Chapter 222: Ancient Human Race and Modern Human Race

After establishing the capital at First Yang Mountain, the Heavenly Court began various major renovations here:

Weedy grass, floating soil, broken stumps and shattered pillars—these ancient "artifacts" must of course be cleared away, and the influence of cultivators and mundane people's activities since the decline of the Dharma must also be eradicated.

For example, "Someone visited here", "Someone paid homage to the Heavenly Emperor's old ruins here", "Mysterious Capital's vicious brush, destroying my Heavenly Court", and so on……

Old things must be removed before new ones can be built.

As the capital of the Heavenly Court, First Yang Mountain naturally required extensive renovation; even Jin Bing, according to memory, drew a layout of the old Heavenly Court, having the heavenly officials reconstruct its ancient appearance based on the drawings.

POW camp, Reincarnation Hall, Wu City, Demon City, birthing grounds, chieftain's mailbox… everything, regardless of whether it actually had practical use, in any case must be restored to its original state, otherwise it lacks flavor.

Consequently, digging up the earth and excavating mountains becomes unavoidable, for heaven and earth have long differed from antiquity; the proportions of various terrains are out of balance, so to rebuild, massive earthworks must be undertaken.

The workload of this project is naturally huge, but the Heavenly Court's immortals are as numerous as clouds; under Jing Xin's voluntary initiative, Jin Bing led a group of immortals to begin the construction.

But once construction began, problems were unearthed……

"Are you sure these are human remains?"

Xue Xuan looked astonished, pointing at the ancient immortal's skeleton just dug up by Jing Xin from the First Yang Mountain tomb, and asked Jin Bing.

Jin Bing was also slow-witted, but after looking at the epitaph of this immortal's tomb and recalling a bit, he then confirmed:

"I know this Wei Ziyuan; he is a human heavenly general under my command, his cultivation in life was that of a Golden Immortal, he died in the East Wasteland War, considered a relatively high-ranking heavenly general; after the war I held funerals for a batch of Golden Immortals who died in battle, and Wei Ziyuan was one of them."

"The human race buries its dead in the First Yang Mountain tribal lands, shifting according to direction, right in this area……"

Upon hearing Jin Bing's confirmation, Xue Xuan stared blankly at the skeleton:

The immortal's corpse left only a skeleton, its bone dark gold, a result of the Golden Immortal's power; due to the "imperishable gold nature," theoretically the bones can be preserved eternally.

Even in the decline of the Dharma, it remains as hard as ever; simply refining this bone a bit, at worst it becomes an acquired spiritual treasure; killing a Mysterious Immortal might not be easy, but slaying a Celestial Immortal is as easy as killing a chicken!

However, what bewildered Xue Xuan was not the bone's strength, but its form…… well, not exactly form, anyway…… it's just weird.

Having cultivated for dozens of great cycles, Xue Xuan's understanding of the human body is naturally profound; every bone, muscle, and meridian is as familiar to him as the back of his hand.

Yet this ancient human immortal's skeleton before him, though identical in appearance to modern humans, emits a meaning completely unlike that of the present.

Xue Xuan could completely say:

"This is a skeleton of an immortal from another race that looks just like a human!"

But the pirated Jin Bing can also confirm that this person was indeed a human heavenly general under his command in life.

The problem immediately became puzzling……

【You can't help but wonder, could the human race have undergone "evolution" over the ages, becoming a different species from the ancients?】

【Or perhaps this ancient immortal is not human at all, but a spy of some extraneous heavenly demon lurking in the primordial wilderness?】

【Your mind is full of wild speculation, but none of it is reliable; as you think, you inexplicably think of the Wu Clan and Demon Race that have vanished in the river of history……】

【A bold idea occurs to you: could it be that the Wu Clan and the Demon Race have merged into the human race?】

【Having studied ancient myths, you naturally know that the bloodline of the ancient human race is extremely domineering; it is said that if a human mates with another race, the offspring will definitely be human!】

【Although you don't know the principle, you can wildly guess: the Wu Clan and the Demon Race likely perished through endless intermarriage with humans……】

【Thus, not only can the demise of the Wu Clan and the Demon Race be explained, but the differences between ancient and modern humans can also be explained by intermarriage: because of excessive mixing, they have mutated……】

"Ah?!"

Watching Xue Xuan's bold speculation, Zhao Si couldn't help but stare wide-eyed:

"Mixed blood, gone?"

"Is that possible?"

If Zhao Si had not witnessed Jin Bing's three lifetimes of reincarnation, he would probably really feel it possible.

But Zhao Si has seen it, and Jin Bing has too!

In the first two lifetimes, Di Jun used this set as a means to guide the Demon Race's public opinion, maliciously excluding humans.

Claiming that humans would eventually intermarry with the Demon Race to their extinction, and attempting to instill this notion in the Demon Race:

Humans are lowly and abstract, with extraordinarily strong reproductive power, and their bloodline is overwhelmingly domineering—altogether a "goblin" image!

One could say that Jin Bing's first two lifetimes fell victim to this malicious propaganda; Di Jun's "extreme anti-human" and "race crisis" consciousness truly harmed people.

Hence Jin Bing, in his third lifetime, strives to elevate human quality through civilization and equality, precisely to avoid Di Jun playing the "race threat" card.

And yet, with such opening moves already fortified against such threats, could a scenario still arise where humans annex the Wu and Demon races?

Where do you place Jin Bing's efforts!

Anyway, Zhao Si does not support Xue Xuan's seemingly logical, self-consistent deduction:

"It is absolutely impossible for the Wu and Demon races to have merged into humanity—impossible before the decline of the Dharma, even more impossible after; rather than believing the races have fully merged, it's more plausible to believe they both perished amid the changes of heaven and earth."

After thinking, to prevent Xue Xuan from falling into a mistaken line of thought, Zhao Si directly used the full-bureau active command opportunity that can be used only three times in a round:

"Issue an order to Xue Xuan: the merger speculation is not realistic!"

【Ding! You have issued the active command; remaining command uses in this round: two!】

【While you felt your logic was smooth, suddenly your thought stalled; an active command from "another self" leaves you somewhat dazed: could it be wrong?】

【Although you don't fully understand, after all this is the supreme command; you have no grounds to oppose, and moreover you need not oppose—even if you go astray, "another self" will take responsibility, bearing full blame……】

【Okay!】

【The clue was forcibly cut off; you have no choice but to investigate elsewhere.】

【But not long after, another ancient immortal's corpse was unearthed; this person Jin Bing still knows—he died in the Wu Clan's North Wasteland massacre, and was also a Golden Immortal.】

【You went to have a look: sure enough, although its form is the same as modern people's, its vital energy is just off—definitely a different species!】

【Next, as Jing Xin's construction team advances, such ancient tombs are also being discovered one after another……】

【These tombs, certified by Jin Bing, are all human graves; indeed many are funerals he helped preside over—those who died in the East Wasteland War, the North Wasteland massacre, the Zhongzhou counteroffensive, the Four Wastelands saw-tooth war, the Mount Buzhou campaign…… and so on and so forth.】

【Many of them Jin Bing had personally seen, so the more he looked, the more nostalgic he became for the past…… this leaves you even more bewildered—how could this guy be so genuine……】

【Moreover, most of these tombs have been looted; likely it was the impoverished, mad cultivators of the East Wasteland since the decline of the Dharma who did the looting, for the tomb-guarding grand formations basically fell into disrepair after the spiritual energy waned, unable to stop living people at all.】

【Therefore, whenever they encounter an intact tomb, Jing Xin becomes excited, then the demolition team on the spot turns into an archaeological team to conduct rescue excavations of the tombs; over time, Jing Xin and his crew all become professional specialists……】

All the artifacts unearthed from the tomb are specially displayed in the newly built 'Ancient Heavenly Court Museum', allowing mortals and cultivators to visit and experience the customs and culture of ancient people.

After letting you study the bones, Jin Bing then reburied them in a newly chosen grave: the funeral rites and burial goods followed ancient customs, and even the person presiding over the funeral was Jin Bing himself!

In short, everything remains as before… but ultimately things have changed, and Jin Bing is no longer the mighty Golden Heaven Emperor of old; he's become something you can't even quite define.

You examined all their bones, and to be safe you even gathered all the counterfeit ancient people and had them each verify the findings again.

Their verification results matched yours: they all agreed these bones are not of the same race as modern people, but they disagreed wildly on the cause of all this.

Some said 'evolution', some said 'degeneration', some said 'foreign spies'… anyway, it's not far from what you guessed.

Especially Di Jun—after looking, he always sneered with contempt: 'Look! What did I say back then? I said the human race would eventually pollute all the demon races, yet you didn't believe me, and that dog‑traitor Jin Bing even came to deceive and ambush me, driving me from the throne…'

I just knew! Innately evil human brat!

Jin Bing: ……

After hearing Di Jun go on, Jin Bing too lost confidence, often sitting alone on the steps beside the museum, sinking into self‑doubt: 'Could it be that my efforts were utterly useless?'

He had shouted the Great Equality Undertaking his whole life, only to be harshly schooled by reality: humanity not only overwhelmed other races in power and status, but also polluted their bloodlines, causing the demon and Wu clans to die out…

"How could that be? Marriage isn't forced, each race has its own aesthetics, and the numbers are relatively balanced—how could they all end up mixed into humanity?"

Jin Bing's self‑doubt spread to Xuan Du, Huang Long and others who once followed the Equal Heavenly Court's Great Equality Undertaking; they too began to waver, finding it hard to accept this unreal reality…

Watching these counterfeit people operate with the hearts of the genuine ones, you keep feeling odd, as if you're an actor lost in a play who can't tell stage from reality.

But having said that, you also doubt their identity: first, these people are certainly not the real deal, since their bodies, cultivation, and memories differ greatly from the genuine ones—completely unrelated.

But if you claim they're fake, it turns out some of their memories are quite detailed, and there's even someone like Jin Bing who has an extremely strong sense of self‑identity…

What on earth happened at this juncture between ancient times and the present to produce such a bewildering change?!

……

(End of chapter)