Longzang

Chapter 307 We're just missing someone like you
The Western Regions were a lawless land, and bandits had always been rampant there.

An ordinary-looking caravan set off from Yuyang Prefecture in the State of Zhao. After half a month and traveling thousands of miles, they encountered four roadblocks and inspections by government troops, and three attempts to confiscate the entire caravan's goods. They also faced six robberies by bandits, and once a chaotic battle involving several groups of bandits, government troops, and the mysterious caravan. After enduring such hardships, they finally arrived in Qingming.

Few members of the caravan had access to confidential information, so to most, this was a legendary journey. If they hadn't seen and experienced it firsthand, who would have known that the bandits of the Broken City were so numerous, so well-trained, so well-equipped, so coordinated, and so knowledgeable in military strategy?
Moreover, the bandits of the Western Regions had peculiar tastes and strange hobbies. Whenever government troops appeared, bandits would inevitably appear as well, leading to a three-way battle. The caravans, adhering to the principle of self-preservation, sought only to protect themselves and avoided participating in the fighting as much as possible. As long as they remained in their positions, the government troops and bandits would be busy fighting their own battles and would have little time to deal with them.

Their first encounter with bandits routed the government troops, which was bad enough, but the bandits who appeared afterward were increasingly ferocious and better equipped, and their attacks on the government troops were exceptionally brutal. The two groups that appeared first and last, wearing masks, were particularly vicious, routing the caravan's guards and government soldiers from the outset. Then they stripped the government soldiers naked, took their armor and weapons, and swaggered away, leaving behind a group of naked men shivering in the wind.

When the masked bandits appeared a second time, they simply arrested the naked men as well.

The caravan guards thought they were dreaming. How could bandits capture an entire battalion of soldiers?
Fortunately, they later encountered two small groups of bandits, fought two battles, and somewhat redeemed the caravan's traditional impression of bandits.

However, before they even ventured deep into the Shattered Realm, they encountered another Zhao Kingdom caravan. This caravan was clearly suspicious; it only had a few large wagons, but it was accompanied by several hundred guards, each equipped with two horses. This didn't resemble a caravan at all; it was clearly an elite cavalry force.

Where there are caravans, there are bound to be Western Jin government troops. Sure enough, the government troops appeared like ghosts, immediately demanding the confiscation of all the caravan's property, including its carriages and horses. As a result, the caravan did not hesitate to attack and routed the government troops.

It's not surprising that the Western Jin government forces were defeated; it seems they've never won a battle before.

However, a band of bandits then appeared. This band of bandits was about the same size as the mysterious Zhao Kingdom caravan, but surprisingly, there were dozens of Dao Foundation cultivators among them! After a chaotic battle, the mysterious Zhao Kingdom caravan was no match for the bandits and began to show signs of defeat.

At this moment, the masked bandits suddenly appeared and immediately launched a fierce attack on the bandits present. Although the masked bandits were slightly outnumbered, there were actually a hundred Dao Foundation cultivators in their group!
The chaotic battle raged fiercely, and the mysterious Zhao Kingdom caravan barely managed to escape, fleeing back the way they came. The Yu Yang Prefecture caravan, terrified, scurried along the edge of the battlefield, speeding away, not daring to look at the fighting.

This battle fully demonstrated the ferocity of the bandits in the Western Regions. Even if several elite troops from the Zhao state were to arrive here, they would probably only be able to serve as government troops, not as bandits.

The Yu Yang Prefecture caravan consisted of thirty specially made wagons, with a total of five hundred drivers and guards. Having suffered so much fright, they traveled day and night at a very fast pace. Unless it was a large river or a cliff, they forcibly crossed most of the undulating terrain without taking detours. Finally, they arrived at Qingming safely.

The caravan brought 50,000 bolts of cloth, a large quantity of low-grade spiritual plants, mainly tea trees and amethyst grapevines suitable for winemaking, as well as several thousand kilograms of "essence of five metals." This "essence of five metals" is actually a general term for various rare metals; adding them to iron and copper yields a variety of metallic materials with different properties. This batch of essence of five metals could be used to create at least 500,000 kilograms of high-quality metallic materials.

When the caravan left, it took away three thousand sets of breastplates, each costing twenty taels of silver. In the end, the caravan left behind over twenty thousand taels of silver.

However, as the garrison commander, Cui Shutong held absolute military and political power over the prefecture. This batch of armor could be directly equipped to his own troops, eliminating countless intermediaries. Although the intermediaries were eliminated, the Zhao state's expenditures would still not decrease, and the saved expenses naturally went into Cui Shutong's pocket.

After the caravan left, Wei Yuan immediately organized people to cultivate another 10,000 mu of farmland and 3,000 mu of hillside fields. The hillside fields were specifically used to grow amethyst grapes.

With cloth, the people in the realm no longer need to desperately patch their clothes. If there were no cloth, even Foundation Establishment cultivators would probably be exposed. Recently, when Wei Yuan robbed government soldiers, he always stripped them naked, mainly to get a few sets of clothes.

Two caravans arrived in a single month, resulting in a loss of 5,000 sets of breastplates and a net profit of 100,000 silver coins.

After seeing off the Zhao Kingdom caravan, Wei Yuan sought out Yu Zhizhuo to discuss how to expand the production capacity of breastplates.

The realm can now produce 100 sets of breastplates a day, equivalent to having 1,500 skilled craftsmen. But this is far from enough; the two caravans not only consumed all the newly produced breastplates this month, but also took away a considerable amount of existing stock.

If this continues, Qingming himself will run out of armor.

Yu Zhizhuo was also troubled by this matter. When Wei Yuan found him, he was drawing a new type of furnace. This furnace was shaped like a giant cauldron and could hold 10,000 catties of prepared raw materials at a time, producing 4,000 catties of molten iron. However, the Four Symbols Wind Generating Array attached to this furnace required four Dao Foundation cultivators to operate, and it was best if they were fire-element Dao Foundation cultivators, which could shorten the smelting time by one-third.

However, there are only a few dozen cultivators with the Fire Path Foundation in the realm.

Fire Path Foundation? Wei Yuan seemed to be deep in thought, and a new immortal sword, Pseudo-Sun, appeared in his hand.

At this time, the forging workshop employed nearly a thousand cultivators engaged in mining and smelting, over seven hundred cultivators operating the iron forging machines, and then a smaller number of artisans—less than a hundred in the traditional sense. With nearly two thousand people, the forging workshop not only crafted breastplates but also forged steel-pipe guns, cast bullets, weapons, and agricultural tools, making it remarkably efficient. By traditional standards, at least three thousand artisans would have been needed to produce the same items.

Wei Yuan and Yu Zhizhuo discussed for an entire afternoon, refining the details of the new furnace. Then, he headed to the cultivator training camp located next to the training ground. Cultivators who had achieved or were close to achieving Body Forging and were on the verge of Foundation Establishment would gather here for their final training in order to break through to Foundation Establishment.

There are currently over four hundred people in the training camp. This batch of cultivators is of quite good quality, mostly composed of prisoners of war from the government army. The latest batch consists of Xu Li's original troops, including several dozen of his former personal guards. Ji Liuli personally inspected them and found that these guards had excellent potential; almost all of them could form a Dao Foundation, otherwise they wouldn't have become Xu Li's personal guards.

Wei Yuan estimated that out of this batch of over four hundred people, slightly more than one hundred would achieve the Foundation Establishment stage. Seeing Wei Yuan personally arrive at the training camp, all the cultivators were both excited and somewhat apprehensive. Most of them hadn't originally intended to surrender, but here they were being tempted by the prospect of a Dao foundation! Aside from those geniuses who could join a sect, who could resist the offer of a Foundation Establishment?

They initially felt they had acted rashly, but Wei Yuan acted too quickly, dragging them into robbing government troops, some even participating more than once. Having pledged their loyalty, they knew there was no turning back.

Wei Yuan ordered his men to gather all the cultivators together, and then hundreds of immortal swords appeared before them, their blades faintly glowing with flames.

Wei Yuan said, “The foundation of the Dao is ever-changing, but there are shortcuts. These immortal swords in front of you are simplified versions of the Great Sun. Each of you will receive one in a moment. I will also pass on a mental incantation to you, which will help you comprehend the wonders of the immortal sword Dao foundation. When you condense your Dao foundation seven days later, try to emulate this immortal sword as much as possible, and your path to the Dao will be much easier.”

Some of the cultivators were excited, while others looked disdainful.

Seven days passed in the blink of an eye, and it was time for the monthly foundation-building ceremony again. After the routine three brief warm-up sessions for all beings, the power of Jia wood generating profound energy enveloped the entire area. Ji Liuli, Wei Yuan, Chuhe Zhenren, Sun Yu, Yu Zhizhuo, and others were all present, providing hands-on guidance to each of them.

In just a short while, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth poured down from the air above the training ground, and one after another, flaming immortal swords rose into the sky, creating a magnificent sight.

Seeing such a magnificent scene of cultivation, Wei Yuan was filled with emotion. These people were originally hopeless on the path to immortality, but now one of the four has been able to forge a foundation for the Dao. The senior who refined the Azure Nether Immortal Stone back then possessed truly awe-inspiring and terrifying supernatural abilities!
Unfortunately, Xiaoyu couldn't witness the magnificent sight of so many swords ascending into the sky.

As night fell, the eight cultivators who had initially stabilized their Dao foundations arrived at the weapon forging workshop. They sat cross-legged around the two newly built furnaces, each occupying a key position in the array. Four newly forged immortal swords, pseudo-suns, appeared and were inserted into the furnaces, causing flames to erupt from the furnace openings, reaching several feet high.

This group of four hundred cultivators eventually forged eighty-three pseudo-suns into immortal swords. More than thirty others failed to forge pseudo-suns and instead became fire swords. Even with Wei Yuan's thick skin, he couldn't bring himself to call them immortal swords.

Fire Sword is also considered a foundation of Dao, though it is only slightly inferior to Silk Rain.

There were also more than forty proud and ambitious individuals who were determined to forge their own unique Dao foundation, but only six of them succeeded. The success rate was far lower than that of those who focused on comprehending the Immortal Sword Pseudo-Sun.

These people cannot forge the foundation of the Dao, so they are not qualified to manage the furnace and can only shovel slag.

Just as Wei Yuan came out of the weapon forging workshop, he saw a cultivator rushing towards him, saying, "An envoy from the Western Jin Dynasty has just arrived, saying that there is an award for the Realm Lord, and the imperial envoy will arrive tomorrow!"

Wei Yuan was taken aback and said, "Where is the envoy? Take me there."

A short while later, Wei Yuan met the Western Jin envoy in the town of Zhike. The envoy had only brought two attendants and ten guards, and had come at full speed to inform Wei Yuan in advance, so as to avoid any confusion or impoliteness on the spot.

When Wei Yuan asked the envoy, he was also surprised to learn that the imperial envoy who had come this time was actually Zhao Tong, the Grand Eunuch of the Palace!
This person is an absolute confidant of the Prince of Jin. He is a great cultivator in the late stage of the Dharma Aspect realm. It is said that his Daoist techniques are unpredictable and he is a very powerful figure.

The reward came suddenly, and Wei Yuan suddenly thought of Consort Yuan, with some vague guesses in his heart.

Upon receiving the news, Wei Yuan quickly organized the territory, sealing off all areas that could not be disclosed to outsiders, and then waited attentively for the imperial envoy to arrive.

At noon the next day, two thousand Western Jin Imperial Guards soldiers in red sleeves and black armor marched into the realm. Their armor was gleaming, their weapons were shining, their steps were orderly, and their military aura was bright, making them an excellent sight. At this time, cultivators from the realm were already leading the way, guiding them all the way to the guest town.

Wei Yuan and his men were already waiting there.

Two thousand Imperial Guards spread out to the flanks, and eight bronze-bodied warriors carried a large sedan chair, which they carried until they reached Wei Yuan before alighting. Two eunuchs with red eyebrows and white teeth rushed over and lifted the sedan chair curtain. Both of them had Dao Foundation cultivation, and their movements were gentle and delicate, synchronized, as the curtain rose slowly and steadily, like clouds drifting by.

Two more eunuchs placed incense burners in front of the sedan chair, and the wisps of smoke instantly dispelled the surrounding foul air.

At this moment, a black boot adorned with pearls emerged from the sedan chair, landing gently. Then, a pale red robe was revealed, tied with a blue silk official sash adorned with a beautiful jade pendant, radiating a captivating aura.

A person emerged from the sedan chair. He had a fair complexion and red lips, and his eyebrows were like beans. When he saw Wei Yuan, he beamed and pointed at Wei Yuan, saying, "Our Great Jin Dynasty is in dire need of a talent like you!"

(End of this chapter)