Chapter 1625 Old News

Nothing could calm Hao Ren down more than Asu-man’s words: “The Ancient Ones are an extension of the Lord of Madness?”

“The Ancient Ones… you call our kind that?” Asu-man’s voice was ethereal, as if coming from a dream. “Yes, in that mad and dark age, ordinary creatures simply could not survive. On the edge of the universe, there would occasionally be sprouts of primitive life on a few planets, but they would often be inexplicably destroyed before they had time to develop. It was a disordered era, where all physical laws and mathematical definitions were blurred. Life was random, and so was death. Under those circumstances, only we ‘lifeforms’ could survive for a relatively long time. We were born on the edge of the Lord of Madness's dark power, appearing in the chaotic sea of energy as its power vibrated. So, it is not wrong to say that we are an extension of the Lord of Madness.”

Vivian gently stroked her chin. “But you are clearly not chaotic creatures.”

“No life could be as chaotic as the Lord of Madness. It is the ultimate manifestation of the universe’s chaos, even resembling a natural phenomenon in the early universe rather than a creature. And we, the lifeforms born in the aftermath of its power, were destined to be distinct from it from the moment we appeared. Those were painful years. We had self-awareness and the desire for a stable life, but we could not escape the Lord of Madness's oppression. Because of our weak connection to it, we could survive for a relatively long time, but every day, our people were inexplicably destroyed. Sometimes, our entire race would be destroyed, only to be resurrected by one of the Lord of Madness's mutterings…”

Lily gulped. “It’s impossible to live properly…”

Hao Ren frowned. “This situation only improved with the appearance of the Goddess of Creation?”

“Things changed since she appeared in the universe,” Asu-man replied. “Due to our weak connection with the Lord of Madness, we ‘Ancient Ones’ could actually borrow its power slightly, allowing us to observe the situation over a vast area of the universe. One day, we suddenly discovered an unprecedentedly powerful energy reaction in the depths of the starry sky. This energy reaction instantly dispelled the Lord of Madness's influence within millions of light-years, and a stable and orderly ‘order field,’ never before seen in the universe, formed within this range. This order field shocked and bewildered us, because we had never seen it before, so many of our people were terrified. But soon, we realized that this was the environment in which life should truly exist, the ‘pastoral’ scenery that we had imagined countless times but never truly sketched out.

“We began to try to send signals to that energy reaction, but these efforts were in vain. The energy reaction simply lay dormant in the depths of the starry sky, unresponsive to all stimuli. We initially thought it was similar to the Lord of Madness, an unconscious and powerful energy source—that was our impression of all ‘gods’ at the time. But as thousands of years passed, the energy reaction suddenly became active and showed signs of consciousness…”

Hao Ren nodded slightly. “This should be the Goddess of Creation waking up and starting to explore the place where she ‘landed.’ It seems she was ‘unconscious’ for quite a long time after landing on this planet.”

Asu-man continued, “That period lasted a long time. As the energy reaction gradually grew, its influence also slowly increased, and more and more areas of cosmic order were opened up by it. In some ordered areas, primitive ecological planets even appeared. And in this process, we never gave up communicating, constantly sending various signals to that growing area of order.”

Vivian was caught between laughter and tears. “It seems a lot happened while the Goddess of Creation was unconscious, but she doesn’t seem to know any of it.”

“We only learned later that the energy reaction was actually a god from another place, and that she had no concept of this kind of hyperspace communication at all—because she had never had an object for remote communication,” Asu-man’s voice was also somewhat helpless. “But perhaps it was fate, she eventually left the place where she landed and began to move towards the depths of the universe. And by the time she finally found us, many, many years had passed.”

“The days when Lockmarton followed his mother on adventures, according to his memory," Hao Ren murmured.

“When she arrived, the entire starry sky trembled, and the Lord of Madness's power left us for the first time,” Asu-man’s voice was still without any emotion, as if it really could not express feelings through words. “And at that time, she was also carrying a ‘creature’ with her. She seemed very happy when she saw us, and introduced the creature next to her as her travelling companion, the child she had created, named Lockmarton.”

Hao Ren immediately asked, “Was Lockmarton acting strangely at the time?”

“No, at that time, Lockmarton was still a relatively stable creature, at least in our eyes. Although it would occasionally unleash powerful energy and unconsciously do some unpredictable things, it would quiet down as long as its mother spoke. What really caused its distortion and corruption was when the Goddess of Creation took it to ‘study’ the Lord of Madness.”

Lily’s eyes widened. “They went to study the Lord of Madness?”

“The Goddess of Creation was full of curiosity about all life, or rather, she was full of curiosity about everything she had never seen before. I told her about the Lord of Madness, so she went.

“We don’t know exactly what she found in that first exploration. She and Lockmarton explored that dark and crazy space for hundreds of years, during which several powerful energy fluctuations erupted from the depths of the darkness, much like the aftermath of a battle. When they came out, the Lord of Madness's power had clearly weakened by half a level, and Lockmarton had become somewhat strange.

“Now it seems that Lockmarton was gradually corrupted by the Lord of Madness during those hundreds of years of exploration. It had powerful energy, but it did not have the mind to fully control this power. It was active in the dark space, and I am afraid it attracted the attention of the Lord of Madness from the beginning. For the Lord of Madness, who has no consciousness and acts entirely on instinct, such a powerful and almost ‘unowned’ energy source was extraordinarily attractive.

“Those energy fluctuations should have been the result of the Goddess of Creation protecting Lockmarton.”

Lily’s eyes lit up. “Listening to stories” seemed to have great appeal for her. “And then? And then?”

“Lockmarton’s corruption gradually deepened. At first, it simply seemed irritable and angry, but it soon developed into strong aggression and chaotic tendencies. The Goddess of Creation had no choice but to take it back to the Founding Star for ‘treatment,’ but it was clear that this treatment failed.

“When the Goddess of Creation appeared before us again, Lockmarton was no longer by her side. Instead, she had created a legion—a legion without thoughts, shaped from the primitive matter of the deep universe, filled with divine energy, and not easily corrupted by the Lord of Madness. She came to the sanctuary where the Ancient Ones were hiding and issued a notice to all life, asking who was willing to go with her to destroy the Lord of Madness.”

Lily opened her eyes curiously. “Then all the Ancient Ones went?”

“No, only we responded to her call,” Asu-man said indifferently. “The other Ancient Ones were cowardly, and had been frightened out of their wits by the Lord of Madness's terrifying rule, and could not even produce the idea of resistance. Or rather, they simply did not believe that the Lord of Madness could be destroyed or defeated. Only we, the Starry Sky People, were the first to observe the existence of cosmic order, and the first to feel the power of that order. We knew that the Goddess of Creation was the only hope for ending the dark terror, so we responded to her. And the Goddess of Creation was not at all surprised by this result. After reorganizing the ranks of the Starry Sky People, she led the legion out of the sanctuary and launched a challenge to the Lord of Madness—this war lasted a full million years.”

“A million years, wow…” Lily dragged out a long tail sound, her face full of astonishment.

“For the universe, that’s just a moment,” Izhaks said in a low voice. “The result of the war was that you won?”

“Of course, otherwise there would be no order and peace today,” Asu-man replied. “After the end of the war, although the Lord of Madness was not destroyed, it was completely suppressed in its lair by the Goddess of Creation, and no more power could penetrate out. The Goddess of Creation became the only high-level information radiation in the universe, and the entire universe ushered in a beautiful era of order. And not long after that, I received a secret message from the Goddess of Creation.”

Hao Ren had a premonition. “She asked you to watch over Lockmarton?”

“Yes, on a planet that had been personally transformed by the Goddess of Creation, I saw Lockmarton again. At that time, it had completely turned into a monster similar to the Lord of Madness, and there was no room for salvation. Its mother had no choice but to permanently suppress it in the depths of the Earth’s core, hoping that the long passage of time would gradually allow it to wake up. I voluntarily took on the task of guarding this prison, because the Starry Sky People and the power of the Lord of Madness themselves have a certain connection. If this connection is used properly, it is an excellent condition for monitoring and suppression. The things that happened after that… you also know.”

The scene fell silent for a while, leaving room for everyone to think. Hao Ren summarized and compared all the known information in his mind, and finally found the place where he always felt something was wrong: “Wait a minute, according to you, by the time the Goddess of Creation’s war with the Lord of Madness ended, she already had the ability to create all kinds of life and powerful legions, and had also explored a large area of the universe?”

Vivian and the others were stunned, and instantly reacted to what Hao Ren meant.

The timeline doesn’t match up!

The Goddess of Creation created life, explored the universe, and even found the Ancient Ones in the depths of the universe as early as the Ancient Era, and had even fought a battle with the Lord of Madness. These experiences were undoubtedly true. And she created the Eldest Son to explore the aliens, and created the Guardian Giants to watch over the various ecological planets certainly many years after that. But according to the memory of the Mind Lord back then, the Goddess of Creation was clearly full of nervousness and anticipation for her first exploration of space when she created the first Eldest Son. At that time, she clearly knew nothing about the universe!

Was there a problem with the timeline, or with the Goddess of Creation, or was Asu-man or the Mind Lord’s memory fabricated?

Lily couldn’t hold back her words and immediately told Asu-man about these things in a loud voice. The other party seemed to have expected these questions long ago, and only after Lily finished speaking did he open his mouth unhurriedly:

“Because the Goddess of Creation erased her own memories, and also erased all records and traces of her war with the Lord of Madness, and erased all information that could allow her to restore her memories!”

Hao Ren and his friends said in unison, “Why?!”

“Because a true god’s memory carries great energy—her memory is the only key to opening the Lord of Madness’s cage!”