Chapter 350: New Trees Are Hard To Fool

After the Xiang Marquis left, it took Wei Yuan quite a while to finally calm down.

In fact, it had been some time since their last meeting in the capital. However, Wei Yuan subconsciously felt as if it had all happened just yesterday. In regards to the First Consort’s message, he had no choice but to politely decline. There were many pressing matters within the realm of Qingming that he had to deal with at the moment, and he simply did not have the time to travel to Jingdu. Besides, even if he wanted to go, he would need a suitable reason.

Wei Yuan chose a spot on the vast, mostly empty landscape of the Great Realm and dug a small pond several zhang square and two zhang deep. After a light shower had fallen, he placed the seed—which was about the size of a water jar—into it. He watched as the rainwater gathered and slowly submerged the seed.

The rainwater carried a distinct, putrid stench. Since the battle with the Xu Clan, the national fortune of Western Jin had clearly taken a downturn.

The rainwater had a yellowish-green tint, but the seed seemed to relish it and begin absorbing the water at a visible pace. Soon, a spark of vitality emerged from the seed’s center, and it released a wisp of spirit qi.

Not far away from the jade hill, the Ice-Glass Divine Tree stood quietly. Snowflakes were drifting within dozens of zhang of its surrounding, and a thin layer of snow had already accumulated on the ground.

The Bay Laurel Immortal Tree was standing right at the edge of the ice and snow. A wisp of pale red sword qi slowly drifted toward the Ice-Glass Divine Tree before giving it a gentle, harmless poke. Sensing no reaction from the tree, it poked it again.

After testing it several times in this manner and receiving no response from the Ice-Glass Divine Tree at all, the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree increased the strength of its pale red sword qi slightly and slashed toward one of the outermost pale blue leaves.

A layer of ice crystals suddenly formed on the leaf’s surface and blocked the sword qi. The clash was brief, yet it produced a surprisingly deafening roar[1] that echoed for hundreds of li, instantly drawing Wei Yuan—who had been observing the seed by the pond in the distance—to the scene.

The last thing the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree expected was a single sword strike to sound like the tolling of a ten-thousand-year-old ancient bell. Startled, it tried to flee only to realize that its trunk wouldn’t move!

Only then did it realize that, at some unknown point, a thin layer of ice had covered the ground and frozen its entire root system into the earth.

The Bay Laurel Immortal Tree struggled several times but couldn’t break free. Before it knew it, Wei Yuan was already standing beside it and staring at it expressionlessly.

Wei Yuan said nothing. He simply pointed a finger at the Ice-Glass Divine Tree.

There was a clear sword wound on one of the Ice-Glass Divine Tree’s leaves. It was deep enough to sever the veins, and a pale red sword qi could be seen flickering atop it.

The Bay Laurel Immortal Tree shook its branches frantically in an attempt to argue that its earlier strike hadn’t harmed the damned tree at all—it was clearly self-inflicted!

However, its explanation was far too complicated to be conveyed via shaking. Besides, Wei Yuan didn’t seem particularly interested in listening. He simply held out his hand to it.

The Bay Laurel Immortal Tree placed a flower in Wei Yuan’s palm.

Wei Yuan remained unmoved.

After a long standoff, the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree finally and reluctantly placed a pale red sword qi on Wei Yuan’s hand. He then went over to Yin Yang and wrapped the sword qi around her waist.

The area within 100 zhang of Yin Yang was a forbidden zone. Not a single immortal plant dared to approach the girl.

Having done this, Wei Yuan picked up a stone, slowly refined the true intent of a cauldron, and began crafting components as usual.

Seeing that Wei Yuan was no longer paying attention to this side, the Bay Laurel started fuming. The more it thought about it, the angrier it became. A new branch sprang from its trunk, and at the tip of it was a slender, newly formed sword qi. It flicked it defiantly in the direction of the Ice-Glass Divine Tree.

Suddenly, the Ice-Glass Divine Tree suddenly raised a branch and slashed at one of its own leaves, cutting another wound into itself!

The Bay Laurel Immortal Tree immediately sensed that trouble was brewing. It wanted to stop the immortal plant, but didn’t know how. While it was trying to rack its plant-brain for a solution, the Ice-Glass Divine Tree clapped two of its leaves together and produced another loud, crisp, and resonant clang. It sounded just like a sword slicing through steel!

Wei Yuan appeared instantly. He first examined the Ice-Glass Divine Tree’s fresh wound, then looked at the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree with an expressionless face. He reached out his hand once more.

The Bay Laurel Immortal Tree believed it was a tree at the moment. A tree couldn’t possibly move, could it?

But Wei Yuan had ways to convince even pigs to fly. He pointed one finger at Yin Yang, and a helpless Bay Laurel Immortal Tree had no choice but to split open its bark. It revealed its new branch and slowly, very slowly, placed another sword qi on Wei Yuan’s hand.

After Wei Yuan left, the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree, with nowhere to vent its anger, hurled a flower at the Ice-Glass Divine Tree. It was at this moment the Ice-Glass Divine Tree’s branches and leaves quivered, and it made a gesture that was considered extremely vulgar and insulting to a tree in the world of immortal plants[2]!

The Bay Laurel Immortal Tree just stood there dumbfounded, its worldview completely shattered by what it saw. As if that wasn’t enough, Wei Yuan appeared before it for the third time. This time, the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree truly had no idea what it had done wrong.

Wei Yuan emerged from the Great Realm, opened a medicinal cabinet he had just exchanged from the merit hall, and placed a fresh roll of laurel bark[3] inside. It so happened that one of the auxiliary ingredients of the Kun Origin Pill of Longevity was the bark of an immortal laurel tree.

After putting the immortal herb away, Wei Yuan took another look at his own cultivation progress. With the acquisition of two new immortal plants, his annual progress had improved by one small square per plant. However, his greatest gain in terms of immortal plants was really the Dragon Blood Wood. By now, the borrowed tree had borne fruit five times in total[4].

At the moment, it was so weak that it was on the verge of dropping a rank. Thus, it was unlikely to bear fruit a sixth time in the short term.

The five new shoots of Dragon Blood Wood had contributed another two squares of progress, and then there were the 130,000 people newly added to his realm. After the final tally, Wei Yuan realized that even if he did nothing, he was still gaining twenty-one square worth of spirit qi every year. This meant that it would take him less than five years to complete the middle stage of the Dao Foundation stage.

But in terms of individual contribution, the greatest source of spirit qi was surprisingly not the spirit plants, but the mundane rice.

500,000 mu of mundane normally produced only one square of spirit qi. But each time it matured, it would contribute an additional unit of spirit qi. The key here was that it took only two months to mature, meaning that it could generate up to six extra units of spirit qi per year!

Wei Yuan made up his mind then to reclaim another 500,000 mu of new farmland.

Amid a brief lull, the fourth batch from the Cui Clan arrived. This time, there were 500 people in total, including as many as 200 elderly individuals. This was their agreed-upon time to return the Dragon Blood Wood, so Wei Yuan did just that and handed it over to an Avatar of the Cui Clan.

However, no sooner had the Cui Clan’s ship departed than a flying vessel from the Lee Clan of Zhao arrived. Once again, the representative of the Lee Clan of Zhao was Wang Qian the Xiang Marquis. The Lee Clan of Zhao was, in fact, the royal family. This time, they had sent 200 disciples who had reached the pinnacle of the Body-tempering stage. Their demands were similar to those of the Cui Clan, but they placed no restrictions on the mortality rate.

The Lee Clan of Zhao had risen to power through military conquest and was now a major power among the Nine States. The nation’s culture also emphasized martial prowess, which was why they weren’t afraid of casualties.

As for Wei Yuan’s compensation, in addition to the usual immortal silver, the State of Zhao also promised the unimpeded flow of trade routes.

As the fourth term of the Dao Foundation class officially began, Wei Yuan also selected 1,000 Qingming cultivators at the peak of the Body-tempering stage to forge their Dao Foundations alongside this cohort. The realm’s population had experienced a rapid surge of population as of late. Among the human sacrifices from the Shamans, the refugees, and the surrendered soldiers, there were a little over 1,000 cultivators who had mastered the Body-tempering stage., bringing the total to over 5,000

Since this latest battle, the number of cultivators fleeing to the realm of Qingming had been gradually increasing, which led to a steady stream of Fire-element cultivators. Because of this, Wei Yuan decided to build multiple blast furnaces in one go and upped the realm’s daily production to 200,000 catties of molten steel daily.

Seizing this rare lull, Wei Yuan worked tirelessly to clear land and forge iron, determined to boost the realm’s combat strength in the shortest possible time. At this time, he was still unaware that his annihilation of the Xu Clan’s 30,000-strong army carried implications that far exceeded his expectations.

In the Western Jin royal palace, the King of Jin was holding a steel-barrel gun and somewhat clumsily loading a round. Then, he took aim at a nearby rockery and fired.

There was a thunderous roar, and a corner of the rockery crumbled, sending fragments flying in all directions.

“So this is the firearm Qingming has come up with? The power is passable, but the accuracy leaves much to be desired.” The King of Jin offered his critique and tried to load a second round. But no matter what he did, it wouldn’t go in.

Standing nearby, Zhao Tong glanced at a piece of jade paper before reminding his king, “You must first use Dao energy to clear the barrel.”

The King of Jin expelled a burst of Dao energy, blowing out a large amount of black soot from the barrel. This time, the ammunition finally went in. Referring to the firing procedure written on the jade paper, Zhao Tong added, “You also need to draw the projectile all the way to the bottom.”

The King of Jin channeled his Dao energy and drew the ammunition to the very depths, causing a small puff of air to be expelled through a small hole in the barrel. Once ready, the King of Jin fired another shot, this time blasting a large chunk out of the rockery.

After firing several shots in rapid succession, the King of Jin lost interest, set down the gun, and remarked, “It’s equivalent to a casual strike by a Dao Foundation stage cultivator, but it loses accuracy beyond thirty zhang. Is this really how Wei Yuan wiped out the Xu Clan’s three-hundred-thousand-strong army?”

Zhao Tong replied, “Wei Yuan didn’t just have one or two guns, but tens of thousands! Imagine tens of thousands of guns firing simultaneously—three or four thousand of the Xu Clan’s cavalry at the very front were wiped out instantly.”

“They couldn’t fire more than a few shots before the cavalry reached them, could they?” asked the King of Jin.

“That’s the case, Your Holiness. The slower ones could only manage three or four shots, while the quicker ones five or six. Wei Yuan had set up obstacles in front of his formations in advance, so the cavalry’s speed was slightly slowed during the charge.”

The King of Jin asked, “Why didn’t the Xu Clan flank the formations? Why did they insist on a head-on charge?”

Zhao Tong replied, “Truth be told, from what this old servant had observed during the battle, Wei Yuan’s side clearly had the weaker army aura, not to mention that the Xu Clan’s forces mostly consisted of cavalry, while Wei Yuan’s were purely infantry. Even if their army auras had been equal, had this old servant been in command, I would likely have ordered a head-on charge as well. The battle would have been won if the charge had succeeded.”

The King of Jin nodded and said, “Send some of these guns and ammunition to the Ministry of Works and order them to replicate them as soon as possible. Also send some to the King of Yin; have him form a ten thousand-strong firearm regiment first to see if they’re of any use.”

Noticing that Zhao Tong seemed to be holding something back, the King of Jin said, “If you have something to say, then say it. Why are you keeping it to yourself?”

Zhao Tong replied, “Forming a new regiment will likely be quite costly. The national treasury is already empty this year, and this old servant fears that those civil officials are going to stir up trouble again.”

“Then draw it from my private treasury.”

“Your Holiness, there is no silver left in your private treasury either.”

The King of Jin paused, then frowned and said, “Then form a five thousand—no, three thousand men regiment for now!”

The King of Jin picked up a tube of ammunition that was sealed within a piece of oiled paper and toyed with it in his hand, saying, “These so-called officials, big or small—every single one of them is fat and bloated from feasting. Can’t we make them donate some funds for the army somehow?”

Zhao Tong lowered his head and replied, “Since the beginning of this year, high-ranking officials in the capital and other regions have already donated silver three times, totalling four hundred and ten thousand taels.”

The King of Jin was suddenly overcome with irritation. He tossed the ammunition to the ground with such force that it exploded with a loud boom!

Amid the flames and smoke of gunpowder, the King of Jin’s voice rang as cold as ice, “Wei Yuan took over a barren piece of wasteland and, in less than a year, managed to equip tens of thousands of men! So why is it so difficult for this lone one to even equip three thousand men?!”

Zhao Tong trembled all over and dared not speak.

Just then, the melodious voice of the First Consort came from beside him. “The land Wei Yuan holds may only yield five taels of silver, but he gets to keep it all to himself. The land Your Majesty[5] holds yields a hundred taels, yet only one tael reaches your hands. That is the reason.”

A gleam flashed in the King of Jin’s eyes as he said slowly, “The noble clans truly deserve to go extinct!”

1. In my head I imagine it as that FUCK! Sound clip but you know, loud enough to echo hundreds of kilometers. XD ☜

2. I looked through a bunch of emojis but could not find one that won’t instantly get the ban police on me. Oh well. I’m sure you guys can do it yourselves. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ☜

3. Refer to chapter 248 for the start of this joke. ☜

4. Phew, forcing trees to repeatedly birth fruits... Treacherous Wei’s treachery truly knows no bounds! ☜

5. Huh. So I guess the First Consort gets to call the king Your Majesty instead of Your Holiness? ☜