Longzang

Chapter 814 Weight
Having examined the current political situation and major world events, Wei Yuan then looked at the internal affairs of Qingming. First, he looked at the cultivators of Taichu Palace.

Zhang Sheng and Bao Yun are both in seclusion. Zhang Sheng is still nurturing the sword spirits of over five hundred immortal swords, and he's only halfway through carving them. Fortunately, the Heavenly and Earthly Rank swords have already nurtured their sword spirits, so the Human Rank ones will be a little faster. Bao Yun, on the other hand, is consolidating her Dharma Form. Her Heavenly Demonic Form is powerful and unpredictable, and it takes her much longer than others.

Ji Liuli and Feng Tingyu are also in seclusion. Their Dharma forms are also celestial forms, and they need a lot of time to consolidate them before they can enter the Myriad Transformations Realm.

After advancing to the Dharma Aspect stage, the path to immortality gradually becomes more and more distant, with a single period of seclusion often lasting for months or even years. Although it was the first day of the Lunar New Year, the immortal city was exceptionally deserted and silent.

Wei Yuan's seclusion this time was quite different from normal seclusion. He had been diligently studying the theories for more than half a year, and now he had finally grasped the basics. So he strolled into the herb garden, which was now the place with the most abundant spiritual energy and the most bustling place in the entire Qingming.

Moreover, beneath the grand array of the medicine garden, a faint, blazing immortal aura swirled. However, this aura was extremely ethereal; even Yu Jing, standing right in front of it, would likely miss it. It was only because Wei Yuan possessed the authority of a Realm Lord and the assistance of the Zhou Tian Star Array that he was able to detect the existence of this immortal aura.

Normally, the celestial plants never leave the mortal world, and there is only one celestial creature active in the Azure Nether: a little rooster.

It seems the little rooster has been doing well in the herb garden lately, though I wonder how many herbs it has ruined.

Wei Yuan entered the herb garden and quickly found the little rooster's roosting place, under the two mutated dragon sunflowers from the beginning. However, the area within several dozen feet was now shrouded by a natural array, isolating it from the outside world and preventing free entry and exit.

The voice of Master Chuhe came from ahead. Wei Yuan, somewhat curious, slowed his pace. Master Chuhe said, "Is it still unwilling to see me?"

It made two squeaking sounds, the sound of a flying sable, meaning, "It says it won't see any idlers."

The Master Chuhe said, "It's alright. I treat it with a sincere heart, and sooner or later it will understand my good intentions."

Flying Sable: "How about we change our target? I don't think it's anything special. When I ascend to immortality, I'll bite it to death!"

Chu He smiled and said, "Fate is something that can only be encountered by chance, not sought. Since we've encountered it, it's fate, so we won't change it. Take this bowl of spirit rice inside."

"Take it if you want, I'm not serving you anymore!" Fei Diao left angrily.

Chuhe shook his head and placed the spirit rice on the ground. A gust of hot wind then swept the spirit rice into the formation. Chuhe, the old Taoist, wasn't annoyed and sang as he walked away. His demeanor was one of nonchalant indifference.

Wei Yuan had assumed the little rooster and Chu He would get along well, but to his surprise, more than half a year had passed and their relationship remained strained. Even the old Taoist Chu He had moments when his methods failed?
Wei Yuan walked into the great formation. This kind of formation was a natural formation of the immortal spirit. In Wei Yuan's eyes at this moment, it was full of loopholes. He just took a few steps and passed through the immortal formation and entered the formation.

"Wait a minute, don't come in!"

But the little rooster spoke too late; Wei Yuan was already inside the formation, and in front of him was a wall that was red with a hint of gold!

The texture of this wall... is quite good. Wei Yuan touched it, then realized that it wasn't a wall at all, it was chicken feathers!
Wei Yuan looked up and saw a huge chicken head looking down at him.

He used to be able to carry the little rooster around at will, but now, just lying there, it's two stories tall. Its wings are huge and thick, and with a slight lift, they can stir up a gust of wind. Its beak is covered with dense array patterns and Daoist runes. One of its eyes is the size of a washbasin, bigger than Wei Yuan's face, and its texture is crystal clear, with swirling patterns inside, like a vortex that could suck a person in.

"What happened to you?" Wei Yuan was shocked. In less than a year, the little rooster had grown to be as sturdy and huge as a house.

The little rooster sighed, "I told you not to come in, but now that you've seen me like this, how am I supposed to be a rooster in the future! After you left, I ate and slept here, slept and ate. There are spirit insects everywhere within a hundred feet underground, and I have spirit rice as a snack every day, so I got fat without even realizing it."

Wei Yuan was speechless, so he ignored the little rooster's size and asked, "Did that Master Chuhe outside offend you?"

The little rooster said irritably, "If he hadn't delivered the spirit rice three times a day, morning, noon and night, I wouldn't have developed the habit of eating three meals a day."

"It's been like this for over half a year?"

The little rooster looked bewildered: "Has it been more than half a year already? I thought only ten days had passed."

Wei Yuan pointed to the sky above and said, "It's already the first day of the Lunar New Year."

The little rooster was speechless: "I only took a few naps, and a year has passed?"

Wei Yuan looked the rooster up and down, which was as big as a small mountain, and suddenly asked, "How big will you be when you grow up?"

The little rooster couldn't explain it clearly either, only saying that it had never seen its parents since the day it hatched, and didn't know who had hatched it. For the first ten years or so, it barely grew, but somehow, once it reached the Azure Dragon stage, it began to grow wildly.

Wei Yuan said, "The 'Hoeing the Rice Seedlings' Master outside is my martial uncle. He is very skilled in taking care of immortal objects. I am currently in seclusion most of the time. Why don't you meet him? It will make it easier to take care of them in the future."

The little rooster was a little embarrassed and said, "Actually, he didn't offend me. It's just that I'm so fat that I'm a little embarrassed to be seen by people." Seeing that it had relented, Wei Yuan immediately summoned Master Chuhe. Master Chuhe was momentarily stunned when he saw the mountain-like rooster, but he quickly recovered, bowed, and said, "Greetings, Brother Rooster."

The little rooster was a little embarrassed. He pointed to his huge beak and said, "You've worked hard for the past six months. Actually, if you had just brought me more spirit rice at once, you wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble."

Chu He said calmly, "This kind of spiritual rice is a mutation, and it can't be found anywhere else. It must be consumed within half an hour after it is picked for it to taste its best. After that time, most of its spiritual power will dissipate, and it won't taste as good."

The little rooster was startled and even more embarrassed.

Chu He didn't linger, and after saying his piece, he took his leave. Wei Yuan told the little rooster to live peacefully there, as he could afford to raise it. The little rooster said a few words, then became sleepy again, yawning incessantly.

Wei Yuan then took his leave and caught up with Chu He, saying to him, "That wasn't like you just now. Is this really okay? Shouldn't you... acknowledge him as your godfather?"

Chu He said, "This method works for ordinary spirit beasts, but it won't work for naturally born immortal creatures like this. These naturally born immortal creatures that are not very old either encounter those who force them to recognize a master, or those who try to curry favor with them in various ways. Only by treating them as equals can you earn their respect."

Knowing that this was the path of the True Man of Hoeing the Rice Planting, Wei Yuan asked, "Is there enough spirit rice? If not, I'll go buy some more?"

"You can't buy this rice outside." Master Chuhe took a grain of rice and handed it to Wei Yuan.

These grains of rice are the size of oranges, perfectly round and white, with a lustrous sheen, like large pearls. This rice originally came from the Ji Zhao Cui family, and was subsequently cultivated in Qingming for generations. After the passing of True Lord Huangyun, this rice mutated under the power of the Jianmu tree, transforming into its current form.

However, its yield is extremely low, and it must be consumed as soon as possible. As soon as it completed its mutation, the old Taoist used it to feed the immortal chicken.

Just as Wei Yuan was about to leave, Master Chuhe said, "There might still be an opportunity now."

"Oh? Tell me."

Master Chuhe said, "This chicken is a natural nemesis of poisonous insects and creatures. It lives in the herb garden, which has attracted all the spiritual insects within a thousand miles. Now, five hundred feet directly below the herb garden, countless spiritual insects are gathered and fighting each other to determine the king. Once the insect king is born, it will lead its horde to fight this chicken to the death. If we can capture the insect king, we will obtain a powerful battle pet."

What preparations are needed?

"No special preparations are needed. We just need to set up more nodes of the Zhou Tian Xing Dou Grand Array here to expand the monitoring range underground from a hundred feet to a thousand feet, so that we can monitor the movement of the insect swarm at all times."

Monitoring thousands of feet underground is a heavy burden for the Zhou Tian Star Array. However, Wei Yuan instinctively felt that if he could subdue the Insect King, Qingming would gain a large number of spirit insects, and the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth would become more complete.

After leaving the herb garden, Wei Yuan inspected several other important locations.

Qingming has now expanded to nearly two thousand miles, encompassing several prefectures. At this time, all workshops in Qingming are desperately expanding, just so that newcomers can have clothes to wear and a place to live.

The construction of houses alone has exhausted all concrete production capacity and more than 80% of steel. The sheer number of people arriving—18 million in just over a year—has created a major problem. While there's enough food, clothing and shelter have become serious issues.

Fortunately, with so many ordinary people, wisdom is boundless. Some craftsmen proposed a minimalist method for building houses quickly based on existing materials, and after several optimizations by real people, the final version of the design was obtained.

The plan wasn't to build houses, but rather to build a framework. The main supporting structure was built with reinforced concrete, and each floor was empty; there were no walls at all. Instead, a line was drawn on the cement floor to separate each household.

The construction speed of such a frame-only house is indeed unparalleled. With enough Dao Foundation cultivators involved, one floor can be built every two days. A ten-story frame house, including the topping-out and acceptance testing, only takes one month.

It was fast, but after seeing it in person, Wei Yuan felt it looked familiar. He thought about it carefully and finally remembered that the so-called unfinished building in the fragmented illusion of the world looked just like this.

Once the hastily constructed buildings are completed, officials will distribute various building materials and supplies, allowing residents to build their own walls and windows and partitions.

The building materials were mainly wooden planks, mud, and straw. The refugees were quite adept at using these materials, and could build a tall thatched house in just over ten days.

These people did move in, but from a distance, it looked like ten shacks stacked together. What's worse, the officials in charge of the project named these buildings "Abyss Buildings" so that people would remember whose favor they owed them housing.

Although Yuanzhi Tower looks rather ugly, it is still a ten-story building, and the migrants from outside have never seen anything like it.
So every household set up a memorial tablet for Wei Yuan, praying day and night for the Realm Lord to live a long life. Some even hoped that the Realm Lord could live to be nine thousand years old.

Over the past six months, the fortune emanating from Yuanzhi Tower has accumulated to over a million units, with almost everyone who moved in contributing. Only now does Wei Yuan realize the true weight of the saying, "Everyone should have a place to live."

(End of this chapter)