Volume 1, Chapter 87 – Annals of History

The most valuable part of these materials was that they gave Shi Lan a fairly clear understanding of the martial realms in the Lingyang Realm.

The Body Tempering Realm was the starting point of the martial path. The Innate Realm shed the mortal shell and extended life by a hundred years, granting one the qualifications to found a sect.

After the Innate Realm came the Earth Fiend Realm.

Only with an Earth Fiend Realm martial artist sitting in town could a power be considered seventh-rank.

There were a total of one hundred and eight vital acupoints in the human body, of which thirty-six were death points.

The Earth Fiend Realm was about using true qi to successively pierce through the seventy-two vital acupoints other than those thirty-six death points.

Once all seventy-two acupoints were opened, one reached the peak of the Earth Fiend Realm. True qi within the body was like a vast sea, each strike like raging waves that never ended. Lifespan stretched to five hundred years, enough to be a local overlord.

Beyond the Earth Fiend Realm was the Heavenly Astral Realm. A martial artist at this realm used true qi to pierce through those thirty-six death points, finding life in the face of death and pushing the body to its limits.

A Heavenly Astral Realm martial artist had all one hundred and eight vital acupoints opened, the inner circulation flowing without end. With a lifespan of a thousand years, they were half a step into the immortal ranks, wielding all kinds of unbelievable powers, and could serve as the master of a sixth-rank power.

Even in fifth-rank powers, Heavenly Astral Realm martial artists were the backbone.

Above the Heavenly Astral Realm were several more realms: Myriad Phenomena, Nascent Soul, Heaven-Man, and so on. But these materials contained no detailed descriptions of them, only a few brief lines in passing.

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Within a hundred thousand li around here, the strongest power was only fifth-rank, called Thunder Hall, with a Myriad Phenomena Realm martial artist sitting in town and occupying tens of thousands of li of territory.

The Sacred Martial Immortal Sect, as the greatest power in the Chengtian Domain, was also mentioned in these materials, though not in great detail. Still, from its lofty second-rank classification, one could glimpse its true might.

These materials broadened Shi Lan’s horizons quite a bit, but what interested her most was a book titled Annals of History .

This book was thick and recorded parts of the history of the three races in the Lingyang Realm from ancient times to the present, some sections in detail, some only briefly.

……

Back in the Primordial Era, millions of years ago, when the human race had just emerged, the Lingyang Realm was not yet split three ways as it was now.

In that age, there was only a single overlord in the Lingyang Realm, known as the “Ancient Gods.” Their origin was no longer traceable; it was as if they had existed since the very birth of the Lingyang Realm.

Humans, demons, and fiends were all merely vassals before the Ancient Gods—or perhaps more accurately, food.

The reason the Ancient Gods dared call themselves “gods” lay in their terrifying bloodline power. A newly born pure-blooded Ancient God possessed strength nearly equal to that of a present-day Heavenly Astral Realm martial artist. An adult Ancient God, even at the weakest, had power comparable to the Myriad Phenomena Realm.

Their lifespans were so long as to be almost without limit. Even the demon race, which had the longest lives among the three races, did not come close to matching a tenth of theirs.

The drawback of such a powerful bloodline was their low fertility and extremely long maturation period. When pure-blood Ancient Gods interbred, they would at most produce one or two offspring in a lifetime. Even at their peak, the number of pure-blood Ancient Gods had never exceeded a hundred thousand.

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Where there were pure-blood Ancient Gods, there were naturally mixed-blood Ancient Gods.

Pure-blood Ancient Gods interbreeding with humans, demons, or fiends would give birth to mixed-blood offspring.

The chances of conception when humans, demons, or fiends lay with Ancient Gods were not high, but compared to pure-blood pairings, they were countless times greater.

Endless lifespans and unmatched strength brought the Ancient Gods nothing but increasingly debauched and indulgent lives.

As a result, more and more mixed-blood Ancient Gods were born.

Because of their obsession with bloodlines, pure-blood Ancient Gods did not regard these mixed-bloods, who only possessed half—or even less—of their blood, as their own kind.

The status of mixed-blood Ancient Gods was awkward—higher than that of the human, demon, and fiend races, yet far lower than that of pure-blood Ancient Gods.

Gradually, the number of mixed-blood Ancient Gods swelled, eventually surpassing any one of the three races. Inheriting a portion of the Ancient God bloodline, their strength was far beyond what the three races could compare to.

Among them, many peerlessly gifted figures arose, whose power surpassed that of most pure-blood Ancient Gods.

These mixed-blood Ancient Gods soon grew dissatisfied with their lowly status. They declared their separation from the pure-blood Ancient Gods and named themselves the “Half-God Race,” igniting the first full-scale war in the Lingyang Realm.

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This war was known as the “Primordial God War.”

The war lasted a long time. Though the pure-blood Ancient Gods were individually powerful, their numbers were too few, and they struggled to cope with the vast Half-God Race. The battle situation became a stalemate.

Humans, demons, and fiends were bystanders at first, but they were soon dragged into the conflict.

The Half-God Race had not only inherited the mighty bloodline of the Ancient Gods, but also their deep-boned arrogance. They considered their bloodline noble and looked down on humans, demons, and fiends even more than the pure-blood Ancient Gods did.

This was despite the fact that the blood of humans, demons, and fiends flowed in the bodies of the Half-God Race.

Once they gained the upper hand in direct battle against the pure-blood Ancient Gods, the arrogance of the Half-God Race only grew. They even began planning to wipe the human, demon, and fiend races from the Lingyang Realm altogether.

This forced the three races to side with the pure-blood Ancient Gods.

The war grew ever more intense. With no other choice, the pure-blood Ancient Gods began to employ humans, demons, and fiends, thinking up every possible method to increase their strength.

The long-weakened three races began to see their power swell rapidly.

Of the three, the human race was the weakest in foundation. Their bodies were frail by nature, and their rate of growth in strength was far from ideal. Gradually they fell behind, and in the end the other races began using humans as food, solely because of their frightening rate of reproduction.

As the saying went, when things reached an extreme, they reversed. As the war dragged on and the status of humans fell into the dust, a peerless heaven’s chosen arose.

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This heaven’s chosen became the first Sovereign in human history. Because the era was too distant, his personal name had not been passed down, only his title: Sovereign Wanggu, “the One Who Buried the Ancient.”

He was the great emperor who led the human race out of its dark age and whose achievements were unmatched. Yet because of some of the things he did, later generations held mixed opinions of him, both praise and criticism.

Before he rose to power, thanks to his monstrous talent, he managed to acknowledge a pure-blood Ancient God as his “father-god.”

At that time, almost all the pure-blood Ancient Gods used humans as food, and this Ancient God was no exception.

During a victory feast after one battle, this Ancient God, whether intentionally or unintentionally, made a demand no ordinary person could bear: he wanted to taste the flesh of the Sovereign’s children.

The Sovereign did not hesitate in the slightest. He rose with his sword, personally slew his two sons, delivered their flesh and blood to the Ancient God, and then watched with his own eyes as that Ancient God swallowed his own offspring.

There were many similarly hazy records like this. The impression this Sovereign left on posterity was that of someone ruthless, even cold-blooded.

With the support of the three races, the Half-God Race soon found itself unable to hold on and slipped into disadvantage.

Just as the pure-blood Ancient Gods were preparing to press the advantage and completely crush the Half-God Race, the demon and fiend races, whose power had swelled too quickly, began to show signs of turmoil.