Longzang

Chapter 214 Countermeasures
Zhang Sheng remained calm and had Wei Yuan recount the events again, this time without missing any details.

After reviewing the situation, Zhang Sheng said, "There is still a glimmer of hope in this matter. First, the Wu Clan most likely doesn't know that you did this, and they will definitely investigate carefully. Second, the Wu Clan has a huge cost to cast the Karma Curse; even the largest tribes have to use all their resources. Therefore, the Wu Clan is always extremely cautious when casting the Karma Curse, and they won't cast it on you unless they confirm that you are the culprit."

"So now we need to start from these two points. First, we must do our best to avoid revealing any flaws and prevent the Witch Clan from discovering the truth. But this method can only delay as much as possible. The Witch Clan's spells are unpredictable, and they may have some way to find out the truth indirectly. So from now on, you must not reveal this matter to any third party. I will find one or two trustworthy people to discuss countermeasures."

Wei Yuan nodded. After all, he had only recently completed his apprenticeship, and in terms of experience and connections, he was far inferior to Zhang Sheng.

Zhang Sheng continued, "The time gained from the first is to prepare for the second. Although the Witch Clan's Great Curse of Cause and Effect is terrifying, the cost is also enormous. The first cost comes from the energy consumed in activating the curse; I don't know the exact amount, but it's beyond imagination. The second cost is the backlash. The Great Curse of Cause and Effect is also known as the Earth-Cleansing Curse, and there's a reason for that."

Thousands of years ago, a scholar deeply hated the Wu tribe and wrote numerous poems and essays denouncing them. This man was a literary genius, and his works are all renowned. Of course, some of his famous lines are worth examining. For example, the line "A brave warrior, hungry, eats the flesh of the Wu tribe" is quite illogical. Wouldn't ordinary people eating the flesh of the Wu tribe be tantamount to suicide? It wouldn't be a problem if it were the mountain people of Beiliao, except that these two tribes had no enmity with him.

Zhang Sheng habitually began to comment on historical figures.

Wei Yuan, whose life was at stake, quickly coughed a few times. Zhang Sheng then realized what was happening and hurriedly returned to the main topic: "This person's poems flowed into the Wu tribe and were seen by a Heavenly Witch at the time. The Heavenly Witch was furious and, without considering the consequences, unleashed a great curse of cause and effect. As a result, the former residence of the famous scholar was reduced to a mere ten percent of its original population across several counties, truly turning it into a vast, desolate wasteland. The Heavenly Witch did not expect that the curse, which emptied several counties, would backfire due to the resentment of the millions who died, wiping out most of the Heavenly Witch's remaining lifespan."

Wei Yuan understood and said, "Disciple should make more friends and get to know more important people?"

"Mere acquaintance is useless; superficial friendships have no karmic connection. Only deep friendships can lead to anything. I have just studied the experiences of that famous scholar. At that time, he governed six prefectures, and the people in the areas he governed lived in peace and prosperity, far surpassing anything seen before. The people's hearts were with him, and that is how the karmic connection came about."

Wei Yuan pondered, "If the people under my rule are suffering, is there also a cause and effect involved?"

Zhang Sheng nodded: "Of course there is cause and effect, and one can also be killed by the Great Curse of Cause and Effect. Sometimes, the world is just so unreasonable... Hmm?"

Zhang Sheng suddenly looked up, and the void above appeared, with pure heaven and earth energy pouring down and falling into Zhang Sheng's body, causing the fourth immortal sword to materialize from the void, and the nurturing process greatly accelerated, almost reaching perfection.

This was a gift from the Great Shaman, arriving earlier and in greater quantities than Zhang Sheng had imagined.

But Wei Yuan remained completely still. Zhang Sheng was puzzled and asked, "Didn't you receive any divine power?"

"This disciple has gained four hundred days of merit."

Zhang Sheng frowned slightly and said, "I received 1,200. It is indeed a bit less for you, but it's not like you received nothing at all."

"There should be some; they were all given to Qingming."

This matter was strange, but it involved matters of heaven and earth, far beyond Zhang Sheng and Wei Yuan's current level, so the two did not discuss it further.

Zhang Sheng said, "The best way would have been for you to hide in the palace. No matter how strong the Witch Clan is, they wouldn't throw the Karma Curse directly at the Taichu Palace's gate. Even if they dared to throw it, it wouldn't have mattered. There's an ancient Heavenly Witch's head buried under the Taichu Palace's gate, so any curse thrown at it would be much less effective."

Is such a thing possible? It's a pity that Wei Yuan's Dao Foundation and Qing Ming are fused into one, and he can't leave unless absolutely necessary. Both master and disciple have weathered countless storms, and they would never do something that would cripple their own martial arts unless it's the very last moment.

After the overall strategy was agreed upon, Zhang Sheng summoned Ji Liuli, indicating that his senior sister was the person he trusted most at this moment. It took Ji Liuli a while to recover after Wei Yuan finished explaining the whole matter, and then her divine sense circled Wei Yuan's sea of ​​consciousness. Due to her unique innate Dao foundation, she was able to glimpse the inner workings of Wei Yuan's Dao foundation to a limited extent.

After reading it, Ji Liuli fell silent and remained speechless for a long time.

After a moment, Ji Liuli came to his senses and sighed, "It really is Yin and Yang! It's only one step away from the Great Dao of Chaos before the creation of heaven and earth. This is directly facing the Great Dao of heaven and earth! It makes me want to reincarnate and start over."

Zhang Sheng shattered her illusions: "Even if you turn ninety-nine times, you still won't be able to obtain this foundation in this life."

“That’s true.” Ji Liuli put aside his thoughts and said seriously, “Right now, we still need to work on the first step. The Witch Clan will definitely make calculations, and Yuan’er himself is not afraid of calculations. If I ask my master to cover up the secrets of heaven, then the Witch Clan will be even less able to calculate it. But as far as I know, there are very few humans who have entered the Netherworld at present, so the Witch Clan will eventually investigate Xiao Wei Yuan. At that time, the inability to calculate will be the biggest flaw.”

"So I'll take action, with Xiao Weiyuan cooperating, and we'll use appropriate concealment to make the Wu Clan expend a lot of effort to successfully crack the code and see what we want them to see. This way, we can clear them of suspicion. I just checked Xiao Weiyuan's Dao Foundation, and the laurel branch given to me by the Immortal Lord has not only regained its vitality but also gained sentience. Oh, and it just stole a gift from heaven and earth. Xiao Weiyuan, you'll have to keep a close eye on it when you have time."

Wei Yuan was taken aback. He had thought that the gift from heaven and earth had been eaten by Qingming, but he did not expect that this time it was the laurel branch that had intercepted it.

Zhang Sheng nodded and said, "This plan is excellent..."

“Xiao Weiyuan has grown up and can speak like a human!” Ji Liuli interrupted Zhang Sheng.

Zhang Sheng snorted, stopped arguing, and said, "This method is good! The laurel branch is of a high enough rank and powerful enough. It has been used to kill a great witch before, and its origin is clear. Even if it suddenly regains its vitality, there are many ways to explain it. Of course, the most important thing is that if it is really stimulated by the Yin and Yang energies, its vitality is far more than this."

Ji Liuli said, "Well, once the Witch Clan successfully discovers the Moon Laurel Immortal Branch, they should shift their attention elsewhere. Although we can't tell the Ancestor about this, I can ask him to bless Xiao Weiyuan with good fortune, which will buy us some more time. Xiao Weiyuan, you should use this time to strengthen your power and cultivate many karmic connections!"

The three discussed the details carefully before going off to make their own arrangements. This matter would continue until Zhang Shengji was forced into exile. The eldest sister repeatedly emphasized that they must not trust anyone, not even Bao Yun.

Yin and Yang are almost synonymous with the Dao, their status is so high that even Immortal Lords cannot help but feel greed. It differs from Wei Yuan's Dao foundation, its power unprecedented across vast lands and rivers, but apart from Wei Yuan, no one else can control it or learn from it. If someone were to cultivate entirely according to Wei Yuan's method, it's uncertain whether they could even afford to spend 100,000 taels of immortal silver.

However, things like Yin and Yang, which are purely close to the Great Dao, have a slight chance of being plundered. Even if they are taken and cannot be used, one can still benefit greatly from learning from them.

Zhang Sheng trusted Ji Liuli not only because he knew her character after years of getting to know her, but also primarily because the Nine-Layer Demon-Suppressing Pagoda was unique and possessed limitless future potential. If Ji Liuli were to seize the Yin-Yang Pagoda and reincarnate to cultivate again, there was a high probability that she would only achieve a Dao foundation weaker than the Nine-Layer Pagoda itself, with the chance of truly forming the Yin-Yang Tai Chi being less than ten percent.

Ji Liuli was a shrewd strategist, and naturally wouldn't give up the readily available Nine-Story Pagoda to gamble on a vague and uncertain opportunity. Otherwise, Zhang Sheng might not have dared to gamble on her character.

Wei Yuan returned to his room and organized his thoughts. The first step was temporarily irrelevant to him; now he needed to focus on the second step.

So Wei Yuan prepared pen and ink, took out a piece of jade paper, pondered for a moment, and wrote on the paper:

Brother Li Zhi:
……

(End of this chapter)