Wei Yuan stood in a dim, cavernous hall where only scattered motes of starlight floated, barely lending the chamber a faint glimmer of light.
A row of chairs lined each side of the hall. Some were occupied, while others stood empty.
After a moment of contemplation, Wei Yuan let his gaze fall upon the figure seated in the primary seat across from him.
The figure slowly opened his eyes. Within them were no distinct pupils, but rather an expanse of shifting flame. This fire held no heat, yet it seemed alive, lurking behind the pupils and gazing out at the world with curiosity.
The faint firelight illuminated his face—revealing another Wei Yuan. He smiled, his voice raspy and demonic. "You've finally decided to let me out? Aren't you afraid I'll ruin your grand plan?"
The Wei Yuan on this side, clad in dark robes, replied, "You are me, and I am you. If my grand plan is ruined, wouldn't that ruin yours as well? Are you sure you want to do that?"
The red-eyed Wei Yuan laughed. "Why wouldn't I? Even though there's nothing in it for me, you locked me away for no good reason for so long. Even the Dharma God got to go out, while I could only sit here doing nothing. So what do you say? As long as I get to watch you suffer, I'll be thrilled."
The dark-robed Wei Yuan said calmly, "This battle will take place in the Domain of the Mountain Folk, fending off numerous mountain folk immortals. In an alien domain, there are far fewer scruples. When dealing with immortals, one naturally uses whatever means are at hand, without so many reservations."
The red-eyed Wei Yuan's eyes lit up. "You don't mind if I beat those immortals as if they were you?"
"As long as this gets done," the dark-robed Wei Yuan replied, "let alone mountain folk immortals, even if it were me, letting you give me a beating wouldn't matter."
"Without any resistance? That takes all the fun out of it—" The red-eyed Wei Yuan instantly lost interest and said lazily, "By the way, let me ask one more thing: when I'm out there, if someone illicitly deploys a projection sphere, how should it be handled?"
A cold light flashed in the dark-robed Wei Yuan's eyes, a rare murderous aura appearing on his face. "To harbor such malicious intent and plot to mislead posterity naturally warrants execution!"
The red-eyed Wei Yuan laughed heartily. "Don't worry, I'll keep it clean."
With that, he rose to his feet and walked toward the hall's exit. Before stepping through the doorway, he glanced back to see all the figures in the hall submerged in darkness.
He paused for a heartbeat, then turned and stepped out into the radiant, brilliant world.
***
In Zhenshan Fief, Xiaoyu descended the steps into a subterranean hall beneath the lord's manor. The chamber held a murky yellow light tinged with a faint sharpness. At its center stood a mountain-sized boundary stone traversed by streaks of metallic striations.
This boundary stone of Zhenshan Fief was inherently of fine quality. Containing the power of the metal element, it could be nourished by the domain's earth element, accelerating its nurturing speed and even offering a chance to break through its original limits. Indeed, this Zhenshan boundary stone had broken through upon reaching culmination, gaining an additional divine wonder.
Xiaoyu, however, hailed from Qingming and had a different understanding of boundary stones. The Qingming boundary stone had merged with Wei Yuan's mindscape world; the one it recognized as master was not Wei Yuan, but the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains. This was no longer a secret.
The Qingming boundary stone now possessed complex attributes that complemented the domain. Relying on the mindscape world, it absorbed and converted chaos, which in turn nourished the domain. As the overall quality of the domain was elevated, the Qingming boundary stone rose with the tide, advancing alongside it.
In the long run, the upper limit of the Zhenshan Domain itself was fixed, meaning the boundary stone's ceiling was firmly locked. Qingming, on the other hand, held infinite possibilities. For this reason, the cultivators of Taichu Palace all believed the Qingming model was the future mainstream, destined to replace the traditional boundary stones represented by Zhenshan Fief.
The boundary stones Wei Yuan refined nowadays all possessed the ability to merge with a mindscape world. It was only because little time had passed that suitable masters had not yet been found for them.
Zhenshan had originally been a traditional boundary stone, but fortunately, Xiaoyu's True Fire of the Great Sun World was exceptionally overbearing. He could forcibly refine it and merge with it by force. When it came to sheer domineering power, the True Fire of the Great Sun ranked solidly in the top five among all mindscape worlds of the present age—which was precisely why Wei Yuan had chosen Xiaoyu.
As Xiaoyu approached the boundary stone, it began to tremble slightly, letting out soft whimpers. It had actually developed sentience.
Xiaoyu felt a twinge of pity, but having no other choice, he steeled his heart and pressed his hand against it.
In the blink of an eye, the floor of the hall flushed crimson, and stray true fire floated everywhere in the air. A phantom of a woman abruptly drifted up from the Zhenshan boundary stone. Yet such a frail spiritual body could not endure even a single breath within the True Fire of the Great Sun; with a shriek, it completely dissipated.
Xiaoyu felt a faint touch of bewilderment. A boundary stone birthing sentience was one thing, but why had it taken the form of such a mature woman?
He did not dwell on the thought, however. As the True Fire of the Great Sun World gradually expanded, countless thoughts materialized out of thin air, pouring into his sea of consciousness.
"Why is it so hot?"
"Something feels off. We won't have a drought this year, will we?"
They were all fragmented thoughts of this sort, coming from the populace of Zhenshan Fief. Such voices grew increasingly numerous; anything spoken within the expanse of the True Fire of the Great Sun World automatically entered Xiaoyu's consciousness. This was the main city of Zhenshan Fief, with a population near a million. The cacophony was chaotic, and in an instant, tens of thousands of voices were speaking simultaneously, their numbers ever rising.
Xiaoyu was left dizzy from the racket, only now realizing what kind of life Wei Yuan had been living all this time. The range of the Splendor of the Many Realms was now vast enough to cover all of Qingming—didn't that mean Wei Yuan had to listen to one or two billion people clamoring every day?
Leave aside billions of voices; faced with a mere tens of thousands, Xiaoyu's thousand-odd strands of divine consciousness were already visibly strained.
Initially, Xiaoyu felt profound sympathy for Wei Yuan, but then he suddenly remembered that the man possessed the Splendor of the Many Realms. Everyone was well aware of its capabilities: it could effortlessly process billions of pieces of information, filter out the meaningful content, and present it to Wei Yuan. For example, whoever happened to be badmouthing the realm lord at any given moment...
Xiaoyu was seized by a sudden jolt of fright. Could all the things he had said in private in the past have been known to Wei Yuan all along?
The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed, until even his True Fire of the Great Sun World began to waver.
***
At that moment, Wei Yuan stood at the prow of a flying boat. Beside him were Sun Yu, Yu Zhizhuo, Chuhe, and the rest of the leaders who oversaw various fronts. Standing in a corner was a woman in red, utterly absorbed in reading a storybook.
This fleet had set out from Western Jin, numbering more than a dozen flying boats in total. At the center were five super-giant vessels—the Kunpeng skiffs newly constructed by Qingming over the past few years. Around them were a dozen smaller flying boats, jointly towing the five colossal vessels forward.
Heaven only knew what was loaded inside those five giant ships; even their own propulsion could not push them along, requiring several additional flying boats to drag them forward.
Wei Yuan stood at the bow, faint flames swirling deep within his pupils.
Chuhe said, "This journey into the mountain domain is perilous beyond measure. If things truly reach a critical juncture, just place me in front of you."
Wei Yuan wore an oddly peculiar expression as he replied, "No need, Martial Uncle. It shouldn't come to that."
Chuhe stroked his beard and said, "With such a monumental undertaking, the Venerable Master will certainly not sit idly by. More and more, I feel that this body of karmic merit of mine was born specifically to drag the Venerable Master down from the immortal heavens!"
Wei Yuan shook his head. "Of course not! Martial Uncle, this body of merit is the effect, not the cause. You brought blessings to the myriad living beings of this realm first, and only then attained this body of merit. But Qingming is small, and the world is vast; Martial Uncle still has countless great deeds to perform. How could a mere Venerable Master be worth squandering your body of merit on? Let alone one Venerable Master, not even eight or ten would be worth it. Besides, the Martial Ancestor left behind a contingency to keep him in check; the Venerable Master won't dare show his face."
Chuhe said, "The Martial Ancestor's contingency is merely a rumor, and rumors may not be trustworthy. At the very least, we cannot pin our hopes on it."
Wei Yuan countered, "It is no rumor. High above the immortal heavens, an aura of the Martial Ancestor does indeed hang suspended. I merely do not know what the specific contingency entails. That aura is obscure; only for a fleeting instant during my last ascension did I perceive it, thereby confirming that the Martial Ancestor truly left a contingency behind."
"That is well, then." Chuhe put the matter to rest, only to worry about another. "Xiaoyu's True Fire of the Great Sun World should merge smoothly, right? As long as nothing goes awry."
Wei Yuan flashed an uncanny smile. "Everything else should be fine, but his Dao heart might have run into a bit of trouble right about now."
Chuhe was startled. "His foundation is rock-solid. How could his Dao heart run into trouble?"
Wei Yuan chuckled. "He has already deployed the True Fire of the Great Sun World. By now, he has probably figured a few things out."
***
The massive fleet originated from Western Jin, crossed Qingming and the border of the State of Zhao, entered Zhenshan Fief, and then proceeded into the Mountain Domain, taking over half a month. The fleet traveled slowly, its cargo evidently tremendously heavy, and with such immense scale, nobody knew what was packed inside.
Advancing with such great fanfare naturally caught the attention of the immortals in the sky. However, the radiance of karmic luck upon the fleet soared into the heavens, and the light of karmic merit was even more dazzling and magnificent. One look was enough to make the immortals quietly avert their gazes to keep their Dao hearts from wavering.
In recent years, Wei Yuan had grown increasingly brazen, planting human luck everywhere. Every single object gleamed with the light of human luck, and some random corner might very well conceal a bundle of karmic luck. This made the immortals grind their teeth in hatred, yet they were utterly helpless.
This Wei Yuan was truly venomous. Everyone merely wanted to swat a few Qingming officers and soldiers to vent their spleen; over such a trivial matter, was it really necessary to lay insidious traps of karmic luck to undermine the immortals' foundations?
Under the watchful eyes of the immortals, after a protracted voyage, the fleet finally arrived in the depths of the mountain domain.
This place was already a hundred thousand li deep into the Domain of the Mountain Folk, having long penetrated the territory of the Lineage faction. Consequently, the Mountain Folk had amassed nearly ten million troops, locked in a seesaw struggle against Qingming's four-plus million soldiers across a battle line spanning more than ten thousand li.
By this point, the fighting had grown grueling. The Mountain Folk were no soft targets; having been pushed right to their doorstep, they naturally fought to the bitter end.
The Mountain Folk Immortal Monarchs stood in confrontation against Zhu Yan—who was armed with countless pseudo-immortal artifacts—and Xuan Yue, who was laden with numerous transformers and cheap disposable industrial lightning whips. In the rear, Bai Kaishui of the Sword Palace held the line, ready to provide reinforcement at any moment, alongside Yan Shi, who stirred up little tricks from time to time.
Although Yan Shi was facing a looming catastrophe and could not deploy his heavenly divination arts, he was an immortal after all; temporarily altering the fate charts of other immortals remained child's play for him.
Following Yan Shi's alterations, the three immortals appeared to the Mountain Folk as a swirling shroud of mist; only when blows were actually struck would they discover whether what came hurtling down was a self-detonating immortal artifact, an immortal sword, or a lightning whip.
Thus, four human immortals held six Mountain Folk Immortal Monarchs dead in their tracks, neither side able to gain the upper hand.
Behind the Mountain Folk lines stood six isolated, towering peaks. Each peak served as the traveling palace of a Mountain Folk Immortal Monarch. The humans had made far too great a disturbance this time, forcing numerous Mountain Folk Immortal Monarchs to assemble here and missing out on claiming a share of the spoils in the Liao domain catastrophe.
"Another fleet has arrived from the human domain, vast in scale. There's likely to be an operation soon."
"Humans are crafty. Who knows where they plan to strike this time."
"No matter. So long as we stand here, at most we'll suffer a slight disadvantage initially. If we truly can't hold them, the worst we must do is shift a few more mountains and reshape the terrain."
"I keep feeling there is treachery afoot. Should we awaken the First High Mountain to take a look?"
The tallest peak in the center spoke at that moment: "We cannot awaken the First High Mountain; that would disrupt the process of its descent."
"Yet the territory the humans occupy is already far too large. It is becoming difficult to answer to the tribal chieftains and elders. If we cannot disturb the First High Mountain, at least the Second or Third High Mountain must come over once."
The central high mountain fell silent for a moment before saying, "The humans' greatest flaw is that their expansion requires boundary stones. Even if Wei Yuan has revived ancient methods and can refine boundary stones himself, the quantity remains extremely limited. To fully cover the territory they now hold would take at least two hundred years. By then, the Second and Third High Mountains should have completed their great undertaking and will be free to set the situation in order."
The surrounding mountains found this reasonable, and one by one, they fell silent.
Chapter 1489