Nothing could shock Hao Ren more than what Asurmen said. “The ancients are an extension of the Mad Lord?”
“The ancients… That’s how you call creatures like us?” The voice of Asurmen was so wispy that it sounded like it came from a dream. “Oh, during those crazy dark ages, ordinary creatures could not survive. Occasionally, primitive life emerged on a few stars on the edge of the universe, but they would often be destructed before they could develop. It was an era without Order. All physical laws and mathematical definitions were ambiguous, and births were random; so was death. But in that environment, life forms like us lasted longer. We were born on the edge of the Mad Lord’s dark power, and we appeared in the energy sea of Chaos as its power vibrated. So it’s not wrong to say that we are an extension of the Mad Lord.”
Vivian gently scratched her chin and said, “But you’re obviously not a creature of Chaos.”
“No life could be as chaotic as the Mad Lord, who is the ultimate expression of cosmic chaos. It’s even more like a natural phenomenon in the early days of the universe than a creature. And we who were born on the fringe of its power is destined to be distinct from it. It’s a hard time. We became self-aware and wanted a stable life, but we could get rid of the control of the Mad Lord. We survived for a long time because of our weak connection with the Mad Lord. But every day, there were people destroyed for no reason. Sometimes our entire race was wiped out. But because of the nightmare of the Mad Lord, we all were resurrected again.”
“What’s the meaning of living?” Lily swallowed.
“Did the situation only improve after the appearance of the goddess of creation?” Hao Ren knitted his brows together.
“Since the appearance of the goddess, things started to change,” the voice of Asurmen replied. “Because of the subtle connection with the Mad Lord, we the ancients could use its power to observe a vast area of the universe. One day, we suddenly discovered a powerful energy burst, which neutralized the influence of Mad Lord in deep space within millions of light years in radius, and a stable and orderly field of Order formed. We were shocked and didn’t what to do because we had never seen it before. But soon, we realized that it was an environment where life should live, an idyllic landscape that we could not visualize in our imagination.
“We began to send out a signal to the energy, but there was no response. The energy was just staying quietly in deep space, unresponsive to any stimuli. We initially thought that it was like the Mad Lord, powerful energy without self-awareness. It was how we saw all the deities initially. And then thousands of years had passed, the energy suddenly became active and showed signs of consciousness,” the voice of Asurmen said.
“That should be the place where the goddess of creation awoke and began to explore her landing place. She was probably unconscious for a long time after she came to the planet,” Hao Ren said.
Asurmen continued. “It was a long period. As the energy grew, its range of influence increased, and more and more areas of the universe developed with primordial lives appeared in some planets. During the entire time, we had never given up sending a signal to the growing realm of Order.”
“It seems that many things happened without the conscious knowledge of the goddess of creation.” Vivian forced a smile.
“We only learned later that the energy turned out to be an alien god, who had no idea about hyperspace communication; she had never communicated with anyone over a long distance.” Asurmen’s voice sounded helpless. “Perhaps it was fate that she eventually left the place where she landed and began to move towards the deep universe. When she finally found us, it was many, many years later.”
“The days when Lockmarton followed his mother on the adventure,” Hao Ren mumbled.
“When she arrived, space shook, and the power of the Mad Lord left us for the first time.” Asurmen’s voice was flat as if it was not capable of expressing emotion through words. “A creature was with her at that time. When she saw us, she was happy. The goddess introduced the creature beside her as her travel companion, a child she created called Lockmarton.”
“Did Lockmarton look any different at that time?” Hao Ren quickly asked.
“No, at that time, Lockmarton was a relatively emotionally-stable creature. At least in our opinion, he was. Lockmarton vented his emotion and behaved unpredictably sometimes, but he would quiet down when his mother intervened. Lockmarton became distorted and corrupted only when the goddess of creation went to study the Mad Lord with him.”
“They went to study the Mad Lord?” Lily was wide-eyed.
“The goddess of creation was curious about all life. Or rather, she became curious when she saw something new. I told her about the Mad Lord, so she went.
“We had no idea what the goddess found in her first exploration. Lockmarton and her explored the dark and crazy space for hundreds of years, during which time there were several powerful energy bursts as if the aftermath of the war in deep space. When they came back, the power of the Mad Lord was apparently weakened by half, and Lockmarton became a little strange.
“It seemed that the power of the Mad Lord must have infested Lockmarton during that few hundred years. Lockmarton had powerful energy but been unable to control this power. Its activity in the dark space might have caught the attention of the Mad Lord from the beginning. For the Mad Lord who had no conscious mind and been acting based on instinct, such a powerful and almost ‘ownerless’ energy source was an extraordinary appeal.
“Those energy bursts happened when the goddess of creation acted to protect Lockmarton.”
Lily’s eyes brightened up; she loved the story. “And then what?”
“Lockerton became more and more corrupted. At first, he was only irritated easily, but he quickly developed strong aggression and chaotic tendencies. The goddess of creation had to take him back to the Star of Creation to treat him, but the treatment failed.
“When the goddess of creation appeared in front of us again, Lockmarton was not with her. Instead, she had brought a legion. It was an army without a mind, created out of primordial materials from deep space. They had divine energy, which the Mad Lord could not corrupt easily. The goddess asked who would be willing to go destroy the Mad Lord with her.”
“So the ancients went with her?” Lily was still wide-eyed.
“No, just us,” Asurmen replied. “The other ancients were cowards and frightened by the horrible rule of the mad Lord. They couldn’t even think of rebellion, or simply didn’t believe that the Mad Lord could be destroyed or defeated. Only we, the Denizens of the Stars, first found the existence of the Order in the universe. We sensed the power of that Order and knew that the goddess of creation was the only hope to end the dark horror. So we responded to her call. The goddess wasn’t surprised by the response. She then brought the Denizens of the Stars and rushed out of the shelter to challenge the Mad Lord. The war lasted a million years.”
“One million years old. Arf…” Lily howled in astonishment.
“A million years is like the blink of an eye in cosmic terms,” Y’zaks whispered. “So you won the war?”
“Of course. Otherwise, there would be no order and peace today,” Asurmen replied. “After the war, the Mad Lord was not destroyed, but confined in its lair with its power completely sealed inside. The goddess of creation became the only dominant power in the universe, and the world ushered in an unprecedented era of order and beauty. Soon after, I received a secret message from the goddess of creation. ”
“She asked you to guard Lockmarton?” Hao Ren asked, appearing to have guessed the answer.
“Yes, I saw Lockmarton again on a planet that the goddess had modified. At that time, he had completely turned into a monster like the Mad Lord. He was beyond salvage, and his mother had to lock him up in the core of the planet, hoping that he would wake up someday. I voluntarily took over the task of guarding the prison, because the Denizens of the Stars and the power of the Mad Lord were somehow related. This connection, if properly harnessed, would be an excellent condition for monitoring and suppression. After that, the rest is history.”
There was a silence, during which everyone could take time to digest the information. Hao Ren compared this information with the intelligence he had gathered before and found something did not add up. “Wait a minute, according to what you’ve said, when the war ended, the goddess could already create various lives and powerful armies, as well as explore the universe.”
Vivian and the others were startled before they realized what Hao Ren was trying to say.
The timelines did not match!
The goddess of creation created life in ancient times, explored the universe, found the ancients in deep space, and fought against the Mad Lord. These events were true. It had to be many years later when she created the First Born to explore space, and the guardians to guard the Mad Lord. But according to the memory of the brain monster, the goddess of creation was clearly excited, and she knew nothing about the universe when she first created the First Born.
Was there a problem with the timeline, or the goddess of creation herself? Or was the memory of Asurmen or the brain monster fake?
Lily could not help but quickly tell Asurmen about the story. As if Asurmen had anticipated these questions, it replied in an unhurried manner.
“Because the goddess of creation erased her memory, deleted all the records and traces of her war with the Mad Lord, and wiped clean all information that could restore her memory!”
“Why did she do that?” Hao Ren and his buddies asked in unison.
“Because the memory of a true god carries a great deal of energy. The goddess of creation’s memory is the only key to open the prison gate!”
Nothing could shock Hao Ren more than what Asurmen said. “The ancients are an extension of the Mad Lord?”
“The ancients… That’s how you call creatures like us?” The voice of Asurmen was so wispy that it sounded like it came from a dream. “Oh, during those crazy dark ages, ordinary creatures could not survive. Occasionally, primitive life emerged on a few stars on the edge of the universe, but they would often be destructed before they could develop. It was an era without Order. All physical laws and mathematical definitions were ambiguous, and births were random; so was death. But in that environment, life forms like us lasted longer. We were born on the edge of the Mad Lord’s dark power, and we appeared in the energy sea of Chaos as its power vibrated. So it’s not wrong to say that we are an extension of the Mad Lord.”
Vivian gently scratched her chin and said, “But you’re obviously not a creature of Chaos.”
“No life could be as chaotic as the Mad Lord, who is the ultimate expression of cosmic chaos. It’s even more like a natural phenomenon in the early days of the universe than a creature. And we who were born on the fringe of its power is destined to be distinct from it. It’s a hard time. We became self-aware and wanted a stable life, but we could get rid of the control of the Mad Lord. We survived for a long time because of our weak connection with the Mad Lord. But every day, there were people destroyed for no reason. Sometimes our entire race was wiped out. But because of the nightmare of the Mad Lord, we all were resurrected again.”
“What’s the meaning of living?” Lily swallowed.
“Did the situation only improve after the appearance of the goddess of creation?” Hao Ren knitted his brows together.
“Since the appearance of the goddess, things started to change,” the voice of Asurmen replied. “Because of the subtle connection with the Mad Lord, we the ancients could use its power to observe a vast area of the universe. One day, we suddenly discovered a powerful energy burst, which neutralized the influence of Mad Lord in deep space within millions of light years in radius, and a stable and orderly field of Order formed. We were shocked and didn’t what to do because we had never seen it before. But soon, we realized that it was an environment where life should live, an idyllic landscape that we could not visualize in our imagination.
“We began to send out a signal to the energy, but there was no response. The energy was just staying quietly in deep space, unresponsive to any stimuli. We initially thought that it was like the Mad Lord, powerful energy without self-awareness. It was how we saw all the deities initially. And then thousands of years had passed, the energy suddenly became active and showed signs of consciousness,” the voice of Asurmen said.
“That should be the place where the goddess of creation awoke and began to explore her landing place. She was probably unconscious for a long time after she came to the planet,” Hao Ren said.
Asurmen continued. “It was a long period. As the energy grew, its range of influence increased, and more and more areas of the universe developed with primordial lives appeared in some planets. During the entire time, we had never given up sending a signal to the growing realm of Order.”
“It seems that many things happened without the conscious knowledge of the goddess of creation.” Vivian forced a smile.
“We only learned later that the energy turned out to be an alien god, who had no idea about hyperspace communication; she had never communicated with anyone over a long distance.” Asurmen’s voice sounded helpless. “Perhaps it was fate that she eventually left the place where she landed and began to move towards the deep universe. When she finally found us, it was many, many years later.”
“The days when Lockmarton followed his mother on the adventure,” Hao Ren mumbled.
“When she arrived, space shook, and the power of the Mad Lord left us for the first time.” Asurmen’s voice was flat as if it was not capable of expressing emotion through words. “A creature was with her at that time. When she saw us, she was happy. The goddess introduced the creature beside her as her travel companion, a child she created called Lockmarton.”
“Did Lockmarton look any different at that time?” Hao Ren quickly asked.
“No, at that time, Lockmarton was a relatively emotionally-stable creature. At least in our opinion, he was. Lockmarton vented his emotion and behaved unpredictably sometimes, but he would quiet down when his mother intervened. Lockmarton became distorted and corrupted only when the goddess of creation went to study the Mad Lord with him.”
“They went to study the Mad Lord?” Lily was wide-eyed.
“The goddess of creation was curious about all life. Or rather, she became curious when she saw something new. I told her about the Mad Lord, so she went.
“We had no idea what the goddess found in her first exploration. Lockmarton and her explored the dark and crazy space for hundreds of years, during which time there were several powerful energy bursts as if the aftermath of the war in deep space. When they came back, the power of the Mad Lord was apparently weakened by half, and Lockmarton became a little strange.
“It seemed that the power of the Mad Lord must have infested Lockmarton during that few hundred years. Lockmarton had powerful energy but been unable to control this power. Its activity in the dark space might have caught the attention of the Mad Lord from the beginning. For the Mad Lord who had no conscious mind and been acting based on instinct, such a powerful and almost ‘ownerless’ energy source was an extraordinary appeal.
“Those energy bursts happened when the goddess of creation acted to protect Lockmarton.”
Lily’s eyes brightened up; she loved the story. “And then what?”
“Lockerton became more and more corrupted. At first, he was only irritated easily, but he quickly developed strong aggression and chaotic tendencies. The goddess of creation had to take him back to the Star of Creation to treat him, but the treatment failed.
“When the goddess of creation appeared in front of us again, Lockmarton was not with her. Instead, she had brought a legion. It was an army without a mind, created out of primordial materials from deep space. They had divine energy, which the Mad Lord could not corrupt easily. The goddess asked who would be willing to go destroy the Mad Lord with her.”
“So the ancients went with her?” Lily was still wide-eyed.
“No, just us,” Asurmen replied. “The other ancients were cowards and frightened by the horrible rule of the mad Lord. They couldn’t even think of rebellion, or simply didn’t believe that the Mad Lord could be destroyed or defeated. Only we, the Denizens of the Stars, first found the existence of the Order in the universe. We sensed the power of that Order and knew that the goddess of creation was the only hope to end the dark horror. So we responded to her call. The goddess wasn’t surprised by the response. She then brought the Denizens of the Stars and rushed out of the shelter to challenge the Mad Lord. The war lasted a million years.”
“One million years old. Arf…” Lily howled in astonishment.
“A million years is like the blink of an eye in cosmic terms,” Y’zaks whispered. “So you won the war?”
“Of course. Otherwise, there would be no order and peace today,” Asurmen replied. “After the war, the Mad Lord was not destroyed, but confined in its lair with its power completely sealed inside. The goddess of creation became the only dominant power in the universe, and the world ushered in an unprecedented era of order and beauty. Soon after, I received a secret message from the goddess of creation. ”
“She asked you to guard Lockmarton?” Hao Ren asked, appearing to have guessed the answer.
“Yes, I saw Lockmarton again on a planet that the goddess had modified. At that time, he had completely turned into a monster like the Mad Lord. He was beyond salvage, and his mother had to lock him up in the core of the planet, hoping that he would wake up someday. I voluntarily took over the task of guarding the prison, because the Denizens of the Stars and the power of the Mad Lord were somehow related. This connection, if properly harnessed, would be an excellent condition for monitoring and suppression. After that, the rest is history.”
There was a silence, during which everyone could take time to digest the information. Hao Ren compared this information with the intelligence he had gathered before and found something did not add up. “Wait a minute, according to what you’ve said, when the war ended, the goddess could already create various lives and powerful armies, as well as explore the universe.”
Vivian and the others were startled before they realized what Hao Ren was trying to say.
The timelines did not match!
The goddess of creation created life in ancient times, explored the universe, found the ancients in deep space, and fought against the Mad Lord. These events were true. It had to be many years later when she created the First Born to explore space, and the guardians to guard the Mad Lord. But according to the memory of the brain monster, the goddess of creation was clearly excited, and she knew nothing about the universe when she first created the First Born.
Was there a problem with the timeline, or the goddess of creation herself? Or was the memory of Asurmen or the brain monster fake?
Lily could not help but quickly tell Asurmen about the story. As if Asurmen had anticipated these questions, it replied in an unhurried manner.
“Because the goddess of creation erased her memory, deleted all the records and traces of her war with the Mad Lord, and wiped clean all information that could restore her memory!”
“Why did she do that?” Hao Ren and his buddies asked in unison.
“Because the memory of a true god carries a great deal of energy. The goddess of creation’s memory is the only key to open the prison gate!”
