"As we go further back in time, the third-most recent 'Eternal Night' on the Xiazhou Continent occurred during the Zhu Ming period, in the 9th year of Hongzhi—Year 4185 of the Huang Calendar. That Eternal Night lasted only nine years, yet it still reduced the population from Siming Prefecture to Zhaoqing Prefecture to less than twenty percent of its former size." As Professor Li spoke, the holographic projection on the table changed accordingly.
"The Zhu Ming period?" Sun Hang paused slightly. He gently nudged Yang Qi with his elbow and asked in a very low voice, "I suddenly thought of something."
"What?" Yang Qi gave him a puzzled look.
"If my memory is right, hasn't the history of Anomalies only been a little over three hundred years? The Zhu Ming period was more than five hundred years ago, wasn't it?"
"'Anomaly' was the standardized term officially adopted only after the Xiazhou Federation was founded. In earlier history, some were called natural disasters, some ghost realms, and others evil spirits..." Yang Qi quietly explained to Sun Hang. "Whether official histories or unofficial folk accounts, ancient records were mostly vague about such things. For many records of suspected Anomalies, it's difficult to tell whether they were truly Anomalies or merely natural phenomena that ancient people could not explain with the scientific knowledge of their time... It was only in the last three hundred years, when Anomalies began invading human settlements frequently and on a massive scale, destroying countless human nations, that people realized... humanity was not the true 'master' of this planet at all."
Yang Qi paused for a moment before continuing, "That is also why official records of 'Anomalies' only began a little over three hundred years ago... But in reality, evidence of their existence can be traced as far back