“It does seem to… make sense.”
Li Yao thought for a long time. While Long Yangjun’s words were mostly speculation, her theory was rather self-consistent logically.
While she was talking, Long Yangjun seemed to have entered a certain state of trance. Extending her hand to touch the black tides created by the light beam, she suddenly sounded ancient and profound as she mumbled, “I have drawn a portrait for the leader of the Pangu civilization. In my eyes, the leader of the Pangu civilization who made the decision is like an experienced, sophisticated, determined, and even coldhearted hunter in a dark forest.
“No, he is much more than an old hunter. He is also the leader of the tiny village named ‘Pangu’.
“As the oldest hunter of the village, through all the difficulties, he struggled to survive in the dark forest with unparalleled wisdom, courage, passion, and even schemes. Finally, he ended the cruel hunting among thirteen hunters, calling for them to establish a tribe together and bringing peace and light to the tiny dark forest.
“Then, after all the efforts, and shedding too much sweat and blood, they cut the grasses, chopped the woods, prepared supplies, and drew maps. Finally, they broke out of the forest that had caged them for millions of years!
“However, after they left the long-cursed dark forest, the first picture they saw was bones; bones that were a hundred times larger and more daunting than the beast kings that they had ever encountered. Even such a behemoth was already irresistible for their tiny village, not to mention the disaster that killed it.
“Then, they probably met the traces of the raging Flood, like the swallowed beasts, the collapsed mountains, and the canals ten thousand meters deep. In the end, they learned the terror of the Flood from some dying survivors.
“The old hunter had dealt with countless enemies and resolved all kinds of disasters in his life, but he had never encountered such a great horror as ‘Flood’. He was scared out of his wits, and he had every reason to be. In the meantime, he had to be responsible for his tribe, for all the hunters as well as the nonhunters in the village.
“Therefore, the old hunter retreated quietly and completely abandoned the idea of breaking out of the dark forest, spending the rest of his life in revulsion.
“He listened to the sounds outside of the dark forest in a panic every day, coming up with solutions to avoid the scanning and sniffing of the Flood.
“He also carefully calculated the food and other resources in the tribe, making sure that his descendants could live through the next million years before going out of the place again.
“Of course, it was in the nature of children to explore and to rejoice, but those things were strictly forbidden. Exploration might lead to disasters, and rejoicing would consume a lot of resources and might even be heard by the Flood.
“Besides, where there is joy, there is pain; where there is laughter and dance, there are tears and cries. When the children tasted fun today, they would be haunted by the horror of the Flood for the rest of their lives, mired in the eternal pain, like the old hunter was.
“So, for the children, for the tribe, just forbid all of them, seal all of them, and erase all of them!
“The children were naturally not fond of such a cruel and heartless village leader. The young and fearless hunters who were not in the expedition team and who did not see the outside of the forest disliked him too, believing that he was merely exaggerating and that the Flood was not that scary, if the Flood existed at all. There were major conflicts between them, which might even escalate into wars. In the most extreme cases, the old hunter had to smother the laughing and singing children in person and stab the poisoned dagger into the chests of the young hunters.
“Li Yao, for you and me who stand at the point millions of years later and know the ending of the tiny tribe as well as the course of history, we are naturally free to mock the timidity of the old hunter and berate his cruelty and heartlessness. After all, despite all the extreme approaches, he still failed to save the Pangu civilization! Failure is always the greatest crime.
“But however prosperous and advanced the Pangu civilization was, it did not have prophetic abilities. At that time, before all the consequences were revealed, they were haunted by the greatest fear, and the whole society and civilization might collapse anytime. Can you argue that the old hunter’s decision was not justified at such a perilous moment? Would you have come up with a better solution if you were in his place?”
“I… don’t think so.”
Li Yao admitted frankly, “In the past, I liked to mock and criticize those people—Xiao Xuance, Lu Zui, Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan, and possibly, the old hunter of the Pangu civilization you just said. But to be honest, it’s always easy to point out other people’s mistakes, particularly in hindsight.
“However, when I was faced with the unknown future myself, the imminent threats, and the incomplete and even entirely wrong information but had to make a decision in the dilemma, I finally realized that it was truly difficult!”
Long Yangjun looked at Li Yao in surprise and smiled. “It seems that you are much more sophisticated than before after you are determined to embark on the journey to be a supervillain. You can even understand the other supervillains now!”
Li Yao smiled in embarrassment. Recalling a detail that Long Yangjun just mentioned, he said, “Right, you said just now that the young hunters did not agree with the old hunter’s judgment but believed that the Flood outside of the dark forest was not necessarily scary. They decided to break out and take a look at it for themselves. Does it refer to anything? Who are the ‘young hunters’? Ah, got it. The Nuwa Clan!”
“You are teachable after all!”
Long Yangjun complimented Li Yao half sincerely and nodded her head. “Exactly, if such an important factor as ‘the Flood’ is added to the primeval war between Pangu and Nuwa, it will be more interesting and reasonable.
“The Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan did not fight for such a simple reason as to whether or not feelings and desires were needed. They were fighting about whether or not feelings and desires should be activated for the exploration of the vast universe beyond the three thousand Sectors!
“The Pangu Clan certainly insisted that we should hide behind the black wall in the dark forest for at least a million years as a start.
“The Nuwa Clan, on the other hand, was the group of ‘young hunters’. They joined the alliance last. It was possible that they were unclear of the horror of the Flood, and they were hesitant about the Pangu Clan’s authority too. Challenging the authority and marching to the extraterrestrial lands were their ineffaceable ambitions.
“The two opposing forces naturally ended up in a war. Don’t forget that for the Pangu civilization, every starship that intended to sail out of the three thousand Sectors was a threat for the entire civilization. Was there a second choice other than to eliminate it?”
Li Yao was captivated. “This is… too unbelievable. Do you have any evidence?”
“Does tenebrum energy count?”
Long Yangjun said, “The tenebrum energy is an energy form that contains emotions. It is an advanced form of spiritual energy and even a prerequisite to breaking out of the three thousand Sectors. Only the starships powered by the tenebrum energy had the greatest odds to sail out.
“To seal themselves, the Pangu civilization aborted all technologies on the tenebrum energy, but the Nuwa Clan had been studying them in secret. Aren’t their ambitions obvious?
“There are also the extraterrestrial devils. The Nuwa Clan fought the Pangu Clan due to the corruption of the extraterrestrial devils. The ‘extraterrestrial’ naturally refers to the world beyond the black wall. I think that the so-called ‘extraterrestrial devils’ are very likely to be the pieces in the forms of energy or information of the civilizations that have been destroyed by the Flood. They have leaked through the black wall and influenced the carbon-based intelligence lives in our world.
“To put it more simply, the civilizations destroyed by the Flood had billions of pieces of ghosts and phantoms. You may consider them as the last lingering thoughts of the destroyed civilizations!
“When the pieces of ghosts and phantoms penetrated through the black wall and evolved after billions of years, they became ‘extraterrestrial devils’. That explained why the Nuwa Clan, who were corrupted by the extraterrestrial devils, not only awakened abundant feelings but also picked up the utilization of tenebrum energy overnight, capable of fighting the other twelve clans on their own!”
“Hey, hey, hey!”
Li Yao complained, “Last time, you said that ‘extraterrestrial devils’ were ‘desire devils’ that were naturally generated inside the human head. Now, you are claiming that the extraterrestrial devils are the… remains of the civilizations destroyed by the Flood beyond the black wall? That’s a sudden shift. Which of them is true?”
“The internal factors and the external factors are related.”
Long Yangjun sniffed and said, “The development of anything requires the push of both internal and external factors. In the Pangu’s alliance, some of the people, mainly the Nuwa Clan, could not erase their feelings at all. Too many emotions, desires, or devils still lingered inside their heads, which attracted the lingering thoughts of the civilizations that were destroyed by the Flood. When the two parties were combined, a new Nuwa Clan was born!
“The lingering thoughts of the destroyed civilizations perhaps contained extreme hatred against the Flood, hoping that a new, young civilization could destroy the Flood on behalf of them.
“Or maybe it was just because of their maliciousness that ‘since my civilization has been destroyed, you should come with us too’. They were simply alluring the Nuwa Clan to be killed.
“Or even worse, those lingering thoughts had lost all the wisdom and rationality but were filled with the absolute fear, absolute bedlam, and absolute agitation the moment of the Flood’s destruction. It’s exactly the true meaning of ‘chaos’ that we discussed before.
“All in all, the brand-new clan couldn’t endure the suffocating and boring life inside the black wall anymore. They had to appreciate the vaster universe, which was in fundamental contradiction with the Pangu Clan. So, a war was inevitable!”
Li Yao was rather stunned. “You… are almost telling a story. Did you imagine or infer the complicated and all the twists and turns on your own?”
“Some of them were, some were not.”
Long Yangjun’s eyes that were looking at the black tides almost became transparent, as if the history of a million years had been condensed in them. With an even hollower voice, she said, “Some are my deductions, but some are the memories from my cells, my genes, and even the depths of my soul. Do you ever have such an experience? You are unclear about the things of your past, but when you are chatting with someone, or when you see or hear something familiar, countless memory pieces will spurt out, allowing you to remember many things all of a sudden?”
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