After many years, Wei Yuan once again set foot in Guantun County.
During his retreat back then, Wei Yuan had deliberately razed every building in Guantun County to the ground. Now that years had passed, the ruins were overgrown with shrubs and weeds, and countless blades of grass sprouted through the cracks of the roads once paved with crushed stone and cement.
The resilience of nature filled even Wei Yuan with wonder.
Within Wei Yuan's vision, motes of colored light drifted among the ruins—marks left behind in the wake of an immortal. Cangwu had used this method to let Wei Yuan know that he had inspected every corner of Guantun County.
After Wei Yuan's withdrawal from Guantun County, the State of Ji had sent no troops to garrison it either. The once-bustling county seat had thus been abandoned, reverting to a playground for wild beasts and weeds.
Wei Yuan arrived at the center of the county seat. This spot had once held a seven-story building, of which only half now remained. In the center of the basement area lay a massive pit, which a pack of earth wolves had turned into their den.
Wei Yuan lightly flicked his fingers, and more than a dozen motes of karmic luck drifted forth, bestowing one upon each earth wolf.
In an instant, the earth wolves gained a glimmer of spirituality. They whined softly toward Wei Yuan and prostrated themselves in gratitude, then departed in a pack, bounding away into the vast wilderness and the free, open world.
A ring of True Fire of the Great Sun rippled outward beneath Wei Yuan's feet, reducing all the ruins to nothingness wherever it passed and leaving only a deep crater in the ground.
Then, Wei Yuan took out a boundary stone and planted it deep into the earth. This boundary stone had originally belonged to Guantun County; when Wei Yuan departed that day, he had taken it with him, and now it was finally returned to its proper place.
Yet through that single removal and return, most of several centuries of nurturing had slipped away, and everything had to begin anew.
By this time, Qingming's vanguard had already crossed the Xiang-Han border, thrusting deep into the heartland of the State of Ji. Once they passed through another uninhabited stretch, they would enter the state's densely populated, affluent regions.
The army's commanding generals each carried boundary stones, planting them along pre-surveyed ley lines, effectively redrawing the distribution of counties within Xiang and Han Commanderies.
This realignment of boundary stones was once again led by Perfected Chuhe, with disciples of the Hall of Jianmu serving as the primary surveyors and executors. Just as with the southern commanderies of Western Jin, resetting the boundary stones would drastically amplify the potential of Xiang and Han Commanderies, turning them into the most prosperous region in the entire State of Ji in the future.
This undertaking was of immense merit to the human race, yielding rich rewards for the disciples of the Hall of Jianmu. The Dao path of the Hall of Jianmu was distinct from others, inherently incorporating elements of attaining sainthood through merit, making them uniquely suited for such work.
Yet within the orthodox lineage of the Hall of Jianmu, attaining sainthood through merit accounted for only twenty to thirty percent of the path, with the remainder devoted to offense, defense, slaughter, and diverse divine abilities and daoist arts. Chuhe was the only one whose path was composed entirely of attaining sainthood through merit.
As the Qingming army reset the boundary stones, they ultimately planted thirty-six stones across Xiang and Han Commanderies—eighteen counties each, roughly half the original sixty-nine.
Apart from lofty, rugged mountains unfit for human habitation, all other areas in the two commanderies were now covered by the boundary stones. Moreover, all thirty-six boundary stones had been refined anew into a unified set of dharma treasures. Once planted, they resonated with one another, forming a grand array that spanned both commanderies, capable of gathering heaven-and-earth yuan qi and steadily enhancing the karmic luck of the human race.
By laying down these boundary stones, Wei Yuan made his stance unmistakably clear: Xiang and Han Commanderies were his, and no one could stop him.
Above the Immortal Heaven, Cangwu stood before the Venerable Master. All he could see was a single finger connecting heaven and earth.
The Venerable Master's voice sounded directly within his consciousness, exceedingly gentle and melodious: "So, you were deceived by Wei Yuan? Right on the eve of laying the World Refining Grand Array, he dispatched troops to seize the designated grounds, and you were left helpless?"
The Venerable Master offered neither reprimand nor wrath, sounding as gentle as an elder brother. Yet Cangwu's body began to visibly tremble and shudder, to the point that his immortal physique showed signs of slipping from his control.
Countless microscopic currents of ice began to seep into his body, probing every corner. Cangwu knew that if he uttered a single wrong word or gave an answer that displeased the Venerable Master, he would instantly be torn apart and swallowed by these icy currents, reduced back to primal chaos.
A new Liumiao was nearly reborn; Cangwu was no longer irreplaceable.
Cangwu said, "I do not know what happened either. I suddenly believed the peace treaty signed by Wei Yuan and never once doubted it afterward—after all, it was a treaty sealed with a blood oath. Nor do I understand how he knew the timing for resetting the World Refining Grand Array. I told none of my disciples; the only one who knew of this was the King of Ji—the King of Ji!"
As if a veil had been lifted from Cangwu's mind, everything grew remarkably lucid!
A turn of his immortal mind made him realize that the issue lay with the King of Ji. Yet he had clearly told the King that resetting the grand array would take five years—why had he forgotten about it completely thereafter, never once suspecting that an issue might arise on the King's end?
Could he truly have been so foolish and incompetent? And just when had the King leaked the information?
An immortal's divine sense could shift through myriad thoughts in an instant. In mere breaths, Cangwu searched through countless fragments of memory from the past five years and identified the problem: that day when the King of Ji invited Sun Chao'en to watch Xu Shang dance. Cangwu had seen Xu Shang countless times and instinctively detested her like rotting meat. Women of the inner palace were largely more debauched than those in brothels.
As an immortal, Cangwu had always prized purity and lofty detachment, naturally frowning upon the debauchery within the palace of Ji. To his divine sense, though the women of the rear palace were each fair as flowers, their bodies reeked of a thick, rancid stench that made him nauseous.
Thus, when Sun Chao'en shed his robes to reveal pale, flabby, and imperfect flesh, Cangwu found it unbearable to look upon and shifted his divine sense away for a time. Only when the storm inside the room had settled did he shift it back, beholding two men sprawled like dead pigs beside a woman full of vigor—a sight that almost made him vomit on the spot.
Over the past five years, the gaps in his divine surveillance over the King of Ji had occurred only a handful of times, all on occasions like that. Afterward, the King had watched song and dance with Sun Chao'en several more times, leading Cangwu to assume it was merely the King's indulgence and suspect nothing amiss.
Recalling this now, he broke out in a cold sweat.
The Venerable Master remained silent for a moment, seemingly calculating something. After a long pause, he said, "This is not entirely your fault. An expert intervened—not only obscuring heavenly secrets, but secretly manipulating karmic luck and feng shui to tune your surroundings to your zone of greatest comfort. It is just as when a mortal, well-fed and sated beneath the warm spring sun, desires nothing more than a deep slumber. Thus, you lost your vigilance and wariness.
"Furthermore, Wei Yuan is an epochal hegemon. So long as it serves his interests, discarding promises and breaking covenants is as natural as eating and drinking, to say nothing of circumventing a mere blood oath. If even you can evade karmic debt, how could he fail to bypass an oath?"
Hearing the Venerable Master's explanation, Cangwu broke into another cold sweat and asked, "What manner of expert could toy with heavenly secrets and fate itself?"
The Venerable Master sighed. "This person had already struck back when Liumiao fell, entangling Liumiao in karmic debt so that he took the full force of Wei Yuan's karmic luck killing move and perished. I harbored doubts back then, yet no matter how I investigated afterward, I failed to detect the slightest clue and could only attribute Liumiao's death to ill fortune.
"Yet with this incident of yours, the anomaly became apparent. That person leaving no trace at all is the greatest trace of all. It is his frequent interventions of late that have caused everything to go awry for me. I understand now: he must be wholly untainted by karma, standing beyond time and fate, beyond all calculation. To the heaven and earth of this realm, he does not exist at all—perhaps existing only in our imagination."
"What then can be done?" Cangwu asked instinctively. Though he was an immortal, he had never heard of such a figure in this world. If someone was entirely untainted by karma, who could possibly contend with him?
The Venerable Master said indifferently, "There is no need to worry. To achieve freedom from karma must require an immense price, so his actions are bound by severe constraints. And the more he acts, the more he will return into heaven and earth. When that time comes, I shall catch him."
Cangwu nodded, though the dread in his heart did not diminish.
Discerning his thoughts, the Venerable Master said, "Though my injuries are difficult to heal, the situation has shifted. Our side has gained powerful reinforcements. The overall situation is secure."
Only then did Cangwu feel at ease.
Deep within the Pure Land, an old monk and a young monk were walking. After walking for an unknown time, the scenery before them suddenly shifted, revealing a Spirit Mountain loftier than heaven and earth.
Upon the Spirit Mountain rested countless lotus thrones, each bearing a Buddha statue—some with lowered brows and bowed heads, some appearing enlightened, some smiling while holding a flower, each in a distinct posture.
At the mountain peak sat a Buddha, resting casually as he gazed toward the past and the future. He was no larger than the other statues, yet it seemed as though all of heaven and earth resided within his chest.
At this moment, a dusky amber glow spread across the horizon. Eaves bells chimed softly in the mountains, the evening bell reverberated, the mountain moon began to rise, and all the sounds of the world drifted into silence.
The young monk was profoundly shaken. He turned to the elder monk and asked in a trembling voice, "Master, is that... the Spirit Mountain?"
The elder monk made no reply. When the young monk looked over in astonishment, he saw that tears were already streaming down the old monk's face.
Chapter 1084