Rise of Humanity
chapter-501

Behind Zhong Yue, the insect True Spirit magnate’s huge body crashed into the ground and twisted a few times before finally dying.

Before the roars of the six-eyed Star Toad stopped, Zhong Yue already shot out at great speed. He raised his leg and slammed down, and the next second, he was already tens of miles away from where he was. While still in mid-air, Zhong Yue drew a circle in front of him with his hands, and countless totem patterns rushed out at a crazy rate, forming a translucent bell.

Dang——

He landed on the ground, and the translucent bell was slammed hard, releasing an ear-deafening loud ring that even pushed him back for more than 8000 feet.

The blastwave struck forward, pulverizing every insect Qi Practitioners before him!

Zhong Yue continued rushing forward while transforming the Golden Crow. Blazing sunfire burned around him as he flew past the ice statues.

Wherever he passed, the nearby insect Qi Practitioners would be incinerated to ash!

In the fire, there were a few insect Qi Practitioners that shrunk to avoid receiving injuries while they continued to pounce at Zhong Yue. Their small ant-like bodies relentlessly tried to drill into his body.

Suddenly, dragon totem patterns emerged on the surface of Zhong Yue’s skin, killing the incoming insect Qi Practitioners that came in contact with it.

He continued pushing toward the front, ploughing through most of the insect Qi Practitioners along the way, whereas Bo Xun strode behind with the sword, finishing off the stragglers that somehow managed to survive the blazing sunfire.

These insect Qi Practitioners that could survive were mostly the strong Heavenly Dharma giants and also some bizarre insects that weren’t afraid of the totem patterns and sunfire.

But Bo Xun cultivated the demon cultivation techniques that were the bane of the insect race, allowing him an advantage against even the stronger insect Qi Practitioners.

Thus, wherever the two went, the trail they left behind would be littered with dead insects.

The Ancestral Star Qi Practitioners were caught off-guard, none had foreseen that the insect Qi Practitioners would fake being frozen in the ice just to ambush them. In addition to that, the insect race’s skills were rarely seen, the Ancestral Star Qi Practitioners had been struck badly in the first bout, leading to the death of over a few hundred experts.

But now, as Zhong Yue and Bo Xun had eliminated the insects like fire melting snow, most of the insect Qi Practitioners all swarmed at them. Furthermore, there were also many experts within the Ancestral Star Qi Practitioners as well.

Fang Jiange released the old turtle Fu Shan, and he stood above the turtle shell. A formless divine sword then emerged out of thin air, shrouded in a divine light as it navigated around the mountainous turtle; there weren’t any insect Qi Practitioners that could survive the sword.

This divine sword came from Fang Jiange himself. Unlike Zhong Yue and Jun Sixie, who cultivated many skills, Fang Jiange’s singular focus and obsession was the path of sword.

His Sword Qi was the purest and strongest of all, even superior to Jun Sixie’s. Similar to how Feng Xiaozhong sought for nothing but the Dao, Fang Jiange’s dedication and will in the sword was all-consuming.

Zhong Yue had dabbled in too many other skills; his heart never belonged to the sword. As for Jun Sixie, who cultivated the【Great Boundless Sword Qi】, her Sword Qi was domineering but still lacked the exquisite delicacy that Fang Jiange’s had.

The other notable expert was Gu Hongzi. The godly spirit of Gu Xia City fused with his Yuan Shen. When the Yuan Shen merged into his mortal body, he would be durable enough to just walk right past any obstacles without harm.

The godly spirit of Gu Xia City had also granted him an abundance of arcane energy, far beyond the reach of the ordinary Qi Practitioners.

This was something that couldn’t been cultivated before reaching deityhood!

Other than themselves, there were also a few other conspicuous magnates in the other races. The Kun Peng Celestial Race, demon race, and dragon race were all the True Spirit magnates, with even an Imminent Deity in the Kun Peng Celestial Race.

There was also a Martial Divine Master in the Zhong Li Celestial Race that dominated close-quarter combat!

In the monster race, there was also Lang Qiyun. He was a True Spirit magnate as well and was a talent cultivator who once stood on par with Fang Jiange, Feng Wuji, and Gu Hongzi. However, he had no particular involvement in most of the recent momentous events in the Ancestral Star, and so his fame was lower as of late. Despite this, there shouldn’t be any doubt as to his prowess at all.

These experts were incredibly strong, they slowly cleared the icy pathway of insects, pushing forward and catching up to Zhong Yue and Bo Xun.

Outside of the icy pathway, the gods were tall and high, looking at the battlefield. Yanmo He was staring close at Zhong Yue and Bo Xun, finding the common traits among the two.

None of their arts seem to be the same! Yanmo He frowned and thought. Although he knew that Lang Qingyun’s words were emtpy flattery, it was still true that his eyes were extraordinary. They were more than sufficient to see through the arts and skills of two Heavenly Dharma Qi Practitioners.

Although one could argue that there were similarities between their arts, it was indisputable that they were fundamentally different.

For instance, there were a few dragon-like skills that felt the same, but Zhong Yue cast it with the dragon totem patterns while Bo Xun used demon totem patterns.

There were also a few sword skills in which Zhong Yue used the standard Swords Gate totem patterns, while Bo Xun used the renowned demon race sword technique, the【Yama Musk Sword Scripture】 —- a god-level cultivation technique in the Yama Saint Race.

Coincidentally, Yanmo He was a hermit demon god of the Yama Saint Race, he recognized the sword art instantly in one eye. One to say, he was incredibly unhappy about the leak of his race’s cultivation technique.

This cultivation technique was said to be imparted to Bo Xun by a lady of the Yama Saint Race. She was crazily in love with Bo Xun, and thus, offered the【Yama Musk Sword Scripture】to Bo Xun, willingly turning herself into a traitor to her own people. Seeing him use the technique only add to Yanmo He’s discontent toward Bo Xun.

Bo Xun was way too handsome; he was unanimously thought of as the most handsome demon in the demon race Eight Barren. There were even ladies that claimed that he was the most handsome demon to have ever existed. With his appearance alone, there would be an uncountable number of powerful demon ladies who were willing to take him under them.

This was also why it made the Desire Realm filled with handsome and beautiful demons. Over dozens of demon ladies had succumbed so deeply to their infatuation of him to the extent that they were even willing to offer their race’s secret heritages just to be with him.

As of now, there weren’t any duplicated skills they cast. There are only two explanations to this, Yanmo He raised his brows as he thought, One: they are different individuals. Two, they are the same person, but his arsenal of techniques is so vast that it is sufficient for two people to cultivate two disjoint sets of arts from it. If it’s the second possibility…

Yanmo He closed his eyes so as to avoid others detecting the killing intent in his eyes, Then that is way too terrifying!

If it was the second possibility... that didn’t even need explanation. Zhong Yue would be so strong that even Yanmo He as a demon god wouldn’t be able to see through him, both him and his incarnation!

This would be too horrifying a possibility!

…

In the insect planet, above an insect temple.

There were many insect Qi Practitioners of incredibly bizarre appearances looking into the icy pathway. These tens of Qi Practitioners were beyond the level of those insects in the pathway. The head of the crowd was a lady, there were the light wheels revolving behind her and in the light wheels, there were the images of the five poisons, clearly suggesting that she was from the lineage of the mother insect!

In the insect race, the mother insects were the strongest. They were the core of the hive mind and could give birth to any other variation of insect. If the insects were the weapons created by the demons, the mother insects would then be the controllers to the insect race. When the mother insects cultivated to the level of deityhood, they would become mother gods. And usually, in an insect planet, there would be a mother queen that ruled over all the other insects; the mother queen was the supreme leader of every living being on the insect planet.

Below the mother insects were the golden insects of the insect race, commonly known as the Golden King Race. They were a bizarre variance within the insect race, some of them were even stronger in prowess than the mother insects!

However, as the Golden King Race couldn’t reproduce themselves, only being able to sire weak and puny insects, they could only rely upon the mother insects.

Above this insect temple, the insect experts were all of the Golden King Race, they were all True Spirit magnates and there were even two who were at the Imminent Deity level!

“This human, he is strong!" The Golden King Race insects looked at Zhong Yue in excitement. Killing intent suffused the surroundings, and a Golden King insect whose head was filled with eyes said, “Such a strong cultivator, his muscles must be really nice to chew on. Ah~ the tenderness of the meat, the gummy veins and the delicious blood as a natural condiment, I can’t wait to feast on such a delicacy! But how did he notice the ambush?”

“Heartbeat," the mother insect lady softly answered.

“Heartbeat?” The other Golden King insects were troubled as they asked, “Princess Jin Xiu, are you sure? Our insect Qi Practitioners were all hibernating in the ice, even the blood flow was frozen and the heart was stopped. There wasn’t even a slight hint of aura that leaked out, nor was the Yuan Shen active. We are practically dead in the ice, there can’t be any heartbeat in there!”

Princess Jin Xiu persisted, she said in a placid tone, “It is the heartbeat. We insects may be the masters in faking death but it is inevitable that our hearts start beating as soon as we exit hibernation. The heart is the first to beat, it is done so so that the mortal body and Yuan Shen can be awakened in turn. The process is very subtle and nearly imperceptible. Not many would’ve picked it up.

“Clearly, that human expert was strong enough to pick it up and realize it was an ambush before anyone else, but what he did next was the real surprise. Knowing it was an ambush, his first instinct was not to defend himself but to kill the threats before they could harm him! You all are right, this human is strong and can only be stronger than you think he is. His combat sense is beyond our reach, perhaps, he is a match for even the gods in that regard! That demon is a fine line slower than that human. He is weaker.”

The insect race’s ability to hibernate and halt all signs of life was one of their trump cards. During their hibernation states, not even gods would be able to see through them. But they could return to zero in their hibernation state to the peak of their prowess as soon as they awoke from that state. However, within that awakening period, there was a slight window that more astute opponents would be able to take advantage of.

But, who could ever notice and even react in time to that fleeting opportunity?

Among the crowd, including the True Spirit and Imminent Deity magnates, only Zhong Yue, who was a Heavenly Dharma Qi Practitioner, could. This was why Princess Jin Xiu said that his reaction was comparable to that of the gods.

However, little did she know that Bo Xun was only a slight margin slower because he was Zhong Yue’s incarnation. Surely there would be a split second delay for Bo Xun to act after Zhong Yue.

“This is enough for us to know the strengths of the Ancestral Star experts. It’s time to initiate the second round test." Princess Jin Xiu laughed coquettishly and said, “This time, we will slowly take down the experts one by one and force the gods to intervene in the battle!”

“Once their prowess is known, we can capture them and march further into the Ancestral Star.”