Chapter 85: Changes

According to the Taichu Palace regulations, a standard human-rank Dao foundation enemy is one hundred merit points. The Daoist recorded eighty for Wei Yuan, which is equivalent to confirming that these injuries would take eighty percent of the life if they fell on an ordinary human-rank cultivator. If a human-rank cultivator died, it could only be counted as one hundred merit points, and the extra immortal silver was called a pension.

After dealing with the wound, Wei Yuan hadn't gotten up yet, when two little Daoists had already placed a cultivator covered in blood beside him, even his breath was gone. Wei Yuan didn't dare to stay long and hurriedly left the medical center, not occupying other people's seats.

After leaving the medical center, Wei Yuan looked at the direction and walked toward the Nanmen. A moment later, he exited the Nanmen and came to the flying boat.

Two temporary halls had already been set up outside the flying boat, and the Daoist at the door shouted: "Taichu Palace enters the left hall, other sects enter the right hall!"

Cultivators entered and exited one after another. Those in the left hall entered and exited empty-handed, while those in the right hall entered empty-handed and came out with large and small packages.

Wei Yuan stood at the end of the line, and after a while, it was his turn, and he walked into the left hall. There were only a few tables in the hall, and a cultivator sat behind each table, all expressionless. When someone came, they used a book to shine on them, sang a number, and then changed to the next one.

When it was Wei Yuan's turn, behind the table was a middle-aged female cultivator, her eyes like an eagle, her mouth drooping, her nose like a hook, with an expression that everyone owed her several taels of immortal silver.

But seeing Wei Yuan, the female cultivator's expression suddenly softened, and she looked at him carefully several times before using the book to shine on him, and then read: "A total of four centurions, eleven captains, and one hundred and thirty-seven ordinary cavalrymen killed?!"

Not to mention the female cultivator, everyone in the hall was shocked. There was no Dao light on Wei Yuan, clearly he hadn't built a Dao foundation yet, and in terms of realm, he was equivalent to a Liao barbarian captain. A captain's merit was twenty, while a centurion was equivalent to a earth-rank Dao foundation, with two hundred merit points!

The battlefield was not a one-on-one fight. With Wei Yuan's realm, it would be very good to kill a few captains. Individual ones with heaven-defying talent and good luck could kill a centurion across ranks, but like Wei Yuan, who had only come for three days, killing several centurions, killing captains in strings, and killing miscellaneous soldiers in piles was unprecedented!

Although shocked, the merit points could not be faked. Every Taichu Palace disciple would practice a Daoist technique, and before the battle, they would cast one, which could record the battle results in the primordial spirit. Because it only recorded battle results, the burden of this Daoist technique was almost zero, and it could be used for a long time. When the Taichu Palace checked the merit points, they just needed to look at the battle results recorded by the Daoist technique.

The female cultivator looked at Wei Yuan deeply and recorded in the book: Tianqing Palace Wei Yuan, merit points one thousand two hundred and thirty-seven.

In the Taichu Palace, merit points were more useful than immortal silver and could be exchanged for almost all materials. Many immortal pills, precious medicines, spiritual materials, and magic treasures could only be exchanged with merit points. If there was really nothing to exchange, it could also be directly exchanged for immortal silver. The exchange price set by the Taichu Palace was one merit point for ten taels of immortal silver.

In fact, there were many people privately exchanging immortal silver for other people's merit points among the disciples. This price fluctuated from time to time, roughly between twelve taels and fifteen taels for one merit point.

That is to say, Wei Yuan had already earned more than ten thousand taels of immortal silver after fighting for these three days. If he privately exchanged it at a relatively high price, he could exchange nearly twenty thousand taels.

The left hall was all Taichu Palace's own disciples, so only merit points were recorded, and they could go back to the sect to exchange for whatever they wanted. The right hall was disciples of other sects, so the Taichu Palace specially prepared a batch of materials, which could be exchanged and taken away on the spot. Although there were fewer options, there were several rare items that couldn't be bought outside, so the vast majority of people still chose to exchange on the spot.

Seeing everyone leaving happily with things in their hands, Wei Yuan understood how powerful it was to settle military merit on the spot. So many people were so sparing no effort to rescue, and clinging to the Bao family was secondary; I'm afraid most of them were for the sake of on-the-spot settlement.

Leaving the Merit Hall, Wei Yuan returned to the dock fortress and, according to the regulations, found the warehouse for military supplies and replenished the spear case and bow and arrows. The post-war rest was considered complete.

Wei Yuan didn't spend much time resting. After receiving the equipment and coming out, he didn't know what to do. The dock fortress was now crowded with people, the roads were congested, and there were as many Dao foundations as hairs on an ox. No one paid attention to Wei Yuan, a junior who hadn't built a Dao foundation yet.

The big battle had just ended, and there were many things to do, such as cleaning the battlefield, treating the wounded, and restoring city defense. Everyone was busy as if flying. Bao Yun didn't know what she was doing, but she must be surrounded by everyone like stars holding the moon at this moment. Just the big figures in the reinforcements from all sides had quite a few, and Wei Yuan saw several teams of reinforcements with more than a hundred cavalry in this direction alone. Among the leading cultivators, there were many talented young cultivators who had already consolidated their foundation and entered the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, and even those in the late stage of Nurturing Spirit. No matter from which angle, Wei Yuan couldn't be ranked.

Wei Yuan, who came alone, wasn't even a Dao foundation.

Wei Yuan didn't stay long. He turned around in the dock fortress, learned the layout of the city defense, and returned to Shayang Village. Wei Yuan didn't let anyone inform Bao Yun, coming quietly and leaving quietly. Now he and Bao Yun were two worlds apart, whether in cultivation or status, both were the same. The only bond between the two was an IOU of tens of thousands, which Bao Yun probably forgot long ago.

After exiting the dock fortress, Wei Yuan felt that the formation disk in his arms was still vibrating from time to time, and there were still people calling for help around. However, the main force of the Northern Liao in Bianning County was clearly here at Bao Yun's place, and even a Dharma Form cultivator had taken action. Now the Dharma Form powerhouse was wounded and fled far away, and the main force had also been repelled. At most, there were some Mobile Corps Commander teams left on the battlefield, and they would retreat after a while.

Wei Yuan's main responsibility was still to guard his own defense zone, and there were restrictions on external rescue. Beyond this range, it was the business of other cultivators. At this time, the direction of Quyang was peaceful, and there was no movement, so Wei Yuan rested with peace of mind.

On the way back, Wei Yuan could see human corpses and horse corpses by the roadside from time to time, indicating that a fierce battle had just occurred here. The eastern part of Bianning County was not the main attack direction of Agula, but it was also full of beacon smoke everywhere.

In the mountains and fields on both sides of the road, villages could occasionally be seen, all of which had been abandoned. Dry bones could be seen everywhere, not knowing when they died, or what they died of.

In just three days, Wei Yuan's state of mind had changed. He had become somewhat accustomed to seeing corpses and dry bones, but that faint sadness still lingered in the bottom of his heart and could not be dispelled.

The sky in the north was dim yellow, perhaps because of the defeat in the war, it retreated a bit. Nothing could be seen clearly behind the dim yellow, and I don't know how many Liao people were hiding behind, licking their wounds while preparing for the next attack.

After a while, Shayang Village and Quyang County were already in sight, but Wei Yuan's face suddenly changed!

The ramparts of Shayang Village had collapsed in many places, the main gate was wide open, and there were bloodstains everywhere on the walls and the battlements. The village was deathly quiet, without the slightest movement! The two villages behind it were the same, with collapsed ramparts and open gates.

Wei Yuan used the Qi-watching Technique and saw that the blood and resentment in the village were intertwined, circling and not leaving. All three villages were like this. And in Shayang Village, a thin white Qi rose up, although thin, it was condensed and did not disperse.

Wei Yuan's eyes tightened, he held his spear in his hand, spurred his horse, and galloped toward Shayang Village at full speed.

In the blink of an eye, Wei Yuan reached the village entrance and dismounted, but his pace slowed down. The open wooden gate had several large holes in it, and the bolt had been slashed into two pieces. Arrows were stuck everywhere on the ramparts, some so deep that only the fletching remained visible. The fletching of these arrows was white, something he had never seen before.

The village was full of death, and blood had almost dyed all the roads red. Most of them had dried up, but some places where the blood was deep still looked a bit soft. On the road, in the house, in the courtyard, behind the house, there were corpses everywhere, and none of them were complete. Most of the limbs had been cut off, and only a few had one hand or one leg left.

All the corpses had no heads.

Wei Yuan walked step by step, his boots falling on the ground, and every step would squeeze away the blood that hadn't dried through, leaving clear footprints.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 86 =====