In All Hearts Striving as One

Wei Yuan returned from the Desolate Realm with the cultivators. They dispersed on their own to rest and recuperate, mending the damage to their bodies. Wei Yuan, however, walked into the small temple in the Pure Land, checked the eight sticks of pure incense burning in the censer, and then picked up the Three Realms Ruyi Scripture. After a moment of contemplation, he left the small temple and returned alone once more to the Desolate Realm. This time he did not go to Fengmang Fortress, but casually chose an uninhabited expanse of wilderness. Sitting down upon a flat boulder, he manifested a writing desk, paper, and a brush. Wei Yuan took up the brush, feeling the bamboo stem as heavy as a thousand jun. He pondered for a long time before setting brush to paper: "—Whoever seeks shall receive an answer; whoever has need shall obtain provision. May the old be cared for, and the young be taught. May the common people dwell in peace and enjoy the joy of great tranquility. May all myriad beings find their rightful place, and all living souls attain their wishes—" Having finished this passage, Wei Yuan paused his brush and sensed the world around him. He found that the Heavenly Dao had experienced only a slight tremor without any obvious anomaly, which finally put his mind at ease. It seemed that writing the scripture in the Desolate Realm was indeed feasible. This place was independent of their world's heaven and earth, anchored by three Heavenly Pillars where the great Dao of heaven and earth was powerfully suppressed. Even for a monumental affair such as scripture-writing, karma remained obscured and unseen. Yet writing further posed a new dilemma. If the future could truly unfold as Wei Yuan wished, bringing about such a golden age in this realm, how exactly was it to be accomplished? Wei Yuan pondered for a long time before writing down a fragment without head or tail: *This cannot rely on supreme might alone, but rests in all hearts striving as one.* As he wrote these words, Wei Yuan felt his future path along the Dao seem to clear a bit more. For Qingming to have developed to its current state, his early contemplation and guidance had played a vital role, but as the people's intellect blossomed and template Dao foundations emerged in vast numbers, numerous industries began to develop and innovate on their own. Take the most basic industries of brocade weaving and cotton spinning: an ordinary template Dao Foundation cultivator had devised a method to extract and reweave the bark fibers of spiritual wood. By weaving the spiritual wood fibers into fabric in a specific pattern, it formed a formation array integrated right into the cloth. This spiritual fabric possessed inherent Dao art defense. The moment it was invented and introduced, it instantly slashed the price of magical artifact robes worn by Dao Foundation cultivators to a tenth of their original cost. Within just a single year, Qingming's annual production of Dao Foundation robes exceeded one hundred thousand. Two years later, every template Dao Foundation cultivator had a robe of their own, while higher-order Dao Foundation cultivators had several sets to rotate through, not to mention being able to choose styles and colors. Three years later, the robe artisans of both the State of Zhao and Western Jin had completely gone bankrupt. Similar inventions emerged in an endless stream, already showing explosive momentum. Much like how, within the Prosperity of All Realms, more and more people were questioning: *What use does the Creation Immortal Venerable even have anymore?* Not only were they questioning him, but they also continually egged on the masters of the Battle Saint Hall through various channels to replace the Creation Immortal Venerable. However, their attempts were not only ruthlessly rejected by the hall masters, but the ringleaders stirring up trouble were also seized and cast into the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven to enter reincarnation anew. Only after this happened multiple times did these people refrain from making too much of a fuss. As long as they did not cause trouble before the hall masters, everyone acted as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile, the burden upon the Prosperity of All Realms grew heavier by the day, with the tasks handed down for processing increasing every day. Most mortals had work to keep them busy for the vast majority of their time, and once busy, many forgot their grand cause of rebellion. After advancing from the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World to the Prosperity of All Realms, the power of the grotto-heaven began to permeate and influence the continent. Mortals naturally absorbed its attributes, and several new major sects sprang up. And between undertaking tasks, the mortals discovered that they could linger in the system to study the sea of vast knowledge spanning heaven and earth. Thus countless mortals began learning of their own accord, unaware of what changes this would bring. Just when life seemed poised to remain tranquil forever, the Creation Immortal Venerable finally made a move. Another small island rose from the sea. Upon the island, the Creation Immortal Venerable used immense dharmic power to generate numerous buildings, raising tall towers and grand edifices overnight. This divine miracle of raising a city in a single night instantly extinguished the rebelliousness in many hearts. Yet countless others of steadfast will and iron determination quietly buried the spark of resistance deep within their hearts, biding their time. In truth, they could not even say clearly why they absolutely had to rebel against the Creation Immortal Venerable—what mattered was rebellion itself; what they rebelled against was beside the point. Once the new island city was built, Wei Yuan randomly selected a batch of mortals and cultivators and sent them inside. The new city had everything. Everyone was provided with quite luxurious quarters and equipped with an abundance of recreational facilities modeled after the otherworldly realm—overabundantly equipped, in fact. The theme of this new island was living in a drunken stupor and dreaming of death. Cultivators from all levels were sent over, and even Dugu Cangqiong was dispatched there, housed on the top floor of a skyscraper. With everyone in Qingming affluent now, all sorts of bizarre entertainment developed rapidly. Many merchant guilds set their sights on brothels, an industry that had existed since ancient times. In the blink of an eye, brothels of all sizes spread across cities large and small. Some merchant guilds even began attempting to smuggle illicit drugs, bringing in varieties that even peak Body Casting cultivators found hard to resist. These forbidden drugs functioned similarly to Five Minerals Powder, capable of inducing extreme hallucinations, but were far more potent than Five Minerals Powder and nearly impossible to quit once taken. These illicit drugs first flowed into Ding'an City. By the time City Lord Bao Yun noticed, they had already spread to surrounding cities. Over a thousand Body Casting cultivators had become addicted. Not many mortals were affected, mainly because they could not afford them. Bao Yun struck immediately, detaining every member of that merchant guild and arresting everyone involved in distributing and selling the forbidden drugs. Upon learning of this, Wei Yuan personally examined the bodies of the addicted Body Casting cultivators and discovered that many had suffered permanent damage to their sea of consciousness. He was instantly consumed by thunderous fury! Yet Wei Yuan did not execute these merchant guild members right away. Instead, he let word out that the ringleaders would be executed in a month. As expected, a boss behind the scenes rushed over, hoping to buy pardons and ransom his men, only to be detained by Wei Yuan the moment he arrived. This behind-the-scenes boss was the youngest son of a marquis of the State of Zhao. Upon hearing the news, the marquis hurried to Qingming to plead for mercy. He never expected that the moment he arrived in Qingming, he too was seized. Seeing that he had caught the mastermind, Wei Yuan showed no more courtesy. Ignoring all pleas for mercy from various parties, he directly executed the marquis and his son, along with more than a hundred senior figures of the merchant guild, without the slightest hesitation. As for the several thousand lower- and mid-tier members of the guild—even down to the drivers and runners—all were demoted to guilty commoners and sent into the mines for thirty years of penal labor. The sheer severity of Wei Yuan's punishment was rarely seen in the world. He executed even a Zhao marquis at the drop of a hat, tricking him into coming and then putting him to death on the spot, which immediately terrified all factions harboring designs on illicit drugs. Following this incident, Wei Yuan noticed that once many people in Qingming grew wealthy, various other desires sprang up—as the saying went, once warm and well-fed, thoughts turned to base desires. According to the experiences of the otherworldly realm, the entertainment industry could expand infinitely. Yet in this realm's history books, there were warnings of the collapse of rites and music, with consequences described as dire in the extreme. However, Wei Yuan had never read in those books just how severe those consequences actually were, nor did he understand why the people's entertainment had to be constrained. It was as though the sages simply could not bear to see the people happy. For things like illicit drugs that caused permanent damage to the sea of consciousness and ruined a person's path along the Dao, Wei Yuan had resolved to kill every last perpetrator. For now, he was only killing those within Qingming; if the culprits hid abroad in the future, Wei Yuan would not hesitate to dispatch an army to capture them. As for other industries, such as popular fiction and brothels, Wei Yuan basically let them be. The poor read novels, and the rich visited brothels—these were currently among the few forms of entertainment in Qingming. The vast majority of the people had only enjoyed good days for a few years, and Body Casting cultivators already expended most of their energy on daily work and cultivation, so the demand for entertainment had only just begun to emerge. Yet seeing the small signaled the large; once it began to surface, an explosion would follow. Hence, Wei Yuan made two preparations. On one hand, he further increased subsidies for Body Casting to encourage mortals to undertake Body Casting. Once they began casting their bodies, they would have little energy left for anything else. On the other hand, Wei Yuan established the island of "Drunken Stupor and Dreams of Death" in the Prosperity of All Realms, wanting to see just how far rites and music could collapse in an environment of amusing oneself to death. Just as Wei Yuan was busy seeing to the mortals' happiness, he had no idea that deep within the Baohua Pure Land, Mount Ling was trembling, and lotus seats of spiritual attainment were crumbling one after another like an avalanche!