The Qingming Military Academy was rebuilt on its original site on an even larger scale. Most of the instructors were commanders reassigned from the front lines. Years ago, these generals had graduated from the academy with distinction, and after years of weathering the grind of battle at the front, many boasted stellar combat records.
In the short term, the supply of Qingming officers was interrupted, but it would take only three years for a new cohort of cadets to be fast-tracked to graduation and fill the void.
During the academy's reconstruction, many within Qingming called for stricter governance to prevent similar incidents from happening again. After weighing his options, however, Wei Yuan did not adopt their suggestions, nor did he increase the output of the Great Array of the Heavenly Constellations. Everything remained as it had been before.
The losses at the smelting workshop were immense, exceeding one hundred million Qingyuan. Yet material losses were what Wei Yuan cared least about at present. Casualties were only ten to twenty percent of those suffered at the military academy; evidently, the Venerable Master had also been frightened and dared not kill too many.
To Wei Yuan, so long as few talents were lost, nothing else was a problem.
The losses of the academy and the workshop could be made good in short order; only the loss of Wen Guantian was irremediable. Wei Yuan went to check once more on the sub-bodies secretly being cultivated, but as expected, there was no progress.
Meanwhile, however, a peculiar line of argument began circulating within Qingming, claiming that the hundreds of thousands of family members of the military academy cadets could actually have been saved that day, but the Realm Lord had deliberately left them to die just to bring down the Venerable Master.
This sentiment surged in waves and could not be quelled no matter what, eventually even spreading into the Splendor of the Many Realms.
In Qingming Immortal City, Zhang Sheng sat opposite Wei Yuan and asked, "Could those people have been saved?"
"If I had forced the issue, yes, it would have been possible, but the price would have been steep—extraordinarily steep," Wei Yuan admitted candidly. "If I had saved them, I wouldn't have been able to land a fatal blow against the Venerable Master. He would have launched further moves, and it wouldn't have been as simple as blowing up just one workshop. Far more people would have died. Since people were going to die either way, it was better that these people died. They were blessed with karmic luck, so the karmic debt generated by their deaths was over a dozen times greater than normal."
Zhang Sheng said, "Some claim that since you should have saved them and didn't, they died because of you. How do you intend to counter that?"
Wei Yuan sneered. "If I had saved them and even more people ended up dying at the Venerable Master's hands, who would bear the blame for that? Would it be laid on those making snide remarks? With those frail little shoulders of theirs, could they bear even an ounce of responsibility?"
Zhang Sheng cautioned, "Your mind is unsettled."
Wei Yuan seemed rather irritated. "I used to think the Venerable Master was someone of stature, but now he looks like nothing more than a blowfly! How could a dignified Immortal Lord be so shameless? Without even investigating, I already know that those making snide remarks have unwittingly fallen prey to the Venerable Master's insidious tricks. Otherwise, how could they have seen through my methods?"
Zhang Sheng said, "As long as you understand. Fundamentally, those people died by the Venerable Master's hand. That is the karma, and that is the karmic debt. The Venerable Master has exhausted his major stratagems; from now on, he will only have petty, sickening tricks left. Attending to your own duties is what matters most. As for retaliating against the Venerable Master—"
At that moment, a voice sounded from outside the courtyard: "Of course we must retaliate! How could we not?"
Houtu bounced in, holding her bowl, having switched to a new flavor of sweetened fruit juice.
Wei Yuan promptly invited her to sit and asked, "How should we retaliate?"
Houtu said, "Simple! Proclaim to the entire world that the Venerable Master is no longer an Immortal Lord!"
Wei Yuan was taken aback. "But he clearly still is an Immortal Lord!"
Houtu rolled her eyes at him, huffing, "Of course I know he's still an Immortal Lord! Spreading rumors, slinging mud—don't you get how that works? Nobody else knows whether he's still an Immortal Lord or not. If he wants to prove he hasn't lost his standing, doesn't he have to come out and take a stroll? In the miserable state he's in right now, can he even show himself? And if he daren't come out, all the better! From then on, if he ever tries to do anything, no one will listen to him."
Wei Yuan nodded, though doubts lingered. "Immortal Lords have countless tricks up their sleeves. If he sends out an avatar or something to take a stroll, even immortals might not be able to tell."
"I've already thought of that. I have a way to deal with it. Leave it to me—you just provide the funds." Houtu patted her chest vigorously, wearing an expression that said he could rest easy.
Wei Yuan found it very hard to rest easy.
Several months later, at the border between western Qingming and the Mountain Domain, Wei Yuan looked at the newly completed grand array and felt even less at ease. The foundation of this grand array was of Yuangu style—wild, violent, yet immensely powerful. Layered on top were the modern restraints and controls characteristic of Qingming, allowing for precise manipulation. In terms of array craft, it had far surpassed the standards of the Yuangu era.
There was nothing wrong with the array itself; the problem lay in what it was meant to do. Its purpose was to hoist the Central Earth Grotto-Heaven and elevate it into the immortal heaven—this was the 'partial ascension' theory Wen Guantian had proposed years earlier. Somehow, Houtu had dug up the treatise and turned it into reality.
Cultivators of the Yuangu era had been fierce and unbridled, some even refining the sun, moon, and stars into their own Dao bases. By comparison, partial ascension was child's play.
According to Houtu, she could have hoisted the Earth Grotto-Heaven into the immortal heaven on her own. The only reason several hundred million had to be spent building this grand array was to bring along every last Mirage Demon inside the grotto-heaven—a case of partial enlightenment where even the chickens and dogs ascend to heaven.
The grand array covered hundreds of li. The control array core was situated at its periphery atop an elevated terrace, garrisoned by tens of thousands of template cultivators. Varying numbers of cultivators were stationed at the remaining array cores, mobilizing nearly a million templates in total.
A God Transformation cultivator checked the time and called out in a resonant voice, "The auspicious hour has arrived. Commence ascension!"
As the countdown ended, dense mist billowed from the array, and a pillar of light shot up from its center, piercing straight toward the immortal heaven.
From the center of the array, a colossal planetoid slowly rose. Crawling densely across its surface were countless tiny yellow specks, a sight that made one's hair stand on end. Those tiny specks were layer upon layer of Mirage Demons, innumerable in count.
At the center of the planetoid, Houtu sprawled on a lounge chair, gazing up at the heavens. She wore dark sunglasses, sipped fruit juice, and was clad in an outfit from the world beyond the heavens called a bikini, with so little fabric it looked like she had suffered a disaster.
That vast expanse of pale flesh blinded the immortals in the sky, who turned their heads away one after another, daring not look too closely. This was not out of propriety, but because looking too much could easily establish karmic ties—and that was certainly no good thing.
Besides, Houtu's figure was truly nothing to write home about, offering little to gaze upon. Immortals were well-traveled and knowledgeable, possessing little interest in such a scrawny beanpole of a girl. And of course, even if they had been interested, the beanpole wouldn't have deigned to give them a second look.
Under the support of a million templates, the massive celestial body slowly ascended toward the immortal heaven. Tribulation clouds had long since gathered in the sky, expanding to their maximum scale of ten thousand li.
Houtu naturally paid the heavenly tribulation no mind. Raising a middle finger directly at the eye of the tribulation clouds, she shouted, "If you've got the guts, strike me dead!"
The heavenly tribulation responded with a terrifying thunderbolt, skirting around Houtu and striking the Earth celestial body. In an instant, it scorched countless Mirage Demons, leaving a charred black patch on the sphere.
Throughout the immortal heaven, nothing could be heard except the rumble of thunder and Houtu's clamoring: "Strike me! Strike me if you have the guts! I'm standing right here for you to strike—how come you can't hit me at all? Giving you a chance, and you're still useless!"
On the planetoid, that petite beanpole jumped up and down, pointing at the sky and cursing, presenting a scene beyond description.
The Heavenly Dao seemed enraged as well. One tribulation lightning bolt struck after another; every single bolt bypassed Houtu and slammed violently into the Earth celestial body, scorching countless Mirage Demons until they were charred on the outside and tender on the inside, filling the air with the aroma of roasted meat.
Charred patches multiplied across the celestial body, and countless carcasses of Mirage Demons sloughed off, tumbling down toward the earth. Yet at the center of several scorched patches, a few Mirage Demons with the texture of multicolored crystals appeared, swimming leisurely through the molten slurry of tribulation lightning.
Chapter 1506