Fang Ming recognized them as fellow disciples from the Five Elements Heavenly Palace, of the Jie Sect faction.
There were two origins for cultivators in this realm.
One type were cultivators born and raised in this realm, like the woman in black, the Four Heroes of the Immortal Rank, and the Heavenly Barbarian Sword Master. These cultivators had not appeared in the Primordial era narratives.
After all, the background of this realm had gone through five thousand chaotic epochs, totaling hundreds of trillions of years, so it was natural for many cultivators to be native-born.
The other type were cultivators whom the Five Elements Heavenly Palace had brought up into their palace over many chaotic epochs, using their status as an transcendent power to ferry many cultivators.
Chu Lingtian and Lin Yulan belonged to this category, though they were merely minor characters in the Primordial era narratives.
Fang Ming's current companions, the Judicial Heavenly God Yang Jian and Shennong Shi, were also of this origin.
They were simply ferried up to this realm in some chaotic epoch within the past five thousand chaotic epochs by the Five Elements Heavenly Palace.
Such existences often had many individuals with the same name in this realm, with numerous cultivators of the same name being ferried up.
Judicial Heavenly God Yang Jian was clearly one of those ferried by the Five Elements Heavenly Palace, though likely after the Journey to the West era, or even after the Lotus Lantern plot.
His cultivation was at the Initial Profound realm, and he was an inner disciple.
As for Shennong Shi, Fang Ming understood that he was ferried from the Fire Cloud Cave during the Investiture of the Gods era.
This Shennong Shi, with a human head and a bull's body, was not human but a primordial being, a primordial divine being.
He identified himself as human, and Fang Ming observed that his actions were no different from humans.
It seemed that the definition of humanity also varied across different chaotic epochs...
The "Records of the Grand Historian: Basic Annals of the Five Emperors" recorded: "Shennong Shi, of the Jiang surname, was born from the divine dragon's conception of Yan Emperor, with a human body and a bull's head."
Perhaps that chaotic epoch also adopted some aspects of the historical records.
Fang Ming recalled the complexity of the chaotic epochs and sighed inwardly at the messy setting.
This Fourteen Star World, a combination of countless Primordial era novels, was indeed chaotic, with characters, personalities, and realms all differing.
With tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of Primordial era authors, it was perfectly normal for character designs to vary.
It was Fang Ming who suffered, having to sort out these seemingly similar, yet in detail vastly different, chaotic epochs.
Shennong Shi's cultivation was also at the Initial Profound realm, having comprehended the Initial Profound of Wood.
He was also an inner disciple of the Five Elements Heavenly Palace.
Although comprehending the Initial Profound granted one the qualification to step into the Great Awakening True Immortal realm and the qualification to construct a world of origin, in reality, not only the Four Heroes of the Immortal Rank and the Heavenly Barbarian Sword Master whom Fang Ming had slain, but also Chu Lingtian, Shennong Shi, and Yang Jian, all shared the commonality of being stuck at the Initial Profound realm.
This demonstrated how difficult the step from the Initial Profound realm to constructing a world of origin was.
All inner disciples of the Five Elements Heavenly Palace were cultivators at the Initial Profound realm, yet how many could advance to become core disciples?
Even though the Five Elements Heavenly Palace selected talents from numerous chaotic epochs to ferry into their palace, it was still difficult to find talents who had cultivated to become Great Awakening True Immortals. Many cultivators, after tens of chaotic epochs, remained at the Initial Profound realm.
Even famous figures of the Primordial era, such as Ming He, Zhen Yuanzi, and the Sanqing, were largely merely inner disciples of the Five Elements Heavenly Palace, unable to construct their own worlds of origin.
Those cultivators who could dominate an entire chaotic epoch and transcend the chaos with their own Great Dao Saint-level cultivation, who did not cultivate the Great Awakening Immortal Dao and whose strength surpassed that of Initial Profound realm cultivators, held no low status in the Five Elements Heavenly Palace. They would at least start as core disciples, with the potential to become protector-level or elder-level figures.
For instance, the more than three hundred Taiqing Saints ferried up by the Five Elements Heavenly Palace over the past five thousand chaotic epochs did not enjoy such treatment. A very small number of weaker Taiqing Saints were merely outer disciples of the Five Elements Heavenly Palace, while the majority were inner disciples.
Only a very few Taiqing Saints could become core disciples, or even advance to the rank of protector or elder.
After exchanging intelligence with Yang Jian and Shennong Shi, Fang Ming also learned the specific situation in Jade Dragon Pass.
The mortal kingdom belonging to the Original Heavenly Palace faction was the Tang Kingdom.
The Emperor of the Tang Kingdom was jointly ruled by Li Zhi and Wu Zetian, also known as "Two Saints Ascend the Throne," with two Emperors in total.
Both possessed cultivation at the Hunyuan Da Luo Golden Immortal level. They had been ruling for over eight hundred billion years, totaling more than twenty chaotic epochs.
The mortal generals sent by the Tang Kingdom to attack Jade Dragon Pass were led by Marshal Fan Lihua, with Deputy Marshal Xue Dingshan, and several other great generals such as Qin Han, Jin Ding, and Yue E. They were all at the peak of the Hunyuan Da Luo Golden Immortal cultivation.
These mortal generals had been campaigning for hundreds of billions of years, some even for trillions of years. Their martial arts were superb, and they could even contend with early-stage Hunyuan Wuji cultivators without being at a disadvantage, despite their Hunyuan Da Luo Golden Immortal cultivation.
Among the mortal kingdoms, they were considered great generals.
However, in this realm, immortals and gods referred only to Great Awakening Immortals. Even for a reserve or substitute for immortals and gods, it would be an Initial Profound realm cultivator.
For these mortal generals, despite their Hunyuan Da Luo Golden Immortal cultivation, in the perception of this realm, they were merely mortals who had not yet stepped onto the path of the Great Awakening Immortal Dao.
Although Shennong Shi and Yang Jian mentioned these mortal generals to Fang Ming and discussed the two Emperors of the Tang Kingdom, they did not take them seriously.
After all, they were just mortals.
This was a time for the battle of immortals and gods. Mortal kingdoms served only as background elements, just as in the Investiture of the Gods calamity, the mortal generals under King Zhou could not influence the outcome of the battle between the immortals of the Chan and Jie sects.
The focus of this battle was not on how well the mortal kingdom fought, nor on how the mortal armies performed, but on how many Great Awakening Immortals the enemy had.
Mentioning Great Awakening Immortals, Yang Jian said with a grave expression, "On the surface, the enemy has brought five Great Awakening Golden Immortals."
"Among them, Great Awakening Golden Immortals who have constructed three worlds of origin include Patriarch Wang Ao, Zhang Guolao, and Sun Bin."
"Those who have constructed four worlds of origin, at the peak of the Great Awakening Golden Immortal realm, are Patriarch Wang Chan and Old Mother Li Shan."
"These are all elder-level and protector-level figures of the Original Heavenly Palace faction."
"In addition, there are at least ninety core disciples of the Original Heavenly Palace faction, Great Awakening True Immortals."
This meant that, on the surface, there were less than a hundred Great Awakening Immortals?
Less than a hundred immortals and gods?
Fang Ming frowned inwardly, knowing that the surface data was bound to be false. He wondered how many people the Original Heavenly Palace faction had in this conflict.
However, this was none of Fang Ming's concern.
Fang Ming simply wanted to openly slaughter some Great Awakening True Immortals.
If he could slaughter too many Great Awakening True Immortals, allowing him to advance to the Great Awakening Golden Immortal realm, he would even want to kill Great Awakening Golden Immortals like Patriarch Wang Ao, Zhang Guolao, and Sun Bin.