Longzang

Chapter 748 A Place to Live (Thanks to Alliance Leader Seven-tenths Cooked)
Clothing, food, shelter, and transportation are the basic necessities of life for ordinary people.

Wei Yuan's plan was to start with food and then break the deadlock with accommodation. At this time, mortals rarely traveled far, so travel could be temporarily ignored.

After being used in the northern mountain area for more than half a year, the firing and use of cement have been continuously optimized. After several rounds of improvements, the output has soared, and there is already a foundation for large-scale use.

There are enough minerals within the Azure Nether Realm, and Wei Yuan has already arranged for tens of thousands of people to mine them, and has successively built dozens of kilns. At this time, the production capacity is sufficient for the city defense and fortifications, but Wei Yuan plans to build another hundred kilns so that the production capacity can keep up with the next plan.

Amidst the everyday life of ordinary people, the small island, a complete replica of the outer world, has already been completed. Tens of thousands of mortals live on it, aiming to fully recreate life in the outer world, verify the differences between it and their own world, and find ways to improve it.

After the entire island was completed, it was unexpectedly clean and beautiful. The tallest building had even reached more than thirty stories, and a Dao staircase driven by array spiritual energy was installed in the building, which was faster than the elevator in the outer world.

With enough cement and experiments conducted in the midst of everyday life, Wei Yuan finally finalized the first version of the ordinary people's housing plan.

The core of this plan will be a 15-story building, square and box-shaped, with 20 units per floor and a corridor running through the entire floor. Each floor will have its own communal toilet and bathroom, and each apartment will have two bedrooms and a kitchen.

When the design was completed, Wei Yuan showed it to Xu Wenwu and asked for his opinion. Unexpectedly, Xu Wenwu was stunned when he saw it, and when he saw the interior design, the green corridor wall paint, and the handrails made of metal pipes, he was even more speechless.

However, this residence is not a complete copy of the Outer World; it has unique Qingming characteristics. The most significant difference between it and the Outer World is that it does not have an elevator or a staircase; instead, it has an external staircase.

There is a protruding floor outside the long corridor on each floor; this is the external staircase. Body-forging cultivators can skip the stairs and jump several floors at once. Even the top floor can be reached in a few leaps using the external staircase.

This building is simple and readily available, and can be built on a large scale; one building can accommodate the people of several villages. Naturally, this kind of building cannot compare with the courtyards and pavilions of the Immortal City, but it is worlds apart from the shantyhouses built by the inhabitants of Qingming.

Such housing can be exchanged for merit points. Wei Yuan set the following exchange criteria: First, one must have a commoner status; second, if an ordinary family has two top-notch hardworking laborers, they can exchange a house for a whole year of hard work.

Exchanging under this scheme is essentially a half-sale, half-gift deal; even considering only materials and labor, Wei Yuan would have to subsidize 80% of the cost. However, this is the most crucial part of Wei Yuan's overall plan; only by ensuring that everyone has a place to live can people truly return to Qingming.

With better living conditions and food, one's physique naturally becomes stronger, which greatly benefits cultivation. As the spiritual energy of the Azure Netherworld becomes increasingly abundant, the talents of one's offspring will also improve.

Moreover, with these houses as a goal, everyone will naturally try their best to rise to the rank of commoner, and after rising, they will work diligently so that they can have their own houses as soon as possible. If they still are not willing to work hard even after all that, then Wei Yuan has no way to help them.

Next, Wei Yuan had people post notices in various cities and towns of Qingming to inform everyone of the changes in the system.

The new system is quite complex, but since Wei Yuan opened the Qingming Academy, the number of people who can read has increased significantly. By this time, 100,000 people have completed their basic education, can recognize the most basic 1,000 characters, and can read simple vernacular texts.

So everywhere in the villages and towns, people were reading the notices aloud, swaying their heads, and then explaining them to those around them. Some ruffians were naturally dissatisfied, but they were only a minority; the vast majority were greatly encouraged.

The notice clearly states that Qingming has its own celestial methods, and no one can hide from those who are diligent or lazy.

The new system was implemented from the day the notice was posted. On the very first day, some were overjoyed while others were astonished. Working in the same fields, some earned twenty times the merits of the least diligent worker!
Those who received less were naturally unhappy and clamored to go to the government to reason with the authorities.

However, with the Zhou Tian Star Array monitoring the situation and human verification of merits, the system couldn't be more impartial. The government wouldn't be swayed by these scoundrels; since these people were clearly lying, they were all charged with deception and given a severe beating, making them cry out in despair and wholeheartedly submit to the new system.

In the courtroom, a seasoned official would instruct the newcomers: "Where are all these ruffians and scoundrels? Just give them a good beating, and they'll all become obedient citizens."

A month later, the new system was running smoothly. Those scoundrels and ruffians, seeing their empty pots and pans and the rich aroma of meat wafting from their neighbors' houses, finally gave up their fantasies and had no choice but to work honestly.

Two months later, the fields were harvested one after another. This season's grain production surged, increasing by 30%, with 8 million mu of land producing an additional 600 million jin of grain.

Wei Yuan, on the other hand, gradually gained 500,000 units of Azure Qi.

With the initial victory, Wei Yuan was in high spirits. By this time, construction had begun on buildings across the country, with an initial phase of one hundred buildings to house over ten thousand people. Wei Yuan planned to implement the second step of his plan once these buildings were completed: ensuring housing for all.

In the Zhenshan area, the weather has turned cold, and it is harvest season.

Li Zhi had been working almost non-stop for the past few days, immersing himself in the fields every day, watching the crops being harvested. Sometimes, when the task was urgent, he would simply take his personal guards with him to the fields. As a Dharma Aspect cultivator, Li Zhi worked with incredible speed, finishing the harvest of one acre in the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, and could handle hundreds of acres in an afternoon.

By leading by example, Li Zhi naturally won the hearts of the people. The hundreds of thousands of people and the more than 100,000 soldiers in the Zhenshan region were now united as one.

With the last field finally harvested and the grain stored away, winter officially arrived in the Zhenshan region. Li Zhi returned to the Zhencheng Jiedushi Mansion and summoned his generals for a banquet to celebrate this year's bountiful harvest.

Li Zhi's military governor's residence was magnificent and imposing. This autumn banquet, with thirty tables and a gathering of civil and military officials, was the grandest event in the Zhenshan region in recent times.

Tonight's wine is fine, and the banquet is filled with delicacies from land and sea, reminiscent of the extravagance of the capital of the Southern Qi Dynasty, truly a grand spectacle.

Li Zhi raised his cup, looked around at the officials, and saw that the civil officials were capable and the military generals were fierce. He felt proud and said, "This year the weather has been favorable, the people are diligent, and you all have worked hard. Now the grain reserves in my Zhenshan territory are 30 million catties!"

Thunderous applause erupted instantly, and both civil and military officials cheered with joy. With ample grain reserves in hand, they were ready to wage war abroad; it was time to once again establish their merits and achieve great things.

Li Zhi waited for the applause to subside before continuing, "Today, I can finally say that everyone within Zhenshan territory has enough to eat. Only now do I feel I have not failed the trust of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians. The foundation for ten thousand generations has its first cornerstone!" A scholar, acting like a madman, clapped his hands and laughed loudly, "Everyone has enough to eat! It's easy to say, but in all the vast world, where can this truly be achieved? Even the ancient emperors probably couldn't have done more!"

Li Zhi's face hardened, and he said solemnly, "Stop talking nonsense! What virtue or ability do I have to compare myself to the first emperor?"

Another Confucian general said: "The first emperor was surrounded by barbarian tribes at the time, and the situation was extremely bad. He had to gather the strength of the masses in order to ascend to immortality. Although the emperor's achievements were unparalleled, it was inevitable that there were some flaws in the lives of the people."

Li Zhi's lips curled up slightly involuntarily, but he quickly suppressed it, secretly noting the two men down for future use.

However, since it involves ancient emperors, I can only touch upon it briefly and cannot say more.

Li Zhi knew his place, so he changed the subject and said, "Back then, I lived next door to my brother Wei Yuan. I watched as Qingming grew stronger and stronger, changing day by day. Before long, I heard the rumor that everyone in Qingming could have enough to eat."

To be honest, I was quite envious and ashamed at the time, so I worked hard and with everyone's strong support, I can now finally say, "In Zhenshan, everyone can eat their fill."

Everyone sighed.

One of the civil officials said, "Back then, Wei Yuan only had a few hundred thousand people, so feeding them was easy. Now, Qingming has absorbed at least three or four million refugees. How can everyone possibly be fed? Even if there is enough food, it won't be enough to satisfy people's hearts!"

Before Li Zhi could speak, a fierce general beside him said, "Lord Wang is indeed right!"

Li Zhi smiled slightly. This man, though seemingly rough, was actually meticulous and had spoken his mind for him. Indeed, the hall was filled with talented people, and the atmosphere was magnificent.

Two learned scholars sitting to the side nodded in approval. Surrounded by influential figures and talented individuals from all directions, this was the bare minimum required of a ruler. Li Zhi, at only twenty-five, had already begun to show his brilliance, a truly remarkable achievement.

At this very moment, in the mountains of the far west, Shengxin and Huixin were walking in a strange region. The fog was thick, and their magical power was almost solidified into a block. They could not use even a tenth of their full strength. The two top-level witches could not even fly.

Huixin couldn't help but ask, "Where are we going? We were having a good time with Lei Dong, eating and drinking well, why are we running around again?"

Shengxin said, "That kid Lei Dong is all bark and no bite, his luck is weak and unreliable. He's just a fake chosen one. We've been eating and drinking for months and have already used up most of our nourishing food. If we don't leave now, we won't get anything better, and we might even create karma with him and end up taking the blame for him."

There were treacherous individuals in the Raize tribe too, who kept us in the dark, trying to entice us to stay longer. Luckily, I, this old man, had sharp eyes; just as the cause and effect were about to unfold, I decisively withdrew! Staying another day would have put us all in danger.”

Halfway through his speech, Shengxin suddenly exclaimed "Eh!" and quickly climbed a small hill. Looking eastward, his expression was strange.

"What's wrong now?" Huixin was already scared by his strange behavior along the way.

"A divine destiny is rising in the east, as if a new emperor is about to be born. It is currently gathering strength, like a fledgling eagle about to hatch. We must head east."

Hui Xin asked curiously, "That's the Human Emperor! He can eat and drink for free too?"

The Emperor said solemnly, “Don’t put it so harshly! The Emperor’s fortune is so great that it’s inexhaustible. We’re just going over to eat and drink with him to help him out. Only true friends would do that.”

"Pah! You're shameless!" Huixin scoffed, but then a thought suddenly struck her, and she said, "You've been taking me with you all this way, could it be that you want to have a karmic connection with me so you can shield me from disaster?"

Shengxin's expression changed, and she hurriedly said, "How could I be such a witch?"

"Then what kind of sorcerer are you?"

The Holy Heart could not answer this question.

Inside the main hall of Zhenshan, after several rounds of drinks, the atmosphere was reaching its peak. Many generals and civil officials had flushed faces from the alcohol. Li Zhi had brought out top-grade spiritual wine today, extremely potent, a favorite of Dharma Aspects, and both loved and feared by Foundation Establishments.

At this moment, a wild and arrogant young man grabbed a young general by the collar and slurred, "Let me tell you, that Wei Yuan is a complete idiot! A barbarian! He's nothing! He even said everyone in Qingming can eat their fill, bah! He dares to say anything!"

The young general was also quite drunk, swaying unsteadily, and asked doubtfully, "Is this really just boasting? I heard from several merchant caravans that everyone in Qingming is eating meat now?"

The hall fell silent; you could hear a pin drop. Li Zhi strode up to the young general and asked, "What did you just say the caravans were talking about?"

The young general jolted awake, instantly sobering up.

In the far west, Sacred Heart had climbed halfway up the mountain when he suddenly turned back the way he came.

Hui Xin, who was following him, was already panting heavily. She immediately flew into a rage and shouted, "What are you doing now?"

The Holy Heart said, "The Human Emperor has broken out of his shell halfway, but something seems to have happened, and it appears to have shrunk back in. Let's continue westward."

P.S.: Requesting the last monthly votes for April.
(End of this chapter)