Chapter 111: Departure for Battle

"I can do accounting!" Mei Xuan thought for a moment and said.

"Accounting? Let's forget about it. I don't have that many spirit stones to account for anyway. If you have free time, you should go help out at the herb garden or my Hundred Flowers Garden!" Wei Yuning said.

Mei Xuan had never come to be a proper sect disciple in the first place, and likewise, Wei Yuning had no intention of making her one. Given that, Manor Master Mei only needed to coast along and do the bare minimum; providing wood spirits was her real job.

"Alright! Don't worry, Uncle-Master, I'm very capable. Anything to do with planting, I know it all. Also, I really am good at accounting!" Mei Xuan said.

"Understood, Miss Mei. If it ever comes to that, I'll ask for your help!" Wei Yuning said sincerely.

With arrangements settled on this end, Mei Xuan immediately sent a letter bird to her manor steward to inform him of the situation here.

Half a shichen later, a reply arrived from the manor—using, surprisingly, an expedited silver talisman bird.

The voice that came from within was that of an old man weeping with joy: "Manor Master, just stay in the immortal sect. Don't come back. This old servant will guard the manor for you!"

"Why doesn't he want you to go back?" Wei Yuning asked curiously.

"Uncle Liu knows about Nie Ziqing's matter, and he's always been worried about my safety!" Mei Xuan said.

The exhaustion of the journey plus all the back-and-forth traveling had left Mei Xuan already thoroughly worn out. Now that she had reported her safety to the manor, she was desperate to go to sleep immediately.

Wei Yuning had originally intended to escort her back to the valley of the Pill Peak, but Mei Xuan refused and went over alone.

With nothing pressing at the moment, Wei Yuning went to the Hundred Flowers Garden to check on the situation of the moon-beast insects. In fact, the number of moon-beast insects in the Hundred Flowers Garden had already begun to increase, but to be safe, Wei Yuning did not disrupt the local population, and instead continued catching insects from the Pill Peak to supplement this side.

Walking slowly in the direction of the Fuying Grass, Wei Yuning fully activated his nasal passageway, sensing the presence of the moon-beast insects. At the same time, an invisible star-power sphere moved slowly underground, probing the size and number of the moon-beast insects.

After not seeing them for a few days, the number of moon-beast insects had increased somewhat more, and their sizes were generally larger than those at the pill workshop, mainly thanks to the abundant food in the Hundred Flowers Garden.

The stamen food provided by the spirit herbs determined the quantity and quality of the moon-beast insects, the amount of Fuying Grass determined their activity space, and the amount of Fuying Grass in turn depended on the spiritual energy supplied by the mineral vein. By now, as much Fuying Grass as possible had been planted atop the mineral vein within the Hundred Flowers Garden. At present, the number of moon-beast insects was far from reaching its upper limit, but once they began reproducing, it might take no more than three to five years to reach saturation. At that point, if he wanted to increase production further, the only option would be to expand the Hundred Flowers Garden along the mineral vein.

After observing the moon-beast insects, on a flat hillside in the Hundred Flowers Garden, Wei Yuning encountered the female cultivators of the Azure Luan Sect.

The female cultivators gathered in groups of three or five—some chatting, some cultivating, some enjoying the scenery—but none of them were working.

Only after asking Miss Feng Ming, who sat nearby with her eyes closed in rest, did he learn that all the work in the garden had already been finished.

If not for the concern that leaving early would be inappropriate, the female cultivators would have long since returned to their quarters to cultivate. After all, the terrain in the garden was open and exposed, far too unsecluded for entering a state of deep meditative cultivation.

Hearing this, Wei Yuning was also helpless.

The Hundred Flowers Garden was only a hundred mu in size, yet there were over seventy female cultivators working there, averaging just over one mu per person. The key point was that these were not ordinary mortal farmers, but Foundation Establishment cultivators, each one possessing boundless strength. When it came to actually getting things done, three or five professional farmers could not compare to a single one of them.

Fortunately, the Hundred Flowers Garden was quite special. Although the flagship product—the moon-beast insects—had not yet produced any output, the highly profitable spirit herbs had virtually no cost, which was enough to support everyone.

After Elder Xuchen rejected the spirit herbs from the Hundred Flowers Garden, the several alchemists newly found by Hong Le were very satisfied with the quality of the garden's spirit herbs, and the new sales channels were no longer a problem.

Seeing everyone idle with not enough work to go around, Wei Yuning naturally had no desire to be a capitalist of the spirit-beast world who exploited female cultivators, so he simply had Feng Ming tally up the workload and arranged for the female cultivators to take rotating shifts, dividing into multiple groups to work in the Hundred Flowers Garden.

Feng Ming and the female cultivators naturally welcomed this proposal with both hands.

In the end, the female cultivators were divided into five groups. Normally, they would rotate through work in order—one day on, four days off—with temporary adjustments during busy periods. Although their working hours were greatly reduced, not a single benefit was cut.

Such comfortable work, looking across the entire Cloud Concealment Sect, had no precedent.

Amid the lively, chirping voices of thanks from the female cultivators of the Azure Luan Sect, the generous and benevolent Boss Wei left the Hundred Flowers Garden and headed back to his quarters to cultivate.

During this period, the outer domain battlefield was the hottest topic of discussion.

From the sect ancestors at the top down to the hired hands and menial workers, there was no one who did not care. However, although many people discussed it with impassioned fervor, those who were genuinely interested in signing up accounted for only a very small fraction.

The disciples who had already signed up were both excited and worried, while those who had not signed up had mixed feelings in their hearts—not sure whether to feel envious or relieved.

Amid an atmosphere of anxious anticipation, on the next day—which was the last day of Geng Yue, the twenty-third day of the third month of the Bixi Island calendar year 7970, February thirtieth—the sect officially announced that the time of departure for the outer domain battlefield had been set.

The following day—the first of March—would be the day of formal departure.

The registered disciples would ride the sect's Flying Spirit Boat, first heading to Black Water Port in the Black Water Kingdom on the southern coast of Bixi Island, over fifteen thousand li away, then take a scheduled inter-island passenger sea vessel to an island further south, Ice Snow Island, where they would transfer at White Bear Port onto the official giant dragon ship of Beast King City in the spirit-beast world.

As for the subsequent itinerary, everything would be handled by Beast King City, so the Cloud Concealment Sect would not need to worry about it.

By the end of February thirtieth, the total number of sect disciples who had signed up was two thousand five hundred and seventy.

Early the next morning, all the sect disciples preparing to depart began to assemble. Liuyun Square was packed with departing disciples and those seeing them off—some crying, some laughing, some silent.

Just before boarding, the person in charge did a final head count.

Over three hundred people had temporarily withdrawn, while about a hundred or so had decided at the last minute to join, bringing the final number of departing members to two thousand three hundred and thirty-three.

Because this expedition was not compulsory, anyone could back out as long as they had not yet boarded the Flying Spirit Boat.

Among the departing sect disciples, Wei Yuning had very few acquaintances.

This was also because most of the friends he knew within the sect had been met at the matchmaking assembly. Due to their qualifications, these disciples had already begun preparing to find Dao companions or find a mortal to raise the next generation—they were all just coasting through life waiting to die, and very few were willing to do something as dangerous as going to the outer domain battlefield.

Among the people he knew, besides the two already-known acquaintances Qing Cong and Qing Yun, there were also Qing Sha of the Sword Hall and Qing Hu of the Spirit Beast Hall.

Qing Sha was an old acquaintance, though the two had little interaction, having only met a few times since the matchmaking assembly. Qing Sha's combat ability was quite impressive; he was a member of the hunting group, spending year-round killing wild beasts on the outer perimeter of the sect's mountain-guarding grand array. Unfortunately, due to insufficient qualifications, he could not meet the standard for inner sect disciples. So, this trip to the outer domain battlefield was an excellent opportunity for Qing Sha to enter the inner sect.