I Was the Heavenly Emperor in the Primordial Age

Chapter 14: The Disaster of the Hanhuang

That peach tree grew right in the middle of the main path, blocking the road up Mount Kunlun.

Unlike the passive fog from before, this peach tree deliberately obstructed them from ascending the mountain, as if it existed solely to oppose the Ximu Clan.

Even though the people of the Ximu Clan tried all sorts of methods, they still could not climb the mountain.

Beneath the heavens.

The Great Roc of the Ximu Clan transformed into a bird, circling above Mount Kunlun. Then, seizing the opportunity, she spread her wings and swooped downward, attempting to pierce through the mist and reach the mountain peak.

“Hu!”

A strange wind arose, and the thick fog surged like a giant hand, sweeping toward her and dragging her bird form into its depths.

This mist was truly bizarre. Even the Great Roc, upon contact, felt dizzy and disoriented, unable to discern directions—up, down, left, or right.

At that moment, however, the Great Roc plucked one of her feathers. That feather transformed into a streak of light within the wind, guiding the way forward.

“Feather Divination.”

This was one of the Great Roc’s most powerful abilities as a shaman. She had intended to use the power of Feather Divination to locate the Divine Stone amidst the boundless fog.

But when she followed the feather downward, the mist parted layer by layer, revealing an enormous canopy.

That canopy blocked her path and obscured the direction of her divination.

“Another peach tree!”

In the end, the Great Roc had no choice but to rely on the feather’s power to escape the mist.

As she broke through the fog, she vaguely heard the sound of some existence’s mocking laughter, ridiculing her attempt to approach the Emperor.

“Heehee…”

Thus, the Great Roc’s plan of entering the summit of Mount Kunlun in bird form also ended in failure.

“Hateful!”

“Why would this Divine Wood also oppose me? It clearly wasn’t like this before.”

The Great Roc thought to herself that all of this must be connected to the newly appeared peach tree.

“Where exactly did this new peach tree come from?”

As for the rest of the Ximu Clan, when they personally witnessed the Great Roc—who possessed the shaman’s power—return in failure, their faces turned pale, as if the heavens themselves were collapsing.

“What is that thing, that even the Great Roc cannot enter?”

“Why does that Divine Wood peach tree oppose our Ximu Clan?”

“Something must have gone wrong.”

“Could it be because we brought the Great Roc back, and so the Emperor became angry?”

The bird in the sky slowly descended, little by little reverting into human form.

Faced with the panic and fear of the entire clan, as well as their questioning gazes, the Great Roc felt immense pressure.

“We must discover what’s going on with that newly sprouted peach tree. The problem must lie there.”

On the other side.

Beneath layers of cloud and fog, beside a mountain lake.

At this very moment, the summit of Kunlun could truly be said to resemble a fairyland.

Isolated from the world, illusory and ethereal.

The green stones of the ritual altar were dampened by mist. Li Jun stood among the stones, gazing at the Divine Wood peach tree outside.

In the distance, he could faintly glimpse the shadow of the little peach tree transformed by Nüjue, occupying a branch on the mountain path. He seemed to be lost in thought.

Unlike the Ximu Clan, who felt as though the sky was collapsing, Li Jun was not anxious.

Whether or not there was contact with the Ximu Clan was essential for them, but for him, it held little significance.

In fact—

Without the constant disturbances of the Ximu Clan, with their noisy rituals,

this might not even be a bad thing.

But for Li Jun, observing the power and transformation of this peach tree was extremely important.

Indeed, one of the greatest reasons for his return to the primordial past, tens of thousands of years ago, was to learn the true nature of this peach tree.

How could he control it? Even discovering a force that could restrain it would suffice.

Whether in the past of ten millennia ago, or in the modern age of countless years later—

this Divine Wood peach tree

had already become a troublesome enigma for Li Jun.

“Jiu!”

Once again, Li Jun actively used the Blue Bird’s divine ability, seeking a method to control and restrain this Divine Wood peach tree.

Various scenes emerged, but in the end, none of them showed what Li Jun desired.

This divine ability was not a wishing machine. It could help Li Jun avoid disaster and choose the path toward fortune, but it could not simply grant him whatever he wished for.

At that moment, however, a sound suddenly reached Li Jun’s ears.

He suddenly saw another scene: on the vast grasslands at the mountain’s foot, by the riverbank, the Ximu Clan was performing divination.

“She is using shamanic power to divine, trying to contact me through it.”

The Great Roc was clever and quickly discovered this method of reestablishing communication with the Emperor.

But unexpectedly—

In the Great Roc’s divination, Li Jun glimpsed the future of the entire Ximu Clan.

He saw a great calamity that would befall them. Yet within that calamity, he also saw something else.

“So, the chance to restrain the Divine Wood lies here?”

However, this opportunity made Li Jun’s gaze grow complicated.

The great river flowed before them.

It would pass through these towering mountains and ridges, heading toward the mountains and seas of the Nine Provinces.

The Ximu Clan gathered in great numbers here, forming multiple formations as they knelt upon the ground, all facing Mount Kunlun.

This ritual was held entirely at the insistence of the Great Roc.

As for the other members of the clan—

They had never held, nor even seen, such a sacrifice before, so naturally they carried some doubts.

“Could it really be possible to once again receive the Emperor’s decree?”

“Without climbing Mount Kunlun, one can still know the Emperor’s decree?”

“The Great Roc said it was possible, then it must be possible. She was a shaman.”

Some doubted, while others believed.

At the same time, there were also those who thought that if the Great Roc could communicate with Heaven and Earth in this way, then it would mean they might never again see the Divine Stone and the Emperor’s shadow atop Kunlun.

“Then in the future, will we no longer ever see the Emperor again?”

The people of the Ximu Clan were torn between joy and worry.

They rejoiced that the Great Roc had found a new way to receive the Emperor’s decree, but they worried that the sight of everyone ascending the mountain peak to worship the Emperor, as in the past, might from then on never return.

By the great river stood a temporary altar.

It could be seen that the Ximu Clan had hastily set it up, and it appeared somewhat rough and simple.

But no matter what, it was still clearly an altar.

Moreover, under the vast sky and earth, surrounded by so many people of the primordial wilderness, its primitiveness instead gave it an ancient aura and desolation.

This was a somewhat rushed sacrifice.

Compared with the ancient inherited ceremony of burning wood to worship Heaven, this was a newly emerged way, where a shaman used a special method of divination to connect with Heaven and Earth.

Upon the altar.

The wind blew the Great Roc’s plain white robe; wearing a mask and a crown of grass, she knelt upon the uneven stones of the altar.

Amidst the surrounding sounds of clay flutes and leather drums, she slowly began to dance atop the altar.

“Emperor!”

“Emperor…”

Countless people cried out the name of the Emperor, bowing to the ground again and again.

At last, the Great Roc called out in the wind.

“Emperor, the Great Roc of the Ximu Clan calls upon the Emperor of Heaven…”

The shaman of the Ximu Clan, the Great Roc, stretched her hand into the light, and with her dance, her hand seemed to flutter like a bird.

This scene evoked thoughts of certain dances from the Western Regions, only far more ancient and primal.

Within the shifting light.

It could be seen that the fine lines upon her hand, like feathers, were slowly being peeled away, materializing into real objects.

Finally, they transformed into crystalline feathers, as clear as jade, floating in the air, circling around the Great Roc.

Those few fine, crystal feathers spun like snowflakes, weaving together until at last they formed a divine pattern.

The pattern was not fixed, but continuously changing.

“Hu!”

In an instant, a fiercer wind rose above the great river.

Yet even such fierce wind could not move the soft, delicate feathers. This miraculous scene seemed to be declaring something to the entire Ximu Clan.

All the people cried out, their recent worries swept away.

“The Emperor has appeared!”

“It is the Emperor!”

“The Great Roc truly communicated with the Emperor, even across such a great distance.”

“The Great Roc is the true shaman, not something the false shamans of other tribes could compare to.”

Everyone’s expression was visibly fervent.

Having lost and then regained, their reverence for the Emperor soared to new heights.

As though only through losing—

Could people realize just how precious something was.

And in the eyes of the Great Roc, she felt her vision turn entirely white.

Her eyes seemed taken by something, step by step drawing closer to Mount Kunlun.

At last—

Though she herself did not reach Mount Kunlun, she saw the Divine Stone atop it, as though her soul had left her body.

There, at the summit of Kunlun, shrouded in mist.

Gradually, the tall figure within the Divine Stone became clearer, looking down upon her from above.

And she knelt upon the altar she herself had built in the past, raising her head to gaze at the shadow within the Divine Stone.

The Great Roc was overwhelmed, even moved to tears.

“Emperor!”

Compared to the other members of the Ximu Clan, whose feelings were of losing and regaining, her emotion was far more intense, a hundredfold greater.

She knelt before the Emperor, eager to say something, but afraid of losing composure. In the end, she could only forcibly restrain herself.

The entire process of divination seemed incomparably mysterious to the others, but to the Great Roc and the Emperor, it was more like a dialogue.

The Great Roc cautiously asked: “Emperor, why has Mount Kunlun changed so greatly of late? Why has a peach tree blocking the road appeared upon the mountain path?”

Perhaps because this way of communication was too divine, or perhaps because the surrounding mists were too thick.

The Great Roc constantly felt as though the two of them were not speaking upon the human world, but in Heaven or in another realm entirely.

The Emperor said: “It is the transformation of the Hanhuang Clan’s Nüjue.”

The Great Roc suddenly understood: “So it was them.”

The Great Roc naturally knew that recently a migrating tribe had come to the southern foot of Mount Kunlun, and they had even bartered with them.

But she had never expected that this newly arrived tribe not only had their eyes upon the Divine Stone atop Mount Kunlun, but had even progressed to such a degree.

The Great Roc asked: “What do they intend to do?”

The Emperor: “To enter Mount Kunlun, they come for the Divine Stone.”

The Great Roc grew agitated: “The Great Roc will never permit the people of the Hanhuang Clan to ascend the mountain. How could mortals dare to offend Heaven?”

The Emperor said faintly: “No need to stop them.”

In Li Jun’s view, the Great Roc could not stop them anyway. Mount Kunlun was vast, and the peach tree’s mist was controlled by others.

For the Ximu Clan to try to block them from ascending the mountain was as difficult as ascending to the heavens themselves.

And once conflict broke out upon Mount Kunlun, the Hanhuang Clan, who could harness the power of the divine peach tree, would ensure that no matter what the Ximu Clan did, they could not avoid tragic losses.

And it would be of little meaning, unable to change the outcome.

The Great Roc: “Ah?”

She was greatly shocked, unable to understand why. She even suspected that the Emperor had abandoned them in favor of the Hanhuang Clan.

The Emperor: “When Heaven wills their destruction, it must first drive them mad; those two are entangled by desire, blinded by obsession—you cannot stop them.”

These words instantly made the Great Roc recall another person. That one had tried to touch the Divine Stone, and in the end, had met just such a fate.

In her eyes, mortals who sought to obtain divine power bestowed by Heaven and Earth had to receive the Emperor’s permission.

Otherwise, their fate could only be the same as his.

The Emperor: “Heaven is about to change. You should leave as well.”

The weather grew colder and colder, and the Ximu Clan had to continue their migration.

The Great Roc: “The Great Roc wishes to remain here, to watch over the Emperor.” Official source ıs novel-fire.net

The Emperor: “Are you not already my shaman? If you have the time, you may fly back.”

A trace of joy appeared upon the Great Roc’s face, and at last she replied.

“Yes.”

The Great Roc awoke, feeling as though she had hazily returned to her place, the sound of the great river’s flow echoing in her ears.

This sacrifice of asking the Emperor by means of feather-divination had at last ended, and she had received the answer she sought.

However, after awakening, the Great Roc felt that the whole process was somewhat different from before.

Suddenly, she remembered something.

“That’s right, this time there was no Blue Bird’s transmission.”

Throughout the entire process, her communication with the Emperor was no longer through the Blue Bird’s transmission, but rather she had directly heard the Emperor’s voice.

Perhaps—

In a certain sense, she had also become the Blue Bird before the Emperor, on another level.

The people of the Ximu Clan surged forward, looking at the Great Roc with concern, wishing to know the decree the shaman had received from the Emperor.

“Great Roc, has the Emperor’s decree descended?”

The Great Roc told them everything, that it was because of the people of the Hanhuang Clan. They actually intended to ascend the mountain and spy upon the Divine Stone.

The entire Ximu Clan fell into fury, vowing to go to war with the Hanhuang Clan.

But the Great Roc said that the Emperor had spoken—that the Hanhuang Clan would be shrouded in disaster.

“We shall sit and watch as the Hanhuang Clan brings about their own destruction.”

Everyone cheered.

Toward the Emperor’s divine power and might, toward the Emperor’s prophecy, they no longer knew when they had lost all trace of doubt.

At the same time, the Great Roc quickly uncovered the one who had betrayed them to the Hanhuang Clan, selling news and bringing the Female Priest and Nüjue up the mountain. She declared him exiled.

And this was no different from a death sentence soon to come.

The Great Roc descended from the hastily built altar, walking past the great riverbank.

Suddenly, she noticed a change in herself.

With each use of feather-divination, it seemed as though she had grown older.

But upon looking more closely, it also seemed merely an illusion.

“Perhaps I am only a little tired.”

To use divine power could never be without cost.

And this was already a power reined in by the Emperor. Otherwise, it would not have been an exchange of cost for power, but rather the moment one used such power, they would be wholly devoured by it.

Though the Emperor had said there was no need to block them, the conflict did not dissipate, but came as expected.

At the foot of Mount Kunlun.

The people of the Hanhuang Clan and the people of the Ximu Clan clashed together. At first they only shot arrows at each other, but then more and more came riding horses, carrying axes, stone hammers, and wooden spears.

Dust rose from the grasslands, mixed with the cries of slaughter.

People fell to the ground one after another, men frequently seen falling from horseback.

“Kill them.”

“Slaughter all these people of the Hanhuang Clan.”

“Charge through, the divine wood upon Mount Kunlun is ours, the Emperor shall also protect us, we shall replace the Ximu Clan in receiving Heaven’s protection.”

“We must not allow them to succeed.”

What the original cause was had already become unknowable, or rather at this point no one cared.

To the Ximu Clan, these were enemies who sought to seize their most important possession. What they wanted was not only their faith, but also that shamanic power surpassing mortals, and the greater chance of survival for their entire tribe.

What could stir deeper hatred than this?

And to the Hanhuang Clan, this was the opportunity for their tribe’s rise, to escape the bitter cold and forever free themselves from hunger and chill.

Gazing at that mysterious place atop Mount Kunlun, like a celestial realm, the entire Hanhuang Clan seemed to see before them the coming of spring after winter.

“Kill!”

At the foot of Mount Kunlun, the Ximu Clan and the Hanhuang Clan launched a war with their entire tribes, until at last the leaders of both clans also joined the battle.

They fought for the right to sacrifice to the Emperor, or rather, for Heaven’s mandate.

Very soon.

The Great Roc of the Ximu Clan transformed into a great bird and swooped down from above. With her talons she seized a man and tore him apart, then grabbed a man who had slaughtered the Ximu Clan most savagely on the battlefield, horse and all, lifted them into the sky, and at last cast them down.

At this, the divine eagle that circled above instilled terror in the Hanhuang Clan, but won thunderous cheers from the people of the Ximu Clan.

“The Great Roc has come.”

“Our victory is certain.”

“Destroy the Hanhuang Clan.”

Then, Nüjue of the Hanhuang Clan arrived on horseback.

She carried her axe into battle, throwing herself without care for life or death into the most perilous parts of the battlefield. With her immense strength and body unlike ordinary humans, she dealt the Ximu Clan heavy losses.

She was forcing the Great Roc in the sky to abandon her advantage of flight, to descend and fight her to the death.

The Great Roc of the Ximu Clan quickly spotted Nüjue, descended from the sky, and transformed back into human form.

As she walked toward Nüjue, she asked her.

“Nüjue, was it you who infiltrated the mountain to spy upon our clan’s sacrifice, and also blocked our people from sacrificing to the Emperor?”

Nüjue, covered in blood, shouted loudly.

“That’s right, it was me. You can never enter the summit of Kunlun again, can you?”

Hearing Nüjue’s mocking voice, the Great Roc instantly recalled the time she had been trapped within the mountain’s mists.

And back then, she had faintly heard this very laughter, exactly the same.

The Great Roc was instantly enraged, spreading her arms and transforming into a divine bird.

“I shall kill you.”

Half human and half bird, the shaman clashed with the Wood Guest, whose body was long no longer human.

Nüjue’s axe could not cut through the feathers upon the Great Roc’s body, only when finding vital points could she inflict injuries, and even then they were not serious.

And Nüjue’s body was torn apart again and again by the Great Roc, but each time it reformed immediately.

The two moved as fast as lightning, dazzling to the eyes.

Though the great battle between the Hanhuang Clan and the Ximu Clan was fought in crude fashion, the duel between the two had already taken on a mythic quality.

However.

Nüjue’s power, after all, was far beneath that which the Great Roc had received. After prolonged fighting, she could no longer endure; the speed with which her body was torn and then healed grew slower and slower.

Beneath the divine peach tree and here were not the same, at least not for Nüjue.

Moreover, the Great Roc seemed to have found Nüjue’s weakness.

At last, the Great Roc seized Nüjue’s head, split it open, grabbed something within, and crushed it with her talons.

“Die!”

But Nüjue’s final gaze was cast elsewhere, looking up toward Mount Kunlun.

At this very moment.

It could be seen that the Female Priest had already reached Mount Kunlun, climbing upward along the path opened by the Ximu Clan.

And at this very moment, the Great Roc also seemed to notice Nüjue’s movement, realizing something.

She immediately cast aside Nüjue’s head, and flew toward Mount Kunlun.

Letting out a sharp cry.