Dragon Canon

Although Cui Yu was the cream of the crop among his generation in the Cui Clan, his seniority was still low, and there were others of his generation with even greater natural talent. Since joining Qingming, Cui Yu had essentially used all of his clan contributions and his monthly stipend for the intelligence Wei Yuan needed.

Wei Yuan was well aware of this, but for the time being, he had no good way to compensate his sect fellow.

Given Cui Yu’s current status within his clan, he was not yet in a position to obtain the core secrets of various royal families. However, Wei Yuan didn’t need to know that much. For the time being, just the information available in the open was enough.

Wei Yuan had originally no interest in the succession struggle within Western Jin, but since the First Consort had made her hints so blatantly clear during the end of their meeting, who knew what she might do if he refused to help her? If a certain word were to reach the King of Jin’s ears, wouldn’t Western Jin mobilize its entire army to crush Qingming?

How to help her was no easy matter either. First, Wei Yuan took stock of his current advantages. First and foremost, he commanded a large army and was stationed at the frontier. Second, his personal strength was decent, and he was now capable of holding his own against a relatively weak Avatar. Third, though not immediately relevant, Qingming was rich in natural resources. Its output was only going to grow more abundant as the realm continued to expand.

Wei Yuan exchanged a large number of historical texts at the merits hall. He was hoping to study how border generals who commanded large armies had participated in succession struggles fared throughout history. But the more he read, the greater his unease grew. Was it just him, or did none of these figures enjoy a good reputation, much less a happy ending?

But he quickly realized the reason. It wasn’t that none of them had happy endings. Some of them had, in fact, succeeded in obtaining what they wanted. For instance, there were those who, having successfully enthroned their lieges, were able to thoroughly whitewash their actions. At that point, history was theirs to write as they pleased.

A select few were exceptionally successful and became true dragons[1] themselves. Consequently, their deeds were recorded in the founding annals of emperors instead of the biographies Wei Yuan was reading, much less the Wicked Ministers[2].

As Wei Yuan read on, he finally understood something: the deed was the same, and those who succeeded were hailed as the founding emperor, a restorer of a dynasty, or at the very least, a founding hero. However, those who failed always end up in one way or another: the competent ones were recorded in the Wicked Ministers, whereas the incompetent ones were reduced to a single line: “So-and-so raised an army; the campaign ended in defeat.” The end.

After poring over the historical texts all day and projecting himself into the historical narratives over and over again, Wei Yuan couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat several times.

As for Wei Yuan’s personal strength, he still needed a year to break through to the next minor stage. That said, it was only a theoretical figure. The newly cultivated 100,000 mu of grain fields had already been sown, and several thousand mu of Liang rice fields were ready for harvest very soon. Once the grain was harvested, the plants could be reused as seed to open up even more spirit fields.

In other words, in at most another half a year or so, and once the next two harvests were in, the spirit qi they contributed would be sufficient for Wei Yuan to make his breakthrough. If things went quickly, it might even take him only three months.

Next, Wei Yuan pondered about the strength of his realm.

Strictly speaking, just like Bao Yun, Ji Liuli couldn’t be counted among the realm’s standing combat strength. The same applied to Cui Yu; sooner or later, he would have to return and take over the family business. Although there was a genius in the current generation of the Cui Clan who was even more outstanding than him[3], The Cui Clan’s businesses were far too vast for a single genius to handle alone. Cui Yu was certain to secure a substantial share.

The same applied to the scions of noble clans such as Wang Yu and Hsu Yi. Their brighter futures lay with their clans, not charging into battle alongside Wei Yuan.

Excluding the noble clans and aristocratic families, Wei Yuan currently had roughly 700 Dao Foundation-stage cultivators at his disposal, including the several dozen who were captured recently. In addition, he had 3,000 peak Body-tempering stage cultivators. Although these cultivators were the cream of the crop within the realm of Qingming, outside of it, they could only be described as competent. Finally, he had tens of thousands of ordinary Body-tempering stage cultivators.

Inside Qingming’s domain, it was thanks to this force that Wei Yuan had held off the assault of 100,000 elite Shaman troops. Although their strength plummeted the instant they left the domain, Qingming possessed the ability to expand its borders.

At the moment, the harvest of mundane grain within the domain was complete. Over 4 million catties were stockpiled in the granaries at the moment.

With all these troops and provisions at his disposal, Wei Yuan felt, for the first time, the confidence to carve out a fiefdom for himself and disrupt the imperial order.

The moment the thought crossed his mind, Wei Yuan was seized by a sudden sense of shock and dread. Why was he even entertaining such thoughts? If it weren’t for the sake of the humans of the Shattered Realm, he wouldn’t even be bound to this place.

Yet, it was an undeniable fact that he now possessed a strong army and an ample amount of supplies. Was he really going to let it all go to waste?

Just as Wei Yuan was wrestling with these conflicting thoughts, Yu Zhizhuo knocked on his door. His senior uncle’s face lit up with joy the moment he saw him, and he grabbed Wei Yuan’s hand and exclaimed, “You’re back just in time, Junior Nephew! I’ve just discovered a vein of origin copper—I’ve been waiting for you this whole time!”

Yu Zhizhuo seemed extremely impatient. He was dragging Wei Yuan so hard that they were almost flying. At that moment, Wei Yuan came to a profound realization: Senior Uncle Yu’s hands were coarse and hard, just like the ores he loved above everything else. The First Consort’s hand was soft and nimble, as if they were malleable enough to take any form and work any wonder. And shifu’s hand was—

Wei Yuan quickly banished the dangerous thought from his mind.

Yu Zhizhuo’s flying form was simple, yet his speed was extraordinary. In the blink of an eye, he had brought Wei Yuan deep into the underground mine shafts. In just the few days since his last visit, the mine had extended dozens of zhang further underground. However, this progress clearly did not satisfy Yu Zhizhuo. He would not have dragged Wei Yuan with him as soon as he was available otherwise.

Before Wei Yuan lay a vein of ore with a faint greenish tinge. It was also emitting a rather peculiar mineral aura—predominantly metal, with a hint of wood.

Yu Zhizhuo said nothing. He only needed to point a finger forward for Wei Yuan to know exactly what he needed to do. Thus, the Golden Light Water Blade spell saw the light of day—or more accurately, the darkness of the underground—once more.

But moments later, Wei Yuan let out a surprised “Huh?” and halted the flow of water.

Under normal circumstances, he should have extended the mine shaft by at least ten zhang by now. In reality, he had only penetrated three zhang. Wei Yuan reached out and tried to dig the ore with his bare hand. It crumbled like soft mud to his grip, allowing him to chip off a large chunk.

After a close examination, Wei Yuan sensed that the ore seemed to resist Dao energy exceptionally well. If he channeled 100% of his Dao energy into a chunk of ore, it wouldn’t retain even 30% of it.

While Wei Yuan was busying himself, Yu Zhizhuo had set up an array disc that displayed a three-dimensional schematic of the underground mine. From the diagram, it was clear that the surrounding area had been excavated like a spider’s web.

“This vein is somewhat unusual in that its ore is exceptionally resistant to Dao energy. It is not a property ordinary origin copper possesses. If we can isolate this component, it would make for top-tier material for defensive mystic treasures. But we’ll worry about the isolation later and focus on the mining first.”

Wei Yuan cast another Golden Light Water Blade spell, but it had little effect once again—relatively speaking. In truth, the Dao spell was extremely efficient for mining—Yu Zhizhuo’s juniors could all work together to excavate the vein, and Wei Yuan would still outperform all of them.

Excavating ordinary veins was one thing, but when excavating special veins or performing a large-scale surveying, Yu Zhizhuo loved dragging Wei Yuan into the work as it increased the prospecting efficiency by tens or even hundreds of times.

Although the boy’s efficiency was down to 30% right now, anyone else would be even less efficient—not unless they refrained from using Dao energy all together and excavated the vein solely via brute force.

Just then, a flash of inspiration struck Wei Yuan. The water in his hands suddenly turned red and began to radiate intense heat. The vein before him instantly melted away like ice and snow that had encountered the scorching sun.

Wei Yuan was infusing the newly acquired aura of the Red Lotus Bodhi into the Dao spell as an experiment. As expected, it had produced astonishing results. Unfortunately, the moment of joy didn’t last as he realized what he had just done.

Sure enough, Yu Zhizhuo’s eyes lit up, and he rubbed his hands together with unbridled excitement.

By the time Wei Yuan emerged from the underground, it was already the next morning. He had unwittingly proven an old saying in his hometown true: the hardest-working mules are always the first to die of exhaustion.

Wei Yuan returned to his quarters exhausted and having learned how to identify over a dozen new types of ores. He was so tired he didn’t feel like moving even a finger. Just then, a cultivator knocked on his door and delivered a letter, reporting, “This is a letter for you from the commandery administrator of Ningxi.”

Yuan Qingyan?

1. Meaning they became kings or emperors. ☜

2. Self-explanatory, but it’s basically the annals of all wicked and treacherous ministers across the human dynasties. ☜

3. This Cui guy was mentioned in the earlier chapters as Cui Yu’s rival, but I can’t possibly remember the chapter number right now. ☜