Chapter 659 — It's All Over

"Their kind is fractured—that's one of their traits; there's nothing to be done," Vanessa said. "These humans cooperating with us are only one branch of their kind, and similar branches abound in human society... To understand the differences between them is quite a bother."

The purple-tailed siren thought it over and heaved a regretful sigh: "Ah... and such fine cooking too—what a rare thing."

"Yes, such fine cooking—what a rare thing."

……

It was all over.

In the Velvet Study of the Silver Fortress, the holographic projector displayed the latest information sent back by the Iron Throne.

Heaven and earth were shrouded in darkness, a violent storm scoured the White Sands region, and a colossal deep-sea creature had descended in the rain. A feast of gluttony—that was the man-made god's final end.

To Gao Yang, this was truly footage full of hope; it was only a pity the images were so striking that, against the current social backdrop, they hardly seemed suitable for public release to the whole populace.

"We can start considering how to spin this next," Gao Yun said, tapping the table lightly to draw the attention of the two Guardian Dukes (Grand Consuls). "The disaster the Church of the Final End wrought has only now been preliminarily ended, but to bring it in for a smooth landing, we still have a great deal to do."

Duke Bai Yu drew a soft breath, and could not help asking: "So those are the 'sirens' you mentioned?"

"That's right—sirens, a deep-sea race that appears in many legends. But unlike most legendary races, they truly exist, and we have already established a degree of contact with them."

Bai Yu seemed to have something to say, but hesitated on the verge of speaking; it was Victoria beside him who spoke up bluntly: "Is there any risk?"

"Contact with any alien race carries risk, but sometimes we have no choice—and by my own judgment, these sirens are trustworthy. As early as two years ago, the Southern Reach had already established contact with the sirens. We have some technological exchange; it isn't on a large scale, but at least we've achieved a degree of dialogue on equal footing."

Bai Yu and Victoria exchanged a glance, seeming to relax slightly, though their nerves remained somewhat taut.

Gao Yang of course knew why.

He spread his hands and leaned back in the high-backed chair. "I know what you're worried about. Frankly, they are an exceedingly powerful people. Their domain lies in the deep sea, but if they wished it, they could most certainly raise storms upon the land... storms of every kind. But we must recognize one fact:

"Whether we like it or not, peoples this powerful simply exist in this world. The sirens exist, the dragons exist, and the powerful races that live only in legend very likely exist as well. They may dwell very far away, but if they wish it, they can come to this continent of Loren, while we... cannot even leave our coastline.

"These races exist, truly and tangibly. The one thing we—a people fenced in by the ocean and by our own level of civilization—ought to count ourselves lucky for is that they bear us no hostility, at least for now.

"But that 'no hostility' was not won by us. It was alms thrown to us by fate.

"There are only two things we can do. First, face this fact, because evasion and playing deaf and dumb solve nothing. Second, develop ourselves. Do not halt at this moment of peace, do not be blinded by brief prosperity. Beyond our gaze, this world is vast indeed, and if we mean to survive in that vast world for the long run, development is the only hard truth."

Gao Yang spoke bluntly, and to the two Grand Consuls, that bluntness might even have bruised their confidence as human beings.

Admitting one's own weakness is hard. For men like them, it is harder still.

Yet certain facts must be recognized. Much of the time, the drive to develop lies precisely in the awareness of one's own shortcomings, and that is exactly what the humans of this land have lacked—after seven hundred years sealed off in the interior, after seven hundred years of peace beneath layer upon layer of protection. In a sense, it was also one of the causes of the old Kingdom of Ansu's decline.

The sirens are a peace-loving race. These creatures from the deep sea, with their curious ways of thinking and their lively friendliness, are precious allies of the Duchy of Cecil (now the Cecil Empire). Yet as Gao Dai put it, this "friendliness" was not won by humanity itself. Humanity was merely fortunate.

That is why Gao Yang set such store by the "technical cooperation" between Cecil and the sirens. Even if the cooperation amounted to only one or two key technologies, it still meant that humanity was at least qualified to "converse" with these creatures of the deep.

If the Cecilites had not even possessed prismatic light technology back then, would those deep-sea creatures—however friendly—have taken any interest in a tiny duchy on a distant shore?

Most likely, even one glance at the backward humans on land would have delayed their squid-digging.

Development is the only hard truth. The Cecilites knew this, and they had already tasted its sweetness. But more than half the people of this nation did not know it. The two Grand Consuls before Gao Yang might be the wiser among that greater half—they had already sensed a certain urgency about "social progress"—but to make them grasp the importance of development more deeply and to broaden their horizons, Gao Yang needed to show them something more direct.

Beside him, Bai Yu wore a faintly thoughtful expression, and Victoria too understood the intent behind Gao Dai's words.

In that moment, the two dukes were suddenly struck by a certain feeling: Gao Yang, Duke Cecil, risen from the dead, was truly like an elder of the household, spending nearly every waking moment exhausting himself to keep this "family" alive, forever thinking of ways to discipline and guide those unruly brats. He had to guide, to warn, to sermonize, tirelessly repeating: "Don't touch this; don't touch that; don't neglect your studies; beware of danger; exercise your body; eat more vegetables; get along with your brothers and sisters..."

And no one had listened to him. One civil war among the brats and they had torn the house apart, burned down the kitchen and the storehouse (the grain-producing region of the eastern Holy Spirit Plains), and forced the Xuanyuan Sect, at seven hundred years of age, to climb out of bed and put out the fire...

The two dukes instinctively looked at Gao Yang, and at the same moment both felt that this founding hero truly had it hard.

Gao Yang noticed the shift in their eyes and was gratified that his efforts to guide and remake these two old aristocrats were yielding decent results. But soon he felt that something in their gazes was not quite right...

......

At the same moment, within the Shadow Realm, in the deepest recesses of the Fortress of Defiance.

In the dark, chaotic void, boulders and islands great and small drifted, forming a shattered earth. A vast expanse of ancient warship wreckage, faintly glowing, encircled the corpse of a giant deer that radiated white light. In that space of seemingly eternal silence, the giant deer Amorn's eyes were slightly open, and in his crystal eyes were mirrored scenes flashing past one after another:

A train clad in steel armor and shields raced along the rails, and the enraged artificial god pursued it relentlessly.

Mortal artillery positions unleashed full fire, bombarding the divine abominations and divine calamities charging the line.

Rain poured in torrents. Spatial rifts opened in the thick clouds, and indescribable alien limbs hung down from the sky, tearing at the giant deer's corpse and feasting gluttonously at the banquet.