Rise of Humanity

by <unknown>

  Of course, when the four young aces of Swords Gate arrived in Gu Xia City, there were many other strong monster Qi Practitioners present, and Gu Hongzi was also a secret disciple of the headmaster of Swords Gate, which was why the godly spirit was not summoned at all back then.

  On the other hand, when the Qi Practitioners on the city walls of Gu Xia City heard loud and frequent footsteps from the outer area, they all turned around to look, only to be shocked at the what they saw.

  Thousands of huge Jiao Dragons were charging towards the city, running past mountains and rivers while they carried countless gigantic soul weapons.

  And the one in front of the dragons was a huge jade toad with six eyes that looked like the full moon, jumping and leaping towards the mountain where Gu Xia City stood.

  “That’s…” The monster Qi Practitioners then saw the figure standing on top of the toad. They were immediately relieved as they said, “It’s Master Long Yue of our Gu Xia City! Quickly report to the city lord at once!”

  The other Qi Practitioners then quickly left the city walls and rushed to the City Lord’s hall to report the return of Zhong Yue.

  ---

  Meanwhile, in the City Lord’s hall, Gu Hongzi, Lang Qingyun and Xiao Chuwen was still facing off. They had felt the great turbulence going on in the border area, but suddenly the aura of one of the two Heavenly Dharma Qi Practitioners faded away, leaving them to wonder which Heavenly Dharma cultivator died.

  Then, the remaining Qi Practitioner’s aura dispersed as well, and the three of them felt a godly aura ascending into the sky... but they had no idea what was happening.

  The three of them were all very nervous, and they wanted to check what happened at the border area. But they were all stuck in this stand-off, preventing any of them leaving.

  Gu Hongzi did secretly send out some monster Qi Practitioners to check on the situation, but there were not many strong ones who were free among the monster Qi Practitioners, as the Inner Core and Awakening level Qi Practitioners had to stay back to maintain the operation of the array formations. Gu Xia City had once had their own Heavenly Dharma level Qi Practitioners, but after Gu Hongzi killed his father and usurped the position of the city lord, those Heavenly Dharma Qi Practitioners had been bribed and recruited away by Shi Buyi.

  Thus, the Qi Practitioners Gu Hongzi sent out were only a few Awakening level Qi Practitioners. With their low levels, they traveled very slowly compared to the other higher level Qi Practitioners, and were still on the way back from the battlefield.

  “Gu Hongzi, how much longer are you planning to keep me here?”

  Gu Hongzi remained expressionless as he said, “You can leave anytime, I won’t stop you.”

  Lang Qingyun suddenly stood up. Immediately, cold sweat broke out on Xiao Chuwen’s forehead, as he would die for sure if Lang Qingyun left.

  “But I don’t feel like leaving now,” laughed Lang Qingyun as he sat back down.

  And almost the same time, a monster Qi Practitioner ran into the hall and shouted as he report towards Gu Hongzi, “My lord, senior martial brother Long Yue has arrived!”

  “Long Yue has returned?”

  The three of them had a shock; Lang Qingyun and Xiao Chuyun felt terrible, while Gu Hongzi also felt a little nervous, but he soon returned to normal. He quickly ordered, “Open the gates and bring him to me, make haste!”

  The monster QI Practitioner nodded and quickly left.

  The three of them then looked at each other, all hiding their thoughts to themselves as they continued drinking their tea while enjoying the scenery in the garden. But no matter how beautiful a scene is, one will get bored after looking at the same scene for seven days straight.

  After half an hour or so, they heard heavy footsteps and noises outside of the City Lord’s hall, along with monsters shouting, screaming, shrieking, talking, and yelling, making the situation very confused.

  Another few moments later, a ground-shattering voice could be heard and suddenly, the sound of walls crumbling could be heard, making Gu Hongzi feel that his hall was being torn apart.

  Finally, the three of them saw the huge Six-Eyed Starry Toad walking into the garden with thousands of Jiao Dragons following behind, carrying huge objects on their backs.

  At first, the lunar crescent chakram and the hundred feet long snake skin did not shake them, but the Wu Yang River managed to cause some rapid emotional changes among the three strong individuals.

  Gu Hongzi was especially speechless, as in order to bring this river into the city, Zhong Yue must have destroyed lots of properties, including his own City Lord hall!

  His eyes twitched and asked Zhong Yue, “Junior martial brother Long Yue, couldn't you just leave them outside of the city?”

  Zhong Yue jumped down from his Yuan Shen and replied, “What if they were stolen by other people?”

  His reply was answered by the angry Gu Hongzi, “Who dares to rob you in my territory!?”

  Gu Hongzi’s words fell onto deaf ears as Zhong Yue bowed and greeted the three of them, saying, “Greetings, city lord and senior martial brother. This is-?”

  “The white robe priest of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race, Xiao Chuyun.”

  Xiao Chuyun’s eyes twitched as he stared at the Six-Eyed Starry Toad Yuan Shen. After he exhaled a long breath, he asked, “My friend Long Yue, where did this Starry Toad come from?”

  Zhong Yue blinked his eyes and replied with a laugh, “This is my Yuan Shen and I obtained it after sensing the moon spirit, any problems?”

  Xiao Chuyun’s eyes twitched even more vigorously as he said, “Nothing. However, there are some soul weapons belonging to my people, may I ask their whereabouts?”

  “They died.” Zhong Yue sighed theatrically and continued on, “The heaven despise the talented, the few dozen kind brothers tried to save me from my forth senior martial sister, Lian Xin and died at the border of Gu Xia City. There was also this Heavenly Dharma mister among them.”

  “Lian Xin?”

  Xiao Chuyun grit his teeth and said, “So it was her!”

  Lang Qingyun, opposite him, suddenly asked, “Little junior martial brother, where is Lian Xin now?”

  Zhong Yue then put up a sad face and said, “Senior martial sister Lian Xin died protecting me from the evil hands of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race. Why did they kill her? She was such a nice and gentle girl with many good traits!”

  Lang Qingyun and Xiao Chuyun were so angry that they trembled as Zhong Yue was literally talking nonsense right in front of them, telling two different stories about the same incident as he hid the truth about what happened!

  “Junior martial brother, why do you have the soul weapon of Chi Lian?” asked Lang Qingyun when he saw the silk gauze on the back of a Jiao Dragon.

  “What a pity!” Zhong Yue put up an even sadder face as he said, “Senior martial sister Lian Xin was so cruel and cold-hearted! She snuck up on senior martial sister Chi Lian, killing her before she swallowed senior martial sister Chi Lian whole! Fortunately, she learned her mistake and regretted what she did, resulting in her saving me from the hands of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race. Then before she died, senior martial sister Lian Xin entrusted her and senior martial sister Chi Lian’s soul weapons to me, asking me to take over their possessions.”

  Lang Qingyun asked angrily, “What about the godly aura, then?”

  Zhong Yue acted dumb as he replied, “What godly aura?”

  Lang Qingyun grit his teeth, but after a moment, he suddenly laughed and said, “The dead cannot testify?”

  His question was answered by a smiling Zhong Yue with a helpless smile and nod.

  Chapter 249: The Fallen Innate Spirit Body |

  Whether it was the Xiao Mang Celestial Race experts, Lian Xin, or even Chi Liannu, they were all dead, their Yuan Shen dispersed into thin air, and their atmans disintegrated into nothingness. No one would ever know what had happened as long as Zhong Yue kept mum about it. As the saying went, dead men tell no tales!

/>   The incident had shaken the whole of the East Barren. Two of Shu Buyi’s disciples, Lian Xin and Chi Liannu, had both died. Surely, it would give rise to a great commotion. Although Lian Xin died at Zhong Yue’s hands, no one would believe him even if he claimed it!

  Who would believe that an Atman Body Qi Practitioner could kill a Heavenly Dharma Qi Practitioner?

  Hence, it was only natural for the monster race to blame their deaths on the Xiao Mang Celestial Race, excluding Zhong Yue from the list. Which was why Lang Qingyun had said, ‘The dead tell no tales’. So long as Zhong Yue kept quiet, no one would ever know the truth.

  Xiao Chuyun’s eyes turned frigid as he stared at Zhong Yue. It had been a long time since the Xiao Mang Celestial Race had suffered such a great loss, other than the time they went after the humans Shui Zian and Zhong Yue.

  However, despite the great loss in their last mission, they successfully completed their objective, the elimination of Shui Zian. But now, they have lost dozens of Atman Body and Inner Core experts, even a Heavenly Dharma Qi Practitioner, and yet, this dragon brat was still breathing free air in front of him. Even more, he had plundered the experts’ soul weapons!

  Thankfully, Xiao Chuyun didn’t know that Zhong Yue and Long Yue were both the same man, or otherwise, he might have gone crazy from extreme anger.

  “City Lord Gu Hongzi, you can take him under your wings now, but you can’t protect him for life! Excuse me now, as I have to leave, I’ve other matters to attend to!”

  Xiao Chuyun clasped his hands and said goodbye. When he walked past Zhong Yue’s, he said meaningfully, “Dragon, it’s not safe outside of Gu Xia City. When I see you again on the outside, no one can save you anymore.”

  He put his head closer and sniffed Zhong Yue, then said indifferently, “I’ve memorized your scent, no matter where you are, I’ll find you.”

  Zhong Yue’s face changed drastically, and stared after the gloomy Xiao Mang Celestial as he turned and left.

  Lang Qingyun also quickly stood up, and said smilingly, “Seems like Senior Martial Brother Gu Hongzi has some misunderstandings about me, it’s best if I leave now! Junior martial brother, I’ll report to our teacher about Junior Martial Sister Lian Xin and Chi Liannu’s death as how the truth is, you may be at ease.”

  Zhong Yue smiled and replied, “Thank you big senior martial brother for being truthful, however, if big senior martial brother’s explanation isn’t clear enough, I can personally tell it to our teacher, and also, the reason why the Xiao Mang Celestial Race is after me.”

  Lang Qingyun stiffened up and followed after Xiao Chuyun.

  Gu Hongzi didn’t stop them, he waved his hand in a gesture for the monsters to stand down and let them go peacefully. Then, he turned to Zhong Yue and asked in a puzzled voice, “Junior martial brother, your words, it sounds like you are threatening Lang Qingyun.”

  Zhong Yue nodded and explained, “Lang Qingyun is a spy placed into the East Barren by the Xiao Mang Celestial Race.”

  After hearing the detailed explanation from Zhong Yue, Gu Hongzi was at a loss of words for a few moments, Suddenly, his eyes turned sharp, he said, “This is a good chance to take down Lang Qingyun! With Lang Qingyun out of the way, then only you and Qiu Qingshan would be left among all five of his disciples! Qiu Qingshan is a muddle-head, he is not smart enough to take up such a big responsibility. So it’ll surely be you that will inherit Shi Buyi’s throne as the overlord of the East Barren, the monster lord of all the East Barren!”

  Zhong Yue was aroused by the possibility, but moments later, he furrowed his brow and said, “Senior martial brother, it’s only a conjecture that he is of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race, I don’t have any evidence to prove it. Furthermore, for the Xiao Mang Celestial Race to put him here, he must have acquired a way to hide his Xiao Mang bloodline. Without evidence, he will be untouchable, more so when Shi Buyi doesn’t trust me at all. Rather, he tried to kill me more than once by using the hands of the others, he wouldn’t allow me to live for long. The possibility of me being the next East Barren overlord is nearly impossible.”

  Gu Hongzi frowned after hearing this. Zhong Yue then laughed and said, “However, in my opinion, if Lang Qingyun is the Xiao Mang celestial messenger in the monster race, then we might be able to find out the Xiao Mang messenger in the Great Wilderness! As long we catch him…”

  All of a sudden, Gu Hongzi interrupted him, saying, “Junior martial brother, you spent too much time away from home, I suppose you don’t know yet, but the traitor in Swords Gate has been exposed.”

  “What? Exposed?” Zhong Yue’s eyes opened wide and he shouted in shock, “The traitor has been caught? When did it happen? Who is it?”

  “About a month ago,” Gu Hongzi answered, “The traitor is an innate spirit body holder… Lei Hong of the Lei Hu Clan.”

  “Lei Hong?” Zhong Yue was startled, the image of a well-built man like bear came into his mind, Lei Hong looked like an honest and frank brawny man, who knew that he would be the traitor!

  What shocking news bombarded Zhong Yue’s heart!

  Lei Hong was the Fire Innate Spirit Body, cultivator of the lightning-style techniques. With the fire and lightning coming together, his prowess was incredibly strong. Also, he was hearty and boisterous like any other Lei Hu Clan members, men with good hearts but speaking too many words.

  However, the Croc Dragon incident that happened to Zhong Yue sparked his suspicions toward Lei Hong.

  And after that, even when Lei Hong had killed a Heavenly Dharma Xiao Mang expert during the time when the four successors were there to save him, Zhong Yue didn’t dispel his suspicions, but instead, he doubted Lei Hong more than ever.

  “Lei Hong was exposed because he wanted to eliminate Elder Feng Shouzhu,” Gu Hongzi continued., “I’m in the East Barren, and so the news I’ve gotten may not be too detailed. Lei Hong’s prowess was nearly at the level of magnates, he was already at the peak of Heavenly Dharma level. As long as he broke through to the level of True Spirit, he would be granted the title of an Elder. However, because he was an innate spirit body holder, his Yuan Shen was incredibly strong, making him to be stronger than the ordinary elders.

  “After the death of Elder Shui Zian, the task of maintaining diplomatic relations with the other forces was taken over by Elder Feng Shouzhu. And so, on the 700th birthday of the Martial Heavenly Master from the Zhong Li Celestial Race of the South Barren, Elder Feng headed over to send birthday congratulations from Swords Gate to the Martial Heavenly Master. However, on his way there, the Xiao Mang Celestial Race ambushed him. Fortunately, the Zhong Li Celestial Race came in time and saved him from death in the last few seconds. Elder Feng said that there was a human involved in the ambush.”

  The South Barren was to the south of the Great Wilderness, a land filled with extremely torrid heat. The Zhong Li Celestial Race were the descendants of the Fire God, adapting the character “Xia” as their surname and residing in the South Barren. This celestial race were natural masters in the art of fire, and their body physiques were beyond comparison to any other living beings. Cultivators there mostly focused on the martial arts, and when they reached the grade of magnates, they would be crowned with the title of “Martial Heavenly Masters”, so strong that only a few survivors knew how appallingly powerful they were.

  “Elder Feng roamed across the lands for hundreds of years, his experience and knowledge are wide and vast, and his perception was sharp like no other. Although Lei Hong had covered his cultivation techniques and skills in an attempt to hide his true identity, Elder Feng perceived the tiniest signs of Swords Gate arts from him, knowing that he was someone from Swords Gate who had cultivated both the lightning and fire-style arts.

  Gu Hongzi continued, “That was, however, a conjecture without solid evidence. The true incident that exposed Lei Hong was Feng Wuji’s cultivation breakthrough to the level of True Spirit. If Feng Wuji succeeded, his prowess would be at the grade of magnates; and this made Lei Hong very uneas
y. Hence, Lei Hong took a risk, trying to assault Feng Wuji while the latter was in the process of breaking through the cultivation barrier. However, Feng Wuji knew that the traitor would not allow him to succeed in breaking through to the True Spirit level, so he had placed down a trap to lure the traitor out. From what I heard, many of the elders were there to witness when Lei Hong was lured out by the trap and caught on the spot. Among them was Elder Lei Shan from the Lei Hu Clan, had spit out a mouthful of blood after seeing it was Lei Hong, and fainted dead away. Lei Hong tried to fight his way out from Swords Gate Mountain, but the elders stopped him down. Nobody knows when, but he had stolen one of the ten malefic weapons, the Blood Ray Sword, and caused much havoc, even a few elders were injured. Seeing that he couldn’t make his escape, Lei Hong killed himself with the Blood Ray Sword... although, some say that it was the Blood Ray Sword that killed him.”

  “Killed… himself?”

  Zhong Yue was stunned, he exclaimed involuntarily in shock, “Lei Hong killed himself? This… senior martial brother, did Lei Hong show his Xiao Mang Celestial Race bloodline? Did he cast any Xiao Mang Celestial Race’s techniques? Or did he reveal his three-headed Pan Ao form?”

  “I hear that he did cast a few Xiao Mang Celestial Race’s techniques, but I’m not told anything about the revelation of his three-headed Pan Ao form, nor the Xiao Mang Celestial Race bloodline.”

  Gu Hongzi heaved a breath, he said, “Now thinking back, during the times when we were hunting for Jun Sixie, the voice that wasdirectly conducted into our ears from thousands of miles away that was constantly telling us Jun Sixie’s location... although he tried to disguise his voice, it carried the aura of the fire element, and looking back now, it sounded very much like Lei Hong.”

  Zhong Yue calmed himself down. Among the four successors of Swords Gate, Lei Hong was the most suspicious one to him. And yet, when the news came suddenly, telling him that Lei Hong was dead, it struck him hard, and it was difficult for him to accept it at all.