Dragon Canon

Chapter 35: Fish on Another’s Plate

Feng Chutang nodded when he heard the question. “That’s right. To this day, a human is still considered a top-notch sacrifice by the Shamans. They kidnapped at least a million humans for their rituals each year, and this number was even worse back in those days. They would often kidnap entire tribes and sacrifice all of them to their heaven, calling it the Great Consummation. In fact, the Liao had fought countless small and big wars against the Shamans to prevent this kidnapping. The belonging of the human race was also one of the main reasons the two races later entered an all-out war against each other.”

Everyone’s confusion only grew after hearing his answer, and Wei Yuan was no exception. Someone else asked, “In that case, why did the humans allow the Shamans to pass through their borders and cut off the Liao’s retreat on purpose?”

Feng Chutang replied, “The reason behind this wasn’t recorded in history, so I dare not conjecture as to why our ancestors had done this. Instead, I would simply tell you the outcome of this action. If you are interested in studying this part of our history, then you may investigate the relevant history books yourselves.”

He paused briefly before continuing in a measured tone, “After the Shamans’ main force passed through our borders, the Liao’s eastern legion suffered a crushing defeat and lost the Vast North King and Cloud Mountain King. A total of five hundred thousand cavalry troops were killed, and even more were wounded. As a result, the Shamans’ armies were able to advance unchecked for thirty thousand li before the reinforcements mobilized from the Liao’s rear finally showed up and stopped their advance two months later. The Shamans were originally slightly at a disadvantage against the Liao as a whole, but this major victory turned it into a slight advantage instead.

“Three years later, the war came to an end, and the Liao were forced to withdraw fifteen thousand li from their original borders. Just half a year after the war ended, a human True Lord successfully broke through the Heavenly Gate and achieved Ultimate Unity. He would become the first Immortal Lord in our race’s history.”

The scions were aware that the first Immortal Lord of the human race was born from a great war between the Liao and the Shamans, but they didn’t realize that the two events were connected. Now that Feng Chutang had put them side by side, even Wei Yuan, someone who was ignorant of the two events until today, noticed a little something.

The boys and girls exchanged glances with each other and stayed conspicuously silent. Looking purely from a historical standpoint, it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that the human race was both treasonous and ungrateful. Yet, the emergence of the first Immortal Lord also marked the founding of the human empire.

As for Wei Yuan, he had a feeling that the True Lord who ascended to become an Immortal Lord had obtained the necessary resources from the Shamans.

In any case, this marked the end of their first lesson. Feng Chutang said, “Anyone who is interested in this part of our history may look into it themselves in their own time. However, I should warn you that these historical accounts are scattered across multiple history books. Each book only reveals a fragment of that history, and it is impossible for you to get a clearer picture until you have gone through a certain number. Anyway, that’s all for today’s lesson. In our next lesson, we will be talking about the Shamans. Their feud with our race has spanned over two hundred thousand years as well.”

It was just one lesson, Wei Yuan felt as if a corner of the world had unveiled itself to him.

At the end of the lesson, a thick stack of jade papers appeared on everyone’s desk. It was at least a dozen pages thick. In fact, each sheet was an entire history book that chronicled the distant past. Feng Chutang had deliberately selected them for the students to read independently after they returned to their residences.

When Wei Yuan was leaving with the books, an on-duty Daoist stopped him in his tracks and took his identity jade token. When he pressed it against a jade register, a short sentence appeared on the page stating: “Wei Yuan—disciple of Skyblue Hall—owes sixty taels for books.”

Wei Yuan was startled as a matter of course. He didn’t think that these few books would cost him half a year of allowance! Sure, he didn’t need to pay it back immediately, but he had to pay it back eventually! He wanted to return the books right there and then, but everyone else in his class had swiped their identity jade tokens and left without even looking at the register.

When everyone was gone, Wei Yuan finally asked in a small voice, “Excuse me, Daoist. Is it okay if I return these books?”

The Daoist replied expressionlessly, “The books are not refundable once you have swiped your identity jade token! Besides, this is the assigned reading from your instructor. Why would you return it? If you’re just planning to coast through life, then why bother coming to the Palace of Absolute Beginning?”

He could only sheepishly leave with the books after being reprimanded by the Daoist.

Wei Yuan was good at discerning what others were thinking based on their body language, and he noticed a while ago that his master was exceptionally generous in all things except when immortal silver was involved. That was why he surmised that his master might be short on money and tried to cut down on costs as best he could.

These history books were valuable as a matter of course, but they were also things he could memorize perfectly after just one reading. He didn’t really think there was a need to buy them. Alas, the Daoist moved faster than he could react and swiped his identity jade token before he could stop him.

Upon returning to his humble abode, Wei Yuan picked up the Qi-drinking Pill and poured out its contents. He then counted how many pills were inside the bottle.

As it turned out, one bottle of Qi-drinking Pill contained just enough pills to last him a month. If he wanted to eat more, then he would have to buy them. The Qi-drinking Pills were really valued for their ability to improve one’s mind. That it also sated one’s hunger for several days straight was just a side benefit.

Wei Yuan picked up the admission guidelines and went through it again. He was hoping to find a way to earn some money. According to the booklet, the Humble Hall responsible for general affairs would issue some missions to low level disciples from time to time. Completing these missions would earn them some rewards. It was the main source of income for poor disciples studying in the Palace of Absolute Beginning.

However, all the missions issued by the Humble Hall required the performing disciples to be at a certain level of cultivation. Even the lowest level mission—one that a Body-tempering stage disciple could complete—required said disciple to have tempered their flesh and blood. Thus, he had no choice but to abandon his plans for the moment.

Wei Yuan spent the afternoon reading the history books. At night, he continued to cultivate the Jade Toad Full Moon Painting. It was a smooth, uneventful night where the jade toad successfully grew the earth underneath its body some more. To be specific, it was now one zhang and two chi in radius.

When dawn broke, Wei Yuan stopped cultivating and slept in his bed for two hours. Feeling fully refreshed, he went to the Enlightenment Hall once more.

The second day’s course was the Foundational Studies of the Path to Immortality. It covered the history of the world of cultivation and immortals. Although it was also a history course, it was very different from A Comprehensive History of the Human Race. The instructor was a middle-aged Daoist named Di Xia (Earthly Hues). He looked elegant and refined like what you would expect from an immortal.

When class began, the Daoist swiped his hand across the air and summoned a long, long painting. The top part of the painting depicted scenes of savage, blood-soaked combat. The middle part of the painting was the longest, and it showed off immortal mountains, Daoist realms, and several immortals who looked to be roaming the heavens. The bottom part of the painting primarily showed a gathering of immortals waging epic battles against countless foreign races and demonic beasts.

When the Daoist pointed a finger, two separate scenes lit up in the painting. One of them showed a man obtaining his Dao and becoming an immortal in a simple cave. The other depicted a King of Humans gathering an army of millions and founding his dynasty. The banner behind him bore the name “Li”.

The entire history of human cultivation was divided into several eras. First, the Distant Antiquity Era and the Middle Antiquity Era. The cut-off point between the two periods was the emergence of the first Immortal Lord. Second, the Middle Antiquity Era and the Near Antiquity Era. The cut-off point was the establishment of the first unified dynasty, the Li Dynasty. Finally, the cut-off point between the Ancient Eras—which was the Distant Antiquity Era, Middle Antiquity Era, and the Near Antiquity Era combined—and the Present Era was the founding of the Great Tang Dynasty and the advent of the Sect Unified Examination.

This was the opening lesson of the subject, so of course they kicked off with the Distant Antiquity Era. At the time, the human race mainly lived in tribes and were scattered across various lands. Later, someone somehow found an astounding book called the Sky Mending Sutra. And so humans began embarking on the path of cultivation and revised the cultivation arts generation upon generation. As their cultivation grew stronger, so did their cultivation arts.

It was thanks to cultivators that the foreign races viewed the human race in a slightly better light. To give an example, if pre-cultivation humans were viewed as livestock, then post-cultivation humans were treated as sheepdogs.

Personally, Wei Yuan didn’t think that the fate of the human race had fundamentally changed with the advent of cultivators. After all, if the livestock were all eaten, then the sheepdog was the next to go.