Longzang

Chapter 564 So-called Liking

There was another matter facing Wei Yuan: the Xu family had amassed troops at Hanyang Pass, cutting off transportation with the Jin state. Only a few caravans were allowed to pass through, and their goods were subject to heavy inspection.

Many caravans were forced to change their route to Zhao, which increased the journey several times over, turning many once-profitable goods into losses. Not only did the amount of goods sent to Qingming decrease significantly, but the prices were also several times higher than before.

The State of Zhao also imposed a disguised blockade, prohibiting the export of steel, medicine, arrows, and other weapons. Later, seeing that Wei Yuan was using refugees to fill the gaps, the State of Zhao also banned refugees from leaving the country.

Fortunately, Marquis Ping'an of Zhao later provided Wei Yuan with 290,000 refugees to ransom his brother-in-law. Otherwise, Wei Yuan's military strength would have been severely lacking.

So, even though they knew Qingming was at war, many merchant caravans couldn't come and make a fortune from the war; they could only watch helplessly, filled with complaints.

With the war now over, the Zhao state, seeing no opportunity to exploit, ceased its border blockade and allowed displaced people to move freely.

As soon as the Zhao Kingdom lifted its ban, the garrison commander Cui Shutong immediately contacted Wei Yuan. He had already gathered 200,000 refugees, intending to sell them all to Wei Yuan. These refugees consumed a considerable amount of grain every day, causing Cui Shutong excruciating pain all over his body.

The war was over, and Zhao had opened its borders, but the Xu family in Jin was still stubbornly holding onto the border, naturally causing widespread resentment. However, the Xu family remained unmoved and showed no sign of backing down.

Wei Yuan was also considering this matter. Without domestic and foreign trade, the Jin state would lose its significance as a hinterland. Therefore, he naturally could not tolerate the Xu family's decision to close the border. After deliberation, Wei Yuan decided to first exert some internal pressure on the Xu family.

Wei Yuan then sent a message to the Zhao Kingdom merchant caravan, preparing to purchase a large quantity of raw silk from the Wu tribe's spoils of war, buying as much as possible, and also offering to sell ice mulberry seedlings to the Zhao Kingdom at a preferential price.

As soon as this news was released, all the major merchant caravans in the Zhao Kingdom acted like wolves smelling blood, immediately relaying the message back as quickly as possible and massively buying up and stockpiling raw silk, fearing that their competitors would beat them to it.

Zhao's silk brocade wasn't as famous as Ning's, but it did have some raw silk products. Now that it was mulberry planting season, the people of Zhao had heard that Wei Yuan was buying up silk in Ningzhou on a large scale. However, at that time, Ningzhou had abundant and high-quality silk, and Wei Yuan made all the money, leaving Zhao's silk farmers only with envy.

Unexpectedly, the State of Jin actually sealed off its borders; it was as if a god of wealth had fallen from the sky. The people of Zhao couldn't understand why the State of Jin was so foolish as to turn its back on money, but since Wei Yuan, this god of wealth, had come, the people of Zhao had no intention of letting him leave.

Just three days later, the Zhao merchant caravan received news from home. The powerful families in several silk-producing areas all stepped forward, indicating that as long as Wei Yuan continued to buy silk, they would guarantee that Zhao silk would be 20% cheaper than Jin silk, and that they would double the area planted with mulberry trees this year, and expand even more next year.

Since Zhao Shang came with sincerity, Wei Yuan was naturally very pleased. So he not only agreed, but also gave them several good plots of land to build a trading company.

Many Jin merchants were both angry and anxious, but when Wei Yuan announced that the first batch would consist of two million catties of silk, all the Jin merchants couldn't sit still! Such a large order should have been theirs to profit from!
A significant portion of the silk and brocade industry in the eight western prefectures of Ningzhou belongs to the Xu family. Wei Yuan wanted to see if those who were blocking the border could withstand the pressure from within the family.

Meanwhile, Wei Yuan finally lifted the ban on looms and began manufacturing new looms in small batches, and even tried producing several batches of brocade. After the samples were made, Wei Yuan carefully inspected them and found that the quality of the machine-made brocade was no worse than that of ordinary Ning brocade, and was even better in terms of stability.

The only brocade that can rival machine-made brocade is the brocade woven by hand by master craftsmen. These brocades have different patterns each time, and their quality depends on the craftsman's aesthetic sense, making them unique.

Ningzhou still has several master craftsmen whose brocades are themselves works of art, each with its own unique style. Some even possess an innate aura, something that machine-made brocades can never match.

There are too few skilled craftsmen; only those at the prefectural governor level or above can afford to buy one or two of their works. County magistrates can only sigh in vain.

When Wei Yuan was testing the loom, Feng Tingyu came running and then stayed by Wei Yuan's side.

It was clear that she had a great fondness for beautiful things and was particularly enamored with the newly released brocade. The master craftsman's brocade that Wei Yuan used for comparison had her eyes wide with admiration.

Seeing that she liked it, Wei Yuan said, "Do you like it? If you do, I'll give it to you after I finish testing it here."

Feng Tingyu jumped up excitedly, causing the massive mountain range to sway slightly: "Then I'll try it now!"

Wei Yuan didn't understand how to test the whole piece of brocade, so he said, "Go and try it on."

Feng Tingyu pulled Wei Yuan up and they disappeared into a secluded corner, a place she had clearly scouted out beforehand.

She unfurled the Ning brocade, and then her muscles rippled like water, and her clothes miraculously fell off on their own, revealing her entire body to Wei Yuan!

She appears petite, but her actual figure is quite explosive, and the proportions of several key parts are quite unconventional. What should be large is exceptionally large, and what should be slender is exceptionally slender. It can only be said that physical cultivation is beyond the capabilities of ordinary people.

Wei Yuan was stunned for a moment, then laughed and cried at the same time. He took the brocade and wrapped it around Feng Tingyu, then looked at it carefully and said, "Not bad, it suits you quite well."

Feng Tingyu pursed her lips, clearly things weren't going as she'd imagined. She struggled to get out of the brocade, only to be wrapped up by Wei Yuan again.

After several attempts, Feng Tingyu only managed to show off her figure a few more times, but each time Wei Yuan would wrap her up again.

Wei Yuan is now a Dharma Aspect, with a vast realm of power that can overwhelm others. His own Dharma Body is no less powerful than Feng Tingyu's, so Feng Tingyu doesn't really have much room to struggle against him.

After several attempts, Feng Tingyu gave up struggling and asked in confusion, "Why don't you want me?" "Wait until you like me, not now," Wei Yuan said.

"Huh? Does this mean you have to like someone? I've seen senior brothers and sisters in the hall get together so easily, and then break up in the blink of an eye. Then they get together again, and break up again. Is that liking someone?"

Wei Yuan had also heard rumors about the disciples of the Mingwang Palace. Body cultivators are inherently unconventional and unrestrained, and those who reach the pinnacle of body cultivation are even more unruly.

However, the disciples of the Mingwang Hall were not licentious; rather, they were simple and direct, loving passionately and parting ways decisively. With so many loves, hates, separations, and reunions combined, they appeared to outsiders to be almost like licentiousness, and in reality, they were quite similar.

Therefore, Wei Yuan could not answer Feng Tingyu's question, and could only say, "You will know when you like someone. Now put your clothes on."

Feng Tingyu tossed the brocade aside, stood naked on the clothes, and then watched as the clothes seemed to come alive, climbing onto her body piece by piece. However, compared to the clean and swift removal, the dressing process was much more peaceful, allowing her to display herself once again.

Feng Tingyu suddenly asked, "Does liking the physical body count as liking?"

Wei Yuan was taken aback: "What do you mean by 'physical liking'?"

"I can feel it, my body really likes you, every part of it likes you, there are a few places I especially like, would you like to feel them..."

Wei Yuan sighed, gave Feng Tingyu a hard tap on the head, and said, "It only counts if you like it here!"

Feng Tingyu pondered for a moment and said, "If you like me here, you'll agree, right? Then it's settled."

"Okay." Wei Yuan didn't believe she would really like him; the two of them had absolutely nothing in common. Besides, feelings of liking someone are completely uncontrollable.

Based on Wei Yuan's own experience, liking someone is simply liking them; it's pure and unconditional. If you still have to think about it, it means you don't like them that much yet. As for being reserved or slow to warm up, those are just excuses; it just means you don't like them.

Therefore, love at first sight is true love, while love that grows over time is just settling.

Therefore, Feng Tingyu's physical attraction to Wei Yuan was genuine; she truly loved him. However, Wei Yuan dared not get involved in any more karma, so he deceived her. It must be said that the Princess was incredibly gullible; even a good person like Wei Yuan couldn't resist lying to her.

Wei Yuan was about to leave the dark corner when Feng Tingyu stopped him again. She asked earnestly, "Aren't you a lecherous monk? Why do you need people to like you? Are you lying to me?"

"I didn't!" Wei Yuan denied it outright, his attitude so serious that he almost believed himself, before leaving the dangerous place.

Once they reached the brightly lit area, Wei Yuan calmed down and then used his Dao power to drive the loom, watching as a brocade slowly emerged from the machine. At this speed, it would take about half an hour to produce a piece of brocade.

A skilled craftsman can only produce one piece of brocade in several days. Roughly calculated, the efficiency of a loom is dozens of times that of a weaver.

At this moment, ten looms were set up in the hall. Wei Yuan operated all ten looms at the same time, and ten pieces of brocade were produced.

Although Feng Tingyu didn't understand these industrial matters very well, he was still amazed by the speed of the loom and asked, "Can the Wu tribe use up all this brocade?"

“I’m not entirely sure either,” Wei Yuan said.

Wei Yuan did not tell her the truth. In the future, he planned to use the machine brocade to sweep away not the Wu tribe, but the eight prefectures of Ningzhou, and even the entire brocade market of the human realm.

After testing the new loom, Wei Yuan walked out of the heavily guarded workshop and instructed a cultivator, "Notify all caravans that we are now ordering one million bolts of brocade. First come, first served, until all is purchased."

The cultivator accepted the order and left, and the commercial street was immediately in an uproar as countless caravans tried to send messages back to their respective areas.

The Zhao merchants were all beaming with joy, while the Jin merchants were all grim-faced. One million bolts of brocade—Zhao had scrambled its reserves, and its weavers were working overtime, nearly filling the majority of the order. This lucrative prize originally belonged to the Jin merchants, not the Zhao people. How could Zhao brocade compare to Yun brocade?
Wei Yuan didn't concern himself with the internal affairs of the caravan; he now had a large amount of spoils from the Wu tribe, enough to pay for more orders.

Wei Yuan planned to sell the newly ordered brocade to Tianyu. Despite the fact that so much brocade had been sold in such a short time, the price offered by the Wu tribe hadn't changed much yet, but the price of brocade in Jin and Zhao had already increased by 50%, and the price of silk had skyrocketed several times over.

Wei Yuan used the mortal calculation method again to make sure everything was foolproof. Then he asked Master Chuhe to go to the eight prefectures again to check on the promotion of the ice mulberry and sell another batch of mulberry seedlings there.

With trade routes blocked and large caravans unable to pass, individual cultivators can come and go freely. Wei Yuan now intends to add more pressure to the Xu family, since internal pressure is far more deadly.

In the Xu family's secret realm, a female cultivator stood on a high platform, looking down below.

Below the platform, tens of thousands of private soldiers stood in neat rows, muskets held level, motionless. Sweat poured down the faces of many soldiers, yet none dared to move. Occasionally, someone would faint and be immediately dragged away.

(End of this chapter)