Rise of Humanity
chapter-528

King Zi Guang sat in his carriage and left the Zi Wei Imperial Star. But before he flew far away from the galaxy, a melodious song began to play in the endless space and a god sang along with it. There was a bonfire lit up in the middle of nowhere and the smell of food that could make one salivate wafted through the air.

King Zi Guang traced the sound and smell, he looked over and saw a few gods sitting on top of an island roasting a beast on the fire. The smell of the roasted beast and wine blew into King Zi Guang’s nose with the breeze.

“Senior Martial Brother Zi Guang!" The gods noticed him as well and they said with surprise. The gods stood up and greeted him from afar. One of them said while smiling, “It’s rare to bump into senior martial brother, will you come and have a feast with us?”

King Zi Guang hesitated for a second before walking down from the carriage while carrying the two treasures tightly in his arms. He walked to the bonfire and said while smiling, “Few senior martial brothers, why are you all here?”

Among the gods, the older one was from the Lie Shan Clan, he went by the surname Jiang and was named Yiqi. He had an ox horn atop the face of a dragon and the body of a human — a hybrid race of the Zhong Li Celestial Race and humanity that carried a hint of dragon bloods. This combination lead to his bizarre appearance.

The Lie Shan Clan’s Jiang Yiqi was a close friend to King Zi Guang, and although they weren’t under the same teacher, they had gone through many things together when they were still the young and weak cultivators.

Jiang Yiqi laughed and replied, “We just caught a beast and is preparing it. Just nice you are here, we can enjoy it together!”

King Zi Guang looked at the beast on the bonfire and was shocked, he exclaimed, “This beast … it’s the Zhu Jian Celestial Race, Zhu Ganglie, he is the Nong Sovereign’s ride! Why did you all kill him and roast him to eat now?”

The gods were shocked as well, they exchanged a look while Jiang Yiqi suddenly laughed and said, “Nong Sovereign is old, it’s no big deal roasting his ride anymore. We have nothing to be worried of.”

“True," King Zi Guang sat down, he said while smiling, “But I can’t stay for long, I have orders from the imperial emperor now. I have to cast out these two treasures.”

Jiang Yiqi sliced a chunk of roasted meat and distributed it to the others. The skin of the roasted meat was slightly charred crispy and the meat was soaked in its natural golden oil.

King Zi Guang took a bite and the meat melted in his mouth, he shook his head softly and praised, “So this is how Zhu Ganglie tastes like. I have always wanted to eat him but he was Nong Sovereign’s ride, I could never do it. But you guys are different, it’s no problem for you all to kill him and cook it. What a delicacy…”

Jiang Yiqi ate a whole chunk of meat and he said whiling chewing, “Senior martial brother, where are you going with the two treasures?”

The gods on the side raised their cups and King Zi Guang raised his as well. They all drank a mouthful of wine and King Zi Guang answered while smiling, “To the waste star, it’s a long journey but I still have to go. The Heavenly Monarch Imperial Road can send me over directly but I can’t use it, I can only go through multiple checkpoints to get to the waste star. It’ll take me at least over ten years to get there. I also heard that the Bi Xie Celestial Emperor resurrected about three years ago and is coming to the Zi Wei Imperial Star, but he is still on his way now.”

“It’s really a tedious task. You sad child." Jiang Yiqi raised his cup at King Zi Guang and he said while smiling, “But what treasures are they, can I have a look?”

King Zi Guang hesitated for a second, but he then carefully placed the Divine Tree of Knowledge and Skymetrical Scroll into Jiang Yiqi’s hands, he said, “You have to be extremely cautious with them, if they are damaged, not even I can bear with the consequences.”

Jiang Yiqi looked at the Divine Tree and praised before putting it to the side. Then, he looked at the Skymetrical Scroll and praised again.The stars and planets in the Skymetrical Scroll were innumerable, one couldn’t even finish glancing through all of them so quickly. Thus, Jiang Yiqi had to take a piece of firewood from the bonfire to use as a torch.

King Zi Guang quickly said, “Careful, don’t damage it!”

“It’s a treasure forged by the imperial emperor, how can it be damaged so easily?”

Jiang Yiqi laughed, just as he spoke of it, sparks of fire came out from the burning firewood and fell to the Skymetrical Scroll. Immediately, a small hole was burned on it.

King Zi Guang was stunned for a split second, his face changed drastically as he said in the blink of an eye, he has snatched the two treasures back into his hands. He shouted, “Yiqi, what fire is this?”

Jiang Yiqi quickly threw the burning firewood back into the bonfire, his face was pallid in fear and stammered as he said, “This Zhu Ganglie is a True Deity, the … the ordinary godly fire can’t harm him and we have … we have been to the Heavenly Flame Barren Region and stole some of the fire sparks and lit it up with phoenix wood…”

“Phoenix wood? No wonder the fire can damage the scroll!" King Zi Guang gritted his teeth, he said, “This is bad! A small hole was burned on the Skymetrical Scroll, there will be a flaw in it now. What do we do? The imperial emperor will not spare me easily if he knows about it!”

Jiang Yiqi forced a wry smile and said, “We can … we can try fixing the hole, who knows, we might be able to do it. Or … or we can go to the imperial emperor together and ask for his forgiveness?”

King Zi Guang sighed, he shook his head and replied, “Do you think, with our strength, we can fix the hole on the Skymetrical Scroll? And if we go to the imperial emperor, both you and I will be skinned alive. You are still fine, you aren’t the imperial emperor’s subordinate and your punishment will be relatively lighter. But the same doesn’t apply to me. Sigh, fine. We won’t tell the imperial emperor, this is just a small hole, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. It’s all my fault, I shouldn’t have stayed in the first place. I should’ve just headed straight to the waste star. But this Zhu Ganglie’s meat is way too enticing that I couldn’t help it.…”

King Zi Guang stood up, he stopped drinking and stopped eating, he said, “I’m going to carry out my orders now. Yiqi, you need to keep this a secret. Never tell anyone about it!”

Jiang Yiqi nodded like a pecking chicken, he also didn’t have the mood to eat carefreely anymore as he said, “Don’t worry, I will never mention a single word about it, never ever!” King Zi Guang then boarded his carriage and left.

***

He took one teleportation array formation to the other and headed straight to the Ancestral Star. The trip took him almost seven years for him to reach the fringes of its solar system.

He raised his hand and cast the Divine Tree of Knowledge into the sky. The divine tree grew enormously large and covered the galaxy. Moments later, the divine tree faded away and its presence disappeared as if it were never there in the first place.

Then, King Zi Guang cast out the Skymetrical Scroll immediately after that. The scroll grew larger and included the solar system in it. Stars and planets emerged around it and the Imperial Road was cut off from connecting to the outside universe.

If there were any gods or livings that have flew out from the Ancestral Star, they would only fly into the universe inside of the scroll instead of the one they were truly in.

The universe inside of the scroll stacked one upon another, it was endless and no matter how far one flew, they wouldn’t be able to fly out from the scroll anyhow.

King Zi Guang glanced around carefully, he could tell the slight changes going on around the waste star. But it was so slow that it would take at least thousands of years to completely change.

The small hole on the Skymetrical Scroll has become so huge after it was cast out…

King Zi Guang surprised, he looked at the hole that was large enough to allow a planet to pass through and knew it should be taken care of.

Immediately, he moved a star from the other places and covered the hole behind it. He thought, Now, there will be eight planets in this little solar system.

…

While beside the bonfire, the gods around didn’t have the mood to enjoy the feast anymore. Soon after, they all left. Jiang Yiqi packed up and left, he arrived at the Human Sovereign Palace and walked into the hall.

“The deeds you have done will be remembered, Yiqi." Nong Sovereign was growing even older, he invited Jiang Yiqi to sit and coughed like a dying patient as he said, “Without you, the Ancestral Star will be lost of hope forever.”

Jiang Yiqi bowed, he replied, “For humanity, it is what I must do. I barely made a hole on the Skymetrical Scroll but Zhu Ganglie sacrificed his mortal body. He can only reincarnate himself from the Six Paths Reincarnation now.”

Nong Sovereign nodded, “I still need you to send him into the Six Paths of Reincarnation.”

“Nong Sovereign, don’t worry," Jiang Yiqi smiled as he said, “I will make arrangements for him. But may I ask the Nong Sovereign, why do you value the Ancestral Star so much?”

Nong Sovereign heaved a breath filled in the air of death, and his eyes began to lose focus, he said, “I have arranged an inheritor in the Ancestral Star, I hope that he can walk out from there and usher in a new age of glory that can resemble that of the past. Humanity needs a leader, a Heavenly Monarch. But my condition will never allow me to live long enough to witness that day when it comes. Yiqi, when I die, you will be the next Human Sovereign.”

Jiang Yiqi smiled in reply, “I am from the Lie Shan Clan, when I become the Human Sovereign, I will be named as the Yan Sovereign. However, I’m not a pure human, many will rise against me if I am to be the next Human Sovereign.”

“You are with the humans. That is more than enough." Nong Sovereign’s eyes turned darker than black, he sighed and said, “I wonder if … the inheritor I arranged can ever make it out from the Ancestral Star … It’s a good thing that they have sealed the Ancestral Star as well, with that, it won’t attract too much attention and he will have time to grow strong enough…”

…

But it would still take nearly seven years from now until King Zi Guang arrived and cast the two treasures.

When that day came, the Ancestral Star’s path of cultivation would become sealed, and the gods and Qi Practitioners that were stuck there would slowly die over time. Generation after generation, the age of cultivation will cease to exist as the age of technology rises in its wake.

……

After Zhong Yue flew out from the Celestial Fire Star, he spent months to reach the moon. There, he reunited with the experts and Bai Canghai asked, “Senior Martial Brother Zhong, how can we get back to the Ancestral Star?”

“We rush right into it.”

……

Zhong Yue smiled and said, “If we are fast enough, we will be able to reach to the ground before the Pure Yang lightning strikes us. That’s how Shi Tuo brought me in and out of the Celestial Fire Star.”

The experts looked at one another, Gu Hongzi coughed and he asked, “How fast? Can it work?”

“Four hundred and fifty times faster than the speed of sound, we have to be faster than the lightning, but in reality, it’s much slower." Zhong Yue thought and he said, “The Pure Yang lightning requires time to brew and strike, that should give us more time. So, we only need to be over twenty times faster than the speed of sound.”

“Twenty times…”

Gu Hongzi heaved a long breath, his face was solemn as he said, “Only the gods can achieve such a speed. Even my peak record is only five times faster than the speed of sound, I can’t last too long in that speed as well.”

Zuo Xiangsheng shook his head and said, “I’m a little slower than Senior Martial Brother Gu Hongzi. Junior Martial Brother Zhong, how’s your speed?”

“About the same as Senior Martial Brother Gu Hongzi’s. However, I can go faster in space." Rays flashed across Zhong Yue’s eyes, he said, “There is only one way to enter the Ancestral Star. And that is to build up our speed in the space and rush right in!”

“But if we can’t reduce our speed after entering the Ancestral Star, wouldn’t we…" Bai Canghai mumbled. Suddenly, his heart palpitated in panic as he immediately bolted out away.

But just as he raised his feet up from the ground, the experts swarmed in and battered him to the ground. Even the ladies kicked him without any hesitation.

A few moments later, the experts left Bai Canghai lying on the ground crying. He said, “Didn’t you all say that my words always go the other way? I’m just stating the bad outcome now…”

“Oh … we have forgotten about it…." The experts were felt sorry for what they have done to him.

Even Gu Hongzi turned his head around and whistled as if he never kicked Bai Canghai with the experts before.

—————

Don’t ask me about the math, the numbers. I don’t know where the author gets the figure but well, I guess we will just have to go along with it.