In Pu Ban City, sweet-scented osmanthus bloomed in a quiet, small valley, emitting a nice aroma. A few silver-white streams flowed across the valley. Standing by the streams were hundreds of log cabins. Some maids had been taking water from the screams with clay pots, while tens of giant battle tigers curled under the rocks beside the streams, snoring like kitties.
This was the Pu Ban base of the Huaxu Family. Emperor Fuxi was a member of the Huaxu Family, for which reason, the Huaxu Family had an exalted status in the human society. As a base of such an influential family, this valley was surely different. Outsiders were absolutely not allowed to come here.
With rage, Huaxu Chen, who retreated from Chi Ban Mountain area just now, rushed into the valley and came to a wooden building at the end of the valley through a footpath paved with flagstones. He kicked a thick wooden door open and walked into the building with giant steps.
Inside the building, by a fireplace, two middle-aged men raised their heads and glanced at Huaxu Chen, then shook their heads and sighed together.
"Where's Huaxu Lie?" Huaxu Chen yelled at one of the two men. That man was a Huaxu Family elder, also was a cousin and a good friend of his. "How ridiculous! Where's Si Wen Ming? Where's Ji Hao? Didn't Huaxu Lie and the other boys send any message back?"
"Sit!" The middle-aged man gave Huaxu Chen a bitter smile, then waved a hand and offered Huaxu Chen a seat.
"Sit my a*s! Sitting here doing nothing but drinking like you?" Huaxu Chen stomped his foot against the ground and generated a muffled boom, making countless cyan-colored spell symbols sparkle on the wooden floor, and electrical lights flash through the building. The defensive formation of the wooden building was fully activated, but still, Huaxu Chen managed to leave a half-foot-deep footprint on the floor.
A creaking noise could be heard from the building, as one of the outdoor pillars of the building was quaked broken by Huaxu Chen.
"What help can you do by venting your anger like this?" Suffering a slight headache, Huaxu Rou looked at Huaxu Chen and kept the bitter smile on his face as he said, "That was an order from Emperor Xun...I know that you're angry, but..."
"But what? Aren't you going to do anything except sitting here?" Huaxu Chen came to the fireplace, picked up a scorching clay pot, and poured the boiling tea into his mouth, then let out a long breath. Throwing the pot into the fire, Huaxu Chen gritted his teeth and took two circles around the fireplace, then finally sat down heavily.
"What can we do? Kill Emperor Xun?" Sitting in front of Huaxu Rou, Huaxu Yang sighed, "We all know that something is wrong with Emperor Shun...But, all large families and clans supported Emperor Xun. The words of the lowly people carry little weight, and our efforts are useless."
"If something is wrong with Emperor Shun, we should..." Huaxu Chen widely opened his mouth and burst into a growl, but then, he failed to say any other word out loud. Something was wrong with Emperor Shun, but what could be done? Nothing like this had ever happened before. At the moment, everyone understood that Emperor Shun had a problem, but what exactly had happened to him? Or, more evilly, did Emperor Shun truly have a problem?
Huaxu Chen quivered.
Huaxu Rou and Huaxu Yang glanced at Huaxu Chen and sighed together. Huaxu Rou clapped his hands, hearing which, a maid walked in and put a potful of clean water by the fire. They threw some tea leaves into a clay pot, then poured in some clean water and put the pot on the fire. A while later, a dense aroma of tea suffused the room.
"We all support Si Wen Ming, but a major event happened, and he isn't here. So, what can we do?" Said Huaxu Rou in a deep voice, "Chen, the biggest problem now is that all capable young people from large families and clans supported Si Wen Ming, but the elders, leaders and the elder generations supported Emperor Xun!"
Huaxu Chen opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but pondered for a short while and failed to say a single word.
"Emperor Xun promised them a lot. Suiren Family, Fuxi Family, You Xiong Family, Shennong Family...the leaders and elders of these families are all satisfied with Emperor Xun." Said Huaxu Yang helplessly, "With their support, Emperor Xun is the human emperor now. Even if something was truly wrong with Emperor Shun, Emperor Xun ascended to the throne through a formal ceremony. Therefore, he is the emperor now."
"But Emperor Xun is selling the entire humankind!" Huaxu Chen finally said something.
"He is the emperor, and he has the right to do whatever he wants to do..." Huaxu Rou rubbed his temples and said helplessly. "Is he selling the humankind? He told the world that the humankind should be like brothers with the non-humankind, and he has been trying to earn an eternal peace for the humankind."
"We know that Emperor Xun is selling the humankind by doing what he has been doing these days, but the ordinary human beings don't know about this." Huaxu Yang smiled bitterly and said, "The leaders and elders of large clans and families, they won't say that Emperor Xun is selling the humankind, but will only applaud him."
"Applaud him?" Huaxu Chen stared at Huaxu Yang in shock and asked, "He handed the foundations of the human society to the non-humankind, yet those leaders applauded him?"
"Do you think that the non-humankind took over all those mines, rangelands and fertile lands?" Huaxu Yang straightened his right forefinger and middle finger and said, "According to what we learned these days, the non-humankind only occupied twenty percent of those properties...As for the rest eighty percent, those belong to large human clans and families now."
"The alliance of human clans built these assets with solid efforts, but Emperor Xun split it and gave them to the non-humankind and large human clans and families as profits." Huaxu Rou continued with that bitter smile, "Therefore, people from those large families and clans will only say that he is a good emperor. Since the leaders and elders of large families and clans said this, the rest of people in the world will say the same. Emperor Xun is a good human emperor!"
"If any unexpected thing happens...Those non-humankind beings have already been stationed in the center area of Pu Ban City. If anything happens..." shouted Huaxu Chen.
"If anything unexpected happens, we large families and clans would suffer no harm...People from mid to small-scale clans could be organized to put up a desperate fight against the enemies...But, we large families will earn actual benefits. As long as the interests of all large families and clans stay unharmed...no matter how many human beings die or be injured..." Huaxu Rou and Huaxu Yang shook their heads and smiled in a sad, twisted way.
"For their own benefits, they are even willing to destroy the entire humankind!" Huaxu Chen pointed at the north and yelled through clenched teeth, "It has been so many years...So many brave human warriors died in Chi Ban Mountain. But now..."
Before he could finish, a stream of blood sprayed out of his mouth and landed on the floor.
Similar scenes and conversations had been happening in many areas in Pu Ban City and Midland. Countless human beings like Huaxu Chen, who worried about the future of the humankind, vomited blood and burst in raging roars. But in the meanwhile, the leaders, elders from large clans and families raised their glasses in banquets to celebrate for another big harvest they made from the humankind.
Somehow, a strong hatred grew among the humankind, between clans and families. The highly united humankind was suddenly torn apart.