The sound of war drums echoed through the Bear tribe. In the coming days, everyone came on edge as they realized the gravity of their situation. The Earth Sovereign had commanded them to secede from their territories. He was not coming to help fend off the threat.

  Youxiong furiously rattled his brain for a solution. Using what he learned from Guang Chengzi, he quickly erected formations around Xuanyuan Hill. These rituals were of such quality that the requirements to run them caused the natural laylines to become erratic.

  The line of titanic deities marched towards Xuanyuan hill, they witnessed the fruits of such labour. These titanic descendants of Pangu’s blood came in a variety of shapes. Stocky and slender, with skin textures that varied from stone to wood.

  Some possessed bestial heads similar to dragons, birds, or lions. Others possessed multitudes of limbs both fingered or bladed. Visually, it was difficult to identify them as members of the same species.

  It was only the presence that gave off. A primordial earthly feeling that was not dissimilar to qi found in nature. These creatures came from the heavens and the earth. They were siblings to the Heavenly Dao.

  “Brother, what is that?” One of these beings, a member of the Water branch asked. He pointed at the image of a divine general standing at the entrance of Xuanyuan Hill.

  “No idea. It’s got a lot of true qi shaping it. Probably a cultivator technique.”

  “Oh? Lord Gonggong didn’t say anything about these local humans sending us welcome?”

  These divine generals, casted from the molds Youxiong’s formations provided raised their halberds at them. Their statue towered over mountains, each standing over ten thousand meters tall.

  In contrast, the various divinities were well above that.

  “Followers of the Godkings, you are not welcomed here,” Youxiong called out from his perch in the sky. “This is the territory of the human race. Leave!”

  “Presumptuous,” the same divinity from the water branch scoffed. “All underheaven belongs to the Earthly Divinities.”

  It was the same logic all descendants of the original twelve ancestors used. That since everything came from Pangu’s body, they as natural born entities of Pangu’s own blood were rightful rulers of it.

  Youxiong narrowed his eyes. Due to his advanced education on Kunlun, he recognized these beings and the places they came from.

  The Earthly Divinities as a race was originally divided into twelve branches. All descended from one of the twelve. But with the ravages of time, many of these branches were folded into the others.

  During the anti-devil war countless eons ago, most of those ancestors were killed. Only the four that are known in modern day as the Godkings remain to lead their people. Zhurrong of fire, Gonggong of water, Rushou of metal, and Jumang of wood.

  “My lord,” one of Youxiong’s generals said nervously.

  “Getting cold feet?” Youxiong replied. “I don’t blame you. They terrify me too.”

  Unlike humans, demons, or most races in existence, these divine beings were not cultivators. None of them practiced to ascend to immortality nor trained in the ways of immortal magic.

  Their powers came from their bloodline and a natural authority to manipulate nature that even the Heavenly Dao couldn’t arrest. This manifested in their own magical abilities as their sturdy bodies that they inherited from Pangu’s blood droplets. As such, they existed in their own separate catagory.

  The ones dispatched to pacify the areas surrounding and including Xuanyuan Hill were younger individuals sent to run errands. Their strength was varying degrees of equivalent to the second order of celestial lifeforms.

  When they fully mature, they’d be a match for Golden Immortals. But such adults were deemed too important to deal with simple figures like Youxiong.

  “My lord, I gave you my life the moment you took me in. I will not run,” the same general said resolutely. Youxiong found it gratifying to have inspired such loyalty.

  ‘Zhang Youren is not here.’ This disappointing thought permeated his psyche. His closest friend these thousands of years still deigned to watch from afar.

  The nature of immortals of daoism as taught on Kunlun once perplexed and later enraged him. Why must they stand haughty and isolated on their mountain far away? They could rule in the world of men and guide the secular world.

  Just as the Three Sovereigns had done, and now he did too after he left his master’s tutelage. It was saddening to find ‘Zhang Youren’ side with the former ideology. For an immortal from a bygone age, chances are high that they were an innate god or a demon of some kind. But every part of his instinct told him that Zhang Youren was human.

  This was why he believed he’d see the betterment of humanity was at stake and aid him in pushing his enemies back. More then anything, the first instinct that differentiated men from beasts was their empathy.

  “Papa always told me lesser creatures were stupid,” a divinity said.

  On a hilltop a distance away, Haotian wore a deep frown. Why was Youxiong so stubborn about this? Could he not see the pointlessness of this? His defiance wouldn’t make a difference.

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  He knew the chieftain was a smart and resourceful man. So why couldn’t he weight the cost and benefits?

  It’s the same maddened bullshit that was so devoid of logic he’d seen in Da Hai. Yet he couldn’t disparage his friend too harshly on it.

  For as long as he’d known him, he’d always proclaimed how much he loved the stories of his youth. The heroics of the Three Sovereigns and the ancestors of humanity who led their people from out of the dark.

  It would be a tale not dissimilar to how your average innate creature clan would start out. An innate god would’ve known countless such stories. But for a human like Youxiong, that would’ve been his world. And Youxiong took to these stories with a passion.

  He was a true believer in his people. Haotian didn’t think he looked down on other races. He imagined Youxiong would more than willingly collaborate with the Earthly Divinities. But he would never stomach the idea of humans being ruled by another race.

  It was such a small scale view. But such a deeply personal view moved the innate god. Haotian could only describe his feelings to be despair. He even saw himself in Youxiong just now, vigorously defending his people just as he did to remove mortals from out of harm's way during the anti-devil war.

  The fluttering of the clouds became violent as both sides engaged. Youxiong pulled every means he could against this small entourage of divinities. Even if Heavenly Immortals invaded, he could fend them off.

  But divinities by their nature were absurdly tough to defeat. Their bodies were nigh unbreakable and their strength unspeakably greater than the average immortal cultivator. What’s more, the forces of nature supported their every action.

  Fire came to life with no cost of qi. Water danced out of a True Immortal’s control. The forests grew large to trap the divine general. Thus a pummeling began on the poor formation.

  “GAH! No.” Youxiong retreated after slashing across the chest of a gigantic deity. His divine general was having its upper body caved in.

  “I don’t know what that Chi You brat sees in lesser beings.” Youxiong heard one of the divinities say. “Stupid and ignorant. You hairy, scaled, feathered beasts alike poison the father god’s gift.”

  “What an absurd rhetoric,” one of Youxiong’s generals roared. “DIE!”

  He was a Human Immortal, not even a True Immortal. Of course he was punched to smithereens in the next instant. If he had any regrets for choosing to serve Youxiong, he didn’t say.

  “Brother why bring up that halfbreed? Now you ruined my mood.”

  “Bah that halfbreed is just lucky Lord Zhurrong likes him.”

  “He’s infested Lord Zhurrong’s mind. Father God above, even Lord Gonggong can’t get through to him.”

  “Hey! Pay attention you.” The divinity from the water branch yelled at his fellows.

  Youxiong felt his temper spark. These things weren’t even taking him seriously. He had to seriously think now that the divine general was down. The formation that made it was still there and a new one could be generated, but it needed some time.

  “Hah!” Youxiong’s body until he matched the divinities surrounding him in size. As high as the heavens and wide as the earth. This served well as a distraction.

  “Size? hahaha.”

  “Stupid. Does he even have a brain?”

  ‘For exalted Earthly Divinities, they talk like those monkey beasts,’ Youxiong thought mockingly. To him, it seemed none of them comprehended what it was like to fight for one’s home or its people.

  His engagement with them was better due to his higher cultivation and advanced magical training. Kunlun’s heritage was among the best in existence after all.

  Flying swords, celestial fires, spacetime rending techniques were all known to him. But at this stage of training, he was struggling to make good use of them. These divinities were too powerful for him along.

  It certainly did not take long for them to grab hold of him and pummel his face.

  “Hideous. And to think Chi You prefers your kind when he has father god’s blood in him,” said the divinity from the water branch.

  “Please stop young ones,” Haotian said. He appeared in a gigantic form wearing armour not dissimilar to what Youxiong’s men wore. In his off hand was a sword while his dominant hand clasped the arm of the divinity.

  “You…” this divinity felt Haotian tightening his grip far too much for his comfort. But he refused to budge from Haotian’s demands. “Another stupid one? You wanna die that badly?”

  “Youren, never have I been more thankful to see you,” Youxiong panted. “Thank you. Truly thank you.”

  “I can’t just watch you be beaten to an inch of your life,” Haotian said.

  Haotian waved his sword, piercing all the imposing divinities at the same time. This act shocked all of them as they were unused to being harmed like this.

  “That’s a warning. Gonggong should know better than to send kids.”

  “Kids? Who does this lesser creature think he is!”

  To intimidate them further, Haotian distorted the universe around them. He overwrote their connection to the natural world with his own cultivation and manifested an immense pressure upon their shoulders.

  In front of their eyes, it was as if they became ants in front of a rampaging elephant. As Haotian had blatantly said, these divinities were younglings. He would never take them seriously either.

  “What is he?”

  “Are you an agent from the Demon Court?” A divinity questioned angrily.

  Haotian narrowed his gaze. Time and again the demons were mentioned as another factor yet he wasn’t aware of their situation. But from the range and underlying fear in this divinity, he surmised their standing to be stronger.

  That was despite knowing their emperor died long ago.

  “Hmph, this is my good brother Zhang Youren. He is an ancient expert of my human race, not a demon from the sky.” Youxiong had already drawn his weapon ready to go to war.

  His eyes were a mesmerizing yellow colour from which divine light seeped through. His body was now brimming with confidence and utter faith in his fellow men.

  “We humans will not tolerate your intrusions any longer.”

  There was a faint hymn playing as Youxiong advanced. Every step held a faint cosmic weight, every word spoken sent a weird feeling down both Haotian and the group of divinity’s spines. Youxiong’s men who’d stayed silent felt an august sensation coursing through their bodies.

  Only Haotian really understood what this was, and he was freaked out by it. Not because it scared him, but because he didn’t think a Profound Immortal could hold the same level of delusion as a Great Unity Golden Immortal growing their tree.

  “No measly human can command a son of Pangu!”

  Unwilling to accept this, the group of divinities grabbed for Youxiong. They exchanged one initial blow before Haotian struck with his sword again.

  In a flash, he cleaved off all the intruding divinities’ arms and threw them to their backs. The blow kicked off a minor dust storm.

  “Hah!” Seizing this opportunity, Youxiong stabbed one of the divinities in the eye. His sword was unique from his fellow humans, being an immortal treasure passed to him from Guang Chengzi. Via striking such a vulnerable slot, he instantly killed that divinity.

  “You dare!” The divinity from the water branch was torn between rage and fear.

  When Youxiong regained his stance, a new confidence manifested around him. Haotian’s divine sense could almost see the faint outline of a towering god wearing crown and holding a sword riding atop a chariot pulled by dragons.

  “Shennong thinks humans must retreat and give in. That my people can only bow our heads and accept foreign demands. Well he’s wrong!”

  “Fool, you think my race will stand for it? You are all just parasites taking advantage of the father god’s grace.”

  Haotian stepped forward. “Enough, just go back. I doubt Gonggong, or Zhurrong or whoever’s left will be happy if you all die.”

  “Grrgh,” the divinity from the water branch roared at Haotian. Through misplaced pride, it refused to run away. It attempted to use his authority, the same one he inherited from his ancestor Gonggong to control the river flowing through Xuanyuan hill.

  “Fucking lesser beings.” He slammed his many arms onto the earth, causing rocks to rise and parts of the river to rapidly expand. The rest behind him nodded at his actions.

  “Together brothers. For the father god!”

  Youxiong snorted, and he stepped forward with golden grace. His body flowed with an enchanting presence that resonated with mystical phenomena of the Dao. But Haotian placed a hand on his blade.

  The innate god sighed. “Why must people be so difficult?”

  Haotian’s figure blurred. He gave none of the opposing divinities time to react. For Haotian, killing them was like butchering chickens.

  When their giant heads fell from their bodies, when their intelligence faded from their minds, when their qi signature was eradicated. None of it gave Haotian pleasure. ‘It’s fine, I saved my friend,’ he told himself.

  Youxiong was silent for a few moments before bowing to Haotian. “Thank you Zhang Youren. If it were not for you, my bear tribe…no my human race would be doomed.”

  “Don’t say that. This is too small scale to apply to your species as whole,” Haotian chastised. “Le’ts go back. I’m sure everyone wants a rest.