Longzang

Chapter 242 To Accept or Not to Accept

This round of advancement added ninety more Foundation Establishment cultivators to the realm, but those who had achieved Body Forging had already attempted Foundation Forging, while the rest were basically hopeless in their attempts.

The overall performance of the disciples sent by the Cui family was quite respectable, with a total of fifteen Dao Foundation cultivators, the most important being Cui Changfeng, who achieved Heavenly Foundation. Qinglian's sword was even better than Cui Yu's; it's a mystery what stroke of luck this kid had to transform him from a good-for-nothing into a genius.

If Qinglian possessed even a little more divine power, she could leap to the Immortal Foundation stage, and Cui Changfeng would undoubtedly be the protagonist of a storybook.

But the Cui family's troubles weren't over yet. None of those who paid to save their lives managed to forge a Dao foundation; all the Dao foundations were found among those who went to the battlefield. The problem was that seventy people went to the battlefield, and thirty died in battle—a truly terrifying casualty rate.

Cui Changfeng, who spent a lot of money, directly achieved the Heavenly Foundation, which also made the Cui family realize that if they wanted to build the Dao Foundation, they either had to fight desperately or rely on their fathers; relying on themselves was useless.

Wei Yuan was also quite troubled by Cui Changfeng's matter, so he and Cui Yu agreed on the same story and insisted that Cui Changfeng had a hidden bloodline talent that just happened to be activated in Qingming.

Two days later, the Cui family's flying boat arrived in Qingming again. This time, it was a medium-sized flying boat, about twenty feet long, with two Dharma Aspects on board. Such a flying boat would not be easy to conceal its presence, so its arrival had most likely already alerted the Xu family.

But the Cui family didn't care this time.

As the flying boat landed, the two elders of the Cui family ordered people to unload their belongings; this was the old lady's extra reward.

Wei Yuan inventoried everything, including 100,000 catties of rice seeds for mortals; 1,000 catties of various basic medicinal materials; 300 pieces of pharmaceutical equipment; 10 ordinary alchemy furnaces and 5 medium-grade alchemy furnaces; 2,000 refractory bricks, which can be used as furnace liners; 5 kinds of metal sand, 1 catty each; and finally, one seedling of Red Jade Lantern.

Apart from the last spiritual plant, everything else was ordinary, large in quantity and heavy. The most valuable items were the five kinds of metal sand and the firebricks. These were not ordinary firebricks, but bricks capable of withstanding the true fire of the sun at the Dao Foundation level. The furnace built with them was specifically used for smelting the raw materials for magical artifacts.

Adding just one grain of any of the five types of metallic sand will imbue a furnace of ordinary molten iron with unique properties, making it extremely rare and worth a thousand taels of silver per kilogram.

The grain, medicine, and iron tools were exactly what Wei Yuan urgently needed. The Cui family was indeed very capable, leaving Wei Yuan speechless.

The Crimson Jade Lantern is a top-grade spiritual plant, and its fruit has a slight life-extending effect. However, it has strict cultivation conditions; it must twine around a high-grade spiritual tree to absorb its life force in order to grow.

The Cui family's gift of this spiritual plant was clearly significant, given that Wei Yuan had already revealed a complete immortal tree. This spiritual plant would increase his growth rate dozens of times, yet it wouldn't affect the immortal tree. The difference in their ranks was too great; for the immortal tree to have its life force drained would be like a mortal being bitten by a mosquito.

One by one, the disciples of the Cui family boarded the flying boat, but seven or eight refused to leave. They decided to stay and participate in the second phase of training, including the younger brother of the girl who had formed the foundation.

The two elders, both possessing Dharma Aspects, did not force Wei Yuan. They gave him a list and said that the clan's flying boat had already departed and would arrive in a few days. The next flying boat would carry two hundred disciples, and the twenty people on the list were required to die; the rest were up to them.

After Wei Yuan put away the list, the old man surnamed Cui said to Wei Yuan, "What the old lady means is that this time it was still too tragic. In the future, when the Cui family members go to the battlefield, it would be best to take some care of them and keep the death rate below 10%."

"In that case, there probably wouldn't be so many Dao Foundations."

The old man said meaningfully, "The Cui family is not lacking in this foundation of knowledge."

Upon hearing this, Wei Yuan understood. For a behemoth like the Cui family, having more or less of these hopeless Human-Rank Dao Foundations was utterly irrelevant. Let alone Dao Foundations, even having more or less trashy Dharma Aspects wouldn't affect the overall situation.

Wei Yuan nodded to indicate that he understood. The old man then asked, "Does the old lady also want to ask if there are any more Qinglian?"

Wei Yuan smiled wryly: "How could there be more? This time it was just good luck that his hidden bloodline was activated."

The old man said, "Madam, you have one last thing to say. If that tree is too hot to handle, you can consider our Cui family. We can choose one of the suitable daughters of the Heavenly Foundation from this generation to marry into our family. We will establish a branch family here, and you will be the head of the branch family. You can enter the Elder Council in the future. All your treatment will be the same as Cui Yu's."

Wei Yuan said, "Please thank the old lady for her kindness. It's just a mere immortal plant; the Taichu Palace should be able to protect me."

The old man said slowly, "The Taichu Palace is a large and powerful family with many immortal treasures, so it's not necessarily true. Keep this information for now; it contains information on three legitimate daughters, all of whom are at the Heavenly Foundation stage. If you change your mind, you can choose one of them."

Wei Yuan initially wanted to refuse, but he accepted the jade paper and put it away. The old man was very satisfied with it, then boarded the flying boat and left, leaving behind only supplies and eight Cui family disciples who were scheduled for the second phase.

After the flying boat left, Cui Yufang said, "I thought you wouldn't accept that jade paper."

Wei Yuan was completely bewildered: "Why not accept it? Accepting it doesn't mean you have to see it. If you don't accept it in person, wouldn't that be a loss of face for the Cui family, and wouldn't look good for the two masters either? Who knows what they'll say about me when we get back."

Cui Yu patted Wei Yuan on the shoulder and said, "I don't know what they will say when they go back, but I do know that: 'The Cui family sent information on their eldest daughter for a marriage alliance, and Lord Wei happily accepted it.' Don't worry, this news will reach Bao Jie's ears in a few days."

Wei Yuan remained unmoved: "Just because I accepted it doesn't mean I'll look at it."

"If you don't want to see it, why did you accept it?" Cui Yu retorted.

Wei Yuan was speechless for a moment, unsure how to refute. But then he thought, why should he refute? Yet, not refutating would probably be even more wrong. Suddenly, the jade paper felt incredibly hot to the touch.

Wei Yuan shoved the jade paper into Cui Yu's hand, his face dark, and said, "Here you go!"

Cui Yu put the jade paper into his pocket and said, "I'll keep it for Sister Bao."

With this, the matter concerning the Cui family came to a temporary end. Cui Yu and Xu Wan'er led people to distribute the supplies. The newly acquired rice seeds also needed to be planted in the fields.

One hundred thousand catties of seeds is not much; it's only enough to plant five thousand mu. This amount wouldn't be enough to provoke the Xu family, but the seeds sent by the Cui family have their own secrets. It's a special variety, yielding only three hundred catties per mu. The yield is low, and the taste is poor, but it grows extremely quickly, ready for harvest in just two months, and it can grow almost anywhere without special care.

With this batch of rice seeds, Wei Yuan will no longer have to worry about food after six months.

Wei Yuan returned to his residence, where several sheets of jade paper were placed on a corner of the table. He hesitated for a moment, then finally picked up the jade paper.

The paper contained a detailed record of the previous battle's results. The statistics had been compiled several days ago, but Wei Yuan simply didn't want to look at them, and had kept putting it off until now.

In the previous battle, the Wu Clan mobilized a total of 110,000 troops, with 80,000 directly engaged in combat and 40,000 forming a central and rear guard. The Wu army subsequently dispatched 25,000 elite troops to attack Xuanwei Liu. Wei Yuan deployed 2,000 elite troops, 5,000 ordinary body-forging warriors, and 4,000 civilians from the city to Xuanwei Liu. Ultimately, Yun Feifei of Xuanwei Liu destroyed the underground city, resulting in mutual destruction on both sides.

On the ground battlefield, the Wu Clan mobilized 60,000 troops, of whom 27,000 died in battle. Wei Yuan deployed 20,000 Body Forging Warriors, 5,000 elites, and 500 Foundation Establishment cultivators here, and ultimately 11,000 of them perished.

The heavy casualties among the Wu tribe warriors shook their morale, preventing Yan Xin from drawing upon the army's energy to strengthen himself, which contributed to his swift defeat.

The population of the realm is now less than 100,000, and more than 40,000 have died in battle in a short period of time.

The first batch of cultivators who came to the realm have already died once, and most of the main force under Wei Yuan's command now were promoted after entering the realm.

Coming to Qingming from Quliu Town and other places is not as simple as just having a full meal. People will no longer be affected by the corruption of the Witch Domain, and their living environment is at least dry and warm, so they will no longer suffer from all kinds of strange diseases. Moreover, thanks to the constant nourishment of Jiamu Shengxuan, many people suffering from diseases are slowly recovering, and their stagnant progress in body forging is also rapidly advancing again. This is why Wei Yuan has a large number of new body forging cultivators under his command.

There are currently fewer than a thousand elderly people over fifty years old in the Azure Netherworld. They all survived the torment of the Shattered Domain over the years, and all of them are Body Forging cultivators. In the Shattered Domain, if you cannot forge your body, you basically won't live past thirty. Only those who have achieved the Great Perfection of Body Forging have a chance to live past fifty.

However, when these elderly people entered Qingming, they were already on their deathbeds, their bodies were riddled with holes from erosion, and their cultivation was reduced to less than one-tenth.

Since Qingming established his rule, the Wu tribe has lost 100,000 warriors on this land, more than half of whom were elite troops, and six or seven high shamans have also perished. Such a record is at least three or four times greater than that of Ningxi Prefecture, which was newly established by the Western Jin Dynasty.

Sometimes, when Wei Yuan was filled with hatred, he would involuntarily think that it would have been better to just pull out Qingming and run away. His Dao foundation could be slowly repaired, while these witch troops would be enough to sweep across the entire Western Regions, kill all the officials, big and small, who came from the Western Jin Dynasty to establish prefectures and counties, as well as the hundreds of thousands of Jin troops who were not moving.

However, this would mean that the millions of people stranded in the Broken Realm would become dead.

(End of this chapter)