Volume Five: Ancient Legends Chapter 47: Walking Firmly Forward

The Qingfeng Tribe, where Chen Chen resided, was a tribe governed by the Greater Cultivation Nation, comprising eight villages and one celestial mountain.

Most of the celestial mountains were located in the center of the tribes. The sects residing upon them served as the guardians of the surrounding countryside, early on selecting those with superior foundations from the various village populations to nurture.

As for those with lesser foundations, they were assigned to existences guarding the villages, leading them to strengthen themselves so as to better face the crises of survival.

There was also a small fraction of children from ordinary families who, at a young age, could not find the meaning of their existence, thinking only of living in peace and relying on their parents to merely survive within the village.

Some were even unaware of what their daily lives were losing or gaining.

The mentor who taught Chen Chen's classes, the adult who instructed them in daily physical conditioning, had once cultivated within those celestial mountains, achieving the Dao to become a guardian of the villages beneath the mountain.

That guardian of the village had practiced for many years before finally securing a stable home, a safe haven from the wind and rain.

Back then, at Chen Chen's age, he had also endured hardships, though not nearly as rigorous as the training Chen Chen and the others underwent now, practicing twice daily, morning and evening.

When the time was ripe, those with exceptional aptitude would be selected and dispatched to the celestial mountains for arduous cultivation.

With the once-in-a-century beast siege gradually drawing near, this new generation had become the focus of their diligent cultivation and training.

The war for survival was merciless; at most, in ten years, those man-eating beasts would march into the cities to devour humans.

By then, let alone a tiny village, even an entire tribe or nation could face annihilation.

Coincidentally, those adults possessed extensive life experiences in the mortal realm.

Though strict with the new generation, they were doing their utmost to foster their survival skills in the shortest possible time.

Otherwise, perishing prematurely and dying in the jaws of beasts would truly be a natural and man-made disaster.

As the adults who trained the new generation, when they had grown up, they had not faced such immense survival crises.

Back then, they merely tried their best to obey the elders, living peacefully as long as they did their jobs well.

Now, as history approached a turning point, it was a choice between fighting beasts to the death to screen and preserve a stronger human race, or being fragile and vulnerable under the beast sieges, turning this generation of humanity into the dust of history.

Perhaps everything was just beginning. In other parts of the continent—the lands guarded by immortals—

Aside from the Greater Cultivation Nation, there were other realms. For instance, the Fang Nation, where phantom beasts were abundant, and the hallucinogenic fierce beast Zhulong, the Candle Dragon, was one of them.

Over the past twenty-five years, how had the residents of the Fang Nation performed? Amidst the sieges of phantom beasts, how much cultivation did they possess to withstand the repeated attacks of these creatures?

In the Greater Witch Nation, what were the sorcerers chanting day after day?

With the venomous gu insects emerging incessantly from their voodoo jars, what kind of survival crisis would they face as another twenty-five years rolled around?

The mages of the Western Magic Alliance possessed formidable power as well; what scenes would unfold there when they faced the sieges of magical beasts?

The war for survival between humanity and the beast clans had always existed. Long ago, during the cataclysmic Lich War of one such civilization, similar civilization-advancing wars had already occurred.

For humanity today, the coming decade would see the cultivation realm of the Fang Nation plagued by the lingering incursions of phantom beasts left in the wake of past sieges.

When had the sieges ever truly ceased?

Perhaps they had never stopped.

They were merely maintained as a state of peace and stability after negotiations between supreme beings among humanity and the various clans.

The great calamities of the nations recurred in cycles of a century, with a war every twenty-five years.

In every realm across the Qingfeng Continent, anomalous incidents involving beasts had occurred: Taotie, Zhulong, Qiongqi...

The Taotie loved to devour, a trait dating back to primordial times.

It was that ferocious creature which, eating and eating until nothing was left to eat, ultimately devoured even itself.

The Zhulong excelled at illusion. Every century in the Fang Nation marked the moment when phantom beasts launched their offensive against the cultivation realm, serving as a trial to test their survival strength.

The Qiongqi liked to assist wicked people, utilizing them to find evil ghosts to devour.

Fifteen years of the direct confrontation from the previous twenty-five-year cycle had already passed. Now, the cultivators who had survived the catastrophe were simultaneously guarding against the residual phantom beasts left in the wake of the True-Phantom War, while casting their gaze toward another cultivation-system realm—the Greater Cultivation Nation.

To see whether the humans of the Greater Cultivation Nation could withstand the onslaught of the ferocious beasts.

The crisis of survival was so grave that it allowed not a moment of carelessness.

Every step taken too many or too few represented whether resources were being cherished and proper growth achieved.

In the world of adults, the word "easy" did not exist.

Should one's spiritual attainment fall short and lack the necessary skill in cultivation, one would likely end up as a corpse.

Upon a land guarded by the strong, people united as one.

Those under protection might not perceive the crisis and cruelty of survival.

When faced with actual warfare between soldiers and beasts, how many humans could withstand the onslaught of the beasts?

Would they quail before the battle, retreating from their homes to seek survival in safer territories, or would they tenaciously persist in the present?

To hold the village, to hold the frontline, to hold the tribe.

In the war for survival, countless creatures felt hunger; not only humans desired meat, but beasts desired meat as well. This was a bloody war.

One day, they would all rush to their respective battlefields of survival. Chen Chen was still striving to survive, hoping through his own efforts to attain survival and pursuits of even greater difficulty.

Fame and fortune, ability, status, instinctive desires, various competitions, various defenses and challenges.

Daily drills in the village of the Qingfeng Tribe proceeded with intense fervor.

The abilities forged through such training would prove useful one day.

The instinct to survive must never be allowed to flag.

After a round of drills, it was time for Chen Chen to return home.

At this moment, the setting sun dipped below the horizon, and the earth gradually plunged into darkness.

Nighttime was for rest.

By now, the cultivators of the cultivation realm's Fang Nation had already drifted into slumber. Their battle of slaughter against the phantom beasts from years past had drawn to a close, leaving only remnants that occasionally stirred up trouble in the mortal realm and harassed the human race.

The territory of illusions had ultimately chosen the Fang Nation once again.

Their direction of cultivation was the "True," making "Illusions" their natural enemy forged to temper their growth.

What the Greater Cultivation Nation was about to face was the assault of ferocious beasts—not phantom beasts launching attacks, but actual beasts.

All signs indicated that the contest between the human race and the ferocious beasts had never ceased.

There were times when each fought for its own kind with blades drawn.

Do not commit evil any longer, believing there is no retribution.

Do not grow decadent any longer, believing survival is easy.

Do not indulge in greed any longer; the war for survival has never stopped.

Ferocious beasts bred every year, and when the fate-ordained battle arrived, it was the day for each side to pick up their weapons and fight to the death.

Both humans and beasts could not be penned up like livestock; if they were to die a spineless death one day, they would rather fight to the death on the battlefield for their respective survival.

Those beasts were no ordinary beasts, and those humans were no ordinary humans. Those qualified to live and continue surviving were the strong; those penned up like livestock who tragically died one day due to their own ignorance and incompetence were all to be pitied castaways.

Chen Chen's life was gradually becoming more arduous. As time passed and age increased, Chen Chen required more and more nourishment to grow.

His living expenses were no small sum either; he was no longer a young, ignorant child who spent very little.

With advancing age came consumption—whether for items he desired, for a cherished companion, or for his ideals—driving him to study diligently and work hard to become a better version of himself.

The survival pressure on Chen Chen's parents was gradually mounting.

Perhaps an adult, upon reaching a certain age, ought to shoulder the grand plan of family survival.

One could not slack off, one could not be remiss, and one must not lose by virtue of insufficient effort.

Chen Chen was, after all, Chen Chen; he could not continually ask his parents for money for everything.

By this day and age, he had to learn how to face survival.

As night fell, the overt and covert struggles of the day drew to a close.

The night sky was dotted with stars, and ferocious beasts often roamed the mortal realm.

Roaring in the world of mortals, they heralded the imminent arrival of the destined war between humanity and the beast clans.

This was the territory where the Greater Cultivation Nation resided, and ferocious beasts were its standard feature.

Even without phantom beasts, magical beasts, or gu insects from other civilizations and realms, the survival challenges in the Greater Cultivation Nation remained heavy.

Their food, clothing, housing, and transportation required diligent effort, and their natural enemies in survival—along with their own laziness—were things that could cost them their lives.

Only by rising to meet such challenges could Chen Chen be considered a qualified human.

Tenaciously living in the mortal world, tenaciously acting like the strong, stepping forward firmly within the human world with a human body.