Chapter 1 In the Last Moments of the Great Extinction

In the last moments of the Great Extinction ten thousand years ago, the safety mechanism of some Seeds of Life was suddenly activated, forcing the out-of-control Progenitors into slumber, thereby allowing a small portion of the universe's races to survive. The residents of Planet Holletta were among the survivors—although Hao Ren had not yet seen more survivors, he believed that there must be other planets like Holletta that had survived the Progenitor disaster, simply hidden in some corner of the universe waiting to be discovered.

However, it was not the Seeds' own built-in alert mechanism or the magical emperors' accidental self-rescue operations that activated the safety locks of the Seeds of Life back then. Rather, it was the giant before him and some of his brothers and sisters—these guardians who harbored deep hatred, having just witnessed their own mother being killed by mortals. They activated the safety protocol in the Seeds of Life control center at the center of the universe, thereby protecting a small portion of mortal civilizations.

In the eyes of the guardians, the phenomenon of "mortal races" was the culprit that led to their mother's death. They had completely lost faith in the loyalty and morality of any mortal species, and were unwilling to distinguish between the good and bad of those mortals. This kind of thinking was the reason why all the guardians fell into madness and mutation. But the goddess's last order forced some of the guardians to maintain their sanity—even if they were filled with anger and grief, they still regarded their mother's order as the first principle, and thus the giant before Hao Ren who still maintained his sanity survived.

This was the truth of ten thousand years ago, the complete opposite of the initial guess, unexpectedly shocking.

"No mortal species is worth saving," the giant lowered his head, his voice as if coming from his chest, "But this was the last order before Mother's death, and we must execute it unconditionally. So we activated the safety lock. After the Origin Star was pushed into the dark domain by the Big Bang, the Seeds of Life and their first-generation products in various parts of the universe entered a sealed state. Our mad brothers thus fell into slumber, but at that time, there was not much life left in this universe."

Hao Ren guessed that "the Origin Star being pushed into the dark domain by the Big Bang" probably referred to the supernova explosion of the red giant star, the moment when the Creator Goddess was completely killed by the rebellious sons. Now all the timelines corresponded.

"What happened after that?" Vivian looked at the giant curiously, "You... the guardians who maintained your sanity, how did you spend your time afterwards?"

"We separated," the giant shook his head, "Some of the guardians wanted to find Mother's remains, and they set off to find the dark domain. After that, there was no more news. Some slumbered in various corners of the universe, using this method to bury themselves. Mother was gone, and most of our compatriots had mutated. The remaining guardians realized that they had lost their meaning of existence, so we disintegrated..."

The giant slowly talked about the last moments of those guardians back then, and also mentioned the reason why he came to Holletta. After bidding farewell to his brothers and sisters, he drifted aimlessly in the universe in a spaceship that was severely damaged in the war and experienced thousands of years of wandering. He originally thought of dying in this wandering, finding a star to end his life after the spaceship completely lost control—he believed that many guardians who were as awake as him should have chosen this path as well. But just as he was about to reach the end of this wandering, he discovered a planet: Holletta.

The giant realized that after the safety device of the Seed of Life was activated, those who were protected were not only the "innocent" people who did not know what had happened, but also the rebellious accomplices who refused to provide support to the Mother, so he changed his plan.

Since the enemies of that day were not all dead, it was necessary to continue the revenge.

"When I discovered this planet, the whole world had not yet recovered from the blood tide disaster," the giant's emotions seemed to have calmed down. He spoke without emotion about what happened when he first came to Holletta, "Everywhere you could see the tentacle remains of the original guardians and the destroyed human kingdoms, but even so, there were still many mortals surviving in the world. They survived among the ruins and the wilderness, and civilization had regressed to almost primitive times, but in any case, they were still alive, and they were still shamelessly covering up their past sins—I observed them in orbit for several years, watching them burn the religious scriptures of the past, instilling distorted history in newborns, constantly eliminating the remaining 'reflectionists' in society, and even completely sealing the memories of the Creator Goddess, as if doing so could wash away the sins on their bodies. They lived in fear and full of sin, and I took advantage of a meteorite impact to lurk down. I needed time to repair the weapons on the spaceship, and I also needed to heal my injuries..."

"This lurking has lasted for thousands of years," Hao Ren couldn't help but say, "You have witnessed the reconstruction of the Holletta civilization with your own eyes."

"I have witnessed many things," the giant's voice was full of contradictions, "Yes, this is the root of my hesitation. I didn't expect them to regain their faith in the Creator Goddess, and I didn't expect them to be able to restore so much from the sparse innate memory and historical fragments. The original executioners died one by one. The psychological pressure and the curse from the origin of the world made those guys who could have lived for many years very short-lived. After they died, their descendants inherited this world and began to worship the Creator Goddess again. I soon discovered that the mortal world was changing faster than I thought, so fast that I didn't even have time to take revenge, and an entire era had ended."

"So it became very awkward after you repaired the spaceship." Hao Ren couldn't help but sigh for the giant. He raised his head, looking at the gigantic figure, but he saw endless contradictions, entanglements, confusion, and bewilderment from that god-like figure. This giant was struggling in countless past shadows, and it seemed pale and weak to judge anything related to him with simple good and evil. He had indeed been obsessed with destroying the civilization on Planet Holletta, but at the same time, he had already given up this idea in his heart. He spent thousands of years preparing weapons and destruction plans, but these actions seemed more like being driven by pure obsession:

The giant knew that revenge was meaningless, but if he didn't do it, he himself would be meaningless.

Lily wanted to break this uncomfortable silence, so she brought up the Regression Sect: "Did you organize those cultists?"

"I didn't actively organize any sects," the giant shook his head, "They gathered spontaneously. When I first landed on this planet, I fell asleep for a short period of time in order to recover my energy, and it was during that time that some humans discovered the cave where I was hiding my spaceship. The thoughts I leaked in my sleep affected the spirits of these humans, and they learned about the Creator Goddess and the rebellious sons... The fact that they became fanatical Regressionists surprised even me. I didn't expect that some humans would become as angry as the guardians after knowing the truth, and even be willing to attack their own compatriots for this. In any case, this behavior gave me some comfort, so I didn't stop them. Later, I even opened up some of the structures in the cave for them and their descendants to live in. I also taught them some knowledge so that they could help maintain my base... That's all."

The giant didn't need to make up lies at this time, so his words had high credibility. It seemed that the giant was indeed the behind-the-scenes leader of the Regression Sect, but more like a symbolic spiritual leader. The Regressionists' beliefs were spontaneously generated after they came into contact with the giant's thoughts. This also explained the biological modification of the Regression Sect that was between magic and technology: the giant should not have been in the mood to study the biochemical technology of a group of tiny mortals, so those technologies should have been developed by the Regressionists themselves in thousands of years of groping, and their technical level was naturally incomparable to the giant's warships and base.

"The Regressionists once tried to assassinate the Pope with a scroll," Hao Ren took out a fragment of the divine scroll from his personal space, "It's this. Did you give it to them?"

The giant looked down at it: "It is indeed, but what I initially gave them were just some raw materials. This material was manufactured on a satellite of the Origin Star and was blessed by Mother. Those Regressionists used these ancient materials to make sacred objects, but I don't know the specific usage. I don't pay attention to these things."

Hao Ren looked at the scroll fragment in his hand: "No wonder this thing has divinity..."