Rewriting the Investiture of the Gods in the Primordial World: Section 13

After all, the higher one's realm and the stronger one's strength, the deeper one's comprehension of the laws of heaven and earth. The Sage's sermon was naturally easier for the three of them to understand.

At this moment, the auras of the three grew increasingly profound and vast. They had clearly improved considerably since before. However, Jiang Haofeng's strength was insufficient, so he truly could not tell exactly how much they had improved.

Aside from the three of them, the auras of the Human race's forty-three Primordial Unity Golden Immortals had also grown deeper. Each of them had basically advanced by one or two minor realms, generally reaching the middle or later stages of the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal realm.

Xuandu, Dating, and Zunlu were the same, each reaping a full harvest. Dating and Zunlu had advanced to the late Golden Immortal stage, while Xuandu was the strongest. His immortal cultivation realm had already reached the peak of the Golden Immortal realm—the same realm as Jiang Haofeng.

As expected of disciples chosen by the Grand Pure Sage. Their talent was beyond question.

Beyond the core fifty Innate Humans, the strength of the outer Innate Humans had also risen greatly. Even those who gained the least had broken through to the middle Profound Immortal stage, and many had reached the late Profound Immortal stage. However, none had broken through to the peak of the Profound Immortal realm!

A single sermon had raised the strength of the entire Human race by a great deal. In the four thousand years since the Grand Pure Sage established his teaching, the Human race's improvement had far surpassed that of the previous five Yuan.

"Peak Golden Immortal!"

"As expected of Brother Haofeng—your talent is truly formidable!" Suiren's eyes immediately lit up when he saw Jiang Haofeng approach.

"You flatter me, Brother Suiren." Jiang Haofeng smiled but did not refute him.

If Jiang Haofeng wished to lead the Human Hidden Lineage, he had to display enough talent and strength to make the Hidden Lineage Humans sincerely submit. There was no need for humility at a time like this.

"Haofeng, you're amazing," Zhisheng said with a smile from beside him.

"Hahaha, no matter how amazing I am, I'm still only a Golden Immortal. I'm still far from it." Jiang Haofeng shook his head with a smile.

"With your talent, you will sooner or later achieve the Zenith Heaven realm, perhaps even attain the Dao of the Primordial Unity!" Zhisheng said with certainty.

"By the time that day comes, everyone present will likely be Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals, perhaps even Quasi-Saints. Then, our Human race will fear no race beneath heaven!" Jiang Haofeng paused, anticipation flickering in his eyes.

As soon as he spoke, the eyes of the Human race members lit up. If such a day truly came, the Human race would surely become the strongest race in the Primordial World, overpowering both the Witch and Demon races and standing proudly upon the land of the Primordial World.

"So long as we cultivate diligently, such a glorious sight will come sooner or later!" Suiren declared firmly.

"Right!"

For a time, the Innate Humans, who had grown somewhat restless after their cultivation increased, once again strengthened their resolve. Cultivate well; they could not slack off. They were still far from their goal. At the very least, they had to cultivate into Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals before they could be considered barely successful.

The eyes of the Humans became resolute one after another as they secretly set goals for themselves. At the very least, they would become Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals—perhaps even Quasi-Saints!

Jiang Haofeng nodded inwardly in satisfaction and said, "Everyone, today is the day of our teacher's sermon. Let us set out quickly!"

"Alright!"

A moment later, three thousand streaks of escaping light rose into the air and flew toward Shouyang Mountain.

By the time the three thousand Innate Humans arrived at Shouyang Mountain, nearly ten thousand Acquired Humans had already gathered there. Seeing Jiang Haofeng, Suiren, Da Chao, Zhisheng, and the other three thousand Innate Humans arrive, they immediately bowed respectfully.

"Greetings, Human Ancestors!"

Suiren surveyed the crowd below. Upon seeing nearly forty thousand True Immortal cultivators, he nodded in satisfaction. The Acquired Humans could finally be of some use.

"Rise!"

"A Sage's sermon is an unparalleled great opportunity, one that may not come even in hundreds of millions of years. You must listen attentively and do not miss this opportunity!"

"Yes!"

Suiren nodded in satisfaction and immediately sat at the very front, together with Jiang Haofeng, Da Chao, and Zhisheng.

The four sat side by side in front, with Suiren and Jiang Haofeng in the middle, and Da Chao and Zhisheng seated at either end.

Behind the four were the Innate Humans, while the Acquired Humans sat farther out.

At this moment, the Acquired Humans craned their necks to look at Jiang Haofeng and secretly transmitted their voices. "Do you know who that Human Ancestor sitting with the three Great Worthies is? Why have I never seen him before?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen him either. To sit together with the three Great Worthies, he must be an incredibly, incredibly formidable Human Ancestor!" a True Immortal Human beside them transmitted.

The Three Human Ancestors—Suiren, Da Chao, and Zhisheng—were how later generations of Humans referred to them. At present, however, the Human race called them the Great Worthies, distinguishing them from the other Human Ancestors.

There were many Human Ancestors, but only three Great Worthies!

"Probably!"

The gazes of the Acquired Humans all focused on Jiang Haofeng, every one of them curious about his identity.

However, Jiang Haofeng was the leader of the Human Hidden Lineage and would never reveal himself before others. They were destined never to learn his identity. After the Sage's sermon, they likely would never see Jiang Haofeng again.

Three days later, purple qi stretched vast for thirty thousand li, while boundless clear qi rose into the air. Auspicious signs and strange phenomena appeared in abundance, and the Grand Pure Sage appeared with them.

"Greetings, Teacher!"

Led by Jiang Haofeng and the other three, several hundred thousand Humans respectfully bowed to the Grand Pure Sage.

This time, fifty thousand more people had come to hear the sermon than last time. A full one hundred and fifty thousand people listened to the Dao at Shouyang Mountain.

The Grand Pure Sage nodded, then began his sermon.

This sermon concerned the Golden Core Great Dao.

The Grand Pure Immortal Method from the first sermon had been a cultivation method beginning from the True Immortal realm, explaining the path of cultivation from True Immortal to the peak of the Quasi-Saint realm. This time, however, he taught the path of cultivation from an ordinary mortal to a True Immortal—a Golden Core Great Dao created specifically for the Human race!

Although the Innate Humans had no use for this Golden Core Great Dao, a Sage's sermon was hardly so simple. From the shallow to the profound, he explained the Golden Core Great Dao thoroughly, step by step. Once he reached its deeper mysteries, even the Primordial Unity and Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals could not understand the cultivation methods beneath the True Immortal realm.

The crowd listened to the sermon as if intoxicated and entranced.

The Innate Humans had been granted their cultivation by heaven itself. From the moment they were born, they were True Immortals or even Golden Immortals, and had never experienced the insights of mortals. Moreover, they had been born directly into the immortal realm. Though they possessed tremendous power, they lacked understanding of laws and strength.

This solidified everyone's foundations and completed their roots. The insights the Innate Humans had lacked were filled in. Though their cultivation levels did not change in the slightest, their understanding of the laws of Heaven and Earth deepened by another layer!

The Innate Humans were like this, but the Acquired Humans gained even greater benefits. After all, this time, the Sage had specifically targeted them—the human race members who had yet to become immortals.

Those who had already attained immortality merely further supplemented their foundations, but for those who had not, it was a genuine increase in cultivation. The road ahead was bright, and the path to immortality lay smooth and open before them.

"The second sermon has concluded. Three thousand years from now, I shall preach the Dao at Shouyang Mountain once more. You may come and listen!"

"Thank you, Teacher, for the grace of imparting the Dao!"

As the sermon ended, every human respectfully bowed to the Grand Pure Sage.

"Mm!"

The Grand Pure Sage nodded. With a sweep of his sleeve, the world spun around them, and all the humans were transported back to the human race once again.

Jiang Haofeng and the others who had listened to the Dao immediately entered seclusion to comprehend the Great Dao. With the Myriad Manifestations Heavenly Book, Jiang Haofeng fully comprehended the Golden Core Great Dao. Yet in the end, it was merely a cultivation method below the immortal rank, and he thoroughly grasped it in only a hundred years.

Jiang Haofeng spent the remaining time comprehending the Grand Pure Immortal Method from the first sermon. Three thousand years drifted by, and Jiang Haofeng awoke from seclusion. His cultivation rose once again. Though he remained at the peak of the Golden Immortal realm, his strength had increased tremendously, and he faintly touched upon the threshold of the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal realm.

After emerging from seclusion, the three thousand humans set off for Shouyang Mountain.

By the time they reached Shouyang Mountain, a vast sea of nearly three hundred thousand humans had gathered there. Nearly one hundred thousand of them were True Immortals, while the remaining two hundred thousand were not far from becoming True Immortals themselves. They were the finest among mortals; according to the Golden Core Great Dao passed down by the Grand Pure Sage, they were all Golden Core cultivators!

The Sage had set the site of his sermon beneath Shouyang Mountain precisely to screen the listeners. Without strength approaching that of a True Immortal, it was difficult to cross the tens of millions of li of the primordial wilderness and reach Shouyang Mountain.

At the very least, one needed strength approaching that of a True Immortal. According to the Golden Core Great Dao handed down by the Grand Pure Sage, there were two major realms between mortals and immortals: Qi Refinement and Golden Core.

Mortals refined innate spiritual qi into their bodies, merging their essence and spiritual essence with the innate spiritual qi. Once essence, qi, and spirit merged as one, they transformed into dharma power.

Afterward, they continuously condensed and absorbed innate spiritual qi, enhancing their dharma power until Qi Refinement reached perfection. Then, through resonance between man and Heaven, they forged a Golden Core, laying the foundation of the Great Dao. When the Golden Core completed its nine revolutions, they became immortals.

This differed from the four great realms widely circulated in later generations—Refining Essence to Qi, Refining Qi to Spirit, Refining Spirit to Void, and Refining Void to Dao. Presumably, once innate spiritual qi transformed into acquired spiritual qi, cultivation methods changed as well, evolving from Qi Refinement and Golden Core into the four great realms.

According to the realms passed down by the Sage, crossing this distance of tens of millions of li required at least Golden Core strength. Any weaker, and even if the Sage expounded the Great Dao and explained it in the simplest possible terms, they would not understand.

Jiang Haofeng and the other Innate Humans did not bring many low-level humans to listen to the Dao either, respecting the Grand Pure Sage's test.

With each of the three sermons, more humans came to listen. This also represented the human race's growing strength: from the initial tens of thousands of Golden Cores and only a handful of True Immortals, to the current one hundred thousand True Immortals and two hundred thousand Golden Cores.

The strength of the entire human race had risen by a tremendous margin, and this was only the beginning. Once the Golden Core Great Dao and the Grand Pure Immortal Method spread throughout the human race, vast numbers of cultivators would spring up like bamboo shoots after the rain!

The Grand Pure Sage's sermons ushered the human race into its first period of rapid development!

After greeting the other clansmen, the Innate Humans sat cross-legged at the heart of the sermon grounds, awaiting the Sage's arrival.

A moment later, purple qi surged through the void, the Great Dao rumbled, and strange phenomena covered the land. The Grand Pure Sage's figure appeared once more and began his third sermon.

This third sermon concerned the Dao of divine abilities and arts for safeguarding the Dao. The Grand Pure Sage imparted the Nine Xuanmen Gang Qi, corresponding respectively to One Origin, Two Principles, Three Talents, Four Symbols, Five Elements, Six Harmonies, Seven Stars, Eight Trigrams, and Nine Palaces.

Once condensed, Xuanmen Gang Qi could be used to attack and kill enemies, or to protect the body and defend oneself. Its wondrous applications were inexhaustible.

When Jiang Shang descended the mountain during the Investiture of the Gods to carry out the Investiture, what he learned was this Xuanmen Gang Qi. He used it to slay enemies and protect himself. It was considered a rather practical divine ability during the Investiture of the Gods, increasing Jiang Ziya's strength by a great deal.

What Jiang Ziya cultivated back then was Xuanmen Gang Qi as well, though it belonged to the Jade Pure Lineage.

Beyond the basic Nine Gang Qi, there was also the protective divine ability, Grand Pure Immortal Light—the very divine ability the Myriad Manifestations Heavenly Book had previously simulated from Grand Pure. It was a divine ability the Grand Pure Sage had comprehended from the protective immortal light surrounding him while he was still being conceived. With immortal light guarding the body, ten thousand arts could not invade; it was extraordinarily profound!

There was also the offensive Grand Pure Profound Light. It could shatter dharma bodies and disperse Primordial Spirits. It was an exceptionally profound method for breaking enemies and killing foes.

There was also the Grand Pure Divine Thunder, comprehended from the Dutian Divine Thunder of Heaven Opening Earth Splitting, as well as the Six Ding Divine Fire method and Samadhi True Fire.

And there were the Thirty-six Heavenly Dipper Great Divine Abilities passed down from the Dao Ancestor.

Every one of these divine abilities was incomparably profound, each among the foremost great divine abilities in the world. No matter which one it was, once cultivated to the extreme, it could allow one to touch the Great Dao and unleash terrifying might capable of Destroying Heaven and Earth.

After all, these were great divine abilities passed down through the Dao Ancestor's sermons at the Purple Cloud Palace. If their power had not been formidable, they would never have entered the Dao Ancestor's Dharma Eye.

The Grand Pure Sage's three sermons had thoroughly established the human race's inheritance. If they could learn it all, it would be enough for the human race to truly take root in the primordial wilderness.

Yet unfortunately, the Sage's Great Dao was so profound—how could ordinary people possibly comprehend it? To grasp even a scale or half a claw of its contents was already enough to benefit them for a lifetime.

After one sermon, the human race truly absorbed not even one-thousandth of it. Many divine abilities were already lost as soon as they were passed down, while the Grand Pure Sage's sermon was given only once. If they failed to comprehend it, then naturally, it was gone.

Thus, after the Grand Pure Sage's sermons, the human race's strength rose by a great tier, yet they still could not escape the pursuit and slaughter of the two races of witches and demons. They came close to extinction in the primordial wilderness, surviving only through the protection of Shouyang Mountain and the human race's ancestral land. Nearly all the Innate Humans perished.