Within Qingming Immortal City, Wei Yuan sat high upon the throne of the great hall, looking down at the envoy from Southern Qi—or, as he should now be addressed, the envoy of Tang.
"His Majesty wishes to forge an eternal friendship with Qingming, and has sent an autograph letter."
The envoy was unexpectedly deferential, showing none of the arrogance or overbearing demeanor that might have been anticipated, thereby giving Wei Yuan no immediate pretext to exploit.
Wei Yuan beckoned with a hand, and the letter flew into his grasp. Unfolding it, he saw a map inside. It was a fascinating map: the entirety of Western Jin and all thirteen commanderies of the State of Zhao had been demarcated into Qingming's territory, leaving only the remainder for the New Tang Empire.
Arranged this way, Qingming would bear the burden of warding off foreign tribes to the northwest, but its borders in that direction would also be firmly locked down. How much Qingming could expand in the future would depend entirely on Wei Yuan himself.
The King of Qi’s intention was plain: Wei Yuan could expand outward and claim territory as he pleased, so long as he nominally honored the King of Qi as the universal overlord. In return, the King of Qi would reopen the displaced refugee trade with Qingming, guaranteeing a supply of high-grade refugees while setting a firm price cap.
This was in blatant violation of the Venerable Master's immortal decree, which was precisely what made it so interesting.
Wei Yuan set the map down and glanced at the envoy in the hall. Silence reigned throughout the hall; neither the cultivators nor the civil officials and military generals uttered a word, waiting for Wei Yuan's decision.
Under Wei Yuan's gaze, the envoy bowed his head slightly, humble yet retaining dignity and decorum—truly a paragon of an ambassador's bearing.
The deputy envoy and other dignitaries of the embassy waited outside the hall.
Wei Yuan offered a faint smile and suddenly spoke. "Who stands in the hall? Why do you not kneel upon seeing this Realm Lord? Do you look down on my Qingming?"
The Southern Qi envoy was taken aback. By custom, Southern Qi stood far above Qingming in status; treating with each other on equal footing as sovereign states was already remarkably humble, so how could this be looking down on them? But before he could offer an explanation, Wei Yuan's expression darkened. "Bellowing in the imperial hall and insulting the Realm Lord—a crime beyond pardon! Men, drag him out and behead him!"
The envoy was appalled. When had he ever insulted Wei Yuan? Yet the Qingming warriors gave him no chance to plead his case, dragging him down and taking off his head with a single stroke of a blade.
The rest of the mission was immediately expelled from the territory. Having narrowly escaped with their lives, none dared utter a word of protest. Gathering the envoy's remains, they hurried away, not daring to linger for a single moment.
Silence fell across the hall once more. Wei Yuan offered no explanation, moving directly to discuss internal affairs of Qingming.
***
Outside the royal capital of Southern Jin, the Qi army's encampment stretched for hundreds of li. Countless bonfires blazed throughout the camp, consuming the corpses of fallen officers and soldiers. After days of bloody combat, casualties were so severe that the bodies could not possibly be transported back to Southern Qi, and many had been blasted into scattered limbs, their identities impossible to discern.
Inside his tent, the King of Qi was reviewing reports on the organization and training of new domestic troops when word arrived that the envoy sent to Qingming had been executed by Wei Yuan without cause. The surviving deputy envoy reported that Wei Yuan had not even bothered to find a plausible pretext, simply pinning a fabricated crime on the envoy before having him beheaded.
To everyone's surprise, the King of Qi did not flare up in anger. Instead, he fell into deep contemplation. Only after a long while did he pull out a new map, make several marks upon it, seal it in an envelope, and point to one of the princes standing nearby. "You shall travel as envoy to Qingming once more and deliver this handwritten letter from Us."
The prince turned ash-pale, yet did not dare refuse, tremblingly accepting the letter.
The King of Qi surveyed his gathered civil and military officials. "Wei Yuan wants to enter the fray in person, but lacks an excuse. However, with weighty matters on his shoulders, his desire to intervene is not absolute. Killing an envoy also serves to placate Li Zhi."
Several days later, an envoy from Southern Qi stood before Wei Yuan once more, presenting the King of Qi's autograph letter.
Wei Yuan opened it to find yet another map. This time, however, most of Eastern Jin as well as several commanderies of Song and Southern Jin were ceded to Qingming, giving Qingming a more rounded territory and securing several strategic chokepoints along the borders. Setting the map aside, Wei Yuan looked at the envoy in the hall and asked coldly, "Why do you not kneel upon seeing this Realm Lord?"
To the envoy's ears, those words struck like thunder. His face drained of color in an instant, the fate of the previous envoy ringing violently in his mind. His knees went soft, and with a thud, he dropped straight to the floor!
Even Wei Yuan was somewhat taken aback. "Are you not a prince of Qi?"
Having already knelt, the prince could only reply honestly, "I am eleventh among my brothers and sisters."
Wei Yuan pondered briefly, then commanded, "The envoy bellowed in the hall and offended the Realm Lord. As a chastisement, take those embassy members waiting outside and execute them all."
At this command, the entire mission was thrown into disbelief. But the Qingming warriors offered them no chance to speak, dragging them all away and cutting them down one by one, swiftly decapitating the senior members of the embassy.
Only then did Wei Yuan adopt a gentler tone. "You knelt to me. Upon your return, the King of Qi would never spare you. In truth, you were sent here merely to die. Do you understand?"
The Eleventh Prince kowtowed repeatedly. "I understand, I understand!"
"Rise. I have already slain the embassy members outside; no one knows what transpired in this hall. When you return, say that you refused to yield, and so I executed the others instead."
Overwhelmed by shock, terror, and gratitude, the Eleventh Prince hurriedly voiced his understanding.
Wei Yuan shook the map in his hand. "I have seen your sincerity. However, it would be even better if we traded to supply each other's needs."
The Eleventh Prince suddenly grew much sharper. "How should we supply each other's needs? Please instruct me!"
With a flick of Wei Yuan's sleeve, a jade casket flew into the prince's hands. "Inside is a Treaty of Friendly Commerce and Trade. Take it back for the King of Qi to inspect. If he is willing to sign it, that would naturally be best."
Taking the treaty, the Eleventh Prince departed immediately, not daring to linger for a second.
Once the outsiders had left the hall, Bao Yun, who had been sitting off to the side with virtually no presence, finally spoke. "This incarnation of yours is very good. Change it next time."
The cultivators looked at Wei Yuan, robed in black with red lining, and nodded in unison.
Hongmo immediately objected, roaring internally, "What do they mean by that? How am I not good? Who could be better than me? No, I'm going out to argue with them!"
Wei Yuan's primordial spirit stepped aside.
Hongmo froze, bit his lower lip, and shouted, "What is this supposed to mean? Why aren't you stopping me?"
Wei Yuan said, "Weren't you going out to argue?"
Hongmo was both exasperated and embarrassed. Throwing caution to the wind, he fumed, "I was just saying it! Couldn't you just hold me back? That demon king is right outside—how am I supposed to go argue with her?"
"Demon king?" Wei Yuan sharply caught the phrase.
Hongmo said, "How could a normal Heavenly Demon Wondrous Idol be so formidable? She must have caught the eye of some royal bloodline among the heavenly demons. We've fought them for hundreds of thousands of years; you can't hide something like that from me."
"What exactly are you Dharma Gods? If you won't tell me, I'll send you to see Yun'er." Wei Yuan seized the opportunity to threaten him. He had asked this question several times before, but Hongmo had always evaded it.
"I'll tell you later, as long as you don't recall this incarnation."
Wei Yuan frowned. "But you keep subtly influencing my manner of speech and behavior. That truly is a major issue."
Hongmo instantly cried foul. "You were the one who wanted to execute the first envoy, and you had already made up your mind to slaughter this embassy! The decisions were all yours—what does that have to do with me?! All I did was make you look much more striking when you spoke!"
"Oh?" Wei Yuan's curiosity was piqued. "Do explain in detail!"
Hongmo immediately projected a scene. "Look. I placed the projection sphere right here, filming from low to high. Doesn't that make your jawline look razor-sharp, exuding the magnificent presence of a peerless demon lord?"
"Indeed!... Er, we are the Taichu Immortal Palace. If we speak of presence, it should be the presence of an immortal lord."
"Fine, a peerless immortal lord!"
Yet as Wei Yuan watched the black-and-red aura billowing behind his figure in the projection, handsome though it looked, the overall style seemed somewhat off.
Wei Yuan's true body had now reached over a hundred thousand zhang and could not easily return to this world. He could only rely on several major incarnations to oversee Qingming and the front in the Mountain domain. Over time, everyone had noticed that these incarnations had distinct personalities and demeanors. This Dharma God incarnation, for instance, was capricious and unfathomable; no one could guess what Wei Yuan was thinking, yet no conspiracy or scheme could escape his eyes.
Having appeased Hongmo internally, Wei Yuan addressed the cultivators. "Is there any news from Li Zhi?"
A young general said, "No special news at present. We have only heard that Li Zhi safely fled back to his territory, and a trade caravan has just set out. However, it is merely a routine merchant caravan sent to purchase and transport military supplies."
Wei Yuan frowned slightly. "The King of Qi's envoys have come twice now, yet they haven't sent a single word? Never mind. I shall make a trip to Southern Jin myself..."
Bao Yun sighed. "Fishing may be fun, but you shouldn't indulge yourself endlessly. For something like this, just dispatch a capable person or two to gather information; there is no need to go in person. Besides, we've already seen that the Venerable Master's skin is no thinner than yours, so come back and attend to serious business! Those ten thousand-plus strands of divine sense of yours are of great use."
With his true body far away, the divine sense allocated to each avatar was limited. If he spared too little divine sense, he certainly wouldn't catch any big fish.
Bao Yun's counsel had its effect. Wei Yuan abandoned the notion of going in person and instead dispatched an envoy to Zhenshan Domain to gather intelligence while discussing how to handle the human realm's overall situation.
Opinions among the cultivators varied, but the general consensus favored watching in quietude and waiting for developments. The main reason was that the third node in the Mountain domain was near completion. The Lineage faction was bound to launch a massive counterattack, and the Prophet faction encircled in the inner ring was unlikely to resign itself to fate either. The troops Qingming had deployed in the Domain of the Mountain Folk had already surpassed two million.
In the northern Liao domain, another two million troops were stationed to defend the sprawling border and guard against potential strikes by the Liao Clan, while also keeping an eye on the Shaman Clan. Along the main front of the Silver Moon Khanate's ancestral grounds alone, millions of Shamans and Liao warriors were locked in bloody battle.
Though the world beyond the heavens appeared calm, a storm was brewing.
If they became embroiled in the human civil war as well, Qingming would be fighting on four fronts. As bold as Wei Yuan considered himself to be, he was not reckless enough for that.
Having heard the cultivators' analysis, Wei Yuan finally said, "If the King of Qi unifies the various states and becomes universal overlord, his very first act will be to wage war against Qingming."
Chapter 1481