The Desolate Ancestor Tribe's caravan arrived three days later. This time, its scale was unprecedented, numbering dozens of flat-bottomed skiffs. Once these flat-bottomed skiffs navigated to within a hundred li of Qingming, proceeding further became difficult, so the handover with Qingming had to take place there.
Wei Yuan's convoy consisted of over two hundred large cargo wagons. He had mobilized nearly every wagon in Qingming fitted with weight-reducing formations to transport the hundred-odd thousand jin of liquor out to the site.
Tianyu and Wei Yuan chatted casually as they watched the warriors from both sides haul cargo. At that moment, four individuals were brought forward by the Shamans and made to stand before Wei Yuan. The escorting Power Shamans pulled off their hoods.
It was a family of four whose features were somewhat peculiar, making it impossible to tell where they were from. They looked around in bewilderment, not knowing where they were. The parents in the family had already achieved the Dao Foundation, while their two daughters were only eight or nine years old, having recently entered Body Casting.
Tianyu said, "These four are top-tier sacrificial offerings of special bloodlines. In the words of you humans, both parents possess immortal foundations, and the two children are even more gifted. Oh, right, and this."
Tianyu handed Wei Yuan a black stone and said, "Plant it in water. That settles our account from last time."
"What is this?"
"No idea. It's been stored for a very long time, but it should still be alive. Should be," Tianyu emphasized, trying to sound less guilty.
Wei Yuan put it away. The aquatic immortal plant from last time was already sprouting life, and now that his mindscape world was entirely filled with water, his need for aquatic immortal plants had grown tremendously. If this could be grown, so much the better; if not, studying it wouldn't be a loss either.
For this trade, the Shamans had deployed several thousand Power Shamans, who hauled crates weighing hundreds of jin as easily as picking up apples. Wei Yuan had brought three thousand cultivators who had achieved great completion in Body Casting, who were likewise capable of scampering about with hundreds of jin on their shoulders.
Watching the crates being transferred one by one from the land skiffs to the wagons, Wei Yuan patted Tianyu heavily on the shoulder and said, "Thanks a lot for this!"
Tianyu grinned and said, "What's there to thank me for? The things you mentioned—our great-grandfathers actually knew them all along, but there was nothing they could do. We've always been somewhat weaker than the Land of Rain, and we have no voice in the City of Heaven. So whenever our tribe reaches a critical period in its growth, the Land of Rain comes to weaken us in order to maintain their hegemony in this region.
"Ninety years ago, my great-grandfather was the top Great Shaman in the tribe at the time, as well as the youngest. He didn't take part in the war back then; instead, he left the tribe to travel. Yet when the war ended, his corpse was sent back. He was Great-Grandfather's fourth-generation descendant. Great-Grandfather said that Hongye personally killed him."
"Who were those coalition wars fought against?"
"Mostly against the Vast Sea Liao Clan, and occasionally against humans once or twice. When we fight you, the land won is divided equally among everyone, but we don't border the Liao Clan, so whatever we get after fighting them are enclaves—practically useless to us."
Wei Yuan smiled and said, "Then it seems we'll have plenty of cooperation ahead."
"As long as the Land of Rain is still around. I should get going."
Looking at Tianyu's retreating figure, Wei Yuan asked one last question: "Do you Shamans have civil wars?"
"Yes. But we aren't qualified to fight them."
With the transaction concluded, Wei Yuan walked up to a wagon, reached out, and pierced open a cargo crate, watching a stream of pure white sand spill out. This was thunder sand, the primary ingredient for his new gunpowder. Not much of it was produced in the Western Regions, but the Desolate Ancestor Tribe possessed extensive mineral deposits. Previously, Wei Yuan had never been able to purchase thunder sand and had to rely on crafting lightning-struck phoenix-blood wutong as a substitute wherever possible.
This time, by using liquor, he had finally traded for thunder sand from the Desolate Ancestor Tribe. In truth, even without the liquor, the tribe likely would have found some other pretext to give the thunder sand to Wei Yuan.
Looking at the high-grade thunder sand in his hand, Wei Yuan was thoroughly satisfied. By now, the Power Shamans had already walked far into the distance, yet their singing could still be heard—they were clearly thrilled as well.
That Desolate Shamans loved liquor was known to all. And that the liquor produced in the Wu domain was vastly inferior to human brew was also an undeniable fact.
Through casual chats with Tianyu time and again, Wei Yuan had learned much about the Shamans' real situation. While people starved to death in the Great Tang and its Nine Kingdoms, Shamans starved to death in the Wu domain's various tribes every year as well.
The Desolate Ancestor Tribe's yields of grain and fish were quite limited, making liquor an outright luxury subject to strict rationing. From top to bottom throughout the tribe, the higher one's rank, the stricter the quota. Otherwise, if the Desolate Shamans drank freely, the entire tribe would starve to death.
On the human side, there was always a shortage of food rather than people, so liquor was likewise a luxury in limited supply. The liquor for this trade had all been purchased by Wei Yuan from surrounding regions over the course of more than half a year before amassing enough for a single transaction.
This bulk acquisition drove up the price of liquor, prompting some people to brew liquor with their grain reserves, while others turned to planting grapes and other fruits suitable for wine-making. However, these efforts remained on a modest scale, nowhere near matching the mulberry trees.
On his return journey, Wei Yuan had originally intended to drop that stone beside the central city, but an intense feeling of discomfort made him change his mind. He then flew all the way north, traveling a thousand li before the sensation shifted, and only then did he cast that unknown seed of an immortal plant into the sea below.
The Desolate Ancestor Tribe truly lived up to its legacy of hundreds of thousands of years; their treasure vaults held many fine items, allowing Tianyu to casually produce two ancient immortal plants.
Upon returning to Qingming, Wei Yuan received a letter from Sun Chao'en. Sun had already transferred six thousand of the eight thousand men under his command to Qingming. At the same time, acting as an intermediary, he had coordinated with the other two commanderies to send a combined fifteen thousand men in support.
However, the manner in which these twenty-odd thousand reinforcements arrived was rather peculiar. The whole affair was conducted privately by the three commandery governors without the imperial court's knowledge. Wei Yuan was responsible for all expenses of the reinforcements, and should any die in battle, Wei Yuan would provide their casualty compensation.
Meanwhile, on the imperial court's ledgers, these twenty-thousand-plus soldiers were recorded as remaining right in their barracks, allowing the three governors to pocket their pay as phantom soldiers. Furthermore, the casualty compensation Wei Yuan offered was higher than the imperial court's, so the difference naturally lined the pockets of the three governors as well.
For this reason, the three commandery governors spared no effort, scouring their respective military camps to pull out every soldier without power, influence, or backing to send them to Qingming—hoping with all their hearts that not a single one would return.
As soon as the reinforcements arrived, Wei Yuan immediately had them brought to an isolated camp to begin enclosed training.
Having handled these matters, Wei Yuan flew northwest without pause to observe the Land of Rain's progress.
Since they had already been discovered by Wei Yuan, the Land of Rain made no further attempt to conceal their movements. They removed all forward barriers, and the Nether Shamans no longer maintained a strict defensive cordon. Consequently, Wei Yuan easily sneaked his way to seven hundred li out.
Far across the land, new embankments had been erected. The canal had already stretched nine hundred li out, and sluice gates had been opened on the great lake to release water, giving rise to a canal over a hundred feet wide carving across the terrain.
Flat-bottomed boats travelled back and forth along the water's surface. Incoming boats rode extremely low in the water, their gunwales nearly touching the surface, while all the returning vessels were empty.
Surges rolled across the canal as massive water beasts advanced slowly through the depths, each hauling over a dozen boats behind it.
At nine hundred li out, Shaman tents and supply depots stretched endlessly in every direction. Remarkably, four altars—one large and three small—were being constructed simultaneously, each swarming with Shaman laborers.
Meanwhile, at the leading edge of the canal, hundreds of thousands of Shaman laborers were digging with all their might, advancing at a rate of ten li per day. Over a hundred thousand Shaman troops had pushed tens of li forward, establishing a new defensive line to protect the canal behind them. This place was still outside the Shattered Lands; the gaze of extraterrestrial monsters was diminished by more than half here, while the domain of the Shamans held absolute dominance. Even if Wei Yuan assaulted this position with the full force of Qingming, without enough Scenery Command masters, breaching this Shaman defense line would be nearly impossible.
Wei Yuan gazed as far as his eyes could see. At a single glance, he could see at least four to five million Shamans within his field of view.
Chapter 477