Dragon Canon

“Hide one’s light and bide one’s time.” Wei Yuan felt that, over the past month, he had truly grasped the meaning of these seven words. For a full month, he had refrained from provoking others or fighting a battle[1].

Before Wei Yuan lay endless grain fields. The seedlings had already grown to a height of over one chi, and harvest season was less than a month away. At present, the crops were somewhat sparse and of uneven height, and the yield was estimated at 200 catties per mu.

This expanse of 100,000 mu of farmland was newly cultivated. As Wei Yuan swept his perception across the land, he could sense that the toxicity within the soil was being gradually absorbed by the crops and slowly transformed. By the next harvest season, the yield should increase by 10%. Once Jia Wood Nurtures Life had been fully restored, it would increase by another 10%.

In the human realm, high-grade farmland yielded approximately 400 catties per mu. Qingming had only been established for almost a year, yet their best fields were already producing over 400 catties per mu. Given time, as the environment became more suitable for human inhabitation, reaching the standard of high-grade farmland should not be a problem.

Wei Yuan did not just cultivate his own grain either. He had also purchased large quantities from the surrounding areas, which had already driven up grain prices throughout the entire western regions.

Not far from Wei Yuan’s line of sight lay a patch of grayish-black, decayed soil. However, the decayed soil had stopped spreading, and its toxicity was gradually being neutralized. The thought that the harvest season was less than a month away filled Wei Yuan with joy, and he silently mused to himself, “Store up grain, claim the thr—”

Wei Yuan suddenly snapped to attention and hurriedly banished the thought from his mind.

Just then, Yu Zhizhuo flew close and tossed a box in his direction. Then, he turned around and immediately flew away. Wei Yuan caught the box while asking, “Why are you in such a hurry, Senior Uncle? What are you up to?”

Yu Zhizhuo’s voice faded as he flew away. “I just discovered a top-grade ore vein to the west, and it might contain spirit creatures. I have to go and capture them. The box contains your spear; it has already been modified.”

Before his words had even finished echoing, Yu Zhizhuo had already vanished into the distance.

Wei Yuan opened the box and saw a five-chi-long short spear inside. It was white jade in color and covered in golden openwork patterns. At first glance, Wei Yuan could barely recognize it as his own Immaculate Pure Land.

Yu Zhizhuo had reforged the Immaculate Pure Land, altering both its structure and the arrays it contained. It could now be inserted into Wei Yuan’s flying sword boxes to fire flying swords in rapid succession. A grip had been added to the rear to help Wei Yuan hold and aim when firing. However, the slot at the spear tip remained untouched, allowing him to attach the Crimson Night Slayer of Immortals if necessary.

Picking up the Immaculate Pure Land, Wei Yuan headed to the firing range to test it out. This gun-spear was now equivalent to a top-tier mystic artifact and far more powerful than the one he had haphazardly fashioned for himself. It completely outclassed it in all aspects such as rate, rate of fire, and power. Every flying sword carried the full-powered strike of a Dao Foundation.

However, times had changed. After Wei Yuan returned to Qingming, the Great Realm had revived, and his Dao energy naturally replenished dozens of times faster than before each day. His number of sentient Dao Foundation warriors had also increased to ten. Thanks to their round-the-clock efforts, he now had a literal hill of flying swords—tens of thousands of them—piled up in his Dao Foundation. Looking at it, Wei Yuan felt for the first time that there weren’t enough barrels in the Immaculate Pure Land.

Suddenly, Wei Yuan recalled Xu Wenwu’s toad. Looking back now, it was clear that the fellow possessed quite the foresight. The barrels of his weapons were all numerous or massive. On the other hand, Wei Yuan’s was neither here nor there, generally so middling that he was ashamed to mention the word “firepower.”

Putting away the Immaculate Pure Land, Wei Yuan took out a map and began planning new farmland.

Qingming’s coverage area had now reached 300 li, so this time Wei Yuan planned two phases of new farmland, each spanning 500,000 mu. Once both phases were complete, the domain would have 2 million mu of farmland, yielding 400 million catties of grain per season. Wei Yuan was already considering whether to adopt the measurement system from Xu Wenwu’s world—the current numbers were already too large and made bookkeeping quite a struggle.

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

While Wei Yuan was working on the “store up grain” part of the quote, someone suddenly came to report, “Realm Lord, an urgent message has arrived from Lee Zhi, the military commissioner of Zhenshan of Zhao! He fell into an ambush and suffered defeat, and he is currently surrounded by Mountain Dwellers on Mount Eshan[2]. He requests that you dispatch troops to rescue him!”

“What?” Wei Yuan was startled. He snatched the urgent message from the messenger’s hands, unfolded it, and read it carefully.

Attached to the distress letter was a map marking the location of Mount Eshan, as well as the surrounding Mountain Dwellers’ positions and the approximate distribution of their forces. The letter also contained a trace of Lee Zhi’s Dao energy to verify its authenticity.

The letter stated that Lee Zhi was leading his troops in a major battle against the Mountain Dwellers, but had inadvertently fallen into an ambush. He now had only 5,000 men remaining, while the Mountain Dwellers surrounding him numbered over 100,000.

Wei Yuan calculated the distance and realized that Qingming was actually the closest ally to Lee Zhi right now. The young general’s ambition was so great that he had advanced nearly 10,000 li in one go, which put all other border garrisons of Zhao farther away from him than Qingming. Moreover, the procedures for mobilizing border troops were cumbersome; by the time a sufficiently large force could be deployed, Lee Zhi would have long since been annihilated.

Wei Yuan immediately ordered a mobilization. He decided to dispatch both Dragon Run and Dragon Wings in their entirety, along with an additional 10,000 regular troops.

Just as he was waiting for the main force to assemble, another urgent report suddenly arrived. “Realm Lord, a monk claims he’s here to debate you. When the men told him you were busy, he forced his way inside. We simply can’t hold him back....”

Wei Yuan looked toward the distance, where a speck of Buddhist light was rapidly approaching. It was being pursued by a dozen or so cultivators who simply couldn’t catch up.

Within the Buddhist light was a young, exceptionally handsome monk clad in a moon-white monk’s robe with flowing wide sleeves. He seemed to be walking on water, his appearance peerless at the moment.

Wei Yuan frowned slightly. There were lives he urgently needed to save right now. How could he possibly spare the time to deal with this baffling little monk? Last time, this young monk had also suddenly shown up for a debate and spouted nonsense that, in Wei Yuan’s view, made no sense at all.

Wei Yuan remembered that last time, he hadn’t held back at all and beaten the young monk to a pulp, so why was he back again? Had he mastered some powerful new spell, or was he secretly being followed by a senior from his sect?

Seeing that the young monk was only at the peak of the Dao Foundation stage, Wei Yuan felt it wouldn’t be fair to fight him and had no intention of wasting time on him.

In the blink of an eye, the young monk came to a stop in front of Wei Yuan and pressed his palms together. He greeted, “This monk is Hong Lian (Red Lotus). We meet again, Benefactor Wei.”

Wei Yuan looked thoroughly impatient as he snapped, “Just get to the point!”

The young monk sighed and began, “This monk had studied some more principles and intended to have a proper debate with you. However, given your recent perverse and tyrannical actions, you can no longer be reformed by ordinary Buddhist teachings. Only a sharp blow to the head may bring you back from the path of error now.”

Instead of getting angry, Wei Yuan asked, “Tell me, how exactly have I been acting perversely and tyrannically?”

“Benefactor Wei, you have repeatedly waged war and created countless karmic debt of killing. Take, for example, the great battle with the Xu Clan the other day—it had singlehandedly created tens of thousands of wronged souls.”

Wei Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly and said coldly, “Watch your tongue, little monk! In that last battle, countless loyal and brave warriors of my Qingming had fallen in battle. Their good names will not tolerate your reckless slander! If you insist on running your mouth, then let me tell you plainly! It is not like I have not killed members of the Exquisite Blossom Pure Land—in fact, I was the one who sent this generation’s Immovable Wisdom King to the cycle of reincarnation! Are you looking to die, too?”

The little monk replied expressionlessly, “It seems that you are unwilling to heed the teachings of the Buddha. Very well. It’s not like this little monk hasn’t made some progress in his martial arts.”

He first clasped his hands together in a bow, then slowly spread them apart. A speck of bloodlight appeared between his snow-white hands, and in the blink of an eye, it transformed into a small lake rippling with bloodlight. Meanwhile, a layer of bloodlight had also enveloped his body, as if he were draped in a scarlet kasaya[3].

Wei Yuan first glanced at the brass clasp on the blood-red kasaya. The clasp was clearly no ordinary object; actually exerting a noticeable pressure on him. It was at least a top-grade mystic treasure and not something an ordinary Avatar could possess, much less a Dao Foundation.

Wei Yuan then looked up at the sky. Beyond the heavens, a towering will remarked with some surprise, “Such keen perception—it’s almost like an in-born mystic ability.”

The little monk had indeed come prepared. Since he was carrying a high-grade defensive mystic treasure with him, Wei Yuan was sure he possessed an Avatar-level inheritance as well. At the very least, it could not be less impressive than Shan Kai’s Wisdom King Golden Body. Combined with the fact that an elder was guarding him from beyond the heavens, he basically possessed the top-tier support and equipment of an immortal sect disciple venturing out into the world.

Wei Yuan only wondered if he had other mystic treasures with him, such as the aura the Immortal Lord had bestowed upon him when he first traveled to the western regions back then. Judging by the little monk’s grand entrance, Wei Yuan assumed he did.

Seeing that Hong Lian had already assumed a fighting stance, Wei Yuan made no further pretense of courtesy. He raised the Immaculate Pure Land and clicked a flying sword magazine into place. Then, amid a deafening roar and a long trail of Dao fire spewing from the muzzle, twenty flying swords instantly slammed into Hong Lian’s body!

By the time the first magazine was emptied, the little monk’s blood-red kasaya had been torn to shreds, with only the brass grasp still gleaming. However, Wei Yuan instantly swapped in a new magazine, and the gunfire continued in a relentless barrage, as if it had never stopped.

Countless flying swords pounded down on the little monk like a raging storm, instantly extinguishing the glow of the brass clasp and tearing his moon-white monk’s robe to shreds. A golden body had just materialized, but before anyone could even make out what it was, it was already shattered by the barrage of flying swords.

Wei Yuan finally stopped firing and blew away the blue smoke rising from the muzzle. Only then did he look down at the little monk who lay motionless on the ground, his body pierced by many, many flying swords. The little monk had claimed to have made some progress in his martial arts, but he had not seen him throw a single punch or kick, nor unleash a single Buddhist technique. He hadn’t even gotten a clear look of his golden body. One barrage of flying swords was all it took to deal with him.

Wei Yuan had a vague feeling that he might need to reassess the power of the Immaculate Pure Land, now that its magazine had been upgraded. He then picked up the battered, bruised little monk and hurled him out of the domain.

This time, Wei Yuan couldn’t even be bothered to say a word. He merely snorted before flying off to rejoin the main army.

1. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ☜

2. This is actually a redundant translation, it should read “Mount Uh/Er” in English. However the actual translation would be Mount E and it both doesn’t look nice and sound misleading so I decided to make this change. ☜

3. Kāṣāya[a] are the robes of fully ordained Buddhist monks and nuns, named after a brown or saffron dye. In Sanskrit and Pali, these robes are also given the more general term cīvara, which references the robes without regard to color.

A kasaya means a lot to a monk. Back in the day, it’s basically a symbol of status. For the gamers, you can check out Black Myth: Wukong for one such villain right at the beginning of the game. ☜