After embracing Li Zhi, Wei Yuan led his army back toward Qingming. This time, he had led his troops on a strike across ten thousand li, confronting Mountain Folk whom he had never faced before, yet the outcome had turned out surprisingly well.
During the journey back, Wei Yuan constantly reviewed the entire battle in his mind.
Mount E lay exactly ten thousand li from Qingming, and at present, Qingming spanned three hundred li, which meant that within fifteen thousand li, both Wei Yuan's combat strength and his Dao Foundation enjoyed an enhancement. Under the blessing of Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, the soldiers' rate of fire had increased, keeping up an unbroken barrage that inflicted unexpectedly devastating damage.
Recalling the immense power of Flawless Transmigration when he fought the young monk Honglian, which had far exceeded expectations, Wei Yuan faintly sensed that he might have underestimated the destructive force of a continuous bombardment of flying swords—just as back when he first developed the Torrent Water Blade Art, he had never imagined how potent it would turn out to be.
So long as ordinary fire guns formed a sustained barrage, their lethality in open terrain on the battlefield was remarkably high. Perhaps he should consider increasing their rate of fire?
A gun's effectiveness on the battlefield depended on multiple factors: rate of fire, handling, the intrinsic power of the flying swords, ease of production, and so forth. With just a casual thought, dozens of considerations flooded Wei Yuan's mind, giving him quite a headache. Yet this was a matter of utmost importance that required thorough thought, allowing for not the slightest negligence.
Then it suddenly occurred to Wei Yuan that several tens of thousands of mortals still resided within Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains. These fellows had retained some memories of their past lives to varying degrees, requiring no reeducation. Idling away all day with nothing to do, they were so unoccupied that simply handing someone an item turned into an occasion to bow and prostrate for half a day. Even all the immortal flora were not enough for them to worship; they had gone so far as to carve divine idols just to pray to them.
Since that was the case, why not put them to work on research? In any case, it was just playing an idle stone on the board; even if they came up with nothing, it wouldn't matter.
And so Wei Yuan entered Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains and projected his intent, passing down the structural design of the existing flying-sword guns. He tasked these mortals with trying to make improvements while referencing Xu Wenwu's notes.
Having assigned the task, Wei Yuan cast the matter to the back of his mind, not really expecting them to invent anything useful anyway.
Up to now, firearms improvement had relied on two things: absorbing inspiration from Xu Wenwu's materials, and leaning on Yu Zhizhuo's design and crafting.
As for ammunition, gunpowder was key. Without Sun Yu improving the gunpowder formula, fire guns would still be little more than a novelty—useless to keep, wasteful to discard. Yet whenever he thought of the new formula, Wei Yuan felt a twinge of heartache. The new gunpowder was several times more expensive than the old kind. With the increased rate of fire, ammunition consumption in battle had skyrocketed. Every time a gunshot rang out, Wei Yuan felt as though immortal silver were literally burning away.
Hence, whenever Wei Yuan demanded ransoms lately, his opening bids grew harsher each time.
No sooner had the army returned to Qingming than Yu Zhizhuo sent someone to fetch Wei Yuan, asking him to come help capture a spirit creature. Wei Yuan was rather curious about what kind of spirit creature could hold Yu Zhizhuo's undivided attention.
Traces of the spirit creature had surfaced in a new mineral vein northwest of the territory. This vein lay four hundred li to the northwest, already beyond the boundary of the domain. Yu Zhizhuo had prospected all along the earth veins, advancing over a hundred li in a single stretch before finally discovering this deposit.
According to Yu Zhizhuo, this vein contained a vast abundance of associated spirit ores, making it a supreme-grade mineral vein of immeasurable value; he recommended building a fortress to guard it.
At present, the land where the vein was situated still belonged to the Wu domain, where Shamans frequently prowled, making it quite perilous. To protect the prospecting expedition, Wei Yuan had specially assigned two thousand elite warriors for Yu Zhizhuo's sole command. Only after repelling several harassing attacks by small bands of Shamans did they finally manage to establish the mine.
When Wei Yuan arrived, Yu Zhizhuo was in the middle of setting up an array, and he had dragged both Sun Yu and Old Daoist Chuhe along to help lay it down.
The mine entrance lay at the base of a small knoll. Once the soil had been excavated, red-spotted ore was exposed everywhere, interspersed with mineral strata bearing streaks of gold.
"Martial Uncle Yu, what kind of spirit creature is it that warrants such a huge fuss?" Wei Yuan asked.
"It's a wisp of the essence of metal nature. It looks like a ball of blue light and can move through the mineral veins—extremely rare. I've already laid down an array to confine it to a certain area, but the perimeter is still too vast. The few of us alone have had a hard time catching it; it slipped away several times. That's why I asked for your help."
Naturally, Wei Yuan did not refuse. Following Yu Zhizhuo down into the mine shaft, he took up a guard position in a spacious natural cavern. Wei Yuan planted his feet in the center of the cavern. No sooner had Yu Zhizhuo departed than a glow of blue light emerged from the cave wall ahead. A small ball of light poked its head out, peered around, and upon spotting Wei Yuan, spat with a *ptui*, spitting a chunk of ore straight at him.
Wei Yuan casually caught the ore in his hand, his figure flashing forward to appear right before the blue light, reaching out to seize it.
The blue light neither dodged nor hid, fleeing at an unhurried pace only when Wei Yuan's fingers were about to brush against it. Before departing, it didn't forget to spit a handful of sludge all over Wei Yuan's hand.
Wei Yuan was furious! He had never seen such an arrogant spirit creature!
Yet when he drew back his hand and looked down, he saw a translucent, crystal-clear gemstone clutched in his right hand. Inside it, a tiny immortal mountain actually floated up and down. Though Wei Yuan didn't know what it was, one look told him it was no ordinary spiritual material—it was bound to be expensive, exceedingly expensive, astronomically expensive!
The sludge in his left hand surged with compelling spiritual qi, studded with golden flecks that looked like spirit gold and yet also resembled primordial copper; in any case, they were all rare spiritual materials.
Just from being spat on twice by the spirit creature, Wei Yuan had gained several thousand liang of immortal silver out of thin air. In an instant, his resentment vanished completely; he now felt its arrogance was entirely justified.
Wei Yuan couldn't help suspecting that Sun Yu and Old Daoist Chuhe's prolonged failure to catch the spirit creature might have had an ulterior reason.
Just then, a stone suddenly plummeted from above, hurtling toward Wei Yuan's head. Wei Yuan raised a hand and caught it, adding another thousand liang of immortal silver to his wealth.
After several exchanges, Wei Yuan discovered that the spirit creature possessed incredible speed. Even if his hand reached within a palm's breadth of it, whether he shifted technique or suddenly accelerated, it could still escape with ease—and humiliate Wei Yuan on its way out.
Although Wei Yuan welcomed the humiliation with open arms, continually failing to catch it wouldn't do. Gathering his focus, he waited until the spirit creature reappeared, whereupon the surrounding world abruptly turned into shades of black and white, and everything gained a grainy texture.
The spirit creature cried out in alarm and tried to burrow into the rock wall, only to be bounced back. It seemed to have taken a hard knock, wobbling backward while dropping countless precious ores and spiritual materials along the way. The clattering sounds nearly caused Wei Yuan's Dao heart to waver and make him bend down to pick them up.
Fortunately, Wei Yuan still had his priorities straight. Activating the realm of yin and yang cost three strands of otherworldly fortune each time, which was far more precious than spiritual materials and rare ores. He brought his broad hand down and caught the spirit creature in one grasp. By now, the tips of his five fingers brimmed with blue ice-glazed qi, freezing the spirit creature into a solid crystal of ice.
Back on the surface, Wei Yuan handed the spirit creature over to Yu Zhizhuo. The ball of spirit had no physical form to speak of, yet it was endowed with natural sentience.
Yu Zhizhuo was overjoyed. He gingerly sealed it away, let out a long breath, and said to Wei Yuan, "Martial Nephew, you've done me a tremendous favor!"
"What is this thing used for?" Not only Wei Yuan, but Sun Yu and Perfected Chuhe were also deeply curious. They had spent three whole days trying to catch the little creature, amassing nearly a hundred thousand liang of immortal silver in the process without ever managing to lay hands on it.
Yu Zhizhuo didn't keep it a secret. "With it, one can slightly alter a material's physical properties within a certain range. This alteration isn't very valuable in itself, but by comparing the differences before and after the change, one can quickly grasp the material's properties. For certain immortal materials, only a single scrap might exist in the entire world, making it exceptionally difficult to decipher their properties. With this treasure, that problem is readily solved. It is an invaluable gem for artifact crafting.
"With this, my path to a dharma idol has no obstacles left; I only need to amass a bit more knowledge of material properties before I can break through the bottleneck. And should I take another step forward in the future, it can even serve as the foundation of a grotto-heaven."
Everyone was visibly moved. Still, an item like this held special utility only for master artifact crafters like Yu Zhizhuo; for those who didn't practice crafting, its value was vastly diminished.
Yu Zhizhuo bowed to Wei Yuan and said, "This is the grace of aiding my attainment of the Dao—words cannot express my gratitude!"
Returning to Qingming, Wei Yuan was in high spirits. If Yu Zhizhuo could manifest a dharma idol, the territory's strength and foundation would certainly advance another step. Furthermore, judging by his words, with this essence of metal nature, Scenery Command was within reach in the future.
Back at his residence, Wei Yuan had just pushed open the courtyard gate when a strand of sword qi came to rest against the back of his head. Then, a cool, melodious voice rang out: "Talking so big, yet your skills aren't all that much!"
Undismayed, Wei Yuan remarked casually, "If you've got the guts, put down your sword and fight me hand-to-hand."
"Who's going to brawl with you!" The person behind him kicked Wei Yuan down, pinned him with a foot, and said coldly, "If this were a life-or-death battle, you'd already be a dead man!"
*Her foot is so soft...* Wei Yuan hastily purged the improper thoughts from his mind.
Lately, the mortals within his Dao Foundation had been praying daily, and the contents of their prayers were absurdly bizarre. Having heard too much of it, Wei Yuan's thoughts had inevitably turned a bit strange. Wei Yuan felt he really needed to straighten those mortals out.
"If this truly were a life-or-death battle, the dead one would certainly be you. What, without an immortal sword or spiritual treasures, you don't know how to fight anymore?"
"Nonsense! As if I need the power of external objects?"
Wei Yuan sneered. "You don't? To me, your physical body doesn't look like much at all. Which third-rank blessed land did you steal that Body Casting technique from?"
Chapter 390