A tribulation naturally had to be undergone at the tribulation base specially constructed by Qingming. Built by pooling the entire strength of Qingming, this base spanned three hundred zhang across, outfitted with multiple heavily fortified supply stations as well as various array facilities specifically designed to counter common disasters like lightning, fire, water, and wind.
When an ordinary Dharma Idol cultivator advanced to the Mindscape Realm, nine times out of ten it was simply a matter of patient grinding reaching fruition, resulting in a smooth and effortless breakthrough. A rare few with peculiar mindscape worlds might draw down a heavenly tribulation, but it was usually little more than a token gesture. To cultivators who had reached the late stage, such minor lightning tribulations amounted to nothing at all.
Only Wei Yuan's lightning tribulation lasted seven times seven—a full forty-nine days!
The painstakingly constructed tribulation base held out for a mere three days in the lightning and fire before turning completely to ash. Countless lightning rods melted away beneath successive waves of heavenly lightning, dissolving into smoke and cinders alongside the great subterranean array. For the rest of the time, Wei Yuan had to endure it through sheer grit.
In the first few days, Qingming was shaken and people were in a panic. The cultivators of the Palace of Grand Beginning came to check several times a day. But the ferocity of Wei Yuan's lightning tribulation was even more exaggerated than a breakthrough to Scenery Command; how could these Dharma Idol cultivators dare draw near? They could only keep watch from afar.
After seven or eight days, people began visiting only once a day. After another seven or eight days, hardly anyone came at all; everyone was extremely busy, each with their own mountain of tasks.
And so, for the next nearly one month, almost no one visited the tribulation base. Whenever passersby looked up and saw the tribulation clouds still lingering, they simply knew Wei Yuan was still getting struck by lightning and continued on their way.
Later on, research into the materials recovered from the otherworldly realm yielded progress within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. Several research cultivators suddenly proposed whether the electricity generated by the tribulation lightning could be stored for future use.
The moment this idea was raised, all the cultivators thought it was brilliant.
Thus, when Wei Yuan emerged from seclusion charred black from head to toe, he was greeted by a crowd of cultivators standing amidst cables strewn across the ground, staring up at the dispersing tribulation clouds with looks of utter regret, their expressions screaming: *Why couldn't it strike for a little longer?*
On the day he began his tribulation, Zhang Sheng had personally escorted Wei Yuan into the base, after which he drifted back to the immortal city to enter secluded cultivation himself, never returning for even a single glance throughout the entire ordeal.
Having endured such an interminable lightning tribulation, Wei Yuan could only make an indecent gesture at the heavens and earth in sheer exasperation.
He inspected himself. After being tempered by such prolonged tribulation lightning, a great deal more impurities had been purged from his physical body. His form was now nearly an immaculate pure vessel, tougher and more formidable than ever.
The Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World was now enveloped in primal chaos qi, with a vast expanse of new space opened around it. Wei Yuan's field of vision could now pull back to an immense distance.
Viewed from afar, the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World resembled a dark gray planet slowly rotating in the void.
It could now independently breathe in and exhale heaven-and-earth origin qi, evolving steadily. It would require a period of nourishment and settling for the entire realm to stabilize.
Wei Yuan returned to the immortal city, only to discover that during the time he had been away, Qingming had continued to run smoothly without him.
Having just made his breakthrough, his mind was exceptionally clear. Wei Yuan went to his study and retrieved the archival data given to him by the young man that day to inspect it once more.
The young man appeared before Wei Yuan again. At this moment, he stood before a one-way glass window, watching two men engaged in combat.
They moved at blistering speeds with immense power, like two savage beasts far beyond the limits of normal humans.
The young man turned back and said to Wei Yuan, "You're here. These two are first-generation espers. Their physical strength is far greater than that of ordinary humans, approaching the absolute limit of ordinary carbon-based life. If released into the wild, they would effortlessly shatter every human athletic record and become the greatest athletes in history."
The combatants outside the glass wall changed. This time, one of them could unleash powerful electrical currents from his hands, while the other emitted destructive shockwaves. The clash between them wreaked immense havoc on their surroundings.
Amidst the thunderous rumbling, the young man said, "These are second-generation espers; the legendary superheroes are nothing more than this. However, there is an issue: their stamina cannot last. That is only natural—chemical energy simply cannot sustain such high-intensity energy output. They require substances with far higher energy density."
The scene beyond the window shifted once more, revealing a tranquil garden where a quiet young girl sat reading a book.
The young man watched her in silence for a long time before speaking: "She is the only third-generation esper. A peculiar type of cell grows within her body, capable of achieving limited cellular fission to generate immense energy. But she can only survive in a high-radiation environment. Normal somatic cells cannot endure such conditions, so she will not live long."
The glass wall turned black. The young man turned to Wei Yuan and said, "My father was the founder of the company, and ever since I joined, I was in charge of the esper project. We successfully developed two generations of espers, and then we created that miraculous girl. Yet shortly after the project succeeded, she suddenly lost control, killed two visiting board directors on the spot, and began slaughtering people indiscriminately.
"To eliminate her, thousands of troops were mobilized, along with over a hundred first- and second-generation espers fighting alongside them. Only after suffering fifty percent casualties did they finally kill her.
"You must find it hard to imagine why someone so quiet, someone who loved solitude so much, would suddenly go on a mad killing spree, right?"
Wei Yuan listened quietly.
The young man continued: "...From then on, the company's attitude toward the esper project changed. They slashed more than half the funding and shifted the objective from creating a new generation of humanity to searching for genes of longevity and youth. Furthermore, the company imposed strict global surveillance and suppression on espers.
"Decades went by, and the number of espers dwindled rather than grew. Research standards continually regressed, and a second third-generation esper never emerged again.
"In truth, the fundamental reason was that the manifestation of esper abilities was random and non-transferable. This meant the old men on the board of directors remained ordinary mortals, incapable of becoming espers themselves. Since they could not become espers, they refused to carry out the second-generation humanity initiative, and even sought to eradicate all espers! Such foolishness, tyranny, and greed!"
The scene outside the window shifted yet again. Vast swathes of golden fire engulfed the sky; half the heavens were burning! Countless glowing golden humanoid figures descended from above, setting about destroying everything in the world. These silhouettes were blurry; no matter what method Wei Yuan attempted, he could not bring them into clearer focus.
This was because that entire world had been annihilated and its karmic ties severed, leaving all memories of them hazy and indistinct.
The young man went on: "Their shortsightedness ultimately brought about humanity's extinction. When Judgment Day abruptly arrived, conventional forces were utterly helpless against the invaders; only espers could fight them. Alas, there were too few espers left. When the last esper was wiped out, humanity and the entire world met their end.
"Successor, if you can see this, it means you already stand atop the pinnacle of power. Remember our lesson: do not allow yourself to be bound by any existing rules or morality, and do not indulge in pleasure. When the enemy arrives, strength is the only answer."
In the end, the projection returned to that sunny afternoon in the garden. The young girl sat on a swing, quietly reading, and the young man walked toward her... before everything was consumed by a piercing, all-destroying flash of light.
Wei Yuan had viewed this recording many times, drawing different insights with each viewing. That world held countless other details as well. For example, during a certain era, minority factions received unprecedented deference, bizarre interest groups mushroomed endlessly, and people spent their days trapped in ceaseless bickering and wrangling.
Meanwhile, those perched high above looked down upon the ceaseless squabbling below as mutual hatred deepened, until the people even forgot about the group entrenched above their heads.
Fortunately, the problems of that world did not exist in Great Tang. Cultivators and mortals belonged to entirely different strata—arguably even two different species. If any mortal dared preach to a Dao Foundation forefather about how everyone was equal, they would most likely be slapped to death on the spot.
His experiences in that world fragment had also prompted Wei Yuan to comprehensively reexamine Qingming's path forward. The conclusion he reached was simple: no endless debates, no pointless meddling, and let everyone rise like dragons.
Beyond the final catastrophe, Wei Yuan's firsthand experience living in that otherworldly realm had provided him with plenty of inspiration. Take the clock-in attendance system, for instance: Wei Yuan felt it was thoroughly worth adopting. The sheer dread and helplessness of losing a full day's pay and being docked half a day's absence just for being five minutes late was something very necessary to share with everyone.
Granted, the vast majority of cultivators were already driven to push forward along the immortal path without any need for attendance tracking, voluntarily putting in extra hours to temper their physical bodies and Dao Foundations. Even so, one could never rule out a small handful of slackers who had given up on striving.
Implementing such a system was remarkably simple: all it took was a dharma treasure capable of recognizing the primordial spirit at its core. Such a treasure could identify one's soul signature, effortlessly stamping out the foul habit of having someone else punch in for you, far more reliably than fingerprints or irises.
With Wei Yuan's knowledge of artifact crafting, he sketched out a rough framework in the blink of an eye. Yet when designing the corresponding penalty mechanisms for the attendance system, Wei Yuan hit a sudden snag: Qingming had no salaries to speak of, so there was nothing to dock!
After staring blankly for a moment, Wei Yuan had no choice but to shelve the system. He couldn't very well start paying everyone wages just so he could monitor their attendance, could he?
Still, while wages were not an urgent matter, currency needed to be put on the agenda. Immortal silver was currently the standard tender across the nine states of Great Tang, and it possessed countless practical applications.
Yet after reading numerous academic papers and records from the world fragment, Wei Yuan discovered that immortal silver actually came with considerable drawbacks. Furthermore, that world possessed a concept known as "seigniorage," which, in its broadest sense, could conjure wealth out of thin air—truly a wondrous thing.
Wei Yuan felt the time had come to issue Qingming's own currency. In time, as the currency circulated, anyone holding new Qingming notes would have to come to Qingming to purchase goods, causing all manner of economic barriers and trade checkpoints to crumble on their own.
An initial currency naturally required an anchor to secure its value; otherwise, it was nothing more than scrap paper. Anchors came in many forms, but the primary requirement was that it had to be universally accepted and extraordinarily abundant within Qingming.
Wei Yuan pondered for a long time before taking up his brush to write several denominations on a sheet of paper: one liang, one jin, one dan, one thousand jin... Scrutinizing the sheet repeatedly, he found the idea quite viable.
What Qingming possessed in the greatest abundance was grain, and as the old saying went, food was heaven to the people. Using it as an anchor could not be more fitting.
With grain as its foundation, the name of this new currency could simply be: grain coupon.
Chapter 794