Chapter 8
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"… Phew… It's finally time." Sun said as he looked at the city from up above
While the sun was strong, today was particularly clear of dust and smog… albeit the heavens were still covered head to toe in Dead Qi.
"It's the perfect day to alter this world's fate."
'Once the formation is in place, even this city won't be safe for my corpse puppets. But that will not be an issue. I have already made the blueprint for a massive-scale formation that will cover this entire state!'
'By sharing my senses with theirs and peeking at their memories, I formed a rough understanding of the scenery. While it isn't perfect, there's no need for things to be that precise when performing such massive formations.'
"As long as the foundation is stable enough and the larger rules have been accounted for, it'll be fine."
'The puppets will be sent away to carve the larger pieces of the formation. It'll take twelve major nodes across multiple cities and other points of interest, such as mountains, to form it. And that's not counting the three hundred and sixty minor points and the thousands of minor points.'
'For those, however, I'll need to enhance the intelligence of the puppets. But I already know how I'll do that… However, I still have years to prepare as the basics of the formation will take a long time alone to form.'
"Once the statewide formation forms, the Qi of the whole country will begin to flow here. Slowly but surely… and as long as Qi is moving, it'll rejuvenate in due time!"
'Before that can occur though, I'll have to figure out where I'll be sending the resulting life Qi… I have a few ideas for that…'
"I predicted that due to the zombies' unique constitution, I might be able to resurrect who they were before through a ritual. Humans might be difficult due to their complexity, but small animals might be possible."
"Even if I just resurrect an empty husk, helping the husk develop a Soul isn't difficult. As long as there is a little blood or flesh in a pile of bones, I might be able to resurrect a creature through fiendish rituals."
'This way, while I wouldn't be able to return life to its previous stage, I would at least save 1% of it…'
"The formations are also taking into account humans and other living creatures. If there are any still out there, they won't be consumed… as for the zombies, they'll all be consumed and purified into energy I can consume. But if I can figure out a way to revive the zombies, I'll modify the formation to leave zombified animals out of its range."
"Humans are… near impossible, but animals shouldn't be an issue… humans are a last resort. If there are no humans in this world anymore, then I'll try to turn a few zombies back into humans and give them fake souls. These humans will live their lives as ordinary and reproduce. Their children will be pure humans with complete Souls."
"I must let the laws of Heaven bring balance… I'm only here to permit it to do so." He thought solemnly as he put his arms behind his back
"I've also already tested all nodes and the pathways. In my small experiments, no parts failed to meet the quota… and while the robustness of the city itself is lacking as a whole, once the formation ignites, that won't be an issue anymore as the pathways will be reinforced by the Spiritual Qi."
"I also have backup batteries to support the array if it ends up failing somewhere. Just so I can have the time to fix it before everything comes crashing down."
'If that happens I'd have to migrate to another city since this one would most likely collapse… and while it wouldn't take another ten years for me to get here, it sure would take a few more to adapt the array to a new environment.'
"The puppets have been sent far away and are already working on the next few steps… now then… enough waiting. May the Heaven to Earth Resurrecting Array… ignite!!"
/FUOOOOM…/
The streets below lit up with light as energy slowly made its way through the thousands of channels carved around. They slowly fused together into a greater pattern like a web, slowly coming to life as the air was filled with a low hum akin to a massive capacitor charging.
/Crackle…/
The air crackled with currents of energy flew to the skies… multiple spheres of light formed each skyscraper.
/FUOOOOM…/
/BURST!/
Once all of them had been filled with energy, they all shot up to the heavens, fusing before exploding!
Like fireworks, thousands of small streams of energy flew into the horizon, covering the heavens in an invisible net!
/Crunk!/
/SHA!/
Suddenly, it was as if the whole world shook. Sun's hair moved back and forth before settling down.
"It has begun… The whole stale Qi has begun to move, causing the air to surge."
'Now, what I've been waiting for…'
/SPLAT!/
The echoes of millions of zombies surged. All the zombies Sun had never touched had all suddenly died at once!
/Splurge…/
The skyscrapers were tainted red as the blood essence was pumped through the carved channels, making way to their apex where they slowly moved towards a central point between them.
Above the central plaza, a crimson rune lit up, covering the skies.
/THUNDER!/
The heavens thundered as dark clouds formed… but those were no rain clouds; they were dense collections of Dead Qi moving and being compressed against one another.
/Condense…/
The dark clouds gathered above the city where they were slowly pulled down… it was as if a drain existed in the airspace above the plaza high above.
Slowly, they formed a siphon, falling in-between the buildings and directly at the bloody red rune!
/CRASH!/
When they did, the rune flashed with light before cracking into a million shards! The shards then orbited the air around the plaza, dispersing into motes of light as a pillar of energy formed, connecting the skies and the ground.
/SHAAA!!/
At that moment, the dark clouds were pulled into the tube of energy. Inside, the dark smog turned into a black liquid, then gray, then lighter, clearer… until it eventually became a pure, clear liquid.
/Drip… Drip… Drip…/
/Rain!/
One drop fell in the plaza… then two… then a dozen turned into tens thousands! A downpour! A downpour of pure Life Qi!
"It has begun." Sun muttered as he looked down
'Such a sight would be rare back on the continent… mostly because there are not that many areas overflowing with Dead Qi lying around. I found only a few mentions of such in the archives.'
"This formation tends more to the Immortal side of things, so it wouldn't be considered evil. I wager most sects would view my actions as righteous… albeit I wonder how they would act towards the Life Qi I'm making."
'Life Qi has many properties, and it's difficult to form or find in nature… this formation at its base isn't just anything anyone can find, much less employ. There would certainly be an intense battle to claim that Life Qi…'
"But now it's all mine."
Sun looked at the Heavens.
"May the world be reborn anew!"
'This is the first step in my grand plan. From now on, I must find a way to bring life back into the world.'
"I can now take my time with things… the puppets will do the rest. I'll figure out the details to improve them and finish setting up the statewide array."
'With that done, I can then send the puppets further away and begin my preparations to spread the array's influence even further as I search for other people…'
"I hope there's someone out there…"
With that, Sun turned around and entered his private quarters, getting ready for another century of isolated studies!
And while the immortal sealed himself in his abode… the world moved on.
…
/Three months later…/
/Shaa…/
/Shaa…/
At the edge of the city, sand was kicked high above, forming a trail that went deep into the sands.
/Crunk…/
/Shaa…/
Within the trail, faint figures could be discerned. Wood and metal combined, rust and nails, dried rubber and peeling paint… Fragments of civilization put together in a grand yet grotesque contraption.
In a world of desolation, sensitive technology had no place, giving birth to the simplest yet most conventional of crafts…
A caravan braved the sands.
/Thunder!/
The dark clouds thundered high above, casting dark lightning on the world beneath.
Amidst its flashes of light, the outlines of those within the dust were revealed… people.
Living, breathing humans!
"Haaa… a ruinstorm… is this… is this what we've been going after all this time?"
"We must push on… it's our only hope…"
Hundreds of people braved the sands in search of something, but what?
At the forefront of the caravan was a large scrap vehicle full of sharp, metallic thorns. Riding it were over a dozen people in strange attire, a mix of torn clothing and twisted metal.
One of them, an old man with a large black scar on his right eye, looked at the dark fog covering half of Camaroon City.
"Just… what is that?" Someone else asked as they noticed the fog
Someone else joined in, "Is it some sort of ruinstorm? I've never seen black fog before…"
The old man, however, narrowed his eye, "Nei… that's no ruinstorm. They don't occur like this… something's gathering the End Fog… the ruinstorm is just a side effect."
"I've never seen such a thing before." The old man proclaimed, "The first time I saw a ruinstorm was twenty-five years ago during the late stages of the collapse. But this…" He said as he gulped dry air, "This is something else."
'It's been well over fifty years since the collapse. Each decade things only get stranger and more desolate… is this also a sign of the passing times?… Is there no hope anywhere?'
"Did we… in the end, did we follow those monsters straight into our demise?" Someone else said as they shivered at the frigid air gushing past them
"Don't say that!" The old man spat loudly, "Now's not the time for doubts."
'Around half a year ago we saw those things… monsters… hunting the spawn of the end and dragging their bodies elsewhere. They didn't seem interested in anything but that.'
'At the time we avoided contact, for shortly after we met them they vanished. We wanted to send scout parties after them, but they were just going too far. We followed their path, and now here we are…'
'It's been years… maybe even a decade since we last saw survivors. The sight of a creature that could move with guidance… any sort of intelligence… no matter how misguiding it may be, it was our only hope.'
'With the way things are now, standing around won't do it. It hasn't rained in years… our farms, which barely fed us, have all dried. There is no more food anywhere… we can't live off farming roaches and other small insects.'
'The ocean isn't safe to approach… the End Fog looms over it, making fishing impossible, and all rivers have long since lost all life in them or been polluted by the fog… most of us have only made this far by… eating ourselves.'
'No one is free from this sin. Had they not done so, they'd be dead by now… those of honor chose to go with it… their bodies became nutrients for us… if we're like this, I can only imagine how others are faring.'
'Our search for the promised land… the bunkers of old said to still house the rich and wealthy of the previous era… is now all buried in sand. If they still live, waiting for the world to rot…'
'Then I would've at least wanted to put a bullet between their eyes.'
As he was lost in thought, a small party of five individuals approached them from the front while riding on modified scrap bikes, "Chief, we'll be crossing the entrance to Camaroon City is a few minutes."
"Good, I can feel a storm approaching… but by your tone, there seems to be an issue."
"… It's too clean."
"Too clean?"
"Everything… we haven't yet passed through the checkpoint, but just from looking at it from afar, we could tell it was too clean."
Another scout added, "There are no infected, much less the spawn… the streets almost seen…" He hesitated to continue
"Say it!"
"… cleaned. The streets were far too empty, almost as if someone had swipped them with a massive broom…"
"!!"
'Could it be…'
The old man was wise, however… He knew best not to put hope into something he couldn't see or confirm.
"We've also seen strange carvings spread around the place…"
"Carvings?"
"Yes… strange lines and words we couldn't read. At first we took them for damage, but upon a closer look they're deliberate… here, we've made a sketch of the biggest one we saw."
He gave a small piece of parchment to the old man, "We saw this symbol etched on the walls of a five-story tall building near the checkpoint. We have no idea what it means. Is it some sort of Old-World language?"
The elder gave it a good glance before his stomach fell… "No… I've never seen this before."
'But this could be that… that accursed thing… people who chose to embrace the end rather than survive. Cultists!'
'I thought they were all long dead… sacrificed for their own beliefs decades ago… The last time I saw any, I was in my twenties… Life was still abundant then…'
He was born into a world in chaos. He never came to know how life was like before those things appeared. As far as he remembered, they had been around… but he grew up in a world close enough to the old-world to know and understand how life once was.
He experienced all the changes in the eras, witnessing the rise and fall of many things, from the end of the old-world to the many governments that tried to settle after. He once traveled to New Paradise, the land closest to the old-world… and he lived there until its downfall at the hands of people no less…
Even amidst disaster, it's the people who led themselves to the end… even when things seemed to be going the right path… Because of this, the old man grew cold. At the first sight of any issue that may shake his people, he would pull the trigger.
One may say that stilling fear in others doesn't pay off, but here he was well into his seventies… still… he knew when and where to stop.
"It could be relics of the chaotic times… Let's go in and see for ourselves if there's anything inside."
'Camaroon City had for many decades been a death trap for survivors, but it also means there's a chance resources never once collected lay buried within… as a major city of the Drangoon state, there could even be old-world bunkers waiting to be found.'
'The lack of infected and the spawn may be because of those creatures… They hunt them for some reason… but for the city to be clean?'
"Stay alert."
'I feel odd… never in my life have I felt such dread. Just what is waiting for us inside this place?…'
He knew that some things were better buried, but with them all being half a foot into their graves, they had no choice but to unravel those ancient mysteries.
The caravan moved on into the forbidden city.
…
/Crunk…/
"… It's quiet… too quiet."
'We've already traveled quite far into the city, yet we haven't seen a single one of those creatures, not even their bones… only scraps of clothes scattered around…'
'It's as if something devoured them whole. Leaving nothing behind but ancient clothes…'
/CHAOS!/
"Hum? What's all this commotion in the back?!" The old man exclaimed as he heard loud screams in the back
He ran back with some soldiers as he noticed people fighting. They couldn't be having conflict over food or similar things now that they had just arrived.
He had seen and experienced such things before. He had killed others over things he found to survive before… all the more reason to deescalate the situation, "Stop it! Stop right… ?!?!"
When he reached the people, he noticed the reason they fought… in their hands was a half-eaten… fruit!!
'Is that a… mango?! I haven't seen one in decades. I almost didn't recognize it!'
As he approached them, he saw the source of the battle, a large tree grew amidst the alleys of the buildings. They moved right past it, but someone had noticed the tree and the many fruits it carried.
Perhaps driven by hunger and desperation, the person ate the fruit tree without care, leading to others find out about it also… There was clearly far more than enough for one person, so it seems odd they would be fighting over one mango… but so was reality.
People fought over what they saw and not what could be there… hope had been long dead in the eyes of many.
"This…"
The old man was fascinated, but at the same time, his thoughts went elsewhere… yet the fight was intensifying.
"… Disperse the people, tell them to wait. We'll divide the fruits equally." He said as he looked at the tree
'If a tree has grown this tall… much less forming fruits… then it means it has enough sustenance to survive.'
'This means water!… There must be water somewhere around here!!'
It had been so long since he saw fruits that he didn't even know what to do… still, he acted as he had always done. After settling the conflict, the old man was pulled by the scouts as they had horrifying news…
"… WHAT?!?!" He exclaimed as he heard them
Without hesitation, he jumped onto one of the scrap bikes and rushed deeper into the city. There, he saw something unbelievable…
"T-This…"
A massive jungle opened itself before him.
…
It had been several days since the caravan had arrived in Camaroon City.
The survivors of humanity, just over five hundred and fifty individuals of varying ages.
They settled down on the outskirts of the jungle, mainly because of the unknown dangers and the heavy, thick dark fog covering all of downtown and its surroundings.
They took a series of buildings that were easy to defend at their edges. This area was especially important because of a large fountain nearby. After some modifications, it became a wide reservoir… this was necessary because not even an hour after they arrived, rain began to fall… and it sure fell.
A massive torrent so thick one couldn't even see the other side of the street very well. They often despaired over not seeing a proper cup of water in months… now they were at risk of drowning.
Thankfully? enough… such rain only lasted minutes as the clouds in the skies dispersed. Because of the powerful ruinstorm high above the clouds, it seemed that the condensation of the entire city and beyond was being funneled and pushed down, causing it to downpour whenever enough clouds gathered around the heart of the ruinstorm.
Because of this, living low near the streets wasn't possible due to constant flooding. It was no wonder the ground was covered in moss and mostly "clean" as the scouts first mentioned when they arrived… the rain had swiped it all away into the nearest rivers.
At the same time, while most people were recovering and resting after their many years of struggle and pain, some people, like the old man, were inspecting their surroundings.
Looking down at the forest from afar, the old man was in deep thought, 'This forest… is it just me or has it grown considerably in the past few days? The vines and the grass have spread considerably.'
'Also, it could be my memories but I don't remember seeing these during my youth… they look like it but they don't resemble the type of grass I grew used to… I didn't grow around here but grass is grass, right?'
'I had us settle down far down the street because I knew little about the situation, but if these plants have somehow been affected by the end fog or something else, they could prove dangerous. I've avoided eating any of the fruits and other plants for the risk of them being poisoned… they can't stay without a leader… but my body won't last much longer.'
He looked back at the children playing on the mossy streets, 'It's been so long since I've seen something like that… people are beginning to hope again… I fear it might be too soon… but it wouldn't be too bad to give them something to think about… not after everything they went through.'
'I've sent scouts, and they've had some success finding raw materials. The city itself seems to be untouched the past few decades, as if no one had been here since the fall of the old-world.'
'That said, aside from a few places, we haven't found supplies… which was to be expected. Anything that could've lasted this long… there was no such thing. We'll have to make do from here on out.'
'I've yet to send anyone inside the forest, but given we had no reports of the infected or the spawn for about a week, I suppose it's about time we start looking around for answers.'
"Life is not only abundant here, it's growing… no monsters, food is plentiful, and the scouts have even reported sights of some small animals… I originally took those as mistakes but… now's not so easy to tell if they were seeing things."
'All of this is utterly inexplicable. I can understand plants growing in a land where those things aren't present… they're the main reason why the world is so desolate. But animals? Where did they pop up from? Were they brought up from the past or resurrected spontaneously?'
'One of the scouts who went the furthest and reached the mouth of the nearby river even said he saw something resembling fish lurking in the water… I told him to step aside for now.'
'The ocean is the only area I can't say for certain if it was as desolate as land. The lakes and rivers were devastated not by the monsters, but by humans. So perhaps in due time with people now gone, the environment has begun to balance itself out… but everything else… is beyond my knowledge.'
"I only have one fear…" He mumbled as he looked at a building
Carved in its walls were strange runes and pathways that fused with the ground and beyond. If one looked closely, those paths were like termite trails. In some places, these pathways seemed to glow faintly with soothing, warm white light, and if one were to break them, in due time they would correct themselves or reform anew somewhere nearby.
Due to their strange and near-mystical origin, he had told the scouts to avoid interacting with them and merely inspect them from afar.
"Is everything connected?"
/Crack…/
"Hm?… You are…?"
Distracted, the old man failed to notice a man approaching him from behind. From his clothes, he was a scout, one he knew far too well…
The man looked tough with a thick black beard and military backpack, but his back showed his real self… for he was carrying a child… a clearly wounded and sick child.
"Robert… why are you here? You should remain in the camp with the others and let your child rest."
But Robert did not stop walking… he went right past the old man, stepping into the wilderness.
"Robert…"
"Say nothing, old man… you know full well this has no meaning. I cannot remain here any further. I'm thankful for the water and food. You've led us well through hardship… but my child isn't getting better. This isn't something a mere rest will solve."
"That's more of a reason for you to leave him here. It'll do your child's recovery no good if you carry her around like this!"
"And leave her to you all?… Never. No matter how good the situation is, I'll not leave my sick child with you all… we're all monsters, Edward. That's what it took to survive… I'll be leaving now; if I don't return, just consider me dead."
"Robert!… Shit. This isn't the time for us to act like this…"
'He's been going doing this for months, trying to find something to help his sick girl… but even if we could determine the cause of her pain, finding a solution… isn't possible anymore. I've seen far too similar cases over the years.'
His eyes grew heavy, "Even if the kid had remained, I doubt those people would've tried to… eat his remains…"
'Stubborn man… I hope you find what you're looking for.'
…
Robert braved the woods in search of anything that could help his child. He sought ancient pharmacies, drug stores, houses, especially underground, but as expected, everything had either long spoiled, or vanished under the sands of time.
"…"
He said nothing throughout the whole ordeal, merely taking care of the child, feeding and tending to her whenever he could. But the situation was getting dire. As Edward said, taking the child like this was only aggravating the situation… if her death was inevitable, then the only thing he was doing was rushing it.
'It's getting harder to traverse. According to the old maps, I should be reaching the downtown center soon… just a few more street blocks and I'll be there.'
'This place has truly become a jungle. The old structures have fused with the plants, becoming one in the same… almost as if the plants were evolving for this unusual environment... but I can't opine on that, this is my first time since childhood seeing anything plants like this… I barely remembered how they looked and smelled like.'
'It's a marvellous feeling… if only I could share it with her…'
Painful memories were quickly cast aside. Robert moved on with haste; he had little time left…
/Shaa…/
"The plants are growing bigger… just what is this place? I can't even see the road anymore."
'For a while now I have felt as if I have been climbing a hill. But I'm certain the maps said it was a flat road all the way to the central plaza. My only hope of finding anything lies there… there are rumors of old vaults deep underground in the area.'
The chaotic era when humanity first faced its end was laced with legends. Society did not fall in one day, it lasted years. In those years, thousands of myths were born. Tales of the rich coming together to make secluded villages or deep underground bunkers meant to last centuries, tales of the powerful flying to the moon where they watch the people suffer as they wait for all infected and the spawn to die off and for the world to restore itself…
Legends of people who froze themselves in anticipation of the birth of a new world…
/Shaa…/
Pushing aside the large leaves and vines the thickness of his arm, Robert finally reached the center of the downtown area.
"I'm here but… where is it?!"
Before Robert was a massive lake. Only now did he realize why he had been climbing a hill for the past few hours.
"Don't tell me the plants have made a dam around the entire central plaza?! Just how deep is it?… Three, four… maybe even five stories high?!"
'What about the bunkers and vaults? How will I get to them now? I can't leave my child behind and go diving.'
"… Perhaps I can just blow through it all… if I have this water drain then maybe…"
"Cough… cough… d-dad?…"
"Shhh… don't speak. You should rest. I'll find the medicine soon enough."
"… o… okay… you too…"
"Hm…"
'I don't have much time.'
He looked around the lake. It was a beautiful and mystical place. Massive plants could be seen growing on the buildings surrounding it, their roots combining to make the dams circling the central plaza.
The crystalline water almost seemed to shine. It seemed to be begging him to drink it… Robert ignored his urges.
He could see thousands of inscriptions, the same ones he had seen all the way here, shining on all the buildings. They might be hidden by the plants, but they were there. But what took his breath wasn't that…
After he found a good place to hide his daughter, Robert looked at the skies between the buildings, "What is that… thing?"
/Rumble…/
A vortex of black fog swirled above him. It was being pushed inside a tube of crystal clear light, condensing into a torrent of pure rain that fed directly into the lake's center.
"The end fog… is being condensed into this water?"
The thought alone sent shivers down his spine.
"No… rather… this process is more akin to distillation… is the end fog… being purified?!"
He couldn't believe what he was seeing… no matter, he needed to drain the water, and he would.
/Drip…/
"Hum?… W-WHAT?!"
Just as he turned around to leave, he heard the faintest of echoes behind him, and for some reason, the sounds attracted his attention…
When he turned to look, he saw a faint figure slowly descend from above…
'Long red hair like blood floating behind him… a long crimson-dark robe fluttering in the wind… just what is that?… No… who is that person?!'
From high above, Sun went down from the heavens.
…
"Phew… things are looking goo." Sun mumbled to himself as he stepped out of his home
'I sealed myself off for three months, and things are already like this. But from everything I can see, the formations are working as intended and no problems have arisen so far.'
"To think the creatures I resuscitated through rituals are now proliferating as well… it's good to see birds again."
'The bones and corpses of these creatures were collected by the zombies throughout the last few years and were piling up… same with seeds, roots, and husks of dead plants.'
'I experimented on them a few times but only put some effort into it recently…'
"Never did I think these brutal and fiendish rituals would be used to bring back life in this manner… it goes to show that it's not about good or bad. It's all about perspective."
"Even a Demonic God can be seen as a being of fortune and kindness under certain scenarios. Labelling things only serves to generalize them… and now that I'm alone, those categories don't hold any meaning."
"I suppose that leaves it to me to classify them again… what is good and what is bad? What is righteous and what is fiendish?… I don't know… for now though, I'll make it a simple classification."
"There is no good and bad, only harmful and beneficial actions. Harmful being those that bring clear downsides to the practitioner no matter how proficient they are in it."
'Truth said… I have modified and perfected many such harmful arts. So these labels can't be seen as permanent but rather transitional… Even a beneficial action can become harmful in due time.'
"Hum, most Devilish Cultivation falls under the harmful category, or rather… now that there is no one to judge, I'd say it's more like in the middle."
"Haa… to think I would consider Devilish Cultivation to be tame and central… but I suppose that's what it truly is at its core. When not used on people, it's just a very extreme form of Demonic Cultivation."
"For me to define what is good or bad, I'll have to define my morals, but in a world without people…"
That was when his eyes constricted, "Am I seeing this wrong?… People?!"
Sun's divine sense encompassed the whole city. He could tell at any moment where every living being was. And with despite the live blooming at its center, much of it was still desolate.
It was far too easy to find the group of people living on the far edge of the downtown area.
'I thought they were all gone… good lord… there's so many of them as well… this is enough for a small town even… or a large village.'
"Their condition doesn't look too good… and I can imagine why. Living this far must've been tough."
'From the records I've read and some of my own calculations, it's likely been between 70 and 80 years since the downfall of this world's order… This means this place was hit with this virus far longer than my previous world… Even if we count the ten years I spent here.'
'The world didn't turn into this sandy wasteland at once, though. I predict the last few bastions of society, places where people could live in groups and factories still worked to some degree all came crashing down around 40 to 30 years ago. Although by then much of the world had already been consumed by the plague.'
'This city was left untouched since the start of the end… I did see some signs of people living here for probably the first decade or so of the fall, but never after. And probably due to the creatures swarming the place.'
'Most of this, however, was from old records the zombies found lying around. Some of their orders were to seek out such documents lying around the cities and abandoned outposts and communities buried in the sand.'
'There were also radio and computer records I found lying around. Some receptors had been installed to keep functioning autonomously for decades with things like solar power… that said, most of them have already stopped functioning correctly.'
'But it was enough to give me a good idea of what was going on.'
"People huh… good to know… but all the good this brings me… there are also some issues…"
'The Life Qi is too abundant here, and this place will soon be filled with Spiritual Qi as well… these people won't be able to live here peacefully for long. I could modify the arrays so the Qi gets condensed in one region, but that could negatively impact the revitalization of these plants.'
"The plants seem to have grown around the plaza and have created something akin to a basin… I did predict this and made the formations to reflect such a possibility. Or maybe the plants grew because I made them like that… well, regardless, they seem to be doing fine."
'All this life is sucking up the Life Qi, causing it to enter the system. It'll one day be disseminated back into nature and cause the natural cycles of Heaven to restart.'
"I wonder if the will of the world is real… if it is, I wonder how it would react to my actions? I hope it doesn't act too violently… now… time to deal with that little thing."
He looked down to see a man approach the lake of pure Life Qi, smiling faintly as he did so.
"A daring man… it must be difficult to resist the urge to touch the lake as a mortal. Even plants move instinctively to it, albeit most animals seem to have the instinct to just drink from the sap of the trees instead."
'Plants have a great affinity with Life Qi so they grow abundantly and splendidly. But people?… If he just so dares as to touch it, he'll suffocate… but if he lives, he might become a First Stage Qi Refinement Cultivator… and that's a big maybe.'
"The constitution of these humans is just different from those back in the Guamo Continent, the way they could cultivate just doesn't conform with our means…"
'I have found no mention of such practices. These humans were a scientific society. Mysticism has long been discarded, living only as hearsay. He could potentially become something else, but his path would certainly not be equal to mine.'
'Just like how the Karmic Cycles alter the laws of cultivation, so do the laws of different Heavens… although… I wonder if it's the same power ruling over both? Or if the Heavens of this world differ from the one back in mine…'
'The Heavens are a powerful force, ever looking, ever present… It was there when I broke through to Nascent Soul, but I wonder if the tribulations I'll face will be the same as those in the records.'
"Well… I was ready to face something new, anyway. The records of the era of myth are unreliable to begin with. Even if they were all correct, the Karmic Cycle I lived in was at its end of ten thousand years even in the latest records of such times…"
'This man seems to have bad intentions, though. He kept looking at the lake… does he want something in it? I see… he wants what's beneath it.'
'I've long looted everything there. The ancient vaults and bunkers underneath the city… unfortunately, there wasn't much there aside from the riches of the old times. I did see signs of people living inside the bunkers for a while, but they died off for some reason.'
'My assumption is that the people who made those bunkers never had the time to fully prepare, so after a few decades inside they were forced to leave, only to be met with millions of zombies living at the heart of the city.'
'Maybe the signs I saw scattered around were of those people who fled and survived for a while… a shame they didn't last until I arrived… or rather, some might call it retribution and justice.'
'The people who lived by holing themselves in expensive and luxurious bunkers while the world fell to ruin. If all had worked together, would things have fallen to this degree? I'm inclined to believe that's not the case.'
"In the end, humans tend to be self-destructive and egoistic… only in stability does the fraternity and hospitality of mankind shine… and that needs order."
'I cannot let their destructive tendencies affect my plans… Not that I need to do much; they'll end up cast aside by the ever-growing Qi in no time. But I wouldn't want to have them killed… that might affect my Karma negatively.'
"Let's first give that man a helping hand. It's been so long since I met anybody… alive… so I might as well use my powers for good for once."
'Cultivators tend to see mortals with superiority. I don't share such views, but neither do I feel the contrary. Maybe it's because it's just been too long since I've seen someone.'
"But to the almighty me, doing a small action is fine… and I wouldn't mind spending a few months to settle things down if it meant I wouldn't be bothered in the next ten years. Sometimes you have to work hard so things can work in the long term… even if you can just take the easy route."
'To me, that route is unacceptable.'
With his arms on his back, Sun slowly descended the spire to the surface of the lake, making sure to glorify his actions as much as possible so he would appear… imposing…
That would be the first contact between mankind and their new God.
…
"…"
'So this is him.' Sun thought as he descended before the man, 'He's in utter shock… I don't blame him. After everything he witnessed, he must be questioning reality. The world being the way it is, be damned, I guess.'
/Splah…/
Sun landed on the lake's surface before the man, calmly assessing his condition while he trembled in confusion, shock, and awe.
'His skin is rough… signs of severe dehydration and starvation, although they seem to be getting back on track. The issue stems from that thing on his wrist.'
There was a strange object radiant faint Qi on his left arm…
'That's Dead Qi… What is a mortal like him doing with such an item? And how isn't he dying from it?'
'His skin is black around his arm… signs of necrosis but not quite like it. I need to take a closer look, but I doubt he'll cooperate in his condition…'
With his arms behind his back, Sun walked around the lake before stopping before a large vine growing into one of the skyscrapers' walls.
He raised his hand, and the massive vine slowly twisted. From deep within the building, a single fruit was slowly pulled from the darkness, landing gently within his hand.
With the fruit in hand, he returned to the shore, but this time, he ignored the man, going straight to where the child was hidden.
"STOP!"
Despite his fears, the man stepped before him, holding his weapon with trembling determination.
"Hum…"
'Did I do something wrong?… Is it because I'm a stranger? This is no good… I'm terrible at socializing.'
"She's dying." Sun proclaimed, "Step aside."
"NO!"
"…"
'Well shit. Do I like… knock him out? That might leave a bad taste in his mouth… Aha! I know what to do…'
/Swoosh…/
Sun's hand turned into an afterimage as a cup suddenly appeared in his palm. With his other hand, he used his energy to cut the fruit in half in the air before squishing its contents into the cup, causing it to almost overflow.
Without spilling a single drop, "Feed this to her. Then eat the rest once she recovers."
"Leave this place once she can move. It isn't safe to linger around the pool… do not touch the water."
/Float…/
Sun floated into the distance, leaving the man with the cup and fruit in hand.
"…"
Robert looked at the fruit and the cup of juice, thinking deeply about what do to…