Refined and tuned by Eldest Senior Sister, the shape of Wei Yuan's flying craft had its speed boosted by another ten percent. In flight, ordinary mid-stage Scenery Command cultivators could no longer hope to catch him.
The situation within Western Jin had shifted once more. The territories controlled by the King of Jin and the Xu family had lifted their restrictions against Wei Yuan, granting flying boats and merchant caravans free passage to and fro.
Now the only thing Wei Yuan had to worry about was the north. The Lu clan was located in the northwestern corner of Pu, a place where Wei Yuan rarely had any business requiring passage anyway.
In just one day's time, Wei Yuan arrived at the Northern Mountain Gate.
Here, deep winter had long since set in, draping ten thousand li in silver as far as the eye could see.
Within the perimeter of the mountain gate, the cold was still manageable. Beyond it, howling winds pierced straight to the bone; only those who had completed the Sinew and Muscle Realm could survive in such temperatures. During the coldest month of winter, even stepping outdoors was difficult for anyone below the Blood Merging Realm.
Yet despite such biting cold, the Northern Liao people and their Liao horses came and went as they pleased, pressing their offensive without letup.
Upon entering the Northern Mountain Gate, Wei Yuan reported his arrival and waited for an audience with the Immortal Monarch. In an earlier fierce battle, True Monarch Xuanyue had suffered grievous injuries and had returned to the ancestral mountain to recuperate, while also overseeing the construction of the Tianqing Grand Hall.
This time, Wei Yuan waited three days before receiving the summons.
Immortal Monarch Tinghai still resided at the peak of that small mountain. The summit was freezing now. Even Wei Yuan felt a nip of frost, and his body grew somewhat numb as he ascended.
Such cold had reached an unnatural degree. An ordinary Dao Foundation cultivator would freeze to death after only a few steps, and even a Dharma Idol could not linger for long. Only someone like Wei Yuan—possessing a formidable dharma body, Dao power as deep as the sea, and an endlessly regenerating vitality—could stay upon this peak.
The entire summit was shrouded in an array formation within which the cold was extreme enough to turn steel brittle.
Immortal Monarch Tinghai was still sitting by the cliff, fishing. Wei Yuan walked up and came to a halt behind him.
At this distance, he could see tiny motes continually drifting off the Immortal Monarch's body. Most were pulled back in, but occasionally one or two vanished for good.
Immortal Monarch Tinghai set down his fishing rod, rose slowly, and sat down at the stone table with Wei Yuan. "Right now, only this North Sea Cold Prison Formation can delay the collapse of my immortal body. Maintaining this array takes quite a toll. The only reason I linger on is that I still have the strength left for a single strike.
"The Little State Preceptor of Northern Liao knows this, so he refuses to come anywhere near, sending his dogs to harass us instead. It looks like before I reach my limit, I won't have the chance to take his life; I can only take his dog's life."
Once the Immortal Monarch settled in, he asked, "What brings you here?"
Wei Yuan said, "Xu Wangu asked me to pass along a message. He said he can grant you one request."
Immortal Monarch Tinghai let out a dry laugh. "That Xu Wangu—he got himself a new immortal body, but did he swap his brain out too?"
Wei Yuan asked, "Has he grown craftier?"
"He's grown stupider!"
Wei Yuan did not understand what he meant, so he could only listen quietly.
"I hear your skills at weiqi in the mortal world are extraordinary. Come, play a game with me first."
Wei Yuan nodded, already pondering how to lose—and how to lose while appearing to fight with everything he had, right to the bitter end.
As he was thinking, Immortal Monarch Tinghai waved a hand. Before them appeared a glowing cube, nineteen grids wide, nineteen grids long, and nineteen grids high.
"This is a board commonly played by immortals. When a stone is hemmed in on all six sides—above, below, front, back, left, and right—it dies. Come, give it a try."
Staring at this three-dimensional board, Wei Yuan felt his mind turn into a tangled knot!
Inside the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, there was a brief silence, followed by an uproar. Yet even with nearly a million mortals within, processing the permutations of such an immense game was far beyond their reach.
Wei Yuan could only follow along step by step, trailing Immortal Monarch Tinghai's lead. Naturally, he lost in a complete rout. Before the opening phase had even concluded, not a single one of Wei Yuan's stones had an eye left to breathe.
When the game ended, Immortal Monarch Tinghai swept the board away and smiled. "This is considered the simplest board among immortals. It is said there is also the Huntian Grand Board, with three hundred and sixty-one lines along its length, width, and height. That is something even I cannot partake in."
*So this is how immortals pass the time,* Wei Yuan thought to himself. *Looked at this way, their lifespans really might not be enough.*
As if reading Wei Yuan's thoughts, Immortal Monarch Tinghai chided with a chuckle, "You little brat, you even dare poke fun at me in your head! I played this match with you to show you that when immortals place a stone, they don't merely look across ten thousand li of rivers and mountains; they scan forward and backward across a thousand years. Every stone is entwined with countless threads.
"And precisely because there are too many variables, even immortals cannot foresee every twist and turn. Often, an arrangement crafted with painstaking effort ends up playing right into someone else's calculations at every step."
Just thinking about it gave Wei Yuan a headache. If even an immortal of Tinghai's calculative power was only at the introductory level, how terrifying were those ancient immortals who had lived for ages?
Immortal Monarch Tinghai said, "Now you should understand that grievances between immortals are never as simple as they appear on the surface. In this game, I truly did not anticipate being ambushed. You could say eighty percent of the reason for my fall lies in that single strike.
"Yet your Qingming has grown to this scale in just a few short years, to the point of influencing the moves of immortals. That means I have won again. Looking at the whole picture, it is still a modest victory for me."
"Do immortals always plot against one another?"
Immortal Monarch Tinghai smiled. "Not all of them, of course. Take our Patriarch, for instance—he was remarkably blunt and direct. Back then, the Patriarch couldn't find a place to establish the Palace of Grand Beginning's mountain gate, so he thought to slay a Heavenly Shaman and seize a piece of territory from the Shaman race.
"When he arrived on the spot, he found three Heavenly Shamans waiting for him. Yet the old master withstood their siege, cut down the First Heavenly Shaman, and returned to establish the Palace of Grand Beginning's mountain gate. For several centuries, the Shaman race didn't dare cross our borders."
Immortal Monarch Tinghai took a sip of tea and asked, "Setting aside my grievance with Xu Wangu, if you were to make a request, what would you want most?"
"It can't be too excessive, right?" Wei Yuan asked.
"Naturally! No need to consider asking him to slit his own throat or anything of the sort."
Wei Yuan had already considered this on the way. He answered immediately, "Your disciple wishes for free trade."
Immortal Monarch Tinghai blinked, caught off guard. "What do you mean by free trade? Explain in detail."
"Within the territories controlled by the Xu family, checkpoints and transit duties between commanderies must be abolished—or, at the very least, checkpoints and taxes may not be imposed on Qingming's caravans. They cannot artificially restrict the outflow of goods, nor can they bar the inflow of Qingming's wares. Buying and selling must follow prevailing market rates, without official interference."
Immortal Monarch Tinghai pondered this deeply for a moment before speaking. "Are you truly so confident in Qingming's goods?"
"Armor, firearms, pills, machine-woven brocade, and the like—your disciple has absolute confidence. As long as there is no artificial interference, within three years, the only goods left on the market will be those produced by Qingming."
Immortal Monarch Tinghai said, "So aside from Qingming, you want every other region to produce only raw materials, and then buy finished goods from you?"
Wei Yuan was startled. He hadn't expected the Immortal Monarch to be so sharp, piercing right through to his ultimate design in a single sentence.
"Those merchant guilds, and the large and small clans behind them, will never sit idly by while you cut off their wealth."
Wei Yuan said, "Your disciple understands. That is why I currently hold large armies and hor—and troops, precisely to guard against this."
Immortal Monarch Tinghai nodded. "And what is your purpose in earning so much immortal silver?"
Wei Yuan replied, "Having read widely through historical records, and from what I have seen and heard myself, I have found that in this mortal world, the most fundamental people are treated as the most useless. Often, having too many people is seen purely as a burden. And so people employ all manner of ingenious means to eliminate the surplus population—natural disasters, human strife, wars, plagues, and more.
"I happened to learn that in other worlds beyond the heavens, mortals without great personal might can live very well indeed. Your disciple is untalented, but I wish to shelter mortals within my own corner of the world, so that their lives have meaning. I also wish to help more mortals step onto the immortal path—even if they only reach the Sinew and Muscle or Blood Merging realms, that too is good.
"All that immortal silver will ultimately be spent on this."
A smile bloomed on Immortal Monarch Tinghai's face. "In the Middle Ancient era, an eminent Buddhist master made a vow: 'So long as the hells are not empty, I vow not to become a Buddha.' What you propose already carries the shadow of a Buddhist Great Vow."
Immortal Monarch Tinghai meant it as praise, but hearing it sent a chill down Wei Yuan's spine. He felt as though something in the unseen void were beckoning to him. In the empty air, there seemed to hang a string of glazed prayer beads, and upon one of them were carved the two characters: *Wuyuan*.
Wei Yuan hastily banished these illusions and said, "Your disciple has not thought that far ahead. I simply feel that mortals suffer too much, and wish to change things as much as I can. How is your immortal body? Did the Kunyuan Longevity Pill I contributed last time take effect?"
Immortal Monarch Tinghai shook his head. "My immortal foundation was ruined. Lifespan-extending pills are of little use."
A faint sorrow welled up quietly from the depths of Wei Yuan's heart. "Who was it that ambushed you that day? When your disciple ascends to immortality in the future, I will surely avenge you!"
Immortal Monarch Tinghai chuckled. "The roots of that matter go back a very long way. Thinking carefully over these past days, the karmic cause may well date back to before I attained immortality. Back then, I was young and headstrong, not cautious enough when laying out my pieces, and someone caught an opening. It seems this tribulation was meant to be.
"The one who ambushed me was an Eternal Yin Corpse. As for who commanded it, even I cannot calculate that. This matter is still far beyond you; just focus on doing your own work well. This game has not even finished its opening moves. Even if I fall, as long as you remain, the game can still be played."
The more open and broad-minded the Immortal Monarch was, the deeper Wei Yuan's sorrow grew. Yet he buried this sorrow deep within his heart, hiding it in the darkest shadows.
At last, Immortal Monarch Tinghai said, "If you want free trade, tell Xu Wangu just that. However, there will certainly be friction and pushback; you know how to handle it."
Having spoken for this long, Immortal Monarch Tinghai was already showing signs of exhaustion. He waved a hand, and Wei Yuan took his leave and descended the peak.
Afterward, Wei Yuan paid visits to the masters of the various halls. Though True Monarch Xuanyue was not at the Northern Mountain Gate at present, Wei Yuan's standing was vastly different from before, far exceeding that of an ordinary Master. Failing to pay his respects to the hall masters would have been a breach of etiquette.
His final stop was the Heavenly Mechanism Hall.
True Monarch Yanshi stood by the edge of the cliff, gazing out at the distant sea of clouds. He seemed to have anticipated Wei Yuan's arrival, waving him over and pointing into the distance. "What do you see?"
Wei Yuan stared for a long while before replying, "A cloud."
True Monarch Yanshi laughed heartily. "Whenever I pull this on others, they either pretend they see something, or they try to force some profound meaning onto the cloud—saying things like 'gazing upon the sea of clouds is like watching the mortal multitudes.' You, on the other hand, are honest!"
Wei Yuan's face turned red, unsure whether to take it as praise or mockery.
Yanshi returned inside the hall, had Wei Yuan sit by the table, and poured two cups of clear tea.
True Monarch Yanshi's tea was famous throughout the Palace of Grand Beginning. True Monarch Xuanyue had acquired some several times, but could never bring herself to drink it, turning around and selling it instead.
Two teacups sat on the table. One was completely intact, set before Wei Yuan; the other had a chipped rim, placed on Yanshi's side.
Yanshi poured the tea himself. Wei Yuan received a full cup, while the cup before Yanshi, on account of the chip, could barely hold two-thirds.
Wei Yuan moved quickly to swap the cups, but Yanshi held him back. "These cups belong to whoever they belong to; they cannot be switched. Actually, I have another new cup, right over there."
Wei Yuan followed the direction of True Monarch Yanshi's finger and saw a small kiln built into the corner of the hall, inside of which a teacup was currently being fired. Though it was still only an unfired body, its exceptional craftsmanship was already apparent.
A complex expression appeared on True Monarch Yanshi's face. He let out a soft sigh. "Though this cup is fine, it won't be ready in time for use."
The words carried hidden meaning, but with so few clues, Wei Yuan could not fathom what he meant.
True Monarch Xuanyue had long given her verdict on this: when listening to True Monarch Yanshi, there was no need to rack your brains. If you understood, you understood; if you didn't, it just meant Yanshi hadn't explained it clearly.
True Monarch Yanshi seemed to lose interest and offered no further explanation, seeing Wei Yuan straight out of the hall. Having already delayed for several days, Wei Yuan departed the Northern Mountain Gate and headed back toward Qingming.
As Wei Yuan flew high into the sky, the Northern Liao army was launching a massive assault. On the ground, in the air, and even beyond the firmament, bloody battles raged everywhere. Wei Yuan could not help looking back. With his current discernment, he could tell that though the defensive lines faced peril, they remained secure.
Yet at that very moment, the earth trembled, the heavens changed color, and a colossal rift a hundred li long tore open across the sky! Wind, fire, thunder, and lightning poured out from the heavenly breach. Countless indescribable entities surged forth from the void!
This was a heavenly tribulation—a heavenly tribulation unlike anything Wei Yuan had ever witnessed!
Then, a terrifying beast's roar reverberated between heaven and earth. A vast shadow lunged toward the Northern Mountain Gate, seeking to interrupt the tribulation.
Right at that instant, a streak of dazzling brilliance rose from the Northern Mountain Gate, curving forward through the air. In a flash, it spanned a thousand li!
The beast's roar instantly turned into a pitiful wail. A gigantic immortal hound hundreds of fathoms long plunged down from beyond the firmament into the mortal realm, its blood staining the earth yellow.
On this day, True Monarch Yanshi forcefully crossed the Tribulation of Four Burning Heavens, Non-Conception, and Fate Extinction, ascending to the immortal seat.
And Immortal Monarch Tinghai unleashed his final strike, taking the dog's life of the Northern Liao's Little State Preceptor.
After this battle, the Little State Preceptor of Northern Liao cradled the hound's corpse and wept bitterly for three days and three nights, his wails so mournful that ten thousand li shared his grief. With the fall of this hound, two-thirds of the Little State Preceptor's strength was stripped away.
Chapter 689