Chapter 1 The Last Guardian

Forgotten, alone, deep in the vault—Hao Ren couldn't imagine what that felt like, but from this tiny room, he could see the traces the old man had left behind over nine hundred years, offering a glimpse into his life. He had once used discipline and willpower to force himself to continue guarding according to the plan, because he had been the best talent in this ark; he had also once given up on himself, squandering his time and supplies in this small room, because he was just an ordinary human; and he had awakened from that false self-discipline and meaningless waste, using the last decades of his life to leave behind all the history he knew, because he was the last "guardian" left by this civilization.

"I didn't wake up until the second half of my life, so I had to work twice as hard to make up for the wasted time," the old man muttered in a low, indistinct voice. "The only thing to be thankful for is that I'm really healthy. The doctors were right. I can live a long, healthy life. This lifespan was originally meant to be used for reconstruction, but I'm trapped in this room—so I spent nearly twenty years leaving those things behind. Our history, our culture, our traditions, where we came from, why we left our homeland… That was my longest period of lucidity. I worked day and night, terrified every time I found another gray hair. I almost went crazy, but I didn't dare go back into the hibernation pod, because I didn't know if I could ever get up again… I was getting older and older. In the last few years, I spent half of my time every day guarding that window…"

The old man tremblingly raised a finger, pointing to the small window embedded next to the door. In the days when he woke up intermittently, that window was the only channel through which he could see the outside world.

"I looked outside, and sometimes I hallucinated, seeing some hibernation pods suddenly open, and children jumping out of them, healthy and full of vitality. But sometimes I saw terrible things… those hibernation pods falling on the bridge, with blood seeping out of them. I completed the last bit of work in this state. It was time to rest," the old man's turbid eyes looked towards the corner of the room, where he had been lying for hundreds of years. "So I went back in there, and this time I didn't set a wake-up time—my physical age was already one hundred and three, and there was no need to wake up again."

This was the life of the ark's last "guardian."

When those ignorant children ran into the refuge city in panic, their "guardian" was still asleep. When those children struggled to survive in the empty city, their "guardian" could only watch those hibernation pods that had become empty. The first settlement appeared in the refuge city, the first new generation appeared, the first kingdom appeared, the first split appeared, the first failure, the first power outage, the first winter, the first artificial gravity shutdown… the last guardian of civilization could only be trapped here, helpless, fearful, annoyed, and finally cheered up, engraving the history of the entire race on the wall, from youth to middle age, and from middle age to old age…

But those children in the refuge city and their descendants slowly forgot everything in eight hundred years of hard survival, and eventually even forgot where they came from. The only thing that could connect them with the watchman in the vault was probably the name of the reactor at the end of the "world": Ancestral Furnace.

"Why write these things on paper and engrave them on the wall?" Lily asked curiously. "Didn't you prepare other teaching materials?"

"Because this way it will be preserved for a longer time," the old man's mouth twitched, revealing a difficult smile. "The equipment outside hasn't been maintained for hundreds of years, they will always break down, but things written on paper can be preserved for a thousand years, and things engraved on the wall can be preserved for ten thousand years, as long as this place remains closed, it can even be preserved for longer… I have always believed that the children are still alive, but there is a problem with the host that wakes them up. Once they wake up and I am long dead, then they can still find my manuscript."

After the old man finished speaking, he was silent for a long time. Finally, he looked at Hao Ren and broke the silence again: "I want to ask again, are they all still alive?"

"Their descendants are still alive," Hao Ren replied cautiously.

"Oh, is that so… so many generations have passed…" the old man slowly nodded, already anticipating something in his heart, but he still asked, "Are our culture and traditions still being passed down?"

Everyone looked at each other until Vivian broke the awkward silence: "Many generations have passed… you know what happens."

The old man was silent, slowly walking towards the long table where those manuscripts were piled. He refused Hao Ren's support and Nangong Wuyue's help, but quietly sorted out those manuscripts by himself, stacked them in order, and then he tried to lift those things up—but he no longer had the strength.

"Let me help you," Lily rushed forward and snatched the thick stack of manuscripts without saying a word. "Where to move them to?"

"Take me to see… the descendants of those children." The old man looked up at Hao Ren, his eyes calm, without sorrow or joy.

"You will be disappointed," Vivian said from the side.

The old man had only one answer: "I'm dying anyway."

Hao Ren nodded, took out a life-support collar from his dimensional pocket, and handed it over: "Wear it. We will pass through a place full of radiation. This thing will keep you safe."

For the first time in nine hundred years, the old man left his room. The moment he stepped out of the door, his body clearly trembled violently, but he waved his hand to refuse Nangong Wuyue's support, and almost stubbornly muttered: "I want to see them myself."

In front of the Ancestral Furnace's gate, the crowd was getting bigger and bigger.

The alarm issued by the blood servants alarmed everyone in the royal city, and then strange sayings such as "Ice Flame Witch" spread wildly among the soldiers and civilians. All the princes and nobles were alarmed, and the scholars also ran between the library and the ancient altars, looking for answers. Crowds poured out of the royal city, gathering in groups on the open space in front of the Ancestral Furnace.

The traces left by the frost and plasma flames on the earth made these superstitious and ignorant people awestruck, and the strange noises constantly coming from the Ancestral Furnace made them even more suspicious and uncertain.

When Hao Ren led the old man out of another control station exit located on the highland, what he saw was a sea of people. The residents of the refuge were crowded on the "plain" below, arguing, worshiping, and praying, like believers waiting for divine revelation.

The giant generator set inside the Ancestral Furnace had been repaired, and the autonomous machines were waiting for the next order. So Hao Ren sent a start signal to the generator set, and a low roar immediately came from the depths of the Ancestral Furnace.

The roar grew from small to large, and then gradually became stable. The refuge residents waiting on the open space were startled by the sudden noise and began to clamor. Then they saw that the lights that were originally quite dim in all directions suddenly returned to their brightness, and the entire enclosed space followed and brightened up. The two huge iron wheels on the distant royal city slowly began to rotate, and these people finally realized what was happening: the heart of this world had begun to beat again.

So everyone knelt down, including the generals and ministers. Everyone knelt piously in front of the Ancestral Furnace, praising the coming of light and warmth in unison.

Beside Hao Ren, the old man looked at all of this in surprise: "What… are they doing?"

"Praising the heart of this world for starting to beat again, praising the gods for bestowing grace," Hao Ren sighed softly. "Vivian said you would be disappointed—these people have completely forgotten about the ark. Their entire world is this one-hundred-kilometer-diameter spherical space. These people have lived and multiplied here for generations, and now they have returned to barbarism. They have split into four kingdoms, fighting endlessly with each other. They believe that their world was created by God, that there is a sea outside the ark, and they even believe that their world is a giant turtle…"

"Turtle… we used this saying to comfort the children back then. We said that the ark is like a turtle shell, which will protect everyone from harm," the old man's voice was low. "At least they still remember this."

Hao Ren was silent for a few seconds. He had to make a final conclusion from the perspective of an inspector: "Although it is a pity, your civilization has been interrupted."

The old man didn't answer. He just quietly looked at the situation below, listening to the voices of the ark residents who were raggedly dressed and behaved primitively. Finally, he suddenly smiled, happy like a child: "They are still speaking the language of their ancestors, aren't they?"