The man named Zhao Gao wore ornate black official robes and a crown upon his head—clear signs of extraordinary birth. Yet before the person questioning him now, he did not dare overstep in the slightest.
For exceptional as his origins were, and despite his position as Prefect of the Palace Carriage Office of Great Qin, the strongest kingdom in all the lands of Huaxia, he was no more than a firefly vying with the bright moon compared to the person before him.
The man before him was the King of Qin, the one and only supreme overlord of this ancient land.
Zhao Gao's respectful reply echoed through the palace towers. "This servant has heard that before the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors of antiquity, there was an Age of Myth when immortals and gods flourished. In those days, immortals and gods were everywhere, and humans and gods lived side by side. Ever since the Great Emperor Zhuanxu severed the connection between heaven and earth, the immortals withdrew one after another to dwell overseas in Penglai, hiding themselves from worldly affairs. Only a portion of them remained, still walking among men."
"Then, after the Battle of Investiture at the end of Shang, even the immortals and gods who walked the mortal realm vanished."
"Even so, to this day, seekers of immortals continue to appear in an endless stream. It is said that in Qi, there is a man named Xu Fu who often sails out to visit the many immortal islands. Recently, he set out again and has yet to return."
"Penglai overseas, is it? Xu Fu sounds interesting. Keep an eye on him. Recruit him if the chance arises." The King of Qin fell into thought, a hint of interest appearing on his young yet solemn face. "Tell me—once I have unified the Nine Provinces of Huaxia, what do you think would happen if I turned the sword of Qin toward the immortals and gods?"
"My king's dominion knows no bounds!" Zhao Gao flattered him at once.
"Hahahaha... Whether it does or not, in the end, that depends on whether the sword of Qin is sharp enough!" The King of Qin strode forward, the sound of his boots echoing in Zhao Gao's ears as the man bowed low. "Issue an edict to Li Si, Li Xin, Wang Jian, and Meng Tian. Have them draw up the strategy for the eastward campaign as soon as possible!"
"Within ten years, I will see Qin's sword march east and bring all under heaven to heel!"
"And after that, we shall campaign against Penglai—"
"And command the immortals and gods to submit!"
"May my king live ten thousand years! May Great Qin last ten thousand years!"
Amid a roar of voices like mountains calling and seas answering, the morning sun rose. Brilliant dawnlight fell over the vast, magnificent palaces of Xianyang, capital of Qin, gilding them in splendor.
...
On the shore of the East Sea.
Amid the spreading morning mist, the faint outline of a giant tree swayed.
A "person" rubbed a pair of red eyes like vermilion jade, long black hair falling loose and lifting in the wind.
"Dawn already..."
"I slept for a long, long time, didn't I—"
...
In the Primordial Highest Heaven, Rovi's eyes snapped open.
Having become a true primordial god and reached the planet's highest pinnacle, by all theoretical rights he should not have been able to dream. After all, dreams were nothing more than the manifestation of a living being's flowing consciousness. Yet in that instant just now... he had dreamed.
A nightmare to anyone else.
But to him, it was the omen of a good dream.
In the dream, he had died.
He had been crushed into dust by chaotic, unknowable light and shadow. His body had been annihilated, his soul shattered, the shell of the primordial stripped away layer by layer until only the pure imprint of his spirit core remained.
It was a dream.
And also a "premonition"—
"Rovi, is something wrong?"
Rovi found himself facing a pair of eyes filled with confusion and concern.
Eresh bent down slightly, her red capelet swaying nonstop. Her faintly exposed chest leaned forward with the motion, her legs crossed together, the black fabric around her waist pressing into a soft spill as her body curved.
The Underworld goddess of Mesopotamia looked deeply worried. "Are you all right?"
When humans in the mortal world worried about someone's health, what did they usually do again?
Eresh thought for a moment.
Then she suddenly leaned her head closer, lifting her forehead slightly until it touched Rovi's. A smooth, warm sensation passed between them.
Rovi paused, staring at the goddess's delicate, lovely face so close at hand, her red lips moist and soft within reach.
"Mm—!?" The girl seemed dazed for an instant before abruptly realizing how inappropriate her current posture was.
She instinctively tried to pull away, but Rovi simply lifted his face...
"Mm!?" Their lips pressed together, then pushed deeper. The girl's face flushed crimson in an instant. She struggled slightly, yet seemed unwilling to move away.
Only after a while did they part, breathless.
"Something was wrong just now, but it's fine now." Rovi laughed aloud. "As long as you're here, I'll be fine."
"You awful man... mm..." Steam rose above her head.
She felt as if her entire body were burning.
Oh no. Had Rovi been fine, only for it to be her turn to be in trouble now?
Still, if this was the kind of trouble it was, Eresh was actually very willing to go through it a few more times...
"Where is Tiamat?" Rovi stood and pulled Eresh up from where she had gone limp on the ground.
Eresh swayed, discovered she still could not quite stand steadily, and simply leaned against Rovi. "Tiamat... went to sleep."
Sleep?
Rovi raised an eyebrow. "Is she undergoing a transformation?"
He looked around at the surrounding scenery. They had spent some time here already, and the chaotic environment was now far more stable than before. More and more lava had solidified, and the mist filling the air was gradually sinking.
A system like the water cycle was being constructed invisibly.
Tiamat was the primordial mother goddess, the primordial sea of chaos. But if living beings could evolve, spreading from the earliest underwater life into countless categories, then gods in fact possessed the same ability.
It was only that most of the primordial gods back then had vanished one after another before they could reach this stage.
Tiamat, too, had been "backstabbed" and exiled by the gods of Mesopotamia, leaving her unable to evolve, much less unlock her primordial nature.
But now, this Primordial Highest Heaven had given Tiamat another chance.
As the environment stabilized, she too was gradually stabilizing and evolving.
That was why, lately, Tiamat spent far more time asleep than awake.
"I'm so jealous that Tiamat can get stronger..." Eresh muttered softly.
The primordial mother goddess was far stronger than her, yet still had a chance to grow stronger.
Eresh, as the Underworld goddess, had seen limited progress over these long years.
She had long since become a veteran chief god of the Underworld.
But she was still one step away from the position of a regional God-King.
"You'll have your chance. And I won't look down on you just because you're weak—"
"So you do think I'm weak after all?"
"What else would I think?"
"You..."
Before Eresh could finish speaking, her mouth was stopped again.
Their lips parted in an instant, her cheeks flushed.
"If you weren't weak, how could I bully you like this!?"
Eresh ground her teeth. Although it felt very good, she was still annoyed.
"Once I get stronger—I'm going to do the same thing to you!"
Rovi paused, then burst out laughing.
Wouldn't she still be the one losing out if she did that to him?
That said, Rovi was more than happy to see it happen. He took Eresh's hand and held it tightly in his palm as they walked forward.
Naturally, the Primordial Highest Heaven had no scenery to speak of, but Eresh felt that this moment was very beautiful.
After a moment of silence, Eresh turned her gaze aside. "Are you leaving?"
"Mm." Rovi nodded, with no intention of hiding it. "There are still things I need to do."
"Things I can't help with?" Eresh sounded somewhat dejected.
"Mm." Rovi nodded again. But at the end, he suddenly added, "Your existence is actually the greatest help you could give me."
He slowly embraced Eresh and said, "Because you all exist... I have a 'home' in this world."
"And I'll make you stronger too."
A warm embrace enfolded her. Her heartbeat sped up in an instant. Eresh blushed, yet she felt so happy.
Happy, delighted...
Only when Rovi's figure had vanished from the Primordial Highest Heaven, and only when his voice saying, "Say goodbye to Tiamat for me. I'll be back soon," drifted through the gradually stabilizing world, did Eresh abruptly come back to herself.
What he said just now... seemed to be "you all," not "you," didn't it?
The Underworld goddess's gaze suddenly turned dangerous and sharp.
Rovi, who had already left, of course had no way of knowing the instant change in Eresh's thoughts.
After leaving the Primordial Highest Heaven, he naturally appeared in the atmosphere above the planet. The newborn morning sun cast jagged ripples of light across the surface of the sea, layer upon layer, while seagulls swept over the clouds.
Rovi hovered in the air, but in truth, he existed within a gap between another dimension.
From there, he watched the world change.
From there, he gazed at the present world.
Where he was going next no longer needed much consideration. The dream from just now still lingered in his mind. The threat of death, the danger of death—that was precisely what Rovi longed to come into contact with.
And that danger lay in the east.
In his homeland—the Divine Land, Huaxia.
The land of Yan and Huang.
Unfortunately, this was ultimately a different world. Though similar, it was only a resemblance, not the same.
Even so, Rovi could not help feeling a little moved, even excited.
His thoughts drifted slightly, while his body descended at the same time.
He crossed dimensions, passed through the atmosphere that enveloped the starry heavens, and headed southeast from the Norse lands.
The boundless sea rippled. Rovi did not descend directly into the heartland of the Divine Land of Huaxia, but appeared at its outer edge.
Because the chaos in his "dream" had appeared here.
In that instant, what entered his eyes was the surging waves of the East Sea of the Divine Land. Unlike the seas of the Norse lands, the waters here flowed with extreme speed and violence. Shoals of fish could be seen rising and falling in the sea, and giant sharks circled within it.
Every now and then, a hanging kun-fish would lift a massive pillar of water, linking heaven and earth.
Then came a thunderous crash.
A Machine God manifested and descended!
The sea surface abruptly stilled, and even the planet seemed to stop turning for an instant.
All living things fell silent in horror.
The Rovi Unit's machine body appeared directly above the vast sea and landed on the head of that kun-fish, drawing a miserable cry from it before it was smashed apart and transformed into great masses of cloud vapor.
[HMPHAHA... JUST AS EXPECTED!]
The Machine God Rovi laughed aloud.
The "dream" he had sensed was here. Though this kun-fish had seemed lifelike, it was fundamentally no true living creature, but only an illusion manifested from cloud vapor.
Just like a mirage, only by smashing it apart and tearing open the cloud vapor could Rovi see the thing he sought.
Engines burned. Lava-like flames gushed forth. The power of the primordial planetary god gathered and surged between his palms. Rovi spread his hands forward, seized a corner of the cloud vapor, and thrust upward.
Creak, creak, creak—!
The sound of a door opening echoed.
Layer upon layer of cloud vapor was pulled apart like a pair of doors, and behind it stood a "tree."
A magnificent canopy flourished grandly above the sea, its crystalline trunk gleaming with golden light.
The tree's appearance also brought with it soil that spread outward.
A "land" woven from roots.
Rovi stepped onto the "ground" and looked up. Even with his towering, mountainlike Machine God body, he was still far shorter than this tree. Raising his hand, he could barely touch one-tenth of its height.
Without a doubt, this was a divine tree.
"In ancient legend, east of the Divine Land stands the divine tree Fusang, the place where the sun rises. Every day, the solar deity Xihe drives her chariot from here, traveling to and from the heavens..." For some reason, a myth Rovi had known by heart long, long ago surfaced in his mind.
Was the source he sensed Fusang?
The colossal Machine God sank into deep thought. At the same time, a tiny, crisp voice, as though struggling, entered Rovi's ears. "You... bastard... let me out—"
Hm?
Rovi paused, failing to react for a moment. Only then did he slowly raise his foot...
"I'm under your foot, you bastard!"
[OH.]
Only then did Rovi realize and lift his foot slightly.
His lowered golden-red eyes saw the figure sprawled beneath the Machine God's foot.
In appearance, she was a fairly young and beautiful woman. Her long hair was black as ink, her brows and eyes as delicate as a painting. Though her ruby-like eyes seemed slightly vacant, they were as magnificent as gemstones. Her graceful figure was covered only by a piece of white brocade that concealed a few places, while the exposed fullness of her body and the curve of her waist set each other off, her shapely thighs stretching beneath.
Yet although she was beautiful, Rovi understood in an instant that she was neither human nor god. The principles and mechanisms of her existence were close to those of the planetary gods Rovi had created, a being with a very clear connection to the planet. But she was obviously not a planetary god.
[A PLANETARY ELEMENTAL THAT HAS INCARNATED? SORRY, YOU WERE TOO SMALL AND WEAK. I DIDN'T NOTICE YOU.]
Rovi's reply did not sound sincere at all, but it was also the truth.
Just now, with his attention drawn by the "Fusang Tree," he truly had not had the leisure to notice the "ant" beneath his foot.
"You rude great lump, are you some supreme god from somewhere!? Hah... forget it!"
But that "person" merely grumbled a few times, then swayed as she stood. "Honestly, I just woke up and you big thing had to disturb me—"
"Annoying, annoying, annoying!"
She was not afraid of the primordial existence, as if she were long used to such things. Amid her noisy complaining, she looked up at Rovi, revealing a pair of tiny fangs. "If you really want to apologize, why not give me some of your blood?"
"I happen to be hungry too. Since you're a supreme god, I'll reluctantly accept that as compensation!"
She talked on all by herself.
Rovi's voice, however, grew rather strange.
[ARE YOU... SURE?]
"Hmph. Not willing? Forget it, then!" Judging by her appearance, the being could absolutely be called a young girl, and her temper was clearly not very good. "Supreme gods or whatever, I've seen plenty of them. It's not as if I don't know the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors—"
"Who cares about your blood!"
An Elemental did not need any energy, but after incarnation, that became a different matter.
Because an Elemental's body also originated from nature, and to maintain the vitality of its flesh, it required "blood" as support.
It was simply obvious that the girl looked down on human blood, and looked down even more on the blood of ordinary life. Rovi could sense the emptiness within her. Since her birth, she had probably never really sucked blood before.
The reason she was interested in Rovi's blood was only because of his essence as a "supreme god," while he also possessed the existence of "blood."
A god's blood was, in essence, formed from nature, and was utterly useless to her.
And she had just woken up, so there was definitely a hint of hunger making her less picky than usual. Though the standards of this "less picky" were unavoidably a little too high—apart from Rovi, there was not a single person who could satisfy them.
Still, be that as it may—
My blood is engine oil right now... Rovi very much wanted to say that, but he knew the "Elemental" before him might not know what engine oil was, so he let it go.
[THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I'VE EVER HEARD SUCH A STRANGE REQUEST.]
He extended a finger, and a single golden drop fell from its tip.
Rich Divinity spread outward. The girl paused, then instinctively licked her vermilion lips and reached out to catch it.
"At least you know what's good for you!"
Saying that, she put the "blood" into her mouth.
And then—
"Urp... Pffft!!! What is this!?"
Rovi could not help laughing.
As he had said, this was the first time he had ever heard such a strange request.
---
T/N: LMAOOO SHE DRANK OIL
also we alll know who this baddie is
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