His Head Cracked Open?

Zhu Zhengwei draped himself in a cloak, concealing his appearance as he wandered around and looked about.

He felt that only after seeing what the dynasty was like following Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng's death would the heart hanging in his chest finally settle.

"Of course, there's another reason."

"I came in to study the Blessing Shaman system he pioneered and take a look at the epoch-making work he had just forged, the All Living Beings Scripture. After all, that's the foundation of cultivation."

Zhu Zhengwei thought to himself, He spent his life laying the foundation for this system. Civilization has already borne its unripe fruit, and the system is nearing completion. It can be harvested now.

Fine, to put it simply, Zhu Zhengwei felt that the chives produced by this civilization sandbox world had ripened. It was time to cut a batch and see how effective they were.

He was very practical. He had always been an ordinary person; his strength was too weak, and that was no small matter. He had no sense of security at all.

He had to cultivate!

City of a Hundred Stones.

The streets were bustling and prosperous as Zhu Zhengwei walked among them.

He looked at what had once been the first capital of the Slave Dynasty. It had now become humanity's holy land.

He had slept through the night into daylight. Though only a few years had passed, the entire era seemed like clockwork gears set in motion, advancing by leaps and bounds.

Cultivators of this period no longer needed to directly consume Immortal Herbs. Instead, they could enter places with dense Spiritual Qi gathered by the "Immortal Herb Pool" and sense Aura there to take their first steps.

Every year, vast numbers of six- and seven-year-old children were brought here to be tested for aptitude in cultivating Qi.

Although this was far less beneficial than directly eating Immortal Herbs, it had the advantage of persistence.

As long as the Immortal Herbs here were maintained in sufficient numbers, the Spiritual Qi would remain dense enough. Humanity would surely flourish without decline, and Qi Consumers would emerge in an endless stream.

"A golden age of humanity, the Ancestral Shaman Era—and it has only been a few short years."

Zhu Zhengwei could not help sighing. "It's like a great explosion of civilization, like humanity breaking through its shackles in a short time and instantly entering the steam age."

"It's just that the Qi here is different. This is another kind of steam age."

A New Era had always erupted all at once, usually because a giant of the age pushed open that door.

"Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng, my Superman."

Zhu Zhengwei felt rather excited. "He launched reforms, turning Qi Consumers from the mythical emperors of the three great nations into something no longer exclusive to them. He truly made it so that all under heaven, every common being could become like a dragon, could consume Qi, could live forever. He even created a saintly work and made it public to the world."

"The Qi Consumption Method cultivates powerful Spiritual Power, enough to comprehend the mysteries of the world. It may even allow me, in reality, to become that one and only superpowered being from novels, movies, and myths!"

Zhu Zhengwei felt that the era had truly set sail.

This was awesome!

With his guidance and the passage of time, this place was becoming a vast and boundless Supernatural World.

He observed everything along the way, taking in the scenery around him.

As practitioners of Wind Swallowing and Qi Consuming gradually became widespread, stone houses began rising one after another. They had completely stepped out of the age of primitive tribal civilization and entered a flourishing golden age.

Cities and buildings began spreading across the land.

"This is my empire."

As Zhu Zhengwei walked, he felt an enormous sense of accomplishment.

It was probably like the immense satisfaction of playing a sandbox building game like Minecraft and looking upon the buildings, mountains, rivers, and landscapes one had created.

In the distance, in the square of the City of a Hundred Stones.

Morning sunlight spilled down as a cultivator led a group of children through the buildings. Pointing at a statue on the central platform—a handsome middle-aged man, heroic yet scholarly, with endless grandeur in his eyes—he said:

"Today is the third anniversary of Sage Chong Dao's death."

"You were brought to the Royal Capital to sense Qi and have your aptitude tested because of the grace of this great existence."

"In earlier times, only the rulers of the three great nations—the Bronze Country, Seaside Ghost Country, and Slave Dynasty—were qualified to cultivate Qi. You have caught up with the best of times!"

"He was a great mortal hero!"

Led by that cultivator, the children gazed fervently and longingly at the glittering Saint Statue, each offering a white wreath.

Almost every year, children from various counties, towns, and cities underwent preliminary selection and were only brought here after being recommended locally—to humanity's greatest City of a Hundred Stones, the legendary "Shaman Zhu Kingdom."

This place had already become humanity's holy land.

The apprentices who came here were all humans who thirsted to grasp truth and understand the world, to explore this wondrous and magnificent world.

"A new generation replaces the old. The statue standing there used to be Sage Zhang Zhi."

Zhu Zhengwei's face was filled with oddness.

Still, it was only natural.

Although Zhang Zhi was an old saint, he had lived long ago, and few of his deeds had been passed down. Generally speaking, only the Bronze Country revered him, while the other two nations were fairly indifferent.

Now that there was a new saint, there was no need to say whom people would believe in.

"I even strongly suspect Zhang Zhi deliberately tried to downplay his own existence."

"But that's understandable. Being worshipped up there all the time would feel strange whenever he passed by."

"And it would make things inconvenient. For example, if he wanted to become a slave laborer again and got savagely whipped by the slave overseer, the overseer might hesitate because he looked a little like a saint. Then he would lose the experience."

Zhu Zhengwei secretly pondered this and deeply agreed. "I can understand that. After all, I once played a Bag Bear. Only after putting on the costume, when no one recognized me, could I truly let myself go."

After making a round of inspection, Zhu Zhengwei found that everything had formed a complete system.

Even the testing of children's aptitudes had been divided into superior, middle, and inferior grades.

Almost every year, geniuses were discovered, while others returned disappointed.

"It seems that once the number of people able to cultivate increased, the issue of cultivation aptitude still emerged. Though that was inevitable, just as teachers in modern society also speak of aptitude and talent."

"But I always feel that the path of 'thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river—never despise a poor Young Man' is bound to arrive eventually."

The cultivation path had also been fully organized into a system, currently divided into seven realms.

They were simply the first through seventh ranks of Blessing Shamans. It was straightforward and clear. Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng had always been a pragmatist, not one for flashy frills.

But there had never been much point in dividing things so strictly.

After all, the real world was not a game. How could there be such absolutes?

This was especially true for the Blessing Shaman system. A supposedly overwhelmingly powerful seventh-rank Blessing Shaman who could swallow wind and consume Qi, standing against a thousand troops, could still be stabbed to death by an ordinary person with a dagger.

The Power of God, the body of a mortal—such deformity was inevitable.

"Still, after cultivating in a muddle for so long, I don't even know what my cultivation aptitude is like."

Night.

Zhu Zhengwei easily slipped into the Qi Consumption Temple.

He was, more or less, an immortal. Ordinary guards could not detect his combat strength, so he naturally entered as though no one were there. In the darkness, he saw the instrument used to test aptitude: the Head Sarira.

The Crystal Skull Shamanic Artifact.

It was a skull with a somewhat crystalline exterior, flawless as white jade and emitting a warm, gentle luster.

"So this is the testing instrument—a powerful Blessing Shaman's skull. By touching the skull and infusing it with Qi, one can test the strength of one's aptitude."

Zhu Zhengwei was quite interested in anything capable of testing aptitude.

As for whom this skull had belonged to?

It was said to be Stone Light Emperor Changshou, the second emperor of the Slave Dynasty.

Every year, earnest-faced children who came here stroked his head. In a sense, he truly had achieved immortality.

And this skull was incomparably hard.

As everyone knew, the most powerful part of a Blessing Shaman was his head, which many called a Divine Skull.

Attacking the heads of these powerful beings was the most foolish choice.

Zhu Zhengwei gently placed his hand on the skull.

Whoosh!

A faint flash of white light.

Hm, inferior aptitude.

The next second, the light intensified, turning milky white.

It had reached middle-grade aptitude.

Then, in the next moment, it turned into brilliant golden-white light.

It soared to superior aptitude.

Then something even more terrifying happened. The entire skull seemed to quickly become unable to withstand the energy and began to crack.

Bang!!!

The skull shattered like exploding fireworks.

"It cracked open instantly?"

Zhu Zhengwei was somewhat shocked. "My aptitude seems a little heaven-defying."

But he quickly realized why.

All the other Servers were constantly emitting endless Qi. What about him?

He was the core main server. They were all secondary servers. They were the Immortal Herbs everyone yearned for, yes—but he was the largest humanoid Immortal Herb!

Thinking about it that way, he was the ultimate source of Qi in the entire world. It was understandable for his aptitude to reach such a level.

"Perhaps I really am a supreme Divine Being in a certain sense, because I possess the only true god aptitude in this entire world." Zhu Zhengwei seemed to gain a little more understanding of the structure of this four-dimensional world.

"Who's there?"

Crack.

The lamps were lit, and a squad of guards hurried in.