Chapter Eighty-Two: The Qilin Divine Beast and the Barbarian Kingdom (Part One)
The Qilin Divine Beast and the Wolf Lion Beast, after their respective masters leapt away, immediately charged at each other. As they drew within two or three meters of each other, the Qilin Divine Beast unleashed torrents of flame at the Wolf Lion Beast. The Wolf Lion Beast, seeing the incoming fire, halted its advance, opened its blood-red maw, exposing dry white fangs, and blew a chilling, sinister wind toward the Qilin Divine Beast.
The Qilin Divine Beast’s flames were true immortal fire, imbued with tremendous burning power, while the Wolf Lion Beast’s breath was genuine demonic wind, possessing extraordinary freezing force. Their powers were evenly matched, so when fire and wind collided, a rapidly rotating circular halo formed between the two beasts.
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Huang Xianlin’s mount, the Qilin Divine Beast, was a creature endowed with several centuries of cultivation. It had been adopted hundreds of years ago by Huang Xianlin’s master, Daoist Xuanwu. Daoist Xuanwu was the abbot of the Accepting Talent Temple atop Qinghua Mountain.
Around a thousand years ago, Wei Xiaoping’s master, Daoist Xuanzhe, and Huang Xianlin’s master, Daoist Xuanwu, together ascended Mount Taihua to apprentice under the immortal Shangheng, studying the Dao and martial arts for health and longevity. After nine hundred years of study, having mastered nearly all of Shangheng’s teachings, their master ceased instructing them, keeping the remaining portion of his skills to himself. The three then descended the mountain to wander the world, visiting other sects, broadening their disciples’ horizons, and exchanging knowledge in cultivation and martial arts, so that the disciples might benefit from these encounters.
One day, the trio arrived at a village, hearing in the distance the sounds of anguished cries. Upon entering, they found the village in chaos, bodies of humans and livestock scattered everywhere, some lying by roadsides, others beside houses. Each corpse was surrounded by pools of blood, beside which women and children wailed in despair, their cries heartbreakingly mournful.
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The immortal Shangheng and his disciples approached and questioned five or six women before learning the village had just been pillaged by a band of outsiders. Shangheng found an elder and inquired in detail, finally grasping the situation.
It turned out that, since the master and disciples had spent more than nine centuries cultivating on the mountain, never descending nor concerning themselves with worldly affairs, they were unaware of the earthshaking changes below. Roughly nine hundred years ago, the Wildlands Continent was entering its first flourishing phase. Life in all realms began to thrive, and each group could still find enough food within their territories, maintaining a peaceful existence.
But as certain clans and factions multiplied, food became scarce, prompting some to seek expansion, leading to raids and territorial conquest. Among all the beings of the Wildlands, humans held the greatest power, followed by the demon clans, some magical tribes, and beasts.
Within the human factions, the most formidable was the Barbarian Nation, founded by a man named Zhao Renyi. Zhao Renyi, originally the chief of a large clan, possessed exceptional talent and martial prowess. He practiced benevolence both within his own group and with neighboring clans, often leading his people to repel invaders and sometimes assisting others in defense. Gradually, the clans he aided grew to trust and support him, benefiting from his kindness.
Eventually, these clans willingly merged with Zhao Renyi’s, forming the continent’s most powerful group. For ease of governance, Zhao Renyi renamed his clan the Barbarian Nation, summoned his strongest, most beloved aides, divided the nation into districts, and established strict rules, entrusting these aides with their administration.
Zhao Renyi’s wise governance won the hearts of the people, and his successors continued his methods, allowing the Barbarian Nation to prosper for six or seven centuries. However, when the fourteenth ruler, Zhao Jingkuang, ascended, he abandoned state affairs for personal pleasure, delegating governance to trusted ministers and spending his days roaming with beautiful women, neglecting agriculture, politics, and the welfare of his people.
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Seeing Zhao Jingkuang’s self-indulgence and neglect, his ministers followed suit, satisfying their own desires through arson, murder, and theft. Zhao Jingkuang turned a blind eye to their crimes, even ignoring attacks on villages by demonic clans and magical beasts. The populace suffered grievously.
The village Shangheng and his disciples encountered, strewn with corpses, fell under the jurisdiction of the Barbarian Nation and had just been ravaged by government soldiers. Enraged, the trio aided the villagers in managing the aftermath, then visited other villages, finding each one either ravaged by foreign invaders or pillaged by the Barbarian Nation’s troops, leaving the people destitute.
Witnessing such misery, the trio abandoned their quest to travel and exchange martial arts, instead traversing the Barbarian Nation and beyond to survey the conditions, determining whether the entire Wildlands Continent was in similar despair.
Over more than a year, they explored the Barbarian Nation and several other territories, finding every village either filled with lamentation or eerily deserted. Meanwhile, the demon clans, magical tribes, and beast factions, originally fewer and weaker than humans, grew unchecked in the absence of the Barbarian Nation’s military suppression and other human factions’ control. In just a few decades, their numbers and strength multiplied tenfold, surpassing human resistance.
Shangheng pondered that if this continued, within a few centuries, demons and magical tribes would vastly outnumber and outpower humans, eventually enslaving mankind. He resolved to overthrow Zhao Jingkuang, revive the Barbarian Nation, or unite other factions on the continent, seeking a wise and compassionate leader to establish a benevolent state.
Thus, Shangheng and his disciples returned to the mountains, drafted letters, and dispatched their disciples to contact peers and allies, convening to strategize the founding of a new nation.