Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Compared to your story, mine is not as colorful or as boring.

In exchange, the young girl of the Nuwa Clan told Li Yao her story, too, in the way that brainwaves and soundwaves were combined. “I’ve been staying in the primeval relics since I was born. Of course, at that time, I didn’t realize that a bigger world was outside, nor did I realize how complicated, bizarre, and unpredictable the world inside the primeval relics was compared to the vast and stable world outside.

“Maybe you’ve already discovered that the space inside the primeval relics is made of part of many Sectors. Or rather, the entire primeval relic is a conglomeration of wormholes. It is like a transportation hub in all directions. Countless invisible tunnels leading to the four-dimensional space are interconnected in this place. It has become a maze and a riddle that hundreds of civilizations failed to resolve even after billions of years.

“Such features endowed the unpredictable features of the ancient relics. In this place, the continuity and stability of time and space have been broken. It is possible that it is a hot summer day in this place, but a hundred meters away, there is nothing but snow, or the blossoming of colorful flowers. A hundred meters away, there is a carpet of black and white fungi, which creates all kinds of rigid and rigid images. In my childhood, I used to chase butterflies through the flowers, only to find that the butterflies turned into burning flames in the blink of an eye, and the flames turned into countless stars that vanished with the wind, as if they were being reborn in the form of fireflies. When I extended my fingers to the place where the butterflies perished, my fingers turned into colorful fireworks and blossomed in the swirl of time and space.

“All in all, this is the case here. All the inherent, stable rules can be broken. Any weird thing can happen. The most disciplined and prudent experts may die a miserable death in the weirdest way, and the crazy lunatics may live longer.

“According to my father, there were only two outcomes for the first batch of researchers and adventurers to enter the ancient relics. They would either be faced with the unpredictable environment, the intimidating relics of civilization, or be scared to death by the omnipresent weird radiation and have a mental breakdown. Or, the rules, formulas, and theorems that they’d been studying for their entire lives would be crushed by the unconventional objects inside the ancient relics. They would crawl into a hole and try to capture the vague rules inside the ancient relics in order to find the objective rules. But like moths chasing the sun, they would never reach their target and end up wasting their lives in depression.

“Because of this, the researchers and adventurers who entered the primordial relics later had to seal most of their emotions and willpower in order to survive in the nightmarish relics.

“Of course, for the innocent children who have been living in this kaleidoscope-like world since they were born and are used to seeing things that cannot be explained by common sense, they regard the amazing techniques and even the magical power as objectivity. It is rare for them to have a mental breakdown before they start their research. Therefore, before abnormal brainwaves are detected, it is not necessary to completely seal their emotions. While the Moongazer Serpent was talking, the City of Silver in Li Yao’s mind, on the surface of the skyscrapers that were as smooth as a mirror, was dyed with glamorous stripes, too, like blossoming flowers from a different star. The city built on the corpses of a hundred ancient civilizations in the center of the primeval relics was truly transformed into a kaleidoscope that was rolling and swirling. “In my childhood, there were two kinds of interesting games. One was exploring the wilderness with my companions in secret and studying the corpses of the ancient civilizations that perished in this place.

The Observer continued, “You know that, when you spend your childhood with the relics and corpses of a hundred ancient civilizations, when you learn that a hundred glorious ancient civilizations have perished quietly, and when you see the war machines that are almost a hundred meters tall turning into rusted remains that are riddled with holes, your view of the world, civilization, and the universe will be shaped into something very… special.

“Maybe, in your eyes, time and space are both stable. Civilization is the glorious result of billions of creatures working together for billions of years, and the universe is a boundless ocean.

“But in my eyes, or at least in the eyes of my childhood, time and space are neither stable nor continuous, nor do they have much significance. If worlds billions of lightyears apart can be connected through wormholes, what is the significance of space? If a civilization spends ten million years without a hair on its head to the extent that it can steer a starship, absorb the energy of a star, and change the environment of a galaxy, only to be obliterated in one second because it answered a wrong question, then what is the significance of time? If a hundred civilizations can die so silently, then what is the difference between the essence of civilization and a dry leaf in a raging wind or even an ant on a dry leaf? “Living in such a universe, the universe might be a boundless ocean, but the ocean is full of invisible traps. It is more like a cruel game that is destined to fail. I might not have realized the cruel truth when I was a child. I thought that the game was very interesting, but I did not respect or cherish the civilization at all. I thought that I was living in a broken, mottled dream, and that I was part of the dream and a telepathic thought of the ‘Progenitor’. Li Yao couldn’t help but ask, “Were you the prehistoric civilization who built the primeval relics, the Heaven’s Path Tower, and… the ‘black wall’ that enveloped the entire Pangu Universe?”

“Yes. It seems that you’ve found a lot of information on your own, which saved me a lot of explaining

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The Observer continued, “When I grew up and was forced to stay in the Temple of Mind’ by my father to receive the input of tremendous information so that the wisdom of various species, fields, and civilizations would leave a deep mark on my young heart and even change my cerebral cortex forever, my dissatisfaction and confusion grew even stronger. “Because, in the eyes of my childhood friends and I, this is the world. It is unpredictable, inexplicable, and even inexplicable. “Hundreds of civilizations that tried to explore the ultimate secrets of the ancient relics perished.

“Even many of my father’s colleagues, the parents of my friends, sacrificed themselves in all kinds of weird and miserable ways during the dangerous experiments and exploration work.

“Of the victims, only one tenth were able to retrieve their intact bodies. Of the remaining victims, some even mysteriously disappeared for an entire hundred years. A hundred years later, they fell from the sky like a pile of dry bones and broke into pieces. According to the research of the latecomers, it is very likely that the victim missed a step and fell into a special spacetime gap. Just like that, he fell and fell through the gap. He fell for an entire hundred years, starved to death on the way, and his body fell through the endless gaps for several decades. Only when the energy to maintain the spacetime gap was exhausted did he reappear.

“At that time, I was still young and did not have a strong fear of death. But such a way of death was too inexplicable.

“Therefore, I asked my father where we came from, where we were going, and most importantly, what we were doing right now.

“In my childhood, we had abundant resources and advanced technology. We didn’t have too many natural enemies or foreign enemies. The most dangerous and unpredictable areas in the wilderness around Silver City were marked, too. As long as we were prudent enough not to kill ourselves, we could live a safe, comfortable, and stable life.

“But why did my father and his colleagues have to challenge the taboos time and time again, activate the rune arrays that had been sealed for thousands of years, repair the ancient war machines that were glaring coldly, and release the fatal viruses that could potentially lead to the extinction of the ancient civilization? Why did they have to sit cross-legged around the Heavenly Path Tower during their rare rest time and stare at the top of the Heavenly Path Tower in a daze, as if their souls had been stolen and all their vitality sucked away, making them slaves of the Heavenly Path Tower?

“When I was little, no matter how much I pestered my father, he always kept quiet and refused to tell me the answer. He even put on a long face, squeezed out what was left of his emotions, and raged at me. “In my impression, my father was gentle and refined most of the time. He was like an ancient well with no ripples—this made him even more hideous when he was angry.

“It was not until I grew up that I realized that, once I learned the truth, I would have to devote myself to real research and burn my life like my parents and other elders did. Then, my soul might be corrupted by the unpredictable forces and the unpredictable universe, and I would have to seal my emotions and will. My childhood would come to an end.

“My father hoped that my carefree childhood could last a few more years, so he was unwilling to tell me the truth so early.

“But the day has finally come.

“I will never forget the day when my mother turned into a black iron statue.