Longzang

Chapter 798 The Only Answer

The tribulation must be conducted at the tribulation base specially set up by Qingming. This base was built with the full power of Qingming. It is 300 feet in circumference and has multiple well-defended supply points, as well as various facilities and formations to deal with common disasters such as thunder, fire, water and wind.

For most cultivators in the Dharma Aspect Realm, advancing to the Heart Aspect Realm is a gradual process, progressing smoothly without much effort. In rare cases, the Heart Aspect Realm may experience a tribulation, but it's usually just a formality. For cultivators who have reached the later stages of cultivation, this tribulation is nothing.

Only Wei Yuan's tribulation lasted for forty-nine days!
The meticulously crafted tribulation-crossing base only withstood three days of lightning and fire before being completely reduced to ashes. Countless lightning rods melted under layer upon layer of heavenly lightning, vanishing along with the underground array. The remaining time was simply for Wei Yuan to endure.

For the first few days, the azure sky trembled, and people were filled with fear. The cultivators of the Primordial Palace came to check on him several times a day. However, the intensity of Wei Yuan's tribulation was even more exaggerated than his advancement to the Imperial Realm. How could these Dharma Aspect cultivators dare to approach him? They could only watch from afar.

After seven or eight days, people started coming once a day. After another seven or eight days, hardly anyone came anymore; everyone was very busy, each with a lot of things to do.

For the next month or so, hardly anyone came to the tribulation base. When people passed by, they would look up and see that the tribulation clouds were still there, knowing that Wei Yuan was still being struck by lightning, and then they would continue on their way.

Next, as the research on the data obtained from the outer world progressed amidst the everyday life of ordinary people, several research cultivators suddenly proposed whether it was possible to store the electricity generated by the lightning tribulation for future use.

This suggestion was met with great approval from all the cultivators.

So when Wei Yuan emerged from seclusion, his body charred black, he saw a group of cultivators standing amidst a field of cables, looking regretfully at the dissipating tribulation clouds in the sky, their faces filled with the expression of "why didn't they strike a little longer?"

On the day of the tribulation, Zhang Sheng personally escorted Wei Yuan into the tribulation base, and then drifted back to the Immortal City to go into seclusion, without ever visiting him again.

After enduring a long tribulation of lightning, Wei Yuan could only helplessly make an unseemly gesture towards heaven and earth.

He examined himself and found that after such a long period of tempering by lightning, much of the impurities in his body had been refined, and now his entire body was almost spotless and pure, making him even stronger.

The Human World was now enveloped in chaotic energy, and many spaces had been opened up around it, allowing Wei Yuan to zoom out to a great distance. From afar, the Human World resembled a dark gray planet, slowly rotating in the void.

Human life can now absorb and release the primordial energy of heaven and earth on its own, slowly evolving. It needs to be nurtured for a period of time until the entire world stabilizes.

So Wei Yuan returned to the Immortal City and discovered that even without him, Qingming was still functioning smoothly.

Having just broken through to the next level, Wei Yuan was now mentally clear. He went to the study and took out the materials the young man had given him that day to look at.

The young man reappeared before Wei Yuan, now standing in front of a one-way glass window, watching two people fighting. They were incredibly fast and strong, like two wild beasts, far exceeding the capabilities of normal humans.

The young man turned around and said to Wei Yuan, "You've arrived. These two are the first generation of superhumans. Their physical strength is far greater than that of ordinary humans, and they are already close to the limits of ordinary carbon-based life. If they were released, they would easily break all kinds of human sports records and become the greatest athletes ever."

The fighters outside the glass curtain wall had changed again. This time, one could unleash powerful electric currents from both hands, while the other could emit powerful shockwaves. Their battle caused considerable damage to the environment.

Amidst the roar, the young man said, "These are the second-generation superheroes, the legendary ones are nothing special. But there's a problem: their stamina can't last. That's normal; chemical energy simply can't supply such a high-intensity energy output. They need substances with even higher energy."

The view outside the window changed again, revealing a tranquil garden where a serene young woman sat reading a book.

The young man looked at her quietly for a while before saying, "She is the only third-generation superhuman. She has a strange type of cell that can undergo limited fission within the cell, thereby generating enormous energy. However, she can only live in a high-radiation environment, which is difficult for normal body cells to withstand, so she won't live for long."

The glass curtain wall turned black, and the young man turned to Wei Yuan, saying, "My father is the founder of the company, and I have been in charge of the superhuman project since I joined the company. We successfully developed two generations of superhumans, and then created a miraculous girl. But shortly after the project's success, she suddenly went out of control, killing two directors who came to inspect the project on the spot, and then began to kill indiscriminately."

To eliminate her, several thousand troops were mobilized, along with hundreds of first and second-generation superhumans. In the end, they suffered half of their casualties before finally killing her.

You must find it hard to imagine why someone as quiet and fond of solitude would suddenly go on a killing spree, right? Wei Yuan listened quietly.

The young man said, "...Since then, the company's attitude towards the superhuman project has changed. They cut funding by more than half and shifted their focus from creating a new generation of humans to finding genes for longevity and youth. Furthermore, the company has been strictly controlling and suppressing superhumans globally."

Decades have passed, and the number of people with superpowers has decreased rather than increased, and the level of research has continued to decline. There has never been another third-generation person with superpowers.

The fundamental reason is that the emergence of superhumans is random and not transferable. This means that the old guys on the board are still ordinary people and cannot become superhumans. Because they can't become superhumans, they refuse to implement the second-generation human plan and even want to exterminate all superhumans! That's how foolish, barbaric, and greedy they are!

The scenery outside the window changed again; vast expanses of golden flames appeared in the sky, half the firmament ablaze! Countless humanoid creatures, shimmering with golden light, descended from the heavens, beginning to destroy everything in their path. These figures were blurry and indistinct; Wei Yuan tried every method, but none could make them clearer.

This is because the entire world has been destroyed, and cause and effect have been severed, so all memories of them have become blurred.

The young man continued, "Their shortsightedness ultimately led to the extinction of humanity. When Judgment Day suddenly arrived, ordinary troops were no match for the invaders; only those with superpowers could fight them. Unfortunately, there were too few of them. With the last one killed, humanity and the entire world faced annihilation."

Those who come after, if you can see this, it means you have already reached the pinnacle of power. Remember our lessons: do not be bound by any existing rules or morals, do not indulge in pleasure; when enemies come, strength is the only answer.

Finally, the image shifts to that afternoon garden, where a girl sits quietly on a swing reading a book, while a young man walks towards her. In the end, everything is reduced to a blinding, all-destroying beam of light.

Wei Yuan had read this passage many times, and each time he had a different feeling. There were many other details in that world, such as the fact that minorities received unprecedented attention at a certain period, all sorts of strange groups emerged one after another, and people spent their time in endless arguments and disputes.

Meanwhile, some people, high above, looked down on those below, who continued to quarrel and grow increasingly hostile towards each other, even forgetting that there was a group of people entrenched above them.

However, the problem of that realm doesn't exist in the Great Tang at least. Cultivators and mortals are completely different classes, or even different species. If any mortal were to tell the Dao Foundation Ancestor that everyone is equal, they would most likely be slapped to death.

Wei Yuan's experience with this fragment of heaven and earth led him to fully reflect on the development of Qingming. His final conclusion was to avoid arguments and unnecessary trouble, and for everyone to be like a dragon.

Besides the final ending, Wei Yuan gained a lot of inspiration after truly experiencing life in the outer world. For example, he felt that the sign-in attendance system was worth promoting. He felt it was necessary to share his frustration and fear of having a day's pay deducted and being counted as half a day of absence for being five minutes late.

Although the vast majority of cultivators don't need to sign in or clock in in order to advance further on their path to immortality, they will work overtime to hone their physical body and foundation, but there can't be a few bad apples who don't want to work hard anymore.

This system is quite simple to implement; all it needs is a magical artifact capable of recognizing one's primordial spirit as its core. This artifact can identify the primordial spirit and effectively prevent the bad habit of proxy attendance, being more accurate than fingerprints or iris scans.

With Wei Yuan's knowledge of weapon crafting, he quickly conceived a rough design framework. However, when designing a penalty mechanism corresponding to attendance tracking, Wei Yuan suddenly ran into a problem: Qingming didn't have a salary, so there was nothing to deduct from him.

After a moment of stunned silence, Wei Yuan had no choice but to put the system away. He couldn't possibly pay everyone a salary just for attendance tracking, could he?
However, wages can wait, but currency needs to be addressed. Immortal Silver is currently used in all nine kingdoms of the Great Tang Dynasty and has numerous uses.

However, after reading numerous academic papers within the fragments of the world, Wei Yuan discovered that the drawbacks of Immortal Silver were actually quite numerous. Furthermore, that world also possessed something called seigniorage, which, especially in a broad sense, could create something from nothing—truly miraculous.

Wei Yuan felt it was time to issue Qingming's own currency. As the currency circulated, people holding the new Qingming currency would come to Qingming to buy things, and all kinds of barriers and obstacles would fall apart on their own.

An initial currency naturally needs an anchor to confirm its value; otherwise, it's just a piece of worthless paper. There are many kinds of anchors, but the most important one is that it must be universally accepted, and there must be a great many of them.

Wei Yuan pondered for a long time, then picked up a pen and wrote down words such as one tael, one jin, one shi, and one thousand jin on a piece of paper. He looked at them repeatedly and felt they were quite feasible.

The Qingming realm is abundant in grain, and there's a saying that food is the most important thing for people, so using it as an anchor is perfectly appropriate. Based on grain, this new currency could be called grain coupons.

(End of this chapter)