Chapter 65: Fuxi!

“This Spirit Realm truly is abundant with spiritual energy; no wonder so many seek to escape here.”

Upon passing through the temporal node into the Spirit Realm, the difference was immediately apparent.

Besides the richness of spiritual energy, there was also an inexplicable sense of malice in the air.

Chen Yang frowned slightly. This world was terribly inhospitable to those from the Immortal Cultivation Realm. What had people from his world done in the past to deserve such animosity?

A swirl of chaotic black and white primordial qi swept over himself and his eldest disciple, cleansing away every trace of the Immortal Realm’s aura upon them. Instantly, the oppressive malice from the unseen faded significantly. Though some hostility remained, it was no longer as murderous as before, no longer intent on destroying the master and disciple upon sight.

Hardly had their original world's aura been cleansed when the grating sound of metal upon metal rang out. A burly man clad in dark armor and wielding a bronze spear appeared outside the altar.

The bronze spear was ancient and exuded a savage, murderous aura. Strange runes were carved along its shaft, and its shape was identical to the one that pinned Yu Guo to the Crystal Palace.

“My name is Feng Xi. I am the guardian of this gateway. Which world do you hail from?” the man demanded. Then, realizing it was a foolish question—most would not know the name of their own world—he glanced at them and added, “Never mind. As long as you’re not from those bastards of the Four Continents, that’s all that matters. Come with me.”

With a gesture of his bronze spear, a fissure opened in the altar’s barrier.

“How utterly unwelcome we are!” Chen Yang muttered inwardly.

It was obvious that “Four Continents” referred to the world of cultivation from which they had come.

He had long thought that the Spirit Realm Yu Guo reached via the spatial node must be a deadly place, or perhaps one designed specifically to oppose human cultivators—after all, the Crystal Palace at that node looked nothing like a place for mortals.

Yet it was not so; this domain was clearly intended to receive humans from other worlds—except, of course, for stowaways from the Four Continents, who were not merely unwelcome but despised to the extreme, to the point of being killed on sight.

Casting a subtle glance at his disciple, Chen Yang signaled with his eyes. Zhong Shenxiu responded with a slight lowering of his eyelids.

They hastened their pace, exiting the altar through the opened barrier. Chen Yang cupped his hands in a respectful salute, his manner exceedingly polite.

“I am Yuanyang, a humble Daoist. My disciple and I are newly arrived and know nothing of this realm. We hope you might instruct us in its ways, so that we do not offend through ignorance.”

“There aren’t many rules in the Fengyang Clan. As long as you don’t cause trouble, no one will bother you,” the burly man replied with a casual wave of his hand, striding ahead as he spoke. “You’ve only just ascended from the lower realms, so your power is still weak. Stay with my clan for a while, earn some merit, and learn a few divine arts from our Fuxi God-tribe. Once you have the means to protect yourselves, you may choose to remain here, journey to the Divine City, or wander elsewhere in search of fortune—it’s up to you.”

“Fuxi?” Chen Yang’s heart stirred, and he couldn’t help but ask.

“It’s not surprising you don’t know,” the man said with a smile. “How do you think your human race in the lower realms came to be? Generation after generation of Fuxi Emperors have used our Fuxi clan’s supreme treasure, the Book of River and Luo, to link new worlds, expanding our people step by step. We, the descendants of Fuxi, are thus called gods in the Spirit Realm. Even in the Immortal Realm, we are one of the three great Celestial Courts.”

“Though the blood of Fuxi runs thin in you people from the lower realms, you are still our kin.”

“No wonder my disciple took so well to cultivating the Shushan Daoist arts,” Chen Yang mused. “I never thought much of it before, but now I understand—our origins all trace back to the same source. The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors—truly remarkable.”

A sense of foreboding arose within him. He had come to the Spirit Realm to seize its origin power, to elevate his own world’s limits, to restore the glory of the Wutai Daoist tradition, and amass boundless fortune.

Yet, from Feng Xi’s words, the Fuxi clan in the Spirit Realm, even if not unrivaled, was surely powerful to the extreme, with ties even to the Immortal Realm.

The Spirit Realm alone did not intimidate Chen Yang, nor did the so-called Immortal Realm command his awe. His only fear was that the Celestial Emperor of the Immortal Realm might truly be the Fuxi of legend—if so, things would become truly complicated.

The Three Sovereigns created the world, the Five Emperors governed it. Now, the Spirit and Immortal Realms are ruled by the Five Emperors, while the Three Sovereigns continue to open new worlds for the growth of humanity. That, too, seems entirely plausible.

“No, if the Celestial Emperor were truly the original Fuxi, why would there be three Celestial Courts in the Immortal Realm? Unless the other two courts belong to the lineages of the Flame Emperor and Suiren, the progenitor of men.”

His mind racing, Chen Yang immediately asked, “Why are there three Celestial Courts? Aside from the Fuxi court, which are the other two? Are they friend or foe to the Fuxi clan?”

Clever as ever, Chen Yang immediately claimed kinship with the Fuxi clan—rightly so, as he was descended from the Yan and Huang Emperors, and thus a child of Fuxi.

Feng Xi was clearly pleased by Chen Yang’s ready acceptance of his Fuxi heritage, and replied with a laugh, “I don’t know all the details, but they are certainly our enemies.”

At this, the hearty Fengyang clansman seemed unwilling to elaborate further. He pointed ahead and said with a smile, “Three thousand miles farther is the ancestral land of my clan. I have duties to attend to and won’t escort you further. Just mention my name when you arrive, and you will be received.”

With a wave, he turned and strode back toward the altar.

Chen Yang still had many questions, but the man departed so decisively that there was no room for delay.

Left with no choice, Chen Yang led Zhong Shenxiu toward the ancestral land of the Feng clan.

Sadly, though he had cleansed the aura of the Four Continents from himself, he could not deceive the heavens and earth of the Spirit Realm.

Otherwise, he could have used his innate divination to discern more about the situation.

He wondered what sin the previous denizens of the Four Continents had committed to be so loathed—not only by the heavens, but even by their own kin, the Fuxi clan, who seemed to hate them to the bone, eager to kill them on sight.

How truly strange and perplexing.

“Master, it seems the Spirit Realm is rather different from what you expected,” Zhong Shenxiu remarked.

Chen Yang sighed and nodded. “I had no idea it would be like this. I just hope the Fuxi God-tribe is not all-powerful here, and that they, too, have enemies.”

Despite his words, he was not particularly troubled. If the Spirit Realm offered nothing, he could always go to the Immortal Realm.

His cultivation was already sufficient; once he refined the Primordial Pill and the Pure Yang Pill, in three to five centuries at most, his power would be restored and he would reach the True Immortal Realm—his mana boundless, his soul suffused with pure yang.

In truth, hearing of the human race’s strength here filled him with joy.

After all, he himself was human, and had always remained so.

Moreover, those from Shushan had always held the view that anything not of their kind must be regarded with suspicion. The plight of the outcast demon immortals from Shushan made that clear. The people of Shushan had never shown kindness to those who were not their own.

If their will was thwarted, they would seize any pretext to eliminate outsiders. Even those from Emei and the old monks and nuns who prided themselves on their virtue and morality would simply turn a blind eye.

Such was the way of things.