Chapter 16

Feng Ye returned to his small cave near the Sui Ren tribe. After three years away, the cave was naturally filled with dust. Using magic to clean it up, Feng Ye began to consider finding a few disciples to help him with household chores and cleaning when he was away. The thought of taking on disciples crossed his mind but was quickly dismissed. Feng Ye himself had not yet attained immortality, so what right did he have to teach others? Moreover, in the primordial era, taking on disciples was a matter of great caution. After all, fate was intertwined, and if a disciple caused trouble, it would also affect the master. If he encountered a disciple with poor character, it would be a loss. Being expelled from the sect was the least of the problems; betraying the master and ancestors was also a possibility. It was better to focus on his own cultivation. As for taking on disciples, he would leave it to fate.

Having inherited the legacy of the divine dragon, Feng Ye had his own plans for future cultivation. In the following days, he stayed in the cave, studying the divine dragon’s legacy and various immortal techniques and powers.

In the future, when the path of immortality flourished, there would be alchemy, artifact refinement, array formation, talismans, and spirit control, among other methods. Among these, Feng Ye was most fond of and skilled at talismans.

Alright, alchemy required a deep understanding of medicinal principles, the interactions between herbs, and the roles of primary and auxiliary ingredients. Feng Ye knew nothing about these, and he could not even identify all the herbs and treasures in the primordial era, which were very different from those in later times. Even with the divine dragon’s legacy, it was incomplete. If he had to test each herb one by one, Feng Ye might as well give up on immortality and go to the human realm to identify and cultivate herbs. That would be easier, and he might even become a sage emperor.

Refining artifacts was also out of the question. After failing twenty-four times to refine a white bone tower and wasting a lot of materials, Feng Ye wisely abandoned this path.

As for array formations, Feng Ye was quite fond of them, but setting up an array took too long. In a real fight, who would give you the time to set up an array? In the perilous primordial era, talismans were more convenient.

Cinnabar and yellow paper were needed for talismans. Cinnabar could be found by mining in the mountains, but yellow paper was a problem since there were no characters or paper in this era.

However, there were alternatives. Since ancient times, divine characters existed, so there must have been a medium. For example, jade, animal skins, and the like.

Thus, Feng Ye used the blood and fur of nearby strange beasts to create talismans. Unexpectedly, this cleared out the small demons and monsters in the area, ensuring the safety of the human tribe.

To study talismans, Feng Ye needed to start with characters. He had no intention of competing with Cang Jie for merit, so the characters he used were not the later oracle bone script. The characters he studied were the ancient divine characters from the divine dragon’s remains.

The ancient divine characters originated from the Heavenly Emperor, passed through the Earthly Emperor, and reached the Human Emperor. During the Heavenly Emperor’s reign, the Heavenly Emperor created 360 divine characters based on the movements of the heavens. Later, during the Earthly Emperor’s reign, the number of divine characters increased to 8,000. Finally, during the reign of the Nine-Headed Human Emperor, there were 60,000 divine characters.

These divine characters contained the principles of heaven and earth, which were very helpful to Feng Ye. Although they might not be useful in combat, they could help improve his Dao and understanding of the world.

Talismans were about controlling the elemental energy of heaven and earth for attacks, and they could also store attacks for later use.

Time was abundant in the primordial era. While Feng Ye was studying talismans, ten years passed in the blink of an eye.

During these years, Feng Ye’s understanding of the divine characters improved, but his magical power did not advance much. However, in this era, magical power was the easiest to improve; a single spirit fruit could make one immortal. Therefore, Feng Ye focused on his Dao. With the help of the ancient divine characters, his Dao advanced rapidly, and he estimated that it would not be long before he could transcend the tribulation and become an immortal.

Of course, in the perilous primordial era, without magical power and abilities, one could not protect oneself. However, Feng Ye had a second spirit soul, the divine dragon avatar, which belonged to the dragon race, the most powerful divine beasts, and was naturally skilled in combat.

After ten years, Feng Ye stopped his cultivation because he suddenly felt a violent tremor in the Sui Ren tribe’s totem shield!

The tremor woke Feng Ye from his meditation while he was studying the divine characters.

An external enemy? Feng Ye’s face darkened. He put down the divine characters he was studying and hurried to the cave entrance. He saw a red light rising from the Sui Ren tribe, connecting with the totem shield outside.

What was happening?

Seeing this, Feng Ye summoned the divine dragon avatar, which leaped into the air and flew toward the source of the red light. The second spirit soul was closely connected to him, like being there in person. If something went wrong, he would be severely injured, but it would not be life-threatening, making it much safer than going himself.

The divine dragon avatar circled above the red light and looked down. The red light was coming from the belly of a woman in labor.

A spirit fetus? In this mythological era, Feng Ye quickly guessed the situation. Such divine births were not uncommon.

Fuxi was born from the essence of the thunder god, Shennong was born from a red dragon, and Xuanyuan was born from the seven stars of the Northern Dipper. There were countless other examples of divine births.

But if this was a divine child, naturally favored by heaven and carrying a great mission, why would it be born now? It was neither a time to help the human race survive nor to teach them and establish moral order. What was the point of being born now, when the sky pillar would soon collapse and a great flood would come, destroying everything?

Feng Ye thought for a long time and then had an idea. He took out the Sui Ren lamp from the cave and threw it into the air. The Sui Ren lamp transformed into a beam of light and flew to the divine dragon avatar.

Since they were one, the divine dragon avatar understood Feng Ye’s thoughts. It caught the Sui Ren lamp and transformed into a dragon-headed human form. It pointed the lamp at the woman, and a flame from the lamp leaped out, circled her head three times, and entered her belly.

Indeed! It was a spirit fetus, but the fact that the flame could enter her body without harm was significant.

The flame was his own magical fire. Unless it was of the same lineage, how could it enter someone else’s body without harm? Feng Ye was certain he had no descendants, so this spirit fetus was not of his bloodline. Its origin was worth investigating.

Since it was related to the Sui Ren flame, which could trigger the totem shield, and the totem shield was rooted in a holy flame left by the Sui Emperor, this spirit fetus was significant. Could it be related to the Sui Emperor?

If the Sui Emperor had descendants, their bloodline would be too diluted by now to cause such a phenomenon. The only possibility was that the Sui Emperor had reincarnated.

The more Feng Ye thought about it, the more he believed this was likely. After all, the Sui Emperor had died unjustly, and with his great merit, he could easily reincarnate. If, by chance, he reincarnated in the Sui Ren tribe, it was not impossible.

The divine dragon avatar waited in the air, watching the woman struggle to give birth. Her labor was becoming difficult, and the divine dragon avatar frowned. Giving birth in this era was not easy; it was a matter of life and death. Women were respected in this era, partly because of the Mother Goddess Nüwa and partly because of the importance of childbirth, which brought the future of the race into the world.

Feng Ye, being a man, did not know much about childbirth. All he could do was have the divine dragon avatar use divine power to maintain the woman’s life force, ensuring she did not die. The actual birth had to be done by the woman herself.

When the woman finally gave birth, the divine dragon avatar was surprised, and Feng Ye, far away in the cave, jumped up.

Twins? Two children? The divine dragon avatar used its divine sense to carefully examine the children but could not determine which one was the reincarnation of the Sui Emperor.

Since the flame had left marks on both children, even the Sui Ren lamp could not distinguish between them. After some thought, Feng Ye recalled the divine dragon avatar and left.

After all, they were just newborns. What could be done even if he could identify them? They could not move or speak. It was better to wait until they grew up before making any decisions.

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Author's Note:

Not only in ancient times, but even now, childbirth is a painful experience. Our birthdays are also our mothers' days of suffering. On your birthday, don't forget to thank your mother. Everyone should be filial to their mothers!

This chapter was originally supposed to be updated yesterday, as it was Mother's Day. But due to the length, it was delayed until today.