Chapter 89: Battlefield Domination!

Damian overlooked the battlefield with his arms folded.

And frankly, his fingers were itching badly!

Every scream, every clash of metal and every Nightmare Corpse Sect disciple dropping into the mud felt like somebody waving free Skill Points in front of his face before telling him to remain seated.

However, Damian had forced himself to wait, as he needed to see the battle play out naturally.

More importantly, everyone else needed to see it as well.

This was the first proper battlefield test of the goods he had introduced into Shengyuan. A handful of controlled experiments and isolated fights were one thing, but hundreds of people smashing into one another under real combat pressure?

That was data!

And the results had surpassed even Damian’s expectations.

Holy Water had practically deleted the Nightmare Corpse Sect’s greatest advantage at Body Tempering.

The 3 Valorian Vials had done the rest.

Individually, each one was valuable, but together, they had turned the Evergreen sect’s battered disciples into something dangerously close to an army with a cheat menu.

Damian watched another wounded Evergreen disciple drink a Vial of Healing, rise several moments later and return to the formation.

His lips twitched.

"How... Beautiful."

Unfortunately...

The battle was ending.

Nightmare Corpse Sect disciples were already retreating in growing numbers, while Jian Rui wisely prevented the Evergreen side from chasing them directly into whatever traps had been prepared beyond the battlefield.

If Damian kept standing around admiring his product testing...

He was going to get absolutely nothing out of this engagement!

No Skill Points, no Attributes, no <Battle God> growth.

Nothing!

That simply would not do!

Damian finally unfolded his arms, and his right hand rose, with one finger pointed toward the retreating Nightmare Corpse Sect force.

Behind him, Mu Qingyao immediately noticed the movement, her beautiful face filled with confusion.

Shen Xueyi noticed only a moment later, though her expression became considerably more suspicious.

"Lord Damian...?" Shen Xueyi called slowly.

Damian did not answer.

Across the battlefield, the reaction was even more interesting.

Tang Yuyen frowned. "What is he doing?"

Fang Lu’s expression became worried.

The cowardly caution that had replaced his earlier lust immediately surged.

Was that bastard pointing at him?

Did he want to challenge him?!

Fang Lu instinctively straightened while secretly calculating how many excuses existed for refusing a public challenge without looking like a coward.

Only Ning Ruomei understood, her eyes snapping toward Damian’s hand, then his lips.

Her pupils contracted greatly, as she had seen this before!

It was not this exact spell, but that posture, that focus, and that strange movement of his mouth!

It was an... incantation!

Ning Ruomei shot upright inside the palanquin for the first time that afternoon, and all languid sensuality disappeared.

"EVERYONE SCATTER! RUN!!!"

Her scream tore across the Nightmare Corpse Sect formation with enough terror that even Fang Lu flinched.

But sigh... it was too late.

Damian was not manually constructing the spell, he was using a Spell Slot.

And not merely the Level 3 Slot normally required by <Fireball>, no.

He had decided to be generous today and use his only Level 5 Mage Spell Slot.

The slot ignited as Spell Upcasting took hold.

The ordinary level 3 <Fireball> Damian had used several days earlier possessed 150% standardized Fire Damage and detonated across roughly 5 meters.

When upcast to level 5, it jumped to around 500% Fire Damage as well as a direct destructive radius approaching 25 meters.

And that was before accounting for Damian’s increased Attributes, stronger magical foundation, All Element Heavenly Body and the extraordinarily unfortunate relationship between natural Fire and Corpse Qi.

The spell formed, causing the nearby Mu Qingyao’s expression to change and Shen Xueyi’s pupils to contract further.

A sphere of violent orange flame appeared before Damian’s extended hand.

It was enormous, nearly 3 times the size of the Fireball he had previously used against the Nightmare Corpse Sect patrol, its surface roiling violently as compressed fire folded over itself again and again.

Even Damian felt the difference.

His arm remained steady, but for the first time since becoming a Mage, the sheer magical force moving through the prepared structure actually demanded effort from him.

This was not a Cantrip nor was it the modest magic of a Novice Mage.

This was Damian opening his highest Spell Slot and telling a Level 3 destruction spell to eat until it became obese.

His voice came out considerably denser than usual.

"ARDE!!"

The Fireball launched.

BOOOOOOM!

There was no slow arc through the air, nor any dramatic floating projectile giving everyone several seconds to reconsider their life choices.

The enormous sphere shot from Damian like a rocket leaving a launcher, streaking across the battlefield with terrifying speed.

............

The retreating Nightmare Corpse Sect disciples had finally regrouped, and that alone irritated them.

Their ordinary battle doctrine relied heavily upon Evergreen disciples chasing after them, entering prearranged killing zones and discovering that the ’cowardly retreat’ had actually been bait.

Today, the Grass Munchers actually refused to follow!

"Those bastards learned!"

One disciple slapped his thigh bitterly.

Another spat blood into the mud.

"Wasted the entire trap!"

Then Ning Ruomei screamed.

"EVERYONE SCATTER! RUN!!!"

Dozens of heads turned, and for several confused seconds, nobody understood why the Ancestor’s daughter sounded like she had just seen death itself.

Then... the battlefield became orange.

One cultivator looked upward, his jaw dropping to the limit in shock.

A gigantic Fireball was hurtling directly toward them!

Fast!

It was too fast to avoid!

"What the fu—"

That was all he managed before the sphere struck the middle of the regrouped force.

KRAKOOM!!!

The world disappeared in fire and ash.

The first 25 meters became the ’fire’.

Cultivators standing near the center did not burn in the conventional sense, so there was no prolonged screaming, nor any time to stop, drop and roll.

Their flesh blackened almost instantaneously as clothing, hair and exposed skin vanished beneath a violent sphere of orange-white flame.

Then the blast pressure arrived, and the charred bodies broke apart into fragments, damaged weapons spun through the air, and sections of earth erupted upward as mud, stone, ash and shattered human remains were thrown in every direction.

The next zone fared only marginally better.

From roughly 25 to 45 meters outward, the direct flame pressure weakened enough that people remained alive long enough to regret it.

"AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

Bodies ignited, robes burst into flame, and skin blistered then peeled.

Many disciples slammed into the ground and rolled desperately through mud to seek relief and survival.

Unfortunately for Nightmare Corpse Sect disciples...

Rolling did not solve the actual problem as their Corpse Qi had joined the party.

The moment Damian’s unnatural fire entered their bodies, the refined death energy reacted with horrifying enthusiasm.

One disciple managed to extinguish his outer robes, then fire erupted from his mouth!

His scream became a choking gargle as orange light spread beneath his skin.

Another ran six steps before his Corpse Qi ignited along his meridians and transformed him into a human torch.

Farther out, beyond roughly 45 meters, the heat became survivable, but the shockwave was another matter.

Body Tempering disciples were lifted from their feet and thrown across the mud like ragdolls.

Some suffered broken bones while others escaped with scorched hair, blistered skin and ringing ears.

Those beyond the worst of the blast stared at the expanding column of black smoke in absolute disbelief.

Then the System screens began appearing before Damian.

Immediately.

[Valid Souls detected.]

[Skill Upgrade System activated.]

[Soul converted.]

[Skill Points acquired.]

[Soul converted.]

[Skill Points acquired.]

[Soul converted.]

[Skill Points acquired.]

The messages multiplied, first one after another, then faster than that.

Damian’s eyes widened slightly as the notifications began stacking so quickly that he could barely follow them individually.

[Multiple qualifying hostile eliminations recorded.]

[Battle God activated.]

[Qualifying Kill Contribution Increased.]

[Battle Aura strengthened.]

Another set followed.

[Demonic Plundering Dao Body activated.]

[Multiple compatible remnants detected.]

[Select Plunder Type:

Cultivation Progress.

Attributes.]

Damian did not hesitate.

"Attributes."

Power immediately began pouring into him, and not in one clean stream, but in dozens of tiny fragments.

Strength.

Dexterity.

Agility.

Constitution.

Then stranger sensations mixed among them.

Perception.

Wisdom.

Spirit.

Even faint traces from the hidden Attributes Damian had already learned could be stolen.

His body seemed to tighten and adjust repeatedly while the automatic refinement of <Demonic Plundering Dao Body> stripped away everything incompatible.

Damian almost laughed.

This was ridiculous!

He had thrown just one spell, one!

And the Nightmare Corpse Sect had apparently transformed itself into a loot piñata!

The Valorian Overworld System also responded, though as usual, it cared considerably less about raw body count than the sheer novelty of what Damian had just accomplished.

[Combat achievement recorded.]

[Mass hostile elimination through a single Upcast Spell recognized.]

[Battlefield-scale magical impact recorded.]

The final Experience calculation had not yet settled.

Technically, the fight was still ongoing.

Damian did not care, as that dopamine shot alone had been magnificent.

Then he looked forward.

............

The battlefield had changed completely.

Before the Fireball landed, the Nightmare Corpse Sect had already suffered a severe defeat.

Their force had started slightly above 100 Body Tempering disciples.

By the time they retreated, somewhere between 15% and 20% were already dead, crippled or too badly wounded to continue.

That was catastrophic by their usual standards.

Then Damian decided to contribute.

Now?

Barely 20 or so disciples remained capable of standing far enough from the blast to escape the worst of it.

Some had suffered only light burns while others limped from the shockwave.

A few had escaped almost untouched by sheer luck and distance.

Everyone else though, was either dead, dying, or burning.

And unfortunately for those still burning, their Corpse Qi had become their executioner.

A lightly scorched ordinary human might survive with treatment.

A lightly scorched Nightmare Corpse Sect cultivator possessed an internal fuel source politely assisting Damian’s spell in completing the job.

One after another, screams ended, and soon, the Willowbank Front battlefield went silent, though not completely.

Flames still roared in excitement, people still groaned in agony, and mud and debris continued falling from the sky.

But the hundreds of Evergreen Sect disciples standing behind Damian seemed to have collectively forgotten how conversation worked.

Someone dropped a sword.

CLANG!

The sound felt absurdly loud.

The disciples of the Evergreen Base Camp stared in stupefaction.

They had already believed Damian powerful as they had watched him restore their camp and had consumed his strange medicine.

They had personally witnessed those products reverse a battle they had expected to suffer through.

But this?

This was different!

Lord Damian had simply pointed his finger, said one word, and an army disappeared!

Jian Rui slowly lowered his weapon.

Bo Wen’s mouth was open.

Lin Meiyu seemed to have completely forgotten whatever command she had been about to relay.

Shen Lian had seen Damian burn Ning Ruomei’s puppet before, and so had the other youngsters.

They understood that his fire was particularly vicious against Corpse Qi.

Even then...

A chill crawled down all four of their spines.

That earlier attack and this were not in the same category!

Behind Damian, Mu Qingyao physically recoiled whereas Shen Xueyi did not move at all.

Her pupils had contracted into needle points as both women understood something the Body Tempering disciples could not.

The level of the attack had... had reached... Foundation Establishment!!

There was no mistake!

Even if one completely ignored the unnatural interaction between Damian’s Fire and Corpse Qi, the base magical power of that spell had reached the early Foundation Establishment level!

Mu Qingyao’s face turned strange.

How?

HOW?!

Damian was still only at the beginning of Qi Condensation within Shengyuan’s cultivation system!

That alone was ridiculous enough because when the man first arrived at the Evergreen Sect only around 5 days ago, he could barely be considered equivalent to Qi Condensation through his foreign magic.

Then he actually entered Qi Condensation.

Fine!

Wonderful!

Completely unreasonable, but fine!

Yet apparently, while everyone was busy trying to understand that growth, Damian’s other supernatural system had casually jumped into Foundation Establishment-level destructive output?!

What kind of growth was this?!

Did this man possess no respect for heavenly laws?!

No respect for bottlenecks?!

No respect for the normal progression of living beings?!

Shen Xueyi’s expression was hardly better.

She knew geniuses... heck, she herself was considered one!

She had grown up surrounded by the most talented disciples the Azure Water Sect could cultivate.

There were monsters who trained several times faster than ordinary people, prodigies who understood Martial Arts after one demonstration, and heaven-favored individuals who encountered fortunate opportunities capable of reducing years of cultivation into months.

But Damian Baines’s growth was simply insulting compared to everyone else’s!

............

The Nightmare Corpse Sect side reacted somewhat less philosophically.

One surviving disciple had wet himself, another was sitting in the mud staring at the inferno with blank eyes, and a third had dropped to his knees.

The fellow was not surrendering, no. It was just that... his legs simply no longer worked like they used to.

Tang Yuyen’s entire body trembled, her earlier rage having vanished like vapor in the wind.

The Level 9 Qi Condensation cultivator stared at the devastation with a face drained of blood.

The difference between her and those Body Tempering disciples was that she understood enough to be more afraid.

Foundation Establishment!

That attack had touched Foundation Establishment!

Fang Lu had fallen directly onto his backside, with dirty mud staining his exquisite robes.

However, he did not have the frame of mind to notice.

"Impossible..."

His lips trembled.

"Impossible... impossible... impossible..."

All that earlier nonsense about heroes needing to struggle properly?

Gone.

All the fantasies about Mu Qingyao and Shen Xueyi?

Gone.

All the contempt toward Damian?

Oh, that shit was definitely gone!

Ning Ruomei alone remained standing, her expression grim beyond description.

The firelight reflected inside her violet eyes as she stared directly across the battlefield.

Damian met her gaze, then smiled.

Before doing anything else, he checked the result from his highest Spell Slot.

[Boon of Spell Recall activated.]

[Level 5 Spell Recall attempt...]

[Recall Failed.]

Damian clicked his tongue.

Naturally.

The one time he actually wanted probability to cooperate.

Fortunately...

He had insurance.

"Lucky."

The Feat responded.

[Lucky activated.]

[Eligible unfavorable outcome detected.]

[Outcome shifted.]

[Level 5 Spell Slot restored.]

Damian’s smile returned immediately.

"Heh."

Reality bending, once per day.

Still wonderful!

Now then...

He had somebody to visit.

Purple mist exploded around Damian.

<Misty Step> was ordinarily a Level 2 Spell with 20 meters of instantaneous displacement, but Damian fed it a Level 4 Spell Slot.

Upcasting reinforced the spatial structure until its effective displacement reached 60 meters.

His body vanished from its spot, causing Mu Qingyao’s eyes to widen.

"Damian!"

He reappeared 60 meters closer to the Nightmare Corpse Sect line.

And immediately—

[Boon of Spell Recall activated.]

[Level 4 Spell Slot restored.]

Damian paused.

"Oh?"

A natural recall? Nice!

Purple mist erupted again as he cast another Level 4 <Misty Step>, and another 60 meters vanished beneath him instantly.

This time, when Damian reappeared...

He was only around 15 meters from Ning Ruomei’s palanquin.

The difference in atmosphere was almost comedic.

Tang Yuyen took an involuntary step backward.

Fang Lu, still sitting in the mud, stared upward at Damian like someone had personally delivered judgment to his doorstep.

The surviving Body Tempering disciples scattered away from the palanquin instead of protecting it.

Even the four Peak Body Tempering snakemen stiffened.

Only Ning Ruomei remained where she was, but for the first time since Damian had seen her true body...

The languid beauty looked genuinely terrified.

Damian took in the scene.

Tang Yuyen trembling, Fang Lu on his ass, the snakemen frozen, and the survivors wondering whether their ancestors had committed some sin to place them here today.

Then his gaze finally settled upon Ning Ruomei, and their eyes met.

Damian smiled pleasantly.

"Greetings, Lady Ning. My name is Damian Baines, and I am here to take your life!"