Longzang

Chapter 523 Manifestation (Thanks to the Alliance Leader for ignoring the alt account 3)

There are many cultivators like Cui Yu, hidden among the frontline troops, specializing in controlling missiles. They can control at least four bullets simultaneously, and some can control eight.

The two sides fought from midnight until dawn, and only when the power of the Wu tribe's heaven and earth diminished did the Wu tribe retreat.

The battle was intense yet uneventful, with no major clashes or terrifying spells like those that caused the stars to crumble or the world to wither. It's worth mentioning that the young monk Honglian reappeared, slaying another eleven thousand people in this battle before being carried away by the Peacock Buddha Mother to rest.

Wei Yuan stood at the forefront, focusing on using his Taoist magic, Jade Mountain, and missiles to strike the archers of the Witch Clan. Although he killed only a little over two thousand enemies, there were more than eighty archers among them, as well as one Great Witch Archer.

The fourth battle was a dull affair, a war of attrition fought purely through positional warfare. In the end, the Witch Clan suffered 200,000 casualties, while Qingming lost another 70,000.

After this battle, the Wu tribe continued to advance, pushing their front line to a point seventy miles from Qingming, where they built extensive fortifications and deployed their battle lines.

This distance could be covered by a forced march to Qingming. However, Wei Yuan was helpless against the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Wu Clan and could only watch as they made their arrangements.

By extending their battle lines, the Wu Clan could deploy more troops, making multi-pronged attacks easier. This forced Wei Yuan to extend his defenses further and deploy more troops. At the same time, the longer the battle lines, the greater the losses for both sides, and Qingming would bleed to his last drop of blood more quickly.

Wei Yuan would not sit idly by and wait for his doom, and continued to probe and bombard the Wu Clan's defenses with missiles. By this point in the battle, the Rain Kingdom had enough ordinary soldiers, but the number of archers and archery shamans was beginning to run out.

Furthermore, under Wei Yuan's relentless bombardment of missiles, the Great Archer Shaman rarely dared to show his face. This was especially true after Cui Yu took two of them away with his flying sword. They would peek out and fire a few arrows before quickly hiding and changing locations. If they dared to show themselves for even a moment longer, missiles would inevitably rain down from above.

Although missiles are extremely expensive, and the pricing systems between humans and witches are not interchangeable, even ordinary people can't calculate how many missiles a master archer is worth. But missiles don't fear the great archers, and Wei Yuan believes that no master archer would be willing to trade their life for a missile, not even ten for one.

As expected, after several archer shamans died, the shaman clan's ability to intercept missiles weakened significantly. Wei Yuan's missiles were able to land in the shaman clan's formation from time to time, flattening out sections of the area. The explosions caused panic among the shamans, and the sacrificial power used to suppress morale increased sharply.

The Wu tribe was not to be outdone, and would often cover the giant beasts as they advanced, throwing poisonous water balls into the border region.

The war entered a stalemate and a phase of mutual attrition, which finally gave Wei Yuan a little breathing room, allowing him to deal with some messy matters.

Three days after the fourth battle, Wei Yuan finally had time to take stock of the situation in the entire realm.

Because of the passing of True Monarch Huangyun, the ultimate limit of Qingming has expanded from 10,000 li to 10,500 li. The current limit has expanded from 1,000 li to 1,500 li. Before reaching the limit, Qingming will expand at a rate of several li per day. After reaching the limit, it will need a period of nurturing to improve the level of the boundary stone.

The continuous release of instantaneous beings in the various wars had already exhausted all of Qingming's nourishment. If it weren't for the power of Huangyun Zhenjun's origin, the Qingming realm would probably have shrunk to less than three hundred miles by now.

Although the fourth battle was a dull affair, the depletion of resources for all living beings was no less. The extra nourishment brought about by the passing of True Monarch Huangyun had been completely exhausted. This is the terrifying drain of total war; even the legacy of a True Monarch can only sustain one battle.

However, over a million Wu Clan corpses are currently being transformed within the Azure Netherworld, causing the spiritual energy of the entire realm to rise steadily and its abundance to increase rapidly. These Wu Clan corpses will ultimately become nourishment for this world; for one thing, the rate at which the Azure Netherworld's nurturing power increases has already doubled compared to the past.

The number of mortals in the human world has exceeded 500,000, with over 500 Dao Foundation Warriors derived from the souls of the Witch Clan, and more than 30 having attained Enlightenment. Now, the land around the city is insufficient, and Wei Yuan constantly expends Dao power to elevate the land.

As the number of ordinary people in the world increases, not only does their reaction speed increase dramatically, but the answers they give also become increasingly elusive, gradually deviating from the common sense of this world.

For example, the firepower blockade defense system in the fourth battle was unprecedented. Subsequent results proved that it was indeed very effective. A defensive position that was temporarily built in less than ten days was able to inflict a casualty ratio of nearly one to four, and the defensive effect can be said to have been significantly improved.

However, the fighting on Li Zhi's defensive line was quite protracted. Despite reinforcements from the Zhenshan Army, they suffered over 20,000 casualties, while only inflicting 40,000 casualties on the Wu army. This ultimately dragged down the overall battle's losses.

By this point in the great battle, 600,000 Qingming soldiers had died, and 1.3 million Wu soldiers had perished. Thanks to the addition of 100,000 refugees from the Western Jin Dynasty and the Zhao State, Qingming still had a population of 1.5 million. However, more than 100,000 of the original inhabitants of Qingming had died in battle, and most of the original 80,000 warriors who faced death without fear had become memorial tablets in the Hall of Heroes.

The main force suffered over 50,000 casualties, but after multiple rounds of replenishment, it still has 150,000. The heavy armored elite lost 5,000, but only 2,000 were replenished.

Wei Yuan pulled up the list and began to quickly browse through it, selecting candidates who could supplement the heavy armor elite.

……

Taichu Palace, Wanxiang Hall.

A middle-aged Taoist priest led more than ten young children into the Wanxiang Hall. As soon as they entered the hall, the children, whose faces were still innocent, were so shocked by the magnificent sight of the earth receiving the Milky Way that they let out a series of exclamations.

The middle-aged Taoist priest said solemnly, “The path to immortality is filled with boundless splendor! What you see now are the foundations of the Dao that our predecessors have built. Each foundation is a mirror, a sum of the cultivator’s timing, fortune, cultivation, and insights at that time. Look up, and in the center of that starry river is the foundation of immortality.”

A little girl looked around and suddenly asked, "Teacher, is this land just decoration?"

The Taoist smiled slightly and said, "This is also the foundation of the Tao."

The children exclaimed in astonishment, unable to imagine what kind of person could possess such a foundation in Dao. A little boy, as delicate as a porcelain doll, suddenly said, "There are four strongmen over there, and they're dressed so scantily! Is this also a foundation in Dao?"

At each of the four corners below the continent stood a muscular strongman, two men and two women, all quite handsome, but giving the impression that their muscles stretched all the way down to their necks. These four strongmen supported the entire continent, making for a very appealing sight. Whenever new disciples arrived at the Hall of Myriad Forms, they would always ask about them. The middle-aged Taoist's face darkened, and he snorted, saying, "Those belong to the Hall of Bright Kings. If you ever burn your brains during cultivation, you can go to the Hall of Bright Kings."

"There are words here!" a child suddenly exclaimed.

The children ran to a statue of a female warrior with her upper body bare and only a strip of cloth wrapped around her waist. They saw a line of large characters written in front of the statue: "Cultivation does not require the use of the brain, the Great Dao is right before your eyes!"
Below is another line of text: "The enlightened king cultivates himself, and success comes naturally."

"Don't look at those useless things!" the Taoist priest almost roared.

Suddenly, a little girl pointed to a spot at the bottom of the Milky Way and said, "A celestial sword just appeared there!"

"Another new Dao foundation?" The Daoist was also curious and flew up with his disciples. When they went over, they saw a dark red immortal sword that had just taken shape and turned from nothingness to reality.

The sword faintly glowed with flames, radiating heat, and the Taoist felt it looked somewhat familiar. Although these children had not yet established their Dao foundations, many of them possessed profound family traditions and exceptional eyesight.

A little boy exclaimed, "Hey! This sword looks a bit like the Great Sun Sword! I saw Uncle Xiaoyu use it!"

The Taoist priest scanned the newly appeared immortal sword with his divine sense and saw the following information: Immortal Sword Pseudo-Sun, Human Rank Dao Foundation, awaiting comment.

"A fake Sun?!" The Daoist almost lost his composure and blurted out a curse. How could someone possess such a Dao foundation? He was supposed to be a cultivator from the Primordial Beginning Palace; had he no shame?
The Dao Foundation manifested in the Hall of Myriad Forms, clearly belonging to a disciple of the Primordial Beginning Palace. The Dao Foundation itself had a name, which the cultivator chose themselves when forging it. This person directly named the Immortal Sword "Pseudo-Sun," clearly implying it was a knock-off of the Great Sun, not even bothering to pretend.

The Taoist priest's face turned ashen, and he prepared to find this newly recruited disciple. How could such a disgrace to the cultivation world be allowed to mingle within the Taichu Palace?
"Another new Legend of Sword and Fairy!"

The children's cries brought the Taoist back to reality, where he saw a rather impressive-looking immortal sword, with lightning constantly flashing across its surface. Just by looking at its position, one could tell it was of a lower-level human rank.

The Taoist priest swept his divine sense across the area and was furious again. "Immortal Sword Thunder Silk," what kind of ridiculous name is that? Although this sword possesses the power of lightning, its actual strength is low; it's all show and no substance, a prime example of a useless product.

"There's one here too..."

"There's some here too!"

The children chattered excitedly, pointing out their new discoveries.

Thus, black hair, white hair, gentle springs, flowing water, and a light breeze... one after another, immortal swords of the human level appeared, filling the gap between the starry river and the earth.

The Taoist was initially angry, but then he sensed something was wrong. How could so many new disciples be forming foundations at the same time, and why were their foundations made of such trashy immortal swords that he had never seen before?
At this moment, several figures suddenly appeared in the Hall of Ten Thousand Images, each exuding a powerful aura as imposing as a mountain. It was clear that all the True Lords who had stayed behind to guard this mountain had arrived!

"Since the appearance of the vast land and rivers more than two years ago, the Myriad Manifestations Palace has not been shaken. This time, I must take a good look and see what extraordinary foundation has been formed this time!"

"My Taichu Palace has been through many storms in recent years, but its fortune has never ceased, and an unparalleled disciple has appeared in the world!"

"Strange, I haven't heard of any extraordinary talents among the new disciples I've taken in in recent years. Could it be that someone has suddenly become a sensation?"

"I wonder which palace was so fortunate."

"Oh, so many new cultivation foundations have appeared. Hmm, here's another immortal sword..."

The True Lords gazed at the Great Bright Demon-Subduing Sword that had just appeared and fell into deep thought.

……

The Western Regions, the Azure Sky.

Just as Wei Yuan was taking stock of Qingming's assets, he suddenly sensed that the heavenly tribulation amidst the mundane world had dissipated, and Zhang Sheng had already established his Dao foundation.

Wei Yuan immediately entered the mortal realm, appearing outside the Yin-Yang Furnace Formation. At this moment, the last immortal sword before Zhang Sheng was merging into the throne. This chair, which initially consisted of dozens of immortal swords, had now been completely transformed into a towering throne, its backrest resembling a peacock's tail, extending countless sword blades, reaching several meters in height!
Zhang Sheng calmly rose, and all the immortal swords flowed into her body like water, disappearing from her sight.

"How many immortal swords are there...?"

"A total of 512."

Although Wei Yuan was somewhat prepared, he was still extremely shocked to hear that Zhang Sheng had truly mastered more than five hundred immortal swords, and could only say, "Teacher is amazing."

However, Wei Yuan suddenly remembered something and said, "These immortal swords of yours, could they have manifested in the Hall of Myriad Forms?"

Zhang Sheng suddenly felt everything go black!
(End of this chapter)