Positioning

In the center of the illusion council hall within the Splendor of the Many Realms, an enormous panoramic map occupied most of the space. Surrounding it were numerous seats arranged at varying heights, distinct in size and magnificence. Wei Yuan naturally sat at the highest point, with Zhang Sheng level with him but positioned to the side. One tier below were Baoyun, Feng Tingyu, and Ji Liuli, as well as Feng Chutang—who oversaw qingyuan currency—True Monarch Chuhe, Yu Zhizhuo, Sun Yu, Xu Henshui, Xiaoyu, and others, each effectively in charge of their own domains. Cui Yu and his peers sat a tier lower due to junior seniority, as did Wang Hu, whose official responsibilities were less critical. At the very bottom sat Xu Shiba, Xu Wenwu, Xu Yi, and their cohort. Wei Yuan had never cared much for seating orders or status, but after the Martial Ancestor's restriction was broken, Feng Chutang had coordinated petitions from a large group of people, strongly urging Wei Yuan to formally define ranks, precedence, and social hierarchy. This was a matter of ritual order. Even if Wei Yuan did not care, the people of the realm did. Feng Chutang's reasoning was that the world had to clearly understand Qingming's hierarchy and organizational tiers, so as to facilitate communication. The phrase *facilitate communication* was so breezy and evasive, yet so thoroughly Feng Chutang. Under Feng Chutang's urging and near-coercion, Wei Yuan had no choice but to establish and enforce an official protocol: one centered on rank in the Three Realms Daoist Court, followed by offices held in Qingming, and lastly by generational seniority in Taichu Palace. The present seating arrangements and tiers of the assembled cultivators were the product of this system. This gathering was of great significance, its core objective being to determine how Qingming should respond in this chaotic world. The map in the center of the hall was densely covered with markings; the boundaries of every nation had shifted dramatically from a year ago. Southern Qi now occupied the entire northern half of the State of Ji, effectively having partitioned Ji with Li Zhi, and had even mobilized another army to strike Northern Qi. The State of Song had aligned with Northern Qi, dispatching a million troops to launch a flanking assault on Southern Qi while mobilizing five million able-bodied soldiers at home—a testament to its immense national power. The State of Zhao and the State of Wu were fully consumed—one staving off the Mountain Folk, the other battling the Sea Race—leaving neither with the strength to launch external campaigns. Across the realm, only the Three Jins remained relatively calm. This was primarily because Western Jin was already firmly in Wei Yuan's pocket, and that floating road in southern Eastern Jin was beginning to display its might—a terrifying weapon capable of ferrying an army of a million back and forth at will. Moreover, the floating road bifurcated Eastern Jin right down the middle; anyone wishing to attack Eastern Jin's royal capital would first have to breach Qingming's floating road. Yet whoever attacked the floating road had to be prepared to face a deluge of a million steel-clad troops barely a fortnight later. Somewhat ironically, the territory of the Tang dynasty remained entirely unchanged, as everyone simply ignored that plot of land. Standing at the edge of the map, Feng Chutang said, "Realm Lord, the mandate of the Tang dynasty is exhausted, and the world is plunged into turmoil. We must plan ahead and settle on our next course of action as soon as possible." A dark-brown stone the size of a tabletop materialized in Wei Yuan's hand. He said, "This is a boundary stone I just refined. It concentrates the surrounding Earth-element power, hardens rock formations, and yields more Earth-element spiritual items. After five years of nurturing, its domain can span a thousand li." Xiaoyu blurted out instinctively, "Another boundary stone? Impossible! How could it be so fast? It's barely been over a year!" Xiaoyu chimed in at just the right moment; whenever he was present, Wei Yuan was always willing to let meetings run a bit longer. Wei Yuan smiled faintly. "Counting the previous boundary stone, it actually took more than three years, all just to produce two commandery-grade boundary stones." Xiaoyu felt an urge to slap himself, even as shock overwhelmed him. The other cultivators were just as stunned. Once the Martial Ancestor's restriction fell, Wei Yuan had shared the heritage knowledge of ancient cultivators, allowing Taichu Palace's cultivators to understand just how difficult it was to refine a boundary stone. When the ancient cultivator Cang Xu refined his first two boundary stones, it took a combined seven hundred years. The first was exploratory and could be disregarded, but the second still took a hundred and ten years. Having displayed the new boundary stone, Wei Yuan said, "Now that we have boundary stones, we must expand outward. The non-human races slain during expansion will in turn grant us more boundary stones—a virtuous cycle. Therefore, I believe the first priority is determining our orientation: internal or external. "I propose looking outward. Refining boundary stones through karmic fortune alone is far too slow." The conclusion caught everyone by surprise, yet after thinking it through, they all nodded slowly. Regardless of their individual motives, they shared a common goal: the prosperity and strength of Qingming. In times of chaos, strength came before all else. Non-human races were indeed formidable adversaries, but with boundary stones in hand, conquering them yielded the highest returns. For instance, the Shaman domain could produce six harvests a year, yielding several times more grain than the human domain. The Liao domain possessed vast veins of gold and earth, with agricultural yields comparable to the human domain. The Mountain Folk held immense reserves of metallic ores along with abundant rare spiritual herbs and materials, though their food production was meager. However, if ores were traded for grain at current prices, the minerals from the Mountain domain could purchase a hundredfold in rations, making its yield the greatest of all. Qingming's initial rise had been built entirely on grain from the Shaman domain. With the direction of external expansion established, Wei Yuan said, "The nine kingdoms are embroiled in relentless civil strife, but we cannot simply sit by and watch. First, I intend to open our borders and take in all displaced refugees who reach Qingming, regardless of whether they are immortal or mortal, and regardless of background." Xu Henshui asked, "What if a flock of scoundrels and petty thieves turns up?" Wei Yuan replied, "Our laws are not decorative. That said, with massive influxes of people, a breakdown of order is inevitable. Let's do this—Wang Hu!" "*Eep—* Present!" Wei Yuan thought he had heard some bizarre sound, but his rebooting of the world beyond heaven had reached a crucial juncture, and he frequently witnessed bizarre visions from different spaces and times; a faint noise was nothing by comparison. Setting his confusion aside, Wei Yuan instructed, "Concentrate all newcomers in designated border cities, then recruit a constabulary of a hundred thousand, all drawn from disciples with clean backgrounds whose families possess meritorious service. You will command this constabulary, tasked specifically with managing the migrant population. The first step is teaching them to obey rules; the next is teaching them survival skills." "Understood!" Wang Hu replied in a booming, muffled voice. For some reason, Wei Yuan felt his gruff tone was a bit forced. As for settling displaced refugees, Qingming had been doing it for decades and already possessed a comprehensive protocol. No matter the newcomer's cultivation, from the frail and elderly to Scenery Command experts, everyone was handled systematically. Wei Yuan continued, "In times of chaos, many people are too frail to make the entire journey to Qingming on foot. Xiaoyu, set up more Three Realms Temples along major transit junctions outside Qingming, and dispatch cultivated disciples to oversee them. Keep them within five thousand li of Qingming. When large groups of refugees reach a Three Realms Temple, they can notify us if necessary, and we will send troops to escort them." Xiaoyu nodded and accepted the task. This fell squarely within his responsibilities under Reception and Wondrous Joy; the more people he brought in, the more power of prayers and karmic fortune he gathered, which was of immense benefit to his Dao path. Under this arrangement, as long as refugees made it within five thousand li of Qingming, making a wish at any Three Realms Temple—or having devout believers among their ranks—would send a message to Qingming, summoning troops for protection through the final stretch of the journey. With the refugee arrangements settled, Wei Yuan said, "Since we have resolved to expand our borders outward, the next questions are whom to fight and how to fight. I believe the focal point of this war is not land, but people." Throughout the chronicles of history, instances of towering champions emerging to reverse great tides and forge peerless achievements were countless—true of the human race, and true of non-human races as well. Therefore, the second task Wei Yuan assigned was to gather every scrap of intelligence on non-human figures of immortal tier, including Scenery Command prodigies of immense renown and potential. Many cultivators of Taichu Palace hailed from prominent clans. Even if they were not from the direct line of descent, their status within their families had soared over the years as Qingming grew in might. In the Cui family of Ji and Zhao, for instance, Cui Yu was far from the most gifted—indeed, two young prodigies with greater talent had emerged in the latest generation—yet he was now the undisputed, sole candidate for clan patriarch. Those with families gathered information from their clans; those with sect acquaintances sought intelligence from their sects; the Sixth Princess and Ningguo returned directly to the State of Zhao to comb through royal archives. Wei Yuan intended a two-pronged strategy: to analyze the records, identify the transcendent prodigies and peerless sovereigns among the non-human races, and strangle them in the cradle whenever possible. If one could not be smothered in infancy or had already matured, then Qingming would smash his forces head-on and cast him down from his pedestal. Secondly, Wei Yuan intended to do everything possible to whittle down their population. Every non-human was a natural boundary stone who contributed karmic fortune to their chieftains and Immortal Monarchs; the fewer there were, the better. Wei Yuan's approach to reducing non-human numbers focused on both extremes: executing leading geniuses at the top, and paring away the foundational masses at the bottom. As for the middle strata—neither capable fighters nor particularly bright, stuck uncomfortably in between—they were the easiest to deal with and demanded no special concern. Wei Yuan would not even need to trouble himself with ruling them; they would find their own positioning without anyone asking.