Longzang

Chapter 1079 Hurry
In the palace of the King of Ji, Cangwu sat in the center, with the King of Ji to his left and Sun Chaoen to his right.

King Ji spoke first: "With the peace treaty concluded and not a single inch of territory lost in my hands, I can finally face my ancestors with a clear conscience."

Cangwu snorted and said, "Your ancestors have all been sent to the Azure Netherworld, so you can't see them even if you want to. You're at ease, but it's putting me in an awkward position."

Prince Ji calmly said, "Our ancestors were knowledgeable and experienced. After living in Qingming for a period of time, they were sure to discover the weaknesses of the Yuan bandits and bring back a way to defeat them."

Cangwu chuckled and said, "You really think so?"

Prince Ji nodded sincerely, revealing no flaw in his expression. Sun Chao'en, however, was sweating profusely. How could he possibly overhear such a secret?

Cangwu turned to Sun Chaoen and asked, "You also heard things you shouldn't have heard. What do you think we should do next?"

Sun Chaoen was shocked and knelt down with a thud, kowtowing repeatedly: "I am still useful! I am still useful!"

Cangwu said slowly, "What use are you?"

"Attack political enemies, engage in factional infighting, suppress dissent, pander to the emperor, and indulge in pleasure—I'm skilled in all of these!"

King Ji smiled, while Cangwu was taken aback, not expecting such an answer. However, upon closer reflection, Cangwu realized that if he were on the throne, he would definitely need someone with such talent.

Sun Chaoen lay prostrate on the ground, unable to see the faces of Prince Ji and Cangwu, and could only tremble and break out in a cold sweat.

Cangwu said indifferently, "With you in court, things will only get chaotic. What use are you to the country?"

Sun Chaoen hurriedly replied, "I am skilled in leading troops and governing local areas, as Your Majesty and the Immortal Lord know. However, those are merely minor talents, and making you both happy is more important. If you truly require me to do such a thing, I am capable of it, setting an example for those who are ignorant and incompetent, showing them what it means to govern a region."

If the rebels become too powerful to control, I may go and suppress them. Upon my successful return, I will not seek any reward whatsoever.

Prince Ji looked at Cangwu, who then said, "You have a deep connection with Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan has promised you a path to enlightenment in the future. You should accept this kindness. With a path to enlightenment, you will have at least several hundred more years of lifespan. You won't be so afraid of death then, will you?"

"All I want now is to live well!"

Cangwu nodded and said, "It's good that you're afraid of death. Although I can't help you advance further on your path, I can certainly nip it in the bud. However, if you do your job well, you'll reap great benefits, no less than those from Wei Yuan. Get up!"

Sun Chaoen thanked him profusely and sat down on the edge of the stool, barely touching the bottom.

Cangwu pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "Now that the territory has been pacified, the great undertaking can be accomplished in five years."

Prince Ji asked, "In five years... will anything change?"

Cangwu looked at Sun Chaoen: "What do you think?"

Sun Chaoen forced a smile and said, "I don't know what the big event is, but five years will pass in the blink of an eye. Wei Yuan can't cause much trouble. Previously, Wei Yuan gathered the power of Qingming and devoted all his efforts to building up a corner of Guantun County, which led to earth-shaking changes. Now the mountain people's territory is ten thousand miles wide, and he has gained another thirty million people. Just to reclaim land and achieve self-sufficiency, it will take ten years."

So five years from now, we might see a somewhat vibrant region, barely able to sustain itself. But after five years of development, the defenses will likely be very strong, making it even more difficult to conquer.

Cangwu said calmly, "So-called fortifications are nothing but earth and wood. A single immortal spell can completely overturn dozens of miles of land, rendering any fortifications useless."

"The Immortal Lord is divinely mighty!" Sun Chaoen exclaimed hastily.

Cangwu waved his hand impatiently and said, "Stop with that! You just said that Wei Yuan could build a self-sufficient society in five years?"

Sun Chaoen hurriedly said, “Immortal Lord is wise! Wei Yuan has a True Lord from the Jianmu Palace named Chuhe. This person has rendered meritorious service to Heaven and Earth and is on the path of becoming a saint through merit. He has exceptional experience in cultivating fields and planting crops. With him around, it is not a myth to cultivate fields in three years and mature soil in five years. Therefore, I say that we should be able to be self-sufficient in five years.”

Cangwu suddenly became a little irritated and said, "Let him be. What use are there if there are many mortals? Hundreds of thousands of bandits can wipe them all out. It will only be five years. As long as Wei Yuan doesn't cause trouble, we should ignore him. But we can't easily mess with Chuhe. Your intelligence is very useful."

Sun Chaoen immediately said, "Immortal Lord, you have insight! In just five years, how could Wei Yuan have ascended to immortality?"

Cangwu's brows relaxed, and he said, "That makes some sense. You two continue chatting, I'm off."

Cangwu took a step and entered the secret realm. The two disciples guarding the gate were dozing off. When they saw their patriarch arrive, they hurriedly came forward, addressed him as patriarch, and then said nothing more.

For some reason, although Cangwu had found Sun Chaoen's constant use of "Immortal Lord, Sage" quite annoying just now, compared to his two dull disciples, he suddenly found those words not so jarring, and it wasn't so bad to hear them occasionally. But this was something the disciples had to figure out for themselves; it would be shameful to teach them to speak like that.

After Cangwu left, Prince Ji and Sun Chaoen looked at each other, neither of them sure whether Cangwu had left or not.

After a moment, Prince Ji asked, "In five years, Wei Yuan really can't come up with anything new?"

Sun Chaoen said, "In my knowledge, I really can't think of such a possibility. But it's hard to say what will happen in fifty years. Wei Yuan will definitely become Yu Jing, and he should be able to ascend to immortality within five hundred years."

As Prince Ji pondered, he became somewhat lost in thought, and then let out a soft sigh.

Sun Chaoen then took his leave and returned to his residence. A palace official reported that Cai Miao was already waiting outside. However, Prince Ji suddenly seemed somewhat disinterested and ordered her to be sent back to the Sun residence. A moment later, Xu Shang, dressed in her finest attire, entered the study. She had already heard that Prince Ji had sent Cai Miao back and had rushed over excitedly, feeling that she could regain the Emperor's favor.

To everyone's surprise, Prince Ji suddenly became impatient and simply said, "Get out!"

After driving Xu Shang away, Prince Ji went to the terrace, looked up at the starry sky, and unknowingly stood there until dawn.

……

In the mountain dwellings, Wei Yuan was constantly busy with what many cultivators considered trivial matters, to the point that Xiao Yu couldn't stand it anymore and specifically sought out Wei Yuan to question him: "What have you been doing all day?"

Wei Yuan raised his head from the dense array of light spheres surrounding him and said, "Everyone's busy working! Look, we need to build at least fifteen cities. I have to go and see the location of each city, and the selection of city lords is also a headache. My idea is to give most of them to the fellow disciples of Taichu Palace, and leave a few for the talents that Qingming has cultivated themselves."

"Do you have to do all of this yourself?"

"Otherwise what?" Wei Yuan also felt a little tired and sighed, "It concerns people's livelihood, so it is the most important thing. Once a mistake is made, the consequences may be very serious by the time it is discovered."

"And what about your cultivation? So engrossed in worldly affairs, when will you be able to make further progress?" Xiaoyu's tone was very stern.

Going a step further? Wei Yuan suddenly felt a little dazed, then glanced at the diligently working Heavenly Demon.

During this period, due to the influx of a massive number of mountain people's souls, the Heavenly Demon was busy day and night.

During this period of time, Wei Yuan kept switching back and forth between the Dharma Image and the Imperial View, forward, backward, left, right, endlessly.

Or is it the unattainable Seventh Heaven?
Calculating the orbit of the seventh celestial realm is now virtually an impossible task for Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan has already learned quite a bit about the grotto-heavens. Grotto-heavens are divided into levels, each represented by a different color; this is a crude hierarchy established by the founder of the Primordial Palace.

Ordinary grotto-heavens do not have such high requirements for orbits, so multiple ones can be placed at will. For example, the Left Wise King and the Little National Preceptor each have dozens or even hundreds of grotto-heavens.

However, reaching silver or gold grotto-heavens places an extremely heavy burden on the fundamental realm of the mind, making orbital calculations paramount. Each immortal's fundamental mental world has a limit to its capacity, so as much grotto-heaven as possible must be crammed into it within this limit.

Although Immortal Lord Yan Shi only has twelve grotto-heavens, each one is a golden grotto-heaven, which is truly astonishing. He was able to fight on equal terms with the Left Wise King and the Little National Preceptor as soon as he ascended to immortality, and even severely injured the Left Wise King with the help of Wei Yuan.

Now, Wei Yuan's six great grotto-heavens are all extremely special, and it's obvious that they will become golden grotto-heavens after ascending to immortality. However, Wei Yuan is brave but lacks wisdom; he possesses an unparalleled world of mental images, yet he is stuck on orbital calculations.

At this level, effort alone is no longer enough; talent is required. Take Ronglong, for example. He only needed a month to learn mathematics, and then he left a book for Wei Yuan to study, which Wei Yuan still hasn't finished.

But Wei Yuan also had his own way of thinking: as long as 100 million people are invested, the seventh orbit can be created.

The sheer number of this person's fortune gave Wei Yuan a vague intuition that by the time he succeeded in building the Seventh Heavenly Cave, he would probably be lingering outside the gates of immortality.

As for the matter of the human force creating the grotto-heaven orbit, Wei Yuan will definitely share it with Xiao Yu. This matter is indeed infuriating, extremely infuriating, and especially infuriating, so Wei Yuan must share it in a timely manner. Moreover, given that it concerns Wei Yuan's path of cultivation, there are not many people with whom he can share it.

However, at this moment, Wei Yuan had not really considered the matter of human resources.

Thirty million people had just arrived, and there were countless tasks to be done. These people were also very weak, and hundreds would die for various reasons if things weren't handled carefully. Therefore, Wei Yuan had to personally take charge and rely on his exceptional task-handling abilities to save as many as he could.

Wei Yuan knew it was pointless, but he did it anyway.

Xiaoyu tried to persuade him for a long time to no avail, so she could only leave angrily, throwing out a curse before leaving: "You big pig's trotter!"
These four words left Wei Yuan momentarily dazed. Even his divine sense, capable of handling ten thousand tasks simultaneously, couldn't grasp the connection between pig's trotters and himself. Wei Yuan looked at his hands and thought pig's trotters weren't actually that appealing.

……

Time seems to have fallen into a cycle.

The cultivators of Taichu Palace have always been busy with work and cultivation, and now even all the new disciples of Shuiyue Palace have become accustomed to doing things for mortals. Chuhe, on the other hand, runs back and forth, clearing fields here and there, and feeding chickens when he has free time.

After the young imperial advisor left, the immortal chicken was depressed for a while and had no appetite for a whole day until the next day when it finally felt hungry.

The young imperial advisor secretly witnessed this and was deeply moved.

Sun Chaoen's responsibilities and power grew increasingly numerous. He not only had to report to Prince Ji, but also to Cangwu from time to time. Sometimes, in the quiet of the night, Sun Chaoen couldn't understand why Cangwu, a dignified immortal, would be interested in these trivial matters of the court.

Wei Yuan was simultaneously managing the livelihoods of the mountain people and engaging in fierce battles with their army in the northwest. Every day was filled with countless tasks, new joys, and worries.

Zhang Sheng stood atop the mountains, watching the sun rise and set, the moon descend and rise.

Five years have passed in the blink of an eye.

(End of this chapter)