Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Now that you mentioned it…”

Li Yao thought for a moment and said, “I remember that many archaeologists have indeed excavated the skulls of ancient human beings that are not the same as ours. They’re ‘mud men’, the rivals of our ancestors, and they were much taller and stronger than our ancestors.”

“That’s right. The advantages of the mud men were not just their height and their strength, but more importantly, their brains and their genes.”

Zhuge Jinglun said, “The Nuwa Clan implanted tremendous techniques and knowledge into the genes of the mud men. As soon as the mud men grew mature, they would secrete specific hormones that helped them awaken their talents. They would know how to farm, refine, and fight.

“It’s safe to say that the mud men were natural-born farmers, miners, and warriors. Like tigers are born to hunt, zebras are born to run, and cats are born to climb trees, they were born to work as instructed.

“It was exactly the purpose for which human beings were created. They were supposed to reproduce and expand on their own so that they could serve the Pangu alliance, their master, for all eternity, right?”

“It does sound very impressive.”

Li Yao thought for a while and asked, “But just now, you said that the mud men were flawed, first-generation humans. What were their flaws?”

“Their lack of creativity and curiosity.”

Zhuge Jinglun smiled and said, “Look, the Nuwa Clan had imprinted all knowledge into their genes. It was enough for them to deal with most of the animals and plants apart from the thirteen species of the Pangu alliance. They were almost perfect and invincible.

“So, they did not need curiosity or creativity. They acted based on their natural instincts like ignorant beasts, and they never knew the real significance of life.

“Maybe they could build a warship bare-handedly or transform a terrible planet into a habitable one, but they would never consider the significance of their work. It’s like when a leopard pounced upon a zebra, the leopard was only thinking to live, and nothing else.

“What exactly is creativity? Creativity is the ability to make consecutive mistakes. You may make a hundred, a thousand, a million absurd mistakes, but one of those mistakes will lead to unexpected, amazing changes. That’s evolution! That’s creativity!

“The mud men did not have such an ability. Their knowledge and skills were all blessed. Their form bordered on perfection. They did not consider changes, nor was it necessary for them to change. They did not have curiosity, and nothing deserved their curiosity. If they were to reproduce for ten thousand years, the first generation and the last generation would be absolutely the same without any evolutions or mutations.”

Li Yao gradually got it.

Inheriting talents through genes and maintaining curiosity and creativity were probably two incompatible directions of evolution.

“The Pangu Clan was very satisfied with the mud men, but the Nuwa Clan frowned at their product.”

Zhuge Jinglun continued, “Perhaps a lot of extraterritorial devils had already found their way into the heads of the members of the Nuwa Clan. With their devotion to passion and chaos, how could they have liked the mud men?

“So, the Nuwa Clan spoke to the other thirteen primeval clans that the mud men had fatal flaws and were not suitable as servants for the Pangu alliance and that they needed new-generation human beings that were more balanced, independent, and creative.

“The Pangu Clan did not really like the idea, but since it was the Nuwa Clan’s job to create human beings, they had to respect the Nuwa Clan’s opinion and agreed to let them create a new batch of human beings.

“Just like that, the wise men, our earliest ancestors, were created.

“The deficiencies of the wise men are obvious compared to the mud men. Our ancestors were slim and prone to anger and fear. They were not even as strong as gorillas. Without tools, they could even be killed by tigers or lions. More importantly, the Nuwa Clan removed the naturally-endowed techniques in their genes. So, every wise man had to learn the necessary skills from their seniors on their own. Once they died, the skills they finally learned would be gone, and the newborn wise men had to start from scratch again.”

“Now that you put it that way, it sounds like our ancestors were good for nothing!” Li Yao said, frowning.

“By the looks of it, yes.”

Zhuge Jinglun smiled and said, “So, when the Nuwa Clan presented the ‘new version’ to the alliance, all the other twelve primeval clans were shocked and amused.

“Back then, all the thirteen primeval carbon-based lives had some naturally-endowed techniques and ancestral memories. Their talents were so powerful that their curiosity and creativity were suppressed, like how cancer cells occupy the living space of regular cells. So, none of them realized what terrifying power a brand-new life form, which did not have any naturally-endowed techniques but had the greatest curiosity and creativity, could unleash.

“Because we know nothing when we’re born, we’re forever curious about the wonderful new world around us. Because we learn our skills instead of inheriting them, we make mistakes, question the ancestors’ experience, and challenge any authorities. Because we’re so weak at the beginning, we crave to be stronger more badly than any other intelligent life. Our ancestors understood the true nature of ‘human’ even better than their creator did!

“But back then, the Pangu alliance did not know our power at all. However, because of the Nuwa Clan’s insistence, several planets were selected as laboratories and the battle arena of the mud men and the wise men.”

Attracted, Li Yao took a long breath of relief and mumbled, “Eventually, the wise men defeated the mud men.”

“Yes, but there’s more to it.”

Zhuge Jinglun put on a weird smile again. “When the special experiment began, the mud men crushed almost all the wise men with their naturally-endowed techniques very easily, and the population of the wise men was reduced to 5% of the original in their worst days.

“However, the desire for exploration and survival modified the surviving wise men at an astonishing speed, allowing them to run crazily down on the path of evolution. They stole the mud men’s magic equipment, learned their techniques, and modified those gears and techniques according to the features of their planet. Eventually, the wise men defeated the mud men on every planet and… ate them up.

“You should know what happened next, Black Wind King. The wise men proved that they were the most excellent tools. Though wary of the creativity and curiosity that the wise men revealed during the competition, the Pangu Clan was reassured when the Nuwa Clan proposed to bind them to the Path of Ultimate Benevolence. They manufactured human beings with the wise men as the template.

“However, part of the Nuwa Clan was already corrupted by the extraterritorial devils back then, and the Three Fundamental Laws were not as indestructible as they appeared. So, the awakening and rise of mankind were unstoppable.”

“Is this just your hypothesis, or do you have any proofs?”

Li Yao asked, “Why does it sound like a tale to me?”

“Half half. The archaeologists and historians have found a lot of proofs that are like glittering stars in the sky.”

Zhuge Jinglun said with a smile, “I’m merely connecting the stars into constellations.”

“However, your story has a fatal flaw.”

Pointing at the people of the Covenant Alliance down below, Li Yao said, “If the mud men were destroyed by the wise men in the experiments hundreds of thousands of years ago, how can those people be the mud men’s offspring?

“As far as I know, many people of the Covenant Alliance were transformed from the normal people in the Imperium. Any normal person could be brainwashed and turned into a member of the Covenant Alliance. Are they all the offspring of the mud men?”

“No, no. no. I’m afraid that you didn’t hear me right.”

Zhuge Jinglun said calmly, “I didn’t say ‘destroyed’; I just said that the wise men swallowed and assimilated the mud men. They’re both our ancestors, except that the genes of the wise men take up a greater percentage.

“You can understand that 90% of our genes are from the wise men and 10% are from the mud men, except that the genes from the mud men are usually suppressed. It’s just like ‘demons’, another subspecies of mankind. We actually carry a lot of demon genes, and we can mutate into demons after we take Chaos water, can’t we?

“In fact, there are so many mysteries in our genes that even the best geneticist can only translate 30% of our genes. They even believe that more than 50% of our genes are useless garbage.

“But is it possible? Does the successor of the primeval civilizations and the most perfect carbon-based life carry 50% of garbage genes? No, it’s just an excuse for the specialists’ ignorance. I believe that the 50% unknown genes are the hope of our evolution, which include part of the mud men’s genes.”