Dragon Canon

Yuan Qingyan was pacing back and forth in his study, as restless and helpless as an ant on a hot pan. He was not alone in the room. General Hsu was sitting by the tea table and sipping his tea intently.

“General Hsu, it’s not that I’m unwilling to help, but that b... Lord Li keeps making excuses and refuses to provide any grain. Perhaps we can make do for a few more days?”

General Hsu lowered his teacup and asked, “Which do you think is the truth, Lord Yuan: Are they unwilling to provide what you asked, or are they unable to?”

Yan Qingyan’s heart sank. This was not a question to be answered lightly, so he replied, “I don’t know.”

General Hsu slowly set down his teacup and said, “Soldiers cannot fight without meat, and besides, our monthly pay is already two days late. Lord Yuan, Wei Yuan had just poached several thousand people into his domain—all of them strong, well-trained men. If, in a couple of months, these men all became his, then it will be quite the conundrum, don’t you agree?”

Yuan Qingyan gritted his teeth and said, “They’re already short on grain, yet they still dare to poach so many people. I’m certain they’ll run out of supplies in three days! It’s just that my colleagues in the bureaucracy don’t want to see me succeed and are deliberately sabotaging us.”

General Hsu immediately retorted, “Please drop that ‘us’ from your sentence, Lord Yuan. I am not in the same boat as you!”

A flash of hatred crossed Yuan Qingyan’s eyes, but he couldn’t vent it. Since he failed to secure the military provisions, various generals and commandants were starting to voice their complaints, and none of them were as respectful as they had been at the start. On the other hand, this Hsu fellow had been consistently sarcastic from the start. The usual “arrogance first, deference later” attitude he used to receive was nowhere to be found.

General Hsu rose to his feet and walked toward the exit. He had one foot out of the study door, but he ultimately turned back and said, “A word of advice, Lord Yuan: if I were about to run out of provisions, I would not be poaching men at this time.”

Yuan Qingyan actually calmed down and replied, “Thank you for the reminder, General Hsu. I’m currently awaiting intelligence reports. We should have news within three days.”

General Hsu said no more and took his leave[1].

While many people were waiting for Wei Yuan to run out of food, Wei Yuan was waiting to harvest his grains.

As usual, a mountain of work awaited him after he drove several thousand men back to the realm. The 6,000 or so prisoners were all in the muscle-tempering stage or higher, with more than half having reached the blood-tempering stage, and 300 having perfected the Body-tempering stage. Every one of them had undergone systematic training as well, not to mention that the 3,000 or so men led by Wang Ziyan were all cavalry. On that note, Wei Yuan had naturally seized all 3,000 or so warhorses and instantly doubled the realm’s number of warhorses.

The first order of business after escorting the prisoners into the realm of Qingming was to put an end to their foolish hopes.

First, Wei Yuan promised everyone that they would regain their freedom after 3 years of labor. When the time came, they were free to choose to stay or leave. For obvious reasons, those wishing to bring their families over to the realm to reunite with them were even more welcome. But until then, no one was allowed to leave.

The 3-year-period applied only to those who chose to join the military to fight. Those unwilling to serve would have to stay in the realm for a full 8 years to earn their freedom.

As for the means of enforcement, it was simply a mouthful of potion. Once consumed, the individual must take the antidote once per month or die a most gruesome death. No one doubted the effectiveness of the potion as it was concocted by Sun Yu himself.

The fact that the prisoners had followed Wei Yuan all the way to the realm of Qingming meant that they had all accepted their fates. Thus, the procedures were carried out smoothly with little resistance. Next came the process of integrating them, registering them, and identifying any special talents among them.

These were all menial tasks, yet they were also of the utmost importance. Thus, Wei Yuan handled everything personally. By the time he had finally finished, he realized in surprise that three days had passed.

It was easy to lose track of time amid all the hustle and bustle. It wasn’t until someone came to report that Wei Yuan realized the grain in the realm had ripened!

This time, it was the mundane grain that had ripened, with the first 5,000 mu yielding just over 200 catties per mu. Trueman Chu He had already inspected the fields and noted that there was still a significant amount of toxic energy from the Shaman realm lingering in the soil, which limited the yield of this first harvest. But once they had planted a few more cycles and the soil was fully conditioned, the yield would double.

Despite the limitations, this single harvest alone amounted to 1 million catties! Another 15,000 mu of fields would be ready for harvest in ten days and yield another 3 million catties.

When these fields matured, they had gushed forth vast amounts of spirit qi and saved Wei Yuan a whole month of arduous cultivation. By now, Wei Yuan fully understood that farming could yield spirit qi two waves: a steady trickle during its daily growth, and a one-time harvest at maturity. The total from both waves was roughly equal.

As he watched the grain being brought in, Wei Yuan finally let out a deep sigh of relief. The boulder that had been weighing on his heart all this time had finally been lifted.

Everyone involved in the harvest was smiling from the bottom of their hearts. No matter the circumstances, grain always comes first. Only with grain would the sky regain its color.

The ripening of the first batch of grain had added a whopping 2,000 wisps of fortune for Wei Yuan, including a staggering 500 wisps of advanced fortune! Based on his understanding of fortune, this was practically equivalent to being worshipped as a god. If he were to switch paths and start cultivating the Dao of divine worship, then it was only a matter of time before he became a World Ruler.

But of course, the power of incense prayer came and went just as quickly. The moment he was abandoned by his followers, his cultivation level would plummet even after he had become a World Ruler.

As for great fortune, that was something only someone who had cultivated a primordial spirit could contribute. The most an ordinary person could contribute was a wisp of advanced fortune. Although there were extremely rare cases where a fortune might spontaneously condense into a drop of great fortune, it was exceedingly rare.

Watching the people bustling about in the fields, Wei Yuan himself was sharing in their heartfelt joy. The fields resembled a golden ocean with ripples of gold undulating across the landscape, illuminating the entire realm of Qingming.

It was at this moment Cui Yu flew into the sky and called out loudly for those who had finished harvesting to hurry to the adjacent fields. While the people were harvesting the grain, he had led the men to clear up new plots of land. Once a grain was harvested, it was treated with Dao techniques, transformed into seeds, and replanted right there on the spot.

Having lived through a period where every grain of rice had to be counted, Cui Yu was unwilling to waste even a single day. While Trueman Chu He’s disciples were processing the seeds, he was already rounding up the men to plant them.

Cui Yu’s heart proved to be even blacker than Wei Yuan’s. The second new field he ordered to clear out spanned a whopping 100,000 mu. The men had not worked day and night like this even when the realm was first established. Over ten thousand Body-tempering stage cultivators had advanced significantly in their cultivation as a result of this.

Originally, the responsibility should have fallen on Xiao Yu’s shoulders. But since he had been away for some time, the work had been divided among several people, with Cui Yu shouldering the lion’s share. Surprisingly, the second person shouldering the most amount of responsibilities after Cui Yu was Wang Yu. He was a bit clumsy at first, but he was making rapid progress under Cui Yu’s careful guidance.

Wang Yu usually accompanied Wei Yuan on expeditions, but whenever he had a spare moment, he would assist Cui Yu in managing the mortals. Incredibly, he was able to fulfill both responsibilities without neglecting either, but this also meant he was living a life akin to that of an ascetic, with barely any time left for his own cultivation.

Wei Yuan did not interfere excessively and instead gave them free rein to act.

There was one thing Wei Yuan found to be strange, though. Not only did this plot of land mature much earlier than expected, the remaining grain were much further along the maturation process than anticipated as well. After inspecting the fields and his own primordial spirit, he finally discovered that, since attaining the Dao Foundation Yin Yang, the Great Realm seemed to be resonating with it and gradually increasing its spirituality. Consequently, Qingming was affected, and its Jia Wood Nurtures Life had become stronger. It wasn’t just the grains; the growth rate of every spirit plant within the realm was faster.

In truth, Wei Yuan felt more concern than joy about this. Yin Yang was too lofty a Dao Foundation, and he wasn’t even sure if it truly belonged to him. Wei Yuan had been tormented by the Great Realm for many years. It wasn’t until recently that he finally found his direction, and everything was just beginning to fall into place. Naturally, he did not want any further complications.

Just then, a messenger from the Xiang Marquis arrived. The man was asking Wei Yuan to meet at a small, remote temple in the northern part of Bianning Commandery seven days later, where a crucial opportunity awaited him.

The entire map of the Shattered Realm was etched in Wei Yuan’s mind. He himself had traversed most of the region. However, he was pretty sure that the northern part of the Bianning Commandery was nothing but a range of desolate peaks, utterly devoid of human habitation. Who on earth would build a temple there?

Fortunately, he had some time. Wei Yuan waited for a few days until he had received his new spear before finally setting out.

For his meeting with the Xiang Marquis, Wei Yuan did not bring a large entourage with him. He invited only his Master and his Big Senior Sister to accompany him[2].

The meeting location was around 4,000 li away from the realm of Qingming—well beyond the range of the immortal sword seal. To Wei Yuan’s understanding, given his master’s reserved yet intense personality, and the fact his sword qi had been suppressed for far too long, it would likely cause a cosmos-shattering explosion if released all at once.

As for the new spear he was wielding, it was the result of a joint effort by Yu Zhizhuo and Sun Yu. Not only did the duo spend three days and nights crafting it, Xu Wenwu was there to offer advice and refine the design as well. As if that wasn’t enough, the guy had slept with it in his arms for a full night. Short of throwing himself into the furnace like the legendary master craftsmen in the stories, Xu Wenwu had done practically everything he could do to improve the spear.

Fortunately for Xu Wenwu, Yu Zhizhuo and Sun Yu were the opposite of uneducated and unskilled. Throwing the guy into the furnace would have served no purpose other than adding impurities. It might add some carbon, but the proportions would be difficult to control. In short, it was simply better not to do it in the first place.

And so Xu Wenwu slept with the divine arm for a whole night. It was quite the grand ceremonial gesture if he said so himself. Both Yu Zhizhuo and Sun Yu originally thought the fellow was just fooling around, but to their utter shock, the new spear actually gained all manner of extraordinary properties the next day! Unable to fathom the cause, the two high cultivators of the Palace of Absolute Beginning returned to their abodes and began an intensive study into feng shui and fortune—but that was a story for another time.

In addition to the extraordinary properties, Sun Yu informed Wei Yuan that the spear had been infused with the latest iteration of the Devilish Spirit-Eroding Incense called the Devil-Eroding God-Annihilating Incense[3]. Sun Yu had warned him repeatedly saying that, once the spear was fired, it would create an irreconcilable, mortal enmity. There would be zero room for compromise whatsoever.

Wei Yuan perfectly understood him. Severing one’s path to immortality was far more ruthless than simply cutting off their source of wealth.

And so Wei Yuan set off for the rendezvous with just two companions and one spear.

He felt incredibly brave and not the slightest bit afraid of death.

1. I really need to say this, but in the raw General Hsu really “pushed open the door and left.” I’m not sure how he did it when he had “one foot past the threshold” but I guess either cultivators are truly a different breed compared to us mere mortals, or the author fucked up. ☜

2. Just the two biggest powerhouses in Qingming. No biggie. ☜

3. Sun Yu would’ve made a kickass protagonist in another book. ☜