What the Celestial Fox Demon Emperor had intended was to shatter the hearts of humanity. Had he succeeded? In part; some hearts were indeed broken. Yet he had also ensured that he would never fully succeed; the hearts that hadn't shattered now would never yield to him.
"For so many years, we humans have struggled just to survive. We've lived as slaves and servants, stuck in a cramped space and horrible living conditions. Even though I joined the Redemption Society long ago and have my own Demonic God Transformation, I never truly believed that we humans had a chance to be saved. Compared to demons and nymphs, we are far too insignificant.
"It wasn't until I met you, until I witnessed the changes in you, that I began to feel hope. Watching you and your companions grow stronger, seeing you move forward step by step—that's when I truly saw hope. Do you know? When those five thousand rebels... those five thousand heroes chose to sacrifice themselves, I stayed strong. But when I thought you might have died helping Mei Gongzi, I almost gave in to despair. These past days, I've been gritting my teeth, holding on so I wouldn't collapse. If I fell, then everything we've worked for would've been for nothing.
"Tang San, don't blame yourself. Blaming yourself serves no purpose. You haven't done anything wrong. What you've contributed to humanity is already immense. What humanity needs from you in the future is not repentance, but contributions. You must keep fighting for humanity, you must help us find a place to survive. So you have to stay strong. Now that you've become a god, we're all hoping that one day you'll become humanity's first Emperor. Whether it's you or Mei Gongzi, as long as one of you becomes an Emperor, then humanity will finally have a foundation."
Hearing Zhang Haoxuan's words, Tang San felt a surge of complex emotions. He slowly nodded. "Master, don't worry. I already have a plan. For the rise of humanity, I'll make sure everyone has their own strength to rely on. It may take a long time for humanity to truly grow strong, but when every human becomes stronger, our entire race will finally stand tall in this world. Our fallen comrades won't have died in vain. Soon, I will make the Ancestral Court pay for their blood with blood!"
"You mustn't act rashly. Revenge isn't the most important thing—what's most important is staying alive. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"Don't worry, I will think it through carefully. When I decide to act against the Ancestral Court, I will make sure they won't have any chance to strike back. And it won't be now, at least not until I am truly strong enough."
"I'm glad to hear that. And while we're at it... When you talk about giving humanity its own strength to rely on, what exactly do you mean?"
"Master, why don't you sit down and rest for a bit? I have some explanations to give you."
"Alright." Zhang Haoxuan walked over to a chair and sat down. Lately, his nerves had been stretched to their limit. After hearing the news of Tang San's supposed death, he had been forcing himself to hold back his grief while still overseeing everything.
Kali City had been lenient toward them, thanks to Mei Gongzi's success. The Peacock Demon clan turned a blind eye to human activities, but the Celestial Fox Demon Emperor's warning had struck fear into the demon clans within Kali City. Even the Peacock Demon clan dared not assist humanity any further.
Tang San sat beside Zhang Haoxuan and began channeling his rich internal energy into him, helping him regulate the flow of his bloodline power and infusing him with vitality.
Zhang Haoxuan felt Tang San's energy flow into him like a massive river—endless yet incredibly gentle. His entire body was enveloped in warmth, and his exhaustion vanished in an instant.
"Don't overexert yourself. I'm fine now. Seeing you return has made everything alright for me," Zhang Haoxuan said with a smile.
While continuing to regulate his teacher's energy flow, Tang San said, "Master, I have reached the tenth order. The hardest part is behind me. Many things that were once impossible can now be done. I will protect humanity from now on, and what happened before will never happen again."
"I sure hope so. Do tell me about that plan you mentioned earlier. Are you thinking of teaching your Mysterious Heaven Technique to others after all?" Zhang Haoxuan asked.
Tang San shook his head and said, "No. You've tested it yourself, the Mysterious Heaven Technique isn't suitable for everyone and even for those who can use it, it doesn't do much. For most people, it only serves to regulate their bodies. It can't grant them bloodline power or make them stronger. At best, it's useful for improving health.[1]"
Tang San himself wasn't sure why this was happening, but the fact of the matter was that only he could use the Mysterious Heaven Technique to absorb bloodline power. When others used it, it had no such effect—it merely helped improve their physiques somewhat. His master had confirmed this through experiments on humans without Demonic God Transformations. Otherwise, he wouldn't have hesitated to share Tang Sect's ultimate techniques with the humans of this world.
Tang San had analyzed the situation and concluded that it was likely due to interference from the planar ruler. If humans could absorb the bloodline power of demons or nymphs as easily as he could and strengthen themselves through it, the world would be dominated by humans within a few years. Of course, another possibility was that, before humanity could fully develop, demons and nymphs would unite against the threat and truly exterminate every single human.
"So what do we do?" Zhang Haoxuan asked.
Tang San replied, "Although other people can't use the Mysterious Heaven Technique the way I can, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is extremely abundant on Falan Planet, and there's more than one way to skin a cat. The Demonic God Transformation is just one way to cultivate, and I think it can and should continue, since it's a good way to grant people power. Besides that, I have two ideas that could allow humans to cultivate without relying on bloodline abilities. Actually, I would like to select a few people here, as well as some among the overseas emigrants, to test these methods. If the experiments are successful, we can promote them on a larger scale."
Tang San explained, "One is elemental control. As you well know, there are plenty of elemental energies in the world: water, fire, earth, wind, light, darkness, space, time, and more. There are also rare or mutated elements like lightning and ice. Demons and nymphs rely on their bloodline power to control these elements, but that's actually not optimal. True control over the elements is a matter of spiritual power.
"While the Mysterious Heaven Technique is difficult for others to cultivate, my Purple Demon Eyes can be taught to practically anyone, which means that anyone can cultivate some measure of spiritual power. I want to enhance the elemental perception of those with good talent and see if they can control the elements.
"The second method still needs more testing, and I'm unsure if it will succeed. But this is the direction I'll be researching next. I believe it has some potential. If it works, we'll have two approaches to use, along with the Demonic God Transformation. That will give the human race three different cultivation paths."
Hearing Tang San's explanation, Zhang Haoxuan's eyes lit up, and he nodded repeatedly. "That's fantastic. You have my full support. But after what's happened, we can't let demons and nymphs find out about this. So, if you conduct experiments, do it on the islands overseas. That way, whether it succeeds or not, nothing will be leaked."
1. The raws state that Tang San did the experiments himself, but in s it's stated that Zhang Haoxuan is the one who performed them. This is more consistent with the narrative, so we are keeping that. ☜