Chapter 1 The Further North, the Colder

The weather grew colder as they traveled north.

Howling winds swept across the plains, carrying fine sand and dust, scattering light, unidentifiable fluff-plants across the ground. An atmosphere of desolation shrouded the entire plain, the cold wind seemingly whispering of the world's savage state. The vast, boundless wilderness rarely saw tall vegetation. Due to the cold climate zone and the still-lingering global chill from the receding ice age, only listless, stunted bushes and scattered clumps of nameless weeds could be found. It was hardly a place suitable for life.

Nor was it suitable for hunting.

Hunting grounds and plants did exist, of course, but dozens of kilometers away, in a relatively lush coniferous forest. Around the forest lay small meadows where herds of herbivores and a few predators roamed, sustaining two small, primitive tribes – and, conversely, being sustained by them.

This was an era where humans and beasts occupied the same level, prey to each other.

Hao Ren, clad in a worn leather robe, climbed onto a protruding rock. His attire appeared weathered, yet it was still an incomprehensible marvel to the natives of this era. He shaded his eyes, gazing into the depths of the wilderness. This land of rubble and tundra plants all looked the same, but after reaching this point, there was no need to worry about getting lost. A prominent "landmark" stood in the distance: a white spire reflecting sunlight, like a white tower. In reality, it was a massive block of ice, revered by the locals as "Tatum Nu" – a dignified term meaning "ice-made tomb."

Hao Ren looked back. Two skinny men wrapped in animal skins immediately cowered under his gaze. Their skin was light brown, their faces painted with dyes made from grass juice and animal blood. They clutched clubs and spears with stone tips. They were warriors of their tribe, yet they were filled with apprehension when meeting Hao Ren's eyes. It was simple: power beyond their understanding inspired great fear in these natives with only rudimentary religious concepts. The terrifying sight of Hao Ren single-handedly hunting a mammoth with a glowing, heated spear still haunted their minds.

These were temporary guides, hired for the task. In this era, devoid of landmarks, historical records, and even consistent topography, having no guide was a painful experience. Once, during a rewind, Hao Ren had trekked across a desert for nearly a month alone. Therefore, whenever possible, he would always find a way to swindle a couple of guides from the locals.

Fortunately, as they approached the ancient era, the difficulty of swindling guides decreased. Often, simply displaying power beyond their comprehension would inspire these primitive people, filled with reverence for nature and mysterious forces, to offer their loyalty respectfully.

Of course, there was a downside: communicating with primitive people was always troublesome. While the translation plug-in solved the language problem, the difference in worldviews could not be ignored. Often, Hao Ren had to guess the meaning of their words from a jumble of vague and crude terms.

At times like these, he couldn't help but miss his departed companions – like Lily, or Hesperia, or Hasson and Hesperides. Although the latter two were usually either cold or hostile to each other, at least their worldviews were on a similar level.

But they had all left. Hesperides left the team in 4705 BC, and Hasson accompanied Hao Ren until 6012 BC. After that, Hao Ren continued his journey alone, swimming against the tide of history, exploring the increasingly savage ancient Earth.

"Is that where the Great God sleeps?"

Hao Ren shook his head, banishing irrelevant thoughts. He pointed to the distant iceberg and asked.

The two tribal warriors waved their arms downward – a gesture meaning affirmation in their custom. The taller one spoke, "Yes, that is it. The surrounding ice melts, but that ice never melts. This used to be our hunting ground, but now no one dares to come near."

Hao Ren nodded. He already knew something about this. He had inquired about it in the primitive tribe: this plain was not as barren as it was now a long time ago. Although the cold environment during the ice age retreat made the vegetation sparse, at least there were some wild animals on the plain. Even though they were not many, they could still support a few small tribes in the difficult times of the late Ice Age. But later, a "Great God" passed by the plain and became angry because someone had hunted her prey. So, she froze the entire plain with large blocks of ice, which forced the several tribes on the plain to migrate to the predator-infested jungle. Today, only two of the tribes that migrated back then remain.

The Great God lived on the plain, or so the tribes believed. Although the large blocks of ice that once covered the entire earth had melted, an iceberg-like tower of ice remained in the middle of the plain. This giant ice would not shrink even if it was exposed to sunlight or fire. Around the ice, plant growth became extremely difficult, and wild animals were afraid to approach. All of these were proof that the Great God lived here.

The superstitious tribal residents believed that the Great God's punishment had not ended. She wanted those tribes who had been driven out to prove with their bravery who was qualified to return to their homeland. Therefore, the two tribes in the distant jungle had been constantly in conflict over the years.

Hao Ren didn't care about the primitive people's blind and ignorant myths. He could only confirm one thing: the "Great God" in the mouths of the nearby tribal residents, who could freeze the entire plain with large blocks of ice, should be Vivian.

"I'm going there," Hao Ren said casually.

The two tribal warriors who came as guides were startled and then showed great horror at the same time. They shivered and retreated, "No, no, no, no one can get close to the Great God's place. We will be frozen into ice blocks and then melt when the sun rises the next day…"

Hao Ren looked at the primitive men's terrified appearance. He could imagine what kind of terrible legend Vivian's sleeping place had in the minds of these ignorant ancient humans – if he forced them to go with him to dig up Vivian's grave, these primitive people wearing animal skins would probably be scared to death.

So he shook his head: "You guys go back, I'll go by myself."

Then he took out two alloy short knives from his personal space and handed them to the two temporary guides: "As agreed before, this is your reward."

The two tribal warriors carefully took the weapons that had never appeared in their worldview, and soon confirmed its sharpness and sturdiness, and immediately showed a very happy look.

Without paying any more attention to the thoughts of the two primitive people, Hao Ren stepped off the rock platform and walked towards the ice-crowned tower in the distance.

The cold north wind blew again.

As he walked, he couldn't help but feel a sense of emptiness and loneliness. Looking at this deserted frozen Gobi, he even felt as if he was the only one left in the entire world. How long had this historical rewind journey been going on? He even couldn't figure it out. Continuously shuttling through those twisted and chaotic time and space, the time confusion also led to sensory confusion. He stepped from the advanced cities of human civilization into the dark and barbaric Middle Ages, and then from the backward Middle Ages into the glorious mythological era, and then from the mythological era into the savage ancient times. Advanced and backward, civilization and barbarism, humans and aliens each built two completely different landscapes in different historical periods. All kinds of contradictory things were spirally distributed on this historical track, so that as a passerby, Hao Ren even dared not be sure whether he was moving forward along a continuous timeline.

The more he entered the ancient times, the more obvious this feeling became.

Sometimes his last foothold was a foolish and primitive natural tribe, and the next step he stepped into a steel city transformed from a stranded starship. After coming out of the steel city, he plunged into a theocratic country. The next stop of this theocratic country might be filled with magic and steam…

The aliens did not immediately build the great empires of the mythological era after arriving on Earth. They also experienced the early pioneering stage. The first alien strongholds may have been just a broken city wreckage or a precarious alien space fragment. Then they spent hundreds or even thousands of years to figure out how to use these things from their hometown world. After that, they began to turn their attention to the primitive intelligent residents of this planet, that is, humans.

At this moment, Hao Ren was at the time point when the aliens had just landed on Earth and were still confused.

The huge ice block was already very close. At this distance, Hao Ren noticed that it was indeed very large. The conical ice structure was probably more than 100 meters high. A cold aura spread outward from the giant ice, forming a semi-permanent frozen area in the area hundreds of meters around. A trace of strange blood red was irregularly distributed in this layer of white frozen area, like capillaries under the skin.

Hao Ren's sight crossed the ice tower and fell on a mountain in the distance. He could see a beam of light rising from the mountain, slowly sweeping across half the sky.

That was the observation tower built by Odin and his people. The Norse gods, who had just recovered from the alien syndrome, were about to begin observing this mysterious and unfamiliar planet. They had hundreds of weak and sick people who needed food and medicine to nourish them; in the southern plains, a tribe of rune dwarves was carving words on the bodies of young people and celebrating the first furnace of steel being produced; in the more distant mountains, Zeus had just set foot on the earth of this planet, searching for rocks that could be used as building materials in the mountains to repair the houses on Mount Olympus that had collapsed due to spatial vibrations; in the ancient Nile River basin, Ra's solar ship had half of its body plunged into the jungle. Osiris and Isis looked at the damaged propulsion engine and were at a loss, and prepared to formulate a thousand-year-long ship repair plan…

And humans, humans had not yet recovered from the cold of the Ice Age. Their tribes were not ready to welcome the era of the gods, but the mythological era had arrived with a bang.

Hao Ren came to the foot of the Ice Tower. Through the thick ice, he seemed to be able to see the "princess" sleeping in the ice.

He put his hand on the ice and sighed softly: "Vivian, I've found you again."

It was now 7715 BC, the ice age was receding, and all things were revived.