Longzang

Chapter 241: Heaven is Unfair
As dusk approached, the setting sun shone like blood.

Smoke rises from chimneys throughout the town of Bianning County, accompanied by the sounds of roosters crowing and dogs barking. If it weren't for the lush greenery visible not far from the town, it would seem like a paradise on earth.

There were still many people queuing at the city gate to enter the city. The soldiers searched through their luggage, and occasionally they would stuff a couple of decent items into their own pockets.

A lazy general, who didn't look very old, sat atop the city wall, lazily watching the people queuing below. The former city gate captain stood beside him, bowing and scraping.

The young general yawned and said, "You have a lot of men, but there's not much to be gained! Those guys are all dressed in rags; if you stripped them all, how much money would you get?"

The captain complained, "That's right! These days, all we get are people like this. We only occasionally run into a few merchant caravans, and they're all people with connections. We give them a couple of coins as a token of our appreciation, which is like giving money to a beggar."

After complaining, he immediately put on a smiling face and said, "We still have to follow General Yue to live a life of luxury!"

Yue Qilin yawned again and said, "It's almost lunchtime. Eating is important. Tell your men to stop checking and let them all in and close the door quickly! Then we'll eat at your house! I'm craving your wife's cooking."

The captain's face lit up with a smile: "My wife may not be pretty, but she's an absolute culinary genius! Tonight I've prepared pickled vegetables and tofu stew, I guarantee you'll have a refreshing new taste!"

Yue Qilin patted his shoulder and said, "Good! You ate well this time. I'll have your new wife learn from your wife."

"Don't worry! I guarantee you'll learn it!"

The soldiers at the city gate stopped checking people and let everyone in line into the city at once. Among the crowd were many strong men carrying tattered bundles, who disappeared after entering the city.

The prefectural governor's mansion was brightly lit, and melodious music filled the air.

In the main hall of the mansion, a large table was set up, where Li Weisheng, the Prefect of Bianning County, was hosting a banquet for his colleagues. As the chief official of the county, second only to the Prefect, the Assistant Prefect Sun Chaoen naturally sat next to him.

One of the officials asked, "Why hasn't General Yue come?"

Li Weisheng said calmly, "General Yue doesn't like crowds and isn't used to these mundane dishes. If he doesn't want to come, he doesn't have to."

Several officials, observing the situation, immediately began to point out Yue Qilin's faults. However, their words were measured, and none of them went too far.

After a few rounds of drinks, Li Weisheng said, "Lord Sun, I heard you sent a memorial to the capital early this morning. What important matter is it that warrants such diligence?"

Sun Chaoen laughed and said, “Unlike Lord Li, who has deep roots and no powerful backers in the court, I have to be more diligent, don’t I? I didn’t say anything in my memorial. It’s just that news of the immortal tree has recently come from the west. I once saw an immortal tree in an ancient book called White Jade Crimson Cherry, which is very similar to the legend of this tree. This White Jade Crimson Cherry is an immortal tree that can prolong life and is extremely rare.”

"The rumors may not be true; Lord Sun is too hasty. Is this the only matter mentioned in the memorial?"

"Of course not. I impeached Prefect Yuan. The immortal tree was under his jurisdiction, yet he was completely unaware of it until it became a public scandal. Just the charge of incompetent governance and ineffective supervision is enough to get him into serious trouble. Secondly, I also impeached Commander Yue Jinshan. Recently, the Wu tribe has been making frequent moves, but he has accomplished nothing. Moreover, he appoints his relatives and friends, monopolizes power, and his military officers do not communicate with the civil officials at all. He harbors rebellious intentions!"

Li Weisheng had just brought a cup of wine to his lips when he stopped, looking surprised. "Lord Sun, you've... gone a bit too far."

Sun Chaoen said, "I am only serving the emperor and eating his food."

Li Weisheng continued, "There is a problem right now, and I hope you gentlemen can think of a solution. These days, the number of refugees coming from within the pass is increasing day by day, and the city is already somewhat overburdened."

At this moment, a young official with a scholarly air, sitting at the lowest seat, said, "The Wuyu region is harsh and rife with war. Why are these people not living peacefully within the pass, but instead coming to the outside of it?"

The officials remained outwardly calm, but inwardly they were all sneering: This guy really is someone who never lifts a finger. If he could survive inside the pass, who would travel thousands of miles to the outside of it?
The official's surname was Cai. He was a newly selected Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) last year and was assigned to Bianning County after being admitted.

Having received everyone's praise, the scholar perked up and raised his voice, saying, "Human lives are at stake. These people have traveled thousands of miles to Bianning County, and they must be penniless. However, the county still has plenty of grain. I think we should set up soup kitchens, open the granaries to distribute food, and then encourage these people to cultivate the surrounding wasteland. In this way, the situation can be stabilized next year."

Li Weisheng remained silent in thought.

Sun Chaoen said, “Although there is grain in the prefecture, it is all rationed. The army’s rations also come from here, and the militia’s rations also come from here. Every grain of rice is precious. If a few starving people come today and we need to distribute grain, and a few more starving people come tomorrow and we need to distribute grain, how much grain is enough to distribute? We are not immortals, we cannot conjure up grain out of thin air.”

The scholar surnamed Cai was somewhat embarrassed and argued, "I have seen the account books, and there is clearly still plenty of grain on the books, more than enough to last until next autumn. As long as enough new fields are cultivated this year, the official treasury can be replenished next year."

Sun Chaoen said calmly, "I wonder where Lord Cai saw the account books? I didn't see them."

Before the scholar surnamed Cai could answer, Sun Chaoen continued, "Without imperial decree, you've been releasing grain privately. Are you truly acting in the best interests of the court, or are you trying to use the court's money and grain to enhance your own reputation?"

Those were harsh words. The scholar surnamed Cai blushed and retorted, "What does my reputation matter..."

Li Weisheng interrupted him, saying, "The matter of distributing grain is of great importance, and I cannot act on my own. I should report it to the court and let the officials decide."

The scholar surnamed Cai sat down dejectedly and said no more.

Several officials exchanged knowing glances. They knew the inside story: the grain was merely recorded in the books; the granaries were empty, the grain already sold off. Everyone knew who had bought it, but no one asked or mentioned it, since they had all received a share of the profits.
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(The legendary separator line; the line outside the parentheses only counts as one character)

Qingming. Wei Yuan hadn't rested for several days. He ran back and forth between the forging ground, the mine, the herb garden, and the training ground every day, doing almost everything himself, as if only in this way could he forget some things.

At this moment, as dawn approached and dusk fell, the yang energy was rising and the yin energy was receding, a time when life was at its most vibrant and lively. A solemn atmosphere pervaded the training ground, where over two hundred cultivators sat cross-legged, awaiting the arrival of the most important moment of their lives.

Most of the cultivators were dressed in tattered clothes, clearly from the Shattered Realm. However, there were also dozens of people dressed in fine clothes, all in the same style; these were all members of the Cui family.

Wei Yuan walked on the training ground, passing through the crowd. At this moment, spiritual energy surged, and he activated the "Instantaneous All Beings" once again, giving everyone one last experience.

With the help of Qingming, Wei Yuan can sense the state of each person's sea of ​​consciousness and roughly judge the probability of achieving the Dao Foundation.

This batch of cultivators from the realms is much weaker than the previous two batches. Only about half of them are able to forge a foundation for the Dao. Even with Wei Yuan's blessing of fortune, less than 70% will be able to succeed.

Within the realm, those cultivators who originally possessed sufficient talent but were limited by cultivation techniques and resources have already formed their Dao foundations. Those who are only now beginning to form their foundations are mostly those with insufficient talent and innate weaknesses. Even though Wei Yuan used his luck as a foundation to elevate them and then used the light of all living beings to illuminate their path, many still cannot pass the Dao foundation hurdle.

Wei Yuan felt a pang of regret. These cultivators had all fought countless bloody battles, practically crawling out of piles of corpses. Each one possessed unwavering will and ironclad resolve. However, their innate foundations were simply too weak, like building a house on shifting sands—even the most skilled architect would be useless.

The story of the Cui family is another one altogether.

Most of these spoiled brats from wealthy families had only experienced one bloody battle recently, and now there are seventy of them left, including more than twenty who bought immortality.

Therefore, the true casualties among the Cui family disciples were that out of more than seventy people, thirty had died in battle, nearly half of them were killed or wounded. However, the improvement brought about by surviving the bloody battle was also quite obvious. The primordial spirits of those who survived were all significantly stronger, and their willpower was also incomparable to what it was before. In fact, these people did not know that the strengthening of their primordial spirits was their real gain, which in some ways was even more important than the foundation of their Dao.

Among these Cui family members who had been on the battlefield, even without relying on luck, eight of them were expected to condense their Dao foundation. One of the girls even had a sword embryo faintly appearing in her sea of ​​consciousness, which actually had the potential to reach the Earth Rank.

Wei Yuan still remembered that the girl had tried to sell herself to her younger brother in an attempt to buy him immortality, but she had failed to sell anything.

Wei Yuan walked through them, secretly replenishing the Qi of several of them, roughly gathering fourteen Dao Foundations. As for the girl, Wei Yuan gave her an extra Qi, which might help her ascend to the Earth Rank.

In contrast, the twenty-odd people who bought their lives looked much worse. Their primordial spirits were all dim and lifeless, and their wills were even more fragmented. Several of them were still unable to achieve a state of clarity and emptiness, with all sorts of thoughts popping up one after another. Wei Yuan didn't even know how they had cultivated their sea of ​​consciousness.

These people all have a heavy aura of medicinal energy, clearly indicating they've taken a lot of medicine since childhood. As a result, the medicinal properties have become stagnant and haven't dissipated, which has actually affected their foundation. Not everyone can be like Wei Yuan back then, taking pills like food and still not retaining any medicinal energy.

Speaking of innate talent, these twenty-odd people actually have the highest physical constitution among all the people, but their primordial spirit is weak and their minds are impure. It's like having a solid foundation, but the building materials are all mud and straw, so naturally nothing can be built.

Among the crowd, only one young man in brocade robes possessed exceptional talent and a strong primordial spirit, standing out from the crowd like a crane among chickens. It was no wonder that Wei Yuan had bestowed three strands of fortune upon him.

Nine chimes of the bell represent the ultimate number.

In an instant, all beings closed off, Jia Wood generated the Profound, and everyone began to condense their Dao foundation.

From time to time, the primordial energy of heaven and earth poured down from the void, and those who had formed their Dao foundation were led aside, where highly skilled cultivators explained to them the matters of consolidating their Dao foundation.

Cheers of joy rang out intermittently in the training ground, while others sighed deeply, and some even wept bitterly. An array had already been set up on the training ground, so those who hadn't completed their Foundation Establishment couldn't hear any outside sounds or sense the fluctuations of other people's Dao power.

Although there were many cultivators on the training ground, only the Cui family disciples were making a ruckus and shouting.

The cultivators from all realms remained silent. The victors celebrated by pumping their fists. The losers were equally calm, waiting for their next opportunity.

After a while, a series of cursing voices appeared, and some people were still arguing with the cultivators from the realm, demanding an explanation. Why could they not build their foundations even though they had spent money, while those born out of wedlock and many of them were injured could?

It wasn't until Cui Yu appeared, his face dark, that he kicked down several of the ringleaders who were causing the disturbance, which finally calmed the situation down.

Just then, a beam of light shot into the sky above the young man in brocade robes, and huge lotus petals slowly bloomed around him, while a powerful aura swept across the training ground.

The young master stood up and laughed loudly, "Who says I, Cui Changfeng, can't forge a foundation for the Dao? When I get back, won't this blue lotus blind those old geezers?"

Watching the gradually disappearing blue lotus, Cui Yu's face darkened as he looked at Wei Yuan.

Wei Yuan was also taken aback. Could it be that he had used too much force and forced out a Heavenly Foundation? But then he thought about it again and realized that something was not right. Based on this guy's original aptitude and state of mind, let alone three strands of luck, even thirty strands would not be enough to force out a Heavenly Foundation. There must be other reasons.

At this moment, the young man in brocade saw Wei Yuan, came over and patted him on the shoulder, saying, "You're not bad, kid. You're reliable. Those few thousand taels of silver I spent were worth it!"

Before his hand could even reach Wei Yuan's shoulder, Cui Yu kicked him to the ground, followed by a barrage of punches and kicks.

The young master cried out in pain, "Brother Yu, be gentle, be gentle! We're both at the Heavenly Foundation level now, so many people are watching, give me some face..."

At this moment, Cui Yu only hated that Heaven was blind and the world was unjust, so he struck even harder.

(End of this chapter)