Dragon Canon

As supplies from within Hanyang Pass were gradually transported back, the 800 Dao Soldiers also returned to Qingming. After a brief taste of life as horse bandits, the Dao Soldiers were all quite excited and seemed quite tempted to change careers.

Wei Yuan hurriedly herded them back to their cultivation practices, preventing their minds from wandering any further. If he were to turn the Dao Soldiers entrusted to him by the sect into bandits, his master would surely return to purge his existence once and for all.

More disciples from the Cui Clan arrived in batches, bringing to the total up to 500. Together with the 800 Dao Soldiers and 200 Qingming cultivators, they formed the members of this term’s Crash Course in Dao Foundation.

With the numbers suddenly swelling to 1,500, even Wei Yuan felt a bit of pressure.

Originally, Wei Yuan had planned to train the Dao Soldiers and the Qingming cultivators differently. Simply put, they would be given an extra chance and an opportunity to forge their Dao Foundations according to their own wishes. If they failed, they could then choose one of the Dao Foundation templates provided by Wei Yuan.

However, after discussing the matter with his fellows from the Palace of Absolute Beginning, Wei Yuan ultimately decided to apply the same procedure to the Cui clansmen—that was, to grant them an additional chance as well. Although this would consume the remaining, already scarce blue water in the realm stone, Wei Yuan instinctively felt that maintaining basic fairness within a group was quite important.

A new Dao Foundation template was added for this term: it was none other than the launchable flying sword Wei Yuan had recently created.

This flying sword had no complex shape or superfluous functions. Its only extraordinary feature was that its rear feature could explode, propelling the front section to accelerate and increase its destructive power. When loaded into a specially crafted mystic artifact-grade gun, it became a high-powered flying sword projectile.

It was precisely because of its simplicity and lack of frills so to speak that it further expanded the scope of what constituted as a Human-tier Dao Foundation. It was yet another significant contribution to the expansion of humanity’s path to immortality.

Moreover, this flying sword could be forged in multiples. In other words, once the Dao Foundation was established, depending on the individual’s innate talent, one might produce a single sword, three, five, or even more.

With Wei Yuan serving as a fine example, the cultivators of the Palace of Absolute Beginning had long since begun racking their brains to research new Dao Foundations. They soon discovered that, as long as they were shameless enough, then developing a new Dao Foundation was basically no challenge at all.

That was how Yu Zhizhuo came up with the Five Directions Geng Metal, while Sun Yu developed the Natural Recovery Water.

Trueman Chu He had originally intended to create a Water or a Wood-element Dao Foundation, but since he had already developed the Six Paths Jia Yi Divine Wood Qi, coming up with something that was even more shameless proved to be somewhat difficult. In the end, after much deliberation, he devised a Dao Foundation called the Beast-Taming Immortal Heart. This Dao Foundation excelled at gaining the favor of spirit beasts and making it easier to tame powerful spirit beasts as spirit pets.

However, since the three men were technically Wei Yuan’s seniors, they couldn’t quite abandon their faces entirely. Although the new Dao Foundation templates were slightly stronger than the ones Wei Yuan had developed, their names were actually far less impressive.

After settling those who were going to establish their Dao Foundation, the disposition of the 300,000 Xu Clan troops and official troops was also nearly complete. Most of those who could return had already done so, while the remainder were basically people without backing or support, totalling 200,000 at the moment.

Wei Yuan chose a late afternoon to gather everyone together. With 300,000 people assembled in one place, it was what they called a sea or a mountain of people[1]. As soon as he ascended the high platform, the crowd fell silent, knowing that what he was about to say would determine their very fate.

Wei Yuan channeled his Dao energy and infused it with a touch of dragon qi derived from the dragon bones he got. A True Dragon possessed an innate draconic aura that exerted a terrifying oppressive force over low-tier beings and was far more pronounced than that of the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree or the Ice-Glass Divine Tree. Consequently, the moment Wei Yuan spoke, those standing closer to the high platform began to tremble uncontrollably, and many even collapsed to the ground.

“Take a look. Can you tell who he is?”

Two cultivators escorted Xu Chunyuan onto the high platform, and a commotion immediately broke out below. Some recognized the old man right away, and as word spread from one to ten, and from ten to a hundred, everyone knew who he was in the blink of an eye.

Wei Yuan said, “he was once the garrison commander of Hanyang Pass, and now he too is standing here. Therefore, the Xu clan cannot save you; no one can save you! Now, I’m going to explain the arrangements for you. Under this framework, as long as you diligently complete the tasks assigned to you, you may be able to shed your current status—and even become official troops under my command.”

Wei Yuan then announced a new system for determining social status. This system was based on two tracks: merit and cultivation level. Everyone started as a “criminal subject.” Criminal subjects were treated like prisoners, and the penalties one suffered for committing an offense were extremely severe. There were dozens of capital offenses alone. However, once a criminal subject had accumulated enough merit, they became a “trooper.” A trooper still didn’t count as an ordinary soldier, though. Status wise, they were similar to convict soldiers or suicide squads.

After “trooper” came “commoners”, followed by “registered state soldier.” This was the status progression.

As one’s body-tempering cultivation improved, corresponding benefits were also granted. As they could undertake more tasks, they could also accumulate merits more quickly. Numerous missions exclusive to each minor stage in the Body-tempering stage were also offered.

If a Body-tempering stage cultivator reached the bone-tempering stage and was willing to sign a blood pact, they could skip being a criminal subject and become a trooper immediately.

The amount of merit required to advance through each rank varied as well. Advancing from criminal subject to trooper did not require much merit. If the criminal subject displayed diligence and good conduct, they could advance to the next rank within a year at most. However, advancing from trooper to commoner was going to take three years, and from commoner to registered state soldier six years.

Wei Yuan had not yet finalized the details of this system. His preliminary idea was to subdivide the criminal subject rank into a dozen or so sub-ranks, with the early ranks progressing quickly and the later ranks more slowly. The first few sub-ranks could be overcome in a matter of days, while the latter ones would take ten days, several dozen days, or even over a hundred days.

There were many similar systems documented in historical records. They were also mentioned in Xu Wenwu’s materials.

Once the new system was announced, all the prisoners grew much quieter, and the unease that had previously permeated the air dissipated considerably. Otherwise, according to past practices, whenever food supplies became scarce, it was highly likely that some of them would have to be massacred. But since Wei Yuan had gone through the trouble of coming up with such a complex system, it was clear he had no intention of killing them.

The primary task for a criminal subject at present was to clear land for farming. They would work alongside the newly arrived refugees to reclaim land on the outskirts of the territory. Those areas were far from the realm stone, and the transformation of the land had only just begun. Thus, the newly cultivated fields might yield less than 200 catties of grain. However, now that he had sufficient manpower, Wei Yuan planned to clear up to one million mu of farmland first and address all other matters later.

Among the criminal subjects and refugees, those who were literate, possessed some body-tempering, and were relatively intelligent would be sent to Yu Zhizhuo to undertake various tasks such as quarrying, ore selection, furnace construction, bridge building, and more.

As for the remaining people, they were made to build fortifications and excavate underground structures.

Wei Yuan remained wary of the Xu Clan. If he were to be entirely honest, he didn’t trust Western Jin either. If it weren’t for the Liao tribes in the north fighting so fiercely, he wouldn’t be surprised if the state’s main army were to arrive at his doorsteps at any moment.

It wasn’t like Wei Yuan had never had any disagreement with his fellow cultivators. This time, the disagreements were about the nine Clear Spirit Trees Wei Yuan had brought back this time. Although the Clear Spirit Trees were merely spirit plants, they could significantly improve the surrounding environment and enhance the concentration of spirit qi.

According to Trueman Chu He, all nine trees should be planted in the herb garden. Doing so would allow the Great Nine Palaces Spirit Gathering Array to be established, which would greatly increase the concentration of spirit qi within the garden, thereby accelerating the growth of all spirit plants within.

The others had no objections, but Yu Zhizhuo proposed an alternative: if the same spirit gathering array were placed in the armament workshop, both production volume and quality could be elevated to a higher level. However, everyone else felt that, according to tradition, such spirit trees should naturally be placed in the herb garden.

In the end, though, Wei Yuan planted only three trees in the herb garden to set up a small Three Powers Spirit Gathering Array. The effectiveness of this array was only 20% that of the Great Nine Palaces Spirit Gathering Array. The remaining six spirit trees were planted in the mortal fields, particularly around several patches of corrupted soil. This would help suppress the spread of the corrupted soil, protect the mortal fields, and simultaneously increase their yield. By his calculations, this would yield an additional 2 million catties of grain per season.

It was this decision that had sparked a rare argument between Wei Yuan and his fellow cultivators.

One point of contention was that the cultivators believed it was sufficient for mortals simply not to starve to death. The fact that they went so far as to ensure they were well-fed was already an act of incredible benevolence by any standard under heaven. A resource as vital as the Clear Spirit Trees had more urgent uses and should not be squandered on mere mortals.

It was only then Wei Yuan realized that his fellow cultivators had long harbored reservations about his consistent prioritization of resources for mortals. Their grievances simply hadn’t erupted until the allocation of the Clear Spirit Trees, a major matter, came up.

Even if immortals and mortals were treated equally, there remained disagreement regarding which approach would yield greater benefits for the realm of Qingming as a whole: laying out the Great Nine Palaces Spirit Gathering Array in the herb gardens or distributing the resources across the mortal fields. Viewed from this perspective, Yu Zhizhuo’s proposal became extremely competitive.

The demand for cuirasses, weapons, and tools by the armament workshop far, far outstripped supply. This was especially true regarding the cuirasses, which sold out as soon as they were made available to the outside world. The increase in both volume and quality would have translated directly into quantifiable immortal silver, and if they used that surplus immortal silver to purchase grain, they would certainly earn far more than just 2 million catties.

To be honest, Wei Yuan couldn’t win the argument on either of these points, so in the end, he had no choice but to invoke his status as the realm lord—couple with the fact that the spirit plants had been personally bestowed upon him by True Lord Huang Yun—to put an end to the dispute.

Wei Yuan couldn’t quite explain why he was so adamant about this decision. At best, he could only say it was a gut feeling. He just couldn’t help but feel uneasy whenever the grain yield from his own fields fell short.

Once the argument was over, the Palace cultivators were once again on the best of terms. The unpleasantness from before had been put completely behind them.

Sun Yu said, “The Great Karmic Curse had come out of nowhere. I suspect it might not have been a coincidence.”

Trueman Chu He’s eyes lit up as he asked slowly, “Are you saying we have a traitor in our midst?”

Sun Yu nodded. “There’s no other explanation. While recovering from my wounds as of late, I performed a divination to calculate the heavenly mysteries. The omens clearly indicated that the Great Karmic Curse was linked to a traitor.”

Yu Zhizhuo said, “Investigating this matter is both easy and difficult. It will simply require some time and resources. First, we’ll set up a great array to divine the heavenly mysteries and prevent the traitor from disrupting it. Then, we’ll interrogate everyone with access to the central peak. We should be able to get results that way. If that doesn’t work, then we’ll expand the scope. There are only about two thousand potential suspects. We’ll find the culprit eventually.”

Feng Tingyu suddenly spoke up. “There were some people who left the realm around that time; we can’t let them off the hook either.”

The cultivators all nodded in agreement, finding her point well-taken. Of course, just because Feng Tingyu had a momentary flash of insight did not mean their view of the Bright King Hall had altered in the slightest.

Wei Yuan had thought this through many times before, and he replied, “There may be a traitor, but I’m sure they’ve hidden their tracks very well. If we were to launch a large-scale manhunt, we might be able to catch them, but there’s also a high chance we’ll arrest the wrong person. There have been many similar incidents throughout history, and most of them eventually turned into high-profile cases with far-reaching repercussions.”

At this point, Wei Yuan smiled and said, “I’ve survived even a Great Karmic Curse. There aren’t many things left that still can kill me. It’s just one traitor—even if we manage to catch them, there’s little to gain. I think, with so much to do right now, we shouldn’t go making things harder on ourselves.”

His fellow cultivators pondered about it for a moment. Despite feeling some reluctance, they all agreed with Wei Yuan’s reasoning.

Qianqiu City, Ning Province.

Fan Donghe emerged from the Morn-Eve Hall, utterly exhausted. The Morn-Eve Hall was the Xu clan’s key facility for gathering intelligence and rooting out traitors—a place that had long struck fear into the hearts of those who spoke of it. Ever since he returned, Fan Donghe had been required to report to the Morn-Eve Hall every day to undergo interrogations lasting several hours.

After all, Fan Donghe was an Avatar with formidable combat prowess, and since there was no evidence of him defecting to the enemy, the Morn-Eve Hall stewards had treated him relatively courteously. They did not subject him to torture and even allowed him to return home each night after the daily interrogations.

But others were not so fortunate. The officers released by Wei Yuan were all recaptured immediately after the Xu Clan retook Hanyang Pass, and their interrogations all centered around one single question: Why had Wei Yuan let them go?

How could there be an answer to that question? The officers’ responses were, of course, all over the place, and such answers naturally failed to satisfy the stewards. So, they resorted to torture. Over 1,000 officers had been brought back from Hanyang Pass this time, so the Morn-Eve Hall was overcrowded for a time, and there weren’t enough interrogation rooms to go around at all. Many single-person interrogation rooms had to be crammed with four or five people, all squeezed together to undergo torture simultaneously.

The officers knew very well that the severity of this matter could vary, but the moment it fell into the hands of the Morn-Eve Hall, there was only one way it could go from there: worse. Consequently, they did everything in their power to enlist the help of their families, hoping to secure their release through connections, and the senior and junior stewards of the Morn-Eve Hall all made a tidy profit, to varying degrees.

1. I slightly altered the original Chinese idiom “人山人海” (Human Mountain Human Sea) to this. ☜