Yuan Ming was the spearhead of this million-strong migrating host, as well as its stabilizing pillar.
He walked at the very front of the procession, his True Immortal Realm divine sense spreading soundlessly ahead like an invisible tide, taking in the mountains and rivers for tens of thousands of miles.
The Demon Race Territories lurking within deep mountains and vast marshes, radiating terrifying auras, along with the lairs of slumbering ancient ferocious beasts, were all marked as crimson forbidden zones upon his divine-sense map, and the host gave them a wide berth.
On this journey, danger followed them like a shadow.
They had once encountered an ancient ferocious bird whose wings spanned a thousand zhang, its shadow capable of engulfing an entire mountain range.
When that enormous creature, with hooked claws and iron-like feathers, swooped down, Yuan Ming did not strike personally.
His steady voice rang throughout the host as he directed the Primordial Human experts to form a rudimentary Three Talents Defensive Formation, weaving their blood qi and mana into a curtain of light to withstand that thunderous blow head-on.
The Postnatal clansmen with the greatest potential, meanwhile, were ordered to observe and learn from the edges of the formation, even channeling their meager strength into the grand formation under direction.
This was a classroom of blood and fire, far more profound than any words could be.
They crossed poisonous miasma swamps so dense that even light could not penetrate them, where the brilliantly colored mist could corrode flesh and erode souls.
Using the <Forty-Nine Great Laws of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity> as his guiding principle, Yuan Ming casually deduced a Heart-Cleansing Evil-Repelling Spell. The incantation became specks of azure light that merged into everyone's breaths, forming invisible barriers within their bodies and protecting the host as it safely crossed that land of death.
They had also encountered strange baleful qi from the earth veins, an invisible force capable of stirring inner demons and driving people mad.
Yuan Ming then cited the profound principle from the Dao De Jing, "Blend the qi to make harmony," guiding everyone to harmonize their own blood qi with the qi of heaven and earth, keep their hearts clear, and slowly pass through.
This long migration was both a brutal selection and a great transformation.
Yuan Ming was no longer an all-providing caretaker, but had become a stern mentor.
He let the clansmen make mistakes, bleed, and grow.
Some clansmen fell to injuries and illness, becoming dust by the roadside; some squads were devoured by demonic beasts in the silent darkness of night and never saw the Sun Dao rise again.
Yet every fall made the survivors grip their stone spears tighter; every sacrifice made the host's unity ever more unbreakable.
The shadow of death ground away the confusion and weakness in their eyes, tempering an iron-like resolve.
Their bodies became lean and hardened through the long journey and bloody battles, while their gazes grew as sharp as hawks.
Time flowed beneath their feet, and no one knew how many springs and autumns had passed.
When this weathered host used its last strength to cross a majestic mountain range that pierced the clouds, the sight before them brought everyone to a halt.
A vast, boundless plain of level ground slowly unfolded before them like a painted scroll.
A great river wound through it like a dragon; the fertile earth was a deep black. Though its spiritual qi was not so rich as that of the Shore of the East Sea that it could condense into substance, it was balanced and gentle, warm as jade, making it more suitable for the Postnatal clansmen to cultivate through breathing exercises.
As far as the eye could see, the waters and grasses were abundant, the forests lush and verdant. It was like a promised land forgotten by the Primordial World.
Yuan Ming swept the area with his divine sense, and his heart stirred.
He discovered that although this land lay geographically toward the west, the qi of its earth veins was exceptionally dense. A dragon vein seemed to lurk beneath it, connecting east and west, linking south and north. It was unexpectedly a natural configuration of the "center of heaven and earth"!
From several weak little spirits that had awakened intelligence and were trembling in fear, he confirmed his perception. This land had been called the Central Plains since ancient times.
"Central Plains..." Yuan Ming savored the name, divine light gleaming in his eyes.
"Occupying the center and preserving righteousness, with plains stretching ten thousand miles! Good, what a magnificent Central Plains. It is perfect for my Human Race to multiply and lay the foundation for ten thousand generations!"
He turned to face the million clansmen behind him, battered by countless hardships, dressed in rags yet burning with fierce light in their eyes. Unable to suppress the excitement in his voice, he spoke so that his words carried across the wilderness:
"We have endured countless hardships and finally reached this place! This is fertile land bestowed upon the Human Race by heaven. From this day onward, this place shall be our new home!"
"Roar—!"
Earth-shaking cheers soared into the sky. Countless clansmen wept with joy, and the exhaustion, fear, and suppression they had endured for so long all turned into scalding tears, released without restraint.
Yuan Ming chose a highland backed by mountains and facing the great river, easy to defend and difficult to attack, as their first settlement.
He acted personally, True Immortal mana surging as he combined it with the mysteries of the <Heaven-Earth-Human Forty-Nine Return-to-Truth Method>. He moved mountains, filled valleys, and leveled the land, and the outline of a city rose from the ground.
Following Suiren's example, he drilled wood to make fire anew here, igniting the first spark of civilization for the Human Race of the Central Plains!
He guided the clansmen in identifying edible herbs and scattering seeds across the fertile soil, taking the first step toward an agricultural civilization!
He had experienced clansmen pass down their skills, crafting finer tools and weaving warmer clothing!
At the same time, Yuan Ming had never slackened in his own cultivation.
The first layer of the Formless Scripture had reached a crucial moment. He could clearly sense that the Physical Bitter Sea in his lower dantian had become boundless, while the Life Spring at its center erupted with vast life essence like a volcano. A phantom Divine Bridge connecting flesh and soul was slowly solidifying.
In secret, he also attempted with utmost caution to invoke a trace of the authority of [Eastern Lord's Heavenly Patrol]. During the day, he guided gentle Solar True Fire to shine over the land, dispelling dampness, encouraging crop growth, and imperceptibly tempering the clansmen's bodies.
A burgeoning Human Race power, with Yuan Ming as its absolute core and the Central Plains as its foundation, began quietly taking root in these ancient Western Lands, ready to spread like a spark into a prairie fire.
Standing atop the city walls, which had begun to take shape, Yuan Ming looked down at the settlement below, where cooking smoke curled upward and order had begun to emerge, then toward the endless fertile fields in the distance. His heart swelled with ambition.
"The Shore of the East Sea is a sacred site, a cradle, an origin. But these Central Plains will be the first true home that my Human Race creates with its own hands, blood, and wisdom!"
He raised his head toward the distant east, his gaze seeming to pierce endless time and space to meet those distant figures who also bore the hopes of the Human Race.
"Brother Suiren, Brother You Chao, Brother Zi Yi... my journey has already begun."
"The spark of the Human Race shall become a prairie fire here!"
Yet opportunity was often accompanied by danger. Fortune and misfortune depended upon each other; such was the natural law of heaven and earth.
The seemingly tranquil fertile land of the Central Plains was not unclaimed territory.
Within its ancient forests, dark riverbeds, and treacherous mountain ranges lurked countless living beings that had dwelled here since ancient times.
When a million vibrant humans took root upon this land like uninvited guests, their vigorous blood qi and life force were no different from a lavish feast in the eyes of these ancient masters.
Though Yuan Ming was a True Immortal whose divine might was immense, the Central Plains stretched for more than countless billions of miles.
He could guard a city or a region, but he could not protect every clansman scattered across the vast plains.
This helpless feeling of being unable to reach them made Yuan Ming deeply realize that with only his protection, the Human Race would ultimately be rootless duckweed.
An even deeper crisis came from the Human Race itself.
The Four-Step Breathing Method he had created was indeed a supreme foundation for reversing the Postnatal condition and strengthening the body, giving the Human Race the minimum means to survive on this land.
But its endpoint was merely the Innate Realm.
Beyond the threshold of the Innate Realm and into the immortal path, it was powerless despite its aspirations; the road ahead had already been cut off.
Without subsequent cultivation methods, the Human Race would never produce its own powerful experts. It would forever struggle at the bottom, reduced to blood food and slaves for the Primordial Myriad Clans.
Giving someone a fish was not as good as teaching them how to fish.
For this reason, Yuan Ming made a momentous decision.
He subjected his foundational cultivation art, the incomparably tyrannical Heaven-Devouring Dao Scripture, capable of devouring the origins of ten thousand Daos, to an unprecedented "stripping" and "reconstruction."
The Heaven-Devouring Dao Scripture was too powerful. Its core of "Devouring" imposed demands upon one's temperament, comprehension, and even innate foundation so harsh that ordinary humans who cultivated it would only suffer exploding bodies and annihilated souls.
Yuan Ming entered seclusion within the newly built Ancestral Temple of the Central Plains, using [Great Dao Comprehension] as a furnace and his profound understanding of the Human Race as fuel.
With painstaking effort, he sorted through the vast Dao laws within the Heaven-Devouring Dao Scripture one by one, simplified them, and created an entirely new cultivation method: the Dao Scripture.
This scripture was tailored by Yuan Ming, in his capacity as the ancestor of the Human Race, specifically for the Human Race's bloodline and soul.
It was like an invisible bloodline imprint. Only a Human Race body could stir its qi flow, and only a Human Race soul could comprehend its true meaning.
Any other race, even if it acquired the scripture, would be unable to glimpse its entrance. Forcing themselves to cultivate it would only lead to reversed meridians and qi deviation.
This was the path to heaven that belonged to the Human Race alone!
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