Longzang

Chapter 1078 Fertilizer
The State of Ji was plunged into a new wave of turmoil. Throughout the summer, rebel forces swept across multiple prefectures, inflicting repeated defeats on the government troops and plundering large numbers of civilians. Many counties and villages were completely devastated, devoid of any sign of human habitation.

The government troops retreated to the vicinity of the capital and could only rely on the strategic passes to hold their ground.

Fortunately, the rebels disappeared after taking away the civilians and did not continue to invade the capital.

After a long and arduous journey of thousands or even tens of thousands of miles, the large group of people finally arrived at the mountain people's territory. Within a thousand miles of the mountain people's land, there were relay supply stations set up by Wei Yuan along the way, distributing food, water, and dry rations to the mortals.

Upon reaching the mountain people's territory, the common people were properly settled, and many of the rebel soldiers who were responsible for escorting them refused to leave and stayed to accept reorganization.

Thus, the migration was not completed until early September.

At this time, the western prefectures of Ji State had become completely barren lands. Many boundary stones had been uprooted, and the original energy of heaven and earth was once again eroded. As a result, the weather became increasingly dry, the vegetation withered, and the soil fertility was lost. In just over a year, the fertile land that had been cultivated for thousands of years had turned into a Gobi desert.

That year, after careful consideration, Wei Yuan returned to Qingming and planted the boundary stone 'Blooming Flower' at the original location of the medicine garden.

At the very heart of the herb garden, Wei Yuan personally planted the Life-Giving Flower and activated it with immortal spiritual energy. In an instant, an invisible domain expanded, covering an area of ​​a hundred miles.

The new realm gradually merged with the Azure Nether Realm, and the vitality and spiritual energy rapidly increased. At the same time, a massive amount of spiritual energy began to converge here from underground, and in the blink of an eye, springs began to drip from the depths of the earth and rocks, forming underground streams. In time, spiritual veins and springs will form underground.

All the herbs in the herb garden rejoiced, spontaneously releasing their medicinal aromas. Countless rare medicinal aromas converged, forming wispy clouds. Rain and mist fell from these clouds, and wherever they passed, even barren rocks came to life.

The Dark Star Dragon Sunflower, which was first planted here and personally cared for by Xu Wenwu, swayed and emitted a vague consciousness. It touched Wei Yuan's body, then quickly withdrew. A moment later, it touched him again and became extremely dependent on him, clinging to him and refusing to leave.

Wei Yuan then remembered that he had a deep connection with this tree. Ultimately, the source of its mutated fortune was also himself, and it was a celestial fortune.

Originally, the Heavenly Star Dragon Sunflower was a Dao Foundation level spiritual tree. After undergoing mutation and gaining sentience, it transformed into a spiritual plant, steadily entering the Imperial Realm level of spiritual objects. In the future, when its sentience matures and it can take human form, it will become another immortal plant.

The growth rate of the spiritual herbs in the entire herb garden has increased dramatically. Now, within the core area of ​​'Blooming Flower', the growth rate of spiritual herbs has reached fifty times the normal external growth rate. Even the most exquisite herb field in the Primordial Palace is no more than this, but its area is not as large as Blooming Flower.

Such a medicinal garden consumes an enormous amount of spiritual energy and soil strength; the spiritual energy gathered by the boundary stones themselves is far from sufficient. The Spirit Gathering Array is also overburdened; even if it were upgraded again to reach the same level as the Taichu Palace's mountain gate, it wouldn't be enough. To support the operation of such a high-level medicinal garden, an additional source of spiritual energy must be provided.

Commonly known as fertilization.

However, the Liao corpses had long been used up, and the spiritual energy of Buddha Sword Peak was to be used to suppress karma, so it couldn't be used here. Even if it could be used, a single finger wouldn't be enough; cutting off a thigh would be more appropriate.

The establishment of the Sheng Hua sect completely solved the problem of high-level medicinal herb supply. As long as there is some time, spiritual herbs will be available in a continuous stream. Even if the number of Qingming cultivators increases tenfold, the supply of medicinal herbs will still be sufficient.

This is the foundation upon which we stand for a thousand years, the most essential infrastructure, and the basis for coping with an era where the foundation of the Way is as vast as the sea and the appearance of phenomena is as insignificant as dogs.

But the key is still fertilizer.

Wei Yuan's thoughts drifted as he began to glance at the immortal components.

The establishment of Sheng Hua became another crucial element of Qing Ming, resulting in a roughly 70% loss in its domain coverage. However, it laid the foundation for Qing Ming's future in-depth development. Moreover, while domains are easy to acquire, high-level resources are limited. If Qing Ming were to develop according to Wei Yuan's vision, perhaps in a few hundred years, even the resources of the entire Tai Chu Palace wouldn't be enough to sustain it.

After establishing the Life-Giving Flower, Wei Yuan returned to the Mountain People's Domain, intending to see if he could transport some of the mountain people's corpses there to Qingming to refine them and nourish the Life-Giving Flower.

As soon as Wei Yuan stepped out of the teleportation array, he suddenly felt an undercurrent surging around him, and waves of fortune rushed into his sea of ​​consciousness! In an instant, Wei Yuan's fortune rose back to five million!
Wei Yuan felt that the number was somewhat insufficient, so he carefully investigated the source of the human transport.

The vast majority of the people were transported by refugees who had just arrived in the mountainous region. These refugees originally thought that they would surely die if they fell into the hands of the rebels, but after traveling thousands of miles for several months, they actually arrived at a place that could be described as a paradise on earth.

This place not only has fields to cultivate, but also houses to shelter from the wind and rain. After deducting all land rent and housing costs, everyone estimated that a year of hard work would yield enough food to feed them for two years. If they were even more diligent, they could survive for three years.

Everyone felt as if they were in a dream. If this wasn't a fairyland, then what could be a fairyland?

Thus, the 30 million refugees contributed a total of over 4 million people for transportation. However, this number is actually a bit small; Wei Yuan estimated it should be around 10 million. After all, when the refugees from Ji State arrived, the basic infrastructure was already largely in place, and conditions were far better than when the refugees from Western Jin and Zhao State first arrived in Qingming.

However, the fact that there are only four million people now indicates that the physical condition of this group is even worse than that of the refugees from the Western Jin and Zhao states. Most of them are so weak that they are no longer capable of generating any human life.

Of the original twelve million people in the mountain region, hundreds of thousands more have been born during this period. These new lives are like a gentle stream, constantly flowing and continuously generated.

Upon returning to the Mountain People's Domain, Wei Yuan headed straight for the Refining Pool.

The refining pools in the Mountain People's Domain consist of four deep pits surrounded by grand formations. Here, corpses are rapidly reduced to scattered spiritual energy, which is absorbed by heaven and earth. Then, heaven and earth feed back pure primordial energy, gradually altering the environment of this place. This is the basic principle of the refining pools; it may seem cruel, but it is in accordance with the Way of Heaven.

As Wei Yuan walked towards the refining pool, he suddenly frowned slightly. He felt as if he were walking in a vast ocean of primordial energy after regaining his human destiny. However, before, he was like a fish that could move nimbly without causing ripples, but now he had become a colossal creature, like the Kun of the North Sea, whose every move would stir up towering waves.

Before Wei Yuan even got close to the refining pool, he stirred up an invisible giant wave of heaven and earth energy that swept across the entire refining pool!
The refining pool had already generated a large amount of spiritual energy, but it was affected by this giant wave and turned into a vortex. It then frantically absorbed the surrounding spiritual energy, and finally, many remnant souls disappeared in a flash and were sucked into the vortex.

Wei Yuan was taken aback. He scanned the area with his divine sense, but found nothing unusual in the refining pool. Everything that had just happened seemed like an illusion.

Wei Yuan frowned slightly, knowing that this could not be an illusion, and that his arrival must have caused a change in the refining pool.

So he went to the edge of the pool and looked down, only to see a dense mass of corpses piled up. Just as Wei Yuan was about to send men down to search the bodies for further investigation, the vortex, having absorbed all the surrounding energy, slowly stopped spinning.

When the vortex stopped, all the corpses instantly became dry, like pieces of charcoal, devoid of any spiritual energy.

Something fell out of the whirlpool, and Wei Yuan reached out and grabbed it. It was a stone the size of a millstone—a boundary stone!
This boundary stone is not of a high level; it only has the ability to slightly increase the metal element in the earth's veins. Over time, it can make the underground mineral deposits richer and of higher quality, and the boundary is about five hundred miles wide.

From any perspective, it was just an ordinary boundary stone. But what was different was that it appeared out of thin air in front of Wei Yuan.

Including the Mirror Lake and Blooming Flower Immortal Stones, Wei Yuan has now witnessed the birth of three Boundary Stones. A question suddenly arose in his mind: how were the Boundary Stones of the human race created in the past? Could they have been similar to these three?

(End of this chapter)