Longzang

Chapter 866 Heavenly Sacrifice
As a foundational divine skill, the "Instantaneous Beings" technique has already revealed its limitations. Its absolute improvement is ultimately quite limited, and it consumes Qingming's nurturing energy. Excessive consumption will cause the realm to regress. Furthermore, with Wei Yuan's current abilities, his limit is only 100,000 people that he can apply the "Instantaneous Beings" technique to.

Therefore, after the population of Qingming exceeded two million, the number of soldiers gradually increased and the equipment became more sophisticated. Wei Yuan no longer used the "Instantaneous Beings" on the battlefield, but instead used it as a means to stimulate the Dao foundation of cultivators.

From this perspective, Qingming has actually taken a big step forward and no longer needs such methods that require mortals to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

If the Wu Clan wants to take down Qingming, the only way is to crush Wei Yuan on the front lines.

Wei Yuan stopped considering the methods of the Wu Clan and returned to the mundane world, beginning to think about what else he could do that he hadn't yet considered.

Xiao Yu's act of lighting up Yong'an City resulted in a windfall of 300,000 units of luck, a truly enormous gain. Of these 300,000 units, Wei Yuan received 200,000, while Xiao Yu only managed to collect 100,000.

The further things went, the more fortune favored Wei Yuan. It seems there are quite a few insightful people who know that the good life they have now is actually thanks to Wei Yuan.

Many others were driven by self-interest, feeling grateful not only to the Immortal Lord but also to the one who held the highest position. As a result, Wei Yuan gained more fortune than Xiao Yu, who had actually done the work.

However, Wei Yuan placed Xiao Yu, Bao Yun, and others in the positions of city lords so that they could accumulate good fortune and be constantly blessed with it. This would greatly benefit their further advancement, potentially triggering changes during the construction of their mental worlds, thereby creating their own portions of mental worlds and paving the way to Yu Jing.

Wei Yuan has now read more than three thousand books on the world of mental phenomena. Looking at the Dharma realms of the world, there are few people who can surpass him in their understanding of the world of mental phenomena.

The everyday life of ordinary people played a crucial role at this time. After all, with more than two hundred Wei Yuan reading at the same time, their erudition would eventually become unparalleled.

He may be very knowledgeable, but there's still a transparent ceiling above him. It seems like he can get close, but he can never get over it.

The Immortal Lord of the Sea left behind more than 800 works, of which 37 were truly profound and beyond Wei Yuan's comprehension.

I couldn't understand it when there was only one Wei Yuanshi, and I still couldn't understand it when there were more than two hundred Wei Yuanshi.

Of the more than 140 works written by Immortal Lord Yanshi, Wei Yuan couldn't understand twelve. Even after consulting him in person, Wei Yuan still couldn't understand them. Not only could he not understand them, but Yanshi couldn't teach him either.

From this, Wei Yuan realized that there is something called wisdom, which cannot be acquired simply by increasing the number of people.

However, even Yan Shi himself said that understanding these things doesn't hinder one's ascension to immortality. Xuan Yue Zhenjun didn't even understand half of it, yet he still stepped into the immortal realm with one foot in the door, didn't he? Moreover, Xuan Yue's talent in combat is unparalleled in the world, and even Yan Shi is looking forward to the day when Xuan Yue ascends to immortality.

So Wei Yuan continued to accumulate knowledge step by step. As his knowledge accumulated to a certain level, he seemed to naturally become smarter.

However, the human world is too vast and too complex; it is a world in itself, far larger than many of the mental worlds of the Imperial Realm. Now, Wei Yuan wants to use it as a Dharma body to construct a mental world, so one can imagine how difficult that will be. With just two hundred or so Wei Yuans, it seems somewhat impossible.

But Wei Yuan wasn't in a hurry. He learned little by little, perfecting himself step by step. Even if it was just a small step forward each day, as long as he was moving forward, that was enough.

In this way, Wei Yuan felt himself gradually calming down and becoming more and more profound, and the people around him showed more and more awe on their faces when they saw him.

Perhaps this is what maturity is?

……

Qingming, the new city.

A middle-aged man carrying a lunchbox leaped up, lightly stepped on the stepping stone on the exterior wall of the apartment building, and rose several meters higher before finally landing in the lobby on the top floor.

There are three doors in the foyer, each belonging to one of three households. The middle-aged man took out his key, opened the middle door, went inside, and closed the door behind him.

The room was quiet and warm. Although it was already dark, the burning oil lamp cast a bright yellow light throughout the room, making it cozy, peaceful, and gentle.

Two girls who looked to be in their early teens rushed over, happily took the lunchboxes, and cheered as they opened them. The man looked at his two daughters with doting eyes, watching them arrange the exquisite dishes from the lunchboxes one by one on the table.

As a template Daoji, he spent most of his limited income on food, but he felt it was well worth it. After all, when he was living a muddled life before, he ate nothing but a gruel that tasted like pig swill every day, and it had a particularly pungent smell.

Then the two little ones sat at the table, eagerly waiting for the man to join them. The man put down his toolbox and said, "You two eat first, don't wait for me, I need to take a shower first."

"No, we have to wait!" the two little girls said in unison.

The man shook his head helplessly, picked up his change of clothes, took a quick shower in the bathroom on this floor, and then returned home to sit down at the table.

The two girls immediately started eating, trying to be as elegant as possible, but also eating very quickly.

The man asked, "How did your Body Forging class go today? Did you take the exam?" "We took the exam. My sister is a little slower than me. The teacher said she won't be able to reach the Blood Fusion Perfection stage until next month. I've already reached the Blood Fusion Perfection stage. If I take a pill, I can start cultivating my Jade Bones. But the teacher said that this pill needs to be deducted from my family's merit points. It's also okay not to take the pill, but I need to stay in the Blood Fusion Realm for three months to solidify my foundation."

The man was overjoyed: "You've progressed so quickly? Good, that's great! Don't worry about the pills, you can take them tomorrow. I'm a Foundation Establishment cultivator, I can afford the medicine. Now is a crucial time for your cultivation, we can't afford to waste three months."

The older sister put down her chopsticks and said, "Today, the teacher brought in a very kind old Taoist priest. He looked at my sister and me and said that we both have the potential to cultivate to the Heavenly Foundation."

Then he gave us a contract, saying he would waive all our future cultivation expenses and provide the necessary elixirs, on the condition that we serve Qingming for thirty years after we have established our Dao foundation.

"Let me take a look at this... first."

The two sisters handed the contract to the man. He looked at it carefully, but struggled to read it; he had only learned to read after arriving in Qingming, not much earlier than his two daughters.

The youngest daughter suddenly said, "A classmate said today that we weren't in Qingming before, but came here later. He said we used to be sacrifices, to be killed and offered to the heavens. Dad, I don't remember any of that!"

The man trembled, his face showing uncontrollable terror. He then forced himself to calm down and said, "Back then, my family ate things laced with medicine every day, so we couldn't remember anything. Luckily, we were later sold to Qingming. Dad doesn't remember much about the past either, so don't worry about it. Just focus on your cultivation now."

The older sister said, "But that boy is awful. He's clearly stupid, but he insists that his family are high-ranking sacrificial offerings and looks down on us. Father, I remember we were all heavenly sacrifices!"

But he didn't believe it. He said that if a Heavenly Rank sacrificial cultivator were to cultivate, they would at least start with a Heavenly Foundation stage, and might even reach an Immortal Foundation stage. But he said you only have a template Dao Foundation, accusing us of lying, and that you couldn't possibly be a Heavenly Sacrificial cultivator.

The middle-aged man had calmed down by now, smiled, and said, "There's nothing wrong with having a template-based cultivation foundation. It's easy to find a job, and you can choose any template you like. Dad used to take too much medicine, so my mind isn't very sharp. Therefore, I prefer stability and don't need any profound cultivation. I just want to see you all grow up smoothly."

Aren't you going to eat some more? Wait, what's on your plates?!

His voice suddenly trembled slightly. At that moment, the sisters' plates were filled with a dark green paste, emitting a unique, pungent medicinal aroma—the very thing they ate every meal when they were still sacrifices in the Witchcraft Domain!
The two girls stared blankly at the middle-aged man, their faces bearing eerie smiles. Their pupils dilated as they both stared at him.

An indescribable fear and icy chill filled the man's entire body, almost freezing him to the bone! He was unable to move, and couldn't even utter a single word.

At this moment, his hands rose on their own, and with a grab in the air, a flaming longsword appeared in his hands, which was none other than the False Sun.

The man's face showed utter terror; this was not his doing! His body was no longer under his control; he had materialized his own Dao Foundation and placed it on the table.

The younger sister's pupils had fully dilated, her eyes turning milky white. She gave a stiff, eerie smile and said in a strange tone, "You're supposed to be a Heavenly Sacrifice! In the human race, you'd at least reach the Dharma Aspect stage. And yet your Dao Foundation is such trash?"

"Who, who are you?" The man barely managed to overcome his extreme fear, but his teeth were still chattering uncontrollably.

The girl's smile was distorted, and she said, "A person? Heh, how could I be a person?"

"You, you... what exactly do you want? What did you do to my daughter?"

The little girl's mouth twisted into a sinister smile. This smile seemed inhuman; her lips were slowly tearing, blood flowing out, yet she remained completely oblivious.

"You are a Heavenly Sacrifice, there are only a few in an entire kingdom. Without my permission, how could your family have been mixed in with ordinary sacrificial offerings and sold to the human realm? But even I didn't expect that you would cultivate such a trashy Dao Foundation, which almost prevented me from traveling here."

Fortunately, your daughter's talent surpasses yours, though she's still a bit young and her cultivation isn't yet sufficient. But what I need to do is only a small matter, and with your other daughter's help, that will be enough."

The little girl reached out to her older sister, and her little hand actually went straight into her forehead, then pulled out a transparent little figure from it!
She kept rubbing the transparent little figure, and slowly it turned into a thread.

The little man's face showed extreme pain, but in the end, even his head was twisted thin and became part of the thread. However, the pain could not be dispelled; it turned into a wisp of red and black energy, which coiled around the thread.

"I kill you!"

The man, drawing strength from who-knows-where, suddenly expanded his body, breaking free of his restraints. He grabbed the fake sun from the table and slashed at the girl. But as the sword reached her head, he stopped, trembling, unsure whether to strike or not.

At this moment, the icy cold descended once more, and his body went out of control. He reversed the longsword and slowly pierced his own heart.

Blood continued to gush out, but it froze into ice as soon as it appeared from the wound. The older sister lay slumped on the table, as if asleep, while the younger sister had vanished without a trace.

There was no blood in the room, only a pungent smell of medicine.

(End of this chapter)