Chapter 409: Matters of the Mundane World

In the blink of an eye, another two months had passed. Nothing had happened during this time, and soon, it was harvest season once more. By this time, Qingming had cultivated 3 million mu of farmland and was home to 1.2 million residents. It had also cleared an additional 50,000 mu of spirit fields, yielding 10 million catties of spirit rice every half-year.

This season’s grain harvest totaled 600 million catties in total—a figure that posed a heavy burden for Qingming as a whole. Consequently, Wei Yuan mobilized his forces from the very beginning. Aside from the 10,000 elite troops who continued their regular training, all other soldiers were called upon to assist with the harvest.

As the crops ripened, spirit qi surged continuously throughout the Great Realm, and the spirit rain kept falling almost without interruption. Although the immortal plants hadn’t received any worldly reward, the growing concentration of worldly origin qi still accelerated their growth day by day.

Meanwhile, the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree had completely severed ties with the Ice-Glass Divine Tree. It took no more than one or two months for their devotees to go from ignoring one another to hurling insults at each other.

As for the Langya Divine Tree, it had subtly shifted its position and gathered a group of devotees of its own, eyeing both the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree and the Ice-Glass Divine Tree with a predatory gaze.

The Red Lotus Bodhi and the four orchid trees merely watched coldly from the sidelines. They had no intention of getting involved in the three-way dispute. As for the aquatic immortal plant, it had yet to sprout and was still in the process of gestation. Thus, its number of devotees were few.

As all of the immortal plants were acting independently—particularly the three that stood in opposition to one another—an unexpected situation arose.

To prevent its devotees from being brainwashed and stolen by another, the Ice-Glass Divine Tree took the initiative to link the consciousness of all her devotees to itself, and then proceeded to brainwash the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree’s devotees.

Whether it was orders from Wei Yuan or the instructions or materials issued by Yin Yang, the Ice-Glass Divine Tree would always handle them first before assigning tasks to its devotees. Similarly, after the devotees completed their tasks, they would report back to the Ice-Glass Divine Tree first before the results were relayed to Wei Yuan or Yin Yang.

After losing several devotees to brain-washing in a row, the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree tried to do the same thing only to discover that it could not access the consciousness of the Ice-Glass Divine Tree’s devotees at all. It was only then it belatedly realized that its rival had already linked all of its devotees to itself.

This was not a decision that had been made lightly. By doing this, the Ice-Glass Divine Tree had massively increased its own workload. Even on days where it had no specific assignments, it had to sift through various learning materials to feed her devotees and help them clarify their development paths and advancement trajectories. Only by having more and stronger devotees could an immortal plant grow more powerful itself.

The Bay Laurel Immortal Tree wasn’t naturally a hardworking creature, but to avenge that single insult, it gritted its teeth and linked all its devotees to itself as well, keeping itself so busy that it was dizzy all day long. It was only after the fact that it began to wonder whether it was worth putting itself through such an ordeal over the loss of a few debotees—after all, it still had several thousand left.

The Langya Divine Tree silently linked its devotees’ consciousness to itself.

Aside from the immortal plants lacking a competitive spirit, other objects of worship such as the jade mountain, the statues of Wei Yuan and the jade toad, the full moon in the sky, and even the vast sky and the sea-calming treasure pearl—all adopted a hands-off approach toward their devotees.

In this world that was teeming with immortals and deities, there was one small group of humans who stood out as different. One might even say they were completely out of place in the entire world.

This group was centered around the first few cultivators. They had gathered a number of individuals who sought to ascend the path to immortality through their own efforts.

By this time, the cultivation complex had been completed, but they were locked in a heated debate over what to name it. In the end, they were forced to hold a martial arts tournament, with the final three victors each contributing a few words to determine the complex’s name.

The cultivators unanimously agreed to name the tournament the Number One Martial Arts Tournament Under Heaven. It was an event that had caught even Wei Yuan’s attention and watched with great interest from start to finish.

Several exceptionally talented cultivators caught Wei Yuan’s eye. He even thought he saw a tail behind one of them, but when he looked more closely, it had vanished.

The first to advance to the finals of the martial arts tournament was, of course, the genius who was just one step from becoming a Dao Foundation. Everywhere else, the competition was much fiercer. Most cultivators were of roughly equal strength, and the one who finally stumbled his way into the finals turned out to be the one who was the least gifted among the three in the cultivation complex that day.

When the final showdown began, the genius naturally dominated his mediocre opponent. However, the mediocre opponent employed a vast array of tactics, each one more baffling than the last, along with a whole host of miscellaneous mystic treasures. Moreover, he possessed exceptional footwork and was basically fleeing from the start of the match until the very end. Incredibly, he ultimately managed to wear his opponent down until he collapsed from exhaustion.

This final battle left Wei Yuan utterly stunned and deeply inspired. It made him realize that he had been far too honest, rigid, and old-fashioned in all his previous battles. Compared to this mediocre human, even his fixed-direction flying-sword landmine could be considered a conscientious weapon.

Finally, the top three finishers at the martial arts tournament each contributed three, two, and one word to the name of the cultivation complex. Combined, the name of the cultivation complex was: Nine Heavens Ten Earths Battle Sage Cultivation Complex[1].

Just as the name was finalized, a sudden storm gathered within the Great Realm. Spirit qi and intangible fortune both converged upon the cultivation complex, and riding this momentum, the mediocre human actually became inspired and forged his Dao Foundation!

The moment his Dao Foundation was forged, a bolt of lightning descended from beyond the heavens—it was a heavenly tribulation!

Wei Yuan had no idea that establishing a Dao Foundation in the Great Realm would summon a heavenly tribulation!

He could not stand by and allow the mediocre human to die, so he immediately prepared to intervene and block the heavenly tribulation. Just then, the shadow in the moon suddenly exhaled a cloud of faint black qi—something akin to fortune, yet wasn’t fortune.

The moment the tribulation lightning passed through this black mist, it was instantly weakened by 90%, bringing it within a manageable range. Even so, the mediocre human’s chance of survival was very, very low. In the end, it was only after Wei Yuan infused him with vitality that he was saved.

Having endured a lightning tribulation and narrowly escaped death, the mediocre human finally forged a risen morning sun. Normally, a sun should qualify as an immortal foundation, but the mediocre human’s sun was crimson in color, dim in luster, and flickered from time to time. It fell under the category of the first sunlight of winter, with little visible heat. It could only barely be considered a heaven foundation.

Wei Yuan fell deep in thought.

Had the human race’s long-standing criteria for classifying Dao Foundations truly been accurate all along? By their criteria, this winter sunrise was barely sufficient to qualify as a heaven foundation, yet the lightning tribulation it had summoned was powerful enough to strike down even an immortal foundation. Was it possible for Heaven and Earth to make such a mistake?

The more Wei Yuan thought about it, the deeper he delved into the matter, the more he felt as though he had touched upon something—perhaps the true reality hidden behind the world. But as the heavenly tribulation ended, the sensation vanished as well, leaving Wei Yuan with a sense of loss.

Just as Wei Yuan was about to leave, he suddenly heard voices.

“The lady has been pregnant for so long. Finally, she’s going to give birth!”

“It’s been four hours already—why hasn’t the baby been born yet?”

“The lady has been pregnant for a full three months[2]. It couldn’t be... that she’s carrying a demon, right?”

“Keep your voice down! If the master hears you, he’ll have your skin flayed!”

“That’s not even the scariest part. The scariest part is if the child in the lady’s womb hears it. Do you think... it might be listening right now....”

Wei Yuan projected his perception into the courtyard and saw the young lady screaming incessantly in her room. Several midwives paced frantically in circles and racked their brains for a solution, but the child simply wouldn’t come out.

Wei Yuan frowned slightly and sent over several wisps of blue fortune, but to his surprise, the woman was unable to absorb them. Seeing that the first infant in the Great Realm[3] was about to perish, Wei Yuan tried sending a wisp of otherworldly fortune next.

It worked. The otherworldly fortune flowed smoothly into the woman’s body, causing her voice to grow slightly louder, and the fetus’ vitality to recover. Wei Yuan did not hesitate and poured more otherworldly fortune into the woman. Only after he had injected nearly twenty wisps of otherworldly fortune did the loud cry of a newborn fill the room.

1. Obviously, “cultivation complex” didn’t count. But even so in the raw the name was 7 characters; IDK what the author is smoking sometimes. Aging, maybe? ☜

2. A reminder that time works differently in the Great Realm. As well as size and a bunch of other stuff. Like the jade hill is a jade hill in the outside world but a jade mountain inside the Dao Foundation. ☜

3. The author put Qingming, but that’s incorrect because the first infant in Qingming was born like 100 chapters ago. ☜