First-Rank Official

Wei Yuan took another glance at the official document in his hands, double-checking the figures written upon it. According to the latest census, the combined population of Qingming and the annexed territory of the State of Ji had reached one hundred and five million, two hundred thousand. Over these past five years, the Great Tang had issued new appointments, establishing Yizhou here and naming Wei Yuan as the Regional Governor of Yizhou. In the Great Tang's bureaucratic system, this made him a first-rank official. There were capable minds in the Great Tang as well; with a single imperial decree, they had bound Wei Yuan to the karmic luck of the Great Tang. Wei Yuan, meanwhile, had been buried in the logistics of ensuring the livelihoods of tens of millions, paying no heed to such schemes—nor did he care whom he was bound to. The present was not the past. Propriety and harmony had collapsed, the Martial Ancestor's grand design stood on the brink of ruin, and factions across the realm—overtly or from the shadows—were joining together to shake the existing order to its foundations. The Great Tang was like a towering ancient tree swaying violently in a tempest, swinging wider and wider. Its fall was plain to see and inevitable, and every power was scheming over how best to reap the greatest spoils once the edifice crumbled. Under such circumstances, if the Tang dynasty's masters did not interfere with Wei Yuan's efforts to look after the mortals' food, clothing, shelter, and transport, he would let it be. But should they dare to lecture him or order him about, Wei Yuan would not mind pondering whether kings, marquises, generals, and ministers were truly born of noble blood. Wei Yuan set aside the document and checked the time once more. Without his realizing it, the spring of the tenth year of Hongjing had already arrived. The Emperor of Tang had unexpectedly not passed away yet. Wei Yuan rose and stepped outside. His divine sense swept across the entire territory of Yizhou. He saw thriving prosperity everywhere: sprawling clusters of factories, the roar of machinery, people being picky about what they ate, and plenty of folks who picked up their bowls to eat meat and set down their chopsticks to curse and complain. Seeing all this filled Wei Yuan with deep satisfaction, feeling he had finally accomplished something meaningful. Even those cursing at least had to be well-fed first to have the strength to complain. Wei Yuan walked outside and arrived at Zhang Sheng's residence. He went to knock on the door, but before his hand could descend, the door swung open on its own. A finger poked out and beckoned to him. Wearing the expression of someone marching stoically toward certain doom, Wei Yuan entered the room and shut the door. ====== When Wei Yuan stepped outside again, he felt the air was exceptionally fresh and the sky exceptionally blue. Painful, yet blissful. Wei Yuan rubbed his aching lower back. He knew provoking a sword cultivator never ended well, yet not provoking her was out of the question. However, there was one matter they both silently understood and never brought up. It was now the tenth year of Hongjing. The reminders Wei Yuan had set lit up one after another; certain matters were due for closure. With a shift of his divine sense, Wei Yuan arrived in the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven. The Heavenly Demon was hard at work, registering new souls with one hand while dragging back and repeatedly thrashing every fellow whose name had naturally awakened, handling the tasks with flying proficiency. A figure being beaten in a corner suddenly caught Wei Yuan's eye as familiar. Looking closely, he realized the man bore an eighty percent resemblance to Su Wuwang. Could Su Wuwang's reincarnation have actually landed him here in the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven? Thinking about it, that was entirely plausible. The Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven was growing more complete by the day, its gravitational pull ever stronger. Any fresh soul within a certain radius of Wei Yuan was liable to be drawn inside. Wei Yuan did not pay Su Wuwang much mind. After all, the man was merely one stop along his path of immortal cultivation—and a stop shared with two other opponents at that, unworthy of being remembered. Emperor Yuan was destined for countless great battles in his lifetime; Scenery Commands were unworthy of leaving their names behind. Seeing the Heavenly Demon laboring relentlessly, while a dozen leather whips danced through the hall, constantly lashing transgressive souls under the demon's magic power, Wei Yuan said, "Pause for a moment, and have them all step outside." The Heavenly Demon was slightly surprised, but pointed a finger, and not a single soul remained in the Yanluo Hall. Wei Yuan looked deeply at the Heavenly Demon and said, "We've known each other for quite a long time, yet I've never asked your name." "Jialuo. What is it?" The Heavenly Demon felt an inexplicable prickle at its nose. "Jialuo..." Wei Yuan repeated the name several times, committing the true-meaning-imbued name to memory, then said, "You can go back now. If you can find me a couple of successors, all the better, but it doesn't matter if you can't." Jialuo looked up, staring fixedly at Wei Yuan. "If I can't find others of my clan, you'll still let me go?" Wei Yuan said, "I will. You've labored for so many years and helped me immensely. In truth, I've felt quite guilty, but previously I had no other choice and truly needed you, which was why I kept you for so long." Jialuo said flatly, "Without me, the might of your Counter-Slay will drop by a whole tier." Wei Yuan gave a faint smile. "Even without Counter-Slay, I can wipe out anyone who defies me now. Besides, the true power of Counter-Slay isn't cheating; it's walking straight upon the Great Dao." Jialuo's expression dimmed slightly, and it sighed softly. "Can't you be a decent human being for once?" Wei Yuan had heard this phrase more than once, but hearing it again now took him completely by surprise. So Wei Yuan asked cautiously, "Did I do something wrong?" The emotions Jialuo had bottled up over the years suddenly erupted like a volcano. Banging the desk with force, it roared, "All these years! Everything you told me to do back then, I did! You put me in the Yanming Hall, and I've worked tirelessly without making a single mistake! And now you tell me I'm useless and I can leave?! You scumbag!" Wei Yuan was dumbfounded. He puzzled over it for a long while before finally catching on, asking, "You... don't want to leave?" "If you want to drive me away, just say so outright! Don't act all hypocritically sympathetic! Why did you assume I wanted to leave? Did you ever ask me?!" Barraged by this volley of accusations, Wei Yuan's head spun. Collecting himself, he asked further, "Then what about your clan? Do you have... family?" "We Heavenly Demons are a single collective, yet each individual is independent. We are born in a place called the Abyss Prison, brought forth directly from heaven and earth. Once born, we are assigned our own tasks and immediately dispatched to execute them. When one is done, the next task follows, in an endless cycle. Thus, I have no family, nor any attachments." Wei Yuan had never had such an in-depth conversation with the Heavenly Demon. He had inquired before, but back then the Heavenly Demon had refused to answer, leaving Wei Yuan helpless. Heavenly Demons possessed a peculiar substance, hovering between the ethereal and the corporeal. They had no vital points such as a sea of consciousness, and their bodies were entirely uniform, every part identical to the next, leaving no way to probe them. Only today did Wei Yuan gain some insight into the secrets of the Heavenly Demons. It seemed that across this vast heaven and earth, who knew how many secrets remained waiting for him to uncover. Leaving the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven, Wei Yuan looked up toward the vault of heaven. Several purple patches still remained across the sky, surrounded by frameworks and structures bearing an unmistakable extraterrestrial style, with large flying craft shuttling back and forth between heaven and earth on fixed schedules and routes. The two largest of these purple patches served as training grounds for recruits to temper newcomers. The smaller ones had been designated as nature reserves and research zones for visitors and for studying extraterrestrial demons. Now that Wei Yuan's governance of the realm had reached a temporary plateau and his thoughts turned back to the cosmos, the idea of exploring the extraterrestrial realm sprouted within him. Unfortunately, the world beyond the sky was fraught with countless perils; without ascending to immortality, roaming it freely was out of reach. Wei Yuan inspected his cultivation status once again. Floating quietly in his sea of consciousness was a full ninety million mortal karmic luck. Fifty million had been gradually contributed by Qingming and Yizhou over these years, while another forty million came from his share of the State of Zhao's mortal karmic luck. After passing his crisis, Wei Yuan had taken the initiative to change the profit split to half-and-half and repaid the karmic luck borrowed from Immortal Zhao Li, yielding a net total of forty million mortal karmic luck over the five years. Qingming and Yizhou had only a hundred million people, yet their mortal karmic luck already exceeded half of the entire State of Zhao's. The State of Zhao was rich and its people lived in peace, its population stable at around ten billion. Yet the mortal karmic luck it generated was nearly being caught up to by Qingming—and that was even after Wei Yuan had helped Zhao design a welfare system and sustained it with extensive trade. Were Zhao's welfare system to collapse, the mortal karmic luck it generated would immediately be surpassed by Qingming and Yizhou. If even the State of Zhao was like this, then in the dao of karmic luck, none of the Nine States aside from Southern Qi could measure up. Beyond mortal karmic luck, his six Grotto-Heavens were all developing steadily, with only the Evil Sun remaining stagnant. During the great battle against the Mountain Folk back then, Wei Yuan had repeatedly invoked the Evil Sun's true meaning, causing the Heavenly Pillar vitality to show signs of awakening; only after several years of quiet had it been sealed once more. Of all the Grotto-Heavens, the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven had undergone the greatest transformation. With more and more reincarnated Mountain Folk souls entering it, another exceptionally intricate rune had lit up upon the Gate of the Many Realms—a rune representing the Mountain Folk. Counting the Mountain Folk rune, five runes had now been ignited on the Gate of the Many Realms. Among them, the Shaman Clan, Liao Clan, and Human Clan each had one, alongside a bizarre symbol that Wei Yuan had never managed to decipher as to where it pointed. Like beacons in the boundless cosmos, these runes showed their respective clans the way back home. The Prosperity of the Many Realms had naturally grown even more bustling and harbored even more secrets, with many people warily dodging the gaze of the Creation Immortal Venerable. Before Wei Yuan could thoroughly investigate the Prosperity of the Many Realms, news arrived from Qingming: the King of Zhao was on the verge of breaking through to Scenery Command and would hold a grand ascension ceremony, extending a special invitation to Wei Yuan to attend and observe. Receiving the invitation, Wei Yuan felt a twinge of hesitation. Inviting him to take a seat and observe—did the King of Zhao want to break through, or did he want to be put out of his misery?