Settling in the Central Plains, the Road to Heaven

Yuan Ming was the spearhead of this million-strong migration, and its stabilizing pillar.

He walked at the very front of the column, his True Immortal Realm divine sense spreading silently ahead like an invisible tide, taking in the mountains and rivers stretching ten thousand miles before them.

Demon Race Territories lurking in deep mountains and vast marshes, radiating terrifying auras, along with the nests of slumbering ancient ferocious beasts, were all marked as crimson forbidden zones upon his map of divine sense, and the procession gave them a wide berth.

On this journey, danger clung to them like a shadow.

They had once encountered an ancient ferocious bird whose wings spanned a thousand zhang, its shadow capable of blanketing an entire mountain range.

When that colossal creature, with hooklike claws and iron-feathered wings, dove from above, Yuan Ming did not personally make a move.

His steady voice rang through the ranks as he directed the Primordial Human experts to form a simple Three Talents Defensive Formation, weaving their blood qi and magical power into a curtain of light to withstand that thunderous, mountain-crushing blow head-on.

Meanwhile, the Postnatal clansmen with the greatest potential were ordered to observe and learn from the edge of the formation, even contributing their meager strength to the great formation under command.

This was a classroom of blood and fire, more profound than any spoken lesson.

They crossed poisonous miasma swamps so dense that even light could not penetrate them, their brilliantly colored fog capable of corroding flesh and eroding 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 breathing, forming an invisible barrier within their bodies and protecting the procession as it safely crossed that land of death.

They had also encountered strange Sha 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 reconcile their own blood qi with the qi of heaven and earth, keep their hearts clear, and pass through slowly.

This long migration was a brutal selection, but also a great transformation.

Yuan Ming was no longer an attentive nanny; he had become a stern mentor.

He let the clansmen make mistakes, bleed, and grow.

Some clansmen fell to wounds and illness, becoming dust by the roadside. Some squads were swallowed by demon beasts in the silent night, never to see the next day's sun.

Yet every fall made the survivors grip their stone spears tighter; every sacrifice made the cohesion of the procession ever more unbreakable.

The shadow of death wore away the confusion and weakness in their eyes, tempering them into steel-like resolve.

Their bodies grew lean and hardened through the long trek and bloody battles, while their gazes became as sharp as hawks.

The years flowed beneath their feet, and no one knew how many springs and autumns they had crossed.

When this weather-beaten procession summoned its last strength to climb over a majestic mountain range that pierced straight into the clouds, the sight before them brought everyone to a halt.

A vast, boundless plain of level ground slowly unfurled before them like a painted scroll.

A great river wound through it like a dragon; the soil was fertile and deep black. Though the spiritual qi was not so dense as that of the Shore of the East Sea that it could take tangible form, it was balanced and gentle, warm as jade, and better suited for Postnatal clansmen to breathe and cultivate.

As far as the eye could see, the waters and grasses were lush, the forests verdant, 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 place lay geographically toward the west, the qi of its earth veins was exceptionally dense. A dragon vein seemed to lurk beneath it, bearing the east and opening toward the west, linking north and south. It was, astonishingly, a natural configuration of the "center of heaven and earth"!

From several small spirits that had gained intelligence and were trembling in fear, he confirmed his own sensing. This land had been called the Central Plains since ancient times.

"Central Plains..." Yuan Ming rolled the name around in his mouth, divine light gleaming in his eyes.

"Centered and upright, with plains stretching ten thousand miles! Good, what a fine Central Plains. It is perfectly suited for my Human Race to multiply, thrive, and establish a foundation for ten thousand generations!"

He turned to face the million clansmen behind him, battered by countless hardships, ragged in dress yet burning-eyed. Unable to suppress the excitement in his voice, he spoke words that carried across the four directions:

"We have endured countless hardships and finally arrived here! This is fertile land bestowed upon our Human Race by heaven. From this day onward, this place shall be our new home!"

"Roar—!"

Earth-shaking cheers shot into the sky. Countless clansmen wept with joy, and all the fatigue, terror, and pent-up anguish they had carried for so long transformed into scalding tears at this moment, pouring freely down their faces.

Yuan Ming selected a highland backed by mountains and facing the great river, easy to defend and difficult to attack, as their first settlement.

He personally acted, True Immortal power surging forth. Combining it with the mysteries of the <Heaven-Earth-Human Forty-Nine Return-to-Truth Method>, he moved mountains, filled ravines, and leveled the land. The outline of a city rose from the earth.

Following Suiren's example, he drilled wood to make fire once more, igniting the first spark of civilization belonging to the Human Race of the Central Plains!

He guided the clansmen to identify edible herbs, scattered seeds across the fertile ground, and took 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 never slackened in his own cultivation.

The first level of the Formless Scripture had reached a critical juncture. 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 immense vital essence like a volcano. The phantom of a Divine Bridge connecting flesh and soul was slowly solidifying.

He also secretly attempted, with extreme caution, to invoke a thread of the authority of [Eastern Lord's Heavenly Patrol], guiding mild Solar True Fire during the day to shine upon the land, dispel dampness, promote crop growth, and subtly cleanse the clansmen's physiques.

A rising Human Race power centered absolutely around Yuan Ming and rooted in the Central Plains quietly began to take root upon these ancient Western Lands, ready to blaze across the plains like a single spark starting a prairie fire.

Standing atop the city wall, 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 gazed toward the endless fertile fields in the distance. Heroic ambition filled his chest.

"The Shore of the East Sea is a sacred trace, a cradle, an origin. But these Central Plains will be the first true home that my Human Race creates with our own hands, blood, and wisdom!"

He raised his eyes toward the distant east, his gaze seeming to pierce endless time and space as it met those distant figures who likewise 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 often walked hand in hand with crisis; fortune and misfortune depended upon each other. Such was the great principle of heaven and earth.

This seemingly tranquil fertile land of the Central Plains was not unclaimed.

Within its deep ancient forests, beneath its dark riverbeds, and among its perilous mountain ranges, countless living beings that had dwelled here since antiquity lay hidden.

When a million vigorous members of the Human Race took root in this land like uninvited guests, their flourishing blood qi and vitality were, in the eyes of these ancient masters, no different from a sumptuous feast.

Though Yuan Ming was a True Immortal whose divine might surged like a vast ocean, the Central Plains spanned far more than hundreds of millions of miles.

He could guard one city or one region, but it was difficult for him to protect every clansman scattered across the vast plains.

This helpless feeling of being unable to reach where he was needed made Yuan Ming deeply realize that with only his protection, the Human Race would ultimately be duckweed without roots.

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 state and strengthening the body, giving the Human Race the bare minimum needed to survive upon this land.

But its endpoint was merely the Innate Realm.

Beyond the threshold of the Innate Realm, it was willing but powerless; the road ahead had already been severed.

Without subsequent cultivation methods, the Human Race would never produce its own powerful experts. They would forever struggle at the bottom, reduced to blood food and servants for the Primordial Myriad Clans.

Giving someone fish was not as good as teaching them how to fish.

For this reason, Yuan Ming made a momentous decision.

He carried out an unprecedented "stripping" and "reconstruction" of the fundamental cultivation art he practiced—the tyrannical Heaven-Devouring Dao Scripture, which was capable of devouring the origins of ten thousand Daos.

The Heaven-Devouring Dao Scripture was far too powerful. Its core of "Devouring" placed demands upon temperament, comprehension, and even innate foundations so harsh that an ordinary Human Race cultivator who practiced it would only end up exploding to death, body shattered and soul extinguished.

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.

Pouring out his heart's blood, he sorted through the vast Dao laws within the Heaven-Devouring Dao Scripture, as boundless as a sea of smoke, simplifying them one by one and creating 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, for the bloodline and souls of the Human Race.

It was like an invisible brand etched into the bloodline. Only a Human Race body could stir its qi, and only a Human Race soul could comprehend its true meaning.

Any other race, even if they obtained the scripture, would be unable to glimpse its entrance. Attempting to cultivate it by force would only throw their meridians into chaos and send them into qi deviation.

This was a road to heaven belonging exclusively to the Human Race!