Chapter 106: The Twelve Heavenly Sovereign Banners

To speak of why Chiyou temporarily retreated, in truth, even he himself was uncertain at the time. Across from him stood the Holy Father of Humanity, backed by a great host of cultivators, while on his own side he had only himself and the two Great Shamans—the Wind Master and the Rain Earl—to oppose them. That was plainly a thin line of defense.

Consider just how many of the enemy were Golden Immortals or even Quasi-Sages. From that alone, Chiyou had already sounded the retreat in his own heart.

In fact, Chiyou had not wished to rise so early to contend for the throne of the Human Sovereign. But the Flame Emperor was barely a thousand li from his tribe, and with a single wave of his arm he could muster a hundred thousand armored warriors to charge forth. Time simply had not granted Chiyou much preparation.

And when Xuandaozhi appeared and spoke those words, Chiyou clearly realized just how deep the forces of the Primordial Wilderness truly ran. Without formidable power, one could not hope to stand firm in this world.

"Elder Brother, we have prepared everything," said a chieftain of the Sanmiao tribe, hastening into the great tent to greet the man before him.

"Good. Once this great undertaking is accomplished, the moment when our Wu tribe shall unify the Primordial Wilderness will have come!" Chiyou had been studying a map hung upon the wall, but upon hearing that all was ready, he turned at once to address the chieftain, even clapping him on the shoulder. "My brothers have worked hard."

The Sanmiao chieftain was indeed in a sorry state—his garments in tatters, like some unenlightened savage. The tiger-skin cloak upon his back had been worn completely through, and his appearance was utterly wretched.

"For the glory of our tribe, no toil or suffering is too great." The Sanmiao chieftain showed no sign of disappointment or negative emotion. Instead, a faint smile hung upon his face, giving one the sense of a man as spirited as the rising sun.

"Come, follow me and witness the ceremony." Chiyou led the others to a mountain valley. This valley was extraordinary in its vastness, filled with all manner of unenlightened creatures of the Primordial Wilderness. Upon the mountain summit stood countless Jiuli warriors keeping guard and watching over the scene.

"Let the ritual formally begin!" Chiyou stood atop the peak, gazing down at the creatures below whose hands and feet were bound. There was no kindness in his eyes—only boundless coldness and ruthlessness. It could well be said that Chiyou had waited long for this day, for what hung in the balance was a fearsome power that would decide the Wu tribe's bid for mastery of the world.

One by one, the bound animals were dragged to the edge of a great pit. The merciless Jiuli warriors drew sharp blades from their waists and plunged them into the creatures' bodies. Blood flowed sluggishly into the pit, while the dead animal carcasses were carried back by the Jiuli folk to be eaten. The heavens wept; black clouds swiftly blotted out the battlefield of slaughter.

Rolling black thunder, crackling lightning—it seemed that even heaven and earth trembled at what was about to be born within that pool. Chiyou, showing not the slightest fear of the sky, rose upon a cloud, channeled his divine power, and with punch after punch scattered the thunderclouds that filled the heavens.

Chiyou did not even let the lingering wisps of black cloud be. Opening his mouth wide, in but a moment he had drawn all the remaining darkness into his belly, and laughed: "Not bad, not bad."

These black clouds had clearly been dispatched by the Heavenly Court to intimidate the Wu tribe, yet this single man had devoured them all. The host of celestial officials stared, dumbfounded.

It seemed the chieftain of the Jiuli tribe in the mortal realm was indeed formidable. The Lord of the Heavenly Court, the August God Haotian, and the Golden Mother of the Jade Pond were likewise conferring over some matter of import, their deliberations unknown.

The slaughter continued apace, entirely unaffected by the changes in the weather.

The blood within the great pit surged in billowing waves. Chiyou descended from his cloud to the pit's edge and released a strand of primal energy from his fingertip, sending it into the pool.

Before long, every living creature in the valley had been butchered to the last. The blood churned and tossed up crimson blossoms, enough to send a chill down any spine. Soon, the blood in the pit began to sink, visibly, inch by inch, while black vapors emanated from within at intervals.

In less than an hour, the blood pool—originally fifty zhang square—had been devoured entirely. From the very center of the pit emerged a black and sinister banner, whose eerie, baleful aura made the body tremble and defied direct gaze.

"Excellent, excellent, excellent! Our formation of the Twelve Heavenly Banners has taken its first step. Good, good, good!" Chiyou, quite unaware of his own loss of composure, shouted loudly to the surrounding warriors.

"The Wu tribe is mighty! The Wu tribe is mighty!" The Jiuli warriors, gripping their steel weapons, cried out without cease.

And then laughter echoed throughout the valley.

As for this Twelve Heavenly Banners Formation—it was in truth but a compressed version of the Ancestral Wu Great Formation, the Capital Heaven Fiend Formation of the Twelve Ancestral Wu. Even so, it would be more than enough to give Xuandaozhi and his kind a thorough soaking.

The primordial turbid qi of the Primordial Wilderness had long grown scarce. Yet without that primordial turbid qi, how could the Twelve Heavenly Banners Formation ever be forged?

It turned out that Empress Houtu had kept a card hidden. Back when she attained sainthood, she had foreseen something of the Wu tribe's future and set about making arrangements accordingly—ceaselessly collecting primordial turbid qi to nurture a new generation of Ancestral Wu.

In truth, it was the Black Dragon's two appearances that truly gave Empress Houtu the confidence to let her tribe contend for dominion over the Primordial Wilderness. How much primordial turbid qi had that Black Dragon released! Furthermore, the souls that came to the Underworld to undergo reincarnation each carried a measure of primordial turbid qi, great or small. Over a thousand years of accumulation, the quantity and concentration of that primordial turbid qi had become truly astonishing.

When Empress Houtu was about to send Chiyou into the Six Paths of Reincarnation, she compressed all that primordial turbid qi into Chiyou's soul and protected it all the way until it reached the skies above the Jiuli tribe, where she gently released it.

And so the days passed, one after another. A thousand years of waiting finally allowed the Sanmiao tribe to give birth to a peerless prodigy. Within mere dozens of days of his birth, he could already speak and walk. Not only that, but at twenty years of age he attained the realm of the Taiyi Mystic Immortal, bringing great joy to the Sanmiao tribe's guardians, the Wind Master and Rain Earl.

Yet Empress Houtu's calculations were utterly shattered. Once Chiyou achieved the body of an Ancestral Wu—that is, once he had completely refined the primordial turbid qi within him—he no longer heeded Houtu's arrangements for him. Chiyou conducted himself as Houtu's equal, sitting alongside her as though they were peers. But Houtu, proud as she was, refused to accept defeat. She dispatched Meng Po to do battle with Chiyou, only to see her lose to him. Even the Wind Master and the Rain Earl submitted to Chiyou's banner.

Afterward, when Tongtian learned of this affair, he went to question Empress Houtu as to why she had done such a thing, and promptly proclaimed the decree of the Dao Ancestor Hongjun. Empress Houtu, who might otherwise have emerged from the Underworld after but a single immeasurable kalpa, was held back by this incident for an entire kalpa before she could finally leave—a testament to how great the Dao Ancestor's resolve had been.

Tongtian comforted Empress Houtu and said to her: "What comes after, I shall handle."

The Underworld returned to its accustomed bustle. Yet in those days, the number of mortal deaths was exceptionally high. What was more, the names within the Book of Life and Death vanished in great droves, stirring unease and vigilance throughout the Underworld.

Someone was slaughtering living beings without restraint!