The nights in the ark city were long, cold, and silent. Ever since the Ancestor's Great Furnace went out several years ago, the temperature in this enclosed space had continued to drop, while the lighting system had also been severely affected. People could only draw a tiny, limited amount of power from a few branch circuits to keep the lights on. Their entire "world" had thus fallen into darkness, as if trapped in an endless dusk.
But supposedly, things had not been like this in ancient times.
Scholar Auro carried a thick book with him. It was bound in something resembling synthetic fabric and was a massive handwritten manuscript. The scholar carefully spread it open and slowly said, "This is a precious thing. Only scholars who have studied in the Tower of Knowledge for more than ten years are qualified to copy the encyclopedia. It took me half a year to copy it down... Look, these illustrations record the glorious history of our ancestors..."
Hao Ren and Lily leaned over. They saw that the scenes depicted on the pages were incredibly varied. Sometimes a single page showed operating machines, electrical circuits, maps, and everyday objects all at once. Beneath the illustrations were many complicated annotations and personal markings. Hao Ren glanced at them and immediately felt dazzled. Most of the things shown were objects they saw every day, but perhaps because they had been passed down through generations of handwritten copies, with all sorts of errors creeping in, the contents of the pages were strange everywhere.
"Many, many years ago, there were days when winter never came," the scholar said slowly, stroking the pages. "The entire world flourished, untouched by any factors of distortion or destruction, and our ancestors lived in a prosperous, stable environment. The spirits of electricity were