The Heavenly Dao Has Constancy

Wei Yuan and Yu Zhizhuo followed the mine tunnel into the mountain. These mine tunnels were built on a grand scale: a clear height of ten zhang and a full width of thirty zhang. Two sets of iron rails ran down the center, heavy trains rumbling incessantly back and forth. They hauled out load after load of blood-jade treasure earth, transformed from immortal flesh and blood, dumping it onto the freight yard. From there, freight cars and flying boats carried it off to be turned into pill ingredients and precious materials, passing through human stomachs or furnaces to become part of Qingming's foundation. Wei Yuan stopped in his tracks, first taking a careful look at this mine tunnel that was practically a miniature wonder. Steel pillars supported both sides of the tunnel, with crossbeams overhead. Countless runes were carved into the steel pillars, glowing faintly. Such a massive structure was built with a physical frame as the core and formations as secondary support, vastly different from the usual approach in secret realms and cave-heavens where formations solved everything. To construct such a structure, mostly Body Casting manual labor had been used. Wei Yuan sighed with admiration. "It seems mortals can transform heaven and earth as well." Yu Zhizhuo shook his head, however. "Not mortals—templates." Yu Zhizhuo then handed Wei Yuan a workload sheet, saying, "The task you assigned last time is finally completed. We have our conclusions, and they're all here." Dense figures were recorded on the sheet, backed by billions of entries of raw data underneath. However, what Yu Zhizhuo showed Wei Yuan was the analyzed, compiled final version presenting the conclusions; if Wei Yuan had questions, he could check the underlying data. Before launching the Plan to Slay the Heavens, Wei Yuan had given Yu Zhizhuo a special assignment: to precisely calculate the workload of cultivators across different realms in what was arguably the largest, most complex, and broadest grand project in Qingming's history. Now, with the immortal skeleton unearthed, this vast undertaking that had spanned three years finally drew to a close, yielding clear answers. Out of the total workload, tens of thousands of template cultivators had completed seventy percent, a million Body Casting miners combined had completed twenty percent, and two hundred Golden Cores had completed ten percent. The numbers slightly surprised Wei Yuan, but on closer thought, it was reasonable. Many mining magical implements could only be handled by templates. For instance, water-blade implements specifically used to cut stone sliced through hard rock like tofu, but a single one weighed several thousand jin; only a Dao Foundation could lift it. Many mining machines even required Dao power to operate, which Body Casting cultivators could not use at all, while certain colossal machines could only be driven by Golden Cores. Once those gigantic machines started moving, they rivaled thousands of Body Casting miners laboring day and night without rest. It was so for excavating the mountain, and much the same in other fields. Even for the design work of the mines, template cultivators had shouldered the vast majority of tasks. For a mortal, advancing from Body Casting to Dao Foundation brought not just a transformation of dharmic power, but also a massive surge in intellect. And in terms of intellect, what increased was not only computational power, but also comprehension. Thus, the conclusion that templates were smarter than Body Casting held true in most circumstances. This was also why, without question, the group that had contributed the most to Qingming's scientific research to date was the template Dao Foundations. Having gained a clear picture, Wei Yuan put the sheet away. The two continued forward, and after a moment deeper inside the mountain, the tunnel ended at a platform. Wei Yuan's vision suddenly opened up to reveal an extraordinarily magnificent space. In the center of the space sat a complete immortal skeleton cross-legged on the ground, one finger pointing to heaven and one finger pointing to earth. Back then, what Wei Yuan had excavated was precisely its hand pointing to heaven; he had taken the Spirit Herding Ring and, in passing, refined the entire hand bone into pills to feed into the bellies of Qingming's cultivators. Consequently, the skeleton's heaven-pointing hand was now missing. Back then, before Wei Yuan even had time to cut further down, the Plan to Slay the Heavens had been drawn up. Even sitting cross-legged, it rose hundreds of li high, the entire skeleton flushed red throughout like precious jade. The platform where Wei Yuan stood faced the skull directly. Such platforms were set every several dozen zhang, descending tier by tier until they vanished into the bottomless depths—a truly spectacular sight. A ritual altar had already been built atop the immortal's head. At the center of the altar lay the last patch of loose soil, waiting for Wei Yuan to shovel it away. A dozen-odd immortal swords rested on a nearby ritual table. Behind it rose a high terrace, where thousands of template Dao Foundations stood arrayed in neat ranks. Shadow-recording orbs were naturally indispensable, numbering well over a thousand, covering every angle without a single blind spot. Wei Yuan swept his gaze over the scene, somewhat puzzled. "What is this...?" "This is our first time digging up an immortal's ances... no, unsealing a predecessor immortal vault. Its significance is immense; we cannot let it go to waste so easily. So I asked Eldest Senior Sister to design this unsealing ritual to harness every bit of heaven and earth's subtle mysteries unlocked by the immortal remains' emergence. "In a moment, you will use these immortal swords, taking a bit of soil with each until you have used the last one. Tempered by such a momentous event, not only will these immortal swords advance a grade in quality, but they will also carry their own karmic destiny and symbolism. Their selling price will soar by dozens of times at least!" "Splendid!" Wei Yuan nodded at once. Yu Zhizhuo pointed again to the thousands of template Dao Foundations on the high terrace behind them. "These are all individuals of outstanding merit from the past three years; today's ritual is also part of their commendation. When the immortal vault unseals and glorious light erupts, go stand among them, and I'll record the moment with the shadow-recording orbs. "After this ritual, their destiny will receive a slight boost, and those with good fortune might even extend their path of Dao. What's more, an honor like this works better than any amount of Qingyuan, so we won't have to pay out Qing... cough, cough!" Wei Yuan understood implicitly and nodded. "Splendid!" There was another minor detail: by participating in this ritual, these thousands of cultivators were effectively sharing the karma of desecrating an immortal's ancestral grave with Wei Yuan. Though the share each shouldered was negligible—the greatest karmic weight had already been incurred the moment Wei Yuan slew Lu Changhe—it still lightened Wei Yuan's burden to some extent. Bearing this karma indeed allowed these cultivators to elevate their destiny, but their future risks would increase accordingly. Yet fortune and misfortune walked hand in hand; in cultivation across the world, who ever reaped without sowing? Yu Zhizhuo felt no moral burden whatsoever. Had they not seen how the Realm Lord himself had been toyed with by the heavenly tribulation just to break through? Not to mention that they were actually receiving benefits. And regarding this matter, after careful consideration, Wei Yuan had chosen to disclose it openly to these cultivators. In the end, after hearing it, not one among the thousands backed out. The appointed hour arrived, and the ritual began. Wei Yuan picked up an immortal sword, scooped up a handful of black soil, and scattered it into an adjacent freight box. This simple action caused the immortal skeleton to tremble violently as a beam of immortal light surged from deep underground, striking the immortal sword. A layer of flowing light instantly rippled across the immortal sword, crisscrossed by countless fractures. Yet under the suppression of the Heaven-Slaying Grand Formation, less than a hundredth of the immortal light's power remained, completely spent. The immortal sword weathered the blow; karmic destiny arose spontaneously, fractures knitted shut, and its essence leaped forward, jumping directly from a dharma-idol-grade low-rank magic treasure to a Scenery Command-grade low-rank spirit treasure! From this single leap alone, its value multiplied over a hundredfold. The effect was remarkably potent. Wei Yuan immediately picked up the second immortal sword and followed suit, refining it from a magic treasure into a Scenery Command spirit treasure as well. Wei Yuan inwardly marveled at how inexhaustible an immortal's legacy truly was; merely disturbing the ground atop an immortal's head could yield over a dozen spirit treasures. For the next several decades, Qingming would at least never lack swords. In truth, the imagery best suited for breaking ground was a shovel; if a shovel had been used, perhaps a mid-rank spirit treasure might have emerged from the dozen low-rank ones. But looking across the world's cultivators, swordsmen were in the overwhelming majority—swordsmen as thick as clouds. Holding a shovel would look utterly ridiculous; no one would have the face to preserve that in recordings for posterity. When the loose soil was completely cleared, the immortal skeleton emerged. A beam of immortal light a thousand zhang thick erupted skyward, while dark clouds gathered densely across the heavens, thunder rumbling faintly. The Great Dao of Heaven and Earth was furious at the transgression of a swarm of ants. At this moment, Wei Yuan attained a flicker of enlightenment. Had he been alone, the Heavenly Dao would not have been so enraged. After all, though not an immortal himself, he had already slain three immortals; in status, karmic luck, and destiny, he was equal to or greater than ordinary immortals. But with thousands of templates participating, things were different. In the eyes of the Heavenly Dao, immortals were nobility of celestial blood, while templates were lower than ants. For a swarm of ants to dare crawl atop a noble's head was a crime for which even having their bones ground to powder could not atone! In the past, Wei Yuan had not understood the Heavenly Dao very well. But now, standing amid the soaring immortal light, caught in the clash between the immortal remains' rancor and the Heavenly Dao's fury, Wei Yuan wiped away a wisp of the fog shrouding this realm's Heavenly Dao and caught a glimpse of its inner nature. At last, he understood the Heavenly Dao's current rage, as well as a reason why it had targeted him in the past. The reason could be summed up in a single sentence: The Heavenly Dao has constancy. What was constancy? The noble remain ever noble—that was constancy. Such was the Heavenly Dao of this realm.