Escaping the Cradle

In a shadowy corner of a laboratory, a dozen or so ape-men argued heatedly.

At last, one young, muscular ape-man stood up, waving its arms and shouting loudly.

The ape-men around it gathered excitedly and copied its gestures, thrusting out their hands and shaking them vigorously.

They made a gesture at their wrists, then scattered.

That night, countless ape-men managed to stain strips of cloth red with their own blood and tie them around their wrists.

A great storm was brewing.

Elsewhere in the Cultivation Department, however, all was song and dance.

An ape-man named Hei Zi lounged comfortably on a cushion. He was fat, and most of the fur on his face and head had fallen out, making him look even more bloated and corpulent.

Several wooden fruit trays sat around Hei Zi, laden with fruit.

Two young female apes sat beside him. He draped an arm around each of them and had them peel fruit and feed it to him.

A little farther away, dozens of ape-men had gathered.

They had come to ask Hei Zi for help.

"I've told you already! Listen to the gods! They'll protect you! Don't even think about defying them!"

Hei Zi raised a fat arm and bellowed.

"Only half of you will die! Stick with me, and you'll be among the half that lives!"

With nowhere else to turn, the dozens of ape-men could only believe Hei Zi if they wanted to stay alive.

Following Hei Zi's instructions, they knelt and bowed toward the center of the Earth Realm, hoping to beg the so-called gods for a chance to survive.

Hei Zi stroked his chin. Truthfully, he didn't know why those above had ordered the killings, but he had to make sure he survived first.

He had plenty of loyal ape-men under his command. When the time came, he would use the gods' name to make them get him out.

He'd fill the gods' quota with his followers' corpses. Surely the gods would understand and spare him.

Many other ape-men searched everywhere for the Ancestral Deities. The Ancestral Deities had left them only one message:

"The gods will save you! Don't run around. Wait for now!"

Then the slaughter began.

The little robots herded the ape-men into the Detection Room, where they tested their physical and intellectual abilities, then killed the weak ones one by one.

The bloody carnage shocked the ape-men.

This was no longer the home they depended on for survival, and the little robots were no longer their caretakers.

Those monsters wanted to kill them!

The ape-men went berserk.

But the little robots controlled every switch in the Earth Realm Base, and the ape-men had no way to escape.

They leaped about frantically, howling.

"Don't panic. The Ancestral Deities said they're making preparations. They'll come help us, and then we can all charge out together."

The speaker was Shu Zi. Not long before, the three Ancestral Deities had gathered him and the other core members of the Anti-Divine Protection Faction—more than three hundred ape-men in all—and told them a message full of hope.

The Ancestral Deities had resolved to defy the Heavenly Dao for their sake and rescue them from its grasp.

So, under the Ancestral Deities' arrangements, the more than three hundred core members of the Anti-Divine Protection Faction had split into six groups, each stationed at the hub of one of the Cultivation Department's six zones.

Shu Zi was worried about Xiao Hua and their son, who had stayed in the residential area. But every ape-man beside him had given up looking after their own family for the sake of the escape plan.

They were all brave.

Suddenly, a deep, resonant voice rang throughout the entire base.

At the center of the Cultivation Department, three figures rose into the air amid a dazzling golden light: the Ancestral Deities.

They now wore the latest biological-mechanical prosthetic bodies. They felt almost exactly like human bodies, but their capabilities were extraordinary. They could fly, and their combat power was terrifying.

"Heavenly Dao, you shouldn't slaughter mortals. Today, I, Dong Yao—"

"Xi Yuan!"

"Li Huo!"

"As gods sworn to protect the Human Race, we will save the entire Human Race today!"

As their words rang out, the access doors throughout the Cultivation Department's laboratories clattered open, one after another.

The three Ancestral Deities called to the ape-men below:

"Quickly! Now's our chance!"

Shu Zi tightened his grip on the stone knife and shouted over his shoulder, "Follow me! Charge!"

The six groups, more than three hundred ape-men in all, rushed into the core hubs of the Cultivation Department's six zones while all the access doors were open.

Alarms blared throughout the Earth Realm Base.

"Warning! Warning! Internal base defense systems have failed!"

"Robot units, mobilize immediately and defend the base!"

At this tense moment, Hei Zi and countless other ordinary ape-men thought they had spotted a chance to escape.

They fled wildly in the direction they believed the exit lay.

But the ape-men didn't get far before they were stopped by a crowd of little robots armed with weapons.

Thousands of little robots stood in their way, carrying lasers, guns, knives, and saws.

Many ape-men couldn't stop their charge in time. They plunged headlong into the robots, and blood and flesh flew everywhere.

The horrific scene before them left the ape-men too terrified to advance.

Hei Zi, meanwhile, had already gathered hundreds of followers at a spot in the Cultivation Department nearest to the Earth Realm Base's outer wall.

Once the Ancestral Deities had opened all the access doors, Hei Zi hurriedly had four strong ape-men carry his cushion as he made for the outer edge of the base. Several hundred of his most devoted followers accompanied him.

He had been out and back before, so he knew the quickest route to escape.

Before long, Hei Zi and his group were nearly at the outer perimeter of the base.

But broad ranks of little robots still stood in their way.

Hei Zi knew the robots had come to kill. He gave the order without hesitation. "It's time to prove your loyalty to the gods! Charge! The gods are watching you. Defeat those monsters! The gods won't let you die!"

Some of the several hundred devoted followers hesitated, but a few ape-men were foolish enough to obey and charge forward.

Then came a one-sided slaughter.

Watching their companions die at the hands of the little robots, even the most fervent believers were shaken. But Hei Zi shouted from behind them:

"That's an illusion! It's a test from the gods! They aren't dead! The gods have taken them away to live the good life! Everyone, charge!"

"Charge!" the followers cried, rushing forward.

Meanwhile, Hei Zi had his followers carry him away along a small path he knew.

The four carriers hurried with Hei Zi down the path. The access door at its end had failed, too.

They passed through and found themselves facing a barren wilderness.

Hei Zi cackled madly.

"See? We made it out! Those who believe in the gods will be rewarded!"

His four carriers and the more quick-witted followers who had escaped with them were deeply convinced by Hei Zi's words now that they had finally made it out.

They gazed at the fat ape-man with adoration, as if he were a god descended to earth.

Inside the Earth Realm, in the Cultivation Department.

Shu Zi's group was assigned to Zone B. When he led his companions into its core hub, they found a vast room, about as tall as twenty ape-men standing on one another's shoulders.

A half-transparent stele stood in the corner, glowing with golden light from within.

This was the God's Stele the Ancestral Deities had told them about! Break it, and the monsters that killed people would stop moving!

But three or four dozen little robots were guarding the stele, too. Only half of them carried weapons, as if they had been hastily assembled to protect it.

An older male ape-man moved close to Shu Zi.

"Shu Zi, take some people and break the stele. The other old-timers and I will hold off the monsters!"

"That's right! Shu Zi, Luo Zi, you young ones—go break the stele!"

Another middle-aged ape-man called out with a laugh, weapon in hand.

"We're old and worn out. You're still young! You have to survive!"

Without needing to discuss it, the more than sixty ape-men split into two groups in an instant. The larger group raised their weapons and charged toward the little robots.

The little robots opened fire, but the ape-men used their weapons—and even their own bodies—to block every attack.

Shu Zi watched the familiar faces, watched their sturdy bodies spattered with blood before his eyes, and felt tears well up.

He and the other young ape-men didn't hesitate. They charged toward the stele.

"God's Stele, shatter!"

Stone knives, stone axes, and all kinds of other weapons struck the stele.

But they were immediately knocked back.

Not a single mark appeared on the transparent stele!

Ignoring the pain in their hands, Shu Zi and the others swung at the stele again with all their strength.

Once, twice, three times.

There was still no sign of it cracking!

How could this be? Shu Zi and the others were filled with despair. They had thought that if they could just break into the Heavenly Dao's core, as the Ancestral Deities had said, they could save their people. So why couldn't they break it?

The same thing was happening in the Cultivation Department's other five zones. Just as the ape-men were falling into despair, the Ancestral Deities suddenly acted.

Xi Yuan flashed into the air above Zone B.

She looked down at the blood-soaked core hub, a complicated expression passing through her eyes.

"Don't panic. Leave it to me."

Great Deity Xi Yuan raised her hand. A dazzling beam of yellow light shot from her palm into the transparent stele.

A dull rumble came from inside it. Then the light within the stele abruptly went out.

"Quick! Break the stele!" Great Deity Xi Yuan ordered.

Shu Zi and the others immediately surrounded it and struck with all their strength.

This time, it worked.

The stele gave a crisp cracking sound and began to crumble under the ape-men's assault!

As soon as she had helped them, Great Deity Xi Yuan hurried to the next zone.

The ape-men kept striking until the stele finally broke into a heap of fragments.

As soon as it shattered, the little robots that had still been moving all stopped.

"We did it!"

"We won!"

The ape-men wept with joy, then carried their injured companions out of the room one by one.

The little robots inside the Earth Realm stood motionless like clay figures. The ape-men found their families and friends, helped one another, and hurried away.

The three Ancestral Deities guarded them the entire way, until every ape-man had left the Earth Realm and reached the nearby wilderness and woods.

When Dong Yao, Xi Yuan, and Li Huo returned to the Earth Realm, Huang Si told them to come to the warehouse and collect some supplies.

By then, there were no living ape-men left inside the Earth Realm, so the little robots no longer had to pretend to be dead. Each picked up cleaning tools and began clearing away the aftermath of the battle.

When Dong Yao and the others entered the warehouse, they saw Huang Si there in his prosthetic body—a rare sight. He sat on a roof beam, crossing his legs as he watched the base.

When the three came inside, Huang Si pointed at the mountain of supplies. "Here. Medical kits for you. I knew you were worried about too many people dying, so I made a batch. They'll work for serious and minor injuries alike. The instructions are packed inside. Read them yourselves."

Dong Yao and the others thanked him gratefully.

Although many ape-men had died or been injured in this battle, and the Earth Realm was now littered with their corpses, Dong Yao and the others had been worried about the severely injured.

Xi Yuan had even suggested going to the Biology Department to ask their eight fellow researchers for help. They studied life sciences, so they were sure to know how to treat injuries.

Fortunately, Huang Si had already provided a solution.

Huang Si didn't mind that he had killed people and then saved them. To him, experimenting on animals, killing ape-men, or sparing them and rescuing them made little difference. They were all just part of a species' progress.

The stele, the little robots, the announcement, the slaughter—none of it was anything more than a staged performance.

Huang Si had simply used Creation Power to make six transparent steles, then asked the three artificial intelligences to play along. Finally, he used his own mental power to crush the steles. That was all.

The main goal had been to let the ape-man population in the Earth Realm return to nature.

But since the three artificial intelligences weren't keen on actually killing too many of them, Huang Si had gone along with it—and, as a bonus, made the ape-men deeply indebted to those three.