Longzang

Chapter 430 Surprise, Unexpected (Thanks to the man from Silver Alliance Braised Chicken)
Seeing that Wei Yuan remained unmoved, the Peacock Monk said, "This humble monk used a little trick, but it was nothing more than a method that allows you to see your true nature and understand yourself. What you see depends mainly on your own mind."

If we don't talk about one's true feelings, it's fine, but when it comes to one's true feelings, Wei Yuan absolutely refuses to believe it.

The Peacock Monk sighed and said, "Since Benefactor Wei cannot reason with us, then this humble monk..."

He paused mid-sentence, then asked in surprise, "Why did you decide to kill me, benefactor?"

While pressing down on the restless girl's genitals, Wei Yuan said, "I didn't!"

The Peacock Monk continued, "You didn't harbor any murderous intent in the secret realm that day, so why is your killing intent so strong today? I've come with sincere intentions; could there be some misunderstanding?"

Wei Yuan said, "Back then, we didn't want to fight amongst ourselves and let the alien races benefit. Now... hehe, I don't have the will to kill, so my fighting strength isn't fully mobilized."

The Peacock Monk suddenly realized and said, "So that's how it is. It seems that Benefactor Wei first awakened the wrathful aspect. However, the Buddha has all aspects. It doesn't matter which aspect you awaken first. In the end, all aspects will be present, and then all aspects will become empty, and you will attain the fruition."

"Thank you for your guidance, Master. However, I have no intention of entering the Pure Land at the moment. Please return, Master."

"Then this humble monk will return to diligently cultivate the Dharma, and will return again in the future." The Peacock Monk bowed and departed.

After the monk left, the girl's yin and yang finally calmed down.

Without delay, Li Zhi summoned a flying boat and went to the Four Saints Academy. Before leaving, he handed over one-third of the authority of the Zhenshan Realm to Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan was now equivalent to a half-realm lord, and could do anything except remove the realm stone.

The mountain-suppressing boundary stone was buried beneath the city lord's mansion, heavily guarded. Li Zhi had given instructions before he left, so Wei Yuan proceeded without hindrance and arrived at the door of the secret chamber.

More than ten guards worked together to pull the lever, opening the steel door that weighed over 10,000 kilograms. Behind the door was an underground hall, and the mountain-suppressing boundary stone was revealed.

This was the first time Wei Yuan had come into contact with other boundary stones. This boundary stone was shaped like the head of a giant ape, and was three zhang in size. It looked very lifelike.

Wei Yuan approached the boundary stone and placed his hand on it. He immediately sensed a faint consciousness within the boundary stone, which was both fearful and somewhat affectionate towards him.

This boundary stone has actually developed a faint spiritual quality. It is indeed Li Zhi's family heirloom. If its spiritual quality were stronger, it could be classified as a rare boundary stone.

Of all things, the most difficult thing is to develop spirituality from nothing to something, while it is easier to develop it from something to strength. Most of the time, it can be improved through nurturing and gradual accumulation.

Wei Yuan scanned the area with his divine sense, checking the basic status of the boundary stone and the current situation of the mountain-suppressing boundary.

The Mountain-Suppressing Boundary Stone is a high-grade boundary stone, and its spirituality has been formed. It has now been promoted to the second tier, and its maximum coverage area is 180 li, while it is currently covering more than 120 li.

This boundary stone has two characteristics.

One of its properties is to suppress mountains and peaks, which can enhance the defense of the human race within the territory.

Secondly, the mountain has no boundaries, increasing the area of ​​the boundary stone by 80% compared to ordinary high-grade boundary stones.

The third is a functional ability called "Mountain Spirit," which slightly increases the concentration of spiritual energy within the realm.

Boundary stones are categorized by strength, called Function, Characteristic, and Divine, increasing in that order. The Mountain-Suppressing Boundary Stone has two characteristics and one function, making it quite outstanding, especially the Boundless Mountain, whose ability to expand the boundary is a divine skill.

However, compared to Qingming's three divine mysteries and one other characteristic, Zhenshan is indeed somewhat lacking. It's just that Qingming's last divine mystery is still blank, and it's unclear how to activate it. But even without that last divine mystery, Qingming is still worthy of the title "Immortal Stone."

The current boundary of Zhenshan has reached the upper limit of the boundary stone's nurturing capacity, and the boundary can only expand by one li every thirty days. It needs to continue to nurture the boundary over time to enter the next stage.

Wei Yuan attempted to materialize the vast landscape, and the spiritual energy within the boundary stone suddenly became extremely excited, causing the entire realm to tremble slightly!

Wei Yuan immediately cried out inwardly in dismay. He had forgotten that this boundary stone already possessed sentience. He had only intended to test whether the manifestation of the vast rivers and mountains could enhance the boundary stone's abilities, but now the Zhenshan wanted to recognize him as its master!

Wei Yuan hurriedly transferred a wisp of Qingming's aura to suppress the spirit of the mountain-suppressing entity, thus preventing a repeat of the initial process of Qingming recognizing its master. The newly born spirit of the mountain-suppressing entity seemed quite aggrieved, but dared not disobey, and thus became docile.

Only after suppressing Zhenshan did Wei Yuan breathe a sigh of relief. If Zhenshan had accidentally recognized him as its master, Wei Yuan wouldn't know how to explain it to Li Zhi when he returned.

However, with the blessing of the vast rivers and mountains, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the Zhenshan Boundary manifested, the nurturing progress of the boundary stone greatly increased, and the boundary began to expand again, becoming one mile per day, which is now comparable to Qingming.

Having ascertained the situation regarding the boundary stone, Wei Yuan left the secret chamber, re-locked the steel door, and then summoned all the civil and military officials of Zhenshan to learn about the boundary and surrounding conditions. The Zhao Kingdom had granted Zhenshan's military governor, Li Zhi, the authority to organize and train troops from twenty garrisons, totaling 100,000 men. The military governor himself would serve as the General Who Pacifies the West, with two generals of miscellaneous titles and ten commanders-in-chief under him. The Zhao Kingdom would allocate two million taels of silver annually for military expenses, with the remainder to be raised independently.

Hearing this, Wei Yuan felt somewhat envious. In contrast, the Western Jin Dynasty not only did not receive a single penny of military pay, but it also stingily allocated its military units, still only having four garrisons.

Wei Yuan didn't understand why those people in the court were so fixated on the establishment of military units. Did they think that if they weren't given official positions, they wouldn't build their own army?
There are currently 40,000 elite troops within the Zhenshan territory, most of whom come from the Southern Qi Dynasty and were all transformed from the Li family's soldiers.

Wei Yuan felt another wave of envy. Li Zhi started with 40,000 elite troops and three or four Dharma Aspects as bodyguards. Wei Yuan, on the other hand, started with only a bowl... oh no, a formation plate given to him by the Immortal Lord.

Wei Yuan suppressed his jealousy and continued listening to the general's report. After Li Zhi erected the boundary stone, he successively recruited 60,000 militiamen from the Zhao Kingdom. These militiamen already had a certain foundation in physical training, and with a little training and familiarity with military orders, they could go to the battlefield.

Needless to say, these tens of thousands of skilled militiamen didn't just fall from the sky; they were all basically at the level of Xu's private army. Qingming currently has about 300,000 militiamen of the same level, all of whom Wei Yuan captured one by one.

As for the common people, Li Zhi had already recruited 100,000 refugees and opened up 100,000 mu of farmland, which had just been harvested for one season.

The Zhenshan Realm does not have Jiamu Shengxuan, so a season's harvest is three months, the same as other places in the Human Realm, while Qingming harvests every two months.

Wei Yuan then went to the military camp and carefully inspected the entire army.

When Wei Yuan rescued Li Zhi last time, many of the veterans of Zhenshan were present and witnessed Wei Yuan's swift and decisive victory over the mountain people's army. This time, with Wei Yuan temporarily taking charge of Zhenshan, no one from the bottom up naturally objected.

After examining the elite troops, Wei Yuan then tested the Heaven and Earth Madmen and found that it was still effective on the soldiers of the Zhenshan Realm, but the effect was far less obvious than that of the Qingming soldiers.

Wei Yuan seemed to be deep in thought. It seemed that people who lived in different realms for a long time would inevitably be marked by the boundary stones.

After they had inspected the civilians, cities, farmland, and mines, the troops that Qingming had dispatched arrived.

In addition to the 10,000 elite Longxiang and Longyi troops specially assigned to external combat, Wei Yuan also brought 4,000 Tianji Hall Dao soldiers.

Originally, nearly a thousand of the five thousand Dao soldiers given by True Lord Yanshi had been trained to form Dao foundations. After Wei Yuan sent the Dao foundations back, he felt that the remaining Dao soldiers still had untapped potential, so he kept all those who had not formed Dao foundations and began a three-month special training program.

Xu Wenwu is now leading these Taoist soldiers.

Xu Wenwu was so excited by his sudden appointment to such a high-ranking position that he was almost unable to contain himself. After being further persuaded by Wei Yuan, he resolved to embark on the path of becoming a famous general. And a famous general should share weal and woe with his soldiers, eating and sleeping together. So he has now been living in the military camp for a month.

For this expedition, all military preparations and operational matters were naturally handled by specialized officers, and Xu Wenwu only needed to give orders. However, Xu Wenwu did not want to be a famous general who won without effort, so he followed these officers to learn diligently, and his leadership skills improved rapidly, although his actual strength was still a bit weak.

Wei Yuan ordered the Qingming army to rest for one night and to go into battle the next day.

As night fell, Wei Yuan was sitting in Li Zhi's study, reviewing the official documents between Li Zhi and the State of Zhao, when suddenly a small figure appeared on the windowsill. It turned out to be Fei Diao.

Fei Diao said that now that Wei Yuan had the authority of a Realm Lord, he should share some with it. Even if it was just a little bit of authority, its movements underground in the Realm would be several times faster.

Fei Diao's only hobby was this, so Wei Yuan hesitated for a moment before agreeing. However, he stipulated that whatever Fei Diao found underground in the realm, it had to bring it to him for a look. If Fei Diao really wanted it, Wei Yuan would compensate Li Zhi with a discounted price.

Anything found outside the boundary belongs to the Flying Sable.

Fei Diao immediately agreed and was about to leave when a fragrant breeze suddenly filled the study. A graceful woman jumped in and exclaimed, "Brother Zhi, I'm here! Aren't you surprised?"

The girl who rushed in was sweet-looking, somewhat quirky, willful and mischievous, with a hot and voluptuous figure.

The worst part was that she was carrying all her clothes in her arms, completely naked, when she jumped into the study!

Wei Yuan watched her quietly, the sable watched her quietly, the cat on the windowsill watched her quietly, and a large snake poked its head out from the roof beam, watching her quietly.

The girl was stunned, and the clothes in her hands fell to the ground.

At that moment, a Buddhist chant was heard, and the monk in blue robes walked past the girl, left the study, and disappeared into the night, indicating that he was truly just passing by.

(End of this chapter)