Huuuuuu!
Haaaaaaa!
A deep inhale of air followed by a heavily exhaled breath of tumultuous emotions and intense stress resounded. Wei Wuyin's Soul Idols vanished. His body and mind felt unbearably exhausted, thoroughly drained. If it weren't for his sheer willpower, the pain emanating from every cell in his body would've been more than enough to justify going unconscious.
He sheathed his saber, unbothered by the awed gazes that he felt on him. Without his spiritual strength bolstered by his Soul Idols, he was once again blinded to the visual beauty of the world. Yet, he was incredibly relieved. His eyes no longer felt as if they were bursting. He knew that if it weren't for his Eye of Immortality sustaining his eyes' physical form, they would've long since been eviscerated into nothing.
"While using force to seize victory felt amazing, although briefly, I'll never escape the practicality of tactics and well-executed schemes." Wei Wuyin wryly smiled in acceptance of his defeat by his inner nature, recalling his enlightened emotions when he first stepped onto the Battlefield, and everything the things that had happened since.
From facing Jing Jiu, taking down Cai Liuyang, then challenging an army of 10,000 Ascended beings, to killing an Earthly Saint with his saber, all of this couldn't have been done without extremely calculated moves at every step. Not even factoring the means deployed facing the ten thousand Ascended beings, drawing out almost all of his trump cards from his freakishly incredible Soul Idols, the Fixed Soul Spell, and his strongest Bloodline Ability: Void Breath.
"I must say: the False God Avatar is my first invented art, yet it's absolutely phenomenal. It's still earning its dividends to this day," Wei Wuyin sighed in sheer admiration at his younger self's genius. He was so ignorant then, unaware of the limits of cultivation, yet he turned a simple matter, such as producing an Avatar, into all sorts of other ideas.
For example, the False God Avatar involved the idea of severing a portion of his Sea of Consciousness and placing it within a falsely conjured body to act as a perfect, indistinguishable avatar that he could control remotely. This very method was deployed on two corpses, even capable of integrating into a dying Spirit of War.
The first was a cadaver in the crater, merely a replica of a human body modeled in his image, a long-forgotten test subject for an attempt to cultivate using separate bodies that he had initiated long ago. It wasn't efficient or practical. But to serve as a replacement to falsify his death, it was absolutely perfect.
He switched out with the corpse after creating a wave of concealing dust from his fall; Wei Wuyin then slipped into the earth using his Elemental Origin Intent, merging with it perfectly like a fish in water. Finding one of the few spacious pockets he deliberately left with a crippled and weakened Spirit of War, he hurriedly eliminated their Sea of Consciousness, and placed a segregated portion of his own. With this, he could shortly control the living body for a brief moment.
He didn't need to modify the soul aura, lifeforce, or anything of the Spirit of War. This was extremely convenient. After that, he swiftly injected draconic void energies to artificially recolor its blood, purposely leaving the other corpse unchanged and then injecting highly-concentrated liquid poison mixture into both bodies.
The Legion Commander was only familiar with its gaseous form, not realizing it could be transmitted via blood or that someone would dare try to do so. While the Spirit of War was bound to die, as this was an absolutely lethal move to take, it was extremely effective in lowering his enemy's guard. In truth, even he wouldn't have thought of it if it wasn't for that sadistic woman.
To infuse that type of poisonous chemical into your body was the same as suicide unless you slowly accumulated it and gained an innate resistance, forging a poisonous physique. But how could a poison that can affect Ascended be refined and resisted by a mere mortal? Even he didn't blame the Earthly Saint for his carelessness. After believing that Spirit of War was a disguised version of himself, the Legion Commander was far too confident after confirming his theory triumphantly.
As for bleeding gray blood after being impacted by an arrow, that wasn't deliberate. It had only dawned on Wei Wuyin that this was a chink in his plans after he started the process of infusing his Sea of Consciousness underground, hence why he had to keep one unchanged and could only change the other. He didn't think it would fully contribute to making the Legion Commander believe he had won far more than the cunning false disguise would.
Sometimes, small details could ruin or amplify the effectiveness of any plan. This was just a little bit of luck on his part.
Thud!
The body of the Legion Commander finally dropped to its knees, its stump of a neck leaking white-colored blood. The skeletal warhorse followed its master in its demise, bursting into flames and vanishing with a final woeful neigh. Wei Wuyin felt awed about the Battlefield. He knew that if this had been in the actual world, without all these absurd restrictions, forcing even Ascended to fight like just enhanced mortals, he wouldn't have been able to resist a single Ascended at the Soul of Mysticism Phase, let alone slay an Earthly Saint.
Beings of this level could lightly breathe on him in the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region and obliterate his entire existence. However, in the Nexus Battlefield, these insurmountable, invincible figures could be brought down by all sorts of ingenious methods and tactics.
"Perhaps that's the purpose of the Battlefield," Wei Wuyin lifted his head and once again inhaled deeply. When he exhaled out, he felt his mind grow clearer. While an Earthly Saint was terrifying, and the Nexus Battlefield somewhat restricted cultivators to only the Demi-Mortal Lord Phase, then only by using these unique tactics, environmental advantages, and straight-up coordinating strikes, it was technically impossible to claim victory.
Well, war wasn't a matter of one versus one to begin with, so this made perfect sense. At times, the weaker side can claim victory through various means. In war, victory was never just decided by the strongest.
Boosh!
The Earthly Saint's body fell forward and crashed into the ground, utterly lifeless.
Those observing were all in disbelief. The mortal had done it. He had taken down an Earthly Saint! They didn't know what happened, but the flying head engulfed by saber light detailed the conclusion of it all.
The extremely aged Ascended Commander looked on with his dimly lit eyes, almost as if it revealed death itself. Yet as time passed, it gradually started to change. It became brighter. It became livelier. It reflected true happiness!
"We-We're Free...We're free! WE'RE FREE! " An Ascended Commander that had been here for nearly five thousand years shouted with unfettered exhilaration, shouting in glee! They were all told that the condition to leave was either to obtain ten thousand War Souls, ten times the amount as those Soldiers of War, or challenge the Obelisk of War and become victorious!
The former wasn't possible for them, because killing your subordinates without cause was grounds for immediate execution without exception. As for betraying a fellow Commander of War, the outcome was the same! They couldn't collect War Souls from Soldiers of Wars either nor kill their fellow Ascended! They weren't afforded such luxuries as friendly fire with their power.
They weren't mortals. Mistakes were far harder to explain.
With all these unfair restrictions, albeit they were also fair, they were all trapped unless they decided to gather mortals to fight against 10,000 Ascended. Poison? Who hasn't thought of poison? But the 10,000 Ascended army had their own poison experts, so that wouldn't be effective to eliminate them all!
If they did it poorly, they might even sign their own death warrant.
But now, with the Legion Commander's demise, they were free.
They were VICTORIOUS!
The pure elation was unnatural, and hot tears streamed down the eyes of every last Commander of War. Truly, truly exceptional.
Wei Wuyin could hear faint sobbing sounds and the exclamation of joy, his expression changing slightly as he sighed soon after. These individuals were idiots, absolute fools.
He waved his hand around, trying to call Guan Yu to arrive. Wei Wuyin could only hope Guan Yu wasn't slaughtered by accident. Without his guide, he would truly be a little lost.
Still, he felt his palm pulsate as the Mark of Annihilation throbbed. He knew that all he had to do was declare victory, and the war would end, especially since there was no Legion Commander to contest his claim.. The Obelisk of War and the right to observe it, including War Souls, all of it would be his spoils of war.
