From Under One Person: Sincere Journey Through the Heavens

"The human body is a complex energy field. To understand it simply, just think of the energy field as a 'person' who is cultivating energy just like us," Jiang Liu said succinctly.

Upon hearing this, Duanmu Ying immediately understood and said, "So, the Qi formation is a natural terrain or landform that allows people like us to move things around the universe?"

"almost."

Jiang Liu nodded, "But because the natural terrain is much larger than our human bodies, the 'superpowers' that can be generated, whether in terms of power or effect, far exceed our human imagination."

The previous disturbances in the South China Sea, with their rising winds, surging clouds, and flashing lightning, were caused by the Qi of this "Returning to Nothingness" formation reaching the heavens, drawing in the wind and waves to create a massive whirlpool.

"I see."

Duanmu Ying nodded.

Jonathan couldn't understand what the two were saying at all. Gu Qian and Gu Kun also only had a vague understanding of it. After all, their cultivation could be said to be based entirely on the Transparent Sea Array Pattern on their bodies. They understood the principles of the Eight Trigrams, but they only knew the "what" but not the "why." They had simply memorized it from their predecessors and did not know that this principle could also be used to refine one's life force and cultivate one's mind and body.

Then, look at the mural.

Ancient people clearly had the ability to measure and judge the direction of the Qi through the Hetu and Luoshu. Therefore, the Hentian clan found the entrance to Guixu, entered the space, and used the Qi in a certain way. With the fire of the Qi in the Kun fish, that is, the dragon fire, they could directly extract bronze, or gold and copper, from the water of the four seas without having to spend time and effort like with an ordinary furnace.

Bronze is called bronze because most of the bronze artifacts unearthed are covered with green patina. However, the aesthetics of the ancients are not much the same as those of modern people, and it is impossible for them to place green and dark green vessels in the palace.

This is the end.

The Hentian clan then established their own bronze kingdom within the Guixu space of the South China Sea.

I hate the Kingdom of Heaven!

After that, the Hentian Kingdom followed the Kun northward, and later transformed into the Peng and migrated southward. Whenever the Kun transformed into the Peng and migrated southward, the Hentian clan would prepare a large amount of food.

When the Kun transforms into the Peng and soars through the heavens on the wind, the Hentian clan will be unable to use the "mirage" created by the dragon fire to lure fish, shrimp, turtles, and crocodiles in the deep sea.

However, the Hentian clan did not forget their hatred for the sun and always thought about shooting down the last sun. They made Guixu their home, because every once in a while, the Kun of Guixu would swim to the North Sea (Bohai Sea) and transform into the Peng of the Nine Heavens.

The Hentian clan hoped that after the Kun fish transformed into the Peng bird, it could lead them straight to the heavens, so that they could get closer to the sun and shoot it down.

But how could this possibly succeed?

If the story of Yi shooting down the sun is indeed true, then Jiang Liu is certain that the sun that Yi shot down was not a fixed star, but something else like the sun.

From a realistic perspective, the Earth they live on revolves around the Sun. If the Sun were to be blown up, the Earth would not only be plunged into darkness, but the power of the explosion alone would be enough to destroy the entire star system in an instant.

But the Hentian clan of the Yi tribe truly believed that the sun could be shot down and took action to achieve this... but this last sun was simply beyond human power to shoot down!

Even for those extraordinary individuals who can harness the power of an entire planet, attempting to destroy a star is nothing more than throwing an egg against a rock—a futile and overestimating one's own abilities.

# Chapter 497 The Origin of the Hentian Clan

Unable to shoot down the last sun—

Over a long period of time, the people of the Kingdom of Hatred came to realize this, and they even gradually discovered a fact:

Even the Kunpeng of Guixu, established by the Kingdom of Hatred, couldn't bring them close to the sun.

But time is the most grueling thing.

Faced with an unachievable goal, the descendants of the Hentian clan gradually forgot about it and chose to live and multiply within the Guixu.

Thereafter.

The Hentian clan split into two tribes.

The Kun tribe and the Peng tribe.

When the Qi formation of Guixu was in the sea, it was dominated by the Kun tribe. When the Kun fish transformed into the Peng and migrated south across the nine heavens, it was led by the Peng tribe.

The Kun tribe and the Peng tribe are both part of the Hentian clan, and are one entity. Until a person from the mainland was sailing on the sea and encountered a storm, he was rescued by the people of the Hentian Kingdom.

The people of Hentian inquired about the situation of their homeland, the Yi tribe, from the outside world, and learned of the legend of Hengwo stealing the elixir of immortality and flying to the moon.

This differs from the history passed down orally and recorded on murals in the Kingdom of Hatred, leaving the descendants of the Kingdom of Hatred unsure of which is true and which is false.

But the ruler of the Kingdom of Hatred at that time, who wore a fish-tail crown, didn't care about the truth of history. He had only heard rumors of the elixir of immortality and wanted to fly to the moon to ask Chang'e for the elixir.

The Peng tribe opposed it, but to no avail.

This is why the Kun tribe and the Peng tribe had a dispute over "immortality." The Kun tribe wanted to live forever, while the Peng tribe believed that reproduction and passing on the lineage from generation to generation were more important.

Jiang Liu believes that the Peng tribe may have come up with this idea because when the form of the Guixu Sea Qi transformed from Kun into Peng and soared into the nine heavens, the Peng tribe, which controlled the Peng form, had a deeper understanding of the Qi of heaven and earth, and thus chose to follow the principles of nature.

"Perhaps, from this moment on, the conflict between the Kun and Peng tribes arose. Jiao Mu merely took the opportunity to stir things up, exacerbating the conflict between the Kun and Peng tribes."

The mural ends abruptly here. Jiang Liu can roughly guess what happened afterward. It was roughly that the conflict intensified, Kun suppressed Peng and slaughtered the Peng lineage. After that, Kun found the "Jianmu" and accumulated momentum, intending to use the power of the Qi to carry out the "shooting the moon" action and go to the moon.

During this process, the Mermaid was likely involved, which further intensified the conflict between the Kun and the Peng.

After the construction of the Jianmu tree, mechanisms, bronze statues, and other preparations for the journey to the moon was completed, the Guixu Qiju (a geomantic system) was also affected, no longer migrating with ocean currents and climate, as if it had been fixed in the South China Sea.

This is the end.

The Ruins of the South China Sea have fully taken shape!

Mind this.

Jiang Liu suddenly realized that the Mermaid's order for the merfolk to leave Guixu and to bind and restrain Gu Qian and the others on the ship was actually a ploy to force these descendants of the Hentian clan to re-enter Guixu.

Once inside the Ruins of Return, to leave, one must continue the plan to land on the moon using the Jianmu tree.

The presence of so many sunken ships within this Guixu space is likely a sign that the Mermaid hopes the people on these ships can resume their plans, help her escape her predicament, and then use the Jianmu tree to embark on her journey to the moon.

pity.

Few of the crew members in those sunken ships knew anything about gossip, and few were extraordinary individuals; they all perished in this desolate sea.

After all, without Jiang Liu's ability to stabilize the boat by stepping on the Eight Extremes, the enormous shock of falling from the Guixu Sea Eye would have been enough to kill more than 90% of the people on board.

To survive, you really have to rely on luck.

"Humans really are always fighting each other."

After learning the truth about the Kunpeng, Duanmu Ying lamented the internal strife within humanity. Even without external enemies, internal struggles would continue, just like in the current state of Shenzhou…

"The greatest healers are those who can heal the nation. Why don't you change your target?" Jiang Liu joked.

"I don't have that ability." Duanmu Ying's mouth twitched. No matter how restless she was, she knew that compared to her goal of curing all diseases in the world, the theory of "healing the country" was a completely different level of realm, which could only be accomplished by people with extraordinary talents.

Seeing this, Jiang Liu didn't say much more. After all, Duanmu Ying's cultivation goal of curing all diseases in the world, strictly speaking, also involves the level of healing the country.

After passing through the passage, a skeleton of a Basilosaurus appeared in the space ahead, surrounded by a large number of desiccated corpses.

Looking up, you can see the dragon fire flowing above—

This place is the mountain area behind the Bronze Hall, which looks like a mass grave, but it only has the chill that an ordinary tomb should have. Instead, there is a warm current flowing through it, which makes people unconsciously feel hot.

Jiang Liu instantly understood that the place where the Dragon King whale skeleton stood was the key to the transformation of Kun into Peng in the Guixu Qi Formation. It formed a Yin-Yang balance with the place where the Jianmu tree was erected. Under normal circumstances, the transformation of Yin and Yang would allow Kun to transform into Peng in the Northern Sea and Peng to transform into Kun in the Southern Sea.

However, the Yin Eye is currently suppressed by the Jianmu tree, while the Yang Eye is suppressed by the remains of the Dragon King whale and the corpses of thousands of Peng tribe members, making it difficult for Yin and Yang to communicate. As a result, the Qi formation stays in the South China Sea year-round, maintaining the shape of the Kun fish, making it difficult to go to the Bohai Sea, let alone transform into a Peng and soar through the nine heavens.

"There are five rather unusual bodies inside this whale skeleton."

Duanmu Ying entered the Dragon King Whale's skeleton and found five corpses covered with a strange black skin.

The skin was called "dragon skin" by Gu Qian. It originated from a giant fish in the deep sea with a single horn on its head. Because the giant fish was like a swimming dragon, the skin on its body was also called dragon skin.

According to Gu Kun, this giant fish has disappeared from the sea and may only exist in the deep sea trenches, but even they have never explored those trenches.

It's not that we dare not, but that we cannot.

Although the sea-penetrating array pattern allows them to grow fins on their backs and gills on their ribs, they are still human and cannot fully withstand the pressure of the deep sea. The deeper they go, the greater the pressure on their bodies becomes.

However, in Jiang Liu's view, this was because the sea-penetrating array patterns on their bodies were incomplete. They only had the shape of a Kun (a mythical fish), but not a Peng (a mythical bird), and even the Kun shape was incomplete. As a result, although they could swim in the sea, they could not feel the flow of sea air like real fish and shrimp in the sea.

If you can do this, and follow the flow of the sea air, then you can even go to the deep sea trenches!

Gu Qian tore off the dragon skin, revealing a lifelike corpse: two men and three women. The two men were an old man and a young man, and all three women were pregnant. They had pearls in their mouths, and their abdomens were split open, revealing three infants with deformities.

"How cruel!"

Duanmu Ying couldn't help but cover her mouth, "He's practically comparable to King Zhou."

King Zhou, also known as King Zhou of Shang.

In the novel *Investiture of the Gods*, King Zhou cut off his calf to examine the bone marrow and dissected a pregnant woman to determine the sex of her child. Therefore, Duanmu Ying believed that this behavior was no different from that of King Zhou.

What puzzled her was why the babies in these pregnant women's wombs had physical defects.

When asked about the ancient Qian and ancient Kun, neither knew the reason.

Jiang Liu, however, focused his attention on a bronze cauldron surrounded by the three female corpses.

This ding is different from ordinary bronze ding.

Most bronze tripods have three legs and a round body, or four legs and four sides, but this bronze tripod has nine legs and eight sides. The eight sides of the tripod are recorded with scenes depicting a peculiar sacrificial ritual of the Hentian clan, the purpose of which was to ascend to the moon in order to obtain the elixir of immortality.

Judging from the images alone, it seems that simply throwing three deformed infants into the black, gooey liquid inside the cauldron would activate the nine-legged, eight-sided vessel…

# Chapter 498 Double Ninth Festival

Why are these babies born with birth defects?

Jonathan also approached the nine-legged cauldron, stroking the ancient patterns on it. He then looked at the three corpses of the pregnant woman and the infant with its abdomen split open. His body trembled involuntarily.

Without him.

He had never seen such a bizarre corpse before.

"It might have been affected by the lunar eclipse."

Duanmu Ying also focused her attention on the eight-sided cauldron, noticing that the moon on each side was in a different shape: new moon, crescent moon, waxing crescent moon, full moon, waning crescent moon, last crescent moon, and waning crescent moon, a total of eight.

"It is said that if a pregnant woman happens to encounter a lunar eclipse within the first month of her pregnancy and is also illuminated by the light of the lunar eclipse, the baby will be born with missing limbs, or missing ears or eyes when the pregnancy is over ten months."

"The reason is unknown."

"However, these disabled babies are mostly considered an ominous sign, and their parents often abandon them."

Upon hearing this...

Jiang Liu pondered for a moment and said, "I once read in a miscellaneous ancient book that babies born under the influence of a lunar eclipse are also called 'Eclipsed Heaven' babies. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, rulers often used them as medicinal ingredients in their pursuit of immortality..."