Chapter One Hundred: Seeking the Divine Farmer’s Aid!

After finishing his conversation with the system, Jiang Yuan looked at Shen Gongbao once more.

This time, his gaze was very different from before. It was warm, even friendly.

After all, the man had just delivered such an extraordinary treasure to him. If he still kept a cold face, he would indeed seem rather heartless.

“So you truly mean to help Great Shang, Daoist Shen?” Jiang Yuan asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“The poor Daoist would never deceive Your Majesty. Since Your Majesty knows so much of the inside story, then you must also know what I endured on Mount Kunlun.”

“What I have done, I trust Your Majesty can understand. I hope Your Majesty believes that I am not one born with rebel bones. Since I have already decided to aid Great Shang, then I naturally harbor no other intentions.”

“As long as Your Majesty will help me take revenge on Yuanshi Tianzun, I am willing to pay any price!” Shen Gongbao vowed.

Jiang Yuan nodded in satisfaction. “Since Daoist Shen is so sincere, then I shall not be stingy either. I wonder whether the title of Imperial Preceptor would please you?”

After all, Shen Gongbao was no weakling. More importantly, he had brought Jiang Yuan such tremendous benefit. Jiang Yuan felt he truly ought not to slight him.

“Daoist Shen must not underestimate the position of Imperial Preceptor that I am granting you. Before you, that seat was always held by Grand Preceptor Wen Zhong.”

Because of his advanced age, Wen Zhong had been granted the title of Grand Preceptor. It was probably something like a retired sovereign, perhaps.

“This minister is overwhelmed by favor. Of course I know the renown of Grand Preceptor Wen. To be thus trusted by Your Majesty, I would not shrink even from a thousand deaths. I will surely go through fire and water for Great Shang!” Shen Gongbao entered his role with remarkable speed.

He had already begun referring to himself as “this minister.”

Jiang Yuan was quite pleased with Shen Gongbao’s attitude. He was clearly an intelligent man, and dealing with him in the future would not be tiring.

“In that case, Imperial Preceptor, remain in Chaoge for these next few days. I must leave Chaoge for a time. Take this as my credential. The internal affairs of Great Shang during this period will be entrusted to you and the ministers.”

Jiang Yuan handed over the jade pendant that symbolized his identity.

“Is the place Your Majesty is going to dangerous? Does Your Majesty need this minister to accompany you?” Shen Gongbao asked with concern.

After all, he was a Great Luo Golden Immortal. In the present world, aside from those hidden old monsters, there were already very few who could surpass him.

Jiang Yuan shook his head. Though his current cultivation was not yet strong, he was not the sort of small fry that anyone could bully.

Besides, the creation-and-destruction divine art he cultivated was marvelously profound and by no means comparable to that of ordinary true immortals.

His true combat strength could already stand shoulder to shoulder with a Golden Immortal.

Moreover, he was only making a trip to the Abyss of Heaven; he was not looking to provoke anyone.

With Shennong watching over the Abyss, whom did he have to fear?

“I am not some useless cripple. I can still protect myself. Great Shang will likely be somewhat unsettled these days, so I shall leave it to the Imperial Preceptor to guard it,” Jiang Yuan said lightly.

“This minister obeys,” Shen Gongbao replied respectfully, cupping his fists.

Jiang Yuan rode away on his Purple Jade Qilin.

This was a win. He had gained a Great Luo Golden Immortal like Shen Gongbao and also obtained a Chaos Spirit Treasure-level Investiture of the Gods. Delightful indeed.

Jiang Yuan felt secretly pleased.

...

The Abyss of Heaven.

Jiang Yuan dismounted from the Purple Jade Qilin and came alone to the depths of the Abyss, without even informing the Grand Preceptor.

After all, he was afraid of getting beaten.

Once beneath the Abyss, Jiang Yuan asked cautiously, “Father Shennong, are you there? This junior has something to ask of you.”

He waited for a while, but there was no response at all, nor did he feel the sensation of being drawn downward.

What was going on? Why was Father Shennong ignoring him?

Jiang Yuan was somewhat bewildered.

Could it be that he had not shouted loudly enough, and Shennong had not heard him?

So Jiang Yuan took a deep breath and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Father Shennong! Are you there? Open the door and let me in!”

“I...”

Before Jiang Yuan could finish, that familiar sensation of falling surged through his entire body.

At once, a rather angry voice sounded in his heart: “Do not think that just because you are the Human Emperor you may act with such wanton impunity. When one Human Emperor kills another, there is no need to bear karma!”

At those words, Jiang Yuan immediately abandoned his shameless intentions. He had originally planned to call him a few more times and flatter him properly.

He had not expected to be told outright that killing a Human Emperor was not against the law.

Who could endure that?

Still, it did not matter. In my heart, you will always be my dearest father.

Jiang Yuan thought this silently, though in reality he no longer dared to joke carelessly.

After a while, the feeling of falling vanished, and Jiang Yuan found himself in Shennong’s thatched cottage.

At that moment, Shennong was tending the flowers and plants in the courtyard. The riot of colors was dazzling and lovely, all the more precious for existing in the depths of the Abyss of Heaven.

Seeing that he had been sent directly here, Jiang Yuan could not help but feel a little indignant.

He had thought the descent point was random, but it turned out Shennong could control it.

Last time, he had made him walk all that way for nothing. That old geezer was truly wicked!

Jiang Yuan could not help but grumble inwardly.

“How is it that such a short time has passed and you have already come looking for this old man again? Has something gone wrong among the human race?” Shennong asked casually, still tending his flowers and plants with his back to Jiang Yuan.

Hearing Shennong’s voice, tinged with a bit of concern, Jiang Yuan immediately stepped forward with a grin and flattered him, saying, “With a senior guarding the depths of the Abyss of Heaven, how could anything truly disastrous happen among the human race?”

“Though no great calamity has appeared, there have certainly been no shortage of smaller troubles.”

To a predecessor Human Emperor like Shennong, who had come through the ancient age of flesh and blood and wildness, as long as the human race was not wiped out entirely, nothing counted as a true catastrophe.

As for being enslaved by other races, slaughtered at will, and forced to live by the breath of others’ noses—had the humans of former ages not already suffered all that?

In the end, someone would always stand up.

Shennong only hoped that person would not be this brat.

This fellow was far too unreliable.

If he truly became a sage, would he not soar straight to the heavens?

Right now he dared to call him father. Once he became a sage, perhaps he would make Shennong call him papa.

“Tell me about them,” Shennong said in a calm tone.

He already knew quite a lot about the human race’s present situation from Jiang Yuan the last time. This boy had likely come for help again.

“Yuanshi Tianzun’s disciples have come down the mountain,” Jiang Yuan said.

“Mm. Continue,” Shennong replied, unmoved.

“They want to stir up civil war among the human race,” Jiang Yuan said again.

“Civil war among the humans is nothing new. No need to be surprised,” Shennong said dismissively.

If not for internal strife, would the present Human Emperor’s fortune have declined to such a miserable state?

The fact that such a degree of Human Emperor fortune could raise the Investiture of the Gods to a Chaos Supreme Treasure spoke volumes about just how terrifying the human race had once been in ancient times.

“Senior, they intend to completely devour the fortune of the Human Emperor. In other words, after me, there will never be another Human Emperor,” Jiang Yuan said with a wry smile.