No Room for Mercy

Wei Yuan settled the Mirage Demon clan on their original island and began transforming it into an environment they would find hospitable. Much to his surprise, however, the cost of reshaping the island was enormous. If he were to transform it completely, pouring every bit of origin qi that Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World inhaled and exhaled over an entire year into the island would barely expand it by about a li square. After a brief trial, Wei Yuan realized this was completely unfeasible. He flew in haste to the Northern Mountain Gate to consult Immortal Monarch Yanshi, only to learn that the Mirage Demon clan already had three Scenery Command experts—including one in the middle stage—which was an allotment suited to a silver grotto-heaven. Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, on the other hand, had only just reached deep green, trailing by two whole major realms. Excluding the immortal flora, the daily spirit qi consumed by three Scenery Command Mirage Demons equaled that of all Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. Within Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, the heaven-and-earth origin qi consumed by the dozen-plus Dharma Idol cultivators, including Han Li, already accounted for nearly half the total. The immortal plants, however, were self-sufficient and even released surplus spirit qi into Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. That was precisely why Wei Yuan's cultivation had progressed by leaps and bounds all along. Otherwise, before Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World developed its own spirituality and could breathe heaven-and-earth origin qi, the meager amount Wei Yuan inhaled and exhaled on his own could never have sustained so many mortals; supporting a few thousand would have already been quite a feat. Only now did Wei Yuan truly grasp how horrifyingly high-order cultivators consumed resources. A single Scenery Command cultivator was worth over a thousand Dao Foundation cultivators, a Dharma Idol cultivator was worth at least a dozen, and a potent Dharma Idol could easily outstrip over a hundred. As for Wei Yuan himself—he made a rough estimate, and then promptly ignored the answer. Wei Yuan had always felt that his mindscape world was unusual. Yet from Tinghai down to Xuanyue and Yanshi, and even Zhang Sheng, all turned a blind eye to every oddity, telling him only to cultivate with peace of mind. Hearing such words often enough, Wei Yuan simply settled down and cultivated in peace. Wei Yuan sought instruction for three consecutive days before finally returning satisfied to Qingming, carrying several dozen textbooks handpicked by Yanshi on his back. Now he finally understood why completely remodeling a small island cost so much. It was practically equivalent to creating another golden grotto-heaven. Only with the monstrous throughput of Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World could an area a li square be fashioned in a single year. As for the mindscape world of an ordinary Dharma Idol... wait, how could an ordinary Dharma Idol have a mindscape world in the first place? Having identified the crux of the issue, Wei Yuan found a solution. Since transforming the island into a comfortable, satisfying haven for the Mirage Demons was out of the question, he would simply lower the standards. Wei Yuan tested several plans in succession, but the spirit qi consumption remained unacceptable. He had no choice but to lower the bar again and again, until it was reduced to merely keeping them alive. With that, the cost finally fell into an acceptable range. He reshaped an island roughly ten li square and crammed the two-hundred-odd thousand Mirage Demons onto it. Such harsh conditions were naturally difficult for the Mirage Demons to endure. The weakest among them began dying off one after another, and the population only stabilized when it fell to around one hundred and ninety thousand. Wei Yuan knew that their deaths were largely due to the virus; the grueling environment was only a minor factor. Moreover, once their bodies were ravaged by the virus, recovery was extraordinarily difficult—unless they returned to the Star Forest to be sheltered by the power of the grotto-heaven, surviving was near impossible. The Mirage Demons practiced water burial, which turned into sea burial within Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. Watching corpse after corpse pushed into the ocean, Wei Yuan could only sigh inwardly. For the Mirage Demons, this outcome was indeed tragic. But each served their own master, and there was no helping it. If given another chance, Wei Yuan would still unleash the virus, and he would still capture as many Mirage Demons as possible. In a war between two races, there was no room for mercy. The Mirage Demons silently endured, crammed into cramped shanties to scrape by, bearing the foul weather and miserable surroundings as though trapped in a boundless, eternal night. Having settled the Mirage Demons, Wei Yuan turned to the next step in perfecting Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. At this stage, an ordinary Dharma Idol cultivator would have constructed the framework of their mindscape world, refined its details, ignited its spiritual vitality to bring it into being, and then crossed a heavenly tribulation to gain heaven and earth's acknowledgment. By searing an imprint into the Great Dao, a mindscape world would be complete, advancing them to Scenery Command. Yet in Wei Yuan's case, all of Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World was regarded by heaven and earth as his Dharma Idol. Consequently, he had to build a mindscape world for Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World itself. This was not impossible. Immortal Monarch Tinghai had conducted preliminary explorations, which Yanshi had further refined, and the method had now been passed on to Wei Yuan in the form of those dozens of textbooks. Wei Yuan now needed to treat Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World as a celestial star. His first task was to create a minor world subservient to it, the equivalent of a satellite. Therefore, the very first thing Wei Yuan had to do was calculate a viable satellite orbit. *It's just an imperfect circle. How hard could it be?* Wei Yuan thought. Then he quickly discovered that it was actually rather difficult, because Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World was moving as well. To calculate such a circle, more than half of those dozens of textbooks covered related problems, and about a dozen of them were prerequisite knowledge he had to master beforehand. A primordial spirit was far more intricate than an actual celestial star; the attributes of the spirit qi also had to be factored in, each bringing distinct effects. If the orbit were miscalculated, at best the grotto-heaven would suffer damage, and at worst it would slip out of orbit and spiral out of control—at the very least dropping a rank. Different spirit qi attributes also carried different difficulties. The Five Elements were the most fundamental and simplest, while moving up to the Four Symbols, the Three Powers, and the various astral positions became far more complex. Wei Yuan had intended to pick the most basic Five Elements, only for Yanshi to directly assign him Yin and Yang. That was a difficulty on par with Time and Space, second only to the Primordial Chaos before the opening of heaven and earth! As for why it was Yin and Yang, Wei Yuan knew full well. Maiden Yin-Yang resided inside Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. She was practically the manifestation of the Great Dao of Yin and Yang in the mortal realm. After her reincarnation within Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, the two had influenced each other, gradually imprinting the Great Dao of Yin and Yang upon it. With his piercing sight, Yanshi had naturally perceived the attributes of Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, and thus thoughtfully tailored a curriculum for Wei Yuan. At the time, Wei Yuan had felt just like Xu Wenwu being thrust into an Olympiad competition class: he recognized every individual word when he opened the book, but stringing them together read like heavenly gibberish. Yet this concerned his path of cultivation, and Wei Yuan knew there was no running from it. Calming his heart and steadying his mind, he let Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World breathe origin qi on its own while he immersed himself in calculating that imperfect circle, occasionally attending to official duties along the way. Before he realized it, summer had turned to winter. A chime of a bell within Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World startled Wei Yuan from his deep contemplation. He had thought only two or three days had passed, but in reality, more than half a year had slipped away. It was already the New Year of the tenth year of Tianqi. With the arrival of early spring, Qingming was brimming with festive cheer, most people celebrating yet another bountiful year. Ever since the great war against the shamans, Qingming had been flourishing day by day, each year more prosperous than the last. While the people celebrated, the spirit beasts and immortal plants were not idle either. Early on the morning of New Year's Day, the flying sable took a three-colored gift and went to pay New Year's respects to the little rooster.