Suddenly, a series of booms and rumbles echoed from the south. Then, two flying vessels appeared one after another and flew straight toward the battlefield. Both immortal vessels were about thirty zhang long and looked nothing like nothing Wei Yuan had seen before. Dark cyan glow covered their surfaces, and their forms looked short and stout. They radiated a grim, murderous intent.

The vessels, one ahead of the other, were flying straight toward the fort. They were such obvious targets that the Liao cavalry could not possibly miss them. They also knew that they could not allow it to enter the battlefield no matter what. Thus, countless swift-wind arrows, armor-piercing arrows, and more mystic artifacts flew into the sky straight toward the flying vessel in the lead.

Unfortunately for them, the arrows lost all power when they made contact with the cyan light and plummeted impotently toward the ground. At the same time, the vessel was unleashing its own arrow volleys and mowing down the approaching Liao cavalrymen in droves.

Seeing that the Liao cavalry could not stop the flying vessels’ approach, a column of yellow clouds suddenly emerged from the north. The yellow dust churned like an apocalyptic sandstorm and rose hundreds of zhang into the air in an instant!

Somewhere, an angry grunt erupted and shook the entire battlefield for an instant. Then, a piercing, desolate cry of a hawk echoed through the air, and a gigantic northern goshawk burst out of the sea of yellow dust. It crossed ten thousand zhang in an instant and rammed viciously into the flying vessel!

Wei Yuan’s eyesight was excellent, so he discerned that the enormous goshawk was really a giant arrow that was over a zhang long. The giant arrow ripped through the cyan glow protecting the flying vessel and sank nearly all the way in! As if its pilot was drunk, the vessel immediately started descending in an unsteady manner until it finally crashed outside the fort, killing a dozen or so Liao cavalrymen who failed to get out of the way in time.

“The audacity!” An angry shout erupted from the south, and a gigantic lightning bolt about a hundred zhang in width appeared out of nowhere. It flew straight toward the yellow clouds in the north.

The lightning bolt instantly evaporated several hundred zhang of yellow clouds. However, three more goshawks emerged from the yellow clouds—each one causing the yellow clouds to descend by a full hundred zhang—and sped toward the seemingly empty southern sky. They moved so fast they looked like a single line, crossing ten thousand zhang of distance in the blink of an eye.

Suddenly, a devastating sword beam erupted from the void, zigzagging through the air like lightning and cutting down two goshawks in an instant! Unfortunately, the third goshawk managed to evade the counterattack and plunged into the void behind it, vanishing without a trace.

The mountain of yellow clouds occupying the north disappeared just like that, and nothing seemed to be happening in the south either. However, Wei Yuan could clearly feel the clear qi of the human realm weakening slightly.

The exchange had felt like two different worlds trading blows with one another. Was that the battle between Truemen?

The Northern Liao Avatar had loosed four arrows in total. One arrow had taken out a flying vessel, and the other had seemingly struck a human Avatar. In return, he had taken a lightning strike and seemingly expended a significant amount of strength to unleash the three consecutive arrows. It looked like both sides had suffered some injuries from the clash, but of course his perspective was too limited to give him a clear understanding of the situation.

The clash wasn’t all bad news. Thanks to the first flying vessel’s sacrifice, the second flying vessel was able to soar unimpeded into the stronghold’s airspace and land right behind its rear gate. As soon as it landed, and the hatch swung open, squad after squad of heavily armored soldiers wielding crossbows poured out into the open. Forming orderly ranks instantly and advancing in rows, the second row surged forward as soon as the first row had taken their shots. Then, the third row took over after the second row had taken their shots. Row by row, the soldiers surged forward and mowed down every Liao cavalryman within a hundred zhang of them. Not a single enemy was able to get close to them.

The encirclement around the fort was broken just like that. Unable to maneuver as freely as they had before, the Liao cavalry temporarily lost their bearings and suffered heavy casualties under the hail of crossbow bolts from the fort and the flying vessel reinforcements in just the blink of an eye.

Two more flying vessels emerged from the south, and they flew right across the stronghold and came between the Liao cavalrymen and the archer formation. First, they threw the archer formation into disarray with an arrow volley. Then, they forced a landing between the archers and the cavalrymen, separating them from each other. Finally, heavy crossbowmen poured out of the flying vessels and swiftly created a dividing line of death using a continuous hail of arrows.

The Liao cavalry encircling the stronghold was unable to punch through the blockade to begin with, and now they were being barraged by arrow volleys from multiple sides. Their casualties mounted rapidly, and they had no choice but to bypass the two flying vessels and retreat along the flanks. The roaming cavalrymen responsible for intercepting the human reinforcements also lost their will to fight and broke ranks, fleeing northward.

Though defeated, the Liao cavalry remained disciplined. The main force appeared scattered but maintained a steady formation, retreating while continuously firing arrows left, right, and rearward. The small forces were fleeing at top speed and avoiding entanglement with the human forces at all costs. As the reinforcements pouring out of the flying vessels were all heavy crossbowmen, unassailable in defense but utterly lacking in mobility, they could only watch on helplessly after mowing down one final wave of Liao cavalry.

Wei Yuan also tossed out one last javelin and reaped one last military merit. No enemy was left around him.

Suddenly, the warhorse he was riding let out a long whinny before crumpling to the ground, lifeless. The horse had carried Wei Yuan throughout the battle and had reached its limit ago. That was why it collapsed as soon as he had retrieved his fortune.

After the battle was over, Wei Yuan finally noticed a faint, tingling sensation throughout his body and several aching spots here and there. As it turned out, arrows had pierced him since heavens-know-when.

The battlefield was littered with corpses and carcasses. Pools of blood were scattered everywhere like scars and filled the air with a thick, acrid stench, inescapable. Many wounded Northern Liao cavalrymen were still struggling to crawl northward, only to be slaughtered one by one by the humans patrolling the battlefield. It was clear that the humans harbored deep hatred for the Liao, displaying exceptional cruelty as they delivered the final blows. Often, they refused to kill their victim with a single stroke, instead severing their limbs first before finally decapitating them. On the other hand, injured humans were hoisted onto horsebacks and rushed back to the stronghold for medical treatment.

It was at this moment all four gates of the fort opened, and a powerful voice boomed, “The Liao barbarians have retreated. We welcome all reinforcements and Dao friends to rest, reorganize, and tally their military merit in our stronghold!”

We can tally our military merit now?

Wei Yuan had thought that the military merit would be tallied at the end of the major exam. He did not think it would happen after a major battle as well. Technically, it did not matter if the tallying happened during or after the exam, but he saw several forces hastening their footsteps and hurrying toward the stronghold.

He figured out why after just a few seconds of thinking. Usually, the disciples returned to their sects to tally the military merits and claim their rewards. But if they performed the tally now, then the military merit would be counted toward the Palace of Absolute Beginning and qualify them for its rewards. This was an attractive offer even for the disciples of the other three immortal sects, much less everyone else.

Wei Yuan grabbed an ownerless warhorse from somewhere and made haste for the stronghold. It wasn’t long before he was inside.

The first thing he saw upon passing through the threshold was a broad, level road wide enough to fit two horse-drawn carriages. Although the road was paved with earth, it had been treated with Dao spells and made fit for horse travel. The road led straight to the center of the fort where a four-storey tall building stood. The topmost point was tall enough for one to overlook the ramparts and observe the movements beyond the walls.

The inside of the fort was nothing like what it was before. For example, the original dwellings had been fully replaced by rows and rows of makeshift pavilions. Most of the pavilions currently had arrows stuck to their rooftops, and cultivators were busy extracting them and repairing the roofs.

Not only that, the air within the fort was physically different from the one outside. The ambient spirit energy was clearly more concentrated, and he could feel an invisible layer of Dao energy sweeping through his body.

Several cultivators were standing outside the gate. One Daoist waved his booklet in Wei Yuan’s direction before remarking, “Junior Brother Wei of the Skyblue Hall, is it? If you wish to treat your wounds, show off your identity token at the medicinal hall. If you wish to tally your military merits, then head to the merit hall. The left hall is for Palace of Absolute Beginning cultivators only, and the right hall is for everyone else. The medicinal hall is farther ahead along this road, and the temporary merit hall is next to the flying vessel outside the fort.”

Wei Yuan wanted to ask a couple more questions, but a long queue had formed behind him. So, he stepped inside the fort and headed to the medicinal hall first.

The medicinal hall was jam-packed with people. Even Wei Yuan had to wait for a long time before he could take his turn. He had no complaints, though. Everyone in the hall looked worse off than him, and sometime during his wait, a few gravely injured victims were rushed into the hall. It simply made no sense for him to cut in line.

Wei Yuan met with a middle-aged Daoist when it was finally his turn. The Daoist’s robes were covered in bloodstains. He did not speak when Wei Yuan stood in front of him, only gave him a look. The young man immediately took off his armor and removed his robes, revealing his injuries in full.

The Daoist looked taken aback when he saw the injuries. “Four, no, five arrow wounds?! Why didn’t you say anything sooner? Someone, bring me a Life Extension Pill right now! And a few bottles of Limestone Antidote Powder!” 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

A young Daoist who was standing nearby immediately left and returned like the wind, carrying several bottles of medicine in his lap. It was only then the Daoist took a closer look at Wei Yuan’s wounds and exclaimed in surprise again, “Junior Nephew, your body....”

Moments later, five arrowsheads were tossed into a litter-bin, and the Life Extension Pills and antidote powder were taken away, untouched. Even the white towels used to seal off the wounds and absorb the blood only contained several small, light pink stains. They did not look like bloodstains no matter how you looked at it.

Wei Yuan put on his clothes and armor once more and gave himself a light workout. He felt like he was more or less back to full health.

While looking at him with an odd expression, the Daoist said, “Junior Nephew, your injuries would’ve been considered critical on another person, but for you, it’s just... a minor injury, huh? Still, I shan’t short-change you on your military merits just because your body is tougher than normal. I will report your case as a critical injury bordering on death. Any objections?”

Afraid that Wei Yuan wasn’t shameless enough to accept the additional military merit, the Daoist added, “The disciples of the Bright King Hall also tally their military merits like this. They would riot otherwise.”

The Palace of Absolute Beginning didn’t just tally a person’s merits and contributions based on traditional metrics such as kills and territory gained. Taking injuries on the battlefield, hard labor and more counted as military merits as well. A Bright King Hall disciple’s physical body was unnaturally tough and could take several people’s worth of injuries before they collapsed. That was why they were often dispatched to the most dangerous frontlines, and why this unusual way of tallying merits came to be.

The standard looked at how the injuries would affect ordinary cultivators. For example, severe injuries counted as severe injuries for ordinary cultivators. If the injuries were severe enough to kill an ordinary cultivator three times over, then they would receive three times the merit.

Since there was a precedent, Wei Yuan had no objections to offer. The Daoist then marked Wei Yuan to receive eighty merits.