"The three major bills of the Inner World?"
Chen Qi was bewildered; this was another gap in his knowledge.
"The Inner World is the general term for the social circles of humans who have mastered Extraordinary Power!"
"You, for example, are a member of the Inner World."
Yu Hongwu was more than happy to explain in detail to Chen Qi. The Red Falcon Sect needed to show its goodwill.
He saw things very clearly: if they wanted to survive long-term in the Lanyu Kingdom, there was no avoiding the Players.
Compared to contacting other, unfamiliar Players, this Jomoya before him gave him a very good impression and seemed much more suitable.
······
'So I'm already a member of the Inner World!'
Chen Qi's feelings were complicated. He'd never imagined that for the past 23 years of his life, he had merely been living in the surface world of human society.
"Do the three major bills enacted by the World Government include the Human Spiritual Awakening Bill?"
If he didn't understand something, he asked. Chen Qi wanted to get as much information as possible.
Perhaps for others, information was just information.
But for Chen Qi, who had the Wish ability, there was a possibility of turning it into reality.
······
"That's right. The three major bills do indeed include the Human Spiritual Awakening Bill. What's more, it was the first human convention enacted by the World Government!"
"About 200 years after the first human convention was announced, the V5-led World Government enacted the Otherworldly Extermination Bill. This was the second human convention, and it's binding on all member nations."
"As for the third human convention, the Human Purification Bill, it came 500 years after the Otherworldly Extermination Bill."
"These three bills laid the foundation for the survival of the human world."
"You have to understand, before the V5 appeared, human civilization was unstable. Who knows how many times it has perished."
According to Yu Hongwu's description, the stable existence of human civilization was just an illusion that began after the V5 appeared.
Being destroyed by various natural disasters, man-made calamities, and strange entities was the norm.
According to archaeological discoveries by anthropologists, the earliest ancient humans appeared 300,000 years ago.
And in that vast expanse of time, humanity has experienced at least 13 mass racial extinctions.
The number of human civilizations that perished as a result amounts to over six thousand, and those are only the small fraction for which ruins have been found.
In past eras, a single earthquake or tsunami could bury a nascent human civilization.
And the trigger for all this might have just been some entity passing through the human world.
In even more bizarre records, a certain type of entity merely cast its gaze upon humanity, causing the extinction of all humans on an entire continent.
But all that changed after the V5 appeared.
For the last 3,000 years, at least, there have been no reports of large-scale human extinction events.
Of course, many people believe the V5 were just lucky and came along at a good time.
After all, there's no shortage of human civilizations in history that developed stably for thousands of years, only to suddenly and inexplicably disappear.
The 15 languages in the Comprehensive Guide to Ancient Civilization Basics came from these powerful civilizations that mysteriously vanished.
······
'I never imagined human civilization could be so precarious.'
'Just how big is the world?'
Chen Qi was deeply shaken by Yu Hongwu's account of the history of human civilizations' demise.
Before this, the concept of humanity going extinct had never even entered his mind.
"Just how big is the world?"
"In the human world, perhaps only the V5 know the answer!"
"As for small countries like ours, we're just living in the greenhouse of the Inner Ring of the Human Habitation Zone."
From Yu Hongwu's words, Chen Qi heard the term "Human Habitation Zone."
If he remembered correctly, the Source Ores came from the Outer Ring of the Human Habitation Zone.
Soon, Yu Hongwu confirmed Chen Qi's suspicion.
The world inhabited by humans was indeed divided into an Inner and an Outer Ring.
The Inner Ring was mostly inhabited by small countries and ordinary middle-powers.
Only the top-tier middle-powers were qualified to follow the great powers and scramble for a place in the Outer Ring.
As for the V5, the five super-empires were linked end to end, blockading the entire human world.
They were the only ones who controlled the paths to leave the human world.
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"The origin of the Martial Dao—or rather, the origin of the Celestial Martial Country's Martial Dao—is related to the first two of the three major bills!"
"During the period when the V5 were purging the entire Inner World, a raft carrying a Daoist drifted to the Celestial Martial Country!"
"At that time, the Celestial Martial Country was just a sparsely populated, barren island—or rather, a pirate stronghold."
"The pirates killed the heavily injured Daoist and found a stone book and a gourd of Pills on his body!"
"The reason people from the Celestial Martial Country have special physiques is that those pirates consumed the Pills."
"As for the stone book, it was called the Original Martial Canon and was always held by the Divine Tao Palace."
"Unfortunately, the Black Blood Federation destroyed the Divine Tao Palace but didn't find the Original Martial Canon."
As Yu Hongwu told this story, his expression was full of melancholy, and his eyes showed grief and indignation, as if he utterly detested the Black Blood Federation.
After all, the Divine Tao Palace was the sacred land of the Martial Dao in the hearts of all Martial Artists.
The Black Blood Federation's actions were tantamount to digging up their ancestors' graves.
However, he forgot that the only reason he could speak at that moment was because Chen Qi was controlling his body.
The information Chen Qi received from his neural signals showed that Yu Hongwu was completely calm inside, without the slightest ripple of emotion.
But Chen Qi didn't plan to expose him. Whatever was hidden here had nothing to do with him.
From Yu Hongwu's story, Chen Qi gleaned a very important piece of information: if one traced the Martial Dao of the Celestial Martial Country back far enough, it, like Temya Magic, might also be a form of Extraordinary Power.
"What is the highest level of the Celestial Martial Country's Martial Dao?"
Out of curiosity, Chen Qi asked this question at the very end of their conversation.
Yu Hongwu hesitated for a moment before giving an answer.
"Above Grandmaster is Great Grandmaster. At that level, one can achieve Divine Communication!"
"Only by reaching that level can a Fighting Technique sublimate into the Martial Dao!"
"The Martial Dao... the Martial Dao is, by its very nature, a path forward."
When Yu Hongwu spoke of the Martial Dao, his face was filled with longing and aspiration.
This time, Chen Qi could attest that Yu Hongwu's emotions were genuine, and he wasn't just putting on a performance.
Regardless of what kind of person this Hall Master Yu was, their conversation this time was quite amicable.
At the end of the meeting, Chen Qi agreed to visit again in five days to complete Yu Hongwu's treatment.
Yu Hongwu also promised to present him with the Red Falcon Sect's Secret Technique, Heaven-Reaching Palace, complete with some of his own cultivation notes.
Both parties were pleased with the outcome, and Chen Qi left, satisfied.
'Martial Arts to Divinity? Something about it feels off!'
On the way home, Chen Qi replayed his conversation with Yu Hongwu over and over, and the more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
'Could the [entity] born from the Secret Technique be the so-called God?'
'Damn, this Red Falcon Sect, and especially Yu Hongwu, are a bit shady. Looks like I should come here less often in the future!'
Chen Qi silently made his decision.
What he didn't know was that after he left, Yu Hongwu, who should have been lying in bed like a "living corpse," blinked his eyes.
Unfortunately, when he tried to open his mouth and make a sound, he still failed.