I Have a Plan

A secret realm capable of accelerating cultivation was an enormous drain on resources, something that in the past could only be achieved in the immortal heaven. It had taken all the power of Wei Yuan's Land of Vitality to set it up. Once the secret realm was in motion, he felt a wave of fatigue and slowly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, three years had already passed. All three cultivators had emerged from the secret realm and were standing before Wei Yuan. Their auras were deep and heavy, and above each of their heads floated a wisp of faint light pointing toward the Sea of Chaos. Beneath the four existing mindscape worlds, three far smaller mindscape worlds had appeared; even combined, all three amounted to nothing more than a tiny corner of any single world above them. Wei Yuan examined them closely. Within each of these three pitifully small mindscape worlds dwelt a colossal entity: one was a giant, another a bear, and the third an eagle. Each behemoth occupied nearly half of its respective mindscape world; at first glance, the mindscape world seemed like nothing more than its lair. By the standards of the Palace of Grand Beginning, these three mindscape worlds were unquestionably incomplete. Under normal circumstances, one would not even need to attack them; they would collapse on their own. To sustain a complete mindscape world, the strength of one's divine soul and the operation of one's divine sense had to withstand the functioning of a world's Great Dao, controlling every single detail of how that world ran. All else being equal, if one cultivator's mindscape world was twice the radius of another's, the former's divine soul and Dao cultivation would be several times greater than the latter's. The divine souls of these three Nascent Soul cultivators were visibly far below the standard of Scenery Command. The only reason they could sustain a mindscape world at all was primarily thanks to those immense true spirits. The Method of Shattering the Nascent Soul to Transform into God entailed nurturing the Nascent Soul until it underwent a metamorphosis, directly transforming into a true spirit, which was then used to stabilize the mindscape world. This was effectively skipping early Scenery Command altogether—attaining the true spirit first before turning back to stabilize and expand the mindscape world. To ensure a high success rate, the true spirits had all been meticulously designed: immense and simple. Even the structures of the mindscape worlds had been pre-engineered, using the simplest framework to achieve the greatest support so the three Nascent Souls would not lose control. Moreover, the three had been geniuses handpicked from among all the Nascent Souls in Qingming, and their mindscape worlds were anchored within Wei Yuan's Sea of Chaos. Only through these factors had the three Nascent Soul cultivators narrowly succeeded across the board, becoming the very first batch of God Transformation cultivators. At this moment, the trio possessed mindscape worlds and true spirits in name, technically placing them at mid Scenery Command. Yet their mindscape worlds were pitifully small, their true spirits lacked high intelligence, and because they controlled their mindscape worlds through their true spirits, they had an extra layer of separation—whereas normal Scenery Command cultivators exerted direct control over every corner of their mindscape worlds. Furthermore, the three lacked a single innate divine ability or awakened Dao art, making them essentially blank slates. Wei Yuan felt a surge of emotion. Back when he had just formed his Dao foundation, in order to craft a shoddy immortal sword, he had gouged out a chunk of stone from his own foundation, nearly dying of pain in the process. Looking back now, his Dao foundation back then had already been the embryonic form of a mindscape world—and right from its inception, it had been larger than the four large and three small mindscape worlds in his Sea of Chaos combined. Cultivating a mindscape world from the very beginning was actually the way of the Yuangu era. By ancient times, cultivators had already established the preliminary realms of Dao foundation and dharma idol, abandoning the path of the ancient cultivators. Wei Yuan looked once more at the mindscape worlds of the seven individuals and let out a deep sigh. He had always believed that his achievements had come from unyielding effort. So it turned out... what truly set him apart from the rest of the world was talent. And so, Wei Yuan extracted the memory of digging out a stone from his Dao foundation to forge an immortal sword, blurred his appearance and aura, sealed it inside a projection sphere, and circulated it through underground channels. As for who that rustic youth was, the world could spend its time guessing. The mindscape worlds of the three God Transformation cultivators were actually quite fragile. However, being situated within Wei Yuan's Sea of Chaos and protected by him, they were paradoxically even more stable than ordinary mindscape worlds. As for being blank slates, that was hardly a problem. Qingming was currently preparing to mass-produce spirit treasures specifically designed for God Transformation cultivators. When the time came, there would be a wide variety of spirit treasures of immense power; properly combined, they would surpass innate divine abilities. One could say that among Qingming's God Transformation cultivators, as long as one dared to take out a loan, none would ever be weak. This three-year trial had proved that the God Transformation path was viable, putting in place the final puzzle piece for Qingming's cultivation system. Wei Yuan was thoroughly satisfied. He offered warm encouragement to the three cultivators and instructed them to report to the Academy of Sciences, where spirit treasures would be designed and customized for them. At the same time, Wei Yuan honored his promise, raising their treatment to a level noticeably above that of ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators, though still one tier below Scenery Command cultivators like Xiaoyu. The three wept tears of gratitude, bowed deeply, and took their leave. Wei Yuan then spent a day compiling and analyzing the trial data from the three years before publicly announcing the establishment of the God Transformation realm, forging a clear path to Scenery Command! The moment the news broke, the realm was shaken. Yet ever since Qingming's rise, the realm had been shaken on a regular basis, so this particular tremor felt rather perfunctory. *** Three years ago, in the imperial court of Southern Jin, a scholar-general wearing white robes and a scholar's kerchief stood before a map, feather fan in hand, holding forth before the assembled civil and military officials. "From what I have observed of Li Zhi, he attends to every battle personally and never leaves the front lines, personally bolstering the soldiers with Dao arts and shielding them from arrows, stones, and cannon shells. Such conduct is fit for a commandant or vice general, at best a lieutenant general. How can a man who fusses over trivialities and haggles over every grain ever be a ruler? "Furthermore, anyone commanding thousands of troops must keep the entire strategic situation in mind to attain victory. One who cannot plan for a lifetime cannot plan for a moment. Li Zhi may win a battle or two, but if this continues, his overall position is bound to collapse!" The assembled officials were visibly moved. Master Huai Pu even called out in praise before asking, "Do you dare to lead troops to meet this Li Zhi?" The scholar lightly waved his feather fan and replied with full confidence, "When I was studying the sages at the academy, Li Zhi was not even born. In recent years, I have mastered Mohist studies to refine war materiel and studied Sun Tzu to master the art of war. Today, the teachings of the Hundred Schools are etched into my heart. How could Li Zhi possibly be my match?" Huai Pu immediately said, "Splendid! I shall entrust the front-line army to you. Whatever provisions and military materiel you request, you shall have!" The scholar declared passionately, "With a fine general in the field and a wise prince at court, how could this war be anything but a victory?" Huai Pu burst into hearty laughter, thoroughly delighted. Beside him, the King of Jin offered a few chuckles to keep him company. Three years later, in that same Southern Jin court, the atmosphere was a far cry from the lighthearted mood of that day. The assembled civil and military officials stood in dead silence. Upon the jade dais of the great hall, Huai Pu sat side by side with the King of Jin, his face dark as thunder. His gaze swept across the ministers below, and he barked, "He merely gained one additional divine ability! Is there any need for all of you to look so utterly despondent?" An old general glanced left and right, then stepped forward slowly and said in a clear voice, "Reporting to Your Majesty, that Li Zhi personally goes to the front lines in every battle, either blessing cannon shells or shielding the soldiers. Even ordinary troops turn into an elite force in his hands. What is more, the Zhenshan Army has fought for years and is already a battle-hardened elite; with Li Zhi's personal blessings, it is truly like giving wings to a tiger. "Though he has only gained one new divine ability, so far as this humble general knows, it is called 'Swift March.' It allows tens of thousands of troops to march faster than galloping horses. In the past, the Zhenshan Army was merely strong in attack and defense; if we could not defeat them, we could still flee. Now, we cannot even flee. Several of our elite units were wiped out in precisely this manner." Huai Pu slammed his hand onto the armrest and roared, "Give me a solution!" The old general slowly shook his head. "The Zhenshan Army's momentum is fully formed. They are seamless in offense and defense, move like the wind, and have an endless stream of military aid from Qingming. As things stand, our only option is a war of attrition." "Nonsense! Do I need you to tell me to fight an attrition war?" Huai Pu raged even harder. If they were fighting only Li Zhi, Southern Jin could slowly grind him down with its superior numbers. Yet Southern Jin was currently locked in a bitter struggle against Southern Qi, where the bulk of its forces were committed—and those forces were being beaten back step by step. Though Southern Qi was also tied down by Northern Qi and the State of Song, Wei Yuan—to avenge having his Dao path obstructed—kept nearly one million troops permanently stationed inside the State of Song, forcing Song to deploy three million troops there just to maintain defenses. Northern Qi, meanwhile, was entirely useless. Its soldiers were vegetarians who chanted Buddhist scriptures in ordinary times, yet when it came to fighting, they fell apart completely; it often took several times the enemy's numbers just to win a single skirmish. A staggering five million Northern Qi troops, along with two million warrior monks, had laid siege to one and a half million Southern Qi troops without making any headway, remaining locked in a stalemate for ten years. Just as Huai Pu's fury burned at its peak, a low-ranking official standing at the very outer edge stepped forward and said, "I have a plan that can destroy Zhenshan!"