The Matters of Coriel

Li Wei's expression was incredibly complex the moment he saw the giant face, shifting from initial bewilderment and shock to a final, head-scratching confusion.

This was because, despite his heart pounding with shock upon seeing the giant face, he felt no trace of the instinctive, bloodline-deep killing intent that drove dragons mad.

This alone was enough for Li Wei to doubt whether the behemoth before him was truly the Titan from his memories.

After all, during the Dawn Era, dragons and Titans had battled for a full thousand years for dominion over the entire land.

The hatred, piled up from countless mountains of corpses and seas of blood, was almost etched into their bloodlines and souls. It was even integrated into the soul inheritance of every newborn dragon, causing every dragon to uncontrollably feel the instinct and urge to grind Titans into dust upon seeing them! Even a dead one!

Actually, in the Coriel universe, Titans weren't originally called that. They were named --- Giants.

A name that was extremely simple and unadorned.

Therefore, according to the research of various scholars today, the imposing and majestic title of "Titan" was most likely a self-aggrandizing act by their descendants, the Dwarves.

According to the knowledge Li Wei obtained from his inheritance, in the beginning, a supreme god named Aeon arrived in this chaotic land devoid of matter and time. He directly defined the constants and rules of this place, then drew a circle like an eggshell. This was the embryonic form of the entire Coriel universe's crystal wall, later rumored to be named ---

[Kingdom of the Heavens]

Countless eons later, the fundamental essence of light and darkness intertwined gave birth to two goddesses: the Goddess of Light, Surun, and the Goddess of Darkness, Shar.

After their birth, they created the stars. The interplay of light and shadow also brought the initial warmth to the nascent Earth Mother Goddess, Shangdiya. Driven by instinct, she began to nurture various life forms on the land, but the vast majority perished for various reasons (later conspiracy theories attribute this to the machinations of the Goddess of Darkness, Shar.)

It's worth mentioning that the first Goddess of Magic, Mithriel, was born from these two goddesses during a conflict arising from their differing ideologies (Surun tore off her own magical essence and hurled it at Shar, then...)

When Li Wei first read this part, he was also bewildered for a long time, realizing that not only was lesbian love infinitely good, but it could also give birth.

And it wasn't just Mithriel; many ancient deities were also born from the divine essence of the two goddesses during their quarrels.

Getting back to the point, on a super-continent named Meru Robros on a certain celestial body (material plane), thirty-seven thousand years ago, this excessively large and arid continent was slowly drifted and split into several pieces by the Earth Mother Goddess Shangdiya using her Divine Power over an unknown number of years. The influx of oceanic moisture began to make this originally arid and barren land suitable for life.

This action also attracted the expectant gazes of those ancient deities.

They even directly named this vibrant plane Coriel, meaning the primary material world, showing the great hopes the creators placed upon it.

In the initial era of chaotic thunder, a civilization composed of Lizardfolk rose on the land, only to vanish amidst war, meteorites, and plague.

After an unknown period, two powerful races finally emerged on the continent: the primordial Dragons and Giants.

This period is historically known as --- the Dawn Era.

In the early Dawn Era, Dragons, naturally attuned to the elements and possessing tough hides, held an absolute advantage. With their wings, they dominated the land, sky, and sea, establishing the once-flourishing Dragon Empire.

However, nothing can escape the fate of decline after reaching its peak. Taking advantage of the internal strife and power struggles within the Dragon Empire, the Giants, who had been suppressed, sacrificed to their god --- Father of All Angn. They prayed for some assistance.

Angn, constrained by the deterrence of the Goddess of Darkness Shar and the agreements among the gods, dared not easily interfere in the disputes of the land's inhabitants. But just because direct interference was forbidden, couldn't he "interfere" in other ways?

Thus, this god with peculiar tastes secretly favored a low-ranking demigod Giant, and through a single union, eight descendants possessing divine nature were born.

Led by eight Divine Descendants, the giants also established their own Giant Empire. Taking advantage of the dragons' preoccupation with internal power struggles and their lack of focus on ruling, they swiftly occupied the continental fringes.

In Li Wei's opinion, these Divine Descendant giants were indeed intelligent, even understanding the classic tactic of surrounding the continent with wilderness. It was just a shame they were a bit unlucky.

Only at this moment did the dragons finally begin to take this opponent, whom they had always overlooked, seriously. By the time they realized this, the dragons had already lost their original significant advantage.

Thus, the dragons and giants commenced their thousand-year blood feud. Savage and chaotic elements ravaged all continents, and countless races enslaved by them also suffered heavy casualties. Civilizations caught in the war zones were utterly destroyed.

This conflict would later be known as the War of a Thousand Years!

While the dragons and giants were locked in a mutually destructive struggle, a group of pointy-eared beings, whose home plane was facing imminent destruction, located this war-torn continent through divination magic and infiltrated it via a Portal.

They were ancestors of all elves on the Coriel Continent in later ages, the Golden Elves and the Silver Elves.

To establish their own legitimate lineage, the Golden Elves and Silver Elves chose to merge with the Green Elves, who already had legal residency in the land, thus giving birth to the Sun Elves and Moon Elves.

However, the newly settled elves were immediately captured by the dragons. The dragons' ability to appreciate the unique beauty of every race led these elves to become slaves, and they were quite content for a long time.

It was also the era when the magical creatures known as Elf Dragons were born in the greatest numbers, a dark history that later elves would strive to bury.

As time passed, these unfortunate elves, taking advantage of the war between the dragons and giants, let out a world-shattering cry:

"Destroy dragon tyranny! The world belongs to us!"

Much like the Qin Empire in Li Wei's previous life, a single phrase, "Are kings and nobles born, or made?" could shake the foundations of a vast empire.

The various races of the continent, already worn down and near death from the constant turmoil of the thousand-year blood feud, under the leadership of these half-outsider elves, launched the First Biological Uprising of the Coriel World.

The Dragon Empire's millennia-long rule crumbled.

At least, very few enslaved races were willing to fight for the dragons anymore.

The elves, taking advantage of the chaotic era where "the deer is lost, and all tribes chase it," established their first base, Larissan.

Using the dark magic they brought from another world—Magic Enchantment—they forged Larissan into a formidable city, standing in defiance of the declining dragons.

Until they discovered the God-Slaying Star that drove dragons into a frenzy. A malevolent Mad Dragon Enchantment directly turned the dragons into insane imbeciles, forcing them to retreat from the center stage.

Having thoroughly defeated and overthrown the dragon rule, the elves then turned their attention to their former allies in the fight against the dragons, the Orcs and Giants, and defeated them one by one in their bid for continental dominance.

After these three wars, the elves finally established their position among the continental races. Their relatively peaceful rule and conciliatory methods, compared to the dragons, earned them the support of other races.

The Sun Elves created Obsidian, a city of art renowned for its music and dance.

And the Moon Elves established Salalion on the coast, which subsequently became the world's center of trade.

This era is historically known as the First Flourishing.

Humans were also one of the races that gradually rose to prominence under the elves' gentle rule.

But the elves couldn't escape the fate of decline after reaching their peak, though their decline was different from that of the dragons.

During the elves' most prosperous period, they gathered hundreds of the most powerful mages in the center of the continent of Coriel, attempting to create a High Magic to forge an Elf Homeland that would no longer be troubled by the Mana Tide.

But they ultimately overestimated their abilities and underestimated the power of such a grand High Magic.

During the casting process, they lost control.

A world-destroying explosion nearly tore the continent of Coriel apart, and the terrifying Mana Tide also affected more than half of the continent. Hundreds of Elf Cities were destroyed, and countless elves perished in this disaster.

Plunged into grief, madness, and despair, the elves, blaming each other, eventually erupted into a severe civil war that engulfed the entire continent.

This civil war occurred five times in total, consuming the time of four elven generations.

Later generations also called it the Crown Civil War.

With the end of the Crown Civil War, the elves' foundations were completely depleted.

At this point, humanity began to rise.

This was the roughly complete history of Coriel that Li Wei inherited from the dragons' knowledge.

So the problem arises:

'This thing in front of me doesn't look like a Titan. Who has ever seen a Titan equipped with Alloy Armor? Those three orcs encountered Mental Erosion, and what about the Beast Tide in recent years?'

As Li Wei's thoughts hit a dead end, a term from a certain existence he found in his Soul Space flashed into his mind.

Li Wei's pupils shrank to the size of a needle point. 'Holy crap, could it be that thing? That's way more troublesome than the Titan issue.'

He decisively said to the confidants behind him:

"Huozi, immediately have the Gnolls blockade this place. This thing cannot be moved for now!"

"Yes!" Huozi didn't hesitate at all.

"Tiger, have people establish a defensive line at the 13th mining layer later! I am determined to have this place!"

"Yes!" Tiger was filled with doubt, but quickly accepted the order.

Li Wei surveyed everyone. "Also, I need you all to swear a River Styx blood oath here! This place must never be leaked!"

His gaze fell back to the cold Giant Face, thinking of the most terrifying possibility, and muttered:

"If it's ever exposed, even the gods currently seated in their divine kingdoms would go mad for it..."

It took a lot of time to check the information, a bit late. Thanks to [xiaotang246] and [Yi Liuliu] for their hundred rewards.