Rise of Humanity

by <unknown>

  Spirit – they were among the most abstract and ethereal concepts of the world, inherently holding the most mysterious knowledge within them They were the profound and mysterious totems, the distillation of the power of the heaven and earth., They had the strength to transcend the mortal to immortality, and possessed the knowledge of the fundamental essence of the universe.

  Reaching out to the spirit and coalescing it with the soul will transmute the totem carvings it held into the cultivator’s own knowledge, therefore, upon ascending to a Qi Practitioner – one’s strength and prowess would greatly increase!

  This was the benefit that a spirit could bring!

  But the stage of Rebirth was not that easy to achieve. While the cultivator was strengthening the spirit, the soul and spirit must also be coalesced into one to form the Yuan Shen, shedding off the worldliness within the cultivator. It was only then, would the cultivator possess the prowess to soar to the upper limits of the sky and burrow to the depths of the underground, wield their strengths and skills unrestrained, and carve out their own paths of cultivation.

  Most Qi Practitioners would spend the rest of their lives strengthening and nourishing their spirit, but fail to coalesce their soul and spirit into one. Hence, they could not shed off the worldliness within them and ascend to a Rebirth Qi Practitioner. The main issue lied within their spirits. As they were usually weaker than others, they were placed at a disadvantage from the outset; the knowledge and power that the spirits bequeathed onto them were little to none.

  Hence, they would need to an increasingly disproportionate amount of time and energy to achieve the culmination of their spirits. But until then, they would have turned old and senile, forever bereft of the chance to break through to the next stage of their cultivation.

  The spirit Zhong Yue acquired from the sun was one of the strongest sun spirits, the Great Sun Golden Crow; it was a miniature sun when it stood still, a three-legged golden crow when it extended its wings; and or otherwise, a three-legged celestial being during the normal times.

  With the Great Sun Golden Crow as his spirit, he would be granted a more robust foundation than ever; but it was also not an easy task to fully understand the abstruse insights brought by the Great Sun Golden Crow.

  Zhong Yue could feel the abstruse knowledge flooding into his mind. If his mind was to be said to be a lake, then the knowledge deluging it could be described as the Yangtze River. Not only was his mind flooded, his head was on the verge of exploding out!

  Zong Yue even harbored doubts on whether his brain would survive the sudden influx or burst apart from overload at anytime!

  Thankfully enough, it did not happen, but the knowledge and messages still glutted his mind in a disordered mess and addled his mental faculties.For now, he could only cast them aside and store them in his mind; unable to absorb them into his own base knowledge he would need more time to cogitate on and digest all the information in his brain so that he could entirely grasp the quintessence held within them.

  Behind Zhong Yue, the miniature sun was burning in fire, it effused a massive energy resembling a golden liquid that blazed towards him, refining his soul.

  The golden liquid flowed onto the skin of his soul; his soul was not big, it was only an inch tall. But by visualizing the Sui Sovereign and infusing it into his psyche, his soul would turn out to be over hundreds of feet tall.

  The stronger the psyche, the stronger your senses. Right before this, he was taking the form of the Sui Sovereign which enhanced his senses tenfold – that was exactly how he could reach out to the Great Sun Golden Crow.

  And now, his soul was getting refined by the Great Sun Golden Crow, the golden liquid flowed all over his body, smiting his soul. Zhong Yue noticed that his psyche was quickly getting vaporized away, and he was about to withdraw his psyche back so that his prowess would not be impaired.

  “Continue your visualization, don’t stop now!”

  Xin Huo suddenly shouted, “Now this is a golden opportunity, you can seize the chance to also temper your psyche when that the spirit is refining your soul, this will allow your psyche to see skyrocketing improvement; you can then use it to refine your soul further and complete your rebirth!”

  Zhong Yue was surprised, “Rebirth right away without going through the accumulations?”

  The cumulation of spirit – it would usually take tens of years for a cultivator to nourish and cumulate the spirit. Even after acquiring the strongest spirit of Swords Gate, it would still require two to three years to nourish it. The Lawless Battles of the upper house were meant for the disciples to compete for the strongest spirit, and allow the strongest disciple to save up to ten years of hard work.

  Whereas completely eschewing the cumulation process and shooting straight for rebirth was something Zhong Yue had never heard of anyone achieving before.

  “That’s right, go straight for it!”

  Xin Huo laughed and said, “For the other Qi Practitioners, after acquiring their spirits, they will have to nourish the spirits and spend countless amounts of time on it. But your Great Sun Golden Crow is incredibly strong, how can it be deemed as the strongest spirit if it still requires you to nourish it for tens of years? I’ve placed two teleportation portals, wasted two god’s treasures and spent so many efforts sending you to the sun If you are still going to need to waste tens of years, then what am I doing all of these for? All the meticulous arrangements I’ve made, was meant to save you tens of years of time!”

  Zhong Yue then nodded, his psyche lunged out from his psyche ocean towards his soul, while right there, the golden liquid was incessantly flowing onto his soul and vaporizing his psyche.

  He had some understandings of his own towards the stage of ‘Rebirth’, it was the process of the spirit reshaping the soul.

  The soul of a human was shaped like a human, but the atman of a Qi Practitioner was bizarre. Some looked like a treant, some was a bird-human celestial being, and some took the form of a stone golem; these were all due to the coalescence of their soul and spirit, the spirit transmuting the soul and allowing it to acquire the mythical features of the legends, changing their atman to the form of a human god!

  This was the ‘Rebirth’ – the reshaping of the mortal characteristics.

  There were two steps; the first, was to nourish the spirit and strengthen it; secondly, was to galvanize the psyche and facilitate the spirit and soul coalescence process to complete the process of ‘Rebirth’.

  Zhong Yue felt his psyche rapidly depleting, the psyche water line in his psyche ocean was noticeably lowering; at this rate, in another fifteen minutes, his psyche would be completely drained!

  Even the beast god essence leaking from the beast god inner core could not catch up to the consumption rate.

  His psyche was not entirely vaporized by the golden liquid, it was tempered... purified. It also turned into a golden liquid like melted gold, blazing hot with a burning fire.

  But if compared to the oceanic psyche he once had, the refined golden liquid was pitifully scarce; a thousand droplets of liquefied psyche might not even be able to be distilled into a single drop of the aureate liquid psyche.

  This aureate liquid was refined into his soul, joining in the soul refining process with the golden liquids from the miniature sun behind his soul. Extrapolating from the current rate of refinement, his psyche would be depleted in no time!

  If that’s how it is, then I’ll use the beast god inner core!

  Zhong Yue’s mind shifted, a slight surge of psyche spiked at the beast god inner core, it was provoked and immediately blasted a burst of beast god essence into his body, which would then be refined by his visualization into psyche and return to the psyche ocean!

  What … even with the beast god essence, I still can’t match with the psyche consumption rate?

  Zhong Yue was shocked, the sun spirit was refining the psyche at great speed, even with the additional beast god essence turning into more psyche, the psyche ocean water line in his
psyche ocean was still continually lowering!

  “The Sui Sovereign once said: the liquid aurum nourishes the Huatian – soul and spirit in the fire manor, five clouds overlaying the ocean, the radiant rays painting the sky crimson!”

  Xin Huo yelled out loud, “The Huatian in this context refers to the psyche ocean. Now get your soul back to the psyche ocean and set your psyche ocean on fire to refine your soul! Let your soul burn vigorously, let the fire blaze through the sky of your psyche ocean!”

  Zhong Yue followed the words, the soul in Sui Sovereign form lunged back into his psyche ocean, while the miniature sun followed behind; the golden liquid flowed all over his soul and dripped down to the psyche ocean, setting his whole psyche ocean on fire!

  The psyche in his psyche ocean depleted even faster, conspicuously vaporizing.

  Zhong Yue once again provoked the beast god inner core, another surge of incredibly strong beast god essence came gushing out, he quickly visualized the Sui Sovereign and gave all he could to sustain the psyche ocean, not letting his psyche to be entirely depleted.

  His psyche ocean was set on fire by the sun, it turned into an ocean of fire, there was liquid psyche pouring down from the sky like rain but the fire could not be extinguished!

  The Great Sun Golden Crow was too strong, a miniature sun like this contained an unimaginably strong power in it!

  In such a short while, Zhong Yue’s soul was refined into a smaller size, even with the visualization of the Sui Sovereign, it could not help him withstand the unearthly power from his Great Sun Golden Crow.

  His soul now looked like a golden figure, shining brightly in the lights of fire, sitting in the midst of an ocean set ablaze. Psyche poured down like a torrential rain at the surroundings, it was formed by the beast god essence!

  He could refine the beast god essence at a terrifying speed, but even so, the psyche ocean was still draining up!

  The psyche in his psyche ocean was constantly being refined and purified into the golden liquid, they flew into his soul and strengthened it more!

  Xin Huo entered his psyche ocean, he hovered around Zhong Yue’s soul in fear of Zhong Yue being unable to withstand the pressure and pain, the fear that Zhong Yue might give up such a good chance to refine his psyche.

  The burning fire slowly ascended and suddenly, a fire cloud condensed in the air.

  “One patch of fire cloud is not enough, you need five patches that can pave the ground and cover the whole psyche ocean!”

  Xin Huo said anxiously, “Your psyche is too weak, way too weak! Brat Yue, forget about it, it’s not worth the risk! If the concentration of beast god essence gets too much, and you can’t refine them in time, you will be irrevocably turned into a Xiang Dragon!”

  “Xin Huo, I would like to try!”

  On the back of his soul, a dreadful creature emerged out from the miniature sun; it was the three-legged golden crow, the spirit of the sun.

  He activated the second form of the Great Sun Golden Crow, the fire burned even more vigorously!

  When the golden crow appeared, a burst of the golden liquid gushed out, turning the psyche ocean into a golden bright color, the blazing heat in the air got hotter and the psyche ocean burnt everywhere, it was if it turned into a fire manor, enveloping everything in it!

  Almost instantaneously, Zhong Yue’s psyche was nearly depleted, and the second fire cloud emerged, bright golden rays shone throughout the air around as if threatening to set the sky alight in flame!

  An ocean of fire, the blazing radiant rays that scorched the sky!

  Zhong Yue clenched his teeth, he incited the beast god inner core again and another burst of beast god essence gushed out, he visualized the Sui Sovereign and turned it into psyche that poured down in his psyche ocean. It was then refined into the golden liquid by the Golden Crow and lunged at his soul!

  The third fire cloud!

  “Stop! Your psyche will be crippled!”

  Xin Huo shouted out, “We can wait till your psyche is stronger, it is still not too late to strife for ‘Rebirth’ by then!”

  Chapter 79: Near Death |

  Zhong Yue’s body was beginning to approach its limit as it was on the verge of crumbling from the excessively tyrannical beast god essence in his body, which had now completely transformed into the Xiang Dragon!

  The psyche in his psyche ocean could be said as fully depleted, if his psyche was completely drained, all of his prowess would be stripped off from him!

  Both options lying in front of him were equally daunting – one was to be assimilated into a Xiang Dragon, while the other was the complete loss of his prowess!

  Xin Huo was indeed experienced; from just a glance, he was able to discern the danger faced by Zhong Yue. He realized that he was too impatient, wanting Zhong Yue to directly charge to the stage of ‘Rebirth’, but Xin Huo did not foresee that Zhong Yue’s psyche was not strong enough to support him.

  “Xin Huo, if I visualize the Sui Sovereign and Flame Palace wholly, will I be able to refine the beast god essence at a higher rate right?”

  Zhong Yue groaned, the Sui Sovereign in his psyche ocean started to grow more authentic, minute details of its form started to come into form, totem carvings emerged on the dragon scales; and a Heavenly Emperor’s palace had arisen from the ground. It kept getting higher and the air around turned stagnant amidst its majestic aura!

  Before this, he could never maintain such meticulous visualizations of the Sui Sovereign and the Flame Palace whilst preserving the subtle nuances of both at the same time. Hence, he had only visualized the Sui Sovereign all this while, but now, he intended to visualize the both of them with the highest degree of detail possible so as to greatly expedite the refinement of the beast god essence!

  Xin Huo inhaled a breath of cold air, witnessing the emergence of the quartz slabs, jade blocks, stone pillars, and all the structures and elements of the Heavenly Emperor’s palace coming to life. The palace continued its construction higher and taller, its edifice grew grander and more majestic. Xin Huo mumbled in shock, “This brat is risking everything! The strain and burden on his brain will be enormous if he visualizes the Sui Sovereign and Flame Palace at the same time while maintaining this level of detail, I wonder if his brain will just burst and explode, his brain juice will splattered all across the ground….”

  Visualizing the Sui Sovereign and Flame Palace at the same time, adding more detail into them as they grew more genuine and true to life, it was true that by doing so, he could refine the beast god essence at a higher rate, but at the same time, the load on his brain would be immense!

  Xin Huo had no expectations that Zhong Yue could have done it, visualizing two saintly figures while at the same time having the abstruse information from the Great Sun Golden Crow disrupting him. With all these distractions, the concentration needed would be far too intense!

  Xin Huo flew out of Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean and stared anxiously at his head.

  “Burst!” The little flame yelled out in fear and terror.

  “Thankfully, it didn’t….”

  Xin Huo gazed fixedly at Zhong Yue, rivulets of sweat rushed out from the latter’s forehead, but his whole body was dead cold. All of the energy in his body was directed towards his brain to support him in maintaining the simultaneous visualizations of the Sui Sovereign and Flame Palace.

  All of the beast god essence was also centralized in his brain and was getting refined continuously.

  Xin Huo could see the veins bulging out on his head and his face turned crimson red, Xin Huo then mumbled again, “This must be it … I think he is going to burst … EXPLODE!”

  Zhong Yue gritted his teeth, his face was red reminiscent of the incandescence of burning iron.

  “I suppose he is now at his limit?”

  Xin Huo leaped onto Zhong Yue’s head, and the little flame gently stomped his feet, yelling, “BANG!”

  Zhong Yue purged his mind of all distractions, focusing his senses on visualizing the S
ui Sovereign and the Flame Palace. As the beast god essence billowed over, the two saintly figures would smite and refine the essence into his psyche. It would then be refined by the Great Sun Golden Crow into the golden liquid that would flow into his soul.

  He was walking on a tightrope between two cliffs – one small mistake and his life would be forfeit!

  It was at this moment that the fourth patch of fire cloud condensed, the radiant rays illuminated his whole psyche ocean.

  As he could now refine the beast god essence at a higher rate, the psyche was not pouring down like rain anymore, but instead, they were like cascading waterfalls!

  Now, I suppose I should be able to advance to the third form?

  Zhong Yue was a little worried, if the Great Sun Golden Crow advances into the third form, it would certainly be refining his psyche at a greater speed!

  No, not now, I need more time! I need to accumulate more psyche before that, if I act recklessly by advancing into the third form, my psyche prowess will be drained up in an instant and all my hard work would be in vain!

  Zhong Yue sat stock-still, not moving an inch at all. Xin Huo waited and waited, but Zhong Yue’s head was still intact, he heaved a breath of relief and entered Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean, he saw that Zhong Yue had already visualized the Flame Palace and Sui Sovereign, Zhong Yue’s psyche was regenerating and the once nearly drained psyche ocean was once again flooded full.

  He did it!

  Xin Huo praised in his heart, he cast his gaze up to the four cumuliform clouds in the air that were like a crimson canvass that covered the whole psyche ocean. It was only a step away from the “five clouds overlaying the ocean”, but there were no signs of Zhong Yue advancing the Great Sun Golden Crow into the third form yet.

  Brat Yue is way more sedate than I am, he is trying to gather more psyche and when he deems that he has accumulated enough psyche, that’ll be when he advances to the last form!

  Time slipped past, but Zhong Yue remained like a statue, he was gathering his psyche, biding his time for the right moment to erupt it.