Above the Sea of Bitterness, amid boundless pillars of light, several voices echoed back and forth. These were the sounds of the Great Dao; every clash and resonance stirred countless karmic threads, exchanging immeasurable information and condensing billions of words into a single instant.
"A little bug has entered the Sea of Bitterness."
"...No need to mind it for now. The price for us to intervene is not small. Greater matters are more important; we cannot be distracted."
"What if it becomes a hidden danger...?"
"The Heaven of Joy and Bliss is nothing more than a speck of dust. What danger could it possibly pose? A handful of water cannot breed a true dragon."
"Yet... hmm?"
The multitude of magnificent wills suddenly shifted direction, drawn by a certain anomaly.
At this moment, Lingshan was crumbling in ruins everywhere, a sight too tragic to behold. Across the mountain's lower half, treasure trees were scorched and withered, foul water flowed unchecked, and most of it had been reduced to a forsaken, sinful wasteland. Yet at the foot of the mountain, a small expanse remained intact, revealing glimpses of its former lush and picturesque grandeur. Around this area stood three statues of the Buddha; it was precisely these three statues that blocked falling boulders from above and pinned down the cracked earth veins, preserving this plot of ground.
But now, high above, beneath a massive boulder that was already teetering, a soft crack rang out as a small pebble, unable to bear the immense pressure, suddenly shattered. The swaying of the massive boulder grew noticeably worse until it was about to roll down and bring catastrophic destruction to this patch of pure land at the foot of the mountain.
At that moment, a sigh echoed between heaven and earth. A colossal hand descended from thin air, caught the boulder, and gently set it down at the foot of Lingshan, sealing the fissure in the earth that constantly spewed poisonous flames.
Variables abounded across heaven and earth, and Lingshan was paramount among them. In comparison, a little bug contaminating the Sea of Bitterness was nothing. Seen from on high, it was not even a dark speck.
The sudden fall of this boulder did not seem accidental. Several magnificent wills immediately fanned out, painstakingly tracing back along various paths to uncover the karmic motivations; one mighty force even traced straight back through time.
Unsurprisingly, the preliminary search revealed nothing abnormal. Yet the magnificent wills were not surprised—if a method capable of interfering with reality on Lingshan could be easily discovered, that would be truly bizarre. They were in no rush. Imbued with vast serenity, amid sandalwood fragrance that filled heaven and earth, they sifted bit by bit through karma and time, searching for clues buried within hundreds of millions of threads of information.
Whenever someone made a move, traces were bound to remain; it was merely a matter of patience. And patience was something they never lacked.
This sudden incident caused the magnificent minds to react even more slowly. Only after a while did one mind recall that there was still a little bug in the Sea of Bitterness. Still, that bug could never grow large; after all, the fundamental nature of the Heaven of Joy and Bliss was right there—it was merely a pebble in the foundation of a myriad-zhang tower.
"It was already erased once. Leave it to those below to handle..."
The wills clashed once more, reaching a conclusion.
***
In the south of Eastern Jin, inside an unremarkable, dilapidated little temple, a thick stench of blood lingered in the air. Seven or eight corpses lay strewn about; every monk in the temple had been slaughtered.
Two black-robed cultivators were inspecting the bodies one by one. After each inspection, one would wave a sleeve to loose pale-green flames that reduced the corpse to ashes in the blink of an eye, ensuring both body and soul were obliterated, barred from reincarnation.
Having finished all this, the two figures in black walked out through the temple gates.
The plaque above the entrance bore the three characters "Cangji Temple." At this moment, the character *ji* was constantly oozing a red liquid, as though dripping blood.
The two took off their black face-coverings. The man was handsome, the woman charming—both striking figures. The woman repeatedly wiped her hands with the black cloth, as if tainted by something filthy. The man silently pinched his fingers, calculating karmic patterns and heavenly numbers, before nodding in satisfaction a moment later.
"How did it go?" A raspy voice sounded from the side as a masked figure in black emerged from the woods, his bald head conspicuously prominent.
The handsome man smiled faintly. "Not bad. He truly was the Buddha Child of the next life. Now that I have eliminated him ahead of time, there will be no next life. This strand of karma is bound to send Lingshan into quite a turmoil. Your intelligence this time was exceedingly accurate, my friend. I am very pleased."
The masked bald man said, "As long as you're pleased. Where is my payment?"
"Bring out the bottle!"
The masked bald man brought out a jade bottle. The handsome man pointed a finger, and droplets of silvery water fell from thin air. With every drop, the jade bottle sank heavily. After four drops fell in succession, blue veins bulged across the masked man's bald head, and he could barely keep the bottle upright.
Seeing this, the handsome man smiled faintly and said, "This is the highest-grade sacrificial power, something only Ancestral Shamans may enjoy. Each drop is equivalent to a celebrated mountain or mighty river. For you to support four drops is already remarkable. There, all seven drops are here—enough for you to accomplish a great undertaking, Fellow Daoist."
The masked bald man hurriedly produced a stopper to seal the jade bottle. The moment it was corked, the bottle seemed to vanish from this realm, its weight disappearing completely. Only then did the masked bald man breathe a sigh of relief. Stowing the jade bottle, he cupped his hands and said, "Lord Shengxin keeps his word! A pleasure doing business with you!"
The handsome man smiled. "If you have intelligence on any more prodigies like this, come find me again. I just love collaborating with human-traitors like you!"
The masked bald man chuckled darkly. "Likewise. I just love collaborating with ugly shamans like you!"
The two exchanged a look and burst into loud laughter, the murderous intent in their eyes barely concealed.
***
Meanwhile, Wei Yuan's avatar lowered his head slightly, gazing at the Heaven of Joy and Bliss as well.
In Wei Yuan's eyes, countless threads stretched out from the Heaven of Joy and Bliss, dangling toward the present mortal realm. Each thread corresponded to a fruition, even the most basic mighty warriors who could only bestow the power of Dao foundations.
Fruitions possessed weight; under the strain of numerous fruitions, a realm-heaven also had a limit to what it could bear. At present, the Heaven of Joy and Bliss had clearly reached its limit, barely able to stay afloat in the Sea of Bitterness.
This heaven's limit was four Arhats, twelve Vajras, and three hundred and sixty mighty warriors. One Arhat corresponded to twelve Vajras, forming the number of a heavenly cycle. Alternatively, it corresponded to three hundred and sixty mighty warriors, which was also the number of a heavenly cycle; the pressure both exerted on the realm-heaven was equal.
Under extreme configurations, one could forgo the Vajras and mighty warriors altogether and add two more Wisdom Kings instead. A Wisdom King's combat prowess was comparable to an Arhat's, or even superior, but their status was slightly lower. Offsetting each other, their burden on the realm-heaven was slightly less than an Arhat's, which allowed room for two more. However, doing so meant having neither Vajras nor mighty warriors.
Of the four Arhat seats, one had been given to Tuoba Hong, and two were reserved for template Golden Cores, leaving only one vacancy. While the numbers of Vajras and mighty warriors seemed large, once converted into merit-based fruitions, they were still far from enough.
Because of this, Wei Yuan somewhat regretted giving Tuoba Hong an Arhat seat so early.
Even so, there were currently a couple of ways to supplement the capacity: the two realm-heavens being towed over. The Heaven of Sorrow and Longing could support two Arhats, while the incompletely converted realm-heaven could support one Arhat, with no room for Vajras or mighty warriors.
The fruitions were like ballast stones hung from the Heaven of Joy and Bliss, dragging the realm-heaven down until it teetered precariously in the Sea of Bitterness. Yet the benefits were equally obvious: faith and aspiration power flowed along the fruition threads into the Heaven of Joy and Bliss, where the realm-heaven refined and stored them as Buddhist power.
Beneath the firmament of the Heaven of Joy and Bliss, streaks of pale-gold Buddhist light transformed into swimming fish that darted continuously through the Sea of Bitterness, forming a wondrous spectacle. As a Buddhist pure land, the Heaven of Joy and Bliss naturally possessed the ability to refine the aspiration and willpower of believers into Buddhist power. In theory, the Pure Land Grotto-Heaven should develop similar marvels in the future.
Wei Yuan had placed the small Pure Land temple in the center of the Heaven of Joy and Bliss, establishing a karmic connection between the two. Through his grotto-heaven, Wei Yuan could control the Heaven of Joy and Bliss without needing to micromanage every aspect of the realm-heaven at all times.
From the perspective of the world beyond heaven, this was equivalent to building an operating interface over the realm-heaven's underlying Heavenly Dao, reducing countless intricate controls to simple commands and saving Wei Yuan a vast amount of divine intent.
At present, nearly half of Wei Yuan's divine intent lingered in the Heaven of Joy and Bliss, gathering data on all fronts in an attempt to find a way to elevate the realm-heaven's essence and increase its capacity for fruitions.
However, Shanle himself had only been a newly attained Bodhisattva. That the realm-heaven he forged by hand could support four Arhats was already quite astonishing, and it was precisely on this achievement that he had advanced two ranks in succession. Yet for Wei Yuan, this was far from enough—it could not begin to sate the bottomless appetite of Qingming's countless cultivators.
***
In the third month of the sixth year of Zhaoning, Wei Yuan's consciousness submerged in the Sea of Bitterness suddenly stirred awake. He looked toward the northern border of Western Jin, at the Lu clan ancestral seat. There, a beam of immortal light soared into the sky, and Wei Yuan sensed a summons.
With a thought from Wei Yuan, the eyes of an avatar stationed there lit with brilliance, and it rose from the center of the great hall.
From outside the hall came Yu Zhizhuo's voice: "The excavation is complete, and the immortal remains have surfaced. Care to come take a look?"
This avatar of Wei Yuan immediately walked out of the hall and looked into the distance. In that direction, an immortal light burst through the mountain and shot into the sky, erupting without pause and drawing many watching eyes. Yet once the gazes in the heavens saw clearly that it was the Lu clan ancestral seat, they all drew back.
Gazing at the immortal light, Wei Yuan remarked, "Only three years? So fast?"
Yu Zhizhuo smiled. "I've always worked quickly."
"Let's go take a look!"
The two rose into the air and flew toward the Ancestral Mountain ahead.
Three years ago, Wei Yuan's refinement of the Lu Clan Ancestral Mountain had finally entered a new phase. Prior to that, he had divided the extracted immortal essence into two halves: one half was fed to his Mind-Manifested World to deepen the foundation of the Splendor of the Many Realms, while the other was turned into cultivation pills and distributed downward, lifting the overall level of cultivators throughout Qingming.
As a result, talents of all kinds gushed forth like springs in both the inner and outer worlds.
And three years ago, this surge of talent finally bore fruit. After research personnel multiplied several times over, the Creation of Heaven and Earth Research Institute within the Splendor of the Many Realms officially completed the Plan to Slay the Heavens.
The Plan to Slay the Heavens was specifically tailored for the Lu Clan Ancestral Mountain. Integrating formations, mining, machinery, and cultivators, its core concept was to treat the Lu Clan Ancestral Mountain as an enormous mine. With the World-Refining Grand Array at the core, hundreds of minor formations were attached to the perimeter to stabilize the mountain and suppress the agitation and backlash of the immortals' lingering wills. Afterward, low-level cultivators and even mortal miners would be deployed to excavate the immortal remains.
Beneath the Lu Clan Ancestral Mountain lay three sets of immortal remains. One was completely dead, but the remaining two still retained a lingering will; one of these belonged to the Lu clan's founding ancestor, hidden deep at the very bottom. Back when Wei Yuan had sent people to mine the blood soil, a squad had grown greedy for treasures and dug deep on their own, straying beyond the protection of the World-Refining Grand Array. In the end, all of them vanished, their bodies and souls utterly destroyed.
After that, Wei Yuan had temporarily abandoned mining with templates, concentrating instead on extracting essence bit by bit with the World-Refining Grand Array. Though this significantly prolonged the time needed, sooner or later he would capture the immortals' lingering wills and refine them together.
Now, the Plan to Slay the Heavens had reopened the path for low-level cultivators to mine.
According to calculations, dealing with the three immortal remains beneath the Lu Clan Ancestral Mountain required a full two hundred thousand template Dao foundations to suppress the two surviving lingering wills of the immortals. Then, tens of thousands of templates, assisted by hundreds of thousands of Body Casting miners, would enter the mountain to mine out the completely dead immortal remains as if it were a stone quarry. After that, the World-Refining Grand Array would be extended to continue excavating the second and third sets.
Furthermore, once the immortals' lingering wills were suppressed by the grand array, their Dao bodies—originally harder than metal and stone—would soften until they were no different from ordinary stone ore. Even Body Casting miners could dig through them, to say nothing of template Dao foundations.
This plan could well be called a duel across time and space between low-level cultivators and immortals. Reading it, Wei Yuan could only marvel in admiration, and he immediately decided to increase the allocation of immortal essence to the Splendor of the Many Realms.
This plan was also the magnum opus of the Inner World cultivators, led by Han Li and Jun Weizhi, in their contest for status against the Outer World cultivators. After being suppressed for so long by Qingming genius templates such as Wen Guantian, the Inner World had finally scored a victory.
Upon receiving the Plan to Slay the Heavens, Wei Yuan handed its implementation to Yu Zhizhuo. Having mined for a lifetime, Yu Zhizhuo was naturally thrilled to dig up an immortal's remains for the very first time.
After taking charge, he surveyed the site repeatedly and optimized the Plan to Slay the Heavens continuously. With each optimization, the scale expanded, eventually growing into fifty thousand template miners plus a full million Body Casting miners.
Relocating a million miners was an immense undertaking. Over a dozen new cities were built directly around the Ancestral Mountain, with flying skiffs shuttling back and forth day and night in a magnificent spectacle.
That day, looking at the fleet of floating skiffs stretching for dozens of li across the sky without end, Wei Yuan had spoken only a single sentence: "With this fleet alone, who among Great Tang and the nine kingdoms could defeat me?"
And even Body Casting cultivators, in sufficient numbers, could move heaven and earth.
Under the labor of a million miners, an excavation that Wei Yuan originally projected to take decades had hollowed out almost the entire mountain interior in less than three years. The first set of immortal remains had been excavated in its entirety.
Yu Zhizhuo had come to invite Wei Yuan to witness this historic moment and take the final shovel stroke himself.
Flying over the Ancestral Mountain, Wei Yuan first saw several broad roads winding upward around the mountain, each leading to a different mine entrance. The winding mountain roads were remarkably wide, allowing four wide-body freight wagons to travel abreast with ease. Countless wagons were ascending and descending each road: those heading up carried various tools and consumable materials, while those heading down were laden with translucent, crystal-clear red jades measuring half a zhang across.
Yu Zhizhuo led Wei Yuan to the main mine tunnel and landed at its entrance. Miners were bustling in and out; most merely cast a glance their way before hurrying back to their tasks, refusing to pause even for a moment.
Yu Zhizhuo gave a wry smile. "Everyone is busy working. Mining outside the territory is a good job that pays heavily in merits, so they all want to earn more. Besides, most of them don't recognize you."
Wei Yuan nodded, silently making a mental note of Yu Zhizhuo's last words.
Chapter 1265