At dusk, Wei Yuan visited Zhang Sheng's courtyard again and found her still sound asleep.
A sheet of jade paper lay on the table. Wei Yuan picked it up and glanced through it; he knew then that Zhang Sheng had already gotten up and moved about, and had likely gone back to sleep only because she was overly exhausted.
Thinking back on the wild passions of the previous night, Wei Yuan felt a pang of self-reproach. Moreover, Zhang Sheng had only just reconstructed her Dao body, and the coming period would be critical for her cultivation; indulging in pleasure would undoubtedly hinder her progress.
Wei Yuan quietly slipped out of the room, leaving Zhang Sheng to rest properly.
Over the next few days, aside from her regular cultivation routines, Zhang Sheng barely stepped out of her quarters, doing little else besides reading and sleeping. Seeing that she still appeared quite weary despite sleeping so much, Wei Yuan blamed himself and dared not pester her further, intending to let her recuperate in peace for a while.
Furthermore, administrative matters inside and outside Qingming were piling up. The imperial edict incorporating Ningxi Commandery into Qingming had arrived; except for those given alternate appointments by the imperial court, all former Ningxi officials were absorbed into Qingming.
Now Wei Yuan needed to dispatch personnel to take over local government offices across the region, and merely selecting the right candidates threw everything into a frantic scramble.
In addition, another major matter was placed on the agenda. On this day, an attendant reported that Li Zhi had arrived for a visit. Wei Yuan went in person to welcome him, then led Li Zhi to the council chamber on the main peak.
Several cultivators from the Palace of Grand Beginning were already seated inside. Aside from Bao Yun and Cui Yu, who were occupied with other pressing business, everyone else was present.
Once Li Zhi was settled in his seat, Wei Yuan addressed the gathering: "There is an important matter I wish to discuss with everyone today: the founding of Qingming Academy. Tentatively, I plan to establish a branch of Qingming Academy in every city, along with several auxiliary schools. The auxiliary schools will handle basic literacy and preliminary education, while the academies will teach the classics, histories, statecraft, and military strategy."
The cultivators had long known of Wei Yuan's desire to educate the mortals within the territory. Founding academies was a natural step forward, and a noble endeavor to boot, so naturally no one objected. However, where to find teachers for the academies posed a major problem.
The people currently in Qingming were capable of cultivating on their own, but they had zero interest in teaching others—especially ordinary mortals devoid of spiritual roots or karmic luck. The cultivation methods Old Daoist Chuhe and the others taught in the new city were directed only at Xu family youths with decent natural talent, or high-tier sacrificial offerings. Asking them to teach a crowd of mortals who could never forge so much as a Great Bright Demon-Subduing Sword in their entire lifetimes would be worse than killing them.
At that moment, Li Zhi spoke up: "I know of someone well-suited to serve as Dean of Qingming Academy. His surname is Cai and his given name is Shizhi. He is a prominent Confucian scholar of our time, and a senior of mine from the academy. Mister Cai is particularly fond of enlightening the common folk. Before even reaching a hundred years of age, his students already span the world, and he currently has over three thousand registered disciples.
"Before coming here, I already discussed this matter with Mister Cai. He gladly agreed and is willing to bring a hundred disciples along to contribute to spreading the teachings of the sages throughout Qingming."
When it came to teaching and nurturing students, the Four Sages Academy was indeed far better suited. The people of the Palace of Grand Beginning were free-spirited eccentrics who could not stand keeping company with dullards. And so, the matter was settled. Upon his return, Li Zhi would formally invite Mister Cai to take up the post, while during this interval Wei Yuan would select sites across several cities to establish Qingming Academy.
With this agreed upon, the cultivators from the Palace of Grand Beginning made their exits one after another to attend to their own affairs. Only Feng Tingyu lingered, intending to rummage through Wei Yuan's stores to see if there was anything good to eat.
Li Zhi cast a deep look at the retreating backs of the crowd before walking shoulder-to-shoulder with Wei Yuan out of the council hall. He asked, "Who was that woman in scholar's robes just now? I don't believe I've ever seen her before."
Wei Yuan replied, "That is my teacher, Zhang Sheng."
"Your teacher? But judging from her aura, her cultivation doesn't even appear to have reached the Dao Foundation stage? Yet her presence is truly rare in this world!"
"My teacher only recently recovered from severe injuries and had her Dao body reconstructed. Everything must begin anew."
Li Zhi understood and offered comforting words: "As long as the Dao body can be reconstructed, it's fine. Provided the Dao heart remains undamaged, there won't be any major issue. Rebuilding her cultivation will be vastly faster."
Naturally, Wei Yuan could not mention that Zhang Sheng's Dao heart had also suffered problems, so he glossed over the matter vaguely. Li Zhi did not stay long, not even remaining in Qingming overnight; he departed directly to fetch Cai Shizhi.
Watching Li Zhi's flying boat depart, Tianyu materialized from the night shadows beside Wei Yuan and spoke in a faint, eerie voice: "I recall giving you a magical treasure for contacting me."
Wei Yuan offered an awkward smile. "The reception here is rather poor."
"Poor reception? Then how is it that my entire family got knocked flat?"
Wei Yuan was taken aback. He immediately examined the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, and only then realized the trouble stemmed from that prayer giving thanks to Tianyu's entire family. That particular line had been added on the initiative of an overzealous mortal presiding over the sacrificial rites, who fancied himself clever—and had inadvertently knocked Tianyu's whole household flat.
"Is your family all right?" Wei Yuan quickly asked out of concern.
Tianyu gave a heavy snort. "We Power Shamans aren't brought down so easily! Nor are we so easily harmed. It's fine once the prayers stop."
Wei Yuan immediately issued an order to halve the number of people in the next prayer, forbidding anyone from adding participants or expanding the scope of worship without permission.
Tianyu's eyes turned profound. "You went to such lengths to find me in a hurry; you'd better have a passable reason!"
Wei Yuan led Tianyu to a reception parlor and bade him take a seat. He then fetched an exquisitely and lavishly decorated box, returned to Tianyu, and said, "I've acquired some fine goods. Have a look first."
Tianyu lifted the lid and saw three ruby-like stones resting inside. That cloying, metallic, decadent scent instantly set all the blood in his body seething!
Tianyu cried out in shock, "True blood! The true blood of a thousand-year Scenery Command existence!"
"How does it compare to that True Monarch flesh from last time?"
"They're completely different tiers! This can be used for the highest grade of sacrifice! A pity—if only there were more of it."
Tianyu pulled his gaze away from the true blood with great effort. Catching Wei Yuan's knowing half-smile, he blurted out, "You have more?!"
Wei Yuan replied, "There could be a bit more."
Tianyu's expression shifted erratically. Finally, gritting his teeth, he said, "If there are fifteen drops of such true blood in total, I can give you double the price!"
Tianyu's offer genuinely caught Wei Yuan by surprise. He asked, "Why can the price double if it reaches fifteen drops?"
Tianyu hesitated for a moment, then said, "This counts as a core secret of my tribe. Don't feel uneasy when you hear it."
"I won't. Go on."
Tianyu explained, "Once the quantity of true blood reaches a certain threshold, we can initiate a higher tier of sacrificial offering. Combined with sufficient auxiliary offerings, heaven and earth will automatically harvest a portion of the original owner's power, elevating the sacrificial effect by an entire grade."
Wei Yuan put on a look of realization. "Then wouldn't doubling the price be a bit stingy?"
Tianyu also looked somewhat embarrassed. "It really ought to be increased further, but an exchange of this magnitude is no longer mine to decide. Only the Desolate Shaman elders of the tribe can make that call."
Wei Yuan smiled. "Have some confidence; the elders will surely agree. In the Desolate Ancestor Tribe, you are the only one I deal with, so you can be bolder and more daring. Oh, by the way, there will be brocade—a great deal of it later on. The Desolate Ancestor Tribe might not be able to absorb it all, so you can start preparing to open channels with other tribes."
Tianyu looked deeply conflicted. "Our two peoples were supposed to be sworn enemies, yet here we are doing business together..."
Wei Yuan chuckled. "Haven't we done business before as well? When there's business to be done, we do business; when it's time to fight, we fight. Don't overthink it."
Tianyu barely managed to convince himself, then asked, "Is there anything you want? This true blood is enough to open the tribal treasure vault, allowing you to exchange for things normally unobtainable."
"What are the options?"
Having some inkling of Wei Yuan's preferences, Tianyu said, "Two kinds of immortal plants, soul yingluo, several rare artifact-crafting materials from beyond the heavens, and a set of four top-grade sacrificial beasts."
"Can I have all of them?"
"How could that be possible? Unless you have body parts even more vital than true blood in your possession."
At this mention, Wei Yuan immediately remembered that Maiden Yin-Yang had also impaled and brought back an eye that day. It was just that she had taken it away, and he had no idea where it was now. If that eye were included, it should be enough to trade for everything Tianyu had listed.
Wei Yuan stirred his divine sense and asked Maiden Yin-Yang about the whereabouts of that eyeball, only for Maiden Yin-Yang to claim she had no idea what eye he was talking about.
Wei Yuan was dumbfounded on the spot. That day, he had watched with his own eyes as Maiden Yin-Yang impaled an eyeball on her sword and carried it back; all this true blood had dripped from that very eyeball. For that strike, Wei Yuan had ended up owing the Shadow in the Moon a mountain of karmic luck, with no idea when he would ever repay it.
When Wei Yuan pressed further, Maiden Yin-Yang gave no response whatsoever, as though completely drained of karmic luck and lacking even the energy to reply.
Resigned, Wei Yuan could only trade fifteen drops of true blood with Tianyu for one immortal plant and that set of top-grade sacrificial beasts.
In truth, immortal plants not only accelerated Wei Yuan's spiritual qi absorption rate, but they also served as crucial nodes within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. One could say that every additional immortal plant—even bottom-tier ones like immortal orchids—yielded a noticeable boost to the processing speed of the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World.
As for soul yingluo, it was the principal ingredient for the Kunyuan Longevity Pill; once an ancient, immortal-pill-grade longevity medicine like that was successfully concocted, the profits would go without saying.
And top-grade artifact-crafting materials were hard currency among mighty experts and high cultivators, far more useful than immortal silver. Wei Yuan truly wanted everything Tianyu offered, but alas, Maiden Yin-Yang was playing dumb.
Tianyu's visit was only to negotiate transaction details; the actual trade would have to wait until he returned home and led a merchant caravan back to Qingming. Wei Yuan also needed time to assemble another fresh batch of brocade.
At present, Wei Yuan was buying raw silk in large quantities while simultaneously purchasing bulk supplies of Ning brocade. Consequently, the prices of both silk and brocade began to climb, though silk prices rose even more sharply.
Meanwhile, within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, Zhang Sheng had finally gained a preliminary grasp of this brand-new array design methodology after days of intensive study. The mathematical and computational aspects were exceptionally abundant, whereas content concerning yin-yang and the five elements was comparatively scarce.
Zhang Sheng closed the materials before her. She had practically finished the available books; there were several other texts whose titles alone made clear how profound they were, but they lay beyond her current clearance level and remained inaccessible for now.
Zhang Sheng tilted her head slightly. From this angle, she could see Cui Yu. Ever since Cui Yu arrived, he had kept his head down in diligent labor. Strangely, however, from his line of sight when he entered, he should have been able to see Zhang Sheng, yet he had acted as if she were completely invisible. Zhang Sheng pondered thoughtfully: was Cui Yu's vision being obstructed, or was his divine sense being suppressed?
Chapter 463