Across the lands of the human domain, spring gave way to summer, while in the Western Regions, rain poured day after day as the wet season arrived.
Braving the drizzling rain, Wei Yuan hung a breastplate over the warrior standing before him and tightened the fastening leather straps with his own hands. This was the hundred-thousandth heavy-armored warrior of Qingming. Within Qingming, there were now ten thousand cavalry, forty thousand mounted infantry, and fifty thousand heavy infantry.
Qingming's heavy infantry differed somewhat from the heavy infantry of Western Jin. Thanks to mass-produced drop-forged steel plates, Qingming's breastplates were of exceptional quality, yet lighter than multilayered chainmail or fish-scale armor. Moreover, because the infantry primarily used flying-sword guns and prioritized mobility, the armor on their arms and legs had also been moderately streamlined.
In the end, a Qingming heavy warrior's suit of armor weighed eighty jin, far lighter than Western Jin's heavy armor of one hundred and twenty jin.
All the heavy infantry possessed Blood Merging Realm cultivation and could still run like the wind while bearing several hundred jin. And as far as Wei Yuan knew, Military Commissioner of Anbei Xu Tongshou commanded an army of one hundred and fifty thousand, but had only ten thousand cavalry and twenty thousand heavy troops. Military Commissioner of Yunxiang Lü Wenbai commanded one hundred and twenty thousand troops, with twenty thousand cavalry and twenty thousand heavy troops.
Measured by heavy-armored soldiers alone, Wei Yuan had already surpassed the combined forces of the other two military commissioners, though his cavalry was still somewhat lacking.
Wei Yuan finished outfitting the warrior before him in armor, patted his shoulder, and an officer nearby bellowed, "Right turn! Double time, return to camp!"
This thousand-strong heavy-armored unit jogged back toward the barracks before Wei Yuan, their heavy yet uniform footsteps shaking the earth.
Just then, Cui Yu flew over and landed beside Wei Yuan, the twelve Liuren heavenly soldiers hovering around him sinking back into his body one by one.
Cui Yu handed over a roster and said, "This is the roster of candidates scheduled to advance to Dao Foundation this term. My clan sent over another five hundred people; there are eleven hundred commoners within the domain who have accumulated enough military merit and are ready to advance; and two thousand former sacrificial offerings and Xu family youths in the new city have reached Body Casting completion."
Wei Yuan glanced through the roster and said, "Very well. Once preparations are in order over the next few days, we can arrange the advancements. Has your dharma idol stabilized?"
"It's basically stable," Cui Yu said. "Twelve heavenly soldiers is fewer than anticipated; Martial Uncle Xu and Martial Uncle Sun are still analyzing the possible causes. Aside from that, a few friends in the Battle Saint Hall are also looking into it. According to the hall master, it might be because the dharma idol pre-cultivated within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World was in an optimal state, whereas in the outside world, it suffers interference from all sorts of factors—especially the physical body's constitution and bone structure. It's bound to fall a little short of that ideal."
Wei Yuan was taken aback. "You became friends with the people in the Battle Saint Hall?"
"Of course!" Cui Yu said as though it were the most natural thing. "Inside the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, they're no different from ordinary people. One time, I stumbled upon a conversation with them and found we hit it off wonderfully. Both the hall master and deputy hall master are full of ideas, and their perspectives are very unique. It's just that the two of them don't get along and clash quite often. Now each of them has gathered a faction around himself, and they argue constantly."
Wei Yuan recalled the first two mortals to cultivate Dao Foundations—one was of ordinary aptitude, while the other was a genius. Hearing Cui Yu say the two were still bickering gave Wei Yuan a rather bizarre feeling.
By now, Cui Yu had successfully broken through to the Dharma Idol Realm. A twenty-year-old dharma idol was an exceedingly rare cultivation pace. Although the heavenly soldiers in his idol had fallen to twelve instead of sixteen, Cui Yu could split his mind to control all twelve simultaneously. Each heavenly soldier could act and fight independently, which set his dharma idol apart from those of other cultivators with multiple heavenly soldiers, multiplying its might and allowing it to still be rated at the Heaven Tier.
"Oh, right, Martial Uncle Xu asked me to tell you that he needs five of each Five Elements Spirit Ginseng of at least a century in age for compounding medicine. It can slightly improve the odds of forging a Dao Foundation."
"All right, I'll head over to the herb garden right now to get them."
Five Elements Spirit Ginseng was a fundamental spiritual plant. Wei Yuan had redeemed quite a few over the years and planted them all in the herb garden. Now, the growth rate of spiritual herbs in Qingming's herb garden was more than ten times that of the outside world. Over the past two years, many herbs had gained the equivalent of thirty to forty years of maturity, greatly increasing their value. The finest plot in the garden had such abundant spiritual qi that it rivaled the high-grade herb gardens of the Palace of Grand Beginning.
With Qingming growing by the day and handling massive volumes of resources, people could no longer take whatever they pleased as they had in the past. Vital supplies now required Wei Yuan's approval.
Wei Yuan took to the air and flew off, stepping into the herb garden moments later.
The cottage Old Daoist Chuhe had built beside the garden had undergone multiple renovations and had expanded to considerable proportions. Not only did it encompass a several-dozen-mu plot of high-grade herb garden, but three ponds and two deep wells had also been dug into the courtyard, along with over a dozen transplanted fruit trees, turning it into a miniature orchard.
The moment Wei Yuan stepped into the small courtyard, wafts of savory aroma washed over him. It was a peculiar meaty scent intertwined with the fresh fragrance of vegetation, instantly lifting Wei Yuan's spirits and whetting his appetite.
Pushing open the door, he saw an Eight Immortals table set up in the main hall. In its center rested a copper hotpot; the fuel was inch-gold charcoal burned from spirit wood, and the pot was forged from fire-crystal red copper. The broth inside was already boiling vigorously. Old Daoist Chuhe held a chunk of fresh meat, using his immortal sword to slice off wafer-thin slivers like cicada wings, dropping them into the broth.
The meat changed color the moment it hit the water. Then a little white paw reached into the pot, scooped up the slice, dabbed it in seasoning, and wolfed it down with slurping delight.
The old daoist's sword moved like lightning as slices of meat tumbled into the pot like snowflakes. The marten, the cat, and the snake crowded around the pot, ceaselessly scooping out meat and gobbling it down, slurping happily.
The snake's table manners were somewhat unrefined; it frequently flicked its forked tongue out, gulping down meat and soup in one massive swallow. Whenever this happened, the marten would swat the snake's head with a paw, warning it that eating meat was eating meat, and not to drink the soup—if it took a few more gulps, the clear broth simmered with abundant medicinal herbs would be completely gone.
Steam billowed through the room, cozy warmth filled the air, and delicious aromas drifted everywhere. Old Daoist Chuhe was glowing red with joy, endlessly slicing meat and tossing in greens. Sharing a table and eating side by side with the three spirit pets without distinction, he had truly reached the pinnacle of his life.
Seeing Wei Yuan enter, the old daoist beamed and gestured for him to take a seat, saying, "Brother Marten found a nest of spirit bamboo pigs deep underground. The meat is fresh and sweet—an absolute delicacy of the world! It's not something you get to eat every day. I've already penned the little ones, and before long, we'll have an endless supply of bamboo pig meat. These spirit bamboo pigs usually dwell a hundred zhang underground, and they crave spirit bamboo roots and shoots. If not for Brother Marten's brilliance, we never would have caught such treasures!"
Wei Yuan gladly sat down. The meat smelled marvelous, so naturally he wasn't about to pass it up.
The flying marten, however, gave the old daoist a puzzled look, unable to comprehend why its generation had suddenly dropped by two tiers.
Wei Yuan ate a few slices of meat to savor the flavor, then laid down his chopsticks. He had an enormous appetite now, and nourishing his physical body required massive amounts of spiritual food, which a few morsels of meat could never satisfy. His daily bodily needs relied mainly on spirit rice, so he didn't compete with the three spirit pets for food.
Wei Yuan asked about conditions in the herb garden, and the old daoist rattled off the details like family treasures.
Of the Five Elements Spirit Ginseng Xu Henshui needed, there were currently over a hundred usable stalks of each kind. In the outer, lower-quality plots, the old daoist had planted over a thousand stalks of each variety and was replenishing five hundred more every year to serve as the foundation of Qingming's herb garden. After a dozen years or so, when these herbs reached a century of potency, the compounding needs for ordinary pills could become fully self-sufficient.
A pleasant surprise was the original Dark Star Solanum. Under the old daoist's care, its mutation had grown increasingly pronounced. After absorbing vast amounts of Nether Soil, it had now transformed into a Nether Shadow Solanum—a top-grade spiritual plant merely half a step away from an immortal plant. Even the Ruby Lantern growing upon it had improved alongside it, on the verge of becoming a top-grade spiritual plant as well.
Thanks to this, Old Daoist Chuhe had gained a dark forest within his dharma idol, taking a major stride forward in the Myriad Transformations Realm and substantially boosting his combat prowess. However, because his starting base was so low, despite the astounding percentage increase, the old daoist's ranking in combat strength remained rock-solid at the bottom, with virtually no possibility of anyone being displaced beneath him.
The herb garden influenced not just the surface, but the subterranean regions as well. According to Old Daoist Chuhe's communication with the flying marten, the garden's influence beneath the ground now exceeded a hundred zhang, second only to the three hundred zhang beneath the Qingming boundary stone. Elsewhere in Qingming, the average depth of influence was only ten zhang.
Within the hundred zhang beneath the herb garden, many previously unseen species had begun to emerge, including several kinds of spirit beasts. The spirit bamboo pig caught by the flying marten was one of them. This low-tier spirit beast possessed delicious meat and grew exceptionally fast; a single litter could yield dozens of piglets, with multiple litters a year.
Relying on his experience with beast-taming, Old Daoist Chuhe planned to start pen-raising the bamboo pigs, and after a year, there would be no shortage of spiritual meat.
Furthermore, shifts had occurred in the flow of spiritual veins beneath the herb garden, and tiny spiritual veins were beginning to appear. Wei Yuan collected the spirit ginseng, and as he was inspecting the rest of the garden, his divine sense stirred, and several military dispatches reached him in succession.
At that moment, in the northwest of the domain, a squad of scout cavalry rode into Ding'an City and entered the encampment inside. Many of the scouts bore wounds, having clearly endured a bloody battle.
After entering the camp, the squad captain came to a military tent. Upon stepping inside, he saw an expressionless warrior seated behind a desk. Though the captain was a veteran of many battles who had witnessed much bloodshed, he felt a flicker of unease before this Dao Foundation warrior.
Regarding this tent and the mysterious warrior within it, numerous rumors circulated throughout the scout camp. He had appeared here a month ago and had not set foot out of the tent since, nor had anyone seen him eat or drink. No matter when the scouts returned, he was always there.
The captain suppressed the unease in his heart and began reporting the intelligence gathered from the reconnaissance mission, while the Dao Foundation warrior began recording it.
When the Dao Foundation warrior finished recording, the dispatch appeared synchronously in Wei Yuan's divine sense. This report, along with the intelligence aggregated over the past few days, suddenly made Wei Yuan catch the scent of something different.
Over the past dozen days, skirmishes between scouts of both sides had visibly escalated, with dozens of riders killed or wounded every day. The Shamans were clearly intensifying their hunts of Qingming scouts.
Sun Lie, the commander of Qingming's scout cavalry, had once been an obscure nobody, but through trials of blood and steel, he had grown into a ruthless, sharp figure. He immediately deployed large counter-hunting forces and even assembled a five-hundred-rider hunting detachment to tail their own small scout units, specifically targeting and encircling the Shamans' hunting squads.
After several of their hundred-rider hunting units were wiped out in turn, the Shamans responded by deploying hunting squads of several hundred riders each.
Scouts were the elite of Qingming's army, and their numbers were not large. The mutual slaughter and counter-slaughter grew increasingly fierce, with the Shamans continuously escalating their operations despite catastrophic losses.
Having read through all the military reports, Wei Yuan acutely perceived that the Shamans wanted to shrink his field of vision.
He promptly issued an order through his divine sense. Moments later, the Dao Foundation warrior in the scout camp exited his tent, walked into Sun Lie's command tent, and declared, "The Domain Lord commands: Advance reconnaissance five hundred li, cost what it may."
Chapter 468