Chapter 1333
Father Snake: My beloved children…
This was completely different from the aloof, indifferent, never-caring Father Snake that Eivass remembered.
The Father Snake Eivass saw at this moment was surprisingly gentle and affectionate!
After being discovered by Father Snake, Eivass was picked up and carried to a tall altar made of earth and stone.
The altar was square, with descending steps on all four sides, like a headless quadrangular pyramid.
As he was dropped in the center of the altar, Eivass briefly thought Father Snake was going to sacrifice him. But Eivass could sense Father Snake’s emotions and good intentions, so he suppressed the “sense of crisis” that kept warning him and chose to trust Father Snake.
“Your body is too weak, child,” Father Snake sighed and gently comforted him. “But it doesn’t matter. You won’t hurt anymore soon.”
As he spoke, Father Snake soared into the air again, performing an ancient and elegant Dragon Dance.
Scales and feathers gradually fell from the sky, melting into trails of purple radiance. They merged into Eivass’s body, and Eivass’s original form began to glow.
It was like a Pokémon evolution.
In that instant, Eivass had this thought.
His original body began to grow larger and taller. His snake tail swallowed his legs, becoming a long, golden tail. It didn’t look like a snake’s tail, but more like a fish’s tail. Eivass’s unremarkable black scales turned into coral-like colorful scales, and coral-like dragon horns grew on his head. His white-gold long hair became longer and longer, and translucent wings, like butterfly wings and glass, grew behind him.
When Eivass opened his eyes again—he felt reborn.
Abundant mana, clear thoughts, a strong body.
From a mortal who wasn’t even an Extraordinary, he almost instantly recovered to near his peak state. Except for the lack of Heavenly Envoy Fragments, this body even surpassed Eivass’s old body before he reshaped his Holy Body!
“Is this… an enlightenment?”
But—
“Why are you being so good to me?” Eivass couldn’t help but ask.
He remembered what Hengwo had told him—Fuxi would eventually surpass everything and SMASH the void. He should be a detached and emotionless god.
The reason Father Snake concealed his miracle before leaving was to gradually pass on his great deeds to Ai Shiping. This was to prevent the change of Pillar Gods from causing the mortal realm to suffer the same catastrophe as the fall of the Supreme Heaven. Thinking of this, Eivass suddenly froze.
That’s right—if Father Snake was an emotionless god, how could he care about the life and death of the Material Realm?
According to the knowledge in High-Tier Divine Arts, Father Snake disliked being summoned very much. To avoid people asking him for everything, Father Snake even made the Ritual Arts completely open-source—as long as the procedures and rules were correct, anyone could use the Ritual Arts without asking Father Snake for prayers or permission.
It was precisely because the Ritual Arts were completely open-source and gradually popularized that Father Snake gradually became the most unnecessary Pillar God to summon. This was because anything Father Snake could do could be done through rituals, and Father Snake would refuse most summons—although all Pillar Gods would reject summons, Father Snake’s rejection was the most intense, even directly destroying the summoning ritual itself.
So—could Father Snake actually be a gentle god?
“Because you are all my children,” Father Snake leaned closer, looking quite happy. “And you are the smartest among them. You have mastered language and learned rebellion—you were set in the sea, yet you could resist your instincts and head towards the land. This is good. You are most suited to lead them and come into contact with wisdom.”
At this close distance, Eivass could finally hear Father Snake’s voice clearly, not just with the divine echoes like the voice in the Shrine.
It was the clear voice of a middle-aged man, full of enthusiasm. It sounded reminiscent of glutinous rice wine, Longjing tea after rain, a wise scholar with long hair and a flowing robe, and a black and white Go board.
“Father Snake—” Eivass murmured, uttering Father Snake’s name. But the feeling of being genuinely cared for was like glue, gradually making Eivass sink. He was already irresistible to this kind of gentleness, let alone the fact that Father Snake was now giving him a new life without any cost, the first time they met.
“Father Snake? Ah—’Father of Snakes’?” To his surprise, Father Snake seemed quite interested in this name but also somewhat troubled. “Actually, besides snakes and fish, those winged birds are also considered my children. Yes—I am not just your father; you actually have some half-siblings you haven’t met.”
He said, looking a little lonely, “And most importantly, you were not born because of me. I only reawakened in this World after you were born. If we speak in terms of the order of descent, I might not be much older than you, child. It’s just that my blood flows within you—you are a part of me.”
…?
Eivass blinked, realizing something: Father Snake at this period didn’t seem to be called Father Snake yet.
“How should I address you, great Creator?” Eivass asked humbly and respectfully.
“My name is Fuxi. This appellation is not my race, but my personal name.” Father Snake taught him with infinite patience, like a kindergarten teacher carefully guiding a particularly intelligent child. “You must also have your own names. With a name, you can distinguish each other; by understanding language, you can truly touch the Truth.”
He said, and Father Snake eagerly leaned his head forward. “Shall I give you a name?”
“I—” Just as Eivass was about to politely refuse, he suddenly lost control of his body.
Or rather, he suddenly entered a CG.
“I have my own name,” said the newly reborn Feathered Serpent with beautiful scales and feathers. “My name is Ai Shiping.”
“—A good name, ‘Love the World, Peace for the World’—” Hearing this name, the Father Snake, who was not yet called Father Snake, praised Ai Shiping’s name while simultaneously falling into silence.
“You are also from another world,” Father Snake sighed. “Did Zarvan bring you here?”
“Zarvan?” Eivass remembered that seemed to be Candlemaster’s True Name.
“Or perhaps Nyar?” Father Snake tentatively asked.
—Who is that? Eivass was confused.
“It seems your arrival has nothing to do with them.” His confusion seemed to be conveyed to Father Snake, who smiled and replied, “But you will meet him eventually—Nyar’s full name is too long, so I gave him a new name, Kunpeng—”
“Do you know what the thing above your head is called? It’s called the Sun, also the Great Sun. It also has its own name, Taiyi. In fact, your true father and mother are—I just provided the prototype information. Your true creator is Taiyi, because he controls the Origin River of Creation, and this World was recreated by him.”
“Do you know, Ai Shiping—this World has already been destroyed once. I originally lived in the world before the destruction. Our technology was once very advanced; although we couldn’t travel to other parallel worlds, we could already explore the universe. Do you know what the universe is?”
“What was your original World like? I’ve never seen an Otherworlder as weak as you. Did you travel to this World on a Celestial Chariot? Zarvan told me that traveling between worlds usually requires transportation by a Celestial Chariot. Without one, you would get lost in the infinite worlds of the Dream Realm River and lose your way.”
“Nyar has reportedly been to many Worlds. I’m a little envious of him; I haven’t been to other Worlds yet. He said he likes to visit Worlds on the verge of destruction, to experience their demise or rebirth. I don’t quite understand his preference, but I choose to respect it. I used to like standing on Venus, feeling the Sun brush past me, feeling the arrival of destruction and rebirth. I think it should be a similar hobby—.”
“Tell me your story, okay? Do you also call the World beneath your feet Earth? What year was it in your time? What was the furthest star you ever touched?”
Father Snake seemed to have endless things to say. He didn’t even wait for “Ai Shiping” to reply, jumping from one topic to another—like someone holding their pet cat or dog, talking to themselves and mumbling. Father Snake had been lonely for too long, too long.
Compared to Hourglass’s dual nature—either archaic and solemn, or shrewd and cunning—Father Snake’s posture appeared more solemn and sacred, yet possessed a childlike enthusiasm.
But it was natural for him to have childlike innocence—Eivass soon learned from Father Snake that he was not as old psychologically as Eivass had imagined. Unlike his reliable adult voice, and unlike Hourglass, who was already an old man before turning into Sin Thorns. Fuxi, as one of the ultimate masterpieces of the previous civilization, the embodiment of refined runic technology, had only lived for a short sixteen years from his creation until his sealing as Sin Thorns.
But when he woke up, he found himself on a desert. Apart from Hourglass, everyone else was a stranger. Father Snake could no longer see anyone from his own era. Everything around him was filled with ignorant creatures, no more advanced than wild animals. Even with Hourglass, their races, ages, identities, and concepts were completely different—even opposite.
“—Aren’t you lonely?” Eivass murmured.
At the very moment he said this, he realized that the CG had ended at some unknown time. Hearing his words, Father Snake suddenly fell silent.
“Yes,” Father Snake sighed, slowly landing on the altar and lying down. His massive body was incomparably larger than Eivass’s. Eivass, from head to tail tip, couldn’t even reach half the length of Father Snake’s tail. At this moment, being coiled around by Father Snake and protected outside was like a tiny fish seedling.
“I really hope you grow up quickly,” Father Snake earnestly wished. “My beloved children—..”
