Chapter 337

The upheaval in the sect made Ji Weiwei Yuan feel unprecedented pressure; he had to improve the strength of his domain as quickly as possible.

Ji Weiwei Yuan took stock of his current assets again.

The Azure Void population had reached three hundred thousand, more than half of whom were in their prime and could all be drafted into the army. Over the past few months, the Xu family youths had begun to display the talent of the Tinghai Xianjun's descendants; the vast majority had mastered the Six Books of Body Forging in less than three months, and several hundred who cultivated quickly had already advanced.

The Shaman City was still being cleared; the Shaman tribe had left behind a massive amount of supplies, many of which could be used directly. It was just that the living environment in the city was suited to the Shaman tribe; the residential areas were full of water, and the houses were also filled with water. This could only be torn down and rebuilt.

There were now over fifteen hundred Dao Foundation cultivators in the entire domain, and another hundred could be added each month; this was Ji Weiwei Yuan's greatest reliance. It was just that the aptitude of these people was not great, and most would be stuck at the middle stage of the Dao Foundation realm for life.

Over the past few months, Ji Weiwei Yuan had given his full support to the Weapon Forging Workshop, finally resulting in twenty thousand well-equipped troops. However, if it was just to ensure one gun per person, there were sixty thousand people. If one gun was paired with only one bullet, that would be one hundred thousand people.

At this critical moment, Ji Weiwei Yuan placed the Foundation Establishment matters for the third batch of the Cui family as his top priority.

He did not begrudge his fortune at all, adding two portions of fortune to each elder and one portion to the ordinary disciples. He also had Xu Wenwu come over to train, eat, and live with the elders.

Although the elders had many complaints about the living environment within the domain—that it was one room per person rather than one courtyard per person—they felt better when they saw that the other Cui family disciples were eight to a room.

True Person Chuhe, Sun Yu, Yu Zhizhuo, and others took turns explaining the principles of the Dao Foundation to them. Unexpectedly, although Zhang Sheng only came to teach one class, he left a very deep impression on the young people of the Cui family. If anyone dared to cause trouble, this teacher would speak with sword Qi, and his way of speaking deeply resonated with the young people, who couldn't even learn to imitate it.

For a time, a trend of imitating Zhang Sheng's speech arose among the young people. It was just that they lacked his temperament, and what they said sounded somewhat incongruous.

For example, that line, "Go back and call your elders to reason with me; those who have just entered the Dharma Form realm don't need to come, as defeating them would be an ungentlemanly victory," sounded like a joke no matter how they said it.

Under such careful cultivation, the third batch of people began Foundation Establishment after only half a month of practice, and the results were exceptionally good. Out of fifty elders, eleven successfully established their Dao Foundations, all with the Great Brightness Subduing Demon Sword, successfully extending their lives. Among the other disciples, over fifty successfully established their Dao Foundations. There were eighty people transferred from the second batch, thirteen of whom succeeded, ten of whom signed blood contracts of servitude with Ji Weiwei Yuan.

The overall success rate was already approaching twenty percent; this ratio even approached that of a fourth-rank sect like the Red Tide Sect! And these people were originally unable to establish Dao Foundations and could never have passed the Immortal Sect's unified examination.

Sure enough, just one day after the third batch was sent off, news came from the Cui family that the old matriarch of the Cui family wanted to see Ji Weiwei Yuan.

Ji Weiwei Yuan immediately boarded the flying boat and rushed to the Cui family with Cui Yu. The specially made flying boat was extremely fast, flying two hundred thousand li south in one day to reach Anxi County, where the Cui family's main branch was located in Zhao Guo.

Anxi County was where this branch of the Cui family resided and, as per custom, paid no silver to Zhao Guo, so it was extremely prosperous; even among the common people, there were those with bright and clean clothes.

The county city was bustling with people, the main roads were all paved with blue bricks and had drainage ditches. Three- and four-story buildings were everywhere on both sides of the road, and the shopkeepers were not as destitute as those in the Jin capital, but rather had glowing faces, and many were plump and strong, clearly eating extremely well.

The Cui family was divided into three branches, now collectively known as the Three Cuis, all of which were prominent families. Unlike the Three Lis, the ancestors of the Three Cuis were of the same origin and gradually dispersed to various places during the changes in the world, each establishing their own foundation, somewhat similar to the three Shanmen of the Grand Void Palace.

The most prominent of the Three Cuis was the Song Cui of Qinghe, as the ruler of Song Guo was the head of the Cui family. It was just that Song Guo was the only one of the nine countries that did not border foreign tribes, so for many years, it had strived to obtain an exclave. However, on this matter, the other countries had a unified attitude: they were resolutely forbidden, so over the past thousand years, no one knew how many wars had been started over this.

The branch where Cui Yu was located was in the south of Zhao Guo, with influence spanning both the Ji and Zhao countries. The Tinghai Xianjun of this branch had fallen a hundred years ago, and there was no one in the new generation to take over for the time being. However, the Cui family was of the same root and origin, and the other two Cuis still had Immortal Lords who would naturally intervene to protect them when necessary. Therefore, the Ji-Zhao Cui clan had developed as usual for a hundred years, cultivating their descendants step by step, completely unaffected.

After entering the city, Ji Weiwei Yuan and Cui Jian were led to the Cui family's grand mansion. The so-called ancestral mansion was actually so large inside that one could ride a horse, and it surprisingly occupied half of the county city.

After entering the main gate, they walked for a full four li before reaching the Phoenix Perch Hall, where the old matriarch was to receive them.

After getting off the carriage, Cui Yu said, "It seems the old matriarch values you highly; this Phoenix Perch Hall is only used when receiving important guests."

Ji Weiwei Yuan looked up at the hall, which was fully ten zhang high, and walked in slowly with Cui Yu. The maid led the two through the main hall to a quiet and elegant courtyard in the back, where they sat down. A moment later, a lady with crane-white hair and a youthful face walked in and sat in the main seat.

If one didn't look at her full head of white hair, her appearance was like that of a middle-aged woman. After sitting down, she glanced at Ji Weiwei Yuan, and Ji Weiwei Yuan instantly felt as if he had been seen through from inside to out, and was suddenly startled.

The cultivation of the Cui family's old matriarch was likely not inferior to that of Ancestor Xuanyue! After looking at him, the old matriarch withdrew her gaze, which seemed capable of piercing through everything, and said, "Truly a dragon and phoenix among men, not bad, not bad. Over this period, you have cultivated over a hundred Dao Foundation cultivators for my Cui family, and the effect of this batch is especially obvious. It's just that the Great Brightness Subduing Demon Sword is a bit special..."

Ji Weiwei Yuan hurriedly said, "I believed that having a Dao Foundation is better than having none, which is why I devoted myself to researching the Great Brightness Subduing Demon Sword. Forgive my bluntness, but if it weren't for this sword, I fear many people would not have been able to establish a Dao Foundation."

The old matriarch smiled slightly and said, "In the past, we only thought about how to improve the rank of the Dao Foundation; your sword has indeed opened up a new path."

Ji Weiwei Yuan's face flushed slightly. But embarrassed or not, he still had to continue down this path, and he had new ideas. The success rate of the new ideas should be quite high, and he could try them in the next batch.

In Ji Weiwei Yuan's view, there was still much room for improvement in the lower limits of human-rank Dao Foundations.

Without a Dao Foundation, one did not have enough Dao power, could not use many mature Dao techniques, and could not do much work, only able to shovel slag.

The old matriarch said, "However, the essence of the human path lies in gathering the masses. With so many Dao Foundations suddenly in the family, many difficult things have suddenly become easy to handle. Although there are many idlers among them, most are still willing to do some work. With them, some of the old stewards in the family can no longer rely on their seniority and must be diligent. This is an unexpected joy."

Ji Weiwei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief; it seemed the old matriarch had no intention of blaming him for deceiving people with watered-down Dao Foundations, which strengthened his confidence to continue down this path.

"I summoned you here this time, firstly to see you, and secondly for the sake of the Xu family."

Ji Weiwei Yuan felt a chill in his heart, knowing the main event had arrived.

!.

The old matriarch said slowly, "The Xu family will definitely cause you trouble. Our Cui family can only help you to a limited extent, ensuring the Xu family doesn't go too far in bullying the weak. As for the rest, it depends on yourself. If you can make the Xu family retreat in the face of difficulties, that would naturally be best."

The old matriarch coughed lightly, and two old servants entered the room, working together to carry in a small tree about a foot high. The tree's leaves were bright red, divided into five claws, and moved without wind.

The two old servants with Dharma Form cultivation had to use all their strength to seal it, not letting its aura leak out.

"I know you love spiritual plants. This Five-Claw Dragon Blood Wood is also an immortal plant. This wood was born from dragon blood and is an object of fortune."

Ji Weiwei Yuan did not speak; immortal plants were too precious, and he did not feel his contribution to the Cui family was great enough to warrant an immortal plant.

The old matriarch said, "This Dragon Blood Wood is not given to you, but lent to you for a period of three months. After you return, plant it in your domain, and it can boost your fortune, turning bad luck into good. Furthermore, if this Dragon Blood Wood can bear fruit and drop seeds within these three months, new Dragon Blood Wood will grow, and the boosted fortune can be solidified from then on. If it cannot bear fruit, then the boosted fortune will disappear after the Dragon Blood Wood is returned."

Ji Weiwei Yuan was overjoyed and hurriedly stood up to thank her.

Leaving the Phoenix Perch Hall, Ji Weiwei Yuan did not stay for a moment, declined the invitation to stay and play for a few days, and boarded the flying boat directly with Cui Yu, returning overnight.

On the flying boat, Ji Weiwei Yuan pondered the old matriarch's words repeatedly, knowing the Xu family would definitely invade, but the True Lords should not intervene. However, he had to guard against the possibility of them hiding in the shadows and quietly delivering a strike. Or perhaps entrusting their magic power to others to deliver a strike on their behalf.

In short, if he didn't make the Xu family feel pain, they probably wouldn't retreat in the face of difficulties. This was Ji Weiwei Yuan's understanding of the phrase "retreat in the face of difficulties."

On the flying boat, Ji Weiwei Yuan was originally holding the Five-Claw Dragon Blood Wood. At this moment, with only Cui Yu around, he moved his hand, and the Dragon Blood Wood was transferred into the Ten Thousand Li Heshan.

Immortal objects were indeed spiritual; as soon as it entered the Ten Thousand Li Heshan, the Dragon Blood Wood's biting aura was completely retracted, and it found a place to take root on its own, far away from the three great immortal plants, and also far away from the young girl Yin-Yang.

Ji Weiwei Yuan sent a thought to each of the three great immortal plants. He believed that under the patient persuasion of the three great immortal plants, the Dragon Blood Wood would honestly bear fruit and drop seeds; otherwise, it would be ungrateful.

(End of chapter)