Chapter Twenty-Four: The Theory of the Era

Above the sea of clouds, everything was bleak and desolate. The brutality and despair of the apocalypse weighed on Luo Longyu like a mountain, leaving him unable to shake off the burden. Beside him, Mu Yimian poked her head out to gaze at the sky, but saw nothing. Shaking her head, she soon lost interest and returned to her own amusements.

“Senior, I’ve always wanted to know—what exactly is this? A reenactment of history, or a shadow of the future?” Luo Longyu asked.

The old man shook his head. “I don’t know. No one can say for sure. Perhaps… it is both the past and the future.”

“Earlier, you left because you thought I was criticizing humanity,” Luo Longyu continued. “Now, let me ask you—in an age of powerful ancient races, what gave humanity the right to survive?”

The old man looked at Luo Longyu. “Destruction,” he replied, settling back onto the stone bench. “There is much history that you humans do not know, not even in the records. Every record was purposefully erased. That is why there are so many blank eras in human history—so many powerful races erased, the earth’s environment reset, not even fossils remaining. If you wished to find relics of those mighty beings, there are only two places left on Earth: the depths of the vast ocean, and the Tomb of Ten Thousand Corpses.”

“Senior, do you also believe that human civilization was once destroyed?” Luo Longyu turned to the old man.

He shook his head. “Not human civilization—Earth’s civilization. Humanity is only the dominant force of this era. In your own human theories, there is an unaccepted notion: that Earth’s civilization has passed through several epochs, with humanity the product of the current one. This idea was rejected because it threatened your species’ sense of primacy. But rejection does not make it untrue.”

“Perhaps you are right. For humanity, whether it be faith or war, it all comes down to survival, or rather, a better survival. The meaning of life is survival and propagation. Throughout history, humanity has endured too much external interference and deliberate erasure, so people have long been kept in ignorance. If not for the Tomb of Ten Thousand Corpses, perhaps no one would remember these things.”

“The civilization of Earth has already been destroyed four times. If humanity cannot survive this calamity, it will become the fifth. The gods and demons of your legends—Fuxi, Nüwa, or the Eastern Emperor—belonged to the Third Epoch. But the Third Epoch was destroyed five hundred million years ago, with only a few survivors escaping into space, including the Dragon Clan. The reason dragons are so few is partly their own nature, but mostly that war; as the vanguard, the dragons suffered the heaviest losses.”

“The Dragon Clan you speak of—is that the same as Long Shaoxian’s race?” Luo Longyu asked.

The old man nodded. “Yes. The Imperial Dragon Clan is one branch. Dragons are divided into several major lines, just as humans are divided by color.”

“And the Fourth Epoch?” Luo Longyu asked curiously.

The old man chuckled. “The dominant force of that epoch is one you humans know well—the angels of Western legend. Life is adept at creating miracles, and this is what the Void Spirits fear most. At the end of the Third Epoch, the gods and demons of Earth barely won; the Void Spirits retreated, but before leaving, they sealed the path of cultivation, reset the planet’s energy field, so that life on earth could no longer grow strong through cultivation. Thus, metaphysical civilization declined. Survivors, after destroying the Stargates, fled deep into space.”

“But, as I said, life is full of miracles. The angels of the Fourth Epoch are proof of that. Angels differ from humans; they reproduce using star power, the energy of the Earth itself. This, too, was the work of the Void Spirits. In resetting Earth's energy field, their intent was to utterly annihilate the Third Epoch, not realizing they would enable the Fourth. Star power, no longer able to escape, coalesced into spiritual forms—these were the angels. Born mighty, they created the legendary Angelic Civilization.”

“Yet, misfortune could not be escaped. Seventy million years ago, the Void Spirits rebuilt the Stargates and returned. They intended to conquer this world, but were surprised to find the Angelic Civilization. Another long and bitter war began. The power of angels astonished them, for both angels and titans were born of the earth’s star power—one from the sky, one from the earth, like yin and yang.”

“Yet history repeats itself. This time, the Void Spirits were forced to retreat without resetting Earth's environment or annihilating all life. The angels, to avoid being drawn into another war, chose the path of the Third Epoch—flight into the stars. Thus ended the Fourth Epoch, and the rise of humanity began.”

“Alas, humans are not as fortunate as the angels. Though humanity has great potential—some, like the angels, are born with special abilities, some can tread the path of cultivation—if they had lived in the Third or Fourth Epoch, they would have been prodigious. But Earth’s environment in the Fifth Epoch is far inferior. Humans can use only about twenty percent of their brain’s potential—the other eighty percent is locked away. Those born with special powers can at best use twenty-two or twenty-three percent. If humans could unlock it all, I believe their power would rival gods and angels, perhaps even surpass them. But with so much potential suppressed, humanity turned to science and technology. Thus, metaphysical and angelic civilizations became mere legend.”

After listening to the old man, Luo Longyu’s mind was blank. It was all too incredible to take in at once.

“Still,” the old man continued, “you of the Fifth Epoch are lucky as well. The Third and Fourth Epochs have developed out among the stars, and have even returned to assist you more than once. In ancient times, when human technology was primitive, many powerful beings from beyond would run rampant on Earth—creatures who roamed the stars and fell here. Humans stood no chance against them; so the gods of the Third and Fourth Epochs would intervene. That is why your history is filled with legends of gods descending to slay monsters and banish demons.”

“In order to hide themselves, the gods and angels would select the most gifted among humanity to nurture—such as Bodhidharma, Muhammad, Ji Gong, Zhong Kui, the Eight Immortals, and so on.”

“But the threats of the Fifth Epoch are the most severe. After the great war of the Fourth Epoch, too many Void Spirit infiltrators were left behind on Earth. More than once, they have steered the course of human history. Unless they reveal themselves, even gods and angels would find it hard to distinguish them. Who knows how deeply their roots have sunk and how vast their numbers have become?”

At this, Luo Longyu thought of the foreigners who had stolen his mother’s body. “Could those who took my mother’s corpse be these hidden Void Spirits?”

The old man shook his head. “I can’t say for certain, but they are surely connected to the Void Spirits. Even if not, they act on their behalf.”

Luo Longyu nodded, then asked, “Senior, you’ve spoken of the Third and Fourth Epochs. But what of the First and Second—how were they destroyed?”

Sipping his tea, the old man replied, “No one knows. Those epochs predated us, and left behind no traces. Some legends from the Third Epoch spoke of beings from the First—beings whose bodies were like golden crystal, invulnerable and indestructible, utterly unlike our own life forms. Of the five known epochs, the Fifth and Third are most similar in the composition of life. The First’s bodies were crystalline; the Second’s nature is unknown; the Fourth was made of pure energy.”

“Bodies of golden crystal—doesn’t that sound like the silicon-based life forms in science fiction?” Luo Longyu suddenly realized.

The old man nodded. “Exactly. In your human terms, they were silicon-based; while we are carbon-based. The Fourth Epoch was purely energy beings—they had no physical form, but could manifest one at will. For instance, bullets could harm humans, but not angels. In terms you can understand, angels are like beings made of laser: every photon linked, all in phase, same wavelength, same polarization, same direction. They could fight alone or in concert, making them incredibly powerful.”

“Uh… I don’t understand at all…” Luo Longyu shook his head in confusion.

The old man burst out laughing at his bewilderment. “When I first heard your human theories about lasers, I didn’t understand either. But once I learned, it made sense. Simply put, angels are like a beam of light—made of photons. That’s why the Fourth Epoch is also called the Civilization of Light.”

“Oh, I get it, sort of.” Luo Longyu nodded. After a moment of silence, he gazed again at the sea of clouds, voicing his concern: “If gods and angels, so powerful, chose to escape to the stars rather than face the Void Spirits, how can people of today hope to survive?”

“That is why the Path of Corpses became a beacon of hope,” the old man replied. “The Xuanyuan Path of Corpses—an undertaking unparalleled even in the Third Epoch. Life from death, powered by the mighty bodies of the Xuanyuan Clan, fused with silicon-based genes—a grand vision. At the dawn of the Fifth Epoch, the surviving gods of the Third and Fourth returned. Their plans differed: the angels sought to purify the human race, to cultivate the best to resist the Void Spirits. The gods of the Third Epoch—those ancient Chinese deities—chose a different path: the Revival Plan. This led to a brief resurgence of metaphysical civilization in the Fifth Epoch. The legendary Kuafu and Hou Yi were people with divine genes. Sadly, the infiltrating Void Spirits sabotaged it all. Civil strife broke out among the tribes, so the gods helped the Yellow Emperor swiftly unify the surrounding peoples. The Yellow Emperor’s daughter, Ba, volunteered as the first experiment subject.”

“Because of the Void Spirit’s sabotage, the metaphysical civilization was cut short. Ba became the first to walk the Path of Corpses, unifying the Huaxia people. The gods, in their final efforts to eradicate the remaining Void Spirits, gave their last measure of strength and perished on the battlefield. But Ba, the Corpse Dao, swept through the summoned Void Spirits, pursuing them even into the depths of space—her fate unknown. The Void Spirits did not return, until recently, when the Tomb of Ten Thousand Corpses has once more stirred, heralding their return.”

Luo Longyu pondered for a long time before speaking. “Can I then say that the Path of Corpses is really a fusion of the First and Fifth Epochs?”

The old man mused, then corrected him. “It is a fusion of the First, Third, and Fifth. The Xuanyuan clan’s bloodline was already divine; ordinary Fifth Epoch humans cannot fuse with silicon-based genes—they would just become zombies. To humans of this era, silicon-based genes are a corpse poison.”

“How powerful was the First Epoch?” Luo Longyu asked.

“I don’t know. It’s too distant. But it must have been mighty indeed—to make the Void Spirits themselves fearful, certainly more powerful than the Third or Fourth Epochs,” the old man answered with certainty.