Longzang

Chapter 168 will be left unmentioned.
In the study, Xu Jingzhe appeared somewhat panicked and whispered, "I didn't do it myself, but I watched him leave with my own eyes. His head was cut off."

Xu Zhiyuan's expression softened, and he slowly nodded: "If even a whisper of this matter were to leak out, we would both be doomed. Go back and get some rest. Once this matter is settled, we will have half the resources to advance to the Dharma Aspect stage."

"Father, the soup should be drunk while it's hot..."

"It's rare that you still have this filial piety." Xu Zhiyuan took a sip of soup and was about to take a second sip when suddenly his face turned pale and two streams of bright red blood flowed from his nose!

He reached out and wiped his hand; it was covered in blood, and the bleeding was flowing faster and faster, completely unstoppable.

Xu Zhiyuan was stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening and hissed, "The soup is poisoned?!"

Xu Jingzhe slowly peeled off the skin, revealing Xu Jingfeng's face, and said, "It seems this face looks pretty good; you still haven't recognized it. After all, it was just peeled off, so it's hard not to recognize it."

"Jingfeng? It's you? I... I'm your father!"

“From the moment you let me take over the tribute caravan, you were no longer one.”

"Guards! Protectors..."

Xu Jingfeng sneered and called out on his behalf, "Someone come here."

Several guards entered the study, and Xu Zhiyuan's heart sank. These guards were either unfamiliar faces or guards sent to escort merchant caravans. At that moment, his Dao foundation completely collapsed, his vision went black, and he collapsed.

Xu Jingfeng bowed to one of the unfamiliar guards and asked, "What do we do now?"

The guard's face changed, revealing Wei Yuan's face, and he said, "Clear out the house first. Those of the old people left behind by your father who are willing to come and stay, regardless of whether they are genuine or not, will be temporarily kept. Those who are not willing will be eliminated on the spot."

Xu Jingfeng nodded and strode out of the study.

Over the next hour, more than a dozen screams echoed from several large mansions of the Xu family in Ningxi. Then, a large cart loaded with corpses emerged from the back gate, dumping the bodies haphazardly outside the town. After a while, some brave townspeople ran over to see what was happening, and there they found several once-important figures among the pile of corpses.

In the study of the Xu residence, Wei Yuan stood behind the desk, admiring the painting "Great Virtue Carries All Things," which was stained with a few drops of blood.

These four characters are quite impressive, demonstrating considerable skill.

Xu Jingfeng rushed in, bowed, and said, "Everything has been taken care of!"

Wei Yuan said, "I will leave some people to help you stabilize the situation. It's better to remain still than to act rashly. First, win people's hearts and slowly consolidate power. Then, we can do two big deals to make up for some of the losses. This way, you can stand firm in the eyes of the main family."

When it came to big deals, Xu Jingfeng's mind went blank again. Fortunately, he was now very clear about his own abilities, so he quickly asked, "How should I proceed with big deals? Please instruct me, Master."

Wei Yuan chuckled and said, "You really are quite clever."

Wei Yuan casually picked up a jade lion paperweight, played with it in his hand, and said, "Hasn't your Xu family been trading with the Wu Clan? You must have a lot of sacrificial offerings in stock. Gather all the stock, buy everything you can buy on the market, and then form a caravan to sell it all to the Wu Yu Clan."

"Sell it to the Wuyu Clan?" Even if Xu Jingfeng was slow-witted, he knew Wei Yuan's stance, and he was somewhat bewildered by these words. But he was, after all, blessed with good fortune, and suddenly a flash of inspiration struck him, and he said, "I understand, it's actually selling it to you!"

Wei Yuan nodded. It seemed that the extraterrestrial luck had some effect, and the feng shui formation in the Xu family mansion was also quite extraordinary.

Fortunately, Wei Yuan had previously had Xu Jingfeng re-register his identity at the Feng Shui array's eye. The Feng Shui array confirmed Xu Jingfeng's identity and, incidentally, also recognized the extraterrestrial fortune. From now on, anyone from Wei Yuan who possesses extraterrestrial fortune can receive the array's blessing within the Xu residence, and it will be a core-level blessing at that.

"But how could I possibly accept your money?"

Wei Yuan said, "The deficits in your family aren't really deficits. Just open your father's secret vault. Your second brother should also have some savings."

Xu Jingfeng thought about it carefully and understood. This money was not deposited into the account, which was the source of the deficit. Now, after going through the sacrificial offerings, it returned to the Xu family's account, making up for most of the deficit.

However, the deficit was caused by Xu Zhiyuan, and making up for it was Xu Jingfeng's doing. With this back-and-forth, Xu Jingfeng would most likely be able to gain a foothold in the family.

If the main family still doesn't accept it and insists on supporting someone else... Xu Jingfeng's eyes turned cold. He would make that person become like his younger brother.

Wei Yuan thought for a moment and then said, "Try contacting the Wuyu Clan and tell them you're preparing to transport a large number of sacrificial offerings. Ask them where their temporary storage camp is so you can transport the offerings directly to them. Collect as much information as possible about these camps, the more the better."

"Are you planning to collect offerings? But the offerings have all been drugged beforehand, and many people have been affected mentally."

"You don't need to know that."

At this moment, two guards entered the study, changing their identities upon entering. They were Ji Liuli and Wang Yu. Wang Yu's Dao Foundation was somewhat special; she possessed a Yin Eye, capable of seeing through disguises, formations, and even physical entities. With Wang Yu's assistance and Ji Liuli's expertise in formations, they quickly located Xu Zhiyuan's secret vault. The entrance to the vault was surprisingly on a calligraphy scroll hanging on the wall. The scroll read "The highest good is like water," and while the calligraphy itself wasn't particularly good, it was likely an early work by Xu Zhiyuan. However, the entrance was located on the character for "water."

If an unsuspecting outsider were to come in, they certainly wouldn't be interested in this tattered calligraphy and wouldn't be able to find the secret vault.

Ji Liuli was too lazy to solve it step by step, so he directly and violently dismantled the small Sumeru array inside, and then a bunch of things fell to the floor of the study.

The vault itself wasn't large, only about four feet high. Judging from the huge pile of immortal silver on the ground, most of the vault was probably used to store immortal silver.

Wei Yuan scanned the area with his divine sense and immediately counted 800,000 taels of immortal silver. He couldn't help but marvel at Xu Zhiyuan's resourcefulness. If he could scrape off so much silver even in a shattered land, wouldn't he be able to scrape off millions of taels if he were given a fertile land?
Besides the immortal silver, there were various materials and spiritual items worth two hundred thousand taels, and then two Dharma Aspect level talismans. Seeing these two talismans, Xu Jingfeng felt a wave of fear. If it weren't for the disguise and poison, Xu Zhiyuan could have easily destroyed Xu Jingfeng's body and soul with just one of the talismans.

What's special is that it's a water sphere containing about ten ginseng-like medicinal herbs, each about the size of a finger, and it's entirely bluish-green in color.

Wei Yuan had just finished reading the section on spiritual plants in the Hall of Merit and recognized this as the Wood Spirit Ginseng, one of the Five Elements Spirit Ginsengs. The Wood Spirit Ginseng is a Dao Foundation-level spiritual plant, a specialty of the Witch Domain, and Wei Yuan had originally planned to bring back a batch to cultivate.

This batch of Wood Spirit Ginseng is neither ginseng seedlings nor ginseng sprouts; they are all mature products over three hundred years old. It seems that this is the spiritual medicine that Xu Zhiyuan prepared for his advancement to the Dharma Aspect stage.

Wei Yuan stored away the treasures in the secret vault, and handed the immortal silver over to Ji Liuli. Once Xu Jingfeng had prepared the sacrificial caravan, most of the immortal silver would still flow back to the Xu family to stabilize the situation. As long as Xu Jingfeng didn't fall, Wei Yuan could slowly infiltrate, and all the immortal silver would eventually return.

Since there was a feng shui formation in the Xu residence, Wei Yuan could not stay any longer and left the Xu residence to return to the realm.

Upon returning to the realm, Wei Yuan took out the various vouchers and ledgers he had seized from Xu Zhiyuan's study and examined them carefully, becoming increasingly alarmed with each reading.

The Xu family of Ningxi built several secret vaults specifically for storing human sacrifices. According to the account books, they currently have over two thousand human sacrifices in stock, including one hundred high-grade sacrifices. These high-grade sacrifices are those used to cast the foundation of the Dao.

Some of these sacrifices were captured in the Broken Realm, some were secretly transported from within the pass, and others were prisoners bought from various places.

Xu Zhiyuan planned to receive another batch of prisoners from the river bandits and horse bandits, and then sell them to the Wu tribe.

These two thousand-plus offerings were merely the inventory from the past three months; the previous ones had already been sold. According to the ledger, ordinary offerings cost ten taels of silver each, while superior offerings cost five hundred. If an ordinary person did not meet the offering rank, then a strong or beautiful young person would receive one tael of silver, while the rest would receive one tael for every ten offerings received.

The majority of the celestial silver obtained from selling the sacrificial offerings was used to purchase local specialties of the Wuyu tribe, including the batch of Wood Spirit Ginseng. The Wuyu tribe is rich in spiritual plants and insects, as well as poisonous creatures and rare minerals. In addition to spiritual plants and medicinal herbs, the Xu family also purchased poisonous insects and some special Wuyu tribe members.

With these account books, the guilt of the Xu family of Ningxi was confirmed. However, Wei Yuan was not a fool and did not intend to expose the matter so easily.

Many people, believing they possess solid evidence, rashly report others to the authorities, only to find themselves imprisoned instead of the accused. History is replete with such examples; the notion of officials protecting each other is a true and not an exaggeration.

After reviewing the accounts, Wei Yuan went to the herb garden at the foot of the peak and personally turned over a plot of land to plant the Wood Spirit Ginseng. Each of these Wood Spirit Ginseng plants required a square zhang (approximately 3.3 meters) of land to grow. After more than a dozen ginseng plants were planted, a faint fragrance wafted around the herb garden, making people feel refreshed and relaxed.

However, the Wood Spirit Ginseng prefers water, especially spiritual water, but there is no suitable water source near the main peak.

Wei Yuan's heart stirred, and he remembered that he still had a treasure. He chose a low-lying spot near the main peak and placed a jade bowl there.

The jade bowl touched the soil and disappeared into the ground. Then, a clear spring gushed forth from the ground, flowing continuously, its water carrying a faint spiritual energy. Occasionally, a multicolored stone would be sprayed out with the water, tumbling and sinking to the bottom.

In the blink of an eye, a small puddle appeared in front of Wei Yuan, with more than a dozen colorful stones at the bottom. As the water level slowly rose, wisps of vibrant life spread outwards, causing the vegetation to sway gently in its wake, expressing joy and increasing its growth rate.

Wei Yuan had estimated the distance; based on the influence range of the small lake he had seen at the Liaoyu camp that day, it could cover the entire main peak and all the herb gardens. Once the small lake took shape, the herb gardens and the cultivators on the main peak would no longer have to worry about water.

The lake water possesses a faint spiritual energy, and even Xiao Yu and Cui Yu couldn't discern anything special about it when drinking it.

The herb garden is now complete. The next step is to ask the senior sister to replace the crude spirit-gathering array that Wei Yuan himself set up.

After finishing these tasks, night fell, and as usual, all the cultivators of the Primordial Palace gathered at the main peak to discuss recent major events in the realm.

The biggest event in the realm these past two days has been the arrival of mortals. More than four thousand people arrived today, bringing the total number of humans in the realm to over eight thousand, and it will soon exceed ten thousand tomorrow. Wei Yuan also obtained another wisp of azure energy during the day, and the time it would take to reach the mid-stage of the Dao Foundation stage was shortened to forty-five years.

Of course, Wei Yuan didn't tell Zhang Sheng about this time limit, otherwise he might be expelled from the family.

In the eyes of the high-ranking cultivators of the Primordial Palace, the basic needs of mortals—eating, drinking, and relieving themselves—were trivial matters, not worth mentioning. And indeed, that was the case. Although food was scarce, there was plenty of food in the realm to satisfy hunger; the only cost was a shortened lifespan.

Now that Wei Yuan possesses the miraculous power of the Immortal Stone, he can instantly transform the current eight thousand, and in the future tens or hundreds of thousands, of mortals into elite soldiers. Therefore, even high-level cultivators can accept him. With this army at his command, the old story of Ji Liuli and Bao Yun, two Immortal Foundation cultivators, desperately suppressing the cannon fodder of the Witch Clan will no longer occur.

However, the lives of sentient beings are fleeting, so the important matter that high-level cultivators consider is how to arm these mortals.

(End of this chapter)