Chapter 676: The Spirit War
Seeing that they were losing more and more ground, the beasts growled and howled. The humanoid beasts had incredibly ugly expressions on their faces as they were contemplating what to do.
Hui Yue and his friends were unaware of what had sparked this conflict. They had arrived in the middle of it, and the world by keeping them here had forced them to pick a side.
Knowing full well that sylphs were on the world’s side, they had quickly decided to side with the spirits, but as for what exactly had happened, they still did not know.
Therefore, they did not know if this was a battle where they should fight till the last beast was slain, or if they were allowed to retreat.
They did not know how much enmity laid behind each other in this battle, and therefore, they were hesitating slightly in their fight with the humanoid beasts. For them they felt no hostility towards these ancient beasts and their army, they had just been forced to join the fray.
The only one who never showed any signs of letting up was Pei Ziqi. She had chosen her side, and she would fight for them until every one of the enemies were decimated. She would never accept surrender, nor would she allow for anyone to flee if she could stop them.
As a result, the first humanoid beast to die was killed by Pei Ziqi, and as this beast died, a tremor ran through the battlefield. Everyone widened their eyes, and the beast's side of the battlefield started to crumble.
Some beasts turned tail and ran while others tried to organize a retreat. Most of the humanoid beasts had gone from being at the frontlines to the back, ensuring that they could retreat as painlessly as possible.
It was clear who was the winner and the loser. Although one side had ordered a retreat, the fight was far from over. The spirits kept chasing and killed over a hundred thousand extra beasts before they managed to escape.
Although they had chased the beasts for a while down part of the plains, they did not dare to chase them for too long. Cornered beasts would turn very dangerous so they only chased them for some time.
As the fight came to an end, the battlefield was filled with blood and corpses. The corpses of the spirits were not present as all of them had dissipated into the air, and their Ancestral Worldpower returned to the world they were apart of.
The beast carcasses that were left on the ground were just glanced at by the spirits before they turned their attention towards Hui Yue and their friends.
A group of seven sylphs walked forward, “We do not know who you are, but we thank you for joining our side during the war.”
“Yes. The world was not willing to let us go before the war had ended. Could you perhaps tell us what exactly is going on here? I thought the spirits and the beasts would be friendly with one another.”
The sylphs were clearly the leaders of this group of spirits. They were the ones with the deepest connection to the world, and they were also the strongest ones in the entire army.
“It is simple,” one of the sylphs answered Hui Yue’s question. “The humanoid beasts and us spirits do not agree with who should be the leaders of this world. Although we have the support of the world, it cannot act against any of its inhabitants, so we are forced to fight on our own against them.”
“There has been skirmishes time and time again, but this time it was the battle to end them all. We were determined to find who would rule, and to do so all the spirits and beasts in the entire world had been gathered for war.”
“There were much more beasts than spirits since beasts can reproduce while spirits are all created by Ancestral Worldpower, but even so, we spirits are quite a bit stronger than them.”
“Because of this, it became a fight of the masses versus the strong. Both sides had their benefits. Some beasts swamped the stronger experts and managed to kill them; others used their strength to exterminate multiple beasts.”
“Because of this, we were stuck in a deadlock. Us sylphs dealt with the humanoid beasts as best as we could, but they were as strong as us. Thus the only option was to stall them for time, ensuring that they could not cause problems on the battlefield.”
“Then the rest of the spirits could kill all the other beasts, and when they had been killed, we could focus on the humanoid beasts.”
“It was never your intention to exterminate all the beasts?” Hui Yue asked. If they had wanted to kill the beasts, then they would not have allowed them to leave the way they did. Even allowing for the humanoid beasts to leave but the sylph just shrugged.
“The world is the mother of every living being. We cannot exterminate all the beasts as they are needed for this world’s environment to flourish.”
“Although we spirits can look after the world, the beasts have a delicate balance to look after too. They are the true residents of the planet, and if they were to vanish many things would be for naught.”
“We wish for this world to flourish and grow, and to do that we need the beasts. However, they have sustained severe damage today, even one of the humanoid beasts perished, and thus they will not be able to threaten us for quite some time.”
“As a token of our appreciation, please follow us to our main city where you will be justly rewarded for your timely help.”
It was clear that these spirits placed great value in the help that the group had given them, but Hui Yue just wanted to leave the world as soon as possible.
“We greatly appreciate the sentiment, but we are in a rush to find a specific world,” Hui Yue said with an apologetic smile. “We do not wish to be rude, or uncaring, but we are in a rush to find this place as soon as possible.”
The sylph looked at Hui Yue for a long time, his face displaying absolutely no emotions. “I see,” he said with a smile after contemplating for some time. “If you are looking for a specific world, then I would suggest you come with us,” he continued.
“We have a spirit that has traveled the entire Archaic World staying in our city.” he continued with a smile that kept growing bigger and bigger. “Humans cannot travel through the innermost regions of the Archaic World, but it is different for spirits. They are created from Ancestral Worldpower, and their souls are also created from Ancestral Worldpower. For this reason, they can travel like a fish in water when it comes to the immense pressure that the dense Ancestral Worldpower in the innermost regions gives off.”
“It is still a danger to travel the worlds with the constant threat of having these worlds collapsing, but even so, he managed to travel from the worlds in the inner region to this world in a few millennia.”
“If you are looking for a specific world, perhaps he will be able to tell you if he has entered it before, and what it was like. He could also tell you about its location.”
“I know that there are many tidal waves and tsunamis in the Archaic World causing the worlds to shift often, but it would be of help to know if the world you are looking for is located in the middle regions or the inner regions.”
The more the sylph spoke, the brighter Hui Yue’s eyes shone. Someone who had traveled through worlds in the Archaic World surely had to have seen the world he was looking for. Perhaps he would be able to learn something for this person.
“In that case, I am sorry to trouble you,” Hui Yue said with a slight bow, and the sylph grinned happily. Hui Yue was someone who had fought for them, and if they could not in some way return the favor, then their hearts would forever feel uneasy.
Many of the spirits were injured, and so were Hui Yue and his friends. Although they had dominated the fight, they had gained various degrees of wounds.
The weaker the experts, the more wounds they had sustained, but even so, they were all wearing bright smiles and filled with a sense of accomplishment.
Where the spirits sat down and drew upon the Ancestral Worldpower in the surrounding air, Hui Yue and his friends all placed pills in their mouths to heal their injuries faster.
The most wounded of them all was Pei Ziqi. She was one of the strongest, but she had dove head first into the battlefield and went straight for the humanoid beasts, not caring about how many beasts would attack her in the process.
When she had reached a humanoid beast, she fought fiercely while keeping everyone else at bay.
It was obvious that she had been the subject of many attacks from beasts as a matter of course, but she did not seem to mind at all.
Her clothes had been completely shredded, and blood had dyed it a dark red. Only now did she take out another dress and quickly changed into it.
Although she had been wounded, she felt satisfied. Only when her blood was boiling did she feel alive. Only when killing and fighting, did she feel that her life had meaning. Only then could she completely let herself go.
She was not the only one who was smiling, Deng Wu’s face was covered in a great smile. “I had a breakthrough!” He exclaimed excitedly. “I understood the final parts of my dao, and I am only two daos away from being an Immortal of Creation now!”
He was filled with excitement, but he was not the only one who had benefitted greatly. Little Green’s body was created by Ancestral Worldpower that Hui Yue had refined, and she was not used to fighting with it, let alone moving in it.
But during this fight, although she had done the least in terms of killing, she had benefitted the most as she had managed to merge completely with her new body.
Xiao Ning had fought together with Ye Ling, Zhu Jun, and Luo Qiang. These four were the ones with the least wounds. Xiao Ning had managed to block every beast’s attacks, standing in front of them like a giant mountain, impossible to demolish or subdue.
While he blocked their attacks, the other three would use their understanding of the daos to the best of their ability and let their own attacks rain down upon the beasts, killing them one after another.
While Pei Ziqi had gained most wounds because of her reckless behavior, the ones with the next most wounds were the beast Gods.
They were beasts themselves, but they had gone against the beasts, causing loathing and hate to be directed towards them. Because of this, they were the target of the many beasts who felt indignant of having to fight others of their own race.
As a result, they had been besieged. Huli had stayed by their side and killed as many beasts as she possibly could, but even so, they had sustained quite a few bad injuries.
This fight had caused them to be pressured beyond everything they had ever experienced before, and as a result, they had managed to have breakthrough after breakthrough.
Although they originally did not want to be part of this battle, the group had benefitted greatly and hearing that they might be able to get some clues about the world they were looking for, Hui Yue was more than satisfied with their reward.