Rise of Humanity

by <unknown>

  Zhong Yue stared dubiously at him, cold sweat started to rush out of his forehead, and even Hu Qimei was looking at him with great interest of ‘tidying his remain’, giving rise to an uneasiness in his heart. He sneered and said, “I’ve my own fortunes in these two years, my cultivation base has increased greatly, Kong Ban is no longer my match! Brother Long Yue, could it be that you lack the guts to battle with Kong Ban?”

  Zhong Yue burst into laughter, he stood up from the skiff and said, “Alright then! I will end him!”

  Just when he spoke out those words, Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei’s hearts skipped a beat, they felt a surge of ferocious aura erupting out from Zhong Yue, the difference between now and when he was in Gu Xia City was vast beyond description. The strong and sturdy aura of his cultivation base even managed to suppress Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei causing their hearts to thump in trepidation as if an ancient wild beast was staring right into their souls!

  Could this be his true prowess? Did he really hid his prowess when he battled with Yan Lisan?

  Hu Qimei and Yu Xuanji’s hearts were filled in shock. Quickly, they noticed the changes in his eyes as he stood up, his right eye started to change while his left eye had an onyx pupil enshrouding a golden pupil within it like a dark corona. In the golden pupil, hid a bird-headed, three-legged humanoid celestial being which looked akin to the totem patterned sun.

  And as for his left eye, the jet black pupil enveloped a silver pupil within, a celestial being with six eyes and three legs stood in it like a totem patterned bright moon!

  The sun and moon dual pupils!

  He had succeeded in coalescing the moon spirit!

  The time he coalesced the moon spirit was different to when he coalesced the sun spirit. The last time when he coalesced the spirit of Great Sun Golden Crow with his soul, but now, he directly converged the moon spirit into his right eye!

  After the successful coalescence, the moon spirit was residing deep within his soul’s right eye. While at the same time, his mortal body’s right eye also began to experience similar changes in accordance to the moon pupil!

  With the success of the coalescence of the moon spirit, Zhong Yue’s prowess skyrocketed to new heights. Especially when he was steeped in the abstrusity of the moon spirit totem pattern, his attainments and understandings on the first two forms of the moon spirit grew were clearer and deeper. Although he did not have much time to comprehend and study all of the abstrusity of the moon spirit, by purely relying on the rise of his cultivation base brought about by the coalescence of the two spirits, he was more than capable of surpassing both Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei!

  Going through the process of advancing into the level of Rebirth twice had delivered incredible enhancements to his cultivation base. His mortal body was also baptized by the moon spirit, becoming even stronger than before!

  “Kong Ban!”

  Zhong Yue’s sights fell onto the aloof young man who was leisurely treading on the river waters, and the wings of the Golden Crow flared out on his back. Along with the immense increase in his cultivation base and prowess, the Golden Crow wings also grew more stable and firm than before.

  On the skiff, Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei stared in awe at the wings that spread out before them. There were various totem patterns and aureate carvings deeply engraved on the wings and feathers. The sight caused their hearts to shudder.

  This Long Yue of the East Ocean, he doesn’t look like one of the dragon race, but more like a Great Sun Golden Crow!

  Bang——

  As Zhong Yue fluttered his wings, he had already broken through the sound barrier within a short distance of six hundred feet, causing Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei’s eyelids to twitch incessantly. Although they had their own flying skills, they were all far slower than Zhong Yue’s speed. With such an impressive speed, whether it be used in the battles or during escaping, he would have a great advantage that would be seemingly insurmountable by others!

  “Die!”

  On the river, one of the five brothers of Li family was dead, the array formation was cracked and would cease to be of any threats anymore to Kong Ban. But the next moment, a cold shiver was sent down his spine, he quickly raised his head and looked over only to see Zhong Yue diving down from the sky!

  “So quick….”

  He let out a dreadful whistle, completely ignoring the rest of the four Li brothers. Multicolored shields emerged out of thin air with him at the center, while the peacock feathers on his head hovered into the air before turning into the multicolored sword rays.

  His peacock feathers were different to the ordinary soul weapons of the other Qi Practitioners. The elemental Qi of the gold, wood, water, fire and earth was harvested and refined into the peacock feathers, imbuing a powerful strength within!

  But just right before his multicolored shields and peacock feathers could release their powers, a violent tempest was blasted into his face. Zhong Yue pushed out his palms and hammered down on him. A strength that could seemingly split the seas and crush the mountains came slamming down from above. How incredibly imperious and overwhelming would that be?

  Kong Ban raised his hands and took the full blow and the river surface trembled vigorously. It was split into halves and the currents stopped flowing as the strength of the two Qi Practitioners violently clashed together!

  Pu!——

  Chi!——

  Kong Ban spurted out a mouthful of blood, his arms were instantly crushed by the overwhelming strength only to be left broken and hanging uselessly by his sides. He was launched away flying backward and crashing into the water surface, hammered back like an arrow by Zhong Yue’s strength splitting the water surface in half.

  Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei were observing from a distance away. They witnessed the water surface of the Si Shui River split as if it was cleaved down the middle. Wherever Kong Ban streaked across the water, a rush of tidal waves would be incited by his sides that seemingly formed a valley of river water, steep as if an axe chopped down on it, its slopes smooth and flat like solid walls made of water. The awe-inspiring sight caused their faces to change drastically!

  As for the four brothers of the Li family, they were sent flying away by the tidal waves the moment Zhong Yue attacked. They ended up strewn on the ground in all direction suffering heavy injuries.

  Hu——

  Kong Ban’s Yuan Shen flew up behind him, it was an over sixty to seventy feet tall celestial being built with four arms and a bird’s head with its body thoroughly covered with peacock feathers as if it was a peacock spreading its tail. Its appearance managed to block the overwhelming force of the strike sent forward by Zhong Yue.

  Zhong Yue’s wings fluttered, he bolted over from the middle of the water valley, following right behind Kong Ban and striking furiously at him —Krong!— A loud burst erupted and caused the air to tremble. It was Zhong Yue’s punch – faster than the speed of sound – its velocity giving rise to a supersonic shockwave that was akin to the rumble of thunder from the heavens!

  Hong! Hong! Hong!

  Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei heard the sounds of thunder rumbling throughout the valley; short, clear, quick, and intense! Their hearts were engulfed in shock. Such a dense noise, it would definitely be caused by the rapid barrage of Zhong Yue’s punches continually inciting resounding shockwaves. A terrifying implication of such a din was that his attack speed was even faster than the speed of sound!

  On the upright tidal waves on the sides of Si Shui River, palm prints and fist prints were sequentially being created. Each and every palm print was over a hundred feet in radius while the fist prints were smaller with a radius of eighty-some feet.

  Suddenly, the surface of the river started to quiver vigorously, a multicolored peacock flared out its wings and rose into the sky in an attempt to flee. It was Kong Ban, he was beaten so thoroughly that his option was to revert to his true form to give himself a chance of escape.

  His speed was great, his wingspan measured over a hundred feet long, gliding along th
e surface of the river for a few miles. A sudden shudder, and he pierced through the winds and bolted away.

  “Where is Lian Shan?!” Zhong Yue followed behind him endlessly, he was getting closer to Kong Ban, when all of a sudden, Kong Ban growled out and said.

  “Lian Shan?”

  Just when Zhong Yue was thinking what he meant, a small hill beside the river started to quake violently, and a giant being slowly stood up. It was a giant rhinoceros, resting beside the Si Shui River as if it was a black and darkly hill.

  “Mou!!”

  The giant rhinoceros growled and the sound waves trembled the surrounding air which blasted onto Zhong Yue. The river water started to boil and the water streams evaporate to form a stratum of white mist above. And in the midst of the white mists, the sound waves shuddered and the mist coalesced into the form of a giant rhinoceros with a thousand feet huge mouth, every growl caused the air to tremble powerfully!

  “How incredibly strong is this?”

  The pupil of Zhong Yue’s right eye started to shift. The moon spirit manifested behind him like a specter, coalescing with the soul and morphing into the Star Moon Jade Toad before challenging its roar with one of its own.

  “Manggu!”

  As the two sounds waves clashed together, Zhong Yue released a muffled groan and reeled backward by the impact force, staggering on his feet.

  “Young master, don’t you worry.”

  The giant rhinoceros suddenly stood up like a human, its body started to change and morphed into a stoutly built man with a stature of about two hundred feet. Zheng!—— his Yuan Shen emerged behind him and on its chest, was a marvelous-looking light wheel gyrating before it, emanating a kaleidoscope of prismatic radiance!

  “The Awakening level, a monster Qi Practitioner that opened the Wuxing Wheel!”

  Zhong Yue’s heart thumped before he stopped abruptly. He quickly retreated back to the skiff and retracted his wings before yelling, “It’s an Awakening expert, leave now!”

  On the skiff, Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei’s eyes were filled with terror, the skiff was quickly manipulated and propelled away. But the giant rhinoceros curled its legs, crouching down before sudden before launching out like a nocked arrow finally let loose. The skiff was a thousand feet high in the sky, and yet, just a single leap catapulted the giant rhinoceros monster man to the point where the skiff was nearly within arm’s reach!

  The rushing gale induced by the waving of the giant rhinoceros' gigantic hands shook the skiff and pushed it to the brink of capsizing!

  “He is Lian Shan of the Shen Yi City, don’t worry, this brat doesn’t know how to fly!”

  Yu Xuanji heaved a breath of relief, he quickly stabilized the skiff and rowed it away from this place, saying with a smile on his face, “His body is too heavy, he can’t practice any flying skill. Even if he is at the level of Awakening, as long as he doesn’t know how to fly, then he can’t do anything to us….”

  But before he finished his sentence, the giant rhinoceros monster man suddenly picked up and hurled a rock of at least a hundred thousand kilograms of weight. Krong—— It penetrated through the wind to slam towards them.

  Yu Xuanji was shocked, he dared not open his mouth anymore as he mustered all his energy in manipulating the skiff to bolt away through the wind.

  The giant rhinoceros monster man sprinted over, continuing to grab the rocks along the way and launching them over. Cold sweat rushed out of Hu Qimei and Yu Xuanji’s foreheads, this giant rhinoceros' strength was too immense; they would only end up with perforated bodies and pulverized bones if they were to be hit with the rocks.

  “【Sky Sealing Clouds】!”

  Yu Xuanji yelled out, a stratum of mist and clouds emerged in midair and overcast the skies of tens of miles. The skiff was concealed in the clouds and abruptly bolted away, throwing off the pursuit of the giant rhinoceros monster human behind them.

  “Who knew that this brat Kong Ban would even bring his followers out along with him,” Yu Xuanji was steering the skiff as he fled far away. He then heaved a breath of relief and rubbed the back of his hand on his forehead to wipe away the cold sweat.

  Zhong Yue’s face turned gloomy, his voice was cold like ice, “Brother Xuanji, Qimei, the both of you owe me an explanation, why is there an Awakening level follower around Kong Ban? And what should we do if that Lian Shan giant rhinoceros caught up to us again when we arrive at Xian Kong Saint City?”

  “Kong Ban is the son of Shen Yi City City Lord, of course, he would have followers.”

  Yu Xuanji quickly put up a smile and said as he saw Zhong Yue’s face getting darker, “Brother Long Yue, don’t you worry. Although Shen Yi City City Lord is strong, it is not to the extent of being supremely strong like the magnates. I’m from the Qing Long Keep and my teacher is the Keep Master of Qing Long Keep, what need is there to fear? And Qimei’s teacher is also an otherworldly expert cultivator, don’t you worry, we have our experts heading over to Xian Kong Saint City. When we arrive, they will naturally come and reconvene with us!”

  Chapter 117: Gods That Followed Into The Grave |

  Anyone of the monster race is unreliable. The only one I can rely on is myself. Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei are monsters with strong backgrounds, but I’ve no such privileges.

  Rays flashed in Zhong Yue’s eyes, he was very cognizant of how tenuous his identity as a dragon race was. He thought, The Awakening Qi Practitioners are too strong, the level of Awakening is only one step higher than the Rebirth level, and yet that Lian Shan giant rhinoceros was so strong despite only having opened the Wu Xing Wheel. I need to urgently increase my strength, otherwise, I have no chance to stand against the Awakening Qi Practitioners!

  The level of Awakening was one of the biggest watersheds that demarcated a qualitative leap in strength among the levels of cultivation. It was also one of the most important ones. It would open the five realms within the cultivator’s atman to enable them to harvest the powers from the realms, and acquire the Combat Yuan Shen. Zhong Yue had clearly bore witness to such strength and power endowed by the Combat Yuan Shen in his short confrontation with an Awakening Qi Practitioner just now.

  Rebirth and Awakening were a level apart; it was hard for him to engage in a frontal battle with the Awakening Qi Practitioners.

  But he had seen a glimpse of hope, that was the twin spirit in him, more so that they were the strongest twin spirits. After achieving the state of [Spirit Soul As One], it would then be a long and arduous journey of nourishing the atman, strengthening it to the peak and in the end, advancing into the level of Awakening.

  And he was now only at the elementary phase of level of Rebirth. His atman was only an inch tall, and when he nourishes his atman to about seventy feet high, then he could start opening the wheels and acquire the Combat Yuan Shen for himself.

  His atman was continuously burgeoning and thriving, his cultivation base was also increasing unceasingly. He might just be able to contend with the Awakening experts when he ascends to the peak of Rebirth!

  After half a day’s time, the skiff arrived at Xian Kong Saint City, Zhong Yue stared at the sacred land of the East Barren monster race from afar, his heart shuddered in shock.

  The Xian Kong Saint City was a kind of its own, it was vastly disparate to the grandiose majesty of the Swords Gate. The saint city was built atop a dark black mountain, with eight hundred miles of land centered surrounding the city attached with thick and robust metal chains that tethered the saint city to the mountainsides.

  And on the mountainsides themselves were mountains of smaller sizes, the mountain summits were sliced off clean by an unknown being to leave a flat plateau where cities of hundred miles in radius were built. There were a total of eight such cities atop such mountains.

  Meanwhile, these smaller sized cities were also shackled with chains, with each of them having eight chains dangling down to the hills at the foot of the dark mountain – eight cities with sixty-four chains shackling down onto sixty-four hills
.

  The chains were thick and stout, and on the chains itselves, one could still vaguely distinguish the remnants of totem carvings.

  “Brother Long Yue, is this the first time you’ve come to the Xian Kong Saint City?”

  Hu Qimei glanced at Zhong Yue’s countenance, after all, the females were more conscientious of such details. She noticed the unusual aberrance in Zhong Yue’s emotions, she smiled and said, “This is the array formation of the Eight Extremities Deities Repression of Xian Kong Saint City, repressing the devil souls beneath this dark mountain of saint city.”

  “Devil souls?”

  Even with Zhong Yue’s placid disposition, he still couldn’t help but shout out involuntarily, “What devil souls?”

  “I hear that its same as the ones in Great Wilderness Swords Gate, but the seal beneath Swords Gate was loosened, there is a crack allowing the Devil Soul Yin Effluvium to leak out and ravage the land.”

  Yu Xuanji steered the skiff flying towards the saint city on the summit of the dark mountain, he said, “The seal underneath our saint city is well intact, so we are still safe as of now. This is also one of the reasons why we monsters are far more prosperous than the humans. The seal beneath Swords Gate is loosened, forcing every generation of Swords Gate headmaster to venture down into the abyss to secure a transient peace for the next generation in exchange for their lives.Otherwise, the Devil Soul Yin Effluvium would only get stronger and stronger with every occurrence. I hear that all of the Swords Gate headmasters died in the seal underground, whereas us monsters have the privilege of the countless treasures left behind the previous saint city city lords as they weren’t subject to the same damnation as the headmasters of the Swords Gate. Hence, it’s only natural for the posterity of the monster race to thrive in comparison to humanity's.”

  Zhong Yue’s heart pounded in shock, but it was not because of the story about the headmasters sacrificing themselves to suppress the seal, but the fact that even the sacred land of the monster race had a Devil Soul Forbidden Land!