Their little faces were resolute as they used their own hands to hold up a massive mountain.
Their tiny bodies looked almost invisible beneath the enormous mountain.
Chang Ge was satisfied with what he saw and returned to the foot of Shouyang Mountain.
That was where several of the Human Race's ancient sages lived. No one dared to live atop Shouyang Mountain.
That mountain was their Ancestral land, and its summit was the cultivation ground of the Lord of the Human Race.
It was where their faith lay... Every member of the Human Race held the Human Emperor's statue on Shouyang Mountain in the highest regard.
"Ancestor Xuanyuan, Ancestor Sui Ren, Ancestor Shen Nong!"
Chang Ge shot toward the foot of Shouyang Mountain in a streak of light.
He called out the names of the Human Race's ancient sages.
But...
When Chang Ge met Xuanyuan Shi and the others, he found two more people there than usual.
A man and a woman.
The newcomers were Jiang Chen and Houtu, who had spent more than three hundred years traveling across the Human Race's lands and burying its ancient history.
Now that everything was over, they had returned.
It was time to focus on the rise of the Human Race.
"Human Emperor!" Chang Ge's pupils contracted. He immediately bowed and knelt in reverence.
"I remember you. Your name is Chang Ge, right?" Jiang Chen asked with a faint smile, raising a hand and sending out a gentle force to help him to his feet.
"Yes! The Human Emperor actually remembers me!"
Chang Ge was visibly excited. To have the Human Emperor remember his name was the greatest honor in the world.
Nowadays, who in the Human Race Forbidden Zone didn't show reverence whenever the Human Emperor was mentioned?
To every living being of the Human Race, Jiang Chen was their supreme god!
"Chang Ge, did you have something to report?" Xuanyuan Shi asked, his mouth framed by a huge bushy beard.
"Human Emperor, honored ancestors, I came to report that more than ten thousand children in this batch have surpassed the Hundred Thousand Extreme Realm. I think they can embark on the Seed of the Self path."
Chang Ge answered honestly.
Jiang Chen was somewhat curious.
What had happened to the Human Race during the more than three hundred years he'd been away?
"Have you been raising the next generation all this time?"
"We wouldn't dare forget the Human Emperor's instructions! The words you spoke to us back then remain vivid in our memories."
"Tell me about it," Jiang Chen said.
"Human Emperor, why don't we go outside Shouyang Mountain and talk as we walk?"
"Sure..."
Then the group headed toward the Human Race Great Wilderness.
"Over the past three hundred years, our Human Race has continued to produce powerful cultivators by studying the two new books in the library."
"At present, the Human Race has more than twenty Golden Immortals, almost all of whom were clan chiefs before."
"There are over a hundred Mystic Immortals, and more than a million have achieved Becoming an Immortal on the Spot!"
"A million?" Jiang Chen felt somewhat surprised. In three hundred years, they'd gone from ten thousand immortals to a million.
Was that a terrifying number?
Not exactly, but it was unexpected.
Even with the Human Race's former Great Destiny and its huge population, a million immortals was still astonishing.
Those with outstanding talent had already begun to distinguish themselves before Great Destiny had come upon them, comprehending their own paths from the books.
The rest needed the help of an external force to embark on those two Paths of Transcendence.
Based on Jiang Chen's estimate, it would have been normal for a little over a hundred thousand immortals to emerge in more than three hundred years.
A million was clearly several times that number.
"Every year, we choose ten thousand promising children among those born to the Human Race and help them complete the foundational training for the Hundred Thousand Extreme Realm."
"Completing the Hundred Thousand Extreme Realm is only the first step on the Seed of the Self path."
"Over these three hundred years, we've trained more than a million children in the Hundred Thousand Extreme Realm."
"They haven't disappointed us. Nearly half of them have now reached the Earth Immortal Realm. And with people in the Human Race continuing to comprehend the books over these three hundred years, a million immortals is perfectly reasonable."
Chang Ge explained.
"The Hundred Thousand Extreme Realm, the Seed of the Self..." Houtu, who had been following Jiang Chen all along, murmured to herself after hearing Chang Ge's words.
The others heard her and their hearts clenched.
Good grief! They'd gotten so excited that they'd forgotten a Quasi-Saint of the Wu Clan was right here!
If the Wu Clan found out, would it obstruct the Human Race's rise?
The group immediately fell silent.
Seeing this, Jiang Chen waved a hand. "There's no need to hide anything. Within this Human Race Forbidden Zone, nothing can be concealed from a Quasi-Saint."
Only then did Chang Ge continue. "The Great Wilderness lies just ahead. We're almost there!"
"Good!"
Jiang Chen's anticipation for the Human Race's rise grew.
With a million immortals, their talent for comprehending the new book should be far greater than that of ordinary people, right?
That was Jiang Chen's guess.
These million immortals would be the main readers of his next book, and the ones who'd provide the bulk of the feedback!
He was already planning the contents of his next book.
The Era of Revival, the Millennium Period
"Brats!"
"The Human Emperor is here to inspect your cultivation! Give it everything you've got! Don't let all the hard work the Human Emperor put into bringing you peace go to waste!"
Soon, the group arrived at the outer reaches of Shouyang Mountain.
The Great Wilderness!
Chang Ge used an immortal art to project his voice to every corner of the Great Wilderness.
At his words, the ten thousand children were delighted. They immediately tossed the giant mountains they'd been holding aside.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
"Ow!"
"Brats, where are you throwing those mountains?!"
The massive mountains seemed to have minds of their own, piling up across the Great Wilderness and forming one mountain range after another.
Some Human Race Earth Immortals responsible for supervising the children were struck by the sudden appearance of the mountains and began shouting curses.
But they were immortals. How could a mere hundred-thousand-catty mountain crush an immortal body?
Besides, many of them had comprehended powerful physiques from the books.
Some had even developed Immortal Blood, Immortal Bone, and Dao Eyes!
The mountains posed no threat to them.
"Grandpa Human Emperor!!!"
The children, dressed in hemp clothes, spotted Jiang Chen. One after another, they spread their arms and leaped a thousand meters toward him.
"Grandpa?" Jiang Chen stopped, the corners of his mouth twitching with amusement.
He looked like a young man of barely twenty, yet they were calling him a grandfather...
Then again, he had spent more than three hundred years burying the Human Race's ancient history.
For ordinary members of the Human Race, living over three hundred years would have been a ripe old age.
"Big Brother, they're all so happy to see you." Houtu wore elegant robes formed from Chaos mist, her figure graceful and slender.
Her features were exquisite, as if she had been blessed with all the beauty in the world.
"They're all the hope of the Human Race's future..." Jiang Chen's face filled with boundless emotion and confidence.
The more gifted the younger generation became, the brighter the Human Race's future would be.
After enduring despair and ruin under the Yao Clan's slaughter, the Human Race had finally reached the end of its age of despair and ruins. Today, it would welcome its revival!
Before you continue