Chapter 74

The first thing Fuxi did for the human race was to establish surnames.

After leaving Duobao, Fuxi traveled around the Huaxu tribe and neighboring tribes.

While traveling, he also observed the human race, a habit he had maintained for over ten years.

After traveling for several years, Fuxi returned to the Huaxu tribe, and upon returning he entered seclusion.

During these years of traveling among the human race, he had gained some insights, which he wanted to summarize and then apply to the human race.

Ten years later, Fuxi emerged from seclusion, and the first thing he did was to find the leader of the Huaxu tribe.

"Surname? What is that?" The leader of the Huaxu tribe looked at him with a puzzled expression after hearing Fuxi explain his surname theory.

Afterwards, Fuxi explained his understanding of surnames to the leader and gave many examples to illustrate their importance.

"Go ahead and do it!" Finally the leader nodded, having been persuaded by Fuxi.

After that, Fuxi took the Huaxu tribe as a pilot and began implementing the surname system, assigning each person a surname based on their individual traits.

For those without strong opinions, he would use things from nature as their surnames; not long after, the people of the Huaxu tribe accepted the convenience brought by surnames.

Consequently, Fuxi's reputation within the Huaxu tribe grew ever higher, and when the tribe's leader grew old, he pushed Fuxi into the leadership position.

After becoming the leader of the Huaxu tribe, Fuxi redoubled his efforts, beginning to popularize the surname system among neighboring human tribes, which was very successful.

Finally, with the Huaxu tribe as the center, all human tribes began to implement the surname system, and the way humans addressed each other became increasingly standardized.

After establishing surnames, Fuxi began to boldly reform the tribal system, because Pangu had already brought the cities into the wilderness ahead of time, but had not provided them with matching institutions.

While traveling among the human race and the wilderness, Fuxi witnessed many things; based on what he saw and heard, he organized the Huaxu tribe's system and established a certain administrative structure, which was the progenitor of the court.

The changes in the Huaxu tribe showed other tribes the direction for their own development, so they began to come to the Huaxu tribe to study; Fuxi held nothing back, passing on all his knowledge to the human tribes that came to learn.

As time passed, Fuxi's fame grew ever greater, and eventually, upon being recommended by all human tribes, he became the supreme leader of the human race.

After becoming the supreme leader of the human race, Fuxi dared not slacken; he redoubled his efforts to help the human race live a good life.

In the third year after Fuxi became the supreme leader of the human race, he discovered a phenomenon: he found that many people among the human race had limb deficiencies or intellectual deficiencies; some could become normal with the help of tribal cultivators, but others could not.

These defects seemed innate; to understand the phenomenon, Fuxi wandered among the various tribes observing, and finally he discovered that in the current tribes, most children did not know who their father was—those who knew only their mother and not their father were overwhelmingly limb-deficient or intellectually deficient.

Fuxi wanted to change this phenomenon, but he did not know where to start, because this phenomenon had existed since the creation of the human race, and there seemed to be no solution at all.

Unable to figure it out, Fuxi came to Duobao.

"Master, I have discovered that among the human race, those born with limb deficiencies or intellectual deficiencies are everywhere; they all know only their mother and not their father. I wish to change this phenomenon, but I have no clue—please help me, Master!" Fuxi said to Duobao.

"Since they know only their mother and not their father, let them know their father," Duobao said.

"Please, Master, point me to a clear path," Fuxi said, bowing.

"You originally changed surnames for the human race, and now you have become the supreme leader of the human race; do you think there is any necessary connection between the two?" Duobao asked.

"It is because I have done many practical things for the human race," Fuxi said after thinking.

"You initially only implemented your idea in the Huaxu tribe, but now the entire human race is putting it into practice; why do you think that is?" Duobao asked again.

"Go on; once you understand this point, you will know how to deal with the current situation," Duobao said with a smile.

"Thank you, Master! I take my leave!" Fuxi bowed to Duobao and then withdrew from Duobao's thatched hut.

After returning to the tribe, Fuxi began to ponder why he could become the supreme leader of the human race; first, his ability to become that leader came from the recognition of all humanity, but why would they recognize him?

In other words, I am merely a minor member of the Huaxu tribe; why would they know of my reputation?

"Yes, reputation—that's it, I understand now." Fuxi suddenly jumped up.

"If I bind the women and men of the tribe together and forbid them from marrying others within the tribe, could that prevent congenital limb defects and intellectual defects from occurring?" Fuxi muttered to himself.

Having thought of this, he began to develop the theory from this premise, and soon a very mature theory emerged from his contemplation; he also borrowed the name of the legendary heavenly marriage, naming this system the marriage system.

The marriage system was still first implemented in the Huaxu tribe and its surrounding areas; this is a long process, and if it successfully prevents congenital limb and intellectual defects, he will extend it to the entire human race.

Another ten years passed; during this period, Fuxi continually observed the tribe's situation, and in these ten years, neither the Huaxu tribe nor the tribes allied through marriage with it saw any member born with congenital limb or intellectual defects; Fuxi knew he had succeeded.

Thereafter, he gathered manpower and began to promote this system throughout the human race.

Initially, some human tribes were unwilling to follow Fuxi's marriage system, but after patient explanation they eventually agreed to it.

(Not good at writing Fuxi's growth process, so I'll stop here; later I'll briefly write it, and also briefly cover the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors—this is a bit difficult.)

After the marriage system was implemented, the human race indeed had no more congenital defects, which ushered in another vigorous phase of development for humanity.

During the human race's vigorous development, Fuxi also promulgated the Jia calendar (based on the movements of the sun and moon and the seasonal changes of weather, after long experience and summarization it distinguishes spring, summer, autumn, winter and the waxing and waning of the moon—this is the origin of the Chinese calendar) throughout the human race, letting humanity know of the seasons and lunar phases.

After the Jia calendar was promulgated, Fuxi rested for a while, because the human race could now be said to change day by day, and he could calm his mind to think well about the next step in humanity's development.

One day, while Fuxi was sitting on a stone outside the tribe pondering a problem, he was suddenly attracted by several pleasant sounds; he looked up and saw several unnamed small birds calling from the treetops, their sound clear and bright, making one feel very comfortable.

Fuxi's previous incarnation was the Xi Emperor of the Demon Race, and his natal weapon was the Fuxi Qin; thus he is extremely sensitive to sound and music.

Upon hearing these birds' calls at that moment, his first thought was to preserve these sounds so he could listen to them when he felt irritable later.

But how could he preserve this sound? That was a problem.

Later, when the tribe's people were weaving a net from animal sinew, he heard the sound produced when a child plucked the taut sinew, and an idea immediately came to mind.

Thereafter, through Fuxi's unremitting effort, he used paulownia wood as material, shaping it to a length of three feet six inches and five fen according to the 365 days of a year; then, according to the four seasons and eight solar terms, he set the back width at four cun and the front width at eight cun, and determined the height according to the numbers of yin and yang; next, he applied the five phases—metal, wood, water, fire, earth—externally and the five tones—gong, shang, jiao, zhi, yu—internally, stringing five strings, and a brand-new qin appeared before his eyes.

Plucking the strings, the sound was like heavenly music, pleasing to the ear.

After obtaining the Fuxi Qin, people's lives improved, as accidents caused by irritability also decreased considerably.

Soon, Fuxi felt that he was about to attain the Dao, but he was still missing a crucial step; when that step is taken, it will be the moment Fuxi achieves the Dao.

The Palace of Nüwa.

When Nüwa sensed that Fuxi was preparing to attain the Dao, her heart also began to tighten, for she did not know whether, after Fuxi attained the Dao and regained his memories, he would still be the Fuxi of the human race.

"I hope you do not disappoint this palace," Nüwa murmured to herself.

Fuxi bitterly pondered, unable to think of anything else he should do to help humanity; now the material life of the human race is abundant, and under the influence of the Fuxi Qin their spiritual life is also rich, so for a moment he could not think of what humanity still lacked.

Thus, he sat in dull meditation every day by the banks of the Wei River.

Just as Fuxi sat in dull meditation seeking the Dao, the southern territory of the human race suddenly witnessed an earth dragon overturning and floods; by the time Fuxi learned of it, the people there had been reduced to one in ten, which made him extremely grieved.

"Exactly! The human race now has no way to predict the impending great disaster; if humanity could have a set of tools for predicting danger, such things could be avoided." Fuxi suddenly thought of something.

Afterwards, he still sat in meditation by the Wei River bank, but this time he had a direction of thought; primordial cultivators can all calculate on their fingers, and can foresee danger ahead of time.

If I can let this method be used by mortals, then my Dao will be perfected.

After thinking about this, Fuxi began to study; during this period, he also asked Duobao several times, but Duobao also had no solution; this problem is indeed somewhat profound.

"Don't worry, I, as your master, will return to the East Sea to seek help from the sage; I will surely give you a direction." Duobao said to Fuxi, then he returned to the East Sea.

At Myriad Demon Mountain, the Golden Crow had been paying attention to Fuxi; when he knew that Fuxi was preparing to begin contemplating the Eight Trigrams, he knew the time had ripened.

Fuxi was as usual contemplating the Dao by the Wei River bank, but just then a whirlpool suddenly appeared in the Wei River bank, followed by a dragon horse appearing in the river.

Upon seeing this dragon horse, a smile appeared on Fuxi's face; this dragon horse, he had heard his mother mention before, back then, without this dragon horse, there would not have been the present Fuxi.

When the dragon horse came before Fuxi, Fuxi discovered that there were two things also carried on the dragon horse's back.

"Is this for me?" Fuxi asked tentatively.

The dragon horse nodded.

Fuxi reached out and took down the things on the dragon horse's back; afterwards the dragon horse dove into the water and disappeared.

This dragon horse is naturally a transformation of the Golden Crow, and that thing is none other than the River Chart and Luo Book.

In his previous life, the River Chart and Luo Book was taken by Nüwa from the giant fish‑bird's hands and given to Fuxi; in this life, the River Chart and Luo Book is in the Golden Crow's hands; now Fuxi is at a critical moment of contemplating the Dao, so he actively sent the River Chart and Luo Book over.

East Sea, Azure Tour Palace.

Tongtian Jiaozhu was just about to say something to Duobao, but the next second he swallowed the words he was about to say.

"Go, Fuxi has already obtained what he wanted; his Dao is about to be completed." Tongtian Jiaozhu said to Duobao.

"Yes, Master!" Duobao thought, although he was full of doubts, he did not dare to ask, for after seeing Fuxi he would know the reason.

Nüwa's Palace.

Nüwa let out a deep sigh; the River Chart and Luo Book is the key to Fuxi's attainment of the Dao. She originally thought she would need Duobao or herself to personally step forward to take the River Chart and Luo Book from the Golden Crow's hands, but she never expected the Golden Crow to personally deliver it.

And Nüwa's sigh is precisely because of this: if Fuxi attains the Dao and recovers his previous life's memories, would he, because the Golden Crow helped him attain the Dao, turn to the Demon Race?

If Fuxi were to turn to the Demon Race, humanity would suffer a great loss, after all Fuxi is currently the leader of humanity; if he turned to the Demon Race, humanity's fortune would greatly diminish.

Moreover, after Fuxi turns to the Demon Race, Duobao will likely be punished by the Heavenly Dao, and I myself would also lose humanity's fortune because of this.

"Let's take it step by step, brother; I hope you won't disappoint me, sister." Nüwa looked toward Fuxi by the Wei River bank and said again.

By the Wei River bank, after Fuxi obtained the River Chart and Luo Book, just one glance and he was deeply captivated; at the same time, a voice in his heart told him that if he fully comprehended the River Chart and Luo Book, he could create a means to avoid misfortune and seek good fortune, a method that even ordinary mortals among humanity could use.

When Duobao arrived at the Wei River bank, he at once saw Fuxi in the midst of sudden enlightenment.

"I see, River Chart and Luo Book—is this the thing my master said could help Fuxi contemplate the Dao? I only hope that after he attains the Dao, he does not forget his own identity." Duobao gazed at Fuxi and murmured.

After saying that, he waved his hand, and a barrier appeared around Fuxi; to prevent Fuxi from being disturbed, Duobao set up a barrier beside Fuxi, and then personally stood guard over him.

Time flew by; sixty years passed. Fuxi did not deliberately use his magical power to maintain his appearance, and now he had become an old man with white hair.

But the light in his eyes was very bright, for he had finally comprehended a method to help humanity avoid misfortune and seek good fortune, which he named the Eight Trigrams.

"My Dao is accomplished!" Fuxi said with a light smile.

"Thank you, Master, for guarding the Dharma!" After recovering from his sudden enlightenment, Fuxi clasped his fists toward Duobao.

"Go!" Duobao nodded.

After returning to his tribe, Fuxi actively began to spread the Eight Trigrams; he wanted the Eight Trigrams to reach all of humanity as quickly as possible, for every second earlier it spread, humanity could avoid disaster a second sooner.

(End of chapter)