Minghe, the Great Prehistoric Imitation Master

Seeing Ancestor Minghe's expression, like a man who had gone hungry for three days and suddenly spotted a meat bun, Chen Song understood perfectly: Great, another top-tier powerhouse driven mad by his obsession with attaining sainthood.

Yet he put on just the right amount of respect and "a martial nephew's honesty toward his martial uncle," then said, "In answer to Martial Uncle Minghe, I was indeed fortunate enough to be present. Martial Uncle Nuwa... relied on her supreme Creation Divine Ability to create an entirely new race called the 'human race.' The Heavenly Dao acknowledged her immense merit in completing the sequence of living beings in the Great Prehistoric World, and thus bestowed boundless Mysterious Yellow merit upon her, helping Martial Uncle break through her barrier in one stroke and attain sainthood through merit!"

"Create... an entirely new race?" Ancestor Minghe repeated softly. Light flickered rapidly in his scarlet eyes, like a computer running at full speed. "Using the Dao of Creation to bring forth life, gaining the Heavenly Dao's recognition, receiving merit..."

He suddenly raised his head and stared intensely at Chen Song, as if trying to see straight through him. "How exactly was it created? What materials were used?"

Chen Song felt his scalp tingle under that gaze, but he still forced himself to answer as concisely as possible. "Martial Uncle Nuwa used the Nine Heavens Breathing Soil, an innate spiritual earth, as the foundation, supplemented by the Three Lights Divine Water. She mixed in a trace of her own blood essence as the source of life, then enlightened it with supreme Creation Dao Charm, granting it form and spirit. That was how she succeeded."

He deliberately left out the crucial detail that he had supplied the Five Elements Branch. Better to keep that credit for himself.

"Nine Heavens Breathing Soil... Three Lights Divine Water... her own blood essence... Creation enlightenment..." Ancestor Minghe muttered. Every word was like a key, colliding madly within his mind.

Suddenly, he threw back his head and laughed. "Hahaha! This ancestor understands! Creation of life, attaining sainthood through merit! So that's how it is! So that's how it is!"

Before his laughter had faded, Ancestor Minghe's figure flashed and vanished from where he stood, leaving only a sentence echoing through the blood-colored air. "Boy, wait here for a moment!"

Judging by the direction, he was heading straight for the core of the Blood Sea.

Chen Song and Big White stared at each other.

"Boss, was he... overstimulated?" Big White scratched his ear with a paw.

Chen Song rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Looks to me like my Martial Uncle Minghe found his 'sainthood password' and is getting ready to... make a high-quality knockoff."

Not long after, the entire Blood Sea seemed to boil!

Rumble!

Endless waters of the Blood Sea surged into the sky. Under Ancestor Minghe's vast magical power, they mixed with the infinite baleful energy and fragments of lingering souls contained within the sea. Ancestor Minghe even forced out his own blood essence without hesitation and fused it into the mixture!

He imitated Nuwa, replacing the Nine Heavens Breathing Soil and Three Lights Divine Water with Blood Sea water, using the blood essence of himself, the Asura Demon Ancestor, as the source of life. Activating his unique Blood Sea Creation Divine Ability, he began wildly "molding" life!

One strange creature after another crawled out of the Blood Sea—some hideous, some seductive, some burly. Most of the males were ugly and fierce, while the females were alluring and bewitching. Their common trait was the dense blood-bane aura and thirst for slaughter they all carried.

Ancestor Minghe had created the Asura Race!

Above the sky, clouds of golden merit gathered once more! Though their scale was far inferior to the vast, boundless merit Nuwa had received when creating humans, they were still considerable enough to make any great powerhouse green with envy.

As the merit descended, roughly seventy percent entered Minghe's body, twenty percent entered the Asura Race and enhanced their destiny, while the remaining ten percent returned to the Blood Sea.

Bathed in the golden light of merit, Ancestor Minghe's aura rose steadily, and his understanding of the Laws of Slaughter seemed to deepen... Yet when the merit was finally exhausted, his rising aura ultimately came to a halt, unable to break through that crucial barrier.

He was still a Quasi-Saint! He had failed to attain sainthood!

Standing atop a wave of blood, Ancestor Minghe felt the power within him increase without undergoing the necessary qualitative transformation. He looked down at the newly born yet deeply violent Asura Race, then thought of the vast merit that had filled the heavens when Nuwa created humanity, and the pure spiritual radiance of the newborn humans...

An enormous sense of disparity and frustration welled up in his heart.

"Why?!" Ancestor Minghe roared unwillingly, his voice shaking the Blood Sea. "We both created a race! Why could she attain sainthood while I could not?! The Heavenly Dao is unfair!!"

Chen Song watched from the side, baring his teeth. Damn, he had really snapped already?

He cleared his throat and cautiously tried to comfort him. "Um... Martial Uncle Minghe, please calm down first. Maybe it's because your 'materials' and 'concept' differ a little from Martial Uncle Nuwa's... Hmm, perhaps there's a difference? Humanity was pure creation, but your Asura Race... carries a bit of 'original sin'? Or maybe it's the 'first-mover advantage'? Martial Uncle Nuwa got the credit for being the first to eat the crab, so it would be normal for the merit awarded to the second one... to be discounted?"

Ancestor Minghe abruptly turned his head, his blood-red eyes glaring at Chen Song so fiercely that Chen Song swallowed the rest of his words.

However, Ancestor Minghe did not lash out. He merely stared at Chen Song, his chest heaving violently. After a long while, he finally snorted heavily like a deflated balloon—though still radiating murderous intent.

"Hmph! Smooth talker!"

But deep down, he knew that Chen Song might not be wrong. The human race Nuwa had created aligned with "life" and "spirit"; it completed what had been lacking. The Asura Race he had created, however, rested upon "slaughter" and "resentment"; it was merely an extension. The underlying intent truly differed in quality.

"Enough!" Ancestor Minghe flicked his sleeve, his tone carrying defeat and a trace of barely concealed gloom. "Leave! Do not mention today's events to anyone!"

Chen Song felt as though he had been granted a pardon. He hurriedly cupped his hands. "Rest assured, Martial Uncle. I saw nothing today and heard nothing! This junior will take his leave!"

With that, he grabbed Big White, who was still curiously studying the Asura Race, leaped onto the dog's back, and fled without looking back. He moved even faster than when he had arrived.

Only after flying far away did Chen Song finally let out a long breath and pat his chest. "Damn, I nearly became a witness to Martial Uncle Minghe's breakdown and his punching bag. Being an imitation master isn't easy either!"

Big White kept running while looking back, disappointment all over his dog face. "Woof... What a pity. I didn't get to ask those freshly baked Asuras whether they could be roasted and eaten..."

Chen Song said, "...Eat your head! Run! What if Martial Uncle Minghe comes to his senses, decides my big mouth made him fail, and chases after us to chop us up?"

Riding Big White, Chen Song raced across the western wilderness at full "escape for his life" speed. He was still muttering to himself over whether Ancestor Minghe might chase after him in fury to silence him. After all, he had witnessed the other man's entire "high-quality knockoff failure." That had to sting.

Just as he was wondering whether yelling "Martial Uncle Nuwa, save me!" might give him some courage, that familiar, heart-palpitating blood-bane pressure surged up from behind him like a parasite clinging to bone!

"Fuck! He really came after us!" Chen Song's scalp exploded, and he nearly fell off Big White's back. Big White's fur stood on end in fright, and even Energy Devouring Sprint nearly failed.

A flash of blood-red light appeared, and Ancestor Minghe's sinister figure was already blocking the path of man and dog. His blood-red robe snapped in the wilderness wind, while the phantoms of Yuantu and Abi floated around him. The killing intent... Hm? It did not seem particularly strong?

Chen Song's heart was in turmoil. He quickly forced out a smile uglier than crying. "M-Martial Uncle Minghe... Do you have any further instructions? This junior truly saw nothing and said nothing just now..."

Ancestor Minghe stared expressionlessly at him for several breaths, until Chen Song's skin crawled. Only then did he slowly speak. His voice remained cold, but it truly held no killing intent. "Boy, why are you running?"

Chen Song said, "..." If I didn't run, was I supposed to wait for you to invite me for tea? I can't afford Blood Sea specialty 'Yuantu Abi Tea'!

Ancestor Minghe seemed to see through his thoughts and snorted. "If this ancestor intended to make trouble for you, I could have acted in the valley just now. Why chase you all the way here?"

That did make Chen Song relax a little. True enough, with Ancestor Minghe's strength and temperament, if he genuinely wanted to act, he would have settled it at the "scene of the crime." There was no need to chase them out.

"Then... Martial Uncle, why are you here?" Chen Song asked cautiously.

A complicated, unreadable emotion flashed through Ancestor Minghe's blood-red eyes. He fell silent for a moment before saying, "Come to the Blood Sea with this ancestor and sit for a while."

Chen Song said, "!!!"

Visit the Blood Sea? With Ancestor Minghe? Had the script gone wrong somewhere? Shouldn't they be fighting to the death, or perhaps he should be extorting hush money? Why was he inviting him over to his home? Was the Blood Sea a place normal people... no, normal living beings could visit? Was this really not going to be his last meal?

Seeing Chen Song's terrified expression that practically screamed, "Martial Uncle, are you trying to lure me to the Blood Sea, kill me, and save yourself the trouble of cleaning up?" Ancestor Minghe frowned slightly, seemingly impatient. "What? Are you afraid this ancestor will harm you?"

"Of course not!" Chen Song quickly waved his hands, his mind racing. Going to the Blood Sea was an unknown risk, but refusing an "invitation" from a Big Boss at the peak of the Quasi-Saint realm—especially one who had just suffered a breakdown—might be even riskier. "It's just that... this junior's cultivation is shallow. I fear I cannot withstand the Blood Sea's baleful energy and might defile Martial Uncle's sacred grounds..."

"Hmph. With this ancestor here, could mere baleful energy harm you?" Ancestor Minghe swept his sleeve, and an invisible force instantly enveloped Chen Song and Big White. "Let's go!"

The next moment, heaven and earth shifted. The surrounding scenery seemed soaked in blood, while a dense, inescapable stench of blood and resentful baleful power crashed over them.

Chen Song saw red before his eyes, and then found himself above a boundless dark-red ocean with surging waves of blood. Beneath his feet stood a palace built from white bones and unknown dark-red crystals—the cultivation ground of Ancestor Minghe, the Nether Palace.

"Woof... Boss, I want to throw up..." Big White's four legs went weak as he sprawled on the cold bone floor. His dog face was deathly pale—though that was impossible to tell beneath his white fur. The aura of this place made him profoundly uncomfortable.

Chen Song also felt uneasy all over, as though countless icy needles were stabbing into his skin and primordial spirit. Fortunately, the power of merit and Innate Five Elements Qi within him circulated automatically, forming a faint barrier that blocked most of the baleful energy. The secondary seal of the Earth Book also warmed slightly, releasing a trace of heavy, steady earth-vein energy that stabilized his mind.

Ancestor Minghe took in Chen Song's reaction, especially the faint radiance of his merit power and the Earth Book's secondary seal. A flicker of surprise passed through his eyes before they returned to stillness.

He led Chen Song into the main hall of the Nether Palace. The interior was vast and gloomy. The walls seemed to hold countless twisted, suffering faces wailing in agony, yet they were restrained by some invisible force. Ancestor Minghe walked directly to the main seat and sat down, then pointed at a "chair" beside him carved from the intact skull of a massive beast.

"Sit."

Chen Song looked at the skull chair, which radiated chilling cold and lingering ferocious baleful intent. His mouth twitched, but in the end he sat down anyway—ice-cold, hard as stone, and terrible on the backside.

Ancestor Minghe did not speak immediately. He merely tapped, once after another, on an armrest forged from some unknown metal. The dull tap, tap sounds echoed through the deathly silent hall, making the atmosphere even more oppressive.

Chen Song sat as though on pins and needles, complaining wildly in his heart: This hospitality is way too hardcore! Not even a cup of Blood Sea specialty "Forget River Tea"?

After a long time, Ancestor Minghe finally stopped tapping. He looked at Chen Song, his blood-red eyes unfathomably deep. "Boy, you said before... 'first-mover advantage'? 'Material differences'?"

Chen Song's heart skipped a beat. Sure enough, they had circled back to this. He carefully chose his words and said cautiously, "Martial Uncle, this junior was merely making wild guesses. Think about it: when Martial Uncle Nuwa created humanity, it was the first such event since the creation of heaven and earth. It was creation 'from nothing,' aligned with the vitality of creation, and completed the Great Prehistoric World's sequence of living beings. It was only natural for the Heavenly Dao to reward her generously."

He paused and observed Ancestor Minghe's expression. Seeing no sign of anger, he continued.

"As for the Asura Race Martial Uncle created, it was certainly also an act of immense divine ability. However, its foundation lies in the Blood Sea, and it inherits the paths of slaughter and resentment. It is more like... an extension rather than creation. Perhaps the Heavenly Dao considers it only a refinement and evolution of existing rules—the Blood Sea. Thus, though merit was granted, it was insufficient to support attaining sainthood. Perhaps... Martial Uncle's opportunity for sainthood lies elsewhere?"

Ancestor Minghe listened quietly, unconsciously rubbing the armrest with his fingers. Chen Song's words were like a stone dropped into his ancient well-like state of mind—though his Blood Sea was far from calm.

He had imitated Nuwa, and failed. That path seemed impossible.

Seeing him sink into thought, Chen Song did not dare disturb him. He could only silently circulate his magical power to resist the surrounding baleful energy while praying inwardly that this Big Boss would not keep digging himself into a hole. If he lost his mind and decided to use Chen Song to test some "new breakthrough of the Dao of Slaughter," Chen Song would be finished.

After a long while, the roiling blood light in Ancestor Minghe's eyes gradually subsided. He raised his head and looked at Chen Song with less coldness and more indescribable complexity.

"You boy... are somewhat interesting." Ancestor Minghe's voice remained hoarse, but the killing intent within it seemed less pronounced. "Your cultivation is not high, but you have a few crooked theories."

Chen Song hurriedly replied modestly, "Martial Uncle overpraises me. This junior was merely spouting nonsense. It is not worth taking seriously."

"Hmph." Ancestor Minghe snorted and stood up. "That will be all for today. You may leave."

Chen Song felt as though he had been pardoned. He immediately sprang up from the skull chair that had been digging into his backside. "Thank you for Martial Uncle's hospitality! This junior will take his leave!"

"Wait." Ancestor Minghe called him back again. With a flick of his finger, a streak of blood-red light flew toward Chen Song and turned into a small token carved from blood jade. An ancient character for "Ming" was engraved upon it. It emitted a faint aura of the Blood Sea, yet strangely carried a trace of tranquility.

"This is a Sea of Blood Token. With this token, you may enter and leave the outer regions of the Blood Sea freely. Ordinary Asuras will not dare stop you. If you face a life-or-death crisis, crush this token. This ancestor will sense it and may be able to save your life." Ancestor Minghe spoke calmly, as if he were mentioning something insignificant.

Chen Song accepted the token. It felt warm and smooth in his hand, without any bloody sensation. Instead, it gave him a strange sense of calm. He was astonished. Was this... a consolation prize? Or hush money combined with a life-saving charm?

"Many thanks for Martial Uncle's generous gift!" Chen Song thanked him sincerely. No matter what, this thing might truly save his life at a critical moment.

Ancestor Minghe waved his hand. His figure gradually blended into the blood shadows within the hall and vanished, leaving behind only a final, indistinct sentence echoing through the chamber. "...Go. If you ever have any ideas about attaining sainthood in the future, do not forget this martial uncle."

Holding the Sea of Blood Token, Chen Song pulled along the still weak-legged Big White and hurriedly left the eerie, terrifying Nether Palace. Only after he once again felt the barren yet "normal" air of the western wilderness did he let out a long breath.

"Damn, that one-day Blood Sea tour was really thrilling..."