Rise of Humanity

Zhu Jiumu remained silent as he watched the lightning and blood rain pour down. He looked around only to find darkness that was only occasionally illuminated when the lighting struck, exposing the celestial temples covered in blood.

The blood washed the earth and the heavens cried.

Everything was washed with the blood rain and the no one could see clearly in this darkness.

An invisible power descended on the entire Ancestral Star and Zhu Jiumu had no idea what it was, but he knew that this power came from the East Barren’s Black Mountain!

Now, the heavens cried for the celestial race, singing sorrowfully for them through the thunder.

“I will go.”

Zhu Jiumu said firmly; his old face looked determined, his figure became taller as blood dripped from his head down to his face, “I may be friends with Zhong Yue, but when it comes to our race, this friendship means nothing at all! I will go with you!”

Feng Wuji immediately said happily, “I will inform Huang She God right now, he is currently gathering people in Kun Lun Secret Realm, preparing to descend upon the Ancestral Star to slay the demon king Zhong Yue! You guys go ahead first, I will stay here to welcome Huang She God. I will be with you in no time!”

“Let’s go!”

Lord Kun, Lord Demon, Zhu Jiumu, Tuz Bawk and Wen Changgong nodded, and they all immediately headed towards the Black Mountain.

Right now, at the centre of the altar in Black Mountain, the bronze lamp floated in the air as the godly spirits in it were sacrificed for the ceremony. As the power of the ceremony became stronger, the speed of the godly spirits turning into pure energy became even faster!

Zhong Yue kept a close eye on the number of godly spirits in the lamp in order to prevent gods like Wei Xue God from escaping. Among them, the most terrifying one was Feng Wuji’s head.

He did not know whether or not the Xiao Mang Grand Ancestor in Feng Wuji’s head was already disintegrated. But if he was still there, then as soon as Feng Wuji’s head was sacrificed, Xiao Mang Grand Ancestor would escape immediately!

Afterall, as a Deity Overlord, he probably still possessed the ability to do this.

The ceremony continued and suddenly, Shi Buyi’s pupil shrunk; he looked at the West, and his expression turned serious as he shouted, “Master, someone’s coming!”

Zhong Yue looked towards the West, only to see the demonic tree, gigantic fish, and weird looking celestial beings come charging at him with lightning speed.

“Lord Demon, Lord Kun, Zhu Jiumu and the other remaining gods are all here!”

Zhong Yue took a deep breath and his vision shifted from one foes to another; the ceremony had come to the most crucial period where he needed to keep a close eye on controlling the surging power of the ceremony! With such strong enemies, whatever he did would be in vain if he was not careful enough!

And Zhu Jiumu’s appearance was something out of his expectation.

As such, it was obvious that the Great Ritual of Sealing Abdication has attracted the unwanted attention of the remaining gods; it seemed that they did not come here to investigate, but to kill him!

“But it’s too late now…,” murmured Zhong Yue.

Outside of the Black Mountain, Zhu Jiumu and the others approached quickly, with Lord Kun and Lord Demon being the fastest among them.

Shua—!

The huge eyes of Lord Kun looked just like two large shining balls that lit up the night.

When he moved his eyes and looked at the Black Mountain, Lord Kun’s heart thumped as he saw a celestial being with snake’s body wound around the mountain with its thousand metre long body. Its eyes also seemed to contain the raging sun and the beautiful moon.

“Zhong Yue!”

Lord Kun’s shot Zhong Yue a cold glance before stopping with Lord Demon to examine the altar on Black Mountain that had turned into a forbidden land filled with countless esoteric totem carvings.

These totem carvings were planted by Shi Buyi who was already a monster god; with his strength, it was not an easy thing to do to break his totem carvings.

Besides, after the ceremony started, Zhong Yue merged the power of the godly spirits sacrificed into the ceremony, and these totem carvings had become almost impossible to destroy!

Behind the two lords, Zhu Jiumu and the other two finally arrived and stood outside of the Black Mountain. Tuz Bawk, who was the Asura Saint Clan’s demon god, let out a shout and punched toward the Black Mountain with ruthless power that shattered the void. However, when his fist landed on the moving totem carvings around the mountain, not only did the altar remain unaffected, but the totem carvings were also intact perfectly.

“This ceremony has cut off my connection with my sword, I can’t sense my Divine Wing Saber right now!”

Lord Kun said seriously, “I was injured by Lord Dragon and I’m not at my peak state! We have to fight our way into the mountain. Only then can I can sense my saber! Lord Demon, Tuz Bawk, destroy the totem carvings formation! Jiumu, Changgong, I have no proper body, you two escort me into the mountain!”

Lord Demon nodded but Zhu Jiumu suddenly said, “Gentlemen, can I have a moment with Zhong Yue to see if we can settle this with diplomacy?”

Wen Changgong who held his pike smirked and said, “What is there to talk about? Everything will not be undone ever since he did this!”

Lord Kun also said, “You are just wasting time! If he completes the ceremony, all the celestial races will be destroyed!”

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing, and this will not take a long time.”

Zhu Jiumu shook his head and shouted, “My little friend Zhong Yue, can you please listen to me?”

On the Black Mountain, the celestial being turned around abd looked at Zhu Jiumu and said, “Senior, do you still remember that time when I visited you?”

“I do,” Zhu Jiumu answered.

Zhong Yue then said again, “I wanted to tell you about what I was going to do today so that you and your people could leave the Ancestral Star and head towards Kun Lun because I will designate a place for your people to live. My two visits, however, were rejected by you and I will not attempt a third visit, which is why Zhu Jushan and his family were brought to Kun Lun by me. This is so that your bloodline will not end here.”

Zhu Jiumu’s mind went empty and after a moment, he asked seriously, “So you are trying to annihilate all celestial races in this world now?”

Zhong Yue, however, shook his head and replied, “I am not annihilating all of you. I’m only trying to seal your blood. An unknown power has descended upon this planet, stopping all cultivation. I have no choice but to do this for the sake of my people.”

Zhu Jiumu understood his motive right away; his face turned serious and he suddenly knelt before Zhong Yue!

Wen Changong, Tuz Bawk were shocked while Lord Demon and Lord Kun immediately acted and was about to strike him down.

At this crucial moment, Zhu Jiumu stood up, said with an old yet astonishing voice, “I knelt before you because I want to thank you on behalf of my race that you let Jushan and his family off this disaster event and prevent my people from going extinct.!”

Zhong Yue nodded and said nothing.

Zhu Jiumu’s aura surged, killing intent rose and light wheels emerged behind his head. Among the light wheels, a huge bow appeared. The bow then landed in Zhu Jiumu's hand; he drew his bow, aimed at Zhong Yue and said coldly, “I’ve thanked you for what you did but at the same time, I will have to kill you as well for trying to seal the celestial blood of my Zhu Jian Celestial Race! This is no longer a private affair, but a war between two different races! Do you understand this?”

He thanked Zhong Yue for allowing Zhu Jushan and his family to escape so that his race could be preserved. But he also had to kill Zhong Yue because Zhong Yue was trying to seal all the celestial bloodline in this world, including that of the Zhu Jian Celestial Race!

Zhu Jiumu may be old, but he could still differentiate between what is right and what is wrong!

He didn’t ask Zhong Yue to stop the ritual because he knew that Zhong Yue was fighting for his own race, and it will be an exercise in futility anyway!

Thus, instead of wasting his breath, Zhu Jiumu opted to settle this through a life and death battle!

Zhong Yue nodded and said seriously, “Come on up then!”

He turned around and looked at the others and his voice echoed loudly in the blood rain, “Gentlemen, shall we?”

Ka cha, ka cha—

Lighting fell frequently, lighting up the skies for a brief second and exposed the gods engulfed by darkness.

“Lord Demon!”

Lord Kun shouted and before his voice fully fade away, Lord Demon and Tuz Bawk activated the demonic tree. This tree was one of Lord Demon hidden cards; it had countless branches and these branches contained different power.

Initially, other than trying to use Lord Demon’s power to suppress Shi Tuo, this tree was also one of the reasons why Feng Xiaozhong robbed the tomb of Lord Demon.

This demonic tree stood on par with weapons of the likes like Divine Wing Saber but only those with demonic power could control the tree; Lord Demon and Tuz Bawk both came from the demon race, and when they channeled their power into the tree, the power of the tree was unleashed and thousands of demonic blades rained towards the Black Mountain!

On the surface of the Black Mountain, the totem carvings of the ritual trembled as the demonic weapons struck into the totem carvings and froze them right away!

Zhong Yue face turned earnest upon seeing this. Suddenly, the remaining godly spirits in the bronze lamp surged out and were disintegrated by the ritual, causing the power of the ritual to spike tremendously, breaking the suppression of the countless demonic weapons.

Lord Demon and Tuz Bawk then shouted continuously, channeling even more power into the tree to withstand the ritual’s power!

This caused Zhong Yue to frown, and two more corpses flew out of the bronze lamp and into the altar. The corpses were the bodies of the two insect race’s gods; along with their ravaged corpses, they were all sacrificed and turned into horrendous energy for the ritual!

Lord Demon immediately roared and touched his forehead. A black coffin rammed towards the altar.

On its way toward the altar, the black coffin enlarged and turned into a coffin at least a hundred metres long and rammed into the demonic weapons launched by the demonic tree, knocking and splintering the totem carvings surrounding the Black Mountain apart. The cover of the coffin then slid towards the front with one end still lying on the coffin and another end on the mountain.

This coffin was the coffin Lord Demon was buried in. It was a hundred metres long and along with the cover of the coffin, they formed a black bridge that connected into the Black Mountain.

With that, an entrance into the mountain was created and Lord Demon’s body shook as he withstood the immense pressure. He then shouted, “Get in there, right now! I can’t hold it any longer!”

Lord Kun looked at Zhu Jiumu and Wen Changgong before he shouted, “Jiumu?”

Zhu Jiumu immediately got up to the demonic tree and Lord Kun turned into a celestial being with bird head, human body and Peng’s wings that followed right behind Zhu Jiumu while Wen Changgong followed behind them closely, protecting Lord Kun who was in the middle.

The trio got up from the tree, traveled quickly and just when they got up to the coffin, a blood ocean flowed out from the lamp as Zhong Yue let Wei Xue God out and started sacrificing him!