Upon his return, Wei Yuan immediately entered the collected data into the Splendor of the Many Realms to initiate a new round of research. He himself headed to the Lu Clan Ancestral Mountain to retrieve the immortal qi essence stored within the World-Refining Grand Array, along with a newly excavated immortal's arm bone.
A minor episode occurred during the visit: that consciousness lurking deep underground actually threatened Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan immediately clashed divine senses with it without the slightest courtesy, severely battering his opponent in a single stroke and beating it back down into the subterranean depths, where it dared not show its face again. Wei Yuan himself emerged completely unscathed. The so-called head-on clash merely meant that Wei Yuan formed a shield out of mortal karmic luck to block his opponent's blow, after which his opponent could only rely on its physical body to endure the counterattack, nearly having its soul extinguished by Wei Yuan's strike.
After retrieving the immortal resources and returning to Qingming, the preliminary research on the dead world was freshly completed within the Splendor of the Many Realms. One key treatise posited that Wei Yuan's experiment proved fundamental mortal karmic luck was indeed another manifestation of the world's origin.
That the seed to reboot the realm used mortal karmic luck as a foundation and only began to exhibit vitality once Liao karmic luck was added was not because that world favored the Liao Clan, but likely due to the diversity of karmic luck.
If Wei Yuan had used Shaman karmic luck instead of Liao karmic luck, it ought to yield the same result. The treatise inferred from this that the more varieties of karmic luck there were, the easier it would be for the world seed to germinate. Furthermore, combining different types of karmic luck should produce distinct undertones for the world seed. With only mortal karmic luck, it was too homogeneous to activate vitality.
The treatise's closing sentence stated that the probability of the above two conclusions holding true was seventy percent.
This seventy percent was based on mathematical calculation; the remaining thirty percent fell under the realm of metaphysics due to insufficient data, requiring Wei Yuan to verify it himself.
This, of course, was no obstacle for Wei Yuan. With a mere few hundred thousand mortal karmic luck, Wei Yuan pushed the probability above ninety percent. The remaining ten percent was no longer worth verifying.
Soon, however, another article caught Wei Yuan's attention. It came from a cultivator who specialized in Buddhist metaphysics. The author pointed out that judging purely by its vastness, that world possessed an exceedingly high status, and once fully rebooted, it might even surpass this realm.
Even if only a small portion of this world were rebooted, it would suffice to become an Unretrograde Ground in the Buddhist path, upon which Wei Yuan could attain Buddhahood.
Wei Yuan read this article carefully several times. Combining it with the Buddhist scriptures he had on hand as well as parts of the heritage he had acquired from King Buddha, he finally confirmed that one could indeed cultivate the Unretrograde Ground in that world. With this foundation, so long as heaven and earth were not destroyed, Wei Yuan's cultivation would never retrogress; he would achieve effortless practice, deliver beings at liberty, and surely attain true fruition.
Previously, when Wei Yuan established the orthodoxy of the Three Realms, the doctrinal tenets had not been fully complete. A core issue was: whence did Wei Yuan's own Buddha seat originate? Through what merits and actions could he attain Buddhahood?
Here, Wei Yuan had taken an expedient shortcut: relying on the seat of King Buddha, he first established the fundamental supreme seat, then opened up beneath it the two Bodhisattva seats of Battle and Reception, and below those, numerous Arhat seats. Yet if things continued to develop this way, the orthodoxy would ultimately belong to King Buddha, and Wei Yuan would merely return to King Buddha's seat.
Although King Buddha was Wei Yuan and Wei Yuan was King Buddha, Wei Yuan always felt there was some divergence between King Buddha's doctrines and his own. Now that he had the opportunity to attain the Unretrograde Ground, Wei Yuan could realize his own fruition through the supreme merit of rebooting heaven and earth. As for whether this fruition would ultimately belong to Buddhism or Daoism in the future, that was a matter for later.
The urgent priority now was to verify whether the diversity of karmic luck held true.
Wei Yuan took stock of his reserves and found that while he had plenty of Shaman Clan karmic luck, all of it was from Strength Shamans or higher—that was, dharma idol karmic luck. As had already been proven, a cultivator's karmic luck was ineffective in that other world, meaning the karmic luck from these Strength Shamans, and even Desolate Shamans, could not be used.
After a moment of thought, Wei Yuan went to the Desolate Realm.
The moment he stepped into the Desolate Realm, several beams of intense light shone upon him, followed by two tentacles reaching across thousands of li to wrap around him. Faced with Jiumu's fiery enthusiasm, Wei Yuan responded with an equally fiery Evil Sun Heavenly Pillar, instantly frightening Jiumu into a howl.
In the blink of an eye, Jiumu appeared before Wei Yuan, this time manifesting in its true form. Its entire body was a deep reddish-brown, several of its eyes crimson as well, and the surging fumes of alcohol swirled into a cyclone above its head.
A deep gash marked Jiumu's body, nearly severing one of its tentacles at the base. Yet what flowed from the wound was not blood, but liquor. Wei Yuan frowned. "Just how much did you drink?"
"Couldn't help it; couldn't resist! The liquor sent over this time was too delicious. But next time, could you just transport it straight over?"
Wei Yuan refused flatly. "Obviously not. How could I possess that kind of magic power?"
Chapter 1312