Emperor of the Human Way Chapter 2

Zhong Yue stared blankly. The voice just now wasn’t his own illusion, but except himself there was only the strange person’s skeleton…

"Don’t tell me…"

Allthough Zhong Yue had never feared the heavens nor did he fear the earth, he couldn’t help but become pale at this moment and even emitted cold sweat.

"Where are you looking at? I’m right here!"

That voice came again and sounded unhappy: "Young man, I asked you a question, nowadays which generation f.u.xi reigns?"

Zhong Yue stared at the lamp in his hand and stammered, unable to speak properly. The voice right now actually came from inside the lamp!

A man-eating four-winged bird was already strange enough, a man-eating black haze was even stranger, but the strangest thing was still this lamp, this talking lamp!

"Your blood lineage has reached such a low point that I almost couldn’t feel it, don’t tell me the f.u.xi G.o.d race has fallen to such lows in this day and age?" The voice inside the lamp seemed to carry some sorrow.

"f.u.xi G.o.d race? Are you talking about me?"

Zhong Yue was bewildered and stared closely at the lamp. He couldn’t see anything unusual under the lamp’s cover, the lamp light was dim and the flame was only a finger segment high. He really couldn’t see where the voice came from.

Suddenly Zhong Yue’s eyes stared fixedly at that lamp flame and saw it totally wasn’t a flame but a finger sized child with an oversized head!

This big-headed child had fair skin and wore exquisite golden clothes, and his head full of fiery red hair. If you didn’t look carefully he really resembled the flame of a fire!

"Are there still this kind of strange creatures in this world?"

Zhong Yue blinked his eyes and curiously stared at this lamp flame child. This lamp flame child looked back disgustedly at him and angrily said: "Young man of the f.u.xi G.o.d race, I asked you which generation reigns nowadays, you still haven’t answered me!"

"f.u.xi?"

Zhong Yue came back to his senses and laughed: "You are talking about the Emperor Xi from the legends? Emperor Xi was unique and unmatched, he’s the legendary emperor of heaven and earth and there’s naturally only one of him, where does this which generation come from? Moreover I’m not from the f.u.xi G.o.d race either, I’m from the human race."

"Wrong, wrong!"

The little child inside the lamp jumped, leaping like a real lamp flame: "Greatly wrong! f.u.xi is a honored t.i.tle, it’s not a name, it represents the sovereign of the land, the emperor of the vast heavens! Back then before I fell asleep there had already been nine generations of f.u.xi, the first generation f.u.xi ascended to the imperial heavenly throne and reigned for 18 thousand years, then pa.s.sed it on to the second generation f.u.xi s.h.i.+fting Changes, who reignd for 15 thousand years, then pa.s.sed the torch to Master of Changes, Master Changes pa.s.sed it on to Extreme Limitless, who pa.s.sed it on to Limitless Changes, who pa.s.sed it on to Young Limitless, who pa.s.sed it on to Virtue And Integrity, who transmitted it to Limitless Xi, a total of nine generations of f.u.xi!"

Zhong Yue was stupefied when he heard, his whole life he had heard old people in the Sword Sect say that f.u.xi was a heavenly emperor from antiquity and there was only one of him, while this strange child inside the lamp was actually saying there were at least nine of them!

The little child inside the lamp walked back and forth on the lamp’s wick, whispering: "This time how long have I been asleep? How comes brats nowadays don’t even know of f.u.xi? He’s clearly from the f.u.xi G.o.d race, although his blood lineage is thin, but to say against all reason he’s from the human race. Among the ten thousand races which kind of race is the human race? Why haven’t I heard of them?"

This lamp flame child jumped out from inside the lamp, landing on Zhong Yue’s arm. He walked up and down on his arm, giving him a burning sensation. The lamp flame child muttered: "Something must have happened there for sure, something I don’t know? Which year is this dusk? This time, to which era did I sleep to…"

Zhong Yue reminded him: "I heard Emperor Xi was an antique holy emperor from many ten thousand years ago, now is the era of human emperors… Right, what the h.e.l.l are you in the end?"

He scratched his head, he really had troubles addressing this small kid. The little lamp flame child dimly said: "I am called Xin Huo[1], back then Sovereign Sui[2]… Forget about it, if you don’t have half a bit knowledge about f.u.xi, it’ll be totally useless even if I told you. Bring me out of this place, I need to find a Soul Fire[1] inheritor and pa.s.s the lamp on. As an exchange I’ll give you some benefits!"

This little kid suddenly disappeared without a trace. Zhong Yue was puzzled in his heart when he heard the little kid Xin Huo’s voice inside his mind: "This is the Soul Visualization method you’re cultivating? A dignified f.u.xi G.o.d race unthinkably cultivates this kid of lowly country b.u.mpkin method, it’s really losing the imperial f.u.xi’s face! Don’t look around like a headless chicken, I’m inside your sea of consciousness. You only need to go inside your mind, visualize a great sea of stars hiding between your eyebrows, then you’ll be able to see me. I’ll teach you, you do as I say…"

"Visualize the sea of consciousness? This needs a profound realm, not many among the outer sect disciples can achieve this point! Can I really visualize your sea of consciousness with the method you’re teaching me,?"

Zhong Yue was half believing and half skeptical. He tried once the method the little kid Xin Huo taught him and suddenly the sight "in front of his eyes" swayed. He saw "himself" come to a strange place, floating above a lake!

This lake’s water was clear like jade with a perimeter of over thirty feet, and there was additionally a sword gate floating above the lake.

This sword gate looked as if it had been split in two halves by a sword.

Zhong Yue was greatly shaken, he actually "saw" his own sea of consciousness!

He had cultivated for several years before, meditating his sea of consciousness, but he’d never seen his sea of consciousness with "his own eyes", mainly because he hadn’t reached the necessary realm. Unexpectedly under the guidance of this Xin Huo kid he achieved it in one instant!

This cultivation speed, no one would believe it if he told them!

In front of him the little Xin Huo kid floated to and fro like a small fire in front of his face, leisurely flying in his sea of consciousness, saying, "This sword gate, it’s the method you used to cultivate your Soul Visualization right? Pitiful, truly pitiful, a dignified f.u.xi descendant without even a single decent cultivation method and cultivating this kind of bottom level method. And the time you cultivated it isn’t short but your sea of consciousness is still so small, you can see how feeble your cultivation method is!"

Zhong Yue’s face reddened and he argued: "This is the Sword Gate Soul Visualization Breaking Out Secrets. Although it’s not a first grade soul cultivation method, but it’s definitely not coa.r.s.e. It was the best soul cultivation method I could learn!"

Those who wanted to become Qi Refining Warriors first had to cultivate their soul. The Sword Sect treated every outer sect disciple equally and transmitted the same Sword Gate Visualization Breaking Out Method to all of them.

Practicing this soul cultivation method, one would form a sword gate in their sea of consciousness. As long as the soul could charge out of this sword gate, then your soul would break out of your body and fly out!

"The best soul cultivation method?"

Little Xin Huo kid said with a sneer "Cultivating this kind of soul method, you’re really muddleheaded. I don’t know when your soul would scatter when the wind blows, or dispel when light s.h.i.+nes, or vanish when lightning strikes. This kind of soul is the weakest kind, it will melt in a water stain, burn to ashes in a fire, become stone when touching soil. It’s extremely dangerous. Genuine soul cultivation methods are equivalent to visualize the divine absolute, enlarge the soul, soar to the heavens and dive within the earth, not scatter in the wind, not dispel under the light, unmoving when struck by lightning, not melted by water, not burned by fire, not transformed by soil. Only this can be called genuine!

Zhong Yue stared blankly, little Xin Huo kid didn’t say anything wrong. In the outer sect’s Blue Sky Hall several Qi Refining Warriors had also said the same thing, they said that cultivating to the point of the soul breaking out of the body was extremely dangerous. You needed ot cultivate in the Blue Sky Hall, not touching the sky above and not touching the earth beneath, and couldn’t come in contact with objects of the five elements, otherwise if the soul came outside the body and met things of the five elements, it would be extremely dangerous, the soul could even possibly fly away and scatter!

"How do you cultivate the genuine way?" Zhong Yue reluctantly said.

"I’ll teach you!"

Little Xin Huo kid fell on his shoulder, and proudly said: "That you could find me means you and I have fate together. According to reason you should be the next generation of Soul Fire inheritor, but your blood lineage is too thin, pa.s.sing it to you would lose me face. Help me find a pure blood f.u.xi G.o.d race and I’ll teach you how to properly cultivate. Your soul isn’t weak, you can more or less cultivate the Fire Era Palace Sovereign Sui Visualization Picture."

"Xin Huo, I’m really not from some G.o.d race, I’m surrounded by people like myself, they couldn’t all be from the G.o.d race, right?"

Zhong Yue scratched his head and said: "Can humans also cultivate the Fire Era Palace Sovereign Sui Visualization Picture?"

little Xin Huo kid laughed: "Although I don’t know why the f.u.xi G.o.d race from back then have fallen so far, but you are indeed from the G.o.d race, you can cultivate my Visualization Picture."

Not long after, Zhong Yue had to admit this Fire Era Palace Sovereign Sui Visualization Picture was who knew how many times superior to the Sword Gate Breaking Out Visualization Method.

The Sword Gate Breaking Out Visualization Method borrowed sword qi to sever the connection between soul and flesh, therefore the burden was great on both the soul and the body when the soul jumped out.

While the Fire Era Palace Sovereign Sui Visualization Picture tempered vitality, qi, and essence[3], nouris.h.i.+ng the soul. When the soul became powerful enough it could jump out of the body and the burden wasn’t so big. Moreover a powerful soul didn’t need to fear external forces, making it much less dangerous.

"The sea of consciousness is in the end the gathering of consciousness, the stronger the consciousness the bigger the sea, and the easier it is to visualize."

Little Xin Huo kid stood on Zhong Yue’s shoulder and flashed two rays of light from his eyes, projecting ten feet away in front of Zhong Yue a magnificient picture. He said: "This is the Fire Era Palace’s first generation Sovereign Sui, revered as the celestial emperor of the vast heavens, who pioneered the Fire Era. In total there are 32 generations of Sovereign Sui! To visualize the absolute, you must visualize this kind of heavenly emperor ruling over ten thousand races and establis.h.i.+ng an era! Now imagine you’re the Sovereign, living inside the Fire Era Palace and ruling over ten thousand races!"

Zhong Yue watched carefully and saw that this Pictures had three layers. The first layer was Sovereign Sui with a dragon head, snake tail and a human body. Dragon horns prouted on his head and dragon scales lined his body, the lines on his skin as if writing a heavenly book, almost containing the deepest of wisdoms.

Just this layer was already very difficult, but visualization was imagine his essence, qi, and consciousness, visualizing the Sun Sovereign’s grace, this kind of epoch-making expert who had established the Fire Era, an existence that had been called the celestial emperor of the vast heavens, that is incomparably difficult!

The second layer was the Fire Era Palace, this was the celestial emperor’s divine palace. Little Xin Huo had already projected an extremely simplified picture of the Fire Era Palace, but for Zhong Yue it was still incomparably complex, and this kind of majestic palace standing eternal was very difficult to visualize.

The third layer was the fire tree in front of the Fire Era Palace, the treetop was immense, its size too high to reach, misty clouds lingering among the tree top, and great birds perched on it.

Each leaf on this fire tree was different, it would be even more difficult to visualize the whole of this tree.

The difficulty of the Fire Era Palace Sun Sovereign Picture was over ten thousand times higher compared to the Sword Gate Picture!

The degree of exquisiteness was also probably ten thousand times higher than the Sword Gate Picture!

Zhong Yue carefully studied for a moment and thought in his heart: "Perfectly visualizing the whole of this picture and constructing every details is something I can’t possibly accomplish. The right way is to visualize Sovereign Sui’s grace, the loftiness of the Fire Era Palace, the size of the fire tree, grasp those three’s vitality, qi and essence, then slowly complete it."

Thinking here he closed his eyes in meditation, imagining himself as Sovereign Sui, living in the Fire Era Palace.

At this moment his sea of consciousness surged in waves. Zhong Yue’s soul became bigger and bigger, his two feet disappeared and became a snake tail, his head also transformed into a that of a dragon, unexpectedly somewhat resembling Sovereign Suit in the Sovereign Sui Picture!

Not only that, the rolling billows inside his sea of consciousness even constructed around him the shape of the Fire Era Palace, and at the same in front of the Fire Era Palace a fire tree was slowly growing!

The little Xin Huo kid on Zhong Yue’s shoulder jumped in fright,: "He could visualize the Fire Palace, fire tree, and Sovereign Sui in such a short time? Although this G.o.d race’s blood lineage is a little thin, but his perception isn’t bad, it’s not worse than the perception of pure-blooded G.o.d race I met before…"

Translator notes:

[1] 薪火: Both the flame kid’s name and the fire called are the same. Literally it means firewood fire, burning firewood, or torchlight. It can also be understood as the knowledge pa.s.sed down one generation to the next (like a torch), or the undying soul.

[2]: Suiren, said to have created fire in Chinese mythology. See more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suiren

[3]: 3 elements composing the human body in Taoist medicine. A bit too mystical and complex to translate accurately with a few words.