Old God World, Terrifying Indeed

"Yes, and no?"

Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng looked startled and asked, "What do you mean?"

Zhu Zhengwei said faintly, "Guiding qi down the neck and circulating it through the whole body is indeed a grand and upright path. Cultivating this Complete Method can truly grant longevity, but the righteous path is arduous—too ambitious and impractical."

Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng said, "If the great path is hard to cultivate, should we first cultivate a lesser path?"

He was a stubborn and perfectionist emperor, who, like Zhang Zhi, had also thought of the simplest and most perfect method: guiding qi down the neck and circulating it through the whole body.

But it wasn't that he couldn't think of other ways.

For instance, certain cultivation methods.

Cultivating only the head, or swapping heads and bodies?

Finding any means to first extend lifespan, to first raise one's cultivation.

Over the years, the scholars of the dynasty had come up with too many wild ideas, some even against morality. These thoughts, contrary to human ethics, were numerous, but he had rejected them one by one.

He asked, "May I ask, just how difficult is the Complete Method?"

Zhu Zhengwei said, "A person has hundreds of trillions of cells. Qi circulates within them, nourishing them. Every one of those hundreds of trillions of cells must swallow wind and consume qi. You can imagine the difficulty."

Circulating through the body was not that simple.

It was equivalent to injecting intangible spirit into material flesh and blood.

It meant directly using soul energy to stimulate and evolve the body, achieving immortality and eternal life. But the complexity of the body's structure in modern medicine needs no explanation—even today, there are far too many difficult problems yet to be conquered.

"Cellular Science? At Jingshan Temple in the Bronze Country, I have heard of the doctrines they obtained from the Old World."

Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng thought for a moment and said, "Still, if the correct method is affirmed and the path we seek is proven right, that is enough! If it proves too difficult to advance, we may consider other shortcuts first—but that will be for my descendants to ponder later."

Zhu Zhengwei nodded.

This question was considered settled.

In truth, there wasn't much to answer for the second question.

They had already chosen their path and seen it: guiding qi down the neck and circulating through the whole body was obviously the most orthodox method. They only wanted confirmation, a reassurance.

As for the third question, that was the main event.

They asked about the world's environment, whether the dynasty would prosper forever, whether at its peak it could reach the Old World, and what that divine Old World was like.

This was a look toward both the past and the future.

Now the first true dynasty was beginning to take shape, and his answer would serve as an inspiration and a guiding light for the civilization of this world. It required the utmost caution.

As Zhu Zhengwei pondered, he took a sip of tea, silently savoring the third question, then suddenly asked in return, "You ask whether the Ancestor Shaman Dynasty will prosper forever? Human Emperor Chong Dao, how big do you think this world is?"

Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng shook his head, honestly admitting he did not know.

After all, it was only natural. Over the past few hundred years, too many records of the Old Civilization had been lost. Even Zhang Zhi's memories of that Old World had grown vague and forgotten.

Zhu Zhengwei smiled and said, "The world is hundreds of millions of kilometers across. This is merely the land beneath your feet. The sun, moon, and stars in the sky are each worlds of their own—the universe is vast and endless."

Zhu Zhengwei's words made Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng gasp in awe, and he said with great excitement, "The world is so vast? Our dynasty is like a mayfly floating on the water?"

The impact on this emperor was immense, filling him with exhilaration!

The world was huge!

After all, the map of the current world was merely the territories of the Seaside Ghost Country, the Slave Dynasty, and the Bronze Country. Beyond that lay endless coastlines, the domain of the Sea Giants, and further out still, the boundless ocean, its scenery unchanging, as if no matter how far you went, you could never escape.

In reality, this was the map's invisible wall.

The world was actually quite small, but in Zhu Zhengwei's eyes, though it was still small now, its future territory might not remain so. Sooner or later, supported by a vast number of "lower-layer mining machines," it would become a true four-dimensional planet.

At the same time, Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng carefully pondered that sentence: The land beneath his feet was already hundreds of millions of kilometers, and the sky above was even more boundless!

Wasn't this heaven and earth?

He suddenly recalled the omen of this god's birth.

One hand pointing to the sky, one hand pointing to the earth—above heaven and below earth, I alone am supreme!

Could it mean...?

Looking at the man before him, his heart grew even more reverent and respectful.

Even among "divine" beings, this existence was likely one of the most supreme.

Zhu Zhengwei, of course, had no idea that Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng, this sage of the age, was stunned into recalling his own cringey, dramatic birth scene from years ago. Instead, he pricked up his ears and heard the Immortal Herbs whispering again.

"Hahaha, hearing about the Sea of Stars, this feudal emperor is totally lost."

"I was lost for so long before, and now I finally get to feel superior!"

"But isn't it only natural? Put him in our ancient Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, or Qing dynasties—any feudal emperor hearing the world is so vast would be bewildered. In their eyes, the farthest places were just a few barbarian neighboring states."

They found this shock only natural.

After all, it was just a feudal dynasty.

Its civilization was still stuck in a primitive slave system, with low productivity.

But some also began to wonder about the "god's" setting. The god actually knew about the concepts of the universe and stars! It knew about outer space, the cosmos, vacuums, and planets—could it be that it was essentially a high-level cosmic civilization?

This planet had a Super Technology Civilization in prehistory, but it was destroyed?

"Not sure."

"But the Worldview is incredibly interesting."

"It feels like another Earth to me—civilization is developing, the hidden worldview is massive. We're witnessing history on this planet, we're all just Onlookers in this Mortal World."

The weeds rustled and clamored, as if the wind itself was noisy.

Zhu Zhengwei paid no attention to their excitement and guesses. Instead, he sat beneath the Tea Shed, amidst the beautiful mortal scenery at the heart of this dynasty, and glanced again at the Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng. "You ask if the Blessing Shaman civilization at its peak could rival the old gods. Do you know what kind of world the Old Civilization was?"

The Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng shook his head.

Zhu Zhengwei stood up, as if gazing into a distant past, carrying nostalgia and remembrance. "In the Old World, every person could, with a single thought, transmit their voice across a thousand miles, project images through the void. Above every head hung an Archaic Magic Net, allowing them to instantly know knowledge that would take ordinary people millennia to learn. Everyone was omniscient!"

The Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng was stunned.

What kind of world-class miraculous creation was that?

His own Wall of Ten Thousand Stones was nothing compared to such a national wonder.

In that place, the scholars and ascetics of his dynasty would be nothing but a joke.

Zhu Zhengwei looked at him and smiled slightly. "In the Old World, hundreds of millions of subjects on the earth each had their own Cave Mansion. The walls were lined with Magic Arrays, intricate as a net, capable of drawing the power of cosmic thunder, shining with divine light, transmitting Immortal Energy, activating the Shamanic Artifacts in their homes—warding off cold, generating heat, freezing ice, creating fire—countless miraculous uses."

A world of Divine People!!

The Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng was still pondering that his own "Wall of Ten Thousand Stones" was probably inferior to even a single ordinary subject's Cave Mansion, when he heard Zhu Zhengwei speak even more shocking words:

"In that old nation, everyone could ride a mount, steering Flying Birds soaring ten thousand meters high, steering long dragons traveling ten thousand miles a day."

"A divine age! Truly a divine age! In that era, every person was an Immortal! Every person was a primordial Divine Person!"

The Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng couldn't help but exclaim, his pupils dilating. "My talents, my combat power—I am far inferior to a single mortal of that old era?!"

Zhu Zhengwei gave him a deep look. "What I have described is merely the common sight among its subjects."

"If the subjects are already this extraordinary—flying through the sky and escaping the earth—then what of the dynasty's Great Emperor?" he asked, even more curious.

Zhu Zhengwei glanced at him and said, "The emperor in power could send men to chase the moon and pursue the sun, gather sand from the stars, and forge a sky full of constellations to monitor the entire continent's territory, observing ten thousand miles of mountains and rivers! They could shoot an arrow ten thousand miles away, destroying an entire kingdom! With a single strike, they could annihilate billions of living beings!"

The Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng was completely immersed in this incredible, magnificent vision, and cried out loudly, "Heavenly Court! This must be the Mythological Heavenly Court!!"

Some of the nearby Immortal Herbs had already started getting excited.

"Isn't this just our modern world?"

"Hahahaha, I feel a surge of pride!"

"This game is so awesome—it actually understands us and even writes about our real world."

"In the blink of an eye, we've become gods! To the ancients, we are already the Primordial Heavenly Court! We are the sacred beings of the Old Civilization!"

"Wall circuits = Cave Mansion arrays, phones = thousand-mile voice transmission and projection, planes and high-speed rail = Immortal mounts, satellites = the Heavenly Emperor building stars to govern and observe the entire world."

"Wow wow wow! That's freaking awesome! Looking at it from this angle, it really does have a mythological style."

"Hey, what are you guys getting so proud about? What they're describing isn't necessarily us—it could be another equally developed, or even more developed, old planetary civilization!"

Zhu Zhengwei was a bit speechless.

What are you all so excited about?

I'm here developing this world's civilization, having a dialogue with an emperor of the age, and you Servers are even happier than I am? That's just ridiculous.

If it weren't for the Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng dumping you here to farm, treating you as a national treasure...

You're practically polluting my ears here! And ruining the atmosphere!

At that moment, the Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng's heart was shaken to its core.

So this was the Old Civilization?

And yet even such a great, mythical old world civilization was destroyed.

What kind of disaster caused it? Enemies? Internal strife? Natural calamity?

I was arrogant enough to ask, after making a few minor achievements, whether my Blessing Shaman Dynasty might one day allow everyone to practice Wind Swallowing and Qi Consuming and match such a divine age?

I was utterly blind and foolish.

A look of shame crept onto his face. "How could my Shaman Zhu Kingdom ever compare to that old Immortal Court?"

Zhu Zhengwei, upon hearing this, remained calm.

This wasn't meant to deliberately crush his confidence, but to show him a true, flourishing twenty-first-century modern technological society—a different future!

Although, to an ancient man, to a feudal emperor of this era, it was too incredible and too cruel. After all, while their individual power was strong, it was still only the strength of a single soldier.

Zhu Zhengwei smiled instead. "Why sell yourself short? Do you know where I come from, and where I am going?"

The Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng suddenly reacted, recalling the first words spoken at their meeting: [I come from the Old World, heading toward the future.]

His mind surged with emotion, a bold spirit bursting from his chest, and he couldn't help but think dazedly:

Does this mean my empire, the future of this age, might one day be no less than that mythical golden age?