Wei Yuan sat upright in the secret realm, reading through the Lu clan's family history volume by volume.
When an immortal fell, their Immortal Heaven would gradually disperse and return to heaven and earth. The grotto-heavens refined over their lifetime were among their most valuable treasures, standing alongside their Dao paths.
When Lu Changhe perished, formidable enemies had arrived in rapid succession. Wei Yuan had no chance whatsoever to seize his grotto-heavens, and as a result, most of them were snatched away by the immortals above.
As for Xu Shuhe, most of his grotto-heavens had burned away during his battle with Wei Yuan. Already impoverished to begin with, he was left so poor that only his immortal physique remained—and even that was missing a leg.
The Lu clan's ancestral grounds and the secret realm Lu Changhe left behind were fundamentally parts of Lu Changhe's mindscape world. Once manifested, the greater part of his mindscape world ascended above the Immortal Heaven, while a smaller portion remained in this realm, with the secret realm serving as a bridge connecting the two.
The ancestral grounds and the secret realm also bore the duty of suppressing and stabilizing the geomantic veins of the northern frontier, keeping a territory of a thousand li as warm as spring—a feat accomplished across successive generations by the Lu clan's founding immortal ancestor and the two generations of immortals that followed.
The Lu clan's first-generation immortal had penetrated ten thousand li deep into the Liao domain, erected the first boundary stone, and transformed this place into the Lu clan's ancestral grounds. Back then, it was a magnificent undertaking, taking place five hundred years before the founding Patriarch of the Palace of Grand Beginning was even born.
At first, the land spanned only a few hundred li. Yet relying on the spring-like warmth and the steadily enriching spiritual earth energy, the first-generation immortal of the Lu clan had managed to support seventy million people here. Though most merely scraped by, such vast numbers guaranteed that plenty of gifted cultivators would emerge.
Relying on the ceaseless production of Dao soldiers here, the first-generation immortal of the Lu clan weathered wave after wave of northern Liao offensives, eventually expanding the territory to the size of an entire commandery.
Thereafter, successive generations of Lu clan immortals established their secret realms here. When they passed away, their secret realms became part of the ancestral mountain, enriching the family's foundation.
This was common practice across the immortal cultivation world; the Palace of Grand Beginning had simply taken it to the utmost extreme. For an ordinary cultivation clan to lose four or five immortals over several thousand years was already a rare height, whereas the Palace of Grand Beginning had seen dozens of immortals fall throughout its history, creating a unique main mountain gate second only to the Baohua Pure Land, whose lineage exceeded a hundred thousand years.
After finishing the Lu clan's history, Wei Yuan could not help but sigh. Anyone capable of pioneering a major faction was undeniably an exceptional hero of their era. That founding ancestor of the Lu clan had been a truly fierce figure, but by the time the heritage reached Lu Changhe's generation, its true spirit had gone astray.
Nurtured over several millennia, the Lu clan's ancestral grounds were best suited to their own Dao path. Influenced by heaven and earth, people living here naturally leaned toward the ice and frost of the Taiyin path.
Ordinarily, the best way to handle such a treasured land was to continue nurturing it along its original trajectory, then migrate more people to settle here. Every generation would yield slightly more geniuses than elsewhere, and over a thousand years, that would accumulate into a staggering number.
All prominent clans in the world had walked this path. Each generation saved a little more than the last, until finally, through centuries or millennia of accrued strength, they weeded out their rivals to become renowned noble houses.
If Wei Yuan wished, the most efficient method would be to take thousands of concubines, sire thousands or tens of thousands of children in one breath, and watch the next generation swell to hundreds of thousands, the one after that to millions, and the one after that to tens of millions. Proceeding like this, in a few hundred years, a Wei family of hundreds of millions would rise from this very soil!
Wei Yuan shook his head, tossing aside the absurd notion. Still, the thought had actually originated from King Buddha, which made him somewhat curious about King Buddha's Dao path.
Breeding people on treasured land was a long-term plan, while repelling northern Liao was an immediate benefit, but in Wei Yuan's eyes, neither was all that crucial. Having survived countless life-and-death crises, Wei Yuan had long understood a simple truth: what mattered most was the present. Why worry about the distant future? In the long run, everyone is dead anyway.
Moreover, so long as this land existed, the Lu clan's roots could never be severed. Compounded by the Lu clan bloodline within Western Jin's royal family, the Lu clan would continue to linger on.
Another reason was the lingering question: was Lu Changhe truly dead?
This doubt had continually hovered in Wei Yuan's heart. Among those Wei Yuan knew of in Jin's royal family alone, the Crown Prince, the former Prince Wei, and Prince Fu had all been secretly replaced by Lu Changhe. There was no telling how many others remained undetected.
A thorough investigation was impossible. Hongye had taught Wei Yuan a hard lesson back then: his child was among fewer than a thousand mortals, yet Wei Yuan had never been able to ferret him out. Now that original thousand had grown into several thousand, and Wei Yuan had long abandoned any thought of searching.
So had Lu Changhe truly died?
Wei Yuan set down the Lu clan history. The thousands of books around him suddenly burst into flames without any wind, crumbling entirely to ash.
A cold sneer touched his lips. It had been over a year since he took the Lu clan's ancestral grounds, yet the other side remained utterly motionless. They clearly assumed he would stop here.
However, refining the secret realm together with the ancestral grounds would be tantamount to completely uprooting the Lu clan. Wei Yuan wanted to see whether the Venerable Master could still keep his composure.
When that time came, all of Lu Changhe's arrangements would scatter to the winds. Even if his reincarnated body awakened within someone, that vessel would find that without the backing of the geomantic veins, his talent was no different from an ordinary cultivator's. No matter how immense his wisdom, reaching the pinnacle would be nearly impossible.
And if he failed to reach the cusp of ascension after awakening, the probability of successful reincarnation in the next life would drop, the likelihood of awakening would decline, and the innate divine abilities carried over would weaken. After two or three such cycles, Lu Changhe would dissipate entirely within the river of time.
His plan settled, Wei Yuan went before Xu Shiqi and the other two Xu family Scenery Command elders. He smiled and said, "Gentlemen, today marks the first day of our century-long agreement. I have already prepared your assignment. Come with me."
A moment later, Wei Yuan brought them to the highest peak in the secret realm, where three array nodes were already in place. Upon seeing them, the three Scenery Command elders exchanged glances, hardly believing their eyes.
Immortal light swirled around the nodes, clearly indicating a profoundly intricate formation far beyond what the three of them could comprehend. That alone would have been fine, but standing atop the array nodes were three individual prison cells!
Wei Yuan pointed at the three small cells and said, "From now on, these will be your workstations. You need do nothing else except continually drive the formation."
Xu Shiqi still found it hard to believe. He said slowly, "Though the three of us cannot match Realm Lord's grand vision and strategy, we consider ourselves at least above average among Scenery Command cultivators of this era. Driving a formation like this can be handled by any random dharma idol cultivators. Why waste us on it?
"We have already signed the blood contract. So long as you do not violate the terms, we will naturally serve with devotion for a hundred years. Why not assign us something of greater importance?"
The other two Scenery Command elders nodded in agreement. As high-ranking cultivators, they felt they could hardly be lumped together with Dao Foundation ancestors or dharma idol eccentrics. Doing manual labor like this was utterly humiliating. Only major duties such as holding a frontier or repelling foreign tribes were fitting for them.
Seeing all three Scenery Command elders looking at him with eager anticipation, Wei Yuan smiled faintly. "Right now, driving this formation is the single most important task. It requires the three of you, and even the three of you will likely not be enough—you will barely keep it running."
Xu Shiqi and the other two naturally did not believe him, but unable to disobey Wei Yuan, they reluctantly stepped into the individual workstations. Wei Yuan then shut the iron bar doors forged from dark iron and spirit steel, locking them securely from the outside.
Before the three could even swallow their indignation, a terrifyingly heavy pressure suddenly crashed down upon them, as though the entire ancestral grounds were collapsing overhead!
Shocked, they immediately mobilized their Dao power with everything they had, fighting desperately against the mountain-crushing weight. The pressure was truly horrifying; the slightest lapse would squash them into meat paste. Only through their combined efforts did they finally hold against it, but they had to maintain at least ninety percent of their full output at every single moment.
The entire secret realm began to tremble faintly, expanding by an almost imperceptible margin.
Wei Yuan watched for a while, finally nodded, and turned to leave.
***
Meanwhile, within the Splendor of the Many Realms, there stood a secluded grand hall. It was vast and magnificent, with a vaulted ceiling towering over a thousand zhang high. In the center sat a colossal round table a hundred zhang tall, upon which people would appear like ants.
Twelve chairs were arranged around the round table. At this moment, figures appeared on several of them, though most remained empty. These figures were exceedingly bizarre: a majestic giant, an aloof fairy, an ancient dragon, a little girl resembling a porcelain doll, and even a desolate celestial body!
The little girl was the first to speak. "The World Refining Grand Array has been preliminarily completed, but many problems remain. First and foremost, merely initiating the array is extraordinarily difficult, requiring an immense amount of magic power. If we had advanced to Scenery Command it wouldn't be an issue, but right now it is somewhat troublesome. The timing for this formation is a bit early."
The ancient dragon rumbled, "No matter. The Realm Lord said he has already found three powerful batteries and should be able to start it smoothly. We only need to consider the follow-up matters."
The aloof fairy said coldly, "Certain things must be done by Scenery Command cultivators; piling up numbers of dharma idols and Dao Foundations won't cut it. That fellow Wei Yuan understands nothing. All day long he does nothing but make demands, never considering whether they can actually be achieved."
The little girl was startled and said, "Mind your words! What if..."
The aloof fairy snorted. "What is there to fear? He doesn't know about this place at all. Even if he did, given his grasp of mathematics, he wouldn't be able to figure out how to get through the door."
Only then did the little girl relax, her cheeks flushing slightly as she said, "I'm not worried about anything else—it's just that when we gather here to talk, we're all using custom-made avatars. If he saw us, it would be rather embarrassing."
The massive celestial body spoke up, "Everyone is equally embarrassed, so rest assured, we won't let him in. He hasn't even chewed his way through Preliminary Exploration of the Desolate Realm yet. Give him another hundred years and he still won't get in!"
The dragon said slowly, "Don't forget the Desolate Roar. If he happens to master it, it will grant him a massive boost in comprehending Preliminary Exploration of the Desolate Realm."
Silence fell over the hall. A moment later, two voices rang out simultaneously:
"He'll never pass the third tone!"
Chapter 1170