Enlightenment: Attaining the Dao at Age 8

As things stood, Li Yuanqing and Li Shiran could only pray for Li Chang’an to return as soon as possible.

The two of them alone could never hope to turn the tide of this disaster.

…

Under the rain of fire sent down by the Cultivators, the combined forces of the Great Yuan and the Qiangman quickly tore a breach in the defensive line constructed by the Great Zhou.

Enemy soldiers flooded toward the second line of defense like a tidal wave.

Li Yuanqing was so furious he could have shattered his teeth, but there was nothing to be done. He could only pull back as many soldiers as possible from the first defensive line and redeploy them to defend the second.

The trenches of the first line were deep, with fortresses and tunnels forming a sprawling network that allowed the rear to support the front at a moment’s notice. It had been the Great Zhou’s most formidable barrier.

But now that the first line had fallen, the second was not nearly as fortified. To hold it for another ten days or half a month, as they had the first, would come at a much steeper price.

Of course, that wasn’t even the biggest problem.

The biggest problem was that the Great Zhou army’s supply lines had been cut. Although Li Lin had already been sent to investigate, it was clear the issue wouldn’t be resolved anytime soon.

The rations at the front would last the soldiers for less than a week.

The only good news was that after abandoning the first line of defense, the fire raining from the sky had lessened, granting the Great Zhou soldiers a brief respite.

But before they could even breathe a sigh of relief, everyone saw vicious, unnatural gales begin to howl across the sky.

As the gales swept past, they not only ignited even fiercer fires along the second defensive line but also allowed the soldiers of Great Zhou to clearly see the true faces of the ’Immortals’ in the sky!

—A dozen or so Cultivators in long, flowing robes.

A massive Five Elements Array glowed beneath their feet.

The Array was built with the Array Patterns inscribed by the Cultivators as its skeleton and the essence of blood and qi spilled across the battlefield as its flesh. It stretched for miles, and when activated, it possessed a truly heavenly might!

On the battlefield, everyone’s pupils contracted sharply.

This was especially true for the soldiers of Great Zhou.

When they saw that there were truly ’Immortals’ in the sky—that this wasn’t some punishment sent by ’Heaven’—a fire more violent and scorching than the downpour of flames ignited in every soldier’s eyes.

It was rage. Endless, boundless rage!

After all, even though Li Chang’an and Li Yuanqing had told them a thousand times over that their world was ruled by Cultivators, that they were all no more than pigs and dogs raised in a pen… until they saw it with their own eyes, a part of them, no matter how much they wanted to believe, had still harbored doubts.

It was only now, seeing the Immortals appear before them on the battlefield, that they truly understood the tragic farce of their own destinies.

For thousands of years, they had fought and died.

Generation after generation had spilled rivers of blood to protect their homes and defend their kingdom.

And in the end, the very lifeblood they spilled upon this land was nothing more than an ingredient for those high and mighty ’Immortals’ to refine their Elixirs…

How many could possibly accept such a truth?

On the battlefield, a soldier began to curse, pointing at the Cultivators in the sky and screaming, “Immortals? Immortals, my ass! Fuck your ancestors!”

As he roared, the other soldiers thought of the loved ones they had lost in the war, and their own eyes turned red with grief and fury.

They felt an overwhelming sense of desolation, of having been utterly fooled.

’A battle every twenty years or so. Casualties in the tens of thousands every single time. Our brothers, fathers, friends… we all take our turn on the battlefield, fighting and dying, mowed down one generation after the next.’

’If we had died to protect our kingdom, we would not be this furious. But this… this truth is something none of us can accept.’

…

High above, witnessing the soldiers’ roars from below, one of the twelve Cultivators sneered, “A pack of inferior mortals. Creatures more insignificant than ants, yet they dare to speak so brazenly to us. They’re really… courting death!”

As he spoke, the Array Patterns at his feet flared. In an instant, a Thunderbolt shot down from the heavens, lancing toward the soldiers below at a terrifying speed.

BOOM!

A deafening roar followed the flash of light.

However, just as the Thunderbolt was about to crash down upon the Great Zhou soldiers, a figure wielding a longsword appeared from nowhere. Leaping into the air, he drew his blade and slashed, cleaving the python-thick bolt of lightning in two and sending it crashing into a distant mountain range.

BAM!

The sundered Thunderbolt slammed into the mountains, and the violent explosion reverberated across the entire battlefield.

The entire mountain range shuddered. Earth and stone tumbled down its slopes as the ground shook violently—a testament to the terrifying power contained within that single Thunderbolt.

As the lightning faded and the smoke cleared, everyone instinctively held their breath, their eyes drawn to the spot where the Thunderbolt had been intercepted.

As their gazes focused on the figure in mid-air, they saw a handsome man who looked almost impossibly young.

He wielded a longsword as black as ink and wore a Five-Clawed Golden Dragon Robe embroidered with gold thread. His aura was as deep as an abyss, as impassable as a great chasm.

When the Great Zhou soldiers on the ground, who moments before had been cursing furiously, got a clear look at the young man in the Dragon Robe, their eyes all widened in disbelief.

The quicker ones couldn’t stop themselves from crying out his name.

Li Chang’an raised his longsword, pointing it toward the dozen Cultivators in the sky. His voice was cold as ice. “I’ve been looking for you old bastards for a long time. Are you prepared to die?”

In the sky, the twelve Cultivators now all turned their gazes toward him.

They didn’t know who Li Chang’an was, but they weren’t blind. From the brilliant yellow Dragon Robe he wore, they quickly deduced his identity.

When they realized the newcomer was none other than the new boy Emperor of the Great Zhou, the Cultivators were all completely astonished.

…