Doubts

The next morning.

The sun had just risen.

People on the deck noticed the sea color beginning to shift violently, with a massive black shadow swimming below, slowly approaching the ship.

All the Blessing Shamans' faces changed drastically as they sensed those four terrifying auras. A chill ran down their spines, and someone couldn't help but let out a terrified scream, "Sea beasts! Giant Sea Beasts!!"

"It's the Black Tongyun Crab God."

The Young Ghost Empress's expression turned grave.

That name came from the terrified, superstitious folk of the coastal regions, who had even erected a statue to kneel and worship it, offering living sacrifices. But the name fit—it was a colossal rock crab, black-bronze in color with cloud-like patterns.

Boom!

Boom! Boom!!

And the next second, what terrified the Young Ghost Empress even more was that the shadows of three other Giant Sea Beasts began to slowly emerge from the other three directions.

"They've all come."

"They're encircling us, as if mocking us for walking right into their trap."

The Young Ghost Empress showed a look of horror.

The howling gale, The roaring waves, The deep, whale-like growls of the giant beasts!

Even before they drew close, the mere waves stirred up by those terrifying Kings of Giant Beasts sent the entire ship tilting violently, sending many ordinary crew members tumbling across the deck.

"We're in trouble."

The Young Ghost Empress and the Bronze Emperor exchanged glances, then turned their gazes to Stone Light's Emperor Zhizheng—the mysterious, terrifying man who had defeated them both was the key to this great battle.

Even they themselves didn't know just how powerful this man truly was!

Though his aura always felt like that of an ordinary mortal—so aged, so feeble.

But the next second, something even more terrifying happened.

Boom!

A colossal tentacle slapped against the distant coastline, as if to swallow the rising sun.

People saw a shadow of an even more fearsome aura, raising goosebumps all over their bodies. It was the silhouette of an octopus, its tentacles writhing endlessly, yet radiating a far greater sense of dread.

The moment they saw it, it was as if humanity was staring into an abyss.

Everyone on the ship felt the world spin, as if caught in a blender, rolling and shaking with the vessel.

The Young Ghost Empress and the Bronze Emperor's faces turned utterly pale!

Was this the Sea Beast King, whose presence had only been rumored in the early days?

This power was dozens of times greater than their own.

"On the suckers of its tentacles—those are skulls. It has stolen human wisdom!" They felt that before a true monster like this, even they themselves—humanity's strongest—were fragile and helpless. That power, like that of a god, drove the two mightiest human emperors to despair.

But the next second, Something unbelievable happened.

"So that's it. It's the one manipulating those four beast-like giant monsters to attack humanity?" Stone Light's Emperor Zhizheng stood on the deck, slowly raising the longsword in his hand and slashing toward the sea.

Rumble!

Like mountains toppling and seas overturning.

Though there was no fluctuation of aura on Stone Light's Emperor Zhizheng's body, he carved a terrifying rift into the ocean. That Ocean King, a horror beyond measure, let out a shrill, agonized cry, then fled.

Pfft!

The other four giant beasts were also shaken by that single sword strike, their shells shattered, blood staining the sea, as they sank into the depths, their whereabouts unknown.

"Just like that... we won?"

Everyone stood dumbfounded. It was a scene of sheer wonder.

They looked at that incredible emperor, standing firm on the deck, bathed in golden sunlight, like a god of war. Was this merely the man closest to god?

Perhaps he was already nearly divine!

The people gazed at that majestic figure with awe and longing. History would forever remember this moment.

Only Stone Light's Emperor Zhizheng remained calm, slowly sheathing his sword. His gaze swept across the surroundings. "Everyone, into the sea. Seize the Immortal Herbs."

Only then did everyone snap to action, moving swiftly across the deck.

"Hurry! Scholars of Jingshan Temple, collect blood samples! Gather the remains!"

"Divers of the Seaside Ghost Country, put on your diving gear and go underwater!"

"Move, move, move!"

Three days later.

"A great victory!"

"The greatest victory in human history!"

"We have finally conquered the deepest ocean, the greatest fear that has dominated humanity."

"Praise the Great King!"

In taverns, temples, castles, villages, and deserts—all people spoke of the deeds of this great king!

People began to sing the praises of this great human hero-king.

They began to compose poems, biographies, and songs for him.

They began to understand that his previous atrocities were necessary sacrifices, not tyranny!

And at this moment, In the City of a Hundred Stones, an elderly renowned painter was working on an oil painting.

He stood on the roof of a common house, dipped his brush in paint, his expression calm.

"Good thing I acted quickly, building the great ship to find the deep-sea lair. If I had waited a few more years, I might not have been its match."

"History is both the past and the future. My dear elder brother, I have a small question I'd like to ask you." A faint, inexplicable smile curled at the corner of his mouth as the painting in his hands gradually took shape.

This painting before him would be passed down into the distant future, forever remembered by the world.

In the third century AD, the famous painter Tongyun's Emperor's Sea Patrol Map depicted a great human Ancient Progenitor Emperor, hailed as the strongest hero-emperor in history, leading all of humanity's hope to defeat the terrifying Ocean Deity and seek the Immortal Herbs to return to the continent.

This scene was etched into eternity.

The painting inscribed humanity's courage and the very beginning of the human race's formal rise.

Later generations recorded it thus:

[In 0354, an Immortal appeared in a dream. Stone Light's Emperor Zhizheng built a great ship, sailed the seas to seek the Longevity Medicine, slew four Sea Beasts, defeated the Ocean Lord, bathed in blood, seized the Immortal Herbs, and returned. Humanity thus entered the gate of Qi Cultivation Longevity Gate.]

0358

Time flew, and human civilization erupted into a great boom!

The Emperor returned to court laden with the Immortal Herbs. Humanity had passed the gods' trial and received their gift—the hope of longevity and immortality!

The City of a Hundred Stones became the Royal Capital.

In the center of the Desert Giant City, a miraculous source of humanity was built: the "Cloud and Mist Qi Sea." Here, six hundred and eight ocean Immortal Herbs were planted, their strands of qi emanating into the water.

It was a nectar of jade, capable of aiding cultivation.

Here, the origin of all human civilization began to exclude all mortals and mediocrities.

This was the land of human Kingship, the homeland of human heroes. Only the talented, the strong, the wise—all kinds of powerhouses—were welcomed to reside here as candidates, possibly to consume the Immortal Herbs, each one rarer than the last.

Every one who emerged from the hero's homeland, the "City of a Hundred Stones," was a great powerhouse that shook the Mortal World!

Under the greatest monarch-emperor in New Human history, the world flourished. Genius after genius appeared, dazzling in this era.

0369

Humanity thus began to shed the extraordinary!

One by one, the Wind Swallowing and Qi Consuming ancestral shamans walked the earth, rebuilding palaces and teaching the masses.

They began to establish specific cultivation frameworks and define the various levels of practice.

On the entrance stele of the Royal Capital, the City of a Hundred Stones, was inscribed this sentence:

—I have always believed that the despair of mortals mostly comes from their own incompetence, but the despair of the strong mostly comes from the powerlessness of their era. Therefore, I will change the powerlessness of the era.

0370.

Stone Light's Emperor Zhizheng announced the candidate for the next emperor.

Everyone was shocked: "Is the Emperor about to fall?"

"He's only just over a hundred years old."

"How could a being of such immense power only possess a lifespan of a hundred years? That is a man nearing godhood who could effortlessly crush the Lord of the Ocean!"

Opinions varied.

Perhaps the great battle had inflicted severe internal injuries.

But everyone knew that this great king's life might truly be nearing its end.

0361, early spring.

Everyone noticed that Stone Light's Emperor Zhizheng was visibly aging—his qi and blood failing, the light fading from his eyes.

Everyone understood what this omen meant.

In his final moments, as life slowly slipped away, Stone Light's Emperor Zhizheng, this great ruler of the Slave Dynasty's Kingship, ordered the construction of a lavish temple in the Royal Capital, the City of a Hundred Stones, and the erection of a statue of a god.

On the statue was a man with a tear mole.

In the Third Month of the same year, Stone Light's Emperor Zhizheng announced the holding of the "Grand Ceremony of Fengshan."

Fengshan was a ritual in which a ruling emperor paid homage to the gods of heaven and earth. "Feng" meant building an altar to worship heaven; "Shan" meant offering sacrifices to earth.

That day.

A hot-air balloon rose into the sky, and a woman kept scattering flower petals among the clouds—a breathtakingly beautiful sight.

Stone Light's Emperor Zhizheng, together with the still-youthful Young Ghost Empress and the Bronze Emperor, along with over seventy ministers of the court, held the Grand Ceremony of Fengshan at the Cloud and Mist Qi Sea.

This king, crowned with an imperial diadem, first paid homage to Heaven, then to Earth, and afterward made offerings before the divine statue in the center. Gazing at the statue of the man with the tear mole, old memories surged forth once more. With an expression of utmost sincerity, he said solemnly:

"History is both the past and the future. O great deity, I have a small question. I humbly beseech you to descend to the mortal realm and grant me an answer."