Chapter 721: Soldier of War, Remembrance
"WE'RE FLYING?!?!" The female titan shouted incredulously. She felt the weightlessness of having a foreign power lift her, causing her to feel incredibly strange. With her collar firmly grabbed, she could only clutch at Wei Wuyin's forearm that carried her with all her might.
"Hang on!" Wei Wuyin spiritually transmitted. With a shake of his Infinite Void Wings, he halted his vertical ascension and blitzed horizontally. The two traversed the darkness that was the chasm at astonishing speeds.
The female titan felt her heart pound with the might of a thousand drums! Her eyes noted that a figure was flailing like she had from afar, screaming in despair and deathly fright, trying to reach out and grasp life. Their fearful panic was reminiscent of herself, and her eyes widened.
"Tai Hao!" She recognized that voice and figure instantly, especially after their extensive two year training together. A fellow member of the 49th Squad! Before she could urge Wei Wuyin to take action, she realized they were approaching the flailing figure already.
Wei Wuyin didn't even say a single word, soaring to meet the flailing a few hundred meters above the chasm's floor, grabbing their armor by the waist strap, causing Tai Hao to grunt and retch from having the wind knocked out of him as his body folded like a prawn. Yet Wei Wuyin didn't lower the speed of his flight, performing a swift spin as he dispersed the momentum of the grab, unfurling his Infinite Void Wings further.
Woosh!
They shot straight upwards!
While carrying two titans, Wei Wuyin soon exited the chasm and his spiritual sense swept the scene. What he sensed left him with a solemn expression, not a hint of surprise anywhere to be seen.
"Gaah!"
"Die! Die! Wai-NO! STO-"
"I want to go home…I just want to go ho-"
Sounds of flesh meeting metal, metal meeting flesh, bone being crushed, blood being spilt, and lives lost were endlessly resounding. The smell of blood was intense, sweet and bitter at the same time.
Unlike before, the clarity of his spiritual sense allowed him to grasp far more. He could feel the radiance of murky light drenched, no, tainted by blood energies. The stillness of the world's mana, followed by the disgusting levels of impurities in the air and ambient essence. There were spontaneous fluctuations of life continuously appearing from the skies, and they descended at a rapid pace, slowing down at a certain distance from the ground until they safely landed.
These life auras were all soldiers that were being dropped into the chaotic battlefield without rhyme or reason, immediately conducting battle with those not of their race. He felt a powerful gravitational nullifying force, almost specially honed to this world's own gravity, and it dispersed it for a brief moment. These meteorically descending soldiers slowed down after being enveloped after reaching a certain distance, landing safely.
These soldiers had special items that resisted the gravity for a brief moment. However, it seemed to only activate once as there were far too many Starlords that fell into his chasm and lost their lives from plummeting to their deaths.
Wei Wuyin realized the soldiers all were summoned above the carnage, brought down in selected areas as a group and then they were deployed, acting as a group and fighting against spread out enemies.
Unaware of this detail, Wei Wuyin hadn't landed with his Company or Unit. Instead, he spun through the air wildly and crashed into the landing zone of humans, it seems. Recalling this, he looked down and noticed the gaping chasm formed by his devastatingly explosive fall. There were various beings fighting around it, even using it to their advantage and sending their enemies into it with fierce kicks or shoves.
He didn't blame anyone in particular for this development. This was the unfortunate result of his late arrival, with Spirit Captain Zun expecting Zun Torju to explain these crucial details or provide him with expected items to survive, and Zun Torju expecting that Wei Wuyin was fully aware of the Battlefield's details alongside having all the needed tools. It was a series of rapidly developing events with no breathing room that caused this.
As he was thinking about whether to seal the chasm, he heard a cry of warning.
"Sir!" The female captain called out, causing Wei Wuyin's head to shift to his left. With a shake of his wings, he moved a few meters away, dodging an incoming arrow that zoomed past the area his skull had been. It was an incredibly accurate and lethal shot.
Wei Wuyin was shocked to realize that this arrow contained an aura that resembled Mystic-Graded Armaments. If a Starlord was impacted by this while they were unable to muster their fullest strength, suppressed by this hazardous environment, their refined physique might be like flimsy paper against a sharp steel knife. Furthermore, it flew extremely fast despite the gravitational force and its aura was concealed. If it wasn't for that warning, it would've taken him longer to react to the arrow's flight.
Wei Wuyin turned his attention to his left and noticed a male human figure garbed in uniquely outfitted armor, pointing his bow at him with killing intent emitted from his eyes. The human was over two hundred meters away. This was the first time Wei Wuyin had seen an archer at the Star Core Phase, or even at the Astral Core Realm.
Perhaps the projectile arrow would be mostly useless in an expansive space that was the outside world, but in this type of environment that was very grounded, filled with chaos and unsuspecting targets, very reminiscent of a mortal's battlefield, this bow and arrow combination was incredibly deadly.
When the male human noticed Wei Wuyin's attention focused on him, feeling the abundant spiritual sense sweep against his body despite being so far away, he shivered violently as he cried in shock: "A Spiritualist!" After saying this, he swiftly turned around and sprinted away as if his life depended on it, and to him, it did.
"…" Wei Wuyin's eyebrows furrowed. That figure was not an ordinary Starlord. He had mystic-graded arrows, a bow, and his armor was clearly of different design and quality from the others. However, as he raced through the Battlefield in retreat, somehow, the humans weren't attacking as if they could differentiate him as friend or foe.
He looked at the Battlefield raging below him. There were three distinctive forces being summoned to the Battlefield from above, divided by their race. There was a large group of titans, some from the portion of the Helix-Titan Battalion he came with, some from another battalion with the insignia of a crimson skull that was biting a double-sided sword at its handle, and another with a violet-colored drop of blood.
These violet-colored titans were easy to notice, their auras emanated faint demonic energies and their sizes were smaller or larger than others, including their skin tones and body shapes. These were likely a batch of demon-hybrid titans that originated from the same battalion.
Then, there were humans that were all wearing similar suits of armor or daoist robes reminiscent to uniforms of organizations, also divided into groups. They fought in a coordinated fashion in two's and three's, striking at the larger titans with incredible lethality. Wei Wuyin's heart shook seeing how swift and precise these humans were.
These titans were being outright dominated, outlasted, and these humans never fought one-on-one battles. They fled immediately at the slightest disadvantage and regrouped towards similarly dressed individuals, assisting their allies along the way. Their training was impeccable, absolutely seamless.
While the titans were in disorder.
The third group confused Wei Wuyin's spiritual sense, causing him to question his own understanding of races.
There was a race that looked like elves, with pointy ears, slender forms, and bright eyes, yet they all sported short, fluffy colorful tails slightly above their buttocks, like some beastmen of canine or feline lineage. However, be it elves or beastmen, these individuals were clearly not either based on their auras. Furthermore, their pupils weren't circular, but star-shaped with five points, and their irises seemed to contain stars like the far-off Dark Void.
If Wei Wuyin had to guess, he would say they were an elf-beastman-demon hybrid, and while he knew these individuals did exist, some even in the Myriad Monarch Sect, these beings were certainly not them, and seemed to be pure-blooded members of their own race!
Unlike the different uniforms of humans or fully armored bodies of titans, these figures wore only robes that were like silk, zipping through the battlefield. When struck, these robes were as tough and durable as the titan and human armors. In fact, some of them even overlapped layers and defended against explosive assaults with far more efficiency. There seemed to be a unique formation imbued within these malleable silk-like battle robes.
"Sir! Sir!" The female titan shouted continuously to attract Wei Wuyin's attention. Wei Wuyin could see the urgency in her expression, the burning fire in her eyes to fight alongside the members of her race. As for the other titan, Tai Hao, he remained silent in hopes of staying away from the dangerous battlefield after almost tasting death. Their attitudes were completely different.
However, seeing the carnage and brutality of this battlefield, Wei Wuyin wouldn't judge him for his cowardice. Still, he wouldn't enable it. With a shake of his Infinite Void Wings, he landed. Seeing his terrifying spiritual sense descend onto the area, the nearby cultivators engaged in battle couldn't help but look upwards and shouted fearfully after noticing him.
"SPIRITUALIST!" They scattered with insane quickness. There was no exception amongst titans, humans, or that strange race. Wei Wuyin's existence was just directly feared after he enveloped them in his spiritual sense. It was as if Wei Wuyin's True Draconic Form was less relevant than his Spiritualist status, albeit he wasn't one.
Regardless, he unintentionally cleared out a small area for himself and released the two titans. The female titan was awed by the cleared space, yet she regained herself fully after a moment. "Thank you, sir!" With a roaring dash, she directly grabbed a sword that was stained with blood, belonging to a fallen titan, and surged towards the chaotic battlefield. She ran towards her fellow titans that were engaged in a heated, blood spilling battle with the enemy.
She slayed a fleeing human soldier with a single swing of her 'borrowed' sword, showing adept proficiency as she brandished it. The severed body did little to stop her dauntless rush, plunging towards her unit's location.
Wei Wuyin's expression changed after witnessing this valiantly ferocious display of bravery. This female titan's fighting spirit and will was unyielding and commendable. He knew, however, that she might die here. Yet he didn't have the means to protect her, he could only hope she remained alive through it all.
He looked at the titan named Tai Hao and frowned, "Go. Assist her." He tossed him towards the female titan's direction. A yelp of shock and disbelief resounded followed by a small skidding thud. Wei Wuyin gave him a 'glance' and the titan gritted his teeth, rushing towards the female titan with a low roar.
BOOM! CLANG!! SHIIING!!!
Wei Wuyin's senses noticed intense fluctuations, and he lifted his head and saw several figures engaged in a ruthless battle above the battlefield of Starlords, above the spawn point of the numerous Starlords. They clashed amongst the murky clouds, releasing devastating attacks in the skies with vigor and force, causing repeated sonic booms to erupt. These figures were all Ascended!
Wei Wuyin felt the ardently surging aura of Zun Torju, a fluctuation he was quite familiar with after his numerous displays of might. The ground for mortal beings. The skies for ascended beings. This differentiation was quite clear.
Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum!!
Wei Wuyin gently caressed his chest as the sounds of weapons met, wails of regret were screamed, and abrupt severance of life were unfolding before him. He felt those thunderous and invigorating heartbeats that stemmed from his own self.
"It's been far too long."
This feeling of fear, excitement, and stress once again swirled within his thoughts. Since the Scarlet Solaris Sect, he'd almost forgotten the brutal, life-risking nature of cultivation. How he had risked his life continuously to pursue greater strength. All these Starlords that stood at the peak of the Mortal Limits were all risking their lives, having cultivated their entire lives for the power and life they wielded, yet still unwilling to settle for what they have, pursuing a greater path at all cost.
Wei Wuyin was reminded of his early years that forged him into the man he was today, when he fought for every opportunity with unyielding purpose when he had nothing—no family, no allies, and no trust. Since becoming an Inheritor of Sin, delving into his role as a talented Alchemist, he had lost a portion of his original self.
While entirely reasonable, after all, he was forced to face the Calamities of Hell as a mere mortal, dancing at the edge of death, how could he not change? When he first learned of this, he lost his will to progress and sought only to live out his dreams. Later, he was reinvigorated by that Evil Cultivator's will to fight against the very heavens using any and every means. This changed his perspective, allowing him to challenge the Calamities of Hell using his innate gifts and that exceptional mind of his.
However, since conquering the Second Calamity by his own means, as a mere mortal no less, he no longer held as much vigilance, fear and uncertainty as before. This allowed his mind, his soul, some breathing room to further grow and remember who he once was. The 'him' before acquiring the Bloodline of Sin, forged by the principles, ideals, and moral beliefs of his family, the 'him' that learned from Mei Mei and others about the struggles of cultivation and the will one must have to face it as a mortal.
For nearly three decades now, he's been developing as an alchemist and tactician, causing the warrior in him to fade, bit by bit. He had forgotten what it meant to struggle, even faintly feeling as if cultivation wasn't that difficult after all. Yet he was reminded today from all his ignorance, from the brutal sights and burning intensity of these soldiers at the Mortal Limits, that cultivation forever remained a difficult path filled with struggles that required the will to face it.
Wei Wuyin's Infinite Void Wings slightly lowered. The ground beneath his feet started to fissure, spreading out like spiderwebs. The air around him congealed slightly.
It was time he learned the what, why, and how of this so-called Battlefield. His spiritual sense settled on that deadly archer that was far away, releasing a steady number of arrows, accurately slaying star-pupiled and titan race alike with unerring accuracy.
With a step forward, the air around Wei Wuyin trembled.