Longzang

Chapter 654 The Path is Difficult

After seven days in the dream world, Ji Liuli ended it. Wei Yuan arrived upon receiving the news, and Ji Liuli asked him to take her on a tour of the Azure Netherworld.

Wei Yuan readily agreed, and so he piloted the flying vehicle, taking Ji Liuli to look around at the forging workshop, fields, mines, medicine gardens, brocade workshops, military academy, new city, and other places one by one.

This observation lasted for an entire day.

Ji Liuli asked questions as she looked around, and Wei Yuan answered them patiently one by one.

As night deepened, the two returned to the main peak. Ji Liuli couldn't help but sigh, "I didn't expect that Qingming would change so much in such a short time. I didn't even get to participate in the bloody battle with the Rain Kingdom. Actually, when I think about it, the affairs of the mortal world are quite exciting, no less so than the path of immortality. There's really no need to dwell on the past."

Wei Yuan also said, "Indeed, seeing millions of people living better and better lives gives you an unparalleled sense of accomplishment. But Senior Sister, what exactly is your mental tribulation? How could it be so severe?"

Ji Liuli said, "Actually, it's not that serious, just a bit troublesome. I can't quite explain it either. It will only appear after a few days, when I have more dreams about it, and I'll call you then. Okay, I'm going to sleep now."

"Won't you take a break?"

"I don't want to go to the dream world right now. I'm planning to take on some missions in your mortal realm instead. It's been a while since I've practiced my spirituality, so I'll see if my skills have declined. How many missions can your teacher control now?"

"The teacher is retaking the course, so the current level is only average, with only about five hundred students."

With a bang, the courtyard gate slammed shut in front of Wei Yuan.

Wei Yuan reflected on himself, trying to figure out what he had said wrong that had upset his senior sister. But isn't that how everyone talks?

Besides, five hundred or so tasks are really nothing special; they're just equivalent to five hundred or so distractions... nothing at all?

Wei Yuan vaguely remembered that there was a Daoist canon that said that once the Yu Jing (御景) technique was perfected, one's spiritual power would be countless, allowing one to control thousands of magical treasures to attack enemies simultaneously, with boundless power.

Given the tendency of ancient scriptures and Taoist texts to exaggerate, Wei Yuan estimated that there were no more than a thousand, but probably more than a hundred, roughly around two or three hundred magical treasures.

Could it be that Zhang Sheng has already reached the Imperial Realm level in terms of the number of magical artifacts he can control?

Wei Yuan immediately decided to try his luck in the real world and see how much better he was than Zhang Sheng.

The Creator Immortal has descended to the mortal realm, so his treatment is naturally different from others. Although the workstations are the same size, there are at least partitions around them, blocking the divine senses of others and preventing anyone from discovering that the Creator Immortal is experiencing life.

Wei Yuan enthusiastically waved his hand and pulled down the ball of light in front of him, probing it with his divine sense and immediately accepting a task.

Now that Human Fireworks has cracked the data architecture of the eerie little world and successfully installed it, the way tasks are distributed has completely changed.

Anyone entering the world of human affairs for the first time starts with a single task. Only when the progress of a task reaches the standard will another task be assigned. If two tasks reach the standard, two more will be assigned, and so on, multiplying outwards.

If the speed is still insufficient after doubling, then a few more will be reduced. For example, if 64 tasks cannot be completed, 16 will be reduced, making it 48. If that still doesn't work, 8 more will be reduced, and so on, until it returns to 32.

In this way, the number of tasks can be quickly determined to be within the capacity of the task taker.

Wei Yuan was initially confident, but when he saw the first task, he suddenly couldn't smile anymore.

The first task is to study how fast a willow-leaf shaped object can move forward through the water, and how to achieve the best balance between consuming spiritual energy and speed.
The task provides a dense array of parameters, including the weight and viscosity of the water, totaling over a hundred.

Wei Yuan already knew the answer to the question. When he was studying the Golden Light Water Blade Technique, he had devoured the works of Immortal Lord Tinghai. Not long ago, while learning the Five Elements Daoist Soldiers, he was given an extra lesson by the Immortal Lord, which greatly improved his skills.

So Wei Yuan gritted his teeth and began the lengthy calculations. Then the second task came down: given the conditions, how to burn a piece of spirit wood to achieve the fastest burning speed.

Wei Yuan's smile had faded considerably.

Then come the third and fourth tasks, which are respectively the problem of ensuring stable combustion of spirit wood under given conditions, and the problem of achieving the most complete combustion. The next problem is how to convert the burning fire into kinetic energy.

Wei Yuan was familiar with this; the spray nozzle, in a sense, was for this purpose. But the next question was how to increase the spray nozzle's power…

By the time the sixteenth question came, Wei Yuan's face was contorted with rage, his teeth clenched, and his spiritual consciousness was flowing away like a great river. In the blink of an eye, he was exhausted.

A full hour later, Wei Yuan, regardless of whether he had finished or not, submitted all sixteen questions at once, stood up with a flick of his sleeve, and glared around angrily.

The surroundings were quiet; most people were focused on their tasks, with only a few occasionally glancing around. This showed that even those with spare time could still pay attention to those around them.

Suddenly Wei Yuan saw Ji Liuli and Feng Tingyu.

Wei Yuan knew that in this area, everyone except themselves could only see the scenery. Only Wei Yuan could see the entire main hall. He walked over to Ji Liuli and checked on her. At this moment, Ji Liuli had stabilized sixty-four tasks, but she was clearly still somewhat unfamiliar with them, repeatedly failing to reach one hundred and twenty-eight tasks. However, she had not yet used the Nine-Layer Demon-Suppressing Pagoda. The Nine-Layer Pagoda had previously served as a node, and once activated, its processing capacity would undoubtedly increase significantly.

Wei Yuan nodded secretly. Ji Liuli was indeed a veteran Dao Foundation cultivator; his foundation was incredibly strong. Cui Yu had struggled to complete sixteen missions back then, and Bao Yun was only at thirty-two, repeatedly failing to complete sixty-four.

Naturally, Wei Yuan overlooked the fact that he had just been nearly killed by sixteen missions.

Wei Yuan moved behind Feng Tingyu again, wondering how many tasks this girl could handle, four or eight?
Feng Tingyu leaned back leisurely on the cushion, her arms and legs moving about, each toe on her two snow-white little feet doing its own thing, handling anywhere from a few to a dozen tasks.

The task orbs in front of her were densely packed, almost endless, with countless threads of divine consciousness connecting to every part of her body. Her thighs and buttocks had the most, her arms, chest, and abdomen also had many, and her back had nearly a hundred threads, but her head had none: she was dozing off.

With a sweep of his divine sense, Wei Yuan knew the number of tasks she was handling simultaneously: one thousand and twenty-four!

The first thousand-task milestone in the "Human World" challenge was actually broken by Feng Tingyu. But no matter how unwilling he was, the fact was right in front of Wei Yuan: he was indeed no match for Feng Tingyu's calf, only equivalent to a toe.

Wei Yuan was still not quite giving up, so he opened one of the missions to take a look. The mission task was to find the most efficient way to intercept a heavy arrow flying towards them from a given location, under clear skies, with a certain wind speed and direction.

Wei Yuan had just mentally listed a bunch of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches when he saw Feng Tingyu twitch one of her crystal toes, drawing a line that accurately hit the incoming heavy arrow, thus ending the mission.

Wei Yuan quietly withdrew from worldly affairs, preparing to find a quiet place to reflect on life. People shouldn't be born into such unequal circumstances.

After half a day of careful consideration, Wei Yuan decided not to compete for the few job opportunities available in the mundane world, but to switch tracks.

He returned to the human world once more, and this time his divine sense continued to rise. As he leaped beyond the heavens and continued to ascend, the once vast and boundless human world finally began to show its edges.

At this moment, when Wei Yuan tried to ascend further, his primordial spirit felt waves of icy coldness and a strange tingling sensation. Looking down, he saw that his body was covered in a layer of radiant light, and something unseen was constantly striking him.

Wei Yuan roughly understood that this was the Void Gale described in the Taoist scriptures, capable of extinguishing the primordial spirit. He had only gotten slightly close, and he was already finding it difficult to withstand.

The hustle and bustle of life below has been transformed into a vast blue world, mostly filled with the ocean.

This was Wei Yuan's limit; he couldn't go any higher. Following the method taught by the Immortal Lord, Wei Yuan constructed a magic array, and one layer wasn't enough; he had to build twelve layers to complete the first step.

It took Wei Yuan a full hour to complete the first layer of the array. He rested only briefly before continuing to construct the second layer. Three days later, all twelve arrays were completed. Wei Yuan activated them all in one go, instantly depleting one-third of his Dao power.

This is equivalent to the magical power of fifty ordinary Dharma Aspects, and that's just from activating these magic arrays.

Once activated, the magic array automatically drew upon the primordial energy of heaven and earth from the void, slowly coalescing into a small jade dagger. Although the dagger was small and exquisite, Wei Yuan felt a tremor in his primordial spirit upon seeing it.

The formation is called the Twelve Heavenly Forging Immortal Formation. The jade blade produced is formed from the primordial energy of heaven and earth and incorporates a trace of the Great Dao's energy, hence it is called the Chaos Immortal Blade.

Wei Yuan carefully gripped the hilt of the knife and tried to lift it, but he couldn't budge it!

Although the weight of his primordial spirit was not calculated according to the weight of this world at this moment, the feeling that this small knife gave Wei Yuan was about the same as moving a heavy object weighing hundreds of thousands of kilograms.

He mustered all his strength and finally lifted the dagger, then gripped it with both hands and pushed it with all his might, finally making a cut in the void. In an instant, Wei Yuan's power vanished like a waterfall cascading from the heavens.

Wherever the Chaos Immortal Blade passed, the originally empty void suddenly became tangible, then collapsed in large sections, turning into chaotic energy that fell down upon the human world below.

These chaotic energies did not enter the human world; instead, they were drawn to it and gathered and settled at its outer edge. Wei Yuan could not see the chaotic energies, but he could sense them.

With just one strike, Wei Yuan's Dao power was completely depleted, the Chaos Immortal Blade vanished, and the Twelve Heavenly Forging Immortal Array also disappeared.

Wei Yuan spent several days and exhausted his Dao power, only to obtain a small wisp of chaotic energy. Compared to the entire mortal world, this wisp of chaotic energy was negligible.

After trying it, Wei Yuan already knew that this was his cultivation method. Only when enough chaotic energy completely enveloped the mundane world could he be considered to have achieved minor success in the Myriad Transformations Realm.

The Chaos Immortal Blade pierces the void and draws in chaos; it is actually a technique of immortals, which is why it consumes such enormous amounts of energy.

Although he was reluctant to calculate, Wei Yuan gritted his teeth and estimated his cultivation progress. If everything was calculated based on this time, then if Wei Yuan didn't eat, drink, or do anything else, he would roughly be able to reach the Perfection of the Myriad Transformations Realm and enter the next realm after about 2,300 years of secluded cultivation.

The problem is, Wei Yuan doesn't have that much lifespan.

Becoming a genius isn't easy; it seems the conventional path is blocked.

Following the Jade Toad Body Forging, Wei Yuan once again felt the perils of the path of cultivation.

(End of this chapter)