The Yellow Emperor’s War

Nine Lotos was a member of the Dongyan clan. During the realmwar all those years ago, True Immortal Dongyan had fought side by side with Ji Ning. That war had lasted for years, and naturally a deep friendship had grown between them. In his heart… Ji Ning truly admired and trusted the man’s character. Dongyan was as open and upright as they came, a true hero through and through. And yet, Ji Ning could also sense a faint sorrow lingering in the man’s eyes. Something in his past had clearly left a shadow that he had never been able to escape.

“True Immortal Dongyan of your Grand Xia world… he really is an admirable one,” True Immortal Luoshui said with a sigh. “The Crimsonbright Realmwar has long since ended. The conflicts between the Seamless Gate and the Crimsonbright territory are relatively minor now, but skirmishes still erupt from time to time. That True Immortal Dongyan was almost always at the very front of the killing, and his strength was extraordinary. Two of the Seamless Gate’s God-True Immortals died by his hand. But this time… his luck ran out. While being besieged by three Seamless Gate God-True Immortals, he failed to escape…”

Ji Ning nodded quietly.

Over the past six hundred years…

The first time he heard that a friend had died, his heart ached. But as, one after another, familiar comrades fell in battle, a cold sorrow settled in his chest, yet he remained calm. He understood this all too well… this was a war that no one could avoid. And in war, there was death.

There was only one way to stop it all: win this war.

“Ji Ning.” A voice echoed in his mind.

“Master.” Ji Ning started.

“Come to Mount Innerheart at once.”

A spatial vortex materialized in the void ahead of the wooden boat.

True Immortal Luoshui, who was also on the boat, blinked in confusion. Ji Ning quickly said, “My master is summoning me. I must go immediately. Please forgive me, Brother Luoshui.”

“Go, go! Don’t worry about me,” True Immortal Luoshui urged. By now, Ji Ning’s strength was considerable, and his identity as Subhuti’s disciple was widely known. Back when Subhuti had first taken him as an apprentice, the reason for the secrecy was simple: if other powers had known, they would naturally have sought to befriend Ji Ning out of respect for Subhuti. That would have robbed him of the tempering he so desperately needed.

That was how Subhuti trained his disciples.

In the beginning, they were never allowed to reveal that their master was Subhuti. Only after they had become true powers of the Three Realms did the secret spread naturally.

“Whoosh.”

Ji Ning flew into the spatial vortex. Traveling through the spacetime tunnel, he soon arrived above Mount Innerheart.

…

He descended and landed before the Daoist temple’s gate.

“Uncle-Master.” The two young attendants at the gate, Qingshui and Baihe, both smiled in greeting.

Ji Ning nodded and stepped inside.

Once he entered, he was startled. Far ahead, the white-haired Patriarch Subhuti sat cross-legged. Seated below him were over a dozen disciples, every single one of them at the God-True Immortal level. Ji Ning spotted his rarely-seen third senior apprentice-brother, the Golden Crow, as well as familiar faces like Silvermoon and Senior Apprentice-Brother Jiang Jun. There were also senior apprentice-sister Fengxiao and Senior Apprentice-Brother Junwu, whom he had seen only a few times.

Ji Ning quickly walked over and found a place to sit.

“Ji Ning, have Red Snow come out,” Subhuti instructed.

“Yes, Master.” Ji Ning acknowledged and immediately sent word to the Crimson Snow waiting in the Starseizing Major World. Moments later, Crimson Snow appeared by his side.

“Everyone is here now.”

Subhuti gazed down at his disciples and said calmly, “As you all know, ever since the Seamless Gate’s assassination attempt three hundred years ago, war has erupted between us and them again and again.”

Everyone below nodded, including Ji Ning. They were all filled with fury. Even mortals understood the principle of ‘crimes not extending to family.’ But the Seamless Gate had discarded all scruples, launching an enormous, Three Realms-spanning assassination campaign! They knew such a campaign would only be effective the first time; once Nuwa’s camp was on guard, the opportunity would never come again. So they cast an extremely wide net. Despite the many experts in Nuwa’s camp, their lack of vigilance led to devastating losses.

The close family, dear friends, and beloved disciples of many Nuwa’s camp experts were slaughtered.

Twelve Pure Yang True Immortals of Nuwa’s camp, driven mad with rage by these events, succumbed to heart demons and perished, their truesouls extinguished.

Fury consumed Nuwa’s camp. The three Human Sovereigns and the leaders of the Daoist and Buddhist paths knew this fury could not be suppressed. And so… war erupted with unbridled ferocity. The war over these past three hundred years has been more than ten times as intense as the three centuries prior! By now, war has broken out in nearly all the realmverses.

“War has erupted in almost every realmverse in the Three Realms,” Subhuti said. “Only a few of the most elite realmverses remain relatively calm. The next realmverse to face war… will be the Yellow Emperor’s territory.”

“The Yellow Emperor’s realmverse?” “Yellow Emperor? One of the Five Emperors?” “The Five Emperors?”

They were all stunned.

Other Daofathers and Elder Gods typically ruled over territories where the force of God-True Immortals was relatively weak—having a hundred was already considered a decent number. Ji Ning and the others understood that the scale of war would inevitably grow. That the next target was someone on the level of the Five Emperors didn’t surprise them; they had long anticipated that this was the natural progression.

But they hadn’t expected it to be the Yellow Emperor himself.

The Yellow Emperor held an extraordinarily high position in human history. First came Suiren, Fuxi, and Shennong—the three Human Sovereigns. The next great figure to rise was the Yellow Emperor, Xuanyuan! Emperor Yan (Shennong) and the Yellow Emperor had even struggled against each other for a long, long time. Though Shennong was incredibly powerful in his own right, his heart was devoted to alchemical research, not the command of armies. In the end, he was defeated, and the Yellow Emperor claimed victory.

In ancient times, the human race even spoke of ‘Yan-Huang’ together.

In terms of influence on humanity, the Yellow Emperor was the foremost among the Five Emperors. Though the final emperor, Great Yu, had established and consolidated the human dynasty that continued to this day, in terms of personal charisma and leadership, Yu was actually inferior to the Yellow Emperor.

“Great Yu was the leader of the ancient imperial clan,” Senior Apprentice-Sister Fengxiao said, frowning. “When the imperial clan gave an order, all of humanity united. Of course that final struggle was for the fate of the people. Among the other four emperors—Yao, Shun, Zhuanxu, and Xuanyuan—the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan is the strongest. He has over a thousand God-True Immortals who have followed him for ages. That’s far more than Zhuanxu, Yao, or Shun. So why would war break out in the Yellow Emperor’s territory?”

Ji Ning and the others understood.

Emperor Zhuanxu had a little over six hundred God-True Immortals under his command. Emperors Yao and Shun had slightly more, but still fewer than a thousand. The Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan likely had around fifteen hundred.

But then again, the Five Emperors were, after all, merely top-tier Elder God Daofathers. For those seeking to cultivate and grow stronger, they generally pledged themselves to the Three Sovereigns. Suiren’s Blazing Flame Major World, for instance, had over ten thousand God-True Immortals. As the being generally recognized as the strongest in the Three Realms, naturally he attracted countless followers.

As for the ancient imperial clan, they were the common lords of all humanity, their orders obeyed even by Daofathers, let alone God-True Immortals.

That Xuanyuan, who was no longer the leader of humanity, still had fifteen hundred God-True Immortals following him was truly extraordinary.

…

Subhuti gazed down at them and said calmly, “Since we are to fight, we must fight with overwhelming force. This realmwar will be different from all others. All previous wars combined have cost us over a thousand God-True Immortals. But this time… Xuanyuan alone has fifteen hundred under his command, and with reinforcements from other territories, we will have over two thousand. Normal losses would be several hundred God-True Immortals. If the battle is particularly brutal, casualties could reach over a thousand. In other words… this single realmwar could equal the total losses of all previous realmwars combined!”

A heavy weight settled over the room.

Over two thousand on their side? The enemy would likely have comparable numbers.

In a war of this scale, even a Daofather could be swarmed and killed.

“Who among you will participate?” Subhuti looked at Ji Ning and the others. “If you join, you will naturally be given command of a God-True Immortal formation.”

Subhuti’s disciples were all extraordinary. Even the most junior among them, Ji Ning and Crimson Snow, were exceptionally formidable.

“I will.”

A voice rang out.

Ji Ning and the others turned to look.

It was Silvermoon. He had lost his usual elegant demeanor. A fierce, killing aura clung to him—the accumulated bloodlust of centuries of slaughter. Long ago, Silvermoon had said he was willing to fight alongside Ji Ning. But Ji Ning had been holding back, waiting for the right moment to rescue his senior apprentice-sister. Silvermoon, however, couldn’t wait any longer. He had gone out and joined the fighting himself.