The Scenery Command cultivators of Northern Liao had already fled. Having just walked the line between life and death, Xiaoyu closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he still found the two bald heads glaringly offensive.
The descending Buddhist light held terrifying might, nearly doubling Xiaoyu's strength under its blessing. Xiaoyu could sense that this Buddhist light came directly from Wei Yuan. The blessing bestowed upon him was far greater than Tuoba Hong's; after all, Tuoba Hong was separated by a layer, having the Victorious Fighting Buddha above him.
Were it not for the two bald heads being so blinding, Xiaoyu felt he wouldn't mind accepting the title of Victorious Fighting Buddha. The name sounded quite fitting for his temperament; when he went on to slaughter across the three spheres and six realms in the future, he could even tack on an extra wondrous honorific.
Yet the two bald heads simply stood there, stiff-faced and hollow-eyed, wearing the expressions of mere message-relaying machines, which ruined every shred of Xiaoyu's good mood.
Unable to chase the two monks away, he expressionlessly flew straight back to the fortress.
The three Scenery Command generals of Northern Liao had retreated in defeat to their respective armies, using military aura as cover while seeking an opportunity to strike another fatal blow. However, the fortress's style of fighting completely defied their past experience. When the Northern Liao iron cavalry withdrew, the warriors inside the fortress did not charge out to pursue; instead, they pursued with artillery shells.
Ever since the battle began, hundreds of heavy cannons had fired without a single pause, occasionally even shelling open clearings deliberately left within the defensive positions. Most Northern Liao cavalry would assemble there, only to be wiped out by a single salvo.
By the time Northern Liao could bear it no longer and began to pull back, the Qingming heavy artillery continued to roar, pounding the retreating cavalry all the way, quickly turning an orderly withdrawal into a rout.
In this single stretch, the Northern Liao cavalry retreated fifty li in one breath before finally gauging the range of Qingming's heavy cannons.
By the time the last heavy cannon ceased its roar, the battlefield was strewn with Northern Liao corpses. Channeling his divine sense through the two Arhat disciples, Wei Yuan swept across a hundred-li radius and learned the approximate casualties: thirty-six thousand Northern Liao dead, and eight hundred Qingming casualties.
The invading Northern Liao cavalry numbered three hundred thousand in total. To have more than ten percent killed outright in a single engagement, alongside countless wounded, was unequivocally a crushing, crippling defeat.
Wei Yuan gained another harvest as well. At this moment, the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven was bustling with activity. Countless souls emerged from the black pool beneath the Gate of the Many Realms, trudging toward the towering Underworld Palace in the distance under the prodding of ghost soldiers.
These souls were much taller and sturdier than those of ordinary mortals, and every now and then, one would bolt from the ranks in an attempt to escape.
These souls had been transformed from fallen Liao Clan iron cavalry. Naturally robust, some had even retained fragments of their memories from life. But the ghost soldiers of the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven showed no mercy, directly annihilating any soul whose original awareness had not been erased. Once extinguished, the souls dissolved into specks of invisible light and flew back into the Gate of the Many Realms.
After registering at the Underworld Palace, these souls would develop new sentience. Most would become living beings within the Splendor of the Many Realms, while a small portion would reincarnate into Qingming's people. With Qingming's vast population today, many women conceived every day, providing ample vessels for the newly born souls. Children born this way were naturally gifted from birth.
This battle had also proven an important principle: wherever someone blessed with a fruition was located, the power of the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven would extend there. If deaths occurred in the surrounding area, their souls had a chance to be guided into the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven.
In this battle, because Wei Yuan had personally projected Buddhist power from the Sea of Bitterness, directly blessing Xiaoyu with a Bodhisattva fruition, the guiding power of the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven had been extraordinarily potent, sweeping up tens of thousands of Northern Liao cavalry souls in a single net.
Such remarkable efficacy elevated the importance of the Sea of Bitterness even further. Wei Yuan pulled out an official document from long ago, reviewed it once more, and then approved an additional appropriation of Qingyuan.
In the south of Yong'an in Qingming, inside a somewhat dated and worn compound, stood three buildings—one main structure flanked by two wings.
Those entering and exiting were mostly templates and Gold Cores. Many wore hats, taking them off only after stepping through the courtyard gate and placing them in a communal hat room.
Having put away their hats, the cultivators would enter the main building, greeted immediately by a seated statue of Wei Yuan! Before the statue stood an incense table and a blue lamp, with fragrant smoke curling lazily from a bronze cauldron.
A man of striking features wearing a monocle had just finished kowtowing before the statue. As he held three sticks of pure incense to offer them up, he saw someone rushing in frantically, shouting, "Director! Director!"
The man before the statue placed the incense into the burner, turned around, and said displeasedly, "What is causing such a panic? How utterly unpresentable. And how many times must I emphasize it? During working hours, address me as Abbot!"
"Yes, Abbot! We just received directives from the Immortal City—they've handed us a major project this time!"
Though the abbot appeared only in his early thirties, he carried himself with composure and poise. He snorted. "Working yourself into such a state over a single new project. It's not as if we haven't done Arhats before, and there will only be more in the future. There is no need to make a fuss."
"No, this time is different, truly different—"
"If you don't get to the point, your salary for this month will be docked entirely!" the abbot snapped sternly.
The visitor gulped and said, "It really is different—this time, we have to design a Bodhisattva!"
The fury that had been about to erupt from the abbot vanished instantly, his voice trembling: "A Bodhisattva?"
"Yes, a Bodhisattva! The allocated research funding is more than all our past budgets combined!"
The abbot immediately strode toward the upper floor, shouting orders as he hurried along: "Cancel all leaves for everyone! Starting right now, implement an eight-shichen workday! Also, put out recruitment notices—hire at least ten, no, twenty Gold Cores! The more templates, the better, but they must have published papers in top-tier or first-tier journals! We don't take deadweight anymore!"
Taking notes as he kept pace, the man said, "Though the Bodhisattva we're supposed to research this time has a rather... peculiar flavor to it. Look at the designated title: Guiding Wonderful Joy Bodhisattva—"
The abbot swung his arm with immense vigor and grandeur. "This is a tremendous opportunity; we absolutely cannot let it slip! Even if it were the Guiding Great Ecstasy Bodhisattva, we would still make it for them!"
Moments later, the alarms blared, and the entire aging compound erupted into a frenzy, radiating unprecedented vitality.
Toward dusk, the slanting sunlight fell across the plaque at the compound's entrance, coating it in a layer of golden red and infusing it with vibrant vitality: [Qingming Three Realms Fruition Research Institute].
Wei Yuan had a deep impression of this research institute. The primary design framework for the fruition of Arhat Duowen Xiting, one of the two great Arhats, had originated right here.
They had also undertaken the design work for multiple Vajras and mighty warriors, having already delivered the designs for one Vajra and three types of mighty warriors, proving exceptionally efficient.
The director of the Fruition Research Institute was named Zhang Jingshan, who had previously cultivated in the Pure Land under the dharma name Jingshan. In the Pure Land, there were eight to ten thousand monks bearing this same dharma name; had he been within the Baohua Pure Land, a Jingshan would undeniably be a great Bodhisattva of golden form.
Unfortunately, at the time, this Zhang Jingshan had been nothing more than an itinerant monk staying at an unaffiliated minor temple, never managing to secure an official ordination register.
Chapter 1278