Chapter 759: The Resilience of Life

The death of Emperor Wanxing shook the powerful figures throughout the River of Spacetime. After all, he was a half-step eighth-tribulation realm expert who had awed the River of Spacetime for tens of thousands of years, yet he was still killed even while hiding in his home world. This sent shivers down the spines of many. Furthermore, the news they uncovered was that City Lord Dongning had invited an eighth-tribulation realm expert to act, infiltrating the life world to kill Emperor Wanxing.

Such ruthlessness! This deepened everyone's understanding of City Lord Dongning, Meng Chuan's character! In fact, suspicions had already arisen when Meng Chuan clashed with the Black Demon Palace, causing some seventh-tribulation and half-step seventh-tribulation realm experts to become much more restrained in their actions, fearing to offend City Lord Dongning.

After all, as the contemporary strongest half-step eighth-tribulation realm expert, and a Soul Tribulation realm one at that! City Lord Dongning, Meng Chuan, possessed a far greater deterrent power than the White Bird Pavilion Master. The White Bird Pavilion Master had one true body in his home world and another busy with cultivation, leaving him with limited avatars for many matters. Meng Chuan, however, had far too many soul avatars... sending just three or five to roam the River of Spacetime would instill fear and caution in anyone.

Cangyuan Realm, Meng Manor in Jiangzhou City.

Night fell. Meng Chuan, one of the most powerful individuals in the contemporary River of Spacetime, was with his wife, Liu Qiyue.

Beneath the night sky, the couple sat by a peach blossom tree. A warm wine pot rested nearby as they both gazed at the vast, ethereal scenes unfolding before them.

“The Cangyuan Realm has seen so many people and events swallowed by time, unrecorded even in history books,” Liu Qiyue remarked with a sigh as she watched. “If not for you, A’Chuan, mastering the rules of spacetime and being able to see everything in the past, they might never be known to future generations.”

“Initially, I only intended to look at famous figures like Ancestor Cangyuan, Venerable Thunder God, and so on. Who would have thought I’d see so many unrecorded individuals?” Meng Chuan nodded and said.

“Let’s watch from the very beginning,” Liu Qiyue suggested. “To be able to witness all the important stages of the Cangyuan Realm's history over hundreds of millions of years, starting from its birth—I think that alone would make this life worthwhile.”

“We'll take our time; we have plenty of it,” Meng Chuan replied with a smile.

Regarding the Cangyuan Realm, even Ancestor Cangyuan had only a superficial understanding, as records became scarcer the further back in time one went. In early periods, writing systems weren't fully developed, and even later written records would decay over time. It was only when the fiendgod cultivation system gradually formed that powerful artifacts were used to preserve historical records, meaning the earliest periods still had the fewest accounts. It was only known that the Cangyuan Realm had existed for over a hundred million years, with its most prosperous period being the last million years or so!

“Let’s begin,” Meng Chuan and his wife said, starting to watch the history of the Cangyuan Realm.

Beneath the night sky, the vast scenes manifesting in the void before Meng Chuan and his wife depicted history unfolding.

The convergence of matter and energy in the void gradually birthed a life world. This nascent, elementary life world slowly grew, absorbing external forces.

Desolate! This life world was devoid of any life, featuring only basic mountains, rocks, soil, and water. Plants gradually thrived, followed by the appearance of various weak creatures, with insects slowly emerging...

“It’s truly ancient,” Liu Qiyue murmured.

Meng Chuan was fast-forwarding through the past, as the evolution of the early life world was exceedingly slow.

“Humans have appeared,” Meng Chuan and Liu Qiyue observed. The first appearance of humans in the Cangyuan Realm dated back 120 million years ago.

Among countless animals, the most primitive humans emerged. These early humans resembled modern humans quite closely, though they were hairier, more robust, and more savage. Humans had no advantage in competition with other animals; as a weak species, they led quite a miserable existence. Among the countless animals, there were also 'fierce beasts,' which were powerful creatures that occasionally transformed due to unusual treasures within the life world. At this point, there was no complete cultivation system; powerful fierce beasts only came into being through fortuitous encounters and reliance on treasures.

“Humans have become extinct.” Accompanied by floods, the earliest primitive humans perished in their struggle.

“Humans have been reborn.” Millions of years later, by chance, humanity evolved and formed again.

“Humans have become extinct again.”

Meng Chuan and Liu Qiyue watched on.

Birth and extinction, time and again.

Early human civilizations were too fragile; they would perish if they couldn't withstand the passage of time. Such extinctions, at best, meant the annihilation of countless lives, with only a very small number surviving to evolve into the next human civilization. At worst, it meant the complete extinction of humanity, leaving no survivors, followed by a long blank period before humans evolved again. Evidently, the environment of this life world would give rise to numerous species, including humans.

“Survival is truly arduous,” Meng Chuan and Liu Qiyue observed, watching it all.

In these eras, humans were no nobler than other animal species. There were even periods when other beast species dominated the Cangyuan Realm; they too gradually developed intelligence, but ultimately perished before the march of time.

Meng Chuan's playback swiftly reached a point 30 million years ago in the Cangyuan Realm.

“Hmm?”

Meng Chuan's expression subtly changed.

“What’s wrong?” Liu Qiyue asked, noticing Meng Chuan's change in expression as she watched the unfolding scenes. Reaching Meng Chuan’s level of cultivation, very little could still faze him.

“These fifteen fleeing humans,” Meng Chuan said, pointing to the fifteen humans fleeing to sea in the ethereal scene, “are the source of our current humanity! All contemporary humans originate from these fifteen individuals.” Meng Chuan had first viewed the past before playing it back, so he knew this in advance.

“All contemporary humans originated from them?” Liu Qiyue asked, astonished. “From these fifteen people?”

Meng Chuan nodded slightly, observing the past while simultaneously manifesting the scenes for his wife. His viewing experience was different from hers! He had truly permeated his consciousness into the past of the Cangyuan Realm’s River of Spacetime, as if experiencing it firsthand, making his feelings much more intense.

This generation of primitive humans remained weak on the land. Two inconspicuous small human tribes were battling: one with eighty-six members, the other with one hundred and thirty-five. Due to strategy and other reasons, the larger tribe of 'one hundred and thirty-five people' was defeated. Fifteen individuals escaped, directly sailing out to sea on a wooden boat.

These fifteen individuals became the origin of contemporary humanity in the Cangyuan Realm.

After showing his wife the development of contemporary humanity’s origin, Meng Chuan could no longer hold back. He returned to his study and began to paint.

It had been a long time since he had felt such passionate eagerness.

At his desk, he unfurled a scroll and began to draw.

Once he started painting, Meng Chuan forgot the passage of time, oblivious to day and night. Noticing this, Liu Qiyue naturally forbade anyone from disturbing him.

A long scroll painting gradually took shape.

On the far right of this massive, long painting was a wooden boat carrying fifteen primitive humans, escaping the land and drifting out to sea.

Afterward, this wooden boat reached an isolated island with a fiery mountain.

They reproduced and survived on the isolated island.

Later, the mainland experienced a dreadful 'Ice Age,' causing countless forms of life to perish. Among the many species, the relatively common 'human race' also went extinct. In contrast, the isolated island with a volcano allowed the humans there to withstand the cold wave and survive.

The isolated island was limited in size. As they reproduced, land and food became scarce, so humans sought new habitats, traveling to other islands and eventually to the mainland.

This migratory journey fostered a 'spirit of conquest' within the tribe; to conquer new places and establish new homes was to be a hero.

Generation after generation inherited this spirit of conquest, risking their lives to find new homes.

The mainland was immeasurably vaster than the isolated island. This human tribe, relying solely on their two legs, traversed mountains and crossed rivers.

They settled in suitable locations, while some continued forward. They encountered harsh environments and ferocious beasts; some died, but the survivors kept walking, searching for homes.

As the tribe grew, branches spread in all directions.

Generation after generation...

Miraculously, this human tribe, through continuous reproduction and relay efforts across generations, spread throughout the entire continent in three thousand years!

This was the 'three thousand years' following the Ice Age, which had wiped out countless large species. Numerous animal species on the land were in a weakened state, allowing this human tribe the opportunity to conquer the remaining fierce beasts and thoroughly permeate every corner of the mainland. Only when their numbers became dominant did humanity, for the first time, achieve a mainstream position across the entire continent.

Humans were intelligent, and their sufficiently large population enhanced their ability to resist disasters. They also began to develop a systematic path of cultivation, and ultimately, humanity became the undisputed masters of this life world.

Thus, the Tribal Era began.

The focus of Meng Chuan's painting was on humanity's continuous relay across generations, overcoming death and danger to ultimately conquer the entire continent.