Chapter 156: The One Who Draws Near to God

"I... I'm not dead?"

In his dazed state, Yaha, whose whole body was in agony and felt utterly drained, slowly came back to his senses.

At this moment, he felt as though he were soaking in a warm spring, a cozy warmth spreading through his entire body, as if he had returned to his mother's embrace, and the terrible pain simply left him.

And then, he struggled to crack open a slit of his eyes, and what came into view was a green radiance brimming with vitality; this green light poured down over his body, and he seemed to faintly catch the fragrance of plants.

At the same time, a little farther away, he seemed to see a massive claw, a massive claw resting gently right before his eyes, and behind the claw, the great divine spirit Ya.

Unfortunately, he was far too exhausted at this moment; before he had been awake for long, he fell asleep once again, and the last lingering thought in his mind was: "Was it this light, was it that great divine spirit who saved me?"

……

Looking at Yaha, who had already recovered and was getting better, Baichuan smiled as well.

From this moment on, it seemed he had gained yet another ability, one called Healing Light — not only could it heal others, but it could heal other creatures as well.

His various means seemed to be transforming ever more toward those of a transcendent being.

But since the man before him had recovered, Baichuan completely cut off the Light Point flowing from his claw.

However, since this was the first time he had developed and used this ability, Baichuan, to be cautious, did not draw those Light Points back, but instead left them within the body of the man before him.

Besides, he could have as many of these Light Points as he wanted, so there was no need to feel reluctant; and without his energy support, once the energy they carried was exhausted, they would simply perish.

So there was no need to pay them any mind.

Having finished all this, the sky had already grown light, a streak of fish-belly white appearing on the horizon.

Baichuan sensed that there were no other wild beasts around, and that the man had mostly recovered, then left directly; the whole continent's mess was still waiting for him to clean up.

Sigh, the trouble he himself had made, he had to clean it up himself — being a creator was just too hard.

Baichuan sighed once more, then departed.

With the departure of the flood dragon, Time began to flow once again.

In the blink of an eye, it was already noon.

This was the moment of the day when the sunlight blazed the fiercest.

And perhaps because there were no longer any plants around, the harsh sun, with nothing to obstruct it, was blindingly dazzling.

At this, under the stimulation of that dazzling light, Yaha's eyelids began to tremble slightly, and before long he slowly awoke.

He groggily rubbed his eyes as he sat up, staring blankly and somewhat dazedly at his surroundings.

He seemed not to have reacted to what had happened.

After a while, as Time passed, he became fully awake and recalled what had happened last night.

And then, the expression on his face vanished, and his gaze began to grow deep.

It was as though, having lost everything in his life, and at the same time having gone through the great sorrow and great joy of life, he had been thoroughly awakened.

At this, a hint of an enlightened being's bearing began to appear on him.

"Has the god already left?"

"That's right too; now that the whole world is in ruins, it is only natural that the great divine Lord of the Wilds would begin to awaken and save the world."

He first stood up, gazing at the dazzling orb of light high in the sky as he murmured to himself.

At this moment, upon a vast stretch of yellow-brown earth, he alone stood tall upon this land; wisps of breeze stirred his disheveled long hair, every living thing around him had vanished, and he silently gazed at the orb of fire in the heavens.

At this moment, the radiance that in days past had been unbearably hot shone upon him, yet he could not feel a trace of heat.

Not only that, he could even feel the surging, tremendous power welling up within him — that was because his body was absorbing the power of light, and so it burst forth from within.

Nourished by this power, his body became strong as though it had been reborn, strong enough to fight the terrifyingly powerful monsters of days past.

Yaha lowered his head to feel the power within him now.

Neither hungry nor thirsty, as if he possessed inexhaustible strength.

This was his state now.

At this moment, he was as if he had become a citizen of light, able to draw an endless stream of energy from the light.

In truth, all of this was simply because Baichuan had developed and used this ability for the first time, and could not gauge the amount, so that far too many of those special Light Points had been left behind.

And after a portion of these Light Points had been actively transformed by Baichuan into Yaha's flesh and blood, the rest remained within his body and began to undergo a kind of mutation.

At this moment, a portion of the Light Points completely merged as one with this man, beginning a Symbiosis with him — sometimes miracles simply happen by chance like this.

Of course, this man named Yaha could not figure all this out; he would much rather call himself "a citizen of the god," "a follower of the Lord of the Wilderness, Ya."

Because he clearly knew from whom everything he now had came — it came from that great divine being.

And he had merely received the god's grace, been allowed to live again, and through the god's grace had gained the ability to draw power from light, because light was nothing more than the god's messenger.

He recalled the teachings about the gods that the elder of his tribe had earnestly imparted in days past, and for the first time felt that his former self had been ignorant and foolish, disrespectful toward the divine.

Yet it was precisely this foolish self of his who had received the god's favor, more than even the elder had received.

"Lord, I thank you for being so merciful!"

Unable to contain himself, he dropped straight to his knees and bowed three times toward the sky, the earth, and the sun.

Because Ya was the master of Man Huang Da Lu; bowing to this heaven and earth, to that blazing orb of light, was bowing to Ya.

In his bowing, he seemed to recall once more the scene he had seen before losing consciousness last night — the holy and great god Ya, in the form of a dragon of light, bearing sacred flames, descending upon the world to purge impurity and transform it into a Divine Kingdom upon the earth.

The Lord of the Wilderness, who in days past had never shown himself, at the moment the earth faced disaster, transformed from a winged, violent form into a wingless, holy dragon of light, descending upon the world to purify impurity.

At this moment, he deeply realized:

The god loves the world, yet the world is foolish and does not know the god's grace, harboring only fear.

And he, who had received the god's grace, must surely spread the god's grace to the foolish beings of the world — this must be the mission the god had given him.

The Yaha of days past had died along with last night's great fire; what remained was a Yaha who had lost everything, yet had become a citizen of the god.

Thinking this, he picked up the wooden spear on the ground and snapped off the spearhead, turning it into a wooden staff.

Since the great god had already transformed into a merciful dragon of light, he, as a citizen of the god, must surely follow in the god's footsteps.

And so, beneath the blazing sun.

A man whose frame looked somewhat lean walked away step by step beneath the scorching sun, his stride unwavering.

At this moment, the blazing sun could not stop him, the lofty mountains and lakes could not stop him, and the howling wind and torrential rain could not buffet him nor assail him.

Because upon him rested the blessing of the gods.

Thus, in the annals of later history.

On the continent of Man Huang Da Lu, in the Manghuang Era, the man hailed as the closest to the gods — Yaha — was also the most mysterious and least documented of men.

And so he took his first step, beginning to spread the legend of the Lord of the Wilderness across this very continent of Man Huang Da Lu.

(End of chapter)