Chapter 415 The Crying Child

Hao Ren was completely immersed in the world of the spiritual entity. His consciousness sank continuously with a chaotic force. The oldest historical memories of the siren emerged in the depths of this chaos, becoming increasingly clear and felt as if personally experienced.

He saw those nimble creatures living in the deep sea open their minds, watching them study, with surprise and awe, the metallic meteorites that occasionally fell from the dark abyss, researching how these hard stones were formed. They dug through the mud and sand, weaved seaweed, and developed their homes in this dim aquatic world, illuminated slightly by the faint glow of algae, full of curiosity about everything. In the five-thousandth year of the meteorite-iron age, they finally learned how to separate metal from the deep-sea rocks they dug up: in this place far from fire, they used the power of water and chemistry.

Using water currents to break down ores, using elemental methods to refine metals, thereby creating alloys that would not rust. The sirens freed themselves from the limited gifts of extraterrestrial meteorites and used their own hands to create new metal tools, building the oldest dynasty and engraving words on those durable alloys, writing the first page of history.

However, while this young civilization was taking its first steps in the deep sea, their nurturer—the endless Aerym Ocean—also heavily covered the kingdom. The sirens were filled with awe and curiosity about the endless dark water above. As all intelligent races must experience: they also wanted to know what was on the other side of that darkness.

It was a thousand years after the establishment of the First Dynasty that the first siren became interested in this and put it into practice.

But exploring the shallow water layer was dangerous. The environment of the deep sea was very different from the shallow water layer, where there was enormous water pressure—water pressure that was particularly comfortable for the sirens, but not so in the shallow water layer. The ancient admonitions of the sirens warned those restless young adventurers that the opposite of the endless dark water was a world of "nothingness." As they approached the "edge of the world," the density of matter would decrease, and everything would separate from each other, and the sirens themselves were no exception. Just like the warriors of the tribal era who tried to send meteor iron back to the "edge of the world" and never returned, no siren could cross that mysterious dark water.

However, once the heart of exploration was ignited, it would not be extinguished. Young scholars continued to study how to reach the edge of the world. They constantly improved their elemental magic, using magic to change their physique so that they could adapt to the water pressure in the shallow water area. They continued to send batches of explorers, charging again and again at the dark abyss hanging above their heads with the determination to die.

The explorers who returned alive brought back incredible things: animals and plants living in the upper waters, which made the scholars believe even more that there was a survivable area on the opposite side of the dark abyss, another bustling world.

In the two-thousandth year after the establishment of the First Dynasty, a young siren led her small expedition team to challenge this limit. They spent a hundred years transforming their physique and another three full days applying various protective magic to themselves, and then launched an attack on the dark abyss. They swam the farthest distance, crossed waters that no predecessors had ever reached, and left behind those wonderful shallow-water animals and plants. As they continued to rise, they felt that the water elements that made up their bodies were becoming increasingly unstable, but even more incredible scenes began to come from above:

On the opposite side of the dark abyss, there was light.

It turned out that the phenomenon of "light" was not unique to the deep sea.

They excitedly exchanged their new discoveries and began to rush towards the surface of the water even more vigorously, so that they did not care at all what changes were taking place in the water elements in their bodies. They marched towards that unprecedentedly bright world, swimming hard, swimming hard, and finally crossed a "boundary of matter"—at that time, they did not know that such a thing was called the "surface of the water."

An incomparably vast, bright, and restless world was presented to these explorers.

But they only had time to take one look, because in a second, they all turned into gas due to pressure disintegration.

Elemental creatures did not have meat bodies in the conventional sense. Without mastering control techniques, they had no idea how to maintain their high-density state in the air world.

It was not until hundreds of years later that the sirens knew how to move in the air world.

Hao Ren's spirit was in a wonderful state. He was traversing the entire history of the sirens, but he could hardly feel the flow of time, as if these memories spanning thousands and tens of of thousands of years were spread out before his eyes like a plane, and he could see everything at a glance. He saw the sirens finally come to the world on the surface of the sea and begin to carefully explore this "empty, vast, and unstable" air world for them. In this process, he seemed to vaguely sense Iva's thoughts. He understood what the siren spirit was thinking.

The sirens spent thousands of years building stable passages and various observation platforms that could reach the sea surface. The Aerym Ocean covering the entire planet made them need to put in dozens of times more effort than other races to take another look at the sky. They used patience that ordinary races could not imagine to adapt to the storms and lightning on the sea surface, and even transformed their life forms again for this. Their most outstanding observer, Ivina, waited for seven hundred years on the platform to usher in a clear sky. When the vast and terrifying thing of the "starry sky" was presented to the sirens, it almost scared everyone silly.

And it was not until seventeen hundred years had passed that they knew that there was not only a starry sky behind the clouds, but also sunlight: that was the second sunny day.

Figuring out "day and night" was a later matter.

Everything the sirens did required more effort than other races. The special natural environment of this planet made it impossible for them to figure out what they should study and what they were studying like ordinary races. Lightning, oceans, huge waves, and an unstable atmosphere made it difficult for any primitive race to move on the sea surface. At the same time, they had to spend more energy to adjust their life form. The life form of "deep-sea elemental creatures" limited them from birth. The energy they consumed in transforming this point was almost more than observing this world.

But they still did not stop exploring the outside world, and continued to move towards the outside of the world - their reason was not so noble and lofty, they did not even think of the saying "starry sea."

They just wanted to go out and take a look, and wanted to see if there was a sea in other places that was as big as their hometown.

In the four-thousandth year after Ivina observed the starry sky, the sirens created an aircraft that could pass through the Aerym storms. It was not easy to study flying tools in a world where they could not make fire, was full of lightning, storms did not stop, and even the initial aerodynamic research could not be carried out. Of course, it can also be said that they were dull in this regard, but so what?

Anyway, they could finally see the stars properly, and they were very happy about it.

Hao Ren felt his consciousness begin to float lightly. He saw the siren's space age, watching these magical creatures try to launch probes to other planets to find the sea, watching them establish observation stations one after another in their planet's orbit, casting curious eyes on the wider universe, watching…

A group of unidentified space battleships suddenly descended on Aerym. In a inexplicable chaotic war, the siren kingdoms collapsed. Until the end, the entire planet was swept by an energy storm weapon that resembled a global EMP, and the siren civilization was destroyed just like that.

An annihilation without reason.

The storms on the Aerym Ocean were intensifying. Huge lightning swept across the sky, and towering waves wrapped in ice surged wave after wave. Shaqira and the other three sirens worked together to maintain control of a small area of water. She looked at the center of this area of water: "When will he be ready? I don't feel like Iva has calmed down at all!"

Nangong Wuyue quickly dived underwater, confirmed Hao Ren's condition, and then floated up: "He is still connected! I have seen him connect with the brain monster several times, I know this state... it looks very smooth!"

Suoma muttered: "I don't think this is going smoothly."

Another storm surged, and a tsunami as high as a mountain rushed towards everyone. The Siren Queen raised her hands high to block the tsunami. Just as she could not help but prepare to personally check Hao Ren's condition, the latter suddenly emerged from the water.

As soon as Hao Ren opened his eyes, he saw the fierce storm and towering waves outside. He stared blankly at this violent aquatic world, his mind as stiff as if it had been delayed for a century. It was not until Nangong Wuyue swam closer that he murmured to himself, "She's crying."

"What?" Nangong Wuyue didn't hear clearly for a moment.

"She's crying," Hao Ren looked up at the sky, looking at the arms reaching into space, "Iva, she's crying, she's just a child."

The sound of wind and rain roared in his ears, and the heaven and earth were filled with roaring roars. Endless anger, annoyance, and hatred were mixed in the storm like substance, almost crushing the people in it. But this time, Hao Ren realized something else from these violent sounds and breaths: Iva's wailing.

For a civilization, Iva was just a child. She was at a loss, she was not ready for anything, she had just learned the vastness and grandeur of this world, but everything came to an abrupt end for no reason.

She had spent so long crawling out of her cradle. She had used far more patience and time than other races to see the world above her head. She had to pay dozens of times the price to complete the achievements that seemed commonplace to other races—although she herself might not realize this, in any case, Aerym's tens of kilometers of thick ocean, the endless turbulent atmosphere, the clouds that would not dissipate for thousands of years, all these things had been overcome with great difficulty, and she had crawled out of the deep sea so hard—but everything came to an abrupt end for no reason.

Iva didn't even know what happened, and died tragically on the side of her cradle.

Therefore, she rejected this fact. The siren's indestructible soul allowed her to survive the end of the world, and instead occupied this planet in a state similar to an "aftersound." She was like a child whose toy had been snatched away, attacking everything in confusion and anger while crying loudly.

"I never thought that racial consciousness could become this state..." Hao Ren didn't know how to explain what he saw and felt, so he could only shake his head at Shaqira and the others, "In fact, the phenomenon of civilization's premature death is everywhere, but it is rare for individuals like 'Iva' to appear. She feels at a loss and is very sad about her destruction. She is just venting her dissatisfaction... and perhaps it is her last venting."

"Then what should we do?" The Siren Queen looked at Hao Ren helplessly, "Is there any way to... appease her?"

At this time, the call from the data terminal suddenly came from the communication channel: "Are you guys okay! The situation on my side is a bit bad!"

Hao Ren looked at the Siren Queen, then glanced at Nangong Wuyue, and nodded vigorously: "Give me a few more minutes. Also, you two come over, I need your help."

The two said in unison: "Help with what?"

"Just stay by my side," Hao Ren reached out and grabbed the hands of the Siren Queen and Nangong Wuyue, "Let us connect together, let Iva sense your existence."

After saying this, regardless of the confused expressions on the faces of the two sirens, Hao Ren once again established a connection with Iva.

That sense of chaos struck again, and this time Hao Ren sensed Iva's consciousness more clearly from it. It was a dreamlike feeling, almost impossible to confirm whether it was a consciousness or just a memory with a tendency, but Hao Ren was willing to believe that the situation belonged to the former. In a chaotic state, he could only vaguely feel Nangong Wuyue and the Siren Queen by his side. This was the only problem: the two sirens did not have the ability to connect spiritually. Could Iva, in a state of madness, sense them?

"Iva!" Hao Ren concentrated his mind and called out in his mind, but soon he realized that the name "Iva" was also given by the sirens. The spirit of the siren probably didn't even know what it meant: she didn't have time to give herself a name.

However, miraculously, that chaotic spiritual power seemed to really react to the word "Iva." Hao Ren felt that something was paying attention to him in the dark.

Perhaps the sirens had legends about "Iva" before they fled Aerym, so as the spirit of the siren, the aggregate of all sirens, she knew that she was called "Iva."

Hao Ren concentrated again: "Iva, I know you can hear my voice... don't be afraid, I have no malice towards you, I just want to help you. I know what you have experienced, and I deeply sympathize with it. Many civilizations cannot escape the fate of premature death, you are not..."

A burst of violent thoughts suddenly struck, and a wave of unease surged in the chaos.

"Okay, okay, let's not talk about this..." Hao Ren quickly reorganized his language, "Iva, Iva, calm down, I just want to show you something - in fact, you have not failed, in a sense, you have continued, and have gone farther than anyone else. Iva, through me, you should be able to sense the aura of two compatriots..."

Hao Ren calmed down and minimized his sense of mental presence so that Iva could sense the presence of other sirens on the scene through himself as a medium. Due to falling into madness, Iva had lost the ability to sense other sirens, so Hao Ren had to make himself Iva's temporary senses.

He thought this attempt should work.

Iva's emotions gradually calmed down and paid attention to the situation here curiously.

"A ship successfully escaped Aerym and came to another world," Hao Ren said silently to Iva, "I am an envoy from there, and my duty is to supervise and evaluate the development of civilization. I want to tell you that the siren civilization still exists, and you have continued in another world. Have you noticed a special siren next to me? Her bloodline is siren, but she should have a special aura - she was born in that world and is proof that you have taken root and continued in another world..."

The call from the data terminal came from the communication channel: "Boss! The situation is getting better! The water is slowly receding!"

Hao Ren did not respond, but continued to communicate with Iva: "Iva, don't be sad or cry anymore, the bad times have passed, and everything will be fine."

A light lit up in the chaotic darkness, and a blurry figure emerged from the light. Hao Ren looked at this phantom in surprise. He heard a voice ringing in his ears: "...is there a sea over there too?"

"Yes, it's very big, very beautiful, and we also have land - that is, the rocks and soil protruding from the sea. The sirens occasionally go to the land to play, but they spend most of their time in the sea."

"Are they happy?"

"Still carefree and not fighting with the world, a little trouble happened recently, but I easily solved the problem. Look, after solving the trouble, I brought them home to see you."

After a silence as long as a century, the light slowly dissipated, and a sigh came: "Thank you, I can finally sleep..."

All the phantoms receded like a tide. Hao Ren opened his eyes and saw the storm stop, the clouds clear, and Aerym ushered in a clear sky that had not been seen for thousands of years, a real clear sky.

Stars hung in the sky, making people unable to help but think of the scene many years ago when a siren named Ivina stood on the ancient observation platform and looked at this scene in surprise.

These stars must have scared her.

Trillions of tons of seawater began to return to the surface of Aerym under the traction of Iva's last trace of power. This spectacular scene was thrilling to watch from space. Hao Ren could not see this scene on the surface of the planet, but he could still imagine everything.

A water arc like an arch slowly slid down in front of Hao Ren and the sirens. Shaqira pointed to it in surprise: "Look! There are still surviving creatures!"

A light golden little fish jumped out of the water arc, flicked its tail in the air, and returned to the sea.

It miraculously survived that terrible space journey and finally returned home safely.

Hao Ren took a long breath and looked down at the calm sea under his feet:

"Good night, Iva."

(I can't update at night, so I simply merged the two chapters together.)