Chapter 417: War of Two Races

In a massive Shaman city several thousand li away, a pale-skinned Shaman lay reclined on a couch, staring blankly at the dome ceiling.

A Warlock hurried over and said, “Lord Frostspeech, news has just come in: the humans have launched a surprise attack, and Rainmaple City has fallen.”

It took the humanoid, pale-skinned Shaman quite a while to move his head. “When did this happen?”

“Two days ago.”

After another moment’s pause, the Shaman on the couch said slowly, “Who has been dispatched to handle this?”

“Lord Flyingdeer and Lord Yellowbird have already led their forces there.”

“Oh, Flyingdeer is quite capable. Please don’t disturb me further.”

“Lord Redleaf wants you to head over and oversee the battle yourself.”

Frostspeech raised his upper body slightly and asked, “What are the humans’ numbers?”

“According to the reports of the soldiers who escaped, they’re everywhere. There might be as many as one hundred thousand of them.”

The pale Shaman had already closed his eyes. “It’s just one hundred thousand, not five hundred thousand. Flyingdeer herself commands one hundred thousand troops, and she is no good-for-nothing.”

The Warlock tried to say more, but the pale Shaman instantly cast them out of the hall.

At the front lines, wave after wave of Shaman troops were converging from all directions and rushing toward the recently fallen city of Rainmaple. On the summit of a hill, several Great Shamans stood, watching as ranks of Shaman fighters marched past below.

The Great Shaman in the center had two short horns on her head and wore a wooden mask. She said, “We’re marching too slowly!”

A Great Shaman beside her replied, “We’ll Rainmaple City tomorrow; the other tribes will only be slower than us. The humans might engage us in a decisive battle there. Still, I never expected the humans to conquer Rainmaple City in less than a day!”

The Great Shaman in the center warned, “Lord Frostspeech most likely won’t come, so you must be careful. I heard that quite a few powerful human experts have arrived this time. Once we reach Rainmaple City tomorrow, we must first build an altar.”

The rest of the Great Shamans seemed dismissive of her concerns, though. Building an altar was extremely costly and would take at least three days—why be so cautious over a mere few tens of thousands of humans?

In the distance, another Shaman tribe army was on the march. They didn’t notice a tiny figure perched on a distant mountain peak, observing their camp.

At the same time, Wei Yuan’s form was barely discernible as he flew at high speed, scanning the surrounding terrain. He soon spotted a marching Shaman force. After silently observing them for a moment, the data on this Shaman force was marked on his projection.

Half a day later, Wei Yuan returned to the Shaman city. The ferret and the cat had returned as well. The two spirit beasts reported the size of the Shaman force and their routes to Wei Yuan.

It was now the third day since Wei Yuan had captured the Shaman city. On the battlefield map, six columns of Shaman troops had already appeared within a 500-li radius of the city, totaling nearly 300,000 troops.

The Shamans’ response was remarkably swift, and the troops they deployed were all elite. Their ability to mobilize hundreds of thousands of reinforcements in less than three days also led Wei Yuan to reassess the Kingdom of Rain’s strength.

However, as he looked at the map showing the Shaman forces approaching from several different directions, Wei Yuan focused his perception. Moments later, possible march routes appeared ahead of each column.

Assessing the distances between the columns and the differences in their speeds, Wei Yuan acted decisively: he left only a small contingent to guard the Shaman city while mobilizing everyone else on a full-scale offensive.

The 30,000-strong army split into two columns: 20,000 mounted infantry would engage the Shaman army on the far left, while 10,000 cavalry, led by Wei Yuan himself, charged directly at the adjacent column.

Half a day later, a great battle erupted. Wei Yuan personally led 10,000 elite cavalry in a surprise attack against the Shaman’s 30,000 infantry. By this time, the cavalry had fully replenished their ammunition. Thus, with devastating firepower, they shattered the enemy ranks in just a short time. Meanwhile, Wei Yuan fought two Great Shamans at once and injured both of them.

With the battle on this column commencing first, the two Shaman forces on the far left and the center began converging on the battlefield. However, the 40,000-strong Shaman force on the far left immediately ran into Wei Yuan’s 20,000 mounted infantry. Upon engagement, they likewise suffered heavy casualties due to the enemy’s devastating firepower. Shortly after the battle on this column began, Wei Yuan—having already routed his opponents—rushed in with his cavalry, launching a pincer attack that swept away this Shaman force as well.

Among the 50,000 Shaman troops in the center were 10,000 lizard riders. They had broken away from the main force in order to support their besieged as quickly as possible.

However, the central column was somewhat distant from the left column. By the time the lizard riders finally arrived on the battlefield, Wei Yuan had already routed the Shaman forces on the flank and was in the process of encircling and mopping up the stragglers.

Seeing the enemy cavalry charging toward them, Wei Yuan personally led 3,000 iron cavalry to intercept the 10,000 lizard riders and engage them in a fierce back-and-forth battle. Meanwhile, the rest of his forces focused on annihilating the fleeing Shaman troops.

Seeing the situation turn against them, the lizard riders attempted to flee but were relentlessly pursued by the Qingming cavalry. Soon after, 7,000 Qingming cavalrymen, having hunted down all the stragglers and were now free to act, immediately flanked them from the rear and wiped them all out.

After the battle was over, Wei Yuan once again divided his cavalry and his infantry, sending them to the left and right flanks. After personally scouting the movements of the central Shaman force, he ordered a surprise attack: the infantry would engage the enemy head-on while the cavalry flanked them from the rear. Attacked from all sides, the central Shaman force suffered another crushing defeat.

Just as Flyindeer led her 100,000-strong main force to the outskirts of Rainmaple City and began constructing an altar, she received news that all three of her right-flank allies had been routed.

Flyingdeer’s eyes blazed with fury. She immediately dispatched troops to scout the city and discovered it was already completely deserted. Even the small contingent that had been feigning a defense had taken the opportunity to flee. The altar she had spent most of the day building had been built in vain.

At this point, the main body of the Shaman army was still intact: Flyingdeer’s 100,000 troops and Yellowbird’s 80,000 were all unscathed. They immediately combined their forces and dispatched large numbers of scout cavalry to search for Wei Yuan’s location. However, aside from the sites of the three major battles, they were unable to find any sign of large-scale troop movements anywhere. All evidence indicated that the human forces had dispersed into who knows how many small units.

The Great Shamans also learned from the routed soldiers they had rounded up that the human army numbered only 30,000 in total.

When this intelligence was reported back, both Flyingdeer and Yellowbird felt a massive headache coming on. It was because this meant that their original plan to launch a surprise attack on the Realm of Qingming and force the humans to withdraw was no longer viable. There were still at least over 100,000 troops guarding the domain, and they simply did not have the forces to defeat them.

After pondering for a long time, Flyingdeer finally said, “The humans have been deep within our Shaman realm for some time. Sooner or later, they’ll have to return and replenish their army aura. Since they’ve split into small units, we should also divide our forces to search and pursue them. However, we must not stray too far from one another, and we must maintain constant communication. Furthermore, since we’ve suffered a defeat in the first contact, we’ll need to mobilize more reinforcements from the rear. We must also send word to Lord Frostspeech—he’ll probably have to come here after all.”

Over the next few days, both sides divided into multiple small units and began hunting each other down.

However, the humans proved to be extremely elusive. Consisting entirely of cavalry or mounted infantry, they would retreat immediately upon sensing a large Shaman force. Yet whenever isolated Shaman detachments were spotted, several small human squads would suddenly appear around them. After encircling their targets, these units would merge into a massive force of over 10,000, annihilate the enemy, and then disperse and vanish once more.

On the map displayed within the Great Realm, multiple forces were moving simultaneously at every moment. Whenever a Shaman force appeared, dedicated analysts would assess its likely next course of action[1].

Wei Yuan’s forces were not, in fact, evenly distributed. Some units were larger, while others were smaller. Some moved quickly while others moved slowly.

At the moment, every mortal with military talent was working at full capacity, and even those who had originally been assigned to other tasks were joining the effort.

At first, these mortals had mostly played it by the book. They focused primarily on waiting for opportunities to arise and concentrating their forces to strike down small enemy units.

But after several days of fighting, the strategies and tactics they proposed became increasingly proactive—and even unpredictable.

They would use small, swift units to lure and maneuver the enemy out of position, causing several Shaman units who had been advancing side by side to scatter. This would suddenly expose the central unit, which would then be surrounded and annihilated. The poor bastards never figured out where its allies on either flank had suddenly disappeared until they were wiped out.

A couple more successful battles like this, and the mortals grew even bolder.

They would deliberately send a strong unit to attack a Shaman force. Once several nearby Shaman forces converged upon that strong unit, they would counter-encircle them with even greater forces, ultimately achieving a major victory.

Later, in another instance of unpredictable tactical maneuvering, after a series of complex movements and combat, several of Wei Yuan’s units just “happened” to form a ring of encirclement, and several Shaman units “happened” to walk right into it. Everything had happened so naturally as if predestined.

A few days later, many Qingming units had exhausted their ammunition. At the same time, several supply convoys that had departed from the Realm of Qingming earlier had bypassed the Shamans’ intercepting forces and reached the edge of the battlefield. At that precise moment, one or more Qingming units maneuvered into position, replenished their supplies, and went straight back to the fray.

In this way, the 30,000-strong army of Qingming played hide-and-seek and continuously outmaneuvered the Shaman forces— easily ten times their number—across a vast battlefield spanning 1,000 li.

Of course, the Great Shamans had attempted to act as scouts and track down the Qingming forces during this time, but after Wei Yuan ambushed and killed two of them in quick succession, demonstrating his own elusiveness in the process, no Great Shaman dared to act alone after that. Even when traveling in pairs, they refused to venture beyond the protection of their army aura.

On the ninth day of the protracted battle, a pale-skinned Shaman—one zhang and two chi tall—descended from the sky and blocked Wei Yuan’s path. Blood-red flames ignited in his eyes, and he said slowly, “You’re so young. It’s a pity you’ll have to die like this.”

Wei Yuan replied, “I’ve heard that Redleaf is highly respected among the Shamans. Looking at you, I find it truly unbelievable.”

The flames in Frostspeech’s eyes instantly flared. “Slandering Redleaf will only make your death more agonizing!”

Wei Yuan asked, “You are a Shadow Shaman. Are you seriously going to take action against me personally?”

“This is a war between two races.”

Wei Yuan said no more, fixing his gaze on Frostspeech as his aura gradually surged.

Frostspeech let out a cold laugh and said, “Bring out your two companions. There is no need to hide—I’m more than happy to face all of you together.”

The cat and the ferret stopped concealing their presences and built their aura to the peak—only then could they unleash their full combat potential.

Frostspeech slowly cracked his neck. His movements were stiff, like those of a reanimated corpse, and his joints creaked and cracked as he slowly raised his hand.

Suddenly, the ferret’s tail and the fur on its back bristled. It shot forward like lightning, lunging with all its might! The cat was just a split second slower, its claw reaching for Frostspeech’s nape.

Frostspeech suddenly flashed forward, leaving behind only an ice sculpture of himself in his original spot. It was instantly shattered by the ferret and the cat, but it only caused his aura to decrease slightly. Then, he reached out one hand toward Wei Yuan.

A long river of frost appeared before his fingertips, extending 1,000 zhang in an instant and completely enveloping Wei Yuan!

In the blink of an eye, the Great Realm transformed into a world of ice and cold. His vitality abruptly plummeted by more than half, and all of the immortal plants unleashed their unique radiance to shield the small areas around them.

The ground was instantly covered by a thick layer of snow. Many houses were even buried up to the roof. Many mortals had taken shelter beneath the immortal plants in advance and were thus spared from death. Only those on the very outskirts and hadn’t managed to squeeze into the circle in time were turned into ice sculptures. They then crumbled into icy dust right after.

Dozens of others, disregarding Wei Yuan’s earlier orders, rushed to the base of his immortal statue seeking refuge, only to be reduced to dust alongside the statue itself.

1. I think enough chapters have passed for you guys to realize what’s going on here, but Wei Yuan basically has a superintelligent AI inside him.