Beyond Qingming, the Shamans were distributed in two directions, west and northwest. More than a thousand li north past the boundary lay nothing but sheer ridges and snow-capped mountains.
Within ten thousand li of Qingming, there were three major Shaman factions in total. One was Hongye's Land of Rain. Another was the Tianyi Tribe, where Shengxin and Huixin belonged. The third was the Desolate Ancestor Tribe, to which Tianyu belonged.
The Tianyi Tribe was the most powerful, but on quite bad terms with the Land of Rain; a massive war had broken out between them just a few years prior, costing both sides hundreds of thousands of sacrificial offerings. The Desolate Ancestor Tribe was no weakling either, possessing a profound heritage of Power Shamans and having established their own foothold in the Great Wilderness Realm.
The Desolate Ancestor Tribe was relatively close to the Land of Rain, though not entirely free of conflict. Blood Shamans, Power Shamans, and Dharma Shamans each looked down on one another, while Dao Shamans looked down on all of them.
When Tianyu left, he took along a list Wei Yuan had given him, which enumerated rare minerals, medicinal herbs, blood yingluo, and sacrificial offerings.
After Tianyu departed, Wei Yuan returned to the Hall of Merits to redeem another large batch of books and records, ordering them brought to his residence. Wei Yuan had redeemed so many books that a dedicated courtyard had to be built to store them, where others could also consult them.
Now Wei Yuan read not just for himself, but also on behalf of the mortals within the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, so his reading spanned an eclectic variety of subjects.
Just then, word suddenly came from within the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains: a small research team had devised an improved iron-forging machine!
With a sweep of his divine sense, Wei Yuan inspected the new design.
This design changed the method of raising the forge hammer to a roller-and-chain system, but its core innovation lay in no longer relying on the physical strength of cultivators, instead driving the roller's rotation via formation power.
The formation could be powered by spiritual materials or by cultivators. A single formation could supply energy to multiple iron-forging machines.
The essence of this design was replacing individual manual labor with formations. Previously, a cultivator could operate only one iron-forging machine; now, a single Dao Foundation cultivator could power three, five, or even over a dozen iron-forging machines at once through a formation.
However, the proposal was merely a concept; the specific formation had not yet been designed. These mortals had not had their spirituality awakened for long, and though they studied day and night, they were still far from capable of designing formations. It was just that the maiden Yin-Yang seemed to think the scheme viable, and so passed it along to Wei Yuan.
Yet a formation was no difficult matter. Qingming now possessed quite a few talents proficient in formations, and this particular array was nothing profoundly intricate—most cultivators from the Palace of Grand Beginning could design it. Wei Yuan himself could do so as well, though his would simply be somewhat bulkier and less efficient.
Wei Yuan immediately took the concept to Yu Zhizhuo. After reviewing it, Yu Zhizhuo also deemed it feasible. Currently, in the Weaponsmith Workshop, the cultivators' exertions were far from reaching their physical limits, yielding lackluster results for tempering their state of mind and Dao Foundation.
For instance, a cultivator at peak Body Casting could crank an iron-forging machine for days and nights on end without tiring—how could that be acceptable? With a formation, as long as it operated at full blast, even a Dao Foundation cultivator could hold out for two or three shichen at most.
Yu Zhizhuo believed that only under such conditions could the cultivators' workload be considered truly fulfilling.
Wei Yuan thoroughly agreed.
As designing the formation was a minor task, the Weaponsmith Workshop halted operations for three days to undergo upgrades and overhaul.
Wei Yuan returned to his quarters and began pondering what he currently possessed that could sway the Bao family. The one-year deadline drew nearer by the day. Having never fought anyone since manifesting his dharma idol, he felt somewhat uncertain of his own strength.
After careful consideration, Wei Yuan felt that the Bao family lacked for nothing, and they were far away from Qingming; there truly wasn't much he could do for them. Wei Yuan spent some merits to look into information regarding the Floating World Dragon Chart.
The Palace of Grand Beginning's records on the Floating World Dragon Chart were also sparse. Rumor had it that this was an immortal treasure handed down from ancient times, already damaged by the time it fell into the hands of Mount Qiong Immortal Island. Through dual cultivation with this treasure, one could borrow the karmic luck of the Heavenly Dragon to bestow upon one's descendants. Successful dual cultivation would unfailingly produce nine sons, each possessing distinct talents, all born with an immortal foundation.
Yet the requirements of this art upon its practitioners were exceedingly stringent. Down through the ages, Mount Qiong Immortal Island had succeeded only three times. The current Grand Supreme Elder on the island was one of those nine sons from back then—and the sole surviving one.
Zhao Fusheng's aptitude went without saying, given that he could cultivate the Floating World Dragon Chart. Meanwhile, Mount Qiong Immortal Island had searched for years before finding Bao Yun as someone qualified to cultivate it, which was why they were willing to offer an astronomical price.
According to normal logic, Wei Yuan felt that whatever he offered would have to exceed the Immortal Island's offer to give the Bao family a reason to reject them. For example, if the Immortal Island gave five, Wei Yuan would have to give six...
Wei Yuan took stock of the bargaining chips he could put forward: forging breastplates, cultivating Dao Foundations for the Bao family, and fighting wars on the Bao family's behalf—these three things, and seemingly little else. Or, to be shameless, bet on his own brilliant, glorious future?
This matter was truly difficult to resolve, so Wei Yuan consulted the various cultivators of the Palace of Grand Beginning one by one.
Perfected Chuhe believed they could take Lord Sable and sneak into the ancestral grounds of the Bao family to steal her away. Lord Sable knew his way around and could easily spirit Bao Yun out; then the two could flee back to Qingming, beyond the reach of any imperial edict. After a few years, once the storm blew over, they could go apologize to the Bao family. Since what was done could not be undone by then, the price demanded by the Bao family would inevitably drop drastically.
But Perfected Chuhe dodged one question: what if the Bao family's True Monarch wanted to beat Wei Yuan to death?
Yu Zhizhuo believed Wei Yuan could go mine for the Bao family. With Wei Yuan's current Dao power, if he developed a dharma idol version of the Golden Light Water Blade Art, mining would easily match a hundred men—or at least look down upon fifty or sixty ordinary Dharma Idols. Once Yu Zhizhuo reached Dharma Idol as well, he could join Wei Yuan in mining; within a few years, they could hollow out the underground of the Bao family's ancestral lands.
Ridiculous as the method seemed, it was actually quite feasible. Wei Yuan carefully calculated the workload and the compensation he would rightfully earn, feeling it wasn't entirely out of the question.
But he immediately came to his senses: that fellow Yu Zhizhuo was trying to trick him into mining again!
Sun Yu's method was comparatively straightforward: have Wei Yuan focus on alchemy and medicine, so that when some major figure in the Bao family fell ill with an incurable disease, Wei Yuan could resolve it with his alchemical and medical skills, placing them in his debt.
As for what to do if no major figure caught an incurable disease, that too could be solved through medicine: if there were no incurable diseases, simply create a few.
As for Feng Tingyu... Wei Yuan decided against asking for the Hall of the Bright King's opinion, lest he get flicked on the head.
After asking all around, there were indeed no good options. Pondering it himself, Wei Yuan felt that perhaps he should fight a good battle right now, letting his military achievements speak for themselves; only then might the Bao family look upon him with greater regard.
By now, most of the Xu family youths in the new city had advanced to the Bone Tempering Realm, with only a few thousand still at Blood Merging. These youths were quite gifted, and by now they formed an elite force that could not be overlooked.
As for their Shaman target, it had long been decided: the Land of Rain to the northwest.
Scattered across that direction were Shaman tribes of all sizes, and five hundred li out stood a sizeable city. This city was part of the traditional Wu domain; humanity had never conquered it.
While Wei Yuan was preparing for war, Old Daoist Chuhe finally returned, followed by two merchant caravans that delivered the first shipment: fifty thousand bolts of Ning brocade and two hundred thousand jin of raw silk.
Wei Yuan stored the raw silk in the warehouse while leaving the brocade unloaded on the wagons. Counting the days, Tianyu ought to be returning soon as well. Sure enough, not two days later, Tianyu arrived at the edge of the domain with a Shaman caravan.
This time, Tianyu brought ores, medicinal herbs, blood yingluo, and twenty thousand sacrificial offerings in exchange for the fifty thousand bolts of brocade. All the supplies Tianyu brought were already worth more than the fifty thousand bolts of brocade, rendering the twenty thousand human sacrifices an outright bonus.
After Tianyu left, Wei Yuan judged that the Desolate Ancestor Tribe was likely pacified for now, and so he accelerated the pace of his war preparations.
This would be his first time waging war beyond the boundary. Only now did Wei Yuan realize how many factors had to be considered: from selecting the troop branches and march routes to managing logistical supplies, there were myriad tangled threads—infinitely more complex than simply fighting defensive battles within the domain.
Fortunately, Wei Yuan was not fighting alone; within the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, a thousand people helped shoulder the burden. Having undergone the test of various tasks over this period, many within the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains had demonstrated talents in different areas. Around two thousand possessed a flair for military affairs, and half of them were now mobilized.
During preparations, Wei Yuan dispatched small squads of scout cavalry continuously to gather intelligence on the Shamans. Based on the gathered intelligence and topographical data, the mortals within the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains took a mere few days to formulate multiple detailed plans for Wei Yuan to choose from.
Each plan accounted for every detail, considering even what carts to use for military supplies and precisely what day and hour to arrive at each location.
Seven days thus passed. Wei Yuan led an army of thirty thousand out of Qingming and officially entered the Wu domain, launching his first expedition.
The army's first stop on the march was the mine. Once past the mine, Wei Yuan's main force abruptly dispersed, fanning out ten thousand-man detachments in a rapid forward advance, while the central army of twenty thousand pushed forward along the main road.
Dressed in the gear of an ordinary cavalryman, Wei Yuan led a thousand-odd riders in rapid advance, leaving village after village behind them. He did not remain with the central army, but instead took direct command of the vanguard thousand-man detachment.
Viewed from a map, the ten thousand-man detachments spread across the land, razing every Shaman village, town, and fortress in their path.
For an ordinary small hamlet, a single thousand-man detachment sufficed. If they encountered a formidable town or a large Shaman force, neighboring detachments would rush over in haste, either cutting off retreat routes or directly encircling and wiping them out.
Thus, the ten cavalry detachments converged and scattered at will, sweeping across the land and instantly stoking immense panic among the Shamans.
Catching wind of the onslaught, many small tribes had no choice but to migrate northwest with their entire clans, yet before they could get far, Wei Yuan's cavalry ran them down and slaughtered them.
Meanwhile, within the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, a massive topographical projection had been erected. Whatever the Dao Foundation cultivators leading the ten thousand-man cavalry detachments saw was displayed within the projection.
Wei Yuan could issue orders at any time to the awakened Dao Foundation warriors leading the units, coordinating their movements accordingly. To a degree, this army had achieved the coordination of moving as smoothly as an arm directs its fingers.
Chapter 414