Longzang

Chapter 714 Everyone is like a dragon
Wei Yuan returned to Qingming alone, arrived at the Central Immortal City, chose an open space near the edge, and refined it for seven days according to the incantation before throwing the small golden seal into the air.

The golden seal grew taller with the wind, eventually transforming into a magnificent palace ten feet high, taking root in the earth.

As Wei Yuan entered the Dao Bing Hall, a tall warrior clad in armor appeared before him, holding a jade plate. The warrior knelt on one knee before Wei Yuan and said, "Please, Hall Master, imprint your essence blood and primordial spirit upon me!"

This warrior is the spirit of the Dao Soldier Hall. Imprinting essence blood and primordial spirit is a necessary step for the Dao Soldier Hall to recognize its master. From then on, Wei Yuan became the first Dao Soldier in the hall and the only Dao Soldier in the core.

From this day forward, all the Dao soldiers listed in the hall will contribute a little bit of their strength to him. No matter where Wei Yuan is, as long as there are Dao soldiers from the hall by his side, Wei Yuan will receive corresponding blessings.

Wei Yuan flicked out a drop of essence blood, which fell into the jade plate. Then, he felt a sharp pain in his head; a part of his primordial spirit had been taken away.

In an instant, Wei Yuan felt as if his body had disappeared, and his consciousness had merged with the entire hall.

The main body of the Dao Bing Hall remained unchanged, but Wei Yuan's perception expanded along with it, all the way to the edge of Qingming.

Wei Yuan has determined the scope of the first batch of Dao soldiers, mainly including the Xu family youths, humans who were once high-grade sacrificial offerings, and the elites of the Qingming Army.

When the Xu family's youths first arrived in Qingming, there were fewer than 40,000 of them. During this period, they reproduced twice more, and now there are more than 60,000 of them, of which more than 20,000 are children.

These two recent batches of children only underwent one mutual devouring and fusion, and their numbers are still quite large. Although the number of devouring and fusion was less, and the improvement in their aptitude was limited, their growth rate is still two to three times faster than that of ordinary human children.

Seeing that the time had come and the candidate troops had all assembled, Wei Yuan made a thought, and the main gate of the Dao Soldier Hall opened automatically. Then, the candidate Dao soldiers who were waiting in formation outside the hall entered the hall in turns, in groups of a thousand.

On each side of the hall stand fifty statues of Taoist soldiers, each holding a large sword upside down with both hands, supporting themselves on the ground with the sword.

Each candidate soldier standing in front of a statue cut their palm and smeared their blood on a greatsword.

The blood was immediately absorbed by the greatsword, and a body-forging technique was added to everyone's mind. At the same time, they felt that they had lost something, but also gained many things.

At the far end of the main hall stood a colossal statue of a Taoist soldier, ten zhang tall. The statue held a book in its hand, and each time a Taoist soldier smeared his sword with blood, a new name would appear in the book.

Those who had completed the ceremony felt much closer to each other than before when they saw one another.

Finally, everyone went to the high platform at the end of the hall and knelt down to pay their respects to Wei Yuan, who sat before the giant statue, thus establishing a connection with Wei Yuan and becoming a prospective Dao soldier.

The first group to enter the hall consisted of Wei Yuan's core combat force. He naturally attached great importance to this and personally oversaw the situation to experience the subtle changes firsthand. In the future, such trouble would not be necessary; simply placing Wei Yuan's statue in the hall would suffice.

There is no limit to the number of reserve Dao soldiers. Once they have mastered the Dao soldier-specific cultivation techniques and reached the Refining Spirit Realm, activating their primordial spirit and sea of ​​consciousness, they can become official Dao soldiers and receive true blessings. A single palace can have a maximum of 50,000 Dao soldiers, and the ultimate achievement of these 50,000 people is related to the strength of the entire Dao soldier legion.

If 5,000 of the 50,000 Dao soldiers have Dao foundations, the boost would be considerable; if there are 10,000 Dao foundations, the boost would be terrifying, directly doubling their strength.

That's why Wei Yuan wanted to personally take on the role of the First Dao Soldier, in order to control the entire legion. Those who clearly had no potential and were destined to remain at the Body Forging stage for life, Wei Yuan didn't plan to give them official Dao Soldier slots.

Wei Yuan's preferred candidates for Dao soldiers were the middle to upper tiers of the first generation of Xu family youths, while the majority of future candidates were the remaining 20,000 children who had not yet matured. These children had all undergone at least one absorption and fusion process, and their aptitude was generally better than that of their parents.

In addition, the best among the tens of thousands of high-ranking human sacrifices, as well as the strongmen of the Azure Nether Army, constitute Wei Yuan's ideal distribution of Dao soldiers.

The main hall was completely silent, save for the sound of synchronized footsteps. Groups of Xu family youths moved in perfect unison, their discipline so awe-inspiring.

After the 30,000 Xu family youths came 15,000 high-quality sacrificial offerings, followed by 100,000 elite troops. By the time all the procedures were completed, a day and a night had passed. Wei Yuan sat motionless, like a statue all day, while also re-examining the core elite force of Qingming, which he had created.

Subsequently, notices were posted in various cities of Qingming, announcing that one thousand official Dao soldier positions would be opened to the common people, provided that they had sufficient military merits and were able to advance to the Dao Foundation stage within a specified time.

The treatment of a regular soldier is equivalent to that of a colonel, which is the highest rank among junior officers.

Opening up 1,000 official Dao soldiers is tantamount to opening up 1,000 slots for advancement in status ahead of schedule, regardless of military merit. As soon as the announcement was released, it immediately attracted a large number of people, with more than 100,000 people signing up to become reserve Dao soldiers in just one day.

Wei Yuan naturally wouldn't sit idly in the Dao Soldier Hall anymore. Instead, a Dao Foundation Warrior sat there, and after a while, it could be replaced with a real statue.

With the Dao Soldier Hall of Qingming ready and the five thousand Dao Soldiers of Taichu Palace delivered, Wei Yuan convened the Dao Foundation Ceremony once again.

This grand ceremony was far more formal and complex. The first day was a sacrificial ceremony, informing Heaven and Earth, the founder of the Taichu Palace, and the immortals who created Qingming. During this process, Wei Yuan took the opportunity to bestow blessings upon those who needed them. Those who needed them included Qingming's own cultivators, those from the Taichu Palace, and the disciples of the Bao and Cui families, as well as smaller families and sects, who had all paid for their services and therefore also needed their blessings.

In the end, Wei Yuan discovered that there were only two thousand or so independent cultivators who did not need luck. These independent cultivators actually paid no less money than the disciples of aristocratic families and sects, but the problem was that aristocratic families and sects had a long-term relationship with Qingming, and training a group of disciples was a favor.

Take the Cui family of Ji Zhao, for example. In recent years, most of the newly promoted Dao Foundation cultivators have come from Qingming. As a result, not only have the Dao Foundation cultivators from Qingming banded together, but the entire Cui family of Ji Zhao is also almost completely siding with Qingming. Some smaller sects and forces are in a similar situation.

The Baifeng Academy, which nurtured Fang Hetong and Sun Chaoen, is now cooperating with Qingming. During the last Dao Foundation Ceremony, it sent more than a dozen outstanding disciples, and five of them eventually established their Dao Foundations.

This time, the headmaster of Baifeng Academy personally escorted twenty young disciples, which Wei Yuan naturally valued highly, giving each of them an extra three strands of luck. The headmaster was quite poor and had no way to repay him, so he could only tug at Wei Yuan's sleeve, and thinking of Fang Hetong, he couldn't help but wipe away his tears.

Seeing the over-100-year-old scholar so sad, it took Wei Yuan a long time to calm him down.

These independent cultivators are all one-off deals. After completing their cultivation, apart from a small number who sign a blood pact and stay to serve Qingming, most of them will pack up and leave, never to see each other again.

Many who failed to establish their Dao Foundation would often cause trouble, or try to steal or rob some souvenirs from Qingming to make up for the immortal silver they had spent. Therefore, in the past, every Dao Foundation Ceremony had to kill a few troublemakers and lawless rogue cultivators.

Most independent cultivators train and cultivate alone, wandering from place to place. Many of them either have poor aptitude or suffered bad luck in their early years, resulting in hidden injuries. Compared with the scions of large families or even those who have cultivated their bodies in the Azure Netherworld, the proportion of them who have formed a Dao Foundation is significantly lower.

Seeing that the blessing of fortune was almost complete with these rogue cultivators, Wei Yuan pondered for a moment and decided that he should still give them some opportunities.

So Wei Yuan summoned a few clever and quick-witted confidants and had them spread rumors among the rogue cultivators, saying that if they paid more money, they could be taken to secretly worship the Azure Nether Immortal Stone, which would significantly increase their chances of cultivating their Dao Foundation.

These were all eloquent people, and in the blink of an eye, they had fooled more than half of the rogue cultivators. These rogue cultivators paid a large sum of immortal silver, and then were taken to a remote, desolate mountain wilderness to worship a stone statue of a young girl.

Strangely enough, after the worship ceremony, they actually felt completely comfortable and their minds were clear, giving them more confidence in forging their Dao foundation.

This wasn't actually a matter of worship; rather, Wei Yuan casually added luck to these people. In the end, out of more than 20,000 people at the grand ceremony, only 600 rogue cultivators remained without Wei Yuan's blessing.

These independent cultivators either have no money, no luck, or neither. Since there are no external things to rely on on their path to enlightenment, they can only rely on their physical bodies to forge ahead.

On the second day, there will be two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, for everyone to experience the moment of sentient beings in advance, each lasting ten breaths, as a warm-up.

As a result, over a hundred young men from the Qingming Army and the Xu family successfully established their Dao foundations on the spot. With such role models before their eyes, the members of the aristocratic families and sects naturally gained even more confidence.

On the morning of the third day, as the first rays of dawn fell, all beings simultaneously began the true foundation-building process, which lasted until noon.

Of the 15,000 people in Qingming this time, 2,000 had actually forged Dao Foundations, a number that greatly exceeded Wei Yuan's expectations.

The chances of sect and aristocratic disciples achieving Dao Foundation were similar to the previous times. Those who paid extra money had twice the chance of achieving Dao compared to those who didn't pay. This result left both the rich and the poor speechless.

Of the 1,200 rogue cultivators who paid for the offerings, 85 achieved the Foundation Establishment stage. Wei Yuan had truly done his best; the quality of this batch of materials was simply too poor. They were worse than rotten wood, beyond redemption.

Of the last six hundred rogue cultivators, only seventeen achieved the Dao Foundation stage.

This Qingming Dao Foundation Ceremony was grand in scale and renowned far and wide; everyone now knows that in Qingming, one can truly buy a Dao Foundation with immortal silver.

Surprisingly, the biggest beneficiary was none other than Master Chuhe. Over two hundred people in the Azure Netherworld actually achieved the Dao Foundation and the Heavenly Heart of Beast Taming!

This Beast Taming Heavenly Heart is not the Beast Taming Immortal Heart. After the old Taoist Chuhe's painstaking modifications, the difficulty has been reduced by more than one level.

The Beast Taming Immortal Heart still possesses some ability to tame beasts, while the new version of Beast Taming Heavenly Heart has almost no ability to tame beasts, but its ability to communicate with spirit beasts has been greatly improved, and it can even grasp the emotions and moods of mortal beasts to a great extent.

Upon inquiry, Wei Yuan learned that the old Daoist Chu He had been laying the groundwork for a long time, and had even brought out a snake to demonstrate his beast-taming abilities. When the snake revealed its true form, it was over ten zhang long and incredibly powerful, naturally leaving those who had never seen the world completely stunned. As a result, many people with suitable aptitude switched to cultivating the Beast Taming Heavenly Heart.

Wei Yuan had no objection to this; there were plenty of template-based foundation cultivators anyway, and his senior uncles would each use their own abilities to recruit people. Besides, with so many people cultivating the Beast Taming Heavenly Heart, there would be someone to take care of the cattle and horses.

After this grand ceremony, Qingming possessed 12,000 Dao Foundations. Although the vast majority were template-based Dao Foundations, they were still a behemoth. Wei Yuan's ideal of everyone becoming a dragon had now only a few scales and claws remaining.

(End of this chapter)