In the study, Wei Yuan and the Sixth Princess sat opposite each other.
Wei Yuan wore a solemn expression as he said, "To begin with, today I shall impart to you a peerless secret art created by an extraordinary hermit without equal in the world. Set this *Preliminary Exploration of the Desolate Domain* aside for now; we will practice this secret art first. It is named the Five Notes of the Desolate Roar."
Wei Yuan then gave a detailed explanation of the fundamental principles of the Desolate Roar, the key points of its first note, and the exertion techniques required.
Wei Yuan felt that the Sixth Princess's physical body looked fair and soft, lacking in sturdiness, so he decided to start here, where improvements would be fastest and most pronounced. The Desolate Roar was a divine art for tempering the body; across the entire world, few cultivation paths could rival it.
However, while the Desolate Roar appeared simple, its demands on innate talent were exceptionally steep. Wei Yuan figured teaching it to the Sixth Princess would effectively stall for time—afterward, he could just leave her to practice on her own.
Having finished imparting the basic method, Wei Yuan demonstrated. Exhaling to voice the sound, he roared, "*Awoo!*"
The Sixth Princess mimicked him. "*Meow-ma!*"
Wei Yuan said, "Not like that! You must take the sound as the nexus, channeling Dao power to resonate throughout your entire body, eliminating weak tissues and awakening vital force to temper your flesh and achieve rebirth! Follow me again: *Roar!!*"
The Sixth Princess: "*Meow!*"
Wei Yuan guided her patiently. "You have to vibrate—ripple! Imagine the sensation of an ocean wave surging over and crashing against your body—"
The Little Princess's body shuddered, and then she began to sway violently, swaying so much that Wei Yuan grew dizzy.
Wei Yuan sighed. "Keep practicing for now; I have official documents to handle. Before you master the first note, do not read *Preliminary Exploration of the Desolate Domain*, lest you get distracted."
The Sixth Princess nodded and practiced by herself in the study. Wei Yuan returned behind the desk to review and process paperwork, conveniently stowing away *Preliminary Exploration of the Desolate Domain*.
In the brief time he had gone to see Yanshi, the little girl had already finished reading Chapter Three! If she were allowed to keep reading, where would it end?!
In her, Wei Yuan caught a faint glimpse of the scene back when he had taught Ronglong mathematics.
Yet after reviewing only a few documents, Wei Yuan was rattled by her endless meowing. The little girl's voice seemed to possess a strange property of its own, bypassing all Dao heart defenses.
Even retreating his divine sense into the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World was useless; the kitten-like mews still reached his ears. Left with no choice, Wei Yuan handed most routine official tasks over to the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, unrolled a map of the State of Zhao, and began pondering the dense annotations upon it.
The Sixth Princess stopped meowing and leaned in. The moment she saw the map of Zhao, her expression shifted. "Just how much more of our land do you plan to seize?"
"Seize land? What would I want land for?"
"Don't try to fool me! Isn't waging war all about seizing land?" The Sixth Princess was full of disbelief.
Remembering that affairs of state and military also needed to be taught, Wei Yuan considered for a moment and said, "The State of Zhao has only so much land. With no domestic wars for many years, the population has grown larger and larger, consisting mostly of starving commoners at the bottom, many of whom have no land to farm at all. Most of the people I took in this war were destitute folk from the border commanderies and counties. Zhao can replenish that population gap in ten years, while bringing the fields back under cultivation takes only half a year. Relocating people from outer commanderies will be more than enough."
The Sixth Princess possessed a basic grasp of statecraft, so she nodded. Such landless paupers were considered burdens across the Nine Nations, and with Zhao's prolonged stability, their numbers were exceptionally vast.
Wei Yuan continued, "Now that trade has opened between us, my merchant caravans can travel across the entirety of Zhao. Everything I need can be bought, and everything Zhao needs can be found here. It is a case of benefiting from union and suffering from division. Furthermore, I have goods here that cannot be found anywhere else. So why would I want land?"
The Sixth Princess said, "I know—looms, cannons, and war chariots. But you won't sell those!"
Wei Yuan smiled. "I do sell them. Why wouldn't I? I wouldn't have sold them before, but now that you are here, there is naturally nothing that cannot be sold. Let me ask you: if your father wishes to campaign against the other nations, what equipment do you think is most important?"
The Sixth Princess pondered. "War chariots?"
Wei Yuan shook his head.
"Cannons? Rapid-fire autocannons? Armor?" The Sixth Princess guessed several things in succession, all incorrect.
Without keeping her in suspense, Wei Yuan explained, "It is flying boats and transport wagons—primarily transport wagons. With enough transport wagons, supplies and armies can be redeployed at will, making military operations vastly more flexible. When troops are mobile, there is no need to maintain so many local garrison forces; fielding elites is enough."
The Sixth Princess half understood.
Wei Yuan manifested illusions of several transport wagons and briefly introduced their features. These wagons possessed formidable performance, all constructed from hollow structural steel. Iron-smelting and steel-refining in Qingming were currently exceptionally advanced, driving steel prices down to absurdly low levels. These wagons built from high-performance steel performed better than spiritual wood wagons, yet cost half as much.
Yet no matter how low the cost, heavy-duty transport wagons capable of crossing mountains and hauling hundreds of thousands of jin in a single trip still cost over a hundred thousand taels of immortal silver apiece.
After hearing the specifications, the Sixth Princess suddenly blurted out, "When our cavalry retreated back then, you could have actually caught up?!"
Wei Yuan smiled without a word.
Zhao's heavy cavalry wore heavy armor; after galloping one or two hundred li, they were usually spent. Had Wei Yuan led his chariot units in hot pursuit, he could have wiped out that entire cavalry force within five hundred li.
Staring at the projections of the transport wagons and war chariots, the Sixth Princess suddenly gritted her teeth. "I want to learn how to build these wagons and chariots. What terms do you require to teach me?"
Wei Yuan paused, hesitating. "Well..."
Seeing his hesitation, the Sixth Princess bit her lower lip. "Name your terms! If all else fails, I'll bear you a few children—the first three are yours!"
The more Wei Yuan listened, the more bizarre it sounded. "What do you mean, 'the first three'?"
"I possess an ancestral secret art. If necessary, I can birth four or five in a single pregnancy! You get the lion's share, and the rest are mine!"
Even with Wei Yuan's thick skin, such brazen words proved too much to bear.
Such a momentous matter, yet this little girl spoke of it like children dividing fruit—the lion's share to Wei Yuan, the rest to herself. If there really were any, Wei Yuan would surely...
Especially when the Little Princess said it with that innocent face—no less stunning than Imperial Consort Yuan's, yet utterly oblivious to worldly affairs. An innocent maiden uttering such outrageous words packed devastating lethal power.
Wei Yuan found his Dao heart wavering once more. It seemed the recent bloody battles against the skyfiends had drained him more than he thought.
Still, although the Sixth Princess's talents were maxed out, she was indeed naive in worldly matters; Wei Yuan still had plenty of opportunities to guide her.
And so Wei Yuan assumed a solemn countenance and said, "Teaching you the vehicle-building techniques is no problem, and I require no compensation. However, learning it is of little use. Zhao lacks craftsmen, and even more so, template Dao Foundations. Relying solely on Body Casting artisans to forge them by hand is not only slow, but the quality will also be inconsistent."
With a wave of Wei Yuan's hand, the image of the transport wagon split apart automatically into individual parts. The entire vehicle had over a thousand components, far exceeding the Sixth Princess's expectations!
Wei Yuan pointed at the wagon bed. "Take this simplest floorplate, for instance. It must support a weight-reduction formation. Producing one in Qingming costs a mere five hundred taels of immortal silver. But in Zhao, a spliced spiritual wood panel that performs worse than this would cost at least three thousand taels of immortal silver, and spiritual wood supplies are limited—there may not even be suitable pieces. Zhao has no qualified craftsmen; even if you learn the manufacturing methods, you cannot produce them."
"But I want to try!"
Wei Yuan sighed. "That would just waste manpower and drain resources. Zhao is in internal turmoil right now with an empty treasury, needing money at every turn. Where would there be spare funds for your experiments?"
The Sixth Princess thought about it and realized he was right, leaving her at a loss.
Wei Yuan smiled faintly. "Actually, Zhao has no need to manufacture them on its own. Given our current relationship, if your father wants transport wagons, I can simply sell them to him at a discount."
The Sixth Princess's eyes lit up. "Really?"
Wei Yuan said in earnest, "Naturally. However, I fear your father cannot produce much money at the moment. How about this: I will prepare a batch of transport wagons and lease them to him instead."
"Lease??" To the Sixth Princess, this was a rather alien concept.
Wei Yuan explained the concept, then added, "...Therefore, making them is not as good as buying them, and buying them is not as good as leasing them."
The Sixth Princess found this deeply convincing and nodded slowly. Wei Yuan then said, "If you have time during this period, make a trip back to Zhao and ask your father how many transport wagons he wants, so I can prepare accordingly."
Having accomplished such a major feat on her very first day in Qingming, the Sixth Princess felt immensely invigorated, and much of the resentment she held toward Wei Yuan dissipated.
Seeing her expression, Wei Yuan did not disabuse her. He retrieved a few books, spread out paper and ink, and said, "Your ancestral immortal desires mortal luck. I actually have a method that can yield noticeable results in the short term and gather a vast amount of mortal luck."
The Sixth Princess's eyes brightened. She knew Wei Yuan was a master in the ways of karmic luck, someone even her own ancestral immortal praised without end, so she listened attentively.
Wei Yuan smiled faintly. "No need to be so nervous. While operating it is quite complex, the fundamental principle is actually not hard to understand. First, let me explain to you what 'welfare' means..."
Chapter 987