Chapter 165: The Legendary Life of Zhou

Under such circumstances, the only thing he had to worry about was the jealousy of his other brothers and sisters, for the chieftain had no shortage of children.

Therefore, as a half-blood between two worlds within the tribe, he was both unfortunate and fortunate.

Unfortunate in that the entire tribe looked down on this bastard son of the chieftain, believing he should do all the dirty work like the other half-bloods instead of lording it over them and enjoying himself.

And because his mother was especially favored, his other brothers and sisters were even more jealous, and goaded on by their own mothers they stirred things up, banding together in great numbers to bully him.

From then on, Zhou's childhood was utterly shrouded in shadow. Worse still, because his mixed-blood constitution was inferior to the other children of the tribe, he could not even fight back, for the tribe worshipped the strong—even children had to spar from a young age to temper their flesh.

No matter how favored his mother was, she could not stop this in the slightest, and could only watch helplessly as he was knocked to the ground again and again by the other children.

But fortunately, on the day before he came of age—when he was about to hunt a mottled fierce tiger alone with his frail body to mark his adulthood—a meteor fell from the sky that very night and slammed into his chest.

And this meteor was the origin that would sustain the entire Da Zhou Dynasty for a thousand years to come—the Blood Worm.

Of course, at first that Blood Worm possessed no intelligence whatsoever, and it was still in its Crystal state when it crashed into his body. With its energy utterly exhausted, by chance it began a Symbiosis with him.

Thus was born the first warrior with extraordinary power on Yuanshi Dalu. At first his strength was nothing like the flashy and powerful warriors of later ages—he could only absorb all manner of flesh and blood and convert it into energy to strengthen himself.

But even so, he used hunting as his pretext and began to slay all manner of creatures step by step, madly draining their flesh and blood, gradually growing into one of the strongest in the entire tribe. He began to be valued by the tribal chieftain—his father—and was entrusted with great responsibilities.

It was also at this time that he truly came into contact with a secret known to almost no one on the entire continent: his father and this tribe were not people of this world, but had come from another.

Only then did he understand why he had been so bullied in his childhood, and why even his mother, who loved him most, had died in a man-made accident.

It turned out that he and his mother were not people of their world—they were outsiders!

And just then, an even greater stroke of fortune arrived.

Here it must be mentioned that because the three tribes had all suddenly arrived in this world, not knowing the exact situation, all three chose not to move away from their ancestral lands.

Instead they stayed where they were, waiting for that mysterious ripple to appear again so they could return to their own world.

Because although Yuanshi Dalu was good in many ways, it lacked the extraordinary. These chieftains from another world had long since reached a point where they could advance no further, able only to watch helplessly as their lifespans drained away.

Therefore, they longed to return to the world that belonged to them.

And it was under such circumstances that Zhou, at the hour of a solar eclipse, was struck in his own house by a drop of blood that flew out from a vortex-like void.

That drop of blood happened to be the blood of a giant dragon—an extremely powerful race even in the other world.

If an ordinary person had been struck by such a scalding drop of blood, they would surely have been reduced to ashes in an instant.

Even the strongest in the entire tribe—his father—was no exception, for dragons were far too powerful, a terrifying race capable of matching gods. Only a true powerhouse could slay a dragon and bathe in its blood, achieving an indestructible body.

So, barring any accident, Zhou would have been killed by that scalding drop of Dragon Blood. But his luck lay in the dormant Crystal within his body—a Crystal from the depths of the universe, of an exceedingly lofty rank.

Therefore, that Crystal was directly stimulated awake by the Dragon Blood, and in order to absorb that terrifying energy it entered an even deeper Symbiosis with him.

Thus he survived, and because he had bathed in Dragon Blood, with the Crystal's help he obtained a sliver of the dragon race's inherited information, and understood exactly what creature's blood had struck him.

Afterwards, having bathed in Dragon Blood and gained a body of hard Dragon Scales that feared neither blade nor axe, Zhou found himself invincible in the world. His once immensely powerful father was now frail beyond measure. At this point he forcibly slew his father, and then devoured all his father's flesh and blood.

Amid everyone's terror, he seized control of the entire tribe. But toward a tribe that had humiliated him in every way, he could never bring himself to look favorably upon it, nor did he consider its people his kin.

He had only one kin: his mother, who had loved him most dearly but had been killed by certain women in the tribe who schemed for favor.

In his heart he leaned more toward being a human of this Yuanshi Dalu world, rather than of another utterly unfamiliar world.

But he knew the time was not yet ripe to turn against them. No matter how strong he was, he was still only one person—he needed allies.

So he began to win over the other half-blood children of the tribe and cultivate them into his trusted followers.

At the same time, having seized great power, he began a tyranny. Relying on a strength no one could resist, he forcibly made the entire tribe declare war on the other two powerful tribes at the same time.

After a long and drawn-out war, he finally grew completely, destroying the other two tribes and leaving only some panicked stragglers fleeing in disarray.

And just as the entire tribe was flourishing, he lived up to expectations and established a vast dynasty that stood upon the entire continent. Yet the moment the dynasty was founded, the first thing he did was to destroy the tribe that had humiliated him in every way.

Thus the three tribes from another world were utterly annihilated. The tribe Zhou had belonged to was reduced by his hand to only a few of his most important trusted followers—a few half-blood trusted followers.

The other two tribes fared best, barely managing to leave behind a handful of big cats and small kittens.

After this, Zhou began to fully establish the entire Da Zhou extraordinary system, distributing his own extraordinary power to his trusted subordinates.

In this process, relying on the Crystal's ability, he created step by step various great clans that supported him, and began to rule over all the people. For a time the entire dynasty brimmed with vigor and vitality.

Until his later years.

In his twilight years, his Blood Qi waned, his mind grew rigid and decayed—even the Crystal within him could not save him.

As the saying goes, the approach of death can utterly change a wise ruler's heart. Under death's approach—

Even someone as powerful as Zhou was utterly consumed by fear. Holding in his hands the power of life and death over the entire world, he could not bear to let go.

At this, he recalled the Dragon Blood of old, and the broken fragments of the dragon race's inheritance had also shown him—

That dragons were unique creatures, one of the strongest races in the entire world, a terrifying race that could match gods.

This race alone took a full hundred years just to reach adulthood, and their lifespans stretched to a full five thousand years.

And after all his years of research, he also understood just what the Crystal within him could achieve. If he could hunt down a giant dragon or a god, then he could achieve immortality!

Of course, as to whether gods would appear in this world, he was quite self-aware and harbored not a shred of hope, for gods represented a part of the world and could never cross over. Only giant dragons had any chance of appearing.

Thinking of this, since he had been able to encounter Dragon Blood, and the three tribes from another world had been able to come over, then in a world this vast, how could there be only so few such things? How could no giant dragon have ever appeared?

He refused to believe it!

Therefore, he firmly believed that giant dragons—or other extraordinary beings—had definitely appeared in this world. Perhaps they were in some corner of this very world!

As long as he could find one, he could definitely achieve longevity! Even achieve immortality!

(End of this chapter)