"If it's such a shameful, momentous affair, I would rather not hear it," Wei Yuan said, rising to take his leave.
Seeing the grand display put on by Prince Ying and Xu Lanshan—with Xu Lanshan even isolating their surroundings using an immortal sword—Wei Yuan would have to be an utter fool not to guess that this concerned Lu Changhe's scandalous secrets.
When it came to the dishonorable deeds of immortals, the less one knew, the better. Knowing too much made one liable to get struck by lightning.
Yet how could Prince Ying let him slip away? With a press of his heavy hand, he forced Wei Yuan right back into his seat and said, "Though the karma tied to this matter is heavy, knowing it will bring you more benefit than harm."
Wei Yuan could only sigh. "My cultivation is humble and my progress sluggish. It is very likely I will remain halted at the Dharma Idol realm for the rest of my days. Right now, cultivating is my sole priority. Do not pin any expectations on me."
Prince Ying smiled faintly. "Naturally. If you weren't one of the foremost geniuses of the Palace of Grand Beginning, the post of Military Commissioner of Qingyang would never have fallen into your lap."
Xu Lanshan chimed in, "Mortal authority is merely an external worldly vanity. Sooner or later, we must transcend the mortal dust and strive to tread the immortal path."
Everyone took it for granted that Wei Yuan was striving toward the immortal threshold and had no interest in mortal crowns, let alone allowing himself to be burdened by them. That was why the King of Jin and the King of Zhao had conferred high office on him without the slightest hesitation—they knew that Wei Yuan would eventually flick his sleeves and leave worldly affairs behind.
Had Wei Yuan's path only been sufficient to reach Scenery Command, the military commissionership would never have been bestowed upon him.
With Prince Ying putting it in such terms, Wei Yuan had no choice but to sit down and listen.
Prince Ying began, "The royal house of Western Jin belongs to the Lu clan, and Lu Changhe is also of the Lu clan. The two Lus were originally one family, tracing their descent from the same Immortal Ancestor. However, the royal Lu line and Lu Changhe's line do not share the same household branch; they do not even stem from the same legitimate descent."
Wei Yuan said curiously, "Lu Changhe is an immortal. Why would he leave the throne in the hands of a collateral branch?"
Even immortals could not detach themselves from the mortal world; on the contrary, their demands upon it were only greater. Take Xu Wangu, for example: during his journey to attain immortality, the resources he required had consumed the greater part of the entire Xu family's accumulations over more than a millennium.
Prince Ying fell silent for a moment before speaking. "Several hundred years ago, Lu Changhe's branch was merely a collateral branch, and a rather distant one from the bloodline of the founding Immortal Ancestor."
Wei Yuan was startled once more. This was completely different from what he had previously heard.
Prince Ying said, "This tale begins before Lu Changhe ascended to immortality. Back then, Lu Changhe hailed from that collateral branch and was born of a concubine. From a young age, he was considered to possess fine natural talent, but he was by no means astonishingly gifted.
"At the time, the branch patriarch suppressed Lu Changhe relentlessly for the sake of his own legitimate son's prospects, stripping away his quota to enter the ancestral lands to cultivate the immortal scriptures and comprehend the true intent left behind by the founding ancestor. Indignant, Lu Changhe appealed to the clan's council of elders. But the elders were in league with the branch patriarch; instead of aiding him, they severely reprimanded and heavily punished him.
"Lu Changhe had an extreme temperament. He raised a violent uproar in the council of elders, only to be grievously wounded and cast out into the wilderness.
"Everyone assumed he had died. No one expected that three hundred years later, Lu Changhe would suddenly reappear and return to the Lu clan. By then, he had already achieved great perfection in the Scenery Command realm. The second-generation Immortal Ancestor had only just passed away, and Lu Changhe single-handedly battered several clan elders within an inch of their lives. With no one left able to check him, he seized supreme power over the Lu clan.
"After obtaining the relics of both the first- and second-generation Immortal Ancestors, Lu Changhe smoothly ascended to immortality. The very first thing he did after ascending was to alter the ancestral shrine, placing his own branch in the primary seat while demoting all other branches to collateral and concubine status."
Wei Yuan was thoroughly appalled. Such conduct was utterly scandalous—a brazen act of abandoning one's roots and betraying the ancestors.
He could not help but ask, "Did the spirits of the first two Immortal Ancestors simply tolerate such deeds?"
Prince Ying replied, "Lu Changhe is ruthless in slaughter and bizarre in his methods. In terms of surviving legacy measures, the first- and second-generation ancestors were simply inferior to him. Every defensive array they left behind was broken, and every treasure vault they maintained was plundered by him. Even the direct descendants of the second-generation Immortal Ancestor live in dire straits today; if they wish to scrape together the fees for the immortal sects' unified examinations, they have to save for months."
Wei Yuan's heart grew heavy. "What status do you hold in the Lu clan today, Your Highness? And how do you view this matter?"
Prince Ying said, "Prince Cheng and I are both of the founding ancestor's bloodline, and the ancestor of my branch was a full brother to the second-generation Immortal Ancestor. After Lu Changhe seized control, he cast out the descendants of the second ancestor. As for my branch and Prince Cheng's, because we possess the royal inheritance, our bloodlines carry restrictions placed by the Martial Ancestor of Great Tang. Lu Changhe feared the Martial Ancestor, so the royal succession proceeded somewhat normally in the past.
"Within the Lu clan today, Lu Changhe's side possesses three Scenery Command masters, while the other branches have seven among them."
Hearing this, Wei Yuan had completely lost any desire to listen further. He offered a bitter smile. "Your Highness, we bear no grudge against one another. Please, do not drag me into these muddy waters!"
Xu Lanshan interjected, "You are already standing in them."
Prince Ying nodded. "The Crown Prince very likely bears the surname Lu, but it is not the King's Lu."
The hand Wei Yuan used to raise his cup froze midair.
After hearing all of this, how could he fail to grasp the implication? The more Wei Yuan thought about it, the more shaken he became; the truth was practically staring him in the face.
"Then... how close is the Crown Prince's 'Lu' to the Immortal Ancestor?" Wei Yuan asked through gritted teeth.
Prince Ying said, "When it touches upon an immortal, even I find it difficult to discern the truth. Prince Cheng and I have discussed this privately. Based on various clues and deductions, even if it is not extraordinarily close, it is extraordinarily near."
Wei Yuan sighed. "This Lu..."
Halfway through his sentence, the space maintained by the immortal sword suddenly trembled faintly. Wei Yuan immediately changed his tune: "...the Immortal Ancestor of the Lu clan truly possesses the methods of an immortal."
The sword-isolated space steadied once more. Xu Lanshan praised, "Cautious indeed. That is the right way."
Prince Ying said, "So you should understand now: though it is called a single Lu clan in name, it is actually split into two factions that are practically fire and water. If Lu Changhe had not been wary of the dignity of the imperial house of Great Tang, he would have usurped the throne long ago."
"The Tang dynasty has declined. Why would he still fear them?" Wei Yuan asked, somewhat puzzled.
"What he fears is not the present Tang dynasty, but the Martial Ancestor of Great Tang."
Wei Yuan froze. The Martial Ancestor of Great Tang had passed away over a millennium ago. Lu Changhe was an immortal himself, so why would he fear him like a tiger? Yet Prince Ying could not explain this matter either.
With the secret aired, the discussion turned to business.
The King of Jin had regained some ground and expanded his power. While he still could not touch the six prefectures of Ganzhou—the ancestral lands of the Lu clan—and could hardly collect a single tael of silver there, his voice in the peripheral prefectures dominated by the Lu clan had grown stronger, finally allowing some tax revenues to flow in.
The Xu family was naturally pleased to see Lu Changhe suffer a setback and had yielded some provisions and funds as well. As a result, Prince Ying in the north finally had some breathing room, and the military funds in immortal silver were at last delivered into his hands.
In the past, military appropriations had only existed on ledger books.
All Prince Ying had ever received were weapons and armor produced by the Ministry of War, along with inferior fire guns. Aside from the occasional pittance distributed when soldier pay could no longer be evaded, Prince Ying hardly ever laid eyes on immortal silver.
Now that Prince Ying had immortal silver in hand, he came directly to Wei Yuan, intending to purchase armor and weaponry from him. Most importantly, he wanted to procure a batch of flying sword guns suitable for Body Casting masters at great perfection and Dao Foundation cultivators, in order to counter the heavy arrows of the Northern Liao iron cavalry.
The fire guns previously manufactured by the Ministry of War were of abysmal quality. Not only was their range short, but their power was wildly inconsistent, and they were prone to barrel bursts after only a few shots. Consequently, many officers and soldiers simply melted down the fire guns to fashion arrowheads.
Wei Yuan held deep respect for Prince Ying, so he agreed to sell the flying sword guns. Each flying sword gun would be sold for a mere hundred taels of immortal silver, with the gun-fired flying swords priced at five taels apiece.
This price exceeded Prince Ying's expectations. After all, even the crude fire guns produced by the Ministry of War cost fifty taels each, with ammunition priced at one tael per round. Those fire guns and ammunition required neither specialized artisans nor rare materials; any apprentice using scrap iron could produce them.
In other words, for a single iron pellet and a pinch of old-fashioned gunpowder, the Ministry of War dared charge one tael of immortal silver. Back when Wei Yuan first joined the Palace of Grand Beginning, his entire monthly stipend would only have been enough to buy ten of them.
Flying sword guns could only be wielded by cultivators who had attained Spirit Refining or reached great perfection in Body Casting. Within the northern army under Prince Ying's command, there were roughly twenty-odd thousand such men.
Thus, Prince Ying immediately placed an order for twenty thousand flying sword guns, one million gun-fired flying swords, and a hundred thousand sets of breastplates, totaling nine million taels of immortal silver—spending his newly acquired military funds down to the very last coin.
Earning money so easily, Wei Yuan—not being a corrupt Minister of War—felt a twinge of guilt.
He truly respected Prince Ying's character, but that respect only went as far as a twinge of guilt; it was not enough to offer a discount.
Seeing the deal concluded, Prince Ying pushed forward a sandalwood immortal chest. Inside lay precisely nine million taels of immortal silver. Furthermore, the wooden chest itself was a spatial storage treasure worth over ten thousand taels of immortal silver.
Wei Yuan felt even more guilty. He hesitated over whether to offer a one-percent discount, but after weighing it back and forth, he decided against it, simply promising to deliver the goods as swiftly as possible.
With Prince Ying's matters settled, Xu Lanshan said, "You have rendered meritorious service this time, but you have also offended Lu Changhe. The Immortal Ancestor has instructed that you may make one request."
Wei Yuan was taken aback. This statement felt extraordinarily peculiar. What did he mean by making a request? If he asked for the inheritance of the true intent of the Sword of Ten Thousand Generations and Autumns, would the ancestor really grant it?
Xu Lanshan looked at Wei Yuan with deep meaning and said, "You may return and consider it carefully. There is no rush right now."
Wei Yuan suddenly realized that these words were not meant for him, but for Pei Tinghai.
Wei Yuan said, "I will think on it carefully once I return."
Xu Lanshan nodded and added, "The Immortal Ancestor had one more thing for me to pass along to you: Prince Fu also bears the surname Lu."
The expressions of both Wei Yuan and Prince Ying changed instantly!
Wei Yuan's mind was thrown into total disarray, filled with an indescribable mixture of feelings. Imperial Consort Yuan had actually kept this from him too? How many other things was she hiding from him?
In matters of the heart, Wei Yuan still had the sensibilities of a youth. He had gradually begun to open his heart, only to be met with betrayal. It felt like a dagger thrust into his back, cutting into his heart with searing pain.
Straining to maintain his composure, Wei Yuan said, "Please convey my thanks to the Immortal Ancestor."
Xu Lanshan nodded, then said, "Allow me to add a word of my own. The methods of immortals are far beyond what mortals like us can fathom. Only what an immortal wishes for you to know can you know; if he does not wish for you to know, you will remain blind to it even if it happens right before your eyes.
"Imperial Consort Yuan is likely unaware of this herself. Only my clan's Immortal Ancestor was able to divine the heavenly secrets and see through the contingency arrangements Lu Changhe laid down."
Wei Yuan nodded, his face devoid of any further expression.
"Very well, everything that needed to be said has been said. Finish the wine in your cups, and let us part." Xu Lanshan sheathed his immortal sword.
The three of them drained their cups, after which Wei Yuan and Prince Ying settled on the timeline and method of delivery. This shipment of armaments would be transported by the Xu family's flying barques, bypassing the Lu clan's territory and heading straight to the northern front lines.
Upon returning to Qingming, Wei Yuan arranged the construction of Samsara Furnaces. With trade routes open and materials plentiful, Wei Yuan proceeded to build two Samsara Furnaces in one go.
The Samsara Furnaces were colossal in scale. Even with the numerous Dao Foundation cultivators available in Qingming, it would take six months of construction to complete them.
Once the work on both Samsara Furnaces was underway, Wei Yuan departed Qingming and headed toward the northern sect mountain gate to meet with Immortal Monarch Tinghai.
Xu Wangu's offer had been directed at Pei Tinghai, so naturally, only Pei Tinghai could decide. Having now caught a glimpse of how immortals operated—laying plans spanning millennia that could scarcely be fathomed without scaling the immortal peaks—Wei Yuan did not dare presume to make a decision on the Immortal Monarch's behalf.
Chapter 688