The headless remnant of the blood python dharma idol still writhed in the air, but it was purely instinctual; its dissipation was inevitable.
Wei Yuan put away the withered branch and stuck it casually into the ground, though not into the most fertile soil of the original mound.
The young masters and young ladies finally received the order to cease their Dao arts. Pale from exhaustion, they were practically gasping with their tongues hanging out. Fortunately, though their Dao arts were unrefined, they had struck often enough and long enough to scrape together a bit of damage.
Dark green blood flowed everywhere across the battlefield. The position had originally been fertile earth, but drenched in Shaman blood, it had now turned into scorched ground.
Tens of thousands of Shaman corpses carpeted the entire battlefield—a shocking sight. The human cultivators left standing were far fewer than before the battle began. From the flank, Xiaoyu returned leading over ninety cultivators, covered in wounds himself.
Within Qingming, the pool water was completely depleted. The nurturing power converted from the tens of thousands of Shaman corpses accumulated over previous battles had been utterly drained, having sustained Ephemeral Multitude for merely the burn of an incense stick.
Yet now, fine rain constantly drifted down upon Qingming, and slowly a single drop of water formed at the bottom of the pool.
The domain could not convert the toxins and green qi emanating from the tens of thousands of Shaman corpses quickly enough. A thick fog had formed above the battlefield, lingering without dispersing. Any human cultivator who stayed in the fog for even a short while would silently collapse.
Fortunately, the vast majority within the domain were cultivators from the Western Regions with prior experience handling such conditions; they immediately dragged their collapsed companions out of the mist and moved them into the clear domain.
Without pausing to catch his breath, Wei Yuan vaulted onto his horse and galloped out of the domain alone, chasing in the direction of the retreating Shamans.
The Great Shaman Phantom was also retreating with the Shaman army, but the saber-wielding girl had not let up, pursuing her all the way into the depths of the Wu domain until they vanished from sight. The girl was no match for Phantom in the first place, and without the domain's empowerment, Wei Yuan feared she would meet with disaster, so he set off immediately to back her up.
Fortunately, just as Wei Yuan rode out of the domain, he saw the girl returning, dragging her long saber.
The girl had originally been unscathed, but after chasing Phantom for just that brief moment, her body was already smothered in green qi. Her small face was tinted sickly green, and a trickle of black blood slowly ran down her forehead.
Wei Yuan reached down to pull her up onto the horse, dashed back into the domain at full speed, and promptly channeled Jia Wood Life-Mystic to purge the deadly poisons and curses afflicting her. After a moment, most of the curses on the girl dissipated, and the blood trickling from her forehead turned back to bright crimson. Only then did Wei Yuan ask about her background.
The girl bowed and said, "I am Feng Tingyu, disciple of the Hall of the Bright King. By order of the Patriarch, I am to train with Senior Brother Wei for ten years."
"Train with me? Uh, how come I know nothing about this?" Wei Yuan was rather bewildered. What was there to train for by following him?
"Patriarch Xuanyue agreed as well. Communication is severed right now, so I ran over alone. Patriarch Xuanyue's orders will probably arrive a bit later," the girl said.
Wei Yuan did not doubt her word, but looking at Feng Tingyu's rather petite and slender frame, she truly did not resemble the male and female gorillas of the Hall of the Bright King in the least. Only that eight-foot saber was very much in the hall's style.
Wei Yuan took out a kerchief, pressed it against the wound on her head, and said, "Don't chase so far next time. Without the domain suppressing the enemy, it's easy to suffer a loss."
The girl said, "If I hadn't chased her, she wouldn't have attacked me with all her might. I let her hit me once, then gave her three slashes in return."
Hearing her say that, Wei Yuan was certain beyond doubt that she came from the Hall of the Bright King.
Wei Yuan pointed toward the main peak and said, "That is where our Palace of Grand Beginning disciples rest. Go find Martial Uncle Sun Yu and have him tend to your wounds first."
After seeing Feng Tingyu off, Wei Yuan attended to various cleanup matters. It was not until afternoon that everything was arranged, and the casualty figures were tallied.
In this battle, eight hundred human cultivators had been killed, a loss of nearly half. Several hundred were gravely wounded, but with Sun Yu present and Jia Wood Life-Mystic available, they could all be saved. In other places, most of the severely wounded would have perished; this was what set the Qingming domain apart.
Having wrapped up the aftermath, Wei Yuan prepared to gather the disciples of the Palace of Grand Beginning on the main peak to confer. As lord of the domain, sending a message to everyone within it took only a single thought.
After setting the time for the meeting, Wei Yuan decided to go check on the young masters and young ladies first.
At that moment, the youths were gathered together, staring blankly at their Merit Booklets in unusual silence. Seeing Wei Yuan arrive, Xu Yi suddenly stepped forward before him and bowed deeply—the movement so forceful his head nearly touched the ground.
Wei Yuan hurriedly helped him up, and Xu Yi silently opened his Merit Booklet for Wei Yuan to see.
Written in the Merit Booklet was: "Twenty Heavenly Merits."
Wei Yuan had long expected this. The other young masters and young ladies also opened their Merit Booklets to show Wei Yuan, and every single one had earned heavenly merits. The one with the most was Wang Yu, totaling twenty-two points. The ones with the fewest were two young masters, each with only two points.
Those two young masters were flushed with shame. Scraping together just two points even while piggybacking on the fight made them painfully aware of their Dao art proficiency. The pair had already secretly resolved that from now on, every waking moment aside from eating and sleeping would be devoted to rigorous cultivation and training; under no circumstances would they end up at the very bottom again.
Originally, they had all been the same kind of playboys, happily carefree together. But now, given the exact same opportunity, someone had twenty heavenly merits while someone had two; none of them could keep their composure anymore.
When Wang Yu drew near, Wei Yuan's heart stirred slightly. The sole wisp of advanced azure qi resonated—it had originated from Wang Yu.
Wang Yu did not speak much usually, leaving Wei Yuan with the impression that he was clumsy with words. He had never expected Wang Yu would contribute so much karmic luck, which went to show just how high Wei Yuan's standing was in his heart.
Xu Yi, on the other hand, displayed the greatest affection and admiration toward Wei Yuan, seeming prostrate with veneration, yet the karmic luck he contributed was less than Wang Yu's and hardly more than the others'.
Through this interaction with the young masters and young ladies, relying on his unique perception, Wei Yuan discerned that thirteen of the thirty-odd wisps of azure qi had come from them.
While chatting with them about battlefield matters, Wei Yuan slowly withdrew the karmic luck bestowed upon them. After all, the young masters and young ladies were not horses; he could not just yank it away on a whim. Having karmic luck bestowed upon oneself felt wonderful, but having it stripped away was far less pleasant; it had to be done gradually.
Wei Yuan had originally intended only to give face to Cui Yu and curry favor with the families behind them by treating these young masters and young ladies well. Yet now he found that not only could they fight, but they could also contribute karmic luck—and quite a lot of it!
This discovery instantly made Wei Yuan attentive and considerate, even more solicitous than their personal maidservants at home.
Before the battle, Wei Yuan had scraped together every bit of karmic luck at the bottom of his reserves to assemble sixteen wisps to empower them all, and now he had reclaimed eleven wisps in total. Could this be considered 'five out, thirteen back'?
By sheer instinct, Wei Yuan felt this was not a losing deal at all.
After pacifying the young masters and young ladies, Wei Yuan summoned Xu Wenwu, bestowed a wisp of azure qi onto a particularly robust mortal horse, and instructed him to add an extra shichen of riding practice each day specifically on this mount.
The time for the council had arrived. Wei Yuan flew toward the main peak, where the disciples of the Palace of Grand Beginning were already waiting for him.
Upon reaching the summit, Wei Yuan saw Feng Tingyu sitting high atop a boulder. Her long saber was cast carelessly on the ground, as though it were not a peerless magical artifact.
The meeting was brief. Wei Yuan redistributed military authority and assigned more troops to Cui Yu. Originally, Wei Yuan had also wanted to assign some cultivators to Feng Tingyu, but the girl firmly refused for fear of being saddled with burdens, so Wei Yuan had no choice but to drop the matter.
For the next step, Wei Yuan prepared to patrol the domain's periphery to persuade scattered settlements of humans to relocate within its borders. Originally, such tasks could have been entrusted to Yun Feifei and Xu Wan'er, but once Wei Yuan realized that the human cultivators had also contributed more than ten wisps of azure qi, he decided that in the future he would take the field in person for such affairs.
Whether to rebel or not was beside the point; what mattered most was karmic luck.
Chapter 158