Sun Yu couldn’t explain why this phenomenon had occurred. Wei Yuan immediately inspected the entire new city afterward but could not find a single unusual trace, much less discover the source of the burst of yin qi and sinister aura. Zhang Sheng and Trueman Chu He, who arrived later, also found nothing.

Left with no choice, Wei Yuan set the matter aside for the time being. He ordered his men to take good care of the girls who had suffered miscarriages due to fetal death, then moved the surviving girls to another camp with stricter defenses. He stationed guards to watch over them day and night and set up a defensive array that was powered by fortune. However, this still wasn’t enough to satisfy him. He further ensured their safety by imbuing each of the three hundred surviving girls with a wisp of fortune as an extra precaution.

By the time all this was done, dawn had broken.

In the early morning light, two Cui Clan ships entered the realm of Qingming and parked at the designated plaza. Both flying ships were loaded to the brim with supplies, primarily textiles of various grades—all of which required considerable time to produce in large quantities—as well as 10,000 catties of aged herbs of various types. They were the compensation for training their clansmen.

Wei Yuan had produced a total of 33 Dao Foundation stage cultivators—almost one-tenth of the total number of clansmen who showed up—in this batch. Although the results weren’t as spectacular as those in the first batch, only 15 people had died. It was a significant drop in the mortality rate and not even 5% of the overall number.

The representatives from the Cui Clan...