This karmic luck had not arisen merely from the issuance of Qingyuan, but because the people of Qingming had genuinely reaped tangible benefits, feeding back their karmic luck in return.
Wei Yuan pondered thoughtfully, gaining a profound appreciation for the power of the word "welfare." Were this the world beyond the heavens, this would amount to two million votes—enough to secure whatever office one desired.
No wonder those politicians in the world beyond the heavens blindly inflated welfare without caring whether it was affordable or not, doing everything to swindle votes into their hands first. As for whether the economy collapsed afterward, that was the next administration's problem.
However, having lived through the chaos and apocalypse of that other world, Wei Yuan knew full well that welfare was a double-edged sword. If one handed out benefits, one also needed to impose constraints and spur people on.
Thus, Wei Yuan summoned Yu Zhizhuo and discussed the subsequent arrangements in detail with him. Even with all his vast experience, Yu Zhizhuo could not help being shocked after hearing Wei Yuan's vision: "Is this something a human could actually come up with?"
Wei Yuan said, "It is indeed something thought up by humans—and mortal ones at that."
Left with no choice, Yu Zhizhuo could only comply and execute the plan. Before leaving, however, he could not resist muttering, "Martial nephew, try being human for once!"
Upon his return, Yu Zhizhuo first selected eyeballs from strange beasts to refine a complete set of magic treasures, comprising a single core mother treasure and one hundred and eight sub-eyes.
He then installed sub-eyes at the entrances and exits of key work sites. Whenever working cultivators came and went, they would stand before a sub-eye, and their identity information would be recorded and stored in the mother treasure. Exactly when one clocked in and when one clocked out was documented with crystal clarity.
Next, dedicated attendance-monitoring cultivators were appointed—chosen specifically from those blessed with exceptional divine sense and naturally caustic temperaments—to inspect the various sites. At the end of each workday, they memorized the data recorded by the mother treasure, entered the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, and transferred the information for storage within it. In this manner, complete attendance logs were established, capable of permanent preservation and available for future analytical projects.
After testing it for several days and seeing the attendance system function smoothly, Wei Yuan was thoroughly satisfied. Now that everyone drew wages, he could finally crack down on tardiness and dock their pay.
Launching the attendance system was merely the beginning, and indeed the most insignificant part of Wei Yuan's grand plan. Next, Wei Yuan poured in another million immortal silver to comprehensively upgrade and overhaul the Zhou Tian Celestial Stars Array.
With Ji Liuli leading the overhaul and Yu Zhizhuo assisting, the results were exceptionally striking. A project originally scheduled for a month was completed in less than half that time. Following the modifications, the frequency at which the Zhou Tian Celestial Stars Array monitored heaven and earth doubled, and its precision increased twofold. It was now capable of capturing minute physical gestures—clearly distinguishing, for example, whether someone who raised a hand had touched their mouth or scratched their head.
With data from the Zhou Tian Celestial Stars Array serving as the foundation, an advanced performance management system was implemented and rolled out.
Based on a person's movements, the Zhou Tian Celestial Stars Array could determine whether they were actively working or slacking off. For instance, among cultivators standing by an iron-forging machine, those laboring and those idling around chatting were distinguished with immaculate clarity, leaving no room to hide.
This system had been inspired by the Umbrella Corporation's automated office system, fully upgraded and adapted by Wei Yuan. Moreover, it captured motion in three dimensions, making it vastly more advanced by countless generations than the Umbrella Corporation's original.
Nor did it stop there. The Zhou Tian Celestial Stars Array could monitor the circulation of spiritual qi and Dao power. Even if cultivators seated within energy-supply formations appeared outwardly identical in their meditation, the array saw through them completely—revealing who was channeling Dao power with full devotion and who was merely going through the motions—and recorded it all with impartial ruthlessness.
Once these two major systems went live one after the other, public discontent boiled over instantly. In the blink of an eye, Wei Yuan's azure qi plummeted by over a hundred thousand units.
The only reason he had not coughed up all two million units was that far more people benefited from eating meat than those who actually qualified to be surveilled by the system.
However, when Wei Yuan extended the system to agricultural farming, his azure qi plummeted by another five hundred thousand on the spot.
Wei Yuan had not invested a million immortal silver and expended so much effort just to dock wages—or rather, not merely to dock wages.
Building on the foundation of the data accumulated by the Zhou Tian Celestial Stars Array, Wei Yuan unveiled yet another brand-new system.
Cultivators soon discovered that a silver-plated screen had appeared at their work sites. Once activated with divine sense, a long progress bar became visible beneath their names.
When the progress bar reached its end, Foundation Solidification was consummate, allowing advancement to the next stage. After finishing a day's work, whatever progress had been achieved in tempering one's Dao Foundation was displayed on the bar, precise down to the single digits.
The length of each Dao Foundation cultivator's progress bar varied: the shortest was under four fang, while the longest was slightly over five fang. Some earned more than thirty points of progress from a single day's labor, whereas others gained a pathetic two.
The intellect of Dao Foundation cultivators far surpassed that of mortals, and once explained, they grasped the principles immediately. Using data from the preceding month as a baseline, the Zhou Tian Celestial Stars Array calculated the cultivation progress of every registered Dao Foundation cultivator. The differing lengths of the bars simply reflected variations in root bone and natural aptitude.
Those Dao Foundation cultivators working in the same location possessed roughly similar talent, so their progress bars were comparable in length.
The upgraded array's computational precision had reached a single point, sufficient to accurately measure daily cultivation gains and make them readily accessible for query. With that, all the Dao Foundation cultivators were abuzz with excitement!
Though the progress bar was long and the immortal path stretched endlessly ahead, as long as they could clearly witness themselves advancing day by day, what did it matter if the bar took tens of thousands of points? Even if it were a hundred thousand, a million, or a hundred million, they possessed the confidence to carry on. Before the progress bar, notions of tedium and monotony ceased to exist.
And after spending a single day cultivating at the same work site, the stark contrast between thirty-plus points and a meager two drove home the truth that diligence could compensate for dullness—and that cultivation was undertaken for one's own sake.
After several days of trial operation, the new system underwent another upgrade, and the cultivators discovered that their cultivation data was now tied directly to their earned merits and monthly Qingyuan wages.
Now everyone experienced firsthand that an earnest shichen of cultivation yielded an earnest shichen of reward. An earnest shichen of slacking off yielded nothing at all.
Three days after the official launch of the new system, output across all of Qingming's workshops surged by fifty percent, while the Dao Foundation cultivators advanced in their cultivation by leaps and bounds. Wei Yuan, meanwhile, reaped over ten thousand units of advanced azure qi—practically wringing out a wisp of advanced azure qi from every single template cultivator.
Only now was the new system's name formally unveiled: the Advanced Digital Cultivation Assistance System.
At this moment, Wei Yuan stood before dozens of eminent Dharma Idol cultivators of distinguished bearing, demonstrating how the cultivation assistance system functioned and its practical results over the recent period.
Every person before Wei Yuan held substantial status, hailing from the three great families—Bao, Cui, and Xu. Even the lowest in standing among them was a chief steward or external affairs elder.
Wei Yuan smiled and said, "As you can see, under this system, cultivators can view their daily progress each day. With morale running high, issues concerning the Dao heart are virtually nonexistent; their cultivation can reach wherever their talent allows.
"Yet this is merely the beginning. Next, we will introduce a VIP service that can thoroughly analyze each cultivator's root bone and primordial spirit data, identifying problems in real time, rectifying mistakes, and tailoring bespoke cultivation plans for each individual. Paired with the Qingming Dao Foundation Grand Canon, it can maximize the potential of every cultivator.
"If the elders are interested, you may purchase this VIP service. The annual fee is 999 yuan per person, payable solely in Qingyuan."
The elders were struck dumb. Never had they imagined such a system could exist in this world—and even less had they expected the annual fee to be so shockingly cheap.
With minds as swift as lightning, a single thought told them that everything Wei Yuan said was completely true, backed by empirical data from past operations. One elder slapped his thigh on the spot. "If only my worthless descendants could have used such a system earlier, why would it have taken them thirty years just to cast a Dao Foundation?"
Another chimed in, "Indeed! But is Realm Lord Wei not worried that others might copy it?"
Wei Yuan smiled faintly. Just as he was about to speak, an elder of the Bao family seated centrally in the front row let out a cold sneer and said, "Copy it? They might replicate the functions, but what would the expenses be? Could they charge at Qingming's rates? Even several dozen times that wouldn't suffice to break even!"
This person was none other than Bao Shu, a great cultivator whose combat prowess ranked among the very pinnacle of Dharma Idols under heaven. Currently nearing perfection in his cultivation, he possessed immense prestige. The moment he spoke, none dared dispute him—and what Bao Shu said was indeed the unvarnished truth.
This system took the Zhou Tian Celestial Stars Array as its framework and drew upon the power of the Qingming Immortal Stone's domain as its foundation, with the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World automatically processing vast oceans of data. The more people who used it, the lower the cost apportioned to each individual.
The annual fee Wei Yuan set was calculated to break even at a threshold of one thousand cultivators. If another aristocratic family wished to successfully copy it, they would need to employ at least seven or eight Dharma Idol cultivators to serve at most one or two hundred Dao Foundation cultivators. The difference in costs was night and day—easily a hundredfold disparity.
Wei Yuan's primary intention in offering this system service to the three great families was not to make a massive profit, but rather to draw the entire younger generation of all three families into Qingming.
By cultivating and casting their foundations in Qingming, they could later advance their studies at Qingming Academy and Qingming Military Academy. Influenced subtly and inexorably over time, they would naturally embrace Wei Yuan's philosophies, growing up into staunch, natural supporters of Qingming. Even if Wei Yuan committed murder, arson, and every manner of atrocity, they would still believe he was in the right.
This had long been proven in the world beyond the heavens; Wei Yuan was merely adopting the wisdom of those who had come before.
At the same time, Wei Yuan was paving the way for the circulation of Qingyuan. The three families held plenty of Qingyuan right now—would this not give them a place to spend it? Better yet, what they were purchasing was a service.
The Zhou Tian Celestial Stars Array operated every single day, and the mortals within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World had idle hands anyway; providing service to one more person incurred virtually zero marginal cost.
None of the elders were ordinary men. With their sharp, discerning eyes, they instantly perceived the underlying genius. Yet for their own families, this venture held nothing but benefits and no drawbacks. Furthermore, with Bao Shu vigorously championing it, whoever objected would be openly crossing Bao Shu.
As for why the Bao family was so eager, the Cui and Xu families naturally understood clearly. Still, being able to elevate their own worthless juniors into the Dao Foundation realm would bolster their clan's foundational strength, and neither intended to fall behind. Right then, the Xu family made the first bid, demanding two thousand slots right off the bat.
Chapter 796