This sea of thunder originated from the bolt of immortal thunder Xu Wangu had struck down. The immortal thunder not only struck physical flesh, but also assaulted the sea of consciousness. As a result, not only was the wisp of immortal thunder entering the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World swallowed in a single gulp by the three-eyed bird head within the moon, but even the immortal thunder attacking his flesh was dragged into it—nearly half of it torn away and likewise swallowed into the three-eyed bird head's beak.
After swallowing the immortal thunder, the bird head brewed it for a moment, then spat it back out, seemingly finding it distasteful. Yet the immortal thunder it had swallowed transformed into the lightning slurry seen before him, turning into this small sea of thunder—cohesive and undispersed, with no lightning overflowing outward.
This change filled Wei Yuan with pleasant surprise. Though the immortal thunder had turned into slurry, its underlying essence had not changed in the slightest. This was a magnificent opportunity to study the methods of an immortal at close range. He immediately used his authority as the Creation Immortal Venerable to draw a cup of lightning slurry and sent it to Central City, instructing all the major research academies to devote their full efforts to studying it.
Outside Hanyang Pass, Wei Yuan had finally seen Xu Lanshan up close, gaining a direct impression of the woman. Though they had not directly clashed yet, Wei Yuan could already feel the pressure. Her strength was likely only half a step below Su Xuejing's. If they were to fight in a fair environment, Wei Yuan would have no certainty of victory.
However, she appeared to possess quite a bit of upright integrity. Wei Yuan liked opponents with principles and bottom lines; he loathed enemies like himself the most. A gentleman could be deceived through their own uprightness—as long as Wei Yuan could find a way to trick her into Qingming for a decisive battle, matters would be simple.
Inside Qingming, even Su Xuejing could only manage a draw against him, to say nothing of Xu Lanshan. With the Peerless Dao Domain's karmic markers and automated counterattacks, Wei Yuan could overwhelm her simply by stacking hundreds of Dao arts upon her. Looking across the entire world of the Great Tang, Wei Yuan doubted any human Dharma Idol cultivator possessed more Dao force than him while ensconced in Qingming—alien races excluded.
Alien races possessed all manner of bizarre physiologies. For certain species that were a thousand zhang long even in infancy, their magic power in the Dao Foundation realm was vastly greater than Wei Yuan's current reserves.
Qingming was originally an immortal stone, but even disregarding domain power, its various special properties were at least equivalent to more than half an immortal artifact. Immortal artifacts were exceedingly rare; many immortals had endured the embarrassment of having no immortal artifact available for several centuries after first achieving immortality. Most immortals handled no more than three immortal artifacts in their entire lives.
Not to mention their rarity, an immortal artifact was not something just anyone could wield. Even if one were given to a Dharma Idol cultivator, the moment they activated it, they would probably be drained into a dried husk. Only a Scenery Command cultivator channeling it through a mindscape world could manage to unleash a single blow with an immortal artifact.
Yet Qingming was unique; it was fundamentally a boundary stone. Therefore, standing within Qingming, Wei Yuan, as the realm lord, effectively held half an immortal artifact in hand that he could wield at will. Thus, looking across all the Dharma Idols under heaven, so long as the battle took place within Qingming, Wei Yuan did not believe he had reason to fear anyone.
Wei Yuan had already figured this out himself. During Su Xuejing's stay in Qingming, he too had eventually seen through it, which was why he never brought up sparring again. More importantly, Su Xuejing had come to understand Wei Yuan somewhat over time, knowing that if he accidentally lost by half a move in a bout, Wei Yuan would harp on it endlessly until his Dao heart crumbled.
What Su Xuejing worried about even more was that once Wei Yuan won a single round, he would never agree to spar again. Once this thought arose, it could no longer be quelled. Having already attained the ability to attune to the Heavenly Dao, Su Xuejing knew this was no mere suspicion, but an absolute certainty—and so he never sparred with Wei Yuan again.
Now, regarding Xu Lanshan, Wei Yuan had laid his trap; it only remained to see whether she would take the bait.
Wei Yuan studied the thunder pool for a while, then took a stroll through the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, focusing on the planned islet. Countless deep pits had been excavated across the islet, most of them neat and square. Bundled rebar had been erected at the bottom of the pits, and some were already having concrete poured in.
Nothing else seemed unusual for the moment, yet Wei Yuan could not shake the feeling that beneath this calm exterior, some storm was secretly brewing.
Yet the source of any storm invariably lay with Maiden Yin-Yang. Wei Yuan went to check on Maiden Yin-Yang, only to see her standing quietly where she was, motionless. Only faint glimmers flickered in her eyes, looking every bit like someone lacking karmic luck and unable to work.
Wei Yuan circled her twice, deep in thought. With a flicker of his intent, the clothes on her body slipped off, piece by piece.
Wei Yuan felt slightly reassured, feeling she was still under control. But when he focused his mind again to make her put the clothes back on, it failed to work. It seemed the karmic luck she had accumulated was only enough for that single action.
Wei Yuan felt a pang of self-reproach, thinking he shouldn't have squandered precious karmic luck on such a trivial matter. But now that the purple karmic luck was gone, Wei Yuan couldn't very well go seek out Canglongshi and the others for a few games of Go. Doing so would demean his status, making it look as though he were begging for karmic luck.
By now, Wei Yuan had developed considerable insight into how to win people's admiration and harvest karmic luck. He thoroughly understood principles like releasing to catch, feigning refusal to entice, giving before taking, desiring...
Grandmasters like Xuanjizi and Canglongshi were arrogant and held their noses high; making them submit wholeheartedly was harder than killing them.
Thus, the matter of karmic luck could not be rushed. He had to wait until they believed they had completely deciphered Wei Yuan's play and figured out all the countermoves, coming to challenge Wei Yuan with brimming confidence—at which point Wei Yuan would drop an otherworldly, lightning-stroke tenuki, shaking them to their core until their Dao hearts crumbled. Only then would they submit completely, elevating the karmic luck they contributed to a whole new level, and Maiden Yin-Yang would be able to shed more... no, get more work done.
With that thought, Wei Yuan gave up contending for now. He inspected the surrounding formations, deemed them reasonably stable, and left the area.
By this time, on the western seashore of Central City, a heap of nether iron ore had appeared, amounting to tens of millions of jin. Anyone standing near the ore heap would experience heart palpitations, accelerated blood flow, and other symptoms.
Since more nether ore could not be put to use for now, it was all sunk to the seabed in the west. Wei Yuan's plan was to excavate the entire Nether Mountain and bring it over, creating an islet here to embody the western concept of refined metal.
If this island was completed and the Langya Divine Wood transplanted onto it, his mindscape world would become even more complete, adding a wisp of the True Intent of Sharp Metal to Wei Yuan's Dao force, greatly enhancing its sharpness and killing power.
Just then, Wei Yuan suddenly sensed someone calling him from outside, so his consciousness returned. By now, Wei Yuan had quietly returned from the front lines of Hanyang Pass to Qingming, having assembled a force of twenty thousand troops to head behind Hanyang Pass to provide support.
Wei Yuan's plan was that if the Xu family flew into a rage from humiliation and boldly initiated war, he would initially fight under the name of the Heaven-Destroying Gang, focusing primarily on inflicting as much damage as possible on the Xu family's elite forces.
Once the Xu family's casualties exceeded a hundred thousand, he would escalate the conflict, having the Qingming troops establish a defensive line several tens of li behind the small hill to block the Xu family's army from advancing westward. At that point, Wei Yuan would be defending, while the Xu family would be on the attack.
Wei Yuan would record all the imagery. On one hand, he would lodge a complaint before the King of Jin; on the other, he would distribute the images across the realm, fiercely denouncing the Xu family for attacking him in the chaos right after he finished fighting the Shamans. If such an act went unpunished, who under heaven would ever be willing to resist alien races again?
As for the Heaven-Destroying Gang provoking them first and blasting dozens of Xu family soldiers to death with a few cannon shots, Wei Yuan would naturally leave that out of the recordings. The sage's principle of selective history in the Spring and Autumn Annals—Wei Yuan had truly mastered it.
Even if someone accused Wei Yuan over it, he wasn't afraid. That was done by horse bandits; what did it have to do with him?
Returning his consciousness, Wei Yuan saw a red-robed woman sitting before him. On the table beside her lay several storybooks—the very ones she had fished out of his storage treasures.
Zhu Yuanjin picked up one of the storybooks from the table and asked, "Are there more like this?"
Wei Yuan took it and looked. The storybook told the tale of a woman who was framed and died tragically, only to be reborn ten years in the past thanks to a protective immortal treasure, retaining all the memories of her previous life. Her temperament underwent a radical shift: no longer gentle and kind, she tore through her romantic rivals along the way, ultimately reuniting in love with both the emperor and the prince.
Seeing that Patriarch Yuanjin finally had an instruction, Wei Yuan hurriedly said, "Yes! Of course there are! You only need to wait a single day. At this time tomorrow, just come and collect them."
A rare smile appeared on Zhu Yuanjin's perpetually unchanging face. She gave a slight nod, then vanished into thin air.
Watching a wisp of purple qi slowly descend into his sea of consciousness, Wei Yuan was stunned speechless! Recovering his wits, he hurriedly issued orders, setting the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World to start writing storybooks. With so many crouching dragons and fledging phoenixes, what kind of storybook couldn't they write?
Chapter 573