Chapter 1 Top Platform

Twilight Capital, top platform.

The pale yellow shield, emitting a chaotic light, enveloped the city as always. Mysterious light patterns, incomprehensible to ordinary people, wandered across its surface. Outside the Twilight Barrier, the sky of Midgard remained dark and murky, with only the vague outlines of bizarre patterns formed by churning dark clouds visible in the indiscernible darkness.

At this moment, the high-ranking members of the Steam Council, the guardians of the Iron Throne, Hao Ren's little team, and other respected figures in the city were gathered on the platform, each with their own thoughts, gazing at the murky dark sky and the desolate land in the distance. Behind them, not far away, was the Great Elevator platform, where a great battle had erupted not long ago. Although the smoke from the steel platform had dissipated, an unpleasant odor still lingered, the smell of gunpowder mixed with machine oil, making Lily listless. The husky girl drooped her ears and swayed around Hao Ren, her tail occasionally brushing against his arm. "Landlord, I'm hungry, is it ready yet?"

Hao Ren casually handed Lily a bag of snacks and continued to look at the distant horizon: on that horizon, one could vaguely see some rolling, mountain-like black shadows. Some dark red light floated behind the shadows, allowing one to barely make out the undulations of the dark wilderness. These "mountains" remained unchanged, but Hao Ren knew that a powerful force was surging and brewing there.

That was the "Rune Body" of the eldest son, Yggdrasil.

He looked up at the sky above the city again. Through the thin light screen of the Twilight Barrier, he could see a blurry ball of white light jumping and wandering among the clouds. That was Yggdrasil's second soul, Little White—okay, this name was too awkward, but Hao Ren didn't plan to change it. Now, this soul was inspecting the entire continent of Midgard from a unique third-party perspective, in order to prepare for future actions. Because of a continuous weakening period lasting thousands of years, Yggdrasil's control over his body was in an unprecedentedly sluggish state. Without the assistance of "Little White," his second soul, it would probably take him a long time just to find specific limbs among the thousands of kilometers of sprawling tentacle clusters.

Okay, Hao Ren didn't really understand the principle behind it, he just felt that the "eldest son" was quite magical in every way.

Wendell stood with Hao Ren at the edge of the platform, eagerly awaiting that special moment. The old Seeker had calmed down from his initial excitement, joy, bewilderment, and unease, and now he only felt a calm anticipation. In this ever-present darkness, he curiously asked the people nearby, "What will dawn look like when it arrives?"

Nangong Wuyue laughed: "Haven't you seen the video footage already?"

Wendell thought for a moment, then shook his head with a smile: "I can't imagine it, I can't imagine it—I really can't imagine this land being sprinkled with light. I just hope it's not too dazzling."

At this moment, a slightly unfamiliar female voice came from behind Hao Ren: "Will dawn really come as you say?"

Hao Ren turned his head and saw that standing behind him was the highest speaker of the Steam Council: Lavinia. This stern woman was now wearing a very solemn formal dress, and even seemed to have dressed up slightly, looking much more pleasing to the eye than before. Although she was looking into the distance, her gaze didn't seem to be truly focused on anything outside the Twilight Barrier.

Hao Ren didn't really like this female "Speaker." Although he knew that the Steam Council was a respectable group, and that the council members standing here now were all followers of the Ancient Gods, he still didn't appreciate the Steam Council's rigidity, closed-mindedness, and excessive caution, perhaps because the previous unpleasantness had left a bad impression. But even if he didn't appreciate it, he still nodded politely: "Of course—do you think the Ancient Gods would lie to you?"

"I know you don't like the Steam Council, Outsider," Lavinia smiled faintly, "Many people don't like us, including ourselves, but I hope you can understand that maintaining this city is quite difficult. We can only take the most rational path."

Hao Ren nodded slightly: "I understand."

"The order to disband the Seeker team was issued by me," Lavinia said, "Facts have proven that this order was not smart."

"But it's not wrong either," Vivian walked over at some point, "You sound like you're defending the Steam Council."

Lavinia was silent for a moment, then nodded slightly: "Perhaps, but more importantly, I hope you can understand that no one wants the lights under this barrier to go out. It's just that some people choose to be brave, taking the little fuel they have left to light new fires in the darkness or find new fuel, while others choose to be cautious, unwilling to part with the last bit of firewood in the brazier. After dawn arrives, the Steam Council will probably come to an end. I know you have a close relationship with the Ancient Gods, so I only have one hope: don't blame those who hold on to the fire and refuse to let go, they're just being careful."

"Who told you the Steam Council is going to disband?" Hao Ren raised an eyebrow, finally managing to make Lavinia gape in astonishment.

"You mean..."

The female speaker opened her mouth in surprise, but before she could finish speaking, a scene that made everyone hold their breath occurred outside the Twilight Barrier, and all her words could only be swallowed back down.

A vibration that grew from weak to strong came from the depths of the earth, and a rumbling sound, like thousands of giant beasts stepping across the ground, gradually spread to every corner of the continent of Midgard. On the horizon, the black mountain silhouettes slowly began to move, shifting, undulating, trembling, and finally shaking off the mud and rocks that had accumulated for thousands of years. When the rocky shells on the mountains peeled off layer by layer, what was revealed were the unprecedentedly huge branches of the World Tree, covered in white runes.

These magnificent "branches" broke free from the shackles of the earth, and along with them, they awakened more, slightly smaller, vine clusters from the underground. Countless eldest son tentacles awoke from their long slumber, shining with mysterious ancient runes, and slowly moved across this desolate land. Against the backdrop of a chaotic long night, this scene was eerily unsettling.

The dawn of Twilight Capital began with a chaotic dance of thousands of tentacle monsters...

Looking at the scene of tentacles dancing wildly on the vast land, Vivian exclaimed from the bottom of her heart: "Seriously, if I didn't know Little Black was a good kid, I would really think this was a restricted film."

The steel platform quickly became agitated. The scene on the distant land was more incredible than the most bizarre dream for these people who lived a monotonous and tense life every day, not to mention that the huge vines brought tremors when they stretched into the sky. Although Little White concentrated on directing every tentacle to avoid the foundation of Twilight Capital, the vibrations from afar still made ordinary people change color. Even the usually calm Speaker of the Steam Council couldn't help but gasp: "Ancestors..."

Finally, the awakening of the eldest son's tentacles reached a peak. When the biological tissue fully recovered its function, Yggdrasil took a deep breath.

Hao Ren saw the mysterious runes on countless tentacles simultaneously shine with a light several times brighter than usual. The chaotic dance of the tentacle sea stirred the free-floating magical energy in the atmosphere, and countless wisps of multicolored lines appeared in the air and were quickly absorbed by the runes on the tentacles. In the next few tens of minutes, this absorption process became faster and more obvious, and eventually evolved into sixteen huge vortexes that pierced through the sky and earth.

The chaotic sky seemed to have been pierced with a dozen holes, and powerful magical energy converged into a terrifying storm, which was constantly devoured by the "World Tree" branches beneath the earth. At the same time, the energy system in the upper layers of the alternate dimension was reshaped, and long-lost sunlight began to pierce the clouds, sprinkling onto the earth little by little.

And as the atmospheric environment was purified, some even more amazing changes were gradually spreading from the earth.

"Look over there!"

Nangong Wuyue had been curling herself into a circle to look into the distance, and at this moment she was the first to see the scene on the wilderness outside the city, and immediately exclaimed.

In the barren wilderness, patches of vegetation were growing at an astonishing rate!

For the caretaker of all living beings, reshaping an ecosystem was the eldest son's inherent job, and for Yggdrasil, this specially manufactured super-individual, this task was already engraved in his life code. Demonic radiation killed living things, but it did not take away the nutrients that were inherent in the depths of the earth. Yggdrasil's deep breath not only cleared the magical energy in the atmosphere, but also accumulated and adjusted the nutrients needed to reshape the ecosystem in a short period of time.

After accumulating to a certain level, he burst some of his tentacles, and the source blood flowing from the tentacles gushed out, and grew rapidly in the wind on the earth, quickly turning into lush vegetation.

From this point alone, it can be seen that Yggdrasil is really countless times stronger than "mass-produced eldest sons" like Jormungandr.

But Hao Ren still felt like this was a carnival of tentacle monsters... It had already entered the stage where one tentacle dances and transforms into billions!