Chapter 965 — The Ancient God-Calamity and the Pathfinders

"Unlike the 'mad gods' you know of, who go insane from crossing some critical threshold, the gods of that age completed their bloody transformation in full lucidity. They did not lose control; rather, the current of thought from the mortal world adjusted the authority of all the gods, letting them wield the authority of slaughter 'lawfully.' And these lucid, bloody gods were more terrible than any mad god."

"Was Talund affected at the time as well? What were the dragons doing?" Gaoyang finally could not hold back the question.

"Before a global shift in the collective current, no one can keep themselves untouched unless they seal off their people from the very start, take part in no international affairs, and let their populace know nothing of any change in the outside world," the Dragon God said in a heavy voice. "Talund was affected too—the dragons were drawn into wars, and more than once. When the gods worshipped by other races slid into dark savagery, that bloodthirsty impulse spread like a plague to Talund, into the dragons' own system of faith, and began to influence the gods of Talund.

"But Talund's situation was far better than elsewhere. After all, it lies in the Arctic region; only dragons of formidable innate power could survive comfortably in Talund, whose environment was not yet so hospitable then. That natural geographic isolation kept the chaos of the rest of the world from spreading here swiftly, and it bought the sages among the dragons time to think and to act.

"Once they realized that something had gone wrong with the whole world, the dragons began to devise countermeasures. And thanks to the relatively high level of civilization and understanding of the world the dragon race then possessed, the scholars succeeded in finding the root of the problem—and even, by analyzing the clues within a whole series of anomalies across the world, deduced certain laws concerning the gods. For instance, they came to realize that it was the current of mortal thought that was influencing the judgment of the gods.

"And so the Senate of Talund in those days reached a decision—a 'decision of self-preservation' whose fortune or misfortune no one could yet tell..."

Gaoyang felt his own emotions rising and falling with the Dragon God's account, and the moment she paused he could not help asking: "What decision?"

"To seal off Talund, to cease concerning itself with the affairs of the world, and then—to purify anew and stabilize the dragons' 'orthodox system of faith.'"

At those words, a vague and troubling premonition stirred in Gaoyang's heart.

The Dragon God went on: "...At the time, no dragon had any notion of the chain binding gods and mortals together, nor had anyone imagined that the gods might in some sense set themselves wholly against civilization. Even as the whole world worsened under the gods' bloodlust, the first thought of the dragons was to 'repair' their own system of faith, not to cast off the traditions and beliefs they had held for tens of thousands of years. So they drew up a vast and orderly plan to strengthen their faith, whose core was... to have the members of their race worship the traditional gods once more in the 'correct' way, and to restore the gods 'to their proper place.'

"Great numbers of temples were repaired or rebuilt, ancient texts were revised and expanded once again, the members of the race took up anew those old precepts that were then in steady decline, and Talund closed every passage to the outside. It was as though the whole outer world had ceased to exist; the dragons were wholly absorbed in a 'communal cultivation' of reconstructing and repairing their own spiritual world... and this went on for many years."

"Utterly finished," Gaohang could not help pressing a hand to his brow with a long sigh. "I think I understand now why the dragons were left behind..."

The Dragon God nodded. "Yes. Looking at it now, this plan to reconstruct the faith produced dreadful aftereffects—yet no one knew it at the time, and as things appeared then... the plan to reconstruct the faith did indeed work.

"The dragons' gods, who had already begun to undergo strange changes, did indeed quickly stabilize; the spiritual deterioration of the race's members and the phenomena of malign spiritual illumination were swiftly checked, and Talund soon became safe again. These were changes plain to see.

"But in the world beyond Talund, everything had turned into a purgatory. The entire planet was steeped in an endless round of slaughter and sacrifice; wars without any bottom line and fields of bloody battle were to be seen everywhere..."

"...No one can foresee fate in advance; even the history that has already happened often seems, to those who come after, to lie beyond all reason," Gaoyang shook his head. "And then what happened?"

"And then... the Wayfarers appeared," the Dragon God said in a low voice, "coming from the depths of the cosmos, they changed the fate of the entire world."

He paused briefly, lifted the cup from the table, took a small sip, and only then continued.

"The Wayfarers... they are a civilization steeped in mystery. They call themselves mortals, yet they seem entirely untouched by the 'Divine Chains.' They believe in none of the gods of this world, and no god of this world can shake the mind of even the most ordinary among them. I do not know whether they found a way to break free of those shackles, or whether they possess some inherent peculiarity.

"Many, many years ago, the Wayfarers broke free of the bonds of their homeworld and became a civilization that travels freely through the cosmos. They migrate and explore from star system to star system, seemingly determined to tread every corner of the universe, or perhaps searching for something within it. And in their travels, they are often drawn to planets inhabited by intelligent races. They pause briefly on such worlds and... take great delight in helping the intelligent beings there to break the chains that bind them to their gods."

"Take great delight in helping the locals break the chains between themselves and their gods?" Gao Cen was taken aback. "What kind of hobby is that..."

"Unfortunately, no one knows why the Wayfarers do this... They seem to harbor some fixation, doing similar things ever since they first set out," the Dragon God said, recalling as he spoke. "By their own account, our planet was not on their original route. It was the intense 'disordered background pulse' that erupted suddenly from this world that caught their attention and drew them here."

What happened after that, Gao Yang could piece together completely, even without the Dragon God saying it.

(End of Chapter)