Chapter 616: Goodnight, Eva
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hao Ren was completely immersed in the spiritual world. His consciousness continued to sink into the chaotic power. The siren's most ancient historical memory emerged from the chaos, and it became clearer as well as more personal.
He saw that the intelligent creatures living in the deep sea had opened their minds. They were surprised and awed as they studied the ferrous meteorite, which occasionally fell from the dark, learning how the solid stones formed. They excavated silt and weaved seagrass; they built their homes in the dark water world where algae shimmered, and they were fully curious about everything. In the 5,000th year of the Meteoric Iron Age, they finally learned how to separate metals from the deep-sea rocks that they had dug out. In a place where fire did not exist, they used the power of water and chemistry.
Using water to crush the ore, and elemental methods to refine metals as well as produce alloy that did not rust, the sirens freed themselves from the limitation of the celestial rock. They invented new metal tools with their own hands, built up the oldest dynasty, and wrote the first page of their history on the alloys that lasted.
While this young civilization learned to walk in the deep sea, their nurturer—the endless ocean of Io—covered the kingdom. The sirens held the endless dark water above in awe, but they were also full of curiosity. It was an inevitable stage that all intelligent races experienced: They were eager to know what lay beyond the darkness.
When the first siren became interested and stepped out to explore, a thousand years had passed since the establishment of the first dynasty.
However, the shallow water was dangerous. The deep-sea environment was very different; the water pressure was huge there—a particularly comfortable environment for the sirens. But that was not the case in shallow water. Ancient admonition of the sirens had warned young adventurers that only "nothingness" was beyond the endless dark sea. The closer one got to the "edge of the world", the less dense matter would become until everything came apart. This applied to the sirens as well. The brave ones who attempted to send the ferrous iron back to the "edge of the world", but never came back during the Tribal Era. No siren had ever made it to the other side of the mysterious dark waters.
Nevertheless, the passion of exploration would keep burning once ignited. The young scholars continued to study ways to get to the edge of the world. They continued to improve their elemental magic, using it to change their physique, and adapting themselves to the low water pressure. They continued to send batch after batch of explorers, and resolutely crossed the darkness, which hung over their head.
Adventurers who made it back alive brought with them incredible things: animals and plants living in the upper waters. This allowed scholars to believe that there was a viable, prosperous world beyond the dark seabed.
Two thousand years after the establishment of the first dynasty, a young siren led her little expedition team to challenge this limit. They had spent a hundred years transforming their physique, and three full days applying various protective magic onto themselves before they marched into the dark sea. They swam the farthest distance, crossed waters that no one had ever set foot in before, leaving those wonderful animals and plants of the shallow waters behind. As they continued to rise, they felt the water element, which made up their bodies become increasingly unstable. However, an even more incredible phenomenon appeared overhead.
Beyond the dark sea, there was light.
They realized that the "light" phenomenon was not unique to the deep sea.
They were excited for their new discovery. They headed towards the surface, completely ignoring the changes to the water element in their bodies. They swam with all their might towards the bright world that they had never seen before, and finally crossed the "material boundary". At that time, they were still unaware that the boundary was the "water's surface."
An immensely vast, bright, and restless world appeared before the explorers' eyes.
However, they managed to catch a glimpse of it before their bodies vaporized into the air due to immense internal pressure.
Elemental creatures had no conventional physical body, and they were not able to maintain their high-pressure state in the air without mastering the proper control techniques.
It was hundreds of years later when the sirens finally mastered the way to live in the world of air.
Hao Ren's mind was in a state of wonder. He was walking through the entire history of the sirens. However, he hardly felt time flowing as if this memory of thousands of years was laid bare before him. Everything was clear in a glance. He saw the sirens finally coming to the world above sea level, and carefully exploring the world of air they once deemed "empty, vast, and unstable". He could feel Eva's thoughts; he understood what the siren was thinking.
The sirens once again spent thousands of years to build a stable channel and various observation platforms, which could reach the ocean's surface. As ocean covered the entire planet, they had to put in 10 times more effort than other races before they could see the sky. They had extraordinary patience, which no other race could imagine in adapting to the storms and lightning on the surface. They even modified their own life forms. The most outstanding observer of them, Iwenna had waited on the platform for 700 years before she saw the first clear sky. When the vast "starry sky" appeared before them, everyone was shocked beyond words.
But it was not until 1,700 years later that they finally knew not only was there sky behind the clouds, there was also a sun: it was the second time the sky was clear.
It was even much later that they finally figured out the concept of "day and night".
In everything that they did, the sirens spent more effort than other races. The unique natural environment of the planet made it impossible for them to understand what they should study and what they were studying. Lightning, ocean, waves, and the volatile atmosphere made it even more difficult for any primitive race to rise above sea level. They needed to devote more energy to adjusting their physique as their form of deep sea elemental creatures became a restriction. They consumed more energy in modifying their physiques than observing the world.
However, that did not stop them from exploring. Their actions had no higher purpose and meaning. They did not even have the concept of space.
They just wanted to go out there and see if other places had the same ocean as their homeworld.
The sirens only created the first flying craft that could traverse Io's storm 4,000 years after Iwenna observed the sky—in an environment where it was impossible for fire to exist, lightning and storm were a constant, and even aerodynamic study was impossible, it was not easy to make a flying craft. Of course, one may say that they were of lower intelligence, but who cared?
As long as they could see the stars, they were very happy about it.
Hao Ren felt his consciousness beginning to float up. He had seen the sirens' space age and the effort of these magical creatures to launch a probe to explore the ocean on other planets. He also saw them building observation stations in the orbit of their home planet to peek into the wider universe, then…
A group of unknown battleships suddenly landed on Io. The inexplicable, chaotic war caused the siren kingdom to fall apart, and an energy storm weapon like an EMP swept across the planet, destroying the siren civilization.
The destruction was inexplicable.
The storm on the ocean of Io intensified. Lightning struck down from the sky, and the ice-carrying sea raged. Shaqira and the three other sirens kept a small area of water under their control. She looked into the water and said, "Is Hao Ren done yet? I don't feel Eva calming down at all!"
Nangong Wuyue quickly dived into water, checking. She re-emerged after a while. "He's still connected! I've seen him connecting with the brain monster a few times. I know how it looks like… It's going well!"
Sorma muttered, "I don't think it's going well."
After another wave of turmoil, a mountainous tsunami came in their direction. The siren queen lifted both hands and stopped the tsunami in its course. Just as she was about to check on Hao Ren, he suddenly came up from the water.
As Hao Ren opened his eyes, he saw violent storms and towering waves; he froze. It was not until Nangong Wuyue swam up to him that he murmured, "She's crying."
"What?" Nangong Wuyue did not hear him clearly.
"She's crying," Hao Ren looked up at the arms that were reaching into space. "Eva, she's crying. She's only a child."
The sound of the storm whistled in their ears, and angry roars filled the air. Endless anger, annoyance, and hatred filled the storm as if they were physically there to destroy anyone in it. This tim however, Hao Ren felt something else amid the violent air: Eva's cry.
Looking from the perspective of a civilization, Eva was only a child. She was helpless and was unprepared for the world. She had just begun to learn about the vastness of the world when everything ended so unreasonably and abruptly.
It took her so long to climb out of the cradle; she had such an extraordinary patience that no other race could have possessed. It took a long time to see the world above. She had to spend 10 times the effort to achieve what she wanted although she may not have been aware of it. Despite that, she overcame the ocean, which was dozens of kilometers deep, the ever-turbulent atmosphere, and the permanent clouds that were thousands of years old. However, everything suddenly stopped without any explanation.
Before Eva could find out what happened, she died in her cradle.
She refused to accept this reality. Her immortal soul allowed her to survive the destruction, and lived in the form of "reverberation" on the planet. Like a kid whose toy was taken away, she was confused and she cried as she displayed her tantrum.
"I never thought the consciousness of a race could become like this..." Hao Ren had no words for what he saw and felt. He shook his head as he looked at Shaqira and others. "The premature end of a civilization actually happens everywhere, but there are very few individuals like Eva. She's feeling helpless and very sad for her own destruction. She's just venting out her dissatisfaction... and maybe this could be the last time."
"Then, what should we do?" The siren queen looked blankly at Hao Ren. "Is there anything I can do to help her?"
At this time, the voice of the MDT suddenly sounded over the radio, "Are you done yet? Things aren't going good here!"
Hao Ren looked at the siren queen, and then at Nangong Wuyue. He nodded heavily. "Give me a few more minutes. Both of you, I need your help."
"How can we help?" the two said in unison.
"Just stay by my side." Hao Ren reached for the siren queen and Nangong Wuyue's hand. "Let our minds connect together so that Eva can sense your presence."
Having said this, and ignoring the puzzled look of the two sirens, Hao Ren once again established a connection with Eva.
The sense of chaos hit again, and this time Hao Ren sensed Eva's consciousness more clearly. It was a quasi-realistic feeling, almost impossible to differentiate between a consciousness, or just a memory with a tendency. However, Hao Ren was willing to believe that it was a consciousness. Amid the chaos, he could barely feel Nangong Wuyue and the siren queen, which was the only problem now: the two sirens did not possess the ability to make direct spiritual connection. Could Eva who was in a frenzy sense their presence?
"Eva!" Hao Ren focused his mind and called out to her telepathically. However, he soon realized that the sirens were the ones who came up with the name "Eva". The siren spirit herself probably did not even know what the name meant: She did not manage to give herself a name.
Miraculously, the chaotic spiritual force seemed to react to the name. Hao Ren felt something watching him.
Perhaps the legend of Eva had existed before the sirens fled Io, so she, as a collective spirit of the sirens, knew that her name was "Eva".
Once again, Hao Ren focused his mind. "Eva, I know you can hear me... Don't be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to help. I know what you've gone through. I sympathize with you. Many civilizations have succumbed to the same fate and died, but you haven't..."
A violent thought suddenly struck. There was uneasiness in the chaotic thought.
"Okay, okay, let's not talk about this..." Hao Ren quickly rephrased. "Eva, Eva, quiet down. I just want to show you something. In fact, you didn't fail in a sense; you've lived on and gone further than anyone else. Eva, through me, you should be able to sense the presence of your two compatriots..."
Hao Ren stopped talking and minimized his own sense of presence so that Eva could feel the existence of the other two sirens. Because of the turmoil, Eva had lost the ability to feel the presence of other sirens, so Hao Ren had to allow himself to become Eva's intermediary.
He felt that this would work.
Eva gradually calmed down and curiously watched them.
"An ark had successfully fled from Io and reached another world," said Hao Ren silently to Eva. "I'm an ambassador of that world. My duty is to supervise and evaluate the development of civilizations. I want to tell you that the siren civilization is still there. You've lived on in another world. Have you noticed a very unique siren beside me? She is of the siren pedigree, but she has a special aura in her—she was born in that world, which proves that you have taken root in another world..."
The MDT called in over the radio. "Boss, the situation's getting better! The water is slowly receding!"
Hao Ren did not respond, but continued to talk with Eva. "Eva, don't be sad. Don't cry. The worst is over and everything will be better."
A light appeared in the darkness of chaos. A vague figure emerged. Hao Ren looked at the mirage in astonishment as he heard a voice ringing in his ears. "...Is an ocean present over there?"
"Yes, it's big, it's beautiful. We also have land there—rocks and soil that stand out on the sea. The sirens would occasionally go up to play on land, but they spend most of their time in the ocean."
"Are they happy?"
"They are peaceful and carefree. There have been some minor problems recently, but I've solved that. You see, I've brought them back to see you."
An eternity later, the light slowly disappeared followed by a sigh. "Thank you, I can finally sleep..."
All the illusions went away like a receding tidal wave. Hao Ren opened his eyes and saw that the storm had stopped and the sky was clear. Io had finally ushered in a rare clear, blue sky.
Staring at the stars in the sky, one could not help but think of Iwenna, the siren who stood on the ancient observation platform and watched the sky in amazement.
These stars must have frightened her.
A trillion ton of seawater began to pour back down to Io as Eva used up her last drop of strength. The scene looked astounding in space. Hao Ren could not see it from the surface of the planet, but he could still imagine it.
A water arc slowly descended before Hao Ren and the sirens. Shaqira then pointed at it in surprise. "Look! There are living creatures!"
A pale golden fish jumped out of the water arc, flinging its tail mid-air before returning to the ocean.
It had miraculously survived the terrible space excursion and finally returned home safely.
Hao Ren exhaled and looked down at the calm sea below his feet.
"Good night, Eva."