The old man laughed happily, his smile filled with relief and hope, without a trace of gloom. Yet Hao Ren and the others could not understand where his sense of ease came from at all. Vivian stared into the old man's eyes to confirm that he was in his right mind. "You... really know what state they're in right now? They may still be speaking the ancient language, and perhaps they still retain most of the writing from back then, but aside from that, they know nothing. They have no history, no culture, and no traditions. The transmission of civilization has long been severed—pardon my bluntness, but these people are merely living ignorantly in these ruins."
Vivian had shown no courtesy whatsoever when she said this. She had witnessed the rise and fall of dynasties and the survival or extinction of races countless times, and at this moment, she was merely stating the facts as an observer. The old man, however, remained unmoved. He simply listened in silence until Vivian finished, his sparse, messy white hair drifting slowly in the breeze. "Do you know? I once imagined an even worse situation."
He turned his head and looked at the restless crowd below.
"I once had to face a group of children. Only a very few were over ten years old; most were between three and nine. They knew only the basic necessities of life. The older children could take care of themselves and read and write, while the younger ones had just learned to feed themselves. My mission back then was to lead such a group of children in rebuilding an entire civilization—a burden so heavy it was almost despairing, but I still accepted it gladly. And these people... they are still better than children."
"Their thinking is rigid, their