The discussion soon arrived at the matter of compensation, and Wei Yuan did not yield an inch. His reasoning was simple: the contract was set down clearly in black and white—it was just that some words were printed large, and some small. Abiding strictly by the contract was Wei Yuan's principle and bottom line. Otherwise, wouldn't everyone treat Qingming contracts as waste paper in the future, haggling over every last detail?
After some consideration, Xu Youyi agreed with Wei Yuan's view and consented to pay the compensation. To a grandmaster alchemist of her caliber, several tens of millions of Qingyuan was merely a matter of firing up a major cauldron once.
With that settled, the atmosphere between them grew considerably warmer.
Wei Yuan said with heartfelt gravity, "Immortal Xu, this longevity mindscape world of mine isn't truly meant just to stretch out someone's years. What matters is experiencing the true intent of the Great Dao within it. Once a cultivator attains some enlightenment, their lifespan will naturally lengthen. Gaining more time to assault the bottlenecks along the Dao path and broaden their journey—that is the fundamental purpose. As long as one achieves this, even if they later switch back to their own mindscape world, that additional lifespan remains.
"Therefore, when a tremendous fortune that can clearly boost a cultivator's chances of breaking through bottlenecks is used solely to stretch out the days of the elderly, it is truly a waste."
Xu Youyi looked thoughtful before replying, "I stand enlightened."
Wei Yuan continued, "There is another matter on which I would like to collaborate with the Xu family. I have recently refined a batch of Dharma Idol level dharma bodies and stationed them in the outer world. I wish to invite a group of alchemists from the Xu family to project their consciousness into these dharma bodies, examine the environment and materials of the outer world, and see if they can develop some new pills."
Xu Youyi was taken aback. "You have already begun pioneering the outer world?"
"Indeed. That is why we urgently require pills. However, there are no established recipes to follow for pills of the outer world; they must be created from scratch. When it comes to such a task, no one is better suited than the Xu family."
Light danced in Xu Youyi's eyes as she said, "Establishing pill recipes for an outer world is an endeavor of great merit; it will bring benefits to me as well. I agree to this. However, with an undertaking of such magnitude, are you not afraid of secrets leaking out?"
Wei Yuan gave a faint smile. "It has long ceased to be a secret. Certain people couldn't wait to make it known to all under heaven."
"I see," Xu Youyi remarked. "Rest assured, as long as sufficient karmic luck is provided, I will surely open up an outer-world alchemy path for you."
Wei Yuan added, "It would be even better if those alchemists possessed some combat techniques. When the time comes, what they gain will not merely be karmic luck, but merit."
After working out the finer points, Xu Youyi agreed to send a first batch of twenty Dharma Idol alchemists over.
Finally, Wei Yuan revealed his fox tail, saying, "I hear that Immortal Xu has treasured fertility medicine in her collection. I wonder if you might part with one for me?"
Xu Youyi's expression instantly changed. "Realm Lord, your descendants number in the hundreds and thousands, and a true dragon has been born to your line. Why would you still need such medicine?"
Wei Yuan gave a bitter smile. "I truly have a need for it. The specific reason cannot be disclosed."
Xu Youyi replied, "Say no more, Realm Lord. This is utterly out of the question. When our ancestors passed down these precious medicines, they left strict injunctions: this medicine may only be used on members of the Xu family and must never be given to outsiders, lest divine retribution follow."
Wei Yuan knew there was truth in that; otherwise, these precious medicines would never have survived to this day. No immortal would object to having a few more descendants.
Yet he could not do without it. He and Zhang Sheng had inadvertently missed their window, and now that both of their standings had climbed higher and higher, having offspring had become completely impossible. That was why Wei Yuan had set his sights on the Xu family's heirloom medicine.
Still, this matter could not be rushed. Confirming the medicine's existence was enough for now; there would be plenty of opportunities in the future to press Xu Youyi into compliance.
When a realm is newly opened, the external necessities come down to five words: pills, artifacts, arts, talismans, and formations. With pills settled, Wei Yuan felt considerably relieved.
As for artifacts, Qingming had already developed to the contemporary pinnacle. As for arts, Qingming took the path of standardization. When refining dharma bodies, Wei Yuan had pruned away complexity from tens of thousands of Dao arts to pursue their core essence. In the end, each dharma body retained only two or three fixed Dao arts, and the shared pool of optional Dao arts across all dharma bodies numbered fewer than a hundred.
"Talismans" originally referred to talisman slips, but in Qingming, the term had expanded to encompass all consumable items. The disposable Dao arts currently available for exchange were fundamentally refined in advance by Wei Yuan, using gray sand as the base material in quantities ranging from a single grain to over a dozen.
Traitors existed within this realm and had already drawn the siblings Xing Luyu and Xing Linye; more would surely follow, not to mention that figures from the siblings' clan were bound to come.
Since the secret could no longer be kept, Wei Yuan's choice was to accelerate development—just as Qingming had done, rising rapidly in a mere dozen years. By the time the nine kingdoms freed up their hands and sensed something amiss, Qingming had already swallowed the resources of Western Jin and grown into a colossal beast that neither one nor two nations could ever digest.
Wei Yuan planned to walk the exact same path in the outer world.
In ancient times, when high-ranking cultivators opened a new heaven and earth, they had to do everything with their own hands: first laying down formations through their personal might to stabilize earth, fire, water, and wind; then drawing in and expelling chaos to transform it into the vital energy of heaven and earth; and finally planting the seeds of vitality through grand divine arts. Reaching this stage required the blessing of an exceedingly high standing, at least surpassing the newborn domain.
Next came the nurturing of vitality, which required time and demanded that a cultivator possess an exceptionally long lifespan.
Only when vitality had matured bit by bit did one arrive at the level of pills, artifacts, arts, talismans, and formations. At that point, the work became staggering in volume, detailed and complex to the extreme. Every single detail required personal honing by the cultivator; a single misstep could cause the entire domain to collapse. The difficulty was on a completely different plane compared to a mindscape world.
From a mathematical perspective, manifesting a mindscape world within an established immortal heaven was akin to solving a problem in an idealized domain where countless external variables had been simplified.
Opening a heaven and earth, however, meant adding back every single simplified external variable and solving the problem anew.
The difficulty of Wei Yuan's current reboot of a world lay somewhere between the two, though leaning closer to opening a heaven and earth. Yet unlike ancient cultivators, Wei Yuan possessed Splendor of the Many Realms and a vast enterprise in this realm, ensuring a steady, unending supply of karmic luck.
With Splendor of the Many Realms, no matter how numerous or trivial the problems were, they could be properly handled. Furthermore, having tasted the benefits of Qingming's modular development, Wei Yuan no longer tried to shoulder everything himself. Instead, he broke large problems down into countless smaller ones and distributed them downward, allowing all cultivators to pool their efforts to solve them.
Facts had proven that once the base numbers grew, all sorts of talent emerged in endless succession, and genius ideas erupted daily as a regular occurrence. Only now did Wei Yuan realize that a tiny handful of so-called elites was, if not entirely useless, at least practically devoid of value.
What was worse, under the system of prominent clans and noble lineages, the emergence of such elites depended on recommendations. That was no longer just an issue of near-uselessness, but one of turning the entire world into the private domain of dear friends and relatives, saddling the common folk with yet another flock of lordly masters over their heads.
Just as Wei Yuan was devoting his efforts to refining the categories of dharma bodies and preparing to accelerate the development of the new domain, Zhang Sheng came to find him.
Zhang Sheng had always been direct, and now that her sword Dao was approaching grand completion, she indulged in even less idle chatter. "You are pouring all your strength into opening a new world right now. What is the point?"
Wei Yuan said, "Before discussing the point, take a look at this first."
Zhang Sheng took the document Wei Yuan handed over. It was filled entirely with cultivation data from template Dao foundations, covering over ten thousand templates in total. It was detailed down to what they ate each day, how much they ate, with activities tracked to the second. The cultivation chambers maintained a constant density of spiritual qi, and the precision in recording consumption was so minute that even Scenery Command cultivators could not have discerned it.
Wei Yuan said, "I conducted this experiment to test a hypothesis of mine: why do people cultivate in the first place? Traditional theory holds that cultivators draw in spiritual qi that heaven and earth have already converted, using it to temper their dharma bodies and elevate their realms, and upon death their physical forms turn into treasured soil, returning to heaven and earth. Viewed in its entirety, a cultivator is nothing more than a parasite upon heaven and earth."
"That has its logic," Zhang Sheng nodded.
Wei Yuan said, "Yet this report completely overturns that assertion! The final data proves that the total amount of spiritual qi ultimately produced by these templates exceeds the total amount of spiritual qi they absorb! This demonstrates that cultivators themselves draw from chaos and transform it into spiritual qi—we simply do not yet understand the specific mechanism.
"Cultivators are beneficial to heaven and earth. The more cultivators there are, the faster heaven and earth evolves!"
Wei Yuan then added, "And the more power it possesses to defend itself."
Zhang Sheng looked thoughtful. "If that is true for cultivators, is it not the same for worlds? The more worlds are opened, the faster the universe evolves. No wonder opening heaven and earth brings the greatest merit."
"Precisely so," Wei Yuan nodded.
The two discussed the Dao for several days, gaining many new realizations regarding the ultimate truths of heaven and earth, and both saw their cultivation rise substantially.
Opportunities for them to meet were growing increasingly rare now, making these moments all the more precious. While discussing the Dao, their dharma bodies were naturally not left idle. Zhang Sheng carried an innate majesty; whenever she spoke, Wei Yuan was strictly forbidden from interrupting.
Chapter 1411