"Refining of the Hall of Dao Soldiers is complete. Commencing integrity check—check passed. Commencing reliability check for sub-project functions—check passed. Preparing to initialize..."
Accompanied by a series of gentle notification chimes, each sub-function of the Hall of Dao Soldiers completed its diagnostic sweep, successfully integrating into the Qingming boundary stone and linking with the Dao Court of the Three Realms.
Wei Yuan was presently setting out to forge the Pure Land grotto-heaven into the headquarters of the Dao Court of the Three Realms. The place already possessed a projection of the King Buddha and the permanent residence of the Flesh Buddha, joined by the Red Lotus Bodhi; its status had already reached the upper threshold. To advance a step further would mean shifting from illusion to reality, manifesting directly in immortal heaven.
The connection of the Hall of Dao Soldiers to the Pure Land gave another boost to the grotto-heaven's status. Now, with a mere thought from Wei Yuan, the Pure Land grotto-heaven could potentially manifest independently within immortal heaven—a localized ascension to immortality.
Unfortunately, if the Pure Land grotto-heaven truly manifested, the Great Sun Tathagata would likely cross realms in an instant and strike downward with a single crushing palm. Wei Yuan had no intention of squaring off against the Buddha just yet, so he put that matter aside for the time being.
With the Hall of Dao Soldiers successfully activated and all functions verified, Wei Yuan set off for the world beyond the heavens.
After absorbing the colored sand left by the mysterious woman alongside tens of thousands of grains of grey sand, the world beyond the heavens had expanded once more. The region materialized into tangible substance was now a multifaceted prism a hundred fathoms across, surrounded by a core domain spanning several hundred li. Within this domain, the Leaf of the Great Dao could project its power without restraint, suppressing abominations and other foes.
Further outward, the span of several thousand li served as the marginal zone—the perimeter within which the Leaf of the Great Dao could draw upon primal chaos qi. After the previous bitter battle, Wei Yuan had relied on his own might to slay tens of thousands of abominations, multiplying this area's diameter several times over and increasing its efficiency in absorbing primal chaos qi dozens of times.
Now that the Hall of Dao Soldiers was refined, it was time to forge puppet dharma bodies.
Wei Yuan gathered a clump of soil of vitality from the ground, blended in grey sand, merit, karmic luck, and heaven-and-earth origin qi, and then channeled the power of the Evil Sun Heavenly Pillar. Opening his mouth, he blew out a wisp of yang fire and began refining the soil.
Yet he had only blown a few breaths when the Central Spirit Mansion suddenly shuddered, taking the place of the Evil Sun Heavenly Pillar. The breath Wei Yuan exhaled transformed into black and white twin qi, causing the refining speed to skyrocket!
A moment later, a humanoid puppet stood before him. It gleamed with a multitude of colors like colored glaze, shifting with vibrant radiance; one look made it obvious that it was of extraordinary quality.
Looking at this colorful puppet, Wei Yuan felt both shock and delight. He had previously crafted a batch of puppets, but every one of them had been forged using the fire of the Evil Sun Heavenly Pillar, leaving them pitch-black like charcoal dolls.
The puppet before him was plainly of a far higher grade—not only in its enhanced might, but also in its striking appearance. The yin-yang twin qi of the Central Spirit Mansion was nothing short of miraculous when applied to crafting dharma bodies. Memorizing the method, Wei Yuan tried again, and sure enough, the Central Spirit Mansion responded. Black and white qi puffed from his nostrils—black from the left, white from the right.
Wei Yuan now had one colored dharma body and thirty-six black dharma bodies, but the quantity was still far from enough. Yet within the Splendor of the Many Realms, there were only several dozen individuals who had reached Scenery Command or perfected their Dharma Idols; even if he forged more black dharma bodies, he would not find enough people to pilot them. Letting an early Dharma Idol cultivator control a puppet on the verge of Dharma Idol perfection was like hitching a pony to a heavy wagon. It could overturn at any moment, and the strain placed on the cultivator's divine intent was colossal—they would not last long under that burden.
Considering the actual strength of the beings in the Splendor of the Many Realms, Wei Yuan shaped another batch of blanks. This time he used less merit, reduced the karmic luck substantially, and employed Lunar Fire.
While Lunar Fire was insufficiently potent for artifact forging and resulted in slow progress, its advantage lay in dramatically increasing the success rate for the same expenditure—which, viewed from another angle, meant an immense reduction in costs.
To forge an identical puppet, refining it with yin-yang twin qi cost ten times as much as using Lunar Fire. Since Wei Yuan needed a batch of lower-grade puppets suited for entry-level Dharma Idol strength, Lunar Fire was the ideal choice.
In the blink of an eye, over ten days passed. Wei Yuan forged an additional seventy-two dharma bodies. These were light grey, visibly inferior to the black dharma bodies. However, the combined cost of all seventy-two was only half of what thirty-six black dharma bodies consumed, yet their collective combat power was roughly equivalent.
With all preparations complete, all that was lacking was an east wind.
On that day, an unprecedented endeavor was announced within the Splendor of the Many Realms, bearing the title: Creation Expedition.
Wei Yuan had originally intended to name it *Immortal Venerable Genesis* or *Chronicle of Emperor Yuan Splitting the Heavens*, but the titles were so utterly shameless that even his thick skin could not endure them, leaving him no choice but to abandon the idea.
The Creation Expedition was housed in a magnificent hall built in three tiers. The lowest level held seventy-two quiet chambers, the middle level held thirty-six, and the top level held only one.
Participants were required to enter a quiet chamber, refine a suit of full-body armor according to a designated art, don it upon completion, and sit in meditation. Doing so allowed them to enter the Expedition World.
Once inside the Expedition World, each person descended into a dharma body, which they would pilot to confront the foes beyond the heavens.
Such a thing had never been heard of before. The cultivators within the Splendor of the Many Realms had long been bored out of their minds, and they flocked to the opportunity like moths to a flame.
Yet the first batch had only one hundred and eight slots, divided into thirty-six Heavenly Spirit and seventy-two Earthly Fiend dharma bodies. To qualify for a Heavenly Spirit dharma body, one had to have perfected their Dharma Idol; for an Earthly Fiend dharma body, reaching the Dharma Idol realm sufficed. With so few spots available, competition grew so fierce that heads were bruised and blood flowed, giving birth to a host of new grudges—and thus, a jianghu came into being.
After everyone had fought tooth and nail, Jun Weizhi weighed all factors, drew up a roster, and submitted it to Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan cared little about the particulars of the list so long as the numbers were filled, and he approved it directly.
Once granted approval by the Creation Immortal Venerable, the chosen first batch of one hundred and eight cultivators stepped into the Expedition Hall, embarking on their careers of repelling enemies beyond the heavens.
The moment they entered the dharma bodies, they found the world transformed before their eyes. They could perceive the outer world through the dharma bodies, practically identical to legendary external avatars. What appeared before them was a realm entirely unlike anything they knew: they stood upon a lone patch of solid ground, surrounded entirely by void. There was not a trace of mist, not a wisp of cloud—only great stars suspended across the sky.
Some of these celestial bodies gleamed with cold white radiance, while others showed a dull red glow. Further away, a cluster of three to five blue-green stars huddled together, their faint, shimmering lights reminiscent of fishermen's lanterns glimpsed across a vast expanse of water. The distances separating star from star were immeasurably vast, congealing into a stillness so profound that even the descent of starlight seemed sluggish.
This sight of primordial world creation left the unsophisticated earth-bound cultivators utterly dumbfounded.
Since their dharma bodies were refined by Wei Yuan, things they were not meant to see naturally remained hidden from their sight.
At that moment, a prompt echoed in their ears:
"The divine abilities and Dao arts for each dharma body have been distributed. Please master the use of your respective dharma bodies without delay. Foes from beyond the heavens will arrive shortly. Your mission is to assist the four Innate Holy Spirits in driving back the assault of the otherworldly enemies. The more you slay, the greater your merits and the richer your rewards. Intelligence regarding the otherworldly enemies has been issued—please review it at once!"
The voice was indescribably sweet and enchanting, carrying an almost magical pull that compelled anyone who heard it to follow its instructions unconsciously.
Out of the hundred-plus cultivators, practically all of them were instantly enthralled by the prompt. Only Jun Weizhi, Han Li, and Fuyao managed to barely resist. Dugu Cangqiong wore an expression of sheer intoxication, swearing oaths that he would stop at nothing to make the acquaintance of this mysterious female cultivator.
The prompt's striking effect was well within Wei Yuan's expectations. After all, he had used the voice of Boundless Radiance, simulating her divine ability through his own status. Although it lacked the full might of the original, imitating twenty or thirty percent of its charm was well within his reach.
Once the cultivators were ready, Wei Yuan activated the Leaf of the Great Dao, shining its light into the primal chaos to spawn a wave of abominations. The prompt sounded once more, dividing the cultivators into four squads, each following one of the Holy Spirits out to slay the enemy.
Fighting through a dharma body was entirely different from a cultivator's ordinary combat; the available Dao arts and divine abilities were completely altered. Fortunately, the first batch of cultivators were all one-in-ten-thousand talents, and after a few exchanges, they grew adept. Although the abominations were slightly stronger than the Earthly Fiend-grade dharma bodies, the cultivators employed their various skills and cooperated with one another, gradually seizing the upper hand.
Though Wei Yuan had refined the dharma bodies with identical capabilities, once the cultivators grew comfortable, their tactics blossomed into myriad forms, showcasing distinct personal styles. Some favored decapitating key targets, some loved exploiting openings, and others preferred delivering single lethal strikes—each unique in their approach.
Watching the abominations fall from the sky one after another, Wei Yuan was overjoyed, sweeping up every speck of grey sand.
As for the grey sand dropped by the abominations, the cultivators naturally could not see it at all.
Chapter 1406