Wei Yuan now knew that sacrificing the origin soul and spirit of a dharma idol also yielded otherworldly fortune, and in considerable quantities. Yet the shadow in the moon seemed largely indifferent to Great Shamans; though Wei Yuan had slain two Great Shamans by now, he had not seen the shadow show the slightest hint of interest.
These several wisps of pale azure qi were clearly karmic luck as well, similar to the most basic black qi, but where had they come from?
Wei Yuan attempted to make contact with the azure qi using his divine sense. Intuition told him their usage should be roughly the same as black karmic luck, though he did not know whether there would be differences in their actual effects. Still, he had no clue where these five wisps of azure qi had originated.
Wei Yuan took a turn through his Dao Foundation, casually pulling up the withered branch to examine it. Seeing not the slightest sign of burgeoning vitality, he stuck it back in.
Withdrawing from his sea of consciousness, he tracked down the young lords and ladies and urged them to go see Sun Yu for a checkup to see if they had sustained any hidden injuries in battle. With Sun Yu there, minor wounds could be healed on the spot.
By now, the young masters and mistresses admired Wei Yuan to the point of utter veneration. Each set aside their spoiled airs and proved thoroughly obedient. The moment Wei Yuan gave the word, they lined up to head to Sun Yu.
Watching them walk off, Wei Yuan rubbed his face, a flicker of exhaustion surfacing.
Bao Yun appeared beside him and remarked, "You've practically turned into the grand imperial steward, holding their hands through battle like that?"
Wei Yuan sighed. "There's no helping it. Brother Cui brought them over, and only by looking after them properly can I give him a fair accounting. Besides, their talent isn't bad. So long as they are properly trained, their combat prowess won't be lacking either."
Bao Yun asked again, "Did you come up with that trick of leading them to farm merit points yourself?"
Wei Yuan was somewhat mystified. "Yeah, what about it? Didn't they come here for reputation? Isn't ranking on the merit leaderboard the best kind of fame? If I don't lead them to rack up merit points, what did they come here for?"
Bao Yun clasped her hands behind her back, leaned slightly toward Wei Yuan, and said, "Nothing. It's quite good. Keep it up!"
Only as he watched Bao Yun walk away did Wei Yuan recover from a momentary daze. It had to be said, whenever the Eldest Miss Bao drew just a little closer, it imparted an oppressive feeling like standing directly before an Immortal Monarch.
Wei Yuan then summoned the guard captains, directing them to take the young lords' and ladies' armor and weapons for inspection and maintenance, promptly mending whatever was damaged, and fetching any necessary materials from Yun Feifei. In the battle just now, quite a few had taken multiple hits, and their armor needed repair.
Only after dealing with the pile of miscellaneous chores did Wei Yuan go to see Tianyu.
Tianyu had been laid out directly on the peak. The fellow was simply too dangerous; had he been locked in a cell, he might easily have escaped, as ordinary cultivators had no hope of keeping watch over him. Wei Yuan had therefore simply left him on the summit, where everyone's divine senses could sweep over him from time to time, while Xiaoyu, guarding the base, kept an eye on him constantly.
The moment he saw Wei Yuan, Tianyu grew agitated at once, squirming desperately and shouting curses: "Despicable! Shameless! Base! Humans truly are a bunch of treacherous scoundrels! If you have the guts, let me go, and let's have a real fight with naked blades!"
Wei Yuan squatted before him and tugged at the few strands of hair binding his wrists. These strands were incredibly tough; Tianyu had clearly struggled, only for them to bite deep into his flesh.
Wei Yuan realized he had genuinely underestimated those young ladies; it seemed Tianyu had no chance of breaking free at all.
Xiaoyu had been standing nearby, holding his sword cradled in his arms. Seeing Wei Yuan arrive, he said, "I need some peace and quiet. I'm leaving."
Xiaoyu's reaction was somewhat strange, so Wei Yuan turned to Tianyu. "What did you say to him?"
"I just saw that his talent was passable and wanted him to let me go for a fair fight, but he ignored me."
Wei Yuan asked, "Do you think you can beat him?"
Tianyu grew serious and thought it over carefully before saying, "I have an eighty percent chance. My Taiyue Great Ape possesses innate spirituality, far superior to that sword of his. I already told him as much, but he insisted his sword wasn't bad either, so I argued with him for a bit. The man's clumsy with words; he couldn't beat me in an argument."
"Eighty percent isn't low. But he's the weakest among us; beating him wouldn't be anything to brag about. You couldn't even beat me, to say nothing of the others," Wei Yuan said.
Tianyu flew into a rage. "Who says I couldn't beat you?! If not for—"
Wei Yuan cut him off. "Could you beat that pagoda? What about that tree? My master slew a Great Shaman with just four swords. If he unleashed all seven, what do you think would happen?"
Tianyu was stunned. Only after a moment did he mutter, "Then I... wouldn't necessarily lose."
"Enough. Down to business: how do you plan to ransom yourself back?"
Tianyu said, "I've said it several times already. It's simple: send a message to my tribe, let them deliver the ransom, and then let me go. Wouldn't that do it?"
Wei Yuan held up two fingers. "I want to add two more conditions. First, an additional five hundred thousand immortal silver or goods of equal value. Second, the Shamans must withdraw their troops and make no incursions for one year."
"Stop dreaming!" Tianyu flatly refused.
"Do you think you aren't worth that much? There are only a hundred spots on the Power Shaman Rankings. For someone ranked in the top hundred among all Shaman Scholars, demanding even more would only be fair."
Tianyu merely sneered. "Actually, the moment I entered, I knew this place is the Heaven-Lacking Land from the Heavenly Shaman decree. Those two useless trash, Blood Eye and Phantom, couldn't sense it, but I can feel the drain of heaven-and-earth origin qi. So either you let me go, take your share of the ransom—and I'll add a bit more as I see fit—or you fight me again. If you lose, you let me walk, I'll still pay the ransom, and I'll act as though I know nothing about this place for now. In any case, someone will discover your Heaven-Lacking Land sooner or later."
Wei Yuan remarked curiously, "Doesn't it cross your mind that I might just kill you outright?"
Tianyu snorted. "Most of my soul remains upon the Power Shaman Rankings. Even if you kill me, I will resurrect upon the rankings. It would merely be a pity to lose this dharma body, which would take time to temper again. The ransom is simply the worth of a dharma body. Why do you think I was willing to duel you alone instead of retreating? Because you can't kill me at all! Heh, did you think we Power Shamans were truly stupid?"
"I see." Wei Yuan nodded and summoned Ji Liuli, Bao Yun, and Zhang Sheng.
While waiting, Wei Yuan said, "Whether Power Shamans are stupid, I wouldn't know. I only know there are plenty of people smarter than you. Oh, and if you can't endure what's coming later, it won't be too late to agree to the ransom. I'll gladly listen to your terms."
In the blink of an eye, everyone from the Palace of Grand Beginning had arrived, and even Cui Yu was present.
Wei Yuan briefly explained Tianyu's situation, then asked, "That's basically how it stands. Do you have any ways to handle this?"
Ji Liuli reached out and poked Tianyu all over with keen interest. "His body is quite interesting—much more fun than that wooden shell and the lizard from before. Oh, his soul is tied to the Power Shaman Rankings, is it? Treasures of this sort are powerful, virtually all immortal treasures, but they aren't rare. In truth, the majority of his soul should still be in this body, with only a small portion in the Power Shaman Rankings. Once this body dies, the remnant soul is automatically summoned by the Power Shaman Rankings and merged back into a complete soul. That is standard principle for such immortal treasures."
Pausing briefly, Ji Liuli added, "Do you think his remnant soul could escape from beneath my Demon-Suppressing Pagoda?"
As she spoke, a miniature nine-tiered pagoda appeared in Ji Liuli's hand. She waved it several times before Tianyu, letting him vividly feel its aura.
Tianyu's expression changed instantly.
A green fruit appeared at Bao Yun's fingertip, followed by a few shifts until she settled on a golden-red one. She brought the fruit close to Tianyu, and he began to tremble violently. This was not fear born of his mind, but an instinctive terror of his body and Dao Foundation.
Bao Yun said, "This seed of mine possesses the power to draw out primordial yang. Planted within him, it will spontaneously extract the essence of flesh and soul, condensing into a Primordial Yang Fruit. If the Power Shaman Rankings truly function as he claims, then once the soul in his body is drawn down to a certain extent, the portion on the rankings will instead be pulled back toward the host. Though it won't pull everything back, given enough time, the soul left on the rankings won't be enough for him to resurrect. Furthermore, at his current cultivation level, the resulting Primordial Yang Fruit should be exceptionally nourishing, offering tremendous benefit toward attempting a breakthrough to dharma idol."
Cui Yu's eyes lit up hearing this. "A treasure!"
Among the group, he was the sole Heaven Foundation cultivator. For the rest, breaking through to dharma idol was virtually a given, but Cui Yu still faced considerable uncertainty. Consequently, he was exceptionally sensitive to any treasure that could increase his odds of breakthrough.
A sword glow fraught with destructive silence surfaced at Zhang Sheng's fingertip. Letting Tianyu get a clear look, he said, "It really doesn't need to be so troublesome. Place him in my sword formation, and I'll strike him down with a full-force sword. With his meager cultivation, he won't exhaust all of my sword intent; the remaining sword intent can follow karma and descend upon the rest of his soul. Even if it doesn't wipe him out completely, resurrecting won't be an easy feat."
Cold sweat poured down Tianyu as he listened. These people were all exceptionally handsome and fair, yet their methods were darker than the last. No wonder the humans themselves said never to judge by appearances.
By now, all three had finished speaking, leaving only Xiaoyu silent. Cui Yu, after all, possessed merely a Heaven Foundation and had far fewer techniques at his disposal; in this setting, he had no standing to voice an opinion for the time being. But Xiaoyu also possessed an immortal foundation, and Wei Yuan felt it would be impolite not to let him showcase something, so he stared right at him.
Xiaoyu cursed foully in his heart, though his expression remained outwardly serene. Yet he really had nothing profound to say, and could only manage: "I don't have much ability, just a breath of True Fire of the Great Sun. I could roast him over a slow fire for a few hours each day..."
Tianyu burst into furious curses.
Seeing that his purpose was achieved, Wei Yuan tossed Tianyu into a corner of the peak, leaving him there to stew for a while.
The spoils of supplies this time were abundant. The southern Shaman force had brought twenty mud boats carrying tens of thousands of jin of military rations, over ten thousand jin of various refined metals, and more than a thousand sets of armor. Once the newly slain Shaman warriors' corpses were hauled back, Wei Yuan distinctly felt the speed of Qingming's nurturing increase, finally reaching a threshold.
Strand after strand of profound power diffused from Qingming. In Wei Yuan's divine sense, Qingming grew somewhat clearer, revealing a small pool within. For now, the pool was mostly empty, with only a handful of azure water rippling at the bottom.
From the unseen depths, fine threads of azure rain continuously formed and merged into the water at the bottom of the pool. These threads of rain were heaven-and-earth origin qi converted from the Shaman corpses. Once the pool was full, Qingming would advance once more. In tandem with Qingming's transformation, Wei Yuan's Dao Foundation altered accordingly; the shape of Jade Mountain shifted, gradually coming to resemble Qingming by seventy to eighty percent.
At this moment, more soil had accumulated on the ground around Jade Mountain. Within ten zhang, soil was particularly abundant, making it essentially a plot of land strewn with pebbles. Within three chi around the withered branch, it was entirely rich soil, the stones having been pushed aside at some unknown point.
The rate at which Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains absorbed spiritual qi increased once more, and Wei Yuan could finally distinctly sense the progress of his cultivation.
And at this moment, Qingming's first divine wonder was finally unlocked: Ephemeral Multitude.
Chapter 154