There is a progress bar in my cultivation of immortality

The drought started in Sanmen County, east of Beiguan. As early as last year, a short famine broke out here due to poor harvest. Fortunately, the government released grain to provide disaster relief in time. Then the winter wheat planted in the fields did not sprout, which caused another panic.

Because of this famine, many people in Sanmen County and its surrounding counties could not survive and thus became bandits. The government had been busy suppressing the banditry since the beginning of the year and had assembled 10,000 soldiers. However, it was unknown how much of the food and fodder for these 10,000 soldiers was withheld at various levels and eventually fell on the people.

Under such a vicious cycle, the bandit problem naturally became more and more serious, and at the same time, the grain reserves in several counties were completely consumed. Some high-ranking officials took advantage of this and used it as an excuse to transport most of the official grain in Qingpu Road away with a little effort.

After the beginning of autumn, the masters of Sanmen County suddenly discovered that the soldiers who were suppressing the bandits were not well fed. They sent people to urge for food but returned empty-handed. When they were left with no other options, the people below told the masters of the government office about the disaster.

A riot started by the government soldiers, but after a while they found that the masters had no food, so they looted the nearby county town. They did loot some gold and silver, but no food at all.

The hungry soldiers eventually became starving civilians themselves, because by the time they realized what was happening, they saw nothing but barren land everywhere.

Millions of refugees began to migrate to other places. Some went to Beiguan, trying to escape the disaster to the Yunhai grassland. Some migrated to the east coast, and the last part migrated to the south near Nonghe River.

But this year's drought seemed like an infectious disease. As the number of hungry people spread, the drought also spread to all parts of Qingpu Road. Within just one month, the land was barren for thousands of miles.

When the imperial court wanted to allocate official grain for disaster relief, it suddenly discovered that only one in ten grains in the government warehouses remained. Thousands of people were imprisoned as a result, and tens of thousands of people were implicated.

But they still couldn't provide food, so the court had to buy it from the major families at high prices. This made the empress dowager in power in the palace furious, but she could do nothing because she knew that now was not the time to bring the conflict to the table, but she made a note of this account.

...

Sanmen County.

On the top of a bare mountain, Wang Ping squatted down, grabbed a handful of soil from the ground and gently squeezed it. The loess immediately turned into yellow sand. He looked along the scattered yellow sand to the vast red land and locked onto an uninhabited town nearby.

The town relies on a river. At this moment, there is not a drop of water in the river, and even the silt has dried up. Most of the houses in the town are intact. There are some rotting corpses emitting a foul stench under the scorching sun. There are mad dogs and vultures that have escaped the disaster fighting each other nearby.

"This drought is not only a natural disaster, but also a man-made disaster."

Yu Lian fell from the sky, looked around and said, "Look, every place on this land that can grow something has been developed to the extreme. The wild vegetables and trees on the mountain had been consumed long before the drought came. Hundreds of years of peace have caused the population of this area to explode, but this area can't support so many people!"

Wang Ping nodded slightly, agreeing with Yu Lian's statement, and then flashed to a temple outside the town. The temple was very small, with only one main hall. In the main hall, there was only a golden statue of Wang Ping, who had both malicious and kind intentions. Yu Lian was hovering around him with a ferocious look.

The statue should have been painted originally, but due to the passage of time, the paint has completely turned black in many places.

“Is this us?”

Yu Lian Teng Yun was walking around the golden statue. Although the statue looked very different from her, she was still very happy. "I didn't expect that there is a temple for us here."

Her joy did not last long, and she said regretfully: "They are all our believers, but we turned a blind eye to their disasters."

Upon hearing this, Wang Ping looked up and met the eyes of his golden statue. Then he turned and left the small temple and walked to the river not far away. He used his spiritual consciousness to explore the underground of this land. Just as he expected, there was no water in the underground river.

If this is the case, earthquakes may occur at any time!
"I just took a short rest and it turned out like this. It was my negligence." Lord Rongyang's voice came first, and then his figure appeared beside Wang Ping.

Wang Ping remained silent.

Yu Lian spoke in human language: "It took at least a year for this land to develop from drought to this extent. Didn't you notice any signs?"

"It's really my fault..."

Lord Rongyang bowed and said, "How should I put it... About five years ago, I built a large fire spirit array with the Sun Cult in Beizhou. It was probably used for promotion. After the array was put into operation, it generated a lot of fire spirit energy, which almost caused the glaciers in Beizhou to melt. Even the snow-capped mountains in the north were affected. I had to find a way to transfer the fire spirit energy to the south, otherwise the agricultural river would flood and the water level in the coastal areas would rise."

"I wanted to talk about this at the regular meeting, but now Ao Bing is the chief of the regular meeting. He is not as diligent as you, so he might be dragging his feet on purpose. Anyway, things got delayed, and I spent a lot of energy to build the magic array to transfer the fire spirit, so I went into the underground magma and entered a state of meditation. I didn't wake up until I received your message."

After listening to this explanation, Wang Ping did not point out some loopholes in it, nor did he stop Yu Lian from speaking it out, because doing so would not do him any good and would make the atmosphere between them awkward.

At this time, another familiar breath approached. After a few breaths, a bow appeared on Wang Ping's right hand side. She looked at the dry river ahead and whispered, "Earthquakes may occur in this area at any time!"

Yu Lian rose into the sky, with a water spirit aura emerging from her body. She said, "I can bring rain, and the drought will be alleviated immediately."

Zhi Gong shook his head and warned seriously: "Ecological construction is not as simple as rain when there is drought. If you don't understand ecological balance, it's best to do nothing and let the laws of nature slowly change it. If it rains rashly at this moment, an earthquake may break out immediately."

Yu Lian looked at Wang Ping and said, "What if we restore the vegetation in this area first? Then we can use the earth vein magic to fill the underground river."

Zhi Gong thought for a moment and said, "We can do it, but we have to be careful, otherwise it will leave hidden dangers for this land. It is rumored that after the great war between our human cultivators and the demon race, the Central Plains, which was planned by more than a dozen fourth-level cultivators, suffered many natural disasters in the following hundreds of years because of the hidden dangers left over from the original transformation."

“Even if it can be done, it can’t be done!” A serious voice came from the sky, and then Kaiyun of Vajra Temple floated above the dry river.

"Yes, human intervention in the ecology of the Central Plains needs to be extremely cautious!" Ao Bing's voice also came from the sky, and then also floated above the dry river. After he finished speaking, he clasped his fists to Zhigong and said, "I haven't had time to congratulate you. Originally, a routine meeting should have been held after your promotion, but it was shelved because there was no topic."

"With such a drought, millions of people may die and countless families may be displaced. Why can't we do anything?" Yu Lian looked up at Kaiyun.

Kaiyun performed a Buddhist one-handed salute and said, "I haven't had time to congratulate you, Daoist friend Yulian." He then explained, "Natural disasters are caused by the laws of nature. The deaths of millions of people are also caused by the laws of nature."

"What a cycle of fate!"

Wang Ping whispered softly. Kaiyun said, "Saint, be merciful," looked at Wang Ping and said in plain language, "This land cannot support so many people now. Their excessive demands are the root cause of this natural disaster. Death can sometimes solve many problems!"

Lord Rongyang glanced at Wang Ping and knew it was his turn to make his appearance, so he spoke in his characteristically loud voice: "Even if what you said is reasonable, the drought here was caused by the Sun Cult and the First Day. I raised this matter with Ao Bing, but he did not respond to me, which led to the current disaster. Shouldn't we correct the mistakes we made?"

Kaiyun looked at Lord Rongyang when he heard this, "Daoyou Changqing and Daoist Zhigong have just been promoted to the fourth realm, and they don't understand many rules, but Daoyou should understand them!"

As he spoke, he fell into the dry riverbed and picked up the yellow sand formed by the dried silt. "We helped this time, but next time those mortals encounter the same problem, will we help them or not? If we don't, they will wantonly destroy temples everywhere, and even the True Lord will no longer be in awe!"

"If we help them, what about the next time, and the next time? If this continues, mortals will become lazy. The Xia Dynasty was destroyed only a few hundred years ago. Have you forgotten about this, fellow Taoists?"

Wang Ping looked at Lord Rongyang, who also looked at him. As they stared at each other, Wang Ping looked at Ao Bing and said, "In that case, let's leave it at that. However, the Sun Cult's problem should be dealt with in a timely manner, otherwise it will be a disaster for the Zhongzhou Continent."

Ao Bing smiled and said, "Then let's discuss it at the next meeting of the Second Committee?"

Wang Ping said no more, and disappeared into the sky with Yu Lian as a stream of light, with the bow following his steps.

After the two of them left, Ao Bing said to Lord Rongyang: "Your actions this time were too crude. Can you tell me what you are going to do? Maybe we have the same goal!"

Lord Rongyang sneered, "You need to learn how to sow discord from Ke Yun. You are so childish that I don't even bother to pay attention to you." He pointed at Ke Yun and said, "Ask Ke Yun why the Taiyan Sect and the Zhenyang Sect formed an alliance."

His gaze on Ao Bing gradually turned cold. "If you continue to be so naive, you may not even know how you failed!"

After saying this, Rong Yang turned into a streak of light and disappeared into the northern sky.

Ao Bing turned to look at Kaiyun and asked, "What does he mean by that?"

Kaiyun said with a smile: "The grudges between the five sects of Xuanmen can be traced back to the rise of humanity. After so many years of struggle, the grudges between the five sects have long been fixed, and allies and enemies have been determined, at least before certain things come to a final conclusion."

"What conclusion?"

"For example, your eldest brother can stay out of this now. Xiaoshan Fujun was originally the same, but he..."

Kering shook his head at this point.

Ao Bing understood immediately, but then his face became full of doubts, and he asked, "Could it be that you, the True Lords, are also thinking about this?"

Kaiyun smiled and said, "Everything in the world has different paths but the same destination. Think about it, why do Lieyang, Xuanqing, and Huishan disagree with us? Why can Long Jun remain unscathed?"

Ao Bing kept moving the fingers of his left hand, waiting for the next words, but Kai Yun stopped abruptly.

"Go on, tell me the details!"

"Only the True Lords know the details. Perhaps you can go back and ask the Dragon Lord, and then tell me." Kaiyun said, and then he turned into a stream of light and flew westward, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

...

After returning to Qianmu Temple, Wang Ping no longer thought about the drought in the north. This matter was like playing cards. The opponent had just played a 3, or a game of chess had just begun and everyone was placing pieces on his territory. If he went after them now, he would definitely lose a lot of money.

A few more days passed, and the drawings of the spirit gathering device that Wang Ping designed for Yu Lian were completed. Now he just had to find the materials to make it.

The principle of the magic weapon is very simple, which is to autonomously absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, transform it into water spiritual energy through the magic array inside the magic weapon and store it, and use it at the critical moment. It can also assist Yu Lian in quickly practicing Qi. In addition, when fighting, it is necessary to be able to instantly absorb a large amount of spiritual energy for Yu Lian to cast spells.

Taking all these functions into consideration, among all the materials Wang Ping has read over the years, there is only one item that can meet the requirements of the core components of this spirit gathering magic weapon.

The Star God Core with 'Benefit' ability!

Moreover, it must be a Star God Core that has evolved to the third realm. This thing is definitely not available on the market, but the Star God Alliance must have it.

So he used the Erxi communication token to contact Bu Qiong.

Bu Qiong set a meeting place.

Mianzhu County!
A very special place, Mianzhu County on Shanwu Road, is the first county town that the demons pass through after crossing the Duantian Mountains. During the Xia Dynasty, the county town was in the hands of human monks. At the end of the Xia Dynasty, the Taoist Palace collapsed and the county town was seized by the demons, but they did not kill the people in the city. Instead, they opened up a huge trading zone with Mianzhu County as the center.

I heard that the people of Mianzhu County are now the richest group of people in the entire Zhongzhou continent. They rely on their ancestral land to grow Mianzhu and some demon medicinal herbs, and have made a lot of money in the past few hundred years. There are even some demons and humans who intermarry regardless of the iron laws of the two races. Unfortunately, it all ended in tragedy because they were unable to conceive children.

The customs at the dock outside the county town was originally the base for the Taoist Palace to monitor the demon clan. After the demon clan took control of the county town, it was converted into an inn for traveling merchants to rest.

After autumn, there are a lot of merchants coming and going here. The most popular thing at this time is the fresh fruits provided by the monsters. They are piled up like mountains in special wooden boxes at the dock for the merchants to choose from.

Bu Qiong decided to meet at this inn.

"Gather wealth!"

Wang Ping was outside the inn at this moment. This inn had no plaque, but a huge flag over five meters high was erected in front of the gate, with two words highlighted in white letters on a black background: Make Wealth!
Very straightforward. (End of this chapter)