Chapter 2 Prologue 2: Gathering People
Just as Cainus awoke, his consciousness suddenly trembled—intense fluctuations emanated from the depths of the surrounding void, rippling outwards and impacting his infinitely expanding sea of consciousness.
It seems the primordial deities are about to begin their activities.
Cauchinus transformed into a wise and learned old man, his pupils slightly contracted, and a faint chill appeared between his brows. He gently raised his head, his gaze piercing through the invisible and intangible wall of chaos, looking into the depths of the void.
He looked at these innate deities and curled his lip in disdain.
"These innate gods are like maggots parasitizing the ancient rules," Cauchinos murmured, his words tinged with a faint sarcasm and an undisguised weariness. "They only seized the starting point of this world because they were born earlier."
"Even so, the creation of the world still requires the help of these worms."
The moment he finished speaking, a blazing red light suddenly shone from the depths of the distant void.
The crimson light tore through the silent chaos like the dawn's first rays, instantly illuminating the pitch-black void as if it were a raging inferno. Within the light, towering flames surged forth, like an endless crimson tide, engulfing everything in their path.
Ophelia, the goddess of fire and the sun, awakens from her slumber.
Where the flames burned, chaos vanished, leaving only a desolate void.
Immediately afterwards, a steady yellow light slowly rose from the void, like a long-silent divine mountain finally rising from chaos.
The yellow light was as steady as a rock, each ray of light seemingly carrying the weight of heaven and earth.
The earth's essence spread with the light, and every inch of void gradually solidified under its influence.
The mountains rise and fall, the rocks stand tall, that is the power of the Earth Mother Goddess Gaia, as steady as the unchanging earth, unshakable and unshakable.
Cauchinus's gaze swept over the two first rays of divine light to awaken, a slight ripple stirring within him, which quickly subsided. He knew that more primordial gods would soon awaken from their slumber, pouring their power of law into this chaos to reshape heaven and earth.
Sure enough, what followed were beams of light of various colors.
Some of the light was like a deep blue abyss, its waves surging silently, turning the void into an endless expanse of water.
The light that Cauchinus himself possessed was like a brilliant star, rising slowly from the depths of chaos, radiating endless wisdom and mysterious rhythm.
Other rays of light, like inky shadows, silently pierced through the void, and wherever they passed, chaos was gradually bound by invisible chains of rules.
Their arrival was like countless magic brushes sketching on a blank canvas, beginning to depict this brand new world.
Boom—
With a deep, resounding boom, the world took shape from the void.
In the beginning of time, heaven and earth were created, and all things were born.
Bai Zhe slowly closed his eyes, sensing every subtle change in this newborn world. His consciousness sank with the formation of the earth, rose with the burning flames, and flowed with the rushing rivers—
"This is the origin of the world, the paradise of the gods..." Bai Zhe murmured to himself, a meaningful smile playing on his lips.
He knew that the awakening of the gods meant a new order, and that a new order would inevitably be accompanied by bloodshed and sacrifice.
Within the green sphere of light, the number of single-celled life forms has been greatly reduced, but each survivor bears the mark of having escaped destruction.
They are tiny and insignificant, yet they stubbornly roam in an unstable environment, as if proclaiming some kind of indomitable will: life cannot be easily extinguished.
Bai Zhe's divine sense slowly enveloped these tiny lives, and he could clearly perceive their changes and struggles.
Some cells, after being washed away by floods and scorched by high temperatures, have evolved a hard outer membrane on their surface, like a newborn carapace, firmly keeping out external threats.
Other cells are more flexible. They develop long, slender flagella in the storm, which dance with the current and swim in the torrent like drifting duckweed, small yet not swallowed by the rapids.
Most striking are the mutated cells—after countless cycles of breaking, dividing, and recombining, they have gradually developed the ability to engulf. These cells are no longer content with passively absorbing energy from the environment; instead, they actively capture other cells around them, decomposing and assimilating them to strengthen themselves. Their forms are becoming increasingly complex and varied, like predators in a microscopic world, igniting the first silent battle in this chaotic wasteland.
Bai Zhe observed these changes, a subtle emotion flickering in his eyes.
"The way of life is never about meek reproduction, but about the struggle for survival and the will to evolve." His whispers echoed between heaven and earth, carrying an ancient and profound meaning.
His sphere of light did not merely passively shelter these lives, but rather witnessed, in an almost cruel way, how life was reshaped from destruction and how it broke free from its constraints in adversity.
As time passed, life within that green sphere of light began to form its initial cyclical ecosystem. Some cells decomposed decaying matter, releasing nutrients; others absorbed these nutrients and multiplied into new individuals. Even more remarkably, the earliest food chain had already formed within the primal predator-prey relationship.
The law of the jungle, survival of the fittest, has already begun in the microscopic world.
"No matter how the gods change the world, only the continuation of life is the meaning of the world's existence," Bai Zhe murmured, as if making some ancient vow to this newly born land.
Bai Zhe sighed softly.
"May this land still remember the original form of life—struggle, evolution, and an unceasing desire."
As his divine sense spread, the newly formed single-celled life forms, as if summoned by some invisible force, began to slowly converge in one direction.
They took root and sprouted in the soil of this new world, gradually developing into more complex forms.
Bai Zhe gazed down at the still-immature world beneath his feet, his gaze deep and far-reaching. He raised his hand, his fingertips gently brushing across the void, plucking the invisible strings. A faint green light flowed from his palm, merging into the earth and awakening the slumbering soil and rocks.
"The beginning of all things must have a root."
He murmured, proclaiming an age-old truth.
At this moment, the earth is still desolate and barren, with jagged rocks and cracks all over it, and has not yet recovered from the wounds of the earth-shattering changes.
However, when that ray of green light penetrated deep into the soil, it instantly ignited the pulse of the earth—the soil began to soften, and the dark color gradually revealed a hint of vibrant green.
Bai Zhe's gaze pierced through the newly sprouted soil, revealing countless tiny single-celled life forms surging in the darkness, intertwining, colliding, merging, and splitting. Now, they were about to embark on a new mission.
"Rooted in the earth, drawing nourishment, and facing the light."
As his voice echoed, the laws of life were rewoven in this world.
Bai Zhe mobilized the life force within his body, giving these lives a completely new direction for evolution. His divine power flowed like morning dew, dripping onto those tiny life forms and quietly altering their structure. Inside some cells, novel green granules gradually appeared—the rudiments of chloroplasts—these cells would no longer rely on decaying matter in the darkness, but would instead yearn for sunlight and draw energy from its light.
Next, the cells begin to differentiate. Some extend downwards, transforming into delicate roots that penetrate the soil to extract nutrients and water; others grow upwards, unfurling tender green stems and leaves to greet the rising sun and receive its light.
When the first rays of sunlight pierce through layers of clouds and fall upon the earth, the world holds its breath in awe.
For the first time, the earth possessed green life.
Bai Zhe quietly watched the plants grow, his gaze gentle, as if watching a newborn child.
The emergence of plants not only brought more oxygen, but also paved the way for more complex life forms to follow.
"Next, it's time to create life that can run."
Bai Zhe smiled slightly, and his divine power surged once more. The single-celled life forms within the sphere of light began to feel uneasy, as if they were sensing a new change was about to arrive.
He endowed them with more abilities:
Freely moving limbs, organs that keenly perceive the outside world, and the instinct to hunt and reproduce—this is the evolutionary direction he designed for them.
Soon, the first animals were born.
Some of them are like giant insects, covered in hard shells and wielding sharp mouthparts, becoming predators on this land; some are like agile fish, swimming and darting through clear waters in search of food; and others are like primitive reptiles, slowly crawling on the land, vigilantly observing everything around them.
These animals appear quite naive at birth, but as time goes by, they gradually learn to adapt to their environment, constantly evolving in the cycle of predation and being preyed upon, thus building the most primitive food chain in this new world.
When animals began to run, climb, and swim on the earth, the world was revitalized with a vitality unlike anything seen in the past.
Bai Zhe did not stop his progress.
"The most important part is still missing."
He slowly reached out, conjuring a silvery-white light that was soft yet bright, like moonlight pouring down, radiating a unique spirituality belonging to wisdom.
"Life needs thought, soul, and emotion."
So he decided to create a completely new life form.
He used his own image as a blueprint, incorporating a more complex structure—an upright walking body, dexterous hands, and a well-developed biological brain full of wrinkles.
When the first person opened his eyes, Bai Zhe looked down at him and showed a relieved smile.
"You will be the masters of this land."
These humans possessed highly developed cognitive abilities and quickly mastered how to hunt, cultivate crops, and make tools. They learned language, communication, and cooperation, and under the guidance of Bai Zhe, established the first tribes and civilizations.
Bai Zhe settled them in a land rich in resources. Since the god of wisdom, Cainus, had no intention of fulfilling his duty to bestow wisdom upon humankind, Bai Zhe taught them the laws of survival.
On the earth, plants flourished, animals ran, humans multiplied, the torrent of civilization surged forward, and the outline of the world gradually became clear.
Bai Zhe quietly surveyed everything, a strange light gleaming in his eyes.
"Hehehe... This world is going to be quite a spectacle now