Longzang

Chapter 812 No Mercy
Wei Yuan settled the mirage demons on the original island and transformed it into an environment they would love. However, to Wei Yuan's surprise, the transformation of the island was extremely costly. To completely transform it, even if all the vital energy that humans breathed in and out of the island for a whole year were used on it, it would only increase the island's size by a little over a mile.

After a brief attempt, Wei Yuan realized it was simply impossible. He urgently flew to the northern mountain gate to consult with Immortal Lord Yan Shi, only to learn that the Mirage Demon clan already had three Nascent Soul cultivators, including one in the mid-Nascent Soul stage—a configuration befitting a Silver Heaven. Meanwhile, the Human Realm cultivator had only reached Deep Green, a full two major realms short.

If we disregard the immortal plants, the spiritual energy consumed daily by the three mirage demons Yu Jing is equivalent to that of the entire mortal realm. Within the mortal realm, the spiritual energy consumed by Han Li and more than ten Dharma Aspect cultivators accounts for almost half of the total spiritual energy.

The immortal plants are self-sufficient and even have excess spiritual energy to release into the mortal realm, which is why Wei Yuan has made such rapid progress. Otherwise, before the mortal realm develops its own sentience and can absorb and release the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the amount of spiritual energy that Wei Yuan absorbs and releases himself simply cannot support so many mortals; having several thousand would already be quite remarkable.

Only then did Wei Yuan realize firsthand just how terrifying the consumption of energy by high-level cultivators was. One Yujing cultivator was equivalent to over a thousand Dao Foundation cultivators, a Dharma Avatar was equivalent to at least ten or more Dao Foundation cultivators, and a powerful Dharma Avatar could easily consume the energy of over a hundred Dao Foundation cultivators. As for Wei Yuan himself… Wei Yuan made a rough estimate and then ignored the answer.

Wei Yuan had always felt that something was wrong with his mental world, but ever since he heard the Sea, and even Xuan Yue, Yan Shi, and Zhang Sheng, they had all turned a blind eye to these unusual things and only told him to focus on his cultivation. After hearing similar words many times, Wei Yuan finally settled down to cultivate.

Wei Yuan consulted with the instructors for three consecutive days before finally being satisfied and returning to Qingming with dozens of textbooks selected by Yan Shi on his back.

Now he finally understood why completely transforming a small island was so costly. It was equivalent to creating another golden paradise. It would take a terrifying amount of human activity to create a small, ordinary world of mind in a year... How could an ordinary world of mind exist?
Now that he knew the crux of the problem, Wei Yuan had a solution. It was impossible to create an island that would make the mirage demons comfortable and satisfied, so he lowered the standards.

Wei Yuan tried several solutions, but the spiritual energy consumed was still unacceptable after testing. Wei Yuan had to lower the standard again and again, until finally he only needed to stay alive.

In this way, the consumption finally came down to an acceptable level, and a small island about ten miles square was created, on which more than 200,000 mirage demons were piled up.

In such an environment, the mirage demons could hardly withstand it, and the weakest of them died one after another until the number reached around 190,000 before things stabilized.

Wei Yuan knew that the mirage demon's death was mainly due to the virus, with the harsh environment playing only a minor role. Moreover, once the body was damaged by the virus, it was extremely difficult to recover, and it would only be able to survive if it returned to the Star Forest and received protection from the power of the cave.

The custom of the mirage demons is water burial, which becomes sea burial in the human world. Watching the corpses being pushed into the sea, Wei Yuan could only sigh inwardly.

For the mirage demons, this ending was indeed tragic. But since both sides served their own masters, there was nothing that could be done. If given the chance again, Wei Yuan would still release the virus and capture as many mirage demons as possible. In a war between two races, there is no room for mercy.

The mirage demons endured silently, crammed into cramped shacks, suffering through terrible weather and conditions, as if in a long, endless night.

After settling the mirage demon, Wei Yuan began working on the next step of perfecting the human world. At this stage, an ordinary Dharma Aspect cultivator should have already constructed the framework of their mental world, then refined the details, ignited the spiritual vitality of the world, allowed the mental world to take shape, then passed through the Heavenly Tribulation, gained the recognition of Heaven and Earth, left their mark on the Great Dao, and thus a mental world was completed, advancing to the Imperial Realm.

But when it came to Wei Yuan, the human world as a whole was regarded as a manifestation of the universe, so it was necessary to construct a mental world for the human world... This was not impossible. The Sea Immortal Lord explored it, and Yan Shi further improved it. Now the method has been passed on to Wei Yuan, which is those dozens of textbooks.

Wei Yuan now wants to regard the mundane world as a star, and the first thing he needs to do is create a small world that belongs to it, which is equivalent to a satellite.

Therefore, the first thing Wei Yuan needs to do is to calculate a usable satellite orbit.

It's just a not-quite-perfect circle, nothing difficult... Wei Yuan thought to himself. Then he realized it was still somewhat difficult, because the human world itself was also moving.

In order to calculate such a circle, more than half of those dozens of textbooks are about related problems, and about ten of them are prerequisite knowledge that needs to be learned.

The primordial spirit is far more complex than a real star, and the attributes of spiritual energy must also be considered, as different attributes have different effects. If the orbit is calculated incorrectly, at best the grotto-heaven will be damaged, at worst it will deviate from its orbit and become uncontrollable, and at the very least it will be downgraded.

Different spiritual energy attributes have different levels of difficulty. The Five Elements are the most basic and simplest, while the Four Symbols, Three Powers, and the positions of the constellations in each direction are much more complex.

Wei Yuan originally intended to choose just the most basic of the Five Elements, but Yan Shi directly assigned him Yin and Yang. This was a difficulty level on par with Time and Space, second only to the chaos before the creation of heaven and earth!
As for why it's Yin and Yang, Wei Yuan knew perfectly well. A young girl named Yin and Yang lived among the mortal world; she was essentially a manifestation of the Yin-Yang Dao in the world. After being reborn in the mortal world, the two influenced each other, gradually imprinting the mortal world with the mark of the Yin-Yang Dao.

Yan Shi had keen insight, able to see through the mundane realities of life, and thoughtfully arranged relevant courses for Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan felt at the time that it was like Xu Wenwu entering a competition class; he could recognize every word in the book, but when put together, it was like reading a book written in a foreign language.

But since it concerned the path of life, Wei Yuan knew there was no way to escape it. So he calmed himself down and let the world's affairs take their own course, while he devoted himself to calculating that not-so-perfect circle, occasionally handling official business. Before he knew it, summer had turned into winter.

Amidst the hustle and bustle of everyday life, the sound of a bell rang, startling Wei Yuan from his reverie. He had thought only two or three days had passed, but it turned out that more than half a year had gone by, and it was now the New Year of the tenth year of the Tianqi era.

At the start of the new year, Qingming was filled with joy, as most people celebrated another prosperous year. Since the great war with the Witch Clan, Qingming had been thriving, with each year being an unprecedentedly prosperous one.

While people were celebrating, the mythical beasts and plants were also busy.

Early on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Fei Diao brought three kinds of gifts and went to the little rooster's house to wish him a Happy New Year.

(End of this chapter)