Volume 1, Chapter 88 – Endless Ages

The Half-God Race was not stupid. Seeing the tide turning against them, they began to take a roundabout route, secretly reaching out to the demon and fiend races and playing the emotional card.

As for the human race, they had long since been forgotten in a corner.

Among the demon and fiend races, aside from the small number whose ties to the pure-blood Ancient Gods were too close, the rest turned their coats one after another.

The Half-God Race once more seized the advantage, and the situation on the battlefield became murky and unpredictable.

The pure-blood Ancient Gods had no options left and could only rely on the humans that remained loyal. All the resources that had originally been tilted toward the demon and fiend races were redirected to the human race, and within the human race a great number of top experts began to emerge, becoming a force that could not be ignored.

As time passed, the pure-blood Ancient Gods grew more and more trusting of the human race. In order to win hearts, the reigning God-King of the pure-blood Ancient Gods even married his own daughter off to the leader of the human race at the time, the Sovereign.

The humans reproduced too quickly. A hundred years, for some of the long-lived demon and fiend clans, might not even be enough for their young to reach adulthood, but for mortals, that was enough time for four or five generations to pass.

Even if the overall quality was not equal to that of the demon and fiend races, with such a huge population base, geniuses still emerged in an endless stream.

The human race’s influence grew ever greater, and as pure-blood Ancient Gods intermingled with humans, more and more mixed-blood Ancient Gods were born. They became another force capable of tipping the balance of war, and the tide began to turn toward the humans and pure-blood Ancient Gods.

Under the combined assault of humans and Ancient Gods, the Half-God Race and the demon and fiend races were beaten back again and again.

Thus ended the “Primordial God War,” which had lasted nearly a hundred thousand years.

When the Lingyang Realm was about to return to peace and the rebellious Half-God Race was only a step away from annihilation, the human Sovereign Wanggu raised the banner of a second full-scale war.

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This war was known in history as the “Blood Cleansing.”

It was a war aimed at all races outside the pure-blood humans, pushing the human race to stand opposite almost the entire Lingyang Realm.

This war was also the fundamental reason why later generations had such mixed evaluations of this Sovereign.

Before the war began, the Sovereign personally slew his own wife and did not spare the son in her belly who carried half Ancient God blood.

The rest of the pure-blood Ancient Gods had no time to react. The slightly weaker ones almost all died at the same instant.

As for the top experts among the pure-blood Ancient Gods, including the God-King himself, ordinary methods could no longer completely kill them, so the humans resorted to other means and sealed them away one by one.

Once the pure-blood Ancient Gods were basically dealt with, the humans swung their blade across the entire Lingyang Realm, launching a frenzied assault on the Half-God Race in particular.

This war raged from the Primordial Era into the Ancient Era and lasted for hundreds of thousands of years.

Even so, this first human Sovereign did not manage to complete his cleansing of the Lingyang Realm before his death.

In this war that the human race fought across tens of thousands of generations, the Half-God Race was almost erased from existence. The few survivors no longer dared to call themselves Half-Gods, hiding their names and identities as they merged into the demon and fiend races.

Thus the traces left behind by the Ancient Gods were finally wiped out from the Lingyang Realm, and the world entered the Ancient Era in full.

Bearing the foundation laid down in the Primordial Era, the human race still held most of the Lingyang Realm’s territory, and the demon and fiend races were pressed so low that they could not lift their heads.

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The human way flourished, and emperor stars appeared one after another.

This state of affairs persisted for several hundred thousand years. Just when the Lingyang Realm had almost reached the point of “only the human Dao is supreme,” the pure-blood Ancient Gods sealed in the Primordial Era broke free, and the realm, which had long been calm, was thrown into turmoil once more.

The moment they escaped, those pure-blood Ancient Gods began a blood-soaked vengeance against the human race. The top experts among them were so terrifyingly powerful that even Sovereign-level figures could not match them one on one, and countless died in battle.

Fortunately, the humans still had deep reserves to draw on. Only after sacrificing several Sovereigns in succession did they finally quell this Ancient God uprising.

This battle gravely wounded the human race, while the demon and fiend races seized the opportunity to grow. Moreover, since some clans among them carried traces of Ancient God blood, they received quite a few benefits from the pure-blood Ancient Gods and grew much stronger.

After being suppressed by the humans for hundreds of thousands of years, the demon and fiend races were finally able to lift their heads and naturally would not let such a golden opportunity slip by. They joined forces and began eating away at human territory.

The human race gradually weakened, and their borders started to shrink.

Thus ended the Ancient Era, giving way to the Middle Ages when demons and fiends ran rampant.

With several Sovereigns in a row having fallen in battle, there was a break in the line of peak experts among the human race. Faced with the demon and fiend races pressing closer step by step, they could only retreat again and again.

In the end, the humans were forced to rely on the techniques and a few supreme treasures left behind by those Sovereigns, barely managing to protect themselves and eke out a living in a single corner of the world.

With the humans in decline and no longer an external threat, the demon and fiend races naturally had no reason to keep cooperating as they once had.

As time went on, friction arose between the two races. Conflicts escalated, and they finally parted ways and plunged into war.

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The human race hid away from the world, turning a deaf ear to the war and biding their time in the shadows.

At last, nearly a million years ago, another emperor star rose for the humans, taking the title “Tianwu.” He reformed the Imperial Court and began sweeping across the six directions, reclaiming lost lands as all three races fell into a three-way melee.

The Annals of History recorded this part of history in far greater detail.

Tianwu Era, Year 1568: the Sovereign, at Fragmented Sky Mountain, crushed the fiend race army, slaughtered countless fiends, and reclaimed 1.04 million li of territory.

Tianwu Era, Year 2795: the Sovereign, at Jade Emperor Peak, slew the Fiend Emperor Aochen. Under his command, tens of millions of fiends were put to the sword, and 2.73 million li of territory were reclaimed. In that same year, the Demon-Suppressing Army was established.

……

Tianwu Era, Year 6874: the Sovereign redivided the land, carving out nine great Domains and taking his seat in the Imperial Palace.

……

Tianwu Era, Year 8864: the Sovereign fell.

……

From Sovereign Tianwu to the present, the human emperor star had never gone dark. More than ten Sovereigns had since arisen. The lifespans of those who followed were all far longer than Tianwu’s. The one who lived the longest nearly passed through one hundred thousand years.

……

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“Taishi Era, Year 48,923.”

Shi Lan glanced at the era name on the final page, exhaled softly, and slowly closed the book.

A great deal of content was missing from this Annals of History . Only portions of the late ancient period were recorded in detail. As for the affairs of the Primordial and Ancient Eras, they were mostly glossed over in a few strokes, which left her feeling quite regretful.

The splendor of this world had far surpassed her imagination. Just the scattered bits of text in this Annals of History were enough to stir the heart.

Compared to the entire Lingyang Realm, the Chengtian Domain seemed almost insignificant.

Shi Lan gave a slight shake of her head and calmed her mind. After glancing at the sky outside, she closed her eyes, circulated her cultivation art, and began absorbing the spiritual qi within the spirit marrow at her chest, raising her cultivation.

Her own strength was the foundation of everything else. The rest was empty talk. With enough power, she could naturally go and seek out those secrets of the Ancient and even Primordial Eras.

……

Early the next morning, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, there was a knock at the door.

Shi Lan withdrew from cultivation and let out a long breath. A white arrow of qi more than six chi long shot from her mouth, punched through the window and left a hole, then flew for more than ten zhang before its momentum finally faded and it slowly dissipated.