Chapter 58 New Sun Calendar

The newly built steel city stood on the boundless prairie. Hundreds of lightning-filled discharge needle towers of varying heights formed a bizarre, pointed mountain-like shape, adorning this wilderness with lightning and halos. The entire city was a massive machine, each of its needle towers connected to a complex control core and a line leading to the First Born's tentacles, ensuring that the foundation of this planet would not collapse under its control.

Hao Ren named this city "Zhenhun City" (City of Souls), which not only suited its purpose but also served to commemorate the ancient spirits who had devoted ten thousand years to suppressing the First Born.

Zhenhun City was now the largest and only city on this planet, but currently, only the ancient spirits who participated in its construction had settled in it. Gaze and his people had built a temporary settlement on one side of Zhenhun City, and the entire tribe had moved to this location. Due to the belief in "following the goddess's guidance," they felt it necessary to protect this miraculous city, and other tribes were also migrating to this place. Some members of the Fire Tribe had already arrived and were now stationed next to the Wind Tribe's settlement.

Vivian summoned the representatives of the ancient spirits in this tribal settlement, inquiring about what had happened in the half-month since she had left. Although they had been in contact with Hao Ren and the others using communicators, some things were still more reassuring to confirm in person.

In a special large tent, Gragon reported the situation to Vivian and Hao Ren: "The Lullaby Ritual has been completely transferred to the needle tower forest. Now those machines are replacing the original work of the ancient spirits. The transfer process has been smooth, and as you can see, 'Toka's' condition is very stable."

"How effective are those machines at controlling the First Born?" Hao Ren turned to ask the data terminal floating beside him.

The data terminal opened a holographic projection: "Let the city AI tell you directly."

A featureless, androgynous human face appeared on the holographic projection, quite similar to the collective consciousness of the probe drone swarm. This was a characteristic feature of the low-level AI of the Xi Ling civilization. This AI, only a few days old, first greeted Hao Ren and then began to report on the state of Zhenhun City: "... All needle towers have been successfully connected, and the system is operating according to design goals, completing the control of the First Born's body. The 'Lullaby' ritual originally performed by the ancient spirits has now been compiled into software and is being run directly by this system, with an operating efficiency of 80% – which can be increased to 100% after collecting further data."

Hao Ren nodded and then asked the AI, "To what extent can you control the First Born?"

The city AI sent a large number of dazzling charts: "Control of all tentacles, control of all organs, control of all associated glands and biological factories related to maintaining the ecosystem. This system successfully took over and restarted the large tentacles related to atmospheric control and temperature control seventy-two hours ago. As of now, the control rate has reached 87%. Considering that the remaining 13% is composed of structures without a nervous system, it can be considered that control is perfect."

Hao Ren stroked his chin and smiled with satisfaction: "Alright, so we've finally artificially created a First Born's brain. Can the technology of this Zhenhun City be applied to other First Born?"

The city AI replied in an emotionless voice: "Theoretically feasible, but the operational difficulty should be extremely high. This system encountered strong resistance from underground biological organizations in the early stages of taking over control. Facts have proven that even if the 'First Born' loses its brain and soul, its bodily instincts are still very strong. Based on this, controlling a First Born with a brain and soul should be extremely difficult."

Hao Ren pulled back his wandering thoughts, thinking that this wasn't bad: at least the research project had taken a big step forward. Then he pointed upwards, through the tent's tarpaulin, towards the sky: "The Fiery people have already begun cutting the surface crust. During this process, the divine protection left by the goddess – I mean our local goddess – will automatically shut down, and this planet will begin to receive solar energy normally. You need to prepare for the system switchover."

The Purgatory Planet had been operating completely without stellar irradiation for the past ten thousand years. It had formed a complex and efficient self-circulating system, which included not only the surface crust and the cloud canopy above it, but also the entire ecosystem of this underground space. Now that sunlight was about to shine on the earth, powerful natural energy would fill this system, which had been depleted for many years. This planet had to adapt at an extremely fast speed, otherwise, the power of sunlight would quickly destroy the existing ecosystem. The reason why Hao Ren waited until Zhenhun City was completed before letting the Fiery people begin work was for this reason: he could use the power of the First Born to switch the planet's ecological mode, thereby smoothly passing through the initial stage after opening the crust.

The city AI accepted the order and stated that a feasible plan had been injected into the various organs of the First Born: as the surface crust disintegrated, the base of the Sky Pillar Giant Tree would be reactivated, and new microbial populations for regulating air pressure and light filtration would be released into the atmosphere. After that, there would be a rather long fine-tuning process. By continuously changing the composition of the atmosphere and creating functional giant plant communities, the city AI planned to completely get this planet back on track within six hundred to one thousand years (Earth time).

After talking about the First Born, Vivian turned to Gragon and the ancient spirits: "Tell me about you. What are your plans for the future?"

Gragon lowered his head slightly: "Your will is our arrangement."

Vivian wasn't quite used to the other party's pious attitude, and she moved back almost imperceptibly: "Um... you have completed your mission, and you have done it well. To be honest, I don't quite know how to arrange you, after all, I only have a part of my memories from back then. So if you have any wishes and requests, just say them, and I will fulfill them as long as I can: this is the treatment you deserve."

Gragon raised his head and communicated with another soul beside him, and then the other souls also exchanged opinions. Their conversation was silent, relying on spiritual resonance to complete the conversation. Hao Ren felt that the scene was just a group of ghostly shadows swaying around, and then they made some kind of decision. A soul stepped forward. He was Pan Dong, the former leader of the Knights Templar of the Sun Dynasty: "My Lord, we hope to continue to remain in this world and teach our descendants to escape ignorance again."

This answer was within Hao Ren's expectations. He only said casually, "This will take a long time."

Pan Dong smiled: "We are no longer afraid of time."

This was the decision of the ancient spirits. After completing their long mission of loyalty to the goddess, they now wanted to do something for their own people. The technology of this world had been cut off for ten thousand years (or five thousand years according to the local calendar), and the magical civilization that once could ascend to the sky and enter the earth had now degenerated to be no different from primitive tribes, but the knowledge itself had not disappeared. It still remained in the memories of the ancient spirits. Gragon and his ministers wanted to become the leaders of these children of the sun again, passing on the knowledge and skills of the ancient times to the young and ignorant descendants.

This would probably take a long time – rebuilding a civilization was not enough by just instilling theories; it also required generations of continuous ideological evolution to achieve.

But as Pan Dong said, they were no longer afraid of time.

Hao Ren and the others left the tent surrounded by the souls. Gaze and Bernia were standing at the door, waiting for a long time. The little saintess had fallen asleep again. When Hao Ren came out, he happened to see a snot bubble emerging on the little girl's face. After being awakened by Gaze, Bernia quickly wiped her face and ran to Vivian's side in a hurry. Gragon lovingly placed his hand on the little girl's head: "Do you like stories from ancient times?"

Bernia nodded vigorously immediately.

"Very good, then let us old guys take you on another journey," Gragon nodded with a smile. "The children of the sun will flourish and multiply again in this land."

Bernia nodded as if she understood, but she was still too young to fully understand the heavy meaning of the four words "racial revival." Perhaps it would be decades later, when she stood on the high wall of the first city-state of the new Sun Dynasty, that she would understand the future destiny of this world.

"This city is for you to live in," Vivian exchanged opinions with Hao Ren and then pointed to the high tower of Zhenhun City not far away and said to Gragon, "You can get the energy to maintain yourselves from the towers. From now on, this will be your Valhalla, and you will continue to guard this world as heroic spirits."

At the top of the distant Sky Pillar Giant Tree, a thick rocky dome was cut open and flew into space under the traction of the anti-gravity field. A ray of sunlight, separated for ten thousand years, penetrated the clouds and sprinkled on the earth.

This was the first day of the New Sun Calendar.