Shennong Dao Master

The Eight Books mainly recorded Dao rituals, music, musical theory, star calendars, astronomy, and sealed discussions.

Zhao Xing primarily looked at books related to the Ten Tables and Eight Books, memorizing historical shifts in Heavenly Time, Earth Advantage environments, and territorial changes in the Xuanling Star Domain, as well as various anecdotes.

"Crash~" Zhao Xing casually picked up a copy of the Heaven Leisure Pinghuai Book.

The Pinghuai Book is one of the Eight Books, the Heaven Leisure Pinghuai Book, which means it is a record of the Heaven Leisure Ancient Country’s resistance against Void River flows, and management of disasters within its territories.

Zhao Xing had read quite a few versions, but different regions’ Pinghuai Books had different preferences in their records, and varied in detail, which depended on the historian’s style.

"This book records the timeframe from two epochs before the Desolate Domain to twenty epochs before the Desolate Domain, spanning two million four hundred thousand Boundary Star Years."

"In historical terms, this is considered quite short." Zhao Xing became intrigued.

The history of the Xuanling Star Domain can be traced back to the Five Emperors Period. It was only after the end of the Five Emperors Era that ancient countries began to appear.

The oldest ancient country dates back approximately 400 epochs and connects with the last generation of the Li Emperor Era of the Five Emperors Period. Before that, the territories were unified by the Five Emperors, and ancient countries did not yet exist.

The Li Emperor Era has been over four hundred million Boundary Star Years ago. After the Five Emperors Era ended, it became the chaotic and warring Ancient Country Era.

Pinghuai Book only records two epochs, which is already considered very short in time. Since the time is short, it is bound to record details more thoroughly.

"In Tianyou Calendar Year Four Yang 1389, a gigantic change occurred in the Lixing River, destroying three hundred and forty million habitable Boundary Stars and Star Lands, causing the disaster of Void Turbulent Streams, affecting three thousand two hundred and fifty Near River Star Zones of the Heaven Leisure Ancient Country."

"Hmm? The Lixing River Change actually overwhelmed over three thousand star zones, this disaster is quite large." Zhao Xing pondered.

Rivers in the void layer are the ’Qi’ condensed into a liquid. It might be Spiritual Energy, or it might be toxic gas, a kind of mixture.

If it is mostly Spiritual Energy, with high stability coefficient, it is called Void River.

If it has a lot of harmful Qi, with a high chaos coefficient, it is called Void Turbulent Stream.

Generally speaking, the rivers in the Xuanling Star Domain are stable, such drastic changes rarely occur.

The most recent large-scale change in a void river that Zhao Xing experienced was at the Yueluo Cemetery in the Illusion God Star System, which was washed out by a void river.

However, in terms of severity, the situation at Yueluo Cemetery was far less severe than the Lixing River.

"Tianyou Calendar Year Four Yang 1390, forty-six River Generals and Pinghuai Envoys in river zones were executed..."

"Tianyou Calendar Year Four Yang 1423, despite governance by the Heaven Leisure Agriculture Supervisor, the drastic change in the Lishui Star River could not be reversed, and the source of the drastic change could not be found..."

The Pinghuai Book includes territorial maps for reference. Zhao Xing took a look—the southern part of the territorial map symbolizing the Heaven Leisure Ancient Country was already one-third blank, with a patch of darkness on the map. This meant that many Boundary Stars and Star Lands had disappeared, creating a vacuum zone.

Only the edges of the disaster area were marked with conspicuous signs—some represented violent Void Wind swirls, others had lightning marks, indicating terrifying thunder zones.

The dim starlight represented territories with relatively weak disaster impacts, and this situation showed no signs of improvement even until Tianyou Calendar Year Four Yang 1550, instead expanding further.

"I never thought the Heaven Leisure Ancient Country’s history experienced such a major natural disaster." Zhao Xing compared today’s map of the Heaven Leisure Ancient Country and found it reduced by about one-tenth.

In the southern part of the Heaven Leisure Ancient Country, the missing area had already become a Desolate Domain, named the Lishui Wilderness.

Clearly, the disaster was ultimately not salvaged or restored.

This sparked Zhao Xing’s extreme curiosity.

"The Heaven Leisure Ancient Country ranks among the top ten in the Ancient Country Alliance, yet it couldn’t resolve the Lixing River’s disaster."

"What is the reason?" Zhao Xing, as a Minister of Agriculture, was very curious about natural disasters.

Especially since the name Heaven Leisure Ancient Country touched his nerves.

Because in his revised memory, the previous Xuanling Conference was hosted by the Heaven Leisure Ancient Country.

Du Yun also turned into a talent of Heaven Leisure Ancient Country, including Old Qing’s root structure before becoming a god—all had completed migration to Purple God Mansion.

With questions in mind, Zhao Xing continued reading until midway through the Pinghuai Book, where he finally found the reason.

"The drastic change of the Lixing River lasted for a whole epoch, and it wasn’t until the end of two epochs before the Desolate Domain that the Minister of Agriculture in the Heaven Leisure Ancient Country found the reason for this disaster."

"The source of the Lixing River is located in the northern Dao Display Layer of the Heaven Leisure Ancient Country, at the twenty-ninth line of Dao Ancient Layer, where Grand Minister of Agriculture Yue Hongdao discovered an unknown plant life’s broken branch..."

"It branched out, spread out, with its lower part lying at the Dao Ancient Layer, with an adventitious root at the very bottom. Leaves are opposite; either sessile or with extremely short stem-clasping petioles."

"The leaf blades are long elliptical to long elliptic-oval, pointed or blunt, with edges containing dense bristles with serrations. The serration edges are slightly keratinized, slightly curved and slightly thicker, both surfaces are hairless. The racemes are terminal..."

"Flowers are opposite, with short pedicels; bracts are lanceolate, pedicels have stripes and are hairless; calyx is deeply cut, segments lanceolate, with spikes, edges are membranous; corolla is small, pale purple or white..."

"Confirmed through Primordial Realm, this unknown plant is the legendary ’Spirit-devouring Grass’, grown to match the Human Clan’s demigod combat power!"

"It was constantly devouring the ’Spiritual Energy’ of the deep Void of the Lixing River, resulting in the entire section of the Lixing River developing towards Chaotic River..."

"Hiss, such a terrifying disaster caused by a legendary plant life?" After reading, Zhao Xing was somewhat shocked, "Comparable to the Human Clan’s demigod level."

Zhao Xing immediately consulted ancient texts in the Primordial Realm via Star Mirror, regrettably, the Spirit-devouring Grass had already perished in the long river of history.

The last occurrence was in the fifth epoch before the Desolate Domain, and now in Primordial Realm, only its residual branch specimens exist, with no living body.

"In the long river of history, it is unknown how many powerful plants have been born, regrettably, many have become extinct." Zhao Xing expressed some regret.

In ancient times, Ministers of Agriculture from the Self Sect might not have as many unique skills as now, but their plant troops were mostly strong, the reason being the difficulty of acquiring plant troops was different.

Like Zhao Xing’s highest quality now, it’s the Emperor Level Seven Realms True Spirit Bamboo, a seedling given by the Five Poison Emperor.

An Emperor Level troop seedling during the growing period, the Five Poison Emperor wouldn’t bear to send it; he himself lacked it!

As for the legendary plants comparable to demigods, only the Guluo River might have them.

The Primordial Divine Tree, such divine-level plant, is not anyone’s troop; it is the foundation of the Primordial Realm.

"This time, the Transmission Building opens. It is feared that many Ministers of Agriculture will go to the Primordial Realm." Zhao Xing mused, "According to the Transmission Building’s replacement rules, if lucky enough to encounter a legendary seed or seedling not yet grown, it might only require a low-grade Reincarnation Dao Soldier or even an Original Divine Weapon to bring it back."

"The further back in time, the higher the chance of encountering formidable plant troops!"

After all, according to the Self Sect’s Cosmic Theory, native species in the origin stage and primordial stage will certainly be stronger than those in the Myriad Phenomena stage. The Myriad Phenomena stage is more suitable for breeding derivative species.

...

The reappearance of Transmission Building quickly sparked enormous attention, even surpassing the enthusiasm for Desolate Domain development. Numerous strong individuals are planning to head to Scholar City.

It’s not just historians and Ministers of Agriculture yearning to visit; other professions feel the same, especially those of underground professions like musicians and Dance Masters. Who wouldn’t want to obtain those lost sheet music, dance scores?

Even the Great Zhou sent people back from the Wangliang Star Region to Jia Chen Pass.

When Zhao Xing was preparing to leave, he learned that Emperor Wu Ji Che, Liu Tianning, and Cloud Sky Dao were all headed to Scholar City to explore the Transmission Building.

"Fifth brother, are you going too?" Zhao Xing asked.

"Big brother, of course I’m going." Ji Che looked at Zhao Xing sitting on a floral chair, his eyes filled with some discomfort, "Ji Che said the Transmission Building even allows one to access the Five Emperors Era’s history; I must go see how the five generations of Fortune Dynasty operated on the Xuanling Star Domain."

"Brother Yun, as a Minister of Agriculture from the Heavenly Time Sect, what are you going for?" Zhao Xing turned to Cloud Sky Dao.

"I mainly want to see those enormous natural disasters in history." Cloud Sky Dao took out a book from his chest, "Many terrifying disasters are rarely seen inside the star domain and may not be encountered for years; however, in the transmission domain, they are quite common."

He happened to be reading the Pinghuai Book as well, sharing Zhao Xing’s thoughts.

As for Master Liu Tianning, there’s no need to ask further; being from the Self Sect, his thoughts likely resemble those of most Ministers of Agriculture from the Self Sect.

"Moreover, I want to see what my hometown looked like in historical times." Cloud Sky Dao pointed at the Xuanling Star Domain map.

Everyone followed his gaze and discovered Cloud Sky Dao pointed to the Chenluo Wasteland.

Zhao Xing’s heart moved, generating great curiosity as well.

The Chenluo Wasteland was not a wasteland in the past, so what exactly was the Xuanhuang Realm like before?