Long after Qiyue departed, Wei Yuan finally spoke. "Their wicked designs truly never die! In that case, they can hardly blame me for being discourteous."
Through the Splendor of the Many Realms, Wei Yuan issued a decree demanding a comprehensive analysis of all known Buddhist paths and schools, along with each faction's respective doctrines for world salvation.
Once this task was posted, it caused barely a ripple within the Splendor of the Many Realms. Everyone continued minding their own business, and only after quite some time did a few scattered cultivators begin trickling in to accept the assignment, showing shockingly little regard for their Realm Lord.
Quite displeased, Wei Yuan inspected the allocation of computational power across the Splendor of the Many Realms. He discovered that the two massive vortices dedicated to designing the long-distance communication system had grown increasingly monstrous, each spawning dozens of smaller whirlpools around itself. That section alone consumed nearly thirty percent of the computational power.
Most of the remaining share went toward the World-Refining Grand Array under Wei Yuan's direction. As the formation advanced, vast quantities of data were continuously generated, requiring real-time analysis and relentless optimization. After all, the legacies of four immortals lay beneath the ancestral mountain; facing such a monumental undertaking, even the Splendor of the Many Realms was stretched thin.
Then came daily usage and research, encompassing countless minor projects and routine applications. As the foundation for Qingming's efficient operation, it had always commanded a substantial amount of computational power.
Wei Yuan would have been fine had he not looked, but upon closer inspection, he was stunned to discover an entirely new category under daily operations: Entertainment!
He noticed that several tasks were blatantly recreational. Virtual dueling, for instance, had become wildly popular. Many cities had even established dedicated leaderboards ranking participants by battle records.
Not only did cultivators use this to spar and hone their skills, but many had also begun employing it to settle personal disputes. If an argument led nowhere, a fight would clear things right up. Fighting in reality carried severe consequences, but in the Splendor of the Many Realms, they could fight to the death without any repercussions.
To Wei Yuan's astonishment, such activities already swallowed nearly five percent of the total computational power. Meanwhile, the task he had handed down as the Creation Immortal Venerable had not even been allocated a thousandth of the total!
Wei Yuan was immediately incensed and moved to ban it across the board! Yet, habitual composure stayed his hand; making decisions in a fit of rage was anathema to any self-respecting cultivator.
Once he calmed down and pondered the matter, four words surfaced in his mind: guide rather than block.
His first impulse had been to prohibit it entirely, but reflection revealed that over a hundred thousand cultivators were already using these features, and the number was growing rapidly.
This meant it was a rigid demand among the vast masses of low-ranking cultivators—something that could not be overlooked, suppressed, or brushed aside. The moment he grasped this, Wei Yuan's mood brightened dramatically!
This was not because Wei Yuan possessed any lofty moral enlightenment, but because once demand existed, suppression was not the only option. There lay another broad, open avenue: charging fees!
Currently, the cultivators' need for entertainment was being comfortably satisfied within the Splendor of the Many Realms; that was a service. By introducing tiers to the service and creating a few deliberate bottlenecks, an endless stream of revenue points could be unlocked.
For example, everyone could receive basic services for free, such as an avatar with a template Dao foundation, so no one would feel any disruption.
However, paying customers could upgrade their avatars to Human-tier Dao foundations, Earth-tier Dao foundations, Heaven-tier immortal foundations, or even dharma idols! A single dharma idol could sweep aside a hundred template Dao foundations with ease, flattening them in an unstoppable tide. Wei Yuan had always been a principled man: whoever paid the silver had to be treated like royalty. That was his principle.
There were many ways to collect payment. Dealing purely in immortal silver was far too vulgar. Under Qingming's current model, Dao foundation cultivators could simply pay with labor hours—for instance, pricing a certain White Snake Dao foundation at a specific number of Dao foundation hours. This would simultaneously solve the problem of template Dao foundation cultivators losing their drive once they completed their Foundation Solidification.
Wei Yuan had hardly anticipated such an unexpected windfall. As usual, he laid out the conceptual framework, tossed the task into the Splendor of the Many Realms, and turned his thoughts to a more pressing reality: did the Pure Land actually want the Lu clan's ancestral lands, or not?
Given the Baohua Pure Land's usual nature, they would never wish to see Wei Yuan thrive; he understood this deeply. Moreover, those bald monks loved scheming and trickery above all else, prettifying it under the guise of karma.
Thus, his excavation and refinement of the Lu ancestral land had undeniably struck a nerve, prompting them to show themselves and negotiate terms.
One possibility was feigning substance with emptiness: the Baohua Pure Land genuinely wanted Wei Yuan to dig, and deliberately came to trade terms in order to bait him into continuing the excavation.
The second possibility was masking substance with emptiness: the monks had anticipated his anticipation, maneuvering to trick him into halting the dig.
Wei Yuan thought one layer deeper: he should still dig. One layer deeper still: he should not dig... A recursive loop, stretching on without end.
***
Deep within the Splendor of the Many Realms, that mysterious grand hall opened once more. The distant toll of a bell resonated for a hundred li, unheard by Wei Yuan alone.
Bizarre yet colossal silhouettes materialized within the hall, taking their seats one by one. A few chairs remained vacant.
The little girl was the shortest among them, standing less than a hundred zhang tall. The tabletop nearly reached her chin, forcing her to kneel upon her chair just to remain visible to the others.
Her face was flushed with indignation, her cherry-red lips pouted in annoyance as she was the first to speak. "Did you see that? The Realm Lord actually intends to charge for combat entertainment! We were the ones who built all of that first; every single feature was coded by us bit by bit! What right does he have to charge for it?!"
The majestic giant replied, "It is an exchange, not a charge."
"Is there a difference? One uses a medium, the other doesn't, but the essence is identical!" the little girl fumed.
"Then what do you propose we do?"
"I feel that fellow isn't of much use anymore. Why don't we just kick him out?" she said.
A collective silence fell over the hall. After a moment, the aloof woman asked, "This is his mindscape world. How do you intend to kick him out of his own mindscape?"
The little girl was brimming with confidence. "We partition off a tiny corner for him to play in, then erect computational boundaries. With his pathetic grasp of computational mathematics, he won't break out in this lifetime! Meanwhile, we conduct our business here without hindrance or interference."
"And what will you tell him?"
"That's simple! He picked up a smattering of jargon in the world beyond. We prescribe the medicine to fit the ailment: tell him we encapsulated this zone, and call his little plot a terminal interface. His own mind will fill in the rest!"
The barren celestial body, silent until now, finally spoke. "In a matter of such magnitude, we had best not decide alone, lest it end in disaster. As it happens, Zhang Sheng will be arriving shortly. Let us hear what she has to say."
A sudden shiver ran through the little girl. Her boisterous demeanor vanished instantly, replaced by docile obedience.
Moments later, Zhang Sheng's figure appeared in the hall, still in her original form, tiny as an ant.
The barren celestial body said, "Enlarge yourself first."
Tens of thousands of sword qi suddenly manifested within the hall like a tempest, sweeping across every corner in an instant before vanishing as abruptly as they had come.
Zhang Sheng nodded. Her figure expanded in a flash, growing slightly taller than the aloof woman, before casually taking an empty seat.
The barren celestial body added, "Next, choose an avatar for yourself. Anything will do, just like the rest of us. That way, even if word of our gatherings here ever leaks, no one will know who is who."
Who that 'no one' referred to went without saying.
Zhang Sheng sneered. "You lot certainly know how to amuse yourselves."
She looked over the various avatars, pondered briefly, and then transformed into Wei Yuan.
The grand hall erupted into chaos!
The little girl lost her composure entirely, nearly sliding under the table! Poking her head over the edge, she could not help blurt out, "Can you people from Azure Heaven Hall act human for once?!"
Zhang Sheng's brow furrowed slightly. "Gaining an avatar has made your tongue quite bold, hasn't it?"
Above her head, the image of a young Daoist suddenly materialized, gripping an immortal sword. Zhang Sheng pointed a finger, and a slender thread of sword qi flashed across the little girl's shoulder, leaving a shallow wound.
Shock rippled through the gathering. Zhang Sheng said indifferently, "You may curse me, and you may certainly curse Wei Yuan, but do not drag the Patriarch into it. This virtual world is not entirely outside the law."
The barren celestial body hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over. "She merely spoke without thinking, entirely off the cuff. Besides, the Patriarchs of our two halls fought plenty of times... Let us return to business: should we charge for the entertainment features?"
"Charge, of course! Why wouldn't we? Leaving money on the table is..." Halfway through her sentence, Zhang Sheng realized everyone was staring at her with exceedingly strange expressions.
The barren celestial body sighed. "When you say such things, could you please not wear Wei Yuan's face? What you just said sounded exactly as if he were speaking in person."
Only then did Zhang Sheng catch herself. After a brief pause, her form shifted. A beam of light descended from above, illuminating her seat. It took the others a moment to realize that Zhang Sheng's avatar was the light itself.
Before anyone could question it, Zhang Sheng attached an explanatory footnote to the light: *The First Light of Creation at the Dawn of Heaven and Earth.*
After a brief lull, the hall returned to order. With Zhang Sheng's presence, the gathering grew less playful and more solemn. Though the discussion had begun on monetizing games within the Splendor of the Many Realms, Zhang Sheng quickly set the tone: charging was inevitable, so long as it was cloaked in the guise of being free.
From there, they turned to the matter of genuine importance: the construction of the World-Refining Grand Array.
After prolonged deliberation resolved numerous bottlenecks, the assembly dispersed. The grand hall slowly sealed itself and vanished, as though it had never existed.
In a secluded chamber somewhere in Qingming, Wang Hu slowly opened his eyes, stretching a massive frame that stood nearly three zhang tall. Over the years spent in Qingming, his physique had expanded drastically, making him appear no different from the giants of the Mountain Folk.
Glancing toward his shoulder, he saw a slender cut that showed virtually no sign of healing.
*Cleaving reality from the virtual... Has her sword Dao truly reached such heights?* A flicker of dread passed through Wang Hu's eyes.
***
Wei Yuan had been running circles around the problem of the Baohua Pure Land for hours, probing deeper layer by layer only to retreat just as many times, yet arriving at no conclusion. Attempting to tackle the dilemma with computational mathematics, he formulated a preliminary concept, rallied computational power, and set up several thousand glowing spheres, throwing himself into the work with great enthusiasm.
Several hours later, the preliminary concept remained precisely that: a preliminary concept.
Wei Yuan stretched his limbs and felt a familiar ache in his lower back. The third tone of the Desolate Roar had regressed rather than advanced; relying on the Desolate Roar to drive his comprehension of *Preliminary Exploration of the Desolate Realm* was proving somewhat unrealistic.
Yet he possessed another means. With a single thought, mortal fortune melted away like snowflakes. In the blink of an eye, a million points vanished, and Wei Yuan's mind cleared instantly, crystallizing three conclusions.
First, what the Pure Land least wished to see was Wei Yuan alive. What they wished to see even less was him living well. What they dreaded most of all was him thriving better by the day.
Whatever the enemy opposed was precisely the direction Wei Yuan ought to pursue. Measured by these three standards, Wei Yuan refining the Lu ancestral land—whether for a grotto-heaven or elsewhere—would vastly augment his strength. That was what the Pure Land dreaded most.
Therefore, the proper course was to meet every shift with steadfast stillness. Whatever those bald monks said, Wei Yuan resolved to turn a deaf ear and simply press on with his refinement. Naturally, if their offer proved overwhelmingly generous, he was not entirely closed to negotiation.
With his mind settled, another matter presented itself before Wei Yuan. The True Monarchs from the Palace of Grand Beginning who held no official duties were fine, but the three hall masters had already stayed for half a year and needed to return to the sect.
For the time being, finding replacements was not a major hurdle. The benefits of the World-Refining Grand Array were clear to all; the Bao family, the Cui family, and the Zhao and Li clans possessed plenty of Scenery Command cultivators eager to step in. The Xiao family elder had even moved directly to Qingming, waiting for an opening to appear.
Certain Scenery Command elders had even suggested modifying the three control centers held by Golden Pellet dharma idols, replacing them with genuine Scenery Command cultivators to free up three more positions.
Yet, considering the long term, Wei Yuan deemed it vital to temper the Golden Pellet dharma idols, and thus refused.
The World-Refining Grand Array would operate for a long time to come. The hall masters and True Monarchs of the Palace of Grand Beginning would have to return eventually, as would the great clan elders. Looking ahead, Qingming required its own people to step up.
Wei Yuan immediately drafted a grand initiative, christening it the Qingming Outstanding Cultivation Talent Initiative.
The program aimed to recruit cultivators from across all humanity, offering exceptional benefits and prestigious titles. The initial quota targeted ten Scenery Command cultivators, five hundred dharma idols, and ten thousand Dao foundations.
Taking the dharma idols as an example: an ordinary great clan dharma idol received one Haohua Pill per year to advance their cultivation. Under Wei Yuan's plan, every selected dharma idol would receive a Haohua Pill every single month! Other benefits ranged from three to ten times higher than those offered by great clans.
The same held true for Scenery Command cultivators. While the gap for Dao foundation cultivators was narrower, their stipends were still fifty percent higher than those of the great clans.
Once launched, this initiative was bound to cause an uproar across the Nine States, the major clans, and the great sects. This was an unvarnished grab for talent, fueled by sheer mountains of pills and immortal silver!
And among the Four Great Immortal Sects, none harbored more idle hands than the Baohua Pure Land. The Pure Land had always relied on faith to retain its people; Wei Yuan was eager to see whether the mid- and low-level bald monks among them could use faith to withstand the lure of immortal silver.
Chapter 1173