Longzang

Chapter 1199 The Distance Between Wealth and Poverty
Wei Yuan extracted a small portion of his consciousness from the spiderweb-like array, then divided it into hundreds of tasks and attached them to an avatar.

Wei Yuan, who was meditating in the immortal abode outside the cave, slowly opened his eyes, moved his body, and then his body began to radiate Dao power, and his eyes also showed signs of life.

Wei Yuan tested the flexibility of his body and felt that it was roughly at the early stage of the Dharma Aspect realm, which was the limit of the power he could borrow from his original body.

He got up, went outside, and ascended into the air. This place was halfway up Zushan Mountain, with snow-capped mountains behind him and a large city and scattered villages in front of him.

Fireworks are blooming in the sky above the city below, bringing joy to everyone who sees them.

Wei Yuan used his Qi Observation Technique to look over and saw that the entire city was full of vitality and prosperity, with only a few dark spots. This situation was within Wei Yuan's expectations; the vitality came from the large number of Qingming people who had migrated there, as well as the people who originally lived at the bottom of the social hierarchy in the city.

The few dark spots belong to the original direct descendants of the Lü family in the city. Their fields and houses had long been confiscated, and now they could only work like ordinary people to make a living, so they naturally harbored resentment.

Some of the more discerning elders of the Lü clan naturally understood that this was only possible because of Wei Yuan. If it had been any other immortal, all of them, the direct descendants of the Lü clan, would have been wiped out to eliminate any potential threat.

However, understanding is one thing, while resentment is another.

Wei Yuan didn't take it to heart; let the grudges of a few people go. If anyone really caused trouble, he would have swift and decisive action to deal with them.

He watched the fireworks for a while, then looked up at the position of the full moon and stars, and muttered to himself, "It's already the 20th year of Hongjing? Time flies... No, how could Hongjing have lasted 20 years?"

Wei Yuan looked up at the Imperial Star for a while, then shook his head. Whether Hongjing lasted for twenty years or not had no effect on him whatsoever.

Qingming is changing every day, like an ancient divine beast, gradually becoming larger and larger, and increasingly uncontrollable.

That floating road extending into the azure sky has an astonishing capacity and is currently the highest-level floating road built by the azure sky.

Wherever it extends, the surrounding thousand miles become the core area of ​​Qingming, where elite mobile legions can arrive within half a day. The surrounding three thousand miles is the control zone, where heavy armored legions can arrive within three days.

Within a radius of ten thousand miles, all live by the breath of the Azure Sky. Anyone who dares to disobey will be crushed the moment the army arrives.

Sometimes Wei Yuan wondered how those guys in the sky could possibly see such a deadly path. Didn't they understand the significance of this floating road? In Qingming, this was something that was openly discussed in the higher academies.

Just as he was pondering, a figure suddenly appeared outside the courtyard, walking through the snow under the moonlight. It was Xu Wenwu.

Wei Yuan had a thought, and the courtyard gate opened by itself, allowing Xu Wenwu to walk in. He was even carrying a food box and two bottles of wine.

"It's New Year's Eve, and I couldn't get away to return to Qingming. Since I thought you were still here in your avatar, I came to have a drink and chat with you. In this world, we are the only two people who actually come from the same place, so we can be considered fellow countrymen. But if your true form were here, I couldn't tell you these things." Xu Wenwu said to himself without looking up as he set out the food and wine on the table.

Wei Yuan sat down at the table, picked up the bottle and looked at it. The liquid inside was golden in color and bland like water. It should be a newly developed beer, which is very popular among ordinary people who don't have a high alcohol tolerance, and they can also feel a sense of heroism when drinking it.

As Qingming's research and development capabilities grew stronger, various things from outer space were realized one by one, including beer. It was driven and led by Xu Wenwu on his own, and as a result, it has become a major industry in just a few years, with sales increasing year by year.

Wei Yuan walked to the table, picked up the wine bottle, took a sip, and found it tasted just like water.

Xu Wenwu suddenly froze, staring at Wei Yuan in shock, and said, "You, you're in your true form?!"

“That’s right.” Wei Yuan nodded.

"Um... you must have something important to do, so I won't disturb you any longer."

Wei Yuan smiled and said, "Nothing much is happening tonight. It's alright, let's finish our drinks before we leave. What year is it now?"

"Hongjing! Hasn't it been twenty years already? What happened?" Xu Wenwu was a little confused.

Wei Yuan looked up at the sky. The imperial star in the night sky was as bright and stable as ever, almost like an illusion.

After visiting several fragments of the outer world, Wei Yuan once met Xu Wenwu and jokingly said that he had actually also traveled to this world. Xu Wenwu suddenly realized and immediately mistook Wei Yuan for a fellow townsman.

After that, they didn't have many opportunities to meet, and Wei Yuan forgot about the matter and didn't offer any further explanation. In recent years, Xu Wenwu finally had an epiphany, his cultivation progressed rapidly, and he was busy trading with various circles in the surrounding areas. His responsibilities and authority increased day by day, and he gradually had more opportunities to communicate with Wei Yuan.

Seeing that Xu Wenwu was somewhat reserved, wanting to sit but hesitant, Wei Yuan laughed and said, "In the world we came from, there weren't so many formalities. Besides, when we met, Qingming didn't even exist yet!"

Xu Wenwu finally relaxed a bit and said with a wry smile, "That's true, but for some reason, I feel immense pressure whenever I see you now, and I just want to stay away from you."

Wei Yuan was taken aback and said, "You sensed the pressure from my mental world? That's strange, that shouldn't be the case! How could you have that ability... Oh, you've cultivated your mental world? Release it and let me see."

Xu Wenwu ignored Wei Yuan's subconscious words about the Azure Palace and released his mental world. The two of them were instantly transported to a different world, as if they were in a bustling city in another world. However, the streets were deserted, and the tall buildings on both sides looked like empty shells with only a thin layer of skin.

This is a city that spans two or three miles in circumference, completely in the style of an otherworld. Not far away is a square, in the center of which stands a huge silver mecha giant.

However, apart from the mecha giants, the entire city is more like a simple scene, far from being spiritual.

Wei Yuan's expression turned serious, and he said, "Your world of perception is too vast!"

Xu Wenwu was taken aback and said, "Their mental worlds are hundreds or even thousands of miles apart, while mine is only a little over two miles..."

"Yours is different! Can the cities of the outer world be the same as the natural wilderness? A tiny place like the palm of your hand needs a massive amount of spiritual energy! Your mental world can't be any bigger. Just count how many skyscrapers you've built."

This place needs to be filled with people for a perfect advancement. And your kind of advancement will trigger a heavenly tribulation several times more powerful than a normal Ascending Heavenly Tribulation! In the eyes of the Heavenly Dao of this realm, you're practically a spy from the outer world; who else would they kill if not you?"

Xu Wen was startled and took it seriously, promising never to add any more. Wei Yuan's expression then improved.

Then he picked up his wine glass, drank it all in one gulp, and sighed, "I've been here for so long, and I can say that I've embarked on the path of immortality. Over the years, my cultivation has deepened and my knowledge has broadened. I have a vague feeling that the world we came from has been destroyed. I even suspect that I didn't transmigrate here, but was just a drifting memory that accidentally awakened in a body in this world."

So I built this world of my heart like this, just... just to commemorate the world I once lived in. There were my parents, my classmates, and... her…”

Wei Yuan suddenly thought of the world he had truly come from. That world was truly destroyed, leaving not a trace of life. It seemed to still have mountains and riverbeds, but in reality, all of it was made of only one substance: the ashes of cataclysm.

Suddenly, Wei Yuan felt the same way and silently drank a large cup, only to find that it was just water, which made his sorrow even stronger.

Xu Wenwu's face was flushed, his eyes somewhat unfocused. He sighed, "You know what? Back then, I didn't even dare to look her in the eye. It took me days to muster the courage to say a few words to her, even though we were only separated by a classroom. Even now, thinking about her makes my heart race, and I'm almost afraid to think about it..."

Wei Yuan, however, could not empathize with this, and then noticed Xu Wenwu's unusual behavior, exclaiming in surprise, "Are you drunk?"

Xu Wenwu looked at his wine glass and then realized, "Ah, I've had four glasses already, I'm definitely a little drunk."

Wei Yuan finally understood why he had gone to such great lengths to make the beer.

Xu Wenwu composed himself, used his Daoist power to suppress the effects of the alcohol, and then said, "I almost forgot, let's get down to business first. The brocade weaving industry in Zhao and Southern Qi has largely collapsed. Ninety percent of them have closed down in the past few days, just as you said! But how do you know they can't continue operating?"

Wei Yuan smiled slightly and said, "How could those princes, ministers, and high-ranking cultivators care about the lives of ordinary people? How could they be interested in how much an ordinary family earns and how much they spend in a year? So when I heard that they were opening up brocade workshops on a large scale, I knew that they would definitely not be able to keep up with the business."

The reason is simple: machine-woven brocade is much cheaper than hand-woven brocade. In the eyes of the powerful, it's nothing more than cheap goods, some even using it to pave the floors of their mansions. They buy it by the cartload without batting an eye. But among ordinary families in both countries, very few can actually afford machine-woven brocade. They can only afford a little during festivals, and then keep it as a family heirloom. So, the two countries have hundreds or even hundreds of weaving workshops, producing over a million pieces. Who will buy all this brocade?
If they were weaving ordinary cloth, I would have thought more highly of them. Unfortunately, the Kings of Zhao and Qi have too high a standard; they look down on ordinary cloth. Little do they know that it's these things used by the lowest strata of society that can be mass-produced and that's where the big money is made.”

Xu Wenwu then understood a little, but not completely. As a person from the bottom of the outer world, he originally cared least about the lives of the lower classes and was most concerned about intercontinental events.

Wei Yuan said, "Now they should have given up completely, and we can sell our new brocade to them. If we don't let them struggle on their own, they will definitely still think it's our fault. Actually, whether I sell the brocade to them or not, their brocade industry won't develop. They only have a few hundred thousand bolts in total, and they only buy new ones when they're worn out. How can that support an industry?"

Xu Wenwu said, "Aren't Zhao and Southern Qi much richer than other countries? How come their sales of brocade are about the same as those of Western Jin? Western Jin had a much smaller population than them."

Wei Yuan sneered, saying, "No matter how rich the two countries are, they won't enrich ordinary people. As long as those ordinary people are alive, that's good enough. Compared to the Western Jin Dynasty, the ordinary people in both countries live relatively peacefully and don't starve. That's benevolent governance, huh!"
Moreover, if ordinary people had any wealth, everyone from the king and high officials to the county magistrate and yamen runners would find a way to pocket it. Therefore, although the states of Zhao and Qi were famously wealthy, while the Western Jin dynasty was plagued by poverty, the actual difference between ordinary families in both states was merely a bolt of common cloth and half a jar of coarse rice—not even enough to buy a single piece of brocade.

(End of this chapter)