Rise of Humanity

This brat never gives in; The harder it gets, the more stubborn he becomes!  Xin Huo thought insouciantly, I wonder if he can surpass all of them in one go?

Lei Zhe, 3rd level.

Zhong Yue raised his head high as he looked at the lightning loch above him. He calmed his palpitating heart and walked into it with conviction.

At the moment he moved, the lightning loch abruptly grew grander. The sides of the lightning loch morphed into four lightning walls that enclosed a lightning pool in the center. Countless lightning totem patterns paved across the walls, some were even innate lightning totem patterns!

The closer he got to the lightning loch, the higher and wider the walls became. Suddenly, lightning balls with electric arcs lashing in the space around rolled down from the lightning walls down at him.

“Brat Yue, this level is known as the Lightning Baptism. You have to fight your way through the walls and bath yourself in the lightning pool. In the lightning pool, you can find the Jade Lightning Liquid that can only be brewed by nature alone. Absorbing it is the only way to achieve the state of Pure Yang mortal body.” Xin Huo said.

Zhong Yue nodded in understanding. This time, he didn’t cast the Fuxi True Form but fought in his human state. This was because although the Fuxi True Form would overboost his power to a level beyond his human form, it wasn’t the usual state he would appear in during the normal times as revealing his Fuxi identity would lead to unnecessary troubles that could bring death.

Thus, he wanted to improve his battle power in his base form, only using the Fuxi True Form for emergencies.

It was yet another bone-rattling battle. But in the end, Zhong Yue succeed in cleaving the lightning walls into halves and soaking himself in the lightning pool. As the grand lightning walls were shattered apart, the lightning pool had also shrunken into its normal size where he then leaped into and absorbed the Jade Lightning Liquid in it to heal his wounds.

The struggles to fight through the Ancient Lei Zhe Realm with the human form alone was real, what could’ve been achieved easily with his Fuxi True Form now became incredibly difficult in his human form. The wounds he suffered were severe, but the Jade Lightning Liquid was strong enough to heal them while simultaneously strengthening his mortal body.

As time flashed by, the Jade Lightning Liquid in the lightning pool was sucked dry without a single droplet remaining.

“It’s still not enough to achieve the Pure Yang mortal body.” Zhong Yue mumbled as he stood up and stretched his muscles. He could sense the improvements in his mortal body and Yuan Shen and that the Yin element in his soul was slowly washed off with his mortal body gradually transforming turning into the Pure Yang state.

He looked afar and his heart thumped upon seeing the many lightning lochs hovering in the air, numbering in the hundreds.

Sometime later, Zhong Yue was lying in the center of another lightning loch, gasping for air while he meticulously tended to his wounds.

Soon after, he appeared in just yet another lightning loch.

The injuries were grave still, but the wounds were considerably lesser than before.

Then the fourth lightning loch, the fifth…

Over the course of time, he had bathed himself in all of the lightning lochs; but his mortal body had still yet to achieve the Pure Yang state, it was still a fine line away. Left with no choice, he clenched the sabers in his hands and strode toward the fourth level Lei Zhe.

One level after another, when Zhong Yue eventually reached past the 20th level of Lei Zhe, his mortal body had finally entered the state of Pure Yang. By then, he had lost track of time long ago already. But seeing the completion of the Pure Yang mortal body, Zhong Yue heaved a breath of relief.

Not only that, but the Innate Lightning Qi he had been gathering along the levels had also finally come into shape, forming into his sixth surge of innate Qi and it was still consistently growing stronger!

Perhaps it was one of the unexplainable brilliance of the universe; when the Innate Lightning Qi was formed, it took the shape of a dragon, similar to the statues he has seen in the Lei Zhe Galaxy.

“No wonder the first innate Lei Zhe was a dragon, it’s all because he manifested the natural appearance of the Innate Lightning Qi.” Zhong Yue inspected the Innate Lightning Qi and praised.

“The next level is filled with the purest Innate Lightning Qi.” Xin Huo prompted, “When compared to the Innate Lightning Qi, all the other lightning you’ve encountered in the previous 20 levels are just child’s play. Be prepared, and be careful!”

Zhong Yue inhaled deeply and strode into the next level.

Once entered, the young man stood unmovingly with his mouth wide agape at the scene before him.

In front of him, was a Lei Zhe lightning loch was filled with lightning celestial dragons, of different sizes and different looks. But unlike those he has met before, they appeared to have their own minds and sentience, being able to bath themselves in the midst of lightning and play among themselves happily.

A swing of a tail and the clouds would rain; a wave of claw and a space rift was created; a simple breath exhaled would release a tremendous surge of lightning that could vaporize the air. These dragons were no ordinary ones to mess with.

But what was most astounding was these dragons were just mere manifestations of the Innate Lightning Qi, a dragon resembled a surge of Innate Lightning Qi!

“Oh my heavens…”

Zhong Yue sucked in a breath of cold air as he mumbled, “If the Innate Lightning Qi swarmed at me collectively…”

A cold air ran down his spine and he shivered in terror. Then suddenly, the innate dragon gods all turned their lantern eyes and stared at his face as if they could hear him.

An ominous feeling swallowed a huge chunk of his heart, and the next thing that filled his vision was the purplish innate lightning that the dragons blasted out from their mouths!

“Come at me then! Let’s see who is afraid of the other one!” Zhong Yue raised up the sabers, morphed into the Fuxi True Form, and swallowed all the innate lightning down his throat. Then, he dashed to the innate dragon gods squarely while his Fuxi Yuan Shen was smithing the innate lightning in his stomach!

It was only seconds before Zhong Yue was launched flying in the air and crashed on the ground like a ragged doll. One of the dragon god rose its head above him, sucked a mouthful of air and blasted out the innate lightning right on Zhong Yue.

The lightning ravaged his body and mangled his nerves. The poor victim was seen twitching on the ground like an earthworm poured on by hot water. The innate dragon god then proceeded to scoff at the carbonized-human before it left him on the ground.

“Brat Yue, are you dead yet?” Xin Huo asked cautiously.

“Almost…” Zhong Yue’s mortal body was squirming as the Immortal Body was playing its part. The broken bones were reattached while the little bone fragments that were unsalvageable were forced out from his body whereas the cooked meat fell to the ground as the new meat grew back in place.

He stood up and looked at the innate dragon gods in front of him with a headache. The Innate Lightning Qi was so much that even with his full Fuxi power, he would still face defeat.

“No brute force can bring me through the dragons…”

He exited the 21st level Lei Zhe and sat in the lotus position. As he calmed himself, the marvelous symbols surged in and out of his body, calculating on ways to break through the Innate Lightning Qi.

“The dragon pack that follows no leader, the power that brims over its limit… Nine is the greatest number that marks the extreme end of everything, anything beyond reverses the effects. In the overbearing Yin, comes Yang; in the over-dominating Yang, comes Yin. In order to defeat the dragon pack, I will have to reserve the elements of Yin and Yang. Topple the sky to become the earth, and the earth becomes the sky. Yin changed to Yang, Yang changed to Yin; This is—the reversal of Yin Yang.”

After a long time, Zhong Yue stood up with a pair of fierce eyes and entered the 21st level Lei Zhe again.

This time, he stood steadfast on the ground. The sabers were dropped to the ground, forming an inversed Tai Chi pattern beneath his feet while he stood at the center facing squarely as the innate dragon gods lunged at him.

Immediately, Zhong Yue cast the inversed [Tai Chi Art] to turn and the Six Paths Reincarnation hovering behind him started revolving rapidly.

The inversed [Tai Chi Art] converted his Pure Yang mortal body into the Pure Yin mortal body. Whereas at the same time, the Innate Lightning Qi was shattered by the inversed [Tai Chi Art] and then converted into the Yin element energy that was absorbed by Zhong Yue’s Pure Yin mortal body, further enhancing his cultivation base.

When Zhong Yue dispersed the inversed [Tai Chi Art], he glanced around and found the 21st level Lei Zhe had nothing left but himself.

In Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean, Xin Huo’s eyes were wide as saucers as he witnessed the annihilation of the dragon pack. He inwardly praised, Brat Yue’s calculatory technique has surpassed its limit and reached to a whole new level now.

Before this, Zhong Yue’s calculatory technique was merely just in the level of Deity Emperor that couldn’t see through Creator-level skills. But the annihilation of the dragon pack was solid evidence that this art had ascended to a whole other level!

It was only because of it that he could absorb all of the Innate Lightning Qi for himself!

One must know that the dragon pack was not prepared for just one Fuxi, but a generation of Fuxi disciples. It wasn’t because he was levels above the dragon pack that he could to take down the whole pack of innate dragon gods on his own, but the calculatory technique that allowed him to discern the Innate Lightning Qi’s weakness!

Zhong Yue stood quietly, suddenly with a change of thought, a surge of Innate Lightning Qi flew out. It took the form of a giant saber, one that was arcing in purplish lightning.

Ka-cha—

The saber ray robbed the colors away from heaven and earth and left a deep rift in front of him.

With another change of thought, the divine saber surged back into his body and was replaced by another divine saber emanating with frosty air, one that was formed from the Innate Tai Yin Qi.

Hu—

Seconds later, the divine saber disappeared again and was replaced by another divine saber glaring with blinding sunlight, a clear sign that it was formed from the Innate Tai Yang Qi.

One by one, he tested all of the innate Qi before moving forward to the next level Lei Zhe.

He then proceeded to charge through the subsequent levels until he reached the 48th level Lei Zhe. There, he had his first ever encounter with the Desolate Lightning, and all it took was just one flash of the Desolate Lightning to bring him to death’s doorstep.

“It’s impossible to get through this level anymore.” Zhong Yue mumbled as he shook his head and exited the Ancient Lei Zhe Realm altogether. When even the [Desolate Lightning Heavenly Furnace Scripture] was named after the Desolate Lightning, one could imagine how strong it was.

As one of the only few bolts of lightning that had emerged as early as the birth of the universe, the Desolate Lightning stood at the peak of all types of lightning to have ever existed.

Although the [Desolate Lightning Heavenly Furnace Scripture] was capable of even smiting the Desolate Lightning, Zhong Yue’s attainment in it was still relatively shallow for him to reach that stage yet.

“Shame, you couldn’t have entered the last level, or you’d be able to see the Dao Fruit Divine Tree.” Xin Huo said regrettably, “The Pure Yang Dao Fruit from the Pure Yang Lightning Tribulation is the exact branding to the fruits on that Dao Fruit Divine Tree. Even though just a mere branding, it was enough to allow the Qi Practitioners to cultivate the Pure Yang Yuan Shen and Pure Yang mortal body. If only you can actually get your hands on a true fruit from the Dao Fruit Divine Tree, the benefits it can bring you is unimaginable! How about this…”

Xin Huo suddenly raised his voice and hopped around happily as he suggested, “I’ll control your mortal body and bring you up to the 81st level. We’ll get our hands on the Dao Fruit Divine Tree no matter what… Wait, no, not a good idea. The 80th level is not something I can pass through, that level is far too strong…”

Zhong Yue’s heart palpitated heavily as he exclaimed in shock, “Even you can’t make it through the 80th level?”

“Definitely not.” Xin Huo shook his head, “That level contains the will of the whole Lei Zhe, the guardian to it is no different to a live Lei Zhe in their Imminent Deity level. Although I am proficient in the arts and techniques of the Fire Order Era and Earth Order Era, I am not the progenitors to those heritages. In terms of power, I can imitate them flawlessly just like they were cast by the creators themselves. However, my usage of the skills remains inferior to genuine articles.”

Zhong Yue was a little disappointed, he asked, “Xin Huo, can I still enter again?”

“One day you are not a god yet, one day you can still be in here. But once ascending into deityhood, you are considered as an adult and the lightning in the Ancient Lei Zhe Realm will harm you no more. They won’t even show themselves in front of you.” While Xin Huo explained, a thought flashed across his mind and he asked, “You aren’t going to cultivate the Pure Yang Yuan Shen and ascend into deityhood now?”

Zhong Yue shook his head, “I plan to return when I’ve awakened 40% of my Fuxi bloodline as well as successfully converting my mortal body into the innate state. After achieving those, I will return. But the question is whether the old clan master would allow me to enter the Ancient Lei Zhe Realm again.”

Soon after, he walked out of the Ancient Lei Zhe Realm back to the saint palace. Upon returning, he was startled as other than the old clan master of the Leizhe Clan, there was another elder present in the saint palace.

The old clan master’s eyes brightened up as he saw Zhong Yue, with a smile he said, “Finally, you are out. Cousin brother from the Fuxi Clan, let me introduce you to…”

Jiang Yiqi laughed and waved his hand, he interrupted, “No need for that. I am rather eager to know how far have you reached in the Ancient Lei Zhe Realm?”

Zhong Yue was puzzled, but gave the answer Jiang Yiqi was waiting for, “I’ve reached to the 48th level, encountered the Desolate Lightning and stopped due to the limitations of my current prowess.”

Jiang Yiqi instantly turned to the old clan master and asked gently, “How is the 48th level?”

“He has the potential to become an Imperial Emperor, as for the Heavenly Monarchs…” Leizhe old clan master shook his head, “One has to pull through all 81 levels and acquire the Lei Zhe Innate Dao Fruit from the Dao Fruit Divine Tree.”

“A potential Imperial Emperor, that’s enough!” Jiang Yiqi stiffened up his face and said solemnly, “I am Jiang Yiqi, the next Human Sovereign, the God of Sun to the Zi Wei Galaxy. Greetings to Fuxi!”

Zhong Yue quickly reciprocated the formality with a heart filled with questions.