Longzang

Chapter 185 It’s rude to come and not return.

After talking with Sun Yu, Wei Yuan gained some inspiration and came up with a new plan. He asked Ji Liuli to design a formation to gather Qi and nourish Yin, and then set it up in several places with abundant life force within the realm. Wei Yuan then ordered his men to dig countless shallow pits, each seven feet long, two feet wide, and two feet deep, in these formations.

These pits are arranged neatly, resembling a densely packed cemetery at first glance, and in fact they are cemeteries. The formations arranged there are also methods to improve the feng shui of the cemetery. However, since this cemetery is located in a place with abundant vitality and constantly gathers energy to nourish the yin spirits, it is easy for the corpses to turn into zombies over time.

This batch of burial plots wasn't prepared by Wei Yuan for the dead, but for the living. Mortals could take a sleeping potion and lie in the burial pit to maximize their vitality. Wei Yuan and Ji Liuli discussed it and decided that lying down once would allow them to go fifteen days without food or water, and then they could get up to eat one meal and lie down for another fifteen days.

Wei Yuan dug 50,000 graves in the first batch, intending to put the old, weak, sick and disabled in them, so that the food reserves of the entire realm could last for twenty days.

Xiao Yu has now organized a large-scale land reclamation effort, initially cultivating 20,000 mu (approximately 1,333 hectares) of land planted with millet and wheat from the human realm. Millet and wheat seeds are readily available, and although the yield is low, they grow very quickly, maturing in just three months from planting. In the Azure Nether Realm, millet and wheat grow even faster, maturing in just two months.

In two months, the realm will be able to harvest its first batch of human food, but Yuan Qingyan refuses to give Wei Yuan those two months. Even if they dig graves to sleep people in, there will still be a shortage of forty days.

Wei Yuan wasn't in a hurry; he simply focused on training his troops and instructed the city lords to identify the strongest men among the mortals, organize them into separate groups, and send them to the army in batches. The army wasn't just about drills; most of the new soldiers were sent to work in mines and workshops, training only in their spare time. Only those with a foundation in body forging were incorporated into the regular troops for day and night training.

After the arrival of 80,000 people from Quliu Town, the original 8,000-strong cultivator force had expanded to 12,000. In fact, it could have been expanded to 20,000 at once, but Wei Yuan simply couldn't afford to support that many soldiers, and other places within the realm also needed people to do the work.

Now, with the blessing of 10,000 out of 12,000 people, all can reach the Great Perfection of Body Tempering, and 1,500 can break through to the Foundation Establishment stage. There are currently more than 300 Foundation Establishment cultivators in the army. Wei Yuan selected 200 to form a cavalry unit, and the remaining 100 or so were assigned to various hundred-man squads as officers.

Wei Yuan can now bless the number of people with the Myriad Miles of Rivers and Mountains buff, which is about one-fifth the amount of blessing he can give himself. Now that Qingming is constantly blessing him, Wei Yuan feels that the blessing from the Myriad Miles of Rivers and Mountains is limited.

But that was for Wei Yuan; for ordinary knights, it was a huge boost. Even just one-fifth of that would be enough to increase their strength by 50%.

However, the blessing of the vast land could not break through to the Dao Foundation stage, and the number was limited, so all the core cavalry teams selected by Wei Yuan were Dao Foundation cultivators.

Each of the two hundred knights was equipped with heavy armor and long weapons, plus their own magical artifacts, and each was also equipped with two steel-pipe guns.

It is said that the high-ranking cultivators of Taichu Palace had long discovered that gunpowder was susceptible to moisture. In addition, since the steel pipe gun needed to be filled with at least half of the gunpowder, reloading was simply impractical. So, after filling the gunpowder, they simply sealed the tube opening with oil paper. This way, they did not have to worry about moisture and could preserve it for a long time. When needed, it could be activated with Dao power.

By Xu Wenwu's standards, this was actually a large bullet, about two feet long and as thick as a fist, which needed to be held in the hand and fired by rubbing the primer with the hand.

Over the next two days, Yuan Qingyan sent two more teams of envoys, but Cui Yufeng Tingyu intercepted and killed them all on the way.

The realm was silently accumulating power, but Yuan Qingyan was furious.

He wasn't concerned about the disappearances of his men; rather, he discovered that all the officials, clerks, and soldiers in the three eastern counties had vanished. According to the local people who had hidden themselves, the county magistrates had been abducted by bandits and were said to have gone to the west.

Upon receiving the news, Yuan Qingyan immediately smashed everything in her study that she could, even an antique vase that Xu Jingfeng had given her. When there was nothing left to smash, Yuan Qingyan began to curse loudly in her study.

Yuan Qingyan knew perfectly well that these bandits were actually people sent by the Realm to impersonate bandits!
Wei Yuan's audacity was completely unexpected by Yuan Qingyan, and it enraged him greatly. In Yuan Qingyan's view, Wei Yuan deserved to die for not paying his respects immediately upon his arrival, and now he dared to oppose him again and again? Just because he was a disciple of a celestial sect?
Thinking of this, Yuan Qingyan became even more furious, recalling the fates of past immortal sect disciples who had fallen into his hands. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

Why can't Wei Yuan and his ilk just starve to death peacefully in the realm? Why do they have to oppose him!

After calming down, Yuan Qingyan summoned the messengers who had been sent to the three counties and inquired in detail about the local customs, population distribution, and merchant caravan activity. After listening carefully, he understood that Wei Yuan might have obtained a million jin of grain. But that was the limit. The people of the Broken Domain had very little grain reserves. In the past, the Xu family had always controlled the people of the Broken Domain through grain, so they strictly controlled grain imports; almost no household had enough grain to last overnight. If Wei Yuan wanted to buy or plunder, he could only do so through merchant caravans.

Thinking of this, Yuan Qingyan gritted her teeth and said, "I'll let you live a few more days."

However, he immediately shook his head: "No, it's only polite to reciprocate!"

Yuan Qingyan summoned two adjutant generals. These two were reinforcements sent by Chen Dao and had just arrived that day. As soon as the two adjutant generals entered the study, they were shocked to see the mess in the room.

Yuan Qingyan pointed to the map and said, "You two will bypass the former territory of the three counties to the east and north. Except for supplying the government troops, all merchant caravans are prohibited from passing through. At the same time, you must clear out the people in the region and confiscate all ironware and grain—everything!"

The two officers were startled again, and one of them said, "Sir, then the people will not be able to survive."

"The people of the Western Regions are like wild grass, incredibly resilient. They naturally have ways to survive; you don't need to worry about them. If they really can't survive, can't they just run westward?"

The two adjutants then understood Yuan Qingyan's intention and felt a chill in their hearts, but neither dared to say anything and left to carry out their orders.

Only after the two had mustered their troops and left the camp to head north did they dare to speak a little louder.

One of them sighed, "This lord is indeed not easy to deal with. We're unlucky to have been assigned to his command."

Another man snorted and said, "While we wouldn't say we love the people like our own children, we try our best not to disturb them. Doesn't this man surnamed Yuan fear retribution for doing such a thing?"

“If we weren’t so old-fashioned, we wouldn’t have been sent here. I heard that Old Zhou was also transferred from the northern frontier. He got drunk and started cursing in the camp.”

"Old Zhou has high cultivation and married a woman surnamed Xu. He can do whatever he wants without any problems, but we can't."

The two complained as they headed north.

At this moment, Wei Yuan stared at the map, his gaze lingering around Quliu Town. The first two envoys from Yuan Qingyan hadn't returned, yet he'd sent a third. From this, Wei Yuan concluded that Yuan Qingyan held no value in Yuan Qingyan's eyes. Even if Wei Yuan killed all the troops Yuan Qingyan had sent out, Yuan Qingyan wouldn't bat an eye.

Since he was going to do it, Wei Yuan was prepared to go all out. But before that, he had to carefully assess the fighting strength of the Western Jin army, especially the northern frontier army.

Just as they were making plans, Wei Yuan suddenly sensed something was wrong and looked out the window.

At this moment, the sun is setting, its rays turning blood-red and the sky ablaze with crimson clouds.

The sunset was exceptionally red, as red as blood, and it spread rapidly towards the border.

(End of this chapter)