Rise of Humanity

by <unknown>

  Her【Sword Seeding Art】was a sword art contained in the【Great Boundless Sword Qi】, it could be used as both offensive and defensive measures; when the inexhaustible Wood Sword Qi formed into a sword dome, it would possess incredible defensive capabilities.

  Bang bang bang——

  The sounds of impact could be heard incessantly as the red lanterns crashed onto the sword dome, Qiu Jin'er could sense countless Wood Sword Qi being destroyed away as their roots clashed with the Wood Sword Qi and fought against it.

  Not only that, but the red lanterns were gnawing at the Wood Sword Qi, devouring the sword dome away piece by piece.

  Thousands of red lanterns attacking at the sword dome at the same time, even the sword totem patterns of the【Great Boundless Sword Qi】were unable to withstand their attacks. Even if the vine were growing incessantly, the damage being inflicted on it far exceeded the rate at which it was able to recuperate. It wouldn't be long before her defense completely broke down!

  “Senior martial brother!” Qiu Jin’er shouted.

  With a thought, countless blazing red Sword Qi shot out in all domains, thin like silks, the Sword Qi didn't blast out of the vine-formed dome, but instead, they pierced into the huge vines.

  Chi chi chi——

  Hundreds of Sword Qi waltzed in the air. They were like the pens drawing marvelous works of art, meticulously engraving the totem patterns on the surface of the vines.

  These totem patterns crisscrossed over one another and merged together – it was utterly abstruse! Zhu Jushan looked anxiously at the shuddering sword dome, not knowing what Zhong Yue was doing.

  “Senior Martial Brother Zhong, what are you … En? The Kui Long totem patterns!?”

  Zhu Jushan was shocked and exclaimed out involuntarily, “This is … the Kui Long Celestial Race’s totem patterns?”

  The totem patterns were formed as Zhong Yue’s Sword Qi engraved them out, Zhu Jushan immediately recognized the totem patterns as the supreme totem patterns of the Kui Long Celestial Race which were highly regarded and were kept away from the others, he had only seen it on the bodies of the Kui Long Celestial Race!

  That was when Zhu Jushan followed the elder of the Zhu Jian Celestial Race to pay a visit to the Kui Long Celestial Temple. The chief of the two races had fought a round of battle, and that was when Zhu Jushan caught a glimpse at the totem patterns on the Kui Long Celestial Race chief's body, they were very similar to the ones Zhong Yue was carving on the vines!

  Other than the Kui Long totem patterns, there were some other totem patterns like the Great Sun Golden Crow totem patterns, connecting together with the Kui Long totem patterns.

  “It’s an array formation!”

  Ao Shanshan was also shocked, the Great Sun Golden Crow totem patterns and the Kui Long totem patterns were connected and intertwined together; meanwhile, another kind of totem pattern emerged by itself on the vines as if they were present the whole time. These totem patterns would be the ones that Qiu Jin'er had placed down.

  The newly emerged totem patterns featured a human-faced bird-bodied celestial being who stood on two dragons — it was the Gou Mang! One of the abstruse aspects of her spirit that Qiu Jin'er came to understand – it then turned it into the form of totem patterns.

  The three types of totem patterns connected together and intertwined with one another. They quickly carved out an array formation on the vines, and the array formation was nearly completed.

  Suddenly, Zhong Yue kept the Sword Qi and said solemnly, “Junior martial sister, the Trio Saga Array!”

  Huuu——

  Qiu Jin'er nodded right away and all of a sudden, the sword dome ignited itself. It was completely engulfed in the blazing fire while a thousand feet three-taloned Golden Crow emerged from within. The Golden Crow spread its wings out and soared; then, a cow-like loud roar trembled the air, a thousand feet tall Kui Long stood in the blazing on one leg, and the Gou Mang celestial being soon followed its emergence!

  Two beasts and one celestial being, the trio saga emerged from the array formation and pushed away the human head lanterns, making the sword dome a kill zone for the peculiar lanterns!

  "Trio Saga Array?" Ao Shanshan lifted her head and looked over, thousands of red lanterns were pouncing down, but they were all blasted away. They failed to leave even a single impression on the array formation.

  This Trio Saga Array was shockingly abstruse; during their past two months of traveling, Qiu Jin'er and Zhong Yue had spent all their time together. The duo studied the totem patterns on the Kui Long's cowhide, trying to attain more insights on the Immortal Body; although they had yet to deduce the ways to cultivate the Immortal Body from the Kui Long's cowhide, they were eventually able to come out with an array formation – the Trio Saga Array.

  The Trio Saga Array required two people to cast out the three sagas — Golden Crow, Gou Mang, and Kui Long; the inexhaustible wood kindled the blazing fire, while the Kui Long's undying nature enhanced the defense.

  This was the first time they have cast out the Trio Saga Array since its inception.

  The Trio Saga Array unleashed its power, every moment there would be lanterns getting taken down; rays flashed across Zhong Yue’s eyes, suddenly, he reached his hand out of the array formation and pulled a red lantern back to him.

  As soon as the lantern was pulled back, its roots tightly curled around Zhong Yue, and it gnawed down at his head!

  Zhu Jushan and Ao Shanshan were shocked, they quickly rushed over to the rescue, clenching on the roots and pulled them away!

  Zhu Jushan morphed his fingers into five dragons that were strong and sturdy like real dragons. His finger dragons then bit on the lantern; while at the same time, he cast out his Yin Yang Sword Qi and slashed down right at the lantern's roots!

  In terms of sheer strength, Zhu Jushan was stronger than Zhong Yue, with him pulling at the roots, the lantern failed to bite at Zhong Yue and had only managed to gnaw at the air.

  "I don't want this small head. I like the big and round ones!"

  The lantern suddenly kept its roots from Zhong Yue and struck at Zhu Jushan instead, curling around at Zhu Jushan tightly and opened its mouth widely, even bigger than Zhu Jushan’s head!

  Zhu Jushan was shocked, half of his head was in the lantern's mouth, and he lamented in his heart, I’m dead for sure…. All of a sudden, a surge of godly aura burst out as a golden sword was held against the roots!

  "If you dare to eat him, I'll slice you into half!" Zhong Yue held the Golden Peng Sword and threatened with a cold face.

  The human head lantern felt the godly aura and froze abruptly.

  Half of Zhu Jushan's head was in the lantern's mouth, his face was completely pale white, and he shouted, "Senior Martial Brother Zhong, why do you even threaten a lantern? Just slice it off already!"

  "If you dare to slice me, then I'll eat him!" The lantern refuted, there was a ring on the top of the lantern that wobbled as it spoke.

  Zhong Yue reached out his hand and held onto the ring. Immediately, the lantern's roots softened like an inflated balloon. It shouted, "Let go of my head …. Ey, this is so comfortable….”

  Zhu Jushan quickly freed himself from the lantern's mouth. He turned around and saw the lantern settling down like an obedient puppy. Its roots would lift up and scratch on itself from time to time.

  A shadow flashed across his eyes, and he raised the Yin Yang Sword Qi, just when he was about to slash on the lantern, Zhong Yue lifted a hand to stop him, and he said solemnly, "Brother Zhu, stop. We'll keep it and let it lead the way."

  “Lead the way?”

  Zhu Jushan kept the Sword Qi and glanced around. The other human-headed lanterns were still gathering around the sword dome, pouncing incessantly at the Trio Saga Array. They slowly but steadily eroded off the energy in the array formation. Zhu Jushan said frantically in worry, "We are now trapped, how do we get out?"

  Zhong Yue's eyes flashed, and he said, "This Trio Saga Array can't last for l
ong. Please, may Brother Zhu and Senior Martial Sister Ao drill a tunnel underground so that we can escape?"

  Ao Shanshan nodded, she surged her psyche out and formed a huge dragon with it. It opened its mouth wide and held Zhong Yue, Qiu Jin'er, and herself within it. Ao Shanshan then said, "Senior Martial Brother Zhu, the Divine Jungles's earth crust is incredibly hard, my earth style skills can't penetrate through at all. You Zhu Jian Celestial Race is proficient in the earth style techniques, the best in the whole West Barren, you'll lead the way!"

  Zhu Jushan was proud, and he smirked, "In terms of earth style techniques, only the monster race's Qiu Qingshan can compete against us of the Zhu Jian Celestial Race!"

  He burrowed into the ground and drilled a huge hole, opening a tunnel in the underground while Ao Shanshan controlled the huge dragon and followed behind. The Divine Forest’s earth crust was incredibly hard, even when Zhu Jushan was proficient in the earth style techniques, he was still exhausted after drilling for a few miles and couldn’t continue anymore; left with no choice, he drilled up and surfaced from the ground.

  Ao Shanshan dispersed the huge dragon, and they bolted away. As there were more and more Qi Practitioners entering the Divine Forest, the other lanterns were alerted and swarmed over the whole Divine Forest to prey on their heads.

  They had just escaped from death, and the last thing they would want was to plunge into another adversity. They scanned their surroundings cautiously and realized that they were only half a mile away from the spot where the Qi Practitioner found the treasure.

  With a thought, Zhong Yue visualized a Jiao Dragon and placed the human-headed lantern in the dragon's mouth.

  The lantern’s weakness was the ring on its top, it would calm down as long as the ring was held onto.

  Zhong Yue heaved a breath of relief and said, "These lanterns should be the ordinary lanterns in the Imperial Palace. But due to the long passage of time, the magical energy in the palace seeped and gave them basic life. They then started roaming around to feast on heads; but as long as they are held up, they will calm down."

  "Senior Martial Brother Zhong, what use does this lantern have?"

  Zhu Jushan was puzzled, he said, "We might as well just crush it!" The lantern in the dragon mouth was shocked, it quickly said, "Don't kill me! We are called the Propitious Lanterns, we have the ability to bring about luck, and we also know the locations of the treasures in this Divine Forest! There is one treasure, just right in front of you, as long as you don't kill me, I'll bring you there!"

  A thought flashed across Zhong Yue's mind, and he said smilingly, "There's a danger surrounding this treasure, just before this when we were in the sky, we saw a Qi Practitioner exploding like a firecracker. So then, what danger is there around the treasure? And what is this treasure?"

  Chapter 280: The Divine Winery |

  “This is the Divine Winery that produces all the wines for the gods.” said the propitious lantern quickly.

  It then quickly explained, "The wines produced here are divided into different categories. The higher quality wines will be supplied to the gods with higher positions and vice versa. The dangers that lurk within the winery are those wine bugs and the wine barrels."

  “The Divine Winery?”

  The interest of Zhong Yue and the others were piqued up as they had never expected to discover such precious locations here, no wonder that exploded Qi Practitioner shouted so happily.

  Zhu Jushan even started the swallow his saliva as his inner glutton was aroused from the propitious lantern's mention of the divine wine.

  "I wonder if there are still divine wines left in the divine winery," wondered Zhu Jushan.

  The four then quietly walked towards the Divine Winery under the guidance of the propitious lantern. There were thousands and thousands of them in the Divine Jungle, but only those that managed to obtain a head by devouring people seemed to possess intelligence while those without heads had only one instinct – and that was to devour heads!

  And instead of being a token of luck as their names suggested, these lanterns became one of the threats in the Divine Jungle, threatening the lives of those who intruded the jungle.

  It was not long after they started moving towards the Divine Winery, they heard waves of shrieks, seemingly released by other Qi Practitioners that fell into the hands of these murderous lanterns.

  And now, they were near the so-called "precious" place, only about half a mile away. But they remained quiet and walked carefully, fearing that they would accidentally draw the unwanted attention of these propitious lanterns. These lanterns were as fast as lightning, and their roots could not only grow in an instant, they were also extremely robust, even Zhong Yue could not escape if these roots tied him. If that scenario came to be, then he would be having his next cup of tea with the gods in heaven or demons of hell.

  "You have to cover up your head; these propitious lanterns would not come after you if they can't see your head."

  The captured propitious lantern conveniently became a traitor of its kin as it said, "The reason why we love to devour heads is that after eating a head, we could acquire our own brain and grow our intelligence. We would not even be interested in you if you weren't able to serve such a purpose."

  The four of them then quickly took out their spare clothes and wrapped them around their head, and the results were visible in almost an instant; the lanterns stopped coming after them, and they instead turned their attention to the other intruders in the Divine Jungle. They continued roaming around on their own as they went after them.

  Not long later, they finally arrived at the Divine Winery where flags waved happily in the sky. The winery was built at the side of the mountain with a river flowing out in it, and the divine winery was incredibly spacious.

  The winery clearly was unable to escape the ravages of time, turning into ruins adorned with shattered tiles and fallen pillars. The base of the structure, however, managed to remain intact and the four of them could easily see how prosperous this winery must have been back then. Judging from the space that the winery occupied, they could only begin to imagine the sheer volume of divine wine that was brewed here and supplied to the gods and heavenly Monarch.

  So weathered, will there still be some divine wine left?"

  Zhu Jushan looked around but all he saw was broken barrels, and he said in disappointment, "This place appeared once long ago in the Lesser Void World, and the old hags probably looted all of the remaining divine wine…."

  As soon as he was done talking, another group of Qi Practitioners arrived at the Divine Winery as well. Judging from their attire and appearance, these guys were most probably from the West Barren, and immense killing intent rose within them as soon as they saw Zhong Yue. Just when they were about to attack, the faces of one of them darkened, and he quickly signaled his friends to stop by sending them a message through his psyche. His message seemed to give them a shock as they promptly restrained the actions they were about to take.

  “He is the Zhong Shan Clan’s member from Swords Gate, it is best if we do not provoke him….” said the Qi Practitioner to his friends.

  Suddenly, the earth trembled vigorously and a three to four feet tall wine barrel crawled out from the ground.

  Dong——-

  The wine barrel landed on the ground heavily, and from the barrel came two incredibly muscular hands while a face appeared in the middle of the barrel.

  As the barrel stared at Zhong Yue and the other three with its eyes, Zhong Yue was in shock as he felt everything suddenly went extremely weird as the lanterns were alive and now the barrels!

  "My guess is that there is still lots of divine wine in this huge barrel." murmured Zhu Jushan.

  “I still don’t have legs….”

  The wine barrel’s eyes rolled around before it landed its vision on Zhu Jushan and it immediately plunged towards him while it shouted, “Give me your muscular legs!”

  Upon seeing this, Zhu Jushan saw Zhong Yue, Qiu Jin
'er, and Ao Shanshan move a few steps away from him as soon as he wanted to ask for help from them.

  "Are you for real?" shouted Zhu Jushan as he charged back towards at the wine barrel. The Zhu Jian Celestial Race was ranked second in terms of physical strength in the entirety of the West Barren, but Zhu Jushan was sent flying away before letting out a shout and spitting out blood from his mouth as soon as he clashed with the huge barrel!

  The barrel continued flying in the air, and it landed on Zhu Jushan heavily. It immobilized him with its heavy weight. It then stretched out its arms and began moving Zhu Jushan into its body!

  “Stop looking, help me!” shouted Zhu Jushan.

  Zhong Yue took out his Golden Peng Sword and swung at the arms of the wine barrel. To his surprise, the Golden Peng Sword failed to slice the barrel's arms off.

  So hard!

  Zhong Yue had a shock, and he started circling around the barrel. He unleashed a blade storm around it, and he finally sliced its arms off after a few hundred strikes.

  The barrel then retaliated by ramming into Zhong Yue, sending him flying away but Zhong Yue did not let it go easily! As soon as he was sent flying away, he hurled his sword out towards the wine barrel, and the sword danced around the barrel, landing many strikes onto the wine barrel.

  Suddenly, the top of the barrel was sliced apart by the Golden Peng Sword and from the barrel came insects chirping and countless wine bugs flying out.

  Upon seeing this, Zhu Jushan screamed, and he waved his hands around in an attempt to chase the bugs away. All in a sudden, he caught onto a wine bug, and he realized that these bugs looked just like fireflies, except they were much bigger with four pairs of wings and he continued to observe the bug while it struggled to get away.

  These bugs were transparent, and in their stomachs was one little wine barrel that was also transparent. But there was a little bit of wine in it that kept shaking around as the bugs flapped their wings.

  Happiness struck Zhu Jushan in an instant, and he shouted, "Don't let these bugs get away!"

  With the four pairs of wings, these bugs had incredible speed, and in just an instant, more than half of them had flown away.