The stabilization of Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains doubled Wei Yuan's Dao power. This increase was roughly on par with other Dao Foundation cultivators, with no obvious excess.
Originally, Wei Yuan's Dao power had been more than tenfold that of an ordinary early immortal foundation cultivator; now, it was more than tenfold that of an ordinary mid-stage immortal foundation cultivator, amounting to little real gain in relative standing.
Judging purely by the sheer volume of Dao power, Wei Yuan had already surpassed Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli, roughly equaling Perfected Chuhe's snake or cat, and held slightly more than the old Daoist himself.
However, immense as his Dao power was, it was not yet sufficiently condensed and pure—a textbook example of being thick yet brittle, built upon an unsteady foundation. In cultivation lectures, this was a classic flaw criticized by instructors, signifying that with equal Dao power, one's strikes lacked force and one's defense was fragile, leaving one at a grave disadvantage in a magical duel.
Reflecting on this now, Wei Yuan fully agreed. At equivalent levels of Dao power, he truly could not hold a candle to many dharma idol cultivators, such as the cloth-robed swordsman Xu Shiqi.
Empowered by a dharma idol, even ordinary Dao power would manifest manifold wondrous uses out of thin air. Thus, generally speaking, under conditions of equal Dao power and the same grade of Dao Foundation, a True Person of the Dharma Idol realm could utterly crush a Dao Foundation cultivator.
In the past, Wei Yuan had possessed plenty of flashy tricks, yet he fundamentally lacked a decisive, battle-ending killing stroke—unless he brought out the immortal tree. Oh, but now he had acquired the Yin-Yang Dao Foundation, the Crimson Night Immortal-Slaying Sword, and the Sword of Ten Thousand Generations and Autumns...
As for defense, Wei Yuan was indeed "thick yet unhardened," except that an attack capable of cleaving an ordinary immortal foundation cultivator to death in three blows would certainly fail to kill Wei Yuan even in thirty.
Because Wei Yuan possessed a formidable physical body, many adversaries would turn to attacking his Dao Foundation instead; after all, dharma idol True Persons did not lack methods to strike at Dao Foundations. But only when they made their move would they discover that Wei Yuan's Dao Foundation was an even more hopeless target, offering no place to sink their claws.
Beyond that, there was the Sword of Ten Thousand Generations and Autumns; a mere fraction of this sword art was enough to serve as the cornerstone of an aristocratic clan. Having traded blows with the cloth-robed swordsman, Wei Yuan already knew this was no empty boast.
Relying solely on a dharma remnant that had been dead for ages, the cloth-robed swordsman Xu Shiqi had commanded a value of seven thousand heavenly merits, shattering the upper limit of the Palace of Grand Beginning's merit appraisal template. Most terrifying of all was that downward cleave unleashed as he spun with the sword slung behind his back—it could likely have severed even Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains. That was a sword strike of supreme and absolute lethality; even if his grandmaster Perfected Fenhai or Great Shaman Yanxin had stood in his place, the contest would probably still have been decided in a single stroke.
Only now did Wei Yuan suddenly realize: Xu Shiqi had never imparted the true intent inheritance of that sword strike!
Back then, the fellow had said there were still "a few" sword forms left below. Under any normal interpretation, "a few" had to mean at least three or more, right? Yet he had handed over only two.
Wei Yuan's impression of Xu Shiqi plummeted instantly. The man had looked so honest and upright—how could he be so underhanded!
If it was two moves, just say two moves! What was the point of being so mysterious? I ventured down there to save all living beings, not for the sake of your sword manual... Wei Yuan grumbled furiously in his heart. If not for Xu Shiqi's tragic life, he would have started cursing him out with the foulest words imaginable.
Even as he vented internally, Wei Yuan examined the sword manual.
The first form, Beginning of a Thousand Autumns, was the technique where the cloth-robed swordsman traced a circle with his blade, drawing in all things before cleaving them with a single stroke. This move embodied the principles of heaven and earth. Once brought to great mastery, it could draw in anything in the surroundings that harbored hostility toward the user—be it immortal sword or Dao art, all could be contained in one stroke and cleaved in one stroke.
The final form, End of Ten Thousand Generations, involved planting the sword into the ground and flicking the blade with a finger to ring out a sound like twilight drums and morning bells. This strike could shock and awe the soul and dissolve Dao power. Back then, the cloth-robed swordsman had used only half the technique, flicking the blade, and thousands of flying swords had plummeted from the air in an instant.
The sword's resonance struck awe into the primordial soul, while running it in reverse produced the effect of opening wisdom and bringing sudden enlightenment, allowing one to realize the stillness that all the splendor of ten thousand generations ultimately returns to emptiness—already bordering upon the Dao.
Flicking that last sword move a few extra times, Wei Yuan suspected, might well cause an enemy to see through the four elements as empty and take the tonsure as a monk.
Both moves were extraordinary, yet without that strike capable of sundering heaven and earth, the art felt as though it had lost its soul. Had Wei Yuan never witnessed it, that would have been one thing, but with the giant blade descending upon his head at that moment, the impression was etched directly into his soul.
When he had first acquired the sword manual, Wei Yuan had set his sights on that exact move, even fantasizing about the day he achieved great success on the immortal path, refining his Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains into a sword—slashing out like that would almost carry the majesty of splitting heaven and earth anew.
As it turned out, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. Not only had Xu Shiqi withheld it, but it was also missing from the secret manual provided by the shadow in the moon.
Xu Shiqi had gone even further: not only was that strike absent, but Opening the Heavens with a Single Stroke—which could unseal an immortal sword—was missing too, and so was Embers of the Former Dynasty, which took lives with such mundane, mortal flavor that it clearly represented a return to pristine simplicity. That form, Embers of the Former Dynasty, was best suited for use in front of Xiaoyu, to show him that the utmost vulgarity is the utmost refinement, and supreme elegance cannot compare to the earthy and coarse.
Still, possessing three forms was better than none at all. It was just that if they ever crossed paths again on the Great Dao, he would have to take Xu Shiqi's credibility with a grain of salt.
Suppressing his discontent for the moment, Wei Yuan turned to an important matter at hand. Returning to his room, he spread out a sheet of letter paper and wrote:
"Junior Brother Xiaoyu,
I have recently gained some insight and casually mastered a sword strike that is fairly commendable. I wish to share and appreciate it together with you, Junior Brother..."
Wei Yuan had originally intended to remind Xiaoyu to check the Merit Board, but reflecting that he had just sent a letter not long ago, bringing it up again felt rather forced, so he let it go. Besides, he figured that his claiming first place on the Merit Board must have already caused a sensation throughout the palace; Xiaoyu would learn of it sooner or later.
Over ten days slipped past in a flash.
Following the advancement of Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, Qingming also responded. The domain's expansion speed increased by twenty percent, extending twelve li every ten days. The growth rate of numerous spiritual plants within the domain saw a modest boost as well. However, Wei Yuan continued to rein in the domain's expansion; with vast open land available for now, there was no rush to expand territory. He wanted to wait until Shaman City was built up a bit further, and then drape the domain over it in one fell swoop to make a grand move.
Just as Yuan Qingyan was eagerly anticipating the moment the domain ran out of provisions, the millet rice across the second batch of four thousand five hundred mu of spirit fields ripened.
In one go, eight hundred thousand jin of millet rice were harvested, which would originally have been more than enough for the cultivators in the domain to consume. But with the addition of forty-seven thousand boys and girls, the spirit rice was once again in short supply.
During this period, the old Daoist Chuhe threw himself into the work with a vengeance, toiling without rest or sleep. He surveyed earth qi and fertile soil everywhere and laid out formations, opening up another ten thousand mu alongside the original spirit fields. Moreover, he located several pockets of spiritual land near the edge of the domain and developed several new plots of spirit fields, adding over two thousand mu in total.
The spiritual energy in the land originally used for growing millet rice was limited, and Wei Yuan had initially estimated that twelve thousand mu of spirit fields was the absolute maximum. But after Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains advanced, Qingming's intake and exhalation of the origin qi of heaven and earth quickened, elevating the spiritual energy within the domain. As a result, this spiritual land expanded, ultimately yielding an extra three thousand mu.
Seeing the old Daoist Chuhe working so diligently, Wei Yuan felt somewhat guilty, so when the time was right, he gave him some more Nether Soil, enabling him to expand the Nether Fields to twenty plots and plant a wide variety of peculiar spiritual vegetation.
With the strengthening of the Jia Wood Life-Mystic power within the domain, the medicinal garden naturally benefited the most. The growth rate of the spiritual plants in the garden was now five times that of the outside world, reaching the standard of ordinary medicinal gardens in the Palace of Grand Beginning. If empowered with Jia Wood Life-Mystic, the growth rate could reach twentyfold, approaching that of the Palace of Grand Beginning's supreme medicinal gardens.
Those boys and girls certainly were not left idle. Guided by the intention of speeding up their Body Casting progress, Wei Yuan dispatched them all north of the city to clear wasteland. This batch was slated to clear one hundred thousand mu, averaging two mu per person—not too much, just enough to feed them.
The original one hundred thousand mu of farmland had already been reclaimed and was currently covered in fresh sprouts, ready for harvest in less than fifty days. Combined with the newly cleared one hundred thousand mu, provisions in the domain would be abundant. However, "abundant" was judged by the standard of ordinary folk; if they were to undergo Body Casting cultivation, food consumption would be several times the normal amount.
Once this batch of grain was harvested, Wei Yuan planned to raise the daily ration to five jin per person. Though still shy of the ten-jin standard for full-speed Body Casting, it was already on par with the Great Tang regular army. Ten jin was the standard for elite border troops, a figure Wei Yuan kept firmly in mind.
Amidst the flurry of activity, time passed remarkably fast.
On this day, movement stirred within the Hall of Merits, and a batch of tomes alongside six secret manuals was teleported over. All of them were jade books, looking extraordinarily refined.
The tomes all concerned matters of the Dao of Karma, requiring heavenly merits to exchange for. As for Wei Yuan, at the cost of three thousand heavenly merits, he had obtained permission from the Palace of Grand Beginning to teach six foundational methods of Body Casting within the Qingming Domain.
Although the six basic methods were no closely guarded clan secrets, and teaching them privately to a few people would have been harmless, Wei Yuan was not teaching just one or two individuals—he intended to instruct tens of thousands, even a hundred thousand. For that, formal authorization was mandatory; otherwise, the Palace of Grand Beginning would surely clean house and revoke the techniques.
The upper limit on this authorization document was one hundred thousand people.
Amusingly, both Wei Yuan and the old Daoist responsible for reviewing and approving the authorization felt they had gotten the better end of the deal.
Chapter 291