Witch Wind

Chapter 381 The Three Great Dynasties (Part 2)

The Holy Cloud Continent is round and plump, like a giant pancake, divided into three roughly equal fan-shaped regions. The three great dynasties of Nightmare Cloud, Chilled Cloud, and Dark Cloud each occupy one-third of this continent's land.

The Nightmare Cloud Dynasty, the Liuguang King's territory, the Baihe Province, the Sanhu Prefecture, and the Chiyu County.

Within the county town, stretching for hundreds of miles, courtyards with black tiles and white walls, reminiscent of the Jiangnan region of China, are scattered throughout. Along the wide streets are clear canals where plump koi carp swim. Between the canals and the roadside walls are flowerbeds about ten feet wide, where various flowers are in full bloom in late spring.

On the streets, the people of Kyushu, dressed smartly and cleanly, appeared calm and composed, their demeanor graceful and poised, all exuding an air of pampered ease and carefree contentment.

These descendants of Kyushu who were able to live in the county seat were all doing quite well.

The situation is so strange. The Winged People wiped out the entire Wanfo Leiyin Temple and raised the descendants of the Nine Provinces like pigs and dogs. However, in this Holy Cloud Continent, within the three great dynasties, those who hold great power and high positions in the court are actually 99% of the descendants of the Nine Provinces.

The winged people's nature makes them prefer to live deep in the mountains and forests, building their nests on the tops of towering cliffs. Even the lowest-ranking slaves would find a tree stump several meters high to be their nest.

Getting the winged people to live on the ground, to walk on two legs like the descendants of Kyushu, is harder than killing them.

Perhaps it was the tragic history of the winged people's ancestors being hunted by the innate spirit apes that inscribed a certain taboo in their bloodline—the winged people would never easily let their noble feet touch even a speck of soil on the ground.

However, the vast Holy Cloud Continent, with its territory spanning billions of miles, has countless fertile lands that need to be cultivated. It needs people to provide the Winged People with a continuous supply of crops, livestock, fine wine, and even flowers, rouge, silk, jewelry, and so on. All of this requires people to work hard, cultivate, graze, gather, and process these things.

Thus, the hardworking and exploitative descendants of Kyushu became the best cattle and horses.

Since they are cattle and horses, they should naturally be divided into different classes, with higher-ranking cattle and horses controlling lower-ranking ones, and the clever and cunning higher-ranking cattle and horses exploiting and managing the dull and honest lower-ranking ones. Only in this way can they be used to their fullest potential and achieve the best work efficiency.

Thus, the peculiar dynastic structure of the three great dynasties was formed.

If it weren't for the occasional winged cultivators flapping their wings and leisurely cruising through the high sky, the provinces, prefectures, and counties of the three great imperial dynasties would appear no different from those of a normal human dynasty.

Even at the township level, the Winged People's high-ranking officials instructed the officials of Kyushu to establish public schools, where five- or six-year-old children of Kyushu, regardless of gender, had to practice a special "Hercules Divine Skill" to hone their physical bodies and cultivate their strength from a young age.

Furthermore, every three years, the three great imperial dynasties would hold a 'Cultivator Examination'.

Anyone who achieved a good ranking in the imperial examinations would be granted official positions and honors by the three great dynasties, thus rising above others and becoming a person of high status...

Of course, the efficiency of scientific expeditions was still somewhat slow.

Every three to five years, the three great dynasties would forcibly conscript soldiers within their borders. Hundreds of billions of people from the Nine Provinces who had achieved some success in practicing the "Hercules Divine Skill" would board huge warships, proudly soar into the sky, and go to the outer battlefield to fight against the evil demons from other realms and maintain the peace of this world.

The families of the soldiers from Kyushu who earned military merit on the battlefields of foreign lands would receive generous treatment from the local government.

Every now and then, warriors from the Nine Provinces would return from the battlefields beyond the heavens, clad in golden armor, riding legendary mythical beasts and birds, and parading through the city with large entourages of servants and guards. They would then lead their relatives and clansmen to the capital to assume high-ranking positions and completely reverse the fate of their entire families.

"The person who drafted this set of rules must be from my Nine Provinces." In a rather elegant courtyard in Chiyu County, Xing Tianli flipped through a public school textbook published by the Nightmare Cloud Dynasty and sighed, "This set of methods has completely confined the descendants of my Nine Provinces..."

"Heh, if you don't get ahead, your own family and relatives will have to work like oxen and horses, toiling in the fields, bearing high taxes, and every last bit of oil in your bones will be squeezed out."

"After a year of hard work, all we earn is barely enough to keep our families alive."

"Only by following their rules, whether through scientific research or joining the army, can one change their fate, reach the pinnacle of life instantly, become a superior person, and ensure that their descendants no longer have to struggle in the fields."

"Ha, joining the army, you can get a glorious name of 'resisting external demons and making a name for yourself for all time,' even if the casualty rate is a bit high, it's worth dying for... Who would have thought? The so-called external demons are completely fictitious. They didn't join the army to fight, they just hopped on their own and ended up on the winged people's dinner table."

"Absolutely amazing, absolutely amazing!"

Outside the study window, a hibiscus was in full bloom, its flowers like flowing fire. Sunlight shone through the red blossoms, turning the entire courtyard a deep red, as red as blood.

"Look, look at what their history textbooks are saying!"

"After creating heaven and earth, the Holy Ancestor of Creation rose to prominence and traveled far and wide. He saved the ancestors of the Nine Provinces from a world on the verge of destruction. He expended boundless power to rescue the nearly extinct ancestors of the Nine Provinces and brought them to the Holy Cloud Continent. However, the Holy Ancestor of Creation exhausted his life force to save people and thus perished completely."

"Tsk tsk, how touching! Sacrificing oneself to save others, how amazing! Ugh!"

Xing Tianli cursed and spat a small piece of broad bean shell out the window.

He looked at Liu Jing, whose mouth was stuffed full of spiced broad beans and whose cheeks bulged like a hamster's, and said in a deep voice, "The spice is too strong and overpowers the natural fragrance of the broad beans. Next time, try using less spice."

"Hmm, look at what it says here."

"Hey."

"There is a peerless demon who calls himself 'Buddha'. He is the culprit behind the collapse of the world to which the Nine Provinces Ancestor belonged... The Founding Ancestor of the Winged People was ambushed by 'Buddha' while rescuing the Nine Provinces Ancestor, which led to his serious injury."

"The Holy Ancestor of Creation rescued the progenitors of the Nine Provinces and brought them to the Holy Cloud Continent, and the 'Buddha' followed closely behind."

"The Holy Ancestor of Creation had three biological sons named Jiyun, Anyun, and Yanyun. After the Holy Ancestor's fall, the three holy sons, facing the 'Buddha's' frenzied invasion, resolutely led countless winged people into battle, fighting a bloody war against the 'Buddha' in the outer heavens. They made countless sacrifices, which is how they managed to keep the 'Buddha' at bay in the outer heavens, preventing it from invading even a step."

"Tsk, the Nine Provinces Ancestor, grateful for the immeasurable kindness of the three Holy Sons, honored the Winged People as his masters and the three Holy Sons as human emperors, assisted the three Holy Sons in establishing the three imperial dynasties, and formulated the rites, laws, and national principles, thus forming the current situation of the three kingdoms standing in a tripartite balance on the Holy Cloud Continent?"

"Tsk tsk, look at what they're saying."

"The winged people are powerful and wise, and therefore they hold the reins of the nation and are responsible for defending against the invasion of evil spirits from beyond the heavens."

“The descendants of the Nine Provinces are weak and foolish, so they farm and work in various industries to support the Winged People.”

"A perfect ecological closed loop, what a genius came up with this utter nonsense... If I catch him, I will definitely make him..." Xing Tianli gritted his teeth in hatred. This bullshit in the history textbook, judging from the wording, the writing style, and all those convoluted twists and turns, must be garbage concocted by spineless scholars from Kyushu.

These kinds of people are no different from those scoundrels who, feeling itchy scalp or thirsty water, directly defect to foreign tribes.

A thick stack of textbooks and reading materials bought from the market were read through by Xing Tianli as a large bowl of spiced broad beans disappeared. Ha! What textbooks? What reading materials? They're nothing but brainwashing materials.

They utterly denigrated the descendants of Kyushu, portraying them as weak, stupid, and lazy low-class livestock, while shaping the Winged People into saviors and describing the current three great imperial dynasties as the most perfect and inviolable 'heavenly laws' in the world.

Even in a children's primer, these shameless spineless cowards of Kyushu fabricated a plot to frighten children and create psychological trauma so that they could control them for life—after the fall of the supreme, great, magnificent, and holy Ancestor of Creation, his body sank into the Holy Cloud Continent and became a Netherworld.

A wisp of the primordial spirit of the Creator God combined with the laws of heaven and earth of the Underworld and transformed into the supreme Underworld Emperor, who judges all.

All the hardworking and exploitative cattle and horses of the Nine Provinces, if they are obedient and compliant in their lives, will be blessed... When they enter the Underworld and are judged by the Underworld Emperor, a golden mark will be placed on their souls, and they will be reborn into a relatively wealthy family in their next life.

Thus, after eighteen reincarnations, serving as the beasts of burden and obedient subjects of the winged people generation after generation, eighteen golden marks would appear on the soul. Then, this descendant of the Nine Provinces would be reborn as a slave among the winged people in his nineteenth reincarnation. This process would continue for another thirty-six times, resulting in reincarnation as a commoner among the winged people.

If this happens seventy-two more times, one can be reborn as a winged samurai.

Then there are the royal families.

Then there are the imperial families.

Look, as long as you honestly work like a beast of burden, sooner or later you will become a high-ranking, glorious and noble winged emperor.

Ah, a wonderful life awaits you, all you have to do is work like a cow or a horse for three to five hundred reincarnations.

In this process, if you disobey the Winged People's Nobleman even once, even in just one reincarnation, and commit the unforgivable sin of disrespecting the Nobleman, then you are finished. All the golden seals you have accumulated in the past on your soul will be removed, and your soul will be directly cast into the deepest hell by the Underworld Emperor to suffer endless tribulations.

They will never be reborn, and will never be redeemed.

In this book, the compilers completely disregarded the fact that children might be frightened and have nightmares. They compiled 108 kinds of hellish tortures and used extremely skillful brushwork to depict all the bloody and cruel scenes such as branding, poison basin, waist-cutting, and disembowelment.

Undeniably, the artist who drew these scenes of torture was a master, his paintings were so lifelike and detailed that even Xing Tianli felt a bit nauseous.

Such a scene, if presented to five- or six-year-old children, and made to hold and recite the so-called 'Underworld Emperor's Commandments' all day long, it would be a good thing if those children of the Nine Provinces didn't develop mental illnesses from fright, but they would definitely suffer psychological trauma, or even psychological distortion.

A faint sound of wings cutting through the air could be heard in the sky.

Xing Tianli stepped out of the small study, put his hands behind his back, and looked up at the sky. A dozen or so winged immortals with azure wings were lazily gliding past at a height of about a thousand feet above the ground, carrying small wine jugs and drinking wine.

The entire Sanhu Commandery comprised 72 upper counties and 360 lower counties. The commandery seat stretched over 8,400 li from south to north and over 12,000 li from east to west.

The Nightmare Cloud Dynasty, in the Three Lakes Prefecture, was equipped with three Golden Immortals, seventy-two Heavenly Immortals, and eight hundred Earthly Immortals. It established a garrison headquarters, which commanded 240,000 soldiers with the physical cultivation of the Nine Provinces. They were responsible for maintaining peace in the region, sweeping away bandits, and suppressing all lawlessness.

Within that garrison headquarters, 240,000 soldiers from the Nine Provinces spent most of their time in seclusion, cultivating diligently. Among the 800 Earth Immortals, the lowest-ranking and least powerful slaves were driven to take turns going out every three to five days to casually stroll around in the sky. At their speed, it would only take them about a day to quickly traverse the entire territory of the Three Lakes Prefecture.

These winged immortals glided over Chiyu County. On the main street of Chiyu County, yamen runners carried large bronze gongs, half a person's height, and banged them loudly as they paraded through the streets, shouting at the top of their lungs: "Gentlemen and commoners, all law-abiding citizens, listen carefully! Anyone with a bald head is a demon. Please report them actively, and the government will reward you handsomely."

"Remember, remember, all bald men are demons, and all demons are bald. Never be careless or you will risk your life."

Xing Tianli's lips twitched as he listened.

What a fine saying, "Bald heads are all demons, and demons are all bald"... Heh, do you know that in this world, on this so-called Holy Cloud Continent, the demons that truly terrify those winged people are never Buddhist cultivators, but rather a more ancient, more brutal, and more terrifying being!
Between his brows, the Great Dao Eye flickered slightly.

The deep roar seemed to echo from the dust of history.

In Xing Tianli's mind, there was a giant ape that was tens of thousands of feet tall, with a golden body and long hair covering powerful muscles with distinct lines, as if it were cast from steel.

This knowledge was acquired by the Celestial Calculator at some unknown time through a trade with an intelligent race that possessed unparalleled wisdom and also mastered the power of 'creation'—a terrifying creature called the 'Dragon-Devouring Demon Ape', which followed the path of physical cultivation and possessed terrifyingly high talent, with a physical endowment a hundred times stronger than that of the Yaksha race!
As its name suggests, this kind of demonic ape is born to feed on various kinds of dragons.

Xing Tianli extracted a wisp of the essence of the Devouring Dragon Demon Ape from the Dao Dao Eye and imprinted it into the Tower of Creation.

"I say, this world needs monkeys."

"I say, the monkeys of this world should have four arms."

"I say, the monkeys of this world should practice Buddhist techniques!"

"I say, the monkeys of this world are masters of Shaolin staff techniques!"

Inside the Tower of Creation, wisps of divine light of creation lingered, and in the enormous cultivation chambers, clumps of flesh and blood were growing rapidly.

The Devouring Dragon Ape, in its true form, certainly doesn't have four arms; it's just a large, imposing, handsome, and normal-looking monkey. However, Xing Tianli, having gained experience in imprinting the Yaksha clan, found it incredibly easy to transform a two-armed monkey into a four-armed one, and even to make minor adjustments to its appearance.

The golden fur of the Dragon-Eating Demon Ape turned into a rock-like bluish-gray.

Within that bluish-gray hue, there was also a deep, metallic chill.

They were burly, about three zhang tall, with ferocious faces. Their brow bones protruded more than half a foot above their faces, making their sunken eyes appear even more sinister and fierce.

Their legs and bodies were quite well-proportioned.

However, their four arms are thick and long, almost the same length as their bodies. When they stand and walk, their four arms naturally hang down to the ground.

With such long, slender arms, he was born to be a master archer!

A surge of Buddha's light.

One by one, imprinted Taiyi relics appeared out of thin air and merged into the bodies of these newborn four-armed apes.

Xing Tianli took out the fundamental Buddhist scripture of Wanfo Leiyin Temple, "Wanfo Leiyin". He recited the scripture, and strands of divine light swept over these four-armed apes. As a result, the essence and blood in their bodies surged and continuously washed away the Taiyi relics.

Strands of Buddhist light surged within the bodies of these four-armed apes. They breathed deeply, and Buddhist power gradually grew within them. Strands of Buddhist light passed through their acupoints, strengthening their physical bodies. Their essence and blood, mixed with the Buddhist light, flowed into their brains, and their insignificant innate spirituality began to grow rapidly, gradually developing into complete souls.

To enhance the spirituality of these creatures, Xing Tianli crushed the immortal souls of hundreds of thousands of winged cultivators he had collected outside the Wanfo Leiyin Temple, cleansed them, and then stuffed them little by little into the bodies of these four-armed apes.

He then took out the silver brocade pouch left by the old monk of Wanfo Leiyin Temple and retrieved a mountain of spiritual materials from it.

On the way here, Xing Tianli had exhausted all the stars he had plundered near the Great Yaksha Star. Now, the Tongtian Cauldron was completely empty, without a single hair left.

These spiritual materials, including a large amount of spiritual metal, are perfect for use right now.

Longbows, perfectly matching the physiques of the four-armed apes, took shape, and arrows, gleaming with eerie light and engraved with various malevolent restrictions, began to form. Xing Tianli further engraved automatic return runes on these arrows, so that once each arrow was fired, it would fly three thousand miles on its own, then instantly leap and teleport back to the four-armed apes holding the longbows.

Thus, the continuous firepower of these four-armed apes can be described as inexhaustible.

Thus, 100,000 four-armed apes, identical to the innate spirit apes that had once appeared in this world, but a hundred times stronger in both physical body and supernatural powers, took shape inside the Tower of Creation.

Xing Tianli chuckled, "It's time to give the three great dynasties a surprise... or perhaps a shock? Hmm, who cares?"

(End of this chapter)