Two Possibilities

"What is the Heaven and Earth Suppression Lock?" Wei Yuan asked with genuine deference. "It just means Immortal Heaven has put a lock on it, so you can't go up," Houtu said. Zhang Sheng and Yin-Yang both wore peculiar expressions, reminded of Wei Yuan's experience of ascending to immortality right where he stood. But from what Houtu described, the foreign races' mighty figures of the Yuangu era operated on a far higher level than the Venerable Master. The Venerable Master still had to rally the immortal host to take direct physical action—which was already an inferior method. Those foreign figures, on the other hand, had directly locked the Heavenly Dao tight, giving no one the slightest chance. Furthermore, from Houtu's words, Wei Yuan could tell that there were issues with the so-called fruitions of the innate sacred bodies back then; Emperor Yu had conjured them out of sheer, supreme cultivation. Originally, that batch of innate sacred bodies had been created with the sole intent of dying together with the foreign Immortal Lords, so naturally there was no need to put too much craft into the fruitions—as long as they were sufficient for the job, that was enough. Back then, the fruitions of Houtu and the others were all founded upon sacrificial power. Each fruition required the sacrifice of tens of millions of vigorous young men and women, so they were naturally suffused with karmic debt from the inside out. That was why Houtu was intimately familiar with karmic debt, easily defusing the Mountain Folk's ultimate killing strike that was centered around it. After asking about the past, confirming that Houtu's background checked out, and seizing the opportunity to learn many ancient secrets, Wei Yuan turned to the main point and asked what divine arts and abilities Houtu possessed. Houtu said, "To be honest, I'm not good at spell duels. My first divine art is the City of Ten Thousand Fathoms. It's what you saw earlier—it grants people an Earth-element protective shield. The shields aren't particularly tough, but the sheer quantity is decent enough. Basically, within ten thousand li, shielding about a million people is no trouble at all." Wei Yuan's breathing grew slightly heavier. That was on the scale of a major battle campaign! What was more, Houtu's protective shield did not just defend; it could also neutralize the pressure of foreign heavens and earths. Qingming's armies were already formidable; with Houtu added to the mix, they would hold a massive advantage against foreign enemies in the future. Houtu continued, "My second divine art... never mind, I won't name it. This divine art is mainly for storage, holding all things within the earth. In practice, its primary use was to store Emperor Yu's resentment and karmic debt for him. "Back then, whenever our human race fought a war, every battle required blood sacrifice, readily starting at several hundred thousand people. Most of them didn't actually want to die, so the resentment and karmic debt were extraordinarily heavy. All that karmic debt, I took in and held for him..." At this point, Houtu's voice suddenly drifted, as though lost in memories of that era. "After Rushou and Goumang passed away, the Liao Ancestor refused to accept defeat. He borrowed a sea from the Sea Clan and dumped it directly over our lands. Back then, great floods raged everywhere under heaven. Helpless, Emperor Yu sacrificed fifty million people in one go to take supreme might upon himself. It took him ten years to finally level that sea. "In truth, even if he had done nothing, the sea would have receded on its own after another twenty years. But that would have meant more than a billion more dead, and many lands would have been ruined. Emperor Yu could not sit idly by. Though he knew the Liao Ancestor was deliberately forcing his hand, he still made the sacrifices in exchange for supreme power to govern and restore the realm. "Yet fifty million sacrifices was simply too much. Even with me sharing the load, more than half his lifespan was sheared away, leaving him with less than a hundred years. "Later, one day, Emperor Yu said that the greatest wish of his life was to see a world where humans never had to be sacrificed to Heaven and Earth, where human lives were never used as offerings." And then... Houtu quietly pulled her emotions together, putting on a bright, sunny smile once more. "And then... Emperor Yu died. I felt the world had become utterly boring, so I touched up this mortal shell of mine, made myself look pretty, and offered myself to the Liao Ancestor. In the end, the Liao Ancestor couldn't resist the allure of an innate sacred body, and he granted me an audience. And then this lady shoved her entire Dao fruit cultivation, along with several centuries' worth of accumulated resentment and karmic debt, right down his throat! "I don't know what happened afterward, but that old bastard probably didn't have an easy time of it, right?" Wei Yuan said, "The Liao Ancestor slumbers year-round, only waking for major events like calamities. The Martial Ancestor once suspected that the Liao Ancestor might already be dead, and that Liao Clan immortals are simply puppeteering his corpse to deter enemies." "Slumbering year-round? Isn't that the same as being dead? Haha! Serves him right! This lady didn't die for nothing! Damn it, the old bastard didn't even stop to think—over the years, plenty of people lusted after my body, but which one of them ever died an honest death?" Although Wei Yuan was currently an avatar of the primordial spirit, his expression became somewhat unnatural. He quietly examined himself, wondering whether Houtu had slipped something onto him earlier while pinching and fondling him. Noticing his expression, Houtu snorted and said peevishly, "What are you thinking? Is your elder sister that kind of person?" As she spoke, she reached out and wiped a hand across Wei Yuan. A bug had appeared in her palm. With a casual flick of her fingers, she pinched it to death and tossed it into the flower bushes, acting as though nothing had happened. Wei Yuan's face turned green! He hadn't sensed this bug at all! Clearly, once triggered, it would at least have claimed the life of this soul avatar before tracing its way back to his true body. Given this level of underhanded assassination mastery, it wouldn't be surprising if the entire host of current human immortals died by her hand. At this moment, everyone gained a brand-new appreciation for how brutally and wildly things had developed in the Yuangu era. Having finished explaining her divine arts, Houtu adopted a serious expression. "These past few days, I took some time to wander around, particularly within Qingming. I found that modern people live peculiar lives, with so many bizarre little gadgets. But this flourishing, peaceful world... it's largely what Emperor Yu envisioned back then. "You're not bad, kid, so I'll naturally do what I can to help! But what is that giant boulder in the center of Qingming for? It seems to be constantly distorting the Heavenly Dao." Wei Yuan was taken aback. "That is the boundary stone, the very foundation of human survival. Without boundary stones, mortals cannot survive. Legend has it that the boundary stone was created by the First Human Sovereign—the Emperor Yu you speak of. How could you not know about it?" Houtu frowned. "Emperor Yu never created any boundary stones. There was no such thing in the Yuangu era. Hmm..." Her divine sense swept across tens of thousands of li in an instant, and then she said, "The world today is indeed harsher and crueler than in the Yuangu era; no wonder boundary stones are necessary... But why pin the boundary stone on Emperor Yu?" She muttered to herself. Both Wei Yuan and Zhang Sheng wore grave expressions. Houtu was an innate sacred body; for something to catch her attention and have her repeat it, the karmic implications were extraordinary. "Show me the historical records again." This time, Wei Yuan simply compiled all the historical records preserved in the Splendor of the Many Realms and passed them to Houtu. Houtu read them slowly and meticulously. After a long while, she finally said, "This part of history is wrong! After the Yuangu era, there should have been another person. That person was the true creator of the boundary stone. But for some reason, they were erased, and their karma was grafted onto Emperor Yu." Wei Yuan said, "Then there are two possibilities. One is that someone wanted to erase that person's karma, and taking such great pains suggests that if this person were known to the world, it might trigger a major upheaval in later ages. The other possibility is to bolster Emperor Yu's prestige and merit... Could Emperor Yu be revived?!"