“We’ll dig the trenches like this. If our soldiers encounter a blood curse, they can simply hide in another different area. As long as we lure the Shamans into the trenches, we can weaken their advantage. What we need to do right now is buy time—as long as we don’t get crushed by their first wave, we’ll have a chance!”

Yun Feifei and Xu Wan’er still had questions. What if the Shamans refused to enter the trenches? They could just stand on top of the trenches and attack the troops from there, couldn’t they? But before they could voice their questions, Wei Yuan declared, “It’s settled! Let’s get started!”

Confused or not, Wei Yuan had already made up his mind. Yun Feifei and Xu Wan’er had no choice but to comply. Perhaps the high cultivator from the Palace of Absolute Beginning had his own reasons for choosing this course of action.

Following Wei Yuan’s orders, the women gathered all the bodyguards who had defected and assigned tasks to each of them. The dozens of cultivators were just as baffled by the orders as the ones who were issuing them, but they too assumed that a high cultivator from the Palace of Absolute Beginning had his own reasons. Thus, they obediently set out and started digging the trenches.

Looking at Xu Wenwu’s thin, frail body, he decided against commanding him to join the bodyguards and said, “Stay here and think carefully. See if you can come up with more useful stuff.”

Overwhelmed by Wei Yuan’s apparent trust in him, Xu Wenwu hurriedly took a seat and racked his brains for something.

Wei Yuan rose into the sky and saw nearly a hundred cultivators scattering across the area and digging with all their might. Not even the Dao Foundation stage cultivators were exempted from the task. Yun Feifei and Xu Wan’er were sparing no Dao energy to dig up the ground as well; moving a block of earth about a zhang wide with every cast of a Dao spell.

The Shamans’ ordinary fighters were swift and nimble. In marshlands, they could even stick close to the water and fly. They were most adept in curses and poisons, and weak in terms of physical strength. Drawing them into the trenches would effectively restrict their speed and force them to fight the human warriors in tight, narrow spaces. That was the reason he had used to convince the women that the work was useful.

In reality, there was another reason he ordered the trenches to be dug. It was because he discovered that the bodyguards were growing restless. At the beginning, Wei Yuan had managed to persuade them to join him by appealing to their patriotism and intimidating them with his power. However, enough time had passed that their resolve began to waver, and memories of the Xu Clan’s power and cruel methods had begun to surface in their minds. Already, some of them were whispering among themselves and discussing escape plans.

That was why Wei Yuan had to put them to work immediately and keep their minds off the nonsense. At the very least, he had to get them on his side first. Fortunately, Jia Wood Nurtures Life enhanced recovery speed and allowed them to work much longer than they would have otherwise.

Next, Wei Yuan called Yun Feifei to his side and commanded her to visit the nearby settlements and inform them that the Shamans would be arriving very soon. He also ordered her to recruit those with cultivation to bolster their defenses, and send away those without to hide in the wilderness until the enemy army had retreated.

Yun Feifei didn’t pause to take a break. She took off immediately and returned with over a hundred cultivators just two hours later. Even better, there were a dozen or so Dao Foundation stage cultivators among them. Although they were only Human-tier, and not a single one of them had reached the middle stage, they still represented a sizable force.

Besides that, Yun Feifei reported that several hundred Body-tempering stage cultivators were also on their way. They couldn’t fly, nor could they run as quickly as those who had mastered the Body-tempering stage. Thus, they would be arriving in waves.

According to Yun Feifei, the civilians within the region had burst into tears of joy when they heard that a cultivator of the Palace of Absolute Beginning had boldly laid down a realm stone and reopened this realm. They had personally taken the initiative to inform everyone about this news, and countless people were eager to assist in the defense. Alas, the Shamans’ blood curse was far too deadly against mortals. That was why Yun Feifei only accepted those who had entered the Body-tempering stage at the minimum.

They were a welcome addition to say the least. Wei Yuan felt just a little more confident about their chances.

For the next few hours, cultivators showed up in waves as Yun Feifei said they would. She and Xu Wan’er then organized them into squads and set them to work digging the trenches. After several hours of non-stop digging, a network of ten trenches had taken form across the ground. It resembled a giant spiderweb. With that done, Yun Feifei appointed a squad leader and vice squad leader for each squad and assigned them to their initial combat zones.

While this was going on, Wei Yuan was carefully communicating with Qingming. The process in which the realm stone transformed the surrounding environment into one suitable for humans wasn’t instantaneous. Rather, the sphere of influence gradually expanded outward from the realm stone’s center until it had reached its absolute limit. An ordinary realm stone could cover about half a li in one day. Qingming could cover ten li in the same amount of time. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

A thought crossed Wei Yuan’s mind, and he ordered Qingming to contract its sphere of influence. Sure enough, the surrounding miasma and dampness returned in just a short time, and the environment returned to the state it was before Qingming had been planted. When Wei Yuan ordered it to expand its sphere of influence once more, the transformation process ensued much faster than it had before. Not even fifteen minutes had passed when the Pure Realm of Humanity was formed.

Meanwhile, Wei Yuan wasn’t idle in his sea of consciousness either. He had been continuously fashioning rock after rock into swords before setting them around his jade hill. After a few hours of continuous effort, he had fashioned over a hundred swords in total. Wei Yuan regretted the fact that he had been too conservative when writing a letter to Xiao Yu. He should have written: I have forged several hundred Immortal Swords in my Dao Foundation. Dare you witness them?

The war preparations were still ongoing when suddenly, a column of smoke rose in the distance. It was the warning implement Yun Feifei had set up beforehand. A small force of Shamans might be able to circumvent it, but not a large force.

The smoke signal had appeared over two hundred li away. Wei Yuan quickly communicated with Qingming and contracted its sphere of influence, allowing the miasma and the dampness to creep in once more. At the same time, several hundred cultivators were standing ready at their respective positions, their faces a mixture of tension and the resolute determination to face death.

In fact, many of them did not think they could win at all. The reason they still came was because they knew that they were going to die either way. In that case, they would rather die fighting!

Wei Yuan stood on an elevated ground while flanked by a dozen or so cultivators. They had been specially chosen for their physical robustness and capability to charge into battle while clad in heavy armor. Beside Wei Yuan stood a crimson horse, a magnificent beast that stood nearly a zhang tall with only small patches of white and blue around its hooves.

The horse was originally Xu Wenwu’s mount. Twice it had absorbed slivers of Wei Yuan’s fortune and grew quite strong. Among ordinary horses at least, it definitely counted as a fine steed. Wei Yuan needed a mount if he wished to charge the enemy. That was why he took it from Xu Wenwu.

In the distance, thick, black clouds were rolling in like a thunderstorm. There were shimmering with a faint red glow as well. It was the sign that a great force of Shamans were approaching.

Looking at the distant clouds, a middle-aged man said with a stern expression, “If I’m not mistaken, the enemy force is at least ten thousand strong. They must have a Great Warlock as well!”

Another guy let out a cold chuckle. “What’s wrong? Are you scared?”

The middle-aged man threw him an angry glare. “What are you talking about? Is there anyone standing here today who isn’t prepared to fight to the death?”

The guy turned serious and apologized, “I’m sorry. I mistook your earlier remark as timidness.”

The middle-aged man replied with a grunt, “No need for apology. Instead, let us compete and see who can kill the most enemies!”

The black clouds were close in just the blink of an eye. Directly below the clouds was a massive force of Shamans. In the center of the army stood a massive platform with a throne on its upper level. A Great Warlock clad in black robes was sitting on it. He was surrounded by dozens of Warlocks and generals, each shrouded by a swirling aura of blood qi. At the four corners of the platform stood four towering pillars of fire. Dark green flames were burning in the braziers atop the pillars and continuously hurling some sort of invisible objects into the sky.

The Great Warlock looked at the former site of the Swelling Water God Palace in front of him and noted that a pillar of clear qi was rising into the air. However, it was very weak and just barely kept the surrounding dark green aura at bay.

Enraged, the Great Warlock growled, “They really did put down a realm stone. How dare they! Unfortunately for them, it has only been recently established and cannot form a domain yet. I can sense many strong sacrifices hiding in that place. Go! Capture them all! I’m going to Sacrifice to Heaven[1] as soon as this battle is over!”

The Great Warlock’s voice was low, raspy, and accompanied with waves of hissing that sounded like countless insects rubbing their wings together. Obeying his command, the vanguard of the Shaman army—four thousand strong—immediately picked up speed and swept across the land like a swarm of insects, charging headlong into the former site of the Swelling Water God Palace.

1. Sacrifice to Heaven is an Asian religious practice originating in the worship of Shangdi in China. In Ancient Chinese society, nobles of all levels constructed altars for Heaven. ☜