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

"'Born and die, die and be born,' a never-ending cycle. Without a doubt, the Black King has interrupted his life many times, as if he had died, but was later reborn by the Earth and forcibly resurrected..."

"The last Easter holiday was probably 1.6 million years ago."

"At that time, a small pterosaur with the characteristics of grasping and living in groups, the prototype of the sickle weasel, gradually developed the seeds of intelligence, and Nidhogg, who had perished in the previous cycle for unknown reasons, perhaps due to excessive mental burden, was reincarnated as one of them."

Zhao Qing seemed to "see" a warm continent covered with primeval fern forests in the Jurassic period, where small pterosaurs glided between cliffs, preening their feathers with the claws of their forelimbs and communicating with simple calls.

"However, soon the newly born Black King regained its power and returned to its transcendent dominant position, and incidentally, its kind also benefited, soaring rapidly in the process of evolution."

Zhao Qing's mind raced, and she continued her deductions:
"This kind of 'guidance' requires no communication or direct contact at all. The elemental authority emanating from the Black King permeates the environment, and the divine genes that are 'mutated' in a targeted manner radiate outwards, thus deeply benefiting the entire race."

"They separated from the pterosaurs that adapted to nature and were forcibly 'dragged' into a new evolutionary fast track, gradually developing elemental talents and becoming the origin of what later generations called 'dragons'."

Countless streams of information intertwine like star trails.

Those were historical data transmitted by Xia Mi, memories of the Blood Pool translated by Shi Yiguang, and indirect evidence extracted from Greenland ice cores, deep-sea sediments, and even geomagnetic reversal records.

They all point to a truth that has been buried for hundreds of millions of years.

"In general, it's similar to the Black King's relationship with the White King. The Star Consciousness highly values ​​its first communication partner, which is why it tirelessly re-edits Nidhogg's carrier from the planet's ecosystem after the latter goes 'offline' for various reasons, restarting the dialogue between the two time and time again."

Like a paranoid artist, repeatedly depicting the same crucial archetype on the canvas.

Even though the canvas has been changed countless times, from fiery lava seas to icy tundras, from anaerobic bacterial carpets to the dinosaur dynasty.

This is an ancient continuity of consciousness that transcends specific species forms and is "marked" by the will of the stars. As long as the core of this identity's consciousness is preserved, the carrier can change from an archaea to a paramecium, to a three-star disc beetle, to a spider, or to a pterosaur.

Form is merely clothing; the soul is the true compass.

"Just as Nidhogg gouged out the 'Eye of God' to let the witch 'see my world'... is He Himself also equivalent to... some kind of 'external sense' of Earth? Used to experience... the 'high frame rate,' delicate, and ever-changing phenomenal world?"

Most of the time, there are no specific tasks assigned.

Just as eyes don't need to be commanded to see and ears don't need to be instructed to hear, their "meaning of existence" is defined by their function.

The stars may only need a "sense", but the sense itself begins to ask "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?"

This platform... is too independent, too autonomous.

Born from a life form, it inevitably inherits the characteristics of life: strong self-boundaries, the instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm, the search for meaning and purpose, and a potential resistance to the identity of "tool," which leads to confusion and pain.

In these two similar relationships, the interlocutors are given distorted importance and twisted "unwavering commitment," implying an unequal power dynamic between the creator and the created, and a cold logic that views the created as a tool to break free from its own existential predicament.

Whether it's the Star Consciousness bestowing gifts upon Nidhogg, or Nidhogg bestowing gifts upon the witch, behind it all lies an invisible chain. At the other end of this chain is the creator's own vast, empty, and endless "needs."

……

Zhao Qing now has a deeper understanding of the formation process and conditions for the birth of stellar consciousness.

Based on the latest astronomical observations and analysis of the state of stars in her own inner universe, she roughly concluded:
In the protoplanetary disk, dust particles clump together and gradually aggregate to form planetesimals on the scale of kilometers, which takes only 100,000 years, the same time as the formation of the Sun. Then, the planetesimals accrete to form planetary embryos, which takes no more than a million years.

Of course, the planetary embryo was very small at this time. Initially, its mass might only be 1% of that of the moon, but it was still in the furnace of creation.

The planet's temperature exceeds 2000K due to intense accretion energy, gravitational perturbations and contractions, massive internal heat generated by the decay of short-lived radioactive elements, and frequent and violent meteorite impacts.

Density differences would lead to violent stratification of molten material, elemental differentiation, core formation, and the solidification of the original crust. The rate of geological change would be tens of millions of times faster than that of a planet that later cooled and stabilized.

This is a "chaotic" period characterized by high energy and a high rate of change, with extremely frequent flow and recombination of matter and energy.

The consciousness of the stars was quite active at that time.

“If it might take tens of thousands of years for a single thought of His to fully manifest now, then during the planetary embryonic stage, His ‘thought’ and ‘action’ were almost synchronized, with the stream of consciousness and the stream of matter highly coupled. An ‘intention’ could be presented and expressed in just two or three days, or even a few hours.”

“‘Ah, the iron core has grown a bit larger.’ ‘Hey, the convection pattern of this silicate mantle has changed.’ This kind of high-speed, self-reflective ‘introspection’ focused on changes in its own structure is purely self-referential, the pinnacle of ‘monologue,’ but also the starting point of solitude.”

"Because apart from itself, it cannot 'perceive' any other being with a similar time scale and complexity."

"Until...life appeared." Zhao Qing drew his sword, summoning a vast expanse of seawater from afar, which solidified into a massive ice sword body and plunged deep into the ground. The form carried the meaning, and the meaning encompassed the form, allowing the sword intent that penetrated the microscopic to add a corresponding fulcrum to the macroscopic.

During the Rainy Era or even earlier, stellar consciousness was still in its "youthful" stage, characterized by a surge of information and heightened perception.

A nearshore meteorite crater depression has an abnormally high concentration of complex organic matter, either due to continuous nourishment from volcanic hot springs or due to evaporation and concentration.

Polypeptide chains fold and unfold during thermal vibrations, while ribose molecules link into rings under the catalysis of mineral surfaces. Ultraviolet radiation penetrates shallow water, promoting certain key photochemical reactions.

Random? Inevitable? Amidst countless chaotic coincidences, a molecular system capable of self-replication and recording environmental information in some kind of "internal state" was born.

This was an extremely faint signal, but to the stellar consciousness that had become accustomed to its own increasing slowness and sluggishness, it was nothing less than the first spark to explode in the darkness, and it immediately resonated with it.

That was actually a "small system" that could complete information processing and feedback on a scale of "hours" or even "minutes"!
Like an elderly person growing old who suddenly hears the clear, rapid cries and laughter of a child, their heart is filled with a sense of resonance.

Upon discovering Mars, the stellar consciousness instinctively poured more "attention"—perhaps manifested as the "spiritual element" environment—into it. As a result, the primitive life system, under this focused "attention," experienced a distorted and accelerated rate of evolution.

This led to an unpredictable direction.

Aggregation, differentiation, fusion, competition, symbiosis...

Under the "gaze" and indirect intervention of planetary-scale consciousness, the first consciousness entity, capable of relatively clearly bearing and "representing" this interactive relationship, was finally born after countless trials and selections.

That was the original Nidhogg.

A unique existence nurtured by the planet's ecosystem, yet marked and shaped from the very beginning by the "gaze" of the celestial will.

This, perhaps, is the beginning of everything: a restless, yearning-to-experience stellar consciousness clumsily extended its first "finger," touching a tiny "protrusion" on its own surface that contained infinite possibilities—life.

Thus began a grand drama that has lasted for billions of years and continues to this day, filled with misunderstandings, experiments, creations, destructions, love, hate, and sacrifices.

……

However, someone like the Black King, who has long served as a sensory extension and exclusive communicator of the stellar consciousness, can at most be called a "prisoner" or a "tool," and has no essential connection with a "sacrifice."

Prisoners still have sentences to serve and may escape; tools may wear out and be replaced. But "sacrifices" are different; they represent an end.
A complete dedication and consumption, an irreversible ritual that uses destruction to obtain something of higher value.

Specially selected and irreplaceable offerings must possess a unique sacrificial value that cannot be obtained through other means.

"What exactly is its value?"

Zhao Qing asked himself the question, constantly searching for answers.

The answer can only come from the most fundamental, unfulfilled desire of the will of the stars themselves.

It is no longer about the perception and dialogue that He has already gained, but about further making up for His lack of high-resolution, high-rate-of-change cognition and expression capabilities.

What the Star Consciousness needs is... a leap in "mindset".

A complete shift from "geological time thinking" to "life time thinking." A "rebirth" of consciousness.

The chosen offering was undoubtedly the most crucial "fuel" and "catalyst" needed for this transformation.

Nidhogg clearly understood this.

Therefore, He empathizes with the witch and longs for salvation.

"But when faced with such a vast existence as the will of the stars, what ways can a high-ranking ruler find to resist?"

She continued to think.

……

"What did the priestess feel when she learned the truth?" At almost the same time, Shi Yiguang looked at that distraught face. "At first, she felt a chill that seeped into her whole body, no less than when she fell into the river, almost freezing her," the king said. "But when the Black King left after saying those words, a new passion reignited in her heart."

"Reignition?"

“Sometimes, memories are the strongest motivation,” the person opposite pondered, “not memories of glory and achievements, but memories of the starting point—memories of the initial courage, the unyielding spirit.”

"The Great Way is attained after the death of the heart." Shi Yiguang nodded.

……

The icy wind pierced through the priestess's body, and seemed to penetrate the entire edifice of meaning she had built over the past twenty thousand years.

The rubble crumbled in her heart. What lay beneath it was not even solid ground, but meaningless quicksand that swallowed everything.

But in the center of the ruins, something older and more solid than any creation of civilization seemed to tremble slightly.

Those were the cold rocks, the bone-chilling river water, the binding ropes, and the dying, unwilling question—"Why me?"

It's no longer about why "I" should be sacrificed.

But why should "my" fate be defined in this way, and why should "their" fate be decided so contemptuously?

By what right can the scrutinizing gaze from above erase the warmth and cries of those struggling below?

The answer remains elusive. The Black King's words weighed heavily on her like the sky, and logically, she was utterly defeated.

But failure may be the beginning of stripping away all pretense and affectation: it made her see clearly how power alienates "choice".

Having acquired the Black King's Eye and wielding the power of spiritual elements, she can naturally view all living beings with that transcendent perspective.

But she chose not to see it that way.

For 20,000 years, she has been using these eyes to see the world, using divine tools to do human things, to analyze, and to create, but she never imagined that the "perspective" of these eyes themselves might be the deepest form of confinement.

It allowed her to see countless "hows," but obscured the most important "why."

The priestess slowly raised her hand and touched her eye sockets. There seemed to still be the burning sensation from the baptism of dragon blood, and deeper still, an indelible dull pain belonging to "humanity".

Is what these eyes see necessarily the "whole" truth?
Why has she retained this fragile human body until now, instead of transforming into a more powerful dragon?

Is it due to insufficient strength? Is it due to technological limitations?

No.

It was that ridiculous, clumsy, human stubbornness deep within her heart. It was her hidden resistance to her status as a "sacrifice," her last stubborn mark of "belonging."

She was once human. Even if it's just that, she will hold onto it.

Dragons are not toys. She must protect them too.

……

"This is her tragedy, but also her greatness."

By the blood pool, Shi Yiguang sighed softly, her eyes reflecting the sorceress's lonely yet upright back. "She clearly possessed the authority and perspective to observe with detachment and indifference, yet she chose to remain in the mud, becoming a painful participant, an inescapable intervener."

“Yes,” the king said. “Therefore, she is the ‘witch,’ not the ‘goddess.’ Gods can be transcendent, but witches must intervene.”

"God establishes the laws, and the shaman dances in the gaps of those laws, even... attempting to modify the rhythm of the dance."

"But in the end, she still chose to stay high in the clouds."

"Although she also departed from the mortal world, she never became another Black King; she simply became... the White King. Her cloud is a new battlefield."

……

Since we are destined to be rootless, instead of lamenting our wandering, let us become the wind that sweeps across the world.

Since we cannot have a warm home to settle this homeless soul, let this wandering journey itself become a mobile home, an immortal and indestructible sanctuary.

She closed her eyes, sensing the vision flowing within the Eye of God, and began to conceive an unprecedented plan—

The solution was not based on the blueprints provided by the Black King.

Instead... it becomes a paradox that the topic itself cannot digest!

An outlier that refuses to be categorized in the binary opposition of "phenomenon and reality", "transient and eternal", "tool and subject".

Transform the abstract into the concrete, and change things with your mind!
Use yourself as the variable to create a world!
A world born from illusion, constructed based on her "choices," her "disagreement," and her "whys"!
Let those incredibly "tiny" loves, hates, resentments, and desires for connection in those eyes be transformed from flaws that need to be overcome into the rhythm of all things, becoming another kind of reality, and then layering and embedding a different "grain of sand" on the bottom layer of the external world.

Based on its own existence, it evolves into an eternal dream, serving as the sharpest wedge to drive into the seams of the cycle of fate!
When the "future" becomes utterly unpredictable, when the goal of "salvation" itself, due to the infinite branching and dimensional ascent of its paths, no longer has a single, observable "failure endpoint"...

So, in a sense.

Hasn't the rescue already begun?
Once this thought arises, it can never be extinguished.

It burned, overpowering loneliness, overpowering cold, overpowering the despair of those immersed in "sacrifice" and "toy".

The priestess's gaze swept over the now-ruled, orderly dragon territory beneath her feet, across the vast land and sea, finally settling on the star-studded night sky—

That solitary, cold, yet eternally shining bright moon.

The wandering is not over yet.

Perhaps, this is just the beginning.

……

Approximately three thousand years later.

Without the departure of the core protagonist of the "play," namely the witch, and tired of the tedious task of managing the mature "orchard," Nidhogg quickly lost interest in the specific rule of the dragon civilization.

It came suddenly and left just as quickly.

As various barriers gradually emerge, and lacking both strong suppression and gentle cohesion, the vast empire inevitably disintegrates amidst strife, suspicion, and a reshuffling of power.

The complex hierarchical structure is mostly just a name in name only.

Only the loose agreement of the elders' council has been barely preserved.

The development of alchemy stagnated, the collection and organization of classic texts were abandoned, and countless pieces of knowledge were lost, with some skills being lost or going astray.

The white priestess who had long since quietly left the center of power, her figure and past have gradually faded in the mainstream narrative, merging into the majestic mythical silhouette of the Black King.

No one knows where she went.

Except for that bright moon.

Deep within the lunar core lies the stellar will, torn apart by the impact of Theia, a fragment that has never healed and remains in ruins.

……

Meanwhile, on the far side of the moon.

Xia Mi looked towards the rapidly advancing infrastructure in the crater.

"What were the results of this moonquake?" she asked. (End of Chapter)