Chapter 802: Weight

After reviewing the current political situation and major events under heaven, Wei Yuan looked into the interior of Azure Void. First were the various cultivators of the Grand Beginning Palace.

Zhang Sheng and Behind Bao Yun were both in seclusion. Zhang Sheng was still nourishing sword spirits for over five hundred immortal swords; he had only completed half so far. Fortunately, the heaven-rank and earth-rank ones had already developed sword spirits, so the remaining human-rank ones could be done a bit faster. Behind Bao Yun, meanwhile, was consolidating her Dharma Form; her Heavenly Demon Subtle Form was formidable and strange, requiring much more time than others.

Also in seclusion were Ji Liuli and Feng Tingyu. Their Dharma Forms were likewise immortal forms, requiring a vast amount of time to consolidate before they could step into the Myriad Transformation Realm.

After ascending to the Dharma Form realm, the immortal path gradually became high and distant; a single seclusion could easily last months or even years. Although it was the first day of the Lunar New Year, the Immortal City was exceptionally cold and desolate, silent and devoid of people.

Wei Yuan's seclusion this time was not quite the same as a normal one; he had essentially spent over half a year of bitter study on theory, and now he had finally entered the door. Thus, he strolled into the medicine garden, which was now the place with the densest spiritual energy and also the liveliest spot in all of Azure Void.

Moreover, under the medicine garden's grand array, a faint, scorching immortal spiritual energy was lingering. It was just that this wisp of energy was extremely ethereal; even if Yu Jing were face-to-face with it, there was a high probability of missing it. Wei Yuan, blessed with the authority of the Realm Master and aided by the Zhou Tian Star Dou Array, was the only one to discover the existence of this immortal spiritual energy.

Usually, immortal plants would not produce worldly fireworks, and the only immortal creature active in Azure Void was one: the Little Rooster.

It seemed the Little Rooster had been living quite well in the medicine garden during this time; it was just hard to say how many medicinal herbs it had wreaked havoc on.

Wei Yuan stepped into the medicine garden and quickly found the Little Rooster's dwelling place, which was under those two earliest mutated dragon-kui plants. However, an area of several dozen zhang in radius around there was now shrouded by a naturally formed array, isolated from the inside and outside, and could not be entered at will.

The voice of True Person Chuhe came from ahead. Wei Yuan was somewhat curious and slowed his pace. He heard True Person Chuhe say: "Is it still unwilling to see me?"

*Zhi zhi* went two sounds; this was the voice of the flying sable, meaning: "It says it doesn't see idlers."

True Person Chuhe said: "No matter. I treat it with a sincere heart; sooner or later, it will understand my painstaking efforts."

Flying sable: "Why don't we change targets? I don't think it's anything remarkable. When I ascend to immortality, I'll bite it to death in one go!"

Chuhe laughed: "Fate is something that can be met but not sought. Since we have met, it is affinity, so we won't change. Take this basin of spiritual rice inside for it."

"Whoever wants to take it can take it; I'm not serving anymore!" The flying sable left in a huff.

Chuhe shook his head and placed the spiritual rice on the ground. Subsequently, a scorching breeze swept up the spiritual rice and it entered the array. The old Daoist Chuhe was not annoyed and left while singing. This demeanor was quite the detachment of someone who would wipe spit off their face and let it dry.

Wei Yuan had originally thought the Little Rooster should be getting along harmoniously with Chuhe, but he hadn't expected that after more than half a year, the relationship between the two was still so stiff. Was there a time when the old Daoist Chuhe's methods didn't work?

Wei Yuan walked into the array. Such an array was one brought along by the immortal spirit itself; in the eyes of the current Wei Yuan, it was full of loopholes everywhere. Just by strolling a few steps, he passed through the immortal array and entered it.

"Wait a moment, don't come in!"

But the Little Rooster spoke too late. Wei Yuan was already inside the array, and before his eyes was a wall that was red with a hint of gold!

The texture of this wall... was quite good. Wei Yuan touched it and only then reacted: where was this a wall? This was chicken feathers!

Wei Yuan looked up and saw a huge chicken head, looking down at him.

Back then, he could carry the Little Rooster around at will; now, just lying down, it was two stories high, its wings fat and huge, raising a gale with the slightest lift. Dense array patterns and Dao talismans appeared on its beak, and one eye was the size of a washbasin, larger than Wei Yuan's face, its texture crystal clear, with flowing patterns rotating within, like a whirlpool intending to suck people in.

"You, what happened to you?" Wei Yuan was shocked. In less than a year, the Little Rooster had become as sturdy and huge as a house.

The Little Rooster sighed: "I just said don't let you in. Now that you've seen me like this, how can I be a chicken from now on! After you left, I ate and slept here, slept and ate. Within a hundred zhang underground, there were spiritual insects everywhere, and I had spiritual rice as snacks daily. As a result, I got fat by accident."

Wei Yuan was also speechless, so he ignored the Little Rooster's size and asked: "Has that True Person Chuhe outside offended you?"

The Little Rooster said unhappily: "If it weren't for him sending spiritual rice three times a day, morning, noon, and night, I wouldn't have developed the habit of eating three meals a day."

"It's been over half a year, and it's been like this?"

The Little Rooster was somewhat dazed: "Has it already been over half a year? I thought only ten-plus days had passed."

Wei Yuan pointed to the sky above and said: "It's already the first day of the Lunar New Year."

The Little Rooster was also speechless: "I just took a few naps, and a year has passed?"

Wei Yuan looked up and down at the mountain-like rooster and suddenly asked: "How big can you grow?"

The Little Rooster couldn't say clearly either, only saying that from the day it broke out of its shell, it had never seen its parents and didn't know who had hatched it. It just hadn't grown much for the first ten-plus years; it didn't know why, but once it arrived in Azure Void, it started growing wildly.

Wei Yuan then said: "That True Person Chuhe outside is my uncle-master; he has great insights into the way of caring for immortal creatures. I have to be in seclusion most of the time now; why don't you see him? It will be convenient for care in the future."

The Little Rooster was somewhat embarrassed and said: "Actually, he didn't offend me, it's just that I've become so fat, I'm a bit embarrassed to see people." Seeing it loosen up, Wei Yuan immediately summoned True Person Chuhe in. Chuhe was momentarily dazed upon seeing the mountain-like rooster, then immediately returned to normal, performed a salute, and said: "Greetings, Brother Chicken."

The Little Rooster was somewhat embarrassed, nodded its huge beak, and said: "You've worked hard these past six months. Actually, you don't have to work so hard if you bring me more spiritual rice at once."

Chuhe said indifferently: "This kind of spiritual rice is mutated and doesn't exist elsewhere. It must be consumed within half an hour of being picked for the taste to be best. After that time, the spiritual power will dissipate by more than half, and it won't have such a good taste."

The Little Rooster was startled and felt even more embarrassed.

Chuhe did not stay long and left after speaking. Wei Yuan let the Little Rooster live here with peace of mind; anyway, he could afford to raise it. The Little Rooster said a few words and then became sleepy again, yawning repeatedly.

Wei Yuan said goodbye and left, caught up with Chuhe, and said to him: "That wasn't your style just now. Is this really okay? Shouldn't you... worship it as a foster father?"

Chuhe said: "This set works for ordinary spiritual beasts, but not for such naturally born immortal creatures. For naturally born immortal creatures of such young age, what they encounter is either those who force them to recognize a master, or those who try every way to climb up and curry favor. Only by treating it as an equal can one gain a high regard."

Wei Yuan knew this was where True Person Chuhe's Dao path lay, so he said: "Is the spiritual rice still enough? If not, I'll go buy some more?"

"You can't buy this rice outside." True Person Chuhe took a grain of rice and handed it to Wei Yuan.

This rice grain was the size of an orange, round and white, its luster glistening like a large pearl. This rice originally came from the Zhao-Cui family of Ji, and thereafter was cultivated generation after generation in Azure Void. After True Lord Huang Yun passed away, this rice mutated under the power of the Jianmu Sheng Xuan, becoming its current appearance.

It was just that its yield was extremely low, and it had to be consumed as soon as possible. Just after the mutation was completed, the old Daoist brought it to feed the immortal chicken.

Wei Yuan was just preparing to leave when True Person Chuhe said: "There might be another opportunity now."

"Oh? Tell me about it."

True Person Chuhe said: "This chicken is naturally the nemesis of poisonous insects and poisonous creatures. It resides in the medicine garden, and as a result, it has attracted all the spiritual insects within a thousand miles. Now, five hundred zhang directly below the medicine garden, countless spiritual insects are gathering, fighting each other, preparing to decide on a king. Once the Insect King is born, it will lead the swarm to fight this chicken to the death. At that time, if we can capture the Insect King, we can obtain a sharp battle pet."

"Then what preparations are needed?"

"No special preparations are needed, just need to lay a few more array nodes of the Zhou Tian Star Dou Array here, to expand the underground monitoring range from a hundred zhang to a thousand zhang, so we can monitor the movement of the insect swarm at all times."

Monitoring a thousand zhang underground was also a heavy burden for the Zhou Tian Star Dou Array. However, Wei Yuan instinctively felt that if he could subdue the Insect King, Azure Void would add numerous spiritual insect swarms, and the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth would become even more complete.

Leaving the medicine garden, Wei Yuan looked at several other key locations one by one.

Now Azure Void had expanded to nearly two thousand miles, already the scale of several commanderies. At this time, workshops everywhere in Azure Void were expanding desperately, just so that the new arrivals could have clothes to wear and a place to live.

Just building houses had exhausted all concrete production capacity, as well as over eighty percent of the steel. Because there were too many people coming, in just over a year, eighteen million people had flooded in. Food was enough to eat; it was just that clothing and housing had become a big problem.

Fortunately, once the number of mortals increased, their wisdom was infinite. Some craftsmen proposed a minimalist high-speed house-building method based on existing materials, and then after several optimizations by the worldly fireworks, the final version of the plan was obtained.

The plan was not to build houses, but to build frames. Using reinforced concrete to build the main support structure, each floor was empty, with no walls built at all; they just drew a line on the cement floor to distinguish each household.

This kind of house that only built frames was indeed incomparably fast to build. With enough Dao Foundation cultivators participating, a floor could be built in two days. A ten-story frame building, including the topping-out and acceptance testing stages, only took one month.

This speed was fast, but after Wei Yuan saw it on-site, he always felt it looked familiar. He recalled carefully and finally remembered that in the illusionary realm of the world fragments, the so-called unfinished buildings looked just like this.

Once the fast-built buildings were finished, officials would distribute various building materials, letting the residents build their own walls and windows, and partition them themselves.

The materials for building walls were all things like wooden boards, yellow mud, and straw. The refugees were quite familiar with using these materials, and in ten-plus days, they could build a high-rise thatched cottage.

These people had moved in; it was just that from afar, it looked like ten stories of shanties stacked together. What was fatal was that the official in charge of the project had uniformly named this kind of building "Yuan's Building," so that people would remember whose grace it was that they had buildings to live in.

Although Yuan's Building looked a bit ugly, it was after all a ten-story high-rise building. Where had the incoming refugees ever seen this?

Thus, every household enshrined a spirit tablet of Wei Yuan, praying day and night for the Realm Master to live for ten thousand years. Those who were sincere even hoped that the Realm Master could live for nine thousand years.

Over the past six months, the luck coming from Yuan's Building had unexpectedly reached over a million, and basically everyone who moved in had made a contribution. Only then did Wei Yuan know the weight of the phrase "a dwelling for every resident."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 803 =====