Chapter 1118: Years (6)

Time passed little by little.

Wu Tie returned to the Wu family's Shibao of old; in that tiny cavern he filled it with stunningly beautiful nightglow orchids.

He returned to the vast cavern world of Triple Linked City of old; in this huge cavern he likewise planted countless nightglow vines and nightglow flowers.

He returned to the enormous stone cavern where he and Lao Tie had lived for several years, through which an underground dark river flowed. Here he planted dense ferns, using magic to spur their growth, making them thrive like a primordial jungle.

He leisurely retraced his former steps.

Every underground cavern he had ever visited, he adorned with various beautiful subterranean plants, making them look splendid.

The Wu family's prison was likewise covered with the beautiful vegetation scattered by Wu Tie.

Stone houses, rock caverns, and stone ancestral temples were all covered beneath with fine, half‑transparent nightglow vines. As for those stone houses, we need not worry about them; the Wu family's ancestral temple in the underground world was empowered by Wu Tie with great magical force.

Whether the seas turn to fields or the heavens collapse and the earth splits, these ancestral temples of the Wu family underground will endure for a very long time.

Wu Tie returned to Flower Insect City, which was his first stop when, as a low‑rank officer of the Great Jin Divine State, he assumed a false identity and came to the surface world. There he lived as a mortal for about half a year, then left when his interest waned.

He then came to the former capital of the Great Jin Divine State.

Many things felt as if they had just happened yesterday.

The Linghu clan, the Gongyang clan…

Wu Tie also ran to the former Three Kingdoms battlefield, where he fought shoulder‑to‑shoulder with the elite of many generals' houses, bathing in blood.

Back then, Wu Tie naively believed that the existence of the Three Kingdoms battlefield served the state's interests… but in the end he discovered that this was merely a bloody altar, and for the sake of the so‑called 'Heavenly God's Command' it became a slaughterhouse where tens of millions of soldiers fell.

On the Three Kingdoms battlefield, Wu Tie exercised Buddhist divine powers, chanting the salvation scripture for three days and three nights.

Actually, what use was chanting the scripture at that time?

The soldiers who died here had their souls extracted, condensed into divine soul crystals, and offered to the gods. Those who perished here were truly dead, with no chance of reincarnation.

Wu Tie's chanting was merely to seek peace of mind for himself.

After all, here he had served as a commander of the Great Jin Divine State and had slain countless soldiers of Great Wei and Great Wu.

Those soldiers, just like Wu Tie, were all innocent!

Only they died, while Wu Tie survived.

It is somewhat hypocritical, but Wu Tie merely seeks peace of mind—nothing more.

Then came Great Wu and Great Wei; Wu Tie made a circuit of all the places he had been.

He went again to the Northern Frontier.

In the Northern Frontier, the Ice Spirit Divine Tribe once mobilized the suppressed Profound Dark Lineage to launch a massive offensive, causing great trouble for the Wuguo of that time.

The Profound Dark Lineage… within the present Wu tribe, many newborn children have activated the Profound Dark bloodline, innately possessing the divine ability to summon wind and rain and control profound ice.

The human race is reviving, growing strong.

Perhaps after a few more years, even the Wuguo soldiers who once fought in the Northern Frontier will forget those Profound Dark old monsters that once posed a tremendous threat.

After all, it's possible that the children of those Wuguo soldiers all have activated the Profound Dark bloodline. Seeing them often, one grows accustomed.

Wu Tie wandered east and west.

Anyway, his cultivation is now peerless, and no one in Wuguo worries about his safety.

Pei Feng and Bai Ying hold the reins of state; Lao Tie, Xiahou Wuming, and Huang Lang, such civil and military ministers, assist the court; the vast Wuguo army suppresses all directions, and as Mu Dalu revives, the soldiers of the Wuguo army continually increase their cultivation.

Throughout Wuguo, hundreds of Venerable‑level experts appear each year, and tens of thousands of Divine Manifestation Realm powerhouses appear each month…

In today's Wuguo army, everyone is a Divine Manifestation Realm powerhouse.

Even the fire‑keeping cooks of the logistics corps have all grasped the essence of the Great Dao of Fire.

Today's Wuguo army is astonishingly strong.

Thus Wuguo is unusually peaceful and stable. All the people happily farm and fish, happily rest and recuperate, and the total population of the citizenry steadily grows in a stable manner.

Wuguo places great importance on education.

Countless ancient human classics, with the aid of the Devil Chapter King, were copied and printed from Triple Linked City.

In every city and village of Wuguo, even in the fields and during idle farming times, the sound of loud reading arises.

Even headed by the top clans such as the Kong and Meng families, who uphold the Dao through literature, Wuguo deliberately allocated funds to reward its scholars—they established a fair, public reward standard; those citizens who once could not read a single character, whether child, young adult, or elder, as long as they completed the coursework within the standard, would receive a monetary reward from the state.

Heavily reward readers, value cultivators.

In just a few short years, Wuguo's literary style flourished and its martial style blazed.

And the moral standard of Wuguo's populace also rose considerably in just a few short years. Though still a bit short of 'leaving doors unlocked at night and not picking up lost items on the road,' we believe that in a few decades the folk of Wuguo will surely be well governed.

Moreover, the Wuguo high‑level also disseminated, without reservation, all kinds of knowledge once kept secret by the top clans, which ordinary folk had never even heard of.

Pills, talismans, formations, forging……

All manner of cultivation secret arts, from low to high, up to the pinnacle of cultivation knowledge—including various profound techniques and various top‑level secret arts—were fully systematized and compiled by the Wuguo court at great expense of money, material, and countless human effort, then released free of charge to the populace!

Deep mountains hide flood dragons, fields conceal qilin……

Vast multitudes of common folk hide countless talented individuals. Their aptitude is outstanding, yet they have never been given the chance to display their talent, and they also lack the knowledge and foundation to do so.

Wuguo spares no cost in spreading cultivation knowledge to the world; in just a few short years, already hundreds of millions of civilian prodigies have risen.

Wuguo, from top to bottom, is rapidly and wildly becoming strong—stronger than before by hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of times!

The former Fufeng Divine Dynasty's northern stronghold was Mountain Wind City.

Two years ago, the migrating Great Jin Divine State suddenly launched an attack; Sima Wuyou personally led the troops in a night raid, and within half a month swept over the Fufeng Divine Dynasty, completely annexing it. Mountain Wind City, too, shifted from a northern frontier stronghold to become the commercial hub of the central Great Jin Divine State.

Because Sima Wuyou's current identity—he is the paternal grandfather of Bai Ying and Zhu Ji!

The Fufeng Divine Dynasty offered almost no resistance and was swallowed whole by the Great Jin Divine State; moreover, its people felt no aversion, instead joyfully welcoming the Great Jin Divine State's army into the city!

After the Great Jin Divine State annexed the Fufeng Divine Dynasty, Pei Feng simply ordered that the territory of the original Supreme Devil State also be handed over to Sima Wuyou.

Thus this entire continent was completely unified, becoming the domain of Sima Wuyou's Great Jin Divine State.

"This old geezer… tsk…" Wu Tie sat in the finest tavern of Mountain Wind City, the Grand White Residence, drinking heartily with old acquaintances like Xiao Fang.

"Alas, what a pity the Fufeng Divine Dynasty is gone just like that." Xiao Fang took a sip of wine, then suddenly laughed: "But that's also good—under the big tree it's cool to relax; we can eat our fill, drink our fill, and live happily each day… no need to worry that one day a big army will come to kill us!"

Putting down his wine cup, Xiao Fang pointed east: "Look at the report sent by Wuguo—it says… that place is very unsettled!"

Wu Tie smiled and nodded, speaking softly: "When it's going to rain, when a mother is to remarry, just let them be. People are just like that…"

Though one eats no more than three meals a day, they must completely fill a grain store of a million dan.

Though one's clothing requires only a few feet of cloth, they must store millions of bolts of fine silk and satin in the warehouse.

At night, a bed just one zhang long is enough to lodge in, yet everyone wishes they had tens of thousands of li of forest gardens and palaces.

Human greed is endless.

When there are restrictions, it's fine; when there are none, the desire in people's hearts can destroy everything.

Wa Dao fell, Xi Gu collapsed; the two great spiritual leaders of humanity and the actual strongest ruling force lost more than half. More importantly, the gods fell, the heavenly canopy was torn open, external enemies vanished completely, while internally everything flourished and thrived.

Suddenly, the high-ranking people of humanity felt a panicked, bewildered feeling, as if drawing their swords and looking around in confusion.

Who am I?

Where am I?

What should I do?

Wow, the two great mountains weighing on my head have disappeared; I originally was so strong and vigorous… Hmm, after checking the clan genealogy, we are descendants of the Human Emperor, we are the orthodox lineage of humanity, and we have the responsibility to lead humanity to the pinnacle!

Tsk, if there were a threat from extraterrestrial demons, humanity still couldn't afford internal strife… this bit of awareness, the high-ranking people of humanity still possess.

But, but, but!

Weren't the extraterrestrial demons completely exterminated?

There's no external pressure anymore!

We, the high-ranking people of humanity, can't just spend every day eating our fill, drinking our fill, basking in the sun, and fattening up, can we?

A true man, a real hero, should in life establish unsurpassed merit and nurture fame for myriad years!

During the years Wu Tie wandered about outside, at first the common people were merely small tribes and clans; they had once quarreled over hunting grounds and pastures, and began to test and rub against each other.

Today your stallion bullied our mare.

Tomorrow your ram hooked up with our ewe.

The day after tomorrow your male dog bit our female dog.

Oh dear, unbearable! Your little brat actually harmed our little girl in the pasture, among the grass!

Two small tribes each with over ten thousand people thus went 'ding ding dang' and launched into a big fight!

Before the heavenly canopy was torn open, the leaders of humanity's small tribes of around ten thousand people were roughly at the Tai Cang realm; when several thousand tribesmen brawled, the scene wasn't that grand either.

But after the heavenly canopy was torn open, humanity's cultivation level surged, and basically all adults had the strength of the Divine Sovereign realm.

When several thousand tribesmen brawled, that meant several thousand Divine Sovereigns were fighting it out.

If it is a genuine Divine Sovereign achieved through one's own cultivation, their strikes still have some measure of control; but those who broke through to the Divine Sovereign realm in just a few months or over a year, relying on external heavenly and earthly conditions, don't know the first thing about moderating their force.

A frenzied assault by several thousand Divine Sovereigns, and in an instant the mountains and rivers within tens of thousands of li were reduced to flying ashes.

Besides the combatants, over half of whom were killed or wounded, the tribespeople watching from the rear, their wives, children, and elders, were directly turned into wisps of blue smoke by the shockwave of the clashing magical forces.

Such incidents were not just one or two, but thousands, tens of thousands…

The common people of humanity consist of several thousand large and small clan branches; each clan branch contains numerous strong and weak tribes numbering in the tens of thousands, and each tribe's sub‑branches are as countless as the stars in the sky.

Friction among the small tribes quickly sparked friction among the medium-sized tribes, and then among the large tribes.

The large tribes fought until heads were broken and blood flowed; they immediately lodged complaints with the chiefs of their own tribes, the tribal chiefs stepped forward, mutually accusing and cursing, and many, as soon as their tempers flared, launched into brawls.

When the tribal chiefs and elders suffered casualties, the matter immediately blew up before the heads and elders of each clan's branches.

The branches of each clan eagerly sprang into action; tens of thousands of chiefs and elders rushed about in disorder, gathering everywhere, forming alliances and counter‑alliances, holding feasts and trading insults…

One day, the two branches of the Fu Feng clan and the You Tao clan suddenly arrayed their troops over a mysterious murder case.

Each side mobilized the forces of several dozen subordinate major tribes, each deploying over ten million elite soldiers… In less than half a month, both sides lost over a million, a region of over a hundred million li, once fertile pasture, was turned into a huge sinkhole.

The great chiefs of the Fu Feng and You Tao clans erupted, the two arranged a private meeting to discuss how to handle the matter.

As a result, when the two great chiefs met alone, they drew swords against each other and each returned seriously wounded.

The Fu Feng clan possesses the bloodline of the ancient Wu tribe.

The You Tao clan possesses the bloodline of the ancient Human Emperor.

Both clans are related by marriage all under heaven, and are brother‑by‑blood great clans filling humanity.

The friction grew more intense, becoming even fiercer.

Just as Wu Tie leisurely walked into Shan Feng City, preparing to have a drink with Xiao Fang and the others, on humanity's Number One Destiny Field, the Bear Tribe and the Nine Li Tribe suddenly turned hostile, due to some unknown‑true‑or‑false grudge of their ancient ancestors, and a full‑scale conflict erupted.

Sovereign‑level powerhouses blasted at each other in the firmament above.

Divine Sovereign‑level experts fought each other in the high skies.

Warship after warship floated aloft, artillery dyeing the sky a deep red.

Countless war beasts roared, war birds shrieked, madly tearing at each other.

Innumerable divine abilities and secret arcane arts swept across heaven and earth like a violent storm.

Those warships, those weapons, those war beasts and birds, plus those divine abilities and arcane arts secretly kept in hand for countless years, were originally preparations made by the great clans to face the extraterrestrial demons.

After painstakingly preparing these means for countless years, they were not used against the extraterrestrial demons but were turned upon their own flesh‑and‑blood brothers.

Blood flowed like rivers, corpses lay strewn across the wilderness.

Having lost the restraint of Wa Dao and the suppression of Xi Gu, the common people of humanity suddenly felt— "I've straightened up, I've stood tall, I finally don't have to be a grandson; I can be the master of my own house!"

The flames of war raged, quickly spreading among the common people of humanity.

"What do you think they're after?" Xiao Fang, drunk, asked Wu Tie: "Those big shots, one by one high and mighty, having everything… what else could they be seeking?"

"That seat, right there!" Wu Tie shrugged his shoulders, his chopsticks fell like lightning, snatching the last piece of pork head meat from the plate, and he cheerfully stuffed it into his mouth.

He lived in Shan Feng City for ten years straight.