A Grand Era

If the King of Jin’s words were seventy percent credible, Wei Yuan trusted the green-eyed woman's by twenty percent at best. Even now, Wei Yuan did not feel that he had any fundamental conflict with the Baohua Pure Land. The King Buddha was also an offshoot of the Baohua Pure Land, and his golden dharma idol still remained within it. Wei Yuan also remembered what he had seen of Qingtong's memories in the sword realm left by Xu Shiqi; those memories certainly could not be described as righteous, so Wei Yuan maintained reservations about all of Qingtong's claims and promises. Faced with Qingtong's overtures of goodwill, Wei Yuan prudently kept his distance. Instead of returning to the posthouse, he found a deserted, desolate spot outside the royal capital and stood in quiet meditation; in what felt like a fleeting daze, dawn had already arrived. Wei Yuan returned to the royal palace. As he passed through the palace gates, his waist token flared automatically, and every guard and supervising eunuch immediately knew that Prince Wei had arrived. Although Wei Yuan traveled without an honor guard or carriages, high-level cultivators had never cared for mundane etiquette and were known to come and go like ghosts. After entering the palace, the civil and military officials along the way looked on with sidelong glances, none having expected Prince Wei to appear so suddenly. Prince Wei had not shown himself for ten years; once he did appear, a momentous event was sure to follow. Thus, all the officials today spoke and acted with the utmost caution, not daring to raise their voices for fear of drawing Prince Wei's notice. While catching the eye of a superior was the foremost priority in officialdom, most of the officials in the imperial court had essentially reached the ceiling of their careers; for them, stability had now become paramount. None of them understood Prince Wei’s temperament, and no one knew whether rashly stepping forward would bring good fortune or ruin. Once the assembled officials had gathered and the King of Jin had taken his throne, after the court completed its formal salutations, Liu Quangong finally called out in his distinctive voice—mellow, piercing, and imbued with a metallic timbre: "Presenting Prince Wei!" Wei Yuan strolled calmly into the court. Under the watchful eyes of all the officials, he bowed deeply to the King of Jin. Liu Quangong then carried over a chair and placed it slightly below the king’s dais to one side. Wei Yuan took his seat with composed ease. The officials knew Wei Yuan held overwhelming sway over court and country, yet they had never imagined it had reached such heights. At that moment, a few of the youngest censors grew eager to speak up, but their nearby colleagues caught hold of them, quietly shaking their heads without drawing attention. With a single glance, Wei Yuan took in the expressions of every civil and military official in the hall. Moreover, many officials were secretly stealing glances at the King of Jin. The King of Jin had regained his youth in a single day—needless to ask, it was almost certainly Prince Wei’s handiwork. Among this entire court of civil and military officials, there was scarcely a face Wei Yuan recognized anymore. Only Chen Dao could be considered an acquaintance, yet Chen Dao stood at the very back of the civil ranks. Ranked junior third-grade, he had remained stagnant for years. Chen Dao’s abilities were indeed outstanding, but everyone knew he had once been Prince Wei’s adversary. Consequently, no one dared entrust him with heavy responsibility, let alone promote him; they merely kept him in the court to solicit the occasional piece of advice. Among the officials, there were also over a dozen of Wei Yuan’s adopted sons and great-great-grandsons, though Wei Yuan himself had never known. When silence fell over the court, the King of Jin finally spoke: "...With the exception of the northern borders, all military and strategic affairs shall be under the supreme command of Prince Wei..." The moment this imperial edict was issued, the officials’ complexions shifted. This was no longer something that could be described as 'below one person and above ten thousand'; it had practically hollowed out the King of Jin entirely, reducing him to a figurehead puppet. Wei Yuan was also caught completely by surprise. His original intent had only been to secure administrative and commercial authority, never expecting that the King of Jin would effectively hand over this vast expanse entirely into his grasp. Such decisiveness and audacity were truly rare. Clothed in the mortal karmic luck of hundreds of millions and possessing the two great grotto-heavens of the Pure Land and the Yellow Springs, Wei Yuan’s intuition was extraordinarily keen. At this moment, he suddenly felt a faint pressure. A gaze descended from on high, swept over him, and then pulled back. Wei Yuan had long grown accustomed to such gazes falling from on high; he was subjected to them a dozen times a day. In any case, no matter who looked upon him now, Wei Yuan showed them only a hundred million mortal karmic luck. As for what lay beneath that hundred million mortal karmic luck—let them guess. Once the edict was proclaimed, Wei Yuan accepted it, and the court session was promptly adjourned. Today’s morning audience had addressed only this single matter. Flourishing of the Many Realms naturally possessed a detailed full map of Western Jin. With vast authority now in Wei Yuan's grasp, all nineteen commanderies were marked in the azure hue representing Qingming. Previously, six southern commanderies were under Wei Yuan's control, and now nineteen central commanderies were added to them. Yet this azure region actually accounted for only a little less than half of Western Jin. In terms of territory, aside from the few unproductive commanderies in the northern borders, the regions controlled by the two great clans of Lu and Xu collectively made up one-third of Western Jin, and they were all fertile, bountiful lands. Furthermore, because the core territories of the clans knew no warfare and imperial taxes were exceedingly low, vast numbers of people had devised every possible way to migrate and settle there. The commanderies where the two great clans' ancestral grounds were located each had populations exceeding one hundred million. Of Western Jin’s total of over three billion mortals, more than two billion lived within the regions controlled by the Lu and Xu families. The barest crumbs slipping from an immortal's fingers could sustain hundreds of millions of mortals. Returning to Qingming, Wei Yuan flew straight to the Immortal City. In a corner of the city, a brand-new grand hall had already been constructed: ten zhang high and thirty zhang square, bearing four large characters inscribed above: "Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains." Within the hall stood only a colossal sand table at its center, currently depicting the entirety of Western Jin and its surrounding regions. Not only was the terrain rendered lifelike, visible down to every individual village, but the wind, frost, rain, and snow of the outside world were displayed upon the sand table in real time. Hovering in the air, Wei Yuan gazed down at the lands of Western Jin beneath him. His divine sense operated at extreme speed, and orbs of light drifted around him in ever-growing numbers, topping ten thousand before finally ceasing to multiply. Wei Yuan stood motionless as the orbs of light flared and dimmed. Most of the computational power of Flourishing of the Many Realms was redirected here. In the blink of an eye, seven days slipped by. After seven days, the orbs of light finally began to dwindle as most of the tasks entered their closing stages. Through countless deductions and trials, Wei Yuan at last finalized a comprehensive plan for governing all of Western Jin. Most areas of central Jin remained relatively stable; so long as people could survive, they considered themselves living and working in peace. For this segment of the populace, Wei Yuan intended to leave them untouched for now. He would then gradually relocate the displaced and those dissatisfied with the status quo toward the south. Meanwhile, the boundary stones of the five southern commanderies had been rearranged for several years; the earth veins had steadily coalesced and nourished the soil, causing fertility to rise by the day. Moreover, Wei Yuan's Southern Military Headquarters was stationed here, permanently housing tens of thousands of troops, so war had not touched the land and banditry had been wiped out. Now that Yizhou’s initial development was complete, Wei Yuan prepared to dispatch True Monarch Chuhe and the old and new disciples of the Palace of Grand Beginning to the five southern commanderies of Western Jin to undertake large-scale land reclamation and construction. Reclaiming farmland was a colossal undertaking that required building extensive water-conservancy infrastructure, and Wei Yuan also planned to construct multiple roadways across the five southern commanderies. These projects alone would consume several years, an immense labor force, and astronomical quantities of materials. Once completed, the situation in the five southern commanderies would be thoroughly transformed, while also absorbing a considerable portion of Qingming's industrial capacity. In the process of transforming the five southern commanderies, vast numbers of displaced refugees would naturally be absorbed. From the central regions, even more people dissatisfied with their lot would migrate south. Once the five southern commanderies were transformed, he would then overhaul the ten-odd central commanderies, ultimately remaking the core of Western Jin from the ground up and draining massive amounts of population back from the Xu and Lu families. At the same time, Wei Yuan also prepared to rebuild Hanyang Pass, expanding the fortress city severalfold and stationing heavy forces there to shut the Xu family out of Qingming completely. With the plans finalized, Wei Yuan handed them over to Flourishing of the Many Realms for refinement. Meanwhile, an advance force of over ten thousand prospecting personnel had already assembled, more than half of whom possessed template Dao Foundations. This group would head for the five southern commanderies of Western Jin to conduct thorough surveys of the earth veins, unearthing the full resource potential of the five commanderies. With vast numbers of template Dao Foundation cultivators deployed, the surveying progressed exceptionally smoothly. A month later, Wei Yuan dispatched a second advance engineering cohort of over thirty thousand personnel. Their mission was to demarcate the boundaries of farmland, mine reserves, various strategic sites, and locations producing spiritual items, all based on the comprehensive surveys. Three months later, True Monarch Chuhe reached a conclusion: the five southern commanderies could support three hundred million people, and within ten years could accommodate up to 1.5 billion, whereas the five commanderies currently had a population of only sixty million. Wei Yuan approved the plan without hesitation. Thus, in the winter of the fifteenth year of Hongjing, a total of 1.1 million craftsmen and builders of various trades set out from Qingming, rushing toward all corners of the south to inaugurate the grandest era in Western Jin's history. Subsequently, Wei Yuan deployed an army of a hundred thousand to garrison Hanyang Pass, pressing threateningly against the Xu family. In the ancestral grounds of the Xu family, Xu Lanshan sat at the head of the Council of Elders, conducting the quarterly routine meeting with the assembled elders. Shortly after the meeting began, an elder rose and said, "Wei Yuan of Qingming is carrying out massive fortifications at Hanyang Pass and stationing a massive army there. Its defenses are clearly aimed at our Xu family. His wild ambitions are no longer concealed in the slightest!" Xu Lanshan rested her chin on her hand and said nonchalantly, "And so? How about Nineteenth Elder leads an army on an expedition to flatten Hanyang Pass?" The elder's face turned pale and flushed by turns, and he sat back down without another word. In recent years, Xu Lanshan's cultivation had progressed by leaps and bounds; it was said she was already constructing a Spirit Mansion. Many Scenery Command elders were quite envious of this, yet none dared show it openly. Another elder said, "Qingming's military armaments are exceptionally sharp and formidable; we must face this squarely. Just because Wei Yuan is not making a move now does not mean he will not in the future. Once he wins over enough immortals, our Immortal Ancestor will be hard-pressed to hold out alone and unable to shelter us, and we will have to rely on an army to resist him. Therefore, imitating and even surpassing Qingming's weaponry is an absolute imperative!" Xu Lanshan finally showed some expression and said, "The core of Qingming's weaponry right now actually lies in gunpowder. Aren't there plenty of people within Qingming looking to sell the gunpowder formula? Buy them all back. Then study them one by one; it shouldn't be difficult to crack." "What if what we buy turns out to be fake?" an elder expressed concern. Xu Lanshan said indifferently, "If we buy fakes, simply report the matter to Qingming. Given Wei Yuan's methods, he naturally will not disappoint us." The elders all felt that this plan was feasible. When the meeting concluded, Xu Lanshan left the hall and flew straight toward the secret realm where Xu Wangu was in closed-door seclusion. The elders watched the direction of her departure with varied expressions. No elder was permitted to see the Immortal Ancestor with such frequency, and so, both openly and in secret, much gossip had arisen. Yet this time, the moment Xu Lanshan arrived at the entrance of the secret realm, she was barred outside by a strand of divine sense. "Wait," Xu Wangu's voice followed shortly after. Xu Lanshan was somewhat surprised. This was their appointed time, and there had never been any delay in the past. Just then, a figure suddenly appeared, walking forward with slow steps. It was a woman in black monastic robes with a shaved head, whose pair of green eyes was impossible to forget. Silent and soundless, the green-eyed woman walked right past Xu Lanshan and stepped into the secret realm.