Chapter 314: Chapter 187: The Will of the People, the Human Dao Treasure

SPLASH~

He unleashed his Water Demon Techniques, parting the river and stripping away the silt, waterweeds, and stones from the earthen slope.

The entrance to the cave, now exposed, was covered by a stone slab.

Gu Zheng’s Divine Wondrous power surged, wrapping around the stone slab from a distance as he attempted to move it.

He easily moved the slab aside.

An invisible force from within the entrance blocked the river water from rushing in.

Sensing no threat, Gu Zheng immediately strode over and entered the cave.

SWISH~

His vision seemed to transform before his very eyes.

The passage, which had looked completely dark from the outside, suddenly became brilliantly lit the moment he stepped inside.

In reality, however, the cave’s environment was still pitch-black.

And yet, the feedback he received—a sensation that acted directly on his Spirit, or his mind—was one of incredible brightness.

After marveling at this strange phenomenon for a moment, Gu Zheng simply closed his physical eyes and proceeded onward, using his mind as his guide.

The tunnel inside was not very long.

He rounded a bend, descended for a short time, and entered a straight section of the tunnel.

At last, he came to a stop in a spherical stone chamber.

It had been hollowed out equally in all directions: up, down, left, and right.

It was ten meters in diameter—or, to be precise, 9.9 meters.

And at the very center of the chamber, the focal point of the sphere, a fist-sized ball of constantly surging light met Gu Zheng’s gaze.

"This is..."

Gu Zheng’s gaze was irresistibly drawn to it. His feet lifted off the ground as he walked through the air toward the sphere of light.

From the depths of his soul, he heard a voice crying out, calling to him.

He tried to listen closer, to identify the speaker, but the voice was uncertain, ethereal and unfathomable.

Step by step.

In this strange, wondrous state of mind, Gu Zheng reached the center and extended his hand to touch the sphere of light.

Meeting no resistance, Gu Zheng’s hand closed directly around the sphere of light.

The instant he grasped it, a chorus of voices suddenly rang out from the depths of his mind.

"Bless Lord Gu, may you live a long life! Slay more Demon Fiends~"

"Oh, great Lord Gu, I, Wang Laosan, kowtow to you! May your Martial Dao Cultivation reach ever greater heights, and may your martial fortune flourish for ten thousand years!"

"Little Qiu’Er greets Lord Gu~! Lord Gu, please make sure you eat your meals and get enough rest, okay~"

"This old man... pays my respects to General Gu! May the General live on in memory, forever... in... invincible!"

"..."

The voices of women, men, young children, and the elderly...

Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of mental voices—prayers, thanks, and blessings—all echoed in Gu Zheng’s mind at that moment.

Across the void, Gu Zheng could almost see them, one after another—men and women, young and old—facing a Longevity Tablet, kowtowing and prostrating themselves before him.

Hearing the mental voices of over a million people wasn’t noisy at all, nor did it cause Gu Zheng any discomfort.

On the contrary, he felt an inexpressible joy, at once both invigorating and serene.

’The will of the people?’

The Longevity Tablets, carved by every household of commoners who had survived thanks to him, had somehow allowed their thoughts to cross the void. This enabled Gu Zheng to hear their innermost feelings, and by channeling this power, he had easily grasped the Seal Artifact Embryo in his hand.

The sphere of light floating in the center of the chamber was precisely the Seal Gu Zheng had been searching for.

However, it was not yet complete—it was still only an Artifact Embryo.

Even so, this Seal Artifact Embryo was the most powerful treasure to appear in over ten thousand years!

After grasping it, in addition to hearing the thoughts of millions, Gu Zheng also received a flood of information.

Information about the Seal, its origins, and the future of the human race!

This world’s first great, unified dynasty was the Yu Dynasty.

Emperor Yu was also the strongest human expert of his time.

It was discovered as early as the Ancient Times that the invasion of the Demon Realm could be resisted through Human Dao Fortune.

As long as the Human Dao flourished, the Demon Realm could not invade.

However, Human Dao Fortune was difficult to condense and unify because the hearts of men are fickle, complex, and hard to fathom. The fortune of a dynasty, on the other hand, could be unified!

Therefore, Emperor Yu established the first dynasty.

But Emperor Yu knew that all dynasties eventually fall, and when that day came, the Demon Realm would invade once more.

To prevent this, Emperor Yu exhausted his heaven-sent talents, traveled across mountains and rivers, and with a peerless comprehension that spanned the ages, he created and forged a Human Dao Treasure.

The Human Emperor’s Seal!

In other words, the Seal Artifact Embryo in Gu Zheng’s hand.

However, refining the Human Emperor’s Seal was exceedingly difficult.

Emperor Yu spent over a thousand years and only managed to forge the Nine Tripods, scattering them throughout the Ten Dao of the World.

These nine Tripod Cauldrons could gather a dynasty’s fortune and absorb it as a unified whole.

Regardless of what became of the Yu Dynasty, as long as new dynasties arose, the Nine Tripods would continue to grow in power.

After the passing of nine dynasties, the Nine Tripods would be filled to capacity, completing themselves and reaching a state where they could be unified.

But unifying the Nine Tripods required someone to physically gather them.

No matter how gifted Emperor Yu was, he could not escape the passage of time. He could not live for ten thousand years.

Thus, he inscribed the method for refining the Human Emperor’s Seal, along with the locations of the Nine Tripods and the Seal itself, into the very blood and bones of the Xia family.

As long as the Xia family was not wiped out, the Divine Will Map that recorded the locations of the Nine Tripods and the Human Emperor’s Seal would continue to be passed down.

The Xia Family was the Noble Family to which Emperor Yu belonged—the very first imperial household.

The identity of the expert’s skeleton that Gu Zheng and Zuo Lingfeng had seen in the Shadow Realm was now clear.

It was a member of the Xia family!

Although the skeleton of every Xia family member contained the Divine Will Map, seeing the map required a specific precondition: one had to be "blessed by the will of the people"!

The will of the people could not be seen or touched, yet it was the necessary condition for activating the Divine Will Map within the bones of a Xia family member.

Moreover, the amount of this gathered will had to reach a certain threshold.

Even seeing the sphere of light floating in the air the moment he entered the chamber required one to be blessed by the will of the people.

Otherwise, it would be completely invisible.

Would members of the Noble Families ever be blessed by the will of the people?

Never!

For Noble Families with legacies spanning thousands, even tens of thousands of years, no matter how gentle or humble they might appear, the arrogance in their bones—that sense of superiority—would never vanish.

They only respected those with outstanding talent, people on their own level.

As for the common folk beneath them?

Whether many lived or died hardly caused a ripple in their hearts.

Only people like Gu Zheng, Zuo Lingfeng, Huang Dajin, and Zhao Danv—those who came from humble beginnings—would look after the common folk and help them whenever they could.

Zuo Lingfeng was, in fact, also blessed by the will of the people.

However, compared to Gu Zheng, the amount he had was far too small.

That was why he hadn’t seen the Divine Will Map.

And for refining the Human Emperor’s Seal, the will of the people was absolutely essential!

Unifying the Nine Tripods was the first step.

Gathering the will of millions, even tens of millions of people, was the second step.

And after that, a third, a fourth...

Once the Human Emperor’s Seal was successfully and completely refined, the Demon Realm would never again be able to invade this world.

Even if there was no great, unified dynasty in the world.

As long as people still existed!

As long as the spark of humanity remained, it could be used to awaken the Human Emperor’s Seal, and the Demon Realm would be unable to invade.

’The will of the people... the Human Emperor’s Seal... Could this be destiny?’

Gu Zheng murmured to himself.

At first, he had only wanted to protect the people around him.

But with the emergence of the Demon Fiends, that desire had slowly expanded to protecting whomever was in front of him.

After all, he’d had a modern education. When it was within his power, Gu Zheng didn’t mind helping the suffering commoners.

’But what is this situation now?’

’Saving the world!’

’Refining the Human Emperor’s Seal is tantamount to saving the world!’

’This burden is too heavy.’

’The responsibility is too great.’

Gu Zheng instinctively recoiled from the idea.

However, just as that thought arose, the Human Emperor’s Seal Artifact Embryo in his hand transmitted a new stream of information.

The path to greater power!

’Refining the Human Emperor’s Seal can help me break through to the True Body Realm, and even realms beyond that?’

As Gu Zheng absorbed the information, a look of shocked disbelief crossed his face. "Is this for real? You’re not just trying to trick me, are you?"

The Human Emperor’s Seal Artifact Embryo gave no response.

This Human Dao Treasure did not yet possess a complete Artifact Spirit, only a vague Spiritual consciousness that kept it functioning.

It was currently incapable of holding a normal conversation with Gu Zheng or answering his questions.

"...Alright, then."

Gu Zheng took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil in his heart.

’Given the unique nature of the Human Emperor’s Seal, it really could be connected to realm breakthroughs.’

He was still unsure how to break through to the True Body Realm.

But his intuition told him that successfully refining the Human Emperor’s Seal would indeed help him on his path to greater power!

’If that’s the case, then saving the world isn’t out of the question...’

With a self-deprecating smile, Gu Zheng pushed aside his distracting thoughts, connected his mind to the Human Emperor’s Seal, and tried to sense the locations of the Nine Tripods.

Through the Human Emperor’s Seal, he could pinpoint the exact locations of the Nine Tripods.

After ten thousand years, the chances that the locations of the Nine Tripods left by Emperor Yu on the Divine Will Map had been discovered were not small.

And sure enough...

Gu Zheng sensed the location of the nearest tripod, the Southern Mountain Tripod, and compared it to the map in his mind. He discovered the Tripod Cauldron was in the Royal Capital...

No, inside the Royal Palace!