Chapter 479: Opinion

The Shaman tribe's advance was slow yet steady, ten *li* per day, moving forward along with the progress of the canal.

A massive city had already taken shape nine hundred *li* from Azure Void. Massive amounts of resources flowed in continuously along the river channel, small tribes arrived one after another, and every day, the Shaman tribe opened up new military camps.

At this moment, on the sand table map in front of Wei Yuan, one could see a straight river piercing directly toward Azure Void, its front end less than eight hundred *li* away from the boundary.

On the map, a small lake had appeared at the seven-hundred-*li* mark; this had not been there before.

Over five hundred thousand Shaman tribe laborers, under the protection of an equal number of troops, pushed forward to this location, digging out the lake in just three or four days, and they were still continuously deepening and widening it. Clearly, when the canal extended to this point, it would become another water storage station.

If one looked at the map now, Azure Void was like a verdant, clean gemstone embedded in the earth. To its west was a faint green, which gradually transitioned into a dark green. However, a thin, dark green spike was continuously piercing into the light green, approaching the gemstone at the center.

The Rain Kingdom was like a moving mountain at this moment, slow yet steady, sufficient to crush and destroy everything in its path.

Behind Bao Yun flew into the main peak and walked into Wei Yuan's residence, only to see a chessboard set up in front of Wei Yuan. He was playing against himself, and every time he made a move, he recorded it in the scorebook beside him.

Behind Bao Yun had a decent foundation in the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting since childhood, so she stood by and watched for a while. As a result, she felt a bit dizzy after only a few moves; her mental energy had been over-consumed. The variations in this game of chess were truly too many; many of the moves were no longer just "unconstrained," but completely incomprehensible.

On the chessboard, the black and white sides were biting into each other, entangled in battle. Every area was fighting, with the flames of war everywhere, yet each small battlefield was connected to the others, where pulling one hair would affect the whole body. The complexity of the situation was something Behind Bao Yun had never seen in any ancient manual.

Wei Yuan pondered for a long time before placing another piece on the board. This move completely ignited the last piece of pure land on the board.

Wei Yuan let out a long breath, recorded this move in the scorebook, and then prepared to put the scorebook away.

"Not playing anymore?" Behind Bao Yun couldn't help but ask; she had been watching intently.

"Mm, that's all for now." Wei Yuan reached out and pointed into the air. A water column mixed with ice cubes appeared out of thin air and poured onto his head. The water column instantly turned into steam, filling the entire room, making it almost impossible to see the person opposite him.

After the room was filled with water vapor like this, Wei Yuan's body temperature slowly dropped, and he finally felt a bit better. He was so hot that he even wanted to cut an opening in his head and pour water directly inside.

For this game of chess, he had mobilized almost all the capabilities of the Human World Renjian Yanhuo, playing for a full three hours to get to where it was now.

Behind Bao Yun's chess skill was actually not low. Seeing that this game had only been played for less than two hundred moves and had just reached the most intense part, with thousands of brilliant moves already played and infinite possibilities ahead, why did he suddenly stop?

Seeing Behind Bao Yun's question, Wei Yuan said with an exhausted face, "It's best to stop here. At daybreak, I will send someone to deliver the scorebook to Master Chenzhou, Qiuyue, and those great-grandfathers of yours. However, the Seventh Elder will likely not understand it. Help me think, who else are the great masters? At least they must be at the Yu Jing Realm, and preferably those who can fight."

Behind Bao Yun immediately understood Wei Yuan's intention and said, "Actually, giving it to Master Chenzhou, Qiuyue, and the Seventh Elder is enough. How does the quality of this game compare to the 'Graffiti Chapter'?"

Wei Yuan said, "The chess skill is already one level higher."

"Then that's fine. If they can't figure it out, they will inevitably send it to other masters. We don't need to send it up ourselves, which would only lower our own status. However, when did you become so good at chess?"

Wei Yuan said, "It's not that I'm good; it's that my Dharma Form is special—it's the one that knows how to play chess. Speaking of which, how is your foundation, and how much Qi Luck have you accumulated?"

"There are already seventy thousand people in Ding'an City now, plus forty thousand garrison troops. There is a lot of Qi Luck; basically, anyone who sees me can increase some Qi Luck for me, which is very strange..."

Wei Yuan thought to himself that it wasn't strange at all. If the eldest miss Bao didn't know how lethal her face was, then Wei Yuan would never believe it even if he died.

This eldest miss was top-tier in terms of face, figure, temperament, talent, family background, and learning; she had absolutely no shortcomings. Perhaps her only flaw was that she liked to act like a drama queen sometimes, but not everyone could see this side of her.

Plus, when the Shaman tribe attacked last time, she had truly repelled a powerful enemy, so it wasn't strange that she gained Qi Luck. The cultivation technique she practiced was exactly one that required Qi Luck.

Behind Bao Yun's perception of Qi Luck was relatively vague, unlike Wei Yuan, who could directly count the green and purple Qi in his Dharma Form. But the Qi Luck she had accumulated now was already sufficient; it had basically filled the gaps in her Dao Foundation. It was just that she was still a little short of being full and overflowing. Once the opportunity arrived, she could attempt to break through to the Dharma Form Realm.

Behind Bao Yun's requirements for her Dharma Form were naturally different from Cui Yu's. She would only break through when every aspect reached perfection, and her requirements in this regard were not a bit lower than Zhang Sheng's or Ji Ji Liuli's. Wei Yuan had already discovered that the more one pursued perfection, the easier it seemed for problems to arise. Zhang Sheng, Ji Ji Liuli, and Behind Bao Yun were all like this; instead, it was people like himself and Cui Yu, who weren't so particular and were content with whatever, who found breaking through to the Dharma Form Realm very easy.

It was just that Zhang Sheng and Behind Bao Yun were both dragged down by Wei Yuan, a point Wei Yuan selectively forgot.

The sky was about to brighten; it was the most exhausted time for the Shaman tribe. Wei Yuan flew out of Azure Void and, as usual, circled the Shaman Domain to check on the progress. Last night, the Shaman tribe had dug ten *li* as usual, and both the number of troops and laborers had increased.

After Wei Yuan looked, the scene he saw would be analyzed and processed in the Human World Renjian Yanhuo, counting everything seen in the image. In the end, there were already seven million Shaman tribe members within Wei Yuan's field of vision. Although most were civilians and laborers, the number of soldiers counted alone was already one million two hundred thousand.

It could be counted that the military rations were enough for about twelve days, but this was not a problem. As long as the canal was there, the Shaman tribe's frontline army could not be short of rations or military equipment.

Just as he returned to Azure Void, Wei Yuan suddenly felt the heaven and earth tremble, as if everything in the world was slowly shifting, and the Dao of the heaven and earth's operation began to change!

This was the Shaman tribe's Heaven and Earth Prohibition: Spear!

In an instant, the rules of heaven and earth slowly changed, and all kinds of true meanings of the spear were slowly dissipating, eventually leaving only two or three tenths of the original. Wei Yuan took out a spare magic treasure spear from his storage magic treasure. This was a real spear; Wei Yuan had originally kept it for performing counter-kills.

Wei Yuan circulated his Dao power and casually thrust the spear out; sure enough, its power was greatly reduced. He retreated several *li*, exited the boundary, and when he wielded the spear again, he found that without the protection of the boundary power, the true meaning of the spear in the magic treasure had almost completely dissipated, and the circulation of Dao power was very difficult, just like using a fire poker.

Wei Yuan's expression became a bit strange. He boosted his own Qi Luck and guessed blindly a few times, then suddenly thought, could it be related to his "Immortal Road Twilight"?

The more he thought about it, the more he felt this possibility existed. It should be that the Shaman tribe's You Wu and Saint Wu feared his "Immortal Road Twilight," which was why they banned the spear. After all, among the cultivators, there were none who used the spear, and those with the spear in their Dao Foundation were also a very small minority.

The further one cultivated, the more difficult it was to advance, and lifespan became all the more important. Many high-level cultivators had slightly less talent and luck, so they could only rely on their lifespan to cultivate and accumulate bit by bit, hoping for an occasional flash of inspiration and the arrival of an opportunity to have a glimmer of possibility to break through.

How precious were life-extending medicines? Then how disgusting was the "Immortal Road Twilight"? Yan Xin understood this point the most deeply. With just one thrust of the spear, he went from a young lad who had just tasted the flavor of flesh to a decrepit old man who could no longer perform.

!.

Wei Yuan also didn't expect that the Shaman tribe would actually use their precious Heaven and Earth Prohibition on the spear, just to guard against the "Immortal Road Twilight."

As for fire spears, flying sword spears, short-barreled cannons, and the like, although some were also called "spears," none were affected by the Heaven and Earth Prohibition. The flying swords launched by flying sword spears still had a bit of sword intent, and the projectiles of those fire spears were all driven by gunpowder; there was no true meaning in them at all. If one had to say, they probably had a bit of lead and copper true meaning.

Wei Yuan shook his head helplessly, took out the Scarlet Night Immortal-Slaying Sword, installed it on "Cruelty," and then a faint yellow light lit up at the tip of the sword. Seeing that "Immortal Road Twilight" could still be used as usual, Wei Yuan felt relieved.

Just at this moment, a dark green brilliance suddenly shot up into the sky from the Shaman Domain in the distance! Following that, boundless green Qi began to gush out from the earth, and the green Qi in the newly dug canal was even as thick as a wall!

The heaven and earth power of the Shaman Domain was almost boiling, expanding violently with the dark green pillar of light as the center. The Azure Void boundary in the northwest direction was actually pressed back step by step, retreating in one breath to the foot of Ding'an City.

The boundary was actually pressed back and shrunk by forty *li*?!

Wei Yuan manifested his Dharma Form and merged with Azure Void, and only after great difficulty did he resist the erosion of the Shaman Domain's heaven and earth power. He was shocked in his heart and looked far into the distance; the origin of that dark green pillar of Qi should be nine hundred *li* away. An altar had already been built there a few days ago. Now it seemed that one of the altars had been activated, and a large-scale sacrifice had been carried out, strengthening the Shaman Domain's heaven and earth power.

The Azure Void boundary trembled, immediately alarming the cultivators. Countless cultivators flew into the sky, not knowing what had happened.

Wei Yuan immediately flew to Ding'an City, found Behind Bao Yun, and said, "Change the plan. Now, the city-protecting grand array is the priority; first, strengthen the city-protecting grand array with all our might."

Behind Bao Yun immediately summoned the officials and generals in the city and assigned the tasks. Wei Yuan returned to the main peak and summoned the cultivators of the Tai Chu Palace to discuss countermeasures.

The Shaman tribe's sacrifice this time is unprecedented; it is actually capable of compressing the domain, which strikes right at the soft underbelly of the Azure Void, which was only recently established and is not yet sufficiently nurtured. If this happens a few more times, the entire Ding'an City will be exposed outside the domain.

After the cultivators arrived, Wei Yuan drew several circles on the map. The innermost one had already reached within one hundred *li* of the boundary stone.

At this time, the Human World Renjian Yanhuo was also calculating with all its might. Wei Yuan added his own estimates and marked the numbers one, two, and five on the three circles in front, then said, "If the sacrifice just now happens again, the boundary will retreat to the first line. If it happens two more times, it will be the second line. If there are five more times, then the entire Ding'an City will be outside the boundary."

Li Zhi had been studying statecraft and knew a lot about alien races. He said immediately, "Such a sacrifice must cost a lot. In terms of damage, it's not as good as directly casting a blood curse. I believe that the Shaman tribe's goal in activating this sacrifice is Ding'an City. Once they are prepared, they will compress the boundary, letting the entire Ding'an City be exposed. At that time, they will cooperate with the blood curse to kill a large number of garrison troops in the city. Therefore, my opinion is..."

"Abandon Ding'an City."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 480 =====