A Will Eternal

It was some distance to the edge of the city where it connected to the wall. Even with Li Hongming leading them, it took the time it takes an incense stick to burn before they arrived.

As Bai Xiaochun stood there, looking up at the enormous wall, he felt so truly insignificant that it was suffocating.

Zhao Tianjiao and Chen Yueshan had the same feeling, as did the others in the group. The imposing pressure of the wall caused their hearts to race, their blood to boil, and their cultivation bases to spin rapidly.

Their reaction only served to increase Li Hongming’s disdain.

“Alright, get onto the stairs. In a moment you’ll get to feel what war is like.” As soon as Li Hongming stepped onto the stairs, ripples spread out in all directions, revealing what appeared to be more than 10,000 steps leading up to the top of the wall!

Zhao Tianjiao immediately stepped forward, and Chen Yueshan followed, pausing briefly on the first step before hurrying after Li Hongming.

From where Bai Xiaochun was standing, he couldn’t hear anything that was happening beyond the wall, but as soon as he stepped onto the stairs, he could instantly hear screaming and yelling. At the same time, his heart began to thump as if with the desire to do battle.

“Something’s off!” he thought. After looking around for a moment, he quickly hurried after the others.

Soon, the stairs were blurring by beneath his feet, and the sounds of screaming and yelling were getting more intense. Before long, he had reached the final stair, and was on top of the wall. At that point, the sounds of battle rang loudly in his ears.

He could hear agonized screams, enraged roars, and maniacal laughing, along with booms and rumbling that could shake lands and rock mountains.

The wall was so wide at the very top that a hundred people could patrol it in formation. And yet, it was still packed with cultivators, all of them wearing black suits of armor emblazoned with the sigil of the Skin Flayers, their murderous auras rising high into the heavens.

Some of them were operating the enormous magical cannons, sending destructive beams of light down ino the area beyond the wall. Others were at the ramparts, unleashing magical techniques and powerful attacks.

There were some who had flown off the wall and were fighting the mist-like clouds that were hordes of vengeful souls.

The deafening sounds of battle instantly assailed Bai Xiaochun’s mind, leaving him gasping in shock. However, he quickly recovered, and looked over to find Li Hongming staring at him in shock.

As it turned out, he was the first to regain his senses. Neither Zhao Tianjiao nor any of the others had recovered from the shocking sight of the field of battle.

Bai Xiaochun was the first of the group to recover, which was apparently quite a surprise to Li Hongming, who had been standing there with his arms crossed, looking at the small group. Throughout the years, he had seen many such trial-takers come to the Great Wall, and whenever they saw true battle for the first time, they always needed a bit of time to recover.

At the minimum, it usually took them several breaths of time to do so, and yet this nameless cultivator in front of him had only required a single breath of time. In fact, from the look of it, it might have been even slightly faster than that. Apparently, this young man was no stranger to war.

Of course, compared to Zhao Tianjiao and the others in the group, Bai Xiaochun had a lot more experience on the field of battle. Thanks to everything that had occurred in the Lower Reaches and the Middle Reaches, he was very familiar with large-scale conflicts.

However, despite his familiarity, it was still a shock to see all of the cultivators atop the wall fighting, and especially with the magical cannons. Furthermore, all of that quickly tore his attention to what was happening outside the wall!

Beyond the wall, the sky was crimson, as though it had been stained red by countless years of flame. Even the ground outside was bright red, a sharp contrast to the black soil inside the Great Wall.

Down below the wall were vast numbers of vengeful souls, their faces twisted into vicious expressions and they screamed and howled, doing everything in their power to try to destroy the wall itself.

They were the souls of men and women, old and young, all of them vicious beyond compare, and charging forward in tide-like waves of attack.

The number of souls was mind-boggling. Wherever Bai Xiaochun looked, he saw nothing but vengeful souls, whether it was on the ground or in the air. It was as if he were looking out at a massive sea of souls.

Some were attacking the black glowing shield, and others were gnashing and biting at the wall itself. Many were flying up and trying to attack the Skin Flayers who were out in the open.

Although the vengeful souls could attack and retreat at will, the black shield and the wall held strong against them.

For the Skin Flayers, things were different. Most of them were on the wall, and even if they did charge out into the open for an offensive, they always had to return to the wall at some point, and rely on the protection of the shield to weaken the souls for a period before beginning another offensive.

In addition to the vengeful souls, there were occasionally giants visible within the enemy forces. Most of them were about three meters tall, and despite being physically imposing, seemed emaciated and sickly. Even still, they were crazed, bloodthirsty and completely vicious, and their eyes radiated with unfathomable hatred whenever they looked in the direction of the Great Wall.

Bai Xiaochun instantly recognized those giants; they were none other than Wildlands savages!

Most of them held back, looking for opportunities created by the sea of souls. Once such an opportunity presented itself, they would call upon their fleshly body power to rocket through the air like meteors.

The attacks of the savages were what the Skin Flayers on the Great Wall would get most nervous about. Whenever they happened, the cultivators would fly off of the wall to counter-attack with full force!

Rumbling booms filled the air, and crimson blood and gore filled the battlefield as the bitter fighting went on. Even as Bai Xiaochun looked around to take everything in, the savages outside seemed to take notice of him. They could tell that he and his group were new arrivals, and one of them, who happened to be a bit larger than the others, suddenly launched himself into the air toward them.

Howling, he sped along in a beam of light, simultaneously performing a double-handed incantation gesture, which caused numerous vengeful souls to join him in his charge!

In the blink of an eye, Bai Xiaochun saw blackened, yellowish teeth and an emaciated body hurdling madly in his direction!

Li Hongming’s pupils constricted, and he strode forward, right hand flashing in an incantation gesture before waving his finger in the direction of the savage. At the same time, numerous nearby Skin Flayers also began to charge forward.

To see the savage staring at him in such bloodthirsty fashion caused Bai Xiaochun’s heart to prickle in fear. And yet, the more danger he was in, the more explosively he would react. Having no time to considering the situation, he opened his Heavenspan Dharma Eye, causing a violet beam of light to shoot out.

The violet light almost instantly landed on the savage, wrapping around him. The effect only lasted for a moment before he freed himself, but within that time, Bai Xiaochun performed an incantation gesture, causing shocking frigid qi to roil out. Cracking sounds could instantly be heard as layers of ice sprang up around the attacking savage.

Simultaneously, Li Hongming and the other soldiers attacked, causing booming sounds to echo out in all directions. That was when Zhao Tianjiao and Chen Yueshan recovered. Expressions flickering, they also joined in the attack.

Amidst the rumbling sounds, the savage let out a miserable shriek, and was torn to shreds. Black blood burst out in all directions, but was too far away from the wall and the shield to hit them. Instead, it splashed down onto the ground below, where it hissed and sizzled as it dissolved the soil.

“The savages’ blood is filled with various toxins,” Li Hongming explained, “and is strong enough to erode the wall itself. It’s a new development from within the last hundred years, and is why we can’t let the savages even get close to the Great Wall.” From the look in his eyes, the disdain he had felt toward Bai Xiaochun seemed to have lessened significantly.