The King of Zhao's advancement was a momentous affair. Wei Yuan naturally could not agree lightly, so he paid a special visit to Immortal Zhao Li to inquire about the upcoming advancement ceremony.
Wei Yuan could not openly state that he was an absolute pinnacle of karmic luck and would influence the heavenly tribulation—after all, that was one of the greatest secrets of his Daoist path. Even so, he obliquely explained that he was currently burdened with a colossal amount of mortal karmic luck; wherever he went, heavenly secrets shifted, and unforeseen variables might arise.
Upon hearing this, Immortal Zhao Li said, "I have already divined this matter. Shenji's breakthrough to Scenery Command is of critical importance and has become a crucial link for various factions seeking to probe the Martial Ancestor's grand design. Because of this, mighty figures have intervened in secret to alter the heavenly tribulation. My intention in having you come was precisely to borrow the karmic luck you bear, adding some unpredictability to the tribulation—ideally ramping up its ferocity a notch.
"Shenji's natural talent is not inferior to mine. Were he not shackled by the throne, he would certainly have attained immortality. Therefore, no matter how powerful the tribulation becomes, Shenji can endure it. Those scheming from the shadows, however, do not know that. Seeing unpredictable changes arise, they will undoubtedly expend all their strength to suppress the tribulation so that nothing goes awry with his crossing. In doing so, we will essentially be striking across the void through the heavenly tribulation, dealing a blow to those behind the scenes."
"Who is behind the scenes?" Wei Yuan asked.
Immortal Zhao Li shook his head. "Mighty figures have intervened to veil heavenly secrets; even I cannot deduce their identities."
Faced with such an arrangement, Wei Yuan felt somewhat uneasy. "Senior, what if the tribulation's anomaly exceeds all expectations?"
The Zhao Li Immortal Ancestor laughed heartily. "No matter. The stronger the heavenly tribulation, the greater the benefits to Shenji. Do not forget, I hold boundless mortal karmic luck in my hands to augment him."
Though Wei Yuan still felt a twinge of unease, since the Immortal Ancestor had put it that way, he agreed.
The State of Zhao was flourishing at this time. Its social welfare was singular among the nine states, and so its state fortune was exceedingly prosperous. Immortal Zhao Li took Wei Yuan directly toward the royal capital. While still above the Immortal Heaven, Wei Yuan channeled his Qi-Gazing Technique to look toward Zhao's capital.
He saw a brilliant heavenly pillar rising from the royal capital, soaring straight into the clouds! The pillar was pale white, faintly containing mountains, rivers, and earth, with two coiled dragons wheeling and frolicking within.
The State of Zhao's fortune had actually flourished to such a degree, and coiled dragons had even formed within its karmic luck. This came as a great shock to Wei Yuan.
According to long-standing human tradition, coiled dragons were always symbols of imperial authority. For coiled dragons to appear within Zhao's state fortune now would have been a crime worthy of the state's total destruction in days past.
Their appearance also demonstrated that the Tang dynasty's realm was teetering on the brink of collapse. Little wonder so many factions behind the scenes were bent on ensuring Li Shenji ascended to Scenery Command. With these two coiled dragons, the longer Li Shenji lived, the greater the threat he posed to the Tang imperial house.
Wei Yuan did not know if the Zhao Li Immortal Ancestor could see the two coiled dragons, but since he could see them himself, there was no reason the Immortal Ancestor could not.
For now, Wei Yuan feigned ignorance and accompanied the Zhao Li Immortal Ancestor down into the royal capital, flashing directly into the royal palace's Imperial Study. The defensive grand array of the entire capital was under the Zhao Li Immortal Ancestor's control, allowing him to come and go at will.
The King of Zhao, Li Shenji, had long since received word and was already waiting in the Imperial Study. Seeing Wei Yuan arrive, his expression grew rather complex, tinged with a touch of envy.
The King of Zhao knew better than anyone how enormous a drain implementing universal welfare across Zhao was on the state treasury. Had it not been for the unending influx of grain and iron from Qingming, the treasury would have run dry long ago.
Over these years, the King of Zhao had also ruled diligently, striving to open new sources of revenue. However, the increase in the whole State of Zhao's annual revenue was very modest, and most of that growth stemmed from trade exports to Qingming. Zhao produced raw materials like minerals, spiritual wood, cotton, hemp, and silk, and purchased military rations, meat, iron and steel implements, and medicinal pills from Qingming.
The King of Zhao had once secretly provided funds and personnel to establish alchemy workshops in an attempt to replicate Qingming's Lesser Primordial Cultivation Pellets and other medicinal pills.
Yet once replication began, he discovered that using the same amount of medicinal ingredients yielded less than half the pills Qingming produced. The price Qingming charged for Lesser Primordial Cultivation Pellets was virtually identical to the production cost in Zhao's workshops; if an alchemist made even a slight error during refinement, the entire furnace might end up in the red.
It was so for the Lesser Primordial Cultivation Pellets, and likewise for Body Strengthening Pellets, Primordial Nurturing Pellets, Qi Replenishing Decoctions, and all other medicines. Offering equivalent potency, Qingming's pills were exceptionally cheap, produced in immense volumes, and supplied in practically boundless quantities.
After two years of such attempts, the dozen or so alchemy workshops the King of Zhao had invested in all went bankrupt—not a single one survived. The King of Zhao was thoroughly baffled. Mundane goods like grain and steel were one thing, but how could they fail even at alchemy against Qingming? With a yield rate like Qingming's, just how many high-grade alchemists had they trained?
The King of Zhao naturally had no idea that in Qingming's present alchemy production, several common pill formulas had been optimized to the absolute limit and then standardized by the Splendor of All Realms.
All the herbs for these formulas underwent pretreatment, and the entire refining process was completely standardized. Strict regulations dictated how intensely and for how long Shaoyang fire was blasted, and how intensely and for how long Taiyin qi was nurtured. Time was measured down to tenths of a second, while intensity was monitored by spell formations that permitted not even the slightest deviation capable of puncturing a sheet of thin paper.
Along a single assembly line, over a dozen alchemists with template Dao Foundations each had distinct duties. From the perspective of an individual alchemist, a pill furnace would glide in front of them, stop, they would blast fire, cut the flames once time was up, and blast the next furnace—simple, mechanical, repetitive, requiring no brainpower whatsoever.
Only when combined did these dozen-plus people fulfill the complete function of a traditional alchemist. Yet across an assembly line, their daily output was a hundred times higher than that of traditional alchemists, and the quality was exceptionally consistent.
Most of Qingming's other industries operated in much the same way at this point. Cultivators from the Palace of Grand Beginning had long since penetrated every trade and profession, continually drawing upon the power of the Splendor of All Realms to conduct research and optimization.
Thus, the King of Zhao's attempts to covertly replace Qingming's industries had failed without exception.
At this moment, Immortal Zhao Li imparted several matters requiring attention when breaking through to Scenery Command, along with insights on handling the heavenly tribulation. Listening from the side, Wei Yuan benefited greatly as well.
Wei Yuan originally possessed abundant experience in crossing tribulations, but ever since his Scenery Command heavenly tribulation turned out to be a heavenly demon tribulation, he had been crossing it for years and had not tasted a conventional heavenly tribulation in a long time.
When Immortal Zhao Li finished his instructions, his brow furrowed slightly. "I feel an unsettling restlessness, though I cannot discern the cause. Shenji, how are the royal capital's defenses?"
"Currently, there are the three Divine Martial Armies, each numbering one hundred thousand. In addition, there are fifty thousand Heavenly Iron Guards and fifty thousand White Feather troops."
Immortal Zhao Li looked at Wei Yuan. "What do you sense?"
Wei Yuan pondered briefly. "If there are people who want Your Majesty to live, there are bound to be those who want you dead. And these enemies will surely possess formidable means. How about this: under the pretext of attending the ceremony, I will urgently mobilize a force to the capital. The martial aura of Qingming's elites is not inferior to Great Tang's Nine Armies. Mobilizing just fifty thousand men to anchor this martial aura will be enough to weaken even immortal arts to some degree, and it can disperse all sorts of heavenly secret and geomancy arts."
The King of Zhao, Li Shenji, frowned slightly, but said nothing. Immortal Zhao Li pondered for a moment, then said, "Very well."
Wei Yuan nodded and immediately sent orders to Qingming, commanding an elite force of heavy armored infantry to be deployed. What this unit primarily needed was its martial aura, so they left behind heavy artillery and other heavy essentials. Marching light, they completed assembly in three days and were transported to Zhao's capital via floating barges and airships, taking only five days in total.
With all preparations complete, one month later, the King of Zhao's advancement ceremony officially began.
The ceremony took place at the Heaven Sacrificial Altar within the royal city. The Great Tang imperial house, the Seven Clans and Thirteen Prominent Families, and the other eight states had all dispatched important dignitaries to observe. High beyond the heavens, an unknown number of gazes looked down, sweeping back and forth continuously between Zhao's capital and the Great Tang imperial capital.
At this time, a dense mist of purple qi rose over the Great Tang imperial capital, veiling heavenly secrets and shutting out all prying eyes.
With his eminent status, Wei Yuan was already a figure capable of determining the direction of an entire region. As such, he sat high upon the viewing platform, surrounded by core figures of the Seven Clans and Thirteen Prominent Families, positioned only slightly below the representatives of the Tang imperial house.
Yet Wei Yuan cared nothing for seating arrangements. As the start of the ceremony drew nearer, the unease in his heart only grew stronger.
The hour had arrived. The King of Zhao, freshly bathed and perfumed with incense, ascended the Heaven Sacrificial Platform. After offering prayers and reports to Heaven and Earth, he seated himself at the center of the grand array.
A pillar of golden light surged from the grand array straight into the heavens. The sky abruptly darkened, and countless tribulation clouds converged from all directions, forming a terrifying heavenly tribulation vortex a thousand li across in mere moments.
A tribulation of this scale was only to be expected, so the representatives of the various factions remained calm and composed. Yet at that exact moment, Wei Yuan's heart skipped a beat!
An indescribable, nameless aura leaked from within the tribulation clouds, permeating heaven and earth! Beneath this aura, great terror welled in the hearts of all the cultivators; for a moment, their Dao hearts faltered, and they wanted nothing more than to flee!
Then, an object pierced the firmament, descending slowly toward the King of Zhao's head. Li Shenji had already turned ashen as death.
Wei Yuan shot to his feet. What had emerged from the tribulation clouds looked astonishingly like a Heavenly Pillar of the Desolate Realm!
Without a second thought, he burned ten million points of mortal karmic luck. The immortal sword of the fourth grotto-heaven unsheathed, and a dazzling sword qi swept across the firmament, striking straight at the Heavenly Pillar!
Chapter 1076