Wei Yuan stared at the merrily growing immortal orchid, examining it from every angle as if trying to make a flower out of it.
Well, this immortal orchid was indeed a flower.
In a vast forest, you could find all kinds of birds; cultivate enough immortal flora, and pleasant surprises would pop up now and then.
This immortal orchid was remarkably well adapted to the Nether Cold Realm—one could even say it was born to thrive here. Arriving in the Nether Cold Realm was like a mouse tumbling into a grain bin: it could rummage and roll about to its heart's content, needing only to open its mouth to feast.
The orchid continuously drew upon the power within the nether crystals, then expanded its own domain, supplanting the surrounding Nether Cold Realm.
Wei Yuan suddenly realized he had made a mistake—what the orchid was replacing was not the Nether Cold Realm itself, but the domain state!
It was effectively supplanting Shu Li's original domain with another domain. Even though this expanse was minuscule, in essence it was identical to a domain state.
Strangely enough, the domain generated by this immortal orchid was also intimately linked to Wei Yuan's mindscape world, like a sub-world branching outward from it. Not only could Wei Yuan perceive the orchid's domain just as he perceived the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, but he could also exercise limited control within it in the very same way.
Stirred by an idea, Wei Yuan's very first thought was to mine nether iron.
He extended his senses to probe, and sure enough, his understanding of nether iron's material properties became far clearer. If looking at nether iron before had been like peering through a thick veil, that veil had now been removed.
Though the orchid's domain power was faint, it could still subtly influence the environment, lowering the melting point of the nether iron by five percent. One could not underestimate this mere five percent; that slight reduction drastically reduced the difficulty of smelting. Longying went from straining with all his might to working with ease, and their mining speed increased by half.
At this moment, the other immortal orchids inside the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World grew restless, clamoring to be let out. But seeing that this orchid was still far from reaching the limit of its expansion, Wei Yuan decided to wait a while and returned to Qingming.
Meanwhile in Qingming, Yu Zhizhuo had gone from his initial excitement to utter numbness. Staring at the pile of several million jin of nether iron before him, he began to ponder the meaning of life.
As a once-in-a-generation genius of the Hall of Heavenly Craft, Yu Zhizhuo naturally knew the prices of all sorts of rare materials. What he was pondering now was that, putting aside matters of Scenery Command, his entire current net worth was only worth three or four chunks of the iron ore before him. Why was he worth less than a pile of broken rocks?
Wei Yuan understood Yu Zhizhuo's feelings, but there was nothing he could do to help. There were still tens of millions of jin of ore inside the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World that had yet to be brought out. If he unloaded it all, Yu Zhizhuo's Dao heart would probably shatter.
Wei Yuan had another major task upon his return: presiding over this month's Dao Foundation training program.
The candidates had all been selected. Over four thousand of them were individuals whose households had been promoted to commoners, thereby earning the qualification to forge a foundation; over a thousand had accumulated sufficient military merit on their own; and an additional five hundred were Cui family disciples alongside five hundred youths from lesser clans and factions.
The great battle against the Land of Rain had caused Qingming's total military merit to skyrocket, allowing large numbers of guilty commoners to bypass the ranks of ordinary soldiers and leap directly into the status of free commoners.
By now, running the Dao Foundation training program had become second nature, and Wei Yuan wrapped it all up in half a day. He expended a cumulative total of over five thousand strands of azure qi, adding another eight hundred Dao Foundations to the realm. Qingming now possessed six thousand Dao Foundations in total.
The success rate of forging Dao Foundations in Qingming this time was extraordinarily high, primarily because of the successive fierce battles. Nearly every candidate had fought their way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Regardless of their bone structure and natural aptitudes, their mental fortitude was peerless.
Of the newly added eight hundred Dao Foundations, fewer than a hundred were custom-chosen or combat-oriented; the rest were production-oriented template Dao Foundations. Among them, Wei Yuan made a point of promoting two fire-phase Dao Foundations: Immortal Sword · False Sun and Ten Directions Glazed Golden Fire. In the end, over three hundred cultivated them, including over a hundred who forged Immortal Sword · False Sun.
Qingming now had a total of over three hundred swords of Immortal Sword · False Sun. Wei Yuan figured that if Xiaoyu were to see this, he would probably be moved to exclaim that he was not alone on his path, perhaps even fainting from sheer joy.
The proportion of cultivators choosing template Dao Foundations in this batch was higher than ever before. Furthermore, after hearing the explanations, many opted for purely production-oriented Dao Foundations, such as Innate Lifegiving Water, Six Paths Jiayi Divine Wood Qi, and the like. After surviving bloody life-and-death struggles, they had begun yearning for a peaceful and stable life, free from risking their lives day after day.
By this time, a thousand suits of nether crystal heavy armor and nether iron war sabers had been completed. After meticulous selection from the entire army, only eight hundred Dao Foundation cultivators were chosen to be outfitted with this brand-new gear.
Qingming's Dao Foundation count was several times what it used to be, but the proportion of cultivators devoted exclusively to production continued to rise. Wei Yuan no longer had to haul every mobile Dao Foundation cultivator onto the battlefield as he had in the early days of Qingming.
These eight hundred Dao Foundation warriors, together with the three hundred-odd Dao Foundation captains dispersed throughout the various units, were all ferocious, blood-hardened veterans. On the battlefield against production-oriented Dao Foundations, taking on two at once would be child's play.
This unit was assigned to the Longxiang Army, but ranked a tier above the ordinary Longxiang forces. Wei Yuan designated them the Wall of Longxiang.
Wei Yuan was already considering how to launch a counteroffensive against Hongye. He returned to his quarters to review the recent output of the All Living Beings Are Equal War Rig Research Institute.
Wei Yuan wanted something capable of replacing warhorses—something that could rapidly transport soldiers and, when necessary, crash through enemy battle lines.
Xu Wenwu had long proposed the concept of tanks, but in the eyes of cultivators, such machines were massive and clumsy—sitting ducks on the battlefield. In this day and age, which cultivator didn't know a few iron-shearing Dao arts or blazing flame incantations? If nothing else, a blazing flame incantation was certainly far more effective than a Molotov cocktail.
In terms of defense, a top-grade spirit shield was far superior to any tank and wouldn't impede a cultivator's flight speed.
So Wei Yuan hadn't held out much hope, yet he actually found something quite intriguing. It was far from perfected; its principle was simply a thrust nozzle fitted with a saddle, with a battering ram and protective mantlet mounted in front.
In battle, a cultivator would mount it and fire up the thruster to charge headlong into enemy ranks. Its line-breaking capability was equal to, if not greater than, that of heavy iron cavalry. The only flaw was that doing so yielded a rather high mortality rate—roughly sixty to eighty percent—which was why the contraption was named 'Sakura'.
Wei Yuan was caught between laughter and tears, yet Sakura's core concept held merit, chiefly that it was a single-operator mount.
So Wei Yuan penned an endorsement on the design, suggesting they consult the concept of motorcycles from the world beyond the heavens, add flight capability on top of it, and develop a new single-operator vehicle.
Having finally dealt with his military duties, Wei Yuan stretched lazily and went to visit Bao Yun.
Dusk was approaching, and Bao Yun's temporary residence was quiet. Only two cultivators stood guard outside the courtyard, chatting listlessly to pass the time.
Wei Yuan did not disturb them. He slipped quietly into the courtyard, intending to see what Bao Yun was up to. In the few steps across the yard, Wei Yuan had already come up with countless excuses for himself—worrying about her, not having seen her in a long while, failing to notice the guards at the gate, and so on.
The study and guest hall were both empty, and there was no one in the cultivation chamber either. That left only the bedroom.
For a brief moment, Wei Yuan felt his luck was very good... no, very bad. He had come to discuss serious matters; who knew she would already be asleep before dark?
Without hesitation, Wei Yuan pushed open the bedroom door, using his Dao power to silence all sound while already coming up with an excuse—no, a reason—for his actions: children of the jianghu do not fuss over petty formalities.
At this point, though Wei Yuan and Bao Yun were still tangled over the matter of official status, Wei Yuan had no intention of letting go. A bit of intimacy and flirtatious ambiguity would serve as an added guarantee for their relationship.
Inside the bedroom, Bao Yun lay quietly on the bed, her breathing steady and gentle, though her brows were slightly knit as if lost in deep contemplation, entirely unaware of Wei Yuan's arrival.
Chapter 551