Twelve Divine Forms

[The historical timeline of the Taiheng Realm has been compiled.]

[The mineral resources of the Taiheng Realm have been compiled.]

[The biological resources of the Taiheng Realm have been compiled.]

[The geography of cities and nations in the Taiheng Realm has been compiled.]

Several notifications roused Yang Ning from his attempt at the Seven-Day Breathing Technique.

"Let me take a look first!"

The image of the Seven-Day Breathing Technique before Yang Ning instantly transformed into rows of clear tables and text. Since everything was transcribed from the Taiheng Universal Records, it was inevitably somewhat incomplete, but it already gave Yang Ning a fairly intuitive understanding of this world.

According to the Taiheng Universal Records, human history in the Taiheng Realm spanned three hundred thousand years. The period before that was called the Dragon Era, when humans were slaves ruled by dragons. Later, the dragons suffered the Nightmare Chaos, and humanity seized the opportunity to rebel. The dragons eventually withdrew from Taiheng, and from then on, humans became the masters of the Taiheng Realm.

The great power who led the human rebellion styled himself Taiheng, and his contemporaries called him Immortal Venerable Taiheng. The sect he founded was none other than the present-day Taiheng Sect, and this world was named the Taiheng Realm after him.

"So, this is a world with a legacy spanning over three hundred thousand years. With an unbroken lineage, the existence of cultivators, and no recorded instances of civilization collapse, why has scientific development stagnated to the point where even a Curved Shaft Plow hasn't been invented?" Yang Ning was puzzled. After all, Earthlings had gone from tribal times to the space age in just five thousand years, yet here they were still stuck in an agricultural civilization with an extremely low level of development.

But looking at the people of this world, they didn't seem to suppress technological progress either. When he invented the Curved Shaft Plow, the state even rewarded him!

Then there was this Nightmare Chaos.

The character used in the Universal Records wasn't actually "魇" (nightmare), but a character that didn't exist in Chinese. Its meaning was "a disaster of unknown origin that causes great harm to life." Yang Ning picked a Chinese character with a similar meaning and shape and called it "魇."

When the Nightmare Chaos occurred, not only did Nightmare Demons and Nightmare Beasts appear, but a kind of miasma called Nightmare spread through heaven and earth, corrupting normal beings—turning dragons into Nightmare Dragons and beasts into Nightmare Beasts.

Yang Ning had no idea what that scene looked like and could only temporarily imagine it as a catastrophic event similar to a zombie apocalypse.

After the founding of the Taiheng Sect, adhering to the principle that humans and dragons could not coexist, they launched a ferocious campaign against the remaining dragons, training disciples to establish sects everywhere and support other human forces. By the 280,000-year mark, the last dragon in the Taiheng Realm was killed. Thus ended the Dragon Era, and the world fully entered the Human Era.

These twenty thousand years were called the Brilliant Ancient Era, not only because the dragons had completely vanished and the number of human sects had surged, but also because some discovered that vast amounts of dragon heritage had been buried underground after the Nightmare Chaos!

From then on, a flood of dragon cultivation methods was unearthed and adapted into techniques suitable for humans, ushering in a golden age of cultivation in the Taiheng Realm.

After three hundred thousand years of development, the Taiheng Realm had formed a structure where the Ten Great Immortal Sects dominated the present age, tens of thousands of sects bloomed in competition, and a host of minor immortal sect families either clung to powerful backers or formed alliances to survive. Conflicts were constant, and wars never ceased.

The only saving grace was that, thanks to the suppression of immortal artifacts, no world-spanning wars had occurred. The major sects maintained a state of overall peace with localized confrontations.

At least there was no need to worry about children being sent to the battlefield.

"In short, this is a world of struggle and striving to rise above!"

Yang Ning let out a long breath. It was a fascinating world, but also a dangerous one. In a single book, countless geniuses rose, and countless others fell, leaving behind endless regrets and unfulfilled emotions.

It was a very standard cultivation world—not quite a mafia, but hardly a place for naive innocents to survive.

In a word, it was survival of the fittest, where the strong reigned supreme. The masses lived like pigs and dogs, with only a few able to break free from the shackles and become cultivators. But even among them, those who reached the end were few and far between.

In three hundred thousand years of history, only seventeen Immortal Venerables had been born—an average of one every twenty thousand years.

According to the records, the youngest of these Immortal Venerables achieved immortality at three thousand years old, the oldest at sixteen thousand, with an average of eight thousand years.

Eight thousand years. To the natives of this world, that might seem normal, but to Yang Ning, a transmigrator whose entire history spanned only five thousand years—or maybe twenty thousand if you counted the Classic of Mountains and Seas—it was truly a long time.

Give modern civilization eight thousand years, and it would probably have become a god-tier civilization, transcending dimensions with all of humanity. Yet here, it was only enough for a cultivator to go from mortal to immortal?

"So, I definitely have to cultivate immortality. I can't give up on individual strength, and it's also my dream. But since I have a Golden Finger suited for scientific research, I can't abandon science either. Or rather, cultivation is itself a science of using spiritual energy, so cultivation and science aren't in conflict."

Yang Ning quickly settled on his path: science as the foundation, cultivation as the tool. He wouldn't abandon his greatest advantage, while also pursuing the great Dao of this world.

[Ding!]

Deep Blue roused Yang Ning from his contemplation. Opening his eyes, he realized class was over!

Exiting the spirit realm, Yang Ning felt a weight on his shoulder as a hand landed there.

"How's it going, Yang Ning?" A delicate face appeared before him, but the slightly upturned corners of the mouth proved that this kid wasn't as calm as he looked.

Yang Ning's eyes lit up. "You've entered the gate?"

The young man immediately waved his hand. "Ah, I was hoping to show off a bit more to you. No fun!"

Yang Ning shrugged. "Can't help it. I've got sharp eyes!"

Besides, I secretly guided you so many times. It would be strange if you hadn't entered the gate by now.

The young man was speechless but couldn't deny it. After all, he was well aware of the rising trajectory of the person before him—always the "other people's child" in his parents' mouths.

Still, with his youthful temperament, he didn't feel jealous. After all, Yang Ning's identity upon boarding the ship determined that he would be a future asset. And the more capable the asset, the better.

This young man was none other than the Eighth Prince of Yue Kingdom, Xun Hu. Yang Ning had only been able to come cultivate by piggybacking on his position as a book boy.

As a prince, Xun Hu had generations of genetic refinement, naturally making him handsome and extraordinary. His mother came from a military general's family, and under her influence from a young age, he carried an extra sharpness in his demeanor, setting him apart.

"Since you've entered the gate with the breathing technique, you'll be learning the Divine Forms next, right?" Yang Ning asked.

"Yeah!" Xun Hu nodded, his face full of anticipation. "Once I learn the Divine Forms, I can fight. I'll beat up Zhao Bu first—I've been itching to for a long time."

The breathing technique was a static practice. Once you entered the gate, you needed dynamic exercises to assist the flow of qi and blood—namely, the Twelve Foundation-Building Divine Forms.

Tiger, Deer, Bear, Ape, Bird, Snake, Ox, Dog, Pig, Dragon, and then Fire and Water.

The last two clearly didn't match the first ten. That was because they came from different sources. The first ten were created by imitating animal postures, while the last two were snatched from the Taiyin Sect. They had Thunder Form, Cloud Form, and others over there.

The Divine Forms were part of the Foundation Establishment Method, but that didn't mean they couldn't be used in battle. On the contrary, since they were techniques created by cultivators, they were even stronger than the supreme martial arts of the mortal world. And since the practitioners were all eleven- or twelve-year-old youths, full of youthful spirit, conflicts among them were inevitable.

The Taiheng Sect didn't forbid disciples from fighting either. After all, if you didn't dare to contend, why bother cultivating immortality?

"Zhao Bu!" At the thought of this person, Yang Ning simply shook his head lightly.

The Taiheng Sect's territory was divided into four major regions: Eastern Victory, Southern Forest, Western Splendor, and Northern Plains. Each region contained seven or eight, even a dozen or more countries, along with numerous large and small sects that depended on the Taiheng Sect. With the Taiheng Sect keeping them in check, these countries and sects dared not wage full-scale war, but sneaking troops to grab something or launching a raid was certainly left unpunished.

Zhao Kingdom and Yue Kingdom both belonged to the Northern Plains and bordered each other, so friction between them was inevitable. In the past, with Yue weak and Zhao strong, Yue had always been bullied.

After Yang Ning took office as Minister of Works, he improved smelting techniques and invented the Yang Family Repeating Crossbow and the Yang Family Trebuchet, greatly strengthening the Yue Kingdom's military. The balance of power between the two kingdoms was instantly reversed.

As a prince of Zhao Kingdom, Zhao Bu naturally inherited the enmity between the nations. Even more than Xun Hu, he harbored greater hatred for Yang Ning, who had turned the tide of war. The key point was that Zhao had been strong in the past, attracting many followers, while Yue had just risen and hadn't yet managed its diplomacy.

The result was that Zhao Bu always had a group of people trailing behind him, seizing every opportunity to mock Xun Hu and his four companions.

Yang Ning, a man whose two lifetimes added up to thirty or forty years of age, had to face a bunch of brats' dirty looks and foul words every day. It was both infuriating and amusing.

More importantly, after looking into history, he discovered that the Xun Clan and the Zhao Clan had been one family four hundred years ago. It was only later that a branch of the Zhao Clan migrated elsewhere, changed their surname, and founded a kingdom.

There really was no need for conflict between them, especially since everyone's goal was to cultivate immortality. They hadn't even taken the first step yet, and already they were fighting for life and death. If they suddenly died, wouldn't that be a great loss?

Just as they were talking, two more people approached them.

One man and one woman. The man was named Su Bai, son of the Minister of Revenue. The woman was named Ning Rong, an outstanding descendant of the Yue Kingdom's queen's lineage. Together with Yang Ning, these four formed the Yue Kingdom's cultivation team sent to the sect.