Rise of Humanity

by <unknown>

  Shui Zian’s distant voice rang in the secret realm, it was faint as there was a whole dimension that separated them, “Remember, you are not the one they are trying to kill, you never were … it was always me they had their eyes on. They had planned to kill me from the start! Whether end up dying or not, you mustn’t blame yourself for what will happen to me! I don’t need your sympathy, you hear me?”

  “And also, although this secret realm is relatively safer, it has its own dangers too, you must stay cautious. You should only come out when everything is over and when it is safe to. However, you must still be careful when you leave, as there might still be celestials lingering around hunting for you. At that time, I won’t be there for you, no one will, and the only one that can save you, is you yourself….”

  ….

  Within the secret realm, tears began to pool in his eyes again and immediately, little flames burned in his eyes, vaporizing the tears so that they would not trickle down.

  Shui Zian did not need tears, he regarded them as futile expression of helplessness; tears were useless, they would not contribute any help to the situation at all.

  “The only thing that one can fall back on … was power, a strong and overwhelming power that can destroy all who stand in my path! But I’m too weak, so weak that I can’t do anything at all….”

  Zhong Yue was beside himself with grief as he had never felt so powerless before, he could not intervene in the battle between Elder Shui and the four Xiao Mang celestial magnates. Moments later, he regained his calm and placid composure, mumbling to himself, “Whining has no use at all, in order to become stronger, I will have to work harder instead of wallowing in my own sadness and sorrow! I may be weak now, but it will not last for long. A tragedy like this … this feeling of absolute helplessness … once in this lifetime is enough!”

  He recollected his thoughts and cast away the distractions in his mind and examined the surroundings. This was a Yuan Shen secret realm left behind by a godly spirit, the spirit had ceased to exist but the secret realm remained.

  The Yuan Shen secret realm of the godly spirits that died in the battles would be paved with countless unpredictable dangers.

  Taking the Wan Xiang Secret Realm as an example, if a god had died in battle while he was still casting his Wan Xiang Realm, augmenting himself with the almighty strength of the myriad; then when he died, his Wan Xiang Secret Realm twould be glutted with the almighty strength of the myriad, swirling and ravaging in the secret realm!

  Zhong Yue has entered the Wan Xiang Secret Realm of a godly spirit back when he was in the Xiao Mang celestial race; the Wan Xiang Secret Realm has simulated countless terrains and objects under the worshippings of the white-robed priests.

  While the Wan Xiang Realm of the dead godly spirits would be even more precarious, the strengths of the mountains and powers of the oceans, the dreary desserts and the seas of fire, meteorites and the powers of the celestial temples, various kinds of terrible images and scenarios would emerge in the secret realm.

  If it was the Wu Xing Realm, then the five elemental Qi in it would kill anyone who dared to enter; while the Yin Yang Realm was glutted with the Yin and Yang Qi; the Shen Cai Realm would tumble the heaven and earth, siphon the life force of the intruders; but the Dao Yi was the most horrifying one, after all, it was the realm that amalgamates the powers of all five Yuan Shen realms.

  The secret realm Shui Zian chose was the safest among all, there were no upheavals of Qi in the secret realm, and even if there were, it would not be as dangerous as the other secret realms.

  Zhong Yue cast his gaze around, the sun was dangling on his left and the moon on his right, which clearly suggested that this was a Yin Yang Realm.

  In the secret realm, the sun and moon were incomplete, a big chunk of the sun was gone while fire cascaded down like a waterfall from the sky. It was the Yang Qi; on the other hand, there was a hole that perforated the moon with moonlight streaming down from it – it was the Yin Qi.

  “The Yin Yang Secret Realm of a godly spirit, but the Yin and Yang Qi here aren’t the Pure Yin and Yang Qi, clearly this godly spirit that died didn’t get to cultivate the Pure Yin and Yang Qi. This is a good place to me, I can use the Yin and Yang Qi of the secret realm to nourish my own Yin and Yang Qi.”

  Zhong Yue strode forwards to the place where the Yang Qi was leaking out from the sun. Regarding the Yin and Yang Qi, he was considered to be lucky as he had acquired both the sun spirit and moon spirit, attaining the true quintessences of the Yin and Yang Qi. He had thus mastered the Yin Yang totem carvings, and most of all, acquired himself a slight modicum of both Pure Yin and Pure Yang Qi.

  Different talents specialized in different fields, even when compared with the gods, he also had his own fortes over them.

  “My Yin Yang Secret Realm can also utilize the Yin Qi and Yang Qi here and cultivate it to the peak! I can also recondition the Yin Ying in my body, consolidating the sun spirit and moon spirit so that the balance between the Yin and Ying can be achieved. And most importantly of all, my sun spirit and moon spirit will experience a great leap in prowess!”

  Zhong Yue sat beside the liquid fire and started his cultivation.

  “Elder Shui….” the image of the short elderly man kept appearing in his eyes, swinging his long wide sleeves around in the air.

  “You said that you didn’t die for me, but I know it very well in my heart … I was the cause of your death! If it weren’t for the fact that the headmaster had sent you over to save me, how would you be here in the first place?”

  “You didn’t want me to blame myself for your death, worrying that the I would lose my rationality because of that, and that the guilt would consume my heart and toss me into a state of despair until I spiral into a depraved and abject state? Don’t you worry, I can assure you that won’t happen, Elder Shui.”

  “All I could feel in my heart is my lack of power, the helplessness of not being able to help at all, and so, I will become stronger, one day after another. I’ll strengthen myself unceasingly, so that same thing will never happen again.”

  ….

  In the dreary Divine Battlefield, Shui Zian clasped his hands together, the long sleeves covered his hands while they fluttered in the wind. The old man slowly walked forward, the left side of the sky was dark and gloomy while the other side was clear and lucid with the round moon shining brightly in the sky.

  The gloomy clouds were not clouds, but a grayish-black robe that covered the sky; the bright moon was not the moon, but a round plate made of jade; while the clear and lucid sky was in fact, a web made of rays that veiled the sky.

  Shui Zian raised his head and gazed at the three overpowering soul weapons, suddenly, he laughed and said, “Xiao Yin, Xiao Qing, Xiao Yuan, the three senior martial siblings need not hide anymore, I’m here already!”

  Hu——

  The gloomy clouds bubbled up and morphed into a grayish-black robe that donned onto a three-headed old man. The bright moon fell down from the sky and turned into a jade plate hovering behind a white-haired old lady; while the web made of jade-green rays swayed violently and revealed an old man standing upended on the web.

  Three magnate priests out of the four celestial temples appeared on the only safe path in the Divine Battlefield.

  “Shui Zian, Senior Martial Brother Shui, you are a smart man, so I suppose we brothers and sisters need not say too much, right?”

  Xiao Qing—the hunching old lady with the jade plate shining brighter behind her, said smilingly, “You must be able to delineate our true targets. All four of us - Yin, Qing, Yuan, Que, and along with Xiao Demon God, there are five magnate cultivators. And our only goal, is to kill you! You should be proud of yourself, even before death, you were able to severely injure Xiao Demon God and Xiao Que, forcing us to come together just to kill you.”

  “Be proud of my death?”

  Shui Zian laughed loudly, “Before I die, I’ll bring one or two of you along with me, the only quest
ions is: who will it be out of you three?”

  The three magnates launched their attacks, Xiao Yuan answered with a smile, “It'd be impossible, you are wounded and the Sword Cocoon is not with you, you won’t be able to bring along any one of us with you to the afterlife.”

  Chapter 191: Yang Fish |

  The Divine Battlefield ... a forsaken place glutted with the aftermath of the godly skills, scattered with the broken secret realms of the gods. From time to time, there would be fragments of soul weapons glowing in godly lights in the endless swamp, and the shattered godly souls would fill the dreary land with their growls and moans.

  The Yin Yang Realm Zhong Yue was in was floating quietly, soon, it was a distance away from where it was. This Yin Yang Realm was a realm that roamed around in the Divine Battlefield, it did not have any fixed positions but constantly moving along the only safe passage of the Divine Battlefield.

  Zhong Yue’s entrance into the realm added weight to it, causing it to change its course and drift away from its usual path along the safe passage to float and venture deeper into the Divine Battlefield.

  However, Zhong Yue was oblivious to all of this as he was inside of the realm himself.

  Looking out from inside the realm, all he could see was colored in black and white, devoid of any color — this was the unique trait of the Yin Yang Realm. Furthermore, everything he could see was blurry and obscure.

  The course change of the Yin Yang Realm was a phenomenon that neither Zhong Yue nor Shui Zian had expected.

  The Yin Yang Realm brought him deeper in the Divine Battlefield, further and further away from the only safe passage.

  Zhong Yue came to the place where the Yang Qi was streaming down, he raised his head and looked up, the Yang Qi from the sun above was cascading down as if they were crystallized into solid precipitates —Hrong hrong hrong— the ground was smitten away by the immense heat of the Yang Qi as it formed into a huge lava lake. There were bubbles of thirty to forty feet in radius foaming on the surface of the lake.

  It was immensely hot, the heat wave blasted on his face incessantly; the lava in the lake dried up the lakeside, and seeped into the ground through the cracks; glaring in the color of bright red – dazzling to the eyes.

  The Yang Qi was too abundant, stimulating the Great Sun Golden Crow in the left eye of his Yuan Shen to soar while absorbing the Yang Qi in the air.

  What a strong and abundant Yang Qi, even the fire on the surface of this lava lake could be comparable to the fire on the sun.

  With a thought, he cast the Great Sun Golden Crow spirit. A pair of marvelous-looking wings flared open behind his Yuan Shen, and it morphed into a three-taloned Golden Crow. It fluttered its wings and flew to the middle of the lava lake.

  In the center of the hundred miles long lava lake was where the Yang Qi cascaded down like a whitish waterfall from the sun into the lake.

  It was the place where the Yang Qi was most abundant, he would be able to achieve twice the results with half of the efforts if he cultivated right there.

  However, his mortal body did not go forward as the sunfire above the lava lake was too hot, even though he could ward the fire off with the Great Sun totem patterns, but it would drain his prowess very quickly, hence, he would rather just send his Yuan Shen over, to save time and energy.

  Soon, his Great Sun Golden Crow Yuan Shen had reached the center of the lake where the Yang Qi cascaded down, Zhong Yue himself sat in the lotus position beside the lake, manipulating his Yuan Shen to absorb and refine the abundant Yang Qi.

  Zheng——

  A metal clanking sound could be heard as he cast the Yan Ying Realm in his Yuan Shen, the Great Sun Yuan Shen circumnavigated the sun with merry, opening its mouth to suck away the Yang Qi into the Yin Yang Realm in the Yuan Shen body.

  The fallen god did not cultivate the authentic Yin and Yang Qi, hence, the Yang Qi he had was not the Pure Yang Qi. Without the Great Sun Golden Crow spirit, even if he had mastered all of the Great Sun totem patterns, it would still nearly impossible to cultivate the Pure Yang Qi.

  Zhong Yue’s Yuan Shen fluttered around the Yang Qi waterfall, absorbing more and more Yang Qi and storing them away in his Yin Yang Realm, strengthening his Yuan Shen and refining them into the Pure Yang Qi.

  Suddenly, when he was cultivating, the lava lake beneath swirled violently and a loud boom could be heard as the lake surface slitted open. An alabaster-colored fish burning with fire leaped out of the lake and gnawed over at his Great Sun Golden Crow that was hovering in mid-air!

  Zhong Yue’s Yuan Shen flared out its wings and flew higher, evading the big fish’s assault. In his shock he exclaimed, “This is the Yin Yang Realm of the fallen god, how could there be living beings in here?”

  “That’s no living being, but a Yang fish that was born within the highly concentrated Yang Qi. The Tai Chi splits into half, one side the Yang fish and the other Yin fish. Although the fallen god didn’t cultivate the Pure Yin and Pure Yang, but the Yang Qi in him is immensely strong, and within the essences of the Yang Qi, was birthed the Yang fish.”

  Xin Huo sat on the back of his Yuan Shen’s ear, sticking out his head and looking down. He immediately recognized the fish and explained, “These kind of fish had no soul, that’s why they aren’t living, it’s their natural instinct to absorb the Yang Qi. While your Yuan Shen is the Great Sun Golden Crow, absorbing the Yang Qi, and possesses the Pure Yang Qi in it—your Yuan Shen is the most delicious and greatest tonic to him, that’s why it came for you. The white fish is born within the essences of Yang Qi, while the black fish is born within the essences of the Yin Qi. For both fish to be born in his Yin Yang Realm, this fallen god’s prowess must have been incredibly strong. Although it couldn't successfully cultivate the Pure Yin and Pure Yang Qi, his Yin Qi and Yang Qi was not too weak either.”

  Zhong Yue could not help but feel fortunate as he had acquired the Sun Moon Twin Spirit, even such an otherworldly strong god could not successfully cultivate the Pure Yin and Pure Yang Qi, and yet, he had achieved what the fallen god could not.

  However, the largest contributor behind his success of cultivating the Pure Yin and Yang Qi was the jade liquid in the underground of the Black Mountain. It was because of the immensely strong power of the jade liquid that allowed him to cultivate the Pure Yin and Yang Qi, else, if he had to cultivate on his own, not even the gods would know how long he would take.

  All of a sudden, his eyes brightened up, and quickly asked, “Then if I’ve absorbed and refined the Yang fish, wouldn’t it be a tonic to me too?”

  Xin Huo nodded and said, “Of course, the Yang Qi in the Yang fish had been refined and tempered, they are the distilled essences of the Yang Qi, far stronger and purer than the Yang Qi saturating the air. Absorbing this little fish will allow you to cultivate more Pure Yang Qi faster. But don’t underestimate it, it’s a treasure that born within the Yang Qi of the godly spirit, it’s strength is no laughing matter.”

  “Don’t you worry too much, I’ve opened all five Yuan Shen realms and have acquired the Combat Yuan Shen. How can my Combat Yuan Shen be unable to defeat a fish?”

  With a thought, Zhong Yue’s Great Sun Golden Crow Yuan Shen lunged down, clawing over to the Yang fish that was falling back into the lava lake.

  Suddenly, the Yang fish swung its tail, its fins opened up and fluttered violently as if they were wings. The fish flew in the air and evaded his assault; then, it opened its mouth and blasted out solar fire akin to an ocean of flame towards Zhong Yue!

  The sunfire was incredibly strong, even from afar, Zhong Yue’s Great Sun Golden Crow Yuan Shen could still feel the unbearable heat!

  “My Great Sun Golden Crow Yuan is the spirit of the sun, don’t you think of refining me with the sunfire!”

  The Great Sun Golden Crow flared out its wings, just when it was about to fly into the fire ocean, two white light beams shot out and thrusted at it. Right away, he quickly fluttered the wings and twisted its body while the two li
ght beams slid past the sides of his body, tearing away dozens of Golden Crow feathers with it!

  “What a cunning brat, hiding these two rays of sun fire behind the fire ocean!”

  These two beams of sunfire were shot out by that Yang fish from its eyes, hidden in the fire ocean. If it were not because Zhong Yue had noticed it earlier, his Yuan Shen would be slain dead by now!

  These two beams of sunfire were different from the other sunfire – they had undergone countless rounds of tempering and refining within the Yang fish to become its weapons. It was akin to the soul weapons and Sword Qi of the Qi Practitioners. When it was launched at him unexpectedly, Zhong Yue’s life was nearly reaped!

  The three-taloned Golden Crow broke through the heavy and thick fire ocean before him, flying to the top of the Yang fish and clawing onto its back. It then raised its beak out and pecked down!

  While all of a sudden, the fins on the fish’s back flared out like a fan, bristling upright like sharp spears —Chi chi chi— nearly perforate through him!

  The three-taloned Golden Crow quickly released the Yang fish and flew away, fluttering its wings and shooting out the feathers like swords. In a trice, hundreds of sword feathers had pierced through the Yang fish.

  The Yang fish released a cry in pain and its body was sliced into pieces, Zhong Yue flared his wings over and sucked all of the fish meats into his mouth piece by piece.

  While the other remains that had yet to be sucked away started squirming and morphing into small and little Yang fish, extending their fins out and retreating away into the lava lake below.

  Zhong Yue’s Yuan Shen ate the fish meats, immediately, he could feel surges of heat energy deluging his body, filling him with the strong and immense Yang Qi as it rushed over towards his Yin Yang Realm, strengthening the sun in the realm!

  “This is indeed faster than just absorbing the Yang Qi in the air!”

  Zhong Yue was surprised and overjoyed with a slight surge of regret lurking in his heart, “Sadly, this Yang fish is too strange, it can still splinter off into so many smaller fishes to run away despite having been sliced into pieces….”