The flying boat slowly crossed the vast, boundless land, moving at no great speed. Wei Yuan extended his divine sense to its limit, spanning a radius of several hundred li. All data swept by his divine sense was automatically stored into the Splendor of the Many Realms.
Scanning across hundreds of li was extraordinarily demanding; Wei Yuan had to deploy more than twenty thousand strands of divine intent just to barely meet the requirements of the task.
Meanwhile, the Golden Core cultivators brought out smooth, mirror-like crystal plates and set them up along both sides of the vessel. Working in groups of several, they jointly operated each plate. Batu could only tell that the plates were continuously emitting light waves invisible to the naked eye, projecting downward onto the earth below.
These crystal plates had different purposes and gathered different sets of data. The Golden Core cultivators likewise fed the detected leyline data into the Splendor of the Many Realms, allowing it to be cross-referenced and calibrated against the data Wei Yuan collected in the future.
Everywhere the flying boat passed, all manner of data was recorded. Once it had flown from west to east, it would veer north and fly back from east to west. In this manner, like a blackboard eraser, it wiped away strip after strip of the mist shrouding the land.
Wei Yuan intended to scan the entirety of the Three Rivers Khanate's territory to locate every valuable resource possible. That way, once the Liao Clan finished dealing with their catastrophe, and before Silver Moon went back on his word, Wei Yuan would be able to strip the land bare for hundreds of li, extracting everything that could be mined and leaving Silver Moon with nothing but a barren wasteland.
Flying from west to east and advancing northward layer by layer, the flying boat soon arrived at a snow mountain pass. Below, soldiers were visibly stationed at the pass, blocking the route between north and south. As the vessel drew near, the checkpoint sent up signals warning that none were permitted through the pass on pain of death.
Wei Yuan paid them no heed. Instead, he looked at Batu and asked, "What is the meaning of this?"
Squeezing out a smile, Batu said, "The men below must not have received Dunyan's orders yet, so they don't recognize Your Excellency's flying boat. How about we head back first, and I'll make a trip in person to have Dunyan come and apologize to you?"
Wei Yuan said flatly, "No need. We are crossing directly. If the garrison fails to show proper deference, you will take action, won't you?"
Batu opened his mouth, then managed a bitter smile. "That is this old servant's duty."
"Very well." At Wei Yuan's command, rather than climbing higher, the flying boat lowered its altitude and flew straight over the checkpoint.
The Liao general guarding the pass below was furious. Seizing a great bow beside him, he nocked an arrow and, with a guttural grunt, drew the bow to full bend, aiming at the flying boat in the sky. At that very moment, a spear plummeted from the heavens, plunging straight through the crown of his head and emerging from beneath him, pinning him to the fortress wall! In Wei Yuan's hand was a sheet of jade paper. With a gentle flick, it unraveled into countless jade threads that rained down upon the pass. Mid-descent, every thread transformed into a spear that whistled through the air, instantly pinning every defender on the pass to the ground!
The thousand-odd defenders on the pass turned into wandering souls in an instant, swept by Wei Yuan into the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven. In just a single day, they would be converted into new human souls. Wei Yuan casually tallied the count: out of more than a thousand Liao troops, only fifty or so souls had been lost.
Wei Yuan smiled faintly and said to Batu, "It seems there was no need for you to step in after all, saving you any awkwardness."
Batu said hastily, "Not at all, not at all! Your Excellency need only command!"
He too was in Scenery Command; a single sweep of divine intent told him that not a shred of life remained in the checkpoint below. A chill crept through Batu's heart. Forcing a smile, he secretly resolved to strike first next time—at least that way, a few survivors might slip through his fingers.
The flying boat passed through the mountain pass, and the vista suddenly opened wide, revealing a prairie that resembled a sea of green. Small white and yellow flowers bloomed across the grassland, where herds of cattle and sheep roamed at leisure. Yet these beasts were colossal, rivaling the fierce elephants of ordinary worlds. The grass they grazed on stood half the height of a man; bundle after bundle was curled into their mouths by long tongues, crunching crisply as they chewed. Scattered across the grassland were pristine white tents with rounded domes sloping outwards on four sides, reminiscent of the yurts of other worlds. Around the tents, Liao people dressed as herders could be seen: some blew whistles on high ground to summon distant herd dogs; some drew water by the river to fill troughs for their horses; others held out their arms, training falcons to fly back and forth. Along the riverbank, children chased each other in play, while women washed clothes, their wooden paddles rising and falling with rhythmic thumps. Wei Yuan ordered the vessel to sweep back and forth from east to west just as it had south of the mountains, not missing a single inch of land.
Once the boat was underway, Wei Yuan said to Batu, "You should understand that this land was not gained through negotiation; it was won by my own hand."
Batu's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly replied, "The Realm Lord's divine might is unrivaled, ever victorious in battle!"
Wei Yuan chuckled. "What I mean is to tell you that to secure this land, your Liao Clan did not escape without casualties. Quite the opposite—an enormous number died, only they were not your people. However, if anyone insists on losing more lives, I will gladly accommodate them."
Cold sweat broke out across Batu's brow, and he stammered that he would never dare.
The flying boat continued forward. Reaching a certain spot, Wei Yuan suddenly ordered the vessel to halt and descend. Once on the ground, a wisp of sword qi appeared in Wei Yuan's hand. With a gentle flick of his fingers, the sword qi sank into the earth, leaving behind only a small hole.
Batu mustered his courage and quietly probed with his divine intent, but he could not find the bottom! Shaken once more, he dared not make another move.
Wei Yuan looked at the small hole, paused in thought, and then said, "Dig down five hundred zhang. There is a leyline there; bring up some samples for inspection."
The cultivators of Qingming accepted the order and immediately set to work. They hauled equipment down from the vessel and poured a liquid into the hole Wei Yuan had pierced with his flying sword. After a moment, once the liquid explosive had all been injected, a Golden Core cultivator detonated it with Dao power. A deafening roar shook the earth, and mud and soil shot a hundred zhang into the air!
Once the blast had widened the opening sufficiently, the Golden Core cultivators began drilling, coupling drill rods section by section as they bored deeper and deeper.
Wei Yuan waited patiently, while Batu stared wide-eyed, taking in every single detail.
In just two shichen, two Golden Core cultivators returned carrying a core of mixed rock and soil several tens of zhang long, having successfully extracted the leyline sample Wei Yuan requested.
Scanning it with divine intent, Wei Yuan discovered that while this leyline held numerous minerals including several rare varieties, their purity and grade were distinctly lower than in a typical leyline convergence point. Forming a conjecture in his mind, Wei Yuan ordered the sample stored away for further study once they returned.
When the flying boat took to the air again, Wei Yuan asked Batu, "Has this region produced any great figures in its history?"
"It once produced three Immortals! One of them, Tuosimole, even attained the rank of Supreme Dharma King within the Esoteric Sect!" At this mention, Batu's face beamed with pride. Having obtained Hongmo, the Esoteric Sect held no secrets from Wei Yuan, who knew that a so-called Supreme Dharma King was an Immortal Lord.
"And after becoming a Supreme Dharma King?"
Batu was taken aback. "How could this old servant know? But it is said Dharma King Mole later traveled beyond the heavens, and after that, nothing more is known."
"When did this take place?"
"Roughly eighty thousand years ago."
Wei Yuan continued, "Were there any more Immortals here after that?"
Batu smiled wryly. "How could an Immortal be so easily born? After Dharma King Mole, not a single one has ever appeared here again. Some say the Dharma King gathered the wisdom of all the tribes on this land spanning a hundred thousand years past and a hundred thousand years future to attain such grand achievement. If another Immortal is to emerge here, we will have to wait another twenty thousand years."
Wei Yuan asked no further, letting the flying boat proceed.
Two days later, the flying boat had surveyed every part of the Three Rivers Khanate's territory. During that time, Wei Yuan had taken samples from two additional locations. By now, the entire several thousand li of the Three Rivers Khanate's land was laid bare in Wei Yuan's mind.
Bisected by the snow mountains, this domain was actually quite fertile, lacking neither mineral veins nor water sources. Its leylines were dense and crisscrossed in an intricate web, making it a place of exceptional geomancy that normally could support at least two resident Immortals.
Yet after prospecting, he found that the leylines here, though numerous, were not substantial, their essence thin and sparse. Though precious qualities remained, they were scattered rather than concentrated, and their total volume was dismal. To describe it, it was like chewed sugarcane bagasse—still retaining a hint of sweetness, but hardly worth putting in one's mouth again.
According to Batu, Tuosimole had attained the Dao here and later became an Immortal Lord, but the foundation of his enlightenment had remained rooted in this land. After becoming an Immortal Lord, he had likely chosen to transcend his fruition and venture beyond the heavens to explore, never to return.
After Dharma King Mole ascended, the spiritual vitality of this place had been entirely drained away, leaving behind a land that appeared fertile on the surface, but was thoroughly rotten at its core. The Three Rivers Khanate had been so thoroughly depleted that eighty thousand years later, not a second Immortal could be born; it had barely managed to produce two late Scenery Command cultivators, one south of the mountains and one north.
This was likely what Silver Moon had wanted Wei Yuan to see by giving up this territory.
Wei Yuan suddenly began to understand why the Martial Ancestor had slain Immortal Lords and barred any new Immortal Lords in the mortal realm back then.
Chapter 1302