Xiao Yu began striding toward the Shamans making camp on the mountain ridge. Just a few steps later, he started climbing higher and higher into the sky. The swordsman was looking more and more like a sword immortal these days.

The Shaman force making camp below quickly discovered Xiao Yu. Two officers—both of them tall and big—immediately flew into the air to challenge him. Despite facing down two middle-stage Dao Foundation opponents alone, Xiao Yu wasn’t afraid in the slightest. He abruptly rose a hundred zhang higher and unsheathed more than half of his mystic sword. It looked as if a sun was slowly rising from his hands. Thousands and thousands of fire lotuses descended from the sky like lotus lamps, illuminating heaven and earth.

As the fire lotuses slowly rained down on the Shaman army, over a dozen Dao Foundation stage officers stepped up and unleashed blasts of pitch black light, sweeping away the incoming attack. However, the lotuses proved surprisingly tenacious and took several sweeps to eliminate just one. Despite the defensive effort, hundreds of fire lotuses still reached the camp and ignited over a hundred Shaman fighters in an instant!

The fire of the lotuses was extremely persistent. They refused to gout no matter how hard a Shaman fighter rolled on the ground. Moreover, catching just a tiny spark was enough to cause one to burst into flames and crumble into charcoal and ash in the span of breaths!

This was, in fact, the advanced version of the Three Thousand Lotuses Xiao Yu had executed back then. After he successfully forged the Immortal Sword The Sun, the green lotuses had transformed into fire lotuses. Though less pure than before, they were easily many times deadlier than before.

Xiao Yi was able to slay over a hundred Shaman fighters while being pressured by over a dozen opponents on the same cultivation level as him. His combat prowess was truly formidable. No wonder he dared to challenge an enemy force numbering several thousand.

The second his sect fellow took action, Wei Yuan could tell that his Dao Foundation had solidified completely. There was even a spark of divine essence in his immortal sword; a sign that he had entered the middle-stage of the Dao Foundation stage, vitality restoring. It not only greatly boosted The Sun’s power, but also gave it many minor miracles it did not possess when the Dao Foundation was just formed.

A huge tent had already been set up in the middle of the camp. Just then, a short, wizened Shaman emerged from inside and set his grayish white eyes on Xiao Yu. Suddenly, he shrieked out and chanted a long, frantic incantation. As he spoke, a deep green, eerie rune suddenly appeared underneath his feet!

Something formless and intangible shifted between heaven and earth, and Xiao Yu suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of disgust and irritation. It felt as if everything around him had suddenly become extraordinarily loathsome.

It was at this moment the two middle-stage Dao Foundation officers flanked Xiao Yu from two sides and unleashed a wave of insects at him.

Xiao Yu sneered. To the officers’ credit, the insect swarm was incredibly insidious and normally an excellent tactic against most enemies. However, they might as well be moths to the flame that was The Sun. Without hesitation, he performed a horizontal sweep and unleashed a wavy blast of sunfire at his enemies.

It was at this moment things went wrong. The true fire of The Sun should be blazing hot like no other, yet it suddenly grew unnaturally dim without warning.

If the Water Flows Eastward to a Fisherman’s Song should normally blaze like a midnoon sun, now it had become a waning sunset that was half-hidden behind the mountains. As a result, a small portion of the insect swarm managed to survive the sunfire.

Completely caught off guard by this sudden change of events, Xiao Yu had to adapt on the fly. It took him several more slashes before he finally wiped out the insect swarm completely.

With that done, the swordsman took a closer look at his sword and noticed that The Sun had become pretty dim as well. Its power had declined by a whopping sixty or even seventy percent!

Xiao Yu abruptly recalled something and cried out in warning, “Watch out, Wei Yuan! The Shamans have modified the world and cursed all immortal swords!”

Worried that Wei Yuan might miss his warning and suffering a blow as a result, the swordsman hurriedly searched around for his sect fellow. The second he turned his head, he saw the young man holding a bell in his left hand, and clutching a cauldron in his right. He was the spitting image of solemnity and calm right now.

A battle cry escaped his throat, and Wei Yuan manifested the Great Realm. As he wasn’t in Qingming’s domain, he could only manifest two hundred zhang of his Dao Foundation. Even so, it was enough to cover over half of the camp. Wei Yuan began swinging his arms repeatedly as he threw bell after bell, cauldron after cauldron at the enemy camp. In just the blink of an eye, Wei Yuan had thrown down over a hundred bells and cauldrons, smashing anything and everything. The Shaman fighters were fleeing left and right, the Dao Foundation stage officers were ducking like their life depended on it, and even the command tent at the center was crushed under the weight of seven or eight giant bells or cauldrons.

Pointing a shaking finger at Wei Yuan, Xiao Yu stammered, “W-where are your one hundred Fake Suns? Why aren’t you using them?”

Wei Yuan replied as honestly as he had over a decade ago[1], “Oh, I made those just to show them off to you. I wasn’t planning on using them.”

Xiao Yu felt like there was old blood was stuck inside his throat. If The Sun wasn’t greatly weakened right now, he was going to cut off Wei Yuan’s head no matter what!

This battle is lost not because our forces are impotent, not because the enemy forces are too stupid, but because our ally is too devious!

Meanwhile, the old Shaman was running away with his arms over his head after he had crawled out of the collapsed tent. Surprisingly, the eight massive bells and cauldrons had failed to flatten him like a pancake. In fact, he was moving with a level of alacrity that suggested that he had taken only minor injuries.

Once more, Wei Yuan manifested a bunch of bells and cauldrons in both hands. Heavens only know how many of them he had created. Unable to stand the sight of this any longer, Xiao Yu turned his head and looked up at the sky. Anything was better than watching Wei Yuan show off.

However, the second he turned his head, he froze. It was because Bao Yun was standing behind then. Above her head, an exquisite treasure tree with yingluo[2] and silken ribbons hanging loosely from its branches was isolating her from this corner of the world.

If Xiao Yu didn’t happen to see her with his own two eyes, he would never have known that she had arrived.

Suddenly, Xiao Yu realized something: How long had she been standing there?

Did she see Wei Yuan play me for a fool?

Was she watching from the beginning??

It was heart-breaking enough to have one devious ally. The realization that there were two of them caused every drop of blood in his body to rush into his face. He only wished he could crawl into a crevice and hide right now!

Meanwhile, chaos was reigning on the front lines, and morale had plummeted for the Shamans. Most of the nobles including the old Shaman were eager to make a run for it. However, having personally examined the Great Warlocks’ bodies before, Wei Yuan knew that their physical bodies weren’t weak in the slightest. In fact, some of them were even stronger than a disciple of the Bright King Hall. That was why he knew from the start that his bells and cauldrons would not be enough to crush the old Shaman.

Moreover, Wei Yuan had learned from the previous battle that the Shamans’ higher-ups were excellent runners. Naturally, he wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.

Tender shoots abruptly sprouted above Wei Yuan’s head, and the Great Realm’s range swelled to eight hundred zhang in an instant! It encompassed every escaping noble and slowed them down dramatically!

The tender shoots were only as big as a finger pad, but Wei Yuan yelled, “One Wonder Exquisite Tree!”

Bao Yun’s eyes grew deep and inscrutable, while Xiao Yu’s widened into saucers. Blood had rushed into his face again, but this time, it wasn’t from embarrassment. He shook all over like a leaf while covering his mouth. He had weathered many storms of his own at this point, and still the scene had pierced right through his Dao heart.

Completely unaware of what was happening behind him, Wei Yuan channeled his Dao Foundation with all his might and unleashed waves of clear qi everywhere. Every Shaman caught within the waves screamed like they were being cooked alive in a pot of boiling oil. He then threw out between three hundred and four hundred bells and cauldrons in a go—a feat that was only possible thanks to his prodigious amount of Dao energy—and massacred most of the Shamans below. Only three of the remaining twenty or so Shaman nobles managed to escape, and none of them were important. Those who actually mattered including the old Shaman were all dead.

After the battle was decided, Wei Yuan finally lowered his arms and turned around calmly. Then, he saw Bao Yun.

His mind turned completely blank.

Xiao Yu’s Dao heart shattered to pieces as he finally lost it. He fell from the sky.

1. Again, refer to chapter 20 where Wei Yuan honestly said, “You almost managed to hurt me." ☜

2. The yingluo is a ring-shaped necklace. As a necklace, it comes in various styles and shapes. It was generally made of gold, jade, pearls, and other precious materials. ☜