Many children, many blessings; the twelve ancestral witches forced marriages throughout the primordi

Outside the south gate of Chaoge, the construction site of Highway 1 is bustling with activity.

Tens of thousands of strong, shirtless human men were laying a smooth, wide cement road, chanting in unison. The Shang dynasty was now living a life of extreme wealth; these construction workers had rich, oily medicinal meat soup at every meal, and each of them was as strong as an ox.

Jiang Ziya, dressed in the imposing official robes of the Right Chancellor of the Shang Dynasty, sat on the curb supervising the construction. He held a steaming hot meat bun in his hand, took a bite, and savored the delicious meat, his mouth brimming with oil.

"This is what a human life should be like," Jiang Ziya murmured, wiping the grease from his lips. He was filled with emotion. He recalled the forty years he spent cultivating in the Kunlun Mountains, enduring hardship every day, carrying water and chopping wood, barely having a hot meal, and being constantly called a good-for-nothing by his fellow disciples. And now? He was the Right Chancellor of the Great Shang Dynasty, receiving a monthly salary of five hundred top-grade spirit stones, and wherever he went, people bowed and addressed him as "Prime Minister."

After finishing his steamed buns, Jiang Ziya casually picked up a broken piece of wood lying on the ground beside him. The wood was dark yellow all over, with several crooked runes carved on it, and looked no different from a piece of firewood.

"Damn it, Yuanshi Tianzun is such a stingy old man. He gave me this piece of junk when he kicked me off the mountain back then." Jiang Ziya weighed the wooden stick in his hand with extreme disgust, and then used it to violently hit a protruding pebble on the roadside.

"This piece of junk can't even kill a wild boar, yet it calls itself a divinely ordained treasure. Compared to the top-grade armor the Holy Father bestowed upon me, this thing is just trash. I'll have the kitchen chop it up when we get back, and we'll use it to roast sweet potatoes tonight." Jiang Ziya muttered to himself, tossing the broken piece of wood aside, too annoyed to even glance at it.

Just then, a young man strolled slowly towards the end of the road.

The man was dressed in an extremely casual white short-sleeved shirt and black sweatpants, with large slippers on his feet, and he was carrying a folding fan, fanning himself in an extremely flamboyant manner. As he walked across the construction site, the patrolling soldiers from the surrounding merchant group all instinctively stood at attention upon seeing him, not daring to even breathe loudly.

It was Lin Xuan, who was on an incognito inspection tour.

As Lin Xuan walked, his divine sense had already swept across the area. His gaze instantly locked onto the "broken piece of wood" that Jiang Ziya had thrown on the ground.

Lin Xuan was overjoyed after just one glance.

Others might not recognize it, but how could he, a cheat-like figure who had thoroughly read the script of the prehistoric world, not recognize it? This dark yellow wooden stick covered with runes was not some kind of firewood stick at all, but an absolute treasure nurtured by the Heavenly Dao and specifically used to strike the souls of the gods on the Investiture of the Gods list—the God-Slaying Whip!

"That old coin, Yuanshi, gave this thing to Jiang Ziya, originally hoping he could use it to bully others in the Investiture of the Gods. But I intercepted it from Jiang Ziya. Without the blessing of Heaven, this magic weapon can't even break a broken stone in Jiang Ziya's hands now." Lin Xuan was secretly pleased and strode over.

"Old Jiang, eating?" Lin Xuan closed his folding fan and greeted him in an extremely friendly manner.

Jiang Ziya looked up and was so startled he almost tumbled off the curb. He quickly scrambled to his feet and bowed extremely respectfully: "Oh! Holy Father! What brings you to inspect this filthy construction site! Quickly, bring a chair for the Holy Father!"

"Forget it, I'm just taking a stroll." Lin Xuan waved his hand dismissively. His peripheral vision naturally fell on the God-Slaying Whip, and he asked casually, "Old Jiang, what are you doing with this piece of wood? The Great Shang Kingdom's treasury has so many top-grade acquired spiritual treasures, and you can't even get a decent iron hammer?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Ziya blushed and kicked the wooden stick in utter embarrassment: "Holy Father, you flatter me. This was given to me by that biased old scoundrel from the Chan Sect when I came down the mountain. He said it was a protective magic weapon, but it's completely useless. I was just planning to use it to start a fire and roast sweet potatoes."

"Roasted sweet potatoes? That's a bit of a waste. This wood is made of a special material, and the roasted sweet potatoes have a weird smell." Lin Xuan suppressed a laugh and said nonsense with a straight face.

He reached into his robes and pulled out two small packets wrapped in yellow paper from his personal storage space. These were actually tea leaves from two packets of "Supreme Enlightenment Tea" that he had picked out from under the teapot while drinking tea in the back garden of Pangu Palace that morning.

"Old Jiang, you've been working hard overseeing the highway construction lately. I have two packets of top-grade spiritual tea dregs that have been steeped in Five Needle Pine Spring water. This stuff is something others would kill for. Take it home, steep it in water, and it will not only prolong your life but also refresh your mind. I guarantee you won't have any backaches or leg pains while you're working." Lin Xuan generously stuffed the paper packets into Jiang Ziya's hand.

The moment Jiang Ziya received it, the incredibly rich innate spiritual energy rushed into his nostrils. He shuddered violently, and even his eyes lit up.

"This...this top-grade immortal tea! Holy Father, you actually bestowed it upon me! Even if I, Jiang Shang, were to give my life, I could never repay your kindness!" Jiang Ziya's voice trembled with excitement as he clutched the two packets of tea dregs tightly to his chest, as if afraid the wind would blow them away.

"It's nothing. But I just happen to need a piece of wood to prop up the corner of the table. Consider your fire poker as interest on this tea." Lin Xuan bent down very naturally and grabbed the God-Slaying Whip from the ground.

"Holy Father, please take it! If you think it's too short, I'll find you a longer one!" Jiang Ziya was overjoyed, his mind filled with the top-grade spiritual tea, and he didn't care about a piece of trashy wood at all.

"No need, this is just right." Lin Xuan weighed the God-Slaying Whip in his hand, which was emitting an ancient yellow light, and tossed it twice in mid-air with extreme arrogance.

This is an incredible way to make money without any investment!

Having obtained the divine artifact, Lin Xuan didn't want to linger for even a second longer. He turned around and stomped forward with overwhelming force, shattering the void barrier in front of him. A spatial passage instantly formed, and he swaggered through it, heading straight for the Southern Gate of Heaven.