Longzang

Chapter 1148 Using a Pretend Path to Conquer Qi
After returning to Qingming, Wei Yuan felt several gazes sweeping across the world.

Although Wei Yuan's luck has vanished, his spiritual palace is now complete, and his status is far higher than before. Even if immortals wanted to achieve a connection with the heavens, there would be many delays. Moreover, Wei Yuan acted swiftly, returning immediately after leaving the Western Jin Palace. Therefore, by the time the powerful beings realized that Wei Yuan had left Qingming, he had already returned.

Back in Qingming, Wei Yuan was able to continue sorting out the spoils and dealing with the aftermath of the great battle.

First were the remains of two immortals. Lü Changhe's remains had already fallen beneath the Azure Nether Immortal Stone and were steadily sinking deeper into the earth's veins. At this moment, Lü Changhe's true spirit had vanished, his soul had long since dispersed, and the immortal power of his remains, now unrestrained, began to gradually dissipate, altering the surrounding world.

Looking down from above Qingming at this moment, one can see an extremely huge humanoid figure deep underground, which is over a thousand miles long!
Only then did Wei Yuan truly see just how terrifying the immortals' foundation was.

Even after his fall, Lü Changhe could transform into a vast expanse of treasure land, completely transforming the resources and ley lines of an entire realm, enough to turn barren land into fertile fields. Within the Azure Netherworld, many fields within the area of ​​the treasure land transformed by Lü Changhe have already generated spiritual energy and become spiritual fields, roughly estimated to be at least hundreds of thousands of acres.

The foundations of different immortals vary greatly. After the patriarch of Taichu Palace passed away, his body transformed into a treasure land spanning over eight thousand miles. Wei Yuan, with his passable mathematical skills, naturally knew exactly how much difference there was between eight thousand and one thousand in length, width, and height.

But that's not all. The place where the patriarch passed away was the Wuyu Realm, and what needed to be changed was the entire environment of the world. On the other hand, what Lü Changhe benefited was the Qingming Realm, which had already been transformed into a human realm. The consumption of transforming the two into treasure lands was different.

Finally, the patriarch returned from a great battle with a broken immortal body. He only lasted for less than three years, barely leaving behind a portion of the Daoist lineage before passing away.

Looking at the precious earth that Lü Changhe had transformed into, Wei Yuan gained a more direct understanding of his ancestor. A question suddenly arose in his mind: with his ancestor's boundless abilities, why did he hastily depart for the west to fight the First Heavenly Witch shortly after ascending to immortality? If he had been able to nurture his cultivation for several decades, wouldn't he have been a sure winner?

There was no need to even think about this question; Wei Yuan already had the answer. Just looking at himself in the present moment, he knew that if he had other choices, why would he have pushed the King of Chu out? At least, that was his own flesh and blood.

However, Wei Yuan was never a stubborn person. Having made this choice, he wouldn't blame himself, but would only direct his hatred at the instigator. Even if it wasn't the right time for revenge, he would still hold a grudge, and it would never be erased.

Xu Shuhe's immortal body landed beneath the medicine garden, but only formed a treasure land spanning over three hundred miles.

However, the shape of the treasure land he formed was very strange. It was small in size but extremely deep. In fact, it was not much less than that of Lü Changhe, even after giving up his hands and feet.

Wei Yuan didn't understand either, and could only assume that Xu Shuhe had been thrown down vertically.

Besides the two immortal remains greatly increasing Qingming's immortal foundation, Wei Yuan himself also gained a great deal. First, after absorbing the prosperity of all realms into the Three-Foot Azure Dragon Cave Heaven, a small azure dragon flew out from the fourth cave heaven. After a fierce battle, the two dragons finally merged into one.

The newborn dragon had azure and blue stripes, its species unclear. Though only a foot long, it possessed remarkable intelligence, soaring and flying freely through the sky. As it flew, Wei Yuan noticed something amiss; the little dragon seemed to be searching for a suitable path!
Unlike Wei Yuan, who needed to spend a lot of time and computing power to calculate a new trajectory, this little dragon flew purely on instinct. When it deviated from its course, it would suddenly blur and flicker before returning to its position from a few breaths ago. After repeated attempts, it actually managed to slowly discover a small section of track.

However, the discovered orbit has many incredible aspects. Logically, with this data, it should be enough to deduce the entire orbit using arithmetic, at which point the seventh orbit could be formed.

However, no matter how Wei Yuan calculated, even when he assigned the task to the various realms of prosperity, and when mathematical masters like Jun Weizhi and Ji Liuli took turns appearing, there was still no result. In the end, he had to give up. It seems that the newly born, strange little dragon should be able to find its own flight path.

In addition, Lü Changhe possessed some valuable magical artifacts and materials, which Wei Yuan immediately stored away for future use. Xu Shuhe, on the other hand, was completely empty-handed, clearly prepared to die.

After dealing with these urgent matters, Wei Yuan began to consider the next steps.

Based on the analysis of the various realms' prosperity, the immediate priority is to address the appearance of the alien race and their assistance to Qingming, requiring a reasonable explanation. After all, these are no insignificant figures; they are the Junior National Preceptor of Northern Liao and the Heavenly Witch Yaolan.

Both of these individuals are at the immortal level, and the Wu Clan also has the veteran Heavenly Witch Nine Eyes indirectly involved. This matter can no longer be explained by personal relationships or favors, so it must be taken seriously. If it cannot be explained clearly and Wei Yuan is confirmed to have colluded with other races, then he will be...

Like a rat crossing the street, everyone shouts to kill him; even the Taichu Palace probably can't protect him.

Upon seeing this analysis, Wei Yuan did not rush to make a decision, but instead considered what the immortals would do.

Normally, when Cui Zhengxing and Cui Wantong returned to their ancestral home, they would first rest, examine themselves, investigate the causes and effects, communicate with their closest friends, and carefully explore the overall trend. Only after completing these primary tasks would they deal with trivial matters, such as Wei Yuan's collusion with other races. At this point, they would summon the clan elders to briefly explain Wei Yuan's collusion, and then have someone write several articles denouncing him. That would be roughly the process. The main aspect of such matters is accountability at the immortal level, but since both sides have already broken off relations, this aspect becomes less important.

Having figured this out, Wei Yuan suddenly recalled Bai Kaishui's few words of reply to Cui Zhengxing, and suddenly felt enlightened!

Wei Yuan immediately assigned a task to the Development Agency, granting it the highest level of authority. The task consisted of two parts: first, to condemn the Xu family of Northern Qi for colluding with the Liao tribe, even leading the Liao immortals to invade Qingming, a crime deserving of no forgiveness.

Secondly, it condemns Cui Wantong, the immortal ancestor of the Cui family of Yan and Chen, for selling out others for personal gain, being obsequious, and offering generous bribes to invite the Heavenly Witch of the Witch Clan to assist him as an accomplice in invading Qingming.

In his assignment to the Development Agency, Wei Yuan not only explicitly gave Cui Wantong's name, but also provided Zhang You with a portrait that bore a striking resemblance to Cui Wantong. However, this portrait and name were intended for the core intellectuals residing in Qingming.

With the powerful offensive and organizational capabilities of the Qingming Development Agency, it is believed that a storm could be unleashed in an instant, sweeping across the literary world and firmly pinning the crimes of colluding with foreign races and harming humanity on the Xu family of Northern Qi and the Cui family of Yan Chen.

What? You're saying you didn't do it? How can you prove it?

Taking the initiative, or rather, throwing mud at the opponent to force them to prove their innocence, is a common and highly effective tactic used by the Qingming Development Agency.

In addition to this, such large-scale operations also have an additional function: distinguishing friend from foe. The Development Agency will screen all intellectuals who stand against Qingming, distinguishing which are the core enemies and which are just there to join in the fun. Then, the core enemies will be further distinguished, separating which are against Qingming because of the event itself and which are simply against Qingming for the sake of opposing Qingming.

The latter is defined by the Development Agency as a core, hard-line enemy, and all resources and forces will be mobilized to besiege it without time limit, indiscriminate, or limited means, with all dogs joining in until it is completely ruined.

Those who oppose Qingming merely for the sake of discussing the matter at hand, while less important, will not be spared. The Qingming Development Agency's consistent principle is that stance takes precedence over right and wrong; or, to put it simply, self-interest is more important than one's conscience. Anyone not on Qingming's side will be categorized as part of the enemy faction.

The Qingming Development Agency is no longer a secret. Some people have been so criticized that they want to retaliate in kind. So they hired several great scholars at great expense to infiltrate Qingming in disguise, intending to criticize the current affairs and make things difficult for Wei Yuan.

But what these great scholars and the masterminds behind the scenes never expected was that the people of Qingming had become enlightened, with the literacy rate in the core cities exceeding 70%. The younger generation, having undergone rigorous selection and training at the academies, had developed an independent, systematic, and scientific way of thinking, similar to that of the outer world.

Thus, these old Confucian scholars, clinging to the classic teachings of sages from thousands or even tens of thousands of years ago, came to criticize current affairs. Before they could even step onto a larger stage, they were rendered speechless and their Daoist hearts wavered in the teahouse by some ordinary people and those who merely followed the established Daoist foundations. The Confucian scholars could neither win the argument nor dare to fight. In the end, their backgrounds were exposed, and they were directly arrested by law enforcement cultivators, thrown into prison, and the news was announced to the world.

So the mastermind behind the scenes spent hundreds of thousands of taels of silver and prepared for half a year, only to make a splash in a teahouse for an entire afternoon, and then nothing more.

Wei Yuan was naturally unaware of these trivial matters. After assigning the task to the Development Bureau, Wei Yuan then sent the task to Bao Yun's Ding'an City and Xiao Yu's Yong'an City, ordering the publication of various stories about Cui Wantong in these two core cities.

In this way, Cui Wantong would be just like Lü Changhe had been, with someone constantly nagging her day and night, spewing vulgarities and obscenities. Wei Yuan wanted to know how long Cui Wantong, with her competitive and arrogant nature, could endure it.
At least until Cui Wantong's mental cultivation improves substantially, his cultivation level can forget about making any progress.

Since Cui Wantong dared to interfere in Qingming's affairs, Wei Yuan's response was also straightforward: first, block your path, then we'll talk about other things.

As for Cui Zhengxing of Qinghe Song, there aren't any direct countermeasures for now. This man is cunning and shrewd, and the method of interfering with one's Dao heart won't work. Wei Yuan doesn't intend to dwell on this matter either, and will simply put it aside until the army borders the Song Kingdom.

Immediately, Wei Yuan issued another order to the front-line legions. The large army that had been stationed in various places and digesting the occupied areas was once again mobilized. Several vanguard legions set off, their forces heading straight for the ancestral land of the Lü family.

Now that Wei Yuan knows that Thirteen Wang is the key to the confrontation between the immortals and the Martial Ancestor, he wants to see what tricks the other side has up their sleeve after he has put on a show of completely wiping out the Lü family.
Normally, someone would step in at this point to discuss terms with Wei Yuan. But just like with his negotiations with Lü Changhe, Wei Yuan felt that the terms were negotiable, but it would be best to talk when a knife was at the other party's throat, so that the talks could proceed smoothly.

This was only the first step. Wei Yuan then sent someone to inform the Eastern Jin that he was preparing to attack the Xu family of Northern Qi for their unjust actions. However, at this time, the Qingming army did not border Northern Qi, so they planned to use the Eastern Jin as a route to attack Qi.

(End of this chapter)