"Accept the ritual of ascension. The power of the stars shall be poured into your flesh. From this moment, you shall be eternally incorruptible, experiencing countless ages!"
"Among my believers, those who have made great contributions, regardless of their status, can receive this gift."
Although the ascension ritual was merely a ceremony, it laid the foundation for this Civilization.
At least, everyone believed that only through the altar could they communicate with their God and receive the strength he bestowed.
Principal Starry had achieved his goal, and he would now allow more subjects to ascend.
Star Familiars were incredibly powerful. As long as they had an energy supply, their lifespan was almost eternal.
Aside from the star embedded in their chest, they had almost no physical weaknesses. Their only flaw was that Star Familiars could not reproduce on their own.
This meant that if Principal Starry wanted to expand his population, he couldn't transform every human.
He had to leave a portion of the people to procreate.
This was a crucial turning point. He had to actively breed more humans.
Only when those people died, or became too old to be useful, would Principal Starry transform them into Star Familiars.
This way, his population would never naturally decrease; it could only grow larger and larger!
This was the core advantage of having familiars that could reproduce.
...
On the other side, in the eastern part of the continent.
In a dense forest, a group of people toiled to build simple wooden houses.
This Civilization was peculiar because they could actually see their God.
Their God appeared before them in a human form.
They called him the Dragon God.
Indeed, there was only one monster that could be called the Dragon God: Ye Long.
He stood before the humans as a white-haired man. Unlike other monsters, he didn't just exist in a ghostly, ethereal state.
He had been granted the ability of form-shifting.
If he transformed into his dragon form, he would be like the other monsters—a transparent specter only able to transmit sound.
But in his human form, he could physically touch this world.
This shouldn't be considered a flaw.
According to Ye Long's understanding, everyone should have retained one ability, but whether this was random remained uncertain.
Because his other powers were all forbidden, he couldn't use any special abilities while in human form.
His only tool was form-shifting.
But what was the point?
The rules stated he couldn't directly intervene in inter-civilization wars. So, even with a physical body, Ye Long couldn't directly join the war.
After all, only his abilities were restricted; his life level had not decreased.
Ye Long had thought about this for a long time.
Compared to monsters who could split and create familiars, those like him had lost their advantage from the start.
Since Ye Long had no usable abilities, he gritted his teeth and chose an extreme solution!
Since he couldn't transform familiars or create super units!
Then he would rely on raw, physical procreation!
Inside a mountain cave, Ye Long was shirtless, revealing a muscular physique.
His white hair flowed, and his skin was covered in many white scales.
Beside him lay several unclothed women.
Ye Long stood up and walked to a woman's side. He grasped her wrist and closed his eyes, muttering to himself:
"Nothing. Still nothing..."
Ye Long gritted his teeth.
Seven days had passed, and not a single pregnancy had occurred.
Why was this happening?
Could the dragon genes be too powerful for human bodies to conceive?
Ye Long's fists clenched, his knuckles audibly cracking.
This couldn't go on. Although time seemed abundant, if everyone else was seizing every second to prepare for war, then Ye Long was running out of time.
Thinking hard, Ye Long turned around and picked up another woman's wrist.
This time, his pupils suddenly widened. "Yes!"
"It's finally here!"
Ye Long suppressed a tremor and walked out of the cave. He looked out at the forest, recalling the images of Earth from before.
He had been bound by L'Enchaînement Céleste, unable to live or die.
Fortunately, Mei had returned, allowing him to see the light of day again!
The Vermin, Sea King, and... the others.
This was the last chance. If he couldn't grasp it, there wouldn't be a next time.
Because if they failed now, they would truly be out of the game.
Everyone knew this, so every monster was seizing every second to expand and develop.
Ye Long looked back to see the king cautiously approaching him.
"Dragon God, you taught us how to make fishing traps. We've set them all up. What do we do next?"
What to do next?
Ye Long frowned. How many people had completed basic development by now?
"Build houses, make clothes from skins, light fires to cook food, domesticate wild beasts, cultivate fields, mine the mountains for diamonds, and smelt ironware."
The first three are basic; the latter four are major developments.
It was the eighth day of the game. How many had already achieved these foundations?
Ye Long estimated that probably none had.
He turned to the king. "Listen carefully. First, observe what the people need to survive."
"Clothes, housing, food—these three must be provided for everyone."
"Secondly, mining the mountains is the most important. No matter what, mining must be popularized first, understand?"
The king scratched his head. "Uh, well... how exactly do we do that?"
Ye Long stared at him. "Do you even know what ore is?"
"Forgive me, Dragon God, but I do not."
Did he have to explain everything from the beginning?
Ye Long suddenly felt choked with frustration.
...
In a place surrounded by mountains, there were large amounts of exposed minerals, mostly coal veins.
Countless people were there, swinging rocks to chip away at the resources on the ground, bit by bit.
Beside them were a pair of insects. These insects slowly gnawed at the rock, their progress painfully slow.
The God of this Civilization was the God of Insect.
That was The Vermin. At this moment, The Vermin, in his ghostly state, clutched his head with his claws. "It's over! Everything is over!"
The Vermin let out a shriek; he was utterly terrified.
Because his only usable ability was to control insects!
Yes, his ability was neither reproduction nor fission, but the power to control insects he did not create!
Without the ability to split familiars, wasn't this a dead end?
The Vermin was now drenched in sweat. He had initially thought this game would be his home turf!
But the result was this: the ability assigned to him was not fission!
So, was everyone's usable ability actually drawn randomly?
No way?
The Vermin completely lost control this time. He only had the power to control insects. What good was that?
A man, swinging a heavy rock, wiped the sweat from his brow. Looking at the insects diligently gnawing at the stones over there, the man couldn't help but exclaim:
"Lord Insect God's ability is truly strange. With a few insects helping, our progress isn't much faster at all."
The King, wearing a crown, was also among the mining team.
His body was not like the others; after only a few hours, he began to pant heavily.
At this moment, a golden armored beetle carried a leaf to him. Inside the leaf were a few drops of dew.
The King was stunned for a moment, then took the leaf and drank the dewdrops.
"Tha... thank you."
The armored beetle waved its limbs, as if responding to the King.
The King, seeing this, couldn't help but chuckle. He held the insect in his palm and quietly made a decision.
He decided to use this insect's appearance as a totem, or perhaps a symbol, to carve onto rock walls and buildings so everyone could see it.
And their Civilization, perhaps, could also bear this name.
"..."
"Oh dear..."
The Vermin sat on the ground. Others couldn't see him. He was manipulating those two insects.
Although he only had the ability to control insects, this power wasn't entirely useless.
For example, his ability concealed two distinct characteristics.
First, insects he enlightened would develop a certain degree of intelligence.
Second, insects could choose their evolutionary direction under his influence and could also evolve through cannibalism.
However, no matter how these insects evolved, they couldn't reach higher Steps.
Unless they could cultivate on their own, they would never be able to become transcendent beings.
The Vermin, thinking this, couldn't help but start grinding his teeth. "If it weren't for some peculiar insects on this planet that could be put to some use, I'd be dead already."
There were many insects on this planet that didn't exist on Earth.
For example, that rock-eating insect. The Vermin didn't know what it was called, so he simply referred to it as Stone Worm.
There was also a Holy Armor beetle. This one did exist on Earth, but the Holy Armor beetles from the two places had different living habits.
On Earth, they preferred to push dung balls; here, they liked to eat meat.
Well, it was a small piece of knowledge, but what good was it?
...
A few days later, in the Central Continent, a remote northwest region.
Two figures stood together, staring each other down. One was a resurrected being, the other a departed soul.
The two coincidentally appeared together. Both had 1000 followers. They thought for a moment and decided to avoid conflict by circling around.
As a result, they circled once and met again.
"Is this a destined encounter, or an unavoidable fate?"
Jihen said with a faint smile. Departed soul Byakuya saw this and reached down to take a twig, drawing a line on the ground.
"If we squabble any longer, you and I will miss the best time. Let's do it here. Use this line as a boundary. North is yours, south is mine."
"I agree."
And so, the two reached an agreement, simultaneously informing their followers.
When the two factions' retinues learned of this news, they called this event the Accord of the Dual Gods.
Departed soul and Jihen's abilities were originally one ability split into two parts.
Furthermore, one of them acquired Byakuya's soul and the other acquired Byakuya's physical body, which was quite subtle.
Among them, Jihen's usable ability was resurrection.
While departed soul Byakuya's usable ability was soul displacement.
To be more specific, Jihen's ability was to make the dead resurrect as shadows.
Departed soul, however, displaced souls, allowing a creature's soul to attach to any object, even inanimate ones.
As the hai factions developed, the local ecological environment became eerie. Life here withered, gradually enveloped by a layer of death qi.
Among departed soul's subordinates, some non-human entities gradually appeared.
For example, creatures whose bodies had died but whose souls remained, acting as walking corpses and undead beings.
And among Jihen's subordinates, more and more shadow creatures gradually appeared.
Whether it was due to their relationship or not, a strange white mist gradually arose here. Extremely tragic wails often echoed through the forest.
And within it, it also gradually grew dark, as if the fog had diluted the sunlight.
It should be said that the two truly had a tacit understanding. After noticing this change, both factions immediately thought of the other.
It must be the other's ability causing this adverse effect!
However, it didn't matter. They were going to kill that fellow anyway! x2
...
The northernmost part of the Central Continent, near the sea, was surrounded by coastal mountains like a colossal wall.
A Civilization resided here. They built houses at the foot of the mountains, forming a village-sized settlement.
The god of this Civilization was called the God of Judgment.
This deity upheld a single ideal: absolute fairness.
He established strict standards. If the King broke the law, the deity would immediately send down punishment, executing the King.
Because of this, the people of this Civilization began to establish divine rules, treating them as extremely sacred covenants.
This covenant was more important than their lives.
If they dared to swear by the covenant, they would receive the god's gaze. Once the covenant was broken, the god would send down punishment.
And this god was 006.
Reinhard watched the crowd below, countless threads extending from his hands, connecting to these people's heads.
This was Reinhard's second type of thread, equivalent to a low-tier version of Death.
However, he couldn't sever or re-attach these threads; he could only manipulate them, or bind them together.
Binding these threads together meant that these people's lives were intertwined, sharing glory and shame alike.
But correspondingly, their life force would also become exceptionally vigorous.
In Death's words, their fateline was extremely robust and very difficult to kill.
If Reinhard agitated a single thread, it would make that person's fateline weak.
The "judgment" those humans spoke of was actually just him drawing a thread from the collective and subtly manipulating it. That person would naturally face misfortune or life-threatening danger.
Because of this, people called Reinhard the God of Judgment instead of the God of Fate.
Reinhard gave no answer to this.
It was pointless to waste time correcting them. The authority of divine power was granted by the people. If they thought you were the God of War, then you were the God of War.
So he let them be.
These people didn't realize that everything they did was incredibly smooth. Good fortune always followed them.
They went to cut down trees, and a bear coincidentally crashed through the forest, knocking down several trees right in front of them.
They went hunting, and a rabbit ran into a tree and fainted on its own.
Everything was too easy.
But they weren't surprised; they simply believed these were gifts from the deity. As long as they followed the rules set by the deity, the deity would bless them.
...
Extending from this location toward the outer sea, across the water, was another civilization.
The people here believed in the God of Chaos, which was 009.
Every day, the God of Chaos would share knowledge and tell stories. These words seduced the people, constantly brainwashing them.
Gradually, those people all became fanatics.
People worshipped the deity all day long. Anyone who dared to defy the deity or express rebellious opinions was considered a heretic and burned to death with holy fire.
The deity would reward them with sacred artifacts of great power.
Currently, the deity had only given them a brazier.
But the fire in this brazier never extinguished; it could burn even under water. People called this holy fire.
That's right, this brazier was a piece split off by 009.
But why did he only split off a brazier?
Because 009's ability was under a forced restriction.
009 grabbed his left hand with his right, desperately trying to pull off his left arm, but it wouldn't budge.
His fission ability had a time limit imposed on it.
This was definitely Mei's doing.
"How long is this time limit? When can I split again?"
009 bit his fingernails. All of their usable abilities must have been calculated by Mei.
Since Mei allowed him to use fission, she wouldn't let him use it casually. This was only natural.
009 originally wanted to create a more useful object.
However, he realized that in this current stage, only a mundane object like this would be useful.
But he couldn't have imagined the result would be a brazier.
"No, I need to think again."
...
Two months later.
Central Continent, the fertile region of Anganas.
The first stone fortress was erected here. Mines were dug, and rows of blast furnaces smelted metals.
Several beings, formed entirely of energy without flesh and blood, were busy.
They were Principal Starry's familiars.
They touched rocks in the mountain caves, and the stones directly turned into dust. This was their ability.
Energy existed in all things. By extracting this energy, the object would crumble.
With this method, they could easily excavate mountains and dig caves to find mineral veins.
The first thing they found was a type of ore called dark iron ore.
Because this iron was incredibly hard, had a high melting point, and turned purple when solid, it was named dark iron.
They smelted the dark iron, pouring it into molds to create the first batch of metal tools.
The technology was still immature. Too many impurities in the dark iron made it hard to refine, and the tools were very ordinary.
Nevertheless, these metal tools were far stronger than stone.
Soon after, a blacksmith had an idea: use the Star Familiars' extraction ability to pull impurities out of the minerals.
This way, high-purity dark iron could be obtained!
The idea was brilliant. That blacksmith gained the god's favor and was granted the power of ascension.
The number of Star Familiars was growing, now numbering over forty.
These forty individuals worked in different fields, using their abilities to solve technical challenges.
For example, hunting. Those Star Familiars were much stronger than wild beasts.
And the king spent his days listening to the god's teachings, learning the energy contained within all things in the world.
The Star King sat cross-legged with his eyes closed inside the stone fortress. "There is energy in plants, energy in minerals, energy in animal bodies, and energy in human bodies too."
"All things contain energy."
The Star King extended his hands. He extracted the energy contained within many plants and minerals, then gathered it together, creating a pure blue crystal called a star essence.
This crystal was compressed energy. It could be food for the Star Familiars, or used to enhance their power.
And those minerals and plants from which energy was extracted would all turn into powder and ash, scattered by the wind.
"If we endlessly extract energy from nature without restraint, this place will no longer be fertile, but will become a lifeless wasteland covered in ash."
The Star King's words were not false. Yet, if they didn't absorb vast amounts of energy, how could they become stronger?
Principal Starry had specifically chosen this fertile land with abundant energy precisely to extract that energy.
"The Star People's credo is expansion, and the prerequisite for expansion is strength. If not strong, how can one expand?"
The Star King didn't understand. "But God, there is only us here..."
Before the Star King could finish, a Star Familiar directly rushed into the stone fortress, arriving before the Star King!
"King, we have discovered the existence of other humans in the western lake region!"
Other humans?
Aliens?
Hearing his report, Principal Starry said, "You hear that."
The Star King was silent for a moment. "Activate the order: smelt dark iron, produce armor and weapons, and... have Gawain come see me."
God commanded them to forge armor, craft weapons, ignite the flames of war with the power of ascension, brazenly expand, and eliminate outsiders.
No one could question the deity.
Not long after, a man entirely made of energy came before the Star King. His name was Gawain, responsible for hunting wild beasts.
When he was still human, he could do better than others. He was brave and skilled in battle, exceptionally courageous, and an unmatched military leader.
"King."
Gawain knelt on one knee. The Star King extended his hand. "Traces of outsiders have been found in the western lake region. The situation is unclear. You will first scout to confirm their stronghold."
"Barring any unforeseen circumstances, forty days from now, you will lead the team to launch a general offensive against the outsiders. Those not of our kind will eventually face our blades."
"Therefore, we must crush the enemy in the cradle!"
Gawain nodded. "Yes."
...
Principal Starry calmly observed everything before him. His advantage was now enormous. Launching war while others were still developing was the optimal strategy.
The reason for forging armor was because Star Familiars still had weaknesses.
To protect the star core in the center of their chest, simply wearing armor was the easiest method.
Furthermore, Star Familiars had a characteristic: energy assimilation.
If they wore armor, they could infuse their own energy into the armor, merging with it, making the armor their skin.
Weapons were the same; they could act as extensions of their arms.
This was discovered by the ascended blacksmith, who also found that Star Familiars could use energy to connect with the energy within metal, shaping the metal. This was far more convenient than traditional forging!
So...
Since their advantage was already so immense, if they continued to slowly roll a snowball behind closed doors without letting it grow, that would simply be foolish!
...
Time flew by.
Gawain had been ambushing in the western lake area for several days, only to see many fur-clad humans frequently coming to fetch water with bone containers.
From their weapons, it appeared these people were still using bone-crafted weapons, placing them an entire era behind.
Furthermore, these people had no special characteristics; they were just ordinary humans.
Immediately after, Gawain began to secretly follow these people back to where they lived.
The result was astonishing. He saw a dense residential area, and a large population!
These buildings were mainly constructed from mud and wood. A typical house could accommodate three or four people.
And there were so many houses that they were countless!
The number of people was even more so!
All the surrounding forests had been cut down into plains. How long had it been?
If they were allowed to develop like this for a few more months, their population would probably exceed ten thousand?
To further investigate this group, Gawain waited for a moment, then found an opportunity to knock out a man.
He took that man to his territory, asking about the god they believed in.
They believed in the God of Life.
According to the man, the God of Life introduced the concept of marriage. When a man and woman married, they would receive the God of Life's blessing.
If the blessed couple conceived offspring, the fetus would complete its embryonic development within one day.
And after birth, the child would grow up in just one day.
After reaching adulthood, the child would stop growing. This speed was truly too fast, which was why their civilization had such a large population.
Principal Starry pondered for a moment upon hearing this news. If this was the opponent's ability, then he was relieved.
According to the pre-set plan, forty days later, a legion of one hundred, entirely composed of Star Familiars, began marching west!
They wore dark iron armor, carried weapons glimmering with magical light, and launched an offensive against the God of Life's people tribe!
...
In the west, the God of Life's domain.
A woman was carefully slicing away excess flesh from the hides with a bone knife, when suddenly a group of people rushed back!
They shouted, "Monsters are coming!" all with expressions of terror!
The woman's husband was among them; her husband rushed towards her anxiously!
"Quick, hurry into the cave..."
Thwack!!
A black blade pierced out from the man's chest!
The man's eyes widened, and he immediately spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, collapsing to his knees.
At that moment, an arm completely covered in metal armor pressed down on the man's head.
A surge of energy was extracted from the man's body, and his body instantly disintegrated, turning into countless specks of dust scattered by the wind.
And the one who struck and killed the man was none other than Gawain!
Gawain swung his arm, and the crowd behind him formed neat ranks!
They were a group of knights clad in metal armor, resembling demons!