Once more, dusk had fallen in the realm of Qingming. At this moment, the human cultivators had only managed to sweep a small portion of the battlefield. They were currently going to and fro the battlefield and dragging the Shamans’ corpses to the designated locations. In the western regions, it was common knowledge that their corpses made good fertilizer for the realm.

Wei Yuan felt that the western regions were very strange. Shamans used humans to perform Sacrifice to Heaven rituals, whereas humans used Shamans to nourish the land. Both sides were the predator and prey. It was an indescribable cycle.

Inside the stone house, Xu Wenwu was writing furiously; the fingers of his right hand had already gone numb. He couldn’t remember exactly how long he’d been writing, but he’d been at it the whole time.

At first, he wrote what technically counted as what he saw and heard, but were really highlights of his life. For example, he mentioned the time he scored 99 points out of 100 during second grade. He also mentioned how he had ranked in the top 30 during an exam in seventh grade, and then cracked the top 50 again in an exam during ninth grade.

Unfortunately, his glorious achievements came to an end before he had a chance to write much about them. So, he allowed his imagination to run wild and wrote whatever came to his mind. He wrote about the dormitories, cafeterias, internet cafes, and late-night food stalls outside the campus gates. Before he knew it, he had covered most of the campus facilities. He was going to write about the library until he realized upon lifting his brush that he had no idea what it looked like on the inside at all. It was because he hadn’t set foot in it even once during his four years in college[1].

As he wrote, the jade paper suddenly emitted a soft glow. He realized a moment later that he had finally written thirty thousand words. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

A door appeared on the stone house, and Bao Yun stepped inside. She picked up the jade paper and said, “You can rest now.”

It was music to the ears. A pair of warm tears rolled down Xu Wenwu’s cheeks as he struggled to his feet and stepped out of the stone house. His reaction was so exaggerated that Bao Yun could not help but feel a tad amused.

Bao Yun noticed that Xu Wenwu was heading toward the main chamber. So, she called out, “That’s the wrong way. The mess hall is located past the central peak to the right.”

“I’ll go eat after I finish taking the horse for a run,” Xu Wenwu replied from afar.

Xu Wenwu felt pretty proud of his newfound dedication and diligence, but the only response he got from Bao Yun was a nod. He did not know that every young man who had ever found themselves in her presence—no matter how idle or frivolous they might have been—would suddenly become diligent and dedicated, refined and ambitious. Even their conversations would take on a more sophisticated tone, focusing entirely on world affairs. If someone didn’t know better, they would think that they were directly connected to said affairs.

Seeing that Bao Yun was taking her leave, Xu Wenwu could not help but ask a question, “Say, how long does it roughly take for you to go through thirty thousand words?”

Bao Yun replied, “According to your world’s time, a minute.”

Xu Wenwu instantly deflated and thought bitterly to himself: If you’re not going to take this seriously, then I’m not going to write properly either!

But that was tomorrow. For now, he had to make good on his claim. So, Xu Wenwu sought out his horse and took it out for a spin.

By now, he had developed a certain connection with the horse. He could vaguely sense where it was even without looking. It was quite remarkable.

Bao Yun brought the jade paper to the summit of the central peak. It was pretty late, and everyone had returned from their respective tasks. So, the group split their perception and examined the jade paper together.

Although there were thirty thousand words, it took them less than half a minute to finish everything.

Wei Yuan’s primordial spirit was quite strong at this point, and he was quite familiar with Xu Wenwu’s manner of speaking. That was why his perception automatically extracted the important bits and filed the rest away as irrelevant material. He didn’t delete the useless information outright, however. He decided that he would review them later when he had time; just in case there was any value that he had overlooked. The entire process took less than ten seconds and yielded a full two thousand words of distilled insights—far above his expectations, really.

Everyone else had their own way of processing the information and encountered no trouble. Well, almost everyone. Xiao Yu was inexperienced in the art of processing garbage material and accidentally memorized every word that was written on the jade paper. Furious, he cursed up and down while cleaning the garbage inside his primordial spirit.

The night passed peacefully.

Early the next morning, Wei Yuan headed out and discovered that the sweeping of the battlefield was complete. So, he marked a plot of land measuring about a square li located on the side of the central peak for food cultivation. He intended to grow Liang rice—a type of rice that was unique to the western regions.

Liang rice grew rapidly and matured in just three months. It required a humid environment and plenty of water. The grains it produced contained faint traces of spirit qi, making it the most common food among the impoverished cultivators of the western regions bar none.

Ordinary cultivators didn’t just need to eat, their appetite was a lot bigger than the average mortal as well. Although there weren’t many of them at the moment, this would change once Wei Yuan had recruited his second batch of cultivators. The military rations he had retrieved from the hidden storerooms would not be sufficient then.

They were in a lull after the Shamans’ latest failed offensive. So, Wei Yuan was planning to send a group to Willow Ash Town and purchase a batch of emergency supplies. By the time they were used, the newly planted crops should be ready for harvest.

A plot of land measuring about a square li could grow roughly 500 mu worth of fields. Liang rice, when fully ripe, yielded around ten thousand catties. In Qingming’s domain, the maturation period could be shortened to one and a half months. With Jia Wood Nurtures Life, it could be shortened even further.

Liang rice was the most basic kind of spirit food. An ordinary Body-tempering stage cultivator would need to consume at least five catties a day to meet their cultivation needs. If they trained diligently, even ten catties might not be enough. Based on this calculation, Wei Yuan could support a group of roughly one thousand cultivators one month later. With the additional numbers, they would be able to create more spirit fields.

The Shamans were definitely going to lie low for a bit after losing their second Great Warlock. Wei Yuan had no plans of wasting such an important lull. As soon as he finished the arrangements for the reclamation work, he immediately set out alone to scout ahead and monitor the Shamans’ movements. Bao Yun and his Big Senior Sister were covering two other directions as well.

Wei Yuan was scouting the direction where Willow Ash Town was located. As the town was home to a large human population, it was unlikely that the Shamans’ main forces would make an appearance here, making it a relatively safe mission.

On the other hand, Bao Yun was scouting the southwest direction, and his Big Senior Sister the northwest. For obvious reasons, their missions were far more dangerous and carried a much higher risk of encountering the Shamans. Fortunately, neither of them were ordinary people. They should be able to escape unscathed even if they happened to encounter a Great Warlock.

Bao Yun’s Seven Wonders Exquisite Treasure Tree possessed the ability to isolate heaven and earth. In terms of concealment, it was easily one of the greatest Dao Foundations out there. The fact that the lizard Great Warlock never noticed the seed Bao Yun had secretly planted in him until it was too late spoke volumes.

For this reason, the young woman was responsible for scouting the southwest direction—the direction with the highest chance of encountering the Shamans—in an effort to locate the enemy’s bases in the Shattered Realm.

There were large tribes living in the northwest direction where Ji Liuli was scouting. However, their main settlements were also much farther away than those to the southwest. While it was still very possible that the Shamans had bases in this area, the chance was slightly lower.

Although Ji Liuli’s concealment methods were not as extraordinary as Bao Yun’s, she was a member of the Heavenly Mysteries Hall. Although she only liked fighting and killing enemies, she still knew many combat-related heavenly mystery spells and fengshui spells.

For example, Ji Liuli had applied several heavenly mystery spells on herself that noticeably decreased her presence prior to her departure. At the moment, she could walk right past an ordinary mortal without a disguise, and the impression she would leave behind would not be that of a human, but an ant. If an ant were to crawl past your feet, chances were you wouldn’t notice it at all.

As for Zhang Sheng and Xiao Yu, they were on guard duty as they were much weaker outside Qingming’s domain. Zhang Sheng in particular was almost praying for the enemy to attack them just so that he could scratch the terrible itch that had been affecting his immortal swords ever since he came short of killing an Avatar.

Yun Feifei and Xu Wan’er were busy as ever. There were countless little tasks waiting for them to handle.

The first thing Xu Wenwu did upon waking up was to water his tree. Then, he walked into his little stone house of his own accord and began a new day.

Today’s brush felt very different from yesterday’s, however. It was feather light and moved exactly as he intended. Overjoyed, Xu Wenwu gave it a go and almost felt like he was typing on a keyboard.

Alas, a brush ultimately lacked the soul of a keyboard. It simply lacked that oomph when you smashed a finger down on a key.

1. Dude you are a legend alright. How is it possible you managed to avoid entering a library your whole life? Especially considering where you live? ☜