Rise of Humanity

by <unknown>

  Ten days past ... his psyche was once again at its peak.

  But he waited for another two days; he pushed his psyche to the brim of its limit, and finally, Zhong Yue reached out to the Great Sun Golden Crow; the miniature sun quivered, and the three-legged golden crow slowly walked out from the sun.

  Xin Huo’s heart palpitated heavily, he gazed at it; whatever was going to happen next, was imperative to Zhong Yue’s advancement to a Rebirth Qi Practitioner. If he succeeded, he would be able to shed of the worldliness within him and coalesce his spirit and soul into one!

  And if he failed, all of his psyche and prowess would be leached away!

  The energy in the sun flowed into the three-legged golden crow. As it strode forward, the golden liquid covered its whole body, and it tardily turned into a three-legged celestial being with the wings behind it and the legs of a crow, its lustrously aureate feathers shimmered brightly.

  The third form of the Great Sun Golden Crow, the blazing heat enveloped it and as it made its appearance, it brought the psyche ocean to a simmer, evaporating the psyche and lowered the water line rapidly!

  Within the ebullient psyche ocean, refined golden liquids were drawn into his soul, at the same time, the three-legged celestial being paced towards Zhong Yue’s soul. Surrounded by the psyche-formed golden liquid, the spirit and soul started to merge together!

  In the air, the emergence of the fifth fire cloud was evident, slowly but steadily, his psyche ocean was overlaid by a stratum of clouds.

  Concurrently, his psyche ocean was nearly drained and his psyche was on the verge of depletion!

  In mid-air, the beast god inner core was still releasing bursts of beast god essence that was incessantly transmuted into his psyche, but even so, his body was still getting all dried up and shrunk down. It was caused by the depletion of his psyche, his psyche ocean was in urgent need of energy and hence, his muscles and blood were burned, and the energy in his body was siphoned away!

  At this rate, his body would die of hunger before anything else!

  Xin Huo flew out of Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean and gazed at him, Zhong Yue was still visualizing, his body took the form of the Xiang Dragon, the once strong and muscular body had withered up and the dragon scales fell off from his body, its muscles shrunk down and the outline of bones could be seen against the shriveled skin.

  Moments later, Zhong Yue became wizened and haggard, he sat there and his heart pumped slower and weaker, to a point that it was barely noticeable.

  After a long time, his skin creased and his face withered, his muscles were completely atrophied and his skin was stretched tautly across the bones, even the blood veins beneath had seemingly stopped its rhythmic pulsing, as did the beating of his heart.

  Time passed and the macabre air of death wreathed around his body.

  “Brat Yue?” Xin Huo called for him, but there was no reply.

  The little flame panicked, he quickly lunged into Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean and cast his gaze at the coalescing soul and spirit, it was still ongoing!

  He quickly flew out again and entered Zhong Yue’s heart chamber, his heart was starting to die off!

  Oh no! If he doesn’t do it now, he will never make it!

  A few seconds slipped past, Xin Huo suddenly noticed that the heart before his eyes was slowly yet undoubtedly expanding, after which it then gently contracted a little, and the blood was set into motion again, pumping out to the edges of his body as his previously deathly form was gradually being resuscitated back to life.

  Xin Huo heaved a breath of relief and flew out of the heart chamber. The sounds of blood flowing could be heard from beneath his skin, gradually getting louder and clearer. At first, it sounded like a gentle stream of water meanderingly trickling down, from which it turned into sound of the flowing river, and soon, his heart began to beat thunderously and resounded like a crashing waterfall!

  Wherever the blood flowed to, his skins would bulged up, the deficit energy and drained vigor in the muscles were replenished; his muscles and skin eventually followed suit and finally regained its usual luster!

  His body was like a bone-dry and arid land getting baptized by the billowing waves of blood, replenished by the immense energy. And soon, his body was reverted back to its original state.

  “You did it!” A wave of excitement engulfed Xin Huo and he exclaimed in joy.

  Zhong Yue slowly opened his eyes that were sparkling with merriment, he succeed at the precipice of death, his spirit and soul coalesced as one ... and he was reborn!

  In his body, the beast god essence was still flowing out unceasingly into his body where he refined the essence and turned it into energy that satiated his vacuous reserves of strength The replenishment of his power pushed his prowess back to its peak.

  “This was, my fault … I’ve wrongly calculated the prowess of your psyche, tossing you into a near death experience.”

  Xin Huo apologized and said, “Thankfully, you remained unwavering in the face of death even when I had lost faith. And that’s why you could become a Rebirth Qi Practitioner in just tens of days. Now, show me your atman, let me have a look.”

  Zhong Yue shifted his thoughts and revealed his atman in front of Xin Huo.

  Xin Huo lowered his sight and stared blankly at the little peanut before his eyes, he shouted out in shocked, “This is your atman, the Yuan Shen you’ve got after coalescing your soul with the spirit? How is it even smaller than me?”

  The little flame was only an inch tall and yet, Zhong Yue’s Yuan Shen was two heads shorter than Xin Huo, he was terribly small.

  “My psyche was not strong enough, it’s a blessing that I could even survive.”

  Zhong Yue laughed and said, “Fortunately, I’ve succeed. As long as I continue strengthening my psyche, my atman will also grow stronger. Furthermore, I still have to look into the totem of the Great Sun Golden Crow, only then, can I fully utilize the power of my spirit.”

  He was less than an inch tall, but the aura he possessed was fierce and dreadful; a human-bodied celestial being with the head and legs of a crow, surrounded by flames and burning fire.

  If one did not look at him, but instead just felt the aura he emanated, he would be mistaken as an ancient beast filled with brutality and atrocity – ferocious and barbarous.

  The sun spirit of the Great Sun Golden Crow, the totem in it is incredibly strong and powerful, it is not something I can fully understand in a short period of time, it’s best if I head back for now.

  Zhong Yue gazed at Xin Huo, he asked measuredly, “Xin Huo, you won’t tell me that you didn’t prepare a teleportation portal to go back right?”

  “A teleportation portal to head back...?”

  Xin Huo was startled, his face was filled with shock and he yelled, “Aiya, I’ve totally forgotten about it … Haha, I’m just joking, I’m way too smart and brilliant to ever make such a low-level error. I’ve prepared a teleportation portal, we will harvest the energy from the sun and teleport back to the moon….”

  “Back to the moon?”

  Zhong Yue stiffened up his face, he said, “If that godly statue in the moon is awakened….”

  Xin Huo realized it too, and he said tardily, “I’ve never thought about this. But our luck ... we should not be that unlucky right?”

  Chapter 80: Temple of the West Barren |

  We’ve left the moon for half a month or more, they’ve probably already forgotten about us, Zhong Yue thought in an attempt to comfort himself.

  The teleportation portal was in the palace itself, Xin Huo went in and activated it. Not long later, the energy from the sun gushed in and raised the temperature of the air in the palace.

  Just right when Zhong Yue was thinking that he might be turned into roasted meat, a ray of light flashed, it wreathed around and launched him towards the moon far away from his previous position.

  Zhong Yue turned and looked back, the moment he was flung out, the majestic palace on the surface of the sun started cru
mbling into pieces and was engulfed by the sun.

  Xin Huo used up three god’s treasure in order to allow me to manifest this spirit and become a Qi Practitioner, I owe him a great deal….

  The three teleportation portals and three treasures of god, they were meant for the next Xin Huo inheritor and yet, Xin Huo used it on Zhong Yue, who was not even the pure-blood inheritor Xin Huo was looking for. His heart grew heavy with debt and gratitude whenever he thought of the sacrifices Xin Huo made for him.

  This round of teleportation took him fifteen minutes, where he ended up at the Moon Palace on the moon.

  “The teleportation portal under the volcano was depleted of energy when we activated it, it has turned into a pile of useless rock, although it doesn’t function as a teleportation portal anymore, it can act as a beacon to guide our teleportation back!”

  Xin Huo quickly hovered around the teleportation portal in front of the Moon Palace and said, “We will now commence the teleportation, but they might be able to locate your destination, hence, we will have to destroy this teleportation portal right after we’ve teleported away!”

  Before the words finished exiting his mouth, the ground beneath Zhong Yue started quaking, the magnitude of the trembling magnified in vigor as if there were a humongous beast trying to crawl a way out of the ground!

  Xin Huo quickly activated the stone tablets as the ground quaked even harder, Zhong Yue’s heart could not help but thump heavily; obviously, someone had awakened the godly totem spirit in the middle of the moon and it was trying to find a way out to him!

  He can clearly tell that the godly totem spirit was getting closer the moon’s surface!

  “Quick!”

  Finally, Xin Huo activated all of the stone tablets, they proceeded to draw in the moonlight as they shimmered brightly. The stone tablets redirected the moonlight and illuminated the core of the array formation, forming a crystal clear mirror made of moonlight.

  Zhong Yue stood on the middle of that mirror, he was on the verge of vanishing.

  Right at this moment, the moon’s surface quaked violently and at almost the instant when he was teleported away, a huge fissure ruptured the floor of the the Moon Palace and a shaggy paw extruded out from the middle of the moon as it tried to grab on him!

  The shaggy paw extruded out hundreds of thousands of feet away from the ground, it was like the highest and tallest mountain of the moon. The huge paw casted a shadow that darkened the entire stone tablet teleportation portal!

  The final stratagem devised by Xin Huo was triggered, and the stone tablets teleportation portal started crumbling. The entire assembly of stone tablets that had hitherto scraped the sky at thousands of feet tall disintegrated into stone powder. While in the middle of the teleportation portal, Zhong Yue’s figure started to slowly fade away, finally disappearing into thin air.

  “KRONG!!”

  The paw’s owner was clearly enraged, the moon’s surface trembled in from the vibrations induced from its ferocious roar as the paw clenched tightly and crushed the stone tablets teleportation portal into pieces. The shaggy paw then retracted back into the moon; the ground quaked and the fissure closed, all traces of the paw were covered in dust as the moon fell back into an eerie silence.

  The next moment, Zhong Yue appeared right in the teleportation portal under the volcano, his heart was still palpitating in fear.

  That entity that stole the moon’s core, the godly spirit in the middle of the moon, he was still awakened by his descendants; if it was not for Zhong Yue having escaped quickly, he would have been dead by now!

  On the ground, I suppose that no one will be able to notice what had just happened on the moon? Who would ever have thought that the moon’s core was stolen away and supplant by the spirit of a god?

  Zhong Yue pressed down the shock in his mind, and as he thought to himself, From the shape of the paw, it didn’t look like that of a human’s, could it be a monster god? But if the monsters had a god with them, I’m afraid that Swords Gate would have long been obliterated? In addition, when my psyche went through the moon’s surface, the aura exuded by the god was saintly and holy, definitely not of the monster race … so it seems like Xin Huo was right, that god was one from the celestial race….

  The celestial race!

  The god hiding in the moon was from the celestial race, and his spirit wasn’t truly awakened by itself, but rather, it was his descendants that forcibly controlled it. The latency that would arise from that was most probably what allowed me the time and opportunity to escape.

  Zhong Yue thought in his heart, Whoever controlled it, must be the ones worshipping it. That said, it appears that this planet isn’t the exclusive domain of the humans, demons and monsters – there is also the celestial race.

  The array formations in the volcano were drained of its power and were petrified into stone. Zhong Yue flew all the way up to the vent of the volcano. As he flew up, he noticed that inside of the volcano was cold and windy, devoid of its previous infernal heat, signifying that the volcano had gone dormant. The monsters had also retrieved all the treasures used to crack the seals, and on the insides of the volcano were scrawled the marks of intense combat.

  It was evident that this was the stage of a bone-rattling battle, which had concluded not too long ago as evidenced by the blood that was still fresh and glistening with a crimson glow against the light.

  The Swords Gate’s four successors and the monster ace cultivators? I wonder how it went? Did they manage to kill the two island lords, and have they left Gu Xia City safely?

  The opening of the volcano’s vent was once again sealed away by the monsters, just right when Zhong Yue was cracking his head in figuring a way out, a tunnel suddenly appeared in the corner of his eyes; he then walked into it.

  Not long after, he was out of Gu Xia City. He pondered deeply, wondering curiously about who dug the tunnel. Little did he know that the Swords Gate four successors had trapped all of the Gu Xia City monsters in the volcano, leaving them at their mercy as they were almost completely annihilated by the four of them. Left with no other options, the monsters were forced to dig out a tunnel as they sought out an escape route.

  Let’s go back to my territory, the Falcon Ridge, I’ll settle some matters and then return to Swords Gate! Zhong Yue strode forward and left, he headed back to his own territory in the monster land, the Falcon Ridge.

  Somewhere in the West Barren, a deep sigh came out from a majestic and holy temple, “He has escaped….”

  Another dominant voice followed, “Our ancestor had long noticed the Moon Palace and that ancient array formation. But even the great ancestor could not activate it, its function remained a mystery until today … It was activated twice, and whoever activated it, clearly knew of the secret of our race.”

  Another pair of voices responded, “Whoever it was, death shall be bestowed upon that person.”

  “That ancient array, who sensed where it was headed?”

  “It seems to be somewhere between the East Barren and the Great Wilderness, the region inhabited by the monsters and humans.”

  An old and hoarse voice said, “So it’s there? The region of monsters and humans … Leave it to our messenger who has infiltrated their defense, the messenger will investigate into this matter and find out who activated the array formation, and how much that person knows of the ancient gods. Then we shall grant that petty bug a glorious death. Other than that, the thing underneath Great Wilderness ... is it time to be reaped?”

  “We haven’t found it yet. The Swords Gate will be in our way in our quest to retrieve it. The messenger has secured a position among the Swords Gate higher ups, waiting for the right timing to claim it over. All is in our favor, it’ll not be long before the Swords Gate falls into our grasp.”

  ….

  Falcon Ridge, the land within the radius of five hundred miles belonged exclusively to Zhong Yue, although it couldn’t even remotely be described as huge, the human population that was
partitioned into a few dozens of tribes still collectively numbered in the tens of thousands.

  In the over twenty days of Zhong Yue’s absence, the assiduous humans had refurbished the lord’s monastery, repaired the walls and the roofs.

  When Zhong Yue arrived at the Falcon Ridge Monastery, there was already a new plaque affixed to its facade, the once ‘Sun Xiao Manor’ was replaced by his ‘Long Yue Manor’.

  When he walked into the monastery, five human servants quickly came forward and welcomed him, they smiled and said, “Master is back! We welcome the great master’s return with our sincerest hearts!”

  Zhong Yue casted his gaze over the five servants; one of them was a scrawny, senile man not a day younger than fifty; while the other four were pretty and lovely young ladies, they were purely prepossessing in appearance, exuding an air of elegance and grace. Zhong Yue was baffled and he asked, “These four are?”

  “Master Sun’s medicinal herbs.”

  The senile man responded, “If anytime Master Long is hungry, they will be served on the table immediately. Does the master prefer cooked or raw?”

  Zhong Yue went speechless, he said, “I’ve told you, your master dislikes meats, I’m a vegan.”

  The five servants all heaved a breath of relief, the senile man then took out a red coral, he smile and said in a servile manner, “Master, after Master Sun’s death, we buried him and managed to find this treasure.”

  Zhong Yue took over the red coral and was startled; the red coral was shaped exactly like a tree, there were eighteen exquisite looking branches. He seeped his psyche into it and was shocked to find out that each and every branch contained a surge of Sword Qi in it!

  This tiny Coral Tree had eighteen strands of Sword Qi hidden within it!

  Even despite all his efforts and hardship, Zhong Yue had only managed gain himself two surges of Sword Qi!

  What a tyrannical soul weapon this is! If Sun Xiao had the time to cast it, then I would be the one who dies!

  Zhong Yue praised his luck, he had not practiced any form of defense skill; the time he had slain Sun Xiao, he had the element of surprise on his side along with the advantage of the higher ground. It was only due to these serendipitous factors that he was able to kill Sun Xiao in close-quarters combat!