Chapter 291: Cold Disaster

In the fourth year of the Jitai era, winter brought a snow disaster to the north, collapsing countless houses and affecting tens of millions of people. The Shanhai Four Provinces were all struck by the disaster; the imperial court was powerless to provide relief, and countless commoners froze or starved to death, with people resorting to cannibalism.

The northern grassland tribes also suffered a great disaster, with countless cattle and sheep freezing to death. The various tribes were consolidated by their Khan, intending to cross the Huanghe and head south.

It was not just the north; the south also experienced a rare, heavy snowfall.

People always say that a timely snow promises a good harvest, but right at their own doorsteps, the snow had already reached their knees.

This was still the result of Xu Jia ordering Ao Jin to regulate the Water Qi, yet now even the Xin River had frozen over, solid enough for people to stand on it and jump about.

Meanwhile, Xu Jia was on the mountain, disregarding the bitter cold to observe the fortunes of the world.

The world was in complete chaos.

Within the Dharma Realm, a terrifying demon was wreaking havoc in the north. This was not a Demon God descended from the heavens, but rather the commoners' imagination and descriptions of the cold and hunger from the snow disaster—feeling so cold and so hungry before death...

According to northern grassland mythology, whenever it snows, it must be the Snow Goddess spreading the snow. Taoism also says the Snow God is a goddess.

Yet this Demon God did not have a female form; it was chaotic and cruel, born in the winter and disappearing when the ice and snow arrived, but only after freezing millions of living people to death.

This is a "Heavenly Disaster."

Human effort is of no avail.

It is not that the demon appears first and then the disaster; rather, the disaster exists first, and only then does the demon grow, borrowing the disaster to thrive.

Furthermore, this demon is one that Xu Jia cannot subdue.

The Dao of Heaven operates in cycles, beginning again and again.

There are centuries where the temperature is warm and the climate heats up, and there are centuries where it is cold and the climate cools down.

"Preparations must be made in advance."

By observing the snow, Xu Jia could see that the coming year would bring several disasters: first, the melting snow would trigger floods, which is inevitable; second, a late spring cold snap would freeze the seedlings, and even if replanted, it might be too late; third, if there is much snow in winter, there must be drought in summer—after the snowmelt floods, drought will surely follow.

Not to mention that after spring begins, a large number of corpses will start to rot, subsequently breeding plagues.

Xu Jia could say that he had basically seen the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."

Plague, Famine, War, and Death.

If it were only like this for the first year, it would be one thing, but Xu Jia observed the signs of the heavens and the Qi of the earth, and had already calculated the path of the Dragon Vein.

This situation will repeat for more than five years. Unless there is someone with great Divine Ability who can heal the heavens, correct this "biased Qi" of heaven and earth, and turn chaos into order, establishing the righteous Qi of heaven and earth.

If one discusses it in terms of "Heaven-Man Resonance."

Then it is because the Daning Dynasty has lost its virtue, the Mandate of Heaven is gone, and the various heroes are chasing the deer.

"Fellow Daoist, have you come to observe the celestial phenomena again?" Zhang Fajing's Primordial Spirit, draped in golden light, arrived beside Xu Jia.

"Last time, Fellow Daoist made a vow, and the ten thousand gods responded, with the heavens and earth echoing; it could not have been more solemn," Zhang Fajing said. "Yet in the blink of an eye, we have these billions of kalpas, and all sentient beings suffer. Fellow Daoist is determined to attain Didao, but now that this Heavenly Disaster has struck, millions and tens of millions of lives are helpless; I fear this is also a Calamity for you, Fellow Daoist."

Xu Jia said, "If this disaster and calamity were truly a test for me alone to become an Immortal, then it would be my fault, my karma, and my excessive desires being unsatisfied, leading to punishment from above. But no matter how you say it, a hundred times or a thousand times, those are not the reasons."

"Heaven and earth do not shift according to the human will."

"As for life and death."

"The Yinfu Sutra says: The living are the root of the dead, the dead are the root of the living; grace is born from harm, and harm is born from grace."

"Since life and death are interdependent, how can Heavenly Disasters and man-made calamities not be the very meaning of where grace and righteousness exist?"

"What does Heavenly Master Zhang think?" Xu Jia asked in return.

"Indeed, only through chaos can there be redistribution, can there be subversion and overturning. Disaster is the beginning of new life, and also the source for reshaping morality and systems."

Xu Jia nodded: "I intend to support my father in accomplishing something."

"That sounds like something you would do," Zhang Fajing said. "Though I thought you would establish a Dao Kingdom yourself."

"The Central Plains are not suitable for building a Dao Kingdom," Xu Jia said. "The Tao Te Ching says: 'Small state, few people.' And a Dao Kingdom practices non-action; at most, the tax is one in ten, at least one in thirty, or one in fifty... If the tax is low, it is not enough to support Daoist soldiers and armies; if the tax is high, the commoners suffer hardship, so how can one speak of governing the country with Daoism?"

"Secondly, the Central Plains have had their own history since ancient times. If I establish a Dao Kingdom, then the Daoists will be traitors to the country. Look at those monks and Daoists, occupying how much farmland and collecting how much usury? Not to mention others, just speaking of your Longhu Mountain, I fear that the hundred thousand qing of fertile land at the foot of the mountain all bear the surname Zhang."

"If I establish a country in the Central Plains, I will surely be attacked by the various heroes, who will think I am of the same ilk as the Yellow Heaven Sect or the Longevity Sect. After all, whenever the end of a dynasty approaches, Daoists are sure to rebel, and they have already ruined the reputation of the faith."

"It is better to first explore overseas. If I achieve good governance, then I can return to govern the Central Plains. At the very least, these two counties of Yushan and Dexing will never be abandoned. And if things truly descend into chaos, I can advance to seize Xinzhou and Raozhou, move into the Huai Region, and encompass Nanchang, Wuhan, and Changsha. Governing these lands, which are the granaries of the world, I will work hard to farm, develop, and then expand outward one by one."

Zhang Fajing was somewhat speechless. Why are you bringing this up? Dragging my family into it? However, Xu Jia's words did have some truth to them; religious rebellions in the Central Plains have no soil, and the reputation is already ruined.

It is better to go overseas.

He thought for a moment and said: "What if my Longhu Mountain also wanted to go overseas to build a Dao Kingdom?"

"There are many islands and lands overseas, enough for all the Daoist lineages in the world to build Dao Kingdoms. Didn't the Longevity Sect build a Dao Kingdom overseas?"

"The Longevity Sect's Dao Kingdom..." Zhang Fajing gave a light huff: "That is a Demon Kingdom."

"Where are they?"

"I do not know either. I only heard it is in the East Sea, perhaps Ryukyu, or some island near Japan."

Xu Jia had a place in his heart suitable for farming: Java.

Java has a suitable climate and fertile soil; without needing much fertilizer, one can have three harvests a year through crop rotation.

The Central Plains will have at least five years of hardship ahead; the cost of farming will be enormous, and the Heavenly Disaster climate will destroy people's hopes and expectations over and over again. There will be a huge gap in food supply. The sooner one farms overseas and transports food and disaster victims, the sooner one can build a country overseas.

It is not difficult for Xu Jia to go to Java, or even to unify the Southeast Asia archipelago through Java, but the shipping industry remains a problem.

"Let's see how you fare first, then my Longhu Mountain will consider it," Zhang Fajing said. "But in the end, one cannot just settle in one corner." Xu Jia nodded: "I am aware of this."

Zhang Fajing's Primordial Spirit dissipated, and Xu Jia also stood up, no longer observing the vast, white expanse.

The heavy snow sealed the mountain, but the Shanju Guan on the mountainside was quite warm because of the "coal stoves."

Before winter, charcoal was sold at a high price, so merchants brought in coal. Coal was cheap but had a foul odor, yet the Salt and Iron Bureau had invented a "desulfurization" method, which was actually like refining charcoal—steaming it again in a kiln.

The technology Xu Jia provided had already yielded preliminary results at the Salt and Iron Bureau, including blowing hot air to raise furnace temperatures, and coking coal; these were the foundations of "great steel production."

What's more, there was the blessing of "Daoism" involved. Some key technologies could actually be "thought into existence." With folk science mixed with civil law, side-door paths, and the wisdom of the Miscellaneous School, they were already able to directly refine "steel."

In addition, the most basic "lathe" already had a prototype. Precision parts were hard to make, but manual labor could do it. After all, some tool-like things could be "refined into Magic Tools," such as wrenches, hammers, and engraving knives... If one could carve stone and jade, why couldn't one carve steel? It was just a pity that there was only one such Salt and Iron Bureau, and its production capacity was truly limited.

But even if limited, revealing a bit of these technologies for civilian use was enough to benefit the people.

For example, the coal stove was very popular in the Shanju Guan; it could boil water and provide warmth. It could even be used for alchemy.

For instance, the newly refined "Three-Eyed Gun" has also become a new Magic Tool for the Daoists of Shanju Guan who practice the Thunder Law.

After all, once the first one was made, the second and third were not difficult. There was no need for Xu Jia to promote the fact that he had used a Firearm to blast a thousand-year-old black fish spirit to pieces; it was already famous everywhere.

Different from before, there are now over five hundred more young Daoist acolytes at Shanju Guan, all around eleven or twelve years old.

At this moment, many of them are standing in the plaza in nothing but thin tunics, practicing their stances.

Originally, the Daoist temple could not house them, so they were given blueprints and told to build a dormitory themselves at the foot of the mountain on flat ground; it was a circular, three-story building, not made with steel bars, but with bamboo as the reinforcement, fired bricks, burnt ash, and a mixture of rice straw, yellow mud, and boiled rice paste as the adhesive.

Although they were young, they worked quickly; from the Mid-Autumn Festival sacrifice until now, from nothing to something, excluding the time spent listening to scriptures and lectures, and practicing at the Zi and Wu hours, there was actually not much spare time, yet in less than three months, they had finished building this circular dormitory.

It does not look particularly beautiful, but it is enough to accommodate over a thousand people; designed according to the sixty-four hexagrams, each floor has sixty-four rooms, making one hundred and ninety-two rooms across three floors, which also includes small kitchens, staircases, and toilets as partitions for every eight rooms.

Each room is designed as an eight-person dormitory with four bunk beds. Therefore, there is no problem with housing a thousand people.

The so-called plaza is the "circle" in the center of this dormitory building. (The kind of building seen in *Big Fish & Begonia*)

Jiang Qi and Shen Bao, because they received the steamed buns steamed with Xu Jia's Celestial Dipper Qi, gained the strength of an ox and a tiger, and thus have become the "leaders" among these students.

The stance they are standing in now is the "Living Qi Stance" that Xu Jia has modified; it is a stance method that stimulates the Vitality within the body and promotes growth, and the increase in strength from this stance is not the primary goal, but rather to ensure that a person's innate potential is fully excavated.

In essence, it has the effect of the "Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic" and the "Marrow-Cleansing Classic," the purpose being to ensure these youths do not grow up stunted.

After practicing the stance method for an hour, everyone was ravenously hungry.

At this time, an eight-foot-tall burly man was seen pushing a cart over, on which was a large pot of soup with "Dragon-Tiger Innate Soup" written on it.

The flesh and blood of those small Flood Dragons from Poyang, whatever could be used, was not wasted and was all sent here, then paired with tiger bone, Ginseng, and lingzhi to become external medicine to nourish them.

The youths' eyes shone with intensity as they took their bowls to get soup; there was no meat in the soup, as the meat had been stewed away under high pressure, and the soup was in the form of an oil paste, turning into a jelly-like state after cooling.

After one mouthful of the fresh soup, their faces turned red and smoke rose from the tops of their heads.

The burly man laughed: "You are catching a good time; when I took the Martial Scholar exam back then, my family supported my martial arts training, but they only managed to find bear heart, tiger bone, and leopard gallbladder, all of which cost over a hundred taels of silver, and that spirit fish produced in Poyang was something I only had a quota of two per year for after I became an official, to grow flesh, blood, and essence."

"What is this you are eating? It is a Flood Dragon, a Flood Dragon from Poyang Lake; even the Emperor might not get to eat a mouthful, and it has ended up in your bellies!"

"After you eat, you must practice your kung fu hard and cultivate your essence and Qi, so that in the future, you can become useful people and attain superior merit."

"After you finish the soup, go and practice the Old Farmer Technique for me, take your hoes, and go till the land!"

The soil is hard in winter, but it is better for tilling, as it can turn up insect eggs to be frozen to death.

The youths then each shouldered a hoe and went to practice the Old Farmer Technique. This Old Farmer Technique is for growing strength.

However, the land they till is not ordinary land; it counts as "Spirit Fields."

Yushan has a Mountain God, and the Mountain God can construct an External Scene Blessed Land; this is the Achievement of Chang Yu.

It is difficult for ordinary people to farm it; one must have "faith" while farming, because the so-called Spirit Field is the Dharma Realm Blessed Field combined with the reality of the land, relying on the Mountain God's divine power and the Earth Vein's earth Qi.

If ordinary people plant it, it cannot be counted as a "Spirit Field"; it must be planted by a person who practices the Dao. Why? Because "farming and planting vegetables" is also cultivation, and the thought and intent are within it.

The Old Farmer Technique perfectly conforms to this; it is a farming stance method, which is both a Life Merit martial art and possesses the artistic conception of "farming."

These youths might be reciting classics, debating, or even singing loudly while farming, and only in this way can they also till the Dharma Realm Blessed Field.

"This patch is all for planting Solomon's Seal; Solomon's Seal is the food of Immortals and also a bait medicine; it is the Small Medicine you will practice with in the future. You must be careful; once it grows, there will be Daoist masters to teach you the skills of alchemy and medicine making."

After farming for an hour, these people stopped; after all, they are youths, and too much is as bad as too little.

Besides these, there are actually Daoist music classes teaching music theory, cultivation theory classes, Daoist Physician classes, divination classes... but there might only be one session every ten days, meaning such courses only happen once every ten days; if one is truly interested, they need to self-study and then seek out the corresponding Daoist to ask for guidance.

Xu Jia stood on the circular dormitory, looking at this group of youths.

"Will they be five hundred Earth Immortals?" Xu Jia was not clear in his heart what kind of Achievement they would have in the future, but their fates were ultimately turned upside down compared to before.

Back then, Xu Fu took young boys and girls to go overseas to seek Immortal Medicine; Xu Jia felt that they might also be the reserve talent of the Dao Kingdom, his own direct line.

Descending from the circular dormitory again, Hu Jinhua found him; she had turned into the appearance of an old grandmother again, as this is easy to gain people's trust, but she has lived in luxury for quite some time, and with the Fox Immortal Hall having plenty of Incense Fire, she has also stepped into the "Divine Immortal Dao" and is on the right track of cultivation.

She said Joyously: "The little mice of Kan Yinwu found a merchant who once went to Nanyang to do business; he has seven large ships, enough to face the winds and waves of the sea, and the disciple has already started to contact him."

"How was it discovered?"

"There were also mice on the ship," Hu Jinhua said: "After that mouse got off the ship, it was bragging to the local mice, and Kan Yinwu found out, which is how we learned that this person had been overseas."

"Yushan is managed very well by Jinchan Duobao, so there are many merchants; this merchant deals in the spice and wood business, and the construction of the Sanqing Palace on the mountain requires a lot of wood, which is already rare locally and hard to find even in the deep mountains and old forests of Yunnan and Guizhou; this merchant heard that we were short of good wood and came to negotiate on his own. But we only knew he had wood before, not that his wood was brought from overseas."

(End of this chapter)