For the next year, the situation remained calm.
After destroying their own earth veins failed to harm Wei Yuan, the Mountain Folk seemed to have accepted their fate.
True to his word to Houtu, Wei Yuan dispatched engineering teams en masse into the Mountain domain, beginning by building roads. These thoroughfares carved the immense Mountain domain into organized sectors, transporting supplies and grain in while shipping out vast quantities of minerals. By this point, the Mountain domain's cultivation world had been utterly dismantled; across its vast expanse, hardly any dharma idol cultivators could be found, and the few survivors could only hide within spiritual arrays to eke out a miserable existence. The Mountain Folk possessed no means of resistance, left only to watch the projects steadily advance.
Wherever the roads reached, military depots, mines, and workshops sprouted one after another, hiring large numbers of local Mountain Folk. A few Mountain Folk ventured out from the deep mountains to try this work. A few days later, they sent word back, and before long, nearly half a mountain city's inhabitants had followed them out. Thus, groups of Mountain Folk continually emerged from the deep mountains to join the ranks of the workshops and mines.
Just as the major war concluded, Wei Yuan began pouring grain into the Mountain domain, using floating barges to deliver it to every corner. All of it was offered at fair prices, selling below the local production cost, making it affordable to every single person among the Mountain Folk. Under Qingming's boundless grain supply, within less than a year, large swathes of farmland across the Mountain domain spontaneously abandoned grain cultivation to plant materials that Qingming purchased in bulk.
This entire playbook had already been perfected in Qingming.
The disappearance of the upper cultivation world felt as if an immense mountain had been lifted from the heads of the Mountain Folk. No longer burdened with supporting insatiable high-level cultivators, they needed only to pay taxes to Qingming. Their overall burden was drastically reduced, and their standard of living improved visibly. Consequently, the karmic luck of the Mountain Folk began surging forth in ever-greater volume.
Wei Yuan had only implemented fair-priced grain, and before he could even introduce subsequent governance policies, the lives of the Mountain Folk had already dramatically improved, yielding massive amounts of karmic luck.
The speed of this progress took even Wei Yuan by surprise, prompting him to send investigators. Over a few months, thousands of research cultivators fanned out across the Mountain domain, gradually returning to Qingming with firsthand data and records.
The findings revealed that in the past, the Mountain Folk had to surrender half of their income to sustain high-level cultivators such as Immortal Monarchs, Scenery Command cultivators, and dharma idols. Another twenty percent went to the government, and twenty percent more to the temples. All told, their tributes reached an astounding ninety percent! As a result, the common folk at the bottom lived in utter poverty, owning nothing more than a cave hollowed out of the mountains by their own hands, and even had to rent their cooking pots from high-level cultivators.
By sweeping away the high-level cultivators in one stroke, Wei Yuan had effectively eliminated fifty percent of their taxes. However, the local Mountain Folk government and temples had seized the opportunity to expand and invent new levies, each taking thirty percent and scheming to demand even more. Yet even under such heavy exploitation, ordinary Mountain Folk had still seen their living conditions improve several-fold.
This discovery put Wei Yuan on alert: *I wiped out the high cultivators, only for the vacuum to be filled by the government and the clergy? Did I come here just to do the bidding of former Mountain Folk officials and priests?*
Through this investigation, Wei Yuan also discovered that in many remote regions, the Mountain Folk's original governments were still functioning, or continued to operate in practice despite nominal dissolution. The local Mountain Folk dared not speak out despite their fury.
This was utterly intolerable. Wei Yuan immediately issued an order, firmly reasserting military rule over the Mountain domain. All former Mountain Folk governing bodies were abolished, and every official was demoted to commoner status. Qingming would hold new selections open to all Mountain Folk. All taxes arbitrarily instituted by the former officials were revoked without exception. At the same time, Wei Yuan strictly curtailed the activities and authority of the Mountain Folk's faith; after all, their worship of true gods served, to some extent, to empower the current Immortal Monarch.
Wei Yuan proceeded far more cautiously regarding faith, however. Rather than overturning it entirely as he had with the government, he merely severed its reach into secular governance and strictly limited the recruitment of new clergy.
In the blink of an eye, several more months passed, and Wei Yuan's reorganization of the Mountain domain was fully completed. By now, the high-level cultivators and bureaucrats had been thoroughly swept aside, the clergy halved, and the old burden reduced from ninety percent of income to a mere ten percent. The Qingming administration then set its aggregate tax rate at fifty percent, leaving ordinary Mountain Folk with forty percent of their earnings.
Qingming applied different tax standards to different regions. In principle, it took forty percent within Qingming itself, fifty percent in other human domains outside Qingming, and sixty to seventy percent in foreign realms. This turned Qingming's homeland into a haven of low tax burden, driving everyone to do whatever it took to become citizens of Qingming.
Once the new standards were fully implemented, the karmic luck of the Mountain Folk poured in like a surging river. Wei Yuan's true body awakened ahead of schedule, accelerating construction across the world beyond the heavens.
***
Inside a teahouse in Qingming Immortal City, a heated argument was raging.
"The Realm Lord lacks benevolence! Several hundred million Mountain Folk perished because of him, over a hundred million of the Liao Clan, not to mention the Shaman Clan! How can someone who slaughtered hundreds of millions of sentient beings be called benevolent?"
"Bullshit! I say you don't even understand what benevolence is! The Realm Lord is benevolent to us humans! Why speak of benevolence to foreign races? Haven't you heard that those not of our kind are sure to be of a different mind?"
"You narrow-minded fool, devoid of vision or breadth of mind! Great love knows no borders, great love knows no bounds; every sentient being ought to be loved! Loving only humanity is far too narrow!"
The two scholars argued with mounting fury, neither willing to yield an inch. Finally, one sneered, "Fine, great love knows no borders, is that it? Then may all your descendants carry the blood of the Shaman Clan, the Liao Clan, and the Mountain Folk!"
The other flushed with rage. "Why resort to insults?"
At that moment, a scholar seated near the stairs spoke up, his tone calm. "In my view, the Realm Lord is both benevolent and unbenevolent. Benevolence has its priorities and its proper context. His prior seizure of the Mountain domain seemed unbenevolent however you look at it. But seen from the perspective of our human race, it was an act of supreme benevolence. And taking the long view, what the Realm Lord is doing in the Mountain domain today is, once again, supreme benevolence.
"Benevolence also depends on the recipient. Toward the high-level cultivators of the Mountain Folk, the Realm Lord was unbenevolent, but toward the lower cultivators and common folk, he has shown supreme benevolence."
Just then, another scholar ascended the stairs. He had intended to head straight to the third floor, but hearing this, he paused and voiced his praise: "Well said."
That single compliment immediately made everyone in the room look at the seated cultivator in a new light. For the man who had spoken was Wen Guantian—the idol of every humble scholar in Qingming.
Having undergone repeated purifications through merit, Wen Guantian's foundation had improved considerably, elevating him to a Soul Transformation cultivator. Although his breakthrough had been somewhat forced and originally improbable, Wei Yuan had personally laid down a fishing array to haul his Nascent Soul up to Soul Transformation, then forcefully drawn Wen Guantian's soul into the mindscape world, making him a Scenery Command cultivator.
In terms of office, Wen Guantian had recently been appointed Vice Director of the Qingming Academy of Sciences. Despite his high station, he retained his old habits, enjoying idle chatter and banter in teahouses. Every so often, he was certain to sit in a teahouse and discuss the Dao with others.
Many in this establishment were long-standing regulars, and with Nascent Soul and Soul Transformation cultivators gathered in numbers, there was no need for Qingming's internal guards to stand watch.
Hearing the scholar's remarks, Wen Guantian felt an instant liking for him and decided to make his acquaintance.
Many promising talents among Qingming's young cultivators spent their days frequenting teahouses, pitching their views in hopes of soaring to prominence overnight. Wei Yuan had always believed that ambition in youth was a good thing, and having more unconventional avenues for advancement was beneficial as well, so he never interfered.
Yet before Wen Guantian could offer a greeting, his eyes met the man's gaze. The instant their eyes locked, it was as if he had plunged into an abyss, held in an inescapable grip!
Wen Guantian immediately sensed danger. Just as he tried to retaliate, a yin fire ignited from within the scholar, instantly engulfing the man. Harnessing the immense power of a burning soul, it dragged Wen Guantian's soul straight out, pulling it into the abyss within those eyes. Then the yin fire erupted, consuming Wen Guantian's soul and the cultivator together into ash!
A moment later, when Wei Yuan arrived, he saw only a charred silhouette scorched into the floor, beside which lay Wen Guantian's corpse, still retaining a trace of warmth.
Wei Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly. But all karma connected to the charred silhouette had been severed. No one knew where the man had come from; everyone present felt they had seen him around for days, yet none could pinpoint when he had first appeared.
Expressionless, Wei Yuan looked closer, finding the silhouette increasingly peculiar. Upon careful inspection, in a fleeting daze, he felt the curled figure resembled a human face—a face with an expression, as if... the Venerable Master were smiling directly at him.
Though he knew the Venerable Master would never leave behind any clues, Wei Yuan still intended to investigate. But just as he leaned down, a storm of spiritual energy carrying faint specks of soul light suddenly surged straight into the sky in the distance!
Wei Yuan shot up, his figure vanishing from the spot to fly toward the storm. That place was nowhere else—it was the Qingming Military Academy!
By the time he arrived, the academy had already been leveled to the ground. Every cadet and instructor had been shredded into minced flesh by the spiritual storm, their souls sucked into the sky and rapidly ground away within the tempest.
Wei Yuan charged directly into the eye of the storm, expanding his Dao power to shield several hundred souls. But that was the limit of what he could do; the vast majority of souls had been obliterated the instant they were swept into the storm.
Wei Yuan channeled the realm's power in a downward suppression, and the spiritual storm was instantly extinguished. However, the cultivator who had triggered it had originally been a newly appointed instructor at the military academy, and by now, his flesh and soul were already utterly destroyed.
Across the massive military academy, encompassing nearly forty thousand cadets and instructors, the only survivors were the several hundred souls cradled in Wei Yuan's grasp.
Wei Yuan's face turned ashen. He surveyed the surroundings, but Qingming had fallen silent, with no further disturbances.
The Venerable Master had lain dormant for years, his whereabouts unknown. Now, this sudden strike—assassinating Wen Guantian and wiping out the military academy—was cheap, but effective. It struck directly at Wei Yuan's soft underbelly, inflicting piercing agony.
*How could the Venerable Master understand me so well? This shouldn't be possible!* Wei Yuan paced among the ruins of the academy, utterly unable to comprehend it.
Assassinating Wen Guantian and leveling the Qingming Military Academy was something no ordinary immortal would ever think of; even a reasonably sane Scenery Command cultivator wouldn't do it. Outside a tiny circle within Qingming, no one had any idea how vital Wen Guantian truly was.
Beyond Qingming, everyone still viewed the world through the old lens: *Mathematics? What is that? Nothing more than trivial parlor tricks.*
Dharma idol grades, the hierarchy of mindscape worlds, and true spirit status were the true core of the cultivation world. Meanwhile, Qingming's system—from templates and Golden Cores to Nascent Souls and Soul Transformations—was viewed by outsiders as nothing more than heretical shortcuts, producing empty titles that amounted to nothing.
Under such circumstances, those capable of recognizing Wen Guantian's importance were as rare as phoenix feathers or unicorn horns.
Wei Yuan, whose own grasp of mathematics was passable but not profound, understood this best of all. Qingming had one Wen Guantian, and over a hundred others who fell only slightly short of him. But at critical junctures—such as when breaking through key bottlenecks in a field—all the second-tier Wen Guantians combined could not match a single true Wen Guantian.
Thus, Wei Yuan could not fathom how the Venerable Master had singled out Wen Guantian.
By comparison, leveling the military academy was somewhat more understandable, though not by much.
Cultivators from the Palace of Grand Beginning were also moving through the ruins, observing and surveying along the way. Wei Yuan had not yet allowed professional survey teams in; their presence would disturb the lines of karma and potentially ruin the few remaining traces. At this stage, the divine senses of high-level cultivators were far sharper than conventional methods, and the greatest shortcoming of conventional methods was their inability to detect karma.
Among the ruins was another figure completely out of place with the cultivators. It was a young girl with golden-brown hair, dressed in the short shirt and trousers typical of the world beyond the heavens. On her head sat a long-brimmed hat, and in her hands she held a large jade bowl. She called this attire: Bowl-Bearing Houtu.
The cultivators inspected the area repeatedly before falling silent, having clearly found nothing. Wei Yuan had anticipated this. The Venerable Master had not even directly possessed anyone; instead, using an avatar akin to Wei Yuan's own, he had first secured a legitimate Qingming identity with a verifiable background, infiltrated key institutions, and then detonated it in one fell swoop, smoothly erasing all flesh, soul, and karma connected to the avatar.
Wherever Bowl-Bearing Houtu walked, the Earth-element qi of the earth veins rose swiftly, rapidly turning the ruined military academy into a prime sanctuary of Earth energy. After pacing a few circles, she asked, "How did he manage to stomach a place this large?"
Wei Yuan was equally perplexed. "In this military academy of mine, every cadet and instructor possessed karmic luck. To help them grow rapidly, I frequently supplemented their karmic luck. On top of that, this place naturally gathered military martial aura, which specifically counters Dao arts and immortal power. The karmic debt from killing these forty thousand people is equivalent to that of at least several tens of millions of mortals. If the Venerable Master was truly willing to shoulder all that karmic debt, why didn't he simply go kill Martial Uncles Xu Henshui, Sun Yu, and Yu Zhizhuo instead?"
Houtu walked up to a corpse that had not been completely ground to dust. Beneath the gentle light radiating from her jade bowl, a translucent figure rose from the body—an image of the deceased in life. He appeared thoroughly bewildered, wholly oblivious to the outside world, unable to perceive Wei Yuan, Houtu, or anyone else.
Houtu observed the radiant glow of karmic luck upon him and said, "He was a young talent, and his karmic luck was burgeoning. The karmic debt for such an individual is worth at least fifty or even a hundred mortals. Even as an Immortal Lord, he couldn't possibly swallow this much karmic debt. I suspect he must have a treasure on hand similar to the Cold Nether Pool that can store karmic debt on his behalf."
Chapter 1504