Chapter 968

In the second year of Hongjing, in the eighth month, Lu Jiande gathered multiple rebel armies, claiming eighteen paths of smoke and fire, amassing two million troops and advancing toward Ji Capital, causing the entire Ji State to tremble. The King of Ji issued a decree to the realm, summoning loyalist forces to resist the rebellion.

Wei Yuan captured a heart demon.

In September, Lu Jiande crushed the Ji State’s hastily assembled ninety-million army and arrived beneath Jiebing Pass. Jiebing Pass was the final gateway before Ji Capital, its front spanning barely a li in width. Both sides fought fiercely before the pass for over a month, suffering heavy casualties.

Wei Yuan captured a heart demon.

In October, Lu Jiande failed to break through, exhausted his supplies, and retreated in defeat; the eighteen paths of smoke and fire scattered. The Ji State, under the command of Duke Long, launched an eighty-million-strong pursuit. Lu Jiande suffered thirteen consecutive defeats before finally shaking off the pursuers. Duke Long reclaimed forty thousand li of lost territory, and his prestige soared beyond compare!

Wei Yuan captured a heart demon… then another came to rescue it, and both were caught.

Wei Yuan: ?

Aren’t heart demons supposed to come one at a time? Why did two come this time? And what’s their relationship? They look so deeply devoted, willing to die together! Wait—do heart demons even have genders? I’ve studied so many, yet never noticed this before.

Unable to answer these questions, Wei Yuan suddenly wondered: Could it be true, as novels claim—that opposite sexes exist only for reproduction, while same-sex bonds are true love?

Wei Yuan attempted to establish several disciplines on heart demons, including but not limited to Heart Demon Psychology, Heart Demon Sociology… Though he anticipated these studies would produce vast quantities of useless papers, if even a few yielded genuine insight, it would not be in vain.

Once the disciplines were set up, hundreds of mortals immediately signed up for the tasks. Wei Yuan temporarily set the matter aside.

Though the heart demon tribulation showed no end in sight, the Heart-Phase World continued evolving, and it did not delay his advancement to Yu Jing.

After all, the entire mortal realm, along with the Three Celestial Realms, would require considerable time to fully evolve. Wei Yuan felt he might as well duel with heart demons to mend the final flaw in his Dao heart. As for what that final flaw actually was, even he could not say.

The battlefield in the mortal realm had stabilized. Three platforms for transporting cultivators had been built, and a larger, combat-capable platform had also been constructed. Its firepower alone equaled that of over ten Dharma Body cultivators. This was the first time in the mortal realm that an external weapon surpassed the killing power of a cultivator.

Besides the Battle Saint Pavilion, the mortal realm had formed an army named the Lichuan Legion.

All soldiers in the legion were Foundation Establishment cultivators, mostly those with low innate talent who had languished in frustration at the Battle Saint Pavilion. Upon its founding, the legion immediately recruited nearly a hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Pavilion and formed its first special operations company.

Wei Yuan welcomed competition and chose not to interfere, observing the aftermath.

But when Wei Yuan saw Fuyao and Lei Ling, inhabiting the body of Long Wushuang, join the legion, he suddenly grew restless.

Wei Yuan had noticed the strange phenomena in the mortal realm, and their primary source was clearly Fuyao. Yet Fuyao’s existence proved immensely useful for immortal plants—especially when she successfully cultivated the Phoenix Blood Immortal Moss, which had surprised Wei Yuan greatly.

The Phoenix Blood Immortal Moss had now spread to cover an area the size of a washbasin, on the verge of developing spiritual awareness. This would add another immortal plant to his collection. Though Wei Yuan harbored suspicions about Fuyao, as long as she did nothing excessively reckless, he would tolerate her.

Yet the Phoenix Blood Immortal Moss required divine beast blood to grow. Since no true phoenix existed in the mortal realm, Fuyao somehow tricked the Shadow Dragon into visiting periodically to drip a single drop of blood. Now the moss, crimson tinged with black, exuded increasingly potent yin energy, its life-extending properties waning while its eerie abilities multiplied—it had become something unrecognizable.

After examining the mortal realm, Wei Yuan calmed his mind and returned to studying the Fourth Celestial Realm; occasionally, insights would arise, and he would write another page of the Three Realms Ruyi Classic.

Wei Yuan knew writing this scripture was improper, but it contained the truths he had personally realized about the Dao of Heaven and Earth, and he felt compelled to record it for future generations.

Moreover, the profound meaning within this path was absent from all other Buddhist scriptures in the Great Precious Lotus Pure Land, leaving him with a sense of something missing.

The scripture’s general outline had now reached its final passage—the very section Wei Yuan believed the Buddhist canon had omitted.

In his study, Wei Yuan spread out a jade paper, dipped his brush in clear water, and began writing on it. In reality, the paper bore only water marks, no characters. But within the mortal realm, corresponding characters appeared:

“Buddhism has two aspects: one is self-cultivation, the other is saving others…”