Chapter 429: So Pleasant, Much Surprise

Seeing that Wei Yuan remained unmoved, Mahayamuri Buddha Mother said, “This humble monk did employ a minor trick, but they were merely methods to help you see your true nature and gain clarity about yourself. What you ultimately see ultimately depends on your true nature.”

It would have been fine if he hadn’t mentioned “true nature,” but since he had, Wei Yuan flatly refused to believe a single word of his nonsense[1].

Mahayamuri Buddha Mother sighed and said, “Since you refuse to be persuaded by reason, then this monk shall—”

He stopped mid-sentence for a second before exclaiming in astonishment, “Why are you harboring killing intent, benefactor?”

While suppressing a restless Yin Yang, Wei Yuan denied the accusation, “I am not!”

Mahayamuri Buddha Mother continued, “You didn’t harbor any killing intent that day in the secret realm, so why is your killing intent so intense today? I’ve come today in good faith—is there some sort of misunderstanding?”

Wei Yuan replied, “The reason I hadn’t fought you with the intent to kill back then is because it would only have benefited the foreigners. But now... heh. Let’s say that, if I don’t harbor killing intent, I cannot unleash my full combat potential.”

Mahayamuri Buddha Mother nodded in understanding. “I see. It seems that the aspect of wrath was the first to awaken within you, Benefactor Wei. However, the Buddha manifests in many aspects, so it doesn’t matter which aspects you awaken first. In the end, you will awaken all the aspects, the aspects will all dissolve into emptiness, and you will attain your Ariya-phala.”

“Thank you for your guidance, Buddhist master, but I have no intention of entering the Pure Land for the time being. Please return.”

“Then this humble monk will return first to diligently practice my Buddhist arts. I will come again in the future.” Mahayamuri Buddha Mother bowed and departed after saying that.

It was only after the monk was gone that Yin Yang finally calmed down.

Lee Zhi wasted no time; he summoned a flying vessel and headed straight for the Four Sages Academies. Before leaving, he handed over one-third of his authority of the Realm of Zhenshan to Wei Yuan. During this time, Wei Yuan was basically one-third the realm lord of Zhenshan, and aside from being unable to remove the realm stone, he possessed the power to do everything else.

The realm stone Zhenshan was buried beneath the city lord’s residence and heavily guarded. Since Lee Zhi had left behind instructions prior to his departure, he was able to pass unimpeded and arrive at the door of the secret chamber where the realm stone was stored.

A dozen or so guards worked together to pull the mechanism, opening the steel door that weighed over 10,000 catties. Behind the door lay a vast underground chamber, and the realm stone revealed its true form.

This was Wei Yuan’s first encounter with a realm stone other than his own. This particular stone resembled the head of a giant ape, measuring three zhang in size and looked incredibly lifelike.

Wei Yuan stepped before the realm stone and placed his hand on it. Immediately, he sensed a faint consciousness within it—one that felt both fearful yet affectionate toward him.

This realm stone had actually developed a faint degree of sentience already. As expected of the Lee Zhi’s family heirloom. If its spirituality was just a bit stronger, it could be classified as a Variant realm stone.

There was nothing more difficult than the emergence of spirituality from nothing. Strengthening it from that point was comparatively easier. Most of the time, it could be achieved through nurturing and gradual, cumulative improvement.

Wei Yuan swept his perception over the realm stone, examining its basic status and the current conditions of the Realm of Zhenshan.

Zhenshan was an upper-grade realm stone that had already attained sentience. It had already advanced to the second tier and possessed the potential to cover an area of 180 li. At the moment, it spanned over 120 li.

The realm stone had two Special Properties.

The first was Immovable Mountain, which enhanced the defensive capabilities of all humans within its domain.

The second was Endless Mountains, which expanded the domain’s range by 80% compared to ordinary upper-grade realm stones.

The third was a Function-tier ability called Mountain Spirit, which slightly increased the concentration of spirit qi within the domain.

A realm stone’s functions were classified by their potency. In ascending order, they were Function, Special Property, and Wonder. Zhenshan possessed two Special Properties and one Function, making it quite exceptional. This was especially true for Endless Mountains. Any ability that expanded a domain’s range was basically godlike.

However, compared to Qingming’s three Wonders and one Special Property, Zhenshan was definitely inferior. That said, Qingming’s final Wonder remained inactive, and Wei Yuan had no idea how to activate it. Still, even without its last Wonder, Qingming fully lived up to its name as an immortal stone.

Currently, the Zhenshan realm stone had reached its ceiling and could not be nurtured any further. It could only be expanded by one li every thirty days. Only time would raise its ceiling and enable it to advance to the next tier.

Wei Yuan tried materializing the Great Realm just to test its reaction, but the realm stone spirit’s reactions completely exceeded his imagination. It became so excited that the ground of the entire realm began to tremble slightly!

Wei Yuan immediately thought to himself: “Oh no!” He had forgotten that this realm stone had already become sentient. He had only intended to test whether materializing the Great Realm could enhance the realm stone’s abilities, but now Zhenshan was attempting to recognize him as its new master!

Wei Yuan hurriedly channeled a wisp of Qingming’s essence to suppress Zhenshan’s sentience, thereby avoiding a repeat of what had happened back then. The newborn spirit seemed incredibly aggrieved by this, but it dared not disobey and settled down.

Only after subduing the realm stone did Wei Yuan dared to breathe a sigh of relief. If he had accidentally allowed the recognition process to go through, who knows how he was going to explain it to Lee Zhi.

That said, the Great Realm’s blessing had manifested worldly origin qi with the Realm of Zhenshan and accelerated the realm stone’s nourishment progress significantly. Thus, the realm began expanding once at a rate of one li per day, matching that of present-day Qingming.

Having ascertained the realm stone’s status, Wei Yuan exited the secret chamber, securely closed and locked the steel door, and then summoned all civil and military officials to gain an understanding of the Realm of Zhenshan and its surroundings.

The State of Zhao had granted Lee Zhi, the specially appointed Military Commissioner of Zhenshan, permission to train and organize twenty towns of troops, totalling 100,000 soldiers. The military commissioner held the title General of Western Pacification personally, with two generals of miscellaneous titles[2] and ten chief commanders under his command. The State of Zhao also allocated 2 million taels of immortal silver annually as military expenses. If Lee Zhi needed more, then he would have to raise them independently.

Hearing this, Wei Yuan could not help but feel a touch of envy. In contrast, Western Jin not only provided him with not a single tael of military pay but also allocated military quotas with extreme stinginess. To this day, he was still stuck with just four towns worth of troops, at least on paper.

Wei Yuan couldn’t understand why those in the court so stubbornly clung to these quotas. Did they really think he wouldn’t go ahead and form his army anyway just because they were withholding these quotas?

There were currently 40,000 elite troops within the Realm of Zhenshan, most of whom from Southern Qi. They had all been conscripted from the family members of the Lee Clan.

Once again, Wei Yuan felt a pang of envy. Lee Zhi had started out with 40,000 elite troops and four Avatar-stage bodyguards. On the other hand, he had started with just a bowl... no wait, it was the array disc given to him by Immortal Lord Tinghai.

Wei Yuan pushed his jealousy aside and continued listening to the general’s report. After Lee Zhi had erected the realm stone, he successively recruited 60,000 civilian volunteers from the State of Zhao. Every single one of these civilian volunteers already possessed a certain degree of Body-tempering cultivation and could be ready for battle with just a little training and familiarization with military orders.

It went without saying that these tens of thousands of civilian volunteers with cultivation hadn’t appeared out of thin air. They were essentially on par with the Xu Clan’s private army. The Realm of Qingming currently had roughly 300,000 civilian volunteers of the same caliber, all of whom Wei Yuan had rounded up one by one.

As for the commoners, Lee Zhi had already recruited 100,000 refugees. They had recently cleared 100,000 mu of land for farming and had just harvested their first crop.

Since the Realm of Zhenshan lacked Jia Wood Nurtures Life, the grain harvest cycle here was three months—the same as in other parts of the human realm—whereas in the Realm of Qingming, crops matured every two months.

Wei Yuan then went to the military camp and carefully inspected the entire army.

When Wei Yuan had marched out to Lee Zhi’s rescue a while ago, many veteran soldiers of Zhenshan were present and witnessed firsthand how Wei Yuan had repelled the Mountain Dwellers’ army with overwhelming force. That was why no one—from top to bottom—dared to disobey him even though he was just the temporary realm lord.

After inspecting the elite troops and the civilian volunteers, Wei Yuan then tested Outlawed by Heaven and Earth on them. He discovered that, while it still had an effect on the soldiers of Zhenshan, the results were far less pronounced that what was observed from his own soldiers.

Wei Yuan fell deep into thought. It would appear that, if someone had lived in a certain realm stone’s domain for too long, they would inevitably become branded by it.

By the time he had finished inspecting the civilian volunteers, the cities, the farmlands, and the minds, the reinforcements dispatched from the Realm of Qingming had finally arrived.

In addition to the 10,000 elite troops of Dragon Run and Dragon Wings—both armies who specialized in external warfare—Wei Yuan had also brought over the 4,000 Dao Soldiers belonging to the Heavenly Mysteries Hall.

Originally, True Lord Yan Shi had sent him 5,000 Dao Soldiers. At this time, nearly 1,000 had attained a Dao Foundation and returned to the northern mountain gate. However, Wei Yuan felt that the remaining Dao Soldiers still had untapped potential, so he retained them and put them through a three-month-long special training program.

He then put Xu Wenwu in charge of these Dao Soldiers.

Suddenly finding himself in such a high-ranking position, Xu Wenwu was so overwhelmed with excitement that he could barely contain himself. After being further swindled by Wei Yuan, he resolved to embark on the path of becoming a great general. And since a great general should share in the hardships and joys of his soldiers, as well as eating and sleeping alongside them, he had already been living in the barracks for a month.

For this campaign, all matters related to military preparation and operations were naturally handled by specialized officers. All Xu Wenwu needed to do was to issue orders. However, Xu Wenwu had no desire to become a great “armchair” general, or so he put it, so he studied diligently alongside these officers. As a result, his leadership skills improved by leaps and bounds, though his combat prowess remained somewhat lacking.

After everyone had arrived, Wei Yuan ordered the Qingming Army to rest for the night and prepare to go into battle the following day.

As night fell, Wei Yuan was sitting in Lee Zhi’s study, flipping through the official correspondence between Lee Zhi and the State of Zhao, when a tiny figure suddenly appeared on the windowsill. It was the Shadowless Flying Ferret.

The ferret suggested that since Wei Yuan now possessed the authority of a realm lord, he should share a portion of it with him. With that authority—even if it was just a small amount—it would be able to move underground several times faster than it currently was.

This was the ferret’s only hobby, so Wei Yuan agreed after pondering about it briefly. However, he had one condition: whatever the ferret found beneath the domain, it must bring it to him to examine. If the ferret truly wanted to keep it, then Wei Yuan would compensate Lee Zhi for its value.

Anything found outside the domain would belong entirely to the ferret.

The ferret agreed immediately. A fragrant breeze suddenly filled the study, and a slender young woman leaped inside, exclaiming, “I’m here, Brother Zhi! Are you surprised? Did I catch you off guard?”

The woman was a sweet-faced, somewhat mischievous and playful young woman with a voluptuous figure.

This wasn’t the problem. The problem was that she had leaped into the study while being completely naked and holding all her clothes in her arms[3]!

Wei Yuan watched her silently, the ferret watched her silently, the cat on the windowsill watched her silently, even a large snake perched on the roof beam poked its head out and watched her silently.

The young woman stood frozen in shock, the clothes in her hands falling to the floor.

Just then, a Buddhist chant rang out, and a monk in cyan robes walked past the young woman from behind, exited the study, and vanished into the night, making it clear that he was truly just passing by.

1. ”I will never settle for monogamy!” declares Wei Yuan. ☜

2. A low-ranking general that isn’t qualified to have a proper title so to speak. A single such general is referred to as “General of a Miscellaneous Title.” ☜

3. Bet none of you guessed that this would happen when you first saw the title. ( ?° ?? ?°) ☜