*On Protracted War* was not a particularly long text, yet Wei Yuan spent a full hour reading it, dedicating most of that time to pondering it word by word, sentence by sentence.
Taking a panoramic and strategic view, the treatise was a crowning synthesis of three hundred thousand years of historical wisdom from the mortal realm and knowledge from the otherworldly realm. It clearly laid out that the war against the Land of Rain could be divided into three stages: strategic defense, strategic stalemate, and strategic offensive.
At present, Qingming had steadily transitioned from strategic defense to strategic stalemate; Hongye's plot to bring about Qingming's swift destruction had already collapsed.
Qingming possessed the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. So long as it adhered to making every mortal a dragon, tapped the full potential of common mortals, and pooled human karmic luck to push back against the heaven and earth of the Wu domain, the balance of military strength would shift in Qingming's favor. Eventually, Qingming would inevitably pass into a strategic offensive and utterly destroy the Land of Rain.
In the foreseeable future, Wei Yuan was very likely to establish Qing Province, reviving the flourishing era of the past when the three immortals of the Palace of Grand Beginning opened up Yunzhou.
Yet wiping out the Land of Rain was merely the opening act of the confrontation against the Shamans. The war between humanity and the Shamans had raged for well over a hundred thousand years; bringing about the total demise of the Shamans was a task Wei Yuan might not achieve even if he attained immortality and lived to the end of his days.
Still, as long as Qingming endured, mortals were empowered like dragons, and human karmic luck thrived unbroken, other human realms would follow suit one after another. With humanity's Great Fortune flourishing, more and more Wei Yuans would continue to emerge.
This process might take tens of thousands of years, which was why the piece was titled *On Protracted War*.
In addition to the main text, it included an appendix titled *Comparative Advantage Analysis of the War Against the Shamans*.
The appendix was far more concrete, focusing directly on the immediate war at hand. Drawing on data compiled across the past six major battles, it thoroughly examined the strengths and weaknesses of both the Land of Rain and Qingming, proposing a sequence of practical measures and countermeasures.
Quite a few of these recommendations were utterly absurd. For example, in the human resources section, it heavily advocated finding a way to lash Su Xuejing to Qingming's war chariot. If Su Xuejing was a man, pair him with a woman; if a woman, pair her with a man. Should they wish to leave down the line, that was permissible as well—so long as the child stayed behind.
Furthermore, Ji Liuli, the Peacock Buddha Mother, the little monk Honglian, and many others were none of them to be spared.
The report even suggested that Wei Yuan go and inherit the Great Joy King Buddha.
The resident geniuses had astutely realized that once Wei Yuan inherited the Great Joy King Buddha dharma idol, countless female cultivators—and female non-human cultivators—would have nowhere to run; willing or not, they would all be dragged onto Qingming's war chariot. If Wei Yuan lowered his moral standards a step further, even male cultivators would not escape the net.
Wei Yuan did not know whether to laugh or cry as he read it, striking out every single one of these ridiculous suggestions.
However, the proposal regarding Ji Liuli caught his serious attention. Based on existing information, Ji Liuli was suffering from a troubled dao heart, though no one yet knew where the problem originated. Taking Wei Yuan's own experiences into account, the masterminds had deduced that Dream Eater might be the ideal choice for resolving issues with a dao heart.
Her Dream Scenarios were capable of blurring the boundary between reality and illusion, creating conditions where a dao heart's flaws could be exposed. As long as the root of the problem was uncovered, a solution became possible.
Wei Yuan noted down this advice and proceeded to examine the rest of the text.
Aside from the human resources section where the think tank had let their imaginations run wild, the rest of the work was remarkably rigorous and tightly reasoned.
After finishing it, Wei Yuan pondered for a long while before heading out to find Xu Wenwu, spending an entire afternoon deep in conversation with him. Most of the time, Wei Yuan simply listened to him talk, only nudging him back whenever the conversation wandered too far astray.
It had been a long time since Xu Wenwu had spoken so freely and cathartically. By now, Wei Yuan understood the otherworldly realm quite well, chiming in like a seasoned veteran and even cracking a few jokes unique to that world.
At times, Xu Wenwu almost believed that Wei Yuan, like himself, was an otaku from the other world.
Before long, dinner time arrived, and a cultivator delivered the food. Xu Wenwu and Xu Shiba lived here together, yet the cultivator carried two massive food boxes containing six dishes, a soup, and a tub of rice weighing ten jin.
This seemed like a mountain of food, but in truth, Xu Shiba could devour all of it on her own. The little girl was growing at a staggering rate, and the price was needing to eat five meals a day.
Following his long talk with Xu Wenwu, Wei Yuan finally rose. Before taking his leave, he gave Xu Wenwu a brief embrace, clapped him on his distinctly fleshy back, and said, "Once the next battle is over, I'll arrange for you to establish your Dao Foundation."
Xu Wenwu was both startled and overjoyed. "I can establish a Dao Foundation too? Y-you... didn't you tell me last time that I might draw down a heavenly tribulation?"
Wei Yuan chuckled. "Originally it was only a possibility, but after what we just discussed, a heavenly tribulation is guaranteed to strike. Don't worry, though. When the time comes, you'll be cloaked in karmic luck. It should be a close call without real danger—at worst, you'll endure a bit of physical torment."
The flesh on Xu Wenwu's cheeks twitched, torn between anticipation and dread. By all appearances, he wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight.
Stepping out of the courtyard, Wei Yuan felt that the road ahead had never been clearer. Inevitable victory was no longer just an article of faith; it had become an actionable path and strategy that could be carried out step-by-step.
He flew straight toward the Weaponsmith Workshop and entered Yu Zhizhuo's quarters.
Yu Zhizhuo was completely disheveled, sweat beading on his forehead. Eight sheets of jade paper floated before him as he processed eight streams of data calculations simultaneously. Seeing Wei Yuan walk in, Yu Zhizhuo looked somewhat surprised, detaching a strand of divine sense to ask, "Why are you back again?"
Wei Yuan smiled. "I came to go mining with you, Martial Uncle."
"Mining?" Yu Zhizhuo's spirits rallied, his whole presence shifting. Mining was the sole activity capable of pulling him away from his desk at a time like this.
"Wait for me a moment. I'll take a quick nap first."
Without even returning to his bedroom, Yu Zhizhuo collapsed directly onto a reclining chair and drifted off to sleep.
Moments later, he appeared inside the Creation of Heaven and Earth Research Institute, taking a seat. This time, however, he was not accepting assignments, but submitting them.
Yu Zhizhuo had already broken down the problems concerning spell templates into over four hundred specific calculations and derivations. Now, he submitted them all in one go, leaving the immortal flora to distribute these tasks to others.
All Yu Zhizhuo had to do was wait for the results to emerge and compile them himself. This approach saved ninety percent of his energy and dramatically accelerated the pace of his research.
Still, as a man innately obsessed with cultivation and artifact crafting, Yu Zhizhuo truly preferred working through calculations step by step with his own hands. Yet with time pressing, he abandoned his stubbornness and chose to make use of the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World as an aid.
Standing nearby, Wei Yuan could not help finding the scene rather peculiar.
Right before his eyes, the man had stepped into his dharma idol and set to work with absolute solemnity—a process that was undeniably productive and efficient. The trouble was that everyone inside was running their own affairs without once asking for Wei Yuan's input, and many newcomers did not even know who Wei Yuan was.
At this moment, Wei Yuan felt that having an excess of sapience in one's mindscape world was not entirely a blessing.
After about half an incense stick of time, Yu Zhizhuo woke up and said, "Everything is arranged. If our luck holds, the modifications to the Gold Melting Incantation should be finished by this time tomorrow."
Wei Yuan quietly bestowed a strand of karmic luck upon Yu Zhizhuo, reassuring him, "Don't worry, our luck will certainly be good."
Yu Zhizhuo unrolled a map and asked, "Where are we mining? We have four sites to choose from. The vein to the south is the largest, but it's predominantly iron ore."
"That's the one."
Yu Zhizhuo asked no further questions, terrified Wei Yuan might change his mind, and flew straight south alongside him. At the same time, Wei Yuan had his Dao Foundation warrior summon five hundred Dao Foundation cultivators to wait at the mine.
The instant the two arrived, they descended straight down the shaft to the deepest working face. The underground tunnel was barely the height of a man and wide enough for two to walk abreast.
Guided by Yu Zhizhuo, Wei Yuan deployed more than thirty sapient Dao Foundation constructs at once and even manifested his sapient dharma idol.
The cultivators unleashed the Water Blade Art in unison. Pressurized jets slammed against the ore vein, shearing away vast sheets of ore in the blink of an eye. Three Dao Foundation cultivators advanced abreast, carving out a tunnel in tandem, while the dharma idol worked alone, slicing open a passage taller than a man with only slight adjustments of its Water Blade Art.
Once all the cultivators were in position, Wei Yuan selected an ore vein and began casting the Golden Light Water Blade Art.
The moment he struck, the display was on an entirely different level. The streams of water flecked with golden motes barely needed to shift before vast expanses of rock and ore strata collapsed on their own. In a flash, a massive working face over a zhang across opened before Wei Yuan, surging forward at a pace of a zhang every few breaths.
A single dharma idol was easily worth dozens of Dao Foundation cultivators, and combined with Wei Yuan himself, it was as if several hundred Dao Foundation cultivators were mining at once. Instantly, the ground trembled and the mountain shook as immense torrents of ore cascaded down like a flash flood!
This astonishing display left even Yu Zhizhuo, who had spent his entire life mining, utterly dumbfounded. Scrambling in a fluster, he could barely keep up with casting dao arts to shore up the tunnel. Only now did he realize Wei Yuan had possessed the foresight to bring five hundred Dao Foundation cultivators solely to haul the ore out.
Wei Yuan worked throughout the night without stopping, halting only as dawn began to break. Yu Zhizhuo had departed halfway through, leaving his junior martial brothers to reinforce the mine shaft and direct the digging while he rushed to the Weaponsmith Workshop to urgently construct a batch of new blast furnaces.
Wei Yuan had already promised to leave behind at least thirty Dao Foundation cultivators to mine underground using the Water Blade Art. Knowing the Water Blade Art made a tenfold difference in mining efficiency. With this contingent of premier Dao Foundation miners, the iron mine's output multiplied several times over, instantly rendering their existing blast furnaces insufficient.
Wei Yuan had already discussed the matter with Yu Zhizhuo and planned to triple the number of blast furnaces. To expedite the work, Wei Yuan mobilized another thousand Dao Foundation cultivators specifically to assist Yu Zhizhuo in building them.
In terms of manual labor, a cultivator at great completion of Body Casting was worth over a hundred ordinary mortals, while a Dao Foundation cultivator capable of flying about with burdens of over a thousand jin possessed the efficiency of ten-odd cultivators at great completion of Body Casting. With so many Dao Foundation cultivators assisting, blast furnaces that would normally take three months to erect now required only two days.
This round of expansion would cause Qingming's daily output of molten steel to skyrocket to six hundred thousand jin, enough to forge ten thousand sets of all-steel heavy armor or sixty thousand full-body shields.
In less than half a month, Wei Yuan would be able to arm every mortal taking the field to the teeth. And defensive gear was only the beginning; backed by such immense production capacity, Wei Yuan had total confidence, bringing out all their stockpiled iron and steel to recast them into steel armor plates.
These plates would be installed atop small pillboxes, welded together to form impenetrable steel roofs for the fortifications.
Such steel roofs could completely stop the heavy arrows shot by master archers and withstand the bombardment of the Shamans' primitive gunpowder. Only the black liquid packed inside the leather balls could corrode them, but eating through the steel would take time—and in that span, the soldiers inside the fortifications could inflict several times more casualties.
This exceptionally toxic and corrosive black liquid was not concocted through alchemy; it was secreted by a certain type of Shaman war beast. Wei Yuan refused to believe such high-grade venom could be produced in large quantities.
No matter how many war beasts the Land of Rain commanded, the cost of that black liquid would far exceed that of steel; by value, it was likely hundreds of times more expensive.
By using steel fortifications to exhaust the Shamans' venom, Wei Yuan did not believe he could lose.
In the short term, gunpowder could not be mass-produced, but steel could.
Wei Yuan planned to construct as many steel pillboxes and fortifications as possible, and then use steel to arm even the most ordinary, mundane warriors. In the end, what the Shamans and Hongye would face was a realm armored entirely in steel, where every mortal civilian was turned into an ironclad juggernaut.
Just as Wei Yuan had told Yu Zhizhuo: Qingming now had plenty of steel; it remained to be seen whether the Shamans possessed an iron will.
Chapter 543