Rise of Humanity
chapter-452

Chapter 452 – Sinister Motives

Qi Lianfeng gave a cold sneer, and he strode toward Zhong Yue while saying frigidly, “Why do you need to wait? I will just kill you now.”

Zhong Yue laughed, he moved like a bird in the sky across the swamp, and it wasn’t long before he lost Qi Lianfeng. After all, Zhong Yue had the divine third eye, and he could clearly perceive the dangers around him.

On the other hand, Qi Lianfeng needed to look at the map and probe the geographical changes for any danger before he made a move. Surely, his speed would be much slower than Zhong Yue’s.

This True Spirit expert is a little stronger than the Kun Peng brothers, but not by much either.

Zhong Yue was moving quickly as he thought, Peng Jinyi has a lot of arcane energy, but his skills are weaker than Qi Lianfeng’s. Even if I can utilize the force of heaven and earth, I can still match with the True Spirit magnates. I need to cultivate both the Inner Core and Heavenly Dharma levels to the extremity before I can compete with them.

Kun Lun had truly opened his eyes, he had learned much from the young gods and had a clear look on his weaknesses; this was a great experience that could greatly assist him in his cultivation.

Now, he had a clear view on his cultivation path; he now knew what he needed to strive for to advance rather than just blindly cultivate for the sake of it.

However, even if he were to cultivate both levels to the extremity, it was still incredibly hard to win against True Spirit magnates, let alone kill them.

The damage on the Golden Peng Sword is really severe.

Zhong Yue swung Qi Lianfeng away, and as he inspected the golden sword, he couldn’t help but frown. As the golden sword gnawed on the godly corpse, a huge part of the totem patterns on it were destroyed, causing its prowess to be heavily impaired. It wasn’t hard then for Zhong Yue to deduce the prowess of the godly corpse to be even stronger than the Kun Peng grand ancestor, Lord Kun.

Even after its death, the god’s corpse was still harder than the Golden Peng Sword.

The golden sword was heavily damaged, and without this sword, Zhong Yue’s overall strength was at least 30 percent weaker than before.

Thankfully, the Divine Wing Saber is still here, I wonder if this half of the Divine Wing Saber can still restore the golden sword.

Zhong Yue took out the copper lamp and sent the Golden Peng Sword into it to unite it with the Divine Swing Saber. Right at the moment that the golden sword returned to the divine weapon, the totem patterns then started to recover, and the broken parts began to reform.

Although the Heaven River Swamp was vast, there was still an end to it.

After four days, Zhong Yue finally made it out of the Heaven River Swamp. He released the carrot so it could lead the way. Husan Weng looked at the surroundings and its body shuddered, it said, “We are now at the Heaven Garden. This is like the backyard of the imperial court, not far from the Immortality Peaches Tree. However, there is one thing we need to be careful of. There is a huge palm mark in the middle of the Heaven Garden, and it is definitely a forbidden place. But that is where the Immortality Peaches Tree is.”

A huge palm mark?

A cold chill traveled down Zhong Yue’s spine as he thought about the image he saw when he opened the Bloodline Wheel. The murder of the Six Paths Giant, the destruction of the Six Paths Reincarnation, the deaths of countless gods, and that evil existence’s strike on the imperial court.

Could that strike from the evil existence be right in the Heaven Garden? If that is so, then wouldn’t it make the garden the epicenter of the curse?

Zhong Yue’s heart stiffened up. Whoever that evil existence was, the destruction of the first Six Paths World was undoubtedly aimed against the Fuxi Celestial Race. It had cursed the Fuxi’s blood, and with Zhong Yue now having almost 20 percent of his Fuxi blood recovered; perhaps there was a chance he would trigger the curse.

That evil existence has sacrificed the lives of a whole galaxy to lay down a curse on the Fuxi Celestial Race, and the source of the curse comes from the palm mark.

Zhong Yue frowned, that mark lied in the Heaven garden, and it would most probably be the source of all changes that occurred in the Returning Ruins.

Would he, someone that could be considered as half a Fuxi, trigger the curse?

That curse is a bloodline curse, that condemned the Fuxi Celestial race to be sealed for eternity. That being said, it shouldn’t threaten my life, right? But it did destroy the Six Paths Reincarnation, I can’t let my guard down…

Zhong Yue recollected his thoughts, and he walked into the Heaven Garden with Husan Weng leading the way. The huge carrot then put up a very reluctant smile and said, “We have to be careful here, there are more divine herbs than you can count here. These divine herbs breathe and absorb the spiritual energy of the heaven and earth every single second. Thus, they are much stronger than those divine herbs out there. Moreover, they are more than happy to sample some more exotic food… if you know what I mean.”

It then stopped for a split second before it continued, “Also, I’ve heard that there are some real strong dudes still living here, they are… I don’t really know, half alive and half dead? But whatever they are, they are also eyeing on the divine herbs…”

Suddenly, there were over twenty Qi Practitioners walking out from the hill in front of them. They were all experts among experts; there were even two True Spirit magnates within their ranks.

Chi Xue.

Zhong Yue was surprised to see the figure of a familiar lady in his sights. Beside Chi Xue, there was also a young lady that he knew, Ying Nu.

Among the crowd of Qi Practitioners, there were a few young ladies from the Western Mother Celestial Race, and the others were experts of the Phoenix race. These Phoenix race squad consisted of experts from either gender, and they stood around the young ladies of Western Mother Celestial Race, acting as escorts that guarded them in the middle.

Other than the two races, there were also a few Qi Practitioners of various origins. They seemed to have teamed up together as they all knew the dangers they would have to face with.

Chi Xue sensed Zhong Yue, and she looked over, she furtively winked her eyes and conducted her voice to him through the psyche, “Save me!”

Save you? Zhong Yue’s heart skipped a beat.

Then, a True Spirit magnate of the Phoenix race sensed him as well. He turned to Zhong Yue and said warmly, “Little Friend Zhong, the Heaven Garden is extremely dangerous, there exists a risk of dying if we are to fight on our own. However, together in a team, we will be able to reduce such risk and survive through the dangers. What do you think?”

Well with the confidence you said that with, how can I say no?, Zhong Yue thought in his heart in disdain while maintaining a warm smile. He walked forward and clasped his hands together, “How shall I address this brother?”

The Phoenix True Spirit magnate then laughed and said, “Feng Zhishan. Little Friend Zhong has left a deep mark of your own on the Cloud Stage, even the empress is very fond of you. Little Friend Zhong hails from the Ancestral Star?”

Zhong Yue nodded and asked, “Brother Zhishan knows of the Ancestral Star?”

“How can I not?”

Feng Zhishan laughed, “The place where the monarchs rise and fall, the legendary Ancestral Star. We Kun Lun have a path that connects directly to the Ancestral Star, one that Princess Chi Xue used not long ago. You two should’ve met before, right?”

Zhong Yue then looked at Chi Xue, who was still chatting amiably with the others, and suddenly, a voice was conducted to him saying, “Pretend you don’t know me.”

Zhong Yue smiled and answered, “Is that Princess Chi Xue? Then I don’t think we’ve met before.”

Rays flashed across Feng Zhishan’s eyes as he laughed, “And here I thought that you two are old friends.”

Suddenly, an older Western Mother young lady gave a nasty grin, “I also thought that Junior Martial Brother Zhong is the helper that Chi Xue’s found from the Ancestral Star. But it turns out that you two don’t know each other. But I think it’s not too late now, no?”

Zhong Yue then moved forward and greeted Chi Xue while thinking in his heart, Chi Xue’s situation doesn’t look that good. These phoenix Qi Practitioners and Western Mother experts seem to have some enmities against her … has she already planned for this ever since she met me in Ancestral Star?

This girl, her mind is quite calculating, yet she retains a pure and naive facade… Hmm, quite a crafty girl.

That older Western Mother girl was called Chi Qing. She smiled as she said, “Junior Martial Brother Zhong, you must be really strong to be able to reach here on your own.”

Zhong Yue then immediately sensed a few hostile eyes falling on him, and he smiled, “I think I’m still fine. I can definitely fight against the weaker ones, but when it comes to the strong guys, I think I’d most probably just run. Thankfully, all this while, I’ve only come across the weaker ones.”

Feng Zhishan and Chi Qing momentarily exchanged a look before quickly turning away from each other’s eyes.

Zhong Yue’s heart sank; he knew that the two of them must have started to suspect him as Chi Xue’s helper. Chi Xue was extremely cautious as well — she didn’t even meet with Zhong Yue in Kun Lun nor had she exchange a single word with him since his arrival here.

But she had gone to Ancestral Star, and Zhong Yue also came from the Ancestral Star. Such a coincidence was more than enough for them to raise their suspicions of him.

…

There was a mountain before them, shrouded in divine rays and looking like a huge flower blooming on the ground. It was truly a breathtaking scene. While at the foot of the mountain, there was an ancient tree towering on the ground, it had more branches than one could count and appeared to be even grander than the godly mountain. Clearly, it was also a divine herb, one that was even stronger and better than the wild divine herbs like Husan Weng.

While beside the divine herb, the divine herbs scattered across on the ground, there were a few dozens of them growing around the divine tree. This gave Zhong Yue a weird feeling that these divine herbs were just servants of the huge divine tree.

“So many divine herbs?” The Phoenix ladies exclaimed in shock while the other Qi Practitioners were also stunned.

“This divine tree has lived for longer than you can imagine, at least a hundred years.”

Husan Weng shook its head and said loudly, “Don’t even think about it. With your strength, you don’t even qualify to be subpar fertilizer for it.”

The other Qi Practitioners were incensed at Husan Weng’s sharp tongue. They then looked at the huge carrot, and one of the Phoenix Qi Practitioners sneered coldly, “Just a mere carrot, how dare it say such things.”

Zhong Yue looked at the divine tree with the divine third eye, and his heart skipped a beat. There were a few god’s corpses entangled in the root network beneath the divine tree. The tree’s roots were drilled through the corpses, sucking the corpses’ energy.

Not a good target to fool with.

He immediately stopped the thought of keeping the divine tree. The god’s corpses here were all affected by the residual energy of the Six Paths Reincarnation, they were long dead but still moved around as though they were still alive. Their actions turned nefarious and their characteristics turned evil. But this divine tree was able to capture a few of them to use as fertilizer. One could really infer just how strong the divine tree was.

Even the true gods might not be able to fight against it, let alone Zhong Yue.

However, the divine herbs around the divine tree were really large in number, it really attracted their eyes a lot.

Suddenly, Feng Zhishan said, “It’ll be a sin to leave the treasures untouched when the vault is right in front of us. This divine tree is already on the cusp of turning into a saint herb. But we are not alone either, we have many experts and together, we can take it down!”

Chi Qing’s eyes were filled with thoughts and she frowned her beautiful brow as she said, “But who shall assess the danger?”

Feng Zhishang turned to Zhong Yue and said smilingly, “May I suggest our Little Friend Zhong do so?”

“No.” Zhong Yue gave his answer without a single moment of hesitation.

Rays flashed across Feng Zhishan’s eyes and he said placidly, “Junior Martial Brother Zhong, you’ve decided to join us, and as a team, everyone needs to contribute their part, don’t you think so? Don’t worry, I will not send you alone, of course, there will be a few helpers. Princess Chi Xue, Feng Dong, I shall lay the responsibilities on your shoulders.”

Princess Chi Xue’s face changed slightly while another young Phoenix race practitioner’s face changed drastically as well.

Suddenly, Zhong Yue laughed and said, “Alright then, we will do it.”