[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-dragon-lies-hidden":3,"chapter-the-dragon-lies-hidden-the-dragon-lies-hidden-chapter-993":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Dragon Lies Hidden",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2290291,4477,"Chapter 993: Telling Stories","the-dragon-lies-hidden-chapter-993",993,"\u003Cp>In the third year of Hongjing, Wei Yuan secretly returned from the Wild Realm, and the great case later known as the “Lacquered Box Case” officially began.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This case ultimately implicated over one hundred thousand people, including more than three thousand officials of various ranks, eight thousand three hundred and thirty individuals with scholarly titles above Licentiate, and the rest were their afflicted clansmen. Thus, the officialdom of the Eight Prefectures of Jinnan was uprooted entirely, leaving barely any clerks or minor functionaries, and the literary world was utterly purged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Across the eight prefectures, Qingming soldiers stormed like wolves and tigers, hunting down people everywhere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A few who slipped through were then filtered again by bandits and highwaymen. Only a tiny number carried seeds of hatred, changed their names, and fled beyond the eight prefectures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Countless individuals who had mocked Wei Yuan just yesterday now sat numb in sunless dungeons, or trudged step by step through bone-chilling mud toward their exile in the northwest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On Wei Yuan’s final list were four thousand executions, ten families annihilated by kinship, and one hundred thousand exiles. The exile lands lay in the remote northwestern edge of Qingming, near the million-mile mountains of the North, a journey of one hundred thousand li.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once the final list was settled, Wei Yuan entrusted its execution to his subordinates. He himself, alongside the Old Daoist Chuhe, spent several days flying in a full circuit around the entire southwestern eight prefectures, jointly surveying the land’s spiritual currents and mountain alignments to determine where to open new fields.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was not merely about opening fields—it was vital to uproot certain boundary stones and replant them, and to relocate others. Many boundary stones had not been moved since they were planted ten thousand years ago. Back then, many placements were pragmatic compromises, and over time, their flaws became evident.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For example, the Qingming boundary stone’s position was less than ten thousand li from Han Yang Pass; soon, its expansion would cause overlapping domains. Though overlap had its advantages, it was still wasteful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time, the Old Daoist Chuhe intended to reconfigure the boundary stones of the eight southwestern prefectures: separating mismatched stones and placing those with special properties into suitable environments. For instance, some stones could gather earth qi and stimulate metal veins, yet they had been planted in fertile plains—resulting in no veins forming and the field quality being dragged down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Reorganizing the boundary stones would drain half their nurturing energy, causing the entire southwest’s national strength to decline in the short term. But in the long term, after ten years, the southwest’s earth qi output would return to its peak; after thirty years, the stones would complete their initial nurturing, turning the eight prefectures into a prosperous land, with resource yields at least doubling; after fifty years of full nurturing, the southwest would become a heavenly realm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This matter was of immense importance. When the True Person Chuhe proposed it, Wei Yuan was startled—but after careful consideration, he strongly agreed, and seized the opportunity of this purge to carry it out all at once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If they waited, endless debates and arguments would follow, and countless literati who had never tilled soil or gone hungry would lament spring’s passing, pity a few nests of small creatures, and forbid moving the boundary stones.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whether their arguments held truth or not, once spoken, they were beyond challenge, beyond criticism, and never admitted wrong—only the ignorant masses were ever to blame.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, Wei Yuan acted directly. By the time those with ulterior motives sought to stop him, it would already be too late. Boundary stones could not be uprooted a second time within a short span, or they would be damaged. Destroying one boundary stone easily invited karmic backlash—even immortals avoided such acts lightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Wei Yuan and the True Person Chuhe flew together, he saw the old Daoist’s face glowing with health; the fine wrinkles had long vanished, and the ones now visible were deliberately added by Daoist art. Otherwise, the old man would have suddenly become a youthful Daoist, and Chuhe’s thin skin could not bear the fervor of his beautiful male and female disciples.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two flew from county to county with meticulous care. At this moment, the winds of heaven and earth softened; the Old Daoist Chuhe moved through them like a fish in water, effortlessly appearing miles away with a single thought, his every gesture hinting at the aura of a Wind-Controlling Master.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Standing beside Chuhe, Wei Yuan also felt his mind clear and his Dao-heart transparent, knowing this was because Chuhe was favored by heaven and earth, and he had shared in a fraction of that blessing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Yuan could not help but reflect: when Chuhe first arrived in Qingming, he was an exceedingly rare Law-Form High Cultivator, famed as a force capable of rivaling the Burning Sea, his eight immortal swords terrifying to behold. In actual combat, even cats and snakes rarely stood a chance against him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back then, Qingming’s herb garden had been a chaotic mess planted by Wei Yuan; after Chuhe’s arrival, it had become a vast spiritual field spanning hundreds of li. Without even mentioning other crops, the annual harvest of Five-Element Spirit Ginseng alone was sufficient to supply the daily elixirs for millions of Foundation Establishment cultivators and tens of thousands of Golden Core cultivators, with abundant surplus stored as strategic reserves in the fields.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By age alone, the garden now held dozens of tons of Five-Element Spirit Ginseng over a hundred years old, suitable as ingredients for Law-Form elixirs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Opening fields, cultivating seeds, raising chickens—each of these was a path to heaven, each a great service to heaven and earth.\u003C\u002Fp>",950,"2026-06-20T03:38:38.899Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","a63907e21122a97c5c9b254966817feb4f7f4568361ba4cbe60eaf5b9c139623","the-dragon-lies-hidden-chapter-994","the-dragon-lies-hidden-chapter-992",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-dragon-lies-hidden-cover.jpg"]