Chapter 1

Ark City—it should be called Floating City now. The residents of the city, not yet recovered from the cataclysmic change of the world collapsing, witnessed the towering waves that reached a thousand meters high. These ignorant residents, confined in the spaceship for thousands of years, could not understand what had happened. The great power of nature, the boundless external world, the empty, chaotic sky, and the vast, limitless sea—all of these were unimaginable in the once-closed ark. In just a few hours, they had witnessed changes that their ancestors had never described to them. Therefore, when the giant wave surged, everyone on the outer edges of the Floating City fell into immense fear and panic. Many people, upon seeing the Aoe Sea, mistakenly believed it to be the "Erdos Sea" of mythical legends (although they had no idea what a real ocean looked like), and they mistook the surging waves for a legendary monster that devoured the world. The residents on the edge of the Floating City were plunged into extreme chaos.

But when the sea waves suddenly disappeared and a peculiar expanse of green things floated into view, and a godlike, indescribably powerful being rose from the waves and looked down upon all living things, this chaos and fear were transformed into immense awe.

Meanwhile, on the sea surface next to the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace, Hao Ren was stunned after hearing Iva's thoughts. He hadn't expected that this innocent spirit of the ocean had suddenly left just to find food for the people on the Ark—she had listened to Hao Ren's words and kept in mind that "they need food," so she had made the simplest and most direct response, which was to bring the food she knew and could easily collect to these refugees.

Iva was not angry at all, nor did she feel any resistance towards these outsiders. She didn't understand these things at all; she hadn't even learned the word "outsider" yet. Hao Ren maintained a mental connection with Iva for a while and understood her deeper thoughts: this ocean spirit's motives couldn't even be called goodwill or malice; she had simply taken what she considered to be the appropriate action. If you had to describe her mindset...

It was like when she had recently cultivated moss fragments into seaweed to feed those shallow-sea fish. She regarded the people in the Ark as a group of small, hungry animals soaking in water, so she rolled up some seaweed to feed them—with the mindset of a gardener.

This deep logic made Hao Ren laugh and cry. He thought it was better not to reveal the truth. Iva's worldview was different from that of ordinary creatures. Mortal races didn't need to know too much about her way of thinking.

At this moment, his mental communication with Iva was suddenly interrupted by a voice from the communication channel. Lawrence asked urgently, "What exactly is happening now? What is this... giant doing? Is she the... overlord of this planet? What does she want?!"

On the outer edge of the Floating City, those Ark residents closest to Iva were already kneeling in droves. Faced with an incomprehensible, mysterious being who appeared to be countless times more powerful than themselves at first glance, these superstitious and ignorant commoners' first reaction was to beg for peace. They believed that Iva was an angry extraterrestrial deity, and that this deity was now displaying her power at the edge of the world. So they began to pray, hoping that the deity would quell her anger or forgive their sins. This ignorant reaction was excusable: because their entire existing cultural system was based on such rhetoric.

Vivian and Lily stood next to Lawrence. They had also been startled by the giant waves, but they wouldn't think of Iva as some "angry deity." Vivian had already vaguely guessed the identity of the giant in the sea, but she couldn't quite believe it.

At this moment, Hao Ren's voice came through the communicator. He shouted to Lawrence, "The Sea God is bestowing gifts upon you—explain it that way!"

Then a large group of autonomous machines flew over from the direction of the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace and surged towards every corner of the Floating City. Each autonomous machine projected a large holographic image showing Lawrence's image. Because the previous Ark transformation had damaged the Floating City's already fragile and dilapidated communication network, Hao Ren could only let these autonomous machines act as temporary media terminals. While deploying the autonomous machines, he roughly explained Iva's origins to Lawrence: "... In short, she's the same as a Sea God to you. The seaweed she brought might be edible..."

Lawrence hurriedly stepped up to the plate in a rush, but he didn't lose his composure. His figure appeared in every part of the city through holographic projection, and he began to explain Iva's affairs to the people: "The Sea God Iva has brought us..."

Meanwhile, Iva curiously watched the activity in the Floating City. She was especially curious when she saw those small autonomous machines flying into the streets and alleys. She even reached out to try to grab one to take a look. When Hao Ren saw this, he had no choice but to jump back into the sea and establish a mental connection: "Iva, don't move! Just stay in that pose..."

Then he turned his head and instructed Nolan, "Turn off the water pumps under the Ark first. Iva might be curious about that thing. Be careful she doesn't crawl into the spaceship's water pump pipes!"

Then he busied himself calling out to Iva: "Be good, don't knock on the spaceship! That thing can't stand your tossing around!"

"Nolan, go open the outer shells of the other spaceships and try to divert Iva's attention!"

"Iva! Don't touch that! That's a reactor!"

It was truly a chaotic mess. Hao Ren was like a schizophrenic, arranging Lawrence's speech on one hand, having Nolan adjust the Ark on the other, and still having to find a way to calm down Iva, whose curiosity had exploded. After everything finally settled down, he was as tired as a dog, soaking in the sea with a look of near death on his face: "... This is the first time in my life I've seen such a huge, unruly child..."

At this moment, no one knew that the three main gods worshiped by the descendants of the Ark civilization many years later were determined in this situation today: the Ice and Fire Twin Goddesses who created the world, and Iva, the Sea God, the guardian of all living beings...

And by the time Hao Ren and the others were truly free, it was already dusk.

The Aoe sunset was setting in the west. The weather was clear today, and the brightest stars were already faintly appearing in the sky. The residents of the Floating City looked like they were about to usher in their first starry night in ten thousand years. The Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace was floating on the sea tens of kilometers away from the Throne Ark. Hao Ren and his group were all gathered on the edge of the ship's upper platform, saying goodbye to Iva in the sea. Iva didn't seem to have any extra reaction to the fact that everyone was about to leave. She was just happily floating in the water, rolling around everywhere amidst the splashing waves, making bursts of cheerful gurgling sounds. Vivian stood beside Hao Ren, her gaze lingering on Iva for a long time: "I never thought I'd see her again... She's already very different from the last time I saw her."

"The last time, she gathered the power of an entire planet, causing heaven and earth to overturn," Hao Ren grinned. "She probably doesn't even have one percent of the power she had then."

"It looks like she likes the people on the Ark very much," Katelina smiled and looked at Lawrence beside her. "I wonder how you will get along with her in the future."

"The Ice and Fire Twin Goddesses, the Sea God of abundance and grace—the three new gods have taken root in the hearts of my people, and the Sea God is the most tangible and closest to us," Lawrence returned the smile. "I never thought that our civilization would continue and revive in this situation. This will completely change the various revival plans we had previously formulated, but as things stand, we must get along with the 'Sea God' in a friendly manner. Frankly speaking, we don't know much about this deity right now, but she's not violent or evil, which is a blessing."

"Iva is never evil, but the current her also has many things to learn," Hao Ren looked at Iva, who was frolicking not far away. Dou Dou was also playing excitedly in the sea. The little mermaid jumped in and out of Iva's water body, her shiny golden-red tail reflecting a glittering light in the sunset. "I've told her as much knowledge as possible, but after all, the gap between me and her in terms of life form and way of thinking is too great. It's difficult for me to even understand her thoughts, so she can only slowly build her own worldview, and this process is the process of her getting along with you. If you are friendly, she will be friendly. If you are tyrannical, she will be tyrannical."

Lawrence lowered his head seriously: "I will remember your reminder."

"You can try those seaweeds after you go back," Hao Ren said with a smile. "It's not easy to grow grain on this planet."

Not long after, Lawrence left. He couldn't stay here for long because his people were still waiting for the next instructions for building a new home. In the many years to come, this old man should be quite busy. And after Lawrence left, Vivian glanced at the Throne Ark thoughtfully: "'If you are friendly, she will be friendly. If you are tyrannical, she will be tyrannical'—that's a good point, but what if they deceive this 'god'? Iva looks like a child right now."

Hao Ren pointed to the sky. Among the gradually emerging stars, there were some special points of light that were shining brightly.

"One thousand two hundred unmanned drone turrets will shine with the light of humanitarianism."