Comprehension

"Are you not planning to save mortals anymore?" Cui Yu asked. "Of course not. Mortals remain the foundation of everything. It is just that the sheer number of people we are dealing with now is vastly greater than before, so we must prioritize and save those in the most urgent need first. The order will be Western Jin, Eastern Jin, and Southern Jin, followed by the Liao people." Cui Yu sighed. "Either way, I can hardly keep up with your thinking anymore. How are we going to fight Zhao? Will we need to draw upon the Cui family's strength?" Wei Yuan patted him on the shoulder and encouraged him, "First and foremost, you are a man of Qingming, and secondly, a disciple of Taichu. There is no need for your clan's aid; relying solely on yourself, you can achieve great deeds just the same! The aristocratic clans were merely a helping hand when we first started out. Now we can take them or leave them, so why not strive on your own and let all the merit and karma belong entirely to you?" Cui Yu gave a wry smile. "But my cultivation..." Wei Yuan said, "Do we not have the method for sharing the mind-manifested world? I have already carved out several sections from the Immortal Heaven Secret Realm Isle, and there is one for you among them. Experience it and gain insight from it first." Cui Yu was startled. "Is that not an immortal heaven world?" Wei Yuan laughed heartily. "Close enough—it captures seventy percent of an immortal heaven's essence. If we are going to gain insight, we naturally ought to comprehend the finest there is!" Toward the two states of Zhao and Song, Wei Yuan adopted entirely different strategies. For Zhao, it was slowly tightening the noose and waiting for an explanation. For Song, it was bearing down with massive armies in ferocious assaults, then pulling back once enough spoils of war had been secured. From Zhao, he wanted no people, but the common folk of the State of Song lived in poverty and hardship. It was said that Song had clean governance, a benevolent monarch, and worthy ministers, and that the commoners lived fairly well year in and year out. Yet by Qingming's standards, they were merely not starving to death; ordinary households ate far less than what was needed to be truly full. In Sun Yu's words, throughout the whole of Song, ninety percent of the people were malnourished. Therefore, Wei Yuan opened wide the gates of convenience for the people of Song. Wherever his forces conquered, they shipped away as many inhabitants as there were. Even if the land was returned later, it would be returned as a desolate, empty expanse, leaving not a single soul or shadow behind for Song. This round of war was merely collecting a bit of interest upfront; the lion's share was yet to come. Wei Yuan pursued vengeance without rest, day and night. Morning to evening, whenever it crossed his mind, he took a bit of revenge. It could be a trickling brook or a tempestuous storm, but principal and interest included, no one would get away with owing him a single cent. For now, Wei Yuan's primary focus had already shifted to the world beyond the heavens. In an enigmatic sea, a storm was currently raging. Lightning as thick as mountains crashed down from ten thousand fathoms in the sky, slamming violently into the waters and instantly illuminating the vast expanse of heaven and earth. The subsequent thunder was earth-shattering; even a Dao foundation cultivator caught amid such thunder would perish instantly. Colossal waves surged across the sea, their crests often rising more than a thousand fathoms high. Even the largest warships of the human race would be easily torn to shreds in such seas. In a storm sea like this, only immortals could come and go freely; even Scenery Command cultivators passing through would face a ninety percent chance of death. Yet in the heart of this ocean lay an eerie, tranquil expanse. In the center of this sea, twelve colossal pillars as thick as mountains thrust straight into the sky. Standing tens of thousands of fathoms tall, these immense pillars acted like sea-calming needles, subduing a maritime domain ten thousand li across. At this moment, outside the giant pillars stood several figures, each carrying an extraordinary aura. Storms and lightning gave this location a wide berth. Beneath the surface, a gargantuan fish a thousand li long swam slowly by; the dense clusters of eyes across its back suddenly caught sight of those figures, and terrified, it dove immediately into the deep sea, daring not show its head again. The surface of the sea within the ring of pillars was smooth as a mirror. Presently, two naked bodies slowly drifted up from the waters with their eyes shut tight. Their faces were unmistakably those of Xing Linye and Xing Luyu. Several attendants flew over and lifted them up. After inspecting them, one returned before the standing figures to report, "Young Master and Young Mistress have regenerated their origin bodies, and their divine soul seeds have fully sprouted. It appears their previous bodies were completely destroyed, which triggered the reactivation of their origin bodies." One of the figures said, "Find out where they went in the end." "Rest assured, Master! We will surely track down the true culprit!" The figure countered, "No need to go through all that trouble. Our assault on the fruition of Ratnasambhava Buddha has reached a critical juncture, and we have no hands to spare. Do not waste effort investigating. Simply annihilate all the surrounding worlds, capture their living souls, and bring them back as alchemical ingredients." "Understood, Master!" Xing Linye and Xing Luyue slowly opened their eyes, gazing about in bewilderment. When they clearly saw the figures ahead, terror seized them, and they blurted out, "We... died?" The central figure cast a cold glance at them, uttered a single word—"Useless"—and vanished into thin air. Xing Linye was immediately enraged. "You are nothing more than a servant! How dare you speak to me like that?" The attendant replied expressionlessly, "During the time of your mishap, the Master took on another fifty thousand adopted sons and thirty thousand blood descendants. Having died once, all your accumulated merits have been wiped out, and your rankings have both fallen beyond the fifty-thousand mark. My time is limited; I have no leisure to wait upon young masters and young mistresses ranked past fifty thousand." Xing Linye's expression shifted several times before he slowly forced a smile, his attitude turning much more polite. Yet though he racked his memory again and again, he could recall nothing. Growing impatient, the attendant said, "Forget it, I will investigate myself. I have orders from above, so I will not be escorting you. You two can take your time flying back on your own." Xing Luyue's complexion changed at once. "With this storm sea, how are we supposed to get out?" Yet the attendant had already boarded a blue shuttle-shaped immortal artifact and sped away through the air. In the Zhao Palace, a princess was weeping bitterly, tears streaming down her face like rain on pear blossoms. She cried, "It was just slaughtering a few common grunts! Was it really worth wanting to kill me? He even wants my head—beheading hurts terribly! Besides, I just wanted to see if Qingming could fight! If he is upset, he can just capture me and take me there; I could keep Sixth Sister company! What did I do wrong?" Beside her, a supervising eunuch dressed in deep purple held a tray bearing a pot of wine and a gleaming scimitar. He said, "The Princess did nothing wrong. It is simply that Qingming's military might is truly formidable; they have already occupied nine cities in our Zhao territory. What is more, Wei Yuan has declared that as long as he does not see the Princess's severed head, he will not withdraw his troops for even a day. By decree of the King, the Princess may drink the poisoned wine first, after which this humble servant shall wield the blade for the Princess." The princess shrieked, "No, I don't want to die! I want to find Wei Yuan! I want to go find Sixth Sister!" The supervising eunuch placed a single finger on her shoulder. At once, the princess was rendered completely immobile, and her mouth opened of its own accord. The supervising eunuch poured the entire pot of poisoned wine down her throat, then lifted her and jiggled her up and down before releasing his grip. The princess clutched her throat, her face full of terror. Just then, an uproar broke out in the rear residence. Palace guards marched out, escorting an imperial noble consort and several other splendidly dressed individuals. The princess recognized them as her mother consort and several of her maternal uncles, never expecting that they too would be dragged away. Meanwhile, inside the Crown Prince's residence, a supervising eunuch was reading out a decree: "The Crown Prince has acted improperly and committed grave blunders in deliberating state affairs. He is hereby stripped of his status as Crown Prince and enfeoffed in the Eastern Sea. His mother, Lady Guo, having failed to instruct her son, is stripped of her status as Empress and banished to the Cold Palace. Sixteen of her kinsmen, having conspired with officials of the Crown Prince's residence, are sentenced to exile in the southern borderlands. Respect this!" The supervising eunuch's voice echoed through the Crown Prince's residence. The prince's face was ashen, and he could barely stand. In the Imperial Study of the Zhao Palace, the King of Zhao dipped his brush and struck another name from a list. The list contained the Seven Clans in total, and by now, the greater part of them had been crossed out. Of the seven consort clans who once held sway over the entire Zhao court, two were wiped out in a single day, leaving only one clan clinging to their last gasps of breath.