Chapter 179: Magistrate of Yong'an

With nearly one hundred thousand people trailing northward, it was naturally impossible to move quickly.

Wei Yuan had only given them a quarter of an hour to pack their belongings, yet many were still draped in items from head to toe, a posture of choosing money over their lives. Had he given them any more time, they surely would have dismantled their very sheds to carry away.

As they marched north, the knights remained silent and impartial; anyone who walked too slowly was met with a whip.

Those who dared to throw a tantrum or roll on the ground were whipped until half-dead. Those beaten too severely or too exhausted to walk could ride in carts, but they had to discard everything they carried. Everything—even immortal silver was forbidden.

These meager personal belongings were clearly beneath the notice of the Maofei Zhan Tian Knights. The immortal silver was tossed onto the ground, and no one else in the procession was permitted to pick it up.

Consequently, many people silently discarded their excess burdens, keeping only their final, most precious items.

Wei Yuan did not travel slowly with the main force; instead, he returned to the realm first. This time, he had plundered eighty thousand people in one go, and the total number of mortals in the entire realm was about to exceed one hundred and forty thousand. How to settle so many mortals was a major matter.

Yong'an City was already saturated, so Wei Yuan had newly planned five sites for city construction. After this group migrated, they would be settled separately in these five locations. All five were on the edge of the realm, encircling the central realm. If there were a foreign invasion, these five new cities would be the first line of defense.

Upon returning to the realm, Wei Yuan discovered a new spark of vitality. It came from the medicinal garden, where a Sky Star Tianxing Longkui had finally sprouted!

After Wei Yuan finished arranging the settlement of the mortals, he rushed to the medicinal garden at the first opportunity and saw a new sprout emerging from the ground. The sprout was star-blue, but there was a distinct platinum line on its first leaf.

Wei Yuan remembered that the thousand-year-old Sky Star Tianxing Longkui leaf he had seen at Bao Yun's residence did not have a platinum line. Could it be that this Sky Star Tianxing Longkui, which sprouted first, had also changed?

Wei Yuan carefully examined the sprout, but spiritual plants were not his strength, and he could not discern anything.

Yet at this moment, a sprout also emerged on a patch of open ground beside the Jade Mountain in his Dao Foundation. The leaf also had a platinum silk thread, exactly the same as the sprout in the medicinal garden.

As soon as the sprout in the Dao Foundation appeared, it began to exhale wisps of pure vital spiritual energy, shortening the time for Wei Yuan to cultivate into the middle stage by more than ten days. Wei Yuan was both surprised and delighted; he immediately searched carefully in his Dao Foundation and, a moment later, indeed discovered a patch of soil beside this sprout that was exceptionally abundant and fertile.

Beneath this patch of land, another sprout was gestating, its aura deep and possessing a sense of ancient extinction. This aura was extremely unique and almost impossible to appear on a spiritual plant, so Wei Yuan could not be mistaken—it was another Sky Star Tianxing Longkui.

Wei Yuan searched carefully nearby with his spiritual sense and finally discovered more than a dozen faint sparks of vitality. Although these sparks were very weak, they already possessed distinct wood-attribute Dao power; clearly, they corresponded to the Wood Spirit Ginseng.

It seemed that the spiritual plants growing in the Qingming Realm would slowly appear in correspondence within his Myriad Miles of Rivers and Mountains, simultaneously accelerating the speed of spiritual energy exhalation and speeding up his cultivation.

Around these spiritual plants, more wasteland was clearly transforming into fertile soil. But that withered branch was still rooted in the platinum water pool; occasionally, a tiny bit of vitality leaped, but when Wei Yuan tried to perceive it carefully, he could perceive nothing at all.

Wei Yuan withdrew from his sea of consciousness and continued to arrange matters within the realm.

The priority now was to open more spiritual fields. The first batch of Liang rice had already grown to over a foot tall and was beginning to head; it would be ready for harvest in another month. Beside the first batch of fields, Wei Yuan arranged for cultivators to continue clearing, directly increasing the number of spiritual fields to five thousand mu.

The Liang rice seeds within a radius of several hundred miles had all been thoroughly scavenged by Wei Yuan, and the inventory of the Ningxi Xu family had also been taken by him. For the time being, it was impossible to expand to a larger scale.

After dealing with the spiritual plants, Wei Yuan plunged into the organization of the troops. This was a massive project; theoretically, in the Qingming Realm, anyone from eighty years old down to eight months old could have combat effectiveness, so it was necessary to organize them all into an army. They would labor in peacetime and take the field in wartime.

Not knowing how long he had been busy, Wei Yuan had already recorded the one thousand and twenty-second squad leader in his mind. This was the most basic unit of the realm's military system, the leader managing ten soldiers.

Currently, he was organizing the troops already within the realm; soon, the large force from Quliu Town would arrive, and he would have to organize several tens of thousands more troops.

On the road leading to Yong'an City, a troop appeared.

Yong'an City had been established for less than a month, and this road leading outside the realm had been pressed out by passing pedestrians and carts during this period. The so-called road was actually just two deep ruts, full of mud and deep puddles.

The guarding foot soldiers were covered in mud, and only a few mounted military officers looked somewhat neat. The carriages shook constantly, emitting creaking sounds, not knowing when they would suddenly fall apart.

Suddenly, more than a dozen knights appeared ahead, rushing toward the carriage troop. They blocked the path and shouted: "Who are you people, and what are you doing here?"

The guarding officer's face darkened, and he shouted: "Are you blind? Can't you recognize the flag, can't you see the armor on the military lords? This general is under the order of the imperial court to escort Lord Niu to his post. Who are you people, daring to intercept an imperial official? Are you all tired of living?"

The knights blocking the road looked at each other, and their momentum weakened slightly. One said: "We are the Yong'an City Defense Army, ordered to patrol the border. But we haven't heard of any official coming to take office. How about this, you wait here first, and we will report to our captain to see what the captain says."

At this time, someone in the carriage said: "This official is the parent official of Yong'an, how come I don't know that Yong'an has any City Defense Army?"

The patrol captain heard this and scolded: "Nonsense! Our city lord is clearly Lord Xiao, and if we have a parent official, it is also Lord Xiao. Where did this Lord Niu come from?"

The carriage door opened, and a burly man with a fierce face walked out; the official's court robes were worn by him with an air of a bandit. The official saw that there were two female cultivators in the patrol team, and his eyes lit up immediately, saying: "Bold commoners, daring to impersonate government troops! Come here, take them all down for me, and kill anyone who resists!"

The guarding soldiers received the order and immediately swarmed up.

This patrol squad in Yong'an City was only at the Body Forging cultivation level, while the government captain was already at the Dao Foundation level. In the blink of an eye, several members of the patrol squad were beaten down. The remaining patrol members were shocked, turned around and ran, while shooting a warning whistle into the sky, which exploded into a red firework in the air.

The official saw that everyone wanted to escape, grinned hideously, leaped up, condensed a bear claw the size of a millstone, flew dozens of feet, and knocked two of the female cultivators who were escaping off their horses.

The remaining patrol members did not dare to stop to save people and accelerated all the way to escape far away. The official, in front of all the officers and soldiers, tore open the clothes of the two female cultivators and then dragged them into the carriage.

The captain was stunned.

Although such things were not uncommon, he had never heard of anyone doing it so openly in front of hundreds of officers and soldiers like this.

The official had one foot already in the carriage and looked back, saying: "Captain Liu, do you still not understand what it means for the higher-ups to send us to this place to take office? If we die at our post, our families can still get some blessings. If we return alive, the best outcome is to die silently in prison."

Captain Liu was stunned for a moment, then showed a bitter smile.

"Don't blame me, Old Niu, for not reminding you; it's death either way, so these two chicks are our last bit of fun. If you don't come, I won't care about you!"

Captain Liu gritted his teeth and also drilled into the carriage; angry curses immediately rang out from inside the carriage.

!.

At this time, Wei Yuan was constantly making marks on the map, planning which troop was training where and where they were stationed. He suddenly sensed a commotion in the City Defense Army over in Yong'an City, which was rushing out of the city on a large scale.

Wei Yuan frowned, put down his work, and flew toward Yong'an City.

The destination of those city guards was outside the realm, and Wei Yuan's perception outside the realm was very vague. At this moment, there was no large-scale enemy army, nor were there powerful cultivators or demonic beasts.

In the blink of an eye, Wei Yuan flew to the scene of the incident and saw dozens of government armored soldiers below forming a circular formation, confronting hundreds of city guards. Among the government troops were two Dao Foundation cultivators, one of whom was wearing Xijin official robes, the same color as Sun Sun Chaoen's, and was also a county magistrate. Dozens of government soldiers were lying on the ground around, groaning constantly.

The burly man wearing official robes was jumping and shouting: "You rebels! I am an imperial official personally appointed by the Prince of Jin. You commoners beating this official is a capital crime that will wipe out your nine clans! I have saved the life of the Right Minister; if anything happens to me, the Right Minister will definitely have all of you in the city buried with me!"

The official was making a scene, and the City Defense Army was somewhat hesitant. Although the folk customs in the Western Regions were fierce, a few years ago this area was still under the rule of Xijin, and it was not impossible for the imperial court to send people back now. No matter how fierce the bandits were, they would have to lower themselves by three points in front of the government.

Wei Yuan saw Yun Yun Feifei in the crowd and called her over, asking: "What's going on?"

Yun Yun Feifei said: "This guy surnamed Niu brought more than a hundred government soldiers straight to Yong'an, saying he was going to take office in Yong'an. They were intercepted and questioned by our patrol team on the way. Who knew that this guy saw that there were two girls in the patrol team who were somewhat beautiful, and he actually started to beat up the patrol team on the spot and bullied those two girls! The patrol members who escaped reported the news, and then the city guards on duty in the city all rushed out, and I just arrived too."

Wei Yuan looked at the smashed carriages not far away, and then saw the two young female cultivators with disheveled clothes. These two girls could only be said to be decent-looking, and as Body Forging cultivators, their figures were not bad.

At this moment, they were not crying, but staring at the official and the captain, their eyes full of hatred. The folk customs in the Western Regions were unrestrained, and there had been years of war, so that little thing between men and women didn't count for anything at all. The first reaction of the two young female cultivators after being humiliated was not to cry, but to pick up knives and hack back.

Wei Yuan said to Yun Yun Feifei: "Go and grab that guy."

Yun Yun Feifei nodded, her figure flashed and she appeared in the formation of government soldiers. The official and the captain tried their best to resist, but their Dao power was too far from Yun Yun Feifei's, and all their Dao techniques were washed away by Yun Yun Feifei's magic power.

Yun Yun Feifei carried one in each hand and threw them in front of Wei Yuan.

"Who are you?" Wei Yuan asked.

The official had thick bones, and his face and body were full of flesh; he stiffened his neck and said: "Your grandfather's surname is Niu, and his name is Niu Jinbao. If you have the ability, chop me down now. I am the county magistrate personally appointed by the Great King. If you kill me, you won't live long either. Your grandfather will be waiting for you on the road to the Yellow Springs!"

Wei Yuan frowned slightly and asked a few more questions, feeling that this guy seemed to be a fool. Back and forth, he kept saying that he had saved the life of the Right Minister, had been received by the Prince of Jin, and had been awarded a few pots of imperial wine.

At this time, Yun Yun Feifei searched the official's luggage and found an official seal and an appointment edict. The official seals of the Nine Kingdoms of the Great Tang each had a fixed style and contained Dao rhyme, making them difficult to forge.

This Niu Niu Jinbao was indeed the county magistrate of Yong'an County appointed by the Prince of Jin.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 180 =====