The tiger cub extended its sharp claws, leaving bloody marks on the man's face.

The smell of blood rose from his face, and it pounced on his shoulder with even greater excitement, biting his neck when he was caught off guard in his panic. It bit deep and hard—just like it had bitten the bird's neck.

It bit through the man's trachea and blood vessels.

The airflow and blood flow smeared onto the tiger cub's mouth and face.

The man opened his mouth wide in terror, but his cries for help were swallowed by the tiger cub. He tried to pull his head out, but the massive blood loss left his limbs weak.

He collapsed there, limp and lifeless.

The tiger cub was pleased with its hunt. It called out happily, but the man was firmly blocking its path away from the den. It had no choice but to bite his neck and drag him into the den before going to find its mother.

It heard the tigress's low growl.

The tigress returned, dragging an antelope along with her.

It frightened away the men who hesitated and intended to take their companion's body away; then it dragged the blood-smelling body out of the den and called the tiger cubs out to eat the meat.

The tigress had already eaten most of the antelope. She could have eaten the whole antelope, but she left some meat for the cubs.

The tiger cub happily nudged into the gap in the antelope's body that its mother had torn open. It tore off a piece of meat and ate it, then carefully licked the bits of meat off the bones before eating the next piece.

It ate very carefully.

There's not much meat left on the antelope's body, so it has to eat every last bit to have a chance to survive until the next time it gets food.

The tigress stood guard beside it.

The tigress saw the man's corpse and was still pondering what to do with him. They had never killed or eaten a human before. Food was plentiful, so they didn't need to actively seek out humans.

But a dead person is no longer a threat.

It's food.

So it stood up, went to the man, and tried to tear off a piece of his flesh and eat it.

The taste was so-so, but it was definitely meat.

It then summoned the tiger cubs who had finished eating the antelope. The two tigers, bite by bite, devoured the man.

Human bones and antelope bones are piled together. Regardless of who chased whom in life, both humans and antelopes now enjoy the same peace.

The little tiger, satisfied with its meal, lay contentedly in its mother's arms and let out a loud burp.

The stone spoke from inside its body: "You just ate a person."

The little tiger said, "Yes, I also ate antelope." After it finished eating, it started to feel sleepy and nestled in its mother tiger's arms, yawning. "Humans don't taste good, but they're salty and fragrant. I'll eat them again if I see them next time."

The stone sensed something was wrong, but for now it was just a stone.

The stone asked, "Do you like eating people?"

The little tiger was a bit sleepy: "What is liking? If I don't eat him, I will die." It had come to understand the essence of survival through its daily life: "If I don't like eating him, but I will die if I don't eat him, then I will eat him."

The stone understood a little. Although it was just a stone, it was a stone that had once been a tree and a bird.

Therefore, it knows the instinct for survival.

Before Stone could continue asking the little tiger questions, the little tiger had already fallen into a deep sleep.

The scene froze again.

"I still remember this place," said Artemisia. She looked around the grassy hut with nostalgia and said with a smile, "It was here that I killed my first person."

The voice hovering in the sky laughed.

It said, "I'm surprised you still remember this place."

Ai Cao looked up at the sky. The sky she saw when she was a tiger cub was no different from the sky she saw when she was a human.

The sky was blue, with a few white clouds drifting by.

The voice floated down from the sky, saying, "Your mother, that tigress." It deliberately kept the plant in suspense, and continued, while the wormwood remained unresponsive, "She died at the hands of humans. Isn't that a kind of karmic cycle?"

Ai Cao shrugged. She sat down next to her mother and calmly stroked the tigress who, in her past eyes, was tall enough to hold up the sky.

"It's just a cycle," said Ai Cao. She stood up and asked, "Who was the human who killed her?"

The voice chuckled softly: "Didn't you say that everything is cyclical?"

Artemisia said, "But I will make that human pay the price."

The voice was still just laughter.

Ai Cao kicked at the pile of bones at the entrance to her den. Now she could easily distinguish which bones were human and which were antelope. But she didn't need to use her knowledge here—after all, both humans and antelopes had died on this day millions of years ago.

And she will transform from an ordinary little tiger into a human.

She will live for millions of years and witness the day the world ends.

She is not that stone.

She is mugwort.

Then the voice said, "Then come and see the day you become mugwort."

The little tiger in front of the mugwort was sleeping lazily.

The mugwort took one last look at its past self and its past mother, and left the grassland without any lingering attachment.

The sound grew tired of always falling from the sky, so it casually conjured a ball of light, which floated up and down in front of the mugwort. The mugwort found it annoying, but it couldn't trap the light, so it could only let it float.

The light shone through the mugwort.

They crossed a vast, boundless grassland; then they crossed a wide, ever-flowing river.

The mugwort stopped in front of a human settlement.

She said, "I remember this place." She walked into the settlement, past the women who remained motionless.

She walked up to a huge rock, the top of which was nowhere in sight.

The bottom of the stone was covered with human traces. They had carved patterns on it with sharp stones, and then woven intricate floral garlands, which they respectfully placed at its base.

They called the stone their "god".

“But how could a stone be their god?” the ball of light said with a smile. “That’s why the stone started to think—what is ‘god’? How can it really become ‘god’?”

“It didn’t have to be a god,” said Artemisia.

She sighed, and memories from a very long time ago slowly began to surface.

The ball of light leaped in front of her and exclaimed, "But it has gained many things that only 'gods' can obtain—so it wants to become a 'god'!"

Artemisia shrugs.

For the stone, becoming a "god" is not some fervent hope, but rather an inevitability resulting from the combination of numerous possibilities.

It must be "God".

She reached out and traced the patterns left by humans with her fingertips. They had not yet created a clearly defined writing system, but they were already able to represent most things with images.

Ai Cao wondered, if she gave them a little more time, perhaps...

"That won't change the fact that everything was destroyed." The ball of light coldly interrupted her thoughts.

Time, which had stood still around the mugwort, began to flow again.