Rise of Humanity

by <unknown>

  The expression of King Geng darkened. At first, he had been scared off by Goddess Shen Hou. Whatever he said was just to threaten Zhong Yue and he did really not mean what he said. At that time, he decided that if Zhong Yue really came to visit him, he would only complete the oath if Zhong Yue was not killed by him.

  But he never thought Zhong Yue would be so thick skinned, directly clarifying his intention to complete the oath and said that if King Geng killed him, he would become someone that went back on his own words.

  From this, he would slowly lose the trust of his followers and unnecessary thoughts would germinate in their hearts.

  “Such a petty fool….” murmured King Geng silently.

  Suddenly, King Geng calmed down and he said happily, “My bad. I should’ve completed the oath earlier! But this mistake can still be corrected, why don’t we do it now? Shall we?”

  The King Geng’s followers were all shocked and quickly tried to convince King Geng , “King Geng , no! He is just a mere human with a lowly bloodline and he even became a skeleton now! You have such a high position and people in your circle are all big figures. How can King Geng swear an oath with him?”

  King Geng, however, gave them a smile and comforted them, “Say no more! I have my own plans.”

  He then thought, With such a low bloodline, this human Zhong Yue is indeed very strong, he is out of the league of my followers. In the Prison Realm, if I am the first tier Qi Practitioner, he and Yu Bochuan are definitely the second tier while the others like Li Tianxing and Jun Wudao are slightly weaker. If I swear the oath with him, I will be his elder brother and elder brother is just like father and he will have to listen to me! I will pressure him with moral and make him my reliable follower!

  If I have him assisting me, my great ambition will be realized in no time!

  He laughed exuberantly upon thinking of this and he held onto Zhong Yue’s arm and he said as he brought him into the palace, “Go set up the altar, I will swear the oath with your second master here today!”

  King Geng’s followers looked at each other with a blank mind as they did not know how to react and after a moment, they had no other choice but to follow their master’s order.

  In just a short time, the altar was prepared. Zhong Yue and King Geng cleaned themselves up to prepare for the ceremony.

  The altar, however, did not include the Realm and Heavenly Monarch to be worshipped at.

  “Us Qi Practitioners pray not to the gods, not the Realm Monarch, not the Heavenly Monarch, but to the heaven and earth that gave birth to us.”

  King Geng said seriously, “But we do not bow toward heaven and earth. If we bowed, the heaven and earth will be on top of us forever and they will become an obstacle in your heart, thus, we can only pay our respects to them.”

  Hearing this, Zhong Yue praised King Geng in his heart; although he was not happy with King Geng , he had to admit that King Geng was a man with great knowledge.

  The ceremony ended quickly and King Geng said to Zhong Yue, “Today is a day worthy of a great feast! Pardon me, I forgot to ask for your age just now so that we can decide who will be the elder brother and the younger brother.”

  Zhong Yue said, “To be honest, my previous life was 54,000 years old and I just couldn’t help but think a lot upon thinking of this… How old are you, King Geng?”

  King Geng stunned; back in his previous life, he was still in his middle age when the previous Realm Lord passed away and when he lost while trying to compete with the current Realm Lord, he was banished into the Prison Realm.

  With that said, he was less than 20,000 years old and definitely no older than Zhong Yue!

  This brat says that his age is that old just to scare me! But I can’t tell if it is true or not either….

  Zhong Yue’s previous life could not be verified, but his age in his previous form could be checked in the Hell, thus, he could not lie about his age.

  “Alright, the past is the past. We must live in the present, not in the past. How old are you now?”

  “148 years old. How about you, King Geng ?”

  King Geng’s eyes twitched hearing his answer and he smirked, “Do you think I will buy that?”

  Zhong Yue explained, “I was not that old originally. I was barely 40 years old but I was trapped in the Bone Realm for 70 to 80 years, and spent some more time in the Ancient Land of God Graves, so I am 148 years old now. Your turn, King Geng .”

  King Geng’s eyes twitched again and after a moment, he said, “43….”

  There was no way he could fake it as a big figure in the Six Paths World, everything about him was essentially public knowledge in Hell.

  Zhong Yue immediately said happily, “Then I am the elder brother! Younger Brother Chang Geng —”

  The expression of King Geng darkened down and after a long pause, he said with a voice that could barely be heard, “Yes….”

  However, Zhong Yue asked again, “Younger Brother Chang Geng ?”

  Again, King Geng replied again with an unhappy expression.

  “Younger Brother Chang Geng ….”

  This time, the enraged King Geng shouted right away, “Are you done!? How many times do you want to do it? Are you that childish! Stop it right now or I will kill you….”

  Zhong Yue shook his head and said, “Brother, I really don’t want to nag you but when I called you, you must greet me back. Come, let’s do it one more time. I will call you out and you have to call me Elder Brother Zhong. Younger Brother Chang Geng !”

  King Geng opened his mouth but he just couldn’t say a word and after being stared at by Zhong Yue for a long time, King Geng’s face turned purple and he said, “Elder Brother Zhong….”

  The skeleton Zhong Yue laughed happily and he said sincerely, “From now on, we are one family and please don’t hesitate to seek help from me should you need help. Together, we will crush everything in our paths and we must not let the outsiders know that we are in bad terms. Younger brother, if your followers do not listen to me….”

  “Yes, you are right.”

  King Geng was extremely unhappy and he said, “My followers are your followers. Listen, from now, whenever you see my brother, you will have to address him as big master, do you understand?”

  The many Qi Practitioners looked at each other and they nodded quietly.

  Zhong Yue stayed back at the palace for another few days and upon seeing King Geng was about to lose control of himself, he knew that King Geng would not be able to hold back his anger anymore and he quickly excused himself.

  “It felt so good.” murmured Zhong Yue as he walked away.

  “King Geng , are we really going to let him get away so easily? Should we mask ourselves, tail after him and kill him without anyone knowing!”

  After Zhong Yue left, one of the Qi Practitioners suggested, “If we kill him now, no one will know about that happened today.”

  King Geng discarded the thought immediately and he explained, “You do not know how scary he is. There is someone supporting him secretly and this backer is very strong or I wouldn’t even put up with his nonsense for this long. He may be a person with a bad personality, but at least he knows his limits. For instance, when I pretended that I was frustrated and could no longer hold it in, he immediately excused himself and left. He is a smart guy and even after becoming my sworn elder brother, he wouldn’t ask me to do anything that will cross the line. Besides, he did not ask for anything during his stay here. He was here merely to disgust me, not to use me so just let him be.”

  After he left King Geng’s place, Zhong Yue arrived at Shu Ye’s, notified his followers but there was no response from Shu Ye. Zhong Yue waited for quite some time and after receiving no response still, he turned around and left.

  And inside of Shu Ye’s place, Shu Ye let out a relieved breath and he informed his followers, “Alright, this man has left our place, there is no need to perform the blood ritual anymore.”

  Previously, as soon as he received word
that Zhong Yue was here to visit him, he immediately rushed back and secretly sent his followers into the realms to get ready for a blood ritual; if Zhong Yue was really here to visit him, he could guarantee a certain level of protection for himself and should Zhong Yue try to force his way in, he could take this chance to kill Zhong Yue.

  “This Shu Ye is not as good as Jun Wudao and King Geng in terms of courage.”

  Zhong Yue shook his head as he headed towards Bi and An’s place. In their place, Zhong Yue and the two brothers had a long and friendly conversation and they shared their thoughts on the Six Path Reincarnation Skills, which benefited all of them.

  Not long later, he arrived at Li Tianxing’s place where the two of them talked about their ideology on their cultivations. They both sat on an altar each, competed each other and whoever lost a round, his altar will automatically descend a feet and the winner will have his altar ascend a feet.

  The competition between the duo lasted for half a month and both won and lost.

  Then, Zhong Yue left Li Tianxing’s place and he stopped at Yu Bochuan’s where he was personally welcomed by Yu Bochuan and Reverse Emperor was there as well.

  “Zhong Yue of the human race, let us work together and kill Yu Bochuan!” The Reverse Emperor secretly said through his psyche.

  Zhong Yue, however, rejected him and he replied, “It is too late now. You and I are no match for him. Thousands of Qi Practitioners are praying for him in his Six Path Reincarnation now. His strength is even superior to King Geng’s by now.”

  They entered the palace, grabbed a seat and Zhong Yue realized that although Yu Bochuan had already conquered these Qi Practitioners, he did not stop them from going anywhere they pleased, which made Zhong Yue very curious.

  Yu Bochuan treated Zhong Yue with high graded tea and after a moment, Zhong Yue asked, “Brother Yu, I have a question and I can’t figure out the answer no matter how hard I try. Can you please help?”

  Yu Bochuan agreed but also said “My knowledge is perhaps not as wide as yours. If you can’t figure out the answer, then I am afraid I can’t too.”

  With a nod, Zhong Yue voiced out his question, “With the secret realms all achieved by one, all extreme states activated, how does one win against an opponent that has achieved what he achieved?”

  Chapter 694: Tranquil Smile |

  At long last, he voiced out a question that had been troubling him for a very long time; if two Qi Practitioners of the same level had reverse opened all six Yuan Shen secret realms and achieved all states of extremity, who would win?

  Zhong Yue had never thought of this question before, but after having come across into Li Tianxing, Jun Wudao and the others, he couldn’t help but to raise the question.

  Li Tianxing, Jun Wudao, King Geng and the others were among the strongest in the Prison Realm; although some of them might not have reverse opened the six wheels, their strengths were fearsome in their own rights.

  But if this were the Heaven Realm, Earth Realm, or Celestial Realm, the top tier Qi Practitioners there would probably have reverse opened all six wheels and cultivated the Six Path Reincarnation techniques!

  Yu Bochuan kept mum for a while, but after a moment of silence, he smiled and said, “Apart from those factors, there are other things that might restrain one’s strength. For example, the bloodline.”

  Zhong Yue was not convinced and he asked quickly, “Then how about those from the same race and same clan?”

  With a frown, Yu Bochuan said, “Then it will depend on the techniques and skills they cultivate. The better the stronger.”

  “What if they cultivate the same thing?”

  “Then it will depend on one’s experience and talent.”

  “What if they are all the same?”

  “How is that possible? It is impossible that two Qi Practitioners possess the same cultivation level, same technique and experience!” replied Yu Bochuan with a smile.

  Suddenly, out of nowhere, Zhong Yue said, “How about Bi and An?”

  Yu Bochuan was immediately stunned until Zhong Yue continued, “What I asked was not answered properly. What I wanted to know was how does one win against another if both had the same cultivation level, cultivated the same Six Path Reincarnation techniques and the same amount experience. How does one win against another when they have the same conditions.”

  “Difficult… It is extremely difficult. Both have similar strength and that makes it extremely hard to win over the other. Unless, unless….”

  “Unless what?” asked Zhong Yue hurriedly.

  “Unless you exceed the extreme states and reach a level far beyond the reach of others, only then can you win. But….” replied Yu Bochuan, “This is way too hard. We all walked on the paths our ancestors once walked. Even if we achieved all the extreme states, we are still walking on a path that had already been trodden by our ancestors. It is close to impossible to transcend that.”

  Sui Sovereign created the cultivation techniques for the five great secret realms; Fuxi Celestial Race created the cultivation techniques for the Sun Moon Twin Spirit and during the end of their era, the Fuxi created the sixth secret realm, thus, shaped the cultivation paths of all current Qi Practitioners.

  Though there were still risks if they followed this path, they could still reach great heights in the future someday. They might even be able to achieve what the ancestors achieved, but to transcend that was another matter entirely.

  Now, Zhong Yue started to think about this problem as he realized that in just the Prison Realm alone, there were already so many strong Qi Practitioners; he did not know exactly how strong both King Geng and Yu Bochuan were, and it was already very difficult for him ti beat them. This was not to mention the fact that there were still the other five realms and also the 3,000 Six Paths World..

  And on top of the 3,000 Six Paths World was still the Zi Wei Celestial Emperor and the Zi Wei Galaxy.

  Just imagine there were how many of them in these planets and realms?

  Perhaps, my Innate True Spirit is another path…. Zhong Yue thought.

  The Innate True Spirit was a unique technique he created himself that used the soul to replace the spirit as the main controller of the Yuan Shen. If he awakened the True Spirit, then he might be able to exceed the extreme states of the True Spirit level!

  And perhaps in the future, it would evolve into a new extreme state to become something the later generations could cultivate!

  The two then silently enjoyed their tea and their thoughts ran wild in their minds as they realized that wanting to outperform everyone within the 3,000 Six Paths World was a difficult task to pull off.

  Yu Bochuan was very strong. But he had his own worries. He now worried that he would run into someone that cultivated something similar to him since young while Zhong Yue was worrying bout awakening his Innate True Spirit and purifying his Fuxi bloodline.

  After a long time, Yu Bochuan asked, “Brother Zhong, have you seen Shu Ye?”

  “I have, but he did not come out and see me.”

  “Good, he is the disciple of Heavenly King Shang and was placed in the Prison Realm by Heavenly King Shang as an eye.” explained Yu Bochuan, “Shu Ye is a little irascible and if you anger him, it will be hard to explain it to Heavenly King Shang.”

  “If Shu Ye is Heavenly King Shang’s disciple, then whose disciple are you?” Zhong Yue asked as he looked at Yu Bochuan from head to toe.

  “I came from the Heaven Realm,” Yu Bochuan replied, “I revealed my techniques and I’m afraid that Heavenly King Shang and the Realm Lord of Prison Realm might grow greedy of my techniques. Which is why I said that I’m from the Heaven Realm. I want to intimidate them so they wouldn’t dare to touch me. Brother Zhong, you must say you came from Heaven Realm as well and with that, both our lives will be guaranteed.”

  With that, Zhong Yue finally understood why Yu Bochuan brought Shu Ye up; Yu Bochuan wanted to slowly shift the topic to Zhong Yue’s origins by using Shu Ye’s origin as a st
art.

  Yu Bochuan said he came from the Heaven Realm and if so, he definitely came from one of the more prominent clans as his status was enough to make Heavenly King Shang and the the Prison Realm back off. When he left Ancient Land of Gods Grave, Yu Bochuan was also not interrogated by Heavenly King Shang and the Realm Lord.

  And now, Zhong Yue faced the same thing; he had killed the son of the Realm Lord and with this itself, he will not escape the wrath of the Realm Lord. However, if he said that he came from the Heaven Realm, the Realm Lord would have to reconsider moving against Zhong Yue.

  As Zhong Yue expected, Yu Bochuan asked, “Whose disciple are you?”

  “I am a human, what do you expect?” replied Zhong Yue as he smiled.

  Yu Bochuan frowned upon this answer and Yu Bochuan said again, “Why did you say it out loud?”

  Zhong Yue laughed and replied, “Don’t worry, they won’t touch me.”

  Yu Bochuan was not entirely convinced but he decided not to dwell on the matter. They continued to exchange their ideas and thoughts on the Six Path Reincarnations; Zhong Yue had studied the Dao of Six Paths Reincarnation of the Realm Lord trapped in the Bone Realm while Yu Bochuan cultivated techniques of the Six Paths Reincarnation since young, granting him a unique understanding of it as well.

  After half a month, Zhong Yue’s heart thumped suddenly and the song taught to him by Goddess Shen Hou rang in his ears. As the voices continued to echo in his ears, he felt that the oncoming completion of t he Dao of Six Paths Reincarnation was about to be completed and quickly excused himself.

  Yu Bochuan sent him off and Zhong Yue quickly returned to the Song Realm, rushing straight to the palace beneath the ocean before shutting himself in seclusion without even seeing Jun Sixie and Qiu Jin’er first.