The infant slowly closed his eyes, and his spiritual awareness faded away. In the future, this Dao foundation would naturally generate spirituality anew, but that spirituality would not be the same, nor would it belong to a sentient being.
At that time, the spirituality of the Dao foundation would arise from the child's own soul, akin to an innate artifact spirit rather than something foreign.
Looking down at the sleeping child before him, Wei Yuan felt past memories of the King Buddha quietly stream through his heart.
Along his path, he had actually received immense help from the King Buddha. Even the fundamental systems and techniques for his Three Realms Dao path—establishing attainment ranks and bestowing blessings of Buddha power—had all originated from the King Buddha. Wei Yuan had originally assumed the King Buddha coveted this reincarnated vessel, so whenever he received any secret art, he had felt only wariness and no gratitude. But Wei Yuan never imagined the outcome had already been determined hundreds of years ago. In that case, it was a benevolence, not a transaction.
The King Buddha's scripture taught boundless love for the world, salvation for all creation, and instruction without distinction.
Calming his emotions, Wei Yuan pondered the first matter the King Buddha had spoken of. The buddhas of the Pure Land had originally been converting otherworldly realms, but then shifted to refining them. What was the crisis, and how had they converted them, then refined them?
What kind of dire peril could turn the buddhas against one another and cause the King Buddha to return to silence?
If all the buddhas were preoccupied with that matter, it was no wonder that when Wei Yuan blockaded the mountain gate of Baohua Pure Land back then, he had not seen a single buddha or Great Bodhisattva.
Still, there was another possibility. At the time, Wei Yuan had wielded one hundred million points of human luck. Anyone who dared strike him would face the backlash of the Heavenly Dao. Even a buddha or Great Bodhisattva risked having their attainment rank damaged or corrupted.
Given that the buddhas of the Pure Land cultivated only themselves, sending out a single Great Bodhisattva might have driven Wei Yuan away, yet in the end, not one had shown their face—not even Boundless Bright Light had appeared.
With a quiet sigh, Wei Yuan called Baoyun inside and said, "He can be nursed normally from now on."
Baoyun asked, "What happened?"
"Nothing. I just met an old acquaintance, which stirred up a few feelings."
Baoyun said gently, "Don't weigh your heart down too much. You don't have to carry every burden on your own shoulders. Now that we have this child, once he grows up, he can help share the load."
"Mhm, all right." Wei Yuan nodded, then spent an hour saying his farewells to Baoyun.
As soon as he stepped out the courtyard gate, Wei Yuan received a message: the Tang dynasty had issued an imperial decree to the realm, granting Princess Wancheng in marriage to Li Zhi, the Military Commissioner of Zhenshan.
Princess Wancheng? The name struck Wei Yuan as somewhat familiar. After a moment's thought, he recalled that Zhou Houli, the Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Entertainments, had once mentioned this princess when conveying an oral imperial decree, intending at the time to betroth her to Wei Yuan. How much time had passed since then, and how had the princess ended up promised to Li Zhi?
A princess's marriage was no trifling matter; the ceremonial preparations alone took over a year. By that timeline, when the oral decree had been delivered to Wei Yuan, the betrothal process must have already been nearly complete. This went to show just how unreliable Emperor Zhao was.
Wei Yuan muttered several complaints in his heart. After all, the princesses of the Great Tang imperial clan were rumored to possess extraordinary beauty. Among the Great Tang's line of monarchs, Martial Ancestor had possessed a countenance as fine as jade and a magnificent bearing. His imperial harem had been chosen with exquisite care, so the princesses descended from him could hardly look bad.
It was a minor matter. Li Zhi probably wanted to marry a princess to take another step upward. Though serving as an official of the Great Tang seemed pointless to Wei Yuan, in the eyes of the majority, the Great Tang remained the sovereign of all under heaven, and holding imperial office inherently carried legitimate authority.
The four southern commanderies of the State of Ji had been in Li Zhi's hands for years now, and under his capable management, they had taken on an entirely new look, thriving with prosperity.
Over the years, Li Zhi had modeled himself after the benevolent rulers and enlightened monarchs of antiquity, lightening taxes and corvée, inviting open counsel, and recruiting numerous scholars into officialdom.
Moreover, he lived frugally in his daily life, frequently sharing meals and quarters with his officers and soldiers, genuinely winning considerable devotion.
In addition, taking cues from Qingming, Li Zhi had established two major institutions—the Bureau of Weaving and the Bureau of Weapon Forging—to oversee civilian livelihood and military-industrial enterprises respectively. The two bureaus had constructed multiple workshops across various regions, successfully replicating flying sword guns, and steadily increased their output of black powder.
The simple forging and pressing machines from the first two generations of Qingming's Weaponsmith Workshop had been powered by Body Casting cultivators, and thus designs had spread far and wide by now. Li Zhi copied them on a large scale. Now, the armor industry of the Zhenshan Fief was flourishing, producing armor that not only satisfied their own needs, but also allowed substantial shipments to Southern Qi.
Li Zhi had made it blatantly clear that he intended to permanently hold the four southern commanderies of Ji. The King of Ji had sent troops to attack multiple times, yet failed every single time, suffering heavy losses in officers and men.
Later, persuaded by Sun Chao'en, the King of Ji had no choice but to cease hostilities, first reforming his military system, adopting Qingming armaments, and forging a new army in hopes of driving Li Zhi out of the State of Ji in one fell swoop.
In response, Li Zhi simply relocated the Military Commissioner's office directly to Southern Ji.
At this moment, the Military Commissioner's office was decked with lanterns and banners, with double-happiness characters pasted everywhere. The princess's imperial carriage had arrived that morning, and she had retired to her lodging to rest.
The grand wedding was set for ten days later. Across his entire domain, celebrations had already erupted for the ten-day period, allowing Li Zhi to harvest a surge of karmic luck.
Preparations for the grand wedding proceeded at a feverish pace, but Li Zhi left every detail to his subordinates, working day and night on official business. Even after the princess arrived, he did not seek an audience, spending the entire day listening to reports on land reclamation instead.
Only in the dead of night did Li Zhi finally return to his residence. Just as he prepared to meditate and rest, he suddenly sensed an irregularity in his surroundings. Inside his own mansion, Li Zhi had inexplicably fallen into someone else's heartscape realm.
Lantern light flared in Li Zhi's bedchamber. Sitting upright on the bed was a stunning woman in palace attire. Confident in his cultivation and bearing a treasured relic of the Academy, Li Zhi had no fear of ordinary Scenery Command cultivators. Walking straight into the bedchamber, he demanded in a deep voice, "Which master graces me with a visit? Please forgive Li for failing to receive you properly."
The woman gave a soft laugh and said, "I'm no master. I am the person who is about to marry you."
Li Zhi hesitated for a moment before bowing low. "Greetings, Princess!"
Princess Wancheng rose and stepped toward Li Zhi, stopping right before him.
A pair of jade-white bare feet appeared before Li Zhi's eyes. As he slowly raised his head, his gaze took in slender calves, thighs, and—
All of her garments lay strewn along the path she had walked.
Princess Wancheng smiled faintly, using the tip of her toe to lift Li Zhi's chin. "No need to be nervous. I didn't come here for anything special tonight—I just wanted to taste you first—"
Early the next morning, before the sky was fully light, Li Zhi had already entered the Hall of Government Affairs at the Military Commissioner's office to begin his day's work.
The very first official dispatch stoked his fury: the smelting furnaces copied from Qingming consistently failed to produce molten steel of acceptable quality. Experienced veteran blacksmiths analyzed the failure, concluding that first, the furnace temperature was insufficient, and second, there were too many impurities in the molten steel.
An insufficient furnace temperature could be elevated by deploying fire-element cultivators, but the blacksmiths were utterly helpless when it came to unstable impurities. It was said that Qingming possessed a complete method for purifying molten steel, but the underlying principles were so complex that no one could master them.
In Li Zhi's eyes, the furnace temperature was a major problem as well. While bringing in fire-element Dao foundations could resolve it, this was not about forging an immortal sword; it was about mass-producing the specialized steel required for high-grade sabers, swords, and armor used by Body Casting soldiers. In the entire Zhenshan Fief, the fire-element Dao foundations numbered fewer than a hundred combined; even mobilizing every single one of them would not be enough.
Without sufficient high-grade steel, the production of weapons and armor was bottlenecked. Moreover, if they could not overcome the hurdle of materials, their yield rate for self-manufactured advanced firearms would plummet.
Li Zhi had never imagined that his grand design to replicate Qingming's Weaponsmith Workshop would get snagged not on firearm design, nor on flying sword forging, but on plain steel.
And steel was merely the simplest of materials. The artillery, firearms, and even various production equipment and components produced by Qingming incorporated many materials never seen before; attempting to copy those was an outright impossibility.
If they relied solely on ordinary steel, the manufactured firearms frequently suffered catastrophic barrel bursts. Frontline soldiers had even begun refusing shipments and relentlessly submitted memorials impeaching the officials in the rear.
Li Zhi had arrested over a hundred corrupt officials and severed dozens of heads, but it made no difference. Heat after heat of molten steel came out, and whatever was substandard remained substandard.
Finishing the dispatch, Li Zhi was consumed by rage. Slapping the desk with a heavy thud, he roared, "This fails, that fails! How long has it been? How much immortal silver has been spent? How many heats have been smelted without a single acceptable batch! Steel! It's just steel! I didn't ask you to smelt any bizarre, otherworldly materials! You can't even produce materials meant for mortals—what use do I have for you useless fools!"
The gathered civil officials and military generals did not dare make a sound, much less look at Li Zhi's ashen, livid face.
Nevertheless, Li Zhi aspired to become a Sovereign of Man. Forcing down his fury, he drew a deep breath and unconsciously began rubbing his fingers together. Whenever he made this gesture, blood was about to spill.
A general stepped forward and reported, "The new army has completed baseline training, and we now require weapons for coordinated drills. Firearms are not like sabers and swords; soldiers must be trained in their operation. If we wait for our own production, we will run out of time. This subordinate suggests purchasing them from Qingming."
Another civil official said coldly, "We expanded the army by a million men. The silver in our territory was exhausted long ago, and the treasury is empty. What will we use to buy from Qingming?"
Another veteran minister chimed in, "I have an idea that might resolve our pressing dilemma. While our arms are insufficient, our opponent is not an elite force of the realm like Qingming. As long as we procure sufficient quantities of key equipment—such as artillery—we can make up for the bulk of our military disparity."
The general frowned and said, "Buying only cannons won't be enough!"
"We just need to purchase fewer shells. We can allocate three shells to each cannon for now. Blanketing them with several thousand shells will guarantee victory in our opening engagement. We can slowly figure out how to manufacture the shells ourselves later."
Left with no other choice, Li Zhi said, "So be it!"
Chapter 1352