On a near barren plain stripped of nearly all resources, two armies stood across from each other. On one side was an army of men wearing fur robes. Each one had copper-colored skin and stood over two meters, armed with axes, spears, and clubs.
The most eye-catching figure among this army of copper men was the one standing in front. He towered over the others at three meters tall, and his skin had a slight fiery tint to it. In his hand, he held an absolutely brutal looking ax. Its edge was full of nicks and dents, but when the light reflected off of it, it revealed an eerie red glow.
He was Chiyou of the Jiuli Tribe. Since birth, he had always stood head and shoulders above his compatriots.
Standing opposite of the Jiuli Tribe’s men was an army of barbarians. Unlike the Jiuli Tribe, most of the barbarians rode on horses. A quarter of them had bows and arrows while the rest welded close quarter weapons. It was obvious, even on horseback, that the barbarians were shorter than the Jiuli Tribe. Individually, they were less oppressive, but add them all together, their aura matched the Jiuli Tribe in front of them.
There was no motivational speech, no valiant cry. It was as if a beast had broken the chains binding him. A vicious aura erupted from Chiyou, eclipsing the barbarians’ aura. Chiyou charged forward with a thunderous bellow. By the time the other Jiuli Tribe members started running, Chiyou was already over a hundred meters ahead.
The barbarians gulped. Their aura was overwhelmed, but none of them thought of retreating. Fighting Chiyou would lead to death, fleeing would lead to death, and surrendering would also lead to death. They didn’t have a choice. Rather than wait for death, why not fight for that small sliver of hope?
Still, the barbarians underestimated Chiyou and overestimated themselves. After the fall of Tengri, the barbarians lost their greatest support. Without Tengri, they were just ordinary mortals. Not even their once revered shamans could escape this decline.
On the other hand, although the Jiuli Tribe were also mortal, they had the blood of giants in their veins. None had inherited more blood of giants than Chiyou. Even without cultivating the Immortal or Martial Path, they had power beyond mere mortals.
When Chiyou arrived in front of the barbarians, he swung his axe. The blade sliced through all the barbarians in its trajectory, and the sheer force from the swing caused nearly a hundred barbarians to fall off their horses. It would not be an exaggeration to call Chiyou a one-man army. By the time the rest of the Jiuli Tribe clashed with the barbarians, Chiyou had already disabled thirty percent of them.
Within an hour, the Jiuli Tribe had defeated the barbarians. Those who were too injured or became burdens were directly killed, while those still in relatively good health were taken as slaves. However, Chiyou and his tribesmen didn’t return to the tribe yet. Instead, they made their way deeper.
Like the Jiuli Tribe, the once united barbarians had fractured into different forces. Chiyou and the Jiuli Tribe wanted to take the barbarian tribe back as slaves and vassals. With the Jiuli Tribe’s efficiency, it was obvious this was not the first time they had done this.
Life in the wasteland was hard. That was a fact Chiyou had learned from the first few years in his life.
The Jiuli Tribe knew the legends of Sovereign Fuxi and Sovereign Shennong’s birth, so Chiyou’s birth gave them great hope. Surviving in the wasteland was an endless test for human endurance and will. The tribespeople hoped Chiyou’s birth would change their situation, so they treated him as their savior, their hope, and future ruler.
Chiyou, who received their care and expectations, also wanted to fulfill his tribesmen’s wishes.
He and the Jiuli Tribe attempted to attract forces to their banner using Chiyou as a calling card. However, none responded to their call. Ignoring whether they believed Chiyou was the next ruler of humanity or not, most people just wanted a better life.
The Jiuli Tribe’s call was akin to asking other people to offer up everything without providing anything. Like the Jiuli Tribe, they struggled to survive. How could they accept such an arrangement? Even if the Jiuli Tribe succeeded, without a wise leader, only a small percentage of people would live comfortably while those on the lower end of the social stratum suffered in their stead.
So, the Jiuli Tribe’s actions bore no fruit. Next, they attempted to relocate to the East. With Chiyou at their forefront, they believed that the humans of the East would accept them, only to be chased away.
All the tribes and clans in the East wanted to become the next ruler of humanity. How could they accept an outsider to rule them? Chiyou and the Jiuli Tribe brought no benefit or power, only an empty name. So, even though the Jiuli Tribe was a member of humanity, they were chased out of the East by the bordering tribes, just like the barbarians.
Life became harder, and even Chiyou no longer received the same amount of veneration. However, even if the Jiuli Tribe gave up, Chiyou did not. He always felt that his birth should have heralded something greater. The Jiuli Tribe’s expectations only reinforced this belief.
So, when Chiyou was only nine years old, he led a small band of warriors from the Jiuli Tribe and attacked a weak, neighboring tribe. Against all expectations, Chiyou won and took back the defeated tribe as slaves. It wasn’t a one-time fluke.
Chiyou attacked more and more tribes, each one ending with the Jiuli Tribe’s victory. His domineering aura and undefeated record caused the Jiuli Tribe and even the defeated tribes to submit to his invincible might.
When Chiyou felt like the Jiuli Tribe had grown strong enough, he attacked the East. Although Chiyou liked to solve his problems with force, he wasn’t an idiot. Compared to the barren lands he was born in, the East obviously had more potential for development. Only by securing a territory in the East would he have the chance to become humanity’s next ruler.
In Chiyou’s first battle, he defeated one of the bordering tribes and gained a massive amount of resources and even weapons. He expected his string of victories to continue, but reality taught him a harsh lesson.
The border tribes and clans, upon hearing of his victory, banded together to defeat the Jiuli Tribe and oust them from the East once more. Even when facing an army ten times his own, Chiyou never lost confidence. He had faced worse odds.
However, Chiyou never accounted for the difference between the two forces. Although Chiyou and the Jiuli Tribe were more powerful individually than the alliance of tribes and clans, the alliance had better equipment and more men. Not only that, but the alliance had better medicine and doctors, resulting in far fewer casualties. Under these two conditions, Chiyou had no choice but to bring the Jiuli Tribe back to the barren lands. He hadn’t even been able to keep the land he conquered.
After facing his first defeat, Chiyou matured. Although they had brought back many resources from the tribe they conquered in the East, it was far from enough to equip all the warriors. So, Chiyou sought to make his own equipment, but there were not many metal veins in the barren lands.
The Jiuli Tribe couldn’t even use the ores brought back from the East. Over the thousands of years since the fracturing of humanity, they had forgotten the methods of forging metal into weapons. Stil, Chiyou would not give up so easily. Since he couldn’t equip his men as well as the East, he needed to bolster their numbers.
Chiyou started a conquest.
He turned his sights on the other human tribes living in the wasteland. With each tribe conquered, word of Chiyou’s might disseminated throughout the wasteland and even some parts of the East. However, he did not receive the pristine veneration Gongsun Xuanyuan received; it was more fear. Yes, fear.
Chiyou was strong, there was no doubt about that. However, his actions were incredibly brutal. He only gave a chance to surrender, but surrendering meant becoming slaves, so how many of them would accept it? Even if they knew they had a chance to free themselves from their enslaved status by fighting for the Jiuli Tribe, they still made the same choice.
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What awaited the tribes that refused was slaughter. He would kill over half their able-bodied fighters to instill fear into their hearts so that they would never give rise to the thought of rebellion, only obedience. Then, he would enslave the rest of the tribe.
Using the fresh blood, he would attack other tribes, slowly growing his army. Except for the Jiuli Tribe and a few warriors, almost all the conquered people obeyed Chiyou from fear. Because they didn’t want Chiyou to direct his brutality and cruelty toward them, they sacrificed the lives of others.
Like this, Chiyou conquered all the human tribes in what once was the World Nexus and parts of the west, but he wasn’t satisfied. Aside from the Jiuli Tribe and a small fraction of the warriors, most of them were weaker than the warriors of the East, even without factoring the difference in equipment.
Although Chiyou used brutality and cruelty to increase his power, he was not a brainless brute. Sure, he could win as long as he sacrificed a large portion of his warriors conquering the eastern lands and replenished them through the same method, but it will result in a lack of experienced and hardened warriors. He needed an army of elites, ones that could charge through steel and fire.
For various reasons, Chiyou turned his sights on the barbarians. And soon, another round of war ravaged the barren lands and the West. He didn’t stop at the West either and conquered all the inhabitants of the South, too. No matter whether they were humans or barbarians, they only had two options: join or die. Those who lived joined, and those who refused died.
Only after conquering the entire wasteland and some of the West did Chiyou set his sights on the East once more. He led the Jiuli Tribe and all its vassals and slaves to the border once more, where the alliance of border tribes and clans awaited him. Compared to the two’s first clash, the alliance had increased the number of its members, but Chiyou knew no fear.
He led the Jiuli Tribe and clashed head on against the border alliance. Casualties soared, but through the baptism of flame and iron, the Jiuli Tribe became stronger and stronger. Although many of the war slaves died, Chiyou used the defeated border alliance to replenish their numbers.
Through their battles, the Jiuli Tribe became stronger and stronger. Their skin was like copper while retaining its elasticity, while their muscles resembled steel. They grew from two meters to three. Although they didn’t cultivate, they weren’t that much weaker than cultivators below the Earth Immortal Realm.
The Jiuli Tribe’s warriors only increased in power when Chiyou ordered his newly captured slaves to forge new equipment and armed each warrior to the teeth.
It wasn’t just the Jiuli Tribe that showed this phenomenon. After many wars, nine warriors rose to become second only to Chiyou. Like Chiyou, the warriors grew stronger with each battle. Their fleshly bodies exceeded the limits of mortals.
These nine generals were Kuafu, Miao, Nanman, Heliu, Jiufeng, Gangshe, Baiye, Binghan, and Tingle. Each one led a tribe named after themselves. Like the Jiuli Tribe, these nine tribes could also strengthen their fleshly bodies through battle. Together, they were known as the Nine Great Tribes, second only to the Jiuli Tribe.
As they conquered more lands of the East, their infamy also reached the ears of the Gongsun Tribe. By now, these two tribes were the largest factions within humanity. Although they couldn’t sweep through every force with their strength, most of humanity recognized these two as the most likely to unify humanity.
However, unlike Chiyou’s belligerence and cruelty, Xuanyuan used his charisma and diplomacy to expand his forces and influence. Most tribes and clans without confidence in themselves joined Xuanyuan because of this. A few tribes who wanted to make a bid for hegemony joined neither and silently built up their forces in preparation for the future clash.
For now, neither force clashed against each other, building up their forces for the day of conflict.
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In the Nether Realm, Empress Pingxin sat atop her Throne of Nether within Youdu, the center of the Underworld. Her figure was shrouded in darkness, only illuminated by the ghostly flames lighting the throne hall. In her hand was the Samsara Register, the so-called Book of Life and Death.
The nether empress’s eyes pierced through the walls of her palace and extended far past Youdu. Her eyes saw all within the Nether Realm, including the ten Yama Palaces and Fengdu.
The ten Yama Palaces were all headed by giants Empress Pingxin brought back after the Titan-Demon Tribulation. Although she saved the remnant Titan Tribe, endless Karmic Sin still mired them. To cleanse them of their Karmic Sins, Empress Pingxin had the giants judge the sins of all souls that appear in the Underworld. Depending on the amount of sins, the judges would send them through one of the Six Paths of Reincarnation: Shura Path of Reincarnation, Hungry Ghost Path of Reincarnation, Animal Path of Reincarnation, Human Path of Reincarnation, Hell Path of Reincarnation, and the Empyrean Path of Reincarnation.
Those who committed excessive slaughter reincarnate as shuras, sinners with too much cravings and attachment return as ghosts, and those who committed sins because of impulse and instincts are reborn as beasts. Souls with equal amounts of sin and merit reincarnate as humans, and souls with only Karmic Sin stay in the Nether Realm and suffer endless torment until the most grievous of their sins are washed away or their soul dissipates. And finally, those with plenty of Karmic Merit and no sin will reincarnate as Empyreans, born with near eternal life and able to enjoy all the good in the world.
Empress Pingxin titled the giants with the greatest merits as the Ten Yama Kings and built each of them palaces inside Youdu. Collectively, the Ten Yama Kings formed the Ten Courts of Hell.
Despite the endless toil since the Titan-Demon Tribulation, not all of the Titan Tribe’s Karmic Sins have been cleansed away. If they could not cleanse themselves of all the sins, the Titan Tribe would remain in the Nether Realm under Empress Pingxin’s protection.
Empress Pingxin, as the former Titan of Earth Houtu, did not want this situation, so she desperately thought of a way to change the situation. She wanted the Titan Tribe to rise up again in the world. However, she knew that it was impossible for the Titan Tribe to rule the Three Realms, since humanity was destined to become its ruler.
Since that was the case, she wanted to use humanity as the medium for the Titan Tribe’s revival. Her chance came when Nuwa and Laozi entered the Nether Realm.
If Empress Pingxin wanted to, she could have stopped Nuwa and Laozi from sending Fuxi through the Six Paths of Reincarnation. Although she wasn’t a Saint, she was stronger than a Saint in the Underworld. Still, she couldn’t go against the Way of Heaven. Nevertheless, the only reason the two Saints succeeded was because she allowed it.
With her control over the Six Paths of Reincarnation, she left a backdoor on Fuxi’s soul. Neither Nuwa nor Laozi could sense her methods. Empress Pingxin never expected to succeed so easily. Perhaps the reason was thanks to the Samsara Register, a top-grade innate spiritual artifact. With it, the ruler of the Nether Realm could find souls in the Six Paths of Reincarnation, something she would normally never be able to do despite using her former body to form the Underworld.
All her preparations came to fruition when Fuxi completed his tenure as the heavenly sovereign. On the day he abdicated, a strand of Grandmist Silver Qi flew out of the Samsara Register and entered Fuxi’s body. During this brief moment of contact, Empress Pingxin took away a strand of Purple Majesty Qi from Fuxi.
No one should have noticed, but Tongtian did. It was something Empress Pingxin never expected. Perhaps it was because she had created the Empyrean Path of Reincarnation that she could sense the changes in the Six Paths of Reincarnation along with her strength as a Saint of Heaven. When Tongtian tried to investigate the disturbance, Empress Pingxin sensed another gaze: Yuanshi’s.
Empress Pingxin could accept Tongtian sensing her actions, but Yuanshi? Was it because of Tongtian? But if that was the case, shouldn’t Laozi have also investigated?
Thankfully, she had accomplished everything before Tongtian could stop her. If she was lucky, Tongtian might not trace it to her. However, Empress Pingxin always felt Yuanshi’s gaze was strange. She couldn’t place an exact description of her feelings, but she always felt Yuanshi was the most mysterious and unfathomable amongst the Three Purities.
Whatever the case, Empress Pingxin moved forward with her plan. The collision with Tengri Chaos World was outside her expectation, but once the war of worlds was over, she implemented her plan.
With her Samsara Register, Pingxin knew when the third sovereign of humanity would be born. Using this knowledge, she reincarnated one of the gigants of the Titan Tribe, Chiyou, into humanity and fused the strand of Purple Majesty Qi into his body.
To be precise, it wasn’t a true reincarnation. It was closer to a fusion between a gigant’s body and a human. Because the end result was not purely a giant, a soul formed. The soul would inherit the gigant’s memories, and by then, she only needed to wait.
Because of Chiyou being born with the Purple Majesty Qi, the third sovereign of humanity was no longer clear.
The Great Dao is fifty; the Eye of Heaven is forty-nine; the last one escaped.
As long as Chiyou defeated Xuanyuan, he would become the third sovereign of humanity. By then, the Karmic Luck of the Titan Tribe would merge with humanity. The giants and humanity would become one. From then on, although they were no longer pure descendants of the Titan Tribe, they would become the ruler of the world.
Of course, just reincarnating Chiyou wasn’t enough. Empress Pingxin also reincarnated more outstanding giants, who later became the nine generals under Chiyou.
With her preparations done, Empress Pingxin only needed to wait. The only thing she feared was Tongtian or the other Saints preventing the rise of the Titan Tribe. If she succeeded, not only would the Titan Tribe exceed their former glory, but her share of the Three Realms’ Karmic Luck would increase.
Sure, it would offend Nuwa, but the Titan Tribe and Demon Clan had always stood on opposite sides.