Nuwa Awakens Jiang He to His Future Path

True Person Huang Long, upon hearing that Liu Bai had gone into seclusion, secretly resolved to cultivate diligently to repay Senior Brother Liu Bai. During his training sessions with Xuan Qing, he also felt the synergistic connection between them. As a result, a peculiar phenomenon emerged on Kunlun Mountain: every time True Person Huang Long cultivated, a dozen or so Human Race members would gather around him to train together! Later, as the number of Human Race disciples in the Three Sects grew, this practice only expanded!

Because in this life, Primordial Heavenly Lord had a rather favorable impression of the Human Race thanks to Jiang He, a large proportion of the disciples he accepted were humans. The original Twelve Golden Immortals had now become the Twenty-four Golden Immortals! The other twelve were all from the Human Race!

As for the Jie Sect, since it placed no restrictions on background and had Liu Bai acting as an insider, a massive influx of Human Race members joined, causing the proportion of disciples from other races to dwindle. The Jie Sect was practically becoming a sect of the Human Race!

Among the Three Pure Ones, only Laozi had taken a single disciple, Xuan Du, who was also from the Human Race.

I wonder what Jiang He would think if he knew all this!

But right now, Jiang He had no time to dwell on such matters, because he was facing a headache of his own!

Ever since the Dragon Clan merged with the Human Race, his cultivation level seemed to have loosened. After he and Feng Li Yue stepped into the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal realm, their strength had changed. No matter how much they meditated or comprehended the laws, they made no progress whatsoever. Any excess cultivation they accumulated would inexplicably vanish! They had sought guidance from Empress Nuwa specifically, but she could only tell them that their cultivation was being absorbed by their bodies—why, she didn't know.

After that, he resigned himself to being a tool, dedicating everything to the development of the Human Race. He figured his strength was what it was. He had given up entirely, but now he felt his realm loosening again. He rushed straight to Nuwa Palace to explain the situation to Empress Nuwa!

Nuwa Palace

This was who knows how many times Jiang He had come. As usual, he walked straight in, ready to call out "Mother," but this time, an unexpected obstacle appeared—a girl of about sixteen blocked his way!

"Who goes there! Nuwa Palace is not to be trespassed upon!"

Those words stunned Jiang He!

Wait, I have to report in to come home?

Jiang He instantly felt like he was losing favor. He recalled that he really hadn't visited Wa Huang Tian much lately, usually communicating through the Nuwa statue. The last time he came was... the last time.

Looking at the girl before him, Jiang He said, "What do you mean, trespass? How can coming home be trespassing? Move aside—I need to see the Mother Goddess about something!"

With that, he strode straight inside.

"Hey, hey, hey! You can't go in—I haven't announced you yet!" The little girl panicked and hurried to block him, but she couldn't catch up, so she just followed him all the way in!

"Mother Goddess! My cultivation level seems to be loosening!"

As soon as he saw Nuwa, Jiang He cut straight to the point.

After examining Jiang He's internal condition, Nuwa said, "Tell me the specifics."

"It's like this..."

Jiang He began rattling off the situation over the years.

Just then, a small head peeked in from the doorway, looking like she wanted to enter but was too shy to do so.

"It should be Fortune Force. Now that you are the Clan Leader of the Human Race, you are bound to the Human Race's fortune. As the Human Race's fortune grows, your strength loosens.

Your stagnation in recent years might be linked to the slowing growth of the Human Race's strength!"

Seeing Jiang He's puzzled expression, Nuwa continued, "Your rapid cultivation increase earlier was because you were created with many spiritual treasures and a drop of my essence blood. All of that fueled your rapid growth. Now that your strength has stalled, it means the innate power you were born with has been exhausted!

Think of it this way: Primordial Sacred Beings are born at the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal realm, but they are gestated for tens of thousands of years or more. You and Yue'er should have been born at that realm too, but you had no gestation time, so your power had to rise gradually after birth. Now that the energy is spent, your cultivation naturally slows down!

As for the cultivation disappearing from you and Yue'er, it's because you both awakened special physiques. Your physiques are one yin and one yang, interacting to form a unique pair in the world—the Sun Body of East Prince Gong and the Moon Body of the Queen Mother! Go back and study them well!

As for the Dragon Clan's fortune suddenly boosting your realm and making you feel a loosening, that's purely because your cultivation rose so fast before that you thought it should always be that quick. The Dragon Clan merging into the Human Race's fortune gave you a temporary surge, creating an illusion!

In truth, such sudden bursts of power are rare and hard to come by. What you're feeling now—slow growth—is the normal state."

After hearing Nuwa's explanation, Jiang He understood instantly. "Then Mother Goddess, what about this fortune? I've been developing the Human Race all these years—why hasn't the fortune increased?"

At this, Nuwa laughed in exasperation. "You've been alive this long, and you still don't understand fortune?"

She reached out with her fair hand and tapped him on the head. "From now on, focus on serious matters. Look at what you've turned the Human Race into! Obsessed with external things, unwilling to strive, indulging in pleasure!"

"Huh? Mother Goddess, isn't that an exaggeration? I just wanted my people to live better!" Jiang He knew what she meant by "external things," but he hadn't thought it was that bad.

"Not an exaggeration?" Nuwa's expression grew more serious. "I've always thought you were level-headed, and you've been dutiful to the Human Race all these years. I never told you many things because I assumed you knew. But you've made such a simple mistake!

First of all, fortune is a term exclusive to powerful races. Only the strong can speak of fortune; the weak can only speak of luck. That's an unchanging truth of the Primordial World. What determines a race's strength? Fortune. And what increases fortune? Not population—but the strong! The most populous beings are the ants on the ground!

Strength comes from within. Only what you cultivate yourself can never be taken away! All these years, you've relied on external tools to let ordinary mortals stand against the strong, yet your fortune hasn't grown a single inch—instead, it's grown unstable! That's because there are no true experts to anchor that fortune. Others can strip you down to nothing in a single blow. External things are always just external things—nothing but cheap tricks!

Jiang He felt as if he'd been doused with enlightenment. Since the Red Dust Pearl was opened, he had grown increasingly dependent on extracting knowledge from his past life, unconsciously steering the Human Race toward that path, assuming that the technological route of his past life suited them.

But was that really true? In his past life, technology had only been around for a hundred years, and humanity had already begun to degenerate. Some might say human intelligence had evolved, but was that really the case? Modern people are inferior to the ancients in many ways. In this advanced world, believers in religion make up 80% of the population, and they still haven't fully understood the I Ching, written thousands of years ago!

Instead, human greed, brutality, and desire have expanded without limit. Perhaps technology isn't the blessing of humanity's future—it might be the key to humanity's destruction!

Thinking of all the doomsday theories from his past life, Jiang He couldn't help but shiver. In just a hundred years of technology, humanity had already teetered on the edge of extinction several times. Damn! No wonder the ancestors called it "clever tricks and cunning devices"! (Don't curse me! Dog head for safety!)

Seeing Jiang He's lingering fear, Nuwa knew he had grasped the Human Race's path forward. She waved her hand to let the person outside the door come in and said to Jiang He, "This is my new disciple, Jin Feng. She is the daughter of the current Phoenix Clan Leader. Because she was close to me before I attained sainthood, she was sent here to wash away her karmic sins. I found her quite promising, so I kept her with me—unlike some people who haven't come to see me in ages!"

Jiang He gave an awkward smile at Nuwa's sour tone. "Heh heh, Mother Goddess, I've been busy! I'll send Yue'er over to keep you company when I get back!"

"Forget it. That girl Yue'er can't stay with me for more than a few days before she wants to go back. I think you two might as well have a child early and let me raise it!"

"Great! I'm being pressured to have kids! Sure enough, mothers are all the same..."

Jiang He said he'd arrange it when he got back. They'd never thought about having children before—not because they couldn't, but because they simply didn't want to. As for whether they could still conceive at their current cultivation level? Please, look at who his Mother Goddess was! If she wanted grandchildren, who would dare stop her? The Heavenly Dao?