How About This?

Ji Liuli had almost no luggage. Aside from the robes she wore, she carried practically no dharma treasures or artifacts. This was also standard practice for the young, gifted disciples of the Palace of Grand Beginning when venturing out for practical tempering: relying almost entirely on their own Dao Foundations without depending on external objects, all to forge the most flawless foundation possible. Wei Yuan had been the same way in the beginning, though in his case, it had simply been because he was genuinely poor. Even if he had wanted to rely on external items, he had none to speak of. Leaving the cave dwelling, the two followed protocol and flew low until they passed the mountain gate. There, Wei Yuan produced the frame of an aircraft, assembled a two-seater variant, and promptly installed twelve thruster tubes in one go. "What is this?" Ji Liuli asked, thoroughly intrigued. "A modular flying dharma treasure—twelve-thruster model," Wei Yuan replied with utter seriousness. Ji Liuli asked no further questions and boarded the craft with him. Wei Yuan immediately engaged the thrusters. Wishing to showcase its performance before his Eldest Senior Sister, he cranked the power straight to maximum. With a tremendous boom, the twelve thruster tubes blasted off with the two wings, vanishing into the distance in an instant—leaving behind only the fuselage containing Wei Yuan and Ji Liuli, still rooted to the spot. Only then did Wei Yuan realize just how vital that Institute of Structural and Materials Mechanics inside his Dao Foundation truly was. He resolved to treat them to extra rations once he returned. "Just testing the engines. The results are quite impressive," Wei Yuan said without batting an eye or blushing in the least. He then retrieved spare materials, thickened the wings threefold, mounted three thruster tubes beneath each wing and two on the tail, and carefully took off, flying straight toward the Liao Clan's defensive line. The Liao experts spotted this uninvited guest from afar and took to the sky in droves to intercept. Wei Yuan showed no courtesy, raising a hand to unleash a succession of heavenly lightning bolts that left several opponents smoking. Immediately after, an overwhelming aura surged skyward from below as a Scenery Command expert flew into a rage, intent on disciplining this junior. Quick-witted and nimble-handed, Wei Yuan preempted him with a thunderclap, scorching the man's beard and hair black and leaving him bellowing with fury. Wei Yuan had no desire to linger in battle; firing all ten thrusters at once, he accelerated and fled. Carrying Ji Liuli along, ten thrusters yielded a speed roughly on par with an ordinary Scenery Command expert. The one pursuing from behind was merely an ordinary Scenery Command cultivator as well. Since Wei Yuan had gotten a head start, the pursuer naturally could not catch up, reduced to helplessly watching Wei Yuan punch through the defensive line and sweep away into the distance. Hearing the thunderous roars fading behind them, Ji Liuli suddenly laughed, looking extraordinarily merry. And so they skimmed across the vast earth, arriving in Qingming after a day and a night. After arranging accommodations for Ji Liuli, Wei Yuan had her rest, then guided her Origin Soul through the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World to the Nether Cold Realm, where he summoned the Dream Eater. Along the way, Wei Yuan had already explained to Ji Liuli the method they would use to resolve her Dao heart's tribulations. Fully briefed on the process, Ji Liuli sat cross-legged in a quiet chamber within the Nether Cold Realm. Countless eyes lit up across the void, fixing upon her in unison. Ripples unseen by the naked eye spread through the air, and Ji Liuli drifted into the dreamscape. Wei Yuan watched for a while. Seeing that Ji Liuli's Origin Soul remained stable without the slightest sign of distress, his mind was finally put at ease. Just as he was preparing to leave, the Dream Eater abruptly manifested, wearing a mischievous grin. "Want me to arrange for you to head into her dream and have some fun?" "Fun?" Wei Yuan grew instantly guarded at the word. "Just fun. It's only a dream anyway. Whatever you do won't matter, and afterward she'll just assume it was all her own thoughts. Just like that Paper Bride scenario." Wei Yuan said sternly, "How could I possibly do that? Speak no more of this, and under no circumstances are you permitted to use such arts on anyone from my sect. Do you hear me!" The Dream Eater gave a scoff. "I was only trying to help you unwind out of goodwill, yet you don't appreciate it at all. How dull." Wei Yuan replied, "If you truly want to do me some good, keep an eye on the resources around this region for me. And see which demons or monsters deserve caution." The Dream Eater's eyes lit up. "If I do a good job, can I go take a look inside your mindscape world?" "Not a chance." How could Wei Yuan ever let it into his mindscape world? By this point, Ji Liuli's condition had stabilized. Guiding a dream and ferreting out the root of a mental tribulation was hardly the work of a single day, so Wei Yuan left a Dao Foundation warrior to stand guard while he went to inspect the construction site. Over a thousand people were currently bustling within the Shu Li Grand Hall, dismantling the original Shaman city, inventorying anything useful, and hauling it into storage. Once this Shaman city was completely taken down, Wei Yuan planned to erect a fortified bastion at the mouth of the passage leading to the Heavenly Abyss fiend, serving as a bulwark against any manifestations of the beast. Outside, by the ancestral founder's boundary stone, a small hall had already been constructed to temporarily shield the stone from view. A group of cultivators from the Hall of Heavenly Craft were surveying various areas, designing and refining city plans to reserve space for an array of functional buildings. Aside from digging into the earth to forge artifacts, building a city from scratch brought them immense joy—much like how Old Daoist Chuhe loved leading people to reclaim spiritual fields. At this moment, the old Daoist was no longer in the Nether Cold Realm, having returned to Qingming to scout land and break new ground. The outer boundary of Qingming now spanned six hundred li. The amount of worldly origin qi converted each day was staggering, steadily reshaping the geography of the mountains and rivers. Perfected Chuhe's greatest joy nowadays was taking along his snake and cat to stroll through the lands of Qingming, scouting out suitable terrain for farming and planning new fields. Of Qingming's two million people, a full one million were currently farming or clearing land. Wei Yuan was already mapping out an additional two million mu to formally push Qingming's cultivated fields past the ten-million mark. The second-largest employer of labor was the mining sector, absorbing over a hundred thousand people. Those actually mining down in the shafts were comparatively few; heading underground to dig now required at least Blood Merging Realm cultivation. The dozens of Dao Foundation cultivators Wei Yuan kept stationed beneath the earth year-round mined more efficiently than ten thousand ordinary miners combined. Most of the mining labor force was spent hauling ore between workshops and transporting finished goods. Another hundred thousand were occupied with building houses and constructing the city, while an additional hundred thousand worked in miscellaneous trades. The rest consisted of the elderly, the weak, women, and children. Qingming's population largely originated from displaced refugees, and one major advantage of refugees was that most were young and vigorous; the rest would have perished along the road long ago. The military was naturally the top priority. However, with gunpowder production climbing by the day and the proportion of fire guns and infantry artillery steadily rising, the requirement for soldiers' physical conditioning had become less pressing. In the aftermath of the war with the Land of Rain, there was simply too much to summarize; the preliminary reports alone filled hundreds of treatises. Driven by hot-blooded enthusiasm and wild imagination, the self-proclaimed masterminds within his foundation had begun pontificating on grand strategy, eager to teach Wei Yuan how wars ought to be fought. The pinnacle of these efforts was a report currently sitting before Wei Yuan, submitted by the All Living Beings Are Equal War Rig Research Institute. The report outlined a brand-new military reorganization scheme, offering a radical restructuring and redeployment of Qingming's armed forces. Although it carried a whiff of armchair generalship, it remained remarkably illuminating. Wei Yuan had already felt that Qingming's military system was due for a sweeping overhaul. This would mark the second great transformation, following the shift from cold weapons to standard-issue fire guns. Treating the matter with immense gravity, Wei Yuan specifically set aside leisure time to pore over the scheme. The crux of the new proposal was a fundamental revolution in fighting doctrine: shifting from a focus on individual fire guns to infantry artillery, with the overarching premise of annihilating the enemy beyond the range of their bows and crossbows. The proposal could well be called heretical. Cavalry was dismissed as dead weight, destined to become obsolete. Infantry, meanwhile, was demoted from the protagonist of war to line-holding bricklayers who dug fortifications and plugged gaps, their primary responsibility limited to seizing and holding ground. The true protagonists of war were to be cannons, flying projectiles, and anything capable of raining steel and fire down on enemy heads from beyond visual range. Reading to this point, Wei Yuan could not help drawing a sharp breath, feeling that this stride might be a bit too wide. Had he not known that the mortals within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World were the reincarnated souls of human casualties from Qingming, Wei Yuan would have almost suspected that everyone in the research institute hailed from the outer world. A military reorganization could not be accomplished overnight. Wei Yuan sent the report back, instructing them to refine it further and flesh out the details. Yet another issue remained: how to sustain and bolster military morale. Previously, when Qingming was engulfed in constant warfare, every person was a soldier. Though casualties had been grievous, the people's fighting spirit had burned white-hot, their morale soaring. After all, a single step backward meant losing their final home, their parents, wives, and daughters; thus, every person fought to the death, taking pride in falling on the battlefield and entering the Hall of Heroic Spirits. Now, Qingming's granaries were brimming, silks and brocades were everywhere, and the regular army was entirely outfitted with breastplates and fire guns. The populace yearned for a peaceful life, and a certain laxity was beginning to creep into the ranks. Yet Wei Yuan knew full well that this war was far from over. The Xu family eyed them hungrily, and the State of Zhao harbored ill intent. As for the non-human races, beyond the remnants of the Land of Rain, expanding further southwest would put them right against the mountain dwellers. Gazing at the new proposal, Wei Yuan fell into deep contemplation, deliberately dividing his thoughts along more than two hundred distinct angles. Splitting them any further would be more than he could bear. This was precisely why Wei Yuan never accepted tasks within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. Amidst his pondering, a sudden flash of inspiration struck one of his consciousness threads, recalling certain passages from Xu Wenwu's notes. Back in his day, Xu Wenwu had been an online military enthusiast for years, armchair-generalizing for over a decade. Consequently, his documents contained extensive material regarding the militaries of various nations from that outer world. One particular excerpt abruptly inspired Wei Yuan. He promptly posted a high-priority task within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World: design new military uniforms. The military systems across the nine states of Great Tang were a chaotic mess, and their uniforms were equally disjointed. Practically every branch of service wore a different kit, and every military commissioner had their own dress code. Those with money dressed sharply, while those without wore whatever they could scrape together. Wei Yuan intended to design modern uniforms. The primary requirements were a tailored fit, a commanding presence, and a dignified color scheme—boiled down to a single word: dashing. The new uniforms were primarily intended for low-ranking cultivator officers. Taking advantage of the lull in fighting, Wei Yuan ordered the founding of a military academy specifically to train grassroots officers. From hundred-man commanders of the Bone Tempering Realm on up to colonels with perfected Body Casting or early Dao Foundation cultivation, all had to undergo a trial through the academy's crucible. Once these junior officers entered the academy, sixteen hours each day were spent on rigorous physical drills, while the eight hours of sleep were utilized to hone their spiritual perception and study strategy, tactics, terrain, logistics, and a host of other military disciplines. Over the three-month training period, Wei Yuan packed their schedules to the brim—back in the day, his family wouldn't have dared work their draft animals this hard. It was only fitting that the new uniforms debut on the academy's officers. They had to be made utterly striking, turning heads wherever they marched after graduating. Only then would ordinary foot soldiers be spurred to temper their bodies with renewed zeal, striving to become junior officers themselves. Once the task was posted, the mortal populace let their imaginations run wild, producing a bewildering variety of bizarre uniforms. Nevertheless, a few sensible designs emerged that Wei Yuan found visually pleasing. Wei Yuan summoned Xu Wenwu, intent on hearing his thoughts. By now, Xu Wenwu was a lofty Dao Foundation cultivator whose divine abilities were vastly superior to what they once were, and he considered this his exact area of expertise. He immediately launched into an elaborate critique of the various uniforms, adjusting them by hand according to his vision and manifesting the results on the spot—no longer the clumsy, uncoordinated shut-in of the past. In the end, Wei Yuan felt that a particular design known as a long trench coat, while somewhat unconventional, was exceptionally sharp and flattering to the figure, leaving an indelible impression at first glance. His interest piqued, Wei Yuan felt the uniform was still a bit plain and needed some additional embellishment. He manifested a dazzling, intricately detailed golden dragon head, slapped it right across the chest of the coat, turned around, and asked, "How about this?" Even by Xu Wenwu's aesthetic standards, he couldn't help burying his face in his hands.