Chapter 214: Beating

The Nether Cold Realm cannot be visited for the time being; having caused such a big mess, Wei Yuan has to wait for the limelight to pass, and at the same time, make some targeted preparations.

Although he has only been to the Nether Cold Realm a few times, Wei Yuan's harvest has been quite a lot: a pair of high-rank magic treasure short blades, several thousand Nether flies, and a pile of Nether soil like a small mountain, which can be several hundred thousand catties. Of course, the biggest harvest is still that Primordial Spirit young girl and her Dao Foundation, Yin-Yang.

Compared to Yin-Yang, that pool of black water in Mount Yushan seems even more mysterious. The Eldest Senior Sister has already been here, but she simply cannot see through Mount Yushan and knows nothing about the black water inside, nor did she discover the shadow in the moon.

For the time being, Wei Yuan has put all his energy back into the realm. On one hand, he has to make wide connections with evil fate as the Eldest Senior Sister said, and on the other hand, as Zhang Sheng said, having more people under his rule can also increase the price of the Causality Great Curse. Now there are twelve thousand people in the realm, which has already contributed over a thousand strands of green energy to Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan estimates that if the Causality Great Curse falls at this time, these people will probably all be hit by the curse.

At this moment, the old problem is still in front of Wei Yuan: lack of food.

The food existing in the realm is only enough to maintain for five days, the Shaman tribe outside the realm is still eyeing covetously, and reinforcements are constantly being added in the camp. The main force of the Shaman tribe in the north is unknown, and it may appear outside the realm at any time.

Wei Yuan is currently implementing the hedgehog strategy. If the main force of the Shaman tribe really spares no cost and attacks with all its might, he definitely won't be able to beat them, and Wei Yuan will eventually have to pull up Qingming and run away. But before that, Wei Yuan wants to give the Shaman tribe a sufficiently heavy blow until all the civilians are fought to the end. With the blessing of all living beings, if all twelve thousand civilians are fought to the end, it is enough to gnaw away fifty thousand elite troops of the Shaman tribe.

The strategy is decided, and Wei Yuan finds Cui Yu to discuss the corresponding mobilization and deployment.

Wei Yuan plans to build a new batch of miniature firelocks loaded with two taels of medicine, with one for every civilian, regardless of gender, age, or seniority. According to Wei Yuan's words, it is so that when thieves come, everyone can have the power to resist.

However, Cui Yu is silent, and after a moment, he says, "Junior Brother, when we fought against Northern Liao, there was a saying that we wouldn't kill those who were not taller than the carriage wheels at the fiercest time. When fighting against the Shaman tribe, they won't kill women and children either, but will circle them up in preparation for use as sacrifices in the future. Although circling them up is no different from livestock, they can at least live for several more years. But we are doing this now, which is equivalent to pushing the old, young, and women to the front line, and they will die on the battlefield."

Wei Yuan says slowly, "Senior Brother, you also said that being caught by the Shaman tribe is like living like livestock; since that's the case, why live? It's better to die heroically! If Qingming is lost, none of these ten thousand civilians will live long. In my opinion, rather than living in vain, it's better to fight to the death, and there might still be a glimmer of hope."

Cui Yu says, "The people in the Broken Realm lived in vain for a few years, didn't they wait for the reopening of the counties by Qingming and Western Jin? Living in vain at least has a chance; if you die, you have nothing. I think we cannot make choices for them."

Wei Yuan frowns, "Senior Brother is decisive in killing when dealing with enemies and noble family opponents, and strict in military discipline when leading troops, but he is not like this."

Cui Yu sighs, "Noble family children are enlightened from childhood and don't lack the basic resources for cultivation; they have countless opportunities from childhood to adulthood. No matter how I drive them, I don't have any guilt. Even if I use schemes to lure them to their deaths, it's because they are too stupid. But these civilians are different; they haven't read books, and they have just lived from childhood to adulthood, living a muddled life. They have never had the right to choose, and now that we have the ability, we naturally have to let them make their own choices."

Wei Yuan finally understands; Cui Yu has inexplicable sympathy and care for civilians while being extremely strict with those from noble families.

However, Wei Yuan does not intend to listen to Cui Yu at this moment, saying, "Senior Brother, most of these people don't even know how to read, and if they hadn't encountered war, they wouldn't have traveled more than a hundred miles from home in their lives. And they are about to starve to death now. You let them choose at this time?! Choose what, choose where to starve to death? Senior Brother, those things of yours are high above, all in the clouds. But these people are all living on the ground now, living in the mud, and before they are full, the things in the clouds are meaningless."

Cui Yu sighs, "The sage says to sacrifice life for righteousness. Righteousness is a great festival, and life and death cannot change it."

Wei Yuan says, "Senior Brother, if even a little combat power is missing, Qingming may not be able to hold, this is the life and death of ten thousand people, and it is also related to my Dao path, so I will use every bit of possible combat power. Besides, they can live until now because of Qingming. Since their lives were given by me, then I don't want to see them live in vain, is that okay?"

Cui Yu just sighs and stops arguing, preparing to leave.

"Senior Brother!" Wei Yuan calls out to Cui Yu and asks, "Senior Brother has never been hungry, right?"

"That's true, I haven't."

"I have been hungry." Wei Yuan says frankly, "When I was very young, I saw refugees eating people, and I couldn't understand it at the time. My father starved me for a few days, only giving me clear water. To tell you the truth, by the third day, I felt everything could be eaten, and by the fifth day, even the people passing by felt fragrant, and it would be best to roast them. Since then, I understood that when people are extremely hungry, they can do anything. Those things in the clouds have nothing to do with them at all." Cui Yu's footsteps stopped, and then he pushed the door and left.

Wei Yuan subsequently left the main peak, took ten noble family young masters and young ladies, put on masks, and left the realm.

——

Quliu Town.

Yuan Qingyan had already finished breakfast at this time and was sitting in the temporary government office, preparing to read, when someone came to report: "My lord, General Xu requests an audience."

Yuan Qingyan frowned slightly, but still put down the book in his hand.

A moment later, a sturdy general walked into the study, bowed, and sat down directly. Yuan Qingyan's eyebrows locked tighter, but the general looked as if he didn't see it, saying loudly, "Lord Yuan, I have been here for three days. I was in a hurry when I came, and basically didn't bring any military rations, so I arrived within the deadline. I came to find you early in the morning, just to ask, where are the military rations?"

Yuan Qingyan said coldly, "General Xu's family business is big, how could he worry about this little bit of food and pay? Besides, as soon as the general arrived, I had already allocated ten days of military rations, how could it be eaten up already?"

General Xu sneered, "Lord Yuan, what you allocated was just military rations, without even a bit of meat, are you letting my ten thousand brothers gnaw on white rice? Besides, I thought there would be some fun in the county town, but it turned out to be an empty city, and there are not as many people in the city as my soldiers! Lord Yuan, let me say something unpleasant, if this continues, I won't be able to suppress the brothers below, and if something happens, it won't look good on anyone's face!"

Yuan Qingyan's eyebrows stood up, and he was about to flare up.

General Xu immediately raised his hand to stop him, "Stop! Lord Yuan, that set of yours works in the imperial court, but it's useless to me! I am a rare Heaven Foundation; at worst, I won't be this damn general and go home to cultivate properly. But before I lose my official position, I will definitely smash everything I can smash! I won't even be a general, who are you going to impeach? Lord Yuan, my request is not high; within three days, the brothers in the camp must see chicken, duck, fish, and meat."

After saying that, the general didn't even say goodbye and got up and left directly.

Yuan Qingyan's face was iron-blue, and his hands were trembling slightly. He gritted his teeth and muttered, "Rare Heaven Foundation, rare Heaven Foundation..."

!.

He grabbed the teacup and smashed it heavily on the ground!

Although Yuan Qingyan was a Dharma Form, and this General Xu was only in the late stage of Dao Foundation, Yuan Qingyan's Dao Foundation was Earth-rank, and achieving Dharma Form was already an accident, but now it was very difficult to advance further. So in the eyes of cultivators, this General Xu's weight was much higher than Yuan Qingyan's.

After smashing the teacup, Yuan Qingyan's anger dissipated a bit, so he called the private secretary in and asked for countermeasures.

This private secretary was already of some age, but he was well-fed and smooth. After listening, he laughed, "It's just some chicken, duck, fish, and meat, why does the lord need to worry? Not to mention far away, isn't there a household in this Quliu Town that eats better than us?"

Yuan Qingyan suddenly realized, "You mean the Xu family?"

"Exactly! Although the common people are gone, isn't this big household still here? One big household is much fatter than a thousand common people."

Yuan Qingyan immediately said, "You take a few people and go see Xu Jingfeng immediately. Since the last time he sent a gift, this guy hasn't had any follow-up, he really doesn't know what's good for him!"

"My lord, rest assured, the old servant will beat him properly."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 215 =====