Chapter 544

Prairie.

Sakaze.

Outside the magnificent temple in the center of the city, the square was densely packed with people kneeling.

Below the statue carved from white jade was an altar, where a shaman wearing red sacrificial robes was casting spells.

His body was covered in colorful patterns, dancing and gesturing, muttering words in his mouth.

Colorful halos centered on the altar, spreading outward, sweeping over the believers in the square, and continuing to spread outward.

Centered on the temple, the streets of the entire city were filled with people kneeling.

This was a city-wide sacrifice, a funeral held for the late first warrior of the Sakaze Temple, Huyan Hetai!

On the prairie, the largest religious sect was the Manyuan Sect, which believed in the Man God.

The Prairie Royal Court implemented a system of unity between church and state, with religious authority above royal authority; every successive ruler had to be crowned by the Great Man of the Manyuan Sect.

Therefore, for the funeral of the first warrior of the Sakaze Temple, all the commoners of the city had to participate.

Woo—

The heavy sound of a horn rang out from the temple, spreading throughout the city.

Upon hearing the horn, the people kneeling on the streets stood up one after another, holding white cloth in their hands, raising it high toward the sky, and wailing sorrowfully:

"Tenggete, Yawula—"

"Tenggete, Yawula—"

"Tenggete, Yawula—"

This is the Prairie language, meaning "Soul returns to the heavens."

The shouts of over a hundred thousand people gradually converged, forming a sorrowful song that struck the soul, drifting toward the nine heavens!

Outside the temple, on the altar.

The first shaman of the Sakaze Temple, Huyan Huyan Pushan, put down the white cloth in his hand and took a dagger from his bosom.

He looked around, his hoarse voice not high-pitched, yet it could clearly spread throughout the city:

"Children of the Man God—"

"Our heroic first warrior of the temple has returned his soul to the heavens—"

"He was a warrior with the hope of becoming a Saint, the eagle of Sakaze, the hope of the prairie—"

Like the Northern Barbarians, the prairie had also produced Martial Saints and peak experts of the True One Realm in the past.

Whether they were Martial Saints or experts of the True One Realm, they were collectively referred to as Saints on the prairie.

It was just that the prairie hadn't had a Saint for five hundred years.

Huyan Hetai was a Grandmaster at the peak of the Establishing Dao Realm, ranking in the top three among the prairie's Grandmasters, and was indeed a "Saint candidate," the hope of the prairie.

"But, the Central Plains people used despicable means to kill him!"

Huyan Huyan Pushan roared angrily.

He was the first shaman, a top-tier True Person, and also Huyan Hetai's nephew:

"I, Huyan Huyan Pushan, swear in the name of the first shaman of the Sakaze Temple—"

"I will surely avenge him!!!"

The final tail tone was like angry thunder, like a volcano, echoing in the depths of everyone's soul.

Huyan Huyan Pushan raised the dagger high, cutting his left palm with the dagger in front of everyone, and then smeared his blood-stained left hand across his face.

Face covered in blood!

On the prairie, this was the "Blood Face Oath," never to die until the end!

As he finished this action, the believers kneeling around also took out daggers they had prepared long ago, and like him, cut their left palms, smearing the blood across their faces.

"Sheou!"

The people shouted loudly.

In the Prairie language, it means—revenge.

"Sheou!"

"Sheou!"

"Sheou!"

The deafening shouts rang out in every corner of the city.

Shaking the heavens and clouds.

Mingdu.

The largest city on the prairie, the place where the Prairie Royal Court was located, and also the place where the Sacred Mountain of the Manyuan Sect was located.

The name of the Sacred Mountain was Sacred Mountain.

There was only this one Sacred Mountain on the prairie.

When the sunlight spilled down, the entire Sacred Mountain was bathed in golden light—

Brilliant, sacred, and majestic!

Every day when the sun rose, countless devout believers knelt on the ground at the foot of the Sacred Mountain, kowtowing to it.

On the Sacred Mountain, the temple was located at the highest point.

The morning light pierced through the indigo clouds, falling upon the white building, the entire temple looking like a piece of white jade left in the human world by a god.

The ten-zhang-high prayer wheel rotated on its own in the gale, the clanging sound of copper bells crashing between the cliffs.

Twelve cinnabar pillars supported the flying eaves and bucket arches, the gilded treasure vase on the dome shrouded in mist.

Inside the hall, the butter lamps burned long and never went out.

Shamans wearing white robes bowed their heads and bent their waists, saluting several shamans wearing large red robes.

These red-robed shamans walked all the way to the depths of the temple, and the ritualists encountered along the way, whose bodies were all shrouded in black robes, knelt and kowtowed to them one after another.

The levels of the Manyuan Sect, from bottom to top, were black-robed ritualists, white-robed shamans, red-robed shamans, and the highest golden-robed Great Man.

And even the lowest-level black-robed ritualists, who could not reveal their faces all day, held a very lofty status on the prairie.

At this moment, these ritualists kneeling on the ground, once they left this temple, would have even more people kneeling to them outside.

Four red-robed shamans walked into a great hall in the deepest part of the temple.

Inside the great hall, in front of a mural covered in gems and flashing with golden light, stood a figure in golden robes.

This person had long hair draped over his shoulders, and his figure was not tall, but standing there, he actually gave people a feeling of being even more majestic than the Sacred Mountain!

He was the Great Man of the Manyuan Sect—Qilian Qilian Guanshi.

The most noble existence on the prairie, the person who grazed the prairie on behalf of the Man God!

Qilian Qilian Guanshi turned around.

His face seemed to be shrouded in a layer of mist, blurred and unclear, with only a pair of eyes being exceptionally clear.

He looked at the four red-robed shamans with loving eyes.

"Your Excellency."

The four red-robed shamans saluted in unison.

"May the Man God protect you."

Qilian Qilian Guanshi raised his hand, and a piece of golden radiance spilled onto the four of them.

The four shamans at the top-tier True Person realm bathed in the divine radiance, their true power becoming unusually agile, with a faint illusion of ascending to the heavenly realm and meeting the Man God!

The four looked at each other, and one of them said happily:

"Congratulations, Your Excellency!"

Previously, Ning Ning Qingman commented on the experts of the world, saying that Li Fei was hard to find an opponent at the Grandmaster level.

But below the peak, there were still some who could pose a threat to him.

Besides the princes of the Western Continent, there were several top-tier True Persons in the Eastern Continent whose strength was extraordinary.

The Eastern Continent did not have the saying of princes, and Grandmasters and top-tier True Persons were already the limit below the peak.

But there were always some who could break through the limit by relying on special means.

For example, that severely injured Northern Barbarian King, who could surpass the peak of the Establishing Dao Realm by relying on special beast transformation, possessing combat power comparable to a prince.

Or for example, this Great Man on the prairie, who was at the realm of the Great Perfection of the Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends, but because his status was special, by relying on the faith power of the Manyuan Sect, he could also break through the limit of his own realm!

All along, the Prairie Royal Court had been regarded by the Great Lan Dynasty as the country that posed the greatest threat.

Because the Prairie Royal Court possessed more than twenty top-tier experts and a million troops of bowmen!

Besides this, the successive Great Men on the prairie could not be underestimated.

So even though the Prairie Royal Court and the two great desert nations bowed to the Great Lan Dynasty, the Great Lan Dynasty had always let the White Flame Army guard the Eastern Border, using a peak combat power to deter the prairie.

And the Prairie Royal Court had always firmly believed that as long as their Great Man could become a Saint, the prairie could get rid of the fate of bowing to the Great Lan Dynasty and truly become a hegemon!

Qilian Qilian Guanshi was the youngest Great Man in the history of the Manyuan Sect, with the highest talent.

Now that his cultivation had a trend of going further, it naturally made the shamans present overjoyed.

"Has Your Excellency found the opportunity to ascend to Sainthood?"

A shaman asked excitedly.

Qilian Qilian Guanshi smiled: "Everything is the guidance of the Man God."

"May the Man God protect you!"

The four shamans said in unison.

After the few calmed their emotions, Qilian Qilian Guanshi said:

"Sakaze has already made preparations; what about you all?"

"We are willing to fight for the Man God!"

The four red-robed shamans said in unison.

"Good. Murong Zi has betrayed the Man God; take my holy decree and go arrest him and bring him back to the Sacred Mountain."

Qilian Qilian Guanshi said lightly.

But his words were like a thunderbolt, exploding in the hearts of the four shamans!

Besides this temple on the Sacred Mountain, the Manyuan Sect had eight other temples.

Murong Zi was the first shaman of the Xiangpa Temple.

The other party was very close to the ruler, and also pulled in two other temple shamans.

Of the eight prairie temples, five supported Qilian Qilian Guanshi, and three stood on the ruler's side.

This was the power comparison between religious authority and royal authority on the prairie.

Now Qilian Qilian Guanshi was actually going to move against Murong Zi directly!

Murong Zi was the ruler's greatest reliance and also a strong competitor for the next Great Man.

Once Murong Zi was taken down, the forces of the ruler's faction would suffer a heavy blow!

Those two temple shamans who had been pulled over would probably immediately submit to the Sacred Mountain.

"Your Excellency..."

The four looked up at Qilian Qilian Guanshi.

This Great Man looked at them with loving eyes and said nothing.

"We respectfully obey the holy decree!"

One red-robed shaman took the lead in accepting the order.

The other three also bowed their heads one after another...

That night, the four great shamans descended upon Xiangpa Temple with people and announced the Great Man's holy decree.

Relying on the formation flags bestowed by Qilian Qilian Guanshi, the four of them blocked the entire temple in the first instance, cutting off any possibility of Murong Zi escaping.

After a great battle, Murong Zi was captured by the four shamans joining forces and taken back to the Sacred Mountain.

This move immediately triggered a shock in the Prairie Royal Court!

The ruler's faction launched the strongest counterattack in the first instance—

The prairie's first warrior, Tuoba Tuoba Shanhai, led the strongest Sky Wolf Blood Cavalry to surround the Sacred Mountain!

Just when many people thought that an unprecedented great battle would break out on the prairie, the Great Man Qilian Qilian Guanshi went down the mountain alone.

Then a scene that made people's jaws drop appeared—

Tuoba Tuoba Shanhai took off his helmet and was the first to express submission to Qilian Qilian Guanshi!

Subsequently, ten thousand Sky Wolf Blood Cavalry dismounted one after another and knelt on one knee!

The temple's greatest supporter, Murong Zi, was captured, and the military's greatest reliance, Tuoba Tuoba Shanhai, "defected" with ten thousand Sky Wolf Blood Cavalry.

This was simply a disastrous start!

Without any accidents, the supporters of the ruler's faction surrendered one after another, choosing to submit to the Sacred Mountain.

In just three days, this struggle between religious authority and royal authority came to an end.

In the end, in this internal strife, only one Murong Zi and two royal Grandmasters died among the top-tier experts.

The ruler of the Prairie Royal Court personally climbed the Sacred Mountain to plead guilty!

On this day, the voice of the Great Man Qilian Qilian Guanshi came from the Sacred Mountain:

"Children of the Man God—"

"A thousand years ago, the sons of the prairie dominated the East, and the sound of our horses' hooves echoed through the Central Plains!"

The sunset was like blood, and the Sky Wolf Blood Cavalry surrounding the Sacred Mountain drew their swords one after another.

"More than five hundred years ago, the Central Plains dynasty unified the Eastern Continent, and they thought they had conquered the prairie."

"Children of the Man God, tell me, have you forgotten the glory of your ancestors?"

Prairie people walked out of their homes one after another, came to the streets, and shouted in the direction of the Sacred Mountain.

"No! The sons of the prairie will never be conquered!"

"Five hundred years is too long; now, it is time to let the sound of our horses' hooves echo through the Central Plains again!"

The decree bearing the ruler's golden seal was issued from the Sacred Mountain, and the knights carrying the order rode with the highest will of the prairie, rushing in all directions.

Weapons were moved out of the warehouses one by one.

Warhorses were saddled one by one.

Swords and blades shone with bloodthirsty light, and scorching lava erupted from the depths of the earth—

The military might was like a great river, surging out from the prairie!

49th year of Emperor Hongguang, December 7th.

The Prairie Royal Court launched a war against the Great Lan Dynasty on the grounds that the first warrior of the Sakaze Temple, Huyan Hetai, was killed by the Marquis of Jing'an, Li Fei!

After many years, the Eastern Border of the Great Lan Dynasty once again faced a million troops of bowmen!

Northern Barbarians.

Jinwu Mountain, one of the four strong tribes of the Northern Barbarians, the headquarters of the Wuri tribe.

Inside a tent, a man sat on the ground, writing annotations in a book with a pen.

He wore a white robe, his long hair tied up with a hairpin, possessing a refined temperament rare among the Northern Barbarians.

It was Bo'erhu.

The book he was writing annotations for at this time was a martial arts secret manual he had compiled himself.

Although Northern Barbarian martial arts were relatively more diverse than Western Continent martial techniques, in terms of depth, they were still not as good as the Central Plains martial arts world.

The Dao Strengths that could be practiced to the Creation Realm mastered by various tribes were very few.

During the Martial Arts Master stage, Bo'erhu had challenged all the powerful martial arts masters of the seventeen tribes one after another, having seen the martial arts of all seventeen tribes.

After becoming a Grandmaster, he integrated the martial arts of the seventeen tribes and created several peerless skills.

After becoming the Northern Barbarian King, Bo'erhu was not stingy, passing on his peerless skills to the experts who followed him.

Many in his personal guard had received his teachings.

After that battle ended, the severely injured Bo'erhu returned to the Wuri tribe with his personal guard.

He no longer mentioned the matter of unifying the Northern Barbarians, but instead, while recuperating, compiled his martial arts insights into a book.

A woman wearing a short skirt, with a slender but explosive figure, walked into the tent.

"King, Father has agreed!"

Wuya Nana said excitedly.

She was Bo'erhu's wife, the only daughter of the Wuri tribe leader.

Bo'erhu put down the pen in his hand, turned to look at his wife, and a smile appeared on his face:

"Nana, thanks to you."

Wuya Nana sat beside Bo'erhu and shook her head:

"Father didn't agree because of me; it's because he believes in you, he believes that only you can become the King of the Northern Barbarians and lead the Northern Barbarian tribes out of the mountains!"

Bo'erhu fell silent.

After the last battle, the Great Elder of the Wuri tribe died, and the Great Elder of the Huo Lin tribe also died.

Three of the seventeen Northern Barbarian tribes were wiped out!

Even more seriously, when the remaining tribes mobilized their foundations and launched the great formation, they were struck by the curse left by Qiming before he died, causing their national fortune to be damaged and problems to appear in the great formation.

The great formation affected current safety, while national fortune affected future development.

Problems had appeared in both the present and future of the Northern Barbarian tribes!

This series of serious consequences ultimately led to Bo'erhu losing all popular support, and the alliance he had worked so hard to build collapsed.

His personal guard, which had concentrated the elite warriors of all the Northern Barbarian tribes, also disbanded for the most part.

If there were no variables, even if Bo'erhu recovered from his injuries and his combat power returned to its peak, the hope of him unifying the Northern Barbarians in his lifetime was already slim.

Fortunately, variables appeared one after another!

"Send letters to all the major tribes in my name."

Bo'erhu did not stay silent for long, pulling himself together again.

"Yes, King!"

Wuya Nana stood up and bowed to Bo'erhu.

Soon, all the other Northern Barbarian tribes received Bo'erhu's letter, including the three tribes whose headquarters were occupied by the Great Lan Dynasty:

"I, Bo'erhu, know that I am no longer worthy of being the King of the Northern Barbarians."

"But my fellow countrymen, we cannot be trapped in the mountains forever; we must walk out!"

"We cannot keep using the lives of our warriors to plunder food, only to barely fill our stomachs in the end."

"Now, the two great desert nations in the south have simultaneously sent troops against the Great Lan Dynasty. The Prairie Royal Court in the east has also declared war on the Great Lan Dynasty!"

"On the Northern Border line, that most terrifying Frost Army has already been transferred away."

"This is the best opportunity, and perhaps the only opportunity for the Northern Barbarians!"

"I, Bo'erhu, request everyone to believe in me one more time."

"Unite, gather everyone's strength, and let's send troops against the Central Plains together!"

The former Northern Barbarian King, Bo'erhu, launched an alliance again in his own name.

This time, the major tribes might no longer respect him as King.

But everyone's interests were the same—

March south!

Before the seven Western countries landed on the Eastern Continent, for the Great Lan Dynasty, the greatest threat was the prairie, followed by the Northern Barbarians.

Because of the special nature of the geography, plus their special physique, the Northern Barbarian tribes were almost all soldiers.

The prairie had a million troops of bowmen, and the Northern Barbarians could similarly bring out a million combat-ready troops!

Even if pushed to the limit, two million combat soldiers were possible!

And in terms of the number of top-tier experts, the Northern Barbarians were not fewer than the prairie.

It was just because the Northern Barbarians were divided into more than ten tribes and were not as unified as the prairie, so the threat was smaller than that of the prairie.

Now, Bo'erhu was once again attempting to unify the power of the Northern Barbarians.

49th year of Emperor Hongguang, December 11th.

Of the fourteen Northern Barbarian tribes, nine chose to join forces to send troops and elected Bo'erhu as the Regional Commander of the allied forces.

Each of the nine tribes sent one hundred thousand troops, forming a million-strong army!

Up to this point, the Great Lan Dynasty faced the prairie army in the east, fought the two great desert nations in the south, and encountered the Northern Barbarian army in the north.

The seven Western countries' delegation was making exorbitant demands in Lanling City.

Dragons and snakes rose from the land.

The Great Lan Dynasty, an enemy of the whole world!

PS: Wishing everyone a happy holiday, asking for a monthly ticket.

(End of chapter)