Longzang

Chapter 1123 What's the Overall Situation?
The outcome has been decided?

Until the very last moment, Wei Yuan never felt that the outcome was already decided and unchangeable. Even at the very last moment, Wei Yuan felt that he could still struggle and try to salvage the situation.

Even if the rescue fails and he ends up on the chopping block, Wei Yuan feels that his mouth will still be hard.

Upon returning to Qingming, Wei Yuan did not go to the Mountain and River Palace this time. Instead, he went to the Immortal Beginning Palace where the Qingming Boundary Stone was located, sat down directly opposite Qingming, and began to ponder over the boundary stone.

The appearance of the Azure Netherworld Stone has changed dramatically since its original form. Surrounded by clouds and mist, its color changes from pale blue to deep blue, shifting constantly. From afar, it appears as if emerald smoke shrouds the azure stone, a truly celestial scene.

The azure sky is gradually becoming transparent, and a small thing seems to be gestating inside. This is only the beginning, but it is already brimming with spiritual energy.

The greatest credit for the transformation of the Azure Netherworld Stone into its current form goes not to Wei Yuan, but to the hundreds of millions of people living upon it. Their lives, deaths, illnesses, joys, sorrows, and reincarnations constantly wash over the Azure Netherworld, immersing it in the torrent of countless lives and gradually transforming it.

The Azure Nether provides a place for millions of people to live, while ordinary people give the Azure Nether the possibility of advancement, spirituality, and growth; they are mutually beneficial.

Wei Yuan never imagined that the boundary stone he erected with youthful courage would develop to this extent decades later. It seems that he has really changed the lives of many people and altered a small corner of the world.

With a great calamity looming, sitting beside Qingming, Wei Yuan felt a faint sense of oneness with heaven and earth. After all, Qingming had merged with his own mental world, transforming into a wondrous state that was both real and illusory. Sitting beside Qingming, his mind became exceptionally clear.

If we were to introduce new variables into the overall situation at this juncture, where would those variables come from? And where would the crisis lie?
The variables are still unclear, but the source of the crisis is quite evident. Currently, besides the Nine Kingdoms, Qingming's main external enemies are the Witch Clan and the Mountain People. The Witch Clan directly borders Qingming through the Rain Kingdom of Youwu and the Power Witch Tribe. The Power Witch, needless to say, are neither allies nor enemies.

The Rain Kingdom was decimated by Wei Yuan in the last great war, and now, more than twenty years later, it's unknown whether they have recovered their strength. Judging by the time, Hongye should have already perished. His descendants left behind in Qingming are all growing up smoothly, but they are all ordinary people. Among these people, three or four have achieved template-level Dao Foundations, but none are particularly special.

As long as the Yellow Springs Cave Heaven remains unresolved, Wei Yuan knows that the Ancestral Witches will not give up. However, the Witch Clan is facing the Azure Nether, an Azure Nether armed to the teeth, an Azure Nether with fierce firepower that has nowhere to be vented, so Wei Yuan is not too worried.

However, Yizhou is different. Yizhou has just been built and everything is in ruins. It uses ordinary boundary stones, so the changes in the world are much slower than those in Qingming, and it does not have the same potential as Qingming.

For example, in terms of grain production, which is crucial to people's livelihood, Yizhou can only harvest twice a year, with some areas harvesting three times. Qingming, on the other hand, harvests six times a year, with an average yield of nearly 600 jin per mu, more than double the initial yield. Yizhou's yield per mu, however, remains around 200 jin. Only in fields treated with the latest fertilizers can the yield per mu soar to over 500 jin.

The Qingming chemical industry is still not very developed, and the number of template Dao bases under the command of Chuhe Zhenjun is not enough. The fertilizer produced is far from enough for use, and most of it is used to convert into explosives.

Mountain people...

Wei Yuan recalled the last time the mountain people suddenly attacked. If he hadn't secretly transported 500,000 heavily armed troops to Yizhou beforehand, the entire Yizhou would have been wiped out by the mountain people in that battle.

Ultimately, the mountain people and Cangwu seriously underestimated Qingming's strategic transportation capabilities. Based on their past experience, they believed that even if Qingming exerted all its strength, it could only transport ten or twenty thousand heavily armed troops.

No one expected that Wei Yuan would build such a massive fleet of floating airships in such a short time, transporting 500,000 heavily armed troops in one go. In terms of transport weight, this was equivalent to nearly 10 million ordinary troops and all their equipment and supplies from the nine kingdoms.

However, it seems that the mountain people will not give up easily and will likely return on an unprecedented scale next time.

Besides the mountain people, when Wei Yuan sorted out the enemies again, he thought of the little monk who had inexplicably pulled him into a fragment of an outer world.

That little monk clearly showed signs of being the reincarnation of a powerful being, and must represent a super-powerful force behind him to have such a grand scheme, using a fragment of an outer world as bait to lure him in.

Although the young monk revealed no flaws and left no trace of cause and effect, even Yan Shi couldn't find out his background. However, Wei Yuan didn't need any reasoning; he simply consumed the luck of over ten million people and concluded that this young monk was most likely the newly born Buddha.

Human destiny prediction is just that unreasonable.

Since he is a Buddhist disciple, he is naturally connected with the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land. Moreover, during the clash of Buddhist intents, Wei Yuan vaguely touched upon the core of the other party's Buddhist intent and ultimately determined that it belonged to the lineage of the Great Sun Tathagata.

The lineage of Mahavairocana Buddha is very extensive, and the Mahavairocana Pure Land is only the most authentic branch. It cannot completely exclude the possibility that people from other sects might use underhanded tactics.

However, considering all the signs, Wei Yuan could almost conclude that the person who had attacked him was the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land. This was quite intriguing, as the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land's attitude towards Wei Yuan was similar to the Sword Palace's attitude towards Zhang Sheng—both were trying every means to recruit and win him over, sparing no expense.

So when did the attitude of the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land change?

Is it because a Buddha descended to earth, not Wei Yuan; or is it because he had just begun writing the "Three Realms Wish-Fulfilling Sutra"?
Wei Yuan couldn't determine the reason either, but he still added the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land to the enemy list. To be honest, Wei Yuan did this without any basis or any solid evidence.

But I don't know when it started, maybe after Qingming won all the wars with the surrounding areas, Wei Yuan's attitude quietly changed.

Determining whether a force is an enemy requires no reason or evidence; Wei Yuan's feeling that it poses a threat to him is enough.

If I want to hit you, what reason do I need?
If the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land is innocent, then Wei Yuan is not unreasonable; as long as the Pure Land can prove its innocence, that is sufficient.

Having initially identified the mountain people and the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land as the two enemies, Wei Yuan quickly devised a strategy. This "strategy" involved a process of generating, testing, and revising the prosperity of all realms, which Wei Yuan then memorized.

This is an efficient and effective way of formulating strategies. Wei Yuan has solved countless problems through this process in the past, and it will be the same this time.

But one of the solutions suddenly made Wei Yuan pause.

This plan is specifically designed to address the threat posed by mountain dwellers, and aims to eliminate their threat in the long term and at a fundamental level.

The core of the plan is to use the knowledge obtained from the Umbrella Corporation to develop a super virus that can cultivate itself. Once a template-level super virus is cultivated and released into the Mountain People's Domain, it can wipe out most of the Mountain People's population within a few years.

If a single virus could possess the power of a template-based Dao foundation, it would be completely unimaginable in the outer world, but entirely possible in this world.

One can only imagine the immense karma this action will generate.

Wei Yuan stared at the plan, his mind blank, and he pondered it for several days and nights. It wasn't until the morning of the seventh day that Wei Yuan's frozen thoughts began to stir, and an idea popped into his head: How can one allow another to snore beside one's bed?
The mountain people are not wrong yet, but they do pose a significant threat to Yizhou, and they even launched a major attack several years ago. With a great calamity looming, Wei Yuan cannot tolerate such a threat on his side. Whether the mountain people will actually attack Yizhou is not important. Wei Yuan cannot wait for them to attack before retaliating; he must nip the threat in the bud.

As for right and wrong, that's something only the weak care about.

Wei Yuan decided to bear all the karma alone.

At that time, the Red Lotus Bodhi will surely reach its full potential and undergo a complete transformation. Wei Yuan's figure will also appear on the lotus platform.

But if he could sacrifice his own life to gain the entire Yi Province for the sake of humanity, Wei Yuan felt it would be worthwhile. It's just... he felt somewhat sorry for his teacher.

With a thought, Wei Yuan approved the virus research plan. The plan instantly transformed into thousands or even tens of thousands of sub-plans, which were distributed to different departments and individuals and implemented immediately.

The moment the approval was granted, Wei Yuan felt as if countless specks of dust were floating out of the void and constantly sticking to his body. In the blink of an eye, a thick layer formed, as if he hadn't showered for dozens of days, sticky and oily. His joints also felt rusty, making his movements somewhat sluggish.

Under the overall coordination of the various realms, Qingming's bureaucratic system is now operating with extremely high efficiency. Half a day later, many captured mountain people were brought out of the prison. These mountain people had already undergone detailed physical examinations, and all their physical data had been recorded. Furthermore, Sun Yu had completed the genetic mapping and was now beginning to decipher it.

Based on existing data, Zhujie Fanhua directly selected more than 10,000 captives, all of whom were highly representative, covering various tribes and kingdoms of the mountain people, and spanning all age groups.

Several large hospitals were urgently vacated to relocate the captured mountain people, while a brand-new, enclosed research institute was built.

Numerous medical staff conducted another thorough physical examination on the villagers, then drew a small amount of blood before detaining them, and that was the end of the matter.

Countless blood samples were mixed in different proportions to form a culture medium, which was then introduced into a supervirus generated using templates created by Umbrella Corporation.

Unlike the outer world, this cultivation was carried out in an environment abundant with spiritual energy. Under the stimulation of spiritual energy, the viruses indeed underwent changes completely unseen in the outer world. Their activity became terrifyingly high, their metabolism extremely rapid, and numerous viruses gathered together even possessed the ability to absorb and expel spiritual energy!

The development of the supervirus was progressing faster than imagined. Under the mature virus design and editing framework of the Umbrella Corporation, nourished by the Dao power of the True Lord of the Sowing Seeds, and catalyzed by Wei Yuan's luck every few days, several new viruses were quickly born.

Next came the live testing, for which Wei Yuan had already personally drafted the procedures. The reason he personally drafted them was to ensure that his subordinates were not burdened.

The mountain people eat humans, so the human race feels no guilt about how they are dealt with. Therefore, Wei Yuan selected a group of death row inmates from the mountain people and began testing them on the virus.

Wei Yuan allowed the researchers to work independently, while he himself turned his attention to the study of the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land. There are many schools of Buddhism, but the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land is inclusive and a sacred Buddhist site. The lineage of Vairocana Buddha primarily focuses on self-cultivation while also helping others. Wei Yuan, however, aims to liberate the entire world from suffering; this is the main difference between their respective doctrines.

The history of the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land is much longer than that of the Taichu Palace, and its profound heritage is unfathomable. No one knows how many Buddhas and Arhats reside deep within the Pure Land or on Mount Ling, let alone how many great beings have left behind their remains or golden bodies.

Fortunately, the number of attainments is fixed; only with a certain attainment can there be a corresponding Buddha, Bodhisattva, or Arhat.

While pondering, Wei Yuan suddenly recalled a detail: in the fragmented memories of the outer world within the Umbrella Corporation, there seemed to be a scene of the final apocalypse, where the sky was torn open and what flowed down was... endless Buddhist light.

Buddha's light?

Wei Yuan instinctively wanted to ignore the question, but he forced himself to remember it.

The past practices of the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land were like a deer's horns hanging in the air, leaving no trace. However, after repeated contemplation, and with the help of the bustling world, Wei Yuan still found a flaw in his connection to Buddhism: his only son, the King of Chu.

This time, Wei Yuan stood in the sky above Qingming, gazing at the Jin region and the main mountain of Taichu Palace. After weighing his options repeatedly for seven days and seven nights, he finally turned back and returned to Qingming Mountain and River Palace, no longer paying attention to the direction of Western Jin.

The capital of Jin, the royal palace.

The King of Chu stood in the garden, gazing at a plum tree blooming amidst the snow and ice, which he saw as resembling a tree of blood. Growing somewhat irritated, he ordered, "Someone, change into plain clothes; I want to go out of the palace for a stroll!"

But a maidservant approached and said, "The King of Wei has instructed that Your Highness must never leave the palace gates. This servant..."

Her eyes widened suddenly, and she looked down in disbelief to see the King of Chu holding an ivory dagger, deeply plunged into his ribs. The excruciating pain instantly drained all her strength; the maid managed some muffled sounds before collapsing to the ground.

The King of Chu snorted and ordered, "Guards, drag him away and deal with him!"

As the maid's body was dragged away, the King of Chu suddenly felt a sense of relief. He knew that this maid was the one his real father had sent to keep a close watch on him.

After several days of investigation, the King of Chu finally confirmed that Wei Yuan had indeed planted such a capable minister. It was probably because Wei Yuan was certain the King of Chu would not dare disobey him that the arrangements were so lax.

At this moment, the King of Chu narrowed his eyes and muttered to himself in a voice only he could hear, "Only in this way will you remember that you have a son like me, right? When will you stop prolonging that old man's life? If I ascend the throne..."

A moment later, a trusted aide brought over carefully prepared civilian clothes for the King of Chu to change into. Meanwhile, the maidservant Wei Yuan had planted had already been devoured by a pack of ferocious dogs, leaving no trace.

Once everything was ready, the King of Chu had transformed into a refined scholar, appearing to be in his early thirties with an extraordinary air about him.

Accompanied by two close attendants, he slipped out of the palace through a side gate. In his youth, the King of Chu often did this, and his method was quite practiced. The guards at the gate, seeing that it was the King of Chu in civilian clothes, tacitly pretended not to see him.

As soon as the King of Chu stepped out of the palace gate, he felt all the constraints that had been weighing him down disappear, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of relief, so he laughed heartily.

Before the laughter subsided, a handsome young monk emerged from behind a poplar tree ahead, bowing and saying, "Benefactor, you have a connection with Buddha. This humble monk has been waiting here for quite some time."

(End of this chapter)