Even after Bao Yun left, Wei Yuan pondered for a long time without understanding how she had learned of the conversation between the traitor and the Shaman the previous night. Could she have been hiding nearby as well?
Thinking back carefully, Wei Yuan felt that was rather unlikely. Though Bao Yun possessed formidable concealment arts, she was far from reaching the level of harmonizing seamlessly with heaven and earth. Wei Yuan had searched the surroundings thoroughly at the time; with the support of his Peerless Dao Domain, unless someone possessed a freakish level of concealment like Su Xuejing, it would have been utterly impossible to hide from his sight and hearing.
After racking his brains to no avail, Wei Yuan knew Bao Yun certainly would not tell him, so he had no choice but to let the matter drop.
In Wei Yuan's current planning, the traitor actually ranked quite low in importance.
He had already purchased three million jin of thunder sand from the Desolate Ancestor Tribe and was procuring spiritual timber on a massive scale from all around. The ingredients for the new gunpowder formula would not stay secret forever; the true secret lay in the proportions. Furthermore, access to the workshops where gunpowder was mixed was strictly restricted, making it virtually impossible for her to enter under normal circumstances, so stealing the precise ratios would not be easy.
The key to the current war against the Shamans did not hinge on a traitor or two. It lay in either battering the Land of Rain on the battlefield until it had no choice but to halt its offensive, killing or at least heavily wounding Hongye, or continuously picking off the other Nether Shamans until terror struck deep into their hearts.
Now that her identity was known, she would no longer be able to stir up any waves. With a few simple arrangements, Wei Yuan could ensure she gained nothing. As for how to deal with her, Wei Yuan felt it best to first inform Zhang Sheng and Patriarch Xuanyue.
Checking his schedule, Wei Yuan hurried over to Yu Zhizhuo's quarters. According to the timetable drawn up by Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, he was scheduled to discuss the production of fortress cannons with Yu Zhizhuo, with an estimated meeting duration of thirteen minutes.
After that, Wei Yuan had two minutes to fly to Sun Yu's location. First, he would check the treatment and recovery of the wounded; second, discuss the plan to cultivate Dao Foundation cultivators specialized in Innate Lifegiving Water and ask Sun Yu how many more people he needed; and third, inspect Sun Yu's own recovery from his injuries. These three matters totaled thirteen minutes.
Next, he would take one minute to reach Xu Henshui's post, where the schedule listed four items...
For the next two full shichen, Wei Yuan flew back and forth across the entire domain. Wherever he landed, there followed a flurry of discussion before he rushed off to the next location.
After several rounds like this, he finally finished attending to all the affairs by midday.
Among the many matters, the most critical for the near term was the fortress cannons. As the weapon responsible for the second-highest number of Shaman casualties, Yu Zhizhuo believed that fundamental improvements would be difficult to achieve in the short term, as accuracy degraded drastically once the range approached ten li.
Increasing range and accuracy required a thorough overhaul of the barrel casting techniques. If they only needed several dozen cannons, skilled Dao Foundation cultivators could craft them by hand bit by bit, with Yu Zhizhuo making the final adjustments. But for mass production, it required a complete technological upgrade of the manufacturing process, which could not be accomplished overnight.
Therefore, Yu Zhizhuo's proposal was to mount steel arrow-deflecting plates onto the existing design to protect against Shaman sharpshooters. If a Great Shaman-tier archer was spotted, cannon fire would never hit them anyway; the best approach was to call in flying missiles. A single missile strike would severely injure even a Great Shaman, and two more would finish him off.
Sharpshooters of the Great Shaman tier were scarce, and every death was an irreplaceable loss. Meanwhile, after Qingming secured new supplies of thunder sand, the cost of gunpowder had plummeted, and the cost of flying missiles had dropped by half. Trading three missiles for one Great Shaman was an immense bargain. Thus, Wei Yuan approved the plan.
Another major long-term matter concerned those crippled in the war, who now numbered over fifty thousand. Dealing with them could only be deferred for now; pills capable of regrowing severed limbs were exorbitantly expensive. Even Dao Foundation cultivators from outside aristocratic clans could hardly afford them, let alone ordinary mortals.
For the afternoon, Wei Yuan planned to inspect several military camps reorganizing displaced refugees. Marquis Ping'an had kept his word, having already delivered two hundred and fifty thousand refugees, while the remaining forty thousand were on the road and would arrive within a day or two.
Cui Shutong seemed to have felt the pressure, fearing Wei Yuan might stop buying refugees, and had likewise accelerated his deliveries. Several camps now held two hundred thousand refugees from Zhao undergoing training and reorganization, while another hundred thousand remained without quarters. Wei Yuan had rushed to establish four more camps, which barely sufficed.
Yet the moment Wei Yuan stepped outside his door, he found a scholar standing in the courtyard, who spoke with a cold face: "Domain Lord Wei, it truly isn't easy to get a meeting with you these days!"
The visitor was none other than Cai Shizhi. During the previous great battle, when he had used himself as bait to lure a Nether Shaman into a trap, he had sustained hidden injuries. Wei Yuan had withheld him from the most recent clash—partly because his injuries were not yet healed, and partly because Wei Yuan feared the Shamans might seek vengeance for the slain Nether Shaman by targeting Cai Shizhi amid the chaos.
Master Cai's true value did not lie on the battlefield. When teaching students, his dharma idol possessed an innate enlightenment effect, significantly boosting their comprehension and accelerating their progress.
A person's character could be judged through their dharma idol. Cai Shizhi genuinely desired to spread knowledge and cultivate pupils across the realm, which was why Wei Yuan had always treated him with great respect.
Seeing Cai Shizhi arrive in anger, Wei Yuan was perplexed and hurriedly said, "The great battle only just ended, and there are countless matters to settle. Ding'an City was destroyed, and our defensive line must be reorganized. Otherwise, if the Shamans breach the line there next time, they will drive straight in."
Cai Shizhi let out a cold scoff. "While I possess some minor knowledge of military affairs, Domain Lord Wei is a true master of the art, so I will not presume to teach an expert. But I must ask the domain lord: who are those three hundred thousand recruits undergoing training across the nine camps? In the preceding battles, who were the ones who died? And where are the first hundred thousand refugees from Zhao who came to Qingming?"
Wei Yuan frowned slightly. Many commanders had long observed these matters. Though they had only glimpsed fragments rather than the whole picture, most could make reasonable guesses. Yet all of them had chosen silence; only Cai Shizhi had stepped forward.
Faced with Cai Shizhi's interrogation, Wei Yuan said, "Since Master Cai asks, you must already know the answer. Why ask again?"
Cai Shizhi pressed, "Then let me ask you one more thing: if you do not do this, can the domain not be held?"
"That is correct. It cannot be held," Wei Yuan replied candidly.
"Yet Qingming still has one hundred and fifty thousand elite troops, as well as thirty thousand heavy-armored warriors renowned as the finest under heaven! Through three great battles, those two forces have remained virtually unscathed! With them at hand, why must you send innocent commoners to die on the front lines?"
Wei Yuan sighed. "Master Cai, the hundred and fifty thousand elite troops you speak of are actually down to a hundred thousand; fifty thousand were replenished later. In the battle just past, another twenty thousand perished, and right now I can only replenish five thousand. Those two armies must be kept in reserve. Even if they never enter the field throughout the entire battle, as long as they remain standing, the overall situation will not collapse.
"Yesterday, when Ding'an City fell, had the Dragon Gallop Army not plugged the breach immediately, the Shamans would have shattered our defenses long ago. In moments like that, without elite forces at hand, throwing in any number of mortal troops would never hold back the Shamans!"
Cai Shizhi said coldly, "I do not concern myself with military strategy! What I see is that you have heavily armored elites and fierce warriors at your disposal, yet leave them idle while sending defenseless mortals to the front lines to die! This is treating human life like grass! It is slaughter! It defies reason, and it defies righteousness even more! How is what you are doing any different from the Shamans offering living sacrifices to heaven? How does it differ from the foolish tyrants of history?"
Wei Yuan offered a helpless, measured reply: "Master Cai, Qingming possesses the Ephemeral Multitude. Those mortals can instantly transform into robust Body Casting soldiers. They are not simply being sent to die..."
"Then let me ask you: before you sent them onto the battlefield, did you ever tell them how many would come back alive? Of the mortals you dispatched to the front, how many returned? You are deceiving them into their deaths!"
Wei Yuan's brow furrowed, his voice rising slightly. "Since you hold such lofty righteousness, Master, may I ask what brilliant strategy you have to hold back three million Shaman troops?"
Cai Shizhi declared resoundingly, "Armored warriors fight a hundred battles and die on the sands, returning wrapped in horsehide—that is how it ought to be! We should use trained, elite forces to strike the Shamans head-on! At worst, we sacrifice our lives for righteousness, and our names will endure through the ages, revered by posterity! That is a righteous army!
"Domain Lord Wei, rein in your horse at the cliff's edge; it is not too late! If you are willing to mend your ways, then unworthy though I am, I am willing to serve as a common soldier in the vanguard and perish together with the Shamans!"
Wei Yuan raised his voice further. "If I place my elites on the front line, I doubt we could survive even the next battle! Even if we endured a fourth, our elites would be utterly spent by the fifth, leading to inevitable defeat! These mortals can only hold a fixed position; the moment they move, they scatter like loose sand and become nothing more than targets for slaughter.
"Follow your method, and Qingming will fall! Is the so-called righteousness you preach worth more than the lives of these million inhabitants?"
Unexpectedly, Cai Shizhi shouted, "Righteousness is the bedrock of moral integrity! It outweighs not merely a million lives, but ten million, even hundreds of millions! The way of the sages lies in utmost sincerity, in benevolence, in great righteousness! Even if Qingming is lost for a time, our righteous names will endure through eternity, and the teachings of the sages will flourish for ten thousand generations! That is an achievement of eternal magnitude! How can it be compared to the temporary gain or loss of a single place?"
Wei Yuan replied coldly, "Your so-called benevolence and righteousness are too heavy; forgive me, but I cannot bear them. No matter what means I must use, I will preserve Qingming, and I will drive the Shamans back. As long as we defeat the Shamans, even if I have to send children charging forward hugging cannon shells, I will do it."
Cai Shizhi trembled with fury, pointing a finger at Wei Yuan as he cursed, "You unrighteous, inhumane wretch! No, you have lost your mind entirely! Even if you happen to win by luck, what of it? Winning through such filthy means will ensure your name stinks for ten thousand years! How unfortunate the common folk are, how innocent, to have fallen into your hands!"
"Master Cai is tired. Go back and rest."
His face pale with rage, Cai Shizhi snapped, "A vile creature like you—I was truly blind to ever keep company with the likes of you! I will pack my belongings and leave this instant. If you wish to kill me, strike now!"
Wei Yuan sighed. "In your heart, Master, does the destruction of the domain matter so little before your so-called righteousness? By my method, there remains at least a sliver of hope for victory, and at least hundreds of thousands, perhaps even a million people, will survive."
Cai Shizhi said grimly, "Driving the people to the battlefield is not something I inherently oppose. But you cannot march them there in total ignorance! You must at least explain the causes and consequences, and only direct them once they consent—that is the will of the people! The people are like water: water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it. In defying righteousness, you will inevitably share the fate of the tyrannical monarchs of history!"
With matters having come to this, Wei Yuan said, "Those who walk different paths cannot plan together. Since you are determined to leave, Master, I will not bar your way."
Cai Shizhi said coldly, "I am not merely leaving. Once gone, I will compose an essay proclaiming your inhumane and unrighteous deeds to the world! If you wish to kill me, it is still not too late."
Wei Yuan sighed. "Master, you have rendered great service to Qingming. Even if our views diverge, how could there be any righteousness in harming you? Leave if you wish, but do so quietly. Do not take actions that shake the morale of the army, lest things become unpleasant for us both."
Cai Shizhi fell silent for a moment before saying, "Farewell."
Watching his figure recede into the distance, Wei Yuan suddenly recalled a dilemma posed by Immortal Monarch Tinghai when they had met.
The gist of that question was: if a flying vessel is about to overturn and half the passengers must be thrown overboard, who should die, and who should live?
Only on the day the Land of Rain launched its all-out assault did Wei Yuan finally understand: the important thing was never who ought to die or who ought to live. It was to throw half the people overboard before the flying vessel capsized.
And the one who made that decision was destined to bear the infamy.
Chapter 518