Fertilizer

The State of Ji was plunged into another wave of turmoil. Throughout the entire summer, rebel forces swept across multiple commanderies, driving the imperial army into continuous retreat and abducting vast numbers of commoners. Many counties and townships were reduced to scorched earth stretching for thousands of li, devoid of any sign of human habitation. The imperial army retreated toward the vicinity of the royal capital, forced to hold their ground by relying on formidable mountain passes. Fortunately, after carrying off the populace, the rebels vanished without a trace and made no further moves against the capital. From that point on, massive columns of commoners endured an arduous trek of thousands, even tens of thousands of li, finally arriving at the Mountain Folk territory. Once within a thousand li of the region, they encountered relay supply stations established by Wei Yuan along the route, which distributed food, water, and dry rations to the mortals. Upon reaching the Mountain Folk territory, the mortals were properly settled. Even many of the rebel soldiers responsible for escorting them refused to leave, remaining behind to be reorganized and integrated. And so, the migration of the population was gradually completed by early in the ninth month. By this time, the western commanderies of the State of Ji had turned entirely into a savage wilderness. Many boundary stones had been uprooted, allowing the raw, primordial qi of heaven and earth to encroach once more. The weather grew increasingly arid, vegetation withered, and the soil lost its fertility. In barely over a year, fertile land nurtured by a thousand years of cultivation reverted to a gravel desert. After careful consideration, Wei Yuan returned to Qingming that year to plant the boundary stone "Shenghua" at the site of the original Medicine Garden. At the very core of the Medicine Garden, Wei Yuan personally planted Shenghua and activated it with immortal spirit qi. In an instant, an invisible realm expanded outward, enveloping an area of a hundred li. The new realm gradually merged with the Qingming realm, causing vitality and spiritual power to surge rapidly. At the same time, a tremendous volume of spirit qi converged here from deep underground. Before long, subterranean rocks and soil began weeping spring water, gathering into underground streams. Given time, spirit veins and spirit springs would form beneath the earth. Every medicinal herb in the garden rejoiced, naturally exuding medicinal qi. Countless precious vapors coalesced into misty clouds. Rain and fog drifted down from the clouds, breathing life even into barren rocks wherever it fell. Deep within the garden, the Dark Star Nightshade—first planted here long ago and personally tended by Xu Wenwu—swayed gently. It transmitted a faint, indistinct consciousness that brushed against Wei Yuan, darted back like lightning, and then reached out to touch him again a moment later. Soon it became intensely affectionate, winding itself around Wei Yuan and refusing to let go. Only then did Wei Yuan recall that he shared a profound connection with this tree. Tracing it back to its origin, the karmic luck that had triggered its mutation had come from him—an otherworldly karmic luck. Originally, the Celestial Star Nightshade had been a Dao Foundation-grade spirit tree. After mutating and developing sentience, it had transformed into a spirit plant, firmly ascending to a Scenery Command-grade spiritual entity. In the future, once its sentience matured and it could assume human form, it would become another immortal plant. The growth rate of all medicinal herbs throughout the garden increased dramatically. Within the core range of Shenghua, the herbs now grew at fifty times the normal rate of the outside world. Even the finest medicinal fields of the Palace of Grand Beginning could barely match this, and none spanned an area as vast as Shenghua's. A garden of this caliber exerted a terrifying drain on spirit qi and the earth's fertility. Relying solely on the heaven-and-earth origin qi gathered by the boundary stone was nowhere near enough. The spirit gathering formation was already overwhelmed; even if upgraded another rank to rival the Palace of Grand Beginning's mountain gate, it still would not suffice. To sustain the operation of such a high-grade medicine garden, an additional source of spirit qi had to be provided. In common parlance: fertilizer. However, the corpses of the Liao Clan had long been depleted, and the spirit qi of Buddha Sword Peak had to be used to suppress karma, so it could not be diverted here. Even if it could, a single finger would fall far short; slicing off an entire thigh would be more like it. The establishment of Shenghua fundamentally resolved the supply of high-grade medicinal ingredients. With enough time, spirit herbs would flow continuously. Even if the number of Qingming cultivators expanded tenfold, the supply of ingredients would easily keep pace. This was the foundation of a millennium of strength, the absolute core of their infrastructure, and the bedrock for facing an era where Dao Foundations were as vast as the sea and dharma idols were as common as dogs. Yet the key remained: fertilizer. Wei Yuan's thoughts drifted, his eyes continually wandering toward the immortal body parts. Once planted, Shenghua became another daughter stone of Qingming. Although realm coverage suffered a loss of roughly seventy percent, it laid the foundation for Qingming's long-term, profound growth. Moreover, expanding a realm was easy, while high-grade resources were finite. If Qingming developed according to Wei Yuan's vision, even the entire Palace of Grand Beginning's resources might not suffice to sustain it several centuries from now. Having set down Shenghua, Wei Yuan returned to the Mountain Folk territory, intending to see if a portion of the Mountain Folk corpses here could be transported to Qingming and refined there to nourish Shenghua. The moment he stepped out of the teleportation formation, Wei Yuan felt an undercurrent surging around him as waves of karmic luck washed in and flooded his sea of consciousness! In a flash, Wei Yuan's mortal karmic luck rebounded to five million! Wei Yuan felt this was somewhat low, so he examined the source of the karmic luck closely. The vast majority was contributed by the newly arrived refugees in the Mountain Folk territory. These refugees had assumed they were marked for death upon falling into rebel hands. Who could have imagined that after months of trekking tens of thousands of li, they would arrive at a place that felt like an earthly paradise? Not only was there land to farm, but houses offering shelter from wind and rain had also been built. After deducting all land rent and housing fees, their calculations revealed that a single year of hard labor in the fields left them with enough grain to feed themselves for two years. If they worked a little harder, it would last three. The people felt as though they were living in a dream. If this was not a paradise, what could be? Thus, thirty million refugees contributed a total of over four million mortal karmic luck. Yet this amount was somewhat meager; Wei Yuan had estimated it should be around ten million. After all, by the time the Ji refugees arrived, basic infrastructure was largely in place, offering conditions vastly superior to when the Western Jin and Zhao refugees first reached Qingming. Yet it amounted to only four million, indicating that the physical condition of these people was even poorer than that of the refugees from Western Jin and Zhao. Most were so debilitated that they generated no mortal karmic luck whatsoever. Among the original twelve million inhabitants of the Mountain Folk territory, several hundred thousand additional mortal karmic luck had been produced during this period. This karmic luck was like a steady trickle, capable of flowing endlessly. Returning to the Mountain Folk territory, Wei Yuan hurried directly to the refinement pools. The refinement pools in the Mountain Folk territory consisted of four deep pits encircled by massive formations. Here, corpses were rapidly reduced back into scattered spirit qi, absorbed by heaven and earth, which in turn fed back pure heaven-and-earth origin qi to gradually transform the local environment. This was the fundamental principle of the refinement pools: cruel in appearance, but entirely in accordance with the Heavenly Dao. As Wei Yuan walked toward the refinement pool, he suddenly frowned slightly. Bearing mortal karmic luck once again, he felt as if he were wading through a boundless ocean of heaven-and-earth origin qi. In the past, he had been like a swimming fish, darting nimbly through the water without disturbing the surface. Now, however, he had become a colossal leviathan, like the Kun of the Northern Sea, stirring monstrous waves with every single movement. Before Wei Yuan even reached the refinement pool, he kicked up an invisible surge of heaven-and-earth origin qi that swept across the entire pool! A vast amount of heaven-and-earth origin qi had already accumulated within the refinement pool. Swept up by this surging wave, it formed directly into a vortex that voraciously drew in the surrounding heaven-and-earth origin qi. Finally, countless lingering souls flickered past, sucked into the vortex. Startled, Wei Yuan swept the area with his divine sense, only to find nothing amiss within the pool. Everything that had just transpired seemed like an illusion. Frowning slightly, Wei Yuan knew this could not be an illusion; the anomaly in the refinement pool had undoubtedly been triggered by his arrival. He walked to the edge of the pit and peered down, seeing only densely packed heaps of corpses. Just as Wei Yuan prepared to send men down to overturn the bodies and investigate further, the vortex finished absorbing all the surrounding origin qi and slowly ground to a halt. The moment it stopped spinning, every corpse instantly withered, turning into charred embers devoid of even a trace of spirit qi. An object dropped out of the vortex. Wei Yuan reached out and drew it into his grasp. It was a stone the size of a millstone—remarkably, a boundary stone! This boundary stone was of modest grade, possessing only the minor ability to slightly enhance metal-phase earth veins. Over time, it could enrich subterranean mineral deposits and raise their grade, commanding a realm of about five hundred li. By all accounts, it was merely an ordinary boundary stone. But what set it apart was that it had formed out of thin air right before Wei Yuan's eyes. Counting the previous two immortal stones, Mirror Lake and Shenghua, Wei Yuan had now witnessed the birth of three boundary stones with his own eyes. A question suddenly arose in his mind: how had the boundary stones of the human race originated in ancient times? Could it have been... in a manner similar to these three?