Zongwu: Aspiring to be the mastermind behind the scenes

Chapter 404 Ancient Secrets, Man-Made Destiny

"I never imagined that there would be such a turbulent period in ancient times."

"Hehe, even in ancient times, people's hearts are still people's hearts, and they will not change no matter how many years have passed."

Inside the teahouse, the two chatted casually.

Jin Jiu poured Yin Zhong a cup of tea and said, "Although there are various methods, with Xuan Yuan's abilities, martial prowess, and reputation, I don't think he will be trapped by these methods, right?"

"That's wrong!"

Yin Zhongdao said, "Other methods are indeed useless, but the rumor that martial arts were created by Chi You has had an extremely bad influence. When this rumor is deeply rooted in people's hearts, even if Xuanyuan promotes martial arts throughout the world, no one will take the initiative to practice it. Even the Human Emperor can only do nothing about it."

"Is that so?"

Jin Jiu sighed, "The viciousness of rumors surpasses even the plague of truth. If that's the case, how did this Temple of War come about?"

"That is because Xuanyuan believed that even if people were misled by rumors for a time, they would eventually feel the importance of martial arts to them. Therefore, although Xuanyuan's plan to promote martial arts was blocked at the time, he still spent a lot of effort to build the Temple of the God of War."

Jin Jiu nodded: "That's right. The water flow is blocked by the dam. Even if it can be blocked for a while, as long as the water continues to accumulate, it will eventually break through the dam!"

Such rumors merely exploited the fact that the war had just ended and everyone deeply resented Chiyou.

But rumors are ultimately just rumors, not the truth.

As the population gradually increases, land that was left idle due to war finds its owners. When there are more people than land, people will naturally realize the solidification of social classes and the difficulty of upward mobility.

For a richer life, or even to transcend social classes, let alone practicing the martial arts passed down by Chi You, no one would care if they joined Chi You's ranks!
Moreover, by that time, Chi You would probably be decades or even hundreds of years old.

The new generation doesn't share the deep-seated hatred of their predecessors, so naturally they don't care as much about martial arts.

It must be said that Xuanyuan was indeed a great ruler of ancient times, with a far-sighted vision that allowed him to see into the future.

Their decision to build the Temple of War was entirely correct.

"However, if that's the case, why is the Temple of War hidden in the void? Why does it only appear once every seventy years?"

"That's because in his later years, Xuanyuan found that the promotion of martial arts was still repeatedly thwarted. He knew that once he passed away, the bloodlines of gods and demons and those powerful clans that practiced magic would inevitably try every means to destroy martial arts, something that could threaten their rule."

Especially the Temple of War, which Xuanyuan had painstakingly built. Therefore, in order to protect the Temple of War, he decided to banish it to the void, where it would only reappear in the world once every so often.

However, seventy years is indeed too long. I think that Xuanyuan's initial goal was likely only for a relatively short period. However, he was already old by then and gradually lost control of the situation, which is why the existence of the Temple of War was greatly extended, becoming a full seventy years!

Jin Jiu nodded, then suddenly asked, "I heard that Guang Chengzi, the teacher of the Yellow Emperor, once studied in the Temple of the God of War. Afterwards, he left behind a book of immortality and then broke through the void within the Temple of the God of War to depart. Is this also true?"

Yin Zhong thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps. Don't be fooled by the fact that Guang Chengzi was the teacher of the Yellow Emperor. As the saying goes, the student surpasses the teacher, so he can only be considered Xuanyuan's teacher in the early stages. Once Xuanyuan grows up, well, compared to Xuanyuan, he will be far inferior."

These things are actually quite disgraceful.

As Xuanyuan's teacher, Guangchengzi was not only surpassed by his disciple, but he also had to learn from his disciple's teachings, which was quite shameful.

Back then, there was no such theory as "Among three people walking together, there must be one who can teach me" or "A teacher does not necessarily have to be as virtuous as his disciple." It was generally believed that a teacher should surpass his disciple in every aspect.

As a result, Guang Chengzi was surpassed in every aspect by his disciple, which naturally made him lose face.

Moreover, Guang Chengzi, as an ancient immortal, also practiced the path of magic cultivation.

With Xuanyuan's unification of the Central Plains, Guang Chengzi's status naturally rose as well. Even if he wasn't the leading figure in the path of magic cultivation at that time, he was certainly one of the representatives.

However, Guang Chengzi eventually abandoned the path of magic cultivation and switched to martial arts.

This is very likely because his talent in the path of cultivation was limited, and after reaching a certain level, he could not make any further progress, so he could only try to switch to martial arts.

Thinking about it this way, it's entirely understandable that Guang Chengzi, after leaving behind the Longevity Formula, specifically returned to the Temple of the God of War and ultimately shattered the void within it before departing.

He left behind the secret to immortality to prevent his lineage from dying out.

His death in the Temple of War God was purely because he was a representative figure of the path of magic cultivation at that time, but eventually switched to martial arts and shattered the void.

This is clearly a great betrayal of the path of cultivation!

Moreover, he had learned the way of the disciples.

With both concerns weighing on him, Guang Chengzi was worried about retaliation from the Dharma Cultivation Path and also felt ashamed. In the end, he had no choice but to shatter within the Temple of the God of War.

At that time, people naturally did not know where he died or how he died.

Reasonable.

"Thank you for your explanation, Senior Yin. So now the organization knows the origin of the War God Temple. But where did the Jingyan Palace come from?"

Yin Zhongdao said, "This brings us to the time of Emperor Zhuanxu. At that time, the power of those with divine and demonic bloodlines and those who cultivated magic was immense. They held high positions and consolidated their power. For ordinary people, crossing social classes was something they could only dream of. Therefore, martial arts had already secretly spread among the people."

Emperor Zhuanxu, in order to reclaim his rightful power from the divine and demonic bloodlines and the powerful clans of magic practitioners, secretly plotted a major event… the severing of the connection between heaven and earth!

Jin Jiu's gaze sharpened: "I have only heard of the matter of the Severing of Heaven and Earth, but I do not know the details. I would appreciate your guidance, senior."

Yin Zhongdao said, "The so-called 'severing the connection between heaven and earth' was actually aimed at the bloodline of gods and demons. At that time, the bloodline of gods and demons had already declined, but they still enjoyed great power and status. Not only was Emperor Zhuanxu dissatisfied, but other powerful magic-cultivating clans were also dissatisfied."

Thus, the two sides joined forces and accomplished this momentous feat, completely burying the bloodline of gods and demons, leaving only a few hidden in the world, never to be seen again.

Jin Jiu said, "Descendants of divine and demonic bloodlines often have an extremely powerful ancestor. If Emperor Zhuanxu were to destroy them, would those ancestors agree?"

"Heh, that was so many years ago. The generational gap between the ancestors you speak of and those descendants of gods and demons is unimaginable. They are people from dozens of generations later, practically complete strangers. Who cares?"
Moreover, Emperor Zhuanxu was the supreme ruler of the world at that time, and he even joined forces with the powerful magic-cultivating clans to commit this act. Even if many gods and demons knew about it, they would only turn a blind eye.

As long as their bloodline wasn't completely wiped out, they wouldn't leave this world. This is why Emperor Zhuanxu left behind a small number of divine and demonic bloodlines to live in seclusion.

Moreover, strictly speaking, all those powerful clans of cultivators are of divine and demonic blood, only their bloodlines are more mixed compared to others.

For those ancient gods and demons, this might simply be an internal struggle among their own descendants.

"I see."

"After Emperor Zhuanxu resolved the issue of the divine and demonic bloodline, his gaze fell upon those powerful magic-cultivating clans. However, these magic-cultivating clans were at their peak at the time, unlike the already declining divine and demonic bloodline."

Therefore, Emperor Zhuanxu remembered the Temple of the War God left behind by Xuanyuan, and thus ordered the construction of the Jingyan Palace. His purpose was to drag the Temple of the War God out of the void.

However, this move was also opposed by the powerful magic cultivators. Although Emperor Zhuanxu eventually accomplished this task by virtue of his prestige in destroying the descendants of gods and demons, the construction of Jingyan Palace was still disrupted by those powerful magic cultivators.

The original intention was to permanently establish the Temple of War in the real world within the Jingyan Palace, but it now requires thirty years of accumulating power to drag it out even once!

Gin nodded.

This also explains why the Jingyan Palace is equipped with such an extremely complicated mechanism.

It's like the boss wants to accomplish something, but the many subordinates are unwilling, yet they can't disobey the boss's orders, so they can only outwardly comply while secretly slacking off and causing trouble.

In the end, the matter was accomplished, but it was far from as perfect as the boss had imagined.

Emperor Zhuanxu had no solution yet.

Even today, many dynasties cannot escape the influence of powerful clans.

Because powerful and influential families produce talented individuals, and emperors need talented people to govern the country.

If this is the case now, how much more primitive and knowledge-free in ancient times?

Without relying on the talents of these powerful clans who practiced the Dharma, Emperor Zhuanxu would have been unable to accomplish anything.

Even if he wanted to build a palace to revitalize martial arts, he still had to rely on these powerful clans of cultivators. This ultimately led to such an awkward outcome.

In this respect, Emperor Zhuanxu could be said to have enjoyed the same treatment as Emperor Xuanyuan.

"Is there anything else you'd like to add to the above information, senior?"

That's about it, nothing more.

"Alright, thank you for your cooperation, senior. The relevant rewards will be issued after review. Also, there is much we can do to help you with your research on Jingyan Palace."

"Hehe, as long as the pay is good, I'll join."

"That's good."

Jin Jiu smiled slightly, and then his figure disappeared.

Inside his personal space, Zhou Ming let out a long sigh.

Xiao Ai was quite puzzled: "You seem very disappointed now that you've obtained more specific information about the Temple of War and the Palace of Startled Goose?"

"Yes, I'm very disappointed..."

Zhou Ming sighed again.

This feeling is almost a replica of the time when dismantling the Azure Dragon mechanism.

His imagination was too high, too far, even too far for this world to achieve.

Therefore, when Zhou Ming saw the black relic and realized that the so-called Mo family's foundation was far less than he had imagined, he inevitably felt disappointed.

And this is also true at this moment.

Temple of War.

The question of who built this mysterious palace remains a mystery.

Even just by hearing the words 'God of War', Zhou Ming had already locked onto some targets and realized that the creator of this great hall was very likely just a second-rate god or demon from ancient times.

However, when Zhou Ming learned that the palace was actually built by the Yellow Emperor, he couldn't help but feel disappointed.

Although this specification is already very high.

But it was still slightly different from what he had imagined.

It can only be said that the unknown is always more attractive than the known.

"Since you're disappointed, let's try something more interesting."

"what?"

Zhou Ming was taken aback.

Ai pointed at Jingyan Palace: "How about turning this into destiny? The destiny of the Seven Swords!"

Zhou Ming looked surprised.

It wasn't because Ai suggested this idea.

Rather, it was because this was the first time Ai had taken the initiative to bring up something, rather than answering his question or providing a solution to the problem he was facing.

Hmm... if we consider the disappointment Zhou Ming just showed as a problem, then it could be considered one.

"Ai, why would you think that?"

"Can't you?"

Ai tilted her head, a look of confusion on her face.

"Of course, I just want to know your thoughts."

Ai nodded: "I've been wondering what you're trying to do by constantly creating the Seven Swords and the matching Seven Swords techniques? Then I realized you were just playing around."

However, the seven swords have already been created, their sword techniques are complete, and each has found its suitable master. But the destiny that matches them has yet to appear…

"I haven't thought of that yet, just for the time being."

Zhou Ming chuckled.

What destiny?
That was just something he casually mentioned to add to the mystique of the Seven Swords.

Of course, as the Seven Swords gradually came into being, Zhou Ming did consider arranging a destiny to match them.

But he really hadn't figured out what it was.

For a time, he considered the Yellow Emperor's tomb in Lingyun Cave.

Or perhaps we could simply expose the Sword Realm.

However, the former is a bit rough around the edges, and the dragon vein in that tomb could actually affect the entire world, so it can't be played around with carelessly.

The sword world, however, can probably only attract some swordsmen; martial artists from other disciplines are not very interested.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, Ai Haibara proposed that the Temple of War be the destiny of the Seven Swords.

Thinking about it carefully, this idea is actually quite good.

The Temple of War God contains the highest mysteries of martial arts, and it is not limited to any one type of martial arts.

The forty-nine reliefs are meant to be understood intuitively, not explained in words. Anyone can learn their own martial arts skills from these reliefs.

This alone is enough to attract all martial artists in the world.

Meanwhile, the Temple of War was built by the Yellow Emperor.

If the monarch of any country were to receive the legacy of this, he could claim to be a descendant of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors and that he was ordained by Heaven to unify the world!

This is similar to how many separatist forces would desperately vie for the Imperial Seal of the State.

What's the point of robbing a mere broken rock?

It's because of that broken stone that it embodies destiny... no, it should be the human heart.

Because of the continuous propaganda throughout the dynasties, people were willing to believe that the stone signified destiny.

Therefore, the will of the people is naturally where the destiny lies.

The legends of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, however, spread throughout the land and sea, and were deeply ingrained in people's hearts, far surpassing the Imperial Seal of the State.

The sudden appearance of a war temple built by the Yellow Emperor is no less significant than the Yellow Emperor's legacy.

If you were to put a Xuanyuan Sword inside...

All the kings, nobles, generals, and ambitious people in the world would probably go mad!

(End of this chapter)