The Beastmen had entered the Bronze Age and the city-state era, while humans remained ignorant and uncivilized. The wars and annexations between the Beastmen grew increasingly fierce, and the cultural clashes and exchanges among the different tribes kept sparking the flames of civilization. The first Beast King of Saga City had been a member of the Rat-kin, but by the fourth generation, the throne had passed to the Tiger Race.
After that, the Dog Race and the Minotaurs each took their turn. The current Beast King was the twelfth, a member of the Wolf Race named Costa. In other places, the beginnings of several city-states had also appeared. The tribes were transitioning toward a city-state system, and the Beastmen's integration and annexation of one another had already begun!
This worried Lu Zhiyu. The Beastmen were developing too quickly, while humans remained ignorant, only just beginning to become civilized. Even their language was only just emerging, and they were still at the slash-and-burn stage. Lu Zhiyu feared that before humanity could develop, it would be wiped out by the Beastmen in the law of the jungle.
The New Humans Gene Template, which Lu Zhiyu had spent so much time and effort developing, might disappear before it even got started. That was not what he wanted. He wanted to push humanity's development forward himself. At the very least, the two sides needed to be evenly matched.
The human population had now reached one hundred thousand, but they rarely communicated with one another. With the southern part of the Alan Continent so prosperous, they were content with an ordinary life. To promote humanity's development, Lu Zhiyu had to address two things: external threats and internal unification.
The external threat had emerged as soon as the Beastmen and humans came into contact in the north and south. Friction between them was escalating, and as for internal unity, Lu Zhiyu decided to choose a Human King!--
The plains near the central region were known to humans as the Red River Plain. Located between the Heavenly Mountain Range and the Red River, it was covered with vast forests and fertile soil. Wild beasts roamed freely across the land, and the trees were laden with all kinds of fruit and food. It was a paradise for humans.
Round, felt-like thatched huts stood in rows at the foot of the mountain. A group of primitive humans, clad in animal skins and carrying their prey, had returned from afar to their settlement. Their leader was a human who had surpassed the limits of the body and awakened a genetic inheritance designed by Lu Zhiyu.
But paradise had now become Hell. A Beastmen army had surged out of the Heavenly Mountains and swept over the human settlement camped there. Though the leader had awakened the talent granted by his genetic inheritance, it was only the ability to stimulate adrenaline.
The Beastmen army that had attacked was from the most powerful tribe among the Beastmen: the Werewolves. The fierce Werewolves rode wolf-beasts and shouted in the Beastmen's Sophoc Language, which had first emerged among the Rat-kin. After centuries of refinement, it had finally become a highly developed language.
"Kill them all! This fertile plain belongs to us, not these beasts!"
"Kill these uncivilized swine!"
The battle was brutal. Armed with a stone axe, the tribal leader charged again and again. Once his adrenaline kicked in, his strength and reflexes surged, and he hacked one Beastman after another to the ground. But how could infantry stand against cavalry? One side wielded stone-tipped spears and wooden ones, while the other carried bronze swords and lances. After the wolf cavalry charged through the settlement several times, its people lay dead or dying.
The savage Beastmen spared neither women nor children. War between races was brutal and bloody. In the end, only the tribal leader remained. Exhausted, he died beneath the spears of the wolf cavalry!
As he lay dying, the tribal leader shouted in the newly formed, halting language of humanity, "You fiends! The gods will punish you!"
After completing their mission, the wolf cavalry scoured the battlefield and left. Before departing, they tossed down torches, setting the entire settlement ablaze. Then they rode away on their wolf-beasts, laughing wildly and arrogantly.
At that moment, a figure appeared beyond the settlement. He wore a gray linen cloak, a short shirt and trousers, and boots. In his hand was a silver staff carved with mysterious three-dimensional patterns. A white mask marked with a red sun covered his face.
It was Lu Zhiyu. He had just been searching for a target in the Space Castle and had not expected to witness this scene. He had immediately locked onto the location. Watching through the Universe Scroll, he had already thought the slaughter horrific; seeing it in person was even worse. The corpses and the smell of roasting flesh made him feel sick.
Yet Lu Zhiyu realized that beyond that, he felt little else. Was it because he felt no kinship with them, or was there some other reason? He walked toward the thatched hut in the center. It was already engulfed in flames, with thick black smoke billowing into the sky.
Lu Zhiyu raised his staff, and the space of a Dimensional Gate opened, linking to a distant river. A great torrent of water poured through the gate and completely extinguished the flames.
Lu Zhiyu had made the staff and engraved a guiding array for the Dimensional Gate onto it. That way, he only needed to channel his mental power into it to activate the gate instantly, without having to slowly draw the array. He could cast it in an instant.
Within the entire Crystal Wall System, Lu Zhiyu could open a Dimensional Gate anywhere he pleased and travel freely. It was the only spell involving mental power that he currently knew. The others, such as Mind Reading and modifying Gene Templates, were actually innate abilities of mental power, arising from the transmission of information.
Even at this stage, Lu Zhiyu's exploration of mental power remained extremely rudimentary. He had no idea what it really was, or what the soul was. Though he had never missed a day of meditation and his mental power continued to grow stronger, he still could not discover anything else. He had no goal or direction to guide him. And the Dimensional Gate was beyond his understanding; he could not make sense of the things it involved. He was doing well just to copy its appearance and make it work.
The water doused the flames, and immediately, a violent fit of coughing came from inside the thatched hut. Lu Zhiyu pushed aside the hut, which had nearly burned to the ground, and went inside. In a pit within, he found a human boy crawling out. The two stared at each other, eyes wide.
"Urumo, Moshika? (Who are you?)"
Lu Zhiyu had collected the Beastmen's Sophoc Language and writing, but he knew little about the language and writing humans had only just begun to develop, before they had formed a system. Still, that did not matter. Through his mental power, he could fully understand what the boy meant. Even his hostility and fear were plain to Lu Zhiyu.
"The gods sent me to find you, Akhenaten, future Human King!"
Lu Zhiyu held out his hand to Akhenaten. His mental power sent out information to guide Akhenaten into understanding him, while also making him feel interested in and close to Lu Zhiyu.
Akhenaten struggled to his feet, battered and disheveled. The mysterious figure before him seemed to bask in the radiance of the sun, as though divine white light emanated from his entire body.
"Sent by the gods? Are you a messenger of the Heavenly God? Akhenaten offers you his highest respect. Have you come to punish those wicked Beastmen?"
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