Primordial Era: Refusing Hongjun's path to sainthood, I attained the Dao of Hunyuan.

Chapter 154 The Eight Trigrams

Thirty-three heavens away, in the Xuanhuang Heaven, Xuanhuang quietly watched the scene of Fuxi becoming Kong Xuan's disciple, and couldn't help but chuckle.

Although Kong Xuan's understanding of the Way was not fully realized, Xuanhuang already knew it to be the Confucian Way, which embodies benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and courage.

Although Kong Xuan's teachings were not yet fully developed, they were beginning to emerge. Now, he was having Kong Xuan teach Fuxi Confucianism and Taoism, but who knows what kind of human emperor this would produce?

Thus, under the watchful eyes of all parties, Fuxi realized his mission and officially began to take it upon himself to educate the human race. He worked diligently and frugally, personally doing everything he could to make nets for fishing and hunting, tame wild animals for cooking, create writing to record events, establish a calendar to determine the seasons, establish human relations, and create marriage rites, and so on.

Under Fuxi's rule, the tribes were well-fed and knew etiquette, yet they remained brave and decisive. Fuxi's benevolence gradually spread, until the entire human race, grateful for Fuxi's contributions to education, elected him as their leader.

Thus, with the support of the people, Fuxi convened a meeting of the feudal lords in Chen and became the first common ruler of the human race.

At that time, saints manifested to bless him, and merits descended from heaven, greatly increasing his cultivation and making his magical power profound.

Then the human race's leader, the Sage Taiqing, created the Kongtong Seal and bestowed it upon Fuxi, appointing him as the Human Emperor to suppress the human race's destiny.

By this time, Fuxi's prestige among the human race had reached its zenith, and the human race was in great order, gradually showing the posture of a primordial overlord.

Upon seeing this, Kong Xuan realized that he could no longer teach Fuxi, so he drifted away and disappeared without a trace.

Fuxi could not persuade them to stay, so he had no choice but to continue teaching and governing the human race on his own, and several hundred years passed in the blink of an eye.

……

Meanwhile, among the human race, by the Jiang River, there lived a woman named Nü Deng. One day, while traveling in Huayang, she fell asleep on a large rock. Suddenly, she felt as if a divine dragon was coiled around her body. After waking up, she found herself pregnant.

After ten months of pregnancy, Nü Deng gave birth to her child in the stone chamber of Lieshan, and thus the child was named Lieshan.

Lieshan was also exceptionally gifted, extremely intelligent, and grew very quickly. He could speak and walk within a few days, and gained insight into the ways of the world in just one year.

Lieshan clan was Shennong, the second emperor of the human race, the Earth Emperor Shennong, appointed by Heaven.

Shortly after his birth, Yuanshi Tianzun ordered his disciple Guangchengzi, the leader of the Twelve Golden Immortals, to come down the mountain to teach him.

Unlike Fuxi, Lieshan was not a reincarnation of the Demon Emperor's primordial spirit, but he was still extraordinary. The dragon that his mother and daughter dreamed of was not an ordinary dragon, but a manifestation of the spiritual energy of the primordial earth veins. Therefore, Lieshan was also a child of the primordial earth, and his talent was naturally extraordinary, no weaker than Fuxi's.

Later, he became Shennong, the Earth Sovereign, and was also revered as the Yan Emperor. He was born of the earth, matured in wood, and became a saint of fire. He possessed three of the five virtues, as well as great merits and supernatural powers. But that's a story for later, so let's leave it at that.

Meanwhile, under the tutelage of Guang Chengzi, Lieshan also set a great ambition to educate the human race and cultivate saintly virtue.

While cultivating the Jade Purity Immortal Technique taught by Guang Chengzi, Lieshan gradually increased his cultivation level and made rapid progress, which amazed Guang Chengzi. At the same time, he devoted himself to the development of the human race, because he saw that the human race at that time ate mostly meat, and the more humans there were, the more killing was excessive, which was against the natural order.

So the Lieshan clan selected five grains from the myriad plants of the primordial wilderness: rice, millet, sorghum, wheat, and beans. They then passed these five grains on to their people and taught them how to cultivate them. They also made pottery for cooking, so that the cooked grains were both delicious and satiating.

Moreover, compared to the methods of fishing and hunting, the method of cultivating the five grains was obviously more comfortable. Thus, the Lieshan clan gradually gained fame through this method of cultivating the five grains.

Even Fuxi, who was still the ruler of the land in Chendu at that time, heard that he had been ruling the human race for hundreds of years. Hearing that Lieshan had invented the plow, planted the five grains, and cast pottery, and that he vaguely possessed the virtues of a sage emperor, he was moved and then overjoyed.

However, Fuxi had already recovered his cultivation and, with the power of a quasi-sage, was able to deduce the secrets of heaven. He had realized that Lieshan was the next ruler of the human race, so Fuxi decided to abdicate and go to find Lieshan.

He sighed to Lieshan, "I rose to power through fishing and hunting, becoming the common ruler of humankind. Now you cultivate the five grains, practicing agriculture, and have also greatly prospered humankind. This is a sign of a new ruler taking over, and you should rightfully succeed me!"

Fuxi then took Lieshan's hand and returned to Chendu together, where he convened another meeting of the feudal lords and strongly recommended Lieshan as the new ruler.

At this time, Lieshan also had prestige among the human race, and with Fuxi's recommendation, no one objected. He was unanimously elected as the second ruler of the human race, inheriting Fuxi's achievements in governing the world.

Fuxi then built an eight-sided high platform in Chendu to offer sacrifices to Heaven and Earth. At this time, many saints appeared and, under their witness, Fuxi passed the throne to Lieshan and the Kongtong Seal as a token and symbol of the common ruler of the human race.

From then on, Lieshan succeeded Fuxi in governing the human race and officially became the common ruler of the human race. Because he inherited Fuxi's virtue of wood and ruled with the virtue of fire, he was also known as Emperor Yan.

Furthermore, due to his contributions in cultivating the five grains, he was admired and affectionately called Shennong. Therefore, he is known as Emperor Yan Shennong.

Shennong, building upon the foundation laid by Fuxi's rule, continued to govern diligently and established markets to facilitate the exchange of goods. He set the market at midday, attracting people and goods from all over the land to trade and disperse, each finding what they needed.

To make the cultivation of the five grains more regular and adaptable to the seasons and climate, Shennong established a calendar, with thirty days as a month, three months as a season, and four seasons as a year, so that people could cultivate according to the seasons.

His measures greatly benefited the human race, and as a result, Shennong's prestige among the human race gradually increased, becoming no less than that of Fuxi. People genuinely loved and respected him.

Meanwhile, after abdicating and handing the throne to Shennong, Fuxi stopped paying attention to the trivial matters of the human race and felt a great sense of relief. He then began to travel around and comprehend the mysteries of the universe.

He thoroughly refined the Hetu and Luoshu bestowed by Xuanhuang, obtaining two major formations from them: the Zhou Tian Xing Dou Great Formation and the Hunyuan Heluo Great Formation. These two formations were recorded in two spiritual treasures, which Xuanhuang did not erase, so Fuxi was also able to obtain them.

These two formations are far more complete than those previously known to Fuxi, clearly reflecting Xuanhuang's insights after attaining enlightenment, further refining the great formations.

Fuxi was a lover of formations, and after obtaining these two great formations, he couldn't help but study them. He looked up at the sun, moon, and stars, and down at the mountains and rivers, making correspondences one by one, and gained a great deal.

Fuxi even conceived the idea of ​​combining these two major formations to create a new and unparalleled formation of his own.

However, before Fuxi could achieve his goal, he became fascinated by the process of studying the sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, wind, clouds, thunder, lightning, and all living things.

In his view, all things in this world contain some mysterious principles, but these principles can often only be understood by oneself and cannot be passed on to others or benefit the human race.

After pondering for forty-nine days, Fuxi suddenly had a jolt of his mind and finally realized that this was his final mission among the human race. He was to create a method and pass it on to the human race, to teach and guide them on how to perceive the secrets of heaven, know all things, and communicate with the past and the future.

This is a great act of merit, enough to enable him to attain the fruit of the path of a perfect human being and become a true emperor.

So Fuxi sat cross-legged on a square platform, pondering and comprehending the truth. He did not eat or speak for several months, remaining as withered and motionless as ever.

Finally, after months of continuous study and contemplation, Fuxi combined all his knowledge with the Hetu and Luoshu diagrams, sensing the sun, moon, and stars above, comprehending the mountains and rivers below, and understanding all living things. Thus, the three elements of heaven, earth, and humanity were complete.

He took Yin and Yang as his guiding principles, and transformed the elements of heaven, earth, wind, thunder, water, fire, mountain, and marsh into the Eight Trigrams, namely Qian, Kun, Kan, Li, Zhen, Gen, Xun, and Dui. These also implicitly contain the principles of the Five Elements and Five Directions, and the mutual generation and restraint of all things. The Daoist rhythm naturally arises and transforms into an Eight Trigrams diagram.

The will of Heaven was moved, and this Bagua diagram immediately lifted Fuxi's figure, suspending him in the sky above the human territory, causing all humans to feel it and look up to see this scene.

Upon seeing Fuxi appear, even though Shennong was ruling the world at that time, people still had not forgotten Fuxi's contributions and couldn't help but bow down to him, calling him their sovereign.

Shennong was not jealous when he saw this, but he was startled when he saw the Bagua diagram.

(End of this chapter)