Chapter 333: Stillbirths

Translator’s Notes: It should be obvious from the title alone, but this is your trigger warning. I apologize for any discomfort this chapter may cause.

It was a complete accident that Tianyu had nearly been kowtowed to death.

It was a fact that he had saved over 100,000 humans. It was equally reasonable for him to accept the kowtows of the people he had saved. This was the karma that had established the basis for him to receive the fortune of gratitude. But while a blue fortune was a potent tonic for Wei Yuan, it was only a deadly poison for Tianyu. Moreover, Tianyu’s Dao Foundation was no Great Realm—how could it possibly bear the weight of thousands of wisps of blue fortune?

This was why he had nearly died before he even made it to the third kowtow.

After figuring out the truth, Tianyu just stood there for a long time, dumbfounded and at a complete loss for words. There was no doubt that the sacrifices’ gratitude toward him had come from the bottom of their hearts—after all, they had literally manifested as fortune. They literally couldn’t be more sincere if they tried.

This was also why he found himself in a bind: He wanted to curse the sacrifices, but he couldn’t. After all, they were truly grateful toward him. However, he couldn’t just let it go either because he had nearly died. A Strength Warlock wasn’t known for their intelligence either, so try as Tianyu might, he was unable to think of a way to vent this frustration. In the end, he could only bid Wei Yuan goodbye and leave glumly.

Meanwhile, the influx of over 100,000 newcomers had instantly propelled Wei Yuan’s cultivation speed to a new level. Specifically, he had now added another square to his progress per year. Now, he only needed 7 years to attain perfection in the Dao Foundation stage.

This was just the contribution of the 120,000 substandard sacrifices too. The graded sacrifices were still under the influence and so could not feel anything at the moment. Only after the drugs had worn off could they begin to feel submission, admiration, worship, blind obedience and more emotions.

Wei Yuan decided to merge them with the 10,000 superior sacrifices he had scoured from the Shaman city. He then put them all in the new city where the Xu Clan youngsters were residing.

Low-grade sacrifices were typically used very quickly. That was why the drugs the Shamans drugged them with were both extremely potent and highly toxic. Obviously, prolonged use of such drugs caused permanent damage. After Sun Yu examined them, he discovered that over half of them had suffered varying degrees of damage. The milder cases exhibited sluggish reactions, while the more severe ones suffered intellectual disabilities.

The realm’s population had been growing too rapidly as of late, and just Sun Yu could not keep up with the workload at all. Wei Yuan had wanted to assign a few disciples to assist Sun Yu, but although there were many cultivators in Qingming, very few possessed aptitudes that were even worthy of mention. Left with no choice, Wei Yuan could only select several dozen bright and quick-witted individuals to act as Sun Yu’s assistants.

Later, Wei Yuan prepared 15 catties of nether soil and gave 5 each to Trueman Chu He, Sun Yu, and Yu Zhizhuo. All three were overjoyed.

Wei Yuan was the only one who was frustrated by the arrangement, and he had no one to blame but himself. The amount he had given his sect fellows before was far too little, but it was already too late to give more. Now, he could only increase the amount gradually.

After the passage to the Palace of Absolute Beginning had been reopened, Sun Yu received some important news. Beside himself, one junior sister had also survived the assassination of Trueman Ning Xi. However, not long after she returned to the Palace, she had stolen Trueman Ning Xi’s entire storeroom of medical supplies and vanished. At present, the Palace was extremely short-staffed, so they could not afford to send someone after her just yet.

Upon learning the news regarding the betrayer, Sun Yu fell silent for a very long time. Then, he carried on as if nothing had happened.

The endless stream of trivial tasks within the realm was overwhelming Wei Yuan, but fortunately, with more personnel now available, he could delegate many of them to skilled individuals and focus on reorganizing the army instead.

Wei Yuan’s preliminary plan was to reorganize two towns of elite force[1]. Each town would have a core of 500 Dao Foundation stage cultivators and an army of 5,000 Body-tempering stage soldiers, all of which were in the bone-tempering stage. One town would consist of infantry, and the other cuirass-wearing cavalry, or cuirassiers for short.

The two towns of elite forces were already at the same level of the Nine Armies of Great Tang, but they also had a way higher ratio of Dao Foundation stage cultivators. As for equipment, each Dao Foundation stage cultivator was armed with a gun and 50 rounds of ammunition, whereas an ordinary soldier carried just 10 rounds[2].

The reason for equipping a Dao Foundation stage cultivator with 5 times the amount of ammunition compared to an ordinary soldier wasn’t just because to improve their dueling prowess, but also because their firing speed and marksmanship far exceeded those of Body-tempering stage cultivators.

With just a bit of training, a Dao Foundation stage cultivator could achieve a firing rate of 60 rounds per minute with manually loaded muzzleloaders, hitting every shot within 30 zhang, and nearly hitting every moving target traveling at the speed of an ordinary galloping horse.

In comparison, Body-tempering stage soldiers only had a firing rate of 10 rounds per minute, and their accuracy against moving targets within 30 zhang was only 50%. They must get as close as 15 zhang to achieve a perfect hit rate.

As for those capable of a manual muzzle-loading rate of 600 rounds per minute, Yu Zhizhuo was the one and only.

With nearly 50,000 Xu Clan youngsters and 120,000 substandard sacrifices, Qingming’s defensive strength had risen to an unprecedented level. It would be impossible for anyone to conquer it without a massive army numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

Therefore, these two towns of elite forces were, in fact, intended for combat outside the realm of Qingming.

A few days ago, when they captured the Shaman city, Wei Yuan’s forces had pursued the enemy to the boundary, only to watch helplessly as the Shamans rode off triumphantly to the sunset. Wei Yuan had strictly forbidden any troop who hadn’t attained perfection in the body-tempering stage from leaving the domain.

After all, without Life is a Flash and the support of Qingming’s domain, their combat effectiveness within the Shaman realm would be reduced to no more than 30%.

It took Wei Yuan an entire night to tentatively finalize the equipment plan for the two elite regiments, during which he wavered repeatedly between heavy armor and firepower. In the end, he recalled the fate of Yue Jinshan’s 10,000 iron cavalry and Xu Wenwu’s descriptions of his world and ultimately resolved to abandon full-body heavy armor in favor of cuirasses that provided a balance of both defense and mobility.

Next came the task of selecting the officers at all levels. This was a meticulous task, so Wei Yuan did not dare to take it lightly. He carefully considered each name in the thick roster one by one and spent another full day drafting a proposal. After consulting Cui Yu and the others, the list was finalized.

With this task completed, the military structure within the realm of Qingming had taken on its initial form. The elite forces consisted of a standing army, which focused primarily on training in their daily lives and could be deployed beyond the domain to fight when necessary.

Next were the units composed of soldiers who also worked as farmers, primarily the Xu Clan youngsters and soldiers in the early or middle stage of the Body-tempering stage. They balanced cultivation and farm work in their daily lives but would transition to defensive duties in the event of an external invasion.

Finally, there were the civilians whose primary focus was work. However, in the event of a life-or-death crisis for the entire realm, they too would be empowered by Life is a Flash and thrown into battle. That was why Wei Yuan routinely arranged training sessions for them every few days.

After establishing the basic framework of Qingming’s military, Wei Yuan embarked on a vast, complex, grand, and immense undertaking: identifying those within the realm with cultivation potential and teaching them the six universal cultivation methods.

The Xu Clan youngsters possessed outstanding aptitude, and nearly every one of them was capable of cultivating the six universal cultivation methods. However, the same could not be said for the normal residents of the realm of Qingming. In fact, perhaps not even one in a hundred of them possessed sufficient aptitude to try. This was why a meticulous screening process was necessary. If someone’s aptitude turned out to be insufficient, they would be better off cultivating a more basic cultivation method instead.

Due to a shortage of manpower, this task was going to take an extremely long time. Wei Yuan estimated it might not even be completed within three months.

Time slipped by unnoticed amid the hustle and bustle. One day, Wei Yuan was reviewing the list of newly appointed officers when suddenly, his hackles raised: over half of the fortune he had bestowed upon the 300 pregnant girls had suddenly vanished, leaving only about 30 wisps remaining!

Wei Yuan immediately rushed out of the central peak, flew toward the new city, and headed straight for the camp where the girls were staying.

It was already late at night. The camp was deathly quiet, with only a few key entrances and exits illuminated by lamps. Apart from the guards, no one else was moving about. The young women were all quiet. When they were carrying out orders, they simply rested peacefully and awaited the birth of their children.

Wei Yuan had already summoned Sun Yu before setting out, so the moment he touched down, the healer flew over as well. When he scanned the area with his perception, his expression grew grave. “So many stillbirths!”

In several large rooms, the abdomens of most of the girls had become noticeably flatter, and a pale gray liquid was seeping from beneath them. The liquid did not look like blood, yet it reeked like one. When Wei Yuan scanned it with his perception, he confirmed that it was blood. However, for some unknown reason, it was completely devoid of vitality, as if it had been drained dry by some force.

After a thorough examination, Sun Yu placed his hand on one girl’s abdomen and channeled his Dao energy. A tiny infant corpse slid out from beneath her just like that. Its skin and flesh were shriveled and withered like a mummy’s, and its body was coated in pale gray, congealed blood.

After giving birth to the dead infant, the girl’s aura suddenly plummeted, nearly ceasing entirely. But just as she was about to die, a surge of vitality suddenly welled up within her and brought her back from the brink.

Sun Yu placed the dead infant in a silver basin, then induced labor in several more girls, all of whom gave birth to infants that resembled mummies.

Without exception, their vitality plummeted the moment they gave birth to their dead infants. Not even the life-sustaining elixirs Sun Yu had administered in advance could stop this. Fortunately, a mysterious surge of vitality always reignited at the very last moment and saved their lives.

This was the effect of the fortune Wei Yuan had bestowed upon them: at the brink of life and death, it transformed into vitality and sustained their lives.

Sun Yu’s expression was extremely ugly since his methods had failed. Had Wei Yuan not had the foresight to use his fortune to protect the girls, they would already be dead. The rest of the girls would probably encounter the exact same situation—dying immediately after giving birth to the dead infants.

Or, to be more precise, they were already dead—they were staying alive purely for the sake of the stillborn infants in their wombs.

This time, Sun Yu refrained from acting on his own and said, “I need some help.”

Wei Yuan immediately summoned several girls into the room and assigned each one to care for a stillborn infant. Sun Yu briefly explained how they should handle the aftermath before moving from one girl to another and induced the delivery of the stillborn infants one by one.

Sun Yu’s medical skills were nothing short of divine. A single press of his hand was all he needed to ensure that a stilborn infant would be delivered smoothly. Even so, it took him two full hours to deliver them all.

When all was said and done, only 30 girls’ fetuses were still alive. Their bellies were swollen high, and the fetuses had grown considerably larger. It was clear they would give birth in just a matter of days.

If he hadn’t been a witness from the beginning until the end, Wei Yuan would never have believed that they had only been pregnant for a little over four months.

This time, just to be on the safe side, Wei Yuan imbued each of them with three wisps of blue fortune.

After finally finishing everything, every dead infant was placed in silver basins and set out in the courtyard. For obvious reasons, the scene of hundreds of mummified infant corpses was beyond eerie and terrifying.

Sun Yu then stepped out and stood beside Wei Yuan, saying, “These infants are deeply unholy. Not only did they give up all of their vigor and vitality, but they also drained their mothers dry. Meanwhile, the mothers went all out to satisfy their infants’ needs, even at the cost of their own lives. I asked a few of them earlier, and they all said that they suddenly felt a deep, heartfelt urge to sacrifice everything for these children—even their own lives.”

“Can’t you locate the source of this anomaly?”

Sun Yu shook his head. “No. If Master was still here...” He shook his head vigorously and banished the thought before he could finish.

Wei Yuan said, “There’s a good chance this will happen one more time before the babies are born. I’ll do my best to protect them with fortune, but I’m honestly unsure if I’ll be able to save their lives.”

Sun Yu said, “Judging by the size and growth rate of the fetuses, it should happen within the next few days. I might as well stay here for the next few days and keep a close eye on things.”

“Alright then. I’ll ask Master to come over and supervise things. Oh, I should call the Trueman’s snake over as well.”

Only after making all the arrangements did Wei Yuan leave the new city and return to the central peak with a heavy heart. What had happened to the young women was far too bizarre, and worse, they didn’t have the slightest clue as to what was happening.

Back at his residence, Wei Yuan found himself disturbed by a persistent sense of unease. So, he decided to set aside his current task and begin meditating and cultivating. It had been a long time since he practiced the Supreme Yin Lunar Essence Myriad Manifestations Chapter.

In the blink of an eye, the night had grown deep. Wei Yuan had already reached a state of complete oneness with the cosmos, his mind empty and clear. Across the Great Realm, the full moon was shining brightly and casting rays of moonlight.

Suddenly, Wei Yuan’s clarity of mind shattered without warning. He saw a plain-clothed swordsman walking toward him in the moonlight. Before he could react, the swordsman slung his sword behind his back, turned, and swung his massive sword down on Wei Yuan’s head!

It was the very same strike that had nearly slain Wei Yuan back then!

Startled, Wei Yuan snapped out of his meditative state. The strange vision before his eyes vanished instantly, but before he could make sense of it, the clear, distinct cry of an infant reached his ears!

Where was it coming from?

1. Refer to chapter 307. ☜

2. Just a reminder, but they’re basically wielding shotguns, or more accurately handguns with a bullet spread like a shotgun, but now it’s been upgraded to become semi-automatic by sucking the ammo straight into the chamber via Dao energy I think, after Yu Zhizhuo’s latest upgrade? Do correct me if I’m wrong. Anyway it’s really a hand-shot-machine gun. ☜