Chapter 416: War

In the Shaman domain, a pair of eyes suddenly opened in the canopy of an ancient tree, staring into the distance. There, a team of human knights appeared, running with short steps, their military Qi gathering and clinging to the team.

Watching the cavalry team approach, a figure darted out from the tree, spread its wings, and flew toward the distance. But a stream of fire suddenly descended from the sky, swallowing its figure.

Wei Yuan extinguished the Shaman tribe's scout with a Dao technique; he had already lost count of how many he had cleared along the way.

He led this small team of cavalry to advance, advance, and advance again. Along the way, they didn't attack villages or towns, leaving them for the follow-up troops.

Wei Yuan's divine sense suddenly moved, discovering a Shaman tribe team moving on another road several thousand zhang away, in the same direction as himself.

He immediately flew over to inspect it and discovered that this was a migrating tribe, totaling over twenty thousand, carrying several hundred boats and carts, with about five thousand armored soldiers, and in addition, a mobile altar built on an eight-wheeled cart.

Wei Yuan immediately returned to the troop, the whole team turned, slanted into the front of that Shaman tribe, and occupied a small hill. The Shaman tribe was in chaos, hurriedly setting up a formation, and a Great Shaman in the team climbed onto the altar and began a cumbersome ritual.

Just at this moment, the sound of hooves suddenly erupted from the rear of the Shaman tribe team, and two thousand-man cavalry teams killed their way from the rear!

Only at this time did Wei Yuan launch an attack, with three sides flanking, instantly crushing the opponent. Wei Yuan used more than ten Dao techniques in succession to beat the Great Shaman until he was on the verge of death, then captured him back to the troop to distribute merit points.

The battle situation was decided, and Wei Yuan continued to lead the vanguard to advance deep, leaving two cavalry teams to begin indiscriminate slaughter of the surviving Shaman tribe. The first principle of engagement set by Wei Yuan for this battle was to slaughter all Shaman tribe members in the Rain Kingdom who could move.

Half an hour later, in the image of the Ten Thousand Li of Mountains and Rivers, the enemy markers around the two cavalry teams almost completely disappeared, with only a thousand Shaman tribe members fleeing into the mountains. The two cavalry teams didn't even clean up the battlefield and headed toward two other directions that had not been scouted.

Two hours later, another Shaman tribe troop appeared.

They were shocked by the tragic state of the battlefield, but couldn't help but pick up the wealth all over the ground, only to be discovered by the third thousand-man cavalry team passing by this troop, which launched a surprise attack from the rear and slaughtered most of them. After defeating the enemy, this cavalry team also didn't clean up the battlefield and continued to advance deep.

Wei Yuan's goal for this battle was clear, and that was the city of the Rain Kingdom several hundred li away. That city had a history of over a thousand years, with hundreds of thousands of Shaman tribe members living in the city, and over a million Shaman tribe members scattered in the surrounding villages and towns.

Wei Yuan always marched according to the plan, controlling the speed and preserving the horses' strength.

Along the way, he would first eliminate any Shaman tribe teams heading toward that city. These small units, when gathered together, were also a considerable number; if they were allowed to enter the city to hide, it would be a big trouble.

Until the last twenty li, Wei Yuan began to lead the army to charge.

At this time, there were gentle hills around, and countless wooden strips stood in the low-lying ponds; those were the water fields that the Shaman tribe relied on for survival. There were villages among the fields, and the houses were all in a style that was half-submerged in water.

Faint green Qi was rising from the villages, constantly dissipating into the surrounding heaven and earth.

The Shaman tribe members working in the fields all straightened up, looking somewhat blankly at the Qingming iron cavalry galloping past, unable to understand what had happened for a moment. It was only after a while that someone reacted, screaming and fleeing back to the village, ringing the alarm bell, and then lighting the alarm smoke.

In an instant, more than ten smoke signals were lit one after another, leading straight to the city!

Wei Yuan rode in the lead and had already seen the city from afar. Smoke signals were also lit in the city, bells were ringing in chaos, and the gates were slowly closing. Many Shaman tribe people were scrambling to pass through the gates, and those who couldn't make it in time were scattering and running into the surrounding countryside.

Wei Yuan came too suddenly, so much so that the city-protecting formation didn't have time to be activated.

Watching the closing city gates, Wei Yuan flew directly onto the city wall, and at the same time, two small figures darted out from his body; they pounced back and forth, as fast as lightning, and wherever they passed, Shaman tribe soldiers fell in droves.

Two Great Shaman-level martial artists were furious and came up to meet the battle. But as soon as they showed their heads, one Great Shaman was beaten into a sieve by Wei Yuan with "Flawless Rebirth." After Wei Yuan advanced to the Dharma Form, the firing speed of "Flawless Rebirth" increased accordingly, and a magazine of twenty flying swords could be emptied in one second. With such fierce attacks, ordinary Great Shamans couldn't resist at all.

The other Great Shaman was pounced on back and forth by the two small figures and was torn to pieces in a moment.

At this time, the cavalry team had already arrived under the city wall, and several knights directly chiseled the wall with heavy hammers, dug out holes, and then filled them with explosives.

Amidst the sound of explosions, half of the city tower collapsed, and the city-protecting formation was also destroyed. The cavalry added explosives once more, this time completely blowing up the two giant gates. Thus, the cavalry entered the city like wolves into a flock of sheep!

At this time, Wei Yuan ascended into the sky, scanning the entire city, and a brand-new city defense map quickly appeared in the Ten Thousand Li of Mountains and Rivers, constantly adding details.

The flying marten and the cat were galloping on the city wall, specifically destroying large bed crossbows and other war machines as well as the nodes of the city-protecting formation. They moved extremely fast, and three Great Shamans were chasing desperately behind them, but they couldn't catch up no matter what.

Wei Yuan quickly discovered the location of the altar, so the cavalry entering the city changed direction instantly and killed their way toward the altar. At this time, the city was already in chaos, and the small units of Shaman tribe soldiers couldn't figure out what had happened, and didn't even know where the enemy was.

On the altar sat an elderly Great Shaman, his whole body soaked in a blood pool. The entire altar was emitting dim blood light, and blood Qi was rising.

In Wei Yuan's eyes, some difficult-to-detect power rose from the altar and dissipated into heaven and earth. And heaven and earth fed back some spiritual energy, constantly injecting it into that old Shaman's body. This kind of exchange seemed to be the essence of sacrificing to heaven.

Wei Yuan observed quietly for a while and didn't act immediately. This was a rare opportunity to observe the Shaman tribe's sacrifice to heaven. And this time, the sacrifice was clearly no small matter; there were several hundred human heads and human corpses placed around the altar, and most of them were young and strong.

The vitality flowing toward the center of the altar was vigorous, but after entering the blood pool, what flowed out from the bottom was pale white viscous liquid, which was discharged as waste water, and the blood Qi had already gone somewhere unknown.

Under Wei Yuan's observation, the vitality in the fresh blood seemed to be sent to heaven and earth, and was not used by the old Shaman. What the old Shaman absorbed was the spiritual energy fed back by heaven and earth. Wei Yuan occupied the altar, and the cavalry changed their targets, dispersing into hundred-man teams, heading to various key locations scanned by Wei Yuan.

The vanguard cavalry was entirely composed of Dao Foundation cultivators, each holding a flying sword gun. A Shaman tribe unit of two or three hundred would be crippled in one encounter, and if they hesitated, it would be total annihilation.

The knights also threw explosives into the surrounding houses from time to time, and a few shots would blow up an entire building, burying all the Shaman tribe members inside.

From time to time, Shaman tribe warriors would fight to the death, desperately charging to the side of the knights, only to discover in despair that these heavy-armored and sharp-bladed cavalrymen were all Dao Foundation cultivators!

Wei Yuan flew slowly in the sky, adding the "Ten Thousand Li of Mountains and Rivers" to the troops below from time to time, and seeing signs of enemy troops gathering, he threw several "Flowing Fire Techniques," directly scattering them.

The old Shaman in the altar finally noticed the huge commotion in the city. Blood Qi fluctuated on the altar, and he slowly opened his eyes, wanting to wake up from the ritual.

Wei Yuan didn't observe anymore, took out a box of explosives, and threw it directly into the blood pool.

With a heaven-shaking roar, the blood pillar raised from the blood pool was a full several dozen zhang high, and the old Shaman's body also flew into mid-air, rolling like a tattered rag doll.

Wei Yuan pointed to the sky, and stream after stream of flowing fire fell from the sky, instantly swallowing the old Shaman!

When the smoke cleared, the surface of the altar was already a mess, all formations were destroyed, and the fresh blood had been burned into large patches of scorched marks.

That old Shaman's four arms had all disappeared, and his withered, aged body was curled up in pain. Wei Yuan looked at the city and then at the current state of his knights, feeling that this little bit of merit points was not easy to distribute for a moment; a mere one hundred merit points were not worth the trouble, so he could only shoot a water blade to extinguish the old Shaman's sea of consciousness.

Now the family disciples following Wei Yuan all had quite a few merit points, and there was no need to specifically influence the battle at hand for a few or a dozen merit points; they were no longer the people who would turn green with envy at the sight of merit points back then.

The altar was destroyed, and coupled with the indiscriminate attacks by the cavalry, the entire city fell into chaos. The Shaman tribe didn't know how many enemies had come, only hearing gunfire everywhere, flames burning everywhere, and the sound of explosions continuing one after another, as one magnificent building after another was blown down.

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At this point, Wei Yuan felt somewhat fortunate; if the Shaman tribe's buildings were reinforced with steel bars as Xu Xu Wenwu said, it would be absolutely impossible to blow them down with one explosion.

At this time, the cavalry teams dispersed again, advancing street by street in teams of twenty or thirty. When they encountered Shaman tribe troops, it was a face-to-face sweep, and in the blink of an eye, there were corpses everywhere.

When they encountered houses where Shaman tribe members were ambushing or hiding, the knights would directly throw explosives to blow down the entire building, burying all the Shaman tribe members inside.

From time to time, Shaman tribe warriors would fight to the death, desperately charging to the side of the knights, only to discover in despair that these heavy-armored and sharp-bladed cavalrymen were all Dao Foundation cultivators!

Wei Yuan flew slowly in the sky, adding the "Ten Thousand Li of Mountains and Rivers" to the troops below from time to time, and seeing signs of enemy troops gathering, he threw several "Flowing Fire Techniques," directly scattering them.

In the city, there were six Great Shamans in total, and by now, three had died, and the other three had fled. Wei Yuan appeared relaxed at this time, but in reality, his magic power was also being consumed rapidly. His magic power was all used to supplement the troops' military Qi, otherwise, if the knights were directly exposed to the heaven and earth of the Shaman domain, their strength would be greatly weakened.

At this time, towering military Qi appeared in the distance, and the main force of twenty thousand cavalry and infantry finally arrived!

From Wei Yuan's vanguard entering the city to the main force of the rear army killing their way in, it took no more than an hour. But the rear army had an accident on the way, and it was still a quarter of an hour slower than planned.

The main force arrived, and there were no more accidents, and the entire city fell into Wei Yuan's hands.

Cui Yu led the main force, arranged for the troops to take over the city and clean up the battlefield, and then found Wei Yuan, quite moved: "Why was it so easy to fight? Is the Shaman tribe so weak now?"

Wei Yuan was startled: "Where was it easy?"

Cui Yu said: "Look, the main army just left the boundary and marched all the way, and there wasn't even a battle on the road, it's just that quite a few carts broke down. Then we arrived here and directly entered the city to finish off the tail. A city occupied by hundreds of thousands of Shaman tribe members and managed for over a thousand years fell into our hands just like this, simply like child's play."

Wei Yuan finally understood; from Cui Yu's perspective, this battle had turned into three steps: main force departure, entering the city, and occupation.

Wei Yuan patted Cui Yu on the shoulder and said: "It won't be easy; the great battle is still to come."

The main infantry force entered the city, and the Shaman tribe knew that the situation was gone, each fleeing from the four gates. Wei Yuan did not allow any civilians to stay in the city, driving them all out of the city, and those who fled slowly would be slaughtered. In Wei Yuan's eyes, the difference between Shaman tribe civilians and soldiers was only whether they had weapons in their hands, and during wartime, he would not distinguish between them at all; if there was something moving in front of him, he would kill it.

Next, the infantry began to dismantle the city-protecting formation and collect spoils of war and the human sacrificial offerings that were still alive, while the cavalry began to rest.

Six hours later, a supply caravan arrived on time, replenishing the flying swords, ammunition, and explosives consumed by Wei Yuan's vanguard cavalry.

Twelve hours later, a supply caravan loaded with heavy materials such as food arrived on time, replenishing five days of military rations for the troops.

The military officers leading the two supply caravans were all originally private soldiers of the Xu family or government troops, who then advanced to Dao Foundation in Qingming and stayed behind wholeheartedly.

For them, this was also an unprecedented war experience.

The march routes were all given in advance, and it was precise to when to arrive at which node. They were just marching to the point to unload goods according to the plan, and then returning to load new goods, just like traveling merchants in a peaceful region.