Conferred God: Got cramped at the beginning

Chapter 1024 Yingxu in Chu Land, No Results Expected

After passing through city after city in the Chu region, Yun Zhongjun and Li Nu stopped in a valley.

On both sides of the valley, there are traces of battle and ruins left after man-made structures collapsed.

There are also traces of water burning, fire drowning, weapons, chisels, and so on.

In addition, Yun Zhongjun and Baihu Jianbing Shenjun clearly saw that there were many more corpses scattered and buried here.

Even if they have been dead for a very long time, with all the flesh and blood on their corpses scattered and the bones melted into the soil, then, under the forging of time, they have turned into rocks—looking just like murals created by the divine craftsmanship of nature on the rocks.

Even so, the weapons in the hands of those corpses were still held with exceptional steadiness—the hands holding the weapons remained clearly separated from the rocks and soil.

Although they have been dead for countless years, these hands and weapons still bear the mark of that obsession with fighting.

Standing here, the White Tiger Supervisor God seemed to hear the sounds of countless mortals roaring in battle.

The sound, combined with the clanging of swords and spears from countless millennia ago, caused even the White Tiger Guardian God to involuntarily feel a slight tremor.

Her facial features were distorted, and the true form of the Geng Metal White Tiger was faintly visible.

"This is Yingdu."

"The real Yingdu."

There was a hint of reminiscence in Yun Zhongjun's eyes.

Time turns, generations change.

Humanity has never valued eternity—thus, countless cities vanished amidst all the changes.

Even the most magnificent cities will be reduced to ruins by the passage of time and the ravages of war. And then, layer upon layer, new cities will be built up between those ruins, like layers upon layers of heavenly palaces.

Or perhaps, the ruins were no longer suitable for the lives and reproduction of mortals, so countless people migrated elsewhere, leaving only the ruins buried between heaven and earth.

Even more so, as time went by, the existence of these ruins gradually disappeared into the world, becoming a secret that was difficult to find.

Yingdu was the latter.

This place was the former capital of the State of Chu.

When the State of Chu was destroyed, the Qin army was fighting against the people of Chu in this area.

At that time, the old, weak, women and children in Yingdu took up simple weapons and fought against the Qin army to defend their country.

In the end, Yingdu was captured by the Qin state, and everything there was reduced to ashes. At the same time, the Qin state also suffered unprecedented casualties!
That great battle was the last great battle before the unification of the human world.

It was the last great battle before the First Emperor reshaped the succession of the human emperor.

That great battle was so fierce that it was as if the sun and moon had lost their light, and the stars had shifted and the constellations had turned.

That great battle marked the end of one era and the beginning of another; one can imagine how many people paid attention to it.

But after that great battle, when countless people who had been following the battle wanted to go to the battlefield to pay their respects, they were shocked to find that the endless killing intent that had swept back during the battle had caused the coordinates of space and time to change.

After the great battle ended, due to the interference of the endless killing intent and the pull of the human reunion... the ruins of Yingdu also became a mystery.

Even the countless powerful figures who witnessed the battle firsthand lost their bearings of Yingdu amidst the fog created by the reunion of humanity.

Not to mention those who came after the times changed.

After Yingdu was captured and the State of Chu was destroyed, this final battlefield, symbolizing the changing times of the world, has remained dormant here ever since.

The murderous aura flowing here, that murderous intent, is like an unprecedented divine weapon, severing all connections between this place and heaven and earth.

Even if a cultivator were to pass through this place, they would unconsciously overlook this ancient ruin.

There are two reasons why Yun Zhongjun was able to anchor himself on the ruins of Yingdu, on this ancient battlefield that symbolizes the change of an era.

Firstly, Yunzhongjun was the national god of Chu, connected to the fate of Chu, and was revered by Chu. At the same time, after the fall of Chu, his myth was also accepted by Qin—his existence also served as a transition and witness to the times.

The second reason is that Yunzhongjun, as the national god of Chu, had his largest temple located in Yingdu, which was destroyed and buried along with the capital.

His priests also fought alongside the soldiers and civilians of Chu in this place, and ultimately died together in battle.

With this anchor point, he could easily find the existence of Yingdu—if he wanted to.

However, this place can no longer be called Yingdu; it should be called Yingxu.

"This place is the capital of a country, and it also symbolizes the intersection of human eras."

Yun Zhongjun's voice slowly rang out.

"From the perspective of the development of the human race, there are currently three eras that the human world has experienced."

"The first era was the mythical era of those ancient human emperors, which was also the era of tribes."

"The second era is the era after Xuanyuan—after Xuanyuan, the era of the human race began with the transition from tribes to feudalism."

Even if Qi later established the first dynasty in the human world, that dynasty was just a feudal system.

"The third era was after the First Emperor, when the enfeoffment system ended and was replaced by prefectures and counties—or what should be called centralized power. In a real sense, the monarch became the only and supreme being among humankind."

"Today, the world is still in this era of centralized government at the county level."

Yun Zhongjun remained calm, yet his words seemed to unfold like an immense scroll along the path of Baihu Jianbing Shenjun, depicting the changes of the human world.

"The beginning of the Xuanyuan era was the Battle of Zhuolu."

"In this battle, Chiyou was defeated and died, and Xuanyuan became the sole ruler of the era—this symbolized the beginning of the feudal era."

"And here, the State of Chu perished, the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods came to a complete end, and the First Emperor reunited the world—this symbolized the beginning of centralized power at the prefecture and county levels, and also meant the end of the feudal era."

"Just as Chi You was a sacrifice of an era, so too is Yingxu, a sacrifice of an era."

The words of the Lord of the Clouds grew ever more distant and ethereal.

This was his purpose in bringing the White Tiger Supervisor God here. — If he wanted to open the door to the human realm and allow the White Tiger Supervisor God to step into it, then simply finding a place where the human realm converged would suffice.

If Li Nu wants to find Chi You's location in the human realm and in the vast ocean of the heart, then it is absolutely necessary to make a trip to Yingxu.

From the perspective of the changes in human history, the existence of Yingxu is inextricably linked to the existence of Chiyou!

Similarly, if even the White Tiger Guardian God could not find Chi You's location after stepping into the human realm and into the vast ocean of the heart from this place, then there would be absolutely no way for anyone in the world to find the location of Chi You's seal, let alone any other means to find the location of Chi You's seal.

As Yun Zhongjun spoke, a cloud-patterned Ruyi appeared in his hand.

He held the ruyi scepter and raised it upwards.

The remaining traces here all converged on his Ruyi.

This Ruyi is no ordinary object.

Before the First Emperor, every human emperor in the world would forge his own supreme treasure of humanity.

Such as the Nine Tripods...

When the First Emperor became the Emperor, he also forged his own imperial treasure.

The national jade seal!

The emperors and kings who followed them used the method of forging new treasures of humanity to continue refining the Imperial Seal of the State.

—Among all the supreme treasures of humanity, the Imperial Seal of the State is the 'youngest' one, but at the same time, it is also the most powerful one.

Because after the First Emperor, many emperors and kings passed the torch from one generation to the next, creating and continuing to refine these treasures!

The material used for the Imperial Seal of the State was the He Shi Bi jade.

It was a precious jade that no one recognized, which was unearthed by Bian He, a man from Chu. Bian He discovered a piece of jade in Jing Mountain, but all the people in the world who knew how to identify jade thought it was just an ordinary stone, not a piece of jade.

For this reason, Bian He lived through the reigns of three kings of Chu—after having his feet cut off for deceiving the king, it wasn't until the reign of King Wen of Chu that King Wen finally believed Bian He's words, brought him into the palace, invited the best jade craftsmen, and performed a magnificent ritual. Finally, under the watchful eyes of the gods, the jade was broken open.

The perfect gem was then extracted from the uncut jade.

When the precious jade appeared, the fate of the Chu state resonated with it.

—Afterwards, the Qin state exchanged fifteen cities for the jade, and Lin Xiangru eventually returned the jade intact to Zhao with it; this jade was the He Shi Bi.

After the fall of the Chu state, the Qin people found the He Shi Bi jade in the Chu palace and brought it back to present to the First Emperor.

The First Emperor then ordered the precious jade to be carved into an imperial seal—which was the most precious treasure of humanity at that time.

The national jade seal!

The main body of the He Shi Bi was carved into the Imperial Seal of the State—and during the carving process, the broken pieces of jade that were cut off flew away and eventually fell into the hands of Yun Zhongjun.

Finally, Lord Yunzhong mixed the broken jade fragments with the outer membrane of the He Shi Bi jade and, with the help of humanity and the power of national destiny, forged it into a supreme treasure.

That was the cloud-patterned Ruyi that Yun Zhongjun had taken out at that moment.

Its name is also very simple: Wuguo Ruyi (meaning "No Fruit, No Desire").

Although the material of this Ruyi cannot compare to the hardness of the Dinghai Divine Needle, as a treasure also refined from the human realm, and as a treasure of the same origin as the Imperial Seal, this Ruyi also possesses the power to influence the human realm.

Yun Zhongjun held the Ruyi and struck it down, which directly activated the human path, turning the weight of the Ruyi into immeasurable weight... Below the Great Luo realm, no one could withstand a single strike from this Ruyi.

It sounds like the power of this Ruyi is incredible—but in reality, its power is actually quite useless.

If it were to face a Great Luo, the material of this Ruyi would be too fragile. If it were to be struck, the Ruyi itself might immediately collapse.

But if facing an opponent below the Great Luo level... then with Yun Zhongjun's strength, why would he need to use this fruitless wish-fulfilling device?

The name Ruyi comes from this.

It seemed like everything was going well... but nothing came of it.

However, although this Ruyi cannot be used for conquest, it can be used as a ritual object to induce certain changes in human nature, and its mysteries are beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

The moment the Ruyi fell, the power of the entire human realm sank downwards.

It's like a fishing net suddenly being swamped by an unprecedentedly large fish, which is about to drag the net to the bottom of a lake.

Immediately, that ethereal power of humanity settled down here.

For the first time, the formless and shapeless human way manifested itself in this world with a 'tangible and substantial' form.

Using this Ruyi as a pivot, a door appeared in the ruins of Ying.

Within the ruins of Ying, countless mysteries also appeared like threads, holding the door in place, preventing it from disappearing or closing.

The fruitless wish-fulfilling object now rests atop the door, and the boundaries on either side of the door seem to extend from the two sides of this wish-fulfilling object.

Similarly, at this very moment, the White Tiger Supervisor God also let out a clear shout like a tiger's roar.

The murderous aura that had accumulated in the ruins of Ying for countless millennia came alive with that single whistle, blowing like the wind onto the armor of the White Tiger Guardian God, where countless patterns of slaughter and great battles appeared.

"Fellow Daoist, enter through this gate and proceed forward. You will be able to see through the illusion and reality of the true self, step into the depths of the human path, and reach the vast ocean of the heart."

"However, fellow Daoist, please remember that the vast ocean of the heart is a place of unpredictable truth and falsehood, and is an extremely dangerous place. If you notice that the light of this door is flickering there, you must turn back with all your might."

"Otherwise, you might be forever locked between the real and the illusory, becoming a mark in the human path, and never able to step out of that vast ocean again."

Humanity is an illusory existence, completely opposed to the real world and all things.

Ordinary immortals and gods touch the human realm with their thoughts—just like a person admiring an incredibly profound painting.

Although one may become engrossed in it, it is easy to be brought back to reality.

As for the White Tiger Guardian God, she stepped into the human realm in her true form—just like a person looking at a painting who stepped into the painting and became a part of it!
Not only will they be unable to emerge in time, but they will become an integral part of the painting.

The consequences of stepping into humanity are far more serious than those of stepping into painting!
(End of this chapter)