Chapter 1 A Message from the Past

Those several ancient pieces of leather must have been made of special materials and with special techniques. Despite three thousand years, they were still soft and durable, with almost no damage other than some discoloration. The writing on them was slightly blurred, but it was still easy to read with careful identification.

The ancient writing from three thousand years ago was certainly different from the written language of the Dream Plane now, but the bearded man and the others were ascetics, and what they usually studied most was various ancient books, especially religious texts handed down from ancient times, which were all written in this ancient writing. Therefore, as long as he could see the words clearly, these things were easy for him to identify.

What was sealed in the Sacred Cave was not some new divine art or goddess inheritance, but a message, written by the first Pope and given to his successor.

As he read, the bearded man slowly read the contents aloud: "...We come from the stars...All life in the world originates from the stars...The Goddess created all life, but in the beginning, she only created seeds..."

"What does this mean?" The young nun next to him didn't seem to understand.

Having personally witnessed the starry sky, Hao Ren clearly understood these things more easily than the four ascetics: "It means that the life on your planet all came from outer space, meteorites and stuff, you know? They brought it down."

"The Goddess created the seeds," the bearded man pointed to the words on the leather and continued reading, "She scattered these seeds to the stars, and they multiplied and thrived on planets suitable for life. We are all descendants of these seeds, both creations of the Goddess and mere remnants and fragments of an entire system."

Up to this point, the message was not much different from the existing scriptures of the Radiant Church, only with different wording, but the content that followed made everyone's eyes instantly serious: "...I leave this message here, hoping that when this cave is opened for the second time, the various races of the world have already been revitalized. I don't ask that they reach the level of ancient civilizations, but at least I hope that mortals have become strong enough to delay those ancient powerful beings, to delay our enraged 'brothers'..."

"Long before the beginning of time, when our world was still desolate, the stars were barren and silent, without any life, and the Goddess was conceived from the darkness. She was the first sentient being in the stars, the King of Kings, the Blood of Blood, the Spirit of Spirits. The Goddess was dissatisfied with the silence of the stars, so she created seeds that spanned the stars to sow life on various planets. These seeds fell on the earth and evolved into tides of blood containing life, and the most primitive forms of life evolved from these liquids, gradually occupying the land - I call the first seed that landed on our planet the First Seed, and it is the origin of all living beings on this small space rock, whether great men or foot soldiers, demigods or ants, whether you and I, whether plants and trees, all originate from this seed."

"The great crime committed by the ancient magical empires was not creating perfect life, not trespassing in the realm of God - they committed an even deeper sin: they found the flesh and blood left over from the First Seed, and began to draw power from this flesh and blood, even trying to control divine power!"

"The First Seed is the embodiment of the Goddess's bloodline, an extension of the Goddess's body, containing the most primitive and direct divine power, and can even be regarded as the Goddess herself. The magical emperors were bewitched by something, arrogantly trying to reshape their own bodies with this flesh and blood, even trying to use their mortal will to erode and control this sacred relic, so that they could truly become gods. Their blasphemy against the First Seed was the root cause of the disaster."

"What I am about to say, no matter how unacceptable or unbelievable it may be to you, is a 100% fact, and it is the true process of the evolution of all beings on this planet..."

"We are not the eldest sons - after the First Seed landed on the earth, it evolved more than one season of life. In the era when the tide of blood was the strongest, the oldest and most powerful guardians were born. They evolved during the thriving period of the First Seed, and therefore possessed more primitive and pure power, as well as the most steadfast loyalty and faith to the Mother - that is, the Goddess. I call these ancient creatures the Eldest Sons. These Eldest Sons ruled the world beneath our feet for millions of years, until they became tired of it and collectively fell into slumber. Only then did other small lives emerge from the already thinned tide of blood, including us. We, these weak mortals, are merely Second Sons."

"The arrogant actions of the ancient magical emperors angered the Eldest Sons sleeping deep in the earth. They sensed that someone was destroying the structure of the First Seed, and they woke up from the earth one after another, launching a massacre."

"The imbalance of the First Seed's functions also led to the tide of blood running wild. The remaining life force in the tide of blood evolved into another world-destroying disaster, from which emerged monsters with short lives and powerful erosive power. They were filled with hatred, and the only thing they wanted to do was to destroy the rebellious sons. If classified according to the evolutionary era, these should be the Third Sons."

"This is the truth of the apocalypse: the entire world was not engulfed in a sea of fire, but an ecological disaster."

"This disaster almost destroyed all the second-season life on the planet. The furious Eldest Sons and Third Sons vowed to completely reshape the entire planet's ecological structure. We should have been completely wiped out in this disaster, but the Goddess's mercy saved us one last time: a certain safety device she had set up within the First Seed detected the mass extinction phenomenon, so it actively activated and forcibly stopped the Eldest Sons' activities, while the Third Sons quickly died out due to life depletion. Our world was thus able to survive."

"Those foolish magical emperors did not have time to destroy the safety device of the First Seed, which should be the only good thing they did - I found the safety device still in operation in this cave, and took it away from this dangerous place to prevent the sleeping Eldest Sons from destroying it in their sleep and waking up prematurely. But the safety device cannot be too far away from the sealed ground, so it should be properly placed within one hundred Cassawei (ancient unit of measurement) of this cave. If all goes well, in your era, this safety device should be called the Progenitor of Life, and it should be operating normally for the time being."

The bearded man's breath was trembling, and everyone around him was trembling, not only because of this shocking truth, but also because everyone had a bad feeling. The young nun picked up the last piece of leather, and the premonition came true:

"The safety device is just an 'organ' of the First Seed. After the First Seed was severely damaged, this organ can no longer be immortal and eternal as originally designed. According to my calculations, its remaining lifespan is...three thousand years."

"Gulp," Becky's gulping sound was particularly loud.

"The Eldest Sons are about to awaken. After the safety device, that is, the Progenitor of Life, stops emitting inhibitory signals, they will resume their activities and execute the unfinished ecological reshaping plan. And there are a total of three Eldest Sons who survived after the ancient apocalypse, corresponding to three sets of Progenitors of Life. The shutdown of these three inhibitory signal sources should occur in sequence. According to my research, the first to stop functioning should be this place, and the other two should stop functioning one year and three years later, respectively. But even if only one Eldest Son awakens, it is enough to cause a catastrophic disaster."

"But there is no need to be too desperate. We should have allies. According to some ancient records, some advanced civilizations from the stars have made an alliance with our world. They are 'Second Sons' from other planets, and they know more about the secrets of the Goddess and the Eldest Sons of God than we do. When the inhibitory signal here stops, reinforcements from other planets will arrive in our world aboard silver ships to help us destroy the Eldest Sons: the latter can only be safely killed when they have just awakened; too early or too late will lead to failure."

"I have pieced together this information from various ancient records. There should still be details that are not detailed enough, but the key information is accurate. But these things are too shocking and may even cause despair for all mankind, so I discussed with my old friend that these things should not be revealed to the world in their entirety. If all goes well, I will establish a church in the world and establish a will to be passed down from generation to generation, taking hundreds of years to tell the world the truth and promote the revitalization of the mortal race as much as possible, in order to be able to face the first wave of attacks from the Eldest Sons and protect ourselves three thousand years later. But if an accident occurs and my inheritance in the world is cut off, I have also left various inductions and arrangements, hoping that at least one person can come to this cave. The last words I leave here can let you understand the fate of this world."

"Finally, if someone really sees these words, please greet our brothers in the stars on my behalf and thank them for abiding by the ten-thousand-year alliance - even though it was those sinful magical emperors who made the alliance with them, at least our world will be saved because of this alliance."

"If the disaster is really safely overcome, I hope that future generations will remember one sentence: the fall of the Eldest Sons does not mean that we mortals can be arrogant and complacent. We must always remember to be in awe. If we repeat the mistakes of ancient civilizations, the Goddess's true wrath will eventually descend upon the world."

The leather filled with writing fell silently on the altar, and the young nun muttered to herself in a hoarse voice: "...The external inheritance...has long been cut off..."

(On this day of universal celebration, I am actually coding at home...)