As Dan Shu's voice fell, the atmosphere around the Guanyi Terrace suddenly quieted for a moment.
All eyes turned toward Ryujinmaru.
"...Destroy the Ascension Elixir Powder?"
Welt's expression revealed a hint of astonishment.
After splitting up with the Astral Express crew, he had piloted Senjinmaru to find the Master Diviner, who was deducing the battle situation within the army formation, to synchronize intelligence.
Subsequently, Senjinmaru took the lead, guiding the Cloud Knights in a charge.
The Abundance Spirit Beasts and Mara-struck soldiers retreated again and again, turtling up inside the Purple Cloud Palace.
Although the name was elegant, in military strategy, it was a death trap; ethereal rosy clouds drifted out from within the palace.
Just as Welt was feeling suspicious, Fu Xuan urgently ordered a halt to the offensive and a full retreat, explaining the nature and danger of the rosy clouds to Welt in detail.
Throwing the Elixir Powder into the elixir furnace stimulated the Ascension Mist, which could cause Cloud Knights to lose control and make long-life species fall into the Mara-struck state much more rapidly!
Unless they could march while holding their breath, the Cloud Knights would collapse without a fight.
To long-life species, the Ascension Mist was a despicable yet efficient method. What surprised Welt even more was that Fu Xuan had issued the retreat order before the Cloud Knights even made contact with the mist.
Was the path of divination of the Xianzhou Divination Commission truly so magical?
Could it even calculate the stratagems used by the enemy on the battlefield?
Welt asked with doubt.
"Although the art of divination is mysterious, it has not yet reached the level of predicting military affairs with god-like precision. This Seat received news from the General beforehand... The intelligence on the Ascension Mist came from unexpected surprise troops."
Fu Xuan spoke thus.
The words 'surprise troops' in her answer instantly made Welt run through everyone in the Express crew in his mind.
The only people capable of doing such a thing unknowingly were the Star Rail duo!
It was highly likely they had accidentally caused destruction while looking for Crystals.
One couldn't blame Welt for having a stereotype about the Star Rail crew; it was simply that the criminal records of the two Gray-hairs were too numerous to list.
"This Seat thanks the two of you on behalf of the many Cloud Knight soldiers."
Fu Xuan's attitude was solemn and sincere, and her gaze toward Ryujinmaru held a few more degrees of gratitude and recognition.
Jing Yuan had urgent matters requiring immediate preparation and hadn't said much about the surprise troops. This led Fu Xuan to misunderstand that the surprise troops the General referred to were the Express crew.
If anyone else had encountered this, they would definitely have informed the Seat of Divine Foresight. But with the Star Rail duo, Fu Xuan couldn't be sure. Reasoning backward, it had to be them.
Although the brain circuits of these two Gray-hairs had major issues, it had to be said that destroying the Ascension Elixir Powder had done the Cloud Knights a huge favor!
From the start of the encirclement operation, Fu Xuan had harbored doubts. The Medicine King abandoning a hundred years of dormancy to reveal themselves now indicated they had certainty of victory.
Yet the actual battle was abnormally smooth.
It wasn't until Jing Yuan contacted her that Fu Xuan learned the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus had prepared an entire medicine warehouse of Ascension Elixir Powder to deal with the Cloud Knights.
When she first heard the news, Fu Xuan's face went pale.
That much Ascension Elixir Powder was enough to cripple eighty percent of the Cloud Knights!
If eighty percent of the Cloud Knights lost their reason, fell into Mara-struck, and unleashed destruction, the entire Xianzhou would fall into unprecedented chaos!
Fortunately, Jing Yuan subsequently added that the threat of the Ascension Elixir Powder had been resolved by the surprise troops, and the remaining Elixir Powder was at most enough to support a single battle.
Only then was Fu Xuan relieved of a heavy burden.
Although the spreading Ascension Mist only covered the range of one palace, it would still be very tricky in normal times.
But now, the Xianzhou had surprise troops who had arrived by fate!
The Ascension Mist had no effect on short-lived species.
Fu Xuan had originally intended to ask Welt and March 7th to go deep into the palace to shut down the elixir furnace. Unexpectedly, after she made the request, Caelus said there was a more efficient method.
Letting Torijinmaru use the Wind Wave to draw the rosy clouds into the sea could directly remove the future trouble. Otherwise, even if the elixir furnace was shut down, the mist already generated would not disappear.
If it drifted out of the Alchemy Commission Grotto-Heaven, it might affect innocent civilians.
"Uh..."
Inside Ryujinmaru's internal space, Stelle scratched her head, looking slightly bewildered.
Although the one who proposed letting Ah Qi resolve the mist was indeed Caelus-cub, what was this about an underground delve and destroying Ascension Elixir Powder?
She didn't know ah!
"Caelus-cub, did we do that sort of thing?"
Stelle nudged the little brother beside her with her elbow.
"Don't you know whether you did it yourself?"
Caelus looked sideways at the simple-minded gray-haired girl with dead fish eyes.
Although he didn't know why Dan Shu would pin the blame on them, Old Yang and Fu Xuan's reasoning had wrong elements and processes, but the result was correct.
"Then we did it, This Lord is amazing!"
Stelle put her hands on her hips. If there's blame, throw it; if there's credit, take it. This was her virtue—
Who knows, maybe one of her inadvertent actions saved tens of thousands of Cloud Knights?
This damn Stellaron spirit was unexpectedly so sweet!
Caelus vigorously rubbed the girl's long hair, which felt super good and was as smooth as raccoon fur, before giving an answer to the outside world.
"Broke the Grotto-Heaven? What Grotto-Heaven? I didn't, I don't have it, don't talk nonsense, my friend did that."
'Friend,' naturally, referred to Li Sushang.
Caelus was laying the groundwork for the two's future relationship.
But those words, which seemed like an attempt to clear his name, in Welt's eyes, confirmed that the Star Rail duo had caused some trouble while looking for Crystals and opening chests.
Thus beginning the 'I have a friend' series.
"Won't admit it?"
Dan Shu's tone turned cold. Her hollow, colorless eyes welled up with an azure-gold color representing life and nobility as the medicinal power of the Ascension Elixir took effect.
New sprouts broke through the soil, and branches containing the Power of Abundance grew from beside Dan Shu's feet, transforming into a golden leaf scepter.
"Then let me show you the things the Xianzhou ancestors once achieved, the glory they once possessed!"
With an angry and gradually soaring tone, Dan Shu's body floated into the air. Green currents surrounded her, and the Dew-Receiving Feathered Raiment fluttered, making her look like a celestial immortal of the heavens.
"This is... the Form of Receiving Dew recorded in ancient texts?!"
Fu Xuan's expression changed upon seeing Dan Shu switch to her Jade Foot Mode.
"Asking because I don't know, what is the Form of Receiving Dew?"
Stelle raised an eyebrow.
"In the Primeval Era, seekers realized profound decrees from the Ambrosial Arbor and called themselves immortals. They molded flesh and blood beings like clay. Amidst countless changes, they forgot their original faces and displayed the power of the Ambrosial Arbor within their essence. That is the Form of Receiving Dew."
Fu Xuan spoke with considerable seriousness.
"This Seat heard from the General that the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus recreated the Ascension Elixir from ancient texts. You... could it be?"
"The General certainly hears from all directions."
Dan Shu's tone was cool: "That's right. Furthermore, I am not the only one who has taken the Ascension Elixir."
As her words fell, the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus waiting in full battle array behind Dan Shu saw their bodies swell one after another, revealing immortal bodies and transforming into ferocious Abundance Shapeshifters.
Golden leaves glittered, and halos of light condensed behind their heads, appearing solemn yet incomparably bizarre.
Unlike the Mara-struck soldiers the Express crew had faced before, these guys before them were extraordinary in both physique and appearance.
"To think so many people have swallowed the Ascension Elixir!"
Fu Xuan's face grew grave; she had seen related descriptions in ancient texts.
Even in the Primeval Era, it was rare for anyone to cultivate into a Dew-Receiving Celestial. The state of these Medicine King organization members before her was a sign of stepping into the next stage of evolution.
With every gesture, they could refine the trees and thorns beside them into spears, bramble whips, and shields, touching upon the secret of immortality.
"I don't feel like they're any different from the Mara-struck we met before, though."
Stelle arrogantly raised the King's Sword.
An elite Shapeshifter of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus threw a brilliant golden spear, transformed from profound wood, toward Ryujinmaru.
The evolved Abundance Shapeshifters were each nearly three meters tall, and the brilliant golden spear was nearly four meters long, but in front of the forty-meter great sword, it was like a small nail.
Striking the long sword on Ryujinmaru's arm, it only sparked a few scattered flames. In the next second, the Shapeshifter was cut in two by the King's Sword.
Seeing the Shapeshifter's injuries recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye, Caelus raised an eyebrow:
"Is the elixir crucible no longer a weakness?"
That sword strike had split the elixir crucible. If it were a Xianzhou native or an ordinary Mara-struck, they would have died immediately or not lived much longer, with their recovery power plummeting.
But these guys could actually still recover.
Over thirty Mara-struck evolved beings launched attacks like a violent storm.
"There are no immortals on the Xianzhou. What Abundance miracle? What manipulating life and death? Your deeds are nothing but the conduct of monsters!"
The Matrix of Prescience Eye on her forehead shone brilliantly. Fu Xuan took a step forward, the fingertips pinching a spell seal overflowing with flowing light.
An array disc unfolded from where she stepped, rapidly expanding to encompass the entire Guanyi Terrace.
Some Mara-struck evolved beings who stepped into the array suddenly slowed down, as if suppressed!
Caelus knocked on his head: "Luan Jin?"
Not to mention, the pink-purple array disc blooming at Fu Xuan's feet really looked like the Wind Queen Qi Gate.
"Good skills, Master Diviner~!"
'Tingyun' cheered from the rear.
Dan Shu's eyes narrowed as she held the golden leaf scepter high. A completely opposite gray-black aura gathered.
"Profound Qi Curse Method, Body Devouring!"
That was Profound Qi that caused plants to wither. When Profound Qi was extracted, plants became ever-flourishing, while people devoured by the Profound Qi would lose their vitality and age.
"I will block it, leave them to everyone... Yin and Yang, Five Elements, Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches conflict."
The spell seal in Fu Xuan's hand changed. The array disc shifted, and the Great Array surged with purple light to block the Profound Qi Body Devouring.
The suppressed Mara-struck evolved beings regained their freedom of movement.
"Wither away."
Seele waved Black Abyss. The power of decay, which extremely countered Abundance, immediately attracted Dan Shu's attention.
"Ambrosial Arbor endures, Dark Dragon protect me!"
With a high shout, the roots of the Ambrosial Arbor in the Alchemy Commission began to twist and mutate. Branches were endowed with form, roaring like dragons of calamity, biting toward everyone in a strangling posture.
"Leave it to me!"
Welt piloted Senjinmaru, crossing his blade and sword to withstand the hideous and twisted tree dragon.
"This young lady is back!"
Torijinmaru flapped its wings, whipping up Divine Mist Wind Blades and pouring out light bullets, fully displaying aerial fire suppression.
While confronting Fu Xuan, Dan Shu looked back at the outside world. The area outside the Guanyi Terrace had been reduced to a battlefield.
"Damn it, damn it!"
Because they lacked high-level cadres to command and their numbers were far inferior to the Cloud Knights, the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus had already fallen into a complete disadvantage; their overthrow was only a matter of breaths.
The opponent still had a Mashin Mecha that hadn't acted, yet her side was already at a crushing disadvantage, unable to see any hope of winning.
Just as Dan Shu wanted to call out to the Lord Ravager, the black-and-gold painted Mashin Mecha moved. He held high the long sword that terrified the Mara-struck evolved beings.
"Dragon Sword!"
He slashed down with a posture of splitting heaven and earth.
What stunned everyone, enemy and ally alike, was that the target of this sword was—the Foxian girl hiding behind Ryujinmaru!
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