Longzang

Chapter 853 The Immortal's Move
Since things are already unavoidable, let them come even more fiercely. The Doctrine of the Mean is not so easy to follow; only large countries can truly practice it, while small countries are merely fence-sitters. This is clearly written in history books.

Wei Yuan understood this principle. Ever since the Heavenly Witch intervened, Wei Yuan no longer harbored any illusions and completely unleashed the potential for growth in the Yellow Springs Cave. Since he was going to be killed whether he faced it or not, he might as well return the favor before he died.

The power of the Yellow Springs Grotto itself is still weak, but regardless of its size, its existence is meaningful, allowing the human world to achieve a greater cycle.

However, despite such significant progress, there was still no heavenly tribulation, which made Wei Yuan uneasy.

In the mountains surrounding the Hall of Heroes, tombstones are multiplying rapidly, densely packed and occupying several mountainsides. The number of memorial tablets in the main hall of the first level of the Lingxiao Hall of Heroes is also gradually increasing, their light growing stronger and ever-shining. With the dual monitoring of the Dao Domain and the Zhou Tian Grand Array, it is almost certain that every act of heroism will be properly evaluated.

This fact has long been known to ordinary people and has been verified. Therefore, whenever a critical moment in battle arrives, a large number of soldiers, with the determination to die with the enemy, fight to the death to save the situation. To receive a peach in return for a plum in return—this is the way of most ordinary soldiers.

Wei Yuan was very patient, directing his troops to gradually shrink their positions, giving up a small piece of ground each day, and the intensity of the artillery fire gradually decreased.

Finally, when Liu Lan had completely captured the first two lines of defense and thought victory was in the bag, Wei Yuan launched a full-scale counterattack. The intensity of the artillery bombardment was unprecedented. The relentless bombardment lasted for a full hour, showing Liu Lan what it meant to be full of martial spirit.

After the artillery barrage, there was no living creature left on the surface of the position. Due to the use of a large number of high-explosive shells, the Wu tribe hiding in the trenches also suffered heavy casualties.

Subsequently, hundreds of thousands of Qingming troops launched an attack, charging towards the enemy along a battle line spanning hundreds of miles. They quickly broke through the Wu tribe's defenses, recaptured the first line of defense, and surrounded hundreds of thousands of Wu tribe troops between the first and third lines of defense.

For the first time, Qingming deployed a large number of heavily armored troops, who advanced along the trenches, wielding double-barreled spray guns. These spray guns were extremely powerful; even a high-ranking shaman would be injured if hit by one within several meters, and the Daoji's shaman nobles were almost killed with a single shot.

On the battlefield, the young officers of Qingming keenly seized the fleeting opportunities, cutting the Wuzu troops into even smaller pieces and annihilating them one by one.

Meanwhile, the Wu tribe's reinforcements were suppressed by heavy artillery fire and couldn't advance at all. With their main force on the verge of annihilation, the entire vanguard legion was about to suffer heavy losses.

Wei Yuan surveyed the entire battlefield with a sense of satisfaction. These young officers had finally matured through countless battles, demonstrating remarkable skill in commanding and seizing opportunities. While their overall performance was slightly less impressive than that of civilians in a real battle, this was because they were positioned in localized areas and unable to grasp the overall situation.

If we could let them control the entire battlefield situation, then... it seems that the human element is still superior?
Wei Yuan stood with his hands behind his back, awaiting the Wu Clan's next move. If the Wu Clan had no other backup plans, then he would accept these hundreds of thousands of Wu soldiers.

Dark clouds filled the sky, churning rapidly without any apparent direction, resembling a pot of boiling porridge. This was the scene of a fierce battle between the Celestial Human Race and the Witch Race, the clash between their inner worlds spilling out and affecting their respective realms.

Wei Yuan wasn't worried about the extraterrestrial conquest. His side might be at a disadvantage, or it might not, but they should be able to hold out. At a higher level, even if the Cui family's immortal ancestor couldn't directly intervene, simply disrupting the Heavenly Witch's moves would fundamentally improve the situation.

Even if the Witch Clan casts another powerful curse, Wei Yuan is prepared to use his Peerless Dao Domain to withstand the onslaught until the besieged Witch Army is annihilated. Moreover, the besieged Witch Army is constantly under artillery fire, and they cannot hold out for much longer.

After careful consideration, Wei Yuan felt that there were no more variables, and victory in the first battle was just around the corner.

Liu Lan, who was perched on the altar, had been spitting fire in his eyes, his rage drawing the gaze of the extraterrestrial monsters as they swept across the battlefield. But now, he suddenly became calm and composed, his pupils turning a deep, dark silver.

He sneered and said, "Finally, you've taken the bait! Pretending to be irritable and easily angered for so long must have been quite tiring."

Before he finished speaking, his body rapidly expanded, eventually reaching a length of hundreds of feet, coiling around the entire main altar. A silver feathered serpent, reaching from the ground to the sky, materialized above his head, its eyes emitting hazy light. This light actually trapped the extraterrestrial monsters' vision, causing them to swirl within it.

Then, one after another, altars shot out beams of blood-red light, before shattering one by one. Even the main altar where Liu Lan resided was destroyed. The immense sacrificial power stored within, coupled with the power of heaven and earth borrowed by offering the entire altar as a sacrifice, had reached an unimaginable level! In an instant, heaven and earth were transformed!

Wei Yuan was shocked, but there was nothing he could do. He could only watch helplessly as a wave of earth, more than ten feet long, appeared from the direction of the Wu Clan camp and surged toward them!

This was a natural disaster, beyond human control. The originally extremely sturdy concrete fortifications were lifted into the air by the earthquake and shattered. The witch and human races who were engaged in a bloody battle were all thrown into the air and then crashed down. But many more were simply crushed beneath the earth that had been lifted up.

The underground fortifications were also completely destroyed. They could withstand the great curse from the sky, but they were powerless against this earth-shattering spell. A large number of warriors hidden in the tunnels had nowhere to escape and were buried in the ground.

In the blink of an eye, Tu Lang crossed the third line of defense before finally stopping, exhausted.

The battlefield was a scene of utter devastation, unrecognizable from its original state. Only a few leaning fortresses proved that this area had once been a fortified region. The ground was covered with freshly turned earth and rocks, and corpses were scattered everywhere. Many people or shamans, half-buried, were struggling desperately to free themselves from the earth.

The entire fortified area, stretching for a hundred miles, was thus completely destroyed.

Wei Yuan felt a chill run through his entire body, his heart as if it had been soaked in ice water, chilling him to the bone. This earth-shattering spectacle was truly the might of an immortal!

The sky above the battlefield turned blood-red once more, large swaths of dark clouds transformed into blood-red clouds, and a light drizzle of blood began to fall. At the same time, a wind shimmering with moonlight blew in from the direction of the witch camp. The wind was formless and intangible, not affecting any living beings in the real world, yet it could erode and compress the boundary.

Under the caress of the moonlit breeze, the nourishing power of the Azure Netherworld was rapidly drained away as if a floodgate had been opened, forcing Wei Yuan to shrink his domain by a hundred miles, otherwise it would not have been able to hold out for long.

Without the protection of the boundary, the Blood Curse of the Witch Clan was irresistible, and the warriors could only rely on themselves to withstand it. Looking at the endless rain, Wei Yuan's heart sank, knowing that there were probably not many survivors.

The Wu Clan's blood curse this time does not distinguish between friend and foe, but that is why it is even more powerful.

Amidst the rain of blood, the witch warriors writhed and howled in agony, dying in agony. Many witch nobles cursed Liu Lan frantically before their deaths, and the curses turned into black rain, constantly pouring down on Liu Lan, but all of it was repelled by the silver moonlight emanating from his body.

But that wasn't all. Another billowing green mist rose from the direction of the Witch Clan's camp, propelled by the Witch Wind towards Qingming. Even from a distance, Wei Yuan could sense the rich essence of decay, rot, distortion, and desolation.

This green mist isn't particularly toxic, but it's exceptionally insidious. Wherever it passes, the ground is completely eroded and poisoned, and it slowly seeps deep into the earth. Eventually, the land it erodes will be utterly destroyed, many times worse than spreading coarse salt in a field. Once the soil is ruined, even food that only the Witch Clan can eat will fail to grow, and no fish or shrimp will be able to survive.

The four great curses were each more vicious than the last. The Earth Curse destroyed fortifications, burying both friendly and enemy armies indiscriminately; the Moon Wind Curse dispersed the power of the realm, removing the protective umbrella from the heads of living beings; the Blood Curse slaughtered living beings, sparing neither friend nor foe; and finally, the Corrosion Curse would forever turn the land into a poisonous, dead wasteland. This was an attempt to uproot Qingming completely!
In less than an hour, Qingming suffered its most devastating single-day loss in history, with a total of 250,000 soldiers perishing, while the Wu tribe lost 800,000 of them.

But that's not all. The terrifying karma generated from this, because Qingming has become its own world and separated from the Witch Domain, actually converged on Wei Yuan!

This is completely contrary to the laws of nature and the norm. It is obvious that the Heavenly Witch intervened, subverting the great principles of heaven and earth, and placing the karma that should not be borne by Wei Yuan on his head.

Only then did the terror of the immortals become apparent, their ability to almost steal the sky and change the sun.

A massive, ferocious mass of dark red energy lunged at Wei Yuan. However, a sudden shower of light fell from the sky, and countless amounts of dark red karma vanished in the drizzle, disappearing without a trace. A small amount was drawn away by the Yellow Springs Grotto, leaving only a trace of karma to fall into the mortal realm, where it was all caught by the Red Lotus Bodhi.

(End of this chapter)