Longzang

Chapter 432 Speak Well
As dawn broke, Li Zhi's trusted confidants finally returned.

His confidant reported that the young lady kicked him out without saying a word, and that he had been thrown out several times when he tried to send messages in.

Li Zhi was already somewhat annoyed that the beauty hadn't arrived after waiting all night. After hearing his confidant's words, he snorted heavily and decided to ignore the inexplicable woman.

In Redstone City, Tianyu was checking the goods in the warehouse, watching the muscular strongmen carry boxes onto the wagons.

The laborers loaded each truck and pushed it into a designated truck shed. Dozens of trucks were already parked in the shed to avoid getting wet in the rain.

This is the second caravan heading to Qingming, with three times the number of wagons as the first, loaded with a large quantity of items on Wei Yuan's list.

However, the offerings were running low, and the annual grand ceremony still needed to be held, so only a few thousand people were prepared. But Redstone City was already buying large quantities of offerings from other cities, and they would arrive during the next trade.

While the goods were being inventoried, Tianyu suddenly turned pale and his life force plummeted!
Tianyu had experienced this kind of setback many times before, so he gritted his teeth and endured it, roaring at the porters, "All of you, get your spirits up! We must finish loading within an hour, and set off in two hours!"

Then Tianyu grabbed a member of the Wu tribe next to him and roared, "Go and wake up all the drivers. If even one is missing, he shall be kicked out of my caravan forever!"

Two hours later, the massive caravan slowly drove out of Redstone City and headed towards the distant east.

On the carriage, the weak Tianyu finally recovered a bit and muttered to himself, "...Maybe it really is a bad signal."

As the feeling of being worshipped descended, Tianyu knew that a new batch of goods had been prepared in the Azure Netherworld and they were ready to be traded.

Inside the tallest main tower of Redstone City, several wild and untamed sorcerers watched the caravan gradually disappear into the distance, all remaining silent.

After a long while, a shaman said, "Red Leaf wants us to form an alliance to attack the human race, and it's almost time for a reply."

The other shaman did not answer the question, but said, "I think Tianyu is a good kid. He is a great shaman now. We can invite him to participate in the next tribal assembly."

Although the shaman's brain was mostly made of muscles, he still understood what he meant.

A female sorceress grew impatient and said, "Human brocade is more beautiful than Rain Kingdom's Rain Silk, and it's ten times cheaper! If Tianyu can bring back 100,000 bolts of brocade this time, then let Rain Kingdom fight the humans themselves. In every previous joint operation, we always suffered the most deaths and took the least!"

An elderly shaman said, "Only 100,000 horses are not enough for us to break our alliance with the Rain Kingdom."

All the shamans looked toward the old shaman who had proposed including Tianyu in the tribal assembly, but at that moment, an old shaman, who was incredibly old but had an unusually large frame, slowly said, "The brocade of the human race will be endless... their soldiers and weapons will also be endless..."

All the ancient sorcerers paled. Although this old sorcerer was not an ancient sorcerer, he possessed extraordinary abilities and could occasionally glimpse the future.

……

The Land of Rain, the City of Giant Oaks.

Countless witch warriors are gathering at this giant city, and one great witch after another is arriving. On the main tower of the city, three ghost witches sit facing each other, the scenery around each of them constantly distorting.

A shaman uttered a shrill, piercing voice: "The Desolate Ancestor Tribe refuses to send troops! These faithless savage pigs!"

"If Lord Hongye can recover, why should we fear the mere two human warriors, Yujing?"

"Besides Yu Jing, that guy named Wei Yuan shouldn't be underestimated either. He has a move that can shorten one's lifespan, which is extremely disgusting."

"Unfortunately, the Great Curse of Cause and Effect has already been used, and similar incantations cannot be used again."

"How did he survive the Great Curse of Cause and Effect?"

An awkward, deathly silence fell over the room; no one spoke, and the topic was automatically dropped.

……

Qingmingzhong has been frantically expanding its land holdings, and is now developing its fifth one million mu (approximately 667 hectares) of land.

The new season's grain harvest has been completed, yielding nearly 900 million jin. Qingming is now openly accepting refugees, but the population has only just reached 1.5 million.

Wei Yuan has increased the grain ration for ordinary people to 500 catties per year, while those who are currently undergoing body forging are receiving 1,000 catties.

As a result, almost everyone in Qingming of suitable age and with the necessary physical condition began body forging. Meanwhile, Wei Yuan continued to transport grain to western Ningzhou, but grain reserves were still rapidly increasing.

Wei Yuan was constantly busy, with almost no time to rest. However, he kept thinking about what kind of identity he should take when visiting the Bao family.

This question had already been asked of Li Zhi, but he threw it back at him.

Just then, a bolt of lightning struck down in front of him, jolting Wei Yuan back to reality. Ahead lay a lightning field, where five lightning crystal trees were currently planted. Dark clouds perpetually shrouded the area, and every few moments a bolt of lightning would be drawn down.

Around the Thunder Crystal Wood were sections of blue wood with red veins. After a lightning strike, many of the pieces of wood were charred black, and after three or four more strikes, they would be completely charred.

The Phoenix Blood Wutong tree, charred by lightning, can replace Thunder Sand as the main material for gunpowder. It can now be produced in large quantities in the realm, increasing gunpowder production by five or six times.

After inspecting the minefield, Wei Yuan returned to his residence to review recent reports.

One of the reports came from a merchant guild in the Zhao Kingdom. This guild owned a medium-sized Thunder Sand Mine. Wei Yuan had always wanted to buy the mine, but the guild was unwilling. Wei Yuan put down this report and picked up another one. This one said that the prices of several types of spirit wood being acquired were rising, and the acquisition volume would likely decrease next year.

The prices of several rare metal ores have also surged. Fortunately, only a few ounces need to be added to a thousand kilograms of molten iron to transform it into high-performance steel. Although the amount used seems small, the current production of Qingming Steel is enormous, so the required quantity of rare metal ores is also huge, and the price has tripled.

At this time, Qingming's scale was growing larger and larger, and the types of resources involved were also increasing. Moreover, the quantity of many individual resources was now large enough to be placed in front of Wei Yuan.

After finishing these official duties, another hour had passed without me even realizing it.

Wei Yuan put down his pen and looked at the bright moon hanging high in the window. A sense of heaviness welled up in his heart again. How should he go to the Bao family?

Perhaps besides Li Zhi, we should ask a few more people, such as Xiao Yu, Cui Yu... But these are all classmates, and we've known each other for so long, so Wei Yuan feels a little hesitant to ask.

Under the moonlight, Wei Yuan let out a long breath, determined to put aside his pride and ask properly.

Just as they were pondering this, a cultivator suddenly came to report that the Western Jin imperial envoy had arrived and was currently waiting outside Qingming.

Wei Yuan was somewhat surprised. He checked the time; it wasn't even midnight yet. Shouldn't the Western Jin imperial envoy be sleeping in his flying boat at this hour? Why had he suddenly come over and refused to enter the Azure Sky?

Wei Yuan immediately left his residence and flew northeast. A moment later, he saw a flying boat quietly resting in the valley. The flying boat was not large, and it bore the mark of the Royal Trading Company, indicating that the imperial envoy had come in secret.

Wei Yuan landed on the deck of the flying boat, announced his identity, and the boat door opened. Zhao Tong walked out and greeted him with a smile: "Lord Wei, it's been a long time!"

Wei Yuan was surprised to find that it was Zhao Tong who came. In the past, when Zhao Tong came to Qingming, he would go directly to the guest town in the center of the realm to wait for him. Why was he acting so suspiciously this time?
Unexpectedly, it was Zhao Tong who came. Wei Yuan had arrived in a hurry and didn't have any immortal silver on hand, so he took out a medicine box and handed it over, saying, "There is a little thing in here that can extend your life by three years. It's similar to the Blood Necklace, but the negative effects are not as severe. We really don't have anything else good, so please keep this medicine for now."

Zhao Tong's breathing quickened slightly as he gripped the medicine box tightly and asked, "Does this medicine conflict with other elixirs?"

"Unaffected by other longevity pills, its effects last for three years without any reduction. It is only similar to the Blood Necklace, so consider it as taking a small portion of the Blood Necklace."

Zhao Tong carefully tucked the medicine box back into his sleeve and said, "This is a life-saving treasure!"

After saying that, he pointed into the cabin and said, "The person who came this time is not me. Go through this door, walk to the end, and you will see him. Hurry up and go!"

Wei Yuan entered the cabin, which was unusually quiet and empty.

He walked to the end, reached out and pushed open the hatch, and heard the sound of the door closing behind him. The hatch he came from closed automatically and locked.

Wei Yuan remained calm and pushed open the door to enter the room.

This was a spacious cabin, the floor covered with soft, black animal hides. A stunningly beautiful woman leaned against the cushions, her bare feet on the hides appearing as white as snow, her fingernails almost transparent.

Wei Yuan's gaze uncontrollably followed her ankles upwards, climbing her calves, then past her knees, only to be obscured by the hem of her skirt. Just as Wei Yuan was about to sigh, he saw her reach out and lift the hem of her skirt considerably!

Even with Wei Yuan's composure, his heart still skipped a few beats.

Consort Yuan smiled enigmatically, beckoned with her finger, and said, "Come here!"

Wei Yuan came to her side, but there was only one soft cushion in the room and no other seats, so Wei Yuan sat directly on the animal skin.

She picked up her wine glass, took a small sip, then pushed it in front of Wei Yuan and waved to him.

Wei Yuan leaned forward, getting closer to Consort Yuan.

She leaned close to Wei Yuan's ear and whispered, her voice barely audible, "Drink this cup of wine, and then you will witness the cause and effect of that day..."

Wei Yuan was startled: "What cause and effect?"

Consort Yuan gently stroked her lower abdomen and said, "This is the cause and effect."

Wei Yuan instantly understood the cause and effect, and exclaimed in shock: "This... could it be..."

"He is lying in Chunhua Palace right now. There were unusual celestial phenomena at the time of his birth." Consort Yuan said with a smile.

Wei Yuan's mind went completely blank.

"I heard you've had a lot of troubles lately, so I'll help you solve them all!" Consort Yuan picked up her wine cup, held Wei Yuan's chin with one hand, and poured the remaining wine into the cup.

Suddenly, a red candle inside the cabin burst into flame, its subtle fragrance spreading out and shrouding everything in a thin veil.

The fragrance in the air was cloying and sweet, seemingly able to penetrate every pore and reach one's heart. This fragrance, while penetrating the heart, caused a slight itch, an itch that lingered in the mind, impossible to scratch or dispel.

Wei Yuan's vision was shrouded in a hazy red as he watched her rise, her dress slipping down, her snow-white body crawling towards him on the black animal hide, pushing his weak and powerless body down.

A strange feeling suddenly exploded within him, as if something had grabbed Wei Yuan's soul and was trying to pull it out of his body.

Wei Yuan, his mind in turmoil, said, "Wait, wait a minute! Don't stammer like that... Let's talk this out..."

(End of this chapter)