With Shennong's support, Xuanyuan's strength grew tremendously. After all, Shennong's prestige among humanity now surpassed even Fuxi's.
Shennong had not only solved humanity's food and clothing shortages, but had also risked his own safety to taste countless herbs, all to find cures for human illnesses.
Moreover, after returning, Shennong taught humanity the Medical Classic, greatly reducing the incidence of illness and earning himself immense renown.
Thus, not only in Xuanyuan's tribe, but even within the Nine Li tribe founded by Chiyou, many people supported Shennong.
Under Chiyou's oppressive rule, however, no one dared betray him. And so, the first large-scale war in humanity's history broke out.
Xuanyuan and Chiyou each gathered well over a hundred thousand troops, who fought savagely across the wilderness. But Chiyou's tribe had forged large quantities of sharp bronze weapons. From their very first clash, his army drove the combined forces of Xuanyuan and Shennong into retreat after retreat.
Left with no choice, Xuanyuan held his defensive positions while hastening the production of sharp weapons, hoping to regroup and defeat Chiyou's army.
Yet Chiyou seemed born for war, his mastery of battle tactics almost innate. Xuanyuan and Shennong were simply no match for him.
Their repeated defeats caused humanity to lose faith in Xuanyuan and Shennong.
Fortunately, Chiyou was not without flaws. In every tribe he conquered along the way, he divided the people into three ranks: those from the Nine Li tribe stood at the top, those who voluntarily submitted occupied the middle, and those from conquered tribes became slaves at the bottom.
Many people could not accept this system of rule, and rebellions erupted everywhere.
There were also recluses devoted solely to cultivating the martial way. As Chiyou conquered tribe after tribe, he enslaved their people, forcing them to perform the heaviest labor and