Chapter 214: Stamina Exhaustion

He introduced the modern‑society ideas of "regional coordination" and "mutual benefit and win‑win," building a resource‑circulation network among the tribes.

After this reform, the Human Race formed tens of thousands of autonomous tribes.

Although there is currently no recognized princess, thanks to his achievements in creating a cultivation system and formulating development strategies, Zhou Yi has always been the irreplaceable spiritual leader in the hearts of all peoples.

This status grants him the right to continuously obtain the civilization's auspicious Qi.

At this moment he is staring at a mysterious interface deep within his consciousness, calculating how to accumulate enough points to exchange for a key item concerning the future.

On the day he set out for the Fire Cloud Cave, the plain was filled with kneeling tribespeople bidding farewell.

Sui Huang held the heirloom flame in his hands and followed behind Zhou Yi, hearing the alternating shouts echo through heaven and earth: "Respectfully see off the Human Ancestor!"

Amid the roar of three kneelings and nine kowtows, the pioneer who forged the Human Race's cultivation system, firm in his belief that the civilizational flame will eventually blaze across the land, stepped onto a new journey.

The will of the people! Without the Human Ancestor establishing the Zhetian Imperial Method, how could the Human Race ever have a chance to walk the path of cultivation? If the Human Ancestor did not sit in command, how many wronged souls would the Demon Race's claws add?

Hundreds of millions look up to Zhou Yi's figure; it is this Human Emperor who has shouldered the tribe's backbone.

When ten thousand citizens performed the grand ceremony, Zhou Yi stood with his arms crossed, a honor he fully deserved.

The millennial scheme has just begun, and he has already shouldered the rise and fall of the entire Human Race on his shoulders.

No one can tally how many white hairs this emperor has burned, nor how many heavenly secrets he has deduced in the silent long nights.

At this moment Zhou Yi's gaze swept over the crowd, that burning expectation piercing time and space, as if he already sees the future flourishing picture of the Human Race.

Under the eyes of the multitude, Zhou Yi brushed his sleeve and rose, with Sui Huang, You Chao, Cang Wen and the Black‑clad Quasi Saint following closely.

The five figures darted toward the Wan Huo Cave, and the heavens and earth suddenly changed color; violet qi stretched endlessly in the east, golden spirit springs erupted from the earth veins, and the Heavenly Dao sounded a magnificent movement.

Merit‑filled golden light rained down like a waterfall, about sixty percent poured into Zhou Yi's body, the remaining forty percent divided equally among the four accompanying great powers.

Originally, because of taking divine pills to breakthrough, Sui Huang and the others had a tenuous foundation, yet they used this to shatter their shackles and entered the Realm of Cutting Corpses.

Zhou Yi, as usual, infused merit into his golden body, muttering to himself, "This supreme golden body is literally a bottomless pit!"

What he seeks is not ordinary merit manifestation, but the ultimate defense that even Saints dread.

A rough estimate: at least another seven or eight batches of merit of comparable scale are needed before a great attainment is possible.

The Heavenly Dao's favoring omen lasted a full three days and nights, and the five Human Race ancestors finally concealed themselves within the Wan Huo Cave.

From this day onward, the Human Race's auspicious Qi rose like the morning sun, opening a path of rise that shook Honghuang.

Zhou Yi, with the four Human Race elders, retreated behind the Wan Huo Cave; the Human Race on the Honghuang lands then scattered like dandelions in a spring breeze, swiftly spreading to every corner and ushering in a new era of tribal development.

Perhaps because the war between wizards and liches has just ceased, the Honghuang is now strangely quiet.

Back then, Great Luo Golden Immortals were everywhere, Golden Immortals were as numerous as cattle hairs; now not even a single Golden Immortal's shadow can be found.

That actually facilitated the Human Race's propagation; in just a few hundred years, over a thousand Human Race tribes sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain, and the whole population size doubled.

Seeing a looming big‑fish‑eats‑small‑fish merger, Zhou Yi felt uneasy, yet he understood this is an inevitable stage of growth.

Whether Human Race or other beings, the strong devouring the weak is as natural as spring turning to autumn.

As the Human Race's co‑ruler, he prefers to let his people seize their own destiny, even if the process is fraught with pain.

But truly becoming the master of one's house is far from easy; aside from six Saints watching from the clouds, just the Dao Ancestor and the Heavenly Dao alone are enough mountains for the Human Race to bear.

Zhou Yi understands that to truly grant the Human Race the right to choose autonomously, a long road still lies ahead, and success or failure rests entirely on heavenly will.

When Zhou Yi's party arrived at the Wan Huo Cave beyond the Thirty‑Three Heavens, they found that the former Wan Huo Ancestor's lair indeed held a wondrous realm.

Similar to the Saints' Daoist halls, this place actually floated at the edge of the Honghuang world, right beside the Chaos Sea.

The so‑called "retreat and confinement" merely restricts their return to Honghuang; heading toward the Chaos Sea is unobstructed, which is precisely why Tai Qing Sheng Ren originally advised Zhou Yi to explore the Chaos.

Speaking of the Chaos Sea, it is essentially the vast void beyond Honghuang.

Back then, Pangu Great Deity was nurtured here, swinging the Heaven‑Opening Axe to carve out today's Honghuang world.

Do not be fooled by Honghuang's boundless expanse; in the Chaos Sea it is no larger than a grain of sand, not to mention the pervasive, hard‑to‑absorb Chaos Qi that even Saints are reluctant to venture into.

But for Zhou Yi, the Chaos Sea is a training ground tailor‑made for him.

Here the Heavenly Dao's power is beyond reach, finally allowing him not to have to proceed cautiously as in Honghuang, and to act freely as he wishes.

Outside the Wan Huo Cave, the Chaos Sea is entirely shrouded in darkness, and all that can be seen is a barren landscape.

Zhou Yi did not wait long before leaping into this secret realm; the Chaos currents swirled like dense fog, obscuring vision, with only scattered specks of light flickering faintly in the distance.

Occasionally he could glimpse a few floating stars, which were merely fragments torn from the main Honghuang world.

Since Pangu opened the heavens and split the earth, the great battles of dragons, phoenixes, and qilins, the clash of Dao and demons, the war of wizards and liches… each time the mountains and rivers shattered, some spatial fragments were flung into the Chaos Sea, forming these miniature worlds.

Zhou Yi noticed that some stars harbored ancient races, but limited by thin spirit Qi and cramped space, these beings could not even reach the Earth Immortal realm.

He had no intention to linger; in his palm appeared two remnants of Great Peng Bird souls whose consciousness had been erased, their primal sigils flickering with faint resonance.

"No matter how far you hide, you cannot escape karma," Zhou Yi squinted toward the depths of the Chaos, the demon master evidently having prepared early, hiding in a remote region beyond the reach of the main Honghuang world.

At this moment is the opponent's most vulnerable window; he must seize the chance to eradicate future trouble forever.

The Chaos Sea is far more perilous than imagined; as he advanced, Chaos Qi enveloped him like a mire, and each ten‑thousand‑li step drained spirit energy equivalent to fleeing a hundred thousand li in the outside world.

More troublesome, after leaving the main Honghuang world, the celestial and terrestrial spirit Qi is completely cut off, and any true essence expended cannot be replenished.

This may not be a problem for Saints, who can already transmute Chaos into spirit Qi.

But Zhou Yi has not yet attained sainthood, so he can only increase his escape speed, letting his robe rustle in the chaotic currents, and chase at full speed following the faintest of sensations.

A quasi‑Saint‑level powerhouse like Zhou Yi cannot transmute Chaos energy; each fraction of true essence used diminishes by the same amount.

Fortunately, this foray into the Chaos Sea was pre‑planned, and he carries life‑extending spirit pills, so he does not fear exhausting his stamina.

He had only just progressed a short distance in the Chaos mist, still ten‑eight‑thousand li from the Great Peng Bird's Lair, when a violent energy tremor from afar suddenly startled him.

Tracing the direction of the fluctuation, a towering black silhouette gradually emerged in his view, obscuring sky and sun.

"Is this an extraterritorial heavenly demon or a Chaos divine demon?" Zhou Yi murmured, squinting.

Thanks to Master Miao Le's prior tutoring, this information came from Tai Qing Sheng Ren, after all the Saint's chief disciple himself has never truly set foot in the Chaos Sea.