Rise of Humanity

by <unknown>

  He sat atop a jade stone and submerged himself in the kaleidoscope of memories, reminiscing of the old times. The feeling he emanated gave Zhong Yue the impression that he was like an old grandfather that loved to tell stories in a village – kind and amiable.

  The old man smiled and said, “The Martial Masters’ soul weapons are their mortal bodies, in a soul weapon of the highest quality, psyche can flow through it smoothly and unhindered. Not only that, but as the psyche reaches out to the totem carvings, they can erupt with a strong force of power. With the totem carvings engraved directly into the mortal bodies of the Martial Masters, it would make them stronger than ordinary soul weapons, their every move would call upon immense strength.”

  Zhong Yue’s eyes brightened, he had suddenly seen the light, a different path in the way of cultivation.

  The old man continued, “If the mortal body is strong like the soul weapon, then you can engrave totem carvings into it, alleviating the need of the intermediary step of visualization. It would allow to just move your psyche, reach out to the totem carvings to be endowed with the same power that a conventional soul weapon would bestow to its wielder. Fighting with a Martial Master is like fighting with a human soul weapon ... utterly terrifying.”

  Engraving totem carvings on the body, it was not a particularly uncommon practice for Qi Practitioners, for example, the mutated demons, there were natural totem carvings of their races on them, activating the totem carvings on their skins would greatly augment their strength!

  In the Devil Soul Forbidden Land, all of the previous Swords Gate headmasters also had their bones engraved with the marvelous totem carvings; even after their deaths, their skeletons remained impervious to the wicked and nefarious miasma of the Devil Soul Forbidden Land!

  Not only that, Zhong Yue had also seen the god-level totem carvings on the giant creatures in the Devil Soul Forbidden Land.

  Or maybe, the cultivation path of the Martial Masters is inspired by the demon races or the gods... Zhong Yue thought to himself.

  “In order to engrave totem carvings in your body, your psyche is still not strong enough.”

  The old man smiled and said, “Wait till you have refined all the psyche in your psyche ocean into a pool of lightning, only then do you have a chance to do it. But I’ve learned a small trick from that Martial Master. That is to visualize the totem carvings with your psyche and let them engrave on your skin and bones. Just like this.”

  He rolled out his sleeve and revealed an arm thin like a withered tree branch, Zhong Yue looked at it as the old man’s psyche gushes out and form into totem carvings on his skin.

  “Totem permutations of the 【 Xuan Wu Gold Spirit Art】 ?”

  Zhong Yue’s eyes brightened, the elderly man had just visualized the 【 Xuan Wu Gold Spirit Art】and etched the totem carvings on his skin. Did it mean that his arm had now acquired the same defensive capability as the Xuan Wu Gold Spirit Shield?

  Chapter 96: Martial Defense |

  The elderly man dispersed the Xuan Wu Totem, and the totem carvings on his arm changed, it shifted into the sword totem of the Geng Jin Sword Qi on his palm. He gently waved his hand and the jade rock was sliced away like tofu, he smiled and said, “And it also works like this. Do you understand?”

  Zhong Yue took in a deep breath of air, he said, “Yes I do! Thank you senior for guiding me!”

  The old man stood up and before he left, he smiled and said, “No need to thank me, giving guidance to you is merely nothing, after all, there is a little fate between you and I….”

  “This old man ... he is very strong.”

  Zhong Yue gazed at the elderly man as he left, all of a sudden, Xin Huo moved within his psyche ocean. Zhong Yue was overjoyed, “Xin Huo, you are finally awake!”

  Xin Huo leaped out from his psyche ocean and answered, “I’ve already woken up just now, but I kept quiet as I sensed that old man and am afraid that he notices me in your psyche ocean. This old man, he is the strongest entity in the Swords Gate Mountain, I’ve noticed his aura quite a few times, appearing right there on the golden summit of Swords Gate!”

  “Golden summit of Swords Gate, the strongest entity?”

  Zhong Yue’s heart palpitated in shock, this elderly man with an ingenious appearance that lent himself well to the image of a harmless old man ... was actually the strongest of Swords Gate, the headmaster who held the vaunted appellation of Sword God!

  Moments later, Zong Yue recollected his thoughts, he then realized it all, “No wonder Ta Wuyou and the others were looking for trouble with me, the sword token was carved by our Swords Gate headmaster; No wonder the elders’ faces turned so weird when they saw the sword token. Hmm, I’ve heard people saying that the headmaster’s secret technique is the 【Great Boundless Sword Qi】. Could it be that the totem carvings of the【Great Boundless Sword Qi】 are hidden within the sword token?”

  When he was escaping with Jun Sixie in the Savanna Wasteland, she once told him that there was a secret technique in Swords Gate, dedicated only to the headmasters – the 【Great Boundless Sword Qi】.

  Xin Huo corrected him and said, “It’s Boundless Great Sword Qi!”

  Zhong Yue’s face turned solemn, he mumbled to himself, “Could it be that the headmaster had chosen me and intended to nurture me as the next headmaster of Swords Gate? No, I’ve only acquired the sword token by chance, it was given to me by Junior Martial Sister Qiu Jiner. Oh, that’s why the headmaster passed the sword token to Junior Martial Sister Jiner so that she can remedy the excessive Wood Qis. While I have only learned the sword totem in the sword token through a moment of serendipity.”

  He heaved a breath of relief and said, “Furthermore, the sword token only has the art. Techniques are divided into arts and skills; arts for cultivation and skills for combat. The sword token only contained the art without the skill. I’ve only acquired half of the 【Great Boundless Sword Qi】.”

  Xin Huo pondered and said, “Just now that old man is indeed one from the Feng Clan, the Fuxi bloodline in him is three times greater than yours, about the same as Feng Wuji. Even the bloodline of the Feng Clan has gotten so low and thin. It seems like there won’t be any pure-blood Fuxi celestial race in the Great Wilderness….”

  “Xin Huo, with my prowess now, can I purify my Fuxi bloodline already?” Zhong Yue suddenly remembered, he asked.

  Xin Huo shook his head and said, “In actual fact, you’ve already been in the process of purification; just right when you started with the beast god essence, your bloodline was already being purified. But it is extremely slow, so slow that you can’t even notice it. The Fuxi bloodline in you was thin, originally tens of times more dilute than the old man’s, but now his is only three times more concentrated than yours. Your improvements are clear. Keep on purifying, give it a few months time and you will be able to catch up to him or even more, surpass him. Then at that time, I can teach you how to use the Fuxi bloodline and open the Fuxi Divine Eye!”

  “Fuxi Divine Eye?” Zhong Yue was thrilled.

  “The Fuxi Divine Eye sees through the illusions and reaches out to the truth amidst falsities. By just looking, you can perceive the abstrusity and profundity of the totems, you can see through all the myriad of transformations of the totems and delineate the flaws within.”

  Xin Huo smiled and said, “If you can open the divine eye, then why go through all the troubles of carving and sculpting in trying to comprehend the abstrusity? Your bloodline is still too thin; even if all of your blood is accumulated and purified, you would probably not even be able to distill a single drop of Fuxi blood from it. It is still insufficient to open the divine eye.”

  Zhong Yue took in a deep breath of air and mumbled to himself, “Another few more months and then I can open the Fuxi Divine Eye.”

  “Other than the Fuxi Divine Eye, you can still open the Fuxi Combat Body with the Fuxi blood. It can increase your prowess to more than three times your current prowess, but the burden it would impose on your b
ody would be immense. With your current state, you would be immediately crushed under the strength of your own body the moment you open the Fuxi Divine Eye.”

  Xin Huo clenched his fist tightly and encouraged him, “Young man of the Fuxi Celestial Race, spare no effort and cultivate harder!”

  Swords Gate golden summit – Elder Pu appeared behind the old man, he smiled and asked, “Headmaster, how is the Zhong Shan Clan member?”

  “Not bad.”

  A smile filled the old man’s face, he said impishly, “To see that he had taken me as a secret recluse in Swords Gate ... it is quite interesting. His expression must be quite a sight to behold if he were to ever find out my identity….”

  Elder Pu was speechless and reprimanded, “Headmaster, the older you are, the more childish you act; but you are indeed right, I am also keen to see the look on his face when he finds out of your identity.”

  The two elderly man gazed at each other, their faces suffused with mischievous smiles. But what they failed to realize was the fact that Zhong Yue had already guessed his identity.

  “Headmaster, Jun Sixie is now back, although she suffered some injuries, she has fully recovered now.”

  The old man pondered and said, “The four of them are fine and delicate young successors and innate spirit body holders. In addition to the little girl from Qiu Tan Clan, the five of them resembles the five celestial stars, it is a sign that the Swords Gate will rise. But there are some evil figures lurking around plotting sinistrous schemes. Jun Sixie was ambushed in the Savanna Wasteland, that can only mean that someone has already betrayed the Great Wilderness. All five celestials in Swords Gate ... it might turn out to be a fortune or a calamity. We will need to be cautious.”

  “Or maybe it might be six celestials.”

  Elder Pu smiled and said, “Will the Zhong Shan Clan member be an Innate Sun Spirit Body holder? Look, he hasn’t manifested the spirits from our Swords Gate, and instead has the spirit of the Great Sun Golden Crow, and the Great Sun Golden Crow only exists within the holder of an Innate Sun Spirit Body.”

  The elderly man nodded, he said, “Indeed he looks like one. If he is an Innate Sun Spirit Body holder, then his inverse, the Moon Innate Spirit Body holder is also bound to emerge. The five elements beget one another, and Yin and Yang balance each other in a tenuous equilibrium. If there is a sun then there will be a moon! However, regardless of whether or not he is the holder of the Sun Innate Spirit Body, he will not be the next headmaster. He has cultivated too late and my time is running out, if only he was discovered a few years earlier, then he might have a chance. But now….”

  He shook his head, and said, “In fact, I like him a lot, the time he spent to comprehend the 【Great Boundless Sword Qi】 was shorter than me, his perception is incredible. It’s a pity, I can’t live to the day he grows into a human paragon. Hence, the next headmaster can only be chosen from one of the four: Fang, Feng, Lei and Jun. And among the four, a traitor lies within.”

  “The monsters can’t demolish us, the Great Wilderness. The demons can’t devour the Great Wilderness, and the celestials can’t exterminate the Great Wilderness, the only thing that can destroy us, is ourselves.”

  He stood up, slim and slender, and the air of death on his countenance grew thicker. He mumbled, “The emergence of the celestial stars, will this be the harbinger of the rise or fall of humanity … before my death, I will follow the steps of the great predecessor headmasters of Swords Gate. I will use my life to once more bring five hundred years of peace to the Great Wilderness.I will obliterate the hidden dangers within Swords Gate! And the price I will have to pay, is merely my old and dying life!”

  Outside of Zhong Yue’s cave dwelling, Ta Wulu, Huang Luoshi and the others had waited for nearly a month, the veins on their foreheads could be seen thumping in anger. Huang Luoshi yelled out, “This Zhong Shan Clan, does he cultivate by roaming and traveling? If not, then why is he running all around the place? Which Qi Practitioner doesn’t sit in their cave dwelling and concentrate on their cultivation. Yet this brat only returns back to his cave dwelling once every few months!”

  Ta Wulu grit his teeth —Dang Dang Dang— all of a sudden, there were sounds of a bell tolling. The four Qi Practitioners’ faces changed drastically, they quickly stood up and rushed out towards the same direction, “The bell of the inner hall rings only to gathers us all ... what is going on?”

  In the jade forest, Zhong Yue took off all his clothes and was stark naked. Behind him, the samsara cycle of the Great Sun was constantly refining his body. And at the same time, the totem carvings of the Xuan Wu Totem emerged on his skin, 46 totem permutations crawled all over in a glittering gold radiance.

  Chi Chi Chi——

  Sword Qi began to pierce the sky in an unrelenting salvo there were a total of 18 of them revolving around his body; slashing, brandishing, waving, slicing, chopping, and cutting all around. They were the 18 Sword Qis of the Coral Tree.

  Zheng Zheng Zheng——

  The sounds of blasts could be heard as the Sword Qis fell onto his body, the totem carvings flickered rays of light blocking down the Sword Qi.

  Suddenly, one of the Sword Qi penetrated through his defense and slit a long and narrow wound at the side of his rib.

  “You are still not proficient in the techniques of the Martial Masters, not smooth enough, there are still flaws when you use them.”

  Xin Huo stood on his shoulder and said, “The Xuan Wu Gold Spirit Art requires all 46 totem transformations to form the Xuan Turtle Totem and Teng Snake Totem. That is exactly where the crux of your flaw lies, the connection between the two totems.”

  Zhong Yue locked his brows, he settled his mind and reviewed his mistakes. Moments later, the Sword Qis once again started blasting, revolving around his body and pouring down like rain!

  Not long after, his neck was sliced with another wound by a vagrant Sword Qi. Zhong Yue slanted his head and evaded the Sword Qi, it only managed to nick the skin of his throat and fortunately, didn’t penetrate the trachea!

  “The flaws are getting fewer but this is still not enough. The Teng Snake curls on the dragon turtle, the turtle works on the defense and the Teng Snake disperses the impact of attacks, but you have yet to grasp the essence of the two.”

  Xin Huo was experienced, he could immediately surmise the reason behind why Zhong Yue was wounded again. He said, “You’ve forgotten one thing, the Teng Snake disperses the impact force, but where exactly does it divert the force to? It offloads the impact force to the turtleback of the dragon turtle, and yet, you foolishly try to absorb it all into your own body –that’s why you keep getting hurt.”

  Zhong Yue suppressed the sword wounds on his neck and stemmed the flow of blood, he became momentarily lost in thought and said, “You are saying that, I shouldn’t separate the Teng Snake and dragon turtle, but instead, I must look at them as one complete totem?”

  Xin Huo praised and said, “That’s it.”

  Zhong Yue pondered deeply, moments later, he stood up and started training again.

  He was injured and injured again, his body eventually became littered with wounds, it was as if he has just fought a life and death battle with a Qi Practitioner.

  After a long time, the Sword Qis were crazily launching towards him — Dang Dang Dang — the sounds of eruptions resounded without end. The totem carvings flowed around Zhong Yue’s body, warding off all the Sword Qis away.

  There was even this one Coral Tree Sword Qi that thrusted right at his eye. Zhong Yue closed his eye whereupon his eyelid became a maze of totem carvings tracts that formed a protective layer above his eye, rendering it impervious to the Sword Qi.

  Not only that, there were also Sword Qis that slashed on his armpits, belly button and even the part between his legs — Zheng Zheng Zheng — sounds of clashing could be heard and Zhong Yue was still unscathed as he parried away all the Sword Qi.

  “Finally, I’ve mastered the defensive technique of the Martial Masters.�
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  Zhong Yue put on his clothes, heaved a breath of relief and said, “But the Coral Tree Sword Qi are a little weak in power, only on par with the attacks of a Spirit Nurturing Qi Practitioner. If they were to be replaced with the Xiang Dragon Sword Qi, I would not be able to remain unscathed. My main defensive skill still relies on the Xuan Wu Gold Spirit Shield. Now, let’s try and see what can I get if I engrave the Xiang Dragon Totem on my bones.”

  Chapter 97: Innate Moon Spirit Body |

  Actions immediately followed behind as he thought of it. He visualized the Xiang Dragon Totem and his psyche bound on the bones. Instantly, he could feel a force of unimaginable strength surging in his body, it was thrice his normal strength!

  When I used to turn into the Xiang Dragon, I could break through the sound barrier within a distance of a thousand feet. And now, with the increase in my prowess, the requisite distance has been greatly shortened. But it’ll still take approximately 600 feet. However, for my base body to break through the sound barrier would be incredibly hard. I wonder if I can do it with the psyche-visualized Xiang Dragon Totem bound to my bones?

  Zhong Yue inhaled a deep breath of air as he found strength erupting out from his legs. The rocks beneath his feet cracked and burst apart in all directions and his body bolted away like a nocked arrow finally let loose. Zhong Yue strode forward at an astonishing pace, the muffled sounds of thunder rumbling could be heard as he moved, it was very horrifying, and his speed was getting faster and quicker!