In the dungeon beneath the main peak, Tianyu held a bizarre posture. Every part of his body twisted in a different direction, yet he remained motionless, as though completely oblivious to the outside world.
Wei Yuan stood inside the cell and watched him for the time it took to drink a cup of tea, but Tianyu did not budge in the slightest.
Rendered speechless, Wei Yuan called over a jailer and asked, "How long has he been like this?"
"Three days already. He hasn't moved an inch."
Wei Yuan was all the more at a loss for words. Observing more closely, he noticed that the magical power within Tianyu ebbed and flowed like a tide, surging in a steady, rhythmic pulse. Though seemingly unobtrusive, it was like the undercurrents of an ocean, harboring terrifying force. Judging purely by his aura, the fellow had actually advanced yet again and stood merely a step away from becoming a Great Shaman. Given the right opportunity, he could break through at any moment.
It seemed Tianyu had treated the prison cell as a cultivation chamber and his imprisonment as a retreat for wall-gazing meditation.
Wei Yuan naturally had no intention of letting him do time in such comfort. After a moment's thought, he drew the Crimson Night Immortal-Slaying Sword, channeled half a stroke of End of Ten Thousand Generations, and gave the blade a gentle flick toward Tianyu!
In Tianyu's mind, a vision of his natural predator instantly materialized! Worse yet, it was mutated—several times larger than normal, gaping with a bloody maw lined with thousands of teeth, biting straight down at his head!
With a loud shriek, Tianyu blasted straight up from where he sat, smacked his head violently against the cell ceiling, and ricocheted heavily back onto the floor. The impact left him seeing stars and nearly knocked him senseless.
"Awake now?" Wei Yuan asked with a genial smile.
Stars still swimming before his eyes, Tianyu took a good while to regain his bearings. He eyed Wei Yuan suspiciously and asked, "What did you just do to me? Why does it feel like you've cultivated something terrifying?"
Wei Yuan said, "It's been a while since we last saw each other. Isn't it only natural for me to advance a bit?"
Tianyu leaned closer to sniff Wei Yuan, then suddenly sneezed and cried out, "What's poking me?!"
A wisp of exceedingly faint red sword qi slipped out of his nostril and returned into Wei Yuan. Had Wei Yuan not taught him a small lesson, the fellow's nose would have rubbed right against him.
Straightening his expression, Wei Yuan asked, "Do you want to go back?"
"No!"
Wei Yuan was taken aback. "Why?"
"Ransom is a trivial matter. But I've discovered that in this place of yours, with my magic completely sealed, my cultivation progresses exceptionally fast. I've even caught a spark of inspiration—it feels like the grade of my Dao Foundation could be raised a notch higher. If you lock me up for another year or six months, I might be able to advance straight to Desolate Shaman." Tianyu's eyes shone as he spoke, clearly treating Qingming as a sacred cultivating ground.
A headache throbbing at his temples, Wei Yuan said gravely, "So you'd just disregard the lives of over a hundred thousand of your kinsmen?"
"Over a hundred thousand? That's far beyond my pay grade. There are plenty of Great Shamans above me—go find them." Tianyu was clearly not one to shoulder the troubles of the world.
Wei Yuan wasted no more breath on him. "Follow me."
Wei Yuan unlocked the chains, led Tianyu out of the cell, and carried him through the air toward the vicinity of Sun Yu's courtyard. By now, over ten thousand Shaman corpses lay piled upon the morgue grounds, and more were continuously being ferried over.
Seeing these corpses, Tianyu fell abruptly silent. Every trace of amusement vanished from his face, replaced by a sharp glint in his eyes. He turned to Wei Yuan and asked, "Did they attack again?"
"No. I took your Shaman City."
Only then was Tianyu truly shocked. He knew what Shaman City had originally been designed to become; after all this time, there should have been at least an army of a hundred thousand stationed there, along with multiple Great Shamans. He had found it utterly impossible to believe Wei Yuan could conquer it.
Wei Yuan carried him across to the far side of the morgue grounds. A new encampment had been erected here, crammed full of Shamans stretching as far as the eye could see. With a single glance, Tianyu knew there were already over ninety thousand Shamans in the camp, with more continually being escorted in.
Recognizing the attire on these Shamans, Tianyu gasped in disbelief, "You really took Shaman City?!"
"Naturally. If you want to save them, you only need to do two things."
Wei Yuan held up a finger. "First, I can let you go back, but you must deliver a ransom befitting your status. Second, you may trade human sacrifices for your own people. One sacrifice for one kinsman—a very fair deal."
Tianyu immediately shook his head. "Impossible. These are all ordinary commoners. They can only be exchanged for the lowest grade of sacrifices. For a high-grade sacrifice, one can fetch five Shaman commoners."
This took Wei Yuan completely by surprise. So in the eyes of the Shamans themselves, an ordinary Shaman was worth less than a human sacrifice?
"Three Shamans for one high-grade sacrifice," Wei Yuan bargained.
Tianyu looked deeply troubled. "What I said is already the lowest price, and even that might not be agreed upon."
"Five it is, then. Three for a mid-grade sacrifice, one for a low-grade sacrifice, and one for three unranked ones," Wei Yuan said. So-called "unranked sacrifices" were humans seized directly from the Shattered Lands. They could not yet be used directly for heaven-worship rituals and needed to be reared for a time.
"You want unranked ones too?" Tianyu was stunned.
"As long as they are human, I will take them."
Tianyu gave Wei Yuan a deep, searching look. "I have never met someone like you. When I return, I will fight to get you the best terms possible."
Wei Yuan said, "You don't have much time, though—ten days at most. You should know your kinsmen cannot survive long in a human domain."
"Three days at most," Tianyu replied.
Wei Yuan flew Tianyu directly to the border of the domain, released all his restraints, and said, "Go."
"Aren't you afraid I'll just walk away and never return?" Tianyu asked.
"I trust you." Wei Yuan turned and walked away.
Tianyu stood dazed for a moment before turning and speeding away, vanishing into the distance in a flash.
Wei Yuan did not fly, but walked slowly for a stretch. In truth, Wei Yuan did not really trust Tianyu; he merely wanted to give himself an excuse—an excuse to slaughter the Shaman captives.
In reality, simply by locking them inside the domain—even while providing enough food to fill their bellies—within ten-odd days, all the Shamans would naturally perish and dissolve into nutrients for the domain. Only those who had cast a Dao Foundation could endure long-term survival in a human domain.
Had it been anyone else, they might have simply locked the Shamans up, waited for them to die, and told themselves that the captives had perished on their own.
But Wei Yuan never deceived himself. He knew full well that this was slaughter. Though there were ten thousand justifications to put the Shamans to death, including the females and children, Wei Yuan always felt an inner pang of unease. If he could trade them back for human sacrifices, it would be an ideal resolution.
Wei Yuan shook his head. He was still not ruthless enough, always leaving a sliver of leeway in his methods.
That slight unease deep down would not sway Wei Yuan's decisions. If Tianyu failed to return within the agreed time, these Shamans would simply be detained until death in the domain, turning into nourishment for Qingming.
Strictly speaking, they would have been doomed by Tianyu, Wei Yuan thought to himself.
At nightfall, Wei Yuan once again summoned the cultivators of the Palace of Grand Beginning, this time including Fei Yutong. Wei Yuan considered this junior sister to possess immense potential; in raw talent, she wasn't much inferior to Xiaoyu—though, naturally, there was still some distance between her and himself.
Fei Yutong was visibly young and still innocent, holding rather naive views on many matters. Allowing her to attend the council would at least let her witness the realities of the world and shed her greenness sooner.
That was only one reason. Another reason, unspoken by Wei Yuan yet understood by everyone, was that only someone with Fei Yutong's caliber of talent had the right to be privy to secrets.
At present, aside from Cui Yu, all the Palace of Grand Beginning cultivators present possessed an immortal foundation. Even among immortal foundations, there were strict grades; if one ranked only along the edges of the river in the Hall of Myriad Manifestations' galaxy, one would not qualify to participate in this gathering.
Among this batch of disciples sent from Sky Azure Hall and Water Moon Hall to temper themselves, there were three who had achieved immortal foundations, but the other two had barely scraped the threshold. Zhang Sheng deemed them devoid of cultivation potential.
Since Zhang Sheng had spoken, Wei Yuan naturally obeyed his master's judgment.
Tonight's council had only one agenda item: opening new farmland and allocating ordinary provisions and spiritual food.
Now that the domain had expanded from just over a hundred li to two hundred li, its area had quadrupled, leaving vast stretches of land ready for cultivation.
This was Perfected Chuhe's domain of expertise. The old Daoist stated that from a cursory inspection, fifty thousand mu of spiritual fields could be developed, and the potential for new grain fields was even greater. Weighing all factors, Wei Yuan decided that for this phase, they would first open twenty thousand mu of spiritual fields and expand ordinary grain fields to five hundred thousand mu.
The grain ration for ordinary people was increased from one and a half jin daily to two jin; for the elderly, it went up by half a jin to one and a half jin.
Regarding spiritual food distribution, the standard practice was to prioritize high-ranking cultivators and those deployed in combat. However, Qingming's situation was unique: those who had newly forged their Dao Foundations worked day and night to consolidate them, toiling under extreme hardship.
Without their relentless striving along the immortal path, there would be no surging rivers of molten iron, no mountains of armor and weapons, no ores, and no gunpowder.
Therefore, everyone agreed unanimously that all cultivators, regardless of rank or the grade of their Dao Foundation, would receive equal shares of spiritual food. Of course, this was merely the baseline provision issued by the domain; anyone with extra needs could redeem more using merit points. If Qingming cultivators lacked anything, it certainly wasn't merit points—theirs overflowed in abundance.
When the meeting concluded, Fei Yutong, who had quietly listened throughout, trailed behind Wei Yuan. Only when no one was around did she ask, "There are clearly tens of millions of jin of grain left in the warehouses, so why not give everyone a bit more to eat? Aren't new fields already being cleared?"
Wei Yuan gave a faint smile and replied, "Before the sprouts in the field turn into rice in the granary, none of it counts as grain. Even if it is to be harvested tomorrow, it still isn't."
"Why?"
Wei Yuan pointed toward the endless expanse of grain fields in the distance. "With a single Daoist spell, I could wipe out over a thousand mu of farmland in less time than it takes to drink a cup of tea. If a Great Shaman casts a blood curse, it can obliterate all the grain fields within a hundred li in an instant. If we eat up all our grain now, what will we eat then?"
Fei Yutong looked thoughtful. "I... think I understand a bit now."
Wei Yuan chuckled. "It's not that you don't understand; you just aren't willing to believe how cruel this world can be. But after today, whether you wish to or not, you will have to face it."
Fei Yutong took a deep breath and declared, "Don't worry, Senior Brother! When necessary, I can have a black heart just like you!"
Watching the girl skip merrily away, Wei Yuan felt his breath catch in his throat.
As the saying went, if a disciple fails to learn, it is the master's fault. It seemed the Perfected Persons of Water Moon Hall were no better than those of Sky Azure Hall—they had thoroughly warped a perfectly fine young maiden.
Having sent Fei Yutong off, Wei Yuan was about to sit down and do his meditation exercises when his heart suddenly stirred. He sensed a violent fluctuation in spiritual energy somewhere within the domain. An indescribably sinister, wicked aura circled, actually churning into a massive vortex!
Wei Yuan took to the air immediately and reached the site of the yin vortex in the blink of an eye. This was the new settlement where the youths lived, and the center of the vortex was the camp housing the pregnant maidens.
When Wei Yuan arrived, Sun Yu was examining a young woman whose belly was heavily swollen. Moments later, Sun Yu walked over to Wei Yuan, his expression solemn. "More than half of the fetuses in the maidens' bellies have suddenly withered and died. The rest are growing at an alarming rate—they are already equivalent to more than eight months, and it won't be long before they give birth."
Chapter 331