Chapter 183

Upon returning to the border domain, Xu Yi felt somewhat uneasy and asked, "Did I cause trouble?"

"No, what kind of trouble could you cause?"

"When I was arguing with the envoy, I shouldn't have said I was from the Xu family, and even less should I have told them my name."

That Xu Yi was so thoughtful actually saved Wei Yuan a lot of explaining.

In fact, even if Xu Yi had revealed her identity, it wouldn't have been a big deal. She was a scion of a powerful clan; never mind such a trivial matter as colluding with horse bandits, even if she had killed someone, as long as she could find a slightly plausible excuse, she wouldn't have to die. If she had killed a commoner, she wouldn't even need an excuse—she could just pay some money to settle it, and it wouldn't even be much.

Actually, on the way here, Wei Yuan had been pondering the intention behind Yuan Yuan Qingyan sending an envoy.

After thinking it over, Wei Yuan felt the greatest possibility was that they were fabricating charges against him; if he couldn't help but make a move, it would be exactly what they wanted.

The boundary stone was established by Wei Yuan. As the Lord of the border domain, Wei Yuan should be the Prefect, unchanging for a hundred years. Only after a hundred years, or if the Lordship was transferred to another, would the Prefect be changed. Only then would the Prefect be appointed by the imperial court, and the border domain would formally come under the control of the Great Tang.

This is the convention of the Great Tang: the pioneering Lord exclusively enjoys the proceeds of the first hundred years. After a hundred years, the ordinary boundary stone matures, the Lord is no longer needed, and the territory reverts to the Great Tang.

Wei Yuan established Qingming, and the interests involved were too great; even Prince Jin couldn't help but enter the fray to compete. If Wei Yuan were just a disciple of a small sect, they could have directly taken him down and been done with it. But Wei Yuan was a disciple of the Grand Void Palace and was highly valued by the sect, a figure who had caught the eye of the Immortal Lord, so he could not be dealt with casually.

If Prince Jin wanted to take Wei Yuan down, he had to find a plausible excuse. Thus came the appointments of Niu Niu Jinbao and Yuan Yuan Qingyan, and Yuan Yuan Qingyan had sent an envoy to provoke them, just wanting to find a scapegoat to pin a crime on Wei Yuan, so he wouldn't have to sacrifice himself like Niu Niu Jinbao.

Once he understood this point, Wei Yuan immediately had people chase down the envoy group and silence them all.

And it wasn't just a simple matter of killing them. All clothing, armor, and weapons were transported back to the border domain for centralized processing, while the bodies would be transported to a small lake in the northwest to be dumped. That small lake was outside the border domain, and countless bloodthirsty, ferocious creatures lived in the water. Two hundred bodies thrown in wouldn't last half an hour before vanishing without a trace, leaving nothing behind.

Since Yuan Yuan Qingyan wanted to pin a crime on Wei Yuan, Wei Yuan would leave him with no evidence.

From now on, not a single envoy sent here would be able to return alive. Just like that envoy from before, even if his eyes were gouged out and his tongue cut off, there were Daoist techniques that could heal him. Even if he died, as long as there was a wisp of a remnant soul in the body, or if someone in the team had soul-reaping methods to take the remnant soul, they could still extract quite a bit of information upon returning—these were all human witnesses.

Wei Yuan wanted to ensure all envoys had a one-way trip, so Yuan Yuan Qingyan would have neither human witnesses nor material evidence.

Of course, this was only a temporary solution and did not solve the root problem. For instance, if Wei Yuan were in Yuan Yuan Qingyan's position, he wouldn't even send an envoy; he would directly find a few subordinates he didn't like, kill them, throw the bodies outside the border domain, claim Wei Yuan killed them, and then report it directly.

The entire process wouldn't require the border domain's participation at all, so it wouldn't be subject to any interference.

You, Wei Yuan, feel wronged? No problem, you can go tell Prince Jin about any grievances.

Charges are easy to handle, but Yuan Yuan Qingyan's strategy of blocking the grain route was indeed extremely vicious, striking right at Wei Yuan's weak point. Wei Yuan pondered repeatedly but couldn't think of a feasible strategy. Actually, it wasn't that there were no ways to solve a grain famine in history books, but Wei Yuan didn't want to use them unless absolutely necessary.

Returning to the main peak, Wei Yuan asked Xu Yi if she had vented her anger. Xu Yi's small face flushed slightly, and she nodded, then fled in a panic as if startled.

Wei Yuan then left the main peak to find Sun Yu.

In a few days' time, Sun Yu's courtyard had expanded quite a bit. It was now a five-layered courtyard, and he had opened up a garden where he had transplanted dozens of types of Western Region plants.

A new pond had been dug in the courtyard, with over a dozen various creatures swimming inside; only three looked like fish, while the rest were bizarrely shaped and looked ferocious at a glance.

The pond full of fish and strange creatures seemed to coexist peacefully, each one lazy and only moving occasionally. But in Wei Yuan's eyes, everything in this pond possessed a thick, dark green aura; they were actually all spiritual objects. There was murderous intent lurking everywhere among them, and each one was cautiously looking for the flaws of the other creatures.

Sun Yu walked out of the room, carrying a large piece of pork, and casually threw it into the fish pond.

High splashes of water suddenly exploded in the fish pond, and countless figures shuttled back and forth like lightning; that piece of pork vanished instantly, meat and bones alike!

As the water columns fell back, those dozen or so aquatic creatures returned to their state of peaceful coexistence. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Wei Yuan wouldn't have believed that these things had torn apart and swallowed half a piece of pork in less than a breath's time. Never mind ordinary creatures, even a cultivator with a perfected Body Forging Realm would be in grave danger if they fell into this pond.

Sun Yu was still busy treating illnesses and saving people every day, and Wei Yuan didn't know where he had gotten these things.

Seeing Wei Yuan, Sun Yu wiped his hands and asked, "Why are you here?"

"There's a major matter I'd like to ask Master Sun for help with."

Sun Yu let Wei Yuan into the room. After entering, Wei Yuan explained the current situation of the grain shortage and then asked if Sun Yu had any ideas.

Sun Yu then said, "The best way is naturally to grow grain yourself, and you must grow the specialty grain of the Western Regions. These past few days, I have been researching the specialty medicinal herbs of the Western Regions, and actually, I also happened to study the physical properties of the spiritual plants here. Some medicinal herbs and grains are only a thin line apart. However, the living environments of the Shaman tribe and the human race are too different; the several types of toxins universally contained in all things in this world are essential for the Shaman tribe, but for humans, they are deadly poisons." Sun Yu had tried transplanting over a dozen types of medicinal herbs into the border domain, wanting to observe their changes. But the time was still short, and results were still far off.

After discussing with Sun Yu for a while, Wei Yuan also learned that when humans pioneered in the Western Regions in the past, they basically converted the heaven and earth before switching to human grain; the Shaman tribe's food had not yet been successfully transplanted.

Humans had to import a large amount of medicinal herbs from the Shaman tribe every year, among which several types could be called immortal medicine, but the purpose was actually the unique toxins and heaven and earth spiritual energy within them.

As for animals, the options were more numerous; several types of frogs and fish were barely edible. But the easiest to obtain, and which caused no issues when eaten, was a beetle the size of a palm. It was the same type of beetle Wei Yuan had often seen in Quliu Town. The locals liked to roast them to eat.

Sun Yu's original intention in transplanting medicinal herbs and raising ferocious fish and beasts was not to find better medicine, but to search for ferocious toxins in preparation for future revenge.

Chatting along the way, Wei Yuan discovered that the Dao foundation of Sun Yu's lineage had more or less to do with medicine. Sun Yu's Dao foundation was a pill furnace; no matter what elixir it was, its medicinal properties would become a bit more intense after being processed by his Dao foundation. However, it would be a huge mistake to think Sun Yu couldn't fight.

Sun Yu's Dao foundation could be dismantled into three parts: pill fire, pill furnace, and the elixir within the furnace, each with its own wonderful use. Among them, the pill fire was mixed with poisons Sun Yu had studied for many years, which were good at destroying Dao foundations; the pill furnace had great power when smashed at people; as for the elixir in the furnace, whether it was good medicine or poison, it could be turned into the appearance of a rare, world-renowned elixir, complete with pill patterns and pill charm, making it impossible to guard against.

However, there were many people in the border domain who could fight, so Sun Yu wasn't needed for the time being, and the enemies hadn't died that miserably yet.

Wei Yuan coming to find Sun Yu this time was not because he held hope for his few days of research, but because he wanted to explore another possibility.

Wei Yuan's expression was serious as he said, "I want to know, what should we do if the worst-case scenario happens and we don't have a single mouthful of food left?"

!.

Sun Yu was silent for a moment and said, "Do you really want me to say it?"

Wei Yuan nodded.

Sun Yu sat up straight and pointed outside the courtyard, where the morgue was. Although the Shaman tribe's bodies in the morgue had all been cleared away and it was now just an empty lot, Wei Yuan understood what Sun Yu meant.

Sun Yu said, "I have studied all the Shaman tribes, among which the Poison Lizard is the most useless; its entire body is highly toxic and carries deadly diseases that, once triggered, have no cure. There is very little that can be used by ordinary Shaman warriors, but some internal organs can be used, such as the liver. The best to use are the Shaman warriors and the personal guards of the Great Shamans; almost all their internal organs can be used, and the brain is also highly nourishing."

This conclusion surprised Wei Yuan; he had originally thought the order should be the other way around. However, Sun Yu was an authority in this regard, so Wei Yuan accepted his conclusion.

Sun Yu said meaningfully, "In war, there are always deaths. From the perspective of heaven and earth, all living things are equal; those who do not become immortals are all ants. So if we talk about what can be used, naturally, the parts of humans are the most usable."

Wei Yuan was silent for a moment before saying, "Is there no other way?"

"There is one more method that can slightly relieve the immediate urgency. But it treats the symptoms, not the root cause."

"Please speak." Wei Yuan felt he had to grasp at every straw now.

Sun Yu said, "I happen to have found several types of powerful medicinal herbs that can be used to concoct a special sleeping drug; one drop can knock out hundreds or thousands of ordinary people, and they won't wake up for at least several days. The body's consumption while unconscious is very small. When the grain is truly cut off, we can gather the people who aren't needed for the time being and have them take the sleeping drug. This way, we can at least hold out for ten more days."

"How much of this sleeping drug is there, and will there be any consequences after taking it?"

"I don't know the consequences yet, but the few people who tested the medicine are all still alive. As for the dosage, I'll open a few more furnaces, and it should be enough to knock out tens of thousands of people."

Wei Yuan's brows relaxed; this was the first piece of good news he had heard in two days.

Seeing Wei Yuan's expression, Sun Yu asked, "Is the grain really going to be cut off?"

"It's not certain yet, but the opponent has already cut off all our grain routes, so I must prepare for the worst."

Leaving Sun Yu's residence, Wei Yuan took another look at the grain fields before returning to the main peak. Actually, he knew there was one more place with grain, and that was the military camp of Western Jin.

Wei Yuan opened the map and slowly drew two arcs, finally converging behind Quliu Town, enclosing the entire town within them.

When it truly came to the point of running out of grain, Wei Yuan was definitely not a pedantic person; he would rather lead over a hundred thousand people to die on the battlefield than starve to death.

At that time, Wei Yuan would let Yuan Yuan Qingyan know just how many loopholes his thousands-of-miles-long defense line had. He would also let him know how cruel a real battlefield was. A mad dog is only mad because it hasn't been beaten hard enough.

(End of chapter)