Longzang

Chapter 768 Let's Get to the Bottom of It
Zhang Sheng took the Dao Xuan Jade and scanned it with his divine sense, immediately recognizing what it was. He then placed it back in Wei Yuan's hand, saying, "I don't need this. It can only improve the grade of Earth-rank Dharma Aspects, but it's of little use to Heaven-rank Dharma Aspects, and it's completely unnecessary for Immortal-rank Dharma Aspects. However, this item is still priceless, even more sought after than your Kun Yuan Longevity Pill. You can keep it."

Wei Yuan said, "This thing won't fetch much money even if we sell it. What money would a low-ranking Dharma Avatar have? We should keep it with you, just in case."

Zhang Sheng couldn't persuade him otherwise, so he had to accept it, saying, "This item actually has a very special type of buyer, such as the current Prince Zhao, and the princes in the Tang Palace. It is extremely difficult for them to break through to the Imperial Realm, the Earth Realm is hopeless, and the Heaven Realm is only a sliver of hope. With this Xuan Jade, it is a difference from zero to one."

"Then we'll leave it with you for now."

"Okay. Go check out the current situation first, then come find me and tell me about the illusion over there."

Wei Yuan's heart skipped a beat, a mixture of fear and anticipation.

In the past two months, Li Chengfeng had lived up to expectations. After surrendering Hanyang Pass to the Sixth Princess, he went to Huangping County and wreaked havoc, annihilating the 150,000-strong private army of the Xu family stationed there and capturing three elders. After demanding a hefty ransom, Li Chengfeng withdrew his troops and returned home. This series of events caused over a million people in Huangping County to leave their homes. Of these, 800,000 went to Qingming, over 100,000 were stopped, and tens of thousands went elsewhere.

While the Zhao state was besieging the two commanderies of Yun and Xiang, spring was in full bloom, the snow in the north was melting, and the Liao tribe was stirring again. Wei Yuan received tens of thousands more Liao corpses. However, since he was not at the northern mountain gate, he did not receive any reincarnated Liao corpses.

With the Liao people moving south, the pressure on the Zhao state suddenly increased, and even the Tang dynasty issued an edict to mediate. The Zhao king's arch-enemies directly accused him of taking advantage of the situation, hurling extremely harsh insults at him.

King Zhao remained unmoved and continued the siege of Yunxiang, causing chaos for Lü Wenbai, who even sent a plea for help to Qingming, but received no response. In despair, Lü Wenbai submitted a memorial to the court, impeaching Wei Yuan for refusing to come to Yunxiang's aid. He also mobilized a group of scholars to write articles vehemently criticizing Wei Yuan.

However, Qingming is now filled with academies, attracting not only refugees but also a steady stream of scholars. In Qingming, there is no suffering from war, the food is good, and one can teach and nurture—why not?
Furthermore, Wei Yuan, as the military governor of the Great Tang Dynasty, had the power to appoint officials. The official position he was currently appointing was that of the Great Tang. In fact, most scholars thought that they should master both literary and martial arts and serve the emperor.

Therefore, Wei Yuan directly appointed the deans of the various city academies as eighth-rank officials and the chief dean as a seventh-rank official, immediately attracting countless scholars. With more scholars present, Wei Yuan was no longer at a disadvantage in verbal battles. While Lü Wenbai had only published a dozen or so articles, Qingming had already published over a thousand!
Moreover, the forms varied; besides proclamations and poems, the most common were letters, written to beloved relatives and friends in all directions. Lü Wenbai was thoroughly insulted, and many scholars, known for their sharp tongues, were speculating about the lineage of Lü Wenbai's descendants, which enraged the military governor so much that he smashed several vases in one day and had his two concubines hung up and beaten.

The Zhao state wasn't without ambitions regarding the five commanderies either. They sent scouts to probe the southern military camp, but before they even reached the walls, several thousand were killed by artillery fire. The camp also exuded an aura that even Yu Jing found chilling, so the plan was abandoned.

Seeing that he didn't need to lift a finger to deal with Lü Wenbai, Wei Yuan felt relieved and continued to observe the situation inside Qingming.

Speaking of food, thanks to the vigorous promotion of the Old Daoist Chuhe, Beast Taming Heavenly Heart has become the most popular cultivation path, mainly due to its good benefits. Those who are close to the source of the resources will naturally have plenty of meat to eat. In this era where a single piece of meat can sustain an ordinary person for an entire year, no one would want to avoid getting closer to cattle and horses.

Of course, they would only realize once they had truly mastered their cultivation that they were caring for guinea pigs, not cattle or horses. These creatures tasted good, ate little, grew quickly, and could reproduce several times a year. They grew to adulthood in a month, could reproduce in three months, and by the end of the year, one guinea pig could have hundreds. Fortunately, they could still eat meat while tending to the guinea pigs, so no one complained.

In comparison, oxen and horses are unremarkable except for their work. Qingming, on the other hand, relies more on his Dao foundation for his work, making him more useful than oxen and horses.

Upon seeing this, Wei Yuan recalled the fragmentary knowledge he had gleaned in the school library. It turned out that in a highly developed world, cattle farmers couldn't afford to eat beef. These individuals who had cultivated the Beast Taming Heavenly Heart would likely have their Dao hearts shattered once the era's turning point passed.

Thinking of this, Wei Yuan was still somewhat worried, so he summoned the old Taoist Chuhe and discussed the matter with him.

However, the old Daoist, Chu He, was unimpressed: "What kind of people cultivate this Beast Taming Heavenly Heart of mine? They're the kind of guys who struggle even to cultivate a Great Bright Demon Subduing Sword. Without this Beast Taming Heavenly Heart, they'll never even establish a Dao Foundation in their entire lives. You don't need to worry about their Dao Heart; something that doesn't exist can't be broken!" Wei Yuan was speechless. These hundreds of Beast Taming Heavenly Heart cultivators were extremely respectful to the old Daoist, calling him "Ancestor" at every turn. They probably didn't know that this was how the old Daoist regarded them.

The Qingming clan now numbers fourteen million. Despite Wei Yuan's two-month absence, the number of azure energy has actually increased by half a million. The Qingming clan is now quite adept at settling refugees, the entire process swift and smooth. Since the refugees offer little financial reward, the officials are too lazy to make things difficult for them. Moreover, many of these officials are themselves of refugee origin and haven't yet forgotten their roots.

However, some officials still reached out, mainly targeting young women among the refugees. Women were scarce among the refugees, and young women were even fewer; their bodies were their only asset.

What the officials didn't expect was that the refugees who made it to Qingming were all in very good physical condition. After the Immortal Dog Head passed away, the reproduction of spiritual creatures was greatly enhanced.

Humans are also spiritual beings.

As a result, with the influx of a large number of refugees over the past year, thousands more children suddenly appeared wanting to claim fathers. The officials couldn't deny it, since there was no karmic interference; a cultivator at the late-stage Dharma Aspect realm could easily determine bloodline at a glance.

Zhang Sheng had already dealt with this matter. After a careful investigation, she found that many of the displaced women were willing, a few were only half-hearted, and there were very few cases of the strong bullying the weak.

So Zhang Sheng set two rules: first, the woman would decide who would raise the child; if the woman raised the child herself, the biological father would have to pay for it until the child was fourteen.

Secondly, during the period before the procedures for the migration of migrants were completed, if any official had any dealings with a female migrant, regardless of whether the woman was willing or not, the official had to take care of her and could not restrict her from finding other men. Any children born within three years had to be raised until they were fourteen years old, regardless of whether they were his own.

Even low-ranking officials in the Qingming faction have no official rank and their salaries are meager. If they support two displaced women, their standard of living will plummet. If they can't control their lust and keep three or five women, they'll be working for them for the rest of their lives, watching them use their money to have fun with other people, raise other people's children, and then laugh at their own foolishness.

Wei Yuan had to admit his admiration; his teacher's move had hit the nail on the head. Sure enough, the new regulations were promulgated, and the administration of Qingming was cleaned up, with a significant decrease in illegitimate children.

For Wei Yuan, reforming the bureaucracy had become a necessity, otherwise it would directly affect the fate of humanity. Wei Yuan knew this, and Zhang Sheng was also aware of it.

After assessing the current situation, Wei Yuan went to Zhang Sheng's study to report on his experiences over the past period. Upon entering, Wei Yuan was surprised to find that Zhang Sheng was not reading as usual, but was instead engrossed in a game of divination with tortoise shells and counting rods in front of her. Watching her scatter the rods one handful after another, Wei Yuan had no idea what she was divining, and he began to feel guilty.

Zhang Sheng remained expressionless, one hand rolled up with his sleeve, the other with fingers outstretched, grabbing and throwing counting rods, then grabbing and throwing them again. His hands were quite graceful, but the divination results were not auspicious.

Each divination attempt yielded meaningless results, revealing no signs whatsoever. Seeing Zhang Sheng's endless insistence, Wei Yuan asked, "What are you calculating, teacher?"

Zhang Sheng remained expressionless: "I'm figuring out if someone is lying to me."

(End of this chapter)