Race and Reproduction

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Ye Ling opened her mouth, then lowered her head again. "He is my brother."

The Vermilion Bird's soul's eyes darted back and forth between the three, seemingly lost in thought. After a long while, it finally said, "This human isn't a good match for you. You're stronger than him... He'd be a perfect match for that Soaring Serpent."

"Huh?" Cheng Cheng and Ye Ling both stared wide-eyed.

Qin Yi's eyes widened as well.

All the monsters froze, mouths agape, unable to utter a word.

What is this and what is this?

Our ancestors were biased!

No, shouldn't you think that's a human being and be furious? What do you mean by "match" or "mismatch"?

In fact, when Cheng Cheng said "He is my husband," she was already prepared to argue with the remnant spirits of her ancestors.

Given her own environment and overall mindset, she harbors an intense aversion to humanity, naturally assuming that her ancestors held similar views. Especially considering that the Vermilion Bird's soul has been imprisoned for millennia, it's likely even less benevolent towards humans; it would be good enough if it didn't resort to violence.

But what Suzaku said was completely unexpected; it wasn't what I had imagined at all...

Cheng Cheng tentatively asked, "Don't you think he's a human being?"

But Suzaku was even more surprised than they were. "Humans? Is there a difference?"

"Huh?"

"Even without humans, wouldn't our various races devour each other? Humans are also living beings, one of the myriad races evolved from the primordial spirits of the beginning of heaven and earth. What's the difference between us and one of the tribes of demons? It's nothing more than the law of the jungle, where the strong rule and the weak submit. This is the way of Heavenly Dao."

"..."

No wonder they say that back then there were no humans or demons, only the strong and the weak; that's certainly true.

The Demon Race is currently too weak, which is why they've banded together and are under the rule of the strongest. They've become a unified force. Once each race becomes powerful, do you think the tigers will actually consider the sheep their kin? That doesn't make sense.

The reason why the Demon City split up in the first place was simply because everyone was actually of different races, and someone just stirred up trouble and they separated.

The Demon Race has never been a single race, but rather one of many races, and humans are merely one of these many races.

This is an ancient understanding.

Why are there more demon corpses than human corpses below the rift valley, turning it into a demon realm? That's because during the ancient war, there were naturally more demons than humans, and the war was primarily a battle between demons... Back then, Soaring Serpent wouldn't have thought that Qi Tu was on its side.

Therefore, when Qin Yi arrived at the bottom of the rift valley, he was not affected by the ancient demonic aura there, because there was essentially no difference. As for hostility towards humans, that came later.

"Whether humans are sealed within me or other races are sealed within me, it makes no difference," Suzaku concluded. "Of course, if humans are currently powerful and bully other races, it's normal for those races to rise up against them. Didn't we counterattack once ten thousand years ago? Being driven back means we were useless; what's there to say? Those without ambition should obediently become their mounts, while those with ambition should accumulate strength and one day fight back to make them their slaves. Isn't that how the world goes?"

The demons. "..."

That makes so much sense.

"As for union..." Zhuque paused, "Logically, the best choice is for offspring to inherit the characteristics of both special bloodlines. However, after countless attempts, it's almost always impossible to produce offspring. Perhaps this bloodline is too strong, violating the Heavenly Dao order and incurring divine jealousy. Are you aware of this?"

The monsters exchanged awkward glances, not daring to utter a sound. Little did they know, most of them had only ever seen two individuals with this special bloodline, and both were female...

Qin Yi did understand to some extent. For example, people always talked about dragons and phoenixes together, but he had never heard of what the offspring of a dragon and phoenix would be like.

In Qin Yi's understanding, this is called reproductive isolation?

Suzaku, oblivious to their awkwardness, continued, "Generally speaking, two people of the same bloodline, one male and one female, must reproduce to maintain the purity of the bloodline and become a species. However, as we all know, the stronger the life form, the harder it is to reproduce. Coupled with the cruelty of war, there is a risk of extinction in the long run."

It paused, then sighed, "So some strange beasts seek out those with similar bloodlines to interbreed in order to spread their lineage widely, like Chenghuang finding a fox... This inevitably dilutes the lineage, and as it's passed down through generations, eventually only ordinary foxes remain. Unless they are influenced and called upon by the Demon Power of their ancestors, awakening the ancestral factors hidden deep within their bloodline... well, like this Soaring Serpent. This is also a disguised method of reproduction and inheritance."

All the demons listened attentively. No one took this as a trivial chatter; it was extremely important, the foundation of their race's reproduction, and the basis for tracing their bloodline—no less important than a top-tier Method Formula.

Not only the demons, but Qin Yi also had an "I see" feeling, and learned a lot. It turned out that Ye Ling's ancestor tens of thousands of years ago was indeed a Soaring Serpent, but it was diluted into a Vegetable Snake over the generations... No wonder not all demons can awaken this kind of bloodline, because they may not have the alien beast factor, so it is useless to awaken it.

Ugh, this damn bloodline theory.

"Among all races, humans are a rather special race." Zhuque finally got to the point. "Especially a small portion of humans were born directly from innate spirits at the beginning of the universe. While other races still need to awaken their spirits, they already possessed spirits, were born with intelligence, and cultivated extremely quickly. Therefore, many races are also moving closer to humans, and even after awakening their spirits, the transformation they seek is to become human."

Qin Yi was quite pleased to hear this. The human beings in this world were well-designed, truly the most intelligent of all beings, and the kind that everyone was trying to emulate.

Different worlds are different, but it doesn't necessarily take many epochs before humans come to rule. Liusu is very likely one of the earliest groups of humans, one of the strongest races, the so-called primordial beings closest to the Dao.

"As time went by, humans also degenerated a lot, and not everyone is as spiritual as the earliest batch. The last close to the Dao was called Ryu... I forgot her name." Suzaku recalled with great difficulty, "Anyway, she was a very arrogant person. She was not old, but she had a big temper... All I can remember is her nostrils, because she always looked at me with her nostrils and called me a stupid bird... Never mind, let's just call her the Nose-Hole Person."

"..." Qin Yi held onto the Wolf Tooth Club tightly.

"It seems the Nose-Hole Person is dead, killed at the end of this battle. I don't know the specifics... I only vaguely know from her remnant soul... Serves her right, that's what makes her nostrils so big."

Qin Yi could barely hold onto the stick, and finally couldn't help but say, "We've gone off-topic, Aunt Zhuque."

"Oh..." Zhuque continued, "In short, that original group of humans, you might now call them Ancient Bloodline, should no longer exist. Such innate spirits, passed down through generations, could not possibly remain intact. Even if they still exist today, they should be in the heavens... This one, born on earth, was probably awakened, just like this little Soaring Serpent?"

Qin Yi wiped his sweat. "I don't know about that."

Zhuque sized up Qin Yi and pondered, "This is truly a fine bloodline..."

Cheng Cheng couldn't help but ask, "What's so good about it? Is it because cultivation is so fast? What's the difference between the Soaring Serpent and the Vegetable Snake?"

"That's one reason," Zhuque said. "Since demons often transform into humans, there are fewer obstacles to their union with humans, making it easier to breed half-demons. Of course, weak humans only produce half-demons, but offspring born from those with ancient and near-Dao bloodlines have a high chance of retaining their own bloodline while also possessing human spirituality, making them suitable for breeding. Back then, such humans were quite sought after, but unfortunately, there were too few of them. The few that existed were all incredibly strong, and it was impossible to compete for them. That Nose-Hole Person killed countless demons because of this..."

Cheng Cheng's eyes widened.

Ye Ling's eyes widened.

The Wild Boar Demon and other monsters looked at Qin Yi with green light in their eyes.

Qin Yi was drenched in cold sweat and slowly retreated step by step.

Liusu seemed to have said something similar, but Liusu was, after all, human, and her understanding was not as detailed as that of these Demon Race, nor was it as straightforward...

What do you mean by "suitable for breeding"? Are you trying to kill me? You're repaying kindness with enmity!

"In any case, I must thank this human this time." The Vermilion Bird's Soul suddenly flapped its wings, and a ball of ethereal soul fire fell into Qin Yi's Ming Tang: "Vermilion Bird Flame, here you go, refine it well."