Under Ding Yun's management, Ji Yun City took over the two hundred thousand refugees without any pressure.
It only cost Ding Yun a bit more effort, and many members of the Liu family were nearly exhausted.
Theoretically speaking, if other places could also have a few Golden Core True Monarchs with water and wood elemental spiritual roots to help, performing growth-accelerating spells like "Spring Wind and Rain Technique," they could also easily support two hundred thousand refugees.
However, cultivators were accustomed to being aloof.
Let alone Golden Core True Monarchs, even Foundation Establishment cultivators would not easily lower themselves to attend to refugees, which was why the refugees found it difficult to survive.
Even though the prominent families in Ji Yun City outwardly praised Ding Yun and the Liu family for their compassion, privately, they disdained the Liu family and Ding Yun for being too embarrassing. A dignified Golden Core True Monarch busying herself daily serving refugees was simply too disgraceful for cultivators.
However, Ding Yun paid no mind to these matters, as she had already begun her second plan: to recall all members of the Liu family, including those expelled for lacking spiritual roots.
Those with spiritual roots were to cultivate the Great Five Elements True Scripture.
Those without spiritual roots were to practice martial arts.
Concurrently, Ding Yun used a method of "pulling seedlings to encourage growth" to help both those with and without spiritual roots improve their cultivation.
There was no need to worry about any side effects.
This was because Ding Yun only elevated their cultivation to the Foundation Establishment and Innate realms. Both the Foundation Establishment and Innate realms were essentially introductory stages for ancient cultivators, meant for building a foundation.
If the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was sufficiently dense and their aptitude was good enough, they wouldn't even need to cultivate, being born at this level.
Therefore, with the right methods, raising all members of the Liu family to the Foundation Establishment or Innate realm was not difficult at all and would not hinder their future breakthroughs.
In addition, Ding Yun had specifically cultivated a batch of Dragon Tooth Rice in the Liu family's own fields during this period. This rice was most suitable for improving physique, talent, and cultivation realms. Coupled with the high-quality cultivation techniques Ding Yun provided them, and items like Marrow Washing Rice,
the disciples of the Liu family all easily and smoothly broke through to either the Foundation Establishment realm or the Innate realm. Furthermore, the original three Foundation Establishment powerhouses also advanced to the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm. It was estimated that after a period of accumulation,
they should all be able to successfully break through to the Golden Core stage.
The reason Ding Yun did this, besides wanting to enhance the Liu family's strength, was primarily because the Liu family members were too frail.
Their cultivation was too low, their strength too weak, and they lacked manpower.
They claimed to be exhausted after working eight to nine hours a day, and their work speed and efficiency were relatively slow. Now that their cultivation had improved and their manpower had increased by dozens or even hundreds of times, who could claim to be tired? They were all Foundation Establishment cultivators and Innate martial artists.
Would it be appropriate to still claim to be tired?
Would it be appropriate if their work efficiency did not improve?
This was the first task. After completing it, Ding Yun immediately contacted the governor and the prefect of Beihai Commandery through the city lord, expressing her willingness to take in all refugees from Beihai Commandery, with the condition of being granted sufficient barren land for the Liu family.
The Beihai Commandery, already aware of Ji Yun City's "foolish benefactor," had long wanted this "foolish benefactor" to share the burden but had not yet had the nerve to say so, or rather, had not found a suitable excuse to make it seem natural.
Now that Ding Yun had come to them herself, they naturally would not be polite. They quickly granted Ding Yun a large expanse of barren land and handed over the refugees to her.
Other cities under the jurisdiction of Beihai Commandery,
being more sensitive about their reputation, not only gave Ding Yun some barren land along with the refugees but also sent a considerable amount of grain. They were afraid that she would be unable to support so many refugees at once and would return them.
For a time, throughout Beihai Commandery,
everyone sang praises and expressed gratitude towards Ding Yun.
With nearly ten million more refugees to manage, the Liu family members, whom Ding Yun had previously "pulled seedlings to encourage growth," now had a purpose. In fact, these Liu family members combined were only just barely enough to manage the refugees properly.
If they were to take in refugees from other commanderies,
the manpower would be insufficient.
Therefore, while Ding Yun continued to arrange for the refugees to reclaim land and sow seeds, and then she would accelerate the harvesting,
she also began to select capable individuals from the original over two hundred thousand refugees.
She provided them with somewhat inferior but indeed rapid-completion martial arts or cultivation techniques.
This was also a form of pre-emptive personnel training, to avoid a lack of usable people if more refugees were taken in later, which could lead to chaos.
After nearly another month passed, apart from Beihai Commandery, where Ding Yun's assistance stabilized the refugees, all other commanderies experienced a certain degree of chaos due to these refugees.
The better-managed commanderies provided two bowls of thin congee a day,
barely keeping the refugees alive.
They also urged the refugees to find their own ways to survive, reclaim land, or sell themselves into servitude.
The worse-managed commanderies either drove the refugees into the wilderness, deep mountains, or released demonic beasts to devour some of them, thereby reducing the pressure.
Some turned a blind eye to rogue cultivators,
allowing them to slaughter refugees for cultivation.
Others simply refused to provide food or drink to the refugees, doing their best to ignore them and hoping they would leave, which led to one disturbance after another.
These situations were a great headache for the Great Qian imperial court.
They continuously reprimanded and scolded local officials,
hoping they would be more obedient and manage the refugees properly, lest they incur the wrath of heaven and man. This would not only affect the dynasty's fortune but also cause a backlash to the imperial family who relied on the dynasty's dragon qi for cultivation, and the spiritual energy would be polluted.
However, local aristocratic families and sects were uncooperative. Even if officials wanted to achieve something, they were like skilled cooks without ingredients; they couldn't starve the local population to death for the sake of refugees.
The Great Qian Dynasty also dared not truly push the local aristocratic families and sects to rebellion for the sake of the refugees.
Thus, the situation became a stalemate.
In comparison, Beihai Commandery was a clear stream among clear streams, and the Liu family, who undertook the task of settling all refugees in Beihai Commandery, could be considered living Bodhisattvas.
To prevent the situation from worsening,
this time it was not Ding Yun who requested to take over all refugees nationwide, but the Great Qian Emperor secretly contacted the prefect of Beihai Commandery. Then, the prefect of Beihai Commandery, as the initiator, contacted the city lord of Ji Yun City, who then indirectly inquired if Ding Yun had the capability to resettle all refugees nationwide. If so, what assistance she needed and what benefits she would be given, could be requested.
The loss of destiny and the pollution of spiritual energy were completely irrelevant matters to most aristocratic families and sects that possessed their own spiritual veins and did not require destiny for cultivation.
Or rather, even if there were some impact, it would not be significant.
However, it had a great impact on the imperial family.
After all, the foundation of the imperial family's cultivation lay in the destiny of the dynasty. The loss of destiny would inevitably affect the future cultivation speed of the imperial family, and the pollution of spiritual energy would, to a certain extent, make it easier for demons and monsters to emerge within the country.
As the saying goes,
when a nation is about to fall, there must be strange omens.
And once there were too many strange omens, it would naturally lead to a decline in national destiny. Even the fall of the nation, which would not affect aristocratic families and sects, would have a significant impact on the imperial family, which was deeply bound to the nation.
It was very easy for them to be wiped out as a result.
Therefore, they really had no choice but to care about the lives of the refugees and try their best to save them.
This was the root cause of them sending people to contact Ding Yun and seek cooperation. If the deaths of those refugees had no impact on them, they wouldn't bother to care at all.
Since this matter was in line with Ding Yun's wishes,
she feigned a little hesitation before stating that she could take over all refugees and do her best to ensure that most of them survived. However, supporting so many refugees far exceeded the scope of simply reclaiming land.
Therefore, she needed more land.
However, she also knew that there was very little intact uncultivated land left in the Great Qian territory, and it was scattered. Moreover, she was not someone who deliberately made things difficult.
Therefore, she needed ownership of all the barren land in Great Qian.
She requested that the Great Qian Emperor issue an imperial decree to grant all the land that had become barren to their Liu family.
Upon receiving a clear reply, the city lord of Ji Yun City quickly forwarded Ding Yun's request to Beihai Commandery, which then acted as an intermediary to finally submit it to the Great Qian Imperial Palace.
...
Within the Great Qian Imperial Palace, in the Secret Realm Ancestral Temple.
The Great Qian Emperor, who nominally ruled the country but actually had no decision-making power in many matters, was waiting for the replies from the elders and ancestors who had reviewed Ding Yun's request.
This was how imperial families in the cultivation world operated. If they had to wait for an emperor to die of old age before the next one succeeded, who knew when that would be? Furthermore, being an emperor was not conducive to cultivation, so many emperors, after having an heir, would eagerly abdicate and retreat to cultivate in the imperial family's secret realm.
No matter how majestic the Great Qian Emperor was outside, upon entering the secret realm, he had to meekly bow his head. This was because his elders were everywhere in this secret realm. All his ancestors, except for the three with poor aptitude, were almost all present.
"What is the current situation of that barren land?
Have people been sent to investigate? How many years will it take to recover? How many years will it take to recover naturally without any intervention? If some measures are taken to promote recovery, how many years will it take?"
Emperor Qu He asked his grandson directly.
"Imperial Grandfather, if nothing is done, the central area might take over ten thousand years to recover. The area spanning tens of thousands of miles might take three thousand years to recover. The area spanning over a hundred thousand miles might only take two to three hundred years.
As for the outermost vast region,
it will take at least twenty years, possibly over thirty years to fully recover. Moreover, due to the influence of the central region, even if it barely recovers, drought disasters are likely to be frequent for the next four to five hundred years, or even four to five thousand years. In short, that barren land is quite troublesome.
As for artificially promoting recovery,
the central area requires at least cultivators at the Tribulation Crossing stage or above, or even True Dragons, to personally act to completely extinguish that sea of fire. Then, water and wood elemental Tribulation Crossing cultivators would need to perform forbidden techniques to restore the land.
Further out, cultivators at the Deity Transformation and Nascent Soul stages would need to act.
Even for the outermost region, Golden Core True Monarchs would need to act to quickly restore it within one or two years. After that, formations and barriers would need to be set up.
To ensure that the outermost region
can be planted normally and be protected from drought."
In fact, if this matter could be easily resolved, why would he, the Emperor of Great Qian, have delayed until now without doing anything? He would have found a solution long ago.
The reality was that no cultivator was willing to help for free, and even if the national treasury were emptied, they might not be able to afford to invite those cultivators to help. The cost of setting up formations alone would be immeasurable.
Therefore, the so-called solution
was essentially equivalent to being impossible.