Ephemeral Multitude forcefully elevated the cultivation of those who received it at the cost of consuming the nourishing essence accumulated by Qingming. Those who had achieved mastery in Body Casting could temporarily advance to the Dao Foundation stage, generating a Dao Foundation that lasted only briefly. Once Ephemeral Multitude was deactivated, everything reverted to its original state.
Thus, Wei Yuan had always treated Ephemeral Multitude as a weapon of war. Moreover, because the disparity between their forces and the enemy's was so vast, activating it just once was far from enough; he had been forced to ramp up training, activating Ephemeral Multitude several times a day so everyone could adapt to it.
Yet for those at Body Casting mastery, repeatedly experiencing this simulated Dao Foundation allowed them to know in advance what kind of foundation they could achieve. The more times they underwent it, the more proficient they became, and the greater their certainty of breaking through grew. Even if someone originally had only a sliver of hope, repeatedly testing the simulated Dao Foundation drastically increased their odds of success.
The Qingming Domain was inherently brimming with vitality and abundant spiritual qi, and the immortal stone's status functioned like an endowment of karmic luck. Thus, once the great battle ended and everyone's mental state shifted, many cultivators met the opportune moment for a breakthrough.
Wei Yuan further bestowed Jia Wood Life-Mystic upon them, allowing several individuals who would have failed due to insufficient spiritual qi to successfully forge their Dao Foundations as well. In the end, out of the hundred who attempted the breakthrough, more than ninety succeeded, with fewer than ten failing.
Although only three achieved an Earth Tier Dao Foundation while the vast majority were Mortal Tier, everyone was overjoyed. After all, the assessment records clearly stated that among these hundred people, fewer than twenty had originally stood any chance of forging a Dao Foundation.
Once all the breakthroughs concluded, Wei Yuan had Yun Feifei and Xu Wan'er guide them in stabilizing their realms, while he and Cui Yu returned to the main peak to discuss the matter.
A hundred people breaking through to the Dao Foundation stage created primordial qi fluctuations that naturally could not be hidden from the cultivators of the Palace of Grand Beginning. Wei Yuan briefly explained what had happened along with his conjectures, then waited for everyone's opinions.
Holding the assessment records of these hundred people, Sun Yu scrutinized them thoroughly before speaking: "I recognize two people on this list. By all logic, it should have been virtually impossible for them to forge a Dao Foundation. Their Dao power was deficient, their control was lacking, and they fell short of the basic requirements. But Ephemeral Multitude allows one to experience the Dao Foundation in advance, which is tantamount to illuminating the path forward. That leaves only the issue of deficient Dao power. As I see it, among ordinary Body Casting cultivators, only two or three out of a hundred could forge a Dao Foundation. Under Ephemeral Multitude, perhaps one in ten could succeed."
Hearing Sun Yu's conclusion, everyone was astonished.
Of the realm's original population of over a hundred thousand mortals, nearly twenty thousand had practiced Body Casting, and just over three hundred held a Dao Foundation. If what Sun Yu said was true, by that calculation, wouldn't a similar mortal population yield two thousand Dao Foundations in the future? When that day came, a Dao Foundation would truly become cheap.
Xiaoyu frowned and said, "Dao Foundations forged this way are all garbage with no possibility of further progress. Is there any point?"
Sun Yu replied, "Don't forget, most of these people could never have achieved a Dao Foundation in the first place. Even a Mortal Tier Dao Foundation is an enormous windfall for them. If nothing else, a Mortal Tier Dao Foundation lets one live to at least a hundred and fifty. What is several more decades of lifespan worth?"
Cui Yu's mind stirred, and he said, "My clan has plenty of good-for-nothing brothers and sisters who couldn't forge a Dao Foundation. In truth, their families have ample resources; they're just too dull and refuse to work hard, which is why they've never succeeded. How about I call a few over to give it a try?"
Wei Yuan's thoughts stirred as well. Several wisps of azure qi manifested in his hand. "I still have some spare karmic luck here. If we bestow it upon them, it should boost their chances by another twenty or thirty percent."
Cui Yu immediately chimed in: "My Cui family also has quite a few secret arts, two of which can overdraft future potential to increase the chance of achieving a Dao Foundation. Those fellows don't have any future potential anyway, so why not have them switch to these methods? Overdrafting their entire future to boost their chances might raise it another twenty percent."
Wei Yuan turned to Sun Yu and asked, "If we disregard the future, I seem to recall several potent medicines that can increase the breakthrough rate at the cost of slightly damaging the Dao Foundation. Martial Uncle Sun, am I remembering correctly?"
Sun Yu snorted and said rather grudgingly, "They exist, yes. The Heaven-Stealing Pill, Ten Thousand Spirits Powder, and Meltfire Pill all have similar effects. But those medicines all damage the Dao Foundation. If you use too much of them, won't your conscience bother you?"
Wei Yuan did not think so.
Speaking of conscience, a fellow like Sun Yu, whose Dao Foundation was filled with lethal venom, seemed to have nothing to do with those words. Even if he did have one, it would certainly be poisonous.
Since the conversation had reached this point, Cui Yu added, "If we could also let them experience the ultimate principles of heaven and earth's workings, that would be even better."
Xiaoyu could bear it no longer. "Why not just hand each of them an immortal sword? Wouldn't that be even better?"
Wei Yuan suddenly had a thought, a vague idea forming in his mind. But it was not yet mature and needed careful contemplation.
Seeing Xiaoyu grow irritated, Cui Yu chuckled, reined in his wild imagination, and said solemnly, "I can recall over a dozen such people off the top of my head, and half live not too far from here. I'll write a letter right now, and the first batch can arrive in seven days. When the time comes, we can just incorporate them into the battle formations to train alongside the rest."
Wei Yuan said, "Bestowing karmic luck won't come cheap!"
Cui Yu understood immediately. "Rest assured. Though they're useless themselves, their families are rich!"
"How should we set the price, then?"
Cui Yu pondered for a moment, then said, "I think we might as well have them owe us a favor first!"
Seeing Wei Yuan and Cui Yu finalize the matter with such earnest seriousness, Xiaoyu set aside her preconceptions and began to think it over, her brow knitting tighter the more she pondered.
Having settled that issue, Wei Yuan said to Sun Yu, "Martial Uncle Sun, firearms offer an enormous boost to mortals. Is there any room to adjust the gunpowder recipe?"
"Adjust it in which direction?" Sun Yu asked.
Wei Yuan thought for a moment and said, "Mass production."
Sun Yu frowned slightly. "How much do you need?"
Wei Yuan said tentatively, "How about... fifty thousand jin to start?"
Sun Yu was taken aback, but he did not lose his temper. Instead, he said seriously, "Then you must give me at least three thousand people: five hundred miners, one thousand able-bodied men, and one thousand women. The remaining five hundred can be whoever."
It could actually be done? Overjoyed, Wei Yuan agreed on the spot.
This battle had actually been the first large-scale deployment of firearms. Although the steel-barreled muskets were extremely crude in craftsmanship, their advantages had already shown: they required very little training to use, yet packed considerable lethality.
In the complex, cramped underground environment, the muskets' power was maximized to the extreme. A half-jin charge was enough to kill or injure Shaman elites, while a one-jin charge could wound a captain.
The corpses of many Shaman captains proved that if struck five or six times in a row, even a Power Shaman could not endure it.
If Sun Yu could produce gunpowder in bulk, Wei Yuan could equip every early Body Casting cultivator with a musket. This was a leap in power comparable to Ephemeral Multitude.
Another bottleneck was the shortage of steel plates. The muskets placed rather demanding requirements on the quality of their steel barrels, which otherwise could not withstand the blast. While steel plates of this grade were not rare, they still required specialized cultivators to forge them through repeated hammering. Fortunately, the domain had just gained nearly a hundred newly minted Dao Foundation cultivators in one go. Forging iron happened to be an excellent way to stabilize a Dao Foundation, so Wei Yuan planned to send more than half of these Dao Foundation cultivators to hammer iron for Foundation Solidification. After all, they were merely Mortal Tier; no matter how much they cultivated, they had no hope of attaining a dharma idol anyway.
Having arranged the two matters most capable of boosting their combat strength, Wei Yuan finally breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to head to the Nether Cold Realm.
With no time to lose, Wei Yuan returned to his quarters and asked his master to guard him. Then, following the method taught by Dream Eater, he sent his nascent divinity into the void, traversing toward the marked coordinates.
As a flash of bright light burst before his eyes, Wei Yuan appeared in a frigid, desolate world. Before him stood a panicking, beautiful young maiden.
Chapter 200