Rise of Humanity

Zhong Yue clenched his teeth, and he thrust his psyche once again at the Beast God Inner Core in his inner mind, causing it to release a tremendous amount of beast god essence into his body!

His Xiang Dragon Body was replete with a surge of unimaginably strong energy; his physique grew to forty feet long, and his speed was given another boost that allowed him to narrowly escape death's clutches!

This decision was extremely dangerous; if he could not refine the beast god essence in time, he would be assimilated into a Xiang Dragon, permanently!

"We are close, very close…"

Xin Huo mumbled, "We will reach it in another fifty miles… Second left!"

Zhong Yue's eyes brightened, and he rushed into the second tunnel on his left. As he made his way down the tunnel, it became narrower. Suddenly, the tunnel trembled as the beast behind him tried to enter, but the beast became stuck in trying to enter a hole too narrow for its colossal frame.

The giant beast released a muted roar, but its massive body barred it from entering the tunnel no matter how much it struggled.

Hua-la-la.

One after another, eyeballs rolled down from its eye sockets and muscles from its limbs peeled away. The zombie demons and eyes flooded the tunnel and sprinted toward Zhong Yue—it was a horrific scene!

Since the giant beast now had a slimmer frame, it was able to enter the tunnel, and with full speed, it charged right toward Zhong Yue.

"Oh shit, we've just stirred the hornets' nest…"

Xin Huo mumbled while he kept turning his head and looked behind, all of a sudden, he shouted out, "That's it! Brat Yue, I know what these devil souls are looking for! No doubt words like smart and brilliant were specially invented to praise me!"

Zhong Yue kept quiet. This was a moment of life and death, the crucial time of escaping from death, how could he allow himself to be distracted?

"They are the souls of the dead gods and devils, souls but not spirits!"

Even without getting any replies, Xin Huo kept on, "Soul and spirit, soul and spirit! Devil souls have souls but no spirits, someone had torn their souls and spirits apart, the souls were repressed underneath of Swords Gate Mountain, that's why whenever the Devil Soul Yin Effluvium erupted, the devil souls were all searching for their spirits!"

The little flame walked back and forth in the weathered lamp mumbling to himself, "Where are their spirits hidden at… definitely not underground, else they would've found it already… but if not underground, then where can it be? Surely not outside in the Swords Gate Mountain, they will give off surges of energy that would be hard not to notice. The spirits must have been sealed off inside something else!"

"Who killed these gods and devils, the purpose of gathering the spirits was not to repress them, there must be some other reason, some other uses for their spirits…"

The doubts from the little flame were unanswered, he once again trapped himself in questions that have no answers.

"Seems like there are a lot of secrets in Great Wilderness, the biggest of all is where are the spirits of these gods and devils… Brat Yue, you are getting close, 1,640 feet left!"

Zhong Yue was set astir, and his speed elevated once more.

Behind him, the white skeletal giant beast engulfed the zombie demon and peculiar eyes together. It then sprinted faster to catch up to Zhong Yue quickly!

"We are getting closer, very close…"

Xin Huo started mumbling again in his agitation, "Let's hope the seal isn't too strong now, or we will be trapped here for another nine years until the next eruption of the Devil Soul Yin Effluvium."

Zhong Yue mustered all his strength and hurried to his destination, a bright light appeared out of nowhere and suddenly, the surroundings expanded.

He raised his head and cast his gaze around. There was a pool of water floating in the air. The sky and pool, white clouds and blue waters. It was a stagnant pool suspended in the air with no water flowing down—they were contained by countless numbers of huge totem carvings beneath the pool.

From below, the view was as if someone was looking at the zenith, the totem carvings appeared in different forms, continually changing in patterns without any fixed permutations.

"Ever-changing totem carvings?

Zhong Yue was baffled, this was the first time he ever encountered such totem carvings. The totem carvings beneath sealed the whole pool without a single drop of water leaking out. One could tell how strong and robust the seal was!

Could this really be where the seal was getting loosened?

Behind him, the giant beast surged forward in great speed, rays that symbolized death started to glimmer in its eyes; watching as the giant beast was getting nearer, Zhong Yue gritted his teeth and leaped into the air, the Xiang Dragon stomped and he walked in mid-air toward the dangling pool and seal!

The weathered lamp in the hands of Sui Sovereign behind him emanated two rays of light piercing right at the totem carvings; once the light rays shone on them, cracks started to emerge on the totem carvings.

Time had ravaged the once unblemished totem seal left behind by the gods, and a flaw appeared in the totem carvings. Time had now rendered the seal incomplete.

But even so, the totem carvings still contained an unfathomable power within them that was meant to strike directly at the soul. After all, its purpose was to seal devil souls for an eternity; its power must never be underestimated no matter how much the totem carvings had degraded.

What was most horrifying was that the totem carvings were continually changing. It ebbed and flowed like water, without fixed shape or pattern, and with limitless transformations and permutations. Recklessly entering would result in irreversible consequences. A path that seemed safe could suddenly turn into a road to death the next second with the seemingly whimsical will of the totem carvings!

"This seal, although loosened and now very weak, it is still fairly strong…"

Xin Huo was troubled by the difficult situation, he said, "Normally this wouldn't be of any concern, but right now, time is not our friend… Brat Yue, do exactly as I say, never lay a wrong step, or your soul will perish!"

Xin Huo was stressed, and with all his might, he calculated the probabilities and changes of the totem carvings. He instructed, "Now go in, move forward 183 feet and 2 inches!"

Zhong Yue burst out in an instant, and lightning crackled beneath his feet. Zilaa—he dashed into the seal and stopped abruptly right at the spot Xin Huo mentioned.

Lightning propagated beneath the Xiang Dragon radially, but before the bolts of lightning could travel far, they were all crushed away by the totem carvings around.

Zhong Yue levitated in the air with the lightning. He finely coordinated his body. The Dragon commanded the clouds, while the winds followed the tiger. In his Xiang Dragon form, it was not difficult for him to control lightning.

However, the difficulty in controlling the lightning would significantly increase when he reverted to his human form.

There were pros and cons both in the form of Xiang Dragon and a human; in the human form, he could continue with his cultivation, but he hadn't the slightest clue on how to cultivate in the form of a Xiang Dragon.

"What's next?" Zhong Yue watched the marvelous-looking totem carvings around him, his face twisted and his voice was throaty.

Just by looking he could tell, any one of these totem carvings could send him to heaven hundreds of times over. It was okay for him to watch and look, but if he intercepted with any one of the totem carvings, then death would be his only outcome!

"We wait."

Xin Huo was as nervous as Zhong Yue was, he said, "Don't stress, don't panic, look at me, I'm perfectly calm and steady…"

Zhong Yue lowered his sights, the death rays from the white skeletal giant beast below him missed its target, but the creature was now beneath the pool. Its mouth opened and roared, but nothing could be heard. Its huge body crouched and as the earth trembled, it sprung up into the air, gnawing its mouth right at Zhong Yue!

Its mouth was as big as half of a mountain when widely opened as if it were going to chew a hole in the sky!

"Xin Huo?" Cold sweat flooded Zhong Yue's forehead.

"A little bit longer…"

In the copper lamp, the little flame was in fact, more stressed than Zhong Yue. He leaped out of the lamp and with a hoarse voice, he yelled, "Wait… Jump, now!"

Above Zhong Yue, there were marvelous yet deadly totem carvings alighting down; below him, the malevolent mouth of the beast was coming right at him, he was already in the middle of its gaping mouth.

Zhong Yue clenched his teeth, lightning crackled beneath his leg, and with a leap, he thrust himself upward!

The moment he jumped up, the totem carvings above him suddenly broke off, it was as if the power they contained was too strong that it crushed the totem carvings by their own power.

That split second was the moment that decided his fate, the opportunity he needed to seize to live. Zhong Yue slipped past the totem carvings, and away from the malevolent mouth of the beast, he dived into the pool of water!

Like a dragon that met with water, Zhong Yue quickly swam toward the surface of the pool, and the giant beast followed behind him. Its head rammed into the pool, but unlike Zhong Yue, it was trapped by a net of totem carvings at the surface of its head!

However, the inertia of the giant beast carried him upward regardless. Booom—a loud burst followed the emergence of a Xiang Dragon from the pool as it landed on the solid ground and quickly ran away.

Right after the Xiang Dragon left, an explosion occurred in the middle of the pool, splashing the pool water all around like shrapnel from an explosion while a giant head rose out of the water. The eerie white color of its skull and the marvelous totem carvings engraved on its surface then become clear!

All of a sudden, he felt a tremendous aura reminiscent of a saint ... heavenly, imposing and yet, extremely terrorizing—Boom! The gigantic skull ruptured into pieces, crushed into bone ash by the totem carvings!

Zhong Yue, in the form of Xiang Dragon, quickly ran away right after he came out of the pool; suddenly, Zhong Yue spotted a shadow on the ground that grew larger with every second. He knew that it meant that something was falling from the sky right on top of him—Chui! The item missed Zhong Yue by a hair's margin and stabbed into the ground right in front of him!

"I've finally escaped from that forsaken place! This… is this the fang of that pseudo beast god?"

Zhong Yue quickly stopped. The thing that almost sliced him dead pierced into the mountain rocks beside him. It appeared to be a scimitar-shaped winter-white sharp fang, with weird and strange totem carvings engraved on it, it was one of that giant beast's fangs!

The fang was 17 feet long, around the height of two adults. One side of the fang was sliced flat by the seal of the gods while the other side was sharp and incisive. The edges of the fang were serrated and unaffected by the seal of gods.

Zhong Yue was startled, his heart was shocked and overjoyed at the same time.

The fang of a beast god, even if it comes from a pseudo-beast god, it was still fairly precious!

One had to know that he would be considered very, very lucky to be able to walk out of the Devil Soul Forbidden Land alive. The thoughts of finding treasures never even crossed his mind, not to mention the fang of a beast god. His mind was completely preoccupied with his own survival!

But now, after he escaped from the Devil Soul Forbidden Land, a beast god fang had serendipitously fallen from the sky right before him.

What would a beast god fang be like?

Probably not a single soul weapon, not even the Ten Malefic Weapons in the Valley of Sword could be its match.

"What a huge bone blade, with a hilt, it will be over 20 feet long."

Xin Huo leaped out from the copper lamp and praised the fang, "It must be really fun and comfortable to slash your foe with it!"