A Clean Sweep, a Great Victory!
The moment Bi Luo disappeared into the dark river, the Spirit Race's fighting spirit collapsed.
The remaining two Middle Spirit Transformation made their judgments almost simultaneously; one was entangled in Yuan Chong, but was blasted away by the Dark Gold giant ape's punch, and then escaped, transforming into a streak of green light and fleeing eastward.
The other one was even more decisive, enduring Lang Xin's overwhelming dark flames head-on, crushing the escape talisman, and disappearing from the spot, running faster than anyone else.
Cang Wuji snorted coldly, but did not chase after him.
If Spirit Transformation cultivator is determined to escape, it is very difficult to intercept them; moreover, the Spirit Marsh Plains a complex terrain with crisscrossing underground rivers.
The Spirit Race has been operating for two hundred years, so they must have set up many teleportation and spatial channels.
They wanted to escape, and there was no way to stop them.
However, with the Spirit Transformation gone, the Spirit Race below the Spirit Transformation level became expendable pawns and cannon fodder; they had no chance of turning the tide and could only become sacrifices.
Dozens of Nascent Soul Spirit Race tried to escape, but were firmly suppressed by five bone warships; the Spirit Nascent Soul already suffered more than half of its Spirit Race lost.
Now that their commander has fled, the morale of the army has collapsed instantly.
Some desperately fled towards the core stronghold in the north, hoping to use it for teleportation, or to put up a stubborn resistance; others scattered and fled into the swamps and dense forests, attempting to break through the encirclement.
Several Nascent Soul attempted to escape beneath the swamp.
Meanwhile, in the distance, Shi Jian's injuries gradually stabilized, and he was even more furious to see that these ants still wanted to run away.
"Chase."
"Leave no one alive!"
At a command, five warships sprang into action from all directions; a group of Nascent Soul Demon Cultivator split into five teams, each leading over a hundred Golden Core demons, and pursued the enemy in all directions along the waterways.
Beneath the surface, the Iron-Backed Black Tortoise and the Horned Python Demon King were hunting down the Spirit Race; a Spirit Race Nascent Spirit Race Nascent Soul had submerged into the marsh had just escaped several hundred miles away.
He was then severely injured by an Iron-Backed Black Tortoise Demon King, whose shell shattered his protective Daoist aura. The Horned Python Demon King then coiled around his flesh and blood, twisting his body in two.
Emerald green blood spread through the marshland.
The few Nascent Spirit Race Nascent Soul of the Spirit Clan who fled north fared even worse. A barrage of mysterious light shot out from behind them, and the pale white beams of light Cloud Piercer, burning the dense forests along the way to ashes.
The one whose escape was the slowest was struck in the back by the beam of light, and fell from mid-air, crashing into the swampy mud and perishing completely.
At the Golden Core level, it was an even more one-sided massacre.
The Spirit Race's Golden Core cultivators relied on their vine formations and advantageous terrain to fight. However, after Bi Luo drained the spiritual energy and Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, the Life Dao force of the entire Marsh Plains had become extremely weak.
The vines, having lost their Spiritual Qi nourishment, became brittle and broke at the slightest touch.
The Golden Core demons of the Beast Realm charged in, like wolves among sheep.
The giant python tore apart the vine fortress ruins, the red-eyed ape dragged the Spirit Race's Golden Core from the ruins and tore it to pieces, and the pack of wolves hunted down a lone Spirit Race cultivator, chasing him for thousands of miles before finally stopping.
Shi Jian did not participate in the pursuit. He sat on the water, slowly circulating the Purple Pivot Lightning Dao Rhyme to repair his internal injuries.
The bleeding from the stubble on his right shoulder had stopped, but the lingering Life Dao energy left by Bi Luo's palm strike was extremely stubborn and had penetrated deep into his bones.
With each complete cycle, a wisp of purple qi is forced out of the body by the lightning arc, turning into black mist that continuously dissipates.
Cang Wuji stood silently by his side, the charred wound on his left arm slowly healing, with new flesh and blood covering the bone layer by layer.
"The Bi Luo Formation forcibly extracts the life force of all things in heaven and earth to boost cultivation; it's an old method used by the Spirit Race."
Cang Wuji swallowed several Demon Core and recovered by adjusting his breathing, saying, "However, this move has a fatal flaw: it lacks follow-up power."
"When life is extinguished, nothing can continue; the higher you climb, the harder you fall."
Cang Wuji chuckled, "If that old fellow hadn't run away and had held on for another half an hour, his cultivation might have even regressed, leaving him in a weakened state."
"In the future, if you encounter similar tactics again, never fight them head-on; focus on stalling. Spirit Race cultivators cannot withstand prolonged depletion of their life force."
Upon hearing this, Shi Jian did not respond, but silently made a mental note of it.
"How are your injuries?" Cang Wuji stopped laughing and became serious for once.
"Don't worry, I won't die; give me six months to recuperate, and I'll be back to normal, without affecting the subsequent battles."
Cang Wuji nodded and didn't ask any further questions.
The subsequent pursuit lasted for several days.
In this battle, the Spirit Race mainly lost one Late Spirit Transformation; two Middle Spirit Transformation escaped, Bi Luo fled with serious injuries.
At the Nascent Soul level, the Spirit Race lost thirty-seven members, captured four, and the rest fled; all of the hundred-plus Golden Core cultivators were executed, with not a single one escaping.
On the Beast Realm side, three Nascent Soul were killed in action, and seven were seriously injured; nearly two hundred Golden Core cultivators were lost, mostly due to various methods used by the Spirit Race during the pursuit.
Shi Jian sat on the deck of the main ship, looking at the battle-damaged Jade Slip slips laid out in front of him.
Exchanging three Nascent Soul Nascent Soul for thirty-seven, plus one Late Spirit Transformation, is a win-win situation no matter how you look at it; it's a resounding victory!
It could be said that all the victories combined are probably not as important as killing Fang Yi's Late Spirit Transformation.
If Spirit Transformation cultivators are the pillars of every race, then Late Spirit Transformation cultivators are the most crucial supporting pillars.
Even within the royal family, or even within a regional imperial clan, the weight of a Late Spirit Transformation cultivator is immense.
The loss of killing a Late Spirit Transformation would be enormous.
In addition, they also gained a large amount of territory.
The Spirit Marsh Plains, a vast territory spanning tens of millions of miles, changed hands from then on; the Spirit Vein, spiritual fields, array foundations, spiritual objects, and mineral deposits in the underwater rivers accumulated by the Spirit Race over two hundred years all fell into the hands of the Beast Realm.
"Each unit should clean up the remaining strongholds and, after looting, compile a unified register."
Shi Jian distributed the command Jade Slip, ordering, "Dismantle all the remnants of the great array left by the Spirit Race; deconstruct all the discovered underwater passages."
The three Nascent Spirit Transformation, Yuan Chong, Lang Xin, Lei Ming, each led a team and acted separately.
Shi Jian then led Cang Wuji and personally entered the core stronghold of the Spirit Race.
The core stronghold was more than a hundred times larger than the outer outposts, a gigantic vine fortress spanning thousands of miles, perched in the very center of the Marsh Plains.
Even though Bi Luo had drained the Spiritual Qi energy and vitality from the surrounding hundreds or thousands of miles, a rich aura of Life Dao force still lingered within the fortress.
The vine-covered walls are layered upon each other, with an intricate internal structure resembling a city.
Shi Jian walked and looked around, becoming more and more silent with each observation.
The Spirit Race's influence in this area far exceeds what the scouting reports indicate.
The Spirit Race's mastery of Dao of Refinement is second only to that of the Human Race among all races; the Spirit Race has diverse physical appearances and extremely high physical plasticity.
It can take the form of an animal, and naturally it can also take the form of a human.
Based on the human form, a large number of auxiliary organs were derived; thus, they were able to assist in the forging of weapons and the refining of elixirs.
The entire core fortress was constructed with exquisite skill.
It resembles a war fortress, somewhat like a pinnacle creation of the Human Race; the War Immortal City, a colossal war creation at the Dao Artifact level.
Just like the warships in the Beast Realm, they all serve the purpose of war.
However, the warships of the Beast Realm were originally passed down from the Human Race. In fact, all warships and similar war artifacts currently in existence originated from Human Race warships.
Among Human Race, warships are no longer the most advanced war machines.
Upon seeing this, Shi Jian's face darkened; clearly, the Spirit Race's deployment was not a typical temporary outpost, but rather an indication that they intended to establish a permanent presence here.
If this battle had not broken the deadlock, Spirit Race had continued to cultivate for several hundred more years, the Spirit Marsh Plains would have become a complete enclave of the Spirit Realm within the Dao Realm.
If we try to remove it then, the cost will be far more than just a few Nascent Spirit Transformation.