residential quarters adjacent to the wall shattered and were obliterated in the blast.
Everything within several li was reduced to scorched earth.
When the thick smoke drifted skyward, the turbulence settled, and the flames died, a charred, humanoid silhouette stood upon the blackened earth.
His body was mangled, all eight arms severed.
Yet he was not dead. On that charred face, his eyes snapped open.
The blackened crust of flesh cracked and peeled away. Fresh pink flesh rapidly knitted together, and his eight severed arms began to slowly regrow.
Fire God Duan's self-detonation had gravely wounded Tuoba Guanghe, but it was not enough to kill a Level 9 Dominator, even one already in a weakened state.
Of course, Tuoba Guanghe was far weaker now than before.
Amid the rubble, Zhang Yuanqing pushed himself up, righted the toppled Kui Cow Drum, and struck it hard.
He ought to have reached his limit, but Fire God Duan's self-detonation had interrupted the drumming. The blast of raging fire spiritual energy had ravaged the area for three full minutes, knocking him unconscious.
Those three minutes had bought Zhang Yuanqing precious time to recover.
The Day Wanderer's formidable self-healing pulled him back to consciousness, and downing a tube of Life Source Fluid restored a sliver of his vitality.
The charred silhouette instantly froze, the regeneration of his flesh plummeting.
At the edge of the collapsed wall, a figure darted out, cloak snapping in the wind. A pair of sword-fingers jabbed directly toward the charred figure's forehead.
The flesh on Tuoba Guanghe's forehead split open, exposing stark white bone.
The agonizing pain sharpened his gaze. Forcing his vitality as if unlocking his latent potential, his two primary arms regenerated first, clamping around Fu Qingyang's arm.
*Crack!*
Fu Qingyang's arm bone snapped, stalling the sword qi.
Just as Tuoba Guanghe moved to tear off the right arm, a torrent of sword qi burst from the fractured limb, piercing through his palm.
The broken arm seamlessly mended itself. Waves of blood-colored spiritual power coursed into the arm, concentrating at the fingertips.
*Squelch!*
The brilliant white sword qi turned blood-red, its sharpness skyrocketing.
Tuoba Guanghe's frontal bone spiderwebbed with a sharp *crack*.
This Level 9 Dominator, the supreme master of the Northern Territory, the peerless Grandmaster without equal across the land, finally smelled the stench of death.
At the brink of life and death, his latent potential erupted. Six translucent arms materialized, descending upon Fu Qingyang like a suffocating web to force him back or tear him to pieces.
Fu Qingyang's frame suddenly withered, his life force hemorrhaging as it transmuted into sword qi, erupting from his fingertips.
*Pfft!*
The blood-red sword qi punched straight through the skull. Red blood and white brain matter sprayed out the back of Tuoba Guanghe's head.
The mighty martial artist's eyes widened in disbelief and indignation, unable to accept that this was his end. Powerlessly, the light in his eyes dimmed and died.
An ethereal, resilient soul slipped free of the corpse, drifting away into the distance.
Fu Qingyang pointed his sword-fingers skyward. A blast of sword qi infused with the power of Fiend Queller skewered the soul.
An invisible, violent mental ripple unfolded midair, expanded, and ultimately subsided into stillness, dissolving into nothingness.
Haggard and frail, Fu Qingyang stood all alone. The night wind howled, tossing his hair—every single strand turned silver, fluttering in the dark.
Black silk at dawn, turned to snow by dusk.
In the night sky, the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter's resounding, clarion singing rang out:
"*Drunken, I trimmed the lamp to view my sword;
Dreaming, I heard the horns echo through the camps.
Choice roast beef was shared among the troops,
Fifty strings played the frontier songs.
Reviewing the troops upon an autumn battlefield.*
"*Horses sped fast like Dilu,
Bows twanged fierce as thunderclaps.
To fulfill the sovereign's imperial ambitions,
And win everlasting fame in life and death—
Piteous, the white hair grows! Piteous, the white hair grows...*"
The song resounded with the spirit of iron and blood, carrying an inspiring might that stoked a vigorous surge of vitality within both the drum-beating Zhang Yuanqing and the nearly drained Fu Qingyang, keeping them from collapsing dead on the spot.
Next, she brought out the Demon Refining Pot, stroked its body, and poured two golden streams of concentrated life essence into the two spent bodies.
"Boss, turning your hair white overnight looks seriously cool," Zhang Yuanqing wheezed, slumping back into the rubble.
"Cool?" Fu Qingyang replied coldly. "I traded my life for it."
Even as they spoke, the Spirit Realm notification sounded by their ears:
[Ding! Congratulations on completing the multiplayer Spirit Realm mission—Ruler of a Fallen Nation, No. 36, Difficulty Level: A. Calculating rewards...]
Chapter 884