The figure that stood on scorched land, beneath the incinerated clouds and hot air was none other than Wei Wuyin.
"Tactics and planning are irreplaceable in cultivation," Wei Wuyin softly stated to no one in particular. Those words, however, resonated deeply with himself. With sufficient understanding of your opponent, sufficient understanding of your own limits, there was no battle that was unwinnable. Even against an Ascended top-tier talent, they could still be led to their deaths through a mixture of psychological and spontaneous warfare.
From the very moment Wei Wuyin read Jing Jiu's mind, learnt of Cai Liuyang's personality, her extreme level of excessive protectiveness despite her reluctance to serve as a detriment or crutch to Jing Jiu's path, he knew that his true opponent was her. However, to face a Demi-Mortal Lord, no matter how restricted, was quite a distressing scenario.
A single mistake and his death was all but determined. There would be no amount of lifeforce or trickery that would save him. Just a single mistake and he would be permanently finished before the Calamities of Hell could even make their attempt to cleanse him.
Truthfully, Wei Wuyin felt invigorated and a tinge of excitement from this development. It wasn't just him, both King and Kratos were fiercely aggressive in their elation. It was as if they were unaware that his death was a single misstep away.
He had to exert all of his power, King, Kratos, Ori, and Eden to truly claim the only path of victory. It wasn't enough to use all of his fire-attribute pellets, from the seventh-grade to ninth-grade at once that he'd concocted in the last six years, he needed to catch a Demi-Mortal Lord completely off-guard, taking them down at their most vulnerable, careless moment.
If he just launched the pellets wildly, while they may suffer severe damage, he felt that there was no way he could take out a Demi-Mortal Lord level cultivator. If they had means similar to Wu Jiao of the Wu Country in the Myriad Yore Continent, capable of seizing the pellets and preventing them from activating, he would be thoroughly screwed.
Every step, every action, from the moment he crushed Jing Jiu's head to when Cai Liuyang released the Void Crystallized Orb, was perfectly calculated according to all the information he had available. Furthermore, he was fully aware that his actions would result in an overwhelming victory for his titan allies. After learning about the War Spirit and the War Souls bestowed, including their uses from Jin Jiu's memories, he had fully concocted a swiftly deployable plan.
While it wasn't all perfect, with many moments where it was a tossup if it'll work, he still decided to execute it.
"You liked my acting? Hehe! I was good right? Right?!" Ori excitedly asked, thrumming with elation.
"Tch," King chimed with his signature sound. However, there was a little dissatisfaction in his tone. Clearly, his full-powered attack hadn't even scratched Cai Liuyang in her Demi-Mystic State, and that severely hurt its pride as a saber. Everything should be brought to an end with its edge!
"Why are you so fussy? If you used arts instead of just sending out all of your power, you'd be several times stronger." Eden comforted and reasoned, but the pride in its own tone was unmistakable. It had created those pellets that annihilated a Demi-Mortal Lord! How could it not be proud?
"…Even before the eyes of a being like that, us Void Dragons are unable to be halted for a single instant." Kratos just randomly decided to brag, bringing in its own accomplishment.
Wei Wuyin smiled warmly. He couldn't have done it without all of them, be it Ori's control of the False God Avatar which was astonishingly exquisite, especially the vocal tone, dialogue, expressions, and emotions. It conveyed the realistic reactions of a human.
Or King's feint of going all out, trying everything to unleash a desperate attempt at life. It was extremely realistic.
Or Eden's replication of a perfectly normal Sea of Consciousness in his False God Avatar. If it wasn't for its extraction and subsequent infusion of Jing Jiu's Soul Aura originally from his glob of blue light, the final pieces of the plan would never had worked.
Or Kratos' Void Concealment ability, hiding him as he replaced himself with the False God Avatar. Even though Ascended had their Spiritual Sense, they were still severely restricted by the imposing suppression of the Battlefield. They couldn't reach greater than a few dozen meters without a special spell or art. Cai Liuyang had used one to mark him. Fortunately, it was a spatial mark, and Kratos could push it onto another with a little effort. Such as the False God Avatar.
Thinking about how his first self-created Avatar Art had led to him defeating an Ascended left him feeling as if it was surreal. Additionally, Cai Liuyang was anything but ordinary.
Finally, compressing the vast majority of their Spiritual Energies into a Fixed Soul Spell layered with a trap mechanism. It was extremely difficult to do, conjured up on the spot, and put into practice at that moment. Even if it had failed, there wasn't much of an issue with proceeding with the plan, but that was plan C: severely injuring or killing Cai Liuyang in her frozen state.
However, it helped sell the idea that Wei Wuyin was a specialized cultivator sent to extract Jing Jiu's Soul. After all, spiritual energy was the closest thing to the soul. Proving his adeptness sold his story further.
Wei Wuyin spoke from the heart: "You all did amazing, every last one of you. Ori's acting was astonishing; King's power was incredible; Kratos, your concealment was key, without it none of this worked; Eden…"
"Mm." Eden needed nothing else, relaying that it knew all that Wei Wuyin wanted to say and more. Wei Wuyin could feel the roots settled into his Sea of Consciousness shake with joy. Regardless of its aloof attitude, it still liked being praised all the same.
Wei Wuyin grinned. He felt blessed. Not for Karmic Luck or becoming a Bloodline of Sin Inheritor, but having the opportunity to once again have a family that would unhesitatingly give their all for each other. Facing Ascended beings, they would stand by his side. Facing Hell, they would stand by his side. Facing gods, they would stand by his side.
Could a man want anything more?
Wei Wuyin enjoyed this feeling as he stood in the midst of scorched earth, feeling comfortable and relaxed. With all the Ascended beings distracted and all the enemies cleared for so far, he was perfectly safe. After a few minutes of this, he started to make his way back to his remaining squad members. He was a Squad Leader, after all.
"The Battlefield lasts for just twelve hours, such a short period of time. However, I didn't expect the sheer scope of the Battlefield to be like this. Is it really that large? To span across hundreds of thousands of miles, divided into nine zones of war." Wei Wuyin still had his eyes closed, unable to view the horizon yet the bloody expanse of numerous battlefields echoed in his thoughts. While his spiritual energy was almost entirely exhausted earlier, the issue was never his spiritual energy, but the Spiritual Strength of his Astral Souls.
At the moment, all except Ori was sealed. Even still, it exceeded his limit. That limit was even further pushed than when Kratos was the leading Astral Soul. Ori's 'Divine' aspect was not for show. All things spiritual, be it pressure, energy reserves, strength, aura, or sense was several times that of non-divine astral souls of the same type and foundation. King was the same.
However, at the moment, Ori's wood origin astral force was thoroughly working to repair his muscle fibers, meridians, and fractured bones from the damage of unleashing his spiritual sense. In a way, he was nearly crippled physically. He tried to use the Mark of Eden earlier, but when he unleashed a strand of lifeforce, it was sucked away by a strange power and vanished entirely.
It was likely due to the lifeforce being pure, unrefined life energy. The act of producing War Souls conflicted with it, so after testing it, he decided against trying to force it. He could only use the power that belonged to solely himself, so his ninth-grade pills and elixirs supplemented by Ori's wood origin force will have to do.
"I wonder if that female titan lived," Wei Wuyin asked himself as he walked slowly towards where he roughly remembered the former location of his cataclysmic fall.. He added with a faint smile, "I hope she did; she had a courageous heart."
