The Dawn of the Human Race

The grand ceremony honoring the ancestral founders ended, and classes began the next day.

Before dawn, Wei Yuan had already washed up and headed to the small square at the valley entrance to wait. Classes were held at Qisi Hall, thirty li from the valley. Every morning at a set time, carriages came to take the new disciples there. Anyone who missed the carriages would have to make the journey alone.

When Wei Yuan reached the square, he saw several carriages already waiting. They were pulled by tall, pure-white horses, each five zhang high at the shoulder, with faint wisps of cloud drifting around their hooves. Each carriage bore a different emblem and was bound for a different destination. Wei Yuan quickly found the carriage heading to Qisi Hall. After confirming his identity with the cultivator driving it, he climbed aboard.

The carriage stood two zhang tall, like a little building on wheels. Its interior was spacious, with rows of seats enough to hold fifty people. After Wei Yuan got on, others climbed aboard one after another. Once more than twenty people had boarded, no one else got on.

When everyone had arrived, the cultivator shut the carriage door and drove away from the square.

The moment they left the valley, Wei Yuan felt as if someone had planted a heavy kick in his chest. His body was pinned against the seatback, unable to move! The scenery outside the window shot backward, yet the carriage itself remained remarkably steady, with only a slight vibration.

Wei Yuan finally managed to recover from the pressure. Before he could catch more than a couple of breaths, the carriage jolted, and his body flew forward against his will. Fortunately, he reacted quickly, grabbing the seatback in front of him and bracing himself with all his might. Otherwise, he would have slammed into it. The other children weren't so lucky. Some failed to react in time and crashed headfirst into the seats ahead of them, their foreheads and faces already swelling.

For a moment, shouts and screams rose one after another inside the carriage.

Amid the screams, the scenery outside the window shifted again, revealing a three-story pavilion.

The carriage door opened, and the cultivator driving it said with a smile, "We were pressed for time this morning, so I drove a little too fast. If anyone is late again tomorrow, I'll go even faster."

A boy with a swollen forehead immediately complained, "Just a carriage driver, and you're acting so arrogant? Besides, Taichu Palace is stingy too. What kind of lousy carriage is this? It doesn't even have a wind-riding formation!"

The cultivator smiled pleasantly, pretending he hadn't heard a thing.

The boy was about to say more, but the companion beside him clapped a hand over his mouth.

After Wei Yuan got off the carriage, he saw the words "Qisi Hall" written on the plaque above the pavilion ahead. The grounds were quiet and secluded. A cluster of green bamboo grew beside the wall, its leaves lush and glistening, while wisps of clear qi occasionally rose among them.

Wei Yuan followed the other disciples into Qisi Hall. Rows of desks stood inside, and his name shimmered on one of them. He went over and sat down.

Once everyone was seated, a smiling young cultivator entered from the side. It was, unmistakably, the very cultivator who had driven the carriage. He stood at the front of the hall and said, "I am Feng Chutang. I'll be teaching the General History of the Human Race over the coming year."

The boy who had just been shouting was stunned and immediately lowered his head, not daring to look up.

Taichu Palace attached great importance to this round of concentrated instruction. Every teacher it had assigned was an extraordinary figure, and several of the younger ones were said to be prodigies with the potential to become True Lords. Even the great clans sought to win these teachers over whenever they could, and would never want to make enemies of them for no reason. Before classes began, the elders of every aristocratic household had warned their young members to make a good impression on the teachers.

Fortunately, Feng Chutang paid no mind to the minor incident on the carriage. "The history of our human race can be traced back three hundred thousand years..."

The earliest recorded history of the human race stretched back three hundred thousand years. Beyond that, there were no records to consult. Back then, the human race was merely a small people among the myriad races, scattered across what were now the eastern parts of Lu Province and Hedong Province, occupying only a few commanderies and surrounded by foreign races.

In those days, the human race was weak. Many foreign races didn't merely raid the borders to burn, kill, and plunder; some even ate humans and offered them as sacrifices. Thus, the first chapter of the General History of the Human Race was titled "The Foreign Races," covering the first two hundred thousand years of human history.

Feng Chutang's voice was gentle and warm as he recounted, bit by bit, the ancient secrets of the human race. As he spoke, several lifelike images appeared at the front of the hall: a man, a woman, and two children. They resembled humans, but were taller and more robust. The man stood about a head taller than Feng Chutang, while the woman was about the same height as him. The boy was labeled ten years old, yet was already about as tall as an adult human man. The girl was labeled six, equivalent to an eleven- or twelve-year-old human child.

The most striking features of these people were their gray eyes, long, pointed ears, and four fingers on each hand.

"This is the Vast Sea Liao Tribe, whom we commonly call the Liao people. Many books call them the Northern Liao. In fact, that name is inaccurate. The Liao people don't live only in the north; the Vast Sea Liao Tribe is also spread across the northeast and east. They are numerous, with countless large and small tribes. There are no fewer than nine states whose rulers have declared themselves kings and established their own laws. Today, the combined border between the various Liao tribes and our Great Tang stretches for a million and a half li. It's fair to say that they are the foreign race with whom we have had the deepest entanglements."

"In ancient times, the entire human race was nothing more than a small foreign tribe in the eyes of the Vast Sea Liao Tribe. Now and then, they would send troops across our borders to seize food and supplies. Only when they met resistance would they begin killing. If we obediently handed over our supplies, they would usually let us pass unharmed. So many people in those days chose to pay tribute to stay safe. Occasionally, some Liao nobles wanted to hunt for sport. Then a human tribe had to send out a band of warriors to serve as prey in a designated hunting ground. They could flee or fight back. If they survived to the end, they would even receive a reward."

Many of the students were furious as they listened. Most came from prominent households and were proud to a fault. Hearing this dark chapter of ancient history so suddenly was more than they could bear.

Something strange seemed to enter Feng Chutang's voice. "The Vast Sea Liao Tribe didn't eat humans, nor did they kill indiscriminately. In their eyes, human women were ugly, so there wasn't much sexual abuse either. During the first few thousand years, many human tribes regularly paid tribute. Gradually, the Vast Sea Liao Tribe came to regard the humans as an affiliated tribe and offered them protection. Without that initial protection from the Vast Sea Liao Tribe, it's quite possible the human race would never have come to be."

"Compared with other foreign races, the Vast Sea Liao Tribe was the most generous and gentle toward the human race. Although humans were of lower status, they could still live. So our human ancestors endured humiliation, multiplied, and thrived, until war broke out between the Wu Yu Tribe and the Vast Sea Liao Tribe."

"At the time, human territory lay near the border between the two tribes. Its position wasn't particularly important, and there were also several True Lords among our people. We weren't strong enough to expand, but we were more than capable of defending our lands. So the Vast Sea Liao Tribe entrusted that stretch of the border to the humans and sent its main forces west. But they never expected the humans to open the border and let the Wu Yu Tribe advance unhindered, striking at the rear of the Liao army."

Everyone, Wei Yuan included, was stunned. History was one of Wei Yuan's strong subjects, so he asked, "Sir, wasn't the Wu Yu Tribe always using our human race in sacrifices to Heaven?"