Paragon Of Sin Chapter 1988 Chapter 1980: Brutality of War

The horrifying vista that unfolded before their eyes formed a hellish nightmare, a stark testament to warfare's dark underbelly—the relentless labor, the steep toll, the lives offered up to propel advancement and perpetuate strife. It stretched out as a shattered expanse filled with blood-drenched, twisted, and fragmented remains. Such a gruesome display had the power to chill blood in any onlooker's veins, and Tilly endured that chilling effect completely. Even with her role as an Entry Moderator, she seldom dropped into the midst of live combat or confronted the wild atrocities abandoned in its aftermath.

Clasping her hands over her mouth, Tilly shuddered openly at the view of thousands slain. Softly, a firm hand rested on her shoulder, delivering a refreshing wave of reassurance and security. She pressed nearer, absorbing the comforting heat from the closeness; it was then alone that her tremors from fright began to fade.

Wei Wuyin's stare stayed composed, methodically surveying the fallen bodies and wrecked edifices in front of him with icy detachment. This spot was intended as a 'safe zone.' Although it received no unique shielding from battlefield protocols, it served as a bastion for directing efforts and devising schemes, where one faction had set up their armed outpost. Furthermore, it sat profoundly entrenched within territory held by allies, claimed and guarded for hundreds of years if not longer.

For such a site to crumble, foes had not just breached far inward but surged with ruthless force, massacring these troops and leaders on a massive scale. The structures had been reinforced using Essence of War, infused with Metal, Earth, and Wood Intent reaching the World Heart Intent tier, akin to materials rated at Mystic-World quality. Those responsible wielded frightful power, even under the crushing limits imposed by the Ascendant Battlefield.

Wei Wuyin advanced a couple of paces, carefully shifting the bodies out of the way while probing the destruction via his Spiritual Sense. Leveraging his sharpened time awareness and intellectual prowess, he swiftly reconstructed ghostly echoes of the clash with uncanny precision. The phantoms surged and bolted, battled, collided, guarded, perished, endured, pleaded, and bellowed with the desperate defiance of creatures craving survival. Their ferocity proved savage and alarming.

Every warrior on site qualified as an Ascended entity, bound by the stifling constraints of the Ascendant Battlefield, which outstripped the Stellar Battlefield in intensity, yet allowed them to wield far more might than ordinary humans. Numerous could soar through the air or deploy techniques, spells, and wield mystic tools, much like the leaders in the Stellar Battlefield. They brimmed with power, equipped with innate survival methods from their cultivation level, and carried assurance stemming from their grasp of their capabilities to step into combat and persist.

Fatalities proved uncommon. Much scarcer than on the Stellar Battlefield, where Astral Core Realm experts fell by the thousands every moment. But right here, spread out before him, lay countless Ascended individuals butchered in numbers surpassing hundreds of thousands. The vision he pieced together revealed several key indicators.

To start, a far smaller force compared to the outpost's defenders had wrought this, as injuries showed uniform patterns from identical arms and energies. This pointed to a lone Battalion's work, around a thousand fighters strong. They operated with seamless harmony, bolstering one another, aiding rescues with exactness, all while cutting down opponents without pause.

They employed strategies Wei Wuyin recognized intimately, ones he'd used in his own campaign inside the Heavenly Realm of War, drawing on the core mysteries of the Law of War. Central among them stood Banner Intent and Siege Intent, masterfully directed by an exceptional Commander. Their bond felt wordless and impeccably synchronized, perhaps linked through heightened senses and thoughts, or even sharing ideas silently or instinctively via Intent.

He further observed that the elite Battalion's gear outclassed the defenders' by a wide margin. Armors and blades lay cracked, splintered, or demolished. Given that most of these defenses derived from Essence of War—the sole substance untouched or weakened by the pervasive suppressive aura—they must have been crafted using an Apex-Level Intent.

Just like Elemental Intents such as Absolute Hot Fire Intent and Absolute Zero Ice Intent, other forms of Intent featured diverse gradations, each as challenging to grasp and far less rigid. A cultivator's Sword or Saber Intent might earn Apex-level status through its sheer potency.

For instance, Wei Wuyin's Saber Intent captured the core of 'ending' along its blade. The Omega Saber Intent qualified as an Apex-level Intent. That said, while Wei Wuyin stuck to terms he knew well, he recognized that beyond the Material Dao, particularly in the War Dao, the formal label was 'Limitless' Intent. It signified boundless possibilities, a prestigious honor based on excellence and force.

Finally, the remains all traced back to the allied base alone. Though certain phantom assailants fell to frantic counterstrikes or demanded hordes to fell due to their prowess, the invaders had carried off their own casualties, leaving behind not even a strand. He detected no trace of their blood whatsoever.

'Did they even bleed?'

As his eyebrows knit together, Tilly summoned courage to navigate the bodies and reach Wei Wuyin's position, inquiring in a soft, hesitant but intrigued tone, "Who could have done this?" She sought clarity; her insights and comprehension fell well short of this figure standing nearby.

Wei Wuyin drew in a quiet breath, then released it while eyeing the sky tinged with a subtle crimson hue, threaded with thick blood qi. "So it's begun, huh?" His words caused Tilly's eyebrows to lift.

"What's begun?" Tilly couldn't grasp it. What event had ignited this slaughter?

Wei Wuyin's expression grew a touch gloomier, "The race for the last Daospark." His sight shifted to the distant line, detecting a chaotic vibration in the atmosphere heavy with impending doom and hopelessness, all driven by the drive of top-tier talents to advance, his voice carrying a grave weight: "A storm of blood and death is coming."

Tilly felt her pulse quicken under some inexplicable pull. Her eyes instinctively turned to the horizon, narrowing as she spotted distant silhouettes. She quivered. Dropping her gaze, she noticed a fractured blade embedded in a body starting to vibrate faintly. That same vibration seemed to bridge the gap, climbing from her feet, up her limbs, through her torso, and into her chest.

"That's..." Her features drained of color the instant she comprehended the implications. Her head jerked up as an impulse to escape surged in her spirit.

Wei Wuyin remained unmoved, merely easing his fingers toward his saber's grip as the Law of War roused inside him. "Is there a way to locate others through their War Souls, or better yet, the Identity Runes we hold to contain them?"

"Wha-? What?" Tilly jolted from the sudden query, her vision capturing the forms of countless human-like shapes charging ferociously in their direction. Hundreds of miles off, their furious advance shook the ground so intensely she sensed the quakes from afar. Still, she reflexively responded to Wei Wuyin's inquiries or offered details to feel of value, replying almost on autopilot: "There shouldn't be-No. Wait. There might be a way!"

Wei Wuyin produced his Identity Runes housing the War Souls he'd gathered from the Stellar and Ascendant Battlefield. An impressive count filled those runes. The one from the Stellar Battlefield held solely Stellar-grade War Souls, whereas the Ascendant Battlefield's carried Ascendant-grade ones.

"I remember now! I've heard rumors that a Supreme Seer had invented a Soul Scrying Tool to locate War Souls. However, they were only viable beyond the Battlefield. Some of the Entry Moderators had found them, but they were ineffective due to environmental suppression prevalent in all Battlefields."

"So that's what this is." In Wei Wuyin's grasp sat a metal compass about twice his palm's width, just graspable in one hand, featuring a hemispherical lattice of green marked by evenly spaced black lines. At its core gleamed two radiant golden points like stars, glowing steadily and throbbing. He'd discovered this device amid several of the dead.

The core points almost certainly represented him. The luminous stars on display both signified his Identity Runes. A nearer inspection revealed another distinct mark for Tilly, but in white. This could imply her Identity Rune varied, customized for her Entry Moderator status, and thus ineligible for claiming.

"It won't be precise!" Tilly warned while suppressing her flight instinct.

"It isn't," Wei Wuyin observed, since the lattice offered little detail on the War Souls count in his Identity Runes, and from the compass's outer limits—spanning perhaps a few hundred miles—the rapid-moving shadows hurtling toward him appeared as a cluster of a thousand stars. All equal in brightness. Though his shone more vividly, the difference stayed minor.

"Is that...is that it?" Tilly asked.

Wei Wuyin pocketed the Soul Scrying Tool. "Stay here." Issuing that command, he steadily approached the approaching foes. These Ascended warriors hungered for the Daospark in battle, and they ranked as the finest among the elite. Their surging murderous aura spoke of vast exposure to killing and conflict.

In essence, they embodied ripe prizes of conquest, ideal for honing skills.

Wei Wuyin softly summoned, "Athena."