The Spirit Severing Array used power that went against the natural order to forcibly change spiritual veins, and was an extremely difficult array to set up. It required 108 flags and 108 Nascent Soul and above cultivators. Nascent Soul was already an impressive level among cultivators, and any sect who could deploy more than fifty at once would automatically rank number one among the cultivation world.
108 Nascent Soul disciples required the collective power of all the righteous sects to gather, and if they were missing even one person, the array would shatter, and all their efforts would be for naught.
The sects had been highly selective in choosing the disciples in the array, afraid one of them might have dealings with a demonic sect or their will wouldn't be firm enough and they would be influenced by inner turmoil. All 108 disciples they chose were future cornerstones of the righteous sects. Only when they were sure the array wouldn't be broken did they feel free to attack the demonic sects.
They never thought that Shu Yanyan had planted a time bomb in the righteous sects eleven years ago, and now, eleven years later, it disrupted the Spirit Severing Array and shook up the righteous sects' entire plan.
In midair, the white-robed woman held a righteous cultivator's Nascent Soul in one hand, and stuffed it casually inside her magic weapon, an unopened spider lily.
Shu Yanyan's bonded weapon was a near-demonic artifact as avaricious and bold as she was. It demanded to be fed a Nascent Soul every time it was used.
After devouring Hè Wenzhao's Nascent Soul, the spider lily slowly opened, and amidst Qiu Congxue's ghosts, flowers bloomed into a blood-red path, like the one that led lost souls to the afterlife.
The remaining 107 disciples watched these two beautiful yet wicked women with despair, and gradually lost consciousness among the fragrance of the spider lilies.
"Shu Yanyan!" Qiu Congxue yelled. "Your flowers devoured several of my ghosts!"
"You know my lilies," Shu Yanyan said unconcernedly. "Even I can't control them. They'll eat whoever they want. Are you capable of controlling your ghosts? Every time I get near you, I can hear the sound of those ghosts gnawing on bones—doesn't that hurt? No wonder you can never beat the Venerable even at Mahayana stage. You can't even control your own weapons, that's so pathetic."
The two women continued taunting each other while mopping up the enemy forces. Qiu Congxue grumbled. "The Venerable won't even let me eat any of their souls. I can't take it."
She ground her ghastly white teeth.
"The Venerable said that dead cultivators can reincarnate into ordinary people in their next life, so unless there's a deep grudge, there's no need to destroy someone's soul," said Shu Yanyan. "Us killing cultivators is those who defy heaven killing others who defy heaven, so cosmic law won't assign us any crime. But destroying a soul is messing with the system of the six paths of reincarnation. It'll be punished by the heavens, and our tribulations would be harder to pass."
"He's a demonic cultivator who'll kill people without a thought, but he has hangups about weird things," Qiu Congxue said disapprovingly. "After I first stepped down the Asura Path, I never thought of turning back."
Shu Yanyan shrugged. "You can disapprove of the Venerable all you want, but you gotta be able to beat him first. In Xuanyuan Sect, might has always made right."
Alongside the blossoming of Shu Yanyan's spider lilies, Dubhe was slowly colored red in the sky, shining down with bloody light.
"Indeed," the Jiuxing Sect Master said. "These three stars, Polis, Alkaid, and Dubhe, are our greatest obstacles in this war."
The Biluo Valley Master said, "Then it's fortunate we still have a backup plan."
"Amitabha." The Wuxiang Temple abbot softly flicked the prayer beads in his hand, and after reciting a Buddha's name, he tossed them into the air.
At the same time, Shu Yanyan and Qiu Congxue saw above their heads a peacock shining with multicolored divine light. Under the light, the spider lilies withered. Shu Yanyan's smile froze on her mouth and she said dully, "No way, the Buddhists have even called in the Great Peacock Wisdom King?"
In Buddhist teachings, it was said that the peacock was born from the phoenix, and liked to eat people. One day, she devoured the Buddha, who cut her stomach and escaped, and wanted to kill her. The other Buddhas dissuaded him, believing the peacock had a destiny to be reborn, so he sealed her in a spiritual mountain and gave her the title, "Mother of Buddha, Great Peacock Wisdom King Bodhisattva".
The Peacock King was said to have the power to protect from disasters, cure illnesses, and prolong life. Shu Yanyan's flowers and Qiu Congxue's ghosts were both powerless under its might.
Under the Buddha's light, the spider lilies wilted, and the vengeful ghosts reentered the paths of samsara.
Shu Yanyan had it a bit better. Even if minds were cleared of desires under the Buddha's light and the power of her charm was weakened, it didn't harm her foundation. However, Qiu Congxue was a ghost cultivator, and she was in danger of being released from the world into samsara, her very life at risk.
Within the couple dozen remaining Nascent Soul disciples, eighteen took off their wigs and exposed bald heads, sat cross-legged, and began reciting sutras.
"What's going on?" Shu Yanyan cried. "I never heard there were a bunch of monks in the array! I can't do anything to them!"
Qiu Congxue chuckled in the midst of the Buddha's light and said, "Just now, we've killed or injured most of these righteous disciples, and the rest are vitally injured and can't fight anymore. Our duties are already done. Just wait for me to destroy the Wisdom King avatar, so you can escape."
"Are you crazy? Do you want to be sent on?" Shu Yanyan said. "Is Qiu Congxue someone who'll sacrifice herself for others?"
"Oh, you shut up." Qiu Congxue gave Shu Yanyan a kick and flew upward. Many bones extended from her body, blocking the Buddha light for her.
A string of prayer beads was faintly visible in the light. Qiu Congxue could smell her own body burning, and her shield of bones gradually dissipated under the light's assault.
She found it!
Reaching out bone fingers, she grabbed the prayer beads and threw them into the distance.
Shu Yanyan heard a terrible cry come from Qiu Congxue, and her silhouette vanished in the light. The eighteen monks all spat up blood. In this fight in which neither side had attacked, there ended up being no victor.
The Buddha's light vanished. Shu Yanyan glanced at the beaten and bloodied righteous cultivators and the monks who had no more power to fight. Her smile faded and she said lightly, "You can go."
The crowd stared at her uncomprehendingly, having thought she would start a massacre. Instead they heard, "There have been uncountable casualties in this decade-long war. Both the righteous and demonic sects will need a century to recover afterward. Enough have died, and I've also done enough killing already."
With a piece of black cloth in her hand, she turned and left, leaving the surviving cultivators looking at each other in disbelief.
At the outskirts of the Xuanyuan Sect's mountain range, Baili Qingmiao was unceasingly working to pick up fallen cultivators, giving first aid to the survivors. She headed further and further, gradually leaving behind the other troops, and when she saw a black-robed figure on a riverbank, she quickly picked them up with the Moonlit Frost Silk.
"Thank the heavens, you're still alive!
"Oh my god! There's no flesh on your body!
"Your face is completely blackened, I can't tell which sect you're from.
"Are you a man or woman?
"Don't give up, you must continue to hold on!"
Qiu Congxue's eyelids twitched, roused by the racket near her ears. She opened her eyes slightly and saw a girl in yellow robes treating her tearfully.
"Shut the hell up," Qiu Congxue opened her mouth to say, but found that her throat had been burned and she could only make an inhuman rasping noise.
"You're still alive!" Baili Qingmiao said, and started sobbing. "Please don't die. Too many people have died. So many elders are gone now. Don't die, I don't want to see anyone die anymore!"
Qiu Congxue: ...
She opened her eyes, and for some reason, a line came to her mind—"A single ray of the rising sun landed on Baili Qingmiao's body. Her expression was warm but resolute, with a beautiful and pure wish to save others."
What was that rubbish? Qiu Congxue wrinkled her blackened brows. How did such cheesy words suddenly appear in her head?
As the sun rose, another battle elsewhere neared its end. The battling armies of cultivators in the northern mountains of Xuanyuan Sect were nearly evenly matched in strength, and in ten years their numbers had decreased by more than half. The Medicinal Hall's stores collected over many years had all been used up, and even if more wounded arrived, nothing could be done for them.
Altar Master Yuan was the only one of the Altar Masters who could still stand, and the righteous cultivators also only had a handful left who could move. "Are we still fighting?" Altar Master Yuan asked. "The spiritual energy has returned, so if we keep fighting, everyone's sure to die."
The righteous cultivators silently looked toward Wenren È's battle with twenty-one experts and shook their heads.
Ten years of war had come to a cruel resolution. At the very least, they had managed to ensure the survival of the cultivation world and avoid a once in ten millennia calamity.
Altar Master Yuan cupped a fist and said, "In that case, we ask you kindly to leave Xuanyuan Sect, and in return promise not to attack while your backs are turned."
After a moment of discussion among the righteous cultivators, they nodded and, carrying their allies, deployed a large flying boat and left Xuanyuan Sect.
The only participants left in the Great Sect War were its twenty-two top cultivators.
Yin Hanjiang had recuperated for many years and recovered from his injuries. He paid no mind to the retreating cultivators, only gazing at that faraway battlefield. The day passed, night fell, and stars appeared, but Polis was dark.
"Venerable!" Yin Hanjiang said frantically, getting to his feet with sword in hand.
"Stop looking, there's no way Wenren È will survive," Altar Master Ruan "reassured" at his side. "He's surrounded by twenty-one high-level experts, and one of them is a Buddhist. Do you know how strong their edicts to 'deliver all living beings' and 'let go of the blade' are? A single sutra can make all your fighting intent vanish. Wenren È has defeated opponents stronger than him so many times by relying on passionate fighting intent, so a Buddhist cultivator is his worst matchup. Without fighting intent, Wenren È is just an ordinary Mahayana cultivator."
Altar Master Ruan really demonstrated the backstabbing nature of demonic sects. He had been saying "Venerable", but now instantly switched to "Wenren È", willing to abandon someone in an instant.
After that reassurance, he spat a dead bug out of his mouth and stamped it under his heel, cursing lowly, "Putting a heart-eating bug in me? I'll kill you dead! Ten years ago while Wenren È was still alive, you already had a plan for controlling all the Altar Masters and Sect Protectors to steal his position, didn't you? Why didn't you die in the great war, you little schemer?"
"He might as well be dead," said Altar Master Yuan. "His queen parasite was killed. Otherwise, how could you spit out his bug so easily?"
Even the merciless Altar Master Ruan, looking at the remnants of Xuanyuan Sect, couldn't help but remark, "There were too many deaths."
"The righteous sects were just trying to prevent the calamity of ten millennia," said Altar Master Yuan. "The demonic sects have actually gotten quite tame under the Venerable's management. We just mess with righteous cultivators, and don't even dare go after civilians anymore. The righteous sects taking the offensive and starting the Great Sect War, even using strategies like the Spirit Severing Array, was all to trick the heavens and mitigate the cleansing of the human world via a great disaster. Using this many human lives to ensure survival for the next ten thousand years can still be considered a worthwhile trade."
"We're all people who invite calamities. It's in our fate." Altar Master Ruan spoke some rare cultured words, then turned and saw Yin Hanjiang had disappeared and started cussing again. "Fuck, where'd Yin Hanjiang go?!"
The people who could still move turned their heads painfully and found the spot where Yin Hanjiang had sat conspicuously empty. And from deep within the mountains, in the Xuanyuan Sect's forbidden ground, came the faint sound of drumming, each beat louder than the last.
Hearing Altar Master Ruan's words, Yin Hanjiang understood what kind of attack the Venerable was facing.
Fighting intent! If only there was fighting intent, the Venerable would not lose!
But of the three battlefields, two of them had already laid down their flags, and the Venerable was up against the most powerful Buddhist cultivator of the Wuxiang Temple. There was no fighting intent for him.
In his desperation, Yin Hanjiang remembered the Burning Sky Drum, filled with the memories of the Great Demon War in the immortal realm.
He instantly fused with the demonic sword and transformed into a hail of red blades to rush headlong to the Burning Sky Drum. With the power of a Void Boundary cultivator, he used his own body to sound the drum.
The first light drumbeat seemed to resonate in Wenren È's heart.
He slowly opened his eyes and saw a kind-faced old monk facing him, saying, "Major-General Wenren, let go of your hate. Set down your blade, and you will be absolved of your sins."
Major-General? Such a nostalgic title; it had already been three hundred years since he'd last heard it.
Three hundred years ago, he was still an ordinary person, and the Wenren clan were loyal servants of the state. But the entire clan ended up executed. He hated, he resented, he wanted to kill every foolish ruler on the earth, but... what happened afterward?
Bong! A second beat struck heavily in Wenren È's heart. His brows rose, seeing a young child appearing in his memories, reaching out a tiny hand and grabbing the end of his robe. So much like a younger him, barely surviving a battle and being saved by the civilians living at the border, only to hear that the Wenren clan had been exterminated to a man.
"Major-General, the sea of suffering is boundless, but turn around and you will find the shore." The old abbot went back to reading sutras, and the fighting intent that had risen within Wenren È dissipated again.
Bong bong bong! Three urgent beats sounded, like a horn calling Wenren È to battle.
He saw another image, a man in a ghost mask, embracing his robe before an everburning lamp and peacefully closing his eyes.
Bong bong bong bong! The sound of the Burning Sky Drum was deafening, sounding like a voice by Wenren È's ear yelling, "Venerable, Venerable!"
Wenren È opened his eyes fully and said to the monk looking upon him with compassion before him, "Great master, if you want me to set down my blade, how about you first ask if my blade is willing?"
The Wuxiang Temple abbot shook his head, trembling. "It seems we were just short."
Along with his words, the illusion surrounding Wenren È shattered, and twenty-one experts brandished their bonded weapons at him. If he had awoken a second later, these twenty-one weapons would've destroyed him body and soul.
The drumbeats continued incessantly. Wenren È raised the Seven Killing Halberd and said in a clear voice, "The fact that you could pressure this Venerable to such an extent shows you were worthy of the full extent of this Venerable's strength. We're all at our limits, so in this last bout, let the heavens determine the survivors!"
Polis shone radiantly in the sky, as Wenren È's halberd clashed with twenty-one bonded weapons. The force unleashed by twenty-two legendary weapons clashing called down peals of thunder around them.
As the Xuanyuan Sect cultivators chatted idly and looked at the sky, Altar Master Ruan said in disbelief, "The Venerable is actually still alive! How did he survive? He's fighting twenty-one experts!"
"Is calling him Venerable again what's most important? Hurry up and set up a barrier! Do you want to die?" Altar Master Yuan planted a foot in Ruan Weiyi's rear end.
Ruan Weiyi hurriedly activated Xuanyuan Sect's wards. The instant the barrier rose, a streak of red light flew out of it, charging into the battlefield without a second thought.
Yin Hanjiang was uncaring of how the aftermath of such powerful opponents clashing might cause him injury. His vision was a field of red, as he searched among rubble and ruins for Wenren È's figure.
That limb wasn't his, and that weapon wasn't his—where was he, where could he be?
A monk staff fell from the air, about to hit Yin Hanjiang, but in that moment, a beaten-up halberd flew forth to shield him as if it had a will of its own, blocking the staff.
Seeing that halberd, Yin Hanjiang resumed human form. He held Wenren È's bonded weapon, and following its resonance, found the barely breathing Wenren È.
He flew forward and scooped him up. His mouth felt numb from joy, and he found himself unable to speak.
The two landed on flat ground. Yin Hanjiang clutched Wenren È, trembling all over. Wenren È slowly raised a hand and stroked Yin Hanjiang's cheek. "Protector Yin, you really did save this Venerable," he said weakly.