After Qin Ruqing finished viewing the historical scenes from ancient times, she felt as if she had just woken from a grand dream, her head was foggy, and she was unable to detach herself from the dreamlike state.

Fusheng glanced at her, and the surrounding space began to shift.

They had already left the historical rift.

As Qin Ruqing’s feet touched solid ground again, her mind was still preoccupied with the images from history.

After that battle, the Beast Emperor and two Dao Sovereign had fallen, and both the human and beast races suffered heavy losses among their high-ranking members, forcing them to sign a peace treaty.

The treaty required the beast race to withdraw from the Human Realm and never invade again.

Of course, the beast race could not agree to this demand, as they seemed to have an obsession with the human world.

In the end, both sides compromised, leading to the agreement of a large-scale beast tide every five hundred years.

This shocked Qin Ruqing the most—she realized that the beast tides in the current world were the result of compromises made in ancient times.

Although the human race was forced into this situation, the periodic outbreak of beast tides was known and tacitly accepted by the high-ranking members of the human race!

This made Qin Ruqing feel quite uncomfortable.

She and her family, the Qin family, had gradually risen from a small place.

The Qin family had the responsibility for local security, so if a beast tide erupted in Nanling, the Qin family and the local families in Nanling would be the first to rush to protect the ordinary people.

Because of this, she could deeply understand the extent of harm that beast tides inflicted on ordinary people.

What made her feel so distressed now was that she had originally thought beast tides were like natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis.

But the truth was: it wasn’t a natural disaster, but rather a man-made disaster, one tacitly approved by the high-ranking members of the human race.

Qin Ruqing felt the helplessness and humiliation behind this “man-made disaster.”

It proved once again: the weak get beaten.

If the human race didn’t need to use such a nearly brutal method as the sacrificial array to threaten the beast race to retreat, but had the strength to suppress the Beast Emperor, the course of history would have been completely different;

If the disparity in numbers between the human and beast race’s middle tiers wasn’t so great, then, after the sacrificial array ended and both the Beast Emperor and the two Dao Sovereign of the human race had fallen, there would still be room for fighting and negotiation.

But in reality, the human race was always weak and passive.

The sacrificial array only delayed the time before the beast race conquered the human race.

Fusheng’s intention in creating the sacrificial array was probably not to win for the human race.

Rather, it was to buy the human race some more time to struggle for survival.

“You never really thought about winning, did you?” Qin Ruqing was startled to hear her own voice ask the question she was thinking.

“It’s not a matter of whether we wanted to win, it’s that we simply couldn’t win.” Dao Sovereign Fusheng shook his head heavily. “At that time, even with my cooperation with Yue Ming, we could only barely hold off the Beast Emperor, let alone the fact that it was about to break through.”

“The idea of using a thousand immortals in a sacrificial array was only to drag out the death of the Beast Emperor and buy some time for the future of the human race.”

Indeed.

It was all about buying time.

It did give the human race a slim chance of survival, but it also led to many problems for the human race later on.

“Do you know that after that war, the human race’s inheritance began to be lost, never to return to the prosperity of the ancient times?” Qin Ruqing couldn’t help but say.

“Even now, the Celestial-grade families, no matter what methods they use to enter the Immortal Tombs, are only trying to find a complete inheritance.”

“Inheritance…” Fusheng paused for a moment, then said slowly, “The sacrificial array of a thousand immortals and the sealing of the Void Realm were indeed an irreversible blow to the human race’s inheritance.”

Qin Ruqing noticed that while the Sovereign’s face was calm, his tone carried an indescribable complexity.

Qin Ruqing thought for a moment and found it quite understandable.

Dao Sovereign Fusheng, who once coldly issued the order for a thousand immortals to be sacrificed, did not mean that he was unshaken inside.

On the contrary, as the spiritual leader of the human race at the time, making such a decision involved a psychological burden many times greater than that of others.

Yet, as time has passed and the world has changed, waking up now to see the series of negative impacts brought by the orders he issued back then, it was inevitable for him to feel self-reproach and regret.

Qin Ruqing couldn’t help but offer some comfort:

“There’s never a perfect solution. Sometimes achieving even one goal is already good enough. The Void Realm, serving as the gateway between the realms of humans and beasts, has now become the strongest barrier precisely because of the seal created by the great formation.”

“No one can erase your achievements for the Human Clan.”

“Achievements or not, it’s up to future generations to decide,” Fusheng replied with a smile, gazing ahead. “I only hope that this time, the inheritance selection will cultivate a new group of elite fighters for the Human Clan.”

Inheritance selection…

Qin Ruqing remained silent for a moment and then asked a question she had long been puzzled about:

“Dao Sovereign, the sudden activation of the inheritance selection—could it affect the Void Realm’s barrier?”

After the Abyss of Return was sealed, the Human Clan did not give up on exploring it and later discovered the patterns and methods for entering it.

But strangely, despite so many previous explorations, the inheritance selection had never been activated before.

And now it suddenly could be?

Well, it might have something to do with her involvement, but Qin Ruqing felt that couldn’t be the entire reason.

The deeper reason must be that the inheritance selection couldn’t be activated easily, and each activation would consume an enormous cost.

Reflecting on the historical scenes she had seen earlier, Qin Ruqing keenly suspected that this impact might be related to the barrier.

The inheritance selection required a massive amount of energy, and since there were no living beings inside the Immortal Tomb, where would this energy come from?

Naturally, it had to be drawn from the sealing barrier.

Fusheng glanced at her and said with a smile, “If you’ve guessed it, why ask?”

As expected.

Qin Ruqing sighed inwardly and asked again:

“Then, Dao Sovereign, with the inheritance selection activated this time, how much longer can the Void Realm’s barrier hold?”

Qin Ruqing herself hadn’t realized that she was holding her breath in anxiety.

The barrier was too important!

If the barrier fell, the Beast Clan could break through immediately.

No one in the cultivation world could calmly say that inheritance is more important than the barrier.

This was precisely why the Dao Sovereign, knowing that sealing the Void Realm would lead to the decline of inheritances and Dao lineages, still insisted on doing so.

It was a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils.

It seemed like an eternity before Qin Ruqing heard the Dao Sovereign’s calm voice.

He said, “The seal of the Abyss of Return can hold for at most another hundred years.”

---

In the Beastlands.

Wumu suddenly opened his beast-like eyes, quietly staring at the ceiling for a moment, then slowly rose from the blood pool.

Once his consciousness fully returned, he turned towards the massive relief sculpture on the central wall of the Beast Hall, knelt solemnly, and performed the highest level of Beast Clan ritual.

“I have not failed!” Wumu declared loudly, his voice carrying a hint of excitement.

The giant relief occupying the entire wall was a beast’s head.

Upon hearing Wumu’s voice, its massive blood-red eyes, half the size of a head, suddenly lit up and then seemed to come to life.

The enormous blood-colored beast’s eyes stared at Wumu, speaking in a deep, raspy beast tongue:

“Your bloodline has fully awakened.”

“Yes, thank you, Ancestor, for your generous gift!”

Led by Wumu, this group of Beast Clan elites entered the Beastlands and, after passing the trials set by their ancestors, earned the privilege to enter the blood pool and undergo the bloodline baptism.

This was a gift from the Ancestor’s spirit!

Anyone who undergoes a bloodline baptism will experience evolution and awakening in their bloodline, at least gaining one or two innate divine abilities.

Those with exceptional talent might even undergo a bloodline reversion phenomenon!

In the beast race, bloodline reversion is a symbol of top-tier talent, indicating that the beast has been favored by the Beast God, possesses divine abilities bestowed by the heavens, and is a born honor warrior.

Wu Mu is one of the two beasts in this expedition team who has experienced bloodline reversion.

He is the son of the current Beast Emperor and already has a pure bloodline.

After undergoing the blood pool baptism, it seemed natural for his bloodline to revert.

What’s more unusual is that another beast in the team, the Three-Eyed Wolf King, has also experienced bloodline reversion.

Now, this Wolf King has five eyes.

In the Wolf King’s lineage, the number of divine eyes is used to determine their talent, as each divine eye represents a kind of innate divine ability.

It is said that in ancient times, wolves of this lineage could evolve to have nine eyes at their peak, known as the Nine-Eyed Wolf Emperor.

Today, this Wolf King, who has evolved to five divine eyes, kneels beside Wu Mu, worshiping the souls of their ancestors together.

The gigantic beast head looked down at Wu Mu and the Wolf King with satisfaction, then slowly said:

“There is still a beast core left here.”

Wu Mu and the Wolf King’s eyes widened in an instant.

Wu Mu, even more excited, said, “A beast core left behind?! Wasn’t your beast core shattered and lost in that battle? After the war, your people sent several expeditions into the Void Realm, but only found a fragment missing divine essence. They suspected the remaining fragments were taken by the human race. So it turns out, they weren’t taken by the humans but were kept here by you!”

The beast head said, “Indeed, one piece was taken by the humans, but it was the smallest piece and had the most lost divine essence. Even if they took it, they wouldn’t be able to research much from it. At most, they could use it to forge some formations to restrain the beast race.”

“They didn’t know that the most valuable piece was right here in the Beast Marsh, preserved with divine abilities by this emperor.”

As it spoke, the massive soul form of the beast head moved around the hall, though its body seemed unable to leave the relief.

“Now, I have decided to bestow this beast core upon one of you.” It turned its head and said slowly.