The Heavens: A Qing, the Yue Girl at the beginning

Tens of thousands of Arctic cod and grey trout converge to form a giant biological tornado, spiraling upwards in search of fresher oxygen in the melt ice fissures, then suddenly plunging down to chase after a dark cloud of krill and copepods.

In the eternal polar night, beneath the deep blue curtain of water, life follows an ancient and cruel rhythm, performing its migration dance in the twilight.

An ancient, deep, and strangely rhythmic song echoed across the cold ocean. It was the song of a giant whale, its source vast yet unseen. Only in the deeper darkness in the distance did an immeasurable shadow slowly move, growing ever closer.

It makes one instinctively feel one's own insignificance, vastness, and desolation, as if originating from the beginning of time and space, or like a lost traveler at the end of a wasteland who accidentally hears the unconscious murmur of the gods from the depths of an unknown temple.

"Whoosh—" In the intervals of the song, a cold, emotionless will intervened directly, not through sound, but by forming meaning deep within the listener's consciousness:

"On the eve of the end... the old scales have crumbled..."

"Continuing the disputes of the past... is like chasing the glow of a sunken ship... pointless grudges... should rest with the ocean currents."

Between the cliffs of the sea ridge, the figure of the knight reappeared. He rode an eight-legged steed, his body covered in dark gold armor, his face covered with an expressionless golden mask, and he held a half-person-high bluish-gray metal canister in his arms.

The man and his horse moved forward without any resistance, as if the seawater did not exist. It was unclear whether the armored horse's hooves were treading on solid ground or on illusory elemental ripples.

“Leviathan,” the knight’s voice came through the mask, like the clash of swords, “ancient watcher. Your song is still mournful, like a moth trapped in the amber of time.”

"Five eras have passed, and you are still guarding this rift?"

Leviathan's response sent a tremor through the entire sea: "Watcher? No, I am merely a waiter. Waiting for the moment when star paths intersect, waiting for the spindle of fate to turn once more."

One after another, enormous, extremely complex ice flowers began to bloom around the knight. The frigid domain expanded wildly, forcibly altering the arrangement of water molecules and creating dreamlike pale blue ice clusters that could never exist in nature.

They grew wildly, like some kind of coral jungle from an icy hell, making this sea area both magnificent and desolate.

"The source of this world's calamity is about to reawaken, and your wait is over. The great Black Emperor, though incomplete and separated from the shadow of that dark side, still wields unchallenged power."

"But many people are unwilling to return to being servants or even nourishment, and choose another path... even if it is only a brief delay of their inevitable end."

The knight's single eye burned behind his mask, staring at the moving shadows, his voice devoid of emotion.

"So, you brought the 'seeds'?"

Leviathan's torrent of consciousness swept over the bluish-gray jar, scrutinizing it: "The 'Seven Deadly Sins,' forged from billions of souls, were poured into the withered roots of the World Tree to accelerate Lucifer's embryonic transformation, attempting to catalyze the birth of a deformed fruit to fight against the Black King?"

"Odin, how are you any different from Him in your actions?"

"This world has been a battlefield since its birth, destined to be soaked in blood and sung in mourning."

"Everything will eventually return to the sword... The only difference is whose blood is shed for whom."

"After the desolation of twilight, is there still tender vitality and hope for a new era? The answer to this question is the biggest difference."

The knight, Odin, answered calmly.

He said no more, but urged his mount forward.

The whale's song suddenly rose in pitch, carrying a hint of warning and sorrow, before disappearing completely.

Leviathan is gone.

Its enormous body retreated silently at a terrifying speed that defied its size, causing the entire sea to murmur and tremble with the turbulent undercurrents it created, forming a vortex vacuum that swept for several kilometers, causing the fish to scatter in panic.

The knight did not stop, as if he had expected it.

He spurred his steed forward, his golden armor shimmering against the seawater. Suddenly, a film of iridescent light, like an oily film, appeared on the water's surface ahead, resembling a soap bubble about to burst.

The warhorse reared up and galloped through without hindrance.

The world suddenly changed.

No longer is it a long polar night, but instead a stagnant scene, almost like dusk yet also like dawn, with ambiguous light, and time seems to stand still, with no change of day and night.

As far as the eye can see, there is an endless glacier, its surface as smooth as a mirror, reflecting the dazzling blue aurora borealis flowing in the sky, swaying and changing like the skirt of a goddess.

The world was silent and still, pure and primal, as if the world had just begun and all things had not yet awakened.

A group of figures draped in black cloaks and wearing black cone hoods stood silently on the ice field, adorned with silver badges, as if they had long since become one with this eternal ice.

They remained silent, as if they had been waiting for a thousand years.

Four of them stood out, wearing heavy black horned helmets and holding huge cross-shaped holy swords against the ice in front of them, the tips of the swords embedded in the ice.

Upon seeing the knight pass through, the four helmeted warriors moved simultaneously, gripping their sword hilts tightly with their hands covered in metal gauntlets, and slowly and rhythmically pounding the ice surface, producing a dull and uniform "thump...thump..." sound.

All the men in black robes then began to chant softly, their voices merging together into a strange, solemn, and utterly devout chorus:

"Holy one, holy one, King of hosts! Your name walks in the abyss and shines in the highest heavens!"

The knight rode his horse slowly forward.

An invisible, suffocating aura emanated from beneath his golden mask, silently enveloping the entire ice field and filling the space between heaven and earth. It was not merely oppression, but more like an infinitely high and vast wall that quietly descended, separating this world from the other.

The next instant, the gray jar in the knight's arms suddenly trembled slightly, and the seal on its surface flickered. Then, the dark gold armor on his body suddenly emitted a faint light, expanding rapidly at an unimaginable speed, instantly illuminating half the sky.

It swallowed up the originally pervasive blue and purple aurora and grayish-purple clouds, transforming them into a pure and majestic golden dome that covered the entire landscape and seemed to manifest divinity.

Just then, the glacier beneath their feet began to tremble violently, as if a long-awaited earthquake had finally erupted.

The once indestructible, incredibly thick solid ice shell now began to undulate and ripple like a soft sea surface.

The ice field twisted and deformed, and from a distance, it looked like a huge, incomparable silver ribbon being shaken by an invisible force.

"Crackling——"

With a deafening roar that made your teeth ache, the mirror-like ice field completely shattered, splitting into countless bottomless chasms.

A torrent of hot, viscous, crimson liquid gushed forth, staining the fractured ice cliffs and sky like blood. Moments before, this place was a frozen, still, and breathtakingly beautiful world; now, it had abruptly transformed into a raging, violent red ocean!

The knight sighed and exhaled, waving his hand to freeze the shattered sea of ​​blood, as if drawing a period of time from the void.

Immediately afterwards, the heavens and earth suddenly reversed, transforming into a torrential downpour of red mercury that poured down onto the real sea and was ignited by streaks of lightning.

The countless trillions of tons of alchemical elixir burned fiercely as it fell, bursting forth with a dazzling blue light.

Just like that grand rebellion tens of thousands of years ago, a third of the stars fell one after another, and the seven crowns dimmed.

Now, with the horns of doomsday sounding, the raging fire that plunges from the sky will burn for seven days and seven nights, even scorching the sea into salt flats.

Meanwhile, if one gazes at the North Pole from distant outer space, another breathtaking spectacle will be observed:

In the vast sea area spanning from 60 to 90 degrees north latitude, a series of translucent, emerald-green spots of light gradually appeared, exactly the 666 Nibelungen nodes.

They are connected and interwoven by magnificent aurora bands of blue and purple that leap and change, together forming an incredibly vast, complex and intricate network of patterns.

Upon closer inspection, the strange patterns resemble the wild growth of living vines, or even the shadow of an ancient, solemn, and bizarre giant tree, standing abruptly at the top of the earth.

Its withered branches stretched out to their limits in all directions, weaving a dense net that blotted out the sky in the Arctic Circle, as if desperately supporting a sky that was about to completely crack.

This is a miracle constructed with the ultimate power of alchemy, a place that alters reality, a place where the rules of the world converge and collide, and a forbidden place where the river of fate pauses temporarily!
……

About twelve hours later, in the mountains of southern Bavaria, Germany, a dilapidated castle stood silently in the thick fog.

This is the old house of the Fingel family. The outer walls of the castle are made of dark gray granite, and the walls are covered with dark green ivy, which looks like a rusty mane draped over the ancient castle.

Most of the roof tiles were missing, revealing black wooden beams, and several crows perched on the beams, emitting hoarse cries.

The cobblestone path in front of the castle was already uneven, with weeds growing in the gaps. In some places, the stones had been eroded by time and were like sponges, crumbling when stepped on.
The gate was made of heavy oak, and the copper rings on the surface had long since oxidized and turned black. The family crest engraved on the gate was blurred and indistinct, and only a faint outline of an eagle holding a sword could be made out.

A thunderous roar echoed through the sky, shattering the tranquility of the surrounding forest and startling a large flock of birds.

A huge triangular shadow was slowly descending, breaking through the clouds with a flexibility that was completely disproportionate to its enormous size.

It was a spaceplane with a striking design, its body lines were sharp and rugged, exuding the ruggedness and power unique to the Cold War era. It was the unfinished legacy of the Myasishchev Design Bureau, the MG-19 that should have only existed on Soviet blueprints.

Below it are ten enormous nuclear-powered turbojet engine nozzles arranged menacingly, as well as an even larger nuclear thermal rocket main engine designed specifically for transcending the atmosphere.

Among the legacy of the Doomsday School is the so-called "tunable acoustic metastructure activated metal," a major breakthrough in materials science that not only perfected the first wall in controlled nuclear fusion but also has applications in various fields.

It is actually a liquid metal known as "red mercury," which, after being interpenetrated and fused with normal metallic elements, undergoes a complete transformation in its properties, resulting in a super process. It is known that rare mineral deposits of this kind were discovered deep in the Siberian strata in the former Soviet Union, and it can also be synthesized through alchemy.

Breakthroughs in both materials and power have brought blueprints to life.

The powerful airflow forcefully pushed the weeds and dust on the ground outwards, forming a huge vortex.

The hatch opened and the suspended ladder descended.

Shi Yiguang appeared at the doorway. She glanced briefly at the dilapidated scene below and leaped lightly out. "Welcome to my humble abode, the ancestral fortress of the Frings family—also known as 'The Joyful Home of Rats and Bankruptcy Liquidation'."

Fingel strolled out from behind a door that was barely intact, scratched his messy hair, rubbed his hands together, and greeted them with his usual self-deprecating laziness:

"Hopefully, the retro charm, the occasional smell of cow dung and bird droppings that haven't been cleaned properly, and the sewer system that keeps breaking down all the time won't push your sense of smell too far."

Shi Yiguang ignored his teasing: "You mean there's an alchemical matrix here that can block 'Bloodline Jiro'?"

"Not bad! Don't let its dilapidated appearance fool you; it's been here for centuries, exuding an aura of poverty... uh, of history."

Fingel gestured for her to enter and led her toward the heavy door. “What’s buried under it is no ordinary thing. It’s said that a spendthrift ancestor used gemstone powder and gold equivalent to ten years’ worth of the family’s income at the time to create a ‘taboo’ magic array, just so he could quietly hide from his debts and sleep.”

"As for the effect... well, I didn't feel it myself. And it's too expensive to maintain. My dad almost dismantled it and sold it back then."

"However, in theory, as long as the alchemy matrix is ​​still operating and the domain is in effect, any external word spirit detection targeting bloodlines will treat this place as a stone that no one cares about."

“A niche option in safe houses.” Shi Yiguang nodded. “Let’s get straight to the point, Fingel.”

"The message you conveyed this time is of a very high level."

“Of course, of course, it concerns the survival of the world, it’s the same old story, but we have to take it seriously every time.” Fingel walked through the desolate front yard and into the dimly lit interior of the mansion.

"Please come in, please come in, watch out for the threshold, it's a little higher than it looks... Ah, they should already be in the study."

The castle appeared even more empty and cold than it did from the outside. There was no fire in the huge stone fireplace, only a few dim gas lamps casting flickering shadows in the corners.

The air was filled with the scents of old wood, dust, and a faint aroma of preservatives and beeswax.

Occasionally, I could hear the sound of water dripping from upstairs, I wondered where the water pipes were leaking.

In a fairly complete living room furnished with a few modern pieces of furniture, the visitors were already seated.

They were two young women, or rather, young girls.

They wore long, jet-black dresses and matching black cloaks. Their platinum-gold hair cascaded down like a waterfall on an icy plain. Their faces were exquisitely beautiful, almost ethereal, and their eyes were a lighter silver-gray, clear and bright, as if they contained melting starlight. They were quietly watching the newcomer.

The two wore an ancient Roman-style short sword at their waists, the scabbard engraved with the pattern of a withered world tree, and a pale blue gemstone inlaid at the end of the hilt, like a solidified aurora.

“This is Lady Maria of the Stars,” Fingel said, his tone unusually formal, “and her…great-granddaughter, Miss Reginald. They come from…the far north.”

"The far north, formerly known as the 'Twilight Dogma,' was a small group that split from the Secret Party on Christmas Day in 1900. Its initial members were mainly a group of 'Dragon Clan Theologians,'" Shi Yiguang smiled and added:
"This division is not peaceful, after all, it is suspected of taking advantage of the crisis of 'Summer Mourning', which makes people wary."

"However, after more than 20 years of observation, the 'Twilight Dogma' did not leak any secrets or become hostile. It was judged to be insignificant and its subsequent development was no longer paid attention to. Even its renaming and reorganization into the 'Far North' was not recorded. It was considered to be two mysterious organizations with very different ideologies."

Seemingly too lazy to continue, she secretly activated an AI-generated voice and accessed the supercomputer database:
"It is generally believed that the 'Twilight Dogma' consists of Odin's followers who believe that there were once intelligent beings in history comparable to dragons, whom humans called gods, who checked and balanced the empire ruled by the Black King."

"In the final battle known as Ragnarok, the dragon kings betrayed the tyrannical Black King and joined forces with the gods to kill Nidhogg, both sides suffering heavy losses. The ensuing tsunami swept across most of the world, burying prehistoric civilizations such as Atlantis."

"From then on, humanity finally had the opportunity to develop, break free from the shadow of the other two, and move towards independence."

"But one day, the Black King will return in despair and bring destruction to the world. Only by finding the great Odin and joining the ranks of the gods can one find protection and have hope of surviving the catastrophe... In comparison, the Secret Society's bloody battles against the dragons with the hybrids are nothing but futile resistance."

"For a long time, this claim has been denounced by the Secret Party as baseless fantasy, blind faith, and even a charlatan's deception. However, judging from the fact that the two ladies actually obtained the status of the first generation, you and the former 'Far North' must have possessed a lot of extremely important intelligence..."

“Maria of the Stars, the ‘Imperial Saintess’,” Shi Yiguang leaned forward slightly, looking at the painting beside them depicting the Black and White Kings and Odin coexisting and fighting, “What exactly did you encounter in the Arctic during the Prince Gauguin’s voyage in 1943?”

"The divine realm? Odin? Or the Black King, who is being conceived and resurrected?"

"May the stars guide your path, stranger visitor."

Maria of the Stars finally spoke, her voice as soft as a snowflake falling on ice, or as if flowing from a dusty record: "The Prince Gauguin, a lone steel ship carrying 'hope,' and also a grave sailing into the abyss."

"The winter of 1943 was colder than any other year. The Third Reich was already showing signs of decline, having suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Kursk and the Battle of the Dnieper, and was almost on the verge of collapse. The artillery fire on the Eastern Front stained the snow-covered plains red, while the Allied forces on the Western Front pressed closer and closer."

"Some people, unwilling to accept defeat, have placed their final bet on 'gods'—this is the mystical concept of the 'far north.' We have obtained conclusive evidence from dragon archaeology and literature that there is an unknown land within the Arctic Circle, the home of the super civilization created by the ancestors of the Aryans, the Hibernians."

"Hyperborea, which the Inuit call 'the land of the setting sun,' was vaguely mentioned by the ancient Greek explorer Pythias in his travelogue as 'Thule'... Many names, all pointing to the same destination."

"We sailed for twenty-one days, passing through dense ice floes, dodging Allied patrol ships, and guided by Aldebaran, we passed through the White Sand Sea and the Rainbow Sea... Strolling among the magnificent mountains and flowering trees, we finally reached the sea at 89 degrees north latitude and saw that great gate."

"But no one expected that the Soviet submarine 'Brilliant Banner' would follow us closely and launch torpedoes—there must be high-level hybrids of 'Word Serpent' or 'Kamaitachi' among them. So our side retaliated with torpedoes, and we were caught in an uncontrollable fierce battle."

“It has been confirmed that the submarine was a modified version controlled by the ‘Doomsday Faction,’ but no one survived,” Shi Yiguang interjected. “Afterwards, the families of each person were awarded medals and pensions.”

“From the winter of 1943 to the spring of 1944, biologists monitored an outbreak of biological evolution in the North Sea region. An unprecedented red tide swept across the coastline, turning the seawater blood red. This was because an unprecedented variety of red tide algae emerged that was resistant to cold and highly tolerant to salinity.”

"Crabs and shellfish also overpopulated, causing huge changes to the nearby marine ecosystem. In the decades that followed, the Peruvian Party received many reports of sightings of giant creatures, including fishing boats catching giant squid over 20 meters long, and cases of megalodon sharks attacking small boats."

“Yes,” Maria of the Stars clearly knew this well, “the torpedo tore through our hull, but what rushed in was not cold seawater, but... light leaking out when the door opened.”

She raised her eyes, and the other person's reflection was mirrored in her silver-gray pupils, like a mirror worn by time, with fine cracks along the edges of the reflection: "That light washed everything away, took away time, and reflected everyone's soul... Though it failed to enter the Kingdom of God, it was able to solidify outside its threshold."

"To put it in simpler terms, it's a source of pollution for a super hatchery, releasing large amounts of dragon genes..."

"The captain put me on a lifeboat at the last moment, making me the only survivor on the Prince Gauguin. At the same time, I became a sample that was completely changed by the leaked power."

"The form of life within me underwent an uncontrollable super-evolution, becoming a kind of miracle, or rather, an anomaly."

"I fell into a coma, and in a daze, I entered a deep spiritual vision, witnessing two 'battles of divine demise' from an observer's perspective, one in the past and one in the future..."

“I saw crows and eagles alight on the crown of the World Tree, I saw eight-legged horses trample their own shadows, I saw the oars of the Land of the Dead begin to sprout, I saw giant pillars of ice and fire intertwined into a spiral, rising from the seabed and piercing the sky, as if to nail the whole world to the cross of fate.”

“I saw… the Black King’s heart was nailed to the withered branches of the World Tree, inch by inch gray, yet still beating powerfully.”

"I saw Odin's single eye burning in the storm, and golden tears of blood falling onto the ice plains, turning into burning meteorites."

"I saw...myself."

“Standing on the other side of the ‘door’ and crying.”

Did they see the future? Are they prophetic with words?

Shi Yiguang seemed to be deep in thought, and pressed further: "Are those two 'Battles of the Fallen Gods' the same as the oil painting you created? Did the Black King, the White King, and Odin appear in both? In the future, will the White King be resurrected and fight against Nidhogg alongside Odin's 'god race'?"

Currently, the White King's remains have mysteriously disappeared. A search of the entire Night Eater Plains has yielded no results. Apart from the Yamata no Orochi hiding there, the most likely explanation is that they have been obtained by Odin's forces.

Could it be that the latter wants to resurrect the former White Emperor?

“I don’t know.” Maria of the Stars shook her head. “I only described what I saw in my vision. Maybe it will happen on this timeline, or maybe it won’t…”

“But this at least represents a very high possibility,” Shi Yiguang slowly replied, “a possibility that we cannot ignore.”

"Without a doubt, you were chosen as a 'sacrifice' or 'beacon' by some 'god,' perhaps the Black King or Odin. Therefore, the newly added memories are mostly the reality that the other party expects and foresees, which is gradually approaching."

"Considering the existence of the Hatchery and the 'Grand Rank' of the First Generation, I still lean more towards the Black King's new creation code—after all, there is a precedent in history that Nidhogg was able to create the First Generation, while Odin could at most use an alchemical mask to create combat power of this level."

"Speaking of which, besides expressing your gratitude for being rescued from the Holy Palace Medical Association by Fingel and Genji, what other motives did you have when you contacted us and provided this information?"

"Purpose?"

Maria of the Stars glanced at her "great-granddaughter," who was actually a perfect clone, Reggie Love: "We bring a warning, an invitation, and a few small requests."

"The warning is that after more than a decade of dormancy since the beginning of 1992, at the end of August this year, the dragon bloodline within me has once again boiled and become uncontrollable, further eroding my body. My skeletal structure is changing towards a combination of mammalian, reptile, and bird forms, causing me to age rapidly..."

"In just over three months, I feel like I've aged several years. My Word of Power has weakened considerably, and I can't even fight against ordinary A-rank hybrids... Sometimes, I'll even fall into a deep sleep for two or three days, and in my dreams, I'll see a colossal tree that reaches the heavens and the earth..."

"Could it be on the verge of going out of control? Or perhaps its lifespan is coming to an end?" Fingel muttered to himself. "But isn't she supposed to be the first generation of the species? How come pure-blooded dragons can only live for a hundred years or so? Is there some hidden flaw?"

Maria of the Stars ignored him and continued, "Simply put, at the age of 119 in my life, for some unknown reason, perhaps a pre-set or remote incantation or pheromone inducement, my dragon genes were fully activated, forcibly giving birth to a large dragon body. The lack of nutrients caused the problem."

"This anomaly was discovered: some extra bones and cocoons extended out of the body, gradually losing the human form. The medical society seemed to have anticipated this and transferred Regina and me to a remote island in the North Atlantic, imprisoning us in a special giant prison, trying to accelerate this process and obtain something."

"Fortunately, after enduring a little over a month of hardship, the crimson cherry blossom blade cleaved through the alloy walls of the prison, beheaded over a hundred guards, and freed us..."

"To be honest, although I suspected that I had successfully completed the 'path to godhood' and transformed from a hybrid into a pure-blooded dragon, I could only guess up to the next generation. It wasn't until I met Miss Xia Mi and underwent several tests that I learned this unimaginable conclusion."

"You mean, the sudden imbalance in bloodline evolution indicates that a supreme being is awakening and becoming active," Shi Yiguang analyzed in response. "Therefore, we need to be vigilant and on guard."

“It’s not just about being vigilant, but also about burying that so-called ‘divine kingdom’ and doing everything in our power to destroy the vessel of His will…” Maria of the Stars sighed softly: “I have the key to the ‘door’ that can make the hatchery open a passage to face the vortex of devouring.”

"Is this your invitation?" Shi Yiguang asked to confirm.

It seems that the other party has long since abandoned the early belief in Odin's salvation? However, what "divine kingdom" refers to here remains to be discussed.

"Yes."

...(End of chapter)