The light path reached the supermarket. Wei Yuan stepped inside to take a look, finding devastation on all sides, though the eerie aura had faded to almost nothing. The handgun beneath the counter was also gone, leaving only a pistol rack rusted beyond recognition.
Wei Yuan did not care overmuch. He now knew the handgun's terrifying might had actually been fueled by lingering resentment; an actual handgun was probably not much different from firearms in this realm. As the new smokeless gunpowder entered mass production, the power of Qingming's firearms would soon take a qualitative leap.
Walking out of the supermarket, he heard low growls echoing through the darkness. Two monsters appeared, snarling at the cultivators paving the road. By now, the cultivators were thoroughly accustomed to such sights; they immediately brightened their lanterns while rolling out several washbasin-sized searchlights, casting pillars of cyan light over the creatures.
Bathed in the beams, the monsters instantly appeared in agony. One collapsed to the ground, writhing and flailing, while the other proved far more ferocious, charging straight through the light. Yet the moment it entered the radius illuminated by the lanterns, its movements slowed dramatically. A dragon guard opened fire with an autocannon infused with karmic luck, blasting it into ash after barely thirty-odd rounds.
A wisp of Dao profound qi rose from the monster's remains, and Wei Yuan walked over to collect it. But the surrounding cultivators, including Longying, seemed completely oblivious to it. Wei Yuan pondered this; evidently, none of them could see or perceive Dao profound qi.
Wei Yuan glanced back at the fortress not far away, thoughtful. No wonder he had not seen a single wisp of Dao profound qi over the past two months. There was a reason those Smoke and Fire cultivators had been able to raise their foundations so much in such a short span.
Still, they had fought to the death without retreating when Wei Yuan had been in grave peril; they had earned it.
Having put away the Dao profound qi, Wei Yuan pressed forward. The light path ran through the center of the architectural complex, cleaving it in two before branching out to either side.
By now, the lampposts were nearly exhausted, but thousands of lanterns had already been manufactured in the rear. Seeing this, Wei Yuan felt there was no immediate threat for the moment, so he left the site in Longying's hands and returned to the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World.
Wei Yuan arrived at the Holy Battle Hall, where Han Li and Jun Weizhi had both stabilized their dharma idols. Jun Weizhi's dharma idol turned out to be countless points of starlight interconnected by threads, with myriads of filaments radiating from each speck, beams of brilliance endlessly coursing back and forth. Just watching it made Wei Yuan slightly dizzy.
The light emitted by the stars and traversing the threads was no ordinary light, but vast streams of data. Though it looked like flowing brilliance, countless data streams circulated every second. Wei Yuan only made a slight attempt to decipher the patterns within before feeling lightheaded. But seasoned as he was, he betrayed no sign of discomfort.
Seeing Wei Yuan arrive, Jun Weizhi rose and bowed—an elaborate, respectful greeting that left Wei Yuan unable to find the slightest fault.
Jun Weizhi then displayed the full scope of his dharma idol, explaining, "With this dharma idol, my capacity to process tasks can remain stably above a thousand, and I can parse immense volumes of information in an instant. What an ordinary dharma idol takes a full day to process, I require only a quarter of an hour."
Wei Yuan understood: Jun Weizhi's speed at analyzing and processing data was nearly a hundred times that of an ordinary dharma idol. No wonder he had grown dizzy trying to analyze it.
Unexpectedly, Jun Weizhi continued, "The external appearance of my dharma idol is merely superficial. If someone can keep pace with the flow of information, they will discover that I have left a problem on the surface. As long as they solve it, they can view the real data inside the dharma idol and grasp its inner workings, thereby gaining the upper hand in battle."
There's a problem too? How come I didn't see it?! Wei Yuan cursed inwardly, yet showed keen interest on his face. "A problem? How intriguing. Show it to me."
Had it been Zhang Sheng, she would probably have retorted, "Look for yourself." Fortunately, Jun Weizhi did no such thing, presenting the problem directly before Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan saw that the problem consisted of only a few lines of text, and an ominous premonition instantly welled up inside him. A single sweep of his eyes confirmed it: he had no clue what the question was even asking.
Wei Yuan assumed a pensive expression and said slowly, "Profound indeed! Is there an answer to this? Where did you learn it?"
Jun Weizhi then presented the solution. The entire derivation was a sprawling exposition spanning well over a hundred thousand words—long enough to fill a book.
Having recently experienced the baptism of school, Wei Yuan was well versed in the slacker art of copying homework. He skipped the derivation entirely and headed straight for the conclusion. The final answer to the problem was just a simple number, accompanied by a label: Spiritual Qi Constant.
Jun Weizhi then said, "The Immortal Venerable previously left multiple sets of classic texts in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. While studying the Five Elements Dao Soldiers, I stumbled across them and found that although these treatises appear unrelated, their contents can corroborate one another. Thus, I studied them together and gained some insights. Later, I located more relevant texts, making further progress."
Wei Yuan glanced at the texts and understood immediately. Most of those books had been written by Immortal Monarch Tinghai. From his earliest research into the Water Blade Art all the way to the principles of the Five Elements Dao Soldiers, Wei Yuan had gnawed on them stubbornly for a long time, arriving at only a superficial comprehension. Since he had already studied them, he had archived them in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World and forgotten about them.
He had never imagined Jun Weizhi would discover them and achieve such success in his cultivation. Looking at his computational power now, crushing several Wei Yuans would be no problem at all.
Fortunately, Jun Weizhi was quite tactful. He had voluntarily disclosed the problem embedded in his dharma idol, and after providing the solution, he didn't ask whether Wei Yuan could solve it, merely handing over the answer. Had Wei Yuan been in his shoes, he probably would have added: "If there's anything you don't understand, I can explain it thoroughly."
Jun Weizhi's complete silence satisfied Wei Yuan greatly, yet heightened his wariness. Having experienced court politics, Wei Yuan knew that the more comfortable someone made you feel, the more guarded you needed to be. Those whose mouths ran loose like flying boats were instead simpletons with little guile.
The essence of court political struggles was to make smart people as few as possible and fools as numerous as possible.
As for who stood on one's side, sometimes that was not even so important; after all, people had to take sides, and getting rid of one enemy would only cause a new one to emerge.
Leaving Jun Weizhi, Wei Yuan went to check on Han Li.
Han Li's dharma idol was comparatively traditional and easy to understand: a treasure-bearing Daoist. Except this Daoist held not only an immortal sword but also a colossal shield, was clad in heavy armor, and had a row of storage pouches hanging at his waist—a heavily armored sword-and-shield Daoist, so to speak.
Han Li was also quite perceptive. Not only did he demonstrate his dharma idol's prowess, but he opened all of its storage pouches for Wei Yuan to see. Inside were medicinal pills, poisons, and stupefying mists.
Han Li stated that these storage pouches could also be temporarily materialized, so when cleaning up the battlefield after a fight, there would be no worry about bags being too small to carry loot; any scrap could be hauled back and examined at leisure later.
This function made Wei Yuan's eyes light up; he liked it quite a lot. When fighting at the Northern Mountain Gate, he had often looked at the battlefield littered with Liao Clan corpses and fretted over how he would carry so much loot if he were on his own.
With both having advanced to the dharma idol realm, Wei Yuan gained additional helpers. He assigned them to pave the light path in the World Shard, while he prepared to deal with his arrangements for the five southwestern commanderies.
Just as he was about to leave, Wei Yuan felt a stirring in his heart and heard a summons: "Immortal Venerable, please come to the island for a meeting."
With a thought, Wei Yuan materialized on an offshore island roughly three thousand li from the Central City. The island was desolate and uninhabited, ringed only by a stretch of shallows. By the sandy beach, a bonfire crackled, with two figures beside it—one sitting, one lying down.
Wei Yuan walked over and saw that the one by the fire was Fuyao, whom he had not seen for a long time.
And the person lying motionless beside her, entirely devoid of breath, was Long Wushuang, who had fallen in the previous great battle. Wei Yuan had thought he had already dissolved into spiritual qi and returned to heaven and earth, but unexpectedly, his corpse remained intact and had been retrieved by Fuyao.
Wei Yuan immediately went over to examine him, finding that Long Wushuang was indeed dead: no spiritual flame in his body, no vitality, utterly vacant—a mere corpse. When Wei Yuan probed with karmic divination arts, there was likewise no response.
This meant Long Wushuang's soul had truly dissipated, or at least was not in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World and completely cut off from it. This was what was known as severed karmic ties.
Fuyao bowed deeply to the ground and said, "I beg the Immortal Venerable not to begrudge precious treasures and lend a hand to save him."
Wei Yuan was thoroughly astonished. "You two... couldn't have already..."
Fuyao answered at once, "It is not as the Immortal Venerable thinks. It is merely that the treasures required are exceptionally valuable, so Fuyao had no choice but to come and plead with the Immortal Venerable."
"What items are needed?"
"Phoenix Blood Longevity Moss and a strand of otherworldly origin."
Wei Yuan instantly frowned. Otherworldly origin was otherworldly fortune, an item essential for preserving his own life. Besides, he was still deeply in debt with it, and whether the bird would agree to part with any was another question entirely.
In comparison, the Phoenix Blood Longevity Moss wasn't quite as bad. It was merely useful for refining a few longevity pills—extending life by ninety-nine years with the primary pill if lucky, or twenty or thirty years with secondary pills. It wasn't that precious, merely the sort of thing where a secondary pill had gotten a crown prince killed, where immortals would fight over it, where most Scenery Command cultivators weren't even worthy of it...
The more he thought, the tighter Wei Yuan's brow furrowed. To be frank, even if Long Wushuang could be brought back, he was nowhere near worth this much.
Seeing Wei Yuan hesitate, Fuyao actually rose and began loosening her garments. "I have long heard of the Immortal Venerable's tastes," she said. "I am willing to do my utmost to please you. It is only that I have no prior experience; should I do anything amiss, I ask the Immortal Venerable to instruct me. I learn quite quickly."
Seeing Fuyao actually begin stripping off her clothes, Wei Yuan was stunned at first, then infuriated. "Who has been ruining my reputation behind my back?!"
Chapter 768