96: Chapter 96 Foundation Building of the Heavenly Dao!

The fifth year of Hanyuan.

The fourth year after Su Yu ascended the throne.

Great Li changed.

It changed so much that even the old men who had lived for most of their lives could barely recognize it.

In these four years, Su Yu did three things.

The first thing was to divide the fields.

After the evil demons were driven out, a large area of masterless land was left vacant within Great Li.

Those lands once occupied by the Black Iron Spire, Blood Refining Workshop, and evil demon nests were now all lying waste there.

Su Yu issued an imperial decree to equally distribute these lands to the common people of Great Li according to population.

Families of martyrs who died in the detonation of the Mortal Self-Severing Method received double the fields.

This decree set off a frenzy within Great Li.

You must know that during the tens of thousands of years of rule by the evil demons, the Mortals of Great Li had no concept of owning land at all.

All the land belonged to the evil demons.

Mortals merely farmed on the land of the evil demons, turned over most of the produced grain, and barely eked out a living with the rest.

And now, the Emperor said this land was yours.

Yours.

Not the evil demons', not the imperial court's, but your own.

For the grain you grew, you only needed to pay ten percent in taxes, and the rest entirely belonged to you.

The moment many old farmers obtained their land deeds, holding that thin piece of paper, they squatted at the edge of the fields and cried like children.

The second thing was to build water conservancy projects.

In his previous life, Su Yu was the Prince of Zhennan of Great Xia and governed the southern border for decades, making him thoroughly familiar with the ways of farming and water conservancy.

Using the Formation knowledge he had learned and his accumulated experience in the business path, he formulated a water conservancy and road planning system covering the entire territory.

After the spiritual rain, the Spiritual Veins of Great Li began to recover, and the groundwater was several times more abundant than before.

Su Yu ordered people to dig channels to guide water along the direction of the Spiritual Veins, doubling the irrigated area of Great Li's farmland within a short span of two years.

Grain production subsequently surged explosively.

From not starving to being well-fed, and then to having surplus grain, the common people of Great Li only took three years.

The third thing was to open markets.

Su Yu rebuilt a new city on the original site of the ruined capital.

The layout of the new city completely abandoned the gloomy pattern of the evil demon era centered around the Black Iron Spire and pivoted by the Blood Refining Workshop.

Replacing it were commercial districts centered around markets.

Su Yu understood the power of commerce all too well.

The reason why the Qianlong Su Family in his second life could gain a firm foothold in the cultivation world was precisely due to that commercial dark web spanning dozens of cities.

Now, as the Emperor, he magnified the exact same method to the scale of the entire country.

Encouraging trade, reducing commercial taxes, building post roads, and unifying measurements.

Over the past four years, Great Li's trade routes radiated from the capital to the twelve prefectures, and the efficiency of material circulation everywhere increased by more than ten times compared to the evil demon era.

The common people had surplus grain in his hands, the surplus grain was exchanged for silver money, the silver money flowed into the markets to drive handicraft industries, and handicraft industries in turn fed back into agriculture.

This was a positive cycle.

...

While governing the country, Su Yu's Cultivate was also soaring rapidly.

The effect of the Emperor Faith Method was even more astonishing than he had anticipated.

The Power Of Faith from the over one billion common people of Great Li, like an inexhaustible great river, surged into his Meridians day and night without stopping.

This force was completely different from the inhalation and exhalation of Spiritual Roots.

It was not restricted by the grade of Spiritual Roots nor bound by the width of the Meridians.

Its upper limit only depended on one thing: how deep the people's faith in him was.

And the changes Su Yu brought to Great Li made this faith penetrate into their bones.

Dividing fields, building water conservancy, and opening markets.

Any single one of these three things was enough to make the people deeply grateful to him.

With all three superimposed together, Su Yu's status in the hearts of Great Li's common people was no longer just an Emperor.

But rather close to a kind of faith, a faith close to that of a deity!

The autumn of the third year of Hanyuan.

The second year after Su Yu ascended the throne.

The humanistic Luck of over one billion common people continuously poured into his Meridians. Superimposed with the dual cultivation of Spiritual Root inhalation/exhalation and the Emperor Faith Method, Su Yu's cultivation climbed at a shocking speed.

Ninth Layer of Qi Refining Great Perfection.

Fifteen years old.

You must know that in his third life, with the ultimate Aptitude of a Third Grade High Grade Spiritual Root, he had not reached this step.

And in this life, he only took three years.

The terrifying aspect of the Emperor Faith Method began to show initial signs at this moment.

But Su Yu was not in a hurry to undergo Foundation Establishment.

Because the path he wanted to take was completely different from his third life.

In his third life, his Aptitude was maxed out, and his Comprehension Ability was zero.

He could only take the Earth Foundation Establishment, which did not rely on Comprehension Ability and was forcefully smashed purely through resources and Meridian bearing capacity.

That path was simple, crude, and steady, but the ceiling was also laid out right there.

And in this life, his Comprehension Ability was Heaven-Defying.

What he wanted to take was Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment.

The highest grade recognized by the cultivation world.

Those with Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment had extremely terrifying battle power at the same tier; as long as they did not perish midway, they were almost bound to form a Golden Core, and even had hopes of touching the Nascent Soul Dao.

However, the requirements for Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment were also extremely harsh.

It required genuine perception and resonance with the heaven and earth Dao, and the need to capture that trace of opportunity where heaven and man intersect within the ethereal unknown.

In the Cangxuan Sect of his third life, peerless Prodigies like Chu Tiankuo and Lin Wan'er pursued Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment.

They fought in life-and-death Secret Realms and tempered themselves in the Mortal World, spending several years just to touch that trace of opportunity.

But Su Yu was different.

His Comprehension Ability was Heaven-Defying.

More crucially, he had something that Chu Tiankuo and Lin Wan'er could never possibly possess.

He could directly perceive the Heavenly Dao of this world.

That Heavenly Dao which had been ravaged by evil demons for tens of thousands of years, was on the verge of death, yet still retained its final shred of will.

Su Yu had perceived its existence from the very moment he ascended the throne.

That weak pulse, that feeble breath, and those near-nonexistent Law fragments.

The "opportunity" that others needed to painstakingly pursue.

For Su Yu, it was right under his feet, right above his head, and in every single day he governed Great Li.

Whenever he healed a piece of land, the pulse of the Heavenly Dao grew a fraction stronger.

Whenever he pacified the people of a region, the breath of the Heavenly Dao grew a bit steadier.

Whenever he caused another Spiritual Vein of Great Li to recover, a bit more of the Heavenly Dao's Law was repaired.

Governing the country is cultivation.

Cultivation is governing the country.

The spring of the fifth year of Hanyuan.

Su Yu went into seclusion in the imperial study.

The humanistic Luck of over one billion common people transformed into cultivation provisions, and the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi after the recovery of the Spiritual Veins filled his Meridians.

Meanwhile, the Heavenly Dao insights he had accumulated over the past two years were like a key, inserting into that tightly closed door at this moment.

He sat cross-legged, and the true essence of the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining Great Perfection within his body began to churn violently.

The gaseous true essence sped up its circulation in the Meridians, resembling a boiling torrent.

Then, heaven and man intersected.

Su Yu's Divine Sense captured that ethereal opportunity of the heaven and earth Law at this instant.

The insights accumulated over the past two years were like dry firewood encountering a spark, exploding thunderously in his mind.

The underlying Laws governing the operation of all things in heaven and earth became incomparably clear at that moment.

The rising and setting of the sun and moon, the rotation of the four seasons, the withering and flourishing of vegetation, and the alternation of life and death.

Under the deconstruction of his Heaven-Defying Comprehension Ability, these seemingly ordinary principles of nature transformed into clear veins of Law one by one.

Su Yu did not need to painstakingly pursue that illusory opportunity.

Because his Comprehension Ability was too high, so high that the heaven and earth Laws were almost transparent before him.

" Buzz——"

Catalyzed by that wispy power of Law, the true essence within his body began to undergo a qualitative transformation.

The gaseous true essence crazily compressed, condensed, and liquefied.

This process required the hard smashing of a top-grade foundation establishment pill and excellent earth vein Qi in Earth Foundation Establishment.

But in Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, it happened naturally.

Just like when water flows a channel is formed, or like fruit falling when ripe.

The liquid true essence gathered into a deep pool in the Dantian, clear, pure, and containing a faint, lingering charm of the heaven and earth Law.

Su Yu opened his eyes.

Deep within his pupils, a wisp of golden light flashed by and vanished.

Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, success!

Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, which he wouldn't even dare to imagine in his third life.

Now, it was naturally achieved!

But Su Yu did not immerse himself in the joy of the Breakthrough.

Because Great Li was only a corner of this world, and the sky beyond the territory remained gray.

Su Yu stood in front of the window of the imperial study, his gaze crossing the ridges of the new city and looking toward the end of the skyline.

"Soon."

Su Yu said softly.

He knew the seeds had already been sown.