Longzang

Chapter 842 The Ceremony Begins

The most important event in Qingming right now is the Dao Foundation Ceremony. More than 50,000 cultivators and several times that number of relatives and friends have flocked to Qingming, and just arranging their food, clothing, accommodation and transportation is a major undertaking.

Furthermore, Wei Yuan had other plans. He wanted to take this opportunity to let all the forces see the development of Qingming. When Qingming was still weak, it naturally had to hide its strength, hoping to launch a swift and unexpected attack on the enemy.

But now that Qingming has grown to encompass several prefectures, everything is different. Putting aside everything else, just to ensure the smooth circulation of Qingyuan, Wei Yuan has to show his fangs. And simply showing them isn't enough; he also has to subdue all those who disagree in order to maintain the confidence of all factions in Qingyuan.

The current issuance of Qingyuan has reached hundreds of millions, equivalent to hundreds of millions of taels of silver in resources that have entered Qingming for free, instantly increasing Qingming's foundation several times over. At the same time, Wei Yuan has also gained a massive amount of luck.

Therefore, Wei Yuan had already begun preparations several months in advance, and the Dao Foundation Ceremony was held in the suburbs of Yong'an City. He also specially built a number of high-rise buildings for visiting cultivators to stay temporarily.

To improve efficiency and showcase Qingming's uniqueness, these high-rise buildings for cultivators are all thirty stories high, with dozens of suites on each floor, exclusively for cultivators participating in the grand ceremony. They are also equipped with spirit array elevators.

In fact, cultivators who have achieved the Great Perfection of Body Forging don't need elevators to climb thirty floors; they can jump seven or eight floors in one go. These elevators are mainly for transporting supplies and for making it easier for craftsmen with little cultivation to go up and down.

The sight of hundreds of thirty-story buildings clustered together created a powerful sense of oppression and a strangely orderly aesthetic. When the powerful families, sects, soldiers, and independent cultivators entered Yong'an City, they were all filled with exclamations of surprise and admiration. No one had expected that the scene from the outer world would actually become a reality in Qingming.

After checking in, the cultivators were pleasantly surprised and full of praise.

The cultivators from noble families had seen the true grandeur of immortals, including floating mountains and towering palaces, but they had never seen such an exquisite high-rise building before.

Although the room was not large, it was furnished with a large amount of brocade and machine-woven fabrics, creating a simple and elegant atmosphere. The unprecedented minimalist style was highly praised by the scions of aristocratic families who loved novelty.

The rooms were divided into several sizes, with the scions of wealthy families who paid a lot of money naturally staying in larger rooms with more brocade fabrics and better food.

Wei Yuan provided all the cultivators participating in the ceremony with free basic meals, which were served in a specially designated dining hall with plenty of food.

The food selection was limited and the flavors were rather monotonous, but it was still quite tasty. It made extensive use of what Qingming called canned goods. And there were rows and rows of open cans of food displayed in the cafeteria for show.

The limited variety and monotonous flavors were supposedly intended to refine the cultivators' Dao hearts, ensuring they were clear-headed and untainted by worldly dust. However, aside from this, the canteen offered ample portions, including plenty of meat, which greatly impressed the cultivators.

Among the various factions, Body Forging cultivators are not really considered cultivators, far from being able to eat meat at will. Moreover, they have huge appetites; if they eat freely, they can consume dozens of kilograms in one meal.

However, Qingming seemed completely unconcerned, eating as much meat as he could, with an unlimited supply. As they ate, many knowledgeable cultivators began to vaguely sense the unfathomable depth of Qingming's strength.

The children of large families could naturally choose to cook for themselves. Many people tried the canteen twice at first out of curiosity, but never wanted to go again. Qingming also offered an extremely rich paid menu, among which a clear soup medicinal hot pot with snowflake pork slices was very popular, and people could hardly get enough of it.

However, even more popular was a chili sauce with an aura of the underworld and the dead, its spiciness giving one the feeling of having taken a stroll through the netherworld. Discerning cultivators recognized the extraordinary nature of this chili sauce and thus purchased it in large quantities.

This sauce was also made by the old Taoist priest, Chuhe. It contains the fruit and leaves of the Dark Star Dragon Sunflower, and eating it can slightly enhance one's cultivation level while also giving the illusion of falling into the Netherworld. Originally, the old Taoist priest made it for himself to eat with hot pot, but he never expected it to become so popular.

In just a few days, this chili sauce sold over 100,000 bottles, with many wealthy scions of prominent families buying thousands or even tens of thousands of bottles at a time. To meet the production deadline, the only remaining plant of the Dark Star Nightshade was almost completely destroyed.

However, if the amount of chili sauce was converted into the price of medicine, the price would be at least ten times that of selling it to the Creation Temple. So Wei Yuan watched with a heavy heart as the old Taoist priest plucked the leaves one by one, forced to earn Qingyuan.

The old Taoist priest was also very shrewd. He directly obtained a large amount of Netherworld Soil and planted dozens of Heavenly Star Dragon Sunflowers in one go. He also moved Xu Wenwu's residence next to the tree garden, hoping to make a big profit in the future.

Ever since Wei Yuan brought back knowledge about the outer world from the fragments of the world, Xu Wenwu completely exposed his incompetent nature, having forgotten most of his high school knowledge. He couldn't even remember the names of those basic tools whose names included the word "function," as if he had never seen them before. Therefore, the significance of Xu Wenwu's materials diminished considerably; only his descriptions of his living environment remained meaningful. However, as his cultivation improved, Xu Wenwu's special physique became increasingly apparent. Within a certain range of him, beings blessed with Wei Yuan's luck were likely to completely absorb that luck, resulting in mutations—the earliest example being the Dark Star Dragon Sunflower. Now, this range was even larger; he no longer needed to tend to the trees and loosen the soil daily, he could simply live nearby.

Once all the cultivators had arrived, Wei Yuan began the questionnaire test. This was an unprecedented move. The cultivators split up and went to the designated examination rooms, where they saw huge sheds, divided into multiple levels. Each cultivator was given a piece of paper with their examination area, level, and seat number written on it.

To the astonishment of all the cultivators, tens of thousands of cultivators made not a single mistake.

There were also many cultivators on site to guide them, so tens of thousands of cultivators were herded into designated areas like a flock of sheep, where they were greeted by a dense array of questionnaires.

The cultivators didn't understand what this was about, so they could only fill it out obediently. Before the event started, the Qingming cultivators had repeatedly emphasized that not writing it out carefully would affect their cultivation path, so no one dared to fill it out carelessly, since it would affect their own cultivation path.

Among the tens of thousands of cultivators, there were naturally quite a few troublemakers. However, since Wei Yuan clearly entered the late stage of the Dharma Aspect realm, hardly anyone dared to cause trouble in Qingming.

A cultivator at the late stage of the Dharma Aspect realm, not even thirty years old, and undoubtedly a Celestial Aspect realm cultivator—who would want to provoke such a person? It's not that even a Yu Jing cultivator couldn't defeat him; even a Yu Jing cultivator might not be able to win. Every Yu Jing cultivator was a genius in their day, and none of them were fools; none of them would fight a battle they were certain to lose.

Even if someone were determined to cause trouble, whether they could even see Wei Yuan was another matter entirely. After all, Wei Yuan's status was different now; he held a high position and wielded great power. Anyone who wanted to challenge Wei Yuan would have to get past a long list of names like Ji Liuli, Bao Yun, and Xiao Yu first.

Rumors had already circulated among the cultivators that since the fall of Immortal Lord Tinghai, the younger generation of disciples of Taichu Palace had been traumatized, with many becoming mentally unstable and a large number switching to cultivating the Heart of Invincibility.

As everyone knows, those who cultivate an invincible heart are practically mad dogs; you might get bitten just by walking past them. If I don't like you, that's my reason for starting a war.

So everyone swallowed their anger and obeyed obediently. After all, in a place where even their own ancestors could be beaten for no reason at any time, causing trouble was tantamount to courting death.

Thus, tens of thousands of cultivators entered the examination hall in perfect unison and emerged in perfect unison, crowded yet orderly. The massive flow of people was accomplished with ease. To those with discerning eyes, wasn't this a classic example of unparalleled skill?
They were able to organize a large, disorganized mob into a well-organized force, and in wartime, they could continuously transform ordinary people into elite troops. No wonder Qingming was able to withstand the overwhelming advantage of the Rain Kingdom for years, growing stronger with each battle.

Thus, a questionnaire test resulted in Wei Yuan gaining a large amount of diverse luck. As the Yong'an City Lord who directly managed the matter, Xiao Yu also gained a small amount of diverse luck.

From then on, every morning before dawn, Shaoyang Xingjun would urge Xiaoyu to wash up and get ready to go to the city government to start work, and she couldn't be lazy even for a day.

One day, Xiaoyu was a little slow to react and learned that Xingjun could also curse, and that his curses were very vulgar.

The day after the questionnaire, the cultivators were organized to have their physical constitution tested again. However, what puzzled them was that this time it was not a comprehensive test, but only a specific aspect, such as testing aptitude for the wood or water element.

Just one day after the physical fitness test, the results were compiled and distributed to each cultivator. The data clearly listed the three most suitable template foundations for them to choose from. Some cultivators, however, did not have a choice at all and only had one template foundation.

After exchanging information, the cultivators discovered that each person received different materials, clearly suggestions tailored to their individual circumstances by Qingming. Those who came to Qingming were generally of mediocre talent, so the vast majority of cultivators accepted Qingming's arrangements with trepidation.

All preparations are proceeding in an orderly manner, with people coordinating and arranging everything, ensuring that all activities are busy but not chaotic.

While continuing to bombard the Wu tribe who were repairing the canal, which infuriated Liu Lan to the point of being furious but helpless, Wei Yuan was also busy preparing for the official opening of the Dao Foundation Ceremony.

The ceremony was unprecedented in its success.

(End of this chapter)