Chapter 104: Chiyou Stirs Up Chaos

At the very moment when the upper ranks of the human race were still hesitating over who should wear the crown of the Human Sovereign, the Nine Li tribe on the shore of the Eastern Sea had already made up its mind to rise in revolt.

The Nine Li were, in truth, nine tribes, and each tribe was made up of clans that followed nine different beliefs. The Nine Li had never truly counted as part of the human race; they were descendants of the Shaman Clan and humankind, living along the Eastern Sea.

And because the Nine Li lived close to the tribe where Jingwei had died, they too began to nurse thoughts of rebellion. They were determined to restore the former glory of the Shaman Clan.

The Nine Li had lain hidden for thousands of years in preparation for this day. During those millennia, they nurtured countless gifted talents and forged fine weapons, all for the sake of contending for supremacy over the Primordial World.

Are you humans Heaven’s darlings? Then I am human too, and let us contest this great realm together.

The men of the Shaman Clan were all kindred in spirit: if one was insulted, the whole clan would come storming forth.

“Elder Brother, the eighty brothers among us will stand only by your side and work together to achieve the great undertaking!” a burly man said, rising to speak to the seated figure above.

This man was the chief of the Nine Li tribe, Chi You. Chi You was also a prodigy of martial cultivation; in less than twenty years, he had already attained the power of an ancestral shaman, the very peak of the Great Luo Golden Immortal realm.

Chi You had quite an extraordinary background. Lady Houtu, still unwilling to accept defeat, had insisted on restoring the Shaman Clan’s glory. From the Springs of the Underworld, she extracted a drop of exceptionally pure ancestral shaman blood essence and placed it into the human path of the Six Paths of Reincarnation, thereby creating Chi You, the present leader of the Nine Li.

Yet in the end, Lady Houtu had still miscalculated. Chi You would not play along. Furious, Lady Houtu returned to the underworld and no longer cared whether the Shaman Clan lived or died. Meanwhile, Chi You led his tribe in unifying the various tribes along the southeastern coast, forming the Nine Li tribe.

“Good. If we are to fight, then let us win a proper victory. We set out at once and strike the tribe encamped under the Flame Emperor.”

A resounding voice spread across the sky, followed immediately by cries and shouts of triumph.

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty, this is the Nine Li tribe’s declaration of war!” A servant rushed in from outside the great tent and hurriedly reported to the Flame Emperor, who was still standing there in a daze.

Though the deaths of Nv Wa and Ting Yao had dealt the Flame Emperor a heavy blow, he had not forgotten his duty. More than a month had passed, and he had finally recovered somewhat.

In truth, the Flame Emperor now wished only to lay down his burden. But when it came to choosing a successor, he remained indecisive. Should it be his own child, or should he choose someone from among the human race whom he favored?

Yan Ju was his own son, and his disposition was not bad. His temperament was much like his father’s: cautious, thoughtful, and never impulsive, and he handled affairs of state quite well.

As for the rest of the human race, the Flame Emperor also had someone in mind: the descendant of the Youxiong line in the West, Gong Sun Xuan Yuan.

Gong Sun Xuan Yuan had been bright and quick-witted since childhood. Not only that, he was also the disciple of Guang Cheng Zi, the senior disciple under the Flame Emperor’s martial uncle, the Primordial Lord of Heaven. By seniority, he was even the Flame Emperor’s junior nephew. His lineage meant little, but his talent was astonishing: he could speak only a few dozen days after birth; as a youth, his mind was sharp and agile; in adulthood, he became steady and capable; and now, at thirty years of age, he had already become the overlord among the humans of the West.

The Flame Emperor thought to himself: let this battle decide the successor of the human race.

Chi You, you brute. You and your kind are barbarians. Why have you brought war upon the human race? Are you not afraid of Heaven’s punishment?

On the battlefield, momentum was everything. To place righteousness on his own side, the Flame Emperor first launched a verbal assault.

“Hmph. Those with ability may become kings under Heaven. We are also human; we merely have not had dealings with you for more than a thousand years. As for why I bring this challenge against you, it is because I intend to purge the court of corrupt ministers!” Chi You stood upon the earth, behind him an army tempered by a hundred battles. For this day, the Shaman Clan had waited for more than a thousand years. They had waited for this very moment to arrive.

“If you are of our human race, then why have you refused to attend the grand human assembly for ten years running? And you even claim to be barbarians, swearing no allegiance to the sovereign Heaven and trusting only yourselves. As for this talk of purging the court, you are not even of the human race. What right have you to speak of purging the court?” By then the Flame Emperor had shed his former sorrowful air. Standing atop his flying chariot, he looked imposing and majestic. Seeing the Nine Li tribesmen below, he too felt anger rising in his heart. Do they think I am no ruler of the human race?

“Hah. If that is so, then let me, Chi You, ask whether any among you dares step forward and challenge me!”

Chi You planted himself there with swaggering ease, his eyes fixed on the humans floating in the sky.

“I shall face you myself!”

Even the Flame Emperor did not know the depth of this man’s strength, which showed that Chi You’s cultivation was no shallow matter. Ignoring the dissuasion of those around him, the Flame Emperor donned his battle armor, took up his treasured weapon, and descended to fight Chi You.

Old ginger is always fiercer. To be cautious, the Flame Emperor summoned the Cosmos Cauldron above his head, and with the Kongtong Seal in hand, he drove his power forward and hurled himself toward Chi You below.

Then Chi You suddenly manifested his true heavenly form: a human body with ox hooves, four eyes, and six arms. With only one hand, he easily caught the Kongtong Seal, and cried aloud, “So the Human Emperor amounts to nothing more than this?”

The Shaman Clan relied precisely on rough, durable bodies and nimble combat technique. If one were to fight the Shaman Clan with magic treasures, then so long as both sides were of equal strength, the advantage would still be considerable—at the very least, one must not allow them to close in. But the Flame Emperor had only just reached the early stage of the Great Luo Golden Immortal realm. Though blessed by the fortune of the human race, he was still no match for Chi You. Once the two came to blows, the Flame Emperor was immediately placed in a tight spot.

Chi You had no interest in the Human Emperor’s treasures. With a single exertion of force, he flung the Kongtong Seal back toward the Flame Emperor.

Seeing the Kongtong Seal come hurtling toward him, the Flame Emperor immediately rushed forward, trying to alter its course. But its speed was far too great. Before he had even managed to channel much power, the Kongtong Seal struck solidly against his body.

A mouthful of blood spurted out. The Flame Emperor had actually been wounded by a single blow from Chi You, and the Nine Li army erupted in excitement, shouting at the top of their lungs: “Nine Li will prevail! Nine Li will prevail!”

On the other side, the human army hastily sent men to examine the Flame Emperor’s injuries. They quickly carried him into the flying chariot. This flying chariot was merely a magical treasure and carried no offensive power; it was purely defensive in nature.

Chi You knew that the moment must not be missed, and that once lost it would not return. He immediately ordered his army to press the attack, while he himself shot forward like the wind, straight toward the flying chariot suspended in the sky.

At that very moment, a green rod blocked Chi You’s path. It came crashing down upon him in a single blow, striking him from the clouds to the ground, such was its force.

“It is him, it is the Holy Father! The Holy Father has come to save us!” The people maintaining the great formation inside the flying chariot broke into joyous cheers at once. With the Holy Father here, there was nothing left to fear.

The Flame Emperor’s face also revealed a smile. “Holy Father, you have finally come.”

Having silently finished that thought, the Flame Emperor once again fell into unconsciousness.

Above, multicolored clouds filled the heavens, and thunder rolled in bursts. Upon the crest of those clouds, Xuan Daozi had led the armies of the Three Teachings to this place, ready to fight the Nine Li to the death.

These past few days I have caught a cold, so this chapter has turned out somewhat rough and careless. Here, the Commoner apologizes to all of you. If there is anything amiss, I hope you will point it out so it may be corrected.