Rise of Humanity

by <unknown>

  “This is a very strange place, we can’t use our techniques here!”

  Wen Changgong shouted as he swung his halberd and flapped his wings to circle around Shi Buyi. In just a blink of an eye, he had delivered a few hundred attacks. He warned the other two, “It is best for us to attack in melee, gentlemen, be careful!”

  Lord Kun looked around and examined the totem carvings of the ritual and shouted, “Lord Demon, you must hold yourself at all cost! Do not summon the demonic tree and the black coffin back or we will all be trapped once the array formation is fully activated!”

  Immediately, Lord Demon and Tuz Bawk’s expression changed; they had the intention of summoning the demonic tree and coffin back after Lord Kun and the others entered the Black Mountain for it will be very energy consuming for them to keep the demonic tree and coffin activated.

  But now, they had no choice but to try their best after Lord Kun realized the dangers.

  If they kept the demonic tree and coffin away, the array formation will be fully operating and by that time, Lord Kun and the other two in the Black Mountain would be turned into raw energy for the ritual.

  “Lord Kun, can you sense your Divine Wing Saber now?” asked Zhu Jiumu suddenly.

  Lord Kun quickly shook his head, “It’s very close, but I still can’t get in touch with it. I need to get even closer so that I can retrieve my it and destroy Zhong Yue in one strike!”

  Without hesitation, Zhu Jiumu drew his bow and shot an arrow towards Zhong Yue. The arrow was about to pierce through Zhong Yue’s chest, but a godly sword had appeared out of nowhere and knocked the arrow away.

  It was Xuan Yuan! He stood behind Zhong Yue and channeled power into his sword, blocking Zhu Jiumu’s attack. His face, however, was a bit pale after that.

  “Xuan Yuan, do not be afraid, do not overthink. All you have to do is visualize the divine sword.” Zhong Yue said gently.

  He then said again, “With that power of the divine sword of Human Sovereign, you are strong enough to protect me.”

  While he talked, arrow after arrow flew toward him with incredible speed, but Xuan Yuan stood right there, swung his sword around and knocked the arrows away, creating loud and frequent noises.

  Although young Xuan Yuan was no match for Zhu Jiumu, the divine sword of Human Sovereign was so strong that even if he couldn’t fully control it yet, he could still control where he wanted the sword to appear as long as the Human Sovereign is still here. Zhu Jiumu kept shooting arrows, leading the way and when he passed by the battlefield of Shi Buyi and Wen Changgong, he shot towards Shi Buyi immediately.

  That arrow went straight for Shi Buyi, and when Shi Buyi wanted to knock it off, the sword appeared again and blocked the arrow once again!

  The appearance of the sword had left Shi Buyi momentarily stunned!

  “This kid actually managed to split his attention and help me. Not bad…”

  Zhu Jiumu controlled his divine arrows with his psyche so that it circled around Shi Buyi. But the divine sword seemed to teleport as it halted the divine arrow onslaught without fail.

  Although Xuan Yuan didn’t need to spend any energy to control the divine sword, he had to pay more attention to Zhu Jiumu’s attack, since his divine arrows could execute different moves at the same time, which was quite challenging for him.

  Zhu Jiumu, on the other hand, moved forward and drew his bow. He shot another arrow directly at Xuan Yuan.

  Cold sweat percolated on Xuan Yuan’s head, and he quickly block the attack with his divine sword.

  “Not bad.”

  As he guarded Lord Kun, Zhu Jiumu praised and shot another divine arrow towards Zhong Yue.

  Xuan Yuan tried his best to fend off the four divine arrows, and though the divine sword was very powerful, the two words, “Jiumu”, Zhu Jiumu’s name signified that this old gold was a god whose expertise lay in archery!

  “Mu” referred to the herdsman that would rely on his bow and arrows to fend off the invasive wild beasts that threatened his sheep, while “Jiu” meant nine, the highest number. This meant that Zhu Jiumu was the strongest archer in the entire Zhu Jian Celestial Race!

  With only four arrows, Zhu Jiumu had already succeeded in keeping Xuan Yuan preoccupied, preventing him from sparing additional attention on other matters.

  With that, young Xuan Yuan could only control the divine sword to fend off the four arrows.

  Lord Kun was also amazed as he felt that Zhu Jiumu was indeed very strong; perhaps, only this aged god of the Zhu Jian Celestial Race could cultivate the divine arrows to such an extent where he could restrain an emperor level divine weapon with only four arrows.

  And this was where Wei Xue God suddenly wailed and disintegrated after being sacrificed!

  Zhong Yue kept his cool and retrieved Feng Wuji’s head and threw it into the ritual. As soon as the head disintegrated, totem carvings flew out along with the appearance of the Xiao Mang grand ancestor’s spirit which roared with his three Coiling Ao’s head and cast【Celestial Moon Howling Art】!

  Right away, the totem carvings of the ritual were being pushed towards the outside of Black Mountain as if they were going to be crushed by the roar of the Xiao Mang grand ancestor.

  Zhong Yue, however, did not do anything as Xiao Mang grand ancestor’s spirit also disintegrated and became merged into the ritual.

  Even after Xiao Mang grand ancestor managed to run away alive from Tu Yu’s decree with his intelligence, his strength was greatly weakened, and that roar just now had almost completely depleted him of his remaining power.

  “Xiao Mang grand ancestor! He is also captured by Zhong Yue!”

  The heart of Lord Demon and Tuz Bawk who was outside thumped, and Lord Kun and the others all put up serious expressions.

  The fact that Deity Overlord could also be melted by this ritual was not very good news to all of them.

  Again, Zhu Jiumu drew his bow and shot out one arrow after another. In an instant, nine arrows crossed path with each other and knocked each other out of the air, causing them to ricochet everywhere!

  The Jiumu Arrow Formation!

  A formation named after Zhu Jiumu’s!

  The horrendous arrow formation travelled everywhere, changing course time after time and preventing people from determining their course easily!

  While not being able to use any totem carvings on the altar, Zhu Jiumu relied on the arrows to form an array formation instead of using totem carvings. With the addition of his own amazing handlings, this Jiumu Arrow Formation perfectly shrouded Zhong Yue, young Xuan Yuan and Shi Buyi!

  And quickly, Shi Buyi immediately got injured by the arrows.

  Zhe zhe zhe!

  Holes also appeared on Zhong Yue’s after being pierced by the arrows; Zhu Jiumu’s power was considerable, and Zhong Yue could only focus on the ritual to prevent it from being stopped.

  Upon seeing this, Xuan Yuan panicked. He had left himself unable to protect everyone properly and even placed himself in a very dire situation where he could die anytime!

  Chapter 604: Lord Kun, Sacrificed! |

  All of a sudden, Xuan Yuan didn’t stop the arrow anymore, instead, the Xuan Yuan Divine Sword was slashed toward Zhu Jiumu!

  “What an intelligent child.” Zhu Jiumu praised, the nine arrows turned around and clashed with the divine sword, changing its course. Then, Xuan Yuan’s eyes brightened up, he had given up on defense and instead, controlled the Xuan Yuan Sword to slash at Zhu Jiumu incessantly.

  The Xuan Yuan Sword was overly powerful, even the gods like Zhu Jiumu didn’t dare to let it slash on him. Thus, Xuan Yuan could attack in defence, keeping Zhu Jiumu busy and stop him from attacking Zhong Yue and Shi Buyi!

  “Lord Kun, you can sense the Divine Wing Saber, can you?” Zhu Jiumu controlled the divine arrows and pummeled on the Xuan Yuan Sword, keeping the divine sword from coming close as he asked.

  In stark contrast, he was much more easy than Xuan Yuan. After all, the young boy was just at the Awakening
level, he hadn’t even open all the five Yuan Shen secret realms yet; there was a limit on his visualization speed to move the Heavenly Sovereign’s divine sword, he was no serious threat to Zhu Jiumu yet.

  In fact, it was much more beneficial to the gods if the Xuan Yuan Sword could only be wielded by him. Xuan Yuan wasn’t at the stage where he could make a real impact on the battle, and neither did he dare to unleash the divine sword’s full power as it’s overbearing force might actually affect or even break the ritual!

  Thus, it wasn’t his hands that were tied, but Xuan Yuan’s!

  Lord Kun nodded with a smile, “Yes, I can now.”

  Then, he yelled sternly, and the Divine Wing Saber in Zhong Yue’s Yuan Shen secret realms started to quiver.

  Ching—

  The divine saber cleaved a huge rift through Zhong Yue’s Yuan Shen secret realms and freed itself into the world. It quivered violently, and its power was fully unleashed, covering the whole Black Mountain underneath its gigantic saber body!

  Lord Kun laughed loudly, “Good, good! Witness the mighty power of my saber!”

  With a thought, the Divine Wing Saber shrunk from a thousand miles to only a few ten thousand feet long. Although it turned smaller, its power has increased exponentially as it plummeted down at Zhong Yue!

  Although the Great Ritual of Sealing Abdication posed a great suppression on the divine saber, it was still incredibly powerful, more than when Zhong Yue wielded it and killed the godly spirits in the West Barren Divine Battlefield!

  Zhong Yue’s expression was placid as usual, he abruptly asked, “Lord Dragon, are you here?”

  At that instant, the Divine Wing Saber was only a few feet away from his head. Suddenly, a golden light flashed to the top of his head and intercepted the Divine Wing Saber.

  Ding—

  A loud din reverberated the air as the Coiling Dragon Sword flashed out from a space rift and parried the Divine Wing Saber. Lord Dragon then walked out, he clenched on his sword and said while smiling, “I’ve been here for quite some time already!”

  Zhong Yue nodded, “I need to focus, may Lord Dragon take care of the rest for me.”

  Lord Dragon laughed loudly, he flicked the Coiling Dragon Sword, and the divine saber abruptly turned into a huge dragon. It soared highly and curled around the Divine Wing Saber, it slithered through the saber body, and gnawed on Lord Kun’s hand, “Lord Kun, you and I are old archrivals. Today, I shall have the honor of ending our long-standing conflict, and send you back to the heaven and earth!”

  Lord Kun was already wounded during the battle in the Divine Battlefield, he wasn’t in his peak state anymore, and as soon as he saw Lord Dragon, his face was drastically changed. Immediately, he surged out his arcane energy and enlarged the Divine Wing Saber to a point where even the huge dragon couldn’t coil around it anymore. The Coiling Divine Sword was forced to leave the saber body.

  “Lord Dragon, no wonder the dragon race suddenly migrated to Kun Lun, you have fraternized with the Zhong Shan Clan member!” Lord Kun spread his wings, and its feathers were shot out like swords while he sneered coldly, “The dragon race has betrayed the celestial race, you dragons will bear an eternal shame with you for the rest of your lives!”

  Lord Dragon’s dragon scales hovered above his body like shields and blocked the incoming feather swords, he shook his head and said, “No. From today onward, the celestial race will be no more! Lord Kun, a few thousand years later, you will realize how wise I was to make this decision!”

  They both knew each other too well, sometimes even better than themselves. Although Lord Dragon could defeat Lord Kun, it was still difficult to actually kill him.

  Krong—

  A loud blunt sound resounded thorugh the sky as the Black Mountain quaked violently. Xiao Mang grand ancestor was offered to the ritual while a terrifying city flew out from the copper lamp!

  The city shaped like a giant god and was incomparably larger than the Xian Kong Saint City, harboring an aura beyond their reach!

  Zhong Yue was worshipping with all his might, there were esoteric totem patterns all over the City of Nature which were many times deeper than the Deity Overlord totem patterns. They were difficult to understand and were exactly what protected and maintained the city. It was stopping him from sacrificing the city in anytime soon!

  "The power is not enough now. I need more sacrifices to raise the power of the Great Ritual of Sealing Abdication to a higher level before I can sacrifice Patriarch Nature. Lord Kun was injured before, can he be sacrificed to fuel the ritual? But it’d be hard to do that…”

  Just as he was thinking about, waves of strong auras rushed to the scene. Zhong Yue looked into the darkness and saw figures of gods in his vicinity, among which, Feng Wuji and Huang She God were on the front!

  Feng Wuji? What nice timing! Zhong Yue praised in his heart.

  “Zhong Yue, today is the day you die!”

  Outside of the Black Mountain altar, the gods glanced around, the altar was brimmed with incredible power, a mysterious force that connects directly to the heaven and earth with unknown uses.

  The power coming from the altar was strong that even the gods were terrified.

  The totem patterns on the Black Mountain altar were still operational, even Lord Demon and Tuz Bawk couldn’t stop them. The demonic tree was contorted, and the thousand blades were distorted out of shape and. Even the coffin was full of cracks.

  Even more, Lord Demon and Tuz Bawk were slowly dragged by the totem patterns, and tardily moved along with the altar.

  Huang She God was the first to rush into the altar, he stepped on the demonic tree and bolted into the Black Mountain.

  Other than himself, there were six other Kun Lun gods, including Kua Fu and Shang Qing. These Kun Lun gods were here to avenge their disciples that Zhong Yue had killed.

  Shang Qing God followed Huang She God into the altar and sneered coldly, “Zhong Yue, you have killed my son, Shang Qing, and robbed my Lunar Mirror, I will never forgive you! Where is my Lunar Mirror?”

  “Zhong Yue, do you know who I am?” A celestial god with lamb horns also asked frigidly, “Are you the one who killed my disciple in the Returning Ruins?”

  Feng Wuji hesitated, but he didn’t follow. He stopped the other gods and said, “Senior martial brothers, please wait for a few more moments!”

  He looked around and assessed the situation. Shi Buyi was entangled by Wen Changgong, Xuan Yuan and the divine sword were kept busy by Zhu Jiumu, and Lord Kun was battling with Lord Dragon; Zhong Yue was left alone hosting the ritual.

  Lord Dragon is here already, that means the only helper left is that strange tree-like god. Is he Zhong Yue’s last trump card against us?

  Feng Wuji mulled, Where can he be? If he is here, Huang She and Shang Zhen will be enough to lure him out!

  He led two gods and waited patiently; while the others that rushed into the Black Mountain abruptly picked up an odd air in the altar, they quickly shrunk their body smaller and dashed toward Zhong Yue.

  It’s about time to show yourself!

  A total of five gods rushed up to the Black Mountain, they completely ignored Shi Buyi and Xuan Yuan and went directly toward Zhong Yue. It was at this moment, that a huge scale mirror emerged from Zhong Yue’s Yuan Shen secret realms in front of him, and it shone right at Lord Kun.

  “Lord Dragon, one inch left of his forehead!” Zhong Yue glanced at the mirror and said.

  Lord Dragon immediately lunged the Coiling Dragon Sword one inch left of Lord Kun’s forehead without hesitation. Lord Kun was choked, one inch left of his forehead was exactly where his blood essence converged at, if he was struck at that point, he would be killed in just a single strike!

  He quickly evaded the incoming attack, and Zhong Yue’s voice could be heard again, “Lord Kun, the ritual now has enough energy to seal the Kun Peng Celestial Race in the Celestial Wood Star!”

  A blood red light beam was shot out from the altar, it was tens of miles
wide and pierced through the firmament toward the Celestial Wood Star.

  “In an hour’s time, all the Kun Pengs in the Celestial Wood Star will have the power of their bloodline sealed!” Zhong Yue said placidly, “But don’t you worry, the Kun Peng Celestial Race will still be able to last for a few more generations before they turn into the likes of those who you’ve looked down on since time immemorial — the humans. Oh, and I forgot to tell you this—there are no Kun Pengs in Kun Lun.”

  “Argh—!!” Lord Kun bellowed in extreme anger, he raised his head and looked as the blood beam shot through the clouds. In the moment of Lord Kun’s rage, Zhong Yue took this opportunity to reseize control over the Divine Wing Saber while Lord Dragon struck the Coiling Dragon Sword one inch left of his forehead.

  Lord Kun roared, but his voice sounded as though he was crying. His body suddenly inflated like a balloon and exploded!

  Countless spiritual lights dispersed in all directions, but none could fly out of the Black Mountain before the ritual sucked it away.

  These spiritual lights contained parts of Lord Kun’s scattered soul that were trying to escape.

  Zhong Yue gave a cold snort, and the spiritual lights faded away at a greater speed than Xiao Mang grand ancestor’s.

  After all, Xiao Mang grand ancestor’s spirit was not shattered, but Lord Kun’s was, surely it was faster for Lord Kun to be sacrificed!

  “Zhong Yue, let my scattered soul leave!” One of the spiritual light shouted, “Let me leave, I want to notify my people to leave the Ancestral Star. Just one, just one will be enough! At least, let the Kun Peng Celestial Race continue to live on in this world!”

  Zhong Yue’s heart suddenly throbbed, he sighed and one of the many spiritual lights were left to escape freely. It flashed toward the territory of the Kun Peng Celestial Race.

  I need to go back, to return and tell my descendants to leave the Ancestral Star, they must go to Kun Lun…

  Lord Kun’s scattered soul dashed out as fast as it could toward the Kun Peng altar. However, as his spirit was now shattered apart, this scattered soul of his was disintegrating at a great speed, he could die anytime now.