Chapter 221: Pearl-Round and Jade-Smooth

Upon returning to the domain, Wei Yuan encountered two major events: the Shaman tribe was attacking, and Xiang Xiaoyu was preparing to return home to hold a funeral.

The Shaman tribe's patience had never been good; they hadn't even rested for a few days before attacking again. This offensive was clearly just a probe, with twenty thousand soldiers sent forward to attack, ten thousand held in reserve, and fifty thousand remaining in the camp.

At this time, the newly built city only had the outline of a wall for its above-ground portion, and there were fewer than twenty thousand people in the city, all of whom were digging underground day and night. When the Shaman tribe attacked, these people followed the long-established protocol and all returned underground. Wei Yuan himself assembled his troops, pulled out ten thousand soldiers, and formed a line fifty miles behind the new city.

This time, the Shaman tribe changed their tactics, splitting off ten thousand to bypass the city and confront Wei Yuan's main force, while the other ten thousand entered the city and charged directly underground.

This tactic truly exceeded Wei Yuan's expectations; it seemed the Shaman commander had quite a few ideas this time.

Wei Yuan made a prompt decision, immediately ordering all troops to press forward, while simultaneously commanding Cui Yu to lead five hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators to charge in from the left, and the fifty Great Thieves of Maofei Zhan Tian to charge in from the right, subsequently activating the "Instant Myriad Lives."

On the battlefield, smoke and dust rose instantly, the roaring sounds merged into one, and firelight flickered continuously within the smoke. Shaman soldiers fell in droves, many not even knowing how they had died. Every soldier in the domain now fired a shot first upon meeting the enemy before doing anything else.

When the roaring finally became sparse and the smoke was blown away by magic, the Shaman generals were stunned to discover that their troops had already suffered thirty percent casualties! Seeing so many comrades fall beside them, the morale of the Shaman army wavered instantly.

Wei Yuan did not give them any chance to reorganize their troops; Mount Yushan descended, opening a gap in the center of the Shaman army's formation, after which he led his troops to charge in, tearing the Shaman formation apart in one fell swoop.

The Shaman army began to fall into chaos, but since the new city was behind them, they could only flee by circling the city—but how could they escape?

The defeat was like a collapsing mountain, and before long, this ten-thousand-strong Shaman army was completely wiped out. Meanwhile, roaring sounds continued to echo from beneath the new city, and trails of white smoke emerged from the underground entrances.

Wei Yuan was just preparing to lead his troops into the city to block all the Shaman soldiers underground when he saw another twenty thousand Shaman troops appear in the distance. Wei Yuan had no choice but to stop entering the city and instead confront the Shaman reinforcements.

The Shaman troops who had charged underground received orders at this time and began to retreat to the surface. However, it was easy to enter the tunnels but difficult to leave; the underground pits were interconnected like a labyrinth, and one never knew from which corner a person would pop out, followed immediately by a musket shot to the face. After firing, they would run, showing absolutely no martial virtue.

A full quarter of an hour passed before the Shaman troops who had charged underground finally retreated to the surface. Ten thousand warriors went down, but only six thousand came out.

The Shaman reserve troops moved out to receive the six thousand remnants, and the Great Shaman in command looked at Wei Yuan from afar before withdrawing the troops back to camp. Wei Yuan also knew when to stop while ahead and watched the Shaman tribe depart.

For the Shaman tribe, this was a probing attack; those sent out were all ordinary warriors, and they had not deployed the elite of the Northern Territory as they had previously.

Wei Yuan, however, had used all his means: the newly equipped muskets, the "Instant Myriad Lives," and his Qi Luck—not a single one was left out.

The underground portion of the city was basically fought by a small number of Foundation Establishment cultivators leading a large number of mortals. Even with the blessing of the "Instant Myriad Lives," casualties still reached nearly six thousand. However, the vast majority of those injured were ordinary people who had not practiced any body forging at all. By comparison, the casualties of the Shaman tribe's trained warriors were nearly four thousand, which already counted as a major defeat.

The battle on the surface was a clean sweep. Wei Yuan used over five hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators, who instantly exceeded fifteen hundred under the blessing of the "Instant Myriad Lives," and all were equipped with muskets. With Wei Yuan's Jade Mountain leading the way to break through, they ultimately annihilated the opponent, with only a hundred or so escaping. The domain's casualties were no more than two hundred.

This probe by the Shaman tribe could be called a major defeat.

Just as the great battle ended and Wei Yuan was still directing the cleanup of the battlefield, Xiang Xiaoyu came over. Wei Yuan had originally wanted to persuade her to stay, but seeing Xiang Nian standing behind her, he changed his words and told Xiang Xiaoyu to return with peace of mind, not needing to be distracted by matters here.

Xiang Nian exchanged a few pleasantries with Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli, then released a flying boat. Just as they were about to board and leave, Xiang Xiaoyu suddenly said, "Grandfather, since you've come all this way, why not give Wei Yuan a meeting gift?"

Xiang Nian was quite helpless and said, "It's easy to be criticized if I give too much at this time. How about this: I observed that the Jade Mountain you used just now contains the aura of the Netherworld, and there is also a small piece of Nether-soil in Sun Yu's little courtyard. I happen to have something suitable on hand, so I will give it to you."

Xiang Nian took out a box and handed it to Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan took it, and his hand sank slightly; this small box actually weighed several hundred catties. He opened it and saw two apricot-sized objects inside, entirely dark blue and still encased in shells; he did not know what they were.

Xiang Nian said, "These are two seeds of Nether-wheat, which I found inadvertently while exploring a Grotto-Heaven in my early years. That Grotto-Heaven shattered, and the spirit wheat originally planted there was infected by the aura from beyond the heavens, with most of it dying; only this one plant miraculously survived for a thousand years. I took a total of six seeds, and over these years I've given some away, leaving only these two on hand."

"Spirit wheat transformed by infection?" Wei Yuan was both surprised and delighted, and he asked a follow-up question.

Xiang Nian nodded and said, "This can also be considered a type of spirit food. It originally should have belonged to the immortal-rank, but the spirit food grown contains a bit of the Netherworld's Eternal Silence power, so it cannot be eaten in large quantities. Therefore, when classified, it was downgraded to supreme-rank."

"Many thanks, Senior!" Wei Yuan bowed solemnly; he was currently exceptionally sensitive to anything that could be planted and eaten.

Xiang Nian said, "It's nothing good, no need to thank me."

Xiang Xiaoyu pulled Wei Yuan up and said, "It really isn't anything good, no need to thank him!"

Wei Yuan was taken aback. The rank of these two seeds was one level higher than the Heavenly Star Dragon Kui. If these didn't count as good things, then what did?

Xiang Xiaoyu looked as if she were disappointed that he wasn't living up to expectations, reaching out to gesture at Wei Yuan's body while saying, "Look at you, you don't even have a decent suit of armor on your whole body; your defense relies entirely on your thick skin and flesh, especially this face..." Wei Yuan had originally been moved, but as he listened, it started to feel wrong.

Xiang Nian picked up his grandson and stuffed him into the flying boat, saying, "We should go."

Xiang Xiaoyu struggled and poked her head out, shouting, "Keep the Lord of Yongan City for me, I will come back!"

Wei Yuan nodded: "Rest assured! No one will snatch it from you."

"Someone will snatch it! You must be on guard against that girl Feng Tingyu, don't be bewitched by her!"

Xiang Nian pushed his grandson's head back in, stepped into the flying boat, and subsequently, a ring of light rippled across the surface of the boat, and it broke through the air and left.

But the flying boat was not heading east, nor was it heading upward; it was flying toward the northwest, where the Shaman Domain was located. Subsequently, a brilliant sword light of several hundred zhang appeared in the sky, slashing fiercely into the void, and Xiang Nian's majestic voice echoed between heaven and earth: "Who dares to block my flying boat? Are you bullying my Xiang family for having no one?"

A figure tumbled out of the void, their aura fluctuating unsteadily, looking quite wretched from the sword light's strike. The figure was blurry and unclear, and it was unknown who they were; after being slashed out by the sword, they turned and fled, their escape technique being extremely brilliant.

But the flying boat pursued relentlessly, and sword lights of several hundred zhang crisscrossed, chasing the person and slashing wildly.

Between heaven and earth, Xiang Nian's voice sounded somewhat exasperated: "The thief is so rampant, I have already retreated repeatedly, why do you still refuse to clear the path? What deep hatred do you and I have that you must intercept and kill me halfway? I'm telling you, if you don't let me go, I'm going to fight back..."

The person and the boat were instantly far away, and sword light could still be seen flickering at the end of the horizon.

!.

Zhang Sheng appeared beside Wei Yuan and said, "Did you learn anything?"

Wei Yuan was also deeply impressed and said, "This technique of confusing black and white is truly..."

Zhang Sheng knocked him on the head and said, "His technique is crude and rough, who told you to learn that? What your master wants you to learn is the thick-skinned ability to tell lies in front of the hundred thousand people of the domain without changing your expression or skipping a beat!"

Wei Yuan was silent, then said, "It's truly somewhat shameful..."

"It is indeed shameful, which is why your master is telling you to learn it."

Xiang Xiaoyu left very suddenly, but she had no choice. The palace-dressed woman who had come to protect Xiang Xiaoyu that day was quite close to her, and since she had unexpectedly fallen, Xiang Xiaoyu had to go back to participate in the funeral arrangements out of both reason and emotion.

It was just that the attitude of the noble families was subtle now, and with Xiang Xiaoyu leaving like this, it was unknown when they would meet again.

Worldly affairs are always a mix of sorrow and joy, with fortune and misfortune accompanying each other.

Not long after Xiang Xiaoyu's flying boat disappeared, Wei Yuan's Primordial Spirit suddenly shook, and a burst of spiritual energy erupted from within the Myriad Miles of Heshan, like a fountain!

This patch of spiritual energy was quite abundant, having already turned into spiritual mist, lingering and not dissipating. Wei Yuan entered his sea of consciousness and found the source of the spiritual mist; it was actually the spirit field where the sorghum was planted! At this time, this area of land within the Myriad Miles of Heshan had already merged into a continuous patch, and green plants had grown from the ground, heavily laden with fist-sized rice grains.

Each plant was spitting out spiritual energy, and although there wasn't much per plant, the total amount from the large patch was quite considerable. Just this patch of early-maturing sorghum shortened the time for Wei Yuan to cultivate the first stage by a full year.

However, the spirit plants in the Foundation Establishment realm looked a bit different from the sorghum in the data. Wei Yuan retreated from his sea of consciousness and flew straight to the spirit field where the sorghum was planted.

There was a large patch of spirit fields here, most of which were still green seedlings, but one corner had already fully matured, with each plant hung with pale yellow rice grains, each one the size of a fist.

This was the five hundred mu of sorghum that Wei Yuan had planted earliest. Originally, it should have been ten days away from maturity, but now it had all suddenly matured, and the grains were much larger than normal, and the color was pale yellow, not the red-tinged yellow of ordinary sorghum.

Wei Yuan picked a rice grain and peeled off the outer shell, revealing a pale yellow rice kernel inside, plump and moist, with exceptionally abundant spiritual energy. Wei Yuan was somewhat surprised; sorghum was the most common spirit plant in the Western Regions and also an indispensable staple food for low-level cultivators. Wei Yuan himself had eaten countless meals of it, so where had he ever seen such sorghum?

This rice grain was much larger than ordinary sorghum, and its spiritual energy content was twice as high. Although the spiritual energy in sorghum was originally meager, being twice as high wasn't much, but if this were the norm, then it wouldn't be of this rank.

A voice suddenly sounded from the side: "This rice grain is truly pearl-round and jade-smooth, it can be called a peerless beauty!"

Wei Yuan turned his head and saw a Daoist priest beside him who had appeared out of nowhere, staring at the sorghum in his hand with glowing eyes.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 222 =====