Chapter 841: The Immortal Drops a Stone

Since the matter could not be avoided, let it come with greater force—the Middle Way is not easily walked; only great states practice the Middle Way, while small states cling to the fence. This is clearly written in history.

Little Wei Yuan understood this well; since Tian Wu had entered the fray, he had abandoned all hope of luck, fully unleashing the growth of the Huang Quan Cave Heaven. Either way, death was certain—better to strike back once before dying.

The Huang Quan Cave Heaven's own power remained weak, but its very existence, regardless of scale, held meaning—it completed a greater cycle of human life and breath.

Yet this monumental advancement had drawn no heavenly tribulation, leaving Little Wei Yuan uneasy.

Among the mountains surrounding the Hall of Spirits, tombstones were multiplying in vast clusters, densely covering several hillsides. The spirit plaques within the first hall of Lingxiao Hall also steadily increased, their glow growing brighter, glowing eternally. With dual oversight from the Dao Domain and the Zhou Tian Array, every heroic act could be accurately judged.

This truth was long known and verified by mortals. Thus, at critical moments in battle, vast numbers of soldiers would charge with the resolve to die alongside their enemies, fighting bloody battles to rescue desperate situations. You give me a peach, I return a plum—this was the Dao of most ordinary soldiers.

Little Wei Yuan remained patient, directing his troops to slowly contract, surrendering a small stretch of ground each day, while the intensity of artillery fire gradually weakened.

Finally, when Liu Lan had fully occupied the first two defensive lines and believed victory assured, Little Wei Yuan launched a full-scale counterattack—artillery intensity reached unprecedented levels, a relentless bombardment lasting a full hour, teaching Liu Lan what true martial virtue meant.

After the artillery barrage, no living thing remained on the surface; the heavy use of high-explosive shells had inflicted catastrophic casualties even among the Wu clansmen hiding in trenches.

Soon after, hundreds of thousands of Qingming troops surged forward along a hundred-li front, breaking through the Wu defenses, reclaiming the first defensive line, and encircling hundreds of thousands of Wu forces between the first and third lines.

For the first time, Qingming deployed large numbers of heavy armor units, wielding twin-barreled spray guns as they advanced along the trenches. These guns were immensely powerful—any Great Wu struck within several zhang would be wounded; Wu noble cultivators with Foundation Establishment were nearly one-shot kills.

On the battlefield, Qingming's young officers seized fleeting opportunities with sharp precision, slicing the Wu forces into smaller and smaller fragments, annihilating them piece by piece.

Meanwhile, Wu reinforcements from the rear were crushed by furious artillery fire and could not advance. As the elite forces faced imminent annihilation, the entire vanguard corps would suffer crippling losses.

Little Wei Yuan surveyed the entire battlefield, feeling deeply satisfied. These young officers had finally grown through countless battles—their battlefield command and timing were excellent. Though slightly inferior to the full control of human life and breath, that was because they operated within localized sectors, unable to grasp the overall situation.

If only they could control the entire battlefield's situation… yet even then, human life and breath still seemed superior?

Little Wei Yuan stood with his hands behind his back, awaiting the Wu's next move. If the Wu had no further tricks, then these hundreds of thousands of Wu troops would be his.

Above, dark clouds churned rapidly, swirling like boiling porridge without direction—this was the clash between the celestial realms of the human and Wu clans, their mind-realms' conflict spilling over and affecting their own heavens.

Little Wei Yuan was not concerned with the celestial battle; though his side might be at a disadvantage, it could still hold. At a higher level, even if the Cui family's Immortal Ancestor could not directly intervene, merely disrupting Tian Wu's move would fundamentally improve the situation.

Even if the Wu unleashed another great curse, Little Wei Yuan was prepared to endure it with his peerless Dao Domain until the encircled Wu forces were annihilated. Moreover, the encircled Wu troops were under constant artillery fire—they could not hold much longer.

After careful calculation, Little Wei Yuan felt no further variables remained—the first victory was within sight.

Liu Lan, who had been seated atop the altar, eyes blazing with rage, his fury drawing the gaze of celestial monsters across the battlefield, suddenly grew calm and still—his pupils turned deep, dark silver.

He let out a cold laugh: "Finally, you've taken the bait. Pretending to be so hot-tempered for so long was exhausting."

Before his words ended, his body rapidly expanded until it stretched hundreds of zhang long, coiling around the entire main altar. Above his head, a silver feathered serpent manifested, its tail reaching from earth to heaven; its eyes emitted rings of hazy light that trapped the celestial monsters' gazes, making them spin within the glow.

Then, one by one, altars shot up torrents of bloodlight before shattering— including the main altar Liu Lan had occupied. The vast reservoir of sacrificial power, combined with the celestial energy borrowed by offering the entire altar as sacrifice, had reached an unimaginable scale—instantly, heaven and earth transformed!

Little Wei Yuan was stunned, but could do nothing—only watch as a ten-zhang-high wave of earth surged forward from the Wu camp!

This was no mere disaster—it was a force beyond mortal resistance. The once-solid concrete fortifications were hurled into the air and shattered. Soldiers of both Wu and Qingming were flung skyward, then crashed down. Many were buried outright beneath the rising earth.

Underground bunkers were utterly destroyed—they could withstand heavenly curses from above, but offered no resistance against this earth-shattering spell. Countless soldiers hidden in tunnels had no escape—they were buried alive.

In the blink of an eye, the earthwave crossed the third defensive line, then finally exhausted itself.

The battlefield lay in ruins, unrecognizable—only a few tilted fortresses remained as proof this had once been fortified ground. The surface was covered in freshly turned earth and stone; corpses lay scattered everywhere, many half-buried humans and Wus struggling desperately to free themselves from the soil.

An entire hundred-li stretch of fortified positions had been utterly destroyed.

Little Wei Yuan felt icy cold all over, his heart as if soaked in freezing water—this devastation, this collapse of heaven and earth—this was the power of Immortals!

Above the battlefield, the sky turned crimson again—the dark clouds became blood clouds, and a light drizzle of blood began to fall. At the same time, a wind shimmering with lunar radiance blew from the Wu camp—it had no form or substance, did not affect living beings directly, yet eroded and compressed the Dao Domain.

Under the lunar wind, Qingming's nurturing energy drained like water through an open gate, forcing Little Wei Yuan to contract his domain by a hundred li—or it would collapse entirely.

Without the domain's protection, the Wu blood curses were unstoppable—soldiers could only endure them alone. Watching the endless rain, Little Wei Yuan's heart sank—he knew few would survive.

The Wu's blood curse struck friend and foe alike, yet precisely because of this, its power was greater.

Within the blood rain, Wu soldiers also writhed and screamed as they died. Many Wu noble cultivators cursed Liu Lan in their final moments—these curses became black rain, pouring down upon him, yet all were repelled by the silver lunar glow surrounding him.

And this was not the end—another rolling wave of green mist rose from the Wu camp, pushed by the Wu wind toward Qingming. Merely seeing it from afar, Little Wei Yuan sensed the profound truths of decay, corruption, distortion, and final oblivion.

This green mist was not especially toxic, but uniquely insidious—wherever it passed, the ground was poisoned and corrupted, slowly seeping deep underground. Eventually, the land it touched was utterly ruined—far worse than salting a field. Once the earth's vitality was destroyed, even the only foods the Wu could eat would no longer grow, nor could fish or shrimp survive.

Four great curses, each more vicious than the last: the earth curse destroyed fortifications, burying both armies indiscriminately; the lunar wind curse dispersed the Dao Domain, removing the shield over all life; the blood curse slaughtered all living beings, friend and foe alike; finally, the corruption curse turned the land into eternal poison and death. This was an attempt to uproot Qingming entirely!

In less than an hour, Qingming suffered its heaviest single-day losses in history—250,000 troops perished here, while the Wu paid with 800,000 lives.

But this was not all—the terrifying karmic weight generated by this slaughter, because Qingming had become its own realm, severed from the Wu domain, now flowed entirely toward Little Wei Yuan.

This violated the Dao and defied all norms—it was clearly Tian Wu's doing, stealing and replacing the fundamental laws of heaven and earth, forcing upon Little Wei Yuan karmic burdens that were never his to bear.

Only now did the terror of the Immortals become clear—they could steal heaven and alter the sun.

A massive, grotesque tide of black-red energy surged toward Little Wei Yuan—when suddenly, a gentle rain of light fell from the sky, and countless black-red karmic forces vanished beneath the drops, their whereabouts unknown. A few were drawn into the Huang Quan Cave Heaven, leaving only a trace to fall upon human life and breath, all of which was absorbed by the Red Lotus Bodhi.

(End of Chapter)