Dragon Canon

It had happened without any warning whatsoever. For the past ten days or so, the boys and girls had spent most of their time naked in each other’s presence and sleeping together, yet they had never displayed the slightest inclination.

Before this, Wei Yuan had assumed that they simply lacked any concept of modesty between the sexes and felt nothing toward matters of yin and yang. Otherwise, mortal humans often got married and had children by the age of 14 or 15. If their bodies retained any instincts at all, they should have reacted in some ways that warned him that he should take precautions. No knowledge was necessary.

Moreover, they were all as busy as dogs. It was why the children’s wardrobe consisted of one short robe and only that—not even undergarments—and even these robes had to be put together via various means. It wasn’t like they had the fabric to weave tens of thousands of clothes at short notice.

This was why Wei Yuan didn’t think that anything would go wrong. His carelessness had directly led to this sudden incident.

The origins of these boys and girls were bizarre to put it mildly. Sun Yu’s earlier remark—”They share the same seed and origin”—kept reverberating louder and louder inside his head until it felt like thunder.

But Wei Yuan was used to life throwing a curveball at him. He calmed down and began swiftly inspecting every single shack, leaving none out. He had to assess the situation first before he could determine what to do.

It went without saying that some of the children bore obvious traces of activity. Fortunately, it wasn’t much.

What was eerie was that even within the same large shack, where some of the pairs had already finished their activities, everyone else sharing the space looked completely indifferent. They were neither joining in nor starting their own activities. It was almost as if what their companions were doing were of no concern to them whatsoever.

Wei Yuan moved with lightning speed. He would enter a shack, take a quick look, sweep the area with his perception, and take in the entire situation. Then, he would move to the next shack and repeat this process all over again.

According to the secret texts he had just exchanged, Heaven and Earth did not care about human ethics. In fact, so-called human ethics were just than constructs established by the sages after they had established the way of Rites and Virtue[1]. In the Distant Antiquity Era where no such concepts had existed, the human race had flourished all the same.

This theory fundamentally differed from what was preached in Confucianism, but the Palace of Absolute Beginning naturally cared nothing for the Confucianists’ opinions. This was why its relationship with the Four Sages Academies had always been rather strained.

In any case, these boys and girls could be true blood relatives, and Heaven and Earth still wouldn’t react to their actions whatsoever.

However, it was long known within the cultivation world that, while children born of closely related bloodlines might occasionally be prodigies, they were also far more likely to suffer from all manner of problems. The reason many within both major and minor clans advocated for internal marriages to keep the bloodline pure—especially the small families claiming to have had Immortal Lords or True Lords among their ancestors—was in hopes of regaining their long lost glory, however slim that chance might be.

There were actually quite a few people like that. However, that wasn’t an option for Wei Yuan.

For the geniuses, this wouldn’t be an issue. But for those who weren’t geniuses and were born with problems, they would likely come to harbor deep resentment. It would have become his sin to bear.

Moreover, nothing had happened for the past ten days or so. Then, it happened tonight of all times. Wei Yuan couldn’t help but suspect that the Xu Clan might have left something undetectable in these children. He had to get to the bottom of it.

By now, the cultivators of the Palace of Absolute Beginning were also alerted and arrived on the scene. Upon learning what had happened, they all wore solemn expressions as they quickly began taking headcounts and investigating the children’s statuses.

In the distance, Ren Suxing and his group had also sensed the commotion and wanted to come investigate. However, they were blocked by the realm’s guards.

The group had even argued with the guards at the beginning. As the realm lord, Wei Yuan naturally detected the commotion happening over there. However, he was in a terrible mood and didn’t need any more trouble on his plate. Thus, he ordered the guards to forbid them from taking a single step outside the town they were residing. If necessary, they were authorized to use force.

Wei Yuan’s face had turned ashen by the time he finished inspecting the entire city. As much as he wished it otherwise, the yin-yang interaction between the boys and girls wasn’t the worst thing to have happened tonight.

When the disturbance occurred, some of the guards, not understanding what was happening, had seen the boys and girls embracing one another. As a result, some of them grew lustful and tried to take advantage of the girls nearest to them. The girls, naive and unaware, did not understand that they should refuse or resist the advances. Hence, they were taken advantage of.

Wei Yuan had acted with lightning speed. The offenders had hastily pulled their clothes back into place, but they hadn’t had the time to cover their tracks. Moreover, Wei Yuan had directly probed into the girls’ primordial spirits, so he knew exactly what had taken place. In the blink of an eye, he had rounded up all eleven guards who had taken advantage of the chaos to commit rape.

These guards were mostly locals from the western regions. Wei Yuan had given them his trust because they had fought multiple life-and-death battles for the realm of Qingming. Alas, these cultivators remained wild and unruly, with poor self-control. The moment they were faced with temptation, they had immediately cast aside their military discipline and threw Wei Yuan’s orders out of their minds.

At the moment, the entire city was ablaze with lights, and all the boys and girls stood frozen like statues. Wei Yuan felt not a ripple of emotion as he ran through every possible consequence of the incident in his mind.

These boys and girls were very likely to be Xu Shiqi’s descendants. The blood of Xu Wangu, an Immortal Lord, also ran in their veins. The girls who were raped might not understand what had happened to them now, but they would eventually understand one day.

To defile the descendant of an Immortal Lord—especially one who had not yet perished—was considered a grave crime throughout the entire cultivation world. An Immortal Lord was an Immortal Lord because their very being had become fused with the Heavenly Dao. Regardless of Xu Wangu’s reputation or past deeds, as long as as he was still an Immortal Lord, one could say that he was partially an incarnation of the Heavenly Dao.

If Xu Wangu were to learn that his descendants had been insulted in such a manner, he could deliver a bolt of immortal lightning that annihilated the entire domain this instant, and the Palace of Absolute Beginning would not have any ground to object.

On a personal level, Wei Yuan had fought a desperate, all-out battle against the plain-clothed swordsman, a.k.a Xu Shiqi before. He had also read about his life and received his sword legacy. He might not admit it verbally, but deep down, he had already regarded the man as a friend of sorts.

And now, the daughters of his friend had been humiliated right under his very nose. As deep as Wei Yuan’s composure was, he was finding it difficult to suppress his anger.

As Wei Yuan pondered with a cold expression, the guard captain hesitantly approached him with a deep bow.

Wei Yuan recognized him. He was among the first group recruited by Yun Feifei. The fact that he had survived this long was no small feat. Of the cultivators who had entered Qingming at the same time as him, less than thirty percent were still alive. Having endured numerous bloody battles,the man had also advanced to the late-stage of the Dao Foundation stage. He counted as a pillar of the realm.

The guard captain stepped before Wei Yuan and whispered, “My lord, they were just momentarily confused and made a minor mistake. Please calm down. When we get back, I’ll be sure to punish them severely!”

“Hmm?” Wei Yuan stared at him impassively, until cold sweat began to trickle down the man’s forehead, and he dared not meet Wei Yuan’s gaze any longer.

Wei Yuan asked slowly, “You’ll punish them later?”

The cultivator hurriedly replied, “Yes, yes! I’ll punish them severely! I’ll lash them at least twenty—no, fifty times! I’ll make sure they can’t get out of bed for seven days straight!”

Wei Yuan remained impassive. “What are they to you?”

“We’ve known each other since we entered Qingming. We’ve fought side by side all this time. It’s just... they lost their heads this one time....”

Wei Yuan cut him off. “Is this guard unit yours?”

Cold sweat broke out on the guard captain’s brow, and he quickly replied, “Of course not. We just share a bond forged on the battlefield.”

Wei Yuan did not press the matter further, but said, “It is stated very clearly in the military regulations: those who abandon their posts without authorization shall be beheaded, those who rape or abuse civilians shall be beheaded, and those guilty of both offenses shall be punished for both. Do you still have questions?”

The guard captain hurriedly protested, “My lord! They’re all brothers who have risked their lives for you!”

Wei Yuan suddenly grabbed him by the collar and exploded, “And if you’d paid more attention and kept a closer watch on them, they wouldn’t have broken military regulations, and they wouldn’t have to die!”

Bang! Wei Yuan slammed the guard captain to the ground and declared, “The facts are indisputable; the evidence is irrefutable! Execute them!”

The cultivators standing behind the eleven guards swung their sabers, and heads rolled.

A flash of light flickered in Ji Liuli’s hand as she quietly sealed the souls of the eleven men within her Devil Suppressing Nine Level Pagoda. Her movements were swift and stealthy; almost no one noticed aside from Zhang Sheng and Wei Yuan.

Gazing at the eleven corpses, Wei Yuan closed his eyes. After a moment, he opened them and declared, “Bury them. Their families are to receive compensation according to regulations. Anyone who dares to leak tonight’s events will be executed without mercy! Additionally, all guard captains who failed to discipline their subordinates and allow military discipline to break down are to be relieved of their posts, reassigned to the cavalry, and restart as a foot soldier. They may only be reinstated after earning sufficient military merit.”

The series of thunderous punishments left everyone speechless with fear. More than a dozen guard captains, both high-ranking and low-ranking, removed their helmets and left with their heads hung low, heading to the cavalry camp to report for duty. From that moment on, everyone—from top to bottom—understood that these boys and girls were Wei Yuan’s off-limits territory, and no one was to lay a finger on them.

Cui Yu nodded and made a note of the matter.

After everything had been settled, the cultivators of the Palace of Absolute Beginning gathered once more to discuss the incident. Ji Liuli revealed eleven dots of light in her hand and said, “I have captured these souls. Anyone not afraid of the karmic sin, please dispel them.”

Wei Yuan looked at Ji Liuli with some confusion.

Ji Liuli rolled her eyes at him and explained, “The immortal descendants are bound to you by karma. By defiling them, these people have created a karma so potent that not even reincarnation can erase them. You thought that killing them would be the end of it? If a high cultivator were to fish them from the cycle of reincarnation, they can use it to one, convict you of the crime, and two, cast numerous karma-based curses on you. You may not fear it, but the people around you will suffer numerous consequences.”

Wei Yuan hadn’t anticipated such far-reaching implications. Then again, karma, fortune, and the cycle of reincarnation were all mysterious and unfathomable concepts harboring countless hidden mechanisms. His breadth of knowledge in this regard certainly couldn’t match Ji Liuli’s.

It was at this moment Sun Yu spoke calmly, “I’ll handle it. All I need to do is save a few lives to offset a karmic debt like this.”

Yu Zhizhuo looked surprised. “Seriously?”

“Others cannot, but we at the Xuanming Hall know secret methods that could offset it.”

Sun Yu reached out and drew the eleven souls toward him, storing them in his pill furnace. A wisp of cyan smoke spewed from the small hole in the furnace lid, and shortly after, Wei Yuan noticed a shadow appearing between Sun Yu’s eyebrows. But soon, waves of pale, clear light surged from the man’s body, repeatedly washing over the shadow until it gradually vanished. Just like that, he was once again fresh, clean, and radiating righteousness.

Everything seemed normal in the days that followed, but Wei Yuan couldn’t shake off an inexplicable sense of unease.

One afternoon, Sun Yu arrived in a hurry, found Wei Yuan, and said, “Something is amiss! I just checked and discovered that every girl who had intercourse that day is pregnant!”

“What?” Wei Yuan exclaimed in shock.

Sun Yu said seriously, “A little over a thousand of them had intercourse that night. Aside from those with the eleven guards, all the rest are pregnant!”

1. Specifically referring to 礼 and 德, which are intertwining concepts in Confucianism. ☜