Chapter 342: Bound by Karmic Debt

In just one single close-quarters clash, they had lost nearly half of their 60,000 cavalry and 70% of their warhorses. Xu Zhongxing’s heart bled as he looked upon the scattered remnants of his troops!

Wei Yuan’s heart was also bleeding. In that brief clash, over 5,000 soldiers of the realm of Qingming had fallen in battle. They were all elites at the blood-tempering stage or above, and nearly 100 of them were Dao Foundation stage cultivators!

Of all the casualties, over 3,000 had been killed by Xu Zhongxing alone. In fact, nearly all the Dao Foundation stage cultivators had fallen by his hand. Xu Zhongxing’s killing move was truly terrifying, ignoring armor, virtually ignoring defense, and irresistible even with fortune. He had cost Wei Yuan over 3,000 wisps of blue fortune for nothing!

Had it not been the massive amount of fortune contributed by the 100,000 plus human sacrifices—he currently had over 15,000 wisps of fortune in his sea of consciousness—Wei Yuan honestly wasn’t sure how he could continue this battle.

Suddenly, an Immortal Sword descended beside Xu Zhongxing. The sword was originally cyan, but now it glowed with a faint red light.

In the end, Zhang Sheng couldn’t stay put.

As soon as the sword landed, Xu Zhongxing’s vitality immediately wavered like a flame threatened by a sudden rain. But before the second Immortal Sword could appear, he flickered into the air, forcibly breaking free from the sword array’s lock. After leaping outside the circle, he launched a backhand strike that obliterated the falling Immortal Sword.

Wei Yuan’s intuition had indeed been correct—Xu Zhongxing was deeply versed in the Dao of battle formations and close combat, making him an extremely formidable opponent. He advanced and retreated like lightning, and his aura was barely perceptible, shifting fluidly between form and formlessness to forcibly break free from the lock. Unless they found a way to restrict his movements, neither his Twilight of the Immortal Path nor Zhang Sheng’s sword array would ever score a hit.

Perhaps only Trueman Fen Hai’s sky-filling heavenly fire could shut off all avenues of escape. Ji Liuli’s Devil Suppressing Nine Level Pagoda was the bane of such mystic abilities as well.

Zhang Sheng lightly flicked the blade of the Crimson Night Slayer of Immortals, a helpless expression etched on his face.

The Crimson Night Slayer of Immortals was a true Immortal Sword meant to be wielded by a true immortal. Logically speaking, it should slay an Avatar as easily as cutting fruits and chopping vegetables. However, it so happened that Zhang Sheng’s Dao Foundation was not very compatible with any of his four Immortal Swords. No matter which sword he used, he was unable to unleash even 10% of the Crimson Night Slayer of Immortals’ true power.

Of course, wielding the sword still boosted Zhang Sheng’s combat prowess somewhat, but it was insufficient to defeat Xu Zhongxing.

In fact, even if Zhang Sheng had become an Avatar, he still would have stood no chance of defeating Xu Zhongxing. After all, he would still be two minor stages behind the garrison commander, not to mention that Xu Zhongxing was a cultivation prodigy not much inferior to Zhang Sheng himself.

At that moment, many wounded soldiers and horses were still writhing in agony at the front lines. Only then did Xu Zhongxing realize that the barbed wire, though simple at first glance, was really a major nuisance. If a warhorse accidentally stepped on it, its hooves would be pierced. If its legs so much as brushed against it, it would become lacerated or worse, entangled. One careless moment was enough to cause a deep gash.

If a warhorse sustained a leg injury on the battlefield and could not be treated in time, it was basically crippled. It would never be able to perform on a battlefield again.

The riders weren’t afraid of the barbed wire because they wore steel boots, but the ground had long since been reduced to loose soil by the relentless bombardment. After falling from their horses, the soldiers could not help but stumble from one foot to the next, moving so slowly that they might as well be sitting ducks.

Wei Yuan gave Xu Zhongxing no time to catch his breath and ordered his rear units to resume the artillery barrage. This time, with Xu Zhongxing being the only Avatar remaining to intercept the artillery shells, the bombardment was much more effective than before. Sensing an opportunity, Wei Yuan ordered all rounds to be replaced with full-charge, high-explosive shells. After just several rounds of shelling, the enemy cavalry suffered heavy losses once more.

Xu Zhongxing was forced to retreat. The shelling ceased once he had withdrawn several li; it seemed that the range of this strange weapon was limited to 2 li in front of the defensive position.

Meanwhile, the sounds of combat and explosions had broken out in Xuanwei Three. The Xu Clan’s infantry had breached the underground defenses, and both sides were currently locked in fierce combat.

In the rear, the middle guard’s 150,000 infantrymen were gradually entering the battlefield. Upon witnessing the devastating loss suffered by Xu Zhongxing’s cavalry, the expressions of several elders at the middle guard turned grim. One gaunt, elderly man even burst into a tirade, “Useless fool! This is a mob you’re going up against! How is it even possible for you to lose thirty thousand cavalry in such a short time? Even thirty thousand pigs would take longer to slaughter than this!”

The other two Avatar-stage elders were also glaring at Xu Zhongxing furiously. One of them barked, “The clan trusted you and placed thirty percent of our military strength in your hands. Is this how you repay the clan? And you have the nerve to call yourself a great general?!”

The more the three Avatar-stage elders looked at Xu Zhongnian, the more disgust they felt toward him, though the source of their emotions was unknown.

Xu Zhongxing’s face was ashen, and his temper was flaring. He even felt the urge to kill someone on the spot.

Xu Zhongxing abruptly jolted with alarm and realized that something was amiss. He was a rare genius possessing numerous secret arts, so he immediately examined himself closely and discovered that, at some unknown point, karmic debt had enveloped his entire body. Although a heavenly tribulation hadn’t yet come down on his head, he was already stuck in a state of relentless tribulation. During this time, anything that could go wrong would go wrong.

Considering how dense the karmic debt was, he feared that most of the people he had just killed were blessed with fortune. There might even be people with great fortune among them.

Xu Zhongxing suppressed his instinctive madness and relentlessness, forcing himself to calm down and think. Karmic debt was not insurmountable; it was just that the effects were particularly intense within the realm of Qingming because he had incurred it here. Just leaving Qingming should alleviate the situation somewhat—at the very least, it would give him a moment to catch his breath and find a way to resolve it.

At this thought, a wave of frustration surged through Xu Zhongxing’s heart once more.

Resolving this type of karmic debt was extremely troublesome and would require a tremendous price. It was likely that he would have to tread carefully in everything he did and watch his words and actions for a very, very long time to come. Above all else, there was zero chance he would be able to break through to a higher cultivation level during this time.

But where did all this karmic debt come from? Even if they were currently living in an era of flourishing fortune, it wasn’t that easy to encounter multiple people who were blessed with fortune. How could so many people in Qingming possess fortune?

Slaying those who were blessed with fortune resulted in a karmic backlash that was dozens or even hundreds of times greater than killing ordinary people! Moreover, the karmic debt brought about by fortune was far more difficult to eliminate and would erode Xu Zhongxing’s own fortune.

Xu Zhongxing’s hands were trembling slightly at the moment. In the battle to come, he could no longer strike out recklessly, especially not against low-ranking soldiers and cultivators. If he were to kill just a couple more people of fortune, he feared that he might perish on the spot, and in a most baffling manner as well.

By now, the three Avatar-stage elders had already noticed Xu Zhongxing’s unusual state. For some inexplicable reason, they found themselves unable to control their emotions. Jealousy, loathing, and a mix of old and new grudges all poured out from within them as they began to taunt him once more, “What’s the matter? Are you so scared your hands are shaking?”

Killing intent flickered in Xu Zhongxing’s eyes, and three invisible, formless wisps of sword qi shot out from between his eyebrows, lightly touching all three elders on their foreheads.

It wasn’t until the sword qi were retracted that the three elders realized what just happened and broke out in cold sweat, overcome with both shock and rage. If Xu Zhongxing had intended to launch a sneak attack just now, the three of them would already be dead!

Although they were all Avatars of the Xu Clan, the Xu Clan was so vast that the three elders were neither familiar with Xu Zhongxing nor on good terms with him. Only now did they realize just how powerful the garrison commander was.

Xu Zhongxing narrowed his eyes slightly and said slowly, “We are currently in Qingming, and the surrounding fortune is abnormal. We’ve all been affected by it. So from now on, all of you had better keep your mouths shut! If you push me too far, I can’t say for sure if I’ll die, but the three of you will definitely meet your ends before I do!”