Enlightenment: Attaining the Dao at Age 8

This period of blood and carnage lasted for over a hundred years.

More than a hundred years later, virtually every member of the Fusang Tribe who could be openly found had been exterminated.

Yet, the cultivation method of the Martial Dao, carried on the blood and sweat of the Fusang Tribe, spread like countless tiny sparks, quickly igniting into a wildfire.

Members of the Fusang Tribe who cultivated the Martial Dao had successfully attacked and even killed Guardian Gods. This gave the many tribes oppressed by these deities a glimmer of hope.

So, many tribes began to harbor their own ideas in secret. They started deliberately sheltering members of the Fusang Tribe and covertly learning the Martial Dao cultivation method from them.

The Celestial Realm was initially oblivious. After all, the Immortals had been high and mighty for so long they had grown accustomed to ignoring the teeming millions of mortals below.

By the time the Celestial Realm noticed, most of the tribes throughout the Sanjiang River Basin were already secretly practicing the Martial Dao, and many had made considerable progress.

The Celestial Realm was enraged. It dispatched dozens of Divine Spirits to suppress the Sanjiang River region, intending to annihilate every living being in the entire basin.

After all, it wasn’t the first time they had done something like this. In their eyes, human lives were no different from a swarm of ants.

Just as all of humanity was living in constant terror, believing their doom was imminent, Man Yu—who had been painstakingly cultivating in hiding for over a century—finally made her move.

She took advantage of the Immortals’ descent, while they still looked upon humanity with contempt. She struck swiftly, defeating one of the Immortals dispatched by the Celestial Realm and severing its head for all to see.

This act sent shockwaves of fervent excitement through the Human Race.

The practice of the Martial Dao was already a fire burning within countless human communities, one that was difficult to extinguish.

To the bewildered Human Race, Man Yu slaying a Divine Spirit at this crucial juncture was like a Pillar of Heaven appearing just as a great edifice was about to collapse. She single-handedly bolstered the crumbling morale of the people.

After discovering that cultivating the Martial Dao could truly allow them to oppose the Celestial Realm, the tribes that were still practicing in secret brought their cultivation out into the open with reckless abandon. At the same time, Man Yu, having killed the Divine Spirit, quickly vanished. She began taking disciples everywhere, frantically spreading the flames.

She knew that with humanity’s current strength, it was still somewhat unrealistic to truly go head-to-head with the myriad Divine Spirits of the heavens.

She knew even better that compared to the beings born of heaven and earth and the lofty Gods above, humanity’s only advantage was their numbers.

Insignificant as humble ants may be, completely exterminating them was a difficult task even for Divine Spirits.

Man Yu exploited this advantage brilliantly. She not only spread the Martial Dao throughout the Sanjiang River Basin but also returned to the Central Plains, where she had battled in her youth, bringing a new path forward for the Central Plains People.

What doesn’t kill them will only make humanity stronger.

With fires of rebellion igniting across the Mortal Realm, the heavily oppressed Sanjiang River region was given a moment’s respite. The planned extermination was consequently put on hold.

The Celestial Realm, infuriated and humiliated, resolved to leave nothing to chance. It dispatched a being of the True God Level to hunt Man Yu down.

In the end, the True God caught up to Man Yu as she was teaching the Dao in a human settlement. The True God smashed them all, turning her and every single person in the settlement into a bloody pulp.

However, although Man Yu was dead, her mission was already complete.

The Celestial Realm could kill her, but it could not kill the millions upon millions of humans who yearned to change their people’s destiny.

In the several hundred years that followed, the fire of the Martial Dao burned fiercely. Except for a few Large Towns directly controlled by the Celestial Realm’s Divine Spirits, wherever there were humans, there was the Martial Dao.

The Divine Spirits, the Guardian Gods they commanded, and the other forces of the Celestial Realm launched wave after wave of massacres across the Mortal Realm.

The massacred tribes were forced to unite, forming the so-called ’Godslaying Army.’ The Godslaying Army originated in Santi Town on Floating Hill by the Sanjiang River. Leveraging Man Yu’s legacy and their own strength, the surviving members of the Fusang Tribe gradually regained control of the overall situation.

This was why Li Chang’an had seen so many Fusang Tribe flags on his journey.

Once he understood the full story, Li Chang’an sighed. An image involuntarily surfaced in his mind: Man Yu, more than five hundred years ago, no bigger than the palm of his hand, sleeping peacefully on his chest.

Back then, Man Yu had been so charming and lovely. When her eyes twinkled, they looked as if they held brilliant stars.

Back then, Li Chang’an had taught her the Martial Dao on a whim, just to ’see what would happen.’ He had never imagined she would ultimately accomplish something of this magnitude.

’Perhaps it’s because I’m one of the long-lived races in this life.’ Li Chang’an found himself more keenly aware than ever of the astonishing creativity that beings like humans could unleash in their short lifespans.

He narrowed his eyes, his expression hardening.

A fire ignited in Li Chang’an’s heart, a heart that had grown placid and difficult to stir over the vast expanse of time. ’No matter what, Man Yu was the only disciple I’ve taken in this life.’

’The Celestial Realm sent a True God down and smashed her into a bloody pulp...’

This, to Li Chang’an, was an undeniable blood feud.

Taking a deep breath to suppress the rage in his heart, Li Chang’an stopped lingering on his journey. He now moved with all his speed toward the former Santi Town, now known as Martial God City.

「Three days later.」

Li Chang’an arrived in Santi Town with over a hundred Hell Humans in tow.

Santi Town, which had once been home to only ten or twenty thousand people, had since been renamed. It was now a great city capable of housing nearly a hundred thousand.