Chapter 438: Karmic Reward Descends

The heavenly tribulations raged down, nearly flattening the buildings at the seclusion site. As soon as the tribulation finally subsided, Wei Yuan immediately rushed over and dug three charred bodies out of the rubble, all of them emitting the scent of roasted flesh.

Sun Yu and Yu Zhizhuo were both on the verge of death. Although most of the lightning tribulation had been diverted by the lightning rods, the heavenly fire and golden blades that followed destroyed the lightning protection equipment and left the two to endure the full brunt of the golden lightning tribulation and thunder-fire tribulation.

The third charred figure was Xu Wenwu. He had been sound asleep when the tribulations came crashing down. Unable to escape in time, he was struck by several bolts of tribulation lightning. However, his aura was actually the strongest of the three because he had, surprisingly, sustained only minor injuries.

Wei Yuan hurriedly summoned the cultivators who were trained in the art of healing to treat the trio. After the tribulation lightning subsided, their bottomed-out aura began to recover, and the charred flesh on their bodies started peeling away, replaced by new skin. Half a day later, they had all recovered to an extent.

Yu Zhizhuo’s Avatar was a small bird of the Metal element, with large eyes and full of spirituality. Although it didn’t appear to possess much combat power, just watching its agile flight and the way it watched everything with incredible curiosity made it clear that his Avatar was anything but low rank.

When the little bird looked at Wei Yuan, he instantly felt as if he were about to be seen through. Then, the little bird let out a piercing scream, tears streaming from its eyes , and vanished on the spot.

The Avatar could see through illusions, penetrate earth and stone, and uncover the essential nature of objects. Just now, it had tried to see through Wei Yuan’s essential nature, only to nearly blind itself. Naturally, it dared not show itself again.

The Avatar primarily functioned as a support. It allowed Yu Zhizhuo to perceive the essential nature of more objects and travel underground. It was a powerful tool for locating ore veins for sure. It could also discern an opponent’s weaknesses and true intentions. It could yield extraordinary results in a mystic duel when paired with a powerful mystic treasure.

On the other hand, Sun Yu’s Avatar was far more striking. It was a gigantic poisonous scorpion fused with a pill furnace with pale black smoke billowing from its openings from time to time. It didn’t take a test to know that it was highly toxic.

When Wei Yuan saw Sun Yu’s Avatar, he could not help but feel that it was somewhat at odds with the healer’s profession. Sun Yu wasn’t looking very happy himself. He felt that Heaven and Earth had completely misunderstood his years of benevolence.

The third was Xu Wenwu. It had looked as though something was about to emerge from the top of his head, but in the end, nothing had. Then again, the otherworldly visitor hadn’t even established his Dao Foundation yet. He was definitely a long way still from attaining an Avatar.

That said, after shedding his charred, blackened skin and flesh, Xu Wenwu appeared even more fair-skinned and delicate than before. His entire body was plump and round, glistening with a pearlescent sheen like a tiny pearl Buddha.

Later, Wei Yuan carefully reviewed the entire process and finally figured out why the Avatar-stage heavenly tribulation hadn’t struck Xu Wenwu dead. Somehow, this fellow had used up all the fortune Wei Yuan imbued to the seclusion site to prevent accidents.

It was precisely because of the protection afforded by this fortune that Xu Wenwu had not only survived the heavenly tribulation, but also sustained the lightest injuries among the three. Moreover, since he had weathered an Avatar-stage heavenly tribulation as a Body-tempering stage cultivator, his cultivation had improved dramatically. It was such an increase that everyone was shocked.

With this, the Realm of Qingming had gained two more Avatars and become even stronger than before. Wei Yuan was delighted as a matter of course. The two still needed to recuperate in seclusion for several days, and once they had consolidated their foundations, they would need to return to the Palace of Absolute Beginning temporarily to study their corresponding Avatar-stage cultivation methods.

After ordering Wei Yuan the seclusion site to be rebuilt, Wei Yuan began to ponder a serious question: the heavenly tribulations occurring within the Realm of Qingming often mutated and became way harder than normal—why was this?

After much deliberation, Wei Yuan concluded that the problem likely lay with the cultivators themselves; there was no other explanation[1].

Just then, Wei Yuan suddenly sensed something, or specifically, someone appearing inside the Great Realm. It was Cui Yu. The fact that he was there meant that he was sleeping in the real world.

With a flick of his divine thought, Wei Yuan appeared before Cui Yu and asked, “You’ve been coming here too often. Aren’t you tired?”

Cui Yu shook his head. “No. I can clearly sense that my opportunity for advancement lies here.”

“Well... make sure to get sufficient rest,” said Wei Yuan, even though he felt that his words sounded a bit odd.

For those who could enter the Great Realm, sleeping and resting merely marked the beginning of a new phase of work.

Cui Yu nodded, then entered the Research Institute of War Equipment for Equality of All Beings, preparing to contribute his share to the cause of equality for all beings.

However, Cui Yu differed from most others who entered the Great Realm. His responsibility was similar to that of an immortal plant; functioning as a node.

It went without saying that an immortal plant far surpassed a Dao Foundation stage cultivator in every way. As nodes, they could process tens of thousands of tasks in the blink of an eye. On the other hand, Cui Yu could barely handle four or five tasks simultaneously and oversee ten ordinary mortals at most, ensuring their mental capacities weren’t left idle.

Though the task was arduous and fundamentally different from a human’s usual way of thinking, Cui Yu clenched his teeth and persevered. He went from being able to last only one quarter of an hour before waking up to now being able to sustain it for two whole hours. He also progressed from frequently making mistakes when handling two tasks simultaneously to now being able to reliable handle four or five tasks at once.

Cui Yu had first entered the Great Realm completely by chance. At first, he was completely unaware of what was happening. It wasn’t until his third and fourth visit that he sensed something was amiss. After alerting Wei Yuan, he finally realized he was actually inside Wei Yuan’s Avatar world.

However, the experience of working nonstop over the past few days—especially being treated as an ordinary mortal by the immortal plants and relentlessly pushed to his mental limits—suddenly inspired Cui Yu and awakened him to an unconventional talent. He had a vague sense that some kind of karmic reward was calling out to him!

So Cui Yu redoubled his efforts, going to bed at a set time every day and sleeping for four hours at a stretch, firmly refusing to listen to Wei Yuan’s well-meaning advice to stop.

Later, when Wei Yuan noticed that Cui Yu’s Dao Foundation was gradually beginning to change, and his spirituality had clearly improved, he stopped trying to change his sect fellow’s mind as well.

Cui Yu’s entry into the Great Realm was an accident. Aside from him, Wei Yuan had no intention of bringing any cultivators from the Palace of Absolute Beginning into his Dao Foundation, at least not at the beginning. The only ones allowed in here right now were the cultivators in the Dao Foundation Class, the human sacrifices, and the Xu Clan youngsters.

The human sacrifices and the Xu Clan youngsters had unblemished backgrounds and would not leave the Realm of Qingming. Once they entered Wei Yuan’s Imaginary World, they could fully participate in all activities. Thus, whenever Wei Yuan returned to the Realm of Qingming, it was as if he had gained the mental capacity of over 100,000 ordinary mortals, causing the progress of the projects at the major research institutes to skyrocket.

Now that Yu Zhizhuo and Sun Yu had attained their Avatars, every other Palace cultivator immediately felt a sense of urgency.

Currently, around sixty disciples from every Hall of the Palace of Absolute Beginning were serving in the Realm of Qingming. They all had their own respective responsibilities. Many of them had long reached perfection in the Dao Foundation stage, but dared not advance to the Avatar stage because their spirituality was lacking.

One of these young men was a noble scion and on good terms with Cui Yu. By coincidence, he found out that the spirituality of Cui Yu’s Dao Foundation had been growing steadily. Immediately envious, he pestered Cui Yu with questions for a long time, until the man had no choice but to reveal his secret.

Consequently, the noble scion immediately sought out Wei Yuan and expressed his desire to undergo training in Wei Yuan’s Imaginary World. He also swore a solemn oath to never reveal Wei Yuan’s secret.

The noble scion was among the very first group who had accompanied Cui Yu to the Realm of Qingming. He was one of the original sixteen “spoiled brats” alongside Wang Yu and Hsu Yi. It went without saying that he shared a deep friendship with both Wei Yuan and Cui Yu, and had done many great deeds for the Realm of Qingming.

The noble scion’s innate foundation was average, but his fortune was quite excellent. Over the years, after facing countless life-and-death situations and fighting countless bloody battles for the Realm of Qingming, before he realized it himself, he had reached perfection in his Dao Foundation and surpassed all of his peers in terms of cultivation progress.

Wei Yuan carefully examined the Dao Foundation residing within the scion’s sea of consciousness. He quickly discovered that, although the Dao Foundation had already reached perfection, its spirituality was far from sufficient. He would even go so far as to call it incredibly rigid. If the scion were to try to advance to the Avatar-stage under these circumstances, he would perish for sure. Thus, adopting a “nothing to lose” attitude, Wei Yuan pulled him into the Great Realm.

Naturally, the scope of what outsiders could see after entering the Great Realm was extremely limited. For example, they could not see the jade mountain or the All-Gate of Reincarnation, nor could they see Yin Yang or his inherited swords.

Wei Yuan knew that, as long as he continued to bring people into his Imaginary World, the secrets of the Fire of Humanity would eventually be discovered. However, it wasn’t a big deal as long as they didn’t see Yin Yang or the All-Gate of Reincarnation.

On the contrary, if people learned that he possessed an Imaginary World with almost perfected spirituality right after he had formed his Avatar, it would earn him some fortune.

Since he had already let one noble scion in, Wei Yuan decided to go all out: he summoned all cultivators who had reached perfection in the Dao Foundation stage and resided in the Realm of Qingming for a long time and offered to bring them into the Fire of Humanity for training.

Since then, the Great Realm had become much livelier. Specifically, dozens of human-shaped nodes had been added into the mix. The first time they entered the Great Realm and witnessed the magnificent Imaginary World, everyone’s enthusiasm skyrocketed. They began striving for sleep so they could strive while asleep.

Since entering the Great Realm, they finally learned the joy of not wasting even a single second of their lives. Karmic reward would soon descend upon all of them!

Just as Wei Yuan was concentrating all his power on Bao Yun’s Ding’an City and rapidly accelerating its construction, news finally arrived that the Shaman’s army was assembling.

The scout cavalry he dispatched reported that the initial gathering of Shaman forces had already exceeded 500,000. The size of their reinforcements and their total number of high cultivators remained unknown.

Although Wei Yuan had been preparing for this invasion all along, it was clear that the Shamans had come fully prepared this time. This was going to be an extremely difficult battle.

Last time, the Shamans had deployed two World Rulers. Despite this, they had been forced to retreat in defeat. Now that they were making a comeback, there was no doubt they would field more than just two World Rulers. The question was whether there would be three, four, or even more.

Upon learning of the Shamans’ movements, Wei Yuan immediately sent a letter to the Palace of Absolute Beginning, requesting for Founder Xuan Yue’s presence. As for the other True Lords, Wei Yuan felt he had neither the standing nor the personal ties to call upon their aid. Besides, the northern mountain gate was still under severe pressure. No True Lord could move lightly during this time.

Wei Yuan would have asked Bao Manshan to “witness” him again, but he had just eloped with Bao Yun. As for Zhu Yuanjin, the woman was as elusive as a ghost; Wei Yuan had absolutely no idea where she was right now.

Given that they might be at a disadvantage in terms of their True Lord-level combat strength, Wei Yuan decided to adopt a strictly defensive posture this time. He sealed off the mines that were near the edge of the domain, evacuated all personnel operating outside the domain, and constructed a massive defensive line along the perimeter. He then established Bao Yun’s Ding’an City as the forward defensive stronghold, deploying a defense system comprising several large earth forts on the flanks and in the rear.

The so-called “earth forts” were a defensive method proposed by the mortals, representing an improvement and refinement of the underground defense tactics used in previous battles. It involved constructing earthworks and trenches on the surface while simultaneously digging underground, thereby retaining the original underground combat approach.

If the Shamans were to ignore the earth forts and bypass it to attack other Qingming forces, the defenders would continuously inflict casualties upon them from their defensive positions.

If the Shamans were to attack the earth forts, they would also suffer heavy casualties. Once overwhelmed, the defenders would simply retreat underground. If the underground positions became untenable, they would free through the pre-prepared passages to other earth forts.

In addition, Wei Yuan had requested reinforcements from Lee Zhi. The young realm lord had immediately mobilized all 40,000 elite troops from the Realm of Zhen Shan and rushed to the scene, bringing with him four Avatars.

When the two met again, they were naturally overjoyed and embraced each other briefly. Lee Zhi then turned serious and said, “The Shamans do not look like they’re fooling around this time. How many True Lords will be overseeing the battlefield?”

Wei Yuan replied, “There should be two.”

Lee Zhi frowned and said, “That’s most likely not enough.”

Wei Yuan knew it wasn’t enough, but he had already mobilized every resource he had. Lee Zhi observed his expression, sighed, and took out a jade vial, crushing it. A small silver bee flew out, flickered a few times, then vanished back into the vial.

Lee Zhi said, “I’ve already asked an elder from my clan to come, but he won’t arrive for another two days. We’ll have to hold out on our own for the time being. That silver bee just now was a token given to me by a senior from the academies. It allows me to call upon his aid once. With this, we’ll have four World Rulers on our side as well. Since this location isn’t suitable for a prolonged battle between World Rulers, we should be able to hold our ground.”

Wei Yuan was touched. It went without saying that a token capable of summoning a World Ruler’s assistance was incredibly precious. Lee Zhi had produced it without a moment’s hesitation, used it immediately, and made no mention of compensation whatsoever.

Wei Yuan positioned the Zhen Shan Army on the leftmost flank to guard against the west. That direction was primarily occupied by the Wild Ancestor Tribe, but scout reports indicated no signs of a large army gathering there. Even after scouting 400 li deep, his forces had not detected any army aura anywhere.

When an army aura as vast as a mountain range appeared from the northwest, the Realm of Qingming was already fully prepared and braced for battle.

1. It’s totally not my fault-excuse activated. ☜