Chapter 225-5: Cloud-Player Mom and Dad, Green Source race inheritance (5) |
In an instant, a vast spiritual energy surged into their minds.
The scene before Jiang Luo’s eyes changed abruptly, as if crossing countless times and spaces and entering the historical light and shadow of the Green Source race.
At the very center of his vision, an ancient, colossal mushroom stood between heaven and earth.
The light and shadow flickered, the years rolled by.
The mushroom’s cap slowly unfolded, occasionally shedding countless spores that shimmered with green light.
The spores took root upon landing and gradually grew into one small lifeform after another.
They had wooden bodies, with markings on their skin the same as those on the mushroom’s surface, and their eyes looked somewhat dull.
This made Jiang Luo realize that these were the earliest Green Source race, intelligent lifeforms derived from the great mushroom.
It was like in the Spirit Weapon Valley, where countless non-Primordial spirit weapon monsters were species born under the influence of Primordial power.
But this race did not establish any civilization.
They groped through the world in ignorance until the descent of a figure brought the light of wisdom.
In the image, this figure radiated an ethereal glow, the face veiled in a halo. The skin was fair and lustrous, and a moon-white gauze dress fluttered lightly in the wind.
Each time night fell, the figure would pour soft phosphorescence through the moonlight. Within that glow was ancient knowledge and wisdom. The ancestors of the Green Source race gathered around the great mushroom, listened to the goddess teach, and learned the mysteries of the world.
These teachings allowed the Green Source race to learn how to communicate with plants, how to draw energy from the earth, and how to heal wounds with the rhythms of nature.
In the process, the ancestors of the Green Source race gradually mastered the ability to control plants.
They wove houses from vines, lit the night with flowers, and built fortresses from trees, establishing a powerful civilization upon this land.
The Green Source race soon began to explore a wider world.
This was the origin of the Green Source race.
At the civilization’s central city stood a grand statue of a goddess, the divine mother in the eyes of the Green Source race, the source of their faith and power.
They believed themselves to be the continuation of the Divine Mother’s will.
The image advanced continuously, the development of the Green Source race accelerating, until they became the undisputed dominator class force of the Boundless Forest Domain.
Until one day, darkness quietly swept across the land.
Countless terrifying figures appeared, tearing open the firmament. A ferocious Evil Moon manifested, and the sky was dyed a deep crimson.
The entire world burned.
As the image pressed on, the Calamity War that would change Monster World’s future was about to arrive.
Some races fled Monster World. Some races continued to defend their homeland.
Unable to make contact with the gods, the Green Source race also made their decision at that moment.
The image flickered.
Before the Divine Mother statue, Green Source race warriors came from all directions, gathering into a green ocean and lining up in neat ranks.
Their bodies were woven of wood and flesh, with ancient runes appearing upon their skin, flickering with faint green light.
A deep voice rang through the heavens. It was the only leader of the Green Source race, Ashenleaf.
He stood before the Divine Mother statue, holding a scepter carved from the branch and trunk of the Green Source Mother Tree, with a brilliant green gem set at the top.
“Praise the firmament, God of the Emperor’s Sign.” Ashenleaf raised the scepter high, his voice rumbling like thunder through the world.
All the warriors responded in unison, their voices surging like a tide:
“Praise the firmament, God of the Emperor’s Sign.”
Hua.
All figures knelt at once, kowtowing to the sky, a shocking scene.
“Praise the Divine Mother, Nu E.”
All figures fell to both knees, crossed their hands upon their chests, bowed to the goddess statue, and murmured ancient prayers. The sound waves surged like tides, making the earth tremble.
The prayers were full of the Green Source race’s reverence for life and their fervent faith in Nu E.
Ashenleaf stepped down from the high platform and came before an altar woven of vines.
An emerald bowl was set upon the altar.
“With blood as oath, with life as bond.” Ashenleaf cut his palm with the scepter, and fresh blood dripped into the bowl.
The gathering warriors followed, each cutting their palm and merging their fresh blood into the bowl before them.
“This journey may not return.” Ashenleaf’s voice was low and resolute.
“But our will is with the Divine Mother Nu E.”
The warriors shouted together, with no fear in their eyes, only determination.
Having spoken, boundless murderous intent rose in Ashenleaf’s eyes.
He lifted the emerald bowl, dipped his finger in the green blood, then smeared it upon his forehead and cheeks.
The glowing blood streaks stood out strikingly upon his skin.
Then he raised his head and drained the blood in the bowl in one gulp. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and every movement was full of power.
All Green Source race warriors did the same, then stood up and followed their leader Ashenleaf to the battlefield.
The image shifted. The green tide formed by the Green Source race warriors flew into the sky, stabbing toward the densest patch of black in the heavens.
The sky suddenly split open. A pitch-black fissure devoured all. Terrifying figures surged from the darkness, their tendrils like a black torrent sweeping the land, leaving desolation in their wake.
Following their leader Ashenleaf, the Green Source race warriors began transforming in flight, wooden textures appearing upon their skin, and their arms becoming sharp thorns.
Battle erupted in an instant.
Countless figures were swallowed by darkness in a heartbeat.
But the Green Source race did not retreat in the slightest. Wave after wave they charged toward the sky, trying to tear apart the darkness shrouding Monster World’s firmament with their own small bodies.
Vines and tendrils intertwined. Green radiance clashed endlessly with black void.
Heaven and earth were filled with the powers of destruction and rebirth. The Green Source race warriors fell one after another, but none retreated. In their eyes burned the fervor of a fight to the death.
Praise the firmament’s Emperor’s Sign, praise the Divine Mother Nu E.
With these two rituals complete, the Green Source race gambled their race’s future.
To shrink back would be to profane their faith in the gods.
Even grievously wounded, they would resolutely choose to detonate the life energy within their bodies, attempting to perish together with the Evil Entities. The green radiance blooming forth was the final shout of their lives.
The image left Jiang Luo and Mahua shaken.
This was a war with no dawn of victory. The participation of the Green Source race was like an ant trying to shake a tree, rewarded only with the constant sacrifice of their people.
Yet the loyalty of the Green Source race to their faith could be felt even through the image.
It seemed that after the rituals of worship and going to war, that generation of the Green Source race had already prepared to fight without end.
They wished only to contribute a sliver of their strength to tear open the dark firmament.
At the end of the image, black flames, like a surging demonic tide, poured madly out of fissures in the earth and spread swiftly like a prairie fire.
Wherever they passed, vegetation that had been lush and vibrant melted away in an instant.
Green was no more, leaving only a dead gray-black.
The vine houses painstakingly woven by the Green Source race twisted and warped under the ravages of darkness, finally being mercilessly consumed by the flames.
The tree fortresses that symbolized the wisdom and strength of the Green Source race collapsed under the scorching black flames. Massive trunks cracked and fell, raising billowing smoke and dust, sounding the elegy for this once glorious civilization.
Even the statue of Nu E, which bore all the faith and spiritual sustenance of the Green Source race, was licked by the black flames at its base. Cracks appeared upon the once smooth stone, like ferocious scars carved by time.
The cracks spread rapidly, crawling upward from the base until they reached the face of the statue of Nu E.
“Ka cha.”
After a loud crash, the head of the Divine Mother statue broke off first and fell with a roar.
Immediately after, the body began to fall apart as well. Fragments of stone fell like raindrops and were finally swallowed by the Black Tide along with the city.
The light of the Green Source race’s civilization was thus extinguished.
Only the scorched earth left in the wake of the Black Tide remained.
As the years flowed by, the great mushroom still standing upon the land witnessed the Green Source race’s rise and fall, yet remained unmoving like a mountain.
New greenery regrew with the great mushroom at the center. Flowers and grasses blanketed the mountains, but traces of the Green Source race’s existence were almost completely erased.
Souls return to Nu E, faith endures.
The Green Source race chose to participate in a localized battle of the Calamity War in their own way, but this sealed segment of history had few who knew of it before the vast tide of the era.
At the end of the image, Ashenleaf, holding the Mother Tree scepter, smiled at Jiang Luo and Mahua, who were reading the image.
“Descendants of my race, when darkness came, we used our flesh and blood to build a great wall resisting evil. At the price of life, we defended our loyalty to the Divine Mother Nu E. We chose to stand firm and guard this land that nurtured us. Perhaps our civilization has already perished in the fires of war, and our figures have been sealed away by time, but the spark of faith is buried deep in the earth.”
Ashenleaf’s gaze was resolute, carrying a power that pierced time and space, as he continued.
“Descendants, if one day you can see this image, remember that faith is our foundation of strength, the source that supports us to rise in desperate straits. No matter where you return from in the future, no matter what hardships and obstacles you encounter, you must grasp this light of faith tightly. Do not let it go out in the darkness.”
“We have never forgotten the Divine Mother Nu E’s teachings. She granted us wisdom, taught us to coexist with nature and breathe with the earth. Her light once illuminated our path. Now this faith is to be continued by you.”
The image shattered into countless points of light and scattered. Jiang Luo and Mahua opened their eyes.
Gazing at the green light cluster floating above the stele, their feelings were extremely complex.
This was only a game, yet the immersion was too strong.
What the images showed placed them in that ancient era, making them members of the Green Source race as well.
Blood-oaths, worship, fighting to the death… unafraid of death, facing an unbeatable challenge, and sacrificing life to carry out loyalty to faith.
This faith moved them.
In the end, the Green Source race never received the racial members who were to be sent away. Instead, they received these two players.
After saving a recording of this video, Jiang Luo reached out and grasped the inherited green light floating before him.
—
Half an hour later, a post caused a heated discussion on the forum.
Especially players of the Green Wood race, who were instantly dumbfounded when they saw the recorded video content in the post.