Chapter 171: Immortal Path Carves The Gully, Human Path Strikes Alone
In the 2nd year of the Tian You Calendar, 6th month, inside Lelang City, Xuan Chong began strengthening order control in his own prefecture.
The General’s Mansion issued multiple orders, and the governance personnel (including Wu Juwang and other youths) whom Xuan Chong brought from Bo Prefecture also began participating in various tasks in Chong Land.
The focus among them was effectively eradicating the plague situation, such as regularly inspecting pollution sources in all rivers; executing measures like burying stagnant water near villages. This was to stabilize the land with human principles.
These newly dispatched youths like Wu Juwang, in coordinating work, established performance ratings for thousands of officials, and set up standards for post promotion, coordination, and assessment.
Large quantities of rough paper documents replaced bamboo slips; this was because the instructions to be issued for government affairs were an order of magnitude more than before. Bamboo slip production could not keep up.
No one knew that when Xuan Chong had Wu Juwang and other students doing this work, another term actually emerged in his mind—”participate in the reform.”
Historical experience: Any successful reform does not start from the imperial court. It must be from the bottom up; taking the famous Shang Yang reform as an example, it was based on the order to reclaim wasteland, completed personnel selection at the grassroots level, and only then could heavy agriculture and suppression of commerce be fully implemented in Qin.
Now Xuan Chong was preparing to replicate the “city workshop clusters” policy from Lingnan and the Southern Border in Chong Land; the key lay in statistics on agricultural population and non-agricultural population. Now, through plague situation control, Xuan Chong quietly completed a bottom-up survey of every household under his rule, those second sons and third sons who had no land inheritance rights and were attached to household heads with arable land.
This reform was like using troops: in warfare, you must first hide your combat intentions; if intentions are exposed, the enemy will counter based on them; reform is the same. In statistics on resources, if intentions are exposed upfront, various conservatives will jump out to obstruct.
The late Qing’s Hundred Days Reform was like that; without building a bottom-up execution structure, without chips to negotiate with the Westernization faction and extreme conservatives, they noisily jumped to the table demanding all factions to make concessions.
Even if the Westernization faction understood your desire to promote industry, you lacked strength. Change requires strength; having strength is not only assurance for you, but also for potential cooperators and the Westernization faction.
The Westernization faction worried about this: what if I compromise with you, turning into “you only make me compromise when you encounter setbacks” or “you settle me first with easy then hard, then fight others.” Then wouldn’t I become roadside meat. Speaking of later generations, when dealing with those in Europe pushing reforms, they weren’t as perceptive as Lord Li.
Xuan Chong arranged Wu Juwang and other youths in the newest prefecture office, equipped them with personal soldier security guards exclusive to the City Lord, and assigned the security guards’ performance assessment work to them.
After the plague disaster, in Chong Land’s comprehensive reform, Wu Juwang would get a perfect starting point in everything.
And decades later, when Wu Juwang looked back on his career starting under his lord, he suddenly realized that the guide was paving the way for him.
…The mortal world rolls on, unclear in the mortal world, and impenetrable from outside the mortal world….
Outside Chong Land, in the eyes of those who prided themselves on aligning with the Way of Heaven, they thought Wu Fei was engaging in futile efforts.
The Wangheng Sect Sect Master, like a gamer watching NPCs struggling in a city, watched Xuan Chong suppressing miasma in the city. He shook his head with immortal demeanor: “Ants seeking survival, lamentable and pitiful.”
Cultivators and their disciples did not know that their eyes were very blue at this time, with filters in their perspective.
These people of the Way of Heaven treated the common people like straw dogs; earlier, when the Wu Family Army Southern Route troops surged into Zhenzhou, they panicked over their great array collapsing, as that rolling killing intent had already caused a wave of mountain range collapses.
In the eyes of the immortal path followers, this killing intent, after resolving Zhenzhou’s rebellion forces, went to retaliate and crush in all directions; their arrays absolutely could not be maintained.
On various mountains, the Immortal Sect disciples setting up arrays looked in terror at the terrifying cracks on the array foundation mountains, as well as the scene of streams on the mountains completely drying up and animals fleeing into the wilderness.
However, in late June, after the Wu Family Southern Route army occupied the entire Chong Land, it temporarily reined in the killing intent, allowing these immortal families to breathe.
Thus, array disks were set up again around Chong Land. Groups of cultivators riding clouds and escape lights arrived at the feng shui nodes around Chong Land, laying down array disks again, attempting to seal off Chong Land’s mountains and waters energy. Thus smothering the plague-infected Chong Land, making the Wu Family occupying it ultimately collapse.
Immortal family heaven’s mechanism calculators firmly believed they had calculated heaven’s mechanism correctly. Yet they did not care why the “killing intent” paused, allowing them to recover and reset arrays.
…Before a tsunami arrives, the water recedes toward the sea…
“Killing intent” is condensed from killing heart; when the killing heart is temporarily reined in, the “killing intent” is also temporarily reined in.
Xuan Chong controlled troops very proficiently; when directing the army to wage war against a certain class under heaven, his soldiers immediately united as one, targeting the objects in the strike zones designated by Xuan Chong, to kill!
Because everyone believed that after Wu Fei’s this campaign of killing, they themselves holding knives would profit, hence they would recklessly direct their killing heart at the enemies specified by Xuan Chong.
Now Xuan Chong temporarily withdrew the targets, not killing out toward places like Ji Prefecture that offended him.
Soldiers confirmed Xuan Chong held back orders, knowing that wanting to wield the knife again would bring no benefit and others would not follow, hence killing heart and intent temporarily reined in.
On controlling troops, Xuan Chong was now like a “dam,” able to release floods at will.—Even Zhao Cheng now in the Northern Border felt inferior in this regard.
Zhao Cheng: “Wu Fei can fight whenever he wants, but every war of mine is one I have no choice but to fight.”
But precisely because of Xuan Chong’s restraint, the Immortal Sects long separated from the mortal world dynasty mistook Xuan Chong for weak. Mistaking the Wu Family Army killing intent as dissipated, and the tens of thousands of troops following Xuan Chong as repenting, reflecting, ultimately collapsing.
In fact, Xuan Chong’s period from June to July reining in killing intent was letting the major Immortal Sects off once.
But this group of Immortal Sects were all “stubbornly awakened” beyond saving.
In July, led by Wangheng Sect, the eight great immortal gates repaired the great array, and called fellow Daoists from under heaven to their sect gates, sealing the feng shui array even more tightly.
Because “mortals'” resistance seemed unreasonable to the immortal families, a blue concept quietly shuttled through the minds of the major Immortal Sects; in this great tribulation, “military strategists” could only respond under Immortal Sect guidance.
These Immortal Sect Sect Leaders forgot that in ancient times during the “Yao succession transition,” the predecessors of the Chan and Jie schools, with far more complete Daoist Sect inheritances than theirs, only dared to assist human realm monarchs and generals in the great tribulation.
Were the ancient two schools’ cultivator supernatural powers not strong enough? No! Back then the human realm was weaker, large areas without people could be mobilized by spiritual energy.
Cultivators then stirred wind and waves, creating floods, earthquakes, plagues, affecting human realm villages. Unlike today, sealing a prefecture’s water vein requires gathering over a thousand cultivators to set up magic arrays at the prefecture boundary edges.
Overall, the human realm will become stronger and stronger in the future.
Because the Southern Border had already started the “workshop—>factory” production revolution; jade trains now ran from Lingnan through Yongji Pass all the way north.
In the next era version, uninhabited places will become fewer and fewer; cultivators who “spiritual energy avoids killing intent” only needed to avoid some points in ancient times, but in the future, might have to avoid everywhere.
Contemporary immortal families might not know what the human realm future looks like, but now they felt the human realm version guided by Xuan Chong threatened them, and did not want this scene. (Historical obstacles do not realize they are obstacles, only think the forces later deemed progressive now hinder them)
At Yao Capital, disciples dispatched by various Immortal Sects were operating to have the emperor thoroughly enfeoff all “spiritual mountains and great rivers” to the sects, not allowing ordinary people to enter and disturb.
…Xi People Realm’s will: “Does not know the times”…
In the mountains’ cloud tops, the immortals presiding over the great array still watched the “powerless” self-rescue of the straw dogs in the city.
Wangheng Sect Sect Master Yue Qunzhu calmly watched the Wu Family Army flags on the plains constantly waving along the roads, resisting that rotting miasma.
Beside him, a close disciple watched the Water Mirror Technique showing the human realm general’s efforts in suppression, and asked: “Master, shall we not go assist?”
The Sect Leader said: “Even Heaven is like this, and human power cannot help. For the sake of the common people under Heaven, we will contain this disaster within this one city.”
In the eyes of these Immortal Sect Sect Leaders, the final result of the Chong Land’s corrosion would be that the entire Lelang City would be uprooted by the Evil Moon in Heaven and swallowed into the sky, and the Wu Family Army would bear the “Rotten Power” and all the karma that fell into the Human World.
Having seen countless lives and deaths in the Human World, with lifespans of several hundred or even thousands of years, these old monsters had become indifferent to this demonic disaster in the mortal world.
But not all cultivators were like this. Within the Qinghua Sect, Bai Renfeng and several other junior brothers and junior sisters who had originally assisted Wu Hengyu had returned to the sect.
As one of the Righteous Path sects, the Qinghua Sect naturally knew the true situation of the source of this plague, so when they learned that Han Jiangxue had been ordered to reflect on her actions, Bai Renfeng demanded an explanation, and the sect elders laid out the factual evidence before them.
The recording stone played the scenes, including the scene after Wu Hanluan’s final death when he was absorbed by the Golden Dou.
In a silence, Bai Renfeng unleashed Sword Light and questioned the sect elders: “The source of this disaster stems from Wu Hanluan’s personal calamity alone. How innocent are the people of Chong Land?! Just because the human path here is slightly tainted, we stand by and watch. What exactly is our so-called duty to eliminate demons and protect the dao? For the Dao Heart or for the sect’s selfish desires?”
…Human World dividing line…
In Lelang City, after Xuan Chong delegated authority, Yao San Niang decided to start brewing Emperor Intoxication. She would use the dream realm wish power of one city’s people to achieve “spiritual energy enhancement,” making the black prison where Wu Hanluan had placed the Golden Dou appear.
Xuan Chong checked the materials she was using to brew Emperor Intoxication, confirmed there was no toxicity, and tacitly approved. But then he noticed the materials were not Spirit Grass or Spiritual Herbs, but all “heaven’s timing and earth’s advantage” Things of Vitality (like in chapter 107, fresh grass Xuan Chong casually pulled after a heavy rain).
Heaven-Granted Ears: A stalk of nine-eared golden wheat, with awns like needles, the ear head naturally curved into a ruyi shape. Grown beside the emperor’s altar for sacrificing to heaven, it matures during the “heavenly rain of grains” phenomenon, implying “Destined by Heaven.” It occasionally appears when a new dynasty is established, and withers after three days once formed, requiring a jade knife to harvest.
Pan-Tao Stiff: Stiff fruits (unripe peaches that wind-dry on the tree) from a thousand-year ancient peach tree, shaped like a baby’s clenched fist. Alternatively, fruits from a “withered but undying” peach tree in front of an old folk healer who saved countless lives, implying “cycle of life and death.” Must be offered before the desk of a hundred-year-old elder to condense “vitality and death energy.”
Ice Heart Spring: Living water taken from a frozen Spring Eye at the winter solstice’s midnight hour; the water condenses but does not freeze, feeling warm and moist to the touch. Taken from the Dragon Vein source head, and must be received in a silver pot by a virgin girl who has not broken her body. It disperses in sunlight and must be stored in a shark silk pouch.
Thunder-Struck Millet: Red millet struck by heavenly thunder but not burned, with lightning patterns on the surface of the grains. Found near the State Altars after the summer solstice thunderstorm, symbolizing “heaven’s punishment does not invade.” When brewing, the grains must be placed in a Bronze Tripod, with the lightning patterns aligned toward the Big Dipper.
Jade Paste Mud: Ointment-like mud clods condensed from five-colored soil, soft like fat when pinched, with a rice flower fragrance when smelled. Symbolizing “Sweet Spring gushing from the earth,” it must be stored in a purple sandalwood box. Applied to the inner walls of wine jars, it can seal the liquor for a thousand years without evaporation.
Xuan Chong: Where am I supposed to get these materials for you at this moment? And—
Yao San Niang: I have all these materials. With that said, she had already brought out this jar of wine.
Xuan Chong was stunned for a moment, then continued reading the following content.
Brewing method: Mix and pound Heaven-Granted Ears, Pan-Tao Stiff, and Thunder-Struck Millet into fragments, place in a clay jar coated with Jade Paste Mud, pour in Ice Heart Spring until seven-tenths full, and cover the jar mouth with mulberry Silk brocade (woven by the empress herself).
Xuan Chong pointed at the cloth brocade on the wine jar. Seeming to know what Xuan Chong wanted to ask, Yao San Niang said: I wove it.
Xuan Chong continued reading: “Heaven’s timing catalysis” must begin brewing at the midnight hour when the winter solstice and summer solstice alternate in a jiazi year, when Heaven and Earth’s Yin Yang Two Energies intersect harmoniously. The wine jar must be placed outdoors, enduring frost, snow, rain, and dew for forty-nine days each, called the “Four Nine Tribulations.”
Xuan Chong enunciated each word: Finally, “human virtue dotting the eye.” On the night before the wine is complete, the reigning Son of Heaven must personally pluck a piece of frost flower condensed on the jar and drop it into the wine. If the Son of Heaven lacks virtue, the frost flower melts upon touch, and the wine turns sour; if he has virtue, the frost flower turns into Dragon Form upon entering the wine.
Xuan Chong: How did you complete this final step?
Yao San Niang put her finger in Xuan Chong’s mouth, dipped it, opened the wine jar, then dotted it in. Immediately, a ray of light shot out, like a colorful phoenix leaping from within.
Yao San Niang poured the alcohol into a water tank prepared long in advance. The liquor initially resembled amber, and as the large tank was lifted and shaken, it rippled with five-colored Rosy Clouds. Finally, the alcohol was poured into the clean pools of the city, and all the city’s people smelled a rich wine fragrance. At the same time, outside the City Wall, the sound of hundreds of birds flapping wings arose, vegetation revived like spring, and in dry corners, mosquitoes were ignited by flames in the void.
Next, Lelang City beat gongs and drums, and all the city’s people carried Buckets to scoop from the pools and take it home to drink.
Yao San Niang raised a cup and offered it to Xuan Chong: “Mortals drinking it can see their previous life and present life, emperors drinking it can discern loyal ministers, traitors, the wise, and the foolish, but it cannot grant longevity. This is your cup.”
Xuan Chong looked at this cup of wine and shook his head. He did not fully believe what Yao San Niang said; after all, the recipe for Emperor Intoxication was associated in history books with certain monarchs who had poor posthumous titles.
Yao San Niang said: “You drink this cup not because it is Emperor Intoxication, but because after the wine is made, it must be distributed to nine people of exemplary virtue; those who privately hoard it will suffer the “Five Declines” disaster. And Husband, you have shared it with the entire city’s people—you are a man of great virtue.” With that, she glanced at the canopy of colorful clouds above Xuan Chong’s head.
When Emperor Intoxication was successfully brewed and distributed to the people’s mouths, Xuan Chong’s Auspicious Qi began to surge violently.
Xuan Chong shook his head and said: “I don’t drink alcohol.” Beside him, Wu Lu said: “Mother, I’ll drink it.”
Xuan Chong patted this kid on the Forehead: Children shouldn’t drink alcohol.
He then summoned Wu Juwang and bestowed this cup of wine upon him. Meanwhile, San Niang rubbed Wu Lu’s forehead and whispered quietly: “Don’t worry, Mother saved a cup for you. Drink it when you grow up.”
…Spiritual energy waves surging, Supreme Heaven begins to move…
When the people of Lelang City had all returned home and fallen into deep sleep, the entire city became bizarre and fantastical. In the eyes of those Immortal Families under Heaven, Lelang City at this moment had turned into a black hole absorbing spiritual energy from all directions, with the same nature of absorbing spiritual energy as the Evil Moon. It could also be said that Lelang City was opening a “Force Field,” isolating the influence of the Evil Moon’s polluting power, and charging toward the Evil Moon.
Xuan Chong could easily sense that the Lelang City he was in had become a ball where Space was constantly collapsing and compressing, as if falling into another world.
This was just like a ball that appeared to be only the size of a marble on the surface, but could actually hold something the size of a Basketball inside.
The entire city’s spiritual sense was enhanced, and within the range of this spiritual sense influence, some ghostly things could even manifest out of thin air. Of course, after seeing Xuan Chong, these ghosts trembled like they had seen a ghost and knelt on the ground. Xuan Chong paused, then withdrew his Killing Intent.
Xuan Chong opened the Prison Cell; these were all the unforgivables who had revolted against Wu Hanluan, totaling four hundred people.
Xuan Chong looked at the eager evil ghosts behind them trying to absorb Despair, and snorted coldly. These indescribable phantoms dispersed, and the originally deranged Criminals broke free from the evil ghosts’ entanglement.
Xuan Chong said: “Although you are guilty, the nation now has a need for manpower.”
With that, soldiers behind Xuan Chong brought a basin of spiritual ointment and applied it to the criminals’ faces, erasing the tattooed characters on their faces but also obliterating their appearances.
Xuan Chong had a Bronze Mirror brought in, and everyone saw that their facial features were blurred, with only noses and eyes visible.
Xuan Chong: “I need some people to accompany me to kill into the black prison and uproot the evil source planted by Evil Spirits beneath my state. Because this battle is perilous, I do not want to use my personal soldiers; you are great sinners, and if you form an army with me, after this battle, you can change your faces, and your currently formless faces can be reshaped with features.”
One person shouted loudly: “This old man is not afraid of death; these past few days I’ve been waiting to be executed at any moment!” However, under Xuan Chong’s glare, this person then shouted: “General spares my life today; a Great Man will repay with his body.”
With the first person leading, the others then expressed their willingness to follow, donning the Iron Masks distributed by Xuan Chong, totaling four hundred people. Xuan Chong said to everyone: “Take up Weapons and prepare to go with me.”
A soldier whose mask was numbered 98 asked: “Now?”
Xuan Chong: “Of course now. The hiding place of the plague demon within Lelang City has been discovered.”
Under Xuan Chong’s instructions, everyone donned Armor and took up Weapons, all feeling it extremely illusory. As the leaders of this rebellion, half a month ago they thought their entire families would be implicated, but in the end they were exiled to the Southern Border; now Xuan Chong had come, they thought they were about to die under the blade, yet Xuan Chong once again declared they could redeem their crimes through merit.
Nearby, Wu Hanluan’s former Personal Soldier Wu Baichuan felt very uncomfortable; he looked at Xuan Chong, clearly feeling uneasy about the rebels having a chance at amnesty.
Wu Baichuan looked at this Military Master, whom he had once forced to eat snake meat: “Could it be that the General wants to reconsider some of the things done to the old Military Master?”
Xuan Chong’s cold words rang in Wu Baichuan’s ears: “They are criminals making merit to atone for their crimes, so after this matter is settled, traces of the rebellion remain. After the matters here are concluded, they will be sent to the Southern Border to garrison the border for three to ten years, and in the future, you all will rarely see them.”
Wu Baichuan put away his little schemes. Garrisoning the border in the Southern Border was grueling work, requiring endurance of poisonous insects, diseases, and miasma. From this perspective, these “forgivable” criminals actually received no forgiveness. As for staying in the Southern Border for ten years, if they married and had children, they might never return.
Xuan Chong looked at the expressions on these people’s faces and thought to himself: “During the process of colonial construction, it cannot become a place for exiling prisoners; but going to remote and harsh frontiers, compared to other civilized places, is indeed sometimes a form of punishment. I cannot afford the blood reward to dispatch main force troops to station in the south, so I can only gather as many internal wrongdoers as possible and give them a chance to correct their mistakes.”
…Xuan Chong’s credibility was extremely good among these rebel army…
As the space spiritual energy within the city grew stronger and stronger, the original “gladiatorial arena” black prison building that had disappeared in the city center reappeared. At first, it was like a toy model, then it grew larger and larger.
And at the same time, a sword light streaked across the long sky. The soldiers nearby immediately formed a military formation. Xuan Chong did not have everyone protect him in front but walked out from the military formation and said to Bai Renfeng: “You’ve come to help, right!”
Bai Renfeng stared at Xuan Chong: “What do you intend to do now?”
Xuan Chong: “Downward, extract the magic source.”
Then, revealing the lotus seed in his hand, Xuan Chong said firmly: “Purify that place!”
Bai Renfeng looked at the vast and pure source of holy power in Xuan Chong’s hand, sensing that this thing possessed the power to incinerate all things in the world.
Bai Renfeng cupped his hands: “If the General is doing this to remove this source of filth, I am willing to vanguard for the General.”
