Chapter 612: Continuously descending

The deaths of four Fifth Rank Cultivators made Liu Junyi's eyelids twitch.

He made a mistake.

Originally, it was impossible for him to make such a mistake, and because of this mistake, he directly lost five Fifth Rank Cultivators…

Through The Axis of All Realms, he was able to understand the entire battlefield situation, and naturally, he also knew what was happening on People of No Return's side.

However… he couldn't spare the energy to deal with it, so he could only hastily give commands.

He had to face not only People of No Return's side but also the entire front battlefield controlled by Li Qi!

A large amount of Liu Junyi's energy was forced to deal with Li Qi, because Li Qi's side was advancing without regard for gains or losses.

Humanity's military strength was inherently inferior to Shaman Dao, as Shaman Dao's detached attitude made many worlds willing to serve Shaman Dao rather than Humanity.

When military strength is insufficient, tactics and strategy must be implemented, fully utilizing Humanity's advantages in information speed, troop quality, and mobility.

This required micro-management.

Li Qi had already thrown caution to the wind, disregarding any casualties, directly engaging in a full-frontal assault, forcing a Breakthrough, but Liu Junyi couldn't do the same; he had to micro-manage, and could only micro-manage.

Humanity couldn't afford to trade lives with the worlds aligned with Shaman Dao; Human lives were too precious.

Therefore, at this moment, on the front battlefield, with millions of worlds launching a fierce attack, Liu Junyi had no choice but to micro-manage the entire battlefield. Even a hero like Liu Junyi felt his mind stretched to its limit, struggling to keep up.

If there were enough reserve forces at this moment, those reserves could easily be put into the battlefield to tie down Li Qi's large army as elites, making it difficult for the large armies to move, as they would be attacked if they did.

But these reserve forces had to go stop Shen Shuibi's detector and also leave a portion behind for support.

Originally, only Lord of Pestilence was needed to deal with Shen Shuibi's side, but now more forces were forced to be deployed.

Unfortunately, Lord of Pestilence had already been transferred because of his oath with Li Qi; he was unwilling to be an enemy of Li Qi, preferring to accept punishment and then being transferred to the True Dragon's battlefield.

…Is this, too, fate?

The Fifth Rank Cultivator reserves were few.

However, as long as Shen Shuibi's side was dealt with quickly and these forces were transferred back to the front battlefield, although such a level of teleportation would temporarily halt the Golden Dais, it should be able to handle this wave of pressure.

It wasn't that he was incapable of handling the crisis brought by Li Qi, it was just… he was a bit too busy.

But he still remained calm.

The loss of five top-tier Fifth Rank Cultivators was heartbreaking, but the opponent's trump cards should also have been fully revealed. Shen Shuibi had even sacrificed her Physical Body, and the Outer Golden Core she had previously refined had also exploded. Now, she could only rely on her Yang Spirit to exist.

Shen Shuibi's side gained five Fifth Rank Cultivators, seemingly a huge win, but in reality, Li Qi's losses were far more than five Fifth Rank Cultivators. A large number of worlds suffered unnecessary casualties under this offensive, and tens of thousands of worlds were destroyed within this short fifteen minutes.

Both sides were still evenly matched. If Shen Shuibi's actions were stopped, then Li Qi's front battlefield would be utterly defeated.

Let's deal with that detector first. Although the General died, those one hundred thousand Generals are still on their way to destroy the detector, and they still need a Fifth Rank Cultivator to escort them.

The detector must be destroyed, otherwise… the Shaman Dao reinforcements that were intercepted with great effort would break free.

Yes, Liu Junyi really stopped the Shaman Dao reinforcements, because he knew that only by doing so could Li Qi be left with no way to resist, making it impossible for Li Qi to fight back.

However, it seemed that Li Qi and Shen Shuibi were both very clear about the reason and had made countermeasures.

So next… it was Liu Junyi's turn to respond to Li Qi's moves.

At the same time, in the center of the battlefield.

Shen Shuibi floated in the Void Realm, panting heavily.

Her Physical Body had completely dispersed. In order to make that General of the Flying Cavalry suffer Evil Qi backlash, she directly used her Physical Body as a sacrifice. Her Physical Body was truly gone.

However, at first glance, she still looked no different from usual, just a little tired.

The body she was using at this moment was her Yang Spirit.

Under normal circumstances, Daoist Cultivators could “emerge from their spirit” after the Seventh Rank.

This meant that the Yang Spirit could exit through the Heavenly Gate on top of the head, instantly traveling millions of miles, wandering beyond the heavens, and even interfering with reality, no different from an Daoist Master. They could even fight, eat, completely break free from the confinement of the Physical Body, and exist long-term without the Physical Body, roughly equivalent to obtaining an external body, and transcending life and death, achieving longevity.

The Daoist classic “Hundred True Chapters” claims: “When all Yin is peeled away and the Golden Core matures, one leaps out of the small cage and lives for ten thousand years.”

As for why it says ten thousand years, that's a symbolic number, meaning one has become immortal.

“Abandoning the Physical Body, relying entirely on the Yang Spirit, and the prepared Golden Core also exploded.” Shen Shuibi glanced at her hand, then at the one hundred thousand strong army not far away.

Not the group entangled by People of No Return, but the five-directional army brought by that Confucian General. There were still five Fifth Rank Cultivators there, just not as strong.

They were already close to the detector. If they were allowed to proceed, the detector would be destroyed in at most fifteen minutes.

Shen Shuibi calculated that less than fifteen minutes had passed since the start of the battle.

For the detector to function fully, it needed to last at least two hours.

Two hours is eight fifteen-minute intervals.

Not even one fifteen-minute interval had passed yet.

Shen Shuibi took a deep breath and glanced at the dried corpse beside her.

That was the corpse of Humanity's General of the Flying Cavalry. All of his essence, Qi, spirit, and cultivation, including his Inner World, were completely exhausted by that one saber strike, turning him into this dried corpse.

It was precisely because of this saber strike that a Fifth Rank Cultivator was almost killed, forcing Humanity to quickly send three Fifth Rank Cultivators to jointly resist this strike. In the end, Liu Junyi's momentary oversight caused all four to be killed by Shen Shuibi's self-detonating Outer Golden Core, resulting in huge losses.

Then, she looked towards the area of the Golden Core explosion. The Inner Worlds of the four Fifth Rank Cultivators were blown apart, and dense Origin Qi mixed together, almost forming Chaos. Violent Qi waves continuously surged and boiled, seemingly intent on destroying everything around them.

Such a disturbance would last for a very, very long time, as Qi does not disappear out of thin air, but it can be smoothed out by time.

If left alone for hundreds of thousands of years, after these explosions subside, these Heaven and Earth Origin Qi are very likely to coalesce into a new Fifth Rank World, from which life could be nurtured.

But if one were to interfere with these chaotic Origin Qi at this moment, it would be equivalent to fighting five Fifth Rank Cultivators simultaneously. Ordinary Fifth Rank Cultivators would die just by getting close, and even a top-tier Fifth Rank Cultivator like Shen Shuibi would not last long.

Indeed, it was five, Shen Shuibi's Outer Golden Core was also in there, counting as one.

After assessing the surrounding situation, Shen Shuibi's Yang Spirit instantly traversed tens of thousands of miles, blocking the path of that elite army.

The movement speed of the Yang Spirit was much faster than that of the Physical Body.

The five Fifth Rank Cultivators leading the team exchanged glances, then simultaneously drew their weapons.

“Order! We will hold back this person, the main force advances to destroy the phased array!” The five spoke in unison, then each displayed their methods and charged towards Shen Shuibi.

The opponent was already severely wounded!

The five Human Dao Fifth Rank Cultivators, though individually not top-tier, were much stronger than Shadowmoon Cold Tooth and the like in the Outer Realm, let alone when they attacked together.

It was well known that the more people Humanity had, the stronger they became.

The five formed a small team, linking together as one! Among them was a Human Dao Medical Cultivator, acting as the core, leading the other four, who respectively formed the 'five parts' of a human body!

With the five individuals as the five parts, they combined into one body, blocking Shen Shuibi's path. This way, they could hold back Shen Shuibi and buy time for their soldiers to destroy the phased array.

Shen Shuibi had to break through all of them before she could deal with their army.

In other words, she had to continuously break through and destroy these five subordinate generals, along with the one hundred thousand Human Dao Cultivators.

Those one hundred thousand Cultivators, if gathered, were not much weaker than five Fifth Rank Cultivators.

No one could help her in a short time. The People of No Return were already struggling to handle one side. Even if they could win, it wouldn't be over in fifteen minutes.

The advantages that could be gained from strategy had been mostly gained. What remained was a test of strength, and there was no time for them to calculate. The distance between the two sides was only about a hundred li, which for a Fifth Rank Cultivator was no different from being face to face.

What remained was only close-quarters combat; setting up Formations and weaving nets was no longer realistic.

Shen Shuibi, with only her Yang Spirit remaining, faced the combined attack of five Fifth Rank Cultivators.

In the first move, two opponents teamed up, one wielding a blade, the other controlling human Qi to form Yang fire, attacking from two sides.

Crimson is the color of fire, opposing the metal direction; black is the position of water, thus hindering the virtue of fire.

Shen Shuibi shifted slightly, and circles of Yin and Yang trigrams appeared around her, beginning to spin.

This was not some special effect, but her method of calculation.

As expected of a couple, in such close quarters, although her fighting style differed from Li Qi's, there was a subtle similarity: both required calculation.

Estimating the opponent's spell… Renzi Kun Shen Yichen for Water God, Yin Wu Xu Yang Flame God, Gen Bing Xin Yin Flame God follows.

Metal and fire separated, then countered each other, the spells canceling out.

Having broken the first move, the second move followed immediately, almost simultaneously, with an almost imperceptible delay.

Then, the third Human Dao Fifth Rank Cultivator was seen drawing a bow and nocking an arrow, his Dharma Idol unfolding. Seven sections and three uprights, shooting tigers and leopards with three pairs, the seasons with cloud Qi, each used according to its uprightness. The nine-section sound was a musical performance for the difference in shooting rhythm.

Shen Shuibi frowned, but her body suddenly transformed into a small white rabbit.

The opponent's archery was the Great Archery Ritual.

The ancient Great Archery Ritual had three targets: bear, tiger, and leopard, meaning to shoot fierce beasts, to correct the five upright targets, to know the three uprights departing from heaven and earth, to understand the meaning of their seasons, not to lose their purpose, then merit is achieved and virtue established.

Shen Shuibi, facing south as the head, first drew crimson, and then all subsequent colors were based on mutual restraint. She also transformed into a rabbit, conceptually showing weakness, which made the ritual of this great archery incomplete and unable to exert its full power, greatly reducing its might.

But even so, the arrow still pierced her body, causing significant damage to her Yang Spirit.

At the same time, Lunar Corona erupted, flickering.

Shen Shuibi was transformed from Moon Essence. When she was injured, the scattered power naturally wouldn't be wasted. Instead, she transformed it into Lunar Corona, which exploded directly.

This did not cause direct damage, but rather formed a Lunar Corona Domain nearby, suppressing all Qi except Yin Qi, fundamentally preventing the Formation of the opponent's Divine Ability.

Shen Shuibi's body would turn into Lunar Corona after being injured, meaning the more severely she was injured, the stronger the Lunar Corona Domain would become, and the greater its suppressive power.

She willingly took this injury to open the Domain, but the third move had already reached her neck.

However, this time it was a long spear, its style like a silver python, subtly containing the stars of Greed, Giant, Fortune, Literature, Health, Martial, Break, and Support, forming the image of escape and defeat in all four directions.

The rabbit focused its mind, and the Divine Ability of the Celestial Pole Golden Elixir Method unfolded.

My Golden Core is the Celestial Pole of the heavens; all movement revolves around me.

Similarly, the opponent's star-aligning method was the same. The rabbit converged the four auspicious stars of Eating, Giant, Martial, and Support, and borrowed the auspicious official star in the positions of Shen, Wu, Xu, Xin, and Ren.

Taking herself as the Celestial Pole, and arranging opposing star Formations in the opposite direction, the two repelled each other, and a strange force suddenly appeared out of thin air, causing the spear to deviate by a foot, grazing past Shen Shuibi's side.

She then took the opportunity to extend her hand, a malicious Yin Qi condensing in her palm, intending to heavily injure the Human Dao General holding the spear!

However, before she could act, Shen Shuibi immediately retracted her hand and retreated sharply.

The power from the fifth person, an invisible and intangible spell, brushed past her face. If she had attacked the opponent just now, she would have been hit by the fifth move.

This entire set of exchanges took less than 0.001 seconds.

In the next 0.01 seconds, the battle resumed.

In just one second, thousands of exchanges could occur, and each move used surpassed the full power of an ordinary Outer Realm Fifth Rank Cultivator. Such an intense battle was a bloody struggle between orthodox Fifth Rank Cultivators of the world.

Walking a tightrope is insufficient to describe the intensity of this battle. This level of precise maneuvering requires detecting the source of the opponent's spell in the shortest time and then responding. If the response is not timely, or if the source of the spell is misjudged, then one must be prepared to pay the price.

Ultimately, it depends on who breaks first.

Let's see whose mental capacity reaches its limit first, whose energy reaches its limit first, whose cultivation reaches its limit…

Whose life… reaches its limit first.

Shen Shuibi's battle was in full swing.

But on the other side, the phantom of the Golden Dais flickered again.

Humanity's reserve forces descended again, but this time it wasn't as grand. Only one Fifth Rank Cultivator arrived, likely because the reserve Fifth Rank combat power was already scarce.

As soon as he arrived, he merged with the one hundred thousand strong army that was heading towards the detector.

This Human Dao Fifth Rank Cultivator was a Mohist Cultivator with a stern face, a small mustache, and an iron ruler in his hand—a Mohist knight-errant.

As soon as he arrived, he pointed to the weak points of the phased array: “Divide into thirteen teams. Four dimensions, eight directions, each take one. Leave one team here, and follow me to find the Formation core.”

As a Mohist Cultivator, he was most skilled at things like Magic Treasures, artifacts, and Formations, even more proficient than Shen Shuibi.

Shen Shuibi's skills were self-taught out of interest, although she had self-taught herself to an expert level.

He, however, was a genuine expert; this was his Dao, his livelihood.

Shen Shuibi could no longer interfere with him; he only needed a few minutes to dismantle the entire detector.

At this moment, Gou Lou and Cha Xike also noticed another Fifth Rank Cultivator descending.

However, like Shen Shuibi, they were also tied down and couldn't spare a hand.

They couldn't hold them back anymore, the detector was about to be dismantled.

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