Chapter 352: A Glimmer in Troubled Times

In the dead of night, Wei Yuan stood on the main peak of the domain, looking into the distance.

In his perception, the horizon to the northwest was faintly illuminated by lights; that was where the Wucheng was located. Yu Zhizhuo discovered large mineral veins around the Wucheng, built mines, and built more than a dozen blast furnaces directly at the mine entrance. The raging furnace fire rushed into the sky, reflecting the sky red.

There were still some fields in the domain glowing faintly in the night; those were fields planted with spiritual rice. After the spiritual rice grows, it will glow faintly. If it is in a large area, it looks like an ocean of faint light at night.

Several cities still had lights shining. There were more and more cultivators in the domain, and after Body Forging, they were full of energy. Many people worked all night, just hoping to do a little more so that the chance of winning in the next battle would be a little higher.

The new grain fields had all been planted, and when the seeds sprouted, Wei Yuan harvested thousands of points of luck again.

Ordinary people are simple, especially those who have experienced war. They saw the seedlings growing in the fields, so they could think of the day of harvest. These fields are the hope of countless people to live.

The spiritual energy in the medicine garden was becoming more and more intense, almost visible to the naked eye. True Person Chuhe's cultivation was improving day by day, which showed how successful the medicine garden was.

Wei Yuan suddenly felt emotional. If there were no alien races around, and no immortals high above in the sky, then this land would be the peach blossom paradise recorded in books.

It's just a pity that the alien races are still cruel, and the immortals have always been high above. For the ordinary people living on the ground, sometimes immortals are even more terrifying than alien races.

Under the night, many people were quietly coming in and out, or using some Dao techniques, and then Dao power flew into the sky and flew away in an instant.

The domain's border of more than a thousand li is really impossible to close completely. And now there are more and more merchant caravans coming and going, and it is unclear whether the Dao technique spiritual items used for communication are sent by merchant caravans or by people with ulterior motives.

Firearms and gunpowder cannot be kept secret and will eventually be leaked. In fact, after eliminating General Yue Jinshan's ten thousand heavy cavalry, Wei Yuan was prepared. The surrounding enemies might have countermeasures, and might even pull out their own firearm team.

However, what Wei Yuan didn't expect was that the Xu family's reaction was so slow. When the three hundred thousand-strong army attacked, they went their own way and didn't have any specialized tactics to deal with firearms at all.

Wei Yuan felt that if it were him in charge, even if he studied General Yue Jinshan's battle example a little, he would definitely not fight like this. But the fact was that the Xu family's three hundred thousand-strong army still fought an old-fashioned war. The Xu family, from top to bottom, was like a twilight old man, slow and stubborn.

But after this battle, not to mention the world being shocked, at least Xijin was definitely shocked in the court and the public. Now, presumably, firearms and ammunition were placed on the desks of many big figures, and imitation in local workshops might have already begun.

But this is a matter of time, and Wei Yuan was prepared. Now in Wei Yuan's mind, the most important thing is not the technology of firearms, nor the formula of gunpowder, but the data written by Xu Wenwu, those most authentic records about the world outside the sky, which is a magical world without great power, but can make hundreds of millions of people live a prosperous life.

Now in the study behind Wei Yuan, there is a whole room of history books. During this period, Wei Yuan read local chronicles from various places, and read relatively more about Xijin.

After reading these local chronicles, Wei Yuan finally discovered the key difference between this world and Xu Wenwu's world outside the sky: in this world, ordinary people have no value.

Within the nine countries of Great Tang, as long as they cannot Body Forge, then ordinary people truly have no value at all. Just as Wei Youcai said back then, there is only so much land, only so much grain, and if the population exceeds a certain level, people will starve to death. As long as there is stability for more than ten years, the population will spring up like bamboo shoots after rain.

As long as ordinary people can Body Forge, even if they only finish the Tendon-Muscle Realm, one person is equivalent to two or three ordinary people when working. And they only eat half as much more than ordinary people.

It is even more so after going to the battlefield. A dozen Body Forging warriors wearing armor and holding sharp weapons can kill more than a hundred troops composed of ordinary people without suspense. The more troops there are, the greater this ratio.

When the nine countries encounter natural disasters and civil unrest in various places, no matter how loose the training of the Body Forging government troops is, thousands of people dare to attack when they encounter tens of thousands of peasant armies, and they often win the battle.

Therefore, an ordinary person without Body Forging, whether as a soldier or a civilian, is useless. The nine countries all have special regulations that Body Forging cultivators can enjoy various privileges and conveniences, Xijin is just doing it more extremely.

If they cannot Body Forge, they are not even welcome as offerings to the Shaman tribe. They need to go through a series of complex treatments, raising them strong and washing them clean, before they can serve as a base in large-scale sacrifices.

And countless classics have recorded that the descendants born to ordinary people are mostly ordinary people. Therefore, the theory of bloodline is prevalent in various scriptures, and on the territory of some aristocratic families, ordinary people even need the approval of the masters to marry.

These scattered things were strung together by Wei Yuan, finally pointing to a conclusion: ordinary people have no value.

Therefore, the policies of various countries are somewhat intentionally suppressing the number of ordinary people. Some directly drive ordinary people to the battlefield, while others constantly conscript ordinary people for labor. More subtle practices are to ignore major disasters, so that a batch will starve to death.

Wei Yuan couldn't help but think of the famine riot he encountered when he first learned about human affairs. Thinking back now, Ji Guo might not have had no way, but everyone from top to bottom was intentionally indulging it.

However, it is different in Qingming, because of the existence of the "Moment of All Living Things," even the most ordinary people can become the mainstay on the battlefield.

Many people who were thought to be unable to build a Dao Foundation in their lifetime achieved Dao Foundation in Qingming. Dao Foundation is like this, why can't Body Forging?

Wei Yuan thought of Fang Hetong's three articles. The two articles on "Establishing Words" and "Establishing Merit" are truly Body Forging divine skills. It's a pity that he fell early, and this Dao Foundation was lost. Wei Yuan is prepared to wait for the Ten-Direction Glazed Golden Fire, Six Paths Jia-Yi Divine Wood, and other Dao Foundations to mature, and the next step is to study how to lower the threshold of Body Forging, allowing more ordinary people to Body Forge.

Under the night, this piece of land in Qingming is moving closer to the world of Wei Yuan's dreams.

At a place on the edge of the domain that seems to be empty, someone used Dao power to separate the two worlds, marking out a small independent world.

A figure quietly arrived here, looking around, when suddenly a piece of darkness spread and covered him, and then the ground was empty, as if nothing had happened.

The figure's eyes blurred, and a green mountain and clear water appeared in front of him. A middle-aged man sat under a tree, holding a wine glass, smiling at him. It's just that although the man was smiling, there was no smile in his eyes.

The middle-aged man said slowly: "I have isolated heaven and earth here. Unless an immortal is present, no one can discover it. You don't need to be nervous, but you must cover up well after going back."

The person captured into this world was wrapped in a black robe. This cloth robe also has the ability to isolate spiritual sense and is not a common item. His voice was hoarse, saying: "I came here at the risk of my life, I want to see the goods first!"

The middle-aged man's face sank, his pupils suddenly turned into golden vertical pupils, scales appeared faintly on his neck, and the small world was suddenly filled with murderous aura, all the scenery was distorted, and it was possible to shatter at any time!

The black-robed man said: "I don't not believe you, I don't believe anyone now. My small request is not worth making you so angry. I also want to remind you that as long as you are within the domain, luck will become abnormal and easy to lose control. You had better be careful. If your whereabouts are exposed, you may not be able to escape."

The abnormality on the middle-aged man's body slowly subsided, but he still felt inexplicable disgust when looking at the black-robed man. He took out a box the size of a palm and placed it on the table.

!.

The black-robed man opened it impatiently. Inside was a red gemstone the size of an apricot, emitting an alluring fragrance. Seeing it, the black-robed man swallowed his saliva, and his breath fluctuated violently.

He didn't dare to look more, quickly closed the box, and it took a long time to calm his heartbeat.

The middle-aged man waited quietly until the black-robed man calmed down, then said: "This kind of supreme Blood Yingluo can not only extend life but also improve your human race's aptitude. If you are lucky, you might even inherit some of its innate abilities before it died."

"This piece is a bit small... not enough."

The middle-aged man sneered: "Just this one piece, the price in your human race is over 500,000 taels of immortal silver! Just by your ability, if it weren't for this opportunity, would you have a chance to smell it in your life? If you don't do it, I'll find someone else!"

The black-robed man immediately put the box into his arms, then took out a bag and took out various daily necessities from it, all of which looked very ordinary.

"This is a history book he read; this piece of paper was thrown into the paper basket after he wrote it wastefully;... this is a hair he dropped."

The middle-aged man carefully examined each item, and the black-robed man stood by, not daring to breathe, looking extremely nervous.

After a while, the middle-aged man finally nodded and said: "Enough."

The black-robed man breathed a sigh of relief.

The middle-aged man opened his mouth, sucked all the sundries into his abdomen, and then said: "Find an opportunity to leave, otherwise don't blame me for not reminding you in advance."

The small world disappeared like a bubble, and the middle-aged man turned into a black line and disappeared into the horizon in an instant. The black-robed man also turned and walked into the domain, blending into the night.

In the study, Wei Yuan put down the history book in his hand and came to the pile of books in the corner of the room. While reading, he suddenly had a new idea and needed to take another book for comparison.

Wei Yuan quickly turned out the local chronicle and began to flip through it quickly. However, he suddenly looked at the pile of books and felt that it was a little thinner.

However, he exchanged for a massive amount of history books, which couldn't be placed in the study at all. And with Wei Yuan's strong spiritual sense, he would remember it after reading it once, and the books were useless. Only those local chronicles of small places, this kind of book that basically no one reads, Wei Yuan occasionally needs to go back and flip through, after all, when he read it at the beginning, he just glanced at it and didn't read it word by word.

Wei Yuan would move the history books he had read to the warehouse for storage for others to consult. It's just that except for himself and Zhang Sheng, basically no one reads these books, only Sun Yu and Feng Tingyu occasionally take a few back to read.

But for some reason, Wei Yuan always felt uneasy tonight.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 353 =====