Chapter 15: History

When the heavens and the earth came into being, the earth was a barren wasteland.

Until one day, at the center of the barren wasteland, an enormous explosion occurred. The explosion released a frightening amount of raw energy.

This kind of energy resulted in many tremendous changes to this world, overturning the heavens and the earth. At the same time, it gave birth to an uncountable number of lives.

The earliest life forms received the rawest form of energy. Their bodies were as large as mountains and their strength was incomparable.

These life forms were called the Origin Race.

After the Origin Race, new desolate beasts were constantly born. Although they were strong in their own right, they could not compare to the Origin Race, who came into existence at the beginning of the world.

Those desolate beasts came to be called the Origin Beasts.

After the Origin Race, the Origin Beasts dominated the continent, becoming the masters of the Primordial World.

The Origin Beasts were the masters of the Continent for almost two hundred thousand years. Descendants would call this time period the Age of Creation.

After the Age of Creation was an age where myriads of races sprung into being.

At that time, the energy of the heaven and earth gradually decreased, and the Origin Beasts were not suited for these changes. One by one, they entered deep hibernation in an attempt to decrease their energy requirements and continue to live.

However, their progeny continued to roam the continent.

Their bodies were still extremely large, and they still had the strength to control the raw energy. However, they were still inferior to their predecessors.

The progeny of the Origin Beasts were called the Prehistoric Beasts.

At the same time, due to flux of energy in the Primordial World, hordes of sentient, intelligent races began to appear in large droves. These races were not only numerous, but also possessed a unique flair for creativity

One of these Intelligent Races was the human race.

The Intelligent Races were still quite weak when they first came into being. The spread and development of wisdom was far slower than that of raw strength, yet they were still able to somehow survive.

The fragile human race, under the rule of the Primordial Beasts, became their food.

This period of time lasted for a hundred thousand years, and was called the Wasteland Era.

After the Wasteland Era came the Chaos Era.

The Chaos Era was when the Intelligent Races suddenly sprung forth with tremendous momentum.

All life forms with the gift of controlling energy were grouped together and called Origin Related life forms, and it was from that the name “Origin Beasts” was derived.

The races enslaved by the Origin Beasts had no way of increasing their own strength and thus, they could only pursue the path of increasing their knowledge.

Most importantly, their leaps in wisdom and innovation led to their ability to create and invent what they needed.

The life-forms whose intelligence managed to evolve were referred to as the Intelligence-Related, or the Slave-Related. The last moniker was mostly because many of the Intelligence Related races came from lowly origins.

As their intelligence and wisdom grew, the Intelligent Races gradually came to resent their fate of being enslaved. They did their best to shake off their fate, but it was not their effort that allowed them a chance. But rather, the heavens and earth shifted, giving them a marvelous opportunity to make a bid for freedom

As time had passed, the energy of the heavens had begun to wane. It progressed from being as abundant and thick as water to becoming as thin as a paltry breeze.

As a result, the strength of the Prehistoric Beasts also began to weaken.

They could still control the power of the heavens and the earth, but it was no longer as easy. Their strength began to weaken, and their progeny grew smaller and smaller.

These became known as the Demonic Beasts.

They were still the rulers of the heavens and earth, yet they no longer held the absolute power they were used to.

The Dark Astrals were the first to rebel.

They were the first of the Intelligent Races to possess the ability to control energy. Innately sensitive to it, they could almost be considered as half Origin-Related. However, they lacked the physique to directly control the rawest form of energy. The thinning of heavenly energy actually allowed them to get an initial grip on controlling it. Using their newfound abilities, they began to wage war for their freedom.

This became known as the period when the Dark Astrals flourished. They were able to defeat a large number of Demonic Beasts, and in the year 4600 of the Chaos Era, they claimed their own territory in the southern area of the world. The annals of history marked them down as the Origin Spirit Kingdom.

Unfortunately, the Origin Spirit Kingdom only existed for two thousand years before disintegrating.

The weakening of energy continued, and a few Demonic Beasts began to follow in the footsteps of their ancestors and fell into hibernation.

Meanwhile, new races continued to rise throughout the world.

The Mystics, who were similar in physique and intelligence; the Ravagers, who were filled with primitive wildness, part of the Intelligent Races in name yet behaved similarly to the beasts; and the Dryads, who lived deep inside the forests and were half-alive, half-vegetation. They all established their own influence in history, but they also all fell in quick succession.

In the year 9800 of the Chaos Era, the Mystics erected the Heavenly Profound Kingdom. Three thousand years later, their kingdom fell into ruin.

In the year 12000 of the Chaos Era, the Ravagers erected the Storm Territory. Five hundred years later, their kingdom also fell into ruin.

In the year 15000 of the Chaos Era, the Dryads erected the Eternal Solitude Capital. Four thousand years later, their kingdom disintegrated into ashes.

Not a single civilization surpassed five thousand years; every one of them just became a footnote of history.

The only one that could exist for more than thirty thousand years, withstanding the havoc the Beasts wreaked, was the Arcana World Empire.

The Arcanists possessed an uncanny ability to invent objects. Although their physical ability was nothing to boast of, they managed to produce various weapons that utilized energy. Those weapons leveled the playing field against the Demonic Beasts. At its height, the Arcana World Empire even governed a majority of the Primordial Continent. Their might surpassed the Demonic Beasts, and even the Prehistoric Beasts could do nothing to prevent their march.

However, at that moment in history, the strength of an Origin-Related life form became abundantly clear to every single creature on the Primordial Continent.

An Origin Beast awoke.

The Origin Beast died not long after it awoke, since the low levels of energy made the Primordial Continent an environment that starved it to death. But during that short period, that Origin Beast thrashed through the Arcana World Empire’s army. Its rampage dealt the Arcana World Empire a wound that it would never recover from.

At the same time, the other Intelligent Races that had been under Arcanist oppression also took the opportunity to revolt. They cooperated to deal a vicious blow to the Arcana World Empire from the inside.

They ransacked the Arcanists' capital, the Everlasting City. The last bastion of the Arcana World Empire fell, which caused their last resort for victory to fail. At the same time, they took advantage of their weakness to take large swathes of the Arcana World Empire’s land for themselves.

In the final years of the Chaos Era, the Arcana World Empire fell into ruin. The five races split up the possessions of the Arcanists and the human race obtained the Bloodline Extraction instrument. From then on, they could harness the powers of the Beast Race for their own usage, beginning to open their bloodline and developing a warrior system, that is, the predecessors of Origin Qi Scholars. The young Su Chen’s guesses were finally validated.

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“Suess Igor said, I am getting bored of the stubborn, granite-like heads of the Stoneskin slaves. What I need are not extremely strong slaves; rather, I need intelligent slaves who can identify my needs. Thus, he bought Lin Xinghuo away. Three years later, the Prairie Fire Uprising exploded. Lin Xinghuo led twelve hundred human slaves to finished off their ex-master, before fleeing to a nearby mountain range. Thirty-three days later, Lin Xinghuo and his army of human slaves were exterminated…… Yet who could have expected that this was only the first time that humanity would rebel. Merely one rebellion against the Arcana Race’s slave masters came to be called the prelude to the counterattack of the human race, the Prairie Fire Battle.

In the small tower of the True Jade Pavilion, Su Chen summarized everything he had just memorized in a heavy tone.

“True history always causes one to feel disappointed, is that right?” Tang Zhen laughed as he replied, “The history that you obtain from me will never be as beautiful as what’s recorded in history books.”

“Then, did Lin Huoxing actually yell the sentence “Humankind will never be slaves?” Su Chen asked.

“Who knows.” Tang Zhen shook his head.

The history that he could obtain also had its own limitations. Some truths had already been forever lost to humanity to the river of time.

Truth and falsehood had no meaning there. Regardless of whether Lin Xinghuo had actually shouted that sentence, he had become the symbol and idol of the present-day human race in their struggles. Taking down his altar would not bring any benefits to the human race. He knew that the truth only existed to let him learn how to deal with reality, and how to approach it.

As for thoughts like “setting things right” or “restoring truth to history”, it was best to give up completely on this line of thinking. Even though he was only fifteen years old, Su Chen knew how unreasonable and impractical these kinds of thoughts were.

“Today’s history lesson will conclude here. Rest for a while, then I will teach you the Arcana language. What a pity, if only the Arcanists' Language Proficiency Technique could be passed down, that would be the best way to learn new languages. If the stories are true, as long as one had a decent handle on the technique, one could automatically learn all languages. You wouldn’t need to work so hard either.”

Su Chen replied, “Learning from Storekeeper Tang is a joy in and of itself. I don’t find it taxing.”

Tang Zhen puffed his chest out, pleased, and laughed as he left the room.

Seeing Tang Zhen walk out, Su Chen lowered his head and glanced at the book in his hand.

The writing on the book was very blurry. Although he still could not see them clearly, he could at least distinguish characters.

Yes, his eyes truly had recovered slightly.

The world in his eyes had already assumed a completely different appearance.

It seemed to be a landscape painting using large chunks of color. Every single existence had been rendered, enlarged and blurred. As such, the entire world appeared to be somewhat unrefined, possessing its own unique look.

The ability to distinguish between a few colors had caused the world in his eyes to regain its gorgeous and colorful luster.

The current him was more like an extremely nearsighted individual. Although he could not see clearly, he was no longer unable to see.