The prehistoric infrastructure maniac

Chapter 154 A Million Years Later
Although Hou Yi did not awaken his memories of his past life, he was still exceptionally brave and had outstanding talent for cultivation. He was also particularly skilled in archery and was a renowned archer among the human race.

While Tai Kang was out hunting, Hou Yi shot and killed him, then led his troops to capture Zhen, the capital of the Xia Dynasty, and installed Xia Zhongkang as a puppet king.

This move caused quite a stir among the powerful cultivators of the prehistoric world.

After all, Yu the Great was a disciple of Zhenwu, and the Xia Dynasty established by his descendants was naturally connected to the lineage of Shi Mo, and thus deserved protection.

Unexpectedly, the Xia Dynasty's hereditary rule was overthrown after only two generations, which truly surprised everyone.

Although Hou Yi still supported the descendants of Yu the Great as kings, he held real power, and the fortunes of the Xia clan were weakened.

The sages and powerful figures who had guessed Hou Yi's origins were especially keenly watching Hou Yi's next move and the reactions of Shi Mo and Zhen Wu.

To their surprise, Shi Mo and Zhenwu, master and disciple, did not react to this matter, as if they had tacitly approved of Hou Yi's usurpation of power.

Meanwhile, Xia Zhongkang, unwilling to be controlled by others, secretly contacted Yinhou, who was loyal to the Xia clan, to attack Houyi, but suffered a crushing defeat at Houyi's hands.

Xia Zhongkang served as a puppet king for a total of seven years before dying of illness due to depression. Afterwards, Hou Yi installed his son Xia Xiang as the puppet king.

But soon, Hou Yi launched a coup, seized the throne of Xia Xiang, and declared himself king, thus ending the Xia Dynasty.
However, after Hou Yi succeeded to the throne, he indulged in pleasure, neglected state affairs, and entrusted national affairs to his confidant Han Zhuo. He was not at all like a wise and capable ruler.

After Han Zhuo seized power, his ambition began to swell. Later, he even launched a coup, intending to replace Hou Yi. He even successfully killed Hou Yi, which was quite unexpected.

In the underworld, behind Yin Mountain, inside the Houtu Palace, the Red Lotus Taoist, who was telling the Houtu Goddess about Hou Yi's death, couldn't help but feel both amused and exasperated.

"Hou Yi only briefly served as the emperor in name only. Is Your Majesty somewhat disappointed?"

"I had expected this outcome, as he was influenced by the fortune of the Wu tribe. Moreover, he is only good as a tribal leader, but he is indeed not good enough to be a human emperor," Houtu Niangniang shook her head slightly.

Honglian Daoist said, "That Han Zhuo has the shadow of the Western Sect behind him. If it weren't for the Western Sect's involvement, it wouldn't have been so easy for him to kill Hou Yi."

"But don't worry! It won't be so easy for the Western Sect to sever the Xia Dynasty's fortune. I've already arranged for Zhenwu to do it. Although Han Zhuo killed Hou Yi and Xia Xiang and established the Han Dynasty, Xia Xiang still has a posthumous son, Shao Kang. The Xia clan's fortune is not yet exhausted, and the Han Dynasty is destined to be short-lived," the Red Lotus Taoist continued.

As the Red Lotus Taoist had predicted, with the help of his mother tribe and the support of Zhenwu, Shao Kang ultimately defeated the illegitimate Han Zhuo and restored the Xia Dynasty.

However, the subsequent change of the imperial throne and dynasty was also beyond Shi Mo's expectations.

Although the human race has lost the direct protection of its powerful ancestors, it has always had cultivators with cultivation traditions constantly being born.

Starting with Shao Kang, many of the Xia Dynasty's rulers were accomplished cultivators, which made the Xia Dynasty's national fortune far exceed the few hundred years recorded in real history books. Although it was roughly the same number of emperors, it lasted for hundreds of thousands of years, several epochs!
Next, when Tang of Shang replaced Xia, the disciples of the sages had long lost interest in becoming teachers of the emperor. Kong Xuan, at Shi Mo's behest, took Tang of Shang into his fold.

Therefore, even with the change of dynasties, the fortunes of the Yin Shang dynasty remained connected to those of Shi Mo.

As expected, the Shang dynasty lasted longer than the Xia dynasty.

In particular, the wise rulers such as Pan Geng and Wu Ding, as well as Wu Ding's wife Fu Hao, truly accumulated considerable foundation and fortune for the Yin Shang Dynasty.

Unbeknownst to many, millions of years have passed since the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. There have been few major changes in the primordial world, and even the human race has remained largely unchanged except for the rise and fall of dynasties.

However, as the Queen Mother held the Peach Banquet at Yaochi time and time again, her influence in the Heavenly Court and the Three Realms of the Primordial World grew stronger and stronger.

Xingyun Daoist didn't care about this, and neither did Ziwei, who was nominally in charge of the Heavenly Emperor's duties.

In any case, Haotian will return sooner or later. Even if Ziwei is not the Heavenly Emperor, as the Great Emperor Ziwei of the North Pole of the Central Heaven, his status in the Heavenly Court is not much inferior to that of the Heavenly Emperor.

Therefore, Ziwei appears very Zen-like, and even has little presence, just like the identity of Xingyun Daoren and Xingyun Dadi.

The affairs of Heaven were left to Yaochi and Jiuku Tianzun to manage, so Ziwei was entrusted to them. The Antarctic Immortal, a disciple of Yuanshi Tianzun, was also someone who didn't care about anything. Gouchen and Zhenwu were basically only responsible for leading the heavenly soldiers and generals into battle.

As the Heavenly Court's influence grew in the Three Realms, and its foundation became quite solid, no one dared to provoke it. Therefore, Gouchen and Zhenwu were relatively free now, spending most of their time in seclusion and cultivation.

In the primordial starry sky, within the Nebula Palace, in a vast palace filled with dense stellar power, the Chaos Bell, enveloped in starlight, faintly transformed into a starry world.
Like another primordial starry sky, in a world filled with endless star power, a colossal ancient tree can be vaguely seen amidst the dazzling starlight, bearing fruits that shimmer with starlight.

Clearly, this is an innate spiritual root of extremely high quality, the supreme innate spiritual root, the Zhou Tian Star Fruit Tree. It uses the power of the stars as nourishment and can grow fruit without soil or water, which is why Di Jun and Donghuang Taiyi planted it inside the Chaos Bell, which can gather the power of the Zhou Tian stars.

For this reason, almost none of the powerful beings in the primordial world knew of the existence of this Zhou Tian Xing Chen Fruit Tree.

Moreover, the cycle of the Zhou Tian Star Fruit Tree bearing fruit is too long. If it were placed in the primordial starry sky to absorb the power of the stars, it would take ten eons, nearly 1.3 million years, to mature once.

Even if placed inside the Chaos Bell, where the power of the celestial bodies gathers with its help, greatly shortening the time required, it would still take three multi-dimensional cycles, comparable to the time it takes for a Huangzhong plum to bear fruit once.

Of course, this does not mean that the Zhou Tian Xing Chen fruit tree is of better quality than the Huang Zhong plum.

The difference in quality between the two fruits is evident from the fact that the Zhou Tian Xing Chen fruit tree produces 365 Xing Chen fruits at a time, while the Huang Zhong plum only produces nine.

Moreover, the effects of Star Fruit are not as mysterious as those of Yellow Plum. It simply contains incredibly pure and surging energy. For those with strong physiques, such as some ancient demon races, consuming a single Star Fruit will temper their physical body and magical power, allowing their cultivation to rise by several major realms at once.

Therefore, the Zhou Tian Star Fruit Tree is of great use to the demon race, the dragon race, and the witch race, which is why Di Jun and Donghuang Taiyi hid it so deeply back then.

However, in the end, it was Shi Mo who benefited from it, along with the Chaos Bell.

Beneath the enormous Zhou Tian Star Fruit Tree, where the aura of a sage was freely released and the mysterious light above his head flickered, the Xingyun Daoist suddenly sensed something and abruptly opened his eyes, a look of surprise flashing in them: "Hmm? This fluctuation..."

A hum resonated. The Chaos Bell trembled slightly, and the entire primordial starry sky was filled with the dazzling starlight and boiling star power.
At the same time, in the thirty-third heaven of the Heavenly Court, the celestial energy surged and finally converged, transforming into auspicious celestial clouds that flowed towards the Jade Pool.
At Yaochi, another grand Peach Banquet was held, attracting immortals and gods from all directions. Many quasi-saints and powerful beings came, and even the Western Sect sent the Medicine Master, who had already become a quasi-saint, as their representative.

However, the Western quasi-saints cultivated the Dharma Body method developed by the Guide Saints through their understanding of the Three Corpses to achieve sainthood, which involved some shortcuts.

Although he cultivated his Dharma Body and surpassed the peak of the Great Luo realm, he was still somewhat inferior to a true Quasi-Saint.

Moreover, cultivating a Dharma body is not so easy; it requires merit and good fortune as a supplement.

Even so, as several disciples of the Western Sect, such as the Medicine Master and the disciples of Jieyin and Zhunti, successively cultivated to the level of 'quasi-saints', it was still quite impressive on the surface, attracting more cultivators to join the Western Sect. The number of prehistoric cultivators who believed in the Western Sect also increased.

The first to notice the sudden anomaly in the Heavenly Court were the quasi-saints and powerful beings who had come to attend the Peach Banquet.

"What's going on? This aura!" The Daoist Duobao, who was leisurely sipping his top-grade immortal wine, suddenly noticed the gathering of immortal clouds and auspicious energy, and the sudden emergence of an invisible, surging, and mysterious aura, which made him secretly startled and his gaze sharpen.

"Haotian? Senior Brother is back?" The Queen Mother of Yaochi, sitting next to Ziwei behind a table in the main seat above, felt the faintly familiar aura and her expression changed with excitement.

Amidst the rapidly gathering celestial clouds and auspicious energy above Yaochi, dazzling golden light converged and quickly transformed into a golden figure radiating auspicious light—it was Haotian, wearing a crown and a magnificent, gold-lacquered imperial robe.

At this moment, he seemed to have truly transformed into the ruler of the Three Realms. His surging noble aura was second only to that of a saint, and even the three emperors of the human race were no more than that.

"Senior Brother!" the Queen Mother of Yaochi exclaimed excitedly.

Somewhat surprised, Ziwei immediately stood up, cupped her hands slightly, and said with a faint smile, "Congratulations on Your Majesty's return from your tribulation!"

"Ziwei, for these millions of years, you have diligently managed the Three Realms of the Primordial World for me. You have worked hard!" Haotian, upon his return, nodded and smiled slightly, his voice resounding loudly and majestically throughout the Heavenly Court and the Primordial World:

"I, Haotian, have followed the will of Heaven and fulfilled my destiny. Now that my merits are complete and I have returned from my tribulations, from this day forward, I shall be the Great Heavenly Venerable Haotian Jade Emperor of the Three Realms!"

"Welcome back, Heavenly Venerable, after your tribulation! Pay your respects to the Jade Emperor!" All the immortals and gods in the Jade Pool knelt down before the Jade Emperor.

Even those quasi-saints and powerful beings were busy bowing politely, after all, the Jade Emperor, who had just returned from his tribulation, had surpassed them in both cultivation and status.

"Congratulations, Jade Emperor!" Starlight converged, and the figure of Daoist Xingyun condensed in the void, standing opposite the Jade Emperor.

"Thank you, Senior Brother!" The Jade Emperor also bowed slightly to show his respect.

Immediately afterwards, the Three Pure Ones, Nuwa, Jieyin, and Zhenyuanzi also appeared in their incarnations one after another, offering simple congratulations to the Jade Emperor and giving him ample face.

Amidst the excited welcome from the immortals, gods, and quasi-saints, the Jade Emperor, feeling quite elated, hurriedly returned the greetings to the Three Pure Ones.
(End of this chapter)