Chapter 453: Success Built on Ten Thousand Bones (6000)

(PS: Thank you all for your well-wishes; the proposal was a complete success~)

"Every time the Northern Barbarians raid the border, their goal is never to fight the Northern Border Army, but to bypass the army's defensive lines and enter the provinces in the rear to plunder on a massive scale."

"The North is bitterly cold and resources are scarce. Many tribes go hungry year-round, and when famine strikes, people starve to death. Whenever this happens, the Northern Barbarians would rather let their warriors die on the road to plunder than starve to death in the wilderness for nothing."

"In every raid, besides grain, cloth, ironware, weapons, and various cultivation resources, they also seize people."

"When they cannot seize enough grain, the Central Plains people they drag back become their rations! They don't just eat them themselves; they also feed them to the exotic beasts they keep!"

"."

Before coming to the Northern Border, Li Fei had researched detailed information on the Northern Barbarians, and this passage was among it.

Cannibalism, and even feeding people to exotic beasts!

Such brutal conduct made Li Fei have a very poor impression of the Northern Barbarians from the start, but when Bai Yan ordered the execution of all fifty thousand-plus Fire Qilin tribespeople, he still felt a sense of reluctance in his heart.

That was until he saw the white bone beneath his feet, which bore rows of tooth marks clearly left by humans.

If it were a member of the Fire Qilin tribe, the remains would not be disposed of so casually.

Although the seventeen Northern Barbarian tribes hate each other, they have not yet reached the point of eating one another.

Therefore, this white bone was in all likelihood a Central Plains person who had been abducted.

Half-buried in the soil, it silently recounted the irreconcilable blood feud between the two races!

For hundreds of years, such plundering had never ceased!

To the Northern Barbarians, Li Fei now belonged to the invading side.

But the white bone beneath his feet made him set aside his compassion.

The law of the jungle—this is the ultimate truth of heaven and earth!

Everyone is simply struggling for their own survival.

Li Fei silently swept toward the valley below. Sword State: Shadowless and Formless made him like a shadow that no one noticed, perfectly blending into the dark night.

Five others swept toward the valley with him, four of whom were Martial Arts Masters, along with the Grandmaster and President of Changping University, Qiu Zian!

In the Barbarian-Slaying Army, including Li Fei, there were a total of eight Martial Arts Masters. Three were responsible for commanding the three thousand-man Imperial Guard units, and the remaining five all took action tonight.

Li Fei landed on a wooden hut, and with a loud boom, he crushed the entire structure with one foot!

Inside the hut, a figure rushed out before the building collapsed.

This was a typical Northern Barbarian warrior: nearly two meters tall, bare-chested, covered in tattoos, and wearing various animal bones around his neck.

He let out a roar, completely shattering the quiet night.

The entire outpost suddenly became lively.

Li Fei calmly watched the Northern Barbarian warrior before him, not rushing to strike.

After the opponent roared, his aura began to surge.

First, a phantom of an exotic beast shaped like an ape appeared behind him, then the phantom of a single-horned tiger, and finally, the phantom of a black-scaled python.

Among these three phantoms, the smallest, the ape, was over five meters tall, and the largest, the black-scaled python, stood upright with its upper body reaching over ten meters!

As these three phantoms emerged, the body of the Northern Barbarian warrior before Li Fei immediately expanded, and a blood-red force erupted from him.

This blood-red force did not belong to any of the Five Elements; it carried a primitive, bloody quality.

"The Northern Barbarians do not focus on Five Elements Dao foundations; their attributes mostly lie outside the Five Elements."

Li Fei recalled the relevant information he had read.

The next second, the Northern Barbarian warrior charged at him.

The opponent left a trail of afterimages, crossing the ten-plus meters in an instant, and threw a simple straight punch toward Li Fei's face.

The air was blasted apart, and the biting wind blew away the surrounding wood chips.

This straight punch felt like a small mountain crashing head-on into Li Fei!

This Northern Barbarian warrior was a Dao Foundation stage martial artist and possessed at least Tier 5 combat power; he was a high-level Tu Du warrior among the Northern Barbarians.

Bang!!!

The opponent's fist ultimately stopped an inch before Li Fei's face, the bloody, savage blood-red force colliding with a faint golden glow.

It could not advance even a fraction of an inch.

The Northern Barbarian warrior who attacked Li Fei had his expression change drastically; the skin on his right fist suddenly cracked inch by inch, and fresh blood spurted out.

Not only that, the bones inside were also broken!

Because of the difference in their Dao foundation cultivation, Northern Barbarian warriors have stronger physiques than Central Plains martial artists of the same realm.

Yet, after one punch landed on the enemy, his own arm was broken?

This made the high-level Tu Du warrior realize that Li Fei must be a Ba Du powerhouse!

He quickly lifted his right foot to kick Li Fei, using the force to retreat while shouting again.

Following his shout, some ordinary warriors rushing toward this side stopped in their tracks.

More warriors rushed toward Li Fei's side.

Li Fei still did not strike.

This battle was a "warm-up" specifically arranged for them by Bai Yan, intended to let them witness the differences between Northern Barbarian warriors and Central Plains martial artists.

Therefore, Li Fei had chosen a Tu Du warrior from the start and allowed the opponent to perform.

"Ah—"

The Tu Du warrior with the broken right arm suddenly let out a beast-like wail.

Immediately after, the three exotic beast phantoms behind him shattered one after another!

Li Fei clearly felt three types of special power merging into the opponent's body from the shattered phantoms.

The opponent's body underwent a mutation at an extremely fast speed:

The skin cracked inch by inch, covered in black scales.

A single horn split from his forehead.

His hands grew thick hair, turning into two huge beast claws.

A scarlet eyeball split out on each side of his cheeks.

His body surged from just over two meters to over three meters!

A powerful and bloody aura erupted from within the opponent, and the blood-red force on his body surface turned into blood flames that shot into the sky!

"Beastification?"

Li Fei frowned slightly.

Beastification refers to the implants within a martial artist's body completely losing control, with beast nature suppressing humanity, thereby turning into a half-human, half-beast monster.

Outside the Northern Barbarian lands, once a martial artist falls into beastification, they are completely finished and must be killed immediately; there is absolutely no other outcome.

But among the Northern Barbarians, the warriors here possess controllable beastification!

In terms of the refinement of martial arts and the development and application of extraordinary implant abilities, the Northern Barbarians are far inferior to the Central Plains.

But their physiques are stronger, and they possess controllable beastification, which gives them the opportunity to catch up to or even surpass Central Plains martial artists.

"Before and after beastification, the combat power of a Northern Barbarian warrior is on two different levels!"

This thought surfaced in Li Fei's mind.

Swish—

The air was torn apart, and the beastified Tu Du warrior rushed to his front for the second time, his two furry beast claws turning into afterimages, enveloping his entire body.

A pungent, bloody smell permeated the air.

Bang bang bang bang bang!

A series of sounds like hammers hitting an anvil rang out continuously as the beastified Tu Du warrior circled Li Fei, attacking constantly.

The blood-red force turned into a blood-colored whirlwind, wrapping Li Fei within it.

The massive recoil force caused the ground beneath them to sink continuously, and the surrounding ruins of houses were blasted apart, turning into sky-filling wood chips mixed with flying dust.

The violent wind howled, even blowing away the nearby stone tables and stools!

Hearing the warning signal, the warriors rushing toward this side all looked at this battlefield with shocking activity with full respect.

Although Northern Barbarian beastification is controllable, it requires paying a heavy price.

For warriors below the Dao Foundation stage, using beastification once renders the person useless, relegating them to an ordinary person from then on.

Above the Dao Foundation stage, one can sacrifice a certain type of implant in the body to perform beastification.

But using it once is equivalent to dropping a realm.

Originally having incorporated three types of implants, using it once means becoming one that only incorporates two, and it is almost impossible to improve strength and realm in the future!

This is the heavy price of using beastification.

For Northern Barbarian warriors, unless it is a life-or-death moment, they would never use such a method.

This Tu Du warrior who was fighting Li Fei had already incorporated four types of implants and had triggered three core-level extraordinary abilities.

Just now, this person decisively disintegrated the four types of implants in his body to exchange for the power of beastification!

The price of doing so is that he will not only turn from a Tu Du warrior into a useless person, but there is even a possibility that his life will not be preserved!

But only such decisiveness could possibly win a glimmer of victory when facing a Ba Du powerhouse.

The Northern Barbarian warriors rushing around already had the resolve in their hearts; they were also prepared to perform beastification, using their own martial arts future and even their lives to exchange for Li Fei being injured!

But just as these people intended to perform beastification, the shocking activity before them suddenly stopped.

The sky-filling dust was blown away by a gust of wind, allowing the surrounding warriors to see the situation in the center of the battlefield clearly:

At the bottom of a large pit, the beastified Tu Du warrior stood beside Li Fei with his arms hanging down.

Four fingers on his two beast claws were bent backward, and the other fingers were also clearly twisted.

Under the gaze of the crowd of warriors, Li Fei raised his arm, and everyone only saw a golden glow flash.

The head of the beastified Tu Du warrior, which had a single horn, exploded like a watermelon!

"Ah ah ah—"

The warriors surrounding the large pit shouted one after another, preparing to beastify.

The next instant, Li Fei disappeared from the bottom of the pit.

Swish swish swish swish—

The shrill sound of breaking air was continuous; around the large pit, several golden glows crisscrossed like sword light.

When everything calmed down, all twenty-plus warriors present had been dismembered!

Almost everyone was split in half vertically from head to toe.

Fresh blood and internal organs were scattered all over the ground.

Li Fei's figure reappeared; he stood amidst this flesh and blood, his whole body flashing with golden light, not stained with a single drop of blood.

"Chi Ha!!!"

More roars came from all around.

Such terrifying slaughter not only failed to scare off the Fire Qilin tribe warriors, but instead ignited more anger and killing intent in them!

One beast shadow after another shattered, and the warriors rushing toward this side entered the beastification state one after another!

Li Fei stepped forward, pulling out a golden "Sword Dao."

Sword State: Heaven and Earth Unbound made his movement speed shockingly fast; when he moved at full speed, those below the Tu Du warrior level could not see his movement trajectory at all.

Even the Tu Du warriors present mostly had to rely on beast-like intuition to guess.

The ground was "plowed" into a straight, deep trench. Li Fei rushed to the front of another beastified Tu Du warrior, whose force was also blood-red, like a ball of burning flame.

This person subconsciously lifted his arm to punch, but Li Fei did not dodge or evade, meeting fist with fist.

The two fists collided. After the opponent beastified, his right arm, covered in white hair and clearly a circle thicker, broke inch by inch, the flesh and blood along with the bones turning into a pool of meat paste!

Immediately after, half of this person's body was cut open by the invisible sharpness, and the remaining half flew out.

Li Fei first picked out the few Tu Du warriors in the crowd and blasted them one by one!

Then he chopped the remaining warriors into two halves.

He didn't use any other moves; he just used Sword State: Heaven and Earth Unbound to rampage through the crowd, using the Hunyuan Vajra Force fused with True Power as a "battering ram."

Whether it was people or houses, everything was crushed upon impact!

Soon, all sixty-plus warriors rushing toward this side were killed by Li Fei.

He stood amidst a field of flesh, blood, and ruins, lost in thought.

Northern Barbarian warrior beastification can indeed be considered a "great killing weapon"!

After a high-level Tu Du warrior beastifies, if a Martial Arts Master does not use supernatural powers, it takes some effort to resolve it.

If dozens of Tu Du warriors completely beastify regardless of the cost, it is truly possible to seriously injure or even kill a Martial Arts Master with a single supernatural power!

"Tu Du warrior beastification is already so powerful; what if it were a Ba Du powerhouse, or even a Tian Du powerhouse beastifying?"

Li Fei had a more intuitive understanding of the combat power of the seventeen Northern Barbarian tribes, and he could not help but feel a bit worried.

This worry was not only because of controllable beastification, but also because of the unyielding nature of these Northern Barbarian warriors.

From beginning to end, even knowing the huge gap in combat power, not a single one of these Northern Barbarian warriors chose to flee!

During Li Fei's efficient slaughter, the other few Martial Arts Masters were also like tigers entering a flock of sheep, easily slaughtering the warriors within the Fire Qilin outpost.

The mission of these people was to first find the experts within the outpost and slaughter them all.

As for the remaining slaughter mission, they did not need to execute it.

The Grandmaster Qiu Zian, who acted with them, did not take action immediately, but floated in the air, overlooking everything below.

At this moment, over a hundred Fire Qilin tribespeople were running toward the periphery in the southeast, seemingly intending to escape.

When these people ran a distance out of the outpost building complex, a wall of purple fire appeared out of thin air.

The hundred-plus people, whether ordinary people or warriors, had no reaction at all, instantly turning into ashes!

In the air, the female Grandmaster Qiu Zian looked toward the southeast calmly, then withdrew her gaze.

Her mission was to prevent anyone from escaping!

Next, people continued to flee toward the periphery, but they were all burned to ashes by the suddenly appearing purple fire walls.

After thousands of people died, no one in the outpost dared to flee outward anymore.

At this time, Bai Yan had already brought a group of people to the top of the valley.

He looked indifferently at the slaughter below, waited for over ten minutes, and confirmed that the vast majority of experts among the Northern Barbarian warriors had been killed by Li Fei and the others before ordering:

"You go; kill everyone who dares to resist!"

Thus, one figure after another either jumped directly down the valley or climbed the cliff walls, leaping down bit by bit.

These people were all warriors of the Blue Patrol Pavilion.

With the vast majority of experts resolved by Li Fei and the others, the mission of the three thousand-plus Blue Patrol Pavilion warriors became relatively simple.

The slaughter continued under the night.

Although the ordinary warriors of the Fire Qilin tribe were also very strong and skilled in combat, compared to martial artists, their physical fitness was still far inferior.

Moreover, these ordinary warriors basically used cold weapons; only a few held firearms seized from raids, posing even less threat to the Blue Patrol Pavilion warriors.

One hour later, after paying the price of thirty-plus casualties, the Blue Patrol Pavilion warriors completed the mission.

Within the Fire Qilin outpost, everyone who dared to stand up and resist had been killed, falling into pools of blood.

A thick, bloody smell shot into the sky!

"Ugh—"

Many Blue Patrol Pavilion warriors were experiencing such large-scale slaughter for the first time, seeing so many corpses at once, and could not help but experience strong physiological discomfort.

"Pu Er Chi, Ha Xi Lu"

Bai Yan stood above the valley and suddenly spoke, his voice resounding throughout the entire outpost.

He spoke in the language of the Fire Qilin tribe, meaning for everyone to walk out of their houses and gather on the river beach.

Ten minutes later, those still hiding in their houses would be killed directly!

Hearing Bai Yan's announcement, people walked out of their houses one after another, their faces filled with fear, walking toward the nearby river beach.

These people were mostly women and children, as well as some elderly people with physical disabilities.

Over seventy percent of the men in this outpost had already died in battle.

Ten minutes later, over thirty thousand people had gathered on the river beach.

At this time, Bai Yan had already let the three thousand-plus Imperial Guard soldiers descend into the valley, then ordered everyone to search the houses.

Seeing anyone hiding, they were to be killed directly, while simultaneously searching for medicine and cultivation resources.

Over thirty minutes later, the Barbarian-Slaying Army had searched all the houses.

Bai Yan stepped into the air, as if there were an invisible staircase beneath his feet, walking step by step to a position above the river beach.

The thirty thousand-plus women, children, and elderly below all raised their heads, looking at him with terrified faces.

Li Fei also looked at Bai Yan in the air; he knew the opponent would not let the remaining thirty thousand-plus people go, but he did not know in what way the subsequent slaughter would be carried out.

If Bai Yan ordered the Blue Patrol Pavilion warriors to complete it, Li Fei felt that many of them would probably not be able to bring themselves to do it.

"Everyone, withdraw from the scope of this outpost."

Bai Yan issued an order to everyone in the Barbarian-Slaying Army.

Thus, over seven thousand people quickly withdrew from this building complex, also arriving on the river beach, over a hundred meters away from the thirty thousand-plus Fire Qilin tribespeople.

Suddenly, a terrifying majesty descended from the sky!

The sky was dyed blood-red, and immediately after, a river of blood fell directly into the human world, enveloping all thirty thousand-plus people on the river beach!

The river of blood continued to sweep toward the building complex on the river beach, soon enveloping the entire outpost.

"Martial Arts Domain!"

Li Fei's eyes sharpened; he recognized this as the Martial Arts Domain deployed by Bai Yan.

He had recently witnessed Prince Cheng's Martial Arts Domain, which was like a world of ice and snow.

Bai Yan's Martial Arts Domain was like a battlefield piled up with mountains of corpses and seas of blood!

Clashing weapons, ten thousand people slaughtering, corpses everywhere, blood light shooting into the sky.

Killing intent, anger, fear, resentment—all kinds of emotions erupted in that sea of blood!

Li Fei could only perceive the various auras of this sea of blood, but could not perceive the situation inside.

This sea of blood lasted for over thirty minutes before dissipating.

The subsequent scene left many in the Barbarian-Slaying Army looking horrified:

The thirty thousand-plus Fire Qilin tribespeople who were standing there perfectly fine just a moment ago had now all turned into piles of white bones on the river beach!

Bai Yan did not order others to carry out the slaughter; he alone killed over thirty thousand people!

Not only that, the corpses within the outpost had also turned into white bones.

Watching Bai Yan descend from the air, Li Fei could clearly feel the blazing aura on the opponent.

It gave one the feeling of being bitterly suppressed, yet still unable to be held down.

"Success is built on ten thousand bones; what a 'Way of the Weapon Lord'."

Qi Zhou, standing not far away, suddenly said faintly.

For some reason, Li Fei always felt there was a sense of irony in this sentence.

"Way of the Weapon Lord?"

Li Fei repeated this title in his heart.

Hundreds of meters away, Bai Yan looked toward this side.

He first looked at Qi Zhou, who had spoken, and then ordered:

"Everyone, fill your water containers, rest for one hour, and then set off!"

Fire Qilin tribe headquarters, inside the Shengshan.

This Shengshan was an active volcano, with magma existing inside it.

Above magma at several thousand degrees Celsius, the Great Elder Nuomu Han, who was left alone to guard the headquarters, stood on a small boat.

This small boat was black all over, engraved with fire-red patterns, and streams of magma flowed within these patterns.

The True Power within Nuomu Han merged with the small boat beneath his feet, continuously absorbing the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi from the magma below to refine the magic treasure beneath his feet.

On his left wrist, he wore a string of scarlet beads.

Suddenly, one of the beads exploded, turning into a pile of powder!

Nuomu Han opened his eyes abruptly, his heart shaking violently, and a mouthful of fresh blood sprayed out.

The magma beneath his feet immediately began to boil, as if it were about to erupt at any moment!

His expression changed, and with a thought, a powerful force surged from the small boat beneath his feet, spreading to the surroundings and quickly smoothing out the boiling magma.

"Way of the Weapon Lord? Bai Yan!!!"

Nuomu Han, who had always presented himself to others with a calm and wise image, now had blood-red eyes, his beard and hair all standing on end.

It could be said he was furious to the extreme!

In this world, the person Nuomu Han hated most was Bai Yan, the Vice Pavilion Master of the Great Lan Dynasty's Zhige Pavilion—there was no one else!

Years ago, when Bai Yan was still in the Northern Border Army, he had ventured deep into the Northern Barbarian lands alone and, by a stroke of luck, saved Nuomu Han's daughter.

Afterward, the two fell in love.

No, in Nuomu Han's perception, it was Bai Yan who had deliberately approached his daughter with calculated intent, using despicable means to make his daughter fall in love with him.

Afterward, Bai Yan used Nuomu Han's daughter to obtain a large amount of confidential information about the Fire Qilin tribe and the seventeen Northern Barbarian tribes.

It was precisely by relying on these secrets that the subsequent battle that shook the Northern Border Army occurred!

That battle resulted in the destruction of one of the Fire Qilin tribe's outposts, the death of over thirty thousand people, and the loss of a Ba Du powerhouse!

For hundreds of years, apart from the era of the Founding Emperor, the Fire Qilin tribe, as one of the four great powerful tribes, had never suffered such painful casualties!

After that battle, in order to give his tribespeople an explanation, Nuomu Han personally executed his own daughter on the altar of the Shengshan in front of everyone.

Therefore, Nuomu Han's hatred for Bai Yan could not be washed away even if all the magma in the Shengshan were exhausted!

In that battle years ago, Bai Yan slaughtered an outpost of the Fire Qilin tribe, and the white bones left behind allowed Nuomu Han to discover the opponent's secret:

Bai Yan possessed the 【Weapon Lord】 supernatural power, and the Great Dao he pursued was the Way of the Weapon Lord.

The 【Weapon Lord】 supernatural power can absorb others' killing intent, anger, fear, and other emotions, and can also absorb others' fresh blood, life, and even souls!

In short, on the battlefield, the winner takes all and wins everything.

This is a supernatural power that needs to be forged with massive slaughter and life.

"Success is built on ten thousand bones" is the best portrayal of the 【Weapon Lord】 supernatural power.

If the 【Weapon Lord】 supernatural power can be refined to the extreme, combined with a Martial Arts Domain, one can achieve the Way of the Weapon Lord.

At that time, Bai Yan will infinitely approach the realm of a Martial Saint; one person is an army!

At that time, even if placed among the Prince-level powerhouses of the Western Continent, Bai Yan would be in the top tier.

If he were to lead an army in battle again, commanding a powerful army like the Imperial Guard,

he would not need a ten-thousand-man military formation to have the opportunity to lead troops to surround and kill a Martial Saint!

This is Bai Yan's ambition, an ambition he had since breaking through to become a Martial Arts Master.

Nuomu Han had seen through Bai Yan's scheme decades ago.

The opponent used the lives of Fire Qilin tribespeople to "sharpen" the 【Weapon Lord】 supernatural power for the first time, and in the future, he would very likely continue to use the lives of Fire Qilin tribespeople to "achieve the Dao."

Therefore, Nuomu Han had long been prepared.

He had been waiting for this day for decades!

"Bai Yan!!"

A huge roar came from inside the Shengshan.

A moment later, a small boat flowing with magma flew out from inside the Shengshan and quickly disappeared into the horizon.

Fire Qilin tribe Great Elder, a top-tier True Person of the "Tiangang Earthly Fiend Great Perfection."

Entering the war!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 454 =====