Faced with Wei Yuan's question, Feng Chutang nodded. "That's right. Even today, the human race remains a choice offering for the Wu Yu Tribe's sacrifices to Heaven. Every year, at least a million people are captured for the rituals. In ancient times, they used even more human sacrifices. The Wu Yu Tribe often captured entire tribes, then offered the whole lot—from the elderly to the young—to Heaven in a ceremony they called the Great Fulfillment. To stop the Wu Yu Tribe from capturing people for sacrifice, the Liao people fought them in countless battles, large and small. The all-out war between the two peoples that came later was also partly about the human race's allegiance."
The young men and women, Wei Yuan among them, were even more confused. Someone asked, "Then why did the human race let the Wu Yu Tribe's army cross their territory and ambush the Liao people from behind?"
Feng Chutang said, "The historical records don't give the specific reasons, and I can't make groundless guesses. I'll just tell you what happened afterward. If you're interested, you can look up the relevant histories yourselves."
Feng Chutang paused, then continued slowly. "After the Wu Yu Tribe's army crossed their territory, the Liao eastern army suffered a crushing defeat. King Hanbei and King Yunshan were killed in battle; five hundred thousand cavalry died, and the number of wounded was beyond counting. The Wu Yu Tribe's army advanced thirty thousand li before reinforcements from the Liao rear finally stopped them two months later. This battle shifted the Wu Yu Tribe from a slight disadvantage to a slight advantage. The great war ended three years later, with the Liao border pushed back fifteen thousand li. Half a year before the war ended, a True Lord of the human race broke through the Heavenly Gate and achieved Return to One. He was the first Immortal Lord in our history."
The aristocratic clan scions all knew about the Liao-Wu Yu War and the first Immortal Lord of the human race, but they hadn't known the two events were connected. Feng Chutang had presented the two historical facts side by side, and even Wei Yuan, who hadn't known about either event, could vaguely sense what lay beneath them.
The young men and women looked at one another, but nobody spoke. Judging by the historical facts alone, the human race at the time could hardly escape being called a traitor and an ingrate. Yet the rise of the first Immortal Lord also marked the beginning of the human race's founding as a nation.
Wei Yuan had a suspicion: perhaps the resources that enabled the first Immortal Lord of the human race to ascend had come from the Wu Yu Tribe.
The lesson ended there, and it was time for class to be dismissed.
Feng Chutang said, "If any of you are interested in this period of history, you can look it up yourselves when you get back. But these facts are scattered across different histories, and each book only gives you a glimpse. You'll need to read quite a few before you can get a clearer picture. All right, that's all for today. In our next round of lessons, we'll talk about the Wu Yu Tribe. Their entanglement with our people goes back more than two hundred thousand years."
After the lesson, Wei Yuan felt as if a corner of the world had quietly unfolded before him.
As class ended, a thick stack of jade paper appeared on every student's desk—at least a dozen pages. These jade papers were histories recording various aspects of ancient times; each sheet was a book. Feng Chutang had specially selected them for the students to read on their own.
But when Wei Yuan left with the books, a Daoist on duty stopped him. The Daoist took his identity jade token and pressed it against a jade register. A line of small text appeared: Azure Hall disciple Wei Yuan, book fee owed: sixty taels.
Wei Yuan was startled. These few books cost half a year's allowance? He was only being charged later, but he'd still have to pay back the Immortal Silver! He wanted to return all the books, but everyone else from class simply tapped their tokens and left without hesitation, not even glancing at the jade register.
Only after most of his classmates had left did Wei Yuan quietly ask, "May I ask, Daoist, if I can return these books?"
The Daoist remained expressionless. "You've already scanned your waist token. No returns! Besides, this is coursework assigned by your elders. Why wouldn't you read it? If you only want to coast through life, why come to Taichu Palace?"
Scolded by the Daoist, Wei Yuan could only leave, awkwardly carrying the books.
He was good at reading people, and had already noticed that Zhang Sheng was exceptionally generous in every other respect, but always hesitated when it came to Immortal Silver. Wei Yuan suspected his master might be short of money and was always trying to save him a little.
Wei Yuan knew the histories handed out in class were precious, but once he read a book, he would remember it clearly. There seemed little need to buy it. Yet the Daoist had been too quick; before Wei Yuan could react, the identity token had already been scanned.
Back in his little courtyard, Wei Yuan picked up the small bottle containing the Qi Nourishing Pills, poured them out, and counted them.
The bottle of Qi Nourishing Pills he'd been given would last only a month. After that, he'd have to buy more himself. The pills' main benefit was that they strengthened the mind; not needing food was a secondary advantage. Wei Yuan picked up the Beginner's Guide to Joining the Sect and read it again, hoping to find some way to earn money. The manual said that the Hall of Mundane Affairs, which oversaw miscellaneous duties, assigned tasks to low-ranking disciples. Completing them earned a reward, and these tasks were the main source of income for impoverished students studying at Taichu Palace.
But the Hall of Mundane Affairs' tasks required disciples to have a certain level of cultivation. Even the easiest ones required completing the flesh-and-blood tempering of the Body Forging stage. Wei Yuan wasn't capable of that yet, so he had to set the idea aside.
In the afternoon, Wei Yuan read the histories for a while. After night fell, he continued cultivating the Jade Toad Gazing at the Moon Diagram. His practice that night went smoothly. The ground beneath the jade toad expanded another ring, reaching one zhang and two chi across.
At dawn, Wei Yuan finished cultivating. He slept for an hour and woke refreshed, then went to Qisi Hall for class again.
The next day's course was Introduction to the Immortal Path, which covered the history of the cultivation world. Its focus differed from that of the General History of the Human Race. The instructor was a middle-aged Daoist with the title Dixia, who carried himself with an immortal air and extraordinary bearing.
Once the lesson began, the Daoist swept his hand, and a long scroll appeared before the students. Its opening scenes showed people living like beasts and fighting in pools of blood. The middle section was the longest, depicting Immortal Mountains and Daoist realms, with several immortals wandering beyond the heavens. The final section showed crowds of immortals gathering to fight countless foreign races and demonic beasts.
The Daoist pointed, lighting up two scenes on the scroll: one showed a man attaining immortality in a crude mountain cave; the other showed a Human King gathering a million soldiers to found a dynasty. The banner behind the Human King bore the character "Li."
The entire history of human cultivation was divided at the appearance of the first Immortal Lord into the Ancient and Middle periods, and at the founding of the first unified dynasty, Li, into the Middle and Near-ancient periods. The boundary between the ancient and present eras was marked by the founding of the Great Tang and the introduction of the Sect Unified Examination.
Naturally, this first lesson covered ancient times. Back then, the human race lived mainly in tribes scattered across the land. Later, someone found a strange book, the Sky Mending Scripture, and cultivation began. From generation to generation, cultivators practiced while refining their methods, gradually reaching ever-greater heights and strengthening their techniques. With cultivators among them, the human race's standing in the eyes of other peoples improved as well. If humans had once been seen as cattle and sheep, then after cultivators appeared, they became sheepdogs.
But after listening to the lesson, Wei Yuan felt that whether or not cultivators existed made no fundamental difference to the human race's fate as a whole. After all, once the cattle and sheep were eaten, the dogs and horses would be next.
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