At this moment, Qingming lay in utter devastation.
When the massive flying boat flashed the unique signal of the Palace of Grand Beginning and touched down on the airfield, the palace's cultivators rushed over in droves at the news.
It had been a long time since they had seen a sect vessel; their daily provisions had depended entirely on the Hall of Merits. Now that a large flying boat had suddenly arrived, everyone was thrilled, feeling that the sect had finally remembered this place.
The hatch swung open. When Wei Yuan stepped out from the vessel, the hundreds of people gathered in the square fell dead silent for a moment—before erupting into a roaring wave of thunderous cheers!
The instant both of Wei Yuan's feet touched the earth, all of Qingming seemed to spring back to life. The heavy gloom was swept away, all things revived, vitality surged, and every plant and living creature rejoiced.
Throughout the new city, all the youths paused in what they were doing and turned in unison to gaze toward the flying boat.
Within Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, life and spirituality awakened at the same time. Various spirit plants suddenly began to sprout from the once-barren fertile soil, and many puppet warriors began shedding their stone coats, regaining their vitality—though they did not yet possess spirituality.
Deep within the black pool, dull, earth-shaking heartbeats began to echo as a terrifying new creature took shape.
Jade Mountain turned translucent once more, and the Gate of Transmigration Across the Myriad Realms inside slowly swung open. Many vengeful spirits and lingering ghosts who had drifted through the domain until now suddenly found their bearing, sweeping in from all directions like moths to a flame and plunging into the Gate of Transmigration Across the Myriad Realms.
Among them, several thousand souls were exceptionally dense and heavy, carrying an enormous karmic debt that caused the waters of the black pool to rise by an entire layer!
These souls carried no resentment, but they harbored an obsession beyond imagining—an obsession that had kept them from reincarnating, kept them from leaving Qingming, leaving them wandering within the domain.
Through their lingering obsessions and residual memories as they transmigrated, Wei Yuan recognized their former identities. They were the five thousand suicide warriors who had accompanied Cui Yu into the initial battle, walking calmly into death.
Their obsessions were so strong that, although they instinctively gathered near the Gate of the Many Realms, they hesitated, unwilling to step inside. Wei Yuan sent forth a wisp of thought, soothing all the ghosts before they finally consented to enter the gate.
A moment later, figure after figure walked out from the pool. They possessed no cultivation, gazing about in bewilderment as they instinctively exited Jade Mountain and stepped onto the vast earth. This land gave them an indescribable sense of intimacy and attachment, as though they had returned to their ancestral home.
With Qingming restarted and Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains activated, Wei Yuan's momentum steadily mounted, his spirituality boiling until the massive, ferocious phantom of a dharma idol gradually emerged.
A terrifying pressure radiated from Wei Yuan, instantly blanketing the surrounding tens of li and making every heart tremble.
In a secluded corner, a cat that had been lazily sleeping jolted awake, its back fur bristling as it let out a low whimper and backed away step by step. The snake coiled itself into a tight knot. Only Old Daoist Chuhe, who had drunk too much of his homemade medicinal wine today, was half-dazed; he merely cracked his eyes open and went back to sleep, unmovable even as the snake tried to drag him away.
Above Wei Yuan's head, an immense figure faintly took form, casting its shadow across the entire valley. The dharma idol was on the verge of solidifying.
However, Wei Yuan kept the reminders of True Monarch Danming and True Monarch Xuan Yue firmly in mind. He, too, could faintly sense that the timing was not quite right and that his karmic luck had not reached its peak. He soothed Qingming and Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, returning the boiling sea of spirituality to calm. The colossal dharma idol stretching tens of li across the sky was merely one step shy of completion, yet it could only let out an earth-shattering roar of frustration before slowly fading away.
Though the dharma idol dispersed, Wei Yuan's aura had climbed to unprecedented heights. Drawing upon Qingming, his divine sense reached into every corner of the domain in an instant, taking in the full state of the realm after the Karma Great Curse.
Nearly fifty thousand people had perished across Qingming; virtually every household hung white mourning silk. Aside from the lives lost, the water accumulated from the green pool within the Qingming boundary stone had turned entirely into black rot, and gray-black patches of decay had appeared across the land. Whether spirit plants or mundane crops, everything that had once grown on those plots was thoroughly dead. These blighted areas ranged from hundreds of zhang to over ten li across, dotting Qingming like dark blemishes. Healing them would take a long time.
With the green pool reduced to rot, the Jia Wood Life-Mystic was drastically weakened, diminished almost to nothing. Ordinary people throughout the domain had begun falling ill en masse; had Sun Yu not been there, a devastating plague would likely have erupted by now.
Before Wei Yuan stood Sun Yu, Feng Tingyu, Cui Yu, and Yu Zhizhuo, each still bearing physical injuries. The pale fire inflicted by the Karma Great Curse was far from easy to purge, often requiring dozens of portions of Dao power just to extinguish a single wisp.
Looking at his fellow disciples from the Palace of Grand Beginning, looking at the people gathered in the square, and looking across the entire domain, Wei Yuan felt a mist rise in his eyes. He drew a deep breath, his voice ringing across the entire realm:
"I have returned!"
A wave of cheers immediately erupted throughout the domain! Every city boiled with fervor! Thousands of strands of azure qi gathered, filling his sea of consciousness in the blink of an eye! A bird's head poked out from the full moon, inhaling a swathe of azure qi, and in the next moment, another vast expanse of azure karmic luck was born.
Wei Yuan paused, then continued, "From this moment on, this is our land of destiny. Generation after generation, we shall multiply and thrive upon this soil. No one, nothing, shall wrest this land from our hands—not alien races, not immortals, not even heaven and earth!!"
Wei Yuan's voice was like thunder, rumbling and echoing through the world. Dark clouds suddenly gathered in the sky, swirling rapidly until they formed a colossal vortex spanning a thousand li.
At the center of the vortex, an eye slowly opened. This time, there was no pupil—only an overflowing expanse of purple lightning.
During the previous Karma Great Curse, what had appeared was the Eye of Karma manifested by the Ancestral Shaman's will, but this was the pure, unadulterated will of heaven and earth.
The cultivators of the Palace of Grand Beginning, the well-traveled practitioners in the domain, and the gazes watching from beyond the realm all shared the same astonishment: Wei Yuan had merely spoken a few words, so how had he drawn down a heavenly tribulation? Had that statement secretly resonated with the Great Dao, turning into something akin to a Buddhist grand vow?
From the Eye of Heaven, purple lightning overflowed and dripped down drop by drop, like the tears of the heavens. Every purple tear that fell transformed into a bolt of purple lightning, crashing straight toward Wei Yuan's head.
Wei Yuan looked up at the immense Heavenly Eye, sensing that cold, unfeeling will of heaven and earth, and felt the targeting and rejection of the entire realm. He truly could not fathom it. Heaven and earth were so vast; he was merely fighting for a place where mortals could survive. Why go this far?
At this moment, Wei Yuan suddenly recalled when he had chased the light northward in the Liao domain and returned south riding the wind. Back then, the entire world had similarly suppressed him, similarly rejected him. And at that time, he had asked Zhang Sheng this very question, and Zhang Sheng had given his answer: If heaven and earth stand in the way, then alter heaven and earth!
Perhaps heaven and earth had their own principles, but Wei Yuan was born a mortal man, and he believed he ought to do his part for the human race.
Wei Yuan soared into the sky, shooting up a thousand zhang to meet the first bolt of purple lightning head-on! The intensity of this purple lightning was already equivalent to the tribulation lightning faced by a dharma idol cultivator, every strike sufficient to reduce such an expert to ash.
The bolt struck, igniting purple thunderfire around Wei Yuan's entire body. He plummeted three hundred zhang in an instant, purple lightning bursting even from his mouth and nostrils!
Within Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, leaping purple flames flared across the earth, yet his spirit qi and Dao power flowed ceaselessly, quickly putting out the purple heavenly thunder. Wei Yuan steadied himself in midair, rising slowly once more to meet the second bolt of purple lightning.
This time, Wei Yuan plummeted five hundred zhang.
Yet he still flew back up, coldly gazing at the Eye of Heaven and Earth. He knew it was futile; perched high above, heaven and earth cared nothing for the thoughts of an ant like him, intent only on pouring down bolt after bolt of thunder.
Such a heaven and earth...
The angrier Wei Yuan became, the colder and calmer he grew—so calm that he nearly felt himself turning into a world of his own.
The third bolt and the fourth bolt struck in succession, yet the lightning within the Eye of Heaven and Earth showed no sign of waning.
By the fifth purple thunderbolt, Wei Yuan was knocked down nine hundred zhang, nearly crashing into the ground. Still, he wobbled back into the air, returning to a height of a thousand zhang.
The sixth purple thunderbolt descended without mercy! And the lightning in the Eye of Heaven and Earth remained completely full.
Beyond the vault of heaven, someone let out a sigh: "...This goes too far."
Another replied, "Just watch."
The remaining towering wills kept silent, merely observing it all without a word.
Seeing that Wei Yuan was powerless to resist, countless strands of azure qi suddenly emerged from the void, coalescing above his head into an azure curtain of light that intercepted the tribulation lightning!
The azure qi was boundless and ever-renewing, continuously perishing beneath the thunder and continuously springing forth anew.
Throughout the domain, countless mortals put down their tools, stepped out from their homes, and looked up at the figure in the sky defying the tribulation lightning with all his might. Had he incurred a heavenly tribulation simply for speaking a few words on behalf of ordinary mortals? Were the nearly one million people of Qingming born merely meant to die?
"To hell with this thieving heaven! You want us dead, but I'm damn well going to live just to spite you!" someone suddenly bellowed. In an instant, shouts erupted everywhere, until every mortal across the domain was roaring in defiance!
Heavenly thunder rolled relentlessly, and the azure karmic luck gathering around Wei Yuan grew denser and denser. Following the Karma Great Curse, this was once again mortal humanity rising against the will of heaven and earth. And this time, the azure qi was inexhaustible, refusing to yield!
The purple glow in the Heavenly Eye did not diminish in the least, and Wei Yuan realized something was amiss.
Even when advancing from dharma idol to Scenery Command, the heavenly tribulations had a set number; tribulations of different ranks followed fixed rules. When had one ever been endless like this, refusing to rest until he was struck dead?
Heaven and earth possessed their Great Dao, and precisely because they were unfeeling, they could operate in accordance with it. Yet now, heaven and earth were breaking their own rules.
All of Wei Yuan's rage and hatred erupted at this instant. With the Spotless Pure Land in hand fitted with the Crimson Night Immortal-Slaying Sword, he drew a wisp of aura from every immortal artifact to empower himself. Then, channeling the Great Fortune of Humanity from all of Qingming into a single spear, he thrust forward—man and spear uniting into one—and plunged straight into that purple lightning pupil!
This spear strike was named Counter-Slay, the very first spear technique Wei Yuan had ever conceived. The intent behind that strike was something he had never forgotten!
A rift was carved through the heavens. The leaden clouds and the lightning pupil began to scatter, while Wei Yuan tumbled downward, cloaked in purple fire.
Everyone rushed over immediately. Fortunately, aside from being charred black from head to toe, Wei Yuan was still very much alive. His foundation was far beyond what an ordinary dharma idol cultivator could match, and the surge of human karmic luck this time had been so unprecedentedly torrential that it had even shocked Wei Yuan himself.
The cultivators of the Palace of Grand Beginning scrambled to help Wei Yuan up. Then Wei Yuan caught sight of Xu Wenwu. The fellow was looking up at the sky with a thoughtful expression, giving Wei Yuan a bad feeling.
Sure enough, Xu Wenwu spoke up: "This heavenly tribulation isn't really that hard to handle. We could just erect a few lightning rods, and you could hide underneath them. What thunder could touch you then? Flying straight into the sky during a thunderstorm—aren't you just asking to get struck by lightning?"
The cultivators of the Palace of Grand Beginning had all read the dossiers on Xu Wenwu, and for a moment, they were utterly struck dumb.
Wei Yuan ached from head to toe, inside and out, and was so incensed that he had no desire to speak. He made a quiet resolve: if he ever ran into a heavenly tribulation again, he would definitely tie this fat bastard to a lightning rod first as a sacrifice to the heavens!
Chapter 378