"The Witch Clan can be an equal ally to the Human Race, but we must not sacrifice even the slightest bit of the Human Race's interests."
Gazing intently at Sui Ren Shi and the others, Huang Tian spoke solemnly.
In the ages Huang Tian had lived through, the Human Race had suffered several periods of decline. When they cooperated with the strong, they had been far too submissive, and the result had been that they were devoured, body and soul.
So even if he had to ally with the Witch Clan, Huang Tian would ensure the Human Race retained absolute control.
"Rest assured, Chief. Even if we die, we will never yield to any race."
"The Human Race must stand strong!"
Sui Ren Shi, Zi Yi Shi, and You Chao Shi looked solemnly at Huang Tian and replied with unwavering resolve.
"Buzz."
Huang Tian nodded slightly and waved his hand, taking a large number of corpses belonging to powerful members of the Demon Clan out of the Kongtong Seal.
Sui Ren Shi and the others glanced over them and immediately recognized them as the demons who had once fought the Human Race for the four tribes on the Shore of the East Sea.
There were no corpses from the Earth Bear Clan. They were allies now, after all. They couldn't exactly leave them without a single bone.
"Chief, leave what comes next to us."
Without hesitation, Sui Ren Shi and the others got to their feet and began carrying the demon corpses toward the Spirit Transformation Pool.
"Wait. These aren't for turning into spirits."
Huang Tian waved his hand and hurriedly stopped them.
"Huh?"
Sui Ren Shi and the others froze, looking at Huang Tian in confusion.
"By the name of the Human Race's chief, I gather the Human Race's destiny to form the Heaven and Earth Melting Furnace!"
Without explaining, Huang Tian brought out the Kongtong Seal and drew upon the boundless destiny of the Human Race, linking it with the endless Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth. Together, they formed a furnace.
The furnace roiled with mighty Spiritual Qi. Around it, the Human Race's destiny manifested the myriad aspects of the Human Race.
"Primordial Fire of the Human Race, heed my command!"
Next, Huang Tian raised his hand and, in the name of the Human Race's chief, drew upon the Human Race's Primordial Fire.
The Top-grade Postnatal Merit Supreme Treasure belonging to Sui Ren Shi—the Primordial Fire Lamp—shook. A tiny flame that could incinerate the void fell into the Heaven and Earth Melting Furnace, instantly turning into a boundless sea of fire. Waves of heat beat against them.
Then, Huang Tian tossed all the bodies of the Great Luo Demon Gods he had collected into the Heaven and Earth Melting Furnace.
Though it was ordinary fire, the Human Race's Primordial Fire was no less powerful than the Ten Great Innate Divine Fires.
In an instant, the bodies and bones of the Great Luo Demon Gods melted into liquid.
Huang Tian released streams of blood qi, drawing in endless Spiritual Qi to form a vortex that poured into the Heaven and Earth Melting Furnace.
One after another, spirit materials flew out of the Kongtong Seal and entered the Heaven and Earth Melting Furnace, where they melted into liquid.
"Artifact refining?"
At the sight, the Three Ancestors of the Human Race understood what Huang Tian was doing, yet grew even more confused.
"Roar!"
Huang Tian paid no mind to what Sui Ren Shi and the others thought. He even summoned his own blood qi, transforming it into a Crimson Dragon and forming a Martial Dao Dharma Image.
The Martial Dao Dharma Image drew in even more violent waves of Spiritual Qi from Heaven and Earth. The Spiritual Qi within a radius of a hundred million li was sucked dry and poured into the Heaven and Earth Melting Furnace.
The Heaven and Earth Melting Furnace shook without pause. One after another, powerful auras began to brew and spread, making Sui Ren Shi and the others feel a chill of alarm.
"Clang! Clang!"
Then Huang Tian flipped his palm and continued adding ore. It was all very ordinary stuff—
just relatively pure copper and tin.
But in the next moment, a change occurred inside the Heaven and Earth Melting Furnace.
The void hummed. A point of golden light appeared, then blossomed inside the furnace, brilliant as the blazing sun.
"In Heaven and Earth, Innate Spiritual Treasures are limited in number. Yet the Human Race reproduces quickly, so it's impossible for everyone to have one."
"This is bronze. It can be forged into whatever weapon suits you best, then nourished with your blood qi to become a blood-tempered divine weapon, greatly enhancing your combat strength."
"Tin and copper are the primary materials used to make bronze."
"One part tin and three parts copper can be used to forge short-bladed weapons, such as swords and daggers."
"One part tin and four parts copper can be used to forge long-handled weapons, such as halberds, ji, and spears."
"One part tin and five parts copper can be used to forge tools, such as axes, adzes, chisels, and knives."
Huang Tian explained this to Sui Ren Shi and the others in an even tone.
"Rumble!"
Before Sui Ren Shi and the others could answer, immense, heavy thunderclouds gathered across the sky.
The thunderclouds stretched for tens of millions of zhang. Lightning serpents slithered within them, and a violent aura of destruction descended toward the earth.
The invention of bronze marked humanity's passage from the Stone Age into the Bronze Age. It was a milestone in the advancement of civilization.
Under normal circumstances, the Human Race would not make advances in metalworking and enter the Bronze Age until Chiyou's era.
So Huang Tian had allowed the Human Race to skip the Stone Age and enter the Bronze Age ahead of schedule. That ran counter to the Heavenly Dao's interests.
Naturally, the Heavenly Dao was furious.
"Rumble!"
The world boomed. A colossal purple bolt of lightning crashed down toward Huang Tian.
"Chief!"
Sui Ren Shi and the others cried out and tried to rush to Huang Tian's aid, but they were far too late.
"Buzz!"
The next moment, the void suddenly rippled in layer upon layer, interwoven with the boundless destiny of the Human Race.
Brilliant light blazed around Huang Tian, making him shine like a little golden man.
Blood Qi Smoke burst from Huang Tian's spine and transformed into one crimson dragon after another, filling the sky.
Golden light flared. Boundless and vast, it illuminated Heaven and Earth, profound and unfathomable.
This was the destiny of the Human Race. In just tens of thousands of years, it had already become terrifyingly powerful.
The destiny of the protagonist of Heaven and Earth would have been unimaginably immense if the Six Sages of the Profound Gate and Hongjun had not divided it among themselves.
What remained now was only a drop in the ocean, yet it was still terrifying.
Rumble!
Heaven and Earth shook and mourned. Countless Golden Lotuses sprang from the earth.
Immortal music drifted through the air, while Spiritual Qi surged without end.
The Human Race Myriad Manifestations Diagram appeared from the Kongtong Seal, manifesting in the world. In an instant, it expanded hundreds of millions of li, and still did not stop. Like a storm, it swept toward the distant reaches of the world.
As the wisps of the Human Race's destiny interfered and Huang Tian's blood qi clashed against it, the thunderclouds the Heavenly Dao had tried to summon as punishment silently dispersed.
The Human Race had emerged in accordance with the Human Dao, bearing the fate of bringing the Human Dao into existence, and had also inherited part of its destiny.
The Three Daos of Heaven, Earth, and Human stood as equals.
Even the Heavenly Dao could not bear the price of destroying the Human Race's destiny.
"That fellow really is cautious."
Huang Tian glanced at the vanished thunderclouds, feeling a little regretful, though he had expected this.
If the Heavenly Dao were truly impartial, it would certainly have sent down thunder, because Huang Tian's actions had disrupted the natural order of Heaven and Earth.
But the Heavenly Dao was formed from the thoughts of all living beings. It was a cunning opponent.
"Sooner or later, I'll erase those thoughts that should never have existed and make you a truly impartial Heavenly Dao."
With a blazing gaze, Huang Tian paid the Heavenly Dao no more attention and devoted himself entirely to artifact refining.
Across all the ages, the Ten Thousand Races had developed the Dao of Artifacts to less than one ten-thousandth of its potential.
The Witch Clan had powerful bodies and didn't care about such things.
As for the Demon Clan, they simply relied on the abundance of natural treasures in the Prehistoric World. They threw materials at the problem, and eventually one or two items would turn out well.
But Innate Spiritual Treasures were limited in number. Once they were used up, they were gone.
Now that Huang Tian had brought the Human Race into the Bronze Age ahead of time, the benefits were beyond measure.
Copper and tin ore could be found everywhere across the land of the Prehistoric World, and the Ten Thousand Races paid them no more attention than rubbish.
Once forged into weapons, bronze tools would be smashed to pieces in moments if they collided with Innate Spiritual Treasures.
But if warriors nourished them with their abundant blood qi until they became their life-bound divine weapons, then aside from lacking the ability to suppress destiny, their might would be no less than that of Innate Spiritual Treasures.
Bronze tools were practically the perfect weapons for the Human Race.
Just imagine it: a trillion-strong army of the Human Race, every soldier wearing bronze armor and boots, helmets on their heads, and bronze weapons in their hands—armed to the teeth.
An army of equal size from the Witch and Demon Clans would be cut through with ease by the Human Race.
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