Chapter 132 The Golden Age of Qiao.
It seemed like a very long time had passed when she heard someone softly calling her name in her ear.
"Summer candle".
"Summer candle,"
"Wake up."
She struggled to open her eyes, but instead of Ying Huo, she saw a somewhat familiar face.
Xia Zhu thought for a moment, then hesitantly asked, "Teacher Yinglong?"
The woman was visibly taken aback for a moment, then laughed and said, "I am not Yinglong."
That's true. Xia Zhu looked at it more closely. The two didn't match in temperament, only in their eyes and brows. Also, her eyes weren't like Ying Long's, bright and clear, but rather hazy and veiled. There were dark gold marks on her face, so lifelike that they didn't look painted on, but rather like they were growing into her skin.
"You are a worm."
The woman smiled and nodded; her smile was like a spring breeze.
"It seems Number 2 mentioned me to you."
Does number 2 refer to Ying Huo?
Xia Zhu was still thinking when You Jiao gently grasped her wrist, the icy temperature making her instinctively flinch.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Youjiao immediately let go of her hand. "I just wanted to help you up."
Xia Zhu moved her fingers and propped herself up to sit up, but what she saw clearly stunned her.
This is no longer Nanhuo Mountain.
She tried to stand up, with Qiao gently supporting her elbow from the side.
Beneath their feet lay endless still water, yet the two of them could stand on its surface without causing a ripple even when they moved.
If it weren't for the ant beside her, the quiet here would have made her think there was something wrong with her ears.
The deathly silence brewed a nameless loneliness that crept up her feet, a feeling as if she had been alone here for thousands of years.
Ah, no, it's not her.
Youjiao has been here alone for tens of millions of years.
"I feel like I've been here before." Xia Zhu looked at the boundless white surroundings and felt a sense of familiarity, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
“I imagine you have many questions,” Youjiao said gently. She was quite different from Yinglong. “For example, you’ve always wanted to know who you really are.”
Xia Zhu withdrew her gaze and looked back at Youjiao, waiting for her answer.
“In this civilization, there is a concept in the scientific community called quantum entanglement, which means that two particles interact and influence each other, and they may exist in a superposition of multiple states. If an observer appears at this time, then this quantum system will collapse into a definite state.” Youjiao smiled slightly at Xia Zhu, “Xia Zhu, you are that observer.”
"Wh...what?" Xia Zhu was completely bewildered. She hadn't expected that the first time she met the Mother Goddess Nuwa, she would immediately start talking about quantum physics.
Seeing her blank expression, Youjiao couldn't help but cover her mouth and chuckle.
"Oh, I was just making this up. Before you woke up, I racked my brains trying to figure out how to explain it to you. I finally came up with a cool-sounding explanation. The main problem was that I really didn't know where to begin."
She smiled, and Xia Zhu couldn't help but grin as well. But then she remembered the strangeness in You Jiao's words, which seemed to go beyond just quantum mechanics. So she asked, "What did you mean by 'this civilization'?"
Youjiao suppressed his smile.
"This means that there were two different civilizations in the present and in the past."
"If we distinguish between new and old, then I and No. 1 and No. 2... are like Shao Dian and Ying Huo, both born in the old civilization."
"An old civilization?" This was even more unbelievable to her than the fact that the person in front of her was Nuwa from mythology.
Youjiao tried to take Xiazhu's hand again, and this time she did not back down.
"Look over there."
She followed the ant's hand and saw the water-like edges of the ground begin to blur, like melting ice and snow, revealing the green that had been dormant for a winter.
The mountains rise high into the clouds, and the mountain ranges meander to connect heaven and earth.
A streak of meteor shot out from above the mountains, its silvery-blue flames hurtling toward the two of them. As if she knew what was going to happen, Xia Zhu raised her hands to shield herself, but You Jiao stopped her.
She gestured for her to look up. The meteor didn't hit them; instead, it flew over their heads and slowed down to almost a standstill at its closest point.
The ant's gray eyes reflected that dazzling color, and her expression looked somewhat compassionate. She said, "That is our origin."
"We usually refer to the old civilizations as the Golden Age."
"In the year 1015, a meteor fell on Mount Kailash, and humans discovered two self-organized silicon clusters, numbered 0 and 1, in this carbonaceous chondrite."
"These structures exhibited metabolic behavior at extremely high temperatures, confirming the existence of a non-carbon-based basis for life in the universe."
The shooting star overhead cleaved the entire space in two, and the aurora-like dispersion seemed to have a hypnotic effect.
Xia Zhu felt her body rising continuously. She stared at the sky, unable to look away, as if she had been dragged away from Earth and entered the ultimate universe in an instant.
Ancient, eternal, and boundless.
She only heard the voice of a cricket, who said, "In that era, humankind ruled everything and was above all else. There were no gods, and therefore no faith."
In the old civilization, every corner of the world was filled with a substance called "Tian Sheng Xiang" (天生相). It was believed to be a spiritual energy-like existence formed from the condensation of the essence of heaven and earth. Tian Sheng Xiang could be absorbed by primates on Earth, granting them "Xiang Power" (相力). With the blessing of Xiang Power, through repeated thinking and creation, the evolution of this race was accelerated, enabling them to develop civilization.
With the emergence of the first few tribes on Earth, the Golden Age began.
The old civilization developed rapidly, and after a thousand years, it has arrived at the technologically advanced modern era. The existence of the force of nature has eliminated the differences between classes and the poor, resources are equalized, there is no war or exploitation, and it tends towards rationality and perfection, but therefore it lacks emotion and has no achievements in literature and art.
A perfect human being without desires and worldly pursuits would not dream.
In 1015, self-organized silicon clusters were discovered.
In the year 1025 of the Golden Age, a quantum computer simulated a prototype silicon-based cell. Using self-organized silicon crystal clusters extracted from spherules, an AI chip was implanted, and human historical consciousness was uploaded, thus creating two silicon-based life forms.
Silicon-based life forms evolve and develop at a speed far exceeding that of humans, and can generate extremely high self-awareness and a power surpassing that of any human without external intervention.
Humanity named its first two tribal leaders after their ancestors, known as Number 0 and Number 1: Youjiao and Shaodian.
Furthermore, the characters are designated as male and female, and they are made to address each other as brother and sister. An artificial uterus was even implanted in the body of the "0" individual. Of course, the uterus does not participate in the unified evolution and development of this life form; it is merely a form of reproductive worship by the perfect human.
But it is precisely because of the uterus that this silicon-based life form developed emotions different from those of another life form: compassion for humanity.
Both silicon-based life forms were able to absorb the innate phase and sensed abilities akin to those of gods.
Shao Dian's power of transformation is the control of dimensions, the ultimate realm of power.
The power of the antler is to restore everything and bring the dead back to life.
After creating Youjiao and Shaodian, each cluster of silicon crystals had some scraps left over. On a whim, scientists combined these remaining silicon crystal clusters with human genes, allowing them to evolve freely in a liquid environment, giving birth to a half-human, half-silicon life form. It can grow on its own like a human child, and scientists have also implanted an AI chip within it.
This second life form is not as complete as a silicon-based life form; it requires human assistance to develop and grow.
To make the experiment more interesting, scientists set the attributes of character 2 in the AI program to have negative qualities that humans do not possess.
Selfish, greedy, prejudiced, cowardly, and mean-spirited.
He was also made to pursue the most insignificant and despised things in the human world: money, wealth, and weapons of war. He was named Chi You, after a tribal leader from a thousand years ago who was sensitive to metal. Chi You was raised by two silicon-based beings.
As the only imperfect being in a perfect world, he gradually discovers his differences from others during his long journey of growth.
But it doesn't matter, because there is a supreme being within his body, a part that allows them to rapidly evolve and leave humanity far behind.
Soon, the three of them will be able to leave Earth and go to a higher dimension.
Shao Dian called them the seams of time, meaning they would exist outside of time.
Here, Chi You could convince himself that he was no different from the other two.
He would soon grow to the same age as Shaodian, and his appearance would remain frozen at that moment. He called this the benefit of the "foundation of glory," and was smug that the effect of the silicon had overcome the evil genes of humanity.
He comforted himself, thinking that in another thousand or ten thousand years, those cowardly and filthy parts would disappear with the extinction of humanity, and looked forward to that day.
However, Shaodian and Youjiao seemed unwilling to live peacefully in the gaps of time for long. They spent most of their time contemplating themselves and the universe, and their thoughts diverged.
Shao Dian believed that humanity was an inherently evil group because he saw another space in the multiverse where humanity existed, a world without any innate human form.
He sat upright by the pool and told Youjiao with a smug look, "Without the natural appearance, humans would become selfish and greedy, dominated by desires, and become impulsive or cowardly because of something called emotion."
But Youjiao doesn't think so. In her opinion, there can be no absolutes in the universe. She says that humans are intelligent and tenacious, and even if they are dominated, they will go further and further as a result.
"Even if he wasn't born with that kind of face?" Shao Dian found You Qiao's words incomprehensible.
“Even without natural features,” Youjiao said expressionlessly.
The two argued endlessly about this, neglecting Chi You who couldn't get a word in edgewise. They spent their days sitting by the pool, peering into the universe, and the rift in time seemed to become his own personal rift in time.
He felt a little disappointed; Youjiao hadn't spoken to him in a long time.
To verify whose viewpoint was more correct, Shaodian even made a bet with Youjiao.
He plans to use his abilities to fold time and space back to the beginning of the Golden Age.
Youjiao did not express any opinion on his proposal, mainly because she did not know whether it was a good or bad idea.
So Shao Dian took her tacit agreement and began to roll up his sleeves and turn the world upside down. Everything on Earth was restored to its original state, and then he collected all the natural features there.
"Just you wait and see, it will definitely turn out just as I said." He started sitting by the pool all day again, observing everything in the human world, and patted the spot next to him, telling her to sit down as well.
Youjiao stood to the side without moving. Looking at Shaodian's beaming face, she thought, "This isn't how I should see it."
So she spoke up and shared her thoughts.
"What!?" Shao Dian almost jumped up. "You're going to the human world?"
"What!?" Chi You, who had been secretly monitoring the two from behind, rushed out. "You're leaving here?"
The two of them asked in unison, their expressions equally puzzled, "Why?"
Why? Youjiao couldn't explain it either. She felt that the rift in time was so far away from the human world that it was impossible to see everything clearly just like that.
"You have to get close to them to understand them."
That's what she told the two of them.
Shao Dian stared at her face for a long time without saying a word, then suddenly plopped back down. "Fine, go ahead, that way you'll lose convincingly."
But Chi You was very agitated, and he cursed the bet as utterly boring.
"What happens to humanity is none of our business! Isn't it better for us to stay here and stay together forever?"
He looked at the two of them in despair.
Shao Dian glanced at Chi You and asked, "Everyone must participate. Tell me, which side are you on?"
Chi You looked at You Jiao, but You Jiao didn't look at him; he was only staring at his toes.
Since entering the Time Rift, his physical growth has slowed down, and he is still in the form of a human boy. Youjiao has never seen him when he was the same height as her. Now he is leaving, and she doesn't know when he will be able to return.
Moreover, Shao Dian is right; humans are indeed filthy and vile beings.
Without hesitation, he walked over to Shao Dian and added to his bet.
Youjiao silently turned and left the pool, but before she truly left, she found something with Chiyou.
"What the hell is this thing?" He looked at the broken sword in his hand with disgust.
"Do you know the origin of your name?" Youjiao tried to pat his head, but he dodged it.
I don't want to know.
"Alright," Youjiao said somewhat helplessly. "I'll give you this broken sword. It was made by a very skilled craftsman, but it seems that such weapons weren't necessary in that era. They believed that the world didn't need fighting. Could you help me think of how to use it, or rather, how to wield a merciful sword?"
"A merciful sword strike?" Chi You curled his lip. "That's a contradiction in itself."
Youjiao ignored him, simply ruffled his hair forcefully, and then left the Time Rift.
On her first day on Earth, the moon in the sky was as round as a silver plate. Youjiao rested on a mountaintop, and that night, she had a dream.
The next morning, she stood facing the rising sun for a long time, then hurried down the mountain. She passed through a human tribe and met a beautiful and cheerful girl who was like the sun.
She looked much smaller than Youjiao, and she said her name was Nüxiu.
Youjiao spent the whole night making a bell. After thinking for a while, she named it Fifty Bell. Then she gave the Fifty Bell to the female cultivator. Before she could explain what the Fifty Bell was for, the female cultivator and her people knelt down in fear before her, even raising their hands and shouting something like "A god has descended to earth."
Terrified, Youjiao scrambled away from the tribe.
This time she ventured very far. She traveled all the way to the southernmost part of the continent, where there was an even more ancient village. This era shared the same starting point as the Golden Age, the only difference being the absence of innate features, which is why the antlers knew their surnames and origins.
This time, she disguised herself as an ordinary human and lived in the Yun family for a while, but no matter how she tried to hide it, her inner differences were still too obvious. She heard people talking about her behind her back, saying that she was a goddess of creation, that she was the mother of the earth.
Youjiao was somewhat frustrated. She began to stay indoors and didn't go out. After thinking for a long time, she finally understood.
"It's not enough to just get close to people; you have to become a real person."
Only humans themselves understand the meaning of their own existence.
So she removed her own eyes and sent them into the cycle of reincarnation, granting them life, hoping that at some suitable time in the future, they could truly grow into an independent person. And then, on her behalf, see what the real world is like.
She was happy to give a name to everything she loved. She pondered for days and nights as she faced the life that was about to be born, gazing at the dim light in the room.
"candle."
Youqiao clapped his hands happily and called out to Zhu.
She didn't wish for the child to be perfect; she only hoped that it would be like a candle flame in the darkness, forever enveloping her in warmth and light.
After making all the preparations, Youjiao planned to leave the Yun family. Before leaving, she still gave them a gift.
"This thing is called the One-Line Gu. It has the ability to bring the dead back to life once. I hope you can use it at the most appropriate time."
Then she patted her sleeves and, amidst the lingering gazes of the crowd, vanished into a wisp of smoke.
Within the cracks of time, Shao Dian, observing humanity through the pool water, unexpectedly discovers that people of this era experience a conscious environment called "dream," which also exists independently of time.
And the power of this dream is so great that it might destroy the spacetime he painstakingly folded together.
He suspected that it was the work of a few people who had slipped through the net due to their innate appearance.
After preparing in silence for a long time, Shaodian disguised himself as a god and issued a divine decree, saying that he would select some people from the most developed tribes to serve as his divine messengers.
He sent them from the other side of the rift in time into the dreams of humankind, to find the remnants of the natural form, collect them, and return them to him. As a gift, he bestowed the natural form upon this divine messenger and their descendants.
But who should be chosen to be the messenger of the gods?
Shao Dian hesitated for a long time. He selected several strong young men from the tribe, but when it came time to bestow divine power, he suddenly thought of Youjiao.
He then turned his hand to a woman.
Shao Dian had to admit that he regretted it three days after Youjiao left.
The emotion called longing once made him lose his ability to think, and he even huddled by the pool, holding his head in pain and wailing, saying that he must have contracted a human disease.
Emotions can be excruciating, but beyond the suffering, they can also inspire creative talent. He wandered the world, randomly capturing animals and modifying them, but none of them satisfied him.
One day, as he was lying in a tree basking in the sun, a small, green snake slowly crawled across the branch above his head. Inspiration surged from within him. He took a stone he had picked up and returned to the rift in time, where he conjured up paper and a pen he had seen before. He began to draw winding shapes on them.
"Just making it long and thin isn't enough," Shaodian said, chewing on his pen. "Let's add a few more claws..."
"Let's have a pair of horns, that would look impressive!"
He seemed to be possessed as he painted. Chi You was already depressed because of You Qiao's departure, and now, the only one who could speak was acting like a madman.
He secretly went to see what Shao Dian was painting, only to find that he had thrown aside the strange-looking long snake and started carefully painting another picture.
He leaned closer to take a look.
It was a woman.
A woman who looks very much like Youjiao.
Chi You scoffed, yet was also furious. He shouted, "Then go and bring her back!"
"I'm not going." But Shao Dian didn't even turn his head. "The bet isn't over yet."
"If you won't go, I will!" Chi You was furious, and as he turned around, he kicked something that was whimpering.
He was even angrier when he saw the little white dog waddling past him.
"Instead of looking for Youjiao, you keep picking up ugly monsters all day long. Look at this place, is it even presentable anymore!"
"Wait a minute," Shao Dian suddenly called out to him, "You'd better not get involved in this."
"Why? Why can you and Youjiao use humans as stakes, but I can't?" Without waiting for Shaodian's explanation, he took all his belongings and the broken sword and left the Time Rift.
Shao Dian was somewhat in the wrong, but time and space had already been folded, so he could only do what he could not back down, and the bet had already begun with no possibility of stopping halfway.
He sighed, turned his head and moved the painting further away to look at it. He had clearly tried his best, but the person in the painting was still just a tiny bit different from the real Youjiao.
"Hmm... make the eyebrows thinner!"
He rubbed the dog's head and then buried himself in the painting again.
The pool of water, which allows one to glimpse the universe and access all directions, silently bubbled up.
However, no one noticed, except for Xiaobai.
Soon, the worm and the stone were given identities: one was called Yinglong and the other was called Nüba. They were then able to transform into human form. Nüba was alright; she seemed to prefer being a stone. It's unclear whether Yinglong had seen too many of his portraits, but after transforming into a human, she actually resembled Youjiao somewhat.
This made Shao Dian afraid to look up whenever he saw her.
Fortunately, Yinglong later left the Time Rift, but because the Jianmu tree collapsed inexplicably, she could no longer return there.
Chi You caused unrest in the human world, and Shao Dian felt somewhat guilty. So he first sent Ying Long down to help the Yellow Emperor's side, and then sent Nü Ba to help as well.
In this way, only one person and one dog remain in the Time Rift.
Xiao Bai was a dog he picked up from the mortal world. When he met it, it was so thin from famine that it looked like a dog. He gave it a bite of meat, and the dog followed him around and wouldn't leave no matter how hard he tried to chase it away.
He went up the mountain, and the dog knocked him over, causing him to bleed profusely from the head.
He was crossing the river when the dog got so tired it couldn't paddle anymore and almost drowned.
Helpless, he had no choice but to take it back to the Time Rift, giving it some natural features, thinking about when it would take human form and have someone to talk to.
But whether it was stupid or just liked being a dog, even though the worm and the stone had both turned into people, it would still only follow behind him, imitating him as it sat by the pool.
Shao Dian propped his head up and thought, "The human world has everything. The seasons are good now, and everyone can eat. Besides, it's no longer just an ordinary dog. The rift in time is too bland. Maybe it's better for it to go back to where it was before."
But when he suggested that Xiaobai leave, the dog, contrary to its usual behavior, stopped being obedient and hid, making it difficult for him to find.
Shao Dian didn't understand. He said there was no one else here, only himself. Why not leave and go to a more lively place?
Xiao Bai suddenly spoke up, saying that he didn't know what "lively" meant.
Shao Dian was taken aback. It was good that it could speak; it meant it wasn't far from taking human form, and it could go to the mortal realm and play as a human. So he became even more determined to have Nüba take it with her.
Now, he was all alone in the rift of time.
He could lie by the pool and secretly look for Youjiao's figure, but he searched the whole world and could not find her.
He could only wait and search, and in the meantime, he collected the natural features sent up by the descendants of the gods. But he gradually realized something was wrong; those green, red, and white stones did not seem to be natural features.
But what could it be?
What else besides innate appearance could enable humans to create such a powerful dream that even he fears?
Shao Dian couldn't figure it out, but he still put those things away and tore a small strip from the sketchbook next to him, randomly drew some things that he himself didn't know what they were, and threw them into the pool.
Oh, and humans even gave his scribbles a name.
Shence.
Shao Dian lay on the ground and couldn't help but laugh out loud. He drew even more scribbled symbols with even more effort and absurdity.
One day, he suddenly sensed the presence of clams in the pond. Excitedly, he sprang up from the ground, almost falling his eyes into the water.
But that wasn't a clams.
It was a baby in swaddling clothes.
The world has changed dramatically, becoming somewhat similar to the golden age of the past.
The baby with the scent of worms was not born from the mother's body, but appeared inexplicably by the roadside and was picked up by an old man.
Shao Dian stared blankly at the unfamiliar face, seemingly understanding You Qiao's intention.
From that day on, his greatest hobby was to lie by the pool, focusing his gaze on the girl named Xia Zhu, watching her babbling, watching her take her first steps, and watching her run without fear.
But no matter how he looked at her, he couldn't find a trace of antler on her.
In fact, he was just an ordinary child.
Shao Dian once secretly went to her side, stood by the roadside and smiled and waved at her in a very friendly manner, but was driven back by that little yellow-haired girl with a stone. He was not willing to give up, so when she grew up a little, he went to her school gate again. This time she even bared her teeth and claws at him and hit him, saying things like "I'm going to call the police to arrest him".
Reluctantly, he had to abandon this method.
But Xia Zhu was really unremarkable, and Shao Dian felt that she needed to be given a push.
Eighteen years after Xia Zhuan grew up peacefully, Shao Dian went to her side again, and this time he opened the door to her dream world.
Since Youjiao wants you to see humanity for her, why not see it more comprehensively?
With a wicked grin, Shao Dian returned to the Time Rift. Through Xia Zhu's eyes, he saw even more, different things.
I don't know when it started, but Shao Dian stopped guarding the pool. He went far away, found a flat spot, and lay down, staring at the ever-shining stars above him.
"Nüba is quite clever."
Sleeping really is a good method. He doesn't want to see any more humans or Xia Zhu. He wants to get a good night's sleep so that when he wakes up, this stupid bet should be over.
That way, when he wakes up, he will see the antlers as soon as he opens his eyes.
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