Chapter 213: Countermeasures
Despite the crisis, Zhang Sheng remained calm and asked Wei Yuan to recount the sequence of events once more, this time leaving out no details.
After reviewing the situation, he said, “There is still a glimmer of hope. First, the Shamans likely do not yet know that you were responsible for this, so they would have to conduct a thorough investigation first. Second, casting a Great Karmic Curse comes at a tremendous cost. Even the largest tribes among them would have to mobilize their entire tribe’s resources to unleash it, which is why they have always practiced extreme prudence. Until they are certain that you are the mastermind behind this, they will not cast the curse upon you.
“Therefore, we must focus on these two points. Regarding the first point, you should do your utmost not to reveal any clues and prevent the Shamans from discovering the truth. However, this method can only buy time, and the Shamans’ spells are unpredictable. They might have some way of indirectly uncovering the truth. Therefore, from this moment on, you must not disclose this matter to anyone else besides me. Leave it to me to find one or two trustworthy individuals to discuss our strategy.”
Wei Yuan nodded. He had only recently graduated after all. In terms of experience and connections, he was far inferior to Zhang Sheng.
His master continued, “The time we buy from the first point must be used to prepare for the second. Although the Shamans’ Great Karmic Curse is terrifying, its cost is equally enormous. The first cost is the energy it takes to cast the spell, and while I don’t know about the specifics, we can be certain it’s beyond imagination. The second cost is the backlash. There is a reason the Great Karmic Curse is also nicknamed the ‘Scorched Earth Curse’.
“Thousands of years ago, there was a scholar who harbored deep hatred for the Shamans and wrote numerous poems and essays to denounce them. He was a man of unparalleled literary talent, and the work he left behind were all timeless masterpieces. However, some of these famous lines were worth scrutinizing. For example, the line, ‘A brave warrior feasts on the flesh of the Shamans’ makes little sense. After all, for a mortal to eat the flesh of a Shaman would be tantamount to suicide, wouldn’t it? It would make a lot more sense if the term ‘Shamans’ was changed to the ‘Northern Liao’ or the ‘Mountain Dwellers’, but neither race shared a feud with him.”
Out of habit, Zhang Sheng began commenting on historical figures as he was apt to do. Since Wei Yuan’s life was at stake, he quickly cleared his throat a few times. Only then did his master snapped out of it and hastily returned to the main topic, “The man’s poems eventually found their way into the hands of the Shaman and caught the eye of a Sky Warlock by accident. Enraged, the Sky Warlock cast the Great Karmic Curse without properly considering the consequences. As a result, it killed nearly everyone in the scholar’s homeland across several commanderies. By the time it was finally over, fewer than one in ten people survived, and a whopping ten thousand li of human civilization was transformed into a barren wasteland.
“The Sky Warlock himself had not anticipated his curse to wipe out several commanderies one go. As a result, the resentment of tens of millions of human and the karmic retribution cut away more than half of the Sky Warlock’s remaining lifespan.”
Wei Yuan understood his meaning immediately. “In other words, you’re saying I should socialize more and make the acquaintance of more influential figures?”
“Simply making the acquaintance of an influential figure is useless; superficial connections yield no karmic bond. It has to be a deep bond. Take the scholar for instance. I have just examined that scholar’s life, and he was the governor of six commanderies. The people under his governance lived in peace and prosperity far surpassing that of previous times. That was why he unwittingly formed a karmic bond with the people of those commanderies.”
Wei Yuan pondered. “Does the opposite hold true? If the people under one’s rule are struggling to survive, does that also create a karmic bond?”
Zhang Sheng nodded. “Of course there is. In fact, these people would be killed by a Great Karmic Curse as well. Heaven and earth are sometimes just that unreasonable... hmm?”
Zhang Sheng suddenly looked up. Above him, the Void suddenly manifested, and pure worldly origin qi poured down into his body. It transformed his fourth immortal sword from a formless state into a tangible one and greatly accelerated its cultivation progress. When it was over, the sword had nearly reached completion.
It was the worldly reward for killing the Great Shaman. It had arrived earlier than Zhang Sheng had imagined, and in greater quantity as well.
Something was strange, though. Wei Yuan was standing beside him, yet he wasn’t receiving anything at all. Zhang Sheng found this odd and asked, “Didn’t you receive any Heaven Merits?”
“I did. Four hundred in total.”
Zhang Sheng frowned slightly and said, “I received one thousand and two hundred. Your portion is smaller, but it shouldn’t have been so meager as to leave you with nothing at all.”
“I should have received some, it just all went to Qingming.”
This was strange, but it was also a matter involving heaven and earth—far beyond their current levels right now. That was why they did not discuss it further.
Zhang Sheng said, “Truth be told, the best course of action would be for you to hide directly inside the Palace. No matter how powerful the Shamans are, they wouldn’t dare cast a karmic curse directly at our mountain gate. It wouldn’t have worked even if they dared to. Buried beneath the mountain gate is the head of an ancient Sky Warlock; any Shamanic curse cast upon it would be severely weakened.”
Wei Yuan had no idea. Unfortunately, Wei Yuan’s Dao Foundation had fused with Qingming, and leaving wasn’t an option unless he had no other choice. Both master and disciple were also veterans who had weathered countless storms at this point; they would never resort to crippling themselves unless pushed to the very brink.
With their main strategy decided, Zheng Sheng summoned Ji Liuli over. It would seem that Big Senior Sister was the person Zhang Sheng trusted the most at the moment.
It took Ji Liuli a while to recover from the shock after Wei Yuan had finished recounting the entire affair. She then cast her perception into his sea of consciousness. Both her innate talent and Dao Foundation were unique. They allowed her to glimpse, to a limited extent, the inner workings of Wei Yuan’s Dao Foundation.
After she was done observing, Ji Liuli did not say anything for a long time. Moments later, she finally snapped back to reality and sighed. “It really is yin and yang, a Great Dao of Heaven and Earth that is just shy of the Great Dao of Primal Chaos, the only and only before heaven and earth were formed! This is making me want to reincarnate and start over.”
Zhang Sheng shattered her fantasy. “You can reincarnate another ninety-nine times, and you still wouldn’t be able to attain the Dao Foundation you have in this life.”
“You’re right.” Ji Liuli gathered her thoughts and said solemnly, “For now, we should focus on the first step. The Shamans will certainly attempt to divine this, but Yuan’er himself is not afraid of such divination. If I ask my Grandmaster to intervene and conceal the heavenly mysteries, then it would become even harder for them to divine the truth. But as far as I know, very few humans have entered the Realm of Coldbelow as of late, so it’s only a matter of time before they zero in on Little Wei Yuan. When that happens, his unnatural resistance to divination would actually become the biggest giveaway.
“That is why I’ll obfuscate Little Wei Yuan’s fortune, and he will cooperate with me. We’ll make the obfuscation just strong enough for the Shamans to waste great effort to crack it. Once they break through, they will see exactly what we want to see. That way, we’ll actually clear Little Wei Yuan of suspicion. When I was inspecting his Dao Foundation earlier, I noticed the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree tree branch he received from the Immortal Lord had regained both its vitality and its spirit. By the way, it had also stolen the worldly origin qi you should’ve received, Little Wei Yuan. You should definitely discipline it when you have the time.”
Wei Yuan was surprised. He had assumed that the worldly origin qi had been eaten by Qingming, but it turned out that the branch was the culprit this time.
Zhang Sheng nodded. “An excellent scheme, that is. The—”
“Little Wei Yuan is a big boy now, so for heavens’ sake, speak like a normal human being!” Ji Liuli interrupted.
Zhang Sheng grunted and abandoned the fancy literary style, saying, “It’s a good plan. The Bay Laurel Immortal Tree tree branch itself is of sufficiently high status and power. It has previously been used to slay a Great Warlock, and its origins are clear. Even if it were to suddenly regain its vitality, there are many ways to explain it. Of course, the most important thing is that if it was truly stimulated by the Yin Yang Qi, then its vitality would be far greater than this.”
Ji Liuli said, “Mm. Once the Shamans had successfully detected the tree branch, they should shift their focus elsewhere. Although we can’t tell the founder about this, I can ask him to bestow a Good Luck blessing upon Little Wei Yuan, which will buy us some more time. During this time, you should increase your strength and forge as many karmic bonds as possible, Little Wei Yuan!”
The three would discuss the finer details of the plan for a while longer before going their separate ways to make their arrangements. This matter was to be kept strictly between Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli. Big Senior Sister had repeatedly emphasized that he could not trust anyone else with this secret—not even Bao Yun.
Yin and yang were unbelievably exalted and nearly equal to the Dao. Even Immortal Lords couldn’t help but covet them. It was different from Wei Yuan’s Dao Foundation as well. The Great Realm was unprecedented, but no one else could master it aside from him, nor was there any precedent to draw upon. Even if someone were to copy Wei Yuan’s cultivation journey exactly, it was uncertain if they could even spend one hundred thousand taels of immortal silver before they hit an unbreakable wall.
However, something as pure and close to the Great Dao such as yin and yang were completely different. It will be stolen if they were to yield a single inch. Even if it was unusable, just studying it would still yield immense benefits.
The reason Zhang Sheng trusted Ji Liuli wasn’t only because he knew her character well after years of knowing her, but also because the Devil Suppressing Nine Level Pagoda was sufficiently unique and boasted limitless potential. Even if she were to seize the Yin Yang Dao Foundation and reincarnate to start over, there was a high probability that she would end up with an inferior Dao Foundation. The chance she would truly form a Yin Yang Tai Chi Dao Foundation was less than ten percent.
Ji Liuli was a master of calculation. Naturally, she would never abandon the unique Dao Foundation she already possessed to gamble on a vague and elusive chance. Otherwise, Zhang Sheng might not have dared to trust her based on her character alone.
Wei Yuan returned to his room and gathered his thoughts. For now, the first step was of no concern to him. He should focus his efforts on the second step.
And so Wei Yuan prepared his brush and ink and took out a piece of jade paper. After a moment of deep contemplation, he wrote:
“To my brother, Lee Zhi[1]:
......
1. LOL guy already blocked a bloodline curse for him once and now he’s gonna block a Great Karmic Curse too ROFL! ☜
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