Buzz, buzz, buzz...
The source of the bloodline roared. All the members of the Human Race were affected; their bodies glowed, reflecting one mysterious Innate Rune after another.
But soon, the divine light and the Innate Runes faded one after another, vanishing without a trace. Yet a secret art appeared in everyone's minds.
It was a method for opening apertures, corresponding to the Pre-Heaven Realm. Any Human Race member in the Pre-Heaven Realm could practice it to open the apertures within their body. The more apertures they opened, the more powerful they became.
Once all 129,600 apertures in their bodies were opened, they would not only break through to the Void Refining Realm, but also awaken the Human Race's innate divine abilities: Blood Rebirth and the more powerful Myriad Transformations.
That was right—two divine abilities. The innate divine abilities Jiang Yuan had bestowed upon his people this time weren't just one, but two: Blood Rebirth and Myriad Transformations.
Why two? Mainly because they complemented each other. Once someone mastered either one, it would be easy for them to work out the other.
Thus, after turning Blood Rebirth into an innate divine ability and granting it to the Human Race, he had effectively bestowed Myriad Transformations upon them as well.
"From now on, opening every aperture in the body is the condition for the Human Race to awaken the innate divine ability, Blood Rebirth."
Sensing the changes among the Human Race, Jiang Yuan had an idea and established the condition for awakening it.
It was true that everyone possessed an innate divine ability, but most remained dormant. Not everyone could awaken theirs; certain conditions had to be met.
That condition was to open all 129,600 apertures in the body.
Having conditions was perfectly normal. Even the Dragon Race had to transform into a True Dragon to awaken the innate divine abilities inherited from the Ancestral Dragon. Simply possessing Dragon Race blood wasn't enough.
The more powerful the divine ability, the harsher its awakening conditions. This was an iron law established by the Heavenly Dao, true since ancient times, with no exceptions.
Having accomplished this, Jiang Yuan had finally put one of his worries to rest. At last, he could emerge from seclusion with his task complete.
The first thing he did after leaving seclusion wasn't to reveal that he was a Sage's disciple. Instead, he sought out Mu Jiao, who had remained among the Human Race as a guest, and invited him to visit the Mu Dragon Palace together.
Until he had dealt with Mu Jiao, Jiang Yuan couldn't reveal his identity, of course. Mu Jiao was greedy, not stupid. He dared to attack Jiang Yuan of the Human Race, but he wouldn't dare to lay a finger on Di Yuan, a Sage's disciple.
If Mu Jiao learned that Jiang Yuan was a Sage's disciple, he would immediately change his attitude and truly treat Jiang Yuan as a good brother.
And honestly, judging by Mu Jiao's behavior so far, he had been utterly devoted to Jiang Yuan—no less than a blood brother.
Thus, to outsiders who didn't know what was really going on, the two were close friends with kindred spirits. Whenever Mu Jiao came up in conversation, people would give him a thumbs-up and praise his loyalty.
What was Jiang Yuan's status? An Acquired Living Being, an ant at the Void Refining Realm. And Mu Jiao's? An Innate True Spirit, a sixth-level Heavenly Immortal.
Despite the enormous gap between them, Mu Jiao didn't look down on Jiang Yuan for his low cultivation or humble status. He still befriended him and even went to great lengths, at considerable cost, to gather cultivation resources for him.
Who wouldn't be moved by such deep friendship?
Recently, rumors about Jiang Yuan had spread throughout the Dragon Race and the Human Race. People said he was unbelievably lucky to have made such a good friend as Mu Jiao, and that they envied him deeply.
But enough about envy. With all these people saying such things, how could Jiang Yuan reveal his identity without first dealing with Mu Jiao?
Once he revealed who he was, Mu Jiao could no longer make a move against him. And if Mu Jiao didn't attack, then given the relationship they had displayed so far, Jiang Yuan couldn't possibly strike first.
In the eyes of outsiders, that would make him ungrateful, and his reputation would be ruined.
He had well and truly woven a net for himself. Jiang Yuan had never imagined that his earlier scheme to profit by using Mu Jiao would, after his identity changed, turn into a web that trapped him instead.
Now, if he wanted to make a move against Mu Jiao, he first had to prove that Mu Jiao had acted against him, so that he could claim he had been forced to fight back.
Damn it!
All he could say was that plans never kept pace with change. When Jiang Yuan had plotted against Mu Jiao, he'd never imagined that Lady Nuwa would take him as her disciple.
If he'd known, he would have fallen out with Mu Jiao long ago. What the hell was the point of pretending to be such close brothers?
When Jiang Yuan found Mu Jiao, he was sampling Human Race delicacies.
That wasn't surprising. Long ago, Jiang Yuan had passed down every cooking method he knew. After several hundred or even a thousand years of development, the art had grown increasingly refined.
It had advanced so far that even the rudiments of Spirit Cuisine had emerged.
In a few more thousand or ten thousand years, a new profession would likely appear in the Primordial World: Spirit Chefs.
What was a Spirit Chef? Simply put, the food they made wasn't just delicious and satisfying. It also had effects like those of pills, and eating it could increase one's cultivation.
Food could nourish the body too; it just wasn't as effective as pills. But it had its own advantages. Eating too many pills led to resistance, and pill toxins accumulated in the body, harming one's foundation.
Food had no such drawbacks. It could be eaten over a long period, and the longer one ate it, the greater the benefits to the body. Like a gentle stream, it strengthened the body subtly over time.
With Spirit Cuisine so extraordinary, outsiders who visited the Human Race naturally couldn't leave without trying it. In a sense, Spirit Cuisine had already become one of the Human Race's calling cards.
"Yuan, you've reached the Heavenly Immortal Realm?"
After so many years apart, Mu Jiao was delighted to see Jiang Yuan again.
Of course he was delighted. Now that Jiang Yuan had reached the Heavenly Immortal Realm, the Exotic Fruit he had spent years cultivating had finally ripened. He could harvest it at any moment.
Once he refined it, he would complete his final transformation, changing from an Innate True Spirit into an Innate God and Devil.
At the thought, Mu Jiao was so excited he wanted to throw his head back and howl. One could imagine how happy he was. Still, afraid of giving the game away, he held back and showed no obvious sign of it.
The fruit had ripened, but harvesting it would still be troublesome. He first had to find a way to trick Jiang Yuan out of the Human Race's territory.
That wouldn't be difficult—not because Mu Jiao was especially clever, but because Jiang Yuan was willing to play along. If Jiang Yuan didn't leave the Human Race, what reason would Mu Jiao have to dare attack him?
Though each had his own thoughts, their goals were the same. So, after only a few words, the two set off together, leaving the Human Race behind.
What happened next, though, was somewhat beyond Jiang Yuan's expectations.
He'd thought Mu Jiao would be unable to resist attacking him once they were outside the Human Race's territory. But he'd guessed wrong. Mu Jiao actually held back and truly intended to take him to the Mu Dragon Palace before making his move.
Jiang Yuan couldn't agree to that. The Mu Dragon Palace was full of experts. He wasn't afraid of them, but he could only protect himself there; killing Mu Jiao would be difficult.
At that thought, Jiang Yuan suddenly stopped and asked Mu Jiao seriously:
"Is human meat tasty?"