Longzang

Chapter 848 Can be destroyed, but not conquered

"No, um, senior, you've come to the wrong place. Why don't you go back first?" Wei Yuan blurted out without thinking.

Yu Zhizhuo naturally didn't understand why Wei Yuan was going crazy over his weapon spirit, but when Qing Tong's full face emerged from the formation, he, a seasoned weapon refiner who had seen countless weapon spirits, was instantly captivated.

"This is simply a perfect spirit! Powerful, beautiful, terrifying, eerie, mysterious... it's practically flawless!" Yu Zhizhuo spared no effort in using his limited vocabulary.

Wei Yuan felt a deep headache, and since this gun had already created a karmic connection with him, he could no longer return it.

Fortunately, after Qing Tong appeared, it disappeared into the gun without speaking or making any unusual movements, as if it were truly a weapon spirit. Wei Yuan felt the situation was increasingly bizarre, yet he was helpless.

In Yu Zhizhuo's words, the spear is not yet fully forged; the fusion of the weapon spirit and the spear still requires a process. Furthermore, Yu Zhizhuo employed the Earth Binding Refinement Method, which will greatly increase the spear's power within the Azure Netherworld.

Yu Zhizhuo then explained the characteristics of the gun to Wei Yuan. It looked like a simple, unadorned spear, with a bare shaft and no dotted patterns. However, the inside of the spear was hollow, allowing it to be filled with physical gunpowder or different spirit-gathering arrays. Through its own nurturing, it would slowly generate spiritual explosives until it was full.

"Spiritual explosives?" This was another term Wei Yuan had never heard of before.

Yu Zhizhuo explained that the principle of gunpowder is simply to expand rapidly in an instant, generating tremendous thrust—that's all. What gunpowder can achieve, Daoist magic can achieve as well, and with even better results. Yu Zhizhuo then led Wei Yuan to another experimental site, demonstrating the working state of the Spirit Gathering Array.

Then, specks of spiritual energy flowed into the Spirit Gathering Array, and after a moment, a few peppercorn-sized particles fell from the array. Yu Zhizhuo picked one up, placed it in his palm, and gently crushed it, turning it into silver powder.

This was gunpowder generated by spiritual energy passing through the Spirit Gathering Array—truly miraculous. Immediately, a bolt of lightning appeared in Yu Zhizhuo's palm, striking the powder and instantly transforming it into a massive fireball the size of a tabletop.

Yu Zhizhuo said, "Once the spirit-infused gunpowder is fully loaded, the spirit-gathering array will stop working. When it needs to be fired, it can be activated with lightning. Its bullets are the gun tips. In terms of power, one shot can injure Yu Jing. I made ten gun tips for you. If you need more, just ask me. I probably don't have that many Yu Jing to fire. Oh, the artifact spirit has almost been fused. Let's go back and take another look."

The two returned to the spear and saw wisps of azure light floating within the array, rippling like water, with azure lotuses blooming and fading with each passing moment. This spear had actually been named by the Heavenly Dao, thus robbing Wei Yuan of the joy of naming it.

Upon seeing the gun's name, Wei Yuan and Yu Zhizhuo both wore strange expressions. The gun was named: Compassion.

Yu Zhizhu laughed and said, "If someone didn't know better, they would think it was a Zen staff given to you by the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land! Hmm, if the tip of the staff were a little bulging, it would look just like one."

Wei Yuan's expression was quite grim, because he realized that the spearhead seemed to be trying to change, but the overall shape was already fixed, so his efforts failed.

Regardless, this spear is undoubtedly a Royal-level spiritual treasure, but it's too plain and unadorned, making one look like a peasant rebel in one's hand.

Having obtained the treasure before the great battle, Wei Yuan was invigorated. At this moment, the Wu Clan army was approaching, and Qingming's war machines had begun to roar.

Wei Yuan already had a premonition that this battle would be anything but simple. With an immortal involved, it couldn't possibly be easy.

A hundred miles outside the Azure Sky Defense Line, the Witch Army's camp had already been set up, stretching for over a hundred miles. A hundred miles further behind, several lakes had been dug out, and altars had been built in the lakes. These altars were not only places to unleash powerful spells and store sacrificial power, but also mediums for worshipping the heavens and praying for protection, allowing immortals to intervene remotely.

The vanguard legion of Liulan alone brought two million warriors and tens of millions of laborers. The Wu Clan was determined to win this battle and was determined to wipe Qingming off the map.

A storm is coming.

On this morning, all the mortals of the Azure Netherworld put down their work, stepped out of their homes, and looked up at the sky. They had all received notice that the Realm Lord would address the entire realm, giving a final mobilization speech before the battle.

The common people were very curious; they had never heard of an emperor mobilizing the people before waging war. All they knew was to raise taxes, raise taxes, and raise taxes again. As the appointed time arrived, Wei Yuan's figure appeared in the sky. The Zhou Tian Star Array activated at this moment, ensuring that Wei Yuan's voice could reach every corner of the Azure Sky.

The bell tolled nine times.

Wei Yuan's image disappeared, replaced by images of humans being slaughtered by the witch clan, villages being burned, and groups of naked people being driven onto the altar.

"Children of Qingming, for hundreds of thousands of years, we have been bullied and slaughtered by the Wu tribe; we have been raised like livestock; we have been slaughtered during their every major festival to please the heavens. But the heavens of the Wu tribe are not the blue sky, not the way of heaven, but their own ancestors!"

Countless mortals were utterly shocked. They lived their lives in a daze, knowing only that the alien race was ferocious, but not how ferocious they were.

The scene shifts again, this time to Quliu Town, showing rows of shacks and people soaking in sewage with numb expressions.

"...Just over a decade ago, this was the state of this land beneath our feet, this was the life of humanity. Many of you have experienced this."

And now, just as our lives have begun to improve, the Witch Clan has returned! Their army of millions is halted just outside the border!

The ordinary people looked at each other in bewilderment. Some were afraid, but many others had a fire burning in their eyes and in their hearts.

On the vast blue earth, sparks seemed to rise, gradually threatening to ignite a prairie fire.

Wei Yuan's voice echoed between heaven and earth, gradually gaining strength and anger: "...The Witch Clan wants to raze our fields, demolish our houses, and turn the blue sky and clear water here back into black, foul-smelling pus flowing with deadly poison! They want to kill the weak among us and send the strong to the altar to be slaughtered, so that our souls will be enslaved by their ancestors for eternity!"
...What is hatred? Hatred is not about taking something away from us and then taking it back.

Hatred is this: we not only want to take back what was stolen from us, but we want to take back even more! We want them to pay a terrible price, a price so terrible that they will never forget it, a price so terrible that they will feel only fear when they think of us! That is hatred! That is revenge!

I, Wei Yuan, will never allow the scene from over a decade ago to repeat itself! I will stand with you all, defending this land until my last breath. I have already died once; I care not to die again. Whether I am here or not, Qingming will fight to the bitter end, never yielding!

The Azure Sky can be destroyed, but it will never be conquered!!!

Suddenly, dark clouds gathered in the sky, and layers of calamity clouds converged from all directions, as if the entire heavens were pressing down on the tiny point of Qingming. Bolts of lightning shook the heavens and earth, turning the world a ghastly white, and thick pillars of electricity struck down fiercely, like the end of the world.

Many of the mortals in the Azure Realm were educated and had gained some knowledge, recognizing this as a heavenly tribulation, a manifestation of the power of heaven and earth. Was it that even heaven and earth could not tolerate the Azure Realm, nor could they tolerate mortals living a good life?

In the crowd, an unnamed old man suddenly said, "A celestial shaman of the Wu tribe once said that if every human could eat meat, the entire world would not be able to withstand it and would be destroyed. So, are we mortals only fit to eat grass?"

Those around the old man were stunned for a moment, then filled with rage, no longer afraid of the power of heaven and earth, and roared to the sky. Although their roars were extremely weak compared to the sound of thunder, in the blink of an eye, more and more people began to roar. Thousands upon thousands of voices merged into a sea of ​​thunderous sound, which could faintly contend with the might of heaven!

At this moment, the heavens and earth trembled, and the power that Wei Yuan used to bind the Yellow Springs Cave Heaven suddenly shattered. The Yellow Springs Cave Heaven was no longer restrained and rapidly expanded until it was stopped by the power of heaven and earth at the edge of the Azure Netherworld. However, the entire Azure Netherworld had already become a self-contained entity, separating from the Witch Domain.

Heaven and earth grew even angrier, almost going mad. Thunder seemed endless, crashing down piece by piece, shattering the last bit of blue light in the world until it flickered and dimmed, threatening to extinguish at any moment.

But as long as it hasn't burned out, the blue light will continue to burn and refuse to go out.

(End of this chapter)