Chapter 199: The Prosperous Era of the Human Race!

As Gu Jiangming's words were spoken, whether it was Jiu Jiu or Liu Moran, both could not help but gasp in a cold breath at this moment.

Although they had guessed that the End of Dharma or various other reasons might be at play, even with the wildest of imaginations, they could not have conceived that this End of Dharma was actually Heaven and Earth naturally giving birth to an Immortal Dao Principle, and subsequently instinctively constricting its power?

"An Immortal Dao Principle born from the instinct of Heaven and Earth..."

"And within the Great Wilderness, there are beings lurking or already existing who have ascended to the Immortal realm..."

"Could there be a possibility that what those hidden beings in the Great Wilderness covet is precisely the Dao Principle gestated by Heaven and Earth?"

"Could we also boldly speculate that the Heavenly Net, which is ubiquitous throughout Heaven and Earth, was actually created by one, or even several, ascended beings, for the very purpose of nurturing an Immortal Dao Principle over the long passage of time?"

"And once the Immortal Dao Principle matures, whether it is used to nourish themselves or bestowed upon their descendants..."

After listening to Gu Jiangming's words, Liu Moran was silent for a moment, and after this silence, she spoke of a possibility that made one's heart tremble with fear.

It was not that Liu Moran suffered from so-called persecutory delusions, but rather that there were simply too many coincidences.

Heaven and Earth were intentionally or unintentionally making all living beings forget the Great Wilderness, while there were certain beings existing outside the Great Wilderness, coupled with Heaven and Earth gestating an Immortal Dao Principle.

Connecting all these things together, and following Liu Moran's understanding of the practitioners of the Heavenly Human Era, if there really were an ascended being hiding in the shadows, using the world as a pasture to farm an Immortal Dao Principle, it was truly not an impossible scenario! "It shouldn't be, right..."

"Immortals are already Immortal and Indestructible; they shouldn't be this dark, right?"

Long Xi listened to Liu Moran's words, somewhat unwilling to believe the argument Liu Moran had put forward; after all, if Liu Moran's thoughts were true, then all living beings between Heaven and Earth would truly be nothing more than straw dogs!

Jiu Jiu, with her simple and honest nature, instinctively did not want to believe in such a possibility.

But on the other side, Gu Jiangming and Jiu Jiu could only show a look of contemplation and gravity on their faces at this moment.

"Let us leave these matters for later!"

"No matter what secrets Heaven and Earth may hold, there will come a day when these secrets are finally revealed to us, will there not?"

Gu Jiangming did not continue to dwell on this topic; if Liu Moran's speculation were false, that would be one thing, but if it were true, Gu Jiangming was also worried about walls having ears.

Following Gu Jiangming's opening, the three of them, including Liu Moran, said no more.

Time, once again, returned to peace.

Originally, in Gu Jiangming's plan, he should have used the Taiyi Stone to pull the Qilin Grotto-Heaven back a little.

But the existence of those in the Ascension Realm who might be outside the Great Wilderness ultimately cast a shadow over Gu Jiangming's heart, so every day, Gu Jiangming only sensed the Taiyi Stone, attempting to project himself into the Qilin Grotto-Heaven.

The Qilin Grotto-Heaven is hidden within the Taiyi Stone, and the Qilin Grotto-Heaven exists between nothingness; this was originally a highly contradictory matter, yet it was a solid fact.

It was just that according to Gu Jiangming's estimation, even holding the Taiyi Stone, it would take half a month to project himself into the Qilin Grotto-Heaven.

Such a duration would be but a fleeting instant to the Red Lotus Demon Venerable, but for Gu Jiangming, it was a rather agonizing period of time.

Especially after Gu Jiangming changed the past, he clearly perceived that the present world had also changed.

The biggest change was the existence of the Demon Race, which was no longer a secret to the present world.

Even the mortals of the Great Jing knew that outside the territories where the Human Race lived, there were habitats for other races; some of these Demon Race were powerful, and some were weak.

Yet among them, there were several Demon Race branches that were on friendly terms with the Human Race, and these seven friendly races would send their clan's prodigies to the Human Race for advanced studies every few years.

There were also many hostile Demon Race, and even when Gu Jiangming re-learned about this era, he was stunned to discover that this era actually had a Human-Demon front line? The ancient Human Emperor Supreme had long since disappeared; although the Human Race was prosperous, they occupied only a limited number of the fertile lands between Heaven and Earth.

Coupled with the fact that the Human Race was internally divided into many dynasties, the strength of the Human Race was uneven, and the so-called Human-Demon front line was located in the Western Lands and the Beidi.

Occasionally, lone Demon Race would infiltrate the Human Race's territory from the Human-Demon front line; these Demon Race, upholding ancient ideologies, regarded the Human Race as cultivation resources.

Under such circumstances, the Demon Race naturally would not become much of a secret in this era.

After all, even for the Great Jing, every ten years, a batch of experts, or corresponding supplies, had to be provided to the Human-Demon front lines in the Beidi and the Western Lands.

"The territory of the Human Race today is truly vast!"

"Coupled with my strength being suppressed, in just half a month, I haven't even finished walking through one-third of the Human Race's Eastern Continent!"

"However, compared to the era before the Reincarnation, one can clearly feel that the number of experts in this era is not very large."

"In this era, a Nascent Soul can already be called an expert, and a Spirit Transformation is already an existence that can anchor a region."

"As for the gods of the Heaven and Earth Enlightenment realm, they are all overlords in this era."

"In the past 150,000 years, the Human Race, having lost the Human Emperor Supreme, has split into thirty-six dynasties and nearly a hundred vassal states."

"These dynasties are basically based around the 108 main cities of the Beidi, Southern Kingdom, Eastern Continent, and Western Lands that you delineated in the previous Reincarnation era."

"More powerful dynasties can occupy a dozen main cities, with the population of the Human Race in each main city exceeding one billion."

"Weak vassal states, by opening up wasteland in uninhabited areas and building a few cities, can basically become a vassal state that carves out a region."

"Compared to the Great Jing before the Reincarnation, the Great Jing of this era has a full seven main cities, and is considered one of the stronger ones among the thirty-six dynasties of the Human Race."

"Most importantly, the borders of the Great Jing have expanded by more than a thousand, ten thousand times..."

"Now looking back at the Great Jing before the Reincarnation, one can only regard the Great Jing before the Reincarnation as a somewhat powerful local vassal."

On this day, Gu Jiangming was meditating in the courtyard, and as divine light flickered in the sky, Jiu Jiu appeared in the courtyard again.

It turned out that during this period, Jiu Jiu had taken up the idea of seeing the changes of this era, as well as the idea of inquiring about this era on Gu Jiangming's behalf, and thus had been running around outside.

"Everything that happened in the Reincarnation will indeed affect later generations; you and I have known this for a long time, haven't we?"

"However, the fact that the Human Race has undergone so many changes is still somewhat dizzying!"

Gu Jiangming listened to the information Jiu Jiu brought him from her inquiries, and he also felt some emotion in his heart. Compared to the Great Jing before this Reincarnation, the Great Jing of this era had already been passed down for nearly 20,000 years.

A dynasty existing for over 20,000 years would be a fantasy in Gu Jiangming's previous life, but in this world, it was a solid fact.

After all, a Nascent Soul existence has a lifespan of 3,000 years, and a Spirit Transformation has a lifespan of nearly 10,000 years.

A 20,000-year-old dynasty is at most the inheritance of two generations of Spirit Transformation, not to mention that according to Jiu Jiu, she just took a turn over the current Great Jing and discovered six or seven Heaven and Earth Enlightenment experts.

"Those Human Race main cities seem to have Heaven and Earth Enlightenment realm experts sitting in them."

"Although the information gathered is not complete, the Human Race today has approximately over 400 Heaven and Earth Enlightenment experts!"

"One Heaven and Earth Enlightenment expert per main city, over 400 Heaven and Earth Enlightenment experts—even in the era of our Reincarnation, this would be a terrifying force!"

At home, Long Xi said a few days ago that she wanted to return to the Dragon Palace to see if she could find any clues left by the old Dragon King.

Gu Jiangming had originally wanted to go to the Dragon Palace with Long Xi, but the current Gu Jiangming's strength was barely at the Golden Core stage, and traveling with Long Xi would instead slow her down.

As for Liu Moran, she had entered the Qilin Grotto-Heaven to try to help Gu Mingyue recover.

After sleeping for over a hundred thousand years, Gu Mingyue's dreams have already affected a piece of land in the Qilin Grotto-Heaven, leaving a portion of the Qilin Grotto-Heaven almost on the boundary between fantasy and reality.

Regarding her daughter's plight, Jiu Jiu is naturally worried.

It is just that at this moment, the Qilin Grotto-Heaven is at an unknown distance from Heaven and Earth; apart from Gu Jiangming, who is a Heavenly Lord, only Liu Moran, who resides within the Taiyi Stone, can enter the Qilin Grotto-Heaven.

In utter helplessness, Jiu Jiu can only entrust Liu Moran to awaken her daughter.

She worries that if Gu Mingyue continues to sleep like this, she will eventually become the primary vessel for the Dao Principles of the Qilin Grotto-Heaven.

"The Human Race having such strength is not a waste of my previous efforts, and looking at the state of the Human Race, they should have guarded the legacy built by Nian Mo, Sheng Xi, and the others."

"In this way, I can find a little solace!"

Gu Jiangming and Jiu Jiu sit in the courtyard, listening to Jiu Jiu speak of some matters of this era.

From Jiu Jiu's words, Gu Jiangming learns that the heritage of Longhu Mountain still exists, but the current Longhu Mountain has become the undisputed number one sect in the entire Human Race territory, also known as the Longhu Mountain Sacred Land.

Even according to what Jiu Jiu understands, among the more than four hundred Heaven and Earth Enlightenment practitioners in the current Human Race territory, nearly one-tenth come from Longhu Mountain.

Coupled with Longhu Mountain's ancient heritage and the hidden foundations it possesses, the name of Longhu Mountain is renowned throughout the Four Wilds and Eight Desolations.

As for Shushan...

In Jiu Jiu's words, although Shushan is also renowned, it only has a reputation in the Southern Kingdom and the Eastern Continent.

The title of the Shushan Dao Venerable still circulates on this land, and the evaluation of the Shushan Dao Venerable has become the "number one person since the near-ancient era"! The so-called near-ancient era refers to the fifteen thousand years of time from the collapse of the Heavenly Human Era to the present day.

Besides this, there is another place in the Human Race territory with a great reputation: the Taicang Mijing.

The Taicang Mijing is located in the central region of the four Human Race lands; it is rumored to be the final legacy left to the Human Race by the near-ancient supreme expert, Elder Taicang, before he transformed into the Dao in his later years.

Elder Taicang's strength is recognized by the current Human Race as being close to the Supreme Realm; before he transformed into the Dao in his later years, he attempted to open up a Grotto-Heaven secret realm to break through to the Supreme Realm.

But unfortunately, Elder Taicang failed in his breakthrough, and instead, the Taicang Mijing was born due to Elder Taicang's fall.

The Taicang Mijing opens once every hundred years, and the entire Taicang Mijing has a massive diameter of nearly one hundred thousand li, hiding countless cultivation secret techniques and even rare treasures of heaven and earth.

Every time the Taicang Mijing opens, it is a carnival for the entire Human Race.

And what makes the Taicang Mijing most famous is that the near-ancient number one person, the Shushan Dao Venerable, entered the Taicang Mijing in his youth, and it is even rumored that the near-ancient number one person, the Shushan Dao Venerable, obtained Elder Taicang's inheritance in the Taicang Mijing, which is why he was invincible in the world.

"Looking back now, the Human Race before the Reincarnation was perhaps trapped in a remote place by the shores of the Donghai."

"If we had not intervened in the Reincarnation, the Human Race in the final years of the Heavenly Human Era might have broken free from the predicament of being cultivation resources, though the price paid would likely have been extremely terrifying."

"Terrifying to the point of only being able to stay in the barren lands by the shores of the Donghai, with perhaps only the Dajing as a Human Race dynasty worth mentioning."

Jiu Jiu cannot help but sigh; although this era is the End of Dharma, it is relatively tolerant toward the Divine Path. At least if one does not reach Heaven and Earth Enlightenment but instead turns to cultivate the Divine Path, the Heaven and Earth Enlightenment realm is not a death sentence.

The only thing worth lamenting is probably that in the current Heaven and Earth, true Heaven and Earth Enlightenment practitioners are about to disappear completely.

The realm of gods is already the limit that all living beings in the world can look forward to in their cultivation.

For those who have experienced the ages, there is nothing wrong with this, but in the eyes of Gu Jiangming and Jiu Jiu, this era is the End of Dharma era.

Heaven and Earth Enlightenment is unattainable, and Spirit Transformation is the perfect limit; how can such an era not be called the End of Dharma? In fifteen thousand years, the limit of Heaven and Earth has dropped from Heavenly Human to the god realm of Heaven and Earth Enlightenment, and looking at this trend, it might continue to drop until Heaven and Earth gives birth to Immortal Dao Principles.

"In fact, the fact that Dajing still exists has already surprised me somewhat; as for the current territory of Dajing..."

"Changing the past always affects the future!"

Gu Jiangming does not care much about the existence of Dajing; having seen the prosperous era of the Human Race, looking at Dajing now, the original dynasty is merely a byproduct of Gu Jiangming changing the past.

"By the way, after wandering around outside a few times, I did hear some news."

"The previous emperor of Dajing passed away a few days ago, but the news has not yet reached us here."

Jiu Jiu enjoys the rare, leisurely time with Gu Jiangming, and after a moment, as if remembering something, she speaks of what would have been huge news for the former Gu Jiangming.

The former Gu Jiangming was just an ordinary person in Leping County, and the passing of an emperor was naturally a monumental event.

But now...

Regarding the passing of the previous emperor of Dajing, Gu Jiangming just listens and casts it to the back of his mind.

(End of this chapter)