Rise of Humanity

“Because Xin Huo isn’t a living creature, for whatever I’ve been going through, he shouldn’t be able to see it. And you just said the big mushroom had left me aged my whole life inside the illusions. Xin Huo wouldn’t know what I’ve been going through, so why would he say that?”

Zhong Yue smiled, “In fact, it’d be more than easy to check if I am still in the illusions. Xin Huo, impart the [Three Eye Heavenly Pupils] to me. It is a cultivation technique that even I don’t know much about and I’ve also never cultivated it. Impart it to me. With my knowledge and attainments, I will be able to determine whether the cultivation technique’s geniune.”

Xin Huo kept mum.

All of a sudden, the little flame extinguished and disappeared from his psyche ocean.

Zhong Yue sighed, he looked at his hands and mumbled, “That said, this mortal body I am in now is also fake?”

What he feared most still happened.

A weird expression climbed onto his face, like a laugh but not quite like one. He murmured, “When did my Yuan Shen come out of my mortal body? Big mushroom, where exactly is my mortal body? When did you bring my Yuan Shen out of my mortal body? Why didn’t I notice a single thing at all?”

He glanced around and questioned the truth of everything?

How could he resolve the evil saint herb’s evil powers and return to the real world?

In front, the Nine Lives Black Wok Mushroom was still there, waiting obediently for him to pluck it, but Zhong Yue knew it was nothing more than an illusion. The moment he plucked it down, the illusions in the illusions would break, but things would turn stranger and stranger every second.

The illusions formed by the Nine Lives Black Wok Mushroom’s evil powers were covered numerous layers. Zhong Yue now finally knew a little more about it. The more you followed the illusions, you deeper you would dive into the layers of illusions.

One by one, it all stacked together. Even after you break out of one layer, there would be countless more layers unknown to you waiting for you to break.

This was why the Nine Lives Black Work Mushroom was feared the most.

Zhong Yue didn’t know when he entered the illusions, nor did he know if he had entered more in the past 60,000 years.

These 60,000 years were more than enough for him to fall into hundreds of thousands or even millions of layers of illusions!

His mortal body should still be in the midst of the mountains and rivers, but with so many layers of illusions in between, he couldn’t sense it at all!

Even after he broke through all of the layers of illusions and returned to the real world, he had no way to tell if this ‘real world’ was just another illusion created by the Nine Lives Black Work Mushroom.

“Is this a saint herb? Or an evil herb?”

Zhong Yue exhaled deeply, he lowered his voice, “In order to break the illusions, there’s only one way…”

Two drums flew out from his Yuan Shen secret realms and fell down to the ground. Dong– Dong–

Zhong Yue surged all of his arcane energy and swung his hands like sticks, he cast the [Daoless Heavens] and smashed them heavily onto the drums!

The drums released thunderous booms and the [Daoless Heavens]’s powers burst out. In addition to the drums’ powers, everywhere the sounds reached, the scenary in Zhong Yue’s vision was stripped away layer by layer. In just a second, thousands of illusions had been shattered.

Dong, Dong, Dong!

Zhong Yue was drumming nonstop and the illusions around him continued to fall apart. Every pound of the drums would be followed by the fall of thousands of illusions disintegrating. Zhong Yue had struck the drum to the point that his hands were burned red; his fists, the skin, and flesh fell apart, leaving his bones exposed to the elements!

“3 million… 8 million…”

In the end, over 10 million illusions were shattered away. And finally, with the last sound of drums, no more illusions were shattered away anymore.

Zhong Yue looked at the bones that were protruding out of his fists, he smirked coldly and suddenly, slammed down hard on the drums again!

“The Yuan Shen had no bones, even when the fists were no more, there would still be no bones!”

Dong, Dong, Dong–

When the sounds of drumming broke the silence another time, the sky cracked and the earth split. Everything around cracked and shattered away as if they were never there before. Then, a huge stone tablet appeared floating above him.

Beneath the stone tablet lay many Deity Emperors, Creators, and Imperial Emperors. None of them were standing and were on the floor as if they were sleeping.

Zhong Yue was shocked, and suddenly, his scalp tingled. If the mountains and rivers and the beautiful environment they were in was also a layer of illusions; then since when had they entered the illusions?

Could it be, when they walked out of the Create Evolve Mystic Gate, they had already entered the Nine Lives Black Wok Mushroom’ illusions and had been affected by its Extreme Evil Qi?!

Beneath the stone tablet was a hill, and on the hill grew a black mushroom that had seven caps. It was only a few steps away from Zhong Yue.

Mo Yuanshu, Shen Qiushan, Feng Yulan, and the others’ mortal body were just on the foot of the mountain. Even the likes of the Innate Evil Monarch’s disciple, Gao Yin, was also unknowningly caught by the illusions, he couldn’t have avoided it even with the [Evil Tome].

Zhong Yue glanced around and saw his mortal body.

There, it was just beside him, just a step away from the Nine Lives Black Work Mushroom, even closer to it than Zhong Yue himself!

Then, there were also the Yuan Shen of the experts floating around. Some looked puzzled, not knowing where they were, and some had died a long time ago.

Clearly, they were also caught in the illusions of the Nine Lives Black Wok Mushroom, deep in the hold of the illusions. And when the layers of illusions were crushed by Zhong Yue’s [Daoless Heavens], they were abruptly brought back to reality.

However, among the experts, the one with the mystic lights was not here. Zhong Yue glanced around but couldn’t find him anywhere.

“Why was my mortal body here?”

Zhong Yue was still drumming hard, the drums continued, but this time, the world didn’t crack anymore. Instead, the mortal body and Yuan Shen of the experts were hit by the drums and they all sat out a mouthful of blood while their mortal bodies shuddered like zombies returning to life.

Immediately, the experts’ Yuan Shen flew up and bolted back into their bodies, and technqiques were cast out all around as they defended themselves from the drums!

“I’m out!”

Zhong Yue laughed happily but was stunned when he saw his mortal body moving by itself. ‘He’ reached his hand out for the black mushroom and surged all the arcane energy and psyche into it as ‘he’ refined it!

Zhong Yue’s scalp tingled as he thought, Am I still in the illusions? No, no, the [Daoless Heavens] is definitely a counter to the Nine Lives Black Wok Mushroom’s illusions. Then why is my mortal body moving by itself?

Zhong Yue watched as his mortal body plucked the black mushroom, his face was plain dead, Am I truly back in the real world? Is this not another layer of illusions? How do I know if I’m back in reality?

These thoughts shook his confidence as he started to question if he had actually escaped from the extremely evil saint herb’s illusions.

“Zhong Yue, why aren’t you returning?” All of a sudden, a message traveled out from his mortal body and into his ears, “Don’t drum anymore, the ears will turn deaf soon. I’ve already plucked down this huge mushroom, just plant it in the Dao Yi Secret Realm. It’s extreme evil’s evil power is now no more.”

“Xin Huo?” Zhong Yue was startled but was quick to understand. The Nine Lives Black Wok Mushroom could hallucinate all living creatures, including the powerful presences like the Imperial Emperors, but Xin Huo wasn’t a living creature, he wasn’t even considered to be alive!

Clearly, while he was sinking in the illusions, Xin Huo had taken control over his mortal body and brought it over to pluck the Nine Lives Black Wok Mushroom!

If that’s the case, it would’ve explained why the Nine Lives Black Wok Mushroom would appear here – because only Xin Huo could pluck a saint herb like this the fastest!

Dao Venerate Fu Min had only planted the Nine Lives Black Wok Mushroom here so it could be given to Zhong Yue through Xin Huo’s hands!

But of course, even without Xin Huo’s help controlling Zhong Yue’s mortal body, Zhong Yue still would have been able to do it himself.

Zhong Yue swiftly returned to his mortal body and said, “Xin Huo, impart me the [Three Eyes Heavenly Pupils]!”

Xin Huo was nesting inside of Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean, he was puzzled to hear the request, “Biting off more than you can chew will choke you to death, that’s what you said yourself. Why are you so eager to learn the [Three Eyes Heavenly Pupils]? Furthermore, you’ve already cultivated the Spirit Body As One and Spirit Soul As One, but why was your Yuan Shen suddenly stripped out from your mortal body? I saw your Yuan Shen flying out. That’s why I took control over your mortal body and went for the mushroom.”

“Quickly, impart it to me, I’ve already lost track of the real world and illusions!” Zhong Yue hurried.

Then, Xin Huo imparted the [Three Eyes Heavenly Pupils] to Zhong Yue. He carefully inspected the art and moments later, heaved a breath of relief.

It was the true technique, it was an art that could unleash the Fuxi’s three divine eyes to their maximum powers. The Nine Lives Black Wok Mushroom didn’t have the ability to imitate that.

Otherwise, if it could, it wouldn’t just be a saint herb anymore but something even stronger than the Dao God!

“I’m finally back, the real world!” Zhong Yue laughed loudly.

Xin Huo was puzzled, he didn’t know what had happened to Zhong Yue.

The experts on the foothill were quick to awaken, but not all of them. There were more than a dozen bodies that couldn’t move anymore. They were killed in the illusions, they thought they were dead in the illusions and thus, their deaths were projected into the real world.

This was why the Nine Lives Black Wok Mushroom was so feared!

Luckily, Hundun Yu wasn’t one of those casualties. He quickly came over and whispered, “Mister Yi, I saw you turning into many huge and horrible looking insects; I’ve also lived a fantastical life. How strange, even now, I still don’t know if you are real or just an illusion.”

“What a creepy saint herb!”

Suddenly, Gao Yin led his other five junior martial brothers and walked over, he was smiling, “Hundun Clan’s junior martial brother, the Nine Lives Black Wok Mushroom that your celestial slave has acquired, can you sell it to me?”

“Celestial slave?” Hundun Yu was puzzled, he explained, “This is Mister Yi.”

“Mister Yi?” Gao Yin was startled while his five junior martial brothers all burst out in killing intent, he suddenly smirked coldly and said, “So this is the human that has killed Junior Martial Brother Zhu Xie!”

Gao Yin raised his hands and stopped the two evil lords, he looked at Zhong Yue and said, “If Mister Yi can sell it to me, Gao can help resolve the resentments between Mister Yi and our Evil Monarch Palace.”

Zhong Yue gave a weird smile, “Resolve the resentments between me and the Evil Monarch Palace? Senior Martial Brother Gao, you don’t have the qualifications for that. Your teacher Innate Evil Monarch is the only one qualified to such a promise.”

Gao Yin’s face darkened momentarily but maintained its smile, “Mister Yi sure is prideful. Mister Yi, you and I are just a step away. In this mere distance of a step, I can make you bleed and die in no time. To you, the Nine Lives Black Wok Mushroom is a saint herb; but to me, it is the key to my ascension into the monarch level. That said, I will do anything to get my hands on this saint herb. Mister Yi, how many times do you think the Nine Lives Black Wok Mushroom will be able to save you?”