The Hero's Twilight

Xu Zhi returned to the house, went into the kitchen, and started boiling water. He was thirsty and wanted a cup of tea.

The seeds of civilization had already been sown.

This Insect Ape, covered in thick body hair and built more like a Westerner, was named Gilgamesh, after the king from Western mythology. It was clear how high Xu Zhi's hopes for him were.

Xu Zhi had even given him the White Ant Gene, the second gene that the Insect Apes had been unable to accept during their test-tube stage. His expectations were clearly immense.

Whether he could truly rise to prominence would depend on himself.

After that, Xu Zhi was quite at ease. He sat cross-legged at the entrance of his house, watching the various sights in the yard. "I cleared a hundred mu of land to build the Sand Table, but there are still over ten mu of scraps around the edges. Should I clear the weeds there too?"

Xu Zhi thought about it and immediately got to work, though he had yet to figure out what to do with the remaining land.

Knock, knock, knock! Before long, someone knocked on the door.

Bare-chested, Xu Zhi put down his hoe and opened the door. Outside stood Chen Xi, carrying a pile of food and peering wildly into the yard with curiosity. "Huh? You're tilling the land?"

"Yeah, just getting some practice and exercising." Xu Zhi picked up a towel and wiped away his sweat. She could not see anything inside the Sand Table and merely thought he was farming.

"Shocking! Who would have thought that a top graduate working for a foreign company would quit a high-paying job with an annual salary of over a hundred thousand, return home with a terminal illness, and start farming?"

Chen Xi scratched her head. Seeing Xu Zhi's perfectly proportioned upper body and sharply defined muscles, her face reddened. She silently cursed him for definitely using some kind of photo-editing cheat. "Brother Xu Zhi, I'll leave the food here! Um, do you need help? I help my mom plant rice seedlings at home too. Your orchard has been abandoned for ages, right? Your orchard is over a hundred mu, isn't it? You're such a big landowner. You can't possibly manage it alone now!"

"No need."

Xu Zhi chuckled. "Can't help it. The yard is huge, so I'm just reclaiming a patch of land to plant some interesting seeds. Maybe they'll bloom into flowers dazzling enough to make people marvel."

"—Oh." Chen Xi breathed out curiously, then patted her chest in assurance. "Then farm properly! Just tell me whatever you want to eat! Auntie Li and I will make it for you!"

Then she skipped away.

Before leaving, she secretly added one more sentence, landing a Critical Strike on Xu Zhi. "You were so listless before, but suddenly you're glowing with health and even grew hair. It must be a final burst before death. You probably won't live for many more days. Before you die, I have to take good care of you."

Huh?? Growing hair meant I was going to die?

"Damn it, is she treating this meal as my last supper? That girl is insulting me too much. I'm only in the middle stage of Stomach Cancer." Xu Zhi glared angrily at her and casually opened the lunchbox.

Inside was a carefully prepared little meal.

Fried eggs, carrots, stir-fried greens with meat—simple, homely food. He swallowed a huge mouthful and immediately felt his mouth fill with fresh fragrance. It was unbelievably satisfying.

The taste of home! Delicious!

Zhen Xiang!

"That girl is really a great cook. Maybe I'm already a dead man, so she should take good care of a dying cancer patient like me and bring me delicious food every day."

Cancer patients needed to pay attention to their diet, especially those with Stomach Cancer. Food this delicious and nutritious made him feel wonderful. He sprawled in the recliner in the yard and did not even want to move.

After resting for a while, he began doing some chores and cleared out parts of the orchard along the way.

After finishing the farm work in the yard, he was covered in mud. He began washing clothes, wringing them dry, and hanging each garment and pair of underwear on the line in the yard. "Right, I should go into town and get a washing machine sometime."

The next day, that round-faced girl Chen Xi became addicted to delivering lunchboxes.

But Xu Zhi accepted every meal she brought despite her pitying attitude toward him as a terminally ill patient.

He stayed home tilling the land while someone brought him delicious food and took care of him, a dying terminal patient. It made him feel that the world was full of love. Was there an even more pleasant pastoral farming life than this?

There was not.

Picking chrysanthemums beneath the eastern hedge, I gazed leisurely upon the southern mountain.

Tilling fields, planting crops, living an idyllic and quiet life on the farm—he was beginning to feel the atmosphere of a secluded recluse.

This single day was brief for Xu Zhi, no more than three meals and a night's sleep. But in the Sand Table, a long time had passed—an entire century. For the Insect Apes, whose average lifespan was forty or fifty years, two generations had already reproduced.

Now that two generations had passed, had that young Insect Ape who had received the Torch of civilization died of old age?

He had not.

He gave Xu Zhi a tremendous surprise.

Xu Zhi clearly recorded the progress of their civilization.

In the ten years after Xu Zhi left, Gilgamesh led the Insect Apes onward as they continued fleeing.

He marveled that the world possessed such miraculous kindling. Fire could cook food, drive Giant Beasts away at night, and provide warmth in cold nights to maintain body temperature.

The use of fire marked the origin of civilization.

Meanwhile, the Damocles Sword left behind in this primordial giant forest was an invincible weapon. Using its sharpness, Gilgamesh slew countless Dora Giant Beasts resembling the pathetic egg-stealing dinosaurs, allowing his people to barely survive and begin resisting.

In the second decade.

Gilgamesh cast aside his youth and entered his thirties.

He became majestic and towering, leading the tribe as the strongest hunter among the Insect Apes. The people of the tribe called him the Hero King.

He even used fire to burn the land and make it fertile, beginning cultivation and a crude agricultural life.

He was arrogant, overbearing, and tyrannical, seeing himself as supreme above all. The Wisdom Giant Beast had placed civilization's three treasures into his hands, and he clearly understood that civilization was the inheritance of knowledge and history. Thus, he boldly created Cuneiform Script to record the history of his race and innovated their language.

He believed himself to be the first intelligent species to establish a civilized world. He recorded in books the history of how he created civilization, praised himself in song, and shamelessly named it "Genesis."

He was brutal, despotic, and authoritarian, yet possessed immense personal charisma.

Within the tribe, he had one hundred and thirty-one beautiful wives who bore his descendants. Most of his offspring were strong and powerful, inheriting his imposing physique and intelligence.

But the Insect Apes only lived thirty or forty years. At this point, Gilgamesh was already in his thirties.

This Despotic Hero had reached the end of his race's lifespan. He entered his old age, and the bold, rugged Hero King who had once wielded the Damocles Sword was now approaching the decline of his life.

Inside a treehouse built from wood, flames roared in the fireplace, radiating waves of heat.

"That is the flame of civilization bestowed upon me by the Wisdom Giant Beast. It is so beautiful and dazzling, like leaping crimson flower stamens."

Gilgamesh sat quietly in a massive chair woven from Ala Giant Beast fur, gazing into the flames with deep, distant eyes. His entire imposing body had become old and sluggish. He turned to look at the Giant Beast heads hanging on the wall.

The skulls of various Giant Beasts were savage, defiant, and powerful, enough to make one tremble. These once-unrivaled savage Giant Beasts had all been conquered by him one by one.

The entire wall seemed to record the glorious battles of his life.

His life had been glorious enough, dazzling enough.

He had fulfilled the dream of his youth.

He was satisfied.

"The next tribal leader has already been chosen: my son, Kish of Aga. His abilities are no less than mine. He can lead the entire tribe, confront the Giant Beasts, and continue our glory."

Gilgamesh could clearly feel his life gradually nearing its end. Death was unavoidable for all living beings, and he had almost resigned himself to it. He silently took out the Blood of Power from back then and sighed. "There are no more concerns left. The Wisdom Giant Beast said that only the bravest warrior in the world can consume it. If one cannot endure it, one dies. If one survives, one gains incomparable power."

"Am I the bravest warrior in the world?"

"Then let me find out!!" In the twilight of his heroic life, his clouded eyes froze slightly. In a daze, he recalled the glorious years of his life and suddenly began to cry. He silently pierced his arm and poured the Blood of Power into the wound.

Pain! Unbearable pain!!!!! Gilgamesh struggled.

The aged hero collapsed to the ground. Though he had experienced countless battles throughout his life, he had never suffered such agony. He rolled violently on the floor, gasping for breath.

In the end, he survived death and rose to his feet. The thick black hair covering his body gradually receded, revealing firm abdominal muscles across his chest. The dense black hair on his face faded as well, exposing a perfect face like that of a god.

He was no longer grayish-black. His body became that of a white-furred Insect Ape sapiens.

His skin was delicate and crystalline, translucent like a white ant. He looked like a snow giant walking out of a blizzard, his muscles possessing the golden proportions of a Greek sculpture and the streamlined beauty of overwhelming impact.

"This power is..."

This burly, white-furred young man slowly stood up. "The Blood of Power. What an immensely great power."

Crack.

With a slight squeeze of the sturdy bone armrest, he instantly crushed it to powder.

At that moment, Gilgamesh's son, Kish of Aga, stood on high ground within the tribe. He raised the Damocles Sword high and announced that he would inherit the position of the next leader.

Kish of Aga was wise, mighty, talented, and virtuous. Compared to his violent and arrogant father, he was more like a qualified and benevolent leader. Gilgamesh understood this as well, which was why he had been willing to hand over his position in his old age rather than let the tribal civilization he had built with his people be destroyed.

But now, things were different—completely different.

Although the kind and beloved Kish of Aga respected his father deeply and had never considered taking his position, Gilgamesh would not allow even the slightest hidden danger to exist.

"I have returned. The position of leader is still mine."

That day, blood was spilled and cries of anguish rang through the Sumerian Tribe. The Hero King Gilgamesh murdered his son, reclaimed the position of leader, and lived a second life.