Chapter 431: Let’s Talk This Out

It was fully bright when Lee Zhi’s trusted aide finally returned.

According to the aide, the young lady had chased him out without saying a word. He also tried to deliver the letter to her several times, but it was always thrown back out.

Lee Zhi had been waiting all night for the woman to arrive and was already somewhat annoyed. Upon hearing his aide’s report, he grunted heavily and decided to ignore the baffling woman from now on.

In Redstone City, Tianyu was taking inventory in the warehouse, watching as burly strongmen load crate after crate onto the supply wagons.

Every time a wagon was filled, they would push it into one of the sheds designated for storing wagons. Dozens of wagons were already parked in the rows of sheds to keep them from getting wet in the rain.

This was the second caravan heading for the Realm of Qingming. The number of wagons was three times that of the first of the first and packed with a large quantity of goods on Wei Yuan’s list.

Redstone City did not have many human sacrifices left. They had to save a portion for the annual grand ritual as well. That was why they had only set aside a couple thousand humans this time.

However, they were already purchasing large numbers of human sacrifices from other cities. They would arrive in time for the next exchange.

While taking inventory of the goods, Tianyu suddenly turned deathly pale as his vitality plummeted!

By now, Tianyu had experienced this many times. He gritted his teeth and roared at the strongmen, “Get your act together, all of you! Everything must be loaded within two hours, and we’re setting out in four!”

Four hours later, the massive caravan slowly rolled out of Redstone City, heading toward the distant east.

Inside the carriage, the weakened Tianyu finally recovered somewhat from his ordeal and muttered to himself, “... Maybe the signal really was bad[1].”

Every time he felt himself being worshipped, Tianyu knew that Qingming had prepared a new batch of goods and was ready to trade with him.

Inside the tallest main tower of Redstone City, several Wild Shamans with untamed auras watched the caravan recede into the distance. No one was talking for a time.

A long time later, one of the Wild Shamans finally spoke: “Redleaf wants to form a coalition with us and wage war against the humans. The deadline of our response is fast approaching.”

Another Wild Shaman did not answer the question but said instead, “I think Tianyu is a decent kid. He’s a Great Shaman now; we can invite him to attend the next tribal assembly.”

Although a Wild Shaman’s brain was made of muscle, they still understood what he meant.

A female Wild Shaman grew impatient and said, “The humans’ brocade is more beautiful than the Rain Silk from the Kingdom of Rain and ten times cheaper! If Tianyu can bring back one hundred thousand bolts of brocade this time, then let the Kingdom of Rain go fight the humans on its own. In every joint campaign so far, we’ve always suffered the most casualties and reaped the least rewards, have we not?”

An elderly Wild Shaman said, “Only one hundred thousand bolts? That’s not enough to break our alliance with the Kingdom of Rain.”

All the Shamans then turned to look at the Wild Shaman who had proposed to admit Tianyu to the tribal assembly. Just then, an old Shaman—so ancient he barely looked alive, yet with an unusually large frame—spoke slowly, “The humans’ brocade is endless... their soldiers and weapons are also endless....”

Everyone paled. Although the old Shaman wasn’t a Wild Shaman, he was born with extraordinary abilities and could occasionally glimpse the future.

......

Giant Oak City, Kingdom of Rain.

Countless Shaman fighters were gathering at this massive city. The Great Shamans were arriving one after another as well. On the main tower within the city, three Shadow Shamans sat facing one another, with the scenery around each of them constantly warping.

One Shadow Shaman let out a shrill, piercing scream: “The Wild Ancestor Tribe refuses to send troops! Those oath-breaking wild boars!”

“If Lord Redleaf were to recover, why would we fear a mere two human World Rulers?”

“Aside from the World Rulers, we mustn’t estimate that human named Wei Yuan either. He possesses a technique that could diminish one’s lifespan—it’s utterly repulsive.”

“It’s unfortunate that we’ve already used the Great Karmic Curse. We cannot employ a similar curse again.”

“How did he survive the Great Karmic Curse anyway?”

An awkward, deathly silence suddenly fell over the room. No one spoke, and the topic was quietly dropped.

......

The Realm of Qingming was still frantically reclaiming land. It was now opening up its fifth million-mu farmland.

The new season’s harvest had come in, totalling nearly 900 million catties. The Realm of Qingming was now openly accepting refugees, but its population had only reached 1.5 million.

Wei Yuan had already raised the annual grain ration for ordinary people to 500 catties, and to 1,000 catties for those in the Body-tempering stage.

As a result, nearly everyone in the Realm of Qingming who was of suitable age and physically capable had begun tempering their bodies. Wei Yuan was also continuously shipping grain to western Ning Province at the same time, yet his grain reserves continued to rise rapidly.

Wei Yuan had been constantly busy, with almost no time to rest. However, a part of his mind was always pondering: in what capacity should he visit the Bao Clan?

He had already asked Lee Zhi this question, but Lee Zhi had simply passed the question back to him.

Just then, a bolt of heavenly lightning struck ahead, jolting Wei Yuan back to reality. Ahead of him lay the thunder field, where a total of five Thunder Crystal Trees were growing. The sky above this area was perpetually shrouded by thunder clouds, and every few moments, a bolt of lightning would be drawn down.

Surrounding the Thunder Crystal Trees were sections of cyan wood carrying red veins. Every time a bolt of lightning descended, a portion of the wood would be charred. They were completely carbonized in another three or four lightning strikes.

A carbonized Phoenix Blood Wutong could replace Thunder Sand as the primary ingredient of gunpowder. It was now being produced in large quantities within the realm and boosting gunpowder output by five or six times.

After inspecting the thunder field, Wei Yuan returned to his quarters to review his recent reports.

One of them came from a merchant house in the State of Zhao. The merchant house owned a medium-sized Thunder Sand mine. Wei Yuan had long wanted to purchase this mine, but the merchant house had been unwilling to sell.

Wei Yuan set this report aside and picked up another one. This one reported that the prices of several types of spirit wood that Qingming was purchasing were on the rise, raising concerns that procurement volumes might decrease next year.

The prices of several types of rare metal ores had also skyrocketed. Fortunately, just adding a few taels of ores to every 1,000 catties of molten iron was enough to produce high-quality steel. Although the amount used per batch seemed small, the problem was that Qingming’s current steel production volume was enormous. Naturally, the total quantity of rare metal ores required to produce them was also massive. Prices had already tripled because of this.

As the Realm of Qingming continued to expand in scale, the variety of supplies it handled was also growing ever larger. Moreover, the volume of many individual supplies had already reached a level significant enough to warrant Wei Yuan’s attention.

By the time he had finished handling these official matters, another two hours had slipped by unnoticed.

Wei Yuan set down his brush and gazed at the full moon hanging outside the window. At the same time, that sense of heaviness welled up in his heart once more: How should he go about visiting the Bao Clan?

Perhaps, aside from Lee Zhi, he should speak to a couple more people—Xiao Yu and Cui Yu, for example... Unfortunately, there was this small problem where they had all been classmates since childhood, and they had known each other for most of their lives. That was why Wei Yuan found it rather difficult to broach the subject.

Under the moonlight, Wei Yuan let out a long sigh. In the end, he resolved himself to set aside his pride and properly ask them about the subject.

Just as he was pondering this, a cultivator suddenly arrived to report that a Western Jin emissary had arrived and was currently waiting outside the realm.

Wei Yuan was somewhat taken aback. He checked the time—it wasn’t yet the Zi Hour. Shouldn’t the Western Jin emissary be sleeping aboard his flying vessel at this hour? Why had they suddenly come over, yet refused to enter Qingming?

Wei Yuan immediately left his quarters and flew northeast. Moments later, he spotted a flying vessel quietly moored in the valley. It wasn’t large, and it bore the emblem of the royal merchant house. It seemed that the emissary had arrived in secret as well.

Wei Yuan landed on the flying vessel’s deck, announced his identity, and watched as the door opened. Zhao Tong stepped out and greeted him with a smile, “It’s been a long time, Lord Wei!”

This caught Wei Yuan completely off guard. In the past, whenever Zhao Tong came to the Realm of Qingming, he would go directly to the Guest Town at the center of the realm to wait. Why was he acting so furtively this time?

Wei Yuan hadn’t expected the emissary to be Zhao Tong, and he had rushed over in a hurry. Consequently, he did not have any immortal silver on hand. Instead, he took out a medicine box and thrust it into Zhao Tong’s hands, saying, “There’s a little something inside here that can extend one’s lifespan by three years. It’s similar to the Blood Yingluo, but the side effects aren’t as severe. I really don’t have anything better to offer right now, so please take this pill for now, Eunuch Zhao.”

Zhao Tong’s breathing quickened slightly as he clutched the medicine box tightly. He asked, “Does this pill conflict with other elixirs?”

“No. You are guaranteed to extend your lifespan by three years. It’s just similar to the Blood Yingluo—just think of it as taking a small piece of the Blood Yingluo.”

Zhao Tong carefully tucked the box into his sleeve and remarked, “This is a treasure that can save a life during dangerous times!”

With that, he pointed toward the vessel’s cabin and said, “I’m not the one you’re here to see. Go through the door and walk to the end, and you’ll meet the one. Go on now!”

Wei Yuan entered the cabin. It was unusually quiet and completely empty.

He walked to the far end as Zhao Tong instructed and reached out to open the door. Just then, he heard the sound of the cabin door closing behind him and automatically locking itself.

Wei Yuan didn’t panic, though. He continued to push the door open and stepped inside.

It was a spacious cabin. The floor was entirely covered with soft, jet-black animal hides. A peerlessly beautiful enchantress was reclining on a soft cushion, her bare feet resting on the hides. They appeared as white as snow, and her toenails seemed almost transparent against the backdrop.

Wei Yuan’s gaze, unable to control himself, traced upward from her ankles, climbed along her calves, crept past her knees—and came face to face with the hem of her skirt. Just as Wei Yuan was about to sigh inwardly, the enchantress reached out and pulled the hem of her skirt a good deal higher!

Despite Wei Yuan’s self-control, his heart skipped a few beats.

The First Consort gave him a half-smile, hooked her finger at him, and ordered, “Come here!”

Wei Yuan did as she said. Since there was only one soft cushion in the room and no other place to sit, he simply sat down on the animal hide.

She picked up a wine cup and took a small sip. She then pushed it toward Wei Yuan and beckoned him closer.

Wei Yuan leaned forward, drawing nearer to the First Consort.

She pressed her lips close to his ear and whispered in a voice as faint as a mosquito’s buzz. It took him his full concentration to hear what she was saying: “Drink this cup of wine, and only then will you be able to see the karma of that day....”

Wei Yuan was startled. “What karma?”

The First Consort gently stroked her tummy and replied, “This karma.”

Wei Yuan instantly pieced together the cause and effect and exclaimed in shock, “Could... Could it be....”

“He’s lying in the Spring Blossom Hall right now. There were celestial omens when he was born,” said the First Consort while a smile played at the corner of her mouth.

Wei Yuan’s mind was instantly thrown into chaos.

“I hear you’ve had quite a few worries lately. I can take care of them all of you!” The First Consort lifted the wine cup, cupped Wei Yuan’s chin with one hand, and poured the remaining wine down his throat.

Suddenly, a red candle in the cabin burst into a flame, and a faint, sweet fragrance spread and shrouded everything in a thin veil.

The scent in the air was cloying and sweet, as if it could seep through every pore straight into one’s heart. It caused only a slight itch in Wei Yuan’s heart, but it was one he couldn’t scratch or shake off no matter what.

Wei Yuan’s vision was shrouded in a hazy red as he watched her rise, gown slipping away to the floor. Her snow-white body then crawled toward him across the pitch-black animal hide and pushed his limp, powerless body down.

The next moment, an extraordinary sensation exploded beneath him. He felt as if something had seized his soul and was about to yank it right out of his body.

Wei Yuan’s thoughts were in disarray as he cried out, “W-wait! Let’s talk this out! There’s... no... need... to... swallow[2]....”

1. My poor guy being gaslit into believing that it’s his own fault. ☜

2. In Chinese ‘swallowing in and spitting out’ is an idiom that spiritually means being hesitant, but literally means... well. You know. ( ?° ?? ?°) ☜