Chapter 961: Chaos of the Battlefield

"What a stupid idea." Elder Kuang replied. His voice was no longer serene and it cut through the cold air with absolute authority. "To ambush this specific group of people."

The ground beneath the dark warriors violently erupted before they could even take their first step down the canyon walls. The elders of the Vajra Peaks, the Piercing Heavens Pavilion and the Zhan Clan had not been idle. They had fully anticipated a possible trap from the moment they saw the unnatural destruction of the Blood Forge Valley.

While the junior disciples were busy turning over stones and searching the rubble, the elders had been secretly burying defensive and offensive formations into the scorched earth. They had also already sent emergency communications back to their respective headquarters for reinforcements just in case. They did not need to win this war tonight. They simply needed to hold on.

Massive pillars of golden light and surging elemental Qi exploded from the ash. The hidden arrays activated all at once and instantly vaporized the front lines of the ambushers in a blinding flash of destructive energy.

"Fight where you can!" Elder Kuang roared as the defensive boundaries fully established themselves across the crater. "Protect one another! Do not bite off more than you can chew! Show these cowards the true might of our paths!"

The battle exploded instantly. The canyon turned into a chaotic meat grinder as thousands of cultivators clashed. At the very beginning, people tried to pick off those much weaker than themselves to inflict as much damage as possible. However, as this was the idea of both sides, the density of the combatants forced the battlefield into a brutal equilibrium.

Whenever a high level enemy elder tried to dive past the front lines to slaughter the junior disciples, an allied elder would instantly intercept them. The sky filled with the deafening thunder of Paragon and Karma Severing experts trading heavy blows. Because both sides were aggressively intercepting the stronger threats, the fighting eventually leveled out. It quickly became a grinding war of attrition where peers fought peers for the most part.

Li Yu stood near the center of the Zhan Clan formation and quickly assessed the situation as the battle started. The enemy forces vastly outnumbered them. The dark armored warriors were pouring down the ridges like a continuous waterfall and he realized that running out into the open to smash people with his heavy staff was a terrible idea. He would be surrounded in seconds and his back would be exposed to countless blind spots.

He decided to approach this battle in a different way than that. He tapped his chest and a dense black light enveloped his body. He equipped the heavy outer armor that Zhan Tian had given him. The thick metallic plates locked into place over his shoulders and chest. Beneath it, his inner armor Aegis hummed with a deep protective energy. Encased in the dark and intricate metal, Li Yu looked incredibly imposing. He looked like an immovable warlord standing amidst the swirling ash.

He decided to fall into a dedicated supporting role to help others as well as inflict a lot of damage. He extended his hands and five distinct streaks of light shot out.

Firmament’s End, Gilded Calamity, Whispering Frost, and Pale Extinction orbited his armored body like deadly satellites. Finally, he summoned the massive rusted slab of Silent Bastion. He grabbed its thick hilt with both hands and slammed it directly into the scorched earth in front of him. The heavy sword buried itself deep into the stone and created an indestructible barricade and he planned to use it as a stationary shield to dodge and hide behind.

Li Yu stayed firmly on the ground within the glowing arrays established by the elders. The formations provided him with extra layers of protection while he put his arsenal to work. He closed his eyes for a brief moment and split his consciousness.

Using his main mind, he took direct control of Pale Extinction, Firmament's End and Gilded Calamity. The three lethal swords shot forward into the chaotic battlefield.

His second mind controlled his Qi clone. The ethereal duplicate stepped out of his physical body and shot into the air. The second mind also took control of Whispering Frost. The clone immediately went to work supporting the surrounding disciples with Qi techniques.

It hurled Abyssal Javelins over the defensive arrays to impale advancing enemies. It also unleashed sweeping arts of freezing and piercing ice to provide vital crowd control and slow the enemy charges.

Li Yu kept his main body planted safely behind Silent Bastion. He had not fully mastered the complex multitasking required for all of his weapons and himself to take action. He simply did not feel confident enough to engage in brutal close quarters melee while simultaneously commanding his clone and four flying swords. Staying behind the shield was the smartest and most efficient way to maximize his output without risking his life at this time.

The battlefield was a terrifying spectacle of endurance. Disciples traded dozens of heavy blows with the dark armored enemies. Their weapons sparked and their Qi clashed in prolonged and desperate struggles.

A young warrior from the Piercing Heavens Pavilion was locked in a bitter duel with an enemy wielding a flaming broadsword. The two of them had been fighting for a while now. The Piercing Heavens disciple spun his heavy silver glaive to deflect a wave of dark fire.

Taken from NovelBin, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

He then stepped forward and thrust his weapon but the enemy parried the strike and delivered a heavy kick to the disciple's chest. The young warrior stumbled backward and gasped for air while the enemy raised his flaming broadsword to deliver a lethal execution. A streak of golden light suddenly flashed across the dark sky.

Gilded Calamity arrived with terrifying speed and it did not bother engaging the enemy's weapon. The golden sword simply darted past the broadsword and severed the attacker's hand at the wrist. The enemy screamed in agony and dropped his weapon while the Piercing Heavens disciple seized the momentary opening and drove his glaive straight through the man's heart. Gilded Calamity did not linger as it instantly turned and shot across the crater to find a new target.

Further down the defensive line, a massive disciple from the Titan Body Sect was wrestling with two fire aspect cultivators. The disciple's bronze skin sizzled and popped under the intense heat of their combined arts. He threw heavy punches that rattled their defensive Qi but the volume of flames was slowly overwhelming his Adamantine defense. He was taking significant damage and his movements were growing sluggish.

Firmament's End descended from the clouds like a falling star of hope. The blade radiated a majestic and sharp aura. It cleanly pierced the first attacker's chest and pinned him to the ground.

Before the second attacker could even react to his falling comrade, Firmament's End ripped itself free and spun in a tight horizontal arc. It took the second attacker's head clean off his shoulders before flying off once again. The Titan Body disciple let out a heavy breath of relief and gave the flying sword a respectful nod before charging toward another group of enemies.

Li Yu maintained his relentless support and killing frenzy. His swords danced across the battlefield and intervened wherever the allied lines were buckling. Li Yu did his best to mainly focus on supporting the disciples who were struggling against the overwhelming numbers while he let the elders handle the apocalyptic duels in the sky.

Several disciples from the Zhan Clan retreated behind the defensive arrays to catch their breath. They stood near Li Yu and drank healing pills while they watched him work since he was just standing there. They saw him standing completely still behind his rusted sword but they then noticed what he was doing. They watched his ethereal clone hurling spears of dark Qi while his beautiful flying swords reaped lives across the ashen valley.

"Look at him." A heavily scarred Zhan Clan disciple muttered while wiping blood from his eyes. "He fights strictly using Qi arts and flying swords. He isn't even using his physical body to brawl with them."

"I thought he was a body refiner like us." Another Zhan disciple grunted while wrapping a bandage around his bleeding forearm. "He has the bloodline of the Zhan Clan and the Worldkeeper. Yet he fights exactly like an orthodox sword saint from the inner realms."

"It is incredibly elegant and deadly though." A female Zhan warrior added with a tone of respect. "He controls the flow of the battlefield without taking a single step forward. He is a true master of the Qi path."

Li Yu overheard their conversation over the din of battle and a faint smile touched his lips beneath his helmet. The irony of the situation was highly amusing to him even in the middle of battle. When he was staying at the Li Clan estate, the elegant scholars and sword fanatics had constantly complained that he fought like a brute. They had mocked him for relying on his physical strength and heavy smashing weapons instead of proper orthodox techniques and swords.

Now, he was standing among a faction of literal brawlers and body refiners. To them, his use of flying swords and elemental crowd control made him look like a pristine and untouchable sword saint.

‘Perspective truly mattered a lot in the cultivation world.’ Li Yu just happened to think to himself. It all depended on who was doing the observing.

He shifted his focus back to the battlefield and channeled more energy into his primary weapon. Pale Extinction was performing miracles out on the battlefield. The white bone sword possessed a terrifying and ancient aura that seemed to suppress the Qi of anyone it approached. Li Yu guided the weapon through a dense cluster of enemies and he noted that he was feeling much better connected to the sword than he ever had before.

In the past, it required more willpower to command. Now, the spiritual bond he had formed with the weapon's innate spirit made it feel like an extension of his own arm. An enemy commander wielding twin hooked blades noticed the devastation Pale Extinction was causing through the field. He roared in anger and charged toward the bone sword in hopes to stop it. The commander unleashed a dense wave of black fire that threatened to consume the blade.

Li Yu did not panic though as he felt the intent of the sword's spirit resonate perfectly with his own mind. With a simple thought, Pale Extinction accelerated to an impossible speed as it pierced directly through the wave of black fire without slowing down. The enemy commander raised his hooked blades to block the incoming strike and the combatants traded a rapid flurry of blows. Sparks flew into the air as the bone sword battered against the dense metal hooks.

The exchange lasted for twenty tense seconds as the enemy commander fought fiercely and pushed his vitality to the limit. He managed to parry three lethal strikes aimed at his neck. However, Pale Extinction was relentless and its movements were completely unpredictable. The bone sword feinted a high strike, abruptly dropped its elevation and stabbed directly through the commander's stomach.

The commander coughed up a mouthful of blood and stumbled backward. Before he could recover his stance, Pale Extinction ripped upward and tore through his chest cavity. The man collapsed into the ash and the bone sword kept right on going as it shot across the battlefield leaving a faint white trail of death in its wake.

Li Yu stood firmly behind Silent Bastion and maintained his deep concentration. His clone continued to hurl Abyssal Javelins to shatter the enemy formations while Whispering Frost also reaped lives. The battle raged on continuously and the roars of the dying and the explosive sounds of clashing laws echoed endlessly through the night.

Li Yu did not tire as he used his immense reserves of Qi to keep his weapons moving. He was determined to hold the line until the reinforcements finally arrived to wipe these cowards from the face of the realms. He would do his best to prevent as many deaths as possible.