Longzang

Chapter 503 Repeated Tug-of-War
After the great battle, Qingming was already very busy, but suddenly all the high-level and Earth-level Dao Foundation cultivators were summoned. Except for Sun Yu and Yu Zhizhuo, who needed to control a region, everyone else had to put down their work and complete the assigned tasks first, no matter what they were doing.

The cultivators of Qingming are one thing, but many cultivators of Taichu Palace mainly focus on cultivation, often meditating for days at a time. Although the spiritual energy in Qingming is not as abundant as that of Taichu Palace, it has its own advantages.

Azure Stones are celestial stones that grow extremely quickly, resulting in lively and ever-changing characteristics. While cultivation in the Primordial Palace progresses faster, cultivation in Azure Stones, though slower, facilitates enlightenment and makes it easier to break through cultivation bottlenecks.

Many of the cultivators from the Primordial Palace were pulled out of seclusion, and naturally they were very unhappy.

Several disciples of the Taichu Palace were assigned to a group, led by Ren Suxing. He had the highest cultivation level, and thus led the group. Ren Suxing led everyone to the foot of a mountain, looked at the map in his hand, compared it with the earth vein nodes, and said, "This is it. This job will take a whole day, so everyone hurry up."

Several disciples put down the boxes they were carrying, took out various array materials and tools, and began to set up the array here.

A young disciple complained as he worked, "I was just out of seclusion and I was almost at the point of enlightenment. Senior Brother Ren, what exactly are we doing here?"

Ren Suxing snorted and said irritably, "We're here to train, not to cultivate in seclusion. Get to work! This is the Zhou Tian Star Array, which monitors the heavens and earth. The first step is to build thirty-six nodes, and we're just one of them. The second step is seventy-two nodes, and the final step is when all three hundred and sixty nodes are completed, only then will the array be truly finished."

The young disciples were somewhat surprised, not expecting such a large-scale undertaking.

At this moment, someone nearby asked, "May I ask why this Zhou Tian Xing Dou Grand Array is set up?"

Ren Suxing looked up and saw that the newcomers were two cultivators wearing felt hats, both with extraordinary bearing. One of them was clearly a Dharma Aspect cultivator.

Ren Suxing was also furious, and seeing the idle cultivators only made him angrier. He said irritably, "The Realm Lord said this is for fire prevention, theft prevention, and thief prevention!"

The two cultivators were silent for a moment. The one with the Dharma Aspect bowed and said, "Thank you for informing me." Then the two of them walked towards the core of the Azure Netherworld.

A young disciple of the Primordial Palace frowned as he watched the two cultivators' retreating figures, saying, "These two guys look a bit suspicious."

Another person said, "I feel like something's not right, but I can't quite put my finger on it."

Ren Suxing glared at the two of them and said expressionlessly, "What business is it of yours whether it's suspicious or not? How much salary do you get, or how much rations do you get? Why are you worrying about this? Just do your job!"

The young disciples dared not refute it, and even thought it made sense, so they buried themselves in their work.

The two cultivators walked a short distance and, seeing no one around, the younger Foundation Establishment cultivator said, "Hmph, that barbarian is going too far, actually insulting us!"

The cultivator beside her looked up, revealing herself to be the Peacock Buddha Mother. She smiled and said, "Let him curse. The more he curses, the closer he gets to Buddha. As for you, the Witch Clan is about to attack. Are you ready?"

The young monk Honglian revealed a somewhat eerie and sinister smile, saying, "I can't wait any longer! I'll go and talk to him after I've performed enough rituals for the Wu clan!"

Two days passed in the blink of an eye, and the first layer of the Zhou Tian Star Array was completed. The array's core was located in a stone hall at the foot of the main peak. As long as a cultivator was stationed at the array's core, they could monitor the heavens and earth and keep a close eye on every move within the Azure Netherworld.

Needless to say, the one permanently stationed at the core of the formation is Wei Yuan's Dharma Aspect Warrior. Currently, there is only one Enlightened Dharma Aspect Warrior among the mortals, and he is positioned at the core of the formation.

Wei Yuan first checked each node of the array to confirm that everything was in order before activating the grand array. Surging spiritual energy was drawn from all parts of Qingming and gathered into the grand array. Then, images appeared in Wei Hai's consciousness, and finally the entire Qingming was under his sight.

With the Zhou Tian Star Array set up, ordinary concealment and stealth are useless. Moreover, Wei Yuan's luck is extremely high. With his own Dharma Aspect Warrior presiding over the array, he can easily discover those experienced stealth operators, those who secretly speak ill of Wei Yuan behind his back, and those who do not look for the reasons within themselves but always complain about the environment.

At this moment, the great formation was completed. Wei Yuan suddenly remembered a scene described in Xu Wenwu's information, so he looked up Xu Wenwu's location to see what he was doing.

Xu Wenwu was fast asleep in bed, sleeping soundly. A little girl lay on his stomach, also fast asleep. The little girl looked to be four or five years old, exceptionally cute and beautiful. The two, one big and one small, snored away, creating a particularly heartwarming scene.

Wei Yuan was also taken aback. He hadn't expected Xu Shiba to have grown so much in the time he'd been away. Her growth rate was five or six times that of an ordinary child. It seemed that in another month or two, he might have to arrange for her to undergo body-forging cultivation. But had her soul and mind grown along with her body?

Wei Yuan's figure flashed, appearing silently in Xu Wenwu's room. Xu Wenwu's Body Tempering was now nearing perfection, a speed that was absolutely astonishing. The main reason for his rapid cultivation was the tribulation he had endured that day—a tribulation for advancing to the Dharma Aspect stage!

In addition, he also occasionally absorbs some luck and spiritual energy. However, he cannot control when or how much he absorbs; it's all up to fate.

Moreover, although Xu Wenwu's physical cultivation had progressed rapidly, his mental state was far from perfect. He lacked any real Dao heart; he was afflicted with all the emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, fear, and the seven emotions and six desires, and was also afraid of death. Therefore, Wei Yuan had always been hesitant to arrange for him to form his foundation. Based on his intuition, Wei Yuan felt that Xu Wenwu would likely face a heavenly tribulation when he completed his foundation formation. After Wei Yuan entered the room, Xu Wenwu was completely unaware, but the little girl suddenly opened one eye and glanced at Wei Yuan.

Wei Yuan was greatly surprised, never expecting Xu Shiba's spiritual sense to be so sharp.

Upon seeing that it was Wei Yuan, the little girl's tense body immediately relaxed, and she continued to sleep on Xu Wenwu's soft belly.

Remembering his purpose, Wei Yuan waved his hand and drew a pair of resolute and indifferent eyes on the wall of the room. Then he sprayed a line of words below: Big Brother is watching you!
Wei Yuan looked at the sprayed image and was very satisfied. He hoped that the image could help Xu Wenwu strengthen his resolve.

After finishing these tasks, Wei Yuan disappeared, heading off to attend to more important matters.

The Zhou Tian Xing Dou Grand Array can not only detect infiltrating enemies but also guide missiles. Currently, its surveillance range is 500 li (approximately 250 kilometers), but once fully completed, the range will extend to 3,600 li (approximately 1,800 kilometers). This means that within the array's range, enemies will face missile attacks at any time and from any location.

Seven days passed in the blink of an eye.

Although the Wu tribe withdrew their troops, the canal continued to be dug forward, advancing another seventy li, bringing them to within two hundred li of Qingming. With the return of Hongye, the Wu tribe once again mobilized a million-strong army to attack Qingming.

Wei Yuan, on the other hand, was able to quietly transport a large number of civilian troops to the front line and the second line of defense through a series of tedious and complicated mobilizations.

Ding'an City was not large enough to accommodate too many troops. Wei Yuan placed 100,000 civilians inside the city and 100,000 outside, plus 20,000 city defense troops as the backbone.

The right flank of Ding'an City's fortified area had already proven itself to be a bloodbath in the previous battle, with the Wu tribe suffering casualties comparable to those at the foot of Ding'an City. Therefore, Wei Yuan deployed 200,000 civilians here, including 50,000 civilians from Zhao, along with 100,000 regular troops, and the Longyi and Longxiang armies were also stationed here.

The refugees from Zhao had only barely learned how to light and fire muskets, and many were so weak that they would pant even when wearing heavy armor. They hadn't been in Qingming for long and their bodies hadn't recovered.

Wei Yuan positioned them in the third line of defense. Many of them secretly rejoiced, feeling that this battle would be easy to handle, and began to dream about becoming citizens of the Azure Netherworld after this battle.

The left flank is mountainous, naturally easy to defend, so Li Zhi led the Zhenshan Army to defend it, while Wei Yuan was supplemented with 50,000 civilian troops and 20,000 regular troops.

As for the Xu family youth and the mid-to-high-grade human sacrifice, Wei Yuan reserved them for last and did not intend to use them.

After the tragedy in Yong'an City, the common people of Qingming knew that hiding in the rear was not safe either. Many whose entire families had been wiped out volunteered to go to the front lines. In their view, there was no safe place in the world; only by exterminating the Wu tribe could they find true safety.

The battlefield wasn't actually that large, but the two sides had deployed nearly two million troops, filling it to capacity. Although the Wu army still had many troops in the rear, they were already stretched thin. To attack from other directions, they would have to detour hundreds of miles, and there was always the risk of being ambushed by Wei Yuan.

Therefore, Hongye still chose to launch a frontal attack and wear Wei Yuan down. Qingming only had so many men; more than 200,000 died in the last battle, and after a few more battles, Qingming would be short of manpower.

In this battle, Hongye moved the command post five hundred li ahead, and then dispatched an army of three hundred thousand to escort six enormous altars as they advanced. These six altars were huge and extremely heavy, each being pulled by tens of thousands of slave laborers, moving forward with great difficulty, inch by inch.

On the first day, the Wu tribe simply set up their military formation and then spent the entire day pushing and shoving the altar.

Wei Yuan tried launching several missiles, but they were all intercepted. This time, the witch army had many more archer shamans who could hit their targets every time within a thousand feet, and even high-speed missiles could not escape their lock.

Wei Yuan immediately changed his strategy, ordering dozens of railguns to launch empty barrels, and even stones. Then Wei Yuan ordered his men to fill several stones with gunpowder.

At first, the high priests intercepted the attacks one by one, but after discovering that the objects thrown were empty buckets or even rocks, they stopped intervening. Empty buckets were one thing, but rocks could still kill people if they landed in the formation.

But the high shaman didn't care about the lives of the lowly soldiers below. He watched the stones fall to the ground, and even laughed heartily. Suddenly, several stones exploded violently, leveling thousands of soldiers in the vicinity, and the morale of the army was shaken.

The deaths of thousands of soldiers were a minor matter; the devastation on morale was a major concern. The high priest and the sorcerers had no choice but to continue intercepting whatever was thrown at them.

Wei Yuan, on the other hand, was a group of cultivators replacing the railguns. Anyway, Qingming didn't have much else, just a lot of trashy Daoist artifacts.

Thus, the first day passed in a back-and-forth struggle, and the archer shaman's magic power was largely depleted.

(End of this chapter)