Human Race

Biodata

Power Progression

Background

The Human Race was created by Sage Nüwa, whom early tribes worship as the Holy Mother and protector of humanity. For roughly a century, humans have maintained a foothold in the Great Wilderness under her protection despite their precarious position among powerful beasts and demons 1.

Human communities were dispersed throughout the Great Wilderness Mountains, the Southern Plains, and the shores of the Southern Sea. The Great Wilderness Lord deliberately divided humanity into small tribes to prevent a single calamity from exterminating the entire race; however, this policy left many settlements too weak to survive independently 23 26 31.

Qu Shan later reveals that preserving humanity’s bloodline was also a public justification for resolving internal disorder. Earlier concentrated settlements repeatedly descended into conflict despite the lord’s intervention. Stronger humans remained in the central region to resist demons, while weaker groups were dispersed, reducing the central population and allowing several decades of relative peace 45.

When Feng Xu arrives among the Wind-Fire Tribe, its members have no formal language, names, writing system, reliable medicine, or cultivation method. Their existence is shaped by hunger, predation, harsh winters, and dependence on caves or improvised shelters 1 10 16.

The subsequent development of the Wind-Fire and Eastern Wilderness Tribes demonstrates an alternative to isolated survival: agriculture, literacy, institutions, shared cultivation methods, and industrial production allow human settlements to support much larger populations. Feng Xu eventually becomes Human Ancestor, establishing a leadership role intended to coordinate humanity beyond individual tribes 47 49 87 88.

Population and Survival

Early humanity combines strong fertility and long lifespans with exceptionally high mortality. Children often lose their mothers’ direct care at four or five years old and must compete for food; starvation and violence prevent even powerful tribes from growing substantially. Feng Xu identifies collective childcare and improved food production as essential remedies 57.

Physiology and Innate Traits

The Human Race is physically formidable by ordinary standards, though still vulnerable beside the Demon Race and other Primordial beings.

• Even children possess strength and physical fitness beyond that of adults from Feng Xu’s former world 1.
• Warriors can activate Bloodline Power, enlarging into giants several zhang tall; the Wind-Fire chief can reach ten zhang in battle 1.
• Greater bloodline strength generally produces a larger transformation and greater combat ability at the same realm 21.
• Human bodies possess unusually high compatibility with ferocious-beast bloodlines, allowing them to absorb and fuse suitable bloodline power through the Blood Pool 23.
• Before Feng Xu’s reforms, humans had no systematic cultivation method. Their advancement depended largely on natural growth, making breakthroughs from the Innate Realm to Earth Immortal exceptionally rare 26.
• Individual humans are weaker than major demon races, but organized formations, iron weapons, siege engines, traps, and cooperation can overcome physically superior enemies 17 18 19.
• Giant Transformation is innate to humans who reach the Innate Realm. Earth Immortals can display most of their strength without transforming, making normal-sized equipment more practical for them 44.
• Human bloodlines vary considerably. Central Wilderness children enter the Innate Realm early, and adults commonly reach Earth Immortal through their superior inherited potential; Feng Xu’s Late Earth Immortal cultivation is only average there when he arrives 49.
• Human form has relatively low energy-maintenance requirements compared with enormous beast bodies. Feng Xu explains that this can improve a transformed demon’s effective cultivation efficiency, although it does not mean ordinary humans possess better aptitude than all demons 59.
• Humanity’s long lifespans slow changes in established habits and social attitudes, complicating the transition from primitive communal life to more densely populated civilization 76.
• Even developed human communities remain vulnerable to the Great Wilderness’s winter: those below True Immortal struggle to endure its cold without suitable clothing 94.

Society and Culture

Names and Writing

Early Human Race communities have neither surnames nor family hierarchy, and many individuals are addressed only through gestures or informal identification 1 42.

Feng Xu introduces personal names, tribal names, surnames, and a written language based partly on Oracle Bone Script. He names the Wind-Fire Tribe’s leaders Feng Sui, Feng Xi, and Feng Ling, then spreads the practice to allied groups such as the Lin, Marsh, Red Iron, Lukun, and Stone Tribes 3 5 10 12 17 35.

• Literacy is taught through daily character lessons, pronunciation practice, copying exercises, and later formal schooling 3 27.
• Feng Yuqi eventually learns more than one thousand characters and becomes a literacy teacher for the wider tribe 33.
• Writing becomes a tool for identity, education, administration, trade, and the spread of cultivation knowledge 5 32.
• Bamboo Mountain Academy trains literate administrators whose moral qualifications are considered alongside their knowledge. It accepts children from neighboring tribes and guarantees employment to graduates 45.
• Feng Xu expands the curriculum with artifact refining and herbal medicine as electives, while etiquette becomes compulsory. Feng Yuqi is entrusted with copying and distributing the new materials 46.
• In the Central Wilderness, Feng Xu introduces elementary lessons using charcoal and beast-hide boards while awaiting paper, pens, and ink from the Eastern Wilderness 54.
• The Dao De Jing is transmitted to Yunfeng and later copied by teachers in the Eastern Wilderness, linking literacy with moral and governmental instruction 57 59.
• Yushan Academy develops specialist training. Following the southern calamity, Feng Xu proposes revised curricula, stricter examinations, additional subjects, research groups, and illustrated books based on his travels 76 87.
• A document-copying machine supplements handwritten copying, which remains useful as a learning exercise 89.
• Migrating commanders receive printed paper books and instruction in papermaking and woodblock printing to preserve knowledge during expansion 92.
• Compulsory literacy and early childcare education bring Central Wilderness literacy to 90%. Qing Xuan’s Mist Mountain Tribe reaches 50%, while other large tribes remain below 10% 94.
• Yun Tian views the broad dissemination of human writing as a means of strengthening humanity’s influence and providence beyond its own settlements 94.
• Feng Xu records the Book of Changes to teach principles of conduct and practical decision-making rather than primarily to train diviners 94.

Settlement and Governance

Human settlements initially consist of caves, tree nests, bamboo rafts, or concealed underground pits, each shaped by local dangers and resources 1 5 10 16.

Under Feng Xu’s direction, the Wind-Fire Tribe develops into a more organized society centered on Vermilion Ridge. Its facilities include residential districts, workshops, warehouses, patrol areas, an academy, communal kitchens, bathhouses, dining halls, and sanitation systems 43.

• The Red Iron Tribe operates as a semi-independent branch settlement under Wind-Fire authority, with production obligations and local leadership assigned to Iron Mountain 12.
• Wild Boar Ridge is developed as a core residential and agricultural center, while the former Wind-Fire site is intended to serve as a trade and reception center 31 33.
• The Stone Tribe is incorporated through a grain-for-salt partnership rather than forced absorption, reflecting Feng Xu’s preference for controlled cooperation over simple dependency 35.

The Wind-Fire, Marsh, Lin, Lukun, and Red Iron Tribes later merge into the Eastern Wilderness Tribe in response to worsening central-region tensions. Feng Sui becomes chief, the other chiefs become elders, and Vermilion Ridge becomes the central city. Most people remain in their former settlements, now branch communities, while core personnel relocate to the center 47.

Feng Xu establishes specialized Blood Pool management, a Dharma Artifact factory, a Ritual Bureau, literacy requirements for clerical work, and merit-based administrative selection. A twenty-year plan divides farming, housing, roads, docks, boats, trade routes, and underground storage and shelters into manageable stages 47.

The Central Wilderness presents a different challenge: its commanders control separate territories and increasingly disregard the lord’s instructions. Feng Xu’s collection of children from all fifteen commander territories expands Yunfeng’s practical authority while creating a common nursery and educational foundation 51 57.

After the southern calamity, Yunfeng convenes a mass assembly to establish an ancestral institution. Feng Xu is acclaimed Human Ancestor, with responsibility for coordinating development and resistance to external enemies. He announces a ritual hierarchy placing the Human Ancestor above the Lord, commanders, deputy commanders, tribal chiefs, deputy chiefs, and ordinary tribespeople 87 88.

Families, Childcare, and Social Order

Formal household relationships are not initially established among ordinary humans. Feng Xu finds Iron Pillar’s use of “brother” unusual because recognized husband-wife and parent-child social structures have not yet developed, even though biological kinship exists 49.

Iron Pillar and Xi Feng later establish the first recognized small family. Their example encourages other people to leave communal dormitories and form independent households, gradually reshaping domestic life 76.

• Collective nurseries address the high mortality of children left to compete for food. More than twenty thousand children are gathered into the lord’s territory during Feng Xu’s tour of the fifteen commanders 57.
• Childcare centers combine care with literacy and moral education, forming the foundation for academy recruitment 76 92.
• Feng Xu initially avoids creating excessively large, crowded cities because technological progress has outpaced changes in behavior and social understanding 76.
• Prosperity produces new risks: idleness, disputes over resources, powerful clans, hereditary monopolies, and interference with public policy 89 91 95.
• Feng Xu argues that humanity requires goals beyond immediate survival and must continue developing to withstand a possible future Witch-Demon war 95.

Migration and Regional Autonomy

Faced with powerful Witches to the north and entrenched internal factions, Yun Tian proposes moving half the Human Race gradually east, west, and south. The migration is permanent but proceeds seasonally over multiple years rather than as a single mass flight. Remaining communities are to seek peaceful relations with the Witches 91 92.

The plan has Feng Xu’s approval. It serves both racial survival and political reform by spreading human communities while reducing the influence of resource-monopolizing clans in the Central Wilderness 91 92.

Law and Administrative Reform

Ritual education initially provides standards for behavior, supported by the Ritual Bureau and limited punishments. Feng Xu’s broader model proceeds from Dao and virtue to rites, then formal law where moral teaching and custom prove insufficient 46 47 57.

Bu Xing’s killing of his wife and her lover is reported as humanity’s first internal murder case requiring judgment. Officials disagree over the balance between punishment and mitigating circumstances. Feng Xu verifies the facts, detains Bu Xing, and orders a public hearing, recognizing that private grievances cannot justify killing and that customary authority is no longer sufficient 95.

Yun Tian subsequently presents a comprehensive reorganization of the Great Wilderness 97.

Worship and Commemoration

Early tribes conduct sacrifices to Nüwa and attribute their survival to her protection 1.

Later, Feng Xu and Yun Tian rebuild a ruined temple to her. Feng Xu maintains that humanity must rely on itself rather than wait for a Sage’s rescue, but also insists that humans owe Nüwa gratitude for creating them. He proposes a winter Spring Festival to honor the Holy Mother and humanity’s ancestors 97.

Development and Civilization

Fire, Food, and Medicine

Feng Xu introduces controlled fire to the Wind-Fire Tribe, allowing humans to cook meat, keep warm, and reduce their dependence on raw food. He explicitly teaches that fire belongs to the entire Human Race rather than treating it as private knowledge 2 5.

His emergency surgery on Feng Sui demonstrates that medical knowledge can save lives even with primitive tools. Later developments include herbal medicine, stitched wounds, tendon and plant-fiber thread, tanning, food preservation, and improved winter clothing 2 20 23 24.

Feng Xu later compiles a practical medical text incorporating medicinal herbs and yin-yang and five-element theory. Herbal medicine becomes an academy elective, allowing useful knowledge to be reproduced and taught rather than remaining dependent on his personal intervention 46.

By the later period of Great Wilderness development, diets include more than a dozen vegetables, alongside pigs, fish, and sheep. Cafeterias and specialized cooking replace the earlier dependence on raw food and improvised meals 59 76.

Crafts and Industry

• Pottery and bricks — Clay jars, bowls, kilns, brick molds, and large-scale firing improve storage, cooking, and construction 3 4 23.
• Ironworking — The discovery of iron ore leads to furnaces, iron axes, hammers, spears, tools, and the Mountain-Cleaving Axe 11 12.
• Textiles and clothing — Hemp thread, animal hides, needles, and refined garments replace simple hide wrappings and grass skirts 23 24.
• Housing — Humans build elevated bamboo houses, wolf-bone shelters, earthen dwellings, snow walls, and planned settlements suited to local climates 10 22 23 35.
• Transportation — Wooden carts, storage bags, and improved roads reduce the burden of moving ore, food, and trade goods 14 34.
• Weapons — Spears, javelins, bows, crossbows, catapults, trebuchets, armor, shields, and mounted crossbows allow human forces to challenge demon-beast threats 17 18 26 34.
• Standardized equipment — Wind-Fire armories contain standardized weapons and more than twenty complete Dharma Artifact sets suitable for both normal form and Giant Transformation 44.
• Artifact assembly lines — The Eastern Wilderness factory divides refinement into specialized operations, with standardization, quality control, and traceability. Its initial output is approximately two complete Houtian Dharma Artifact sets per month, allowing production to continue without a single master refiner completing every item 47 51.
• Automated textiles — Weaving machines eventually develop into fully automated assembly lines. Cloth garments with decorative patterns become available throughout the Great Wilderness 76.
• Advanced ceramics — Porcelain craftsmanship reaches a point where further improvement would approach Dharma Artifact production 76.
• Printing and copying — Paper, woodblock printing, and a copying machine improve the preservation and dissemination of books and records 89 92.
• Mass-produced Storage Bags — Larger fleets gain greatly expanded cargo capacity through standardized Storage Bag production 78.

Feng Xu seeks to make Dharma Artifacts useful in ordinary people’s daily lives rather than reserve them for warfare or elite cultivators. His ship designs combine artifact propulsion, defensive arrays, offensive systems, and expanded storage, while proposed flying artifacts would reduce dependence on roads across the immense Great Wilderness. Fuel remains a difficulty: charcoal is too wasteful, and relying entirely on cultivators’ mana would defeat the goal of accessibility 76 78 80.

Agriculture and Trade

The discovery and cultivation of rice transform the Human Race’s food security. Feng Xu insists on plowing, transplanting, storage, crop management, and soil recovery instead of simply scattering seeds 32 33.

The Wind-Fire Tribe harvests more than two million jin of rice from over two hundred mu of farmland, creating enough surplus to support population growth and trade with neighboring tribes 34.

• Grain is exchanged for people, maps, salt ore, demon corpses, bloodlines, pottery, iron, and other resources 26 35 43.
• The Lin Tribe trades wilderness maps for bows and limited crossbows, supported by the Eagle King’s aerial reconnaissance 26.
• The Stone Tribe supplies salt ore in return for yearly grain shipments 35.
• Excess grain gives the Wind-Fire Tribe influence while allowing weaker human communities to survive 34.

Trade with the Central Wilderness expands both agriculture and cultivation. Qu Shan orders three million jin of grain at a price of one hundred thousand jin for an intact Early Heavenly Immortal demon corpse, with stronger corpses worth more. A separate agreement exchanges three Dharma Artifact sets for two Mid Heavenly Immortal demon corpses 43 44.

Iron Pillar helps establish nearly three hundred mu of farmland in the Central Wilderness, assisted by Feng Xu’s large stone plow. The initial harvest cannot support the entire population, but later yields approach twelve thousand jin per mu, surpassing those of the Eastern Wilderness 51 54.

• Eastern Wilderness production reaches approximately twenty million jin per season. Feng Sui allocates thirteen million jin to aid the Central Wilderness, framing it as repayment for the central tribes’ defense of the wider race 59.
• Cow Demon and the Ox Tribe provide plowing labor while humans care for them, freeing human workers for other tasks and military preparation 75.
• Later Great Wilderness annual grain output reaches ten million tons, supporting population growth, industries, and long-distance voyages 76.
• Leaders advocate expanded livestock breeding, additional farmland, and strict protection of plow oxen 78.

Exploration and Interregional Cooperation

Feng Xu’s development program extends beyond the Great Wilderness to southern and overseas human communities. Voyages seek unfamiliar seeds, livestock, resources, and places that might shelter humanity from future continental conflicts 77 78.

The fleets share pottery, basket-weaving, and fishing-net techniques without withholding knowledge to preserve trade profits. Feng Xu’s guiding instruction is “People Come First”: development is intended to serve the whole Human Race, including communities whose livelihoods remain far poorer than those of the Great Wilderness 77.

Further plans call for expanded artifact production, better ships, continued exploration, the spread of writing and ritual, and supply stations supporting movement toward the Southern Plains. Feng Xu considers plains better suited to large cities, extensive farming, and broad use of cultivation artifacts, although renewed demon aggression interrupts these ambitions 78.

Cultivation Systems

Bloodline Power

Bloodline Power is the Human Race’s original primary source of combat strength. Users enlarge into giants and gain substantial physical power, though their control and advancement are initially limited 1 21.

The Blood Pool improves this natural potential by combining demon-beast blood, refined essence blood, and medicinal herbs to stabilize bloodline fusion for humans 23 24.

Early bloodline-only warriors lack the mana needed to operate Dharma Treasures, requiring Feng Xu or allies such as the Eagle King to use them. Later cultivation marks and mana-based techniques help overcome this limitation 28 32 47.

Blood Pool

Feng Xu creates the first Human Race-adapted Blood Pool from Wolf King blood, boar-demon essence blood, and medicinal herbs. It accelerates bloodline cultivation and enables qualified humans to break through to the Earth Immortal realm 23 24.

• It is dangerous; Feng Xu tests it personally before allowing others to enter 23.
• Feng Sui, Feng Xi, Lin Sen, and Iron Mountain each reach Earth Immortal through the system 24 25 27 28.
• The upgraded pool can later accommodate ten simultaneous breakthroughs 43.
• Blood Pools are valuable enough to become a diplomatic resource shared selectively with allied tribes 33 43.
• Higher-grade beast materials allow the Eastern Wilderness pool to advance three envoys from Early to Mid Heavenly Immortal 47.
• The Central Wilderness’s stronger hunting forces supply Heavenly Immortal and True Immortal beasts for a more powerful pool, which Qu Shan uses for a True Immortal breakthrough attempt 51.
• Yunfeng uses a Blood Pool while overdrafting his bloodline essence to become humanity’s first Mysterious Immortal. The achievement consumes most of his origin essence and ends his further cultivation prospects 86 87.
• Later reforms tie access to Blood Pool Elixirs to public service, making cultivation resources part of the system of social incentives 97.

Bloodline Secret Art

The Bloodline Secret Art is Feng Xu’s adaptation of the Witchblood Secret Art. It uses Battle Marks to make cultivation accessible to humans who cannot read cultivation manuals or innate Dao script 32.

• Cultivation-method marks — Enable passive cultivation according to a selected technique.
• Divine-ability marks — May awaken an Innate Divine Ability influenced by the bloodline used.
• Transformation marks — Gradually alter the user toward a ferocious beast’s form, potentially causing partial or complete demonization.
• Each person can use only one type of Battle Mark at a time 32.
• Feng Xu intends to give children foundational Eight-Nine Mystical Art marks from age five, creating a long-term cultivation tradition 32.
• Cultivation-method marks replace ordinary daily practice, not the comprehension required to recognize and complete a breakthrough. Excessive reliance on passive cultivation can weaken a cultivator’s judgment of breakthrough timing 32.
• Marks fade through metabolism, but their changes to the body’s mana circulation persist unless deliberately altered 32.
• Most non-elderly Wind-Fire and Red Iron members receive marks during the initial implementation 32.
• The Eastern Wilderness later distributes marks containing the Five Qi Transformation Art and Soul-Nurturing Formula under controlled conditions; Qu Shan receives the same techniques in preparation for his Blood Pool cultivation 47 51.

Baleful Qi Cultivation

Baleful Qi normally threatens cultivators with corruption, loss of reason, and transformation into fiends. Feng Xu and Iron Pillar demonstrate unusual capacity to use it, drawing attention from powerful outside observers 62 75.

Feng Xu teaches Yunfeng the Nine-Turn Origin Art to control and cultivate Baleful Qi. He also modifies Chen’s White Bone Whip to absorb and store it, although excessive accumulation still risks backlash 62.

This provides humanity with a means of resisting Baleful threats, but does not eliminate their danger. Commander Zheng becomes a Fusion Baleful Fiend and consumes his own subordinates, illustrating the consequences of uncontrolled corruption 62.

Human Dao Destiny

The Human Dao System links humanity’s collective destiny to its population and strength. Originally held by Iron Pillar, it transfers to Feng Xu during the southern calamity and merges with the Merit Mall 60 80 82.

• Greater destiny improves luck, cultivation speed, and the smoothness of development; declining destiny worsens humanity’s prospects, and its complete exhaustion would threaten racial extinction 80.
• Destiny and Merit convert at a one-to-one ratio. The system holder can allocate destiny among humans or convert it into Merit to reward members of other races 80 82.
• Iron Pillar uses collective destiny to reward Feng Xu and support the establishment of the Dharma Artifact Factory 80.
• Only one human at a time holds the special ability to spend fortune and temporarily reach the highest cultivation level attained by the race 82.
• During the southern crisis, a temporary cultivation enhancement costs one million fortune points. Humanity’s total reserves are then above ninety million but declining 82.
• Yunfeng’s Mysterious Immortal breakthrough brings collective fortune to one hundred million and unlocks the Hongmeng Measuring Heaven Ruler’s Supreme Treasure form 86.
• Feng Xu later redistributes fortune among the people, creating a cycle in which better fortune improves outcomes and successful development generates still more fortune 89.
• Each one hundred million collective fortune points increases race-wide cultivation speed by 1%; Feng Xu receives twice that bonus. At ten billion fortune, the increases reach 100% and 200%, respectively 89.

Major Conflicts

Wolf Pack War

The Human Race’s allied tribes fight a wolf pack of more than five hundred wolves led by an Earth Immortal Wolf King. Unable to match the pack through individual strength, they rely on trebuchets, fire bombs, javelins, traps, terrain, ambushes, and the Heavenly Net and Earthly Web 17 18 19.

The campaign ends with the Wolf King captured and executed, while the allied tribes divide the wolves’ meat, hides, bones, cubs, and other resources 19 20.

Pig Demon Invasion

A late-Earth-Immortal Pig Demon leads a winter invasion against the Wind-Fire Tribe to avenge its son. The Human Race delays the attacking herd for five days using snow, ice, rolling logs, boulders, attrition, and defensive preparation 27 28.

Feng Sui, Feng Xi, Jiang Ze, Iron Mountain, Lin Sen, Feng Xu, and the Eagle King ultimately cooperate against the Pig Demon. Their rotating attacks, Taiji techniques, and Dharma Treasure support allow them to defeat an enemy whose individual strength far exceeds theirs 29.

The subsequent clearance of Wild Boar Ridge removes a major nearby threat and opens valuable land for settlement, farming, roads, and future expansion 31.

Baleful Qi Crisis

Unusually vicious Baleful beasts and concealed Baleful Qi dens threaten the Central Wilderness. Feng Xu discovers a deliberately tampered beast core, while the distribution of hideouts and testimony gathered during his travels suggest involvement by human commanders 45 54 57.

The campaign clears the remaining known dens, including two Fusion Baleful Fiends. Commander Zheng’s corruption destroys evidence and reveals that the threat extends into humanity’s own leadership. Feng Xu doubts Captain Shi could have created all the eastern hideouts alone, prompting a continuing covert investigation even as the leadership publicly announces the crisis resolved 62.

A martial tournament with artifact rewards is planned to restore confidence and redirect public attention. The episode reinforces the need for stronger institutions, organized armed forces, and broad access to cultivation equipment 54 62.

War for the Great Wilderness

The Heavenly Wolf Demon Race seeks to subordinate humanity and prohibit human Mysterious Immortals from remaining in the Great Wilderness. Commander Ling presents these restrictions as a framework for coexistence, but they would permanently preserve demon supremacy 68.

After the Sky Wolf Demon King dies from Baleful Qi, Feng Xu recommends a coordinated campaign rather than an immediate frontal attack. Human leaders publicize the demons’ alleged atrocities, secure supplies, and contact tribes throughout the Great Wilderness. Eastern Wilderness industry sends food and Dharma Artifacts to support the effort 75.

An army of fifty thousand humans marches after spring planting. The Ox Tribe’s agricultural assistance helps free human labor for military preparation. A century of clearance eventually destroys the Heavenly Wolf leadership and scatters the remaining demons, allowing a further period of extensive development 75 76.

Southern Demon Calamity

Dozens of Demon Race groups unite to hunt humanity in the Southern Plains and coastal waters. The south contains more than thirty Mysterious Immortal demons on the plains alone, making a direct human response exceptionally dangerous. Fleets abandon cargo to evacuate people, while leaders debate how far rescue operations can safely extend 78 79.

During the retreat, Chen, Qu Shan, three commanders, and ten Human True Immortals form a rearguard. They kill twenty Demon True Immortals using the Heavenly Net and Earthly Web, but stronger demons gradually overwhelm them. The last seven fighters self-destruct within the demon army, and a rat demon takes the Spirit Treasure 80.

Iron Pillar later holds off the pursuing army alone until his power and life essence are exhausted. Feng Xu recovers his body and learns the extent of the sacrifice. Yunfeng asks him to save the humans still trapped along the coast; after initially refusing because of the danger, Feng Xu ultimately travels south alone 82.

The coastal population suffers catastrophic losses and abuse under demon occupation. Of more than five hundred thousand humans originally present, only approximately three hundred thousand remain when Feng Xu reaches the estuary 83.

Yunfeng’s forced Mysterious Immortal breakthrough raises Feng Xu’s temporary cultivation ceiling and brings humanity’s fortune to the threshold needed to unlock the Hongmeng Measuring Heaven Ruler. Feng Xu kills the Sun-Swallowing Demon King after the latter reaches Golden Immortal, then destroys the demon forces across the plains and coastal waters. Three years later, he returns to the Great Wilderness, where survivors still require settlement 86.

The calamity leads directly to the creation of the Human Ancestor institution: Yunfeng argues that humanity’s fragmented response caused unbearable losses and that the race needs unified leadership 87 88.

Witch Encounters and Peaceful Cooperation

The first local Witch attack robs a human hunting party and seriously injures A-Da without killing or eating the hunters. Yuntian investigates five northern Witch settlements, strengthens guards, and summons the commanders rather than immediately retaliating 89.

Yun Tian chooses gradual migration and negotiation over war against the stronger and more united Witches. Feng Xu leads a delegation carrying a giant deer as a gift and explains humanity’s etiquette to the War Shaman 92 93.

The first mixed human-Witch settlement divides work according to each race’s strengths. Humans provide construction and daily necessities, while Witches hunt and perform heavy labor; humans also participate in hunting. Seven substantial houses are completed in three months, establishing a practical basis for coexistence 94.

The alliance remains local and tentative. The Witches’ central forces have not yet been contacted, and migration continues over multiple years 94.

Relationships

• Nüwa — Creator and Holy Mother of the Human Race; early tribes worship her and credit her protection with humanity’s continued survival. Later reforms restore her temple and propose a Spring Festival honoring her and the ancestors, while emphasizing human self-reliance 1 97.
• Fuxi — Said to have brought humanity into the Great Wilderness and to watch over the race, though he has not been seen by the early local tribes. Later accounts reveal that he destroys demons whose cultivation vastly exceeds humanity’s capacity while leaving ordinary threats for humans to overcome themselves. Before departing, he places the Fuxi Qin in the southern sky to attack Golden Immortal or stronger demons that assault humanity 23 67 79.
• Great Wilderness Lord — Ordered the Human Race’s dispersal into many small tribes to preserve its bloodline against total extermination; the policy also concealed an effort to reduce internal conflict in concentrated settlements 26 31 45.
• Wind-Fire Tribe — Feng Xu’s original community and the center of his civilizational, military, agricultural, and cultivation reforms; later becomes the core of the merged Eastern Wilderness Tribe 3 43 47.
• Lin, Marsh, Red Iron, Lukun, and Stone Tribes — Allied or affiliated human communities connected through trade, education, cultivation opportunities, military support, and settlement-building. Lin, Marsh, Red Iron, and Lukun merge with Wind-Fire, while Stone’s established grain-for-salt relationship remains part of the wider cooperative network 12 17 26 35 47.
• Eastern Wilderness Tribe — Unified regional community centered on Vermilion Ridge, led by Feng Sui and developed through shared institutions, artifact industry, agriculture, and long-term planning 47 59.
• Central Wilderness Tribe — Stronger central human community that adopts Feng Xu’s farming, Blood Pools, education, and industrial methods. Its political divisions and later calamities drive broader administrative and racial-unification reforms 49 51 57 87.
• Feng Xu — Civilization-builder and eventual Human Ancestor; develops accessible cultivation, writing, agriculture, industry, ritual order, and institutions, and becomes holder of the Human Dao System 32 47 80 88.
• Feng Sui — Wind-Fire chief and later chief of the Eastern Wilderness; supports interregional cooperation and contributes substantial grain aid to the Central Wilderness 47 59.
• Yunfeng — Central Wilderness leader who accepts Feng Xu’s reform program, sacrifices his cultivation future to become humanity’s first Mysterious Immortal, and organizes the selection of a Human Ancestor 57 86 87.
• Yun Tian / Yuntian — Later Lord and Mysterious Immortal who coordinates the response to the Witches, gradual migration, regional autonomy, and governmental reform 89 92 97.
• Iron Pillar — Previous holder of the Human Dao System; supports agriculture, industrial development, family formation, and human defense. Dies holding off the southern demon army to protect the retreating fleet 76 80 82.
• Feng Yuqi — Teacher and educational administrator whose work supports literacy, academy development, knowledge preservation, and successive curriculum reforms 33 45 59 87.
• Qing Xuan — Leader of the comparatively literate Mist Mountain Tribe and humanity’s first Golden Immortal after studying the Dao De Jing 92 94.
• Demon Race — Humanity’s principal early external threat in the Great Wilderness, though individual demons such as the Eagle King and Carp King can become conditional allies or protectors. Later demon alliances cause the southern calamity, while other demon communities cooperate with humans 7 10 27 75 79.
• Ox Tribe — Agricultural partners who plow human fields in exchange for human care, supporting food production and freeing labor for other work 75.
• Witches — Initially intimidating neighbors who overpower human hunters but do not deliberately slaughter them. Local negotiations lead to mixed settlements and cooperation in construction, hunting, and heavy labor 89 92 93 94.
• Kunpeng — Hidden instigator behind the Sky Wolf Demon King’s Baleful Qi experiments; recognizes the unusual potential of Feng Xu and Iron Pillar as humans able to cultivate with Baleful Qi 75.
• Human Dao — Source of humanity’s collective destiny and the rewards distributed through the Human Dao System; links racial survival, population, strength, cultivation, and development 80 89.
• Heavenly Dao — An authority Feng Xu increasingly questions after Iron Pillar’s death and the southern disaster. His suspicions that it may manipulate humanity’s fate remain his interpretation rather than an established explanation for every calamity 82.

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