Primordial Era: I really don't want to be the Heavenly Emperor!

After Lieshan became the Grand Minister of Agriculture of the human race, his cultivation entered a stage of rapid development. In just a hundred years of enlightenment, he became an immortal golden immortal.

After Lieshan broke through to the Golden Immortal realm, a red gourd fell from the sky one day. It was Hongyun's Nine-Nine Soul-Scattering Gourd.

Along with it came many of Hongyun's spiritual treasures, including his alchemy cauldron, a top-grade innate spiritual treasure named "Tianfang Cauldron".

Lieshan easily refined these two spiritual treasures, and it was with their help that Hongyun comprehended the Dao of Fire Virtue and the Great Dao of Primordial Spirit.

His cultivation level surged again, and he entered the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm.

At this very moment, an unprecedented plague broke out among the human race, first evolving from the Dao and then spreading among cultivators.

Many human cultivators died in this plague, their souls returning to the underworld.

After that, the plague evolved again and spread among ordinary mortals, killing hundreds of millions of people.

Faced with this situation, Emperor Fuxi wanted to use his cultivation to eradicate the plague in one fell swoop and remove it from the world.

However, the plague evolved from the Great Dao, corresponding to the Plague Great Dao of the Three Thousand Great Daos in the Primordial World.

As long as the Great Way endures, plagues will never cease.

Moreover, this plague is a calamity brought to humankind by the three principles of Heaven, Earth, and Man; it is a test. Even if Fuxi can solve the plague, he must not resort to violence.

At this critical moment of life and death, Fuxi collected all the medical books and alchemical texts in the prehistoric world and summoned people from all walks of life to study ways to solve the plague.

It was at this time that Lieshan, as the Grand Minister of Agriculture, stood out.

He risked his life and contracted the plague, then used his special body to begin experimenting with medicine.

Lieshan traveled through mountains and rivers, and Xuanming followed him. The two discussed the effects of some medicinal herbs, and Lieshan eventually recorded them in a book.

After eighty-one years, they finally developed a medicinal formula that could solve common plagues.

One dose of medicine, and the plague was eradicated!

The name of Lieshan spread throughout the ancient world, and people respectfully called him Shennong.

Many people built temples to Shennong and worshiped Lieshan, and carved images of Shennong in their homes to worship Lieshan.

A vast amount of incense and faith surrounded Shennong.

But Shennong was not excited by this. Instead, he continued to travel around the prehistoric world, tasted all kinds of herbs, and recorded their characteristics in a book.

Xuanming was also influenced by Shennong's personality. He no longer remembered that Shennong was a Great Golden Immortal, but an ordinary immortal. He also forgot to teach and cultivate virtue, and only knew how to accompany Shennong to taste all kinds of herbs.

While the two were traveling around the prehistoric world, they met a human on the way, who was Cangjie, one of the earliest innate human races created by Nuwa.

Cangjie's cultivation had already reached the peak of the Great Luo Golden Immortal realm. In order to break through to the Quasi-Saint realm, he traveled through the prehistoric world, looking up and down between heaven and earth, and observing the mysteries of the universe.

In the ancient Chishui tribe, Shennong met a woman named Tingyao.

Tingyao is the daughter of the chieftain of the Chishui tribe. She is naturally intelligent and her cultivation has reached the level of an immortal golden immortal, making her a prodigy among humans.

After Shennong and Tingyao met, they quickly fell in love. Under the witness of the rolling Red River, they became Daoist partners and held a wedding ceremony with the rites of mortals.

The four traveled together, wandering across the five continents, and even eventually entered the celestial realm to search for common medicinal herbs to bring back to the mortal world for cultivation.

During this period, Cangjie discovered that the script used by Shennong to record medicinal herbs was the script used by monks.

Although the script used by these cultivators is not the script of the Great Dao Immortals, ordinary mortals cannot understand it.

Therefore, Cangjie vowed to develop a script suitable for ordinary mortals. He based his work on the changes in the heavens, earth, mountains, rivers, and the images of all living things in the world.

He created the oldest pictographic characters in human history. From then on, Cangjie had a goal, and he vaguely felt that this was the key to his breakthrough to the Quasi-Saint level.

So in the following period, Cangjie began to improve the pictographic characters, from the first few characters to hundreds of characters, and finally to thousands of characters.

Pictographic writing gradually became more sophisticated!

Shennong also began to use pictographs to record the properties of medicinal herbs.

During this period, in order to help Shennong measure the scales and weigh the herbs, Tingyao invented items such as the ruler, the scale, and the dou (a unit of dry measure).

In an instant, the names of the four became known throughout the world.

The group traveled among various human tribes, studying and teaching as they went, and this process lasted for quite some time.

"Fellow Daoist Xuanming, Fellow Daoist Shennong, Fellow Daoist Tingyao, I have created 2,997 pictographic characters. The Great Dao has 3,000 characters, and there are also 3,000 characters. I am still missing the last three characters that I do not understand."

Xuanming asked in confusion, "I wonder which three characters Fellow Daoist Cangjie is still missing?"

"Heaven, Earth, and the Way!"

Upon hearing these three words, the group fell into deep thought, sometimes nodding, sometimes shaking their heads.

Of the four, Xuanming and Cangjie were at the peak of the Great Luo Golden Immortal realm, while Shennong and Tingyao were at the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm. They all had their own understanding of heaven, earth, and the Dao.

They could also write down their own understanding of heaven, earth, and the Dao, but they had no clue how to use ordinary pictographs to represent these three characters; it seemed impossible no matter how they thought about it.

Cangjie sighed and then said, "My three friends, please forgive me for not being able to accompany you on the road ahead. Pictographs carry my Dao, and they are the key to my breakthrough to the Great Luo and my attainment of Quasi-Sainthood."

"No matter how difficult it is, I will create Heaven, Earth, and the Dao. So I will go alone to create these three words and perfect my own Dao."

The three did not try to stop them, because this was Cangjie's path, and they also had their own paths.

That night, the four returned to the banks of the Chishui River. On a small boat, they drank themselves into a stupor.

They seemed not to be a lofty immortal, but rather a mortal friend about to part ways.

At dawn, Cangjie left Chishui alone.

Just after Cangjie left, the three of them stood on the riverbank, gazing at Cangjie's figure, without turning back for a long time.

Shennong gently patted his wife Tingyao's shoulder, embraced her, and said, "Don't overthink it. You're still pregnant. Your second brother will surely perfect his own world and the Dao on this journey."

Xuanming spoke up, saying, "Listen to Sister, you have been pregnant for a thousand years. The child in your womb must be extraordinary. Be careful. My second brother has already gone to seek his own path. We should be happy."

Just last night, after the four of them got drunk, they swore brotherhood, and Xuanming seemed to have forgotten that he was Shennong's master.

The four men became sworn brothers, with Xuanming as the eldest, Cangjie as the second, Shennong as the third, and Tingyao as the fourth.

This is a very fantastical story.

Hongyun addressed Donghua as his Daoist brother.

Shennong called Xuanming his master.

Xuanming is Donghua's son.

Now Xuanming has also become sworn brothers with Shennong.

It's impossible to figure it out, absolutely impossible!

Thinking of this, Xuanming suddenly laughed. The title of Shennong's master was only a temporary one. Once Shennong broke through to the Great Luo realm, this title would be gone.

If you don't believe me, go ask Xuandu. Now that Fuxi calls him "Master," would he dare to accept it?

However, the sworn brotherhood with Shennong will continue.

"Then can I also call my father 'Brother Dao'?"

Thinking of this, Xuanming couldn't help but feel excited, almost like he was committing a great rebellion, which was very thrilling.

"Master, now..."

Xuanming immediately interrupted Shennong, saying that it was no longer appropriate to call him master. He had become a disciple to teach Shennong, since the Dao should not be easily passed on.

"Don't call me Master anymore. I have nothing left to teach you. On the contrary, I often need to learn from you. If you don't mind, just call me Elder Brother."

Shennong was a straightforward man, and he nodded directly, saying, "Brother, now all kinds of medicinal herbs in the mortal and celestial realms have been recorded, except for the last one in the underworld. Our next step is to go to the Netherworld, is that feasible?"

"Excellent!"

After the two finished their discussion, they set off for the Netherworld. Tingyao, however, went to Chendu, because Shennong also held the position of Grand Minister of Agriculture. Tingyao went there both to prepare for her pregnancy and to help Shennong handle government affairs.

After a brief farewell, the three set off on their own.

Xuanming and Shennong went straight into the Netherworld, where they continued their research on medicinal herbs in the twenty-fourth heaven of the mortal realm.

The discussion begins with the properties of herbs, and sometimes extends to the Dao, the workings of all living things, which are governed by the Dao.

The Tao is everywhere!

Each realm has its own unique atmosphere, and the two began to extend their footprints across the land, discovering herbs, tasting them, identifying their properties, recording them, cultivating them, and repeating this process over and over again.

This is a job that requires no skill and is tedious, yet it has meaning.

Along the way, Xuanming did not deliberately cultivate, but he felt that his Dao had been sublimated.

This is a fundamental sublimation; the Dao is still the same Dao, but it has gained more vitality.

This means that Xuanming truly possessed his own Dao and had an understanding of it.

This is a period of reflection, a period of reflection that impacts the primordial state. Only with this understanding can one be qualified to hope for the primordial state.

Yes, I only had a tiny bit of qualification.

This is the power of Hunyuan, encompassing all things, and its words and actions are the Way.

In the celestial realm, Donghua was also constantly monitoring the development of Hongyun and Xuanming, and naturally noticed the changes in Xuanming.

"Good lad, you have lived up to my expectations. The title of Emperor of the Central Heaven and Ten Thousand Saints has indeed fallen on your head."

Before this, Donghua had only given Xuanming the possibility of becoming the Great Emperor of Zhongtian Wansheng, giving him an opportunity, but if he failed to live up to expectations, he would not forcibly bestow the title, but would choose someone else.

The same applies to Xuan Tian.

Now that Xuanming has this qualification, he can suppress all dissenting voices and even make decisions with a single word from the Heavenly Dao.

"This kid seems a bit rebellious, actually daring to call me 'Brother Dao'," Donghua snorted coldly.

Actually, he didn't mind Xuanming's ambition to call him "fellow Daoist," but this lack of mind stemmed from their strength. He hoped that Xuanming would call him "fellow Daoist" only if he was strong enough.

Instead of calling him a fellow Daoist because of our relationship.

"This is utterly upside down!"

"Looks like we need to increase the intensity for this kid!"

"It seems these two brothers haven't met yet?"

"Hmm, we haven't met them before, so let's meet them and put some pressure on these two kids."

"Wouldn't you call this a chaotic scene?"

(End of this chapter)