Wei Yuan's deduction of the third track went anything but smoothly. He was repeatedly interrupted by important official business—matters that left him grinning from ear to ear the moment he looked at them, setting his Dao heart swaying.
With the disbursement of the first batch of research funds, proposals began trickling in one after another. Out of more than forty projects in total, fully half were related to various template Dao Foundations, aligning splendidly with Wei Yuan's intentions.
It seemed none who earned the title of Academician were ordinary folk. The academicians from outside the Palace of Grand Beginning in particular submitted proposals that either introduced new template Dao Foundations or delved deeply into existing ones. Only one submitted an elixir project, which was aimed at raising the breakthrough success rate for all wood-element template Dao Foundations.
Among them, one person's submission made Wei Yuan's eyes light up. This project sought to determine the most suitable template Dao Foundation for a Body Casting cultivator through background checks, questionnaires, and similar means. The questionnaire comprised several hundred questions, many of which appeared completely unrelated to cultivation on the surface yet revealed underlying personality traits.
According to this researcher's findings, a mortal's personality significantly influenced their success rate in achieving a Dao Foundation. Cultivating a foundation that matched one's disposition could boost the success rate by ten to thirty percent. Once the questionnaire narrowed down the scope of template Dao Foundations, a specialized formation would test their constitution and skeletal structure to pinpoint the best fit.
The project itself cost very little and was exceptionally well-suited for large-scale application.
During the previous Dao Foundation Grand Ceremony, the Body Casting cultivators had mostly chosen which Dao Foundation to forge themselves, with mentors providing only advice. Once the ceremony began, Wei Yuan had his hands full simply bestowing karmic luck and activating All Living Beings in a Flash, leaving no possibility of on-site coaching.
To that end, Qingming had mobilized over a thousand cultivators to provide direct guidance, yet it remained chaotic. At the eleventh hour, many realized the foundation they had chosen did not suit them, ending in lamentable failure. They not only wasted their own immortal silver, but also squandered Wei Yuan's karmic luck and Qingming's nurturing power.
With this project, Body Casting cultivators would shift from self-selecting their Dao Foundations to having them assigned by Qingming, visibly and substantially raising their chances of success.
As luck would have it, this year's Dao Foundation Grand Ceremony had not yet taken place. Wei Yuan promptly approved the project, instructing the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World to refine it so participating cultivators could be screened prior to the event.
Among the newly submitted template Dao Foundations, Xiaoyu's Guixu Cloud-Guiding Silent Void Longevity Residual Flame Sword stood head and shoulders above the rest, leaving all others in the dust. This template was more powerful than the Great Bright Demon-Subduing Sword and had a lower barrier to entry than even the Bright Light Sword. Moreover, it produced heat without emitting light, was broadly versatile, concentrated its power tightly, and utilized spiritual qi with remarkable efficiency. In Wei Yuan's eyes, it had virtually no flaws.
The two First Academicians did not disappoint either. Perfected Chuhe submitted a comprehensive package of spiritual rice improvement initiatives, spanning more than thirty varieties, from the polished grains consumed by mortals to the pearl rice reserved exclusively for the immortal chickens. Ever since the immortal chickens moved into the Medicine Garden, the old Daoist had been completely obsessed with spiritual rice. Once these improvements were complete, per-unit yields would rise by anywhere from ten to fifty percent, further exacerbating Qingming's food crisis.
In a certain sense, Qingming truly was in the grips of a food crisis. Qingming currently possessed a population of thirty million. Under the basic farming method of six harvests a year with one season lying fallow, a mere ten million mu was more than enough.
However, Perfected Chuhe had spared no effort in land reclamation for years, and the displaced refugees had exhibited extraordinary enthusiasm for clearing new fields. Consequently, Qingming had cultivated thirty million mu. With per-mu yields steadily climbing, it could now comfortably sustain a hundred million mortals.
And therein lay the problem: there was simply far too much grain—so much that even converting it all into guinea pig meat was no longer viable. Qingming's mortals had only been eating meat for less than three years, yet many already felt nauseous at the mere sight of guinea pig meat.
Now a new problem surfaced: the surrounding regions could not consume that much grain either!
Under the onslaught of cheap Qingming grain, grain farmers across the eight commanderies of Ningxi had nearly starved. Meanwhile, prices for silk and cotton remained persistently high, prompting everyone to switch to planting mulberry trees, cotton, and hemp. Grain fields had dwindled to less than a third of what they once were.
Even so, the grain the eight commanderies could absorb was a drop in the ocean. Combined with shipments transported to the State of Zhao through the Bishui Territory, it was still impossible to consume such a staggering surplus.
Later, craftsmen invented canned vegetable-rice, packing it into iron drums that weighed two to three hundred jin each. Storable for several years, this finally solved the preservation and transport challenges.
With Chuhe refining the grain varieties, grain would undoubtedly overflow even more. Still, strengthening Qingming's foundational roots was of paramount importance, and Wei Yuan naturally gave his full support. With a sweep of his brush, Wei Yuan allocated a direct grant of one hundred thousand Qingyuan for the old Daoist's initial expenses.
Next came the proposal submitted by Feng Tingyu: the Systematic Iterative Improvement Plan for Template Dao Foundations. One glance at the title was enough to know it had been coined by an expert hand; originally, it surely went by another name.
The project's premise was quite straightforward: minor tweaks and patches to current template Dao Foundations, along with a roadmap for subsequent iterative enhancements. The endeavor required large numbers of cultivators at the peak of Body Casting to conduct trials, record data, and test hypotheses. The budget was primarily earmarked for recruiting test subjects and subsidizing their participation in the Dao Foundation Grand Ceremony.
Though composed entirely of minor tweaks, the sheer volume was staggering—over seven hundred individual improvements. It called for recruiting more than two thousand cultivators. At three hundred Qingyuan per head, the funding request exceeded six hundred thousand. From project scale to financial outlay, it fully showcased the clout of a First Academician!
In comparison, Ji Liuli's application requested a meager fifty thousand, paling by comparison.
Looking at the proposal, Wei Yuan could easily envision how Feng Tingyu had put it together. Her entire body had surely fired on all cylinders, coming up with a few ideas here and a few more there—more flesh doing more labor, less flesh doing less labor—eventually cobbling together this massive, sprawling project. It was quintessential Feng Tingyu.
Wei Yuan was naturally delighted by all these projects. He promptly dispatched invitations to the various halls of the Palace of Grand Beginning and friendly noble clans, while kicking off a massive recruitment campaign aimed at rogue cultivators to participate in the ceremony.
Even with the Shaman army looming at the borders, the irresistible allure of the Great Dao drew a relentless tide of cultivators toward Qingming, numbering several hundred each day.
Right around this time, Feng Chutang's confinement was finally lifted. Departing the northern mountain gate, he returned to Qingming. Wei Yuan was naturally overjoyed at his teacher's return and hosted a banquet to welcome him back.
As the banquet commenced, Xiaoyu showed up uninvited. Wei Yuan gave him a warm welcome, enthusiastically guiding him to a seat. Both could be considered Feng Chutang's disciples, so dining with their mentor was only fitting.
Once Xiaoyu sat down, however, the atmosphere grew somewhat strange. As the conversation progressed, Feng Chutang abruptly announced he would test Xiaoyu's cultivation. In the next instant, a frosty glint of killing intent flashed from his eyes, stabbing straight toward the center of Xiaoyu's brow!
Above Xiaoyu's head rose a miniature sun no larger than a washbasin. Before it stood a Shaoyang Star Sovereign under three inches tall, who severed the frost with a single sword strike.
Feng Chutang sat motionless as a Nether Dragon materialized over his head, its coiled body larger than the crimson sun. Surrounding the Nether Dragon were broken walls and ruined ramparts, permeated with the true intents of the netherworld and total extinction.
Both men were inside the main hall of Wei Yuan's residence, keeping their dharma idols scaled down to minuscule proportions. This manner of sparring had its own conventions: typically, idols were constrained to one thirty-sixth or occasionally one seventy-second of their normal size, conforming to numbers such as the Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends.
The Nether Dragon's stature matched the great sun, and the netherworld extinction intent of its Heart Projection world was only slightly inferior to the Shaoyang Star Sovereign, yet its domain was vastly larger. Had their cultivation levels been entirely equal, the Shaoyang Star Sovereign would have held a slight advantage. However, Feng Chutang possessed far deeper cultivation than Xiaoyu and was on the verge of stepping into the Heart Manifestation realm; clashing at this juncture left Xiaoyu no chance of victory.
Their sudden clash right in front of Wei Yuan caught him off guard. Immediately afterward, he acutely sensed a third stream of spiritual power in the room. It was exceptionally concealed and obscure, barely perceptible even within his Peerless Dao Domain.
A sudden gust stirred within Feng Chutang's ruined domain, and the Nether Dragon raised its head to gaze into a corner.
The corner had been empty, but beneath the dragon's focused gaze, a slender figure was outlined. Baoyun offered a salute and said, "Greetings, Master! Please don't be angry—I merely wanted to test Master's new dharma idol. Does Master's idol possess the ability to pierce delusions?"
Feng Chutang replied, "It does not pierce delusions, but senses hostility. There is no need for killing intent; so long as a thought of opposing me arises, the Nether Dragon will detect it."
Wei Yuan hurriedly rose to welcome Baoyun. "You've arrived at just the right time. Hurry and eat while it's hot!"
Otherwise, if Baoyun and Xiaoyu came knocking for a spar the moment Feng Chutang returned to Qingming as if sniffing out blood, utterly disregarding their senior, it would look terrible.
In the cultivation world, however, custom dictated that those at the same major realm within a hundred years of one another were broadly considered peers of the same generation—hence the adage of 'a hundred years makes a generation.' By that tradition, Feng Chutang, Zhang Sheng, Wei Yuan, and Baoyun were technically all of the same generation.
Feng Chutang did not mind in the least. Chuckling, he remarked, "The young are to be reckoned with. In a few more years, I won't be a match for Little Bao."
Baoyun responded, "Even a thousand years from now, I will still be Master's student."
Feng Chutang laughed heartily. "With a student like you, every teacher under heaven will envy me."
Ceasing his laughter, he turned to Wei Yuan and adopted a serious tone. "I rushed back this time for two reasons. First, I heard the Dao Foundation Grand Ceremony is about to begin again, so I specifically designed several template Dao Foundations and had my father review and refine them. They can be added to the template library for everyone to choose from."
This was wonderful news, and Wei Yuan hastened to express his gratitude. Any template polished by True Monarch Feng Yuan was bound to be extraordinary.
Then Feng Chutang asked earnestly, "As for the second matter: do you have any supplementary seats for those academicians of yours?"
Supplementary seats? Wei Yuan was utterly baffled. The selections had just finished; the novelty hadn't even worn off after three months, so why would there be additions already?
Catching Baoyun out of the corner of his eye, Wei Yuan saw her staring at him with burning intensity and understood at once. "Are you here to ask about supplementary seats as well?"
Baoyun nodded vigorously. "I only went into seclusion for a brief stint! How is it that by the time I came out, not only were two academies established, but the academicians were already chosen? You don't want to include me anymore, do you? Men truly are like this—the moment they..."
Wei Yuan hastily cut her off. "How about creating a few Honorary Academician titles? One for each of you—how does that sound?"
Baoyun and Feng Chutang shook their heads in unison. "No way!"
Chapter 835