Longzang

Chapter 554 Evidence of crime
Looking at Bao Yun, who seemed tense even in her sleep, Wei Yuan suddenly felt a pang of guilt. With her talent, reaching the Imperial Realm level was certainly not a problem. In the long lifespan of a cultivator, Bao Yun, at only nineteen years old, still had thousands of years of life ahead of her.

With her exceptional talent and top-tier family background, Bao Yun should have smoothly advanced to the Dharma Aspect realm under the family's arrangement, gradually accumulating merits, connections, and reputation, and then finding a suitable opportunity to break through to the Imperial Realm. She could have steadily become a renowned cultivator.

But burdened by Wei Yuan, Bao Yun's life now consists of preparing for war, war, more preparation for war, and more war. A girl not yet twenty years old lives a life filled with bloodshed and killing, and endless exhaustion.

Wei Yuan sighed inwardly and gently stroked Bao Yun's face.

This delicate little face truly deserves the description of being so smooth and flawless. Her eyelashes are curled like feathers and flutter slightly. Her nose is delicate and high, and her pink little mouth is slightly open. With each breath, her breath is warm and even.

However, her face was so striking that Wei Yuan's mindset suddenly changed after touching it. He quickly recited classic texts to counteract the inappropriate thoughts.

The sage said, "Do not look at what is improper." But the sage did not say, "Do not do what is improper."

At this moment, Bao Yun was sleeping soundly before him, completely unaware. Few people in the world could resist such temptation, and Wei Yuan was not among them. His hand had its own will, slowly moving downwards, about to cross the final line of propriety.

At this moment, Wei Yuan suddenly realized that Bao Yun wasn't pretending to be asleep; she was truly asleep.

How could she sleep so soundly that she didn't even react when Wei Yuanzhi's claws touched her?
Wei Yuan knew something was wrong. After observing for a while, he finally confirmed that Bao Yun had also entered the world of mortals.

Since Cui Yu's example, almost every cultivator in the Taichu Palace now spends their free time immersing themselves in the mundane world.

Although it's a bit miserable to have to work hard after falling asleep every night, compared to the obvious increase in spirituality, all the practitioners wish they could sleep from morning till night and ideally spend thirty days a month immersed in the mundane world.

Therefore, it's quite normal for Bao Yun to enter the mortal realm. Wei Yuan suddenly became curious and used his divine sense to search for Bao Yun in the mortal realm, while his hand remained where it should be.

The current center of the Human World is a landmass spanning dozens of miles, where the central city is located. There are also several small islands scattered around, one of which is only a few dozen miles from the central city; this island was raised by Wei Yuan at the request of the Human World.

The island was already quite lively, with thousands of ordinary people building shacks and earnestly digging foundations. Looking at the deep pits, each several meters deep, Wei Yuan was somewhat incredulous. What kind of building needed such deep foundations?
Wei Yuan then discovered that next to the dwellings of these mortals were piles of bags with the words "cement" written on them.

Wei Yuan was somewhat surprised. Was Renjian Yanhuo also planning to build a building with cement? Was it really necessary?
Back when the land was vast and the people lived in peace, the simplest way to build a house was to mold a batch of tripods—some square, some slanted, some with pillars. Then, by piecing the tripods together, a tripod house could be constructed. Building a house there could be done in less than two days.

Even today, many research institutes still use this method to build houses, and people often say things like "Come quickly into Uncle's cauldron" when they talk to each other.

Wei Yuan stared at the rows of square pits and straight roads on the island, momentarily lost in thought. What were these mortals trying to do? Were they building an ideal world, or trying to replicate an otherworldly realm?
Wei Yuan asked a few mortals, but they all looked blank and didn't know what they were supposed to do. They just said that the task would be assigned when the time came.

Wei Yuan had no choice but to let the mortals go and continue searching for Bao Yun. After searching the central city, Wei Yuan found Zhang Sheng, Cui Yu, Xu Henshui, and others, but he still couldn't find Bao Yun.

How could such a thing happen? Could there be a second human being in the Azure Netherworld? Wei Yuan released his divine sense and searched the city again, but still could not find Bao Yun.

If not in the central city, where else could she be? She's not on the newly built island.

Thinking of the island, Wei Yuan suddenly remembered that when True Monarch Huangyun passed away, a sapling of the Jianmu tree had sprouted amidst the smoke and fire of the mortal world. Where did that tree go?

Thinking of this, Wei Yuan remembered that this tree was isolated overseas, hundreds of miles away from the central city. Wei Yuan was used to having the help of the "Human World" when he was thinking. When he needed to recall something, the "Human World" would naturally search for information. When he wanted to think about a problem, the "Human World" would automatically analyze the problem, think and verify it for him, and give suggestions.

So when Wei Yuan was wondering where the Jianmu tree had gone, he subconsciously waited for Renjian Yanhuo's answer. But Renjian Yanhuo didn't answer, and he waited in vain for a long time, which was equivalent to being in a daze.

After realizing his mistake, Wei Yuan searched his memory and recalled the location of the Jianmu seedling. However, having become accustomed to the assistance of human interaction, the sudden shift to recalling the memory himself was noticeably strenuous and burdensome for Wei Yuan.

These are completely different feelings, as different as the difference between riding a jet of water through the heavens and walking barefoot through a muddy swamp.

Having located the Jianmu tree, Wei Yuan also searched his memories and found that there were indeed no other islands he didn't know about, so he moved his divine sense there.

Within his own avatar, Wei Yuan could instantly perceive the scene. He saw a young girl sitting cross-legged beneath a magnificent, canopy-like tree, with sixty-four orbs of light floating before her, intently working on something. The girl was Bao Yun; her expression was focused, her brows furrowed in concentration. However, a slight sheen of sweat on her forehead indicated that she was already struggling.

Wei Yuan appeared before her. Bao Yun noticed his arrival, smiled, and continued to bury herself in her work.

Only after finishing all the tasks at hand did Bao Yun breathe a sigh of relief. She looked at Wei Yuan and said with a smile, "I never expected that Junior Brother's Dharma Form would be so amazing. You truly deserve to be the number one genius in the history of our Taichu Palace! Your Dharma Form is terrifying. You haven't even reached the peak of the Spirit Gathering Realm yet, and your Heart World is already almost formed."

"Yes, everything here is nice, except it's a bit desolate. Where are Cui Yu and the others? Are they also on their own islands?"

Wei Yuan coughed awkwardly and said, "Actually, there's a city here..."

Bao Yun jumped to her feet and said, "The city? Where is it? Take me there!"

Seeing Bao Yun's unexpected seriousness, Wei Yuan immediately used his divine sense to bring Bao Yun to the square in the central city.

There are now 700,000 mortals in this city, bustling about, with all sorts of noise rising into the sky. The city is practically shoulder to shoulder, and many alleys are completely congested. Looking at so many people, so many buildings, and plaques that sound even more grandiose than the four great immortal sects, Bao Yun was completely stunned.

Bao Yun suddenly asked, "Did they all come in here?"

"I guess so," Wei Yuan answered vaguely, as he hadn't paid much attention to such matters. But now, thinking about it, it seemed rather strange, as if some force was consciously preventing him from focusing on these things.

Bao Yun looked at the busy people, the noisy crowd in the distance, and the two people locked in a fierce battle in the martial arts hall, and suddenly asked, "Do you control all these people?"

Wei Yuan shook his head: "They have their own intelligence and can act on their own. I generally don't interfere, since I'm too busy to handle everything."

Bao Yun then asked, "What about the tasks I received when I was cultivating my primordial spirit?"

Wei Yuan explained the process of task issuance and completion submission, but the most crucial part was actually the individual immortal plant nodes.

Bao Yun asked again, "Did you propose all the original tasks?"

Wei Yuan shook his head: "No, I will only mention a very small part."

In reality, the human affairs department has an enormous processing capacity, handling tens of thousands of tasks every moment. Wei Yuan's current needs account for less than one ten-thousandth of the total tasks.

Bao Yun seemed to be deep in thought. She looked around and observed for a while before saying, "This isn't the place to talk. Let's go outside."

"Okay." Wei Yuan's consciousness withdrew from the mundane world and returned to reality.

As soon as Bao Yun opened her eyes, she said anxiously, "Junior brother, you must be careful! I see signs that your mental world is going out of control. What if a true spirit is born in your mental world... Junior brother, you..."

At this moment, Wei Yuan's hand was pressing on the mountain peak, turning it into a plateau.

In an instant, even Wei Yuan, with his thick skin, felt his face burning hot, as if it were on fire. He clearly remembered that his hands weren't placed here before entering the human world!
Wei Yuan dares to swear to God that his hand is not in the current position!
Wei Yuan tried to stop, but Bao Yun grabbed his wrist!
Her face flushed slightly, and she looked away, saying softly, "...So Brother Yuan is lusting after me. Alas, I'm a poor soul living under someone else's roof now. If you want me, how could I dare refuse? There's no need to be so secretive..."

Wei Yuan's face burned with rage, and he wished he could disappear into the ground.

Despite her current shy and flustered appearance, this girl actually has a firm grip on Wei Yuan's incriminating evidence, giving him no chance to escape or deny it.

(End of this chapter)