"Go with the Ape-man Tribe, but remember: keep your actions hidden instead of making them known. If you don't quite understand, you can study the materials I sent you on the myths and legends of ancient Earth." Huang Si instructed them.
Under Huang Si's arrangements, the three artificial intelligence teachers would henceforth become the Ape-man Tribe's hidden guardian deities, rather than their public divine mentors. If the ape-men didn't learn to survive independently out in the world, they would never grow up or become true humans.
Meanwhile, the Ape-man Tribe had finally managed to flee outside with their families in tow, and a new shift in power was taking place among them.
Shu Zi and the others had rendered outstanding service, enabling the entire tribe to escape, and they had earned everyone's respect.
Besides, Shu Zi had already been thinking of taking the opportunity to lead the whole tribe. Standing on a raised platform, it shouted down to the ape-men below.
Shu Zi said that the three Ancestral Deities were the true gods they should worship, while Hei Zi and his followers believed in false gods. Only the true gods could save them. Shu Zi would lead them in honoring the Ancestral Deities and surviving together in this new place. Anyone who wanted to follow Shu Zi should make it their tribe's leader and go with it.
Shu Zi had already earned a good deal of respect. On top of that, quite a few other ape-men had seen the Ancestral Deities help them break the stone tablet, so they believed what Shu Zi said.
More and more people began to follow Shu Zi, and most of the Ape-man Tribe's former moderates sided with it.
Shu Zi raised the wooden spear with a sharp stone lashed to it and shouted with its arm thrust high. Below the platform, thousands of ape-men responded with a roar. Standing before them, Shu Zi looked like a ruler wielding a scepter.
Far away, a venomous gaze watched them.
It belonged to Hei Zi.
Hei Zi had thought that escaping the Earth Realm would be its big chance to lead the ape-men. But the credit for finding a path and escaping ahead of everyone else couldn't compare to the immense favor of saving the whole tribe. Now the ape-men were either kneeling to thank the Ancestral Deities or gathered around Shu Zi.
As for Hei Zi, all it had left were a few dozen nobodies.
Hei Zi was furious. It hated that the deity who had once saved it hadn't come to help it again. It was the one truly chosen by the gods, while Shu Zi had merely seized an opportunity and stolen the spotlight. Why did Shu Zi deserve so many followers?
"The Ancestral Deities are afraid of the Heavenly God too! Haven't you noticed how they never want to talk about the Heavenly God?" Hei Zi roared. "Follow Shu Zi? Only fools would follow it. Didn't you see that half of the more than three hundred people who went with it this time died?"
It had completely forgotten that it had once ordered its own followers to die in its place, leaving it with hardly anyone by its side.
Hei Zi's words backfired. Even its blindly devoted followers began to show a trace of doubt.
After all, hundreds of them had followed Hei Zi at the beginning!
Seeing that it couldn't fool these followers, Hei Zi grew furious and shouted:
"Enough! You don't have to do anything. Just carry me!"
Whether they were Hei Zi, Shu Zi, or their respective followers, they all headed away from the Earth Realm.
They were now terrified of that place and wanted to get as far from it as possible.
They kept going until dusk. Most of the Ape-man Tribe was exhausted, so they stopped and made camp where they were.
As a leader, Shu Zi was extremely disciplined. It set an example by giving the best places to rest, such as caves and spots beside streams, to the tribe's injured. The many young ape-men following it did the same.
But even with good places to rest, many of the wounded ape-men remained in critical condition.
The injured and the old ape-men knelt on the ground, crying out in prayer to the Ancestral Deities.
As if by divine miracle, the three Ancestral Deities really did descend from the heavens in response to their prayers.
The Ancestral Deities brought out divine medicine and treated the wounded ape-men one by one. They also praised Shu Zi and the others for what they had done.
This further cemented Shu Zi and its companions' standing.
For a time, harmony filled the Ape-man Tribe.
The Ancestral Deities spent the entire night treating the wounded. They didn't finish until daybreak.
"From this day onward," said the Eastern God Emperor, Dong Yao, his voice ringing across the land, "we will return to the Heavenly Realm. We can no longer help you directly as we have until now. But the three of us will still protect you, the Human Race."
Xi Yuan and Li Huo also spoke to the ape-men in turn, then departed together.
The ape-men felt both worried and glad. They worried that the deities were returning to the Heavenly Realm and might not be able to help them often in the future. But they were glad that they were still a people under the deities' protection.
The ape-men chatted among themselves, then eventually went off to find places to rest. After all, most of them had stayed up all night watching the deities treat the wounded.
Shu Zi and Xiao Hua brought their child to an open space.
Xiao Hua had already cut a good deal of grass and woven the stalks into a simple bedroll.
They tidied up the open space and got ready to sleep.
But nearby, a pair of evil eyes was watching them.
Hei Zi had told its followers to find a way to carry it up into a tree. It had crouched there all night, finally waiting until the Ancestral Deities left.
In the space of that one night, almost everyone around it had run off to the place where the Ancestral Deities had descended.
Hei Zi was consumed by hatred as it waited for an opportunity.
Then, just as Shu Zi had lain down and Xiao Hua was tending to their child, Hei Zi pulled a weapon it had kept hidden for a long time from its clothes.
It was a gun. Before escaping the walls, it had seen the ape-men accidentally knock a small robot's weapon to the ground. It had secretly picked it up and hidden it away until now.
Hei Zi was quite clever. It had seen the small robot use the gun, so it had tried it itself. After wasting two bullets, Hei Zi learned how to fire it and confirmed that it was a remarkably powerful weapon, far superior to stone knives and axes.
Hei Zi raised the Long-barreled Gun and aimed at Shu Zi.
Its heart pounded with excitement. Kill the leader! Kill Shu Zi, and all the glory would belong to Hei Zi!
No—whether it was leadership or the gods' favor, hadn't Hei Zi always deserved them?
Hei Zi pulled the trigger.
The bullet cracked like thunder and sped away with a whistle.
The bullet wasn't actually traveling faster than sound, so Xiao Hua, who was sitting nearby caring for the child, heard the noise from the trees.
Her head was turned toward the bullet's path. She also saw a flash of fire in the trees, and the dark streak in its midst.
Almost instinctively, Xiao Hua twisted around and used her own body to block the unknown threat.
Xiao Hua gave a short cry, then looked down at her chest.
There was a hole there, a deep one.
Shu Zi heard an explosive crack, followed by its wife's cry for help. Only then did it realize something was wrong. It jumped to its feet and looked anxiously at Xiao Hua.
But Xiao Hua's body had already gone limp.
"Help! There's a monster in the woods killing people!" Shu Zi shouted, holding Xiao Hua.
The resting ape-men got to their feet and gathered around. They cautiously peered into the woods.
Hei Zi panicked and fired again, but this time it was so flustered that it hit nothing.
The shot frightened the ape-men somewhat, but when nothing else happened, they began to approach the woods again.
Xiao Hua's head was spinning. She saw the hole in her chest spilling blood and tried to cover it with her hand, but no matter what she did, she couldn't stop it.
Someone brought Shu Zi some of the medicine the Ancestral Deities had left behind. But no matter how Shu Zi pressed medicinal powder and pieces of cloth against Xiao Hua's wound, the bleeding wouldn't stop.
The destructive bullet had shot straight through Xiao Hua's body. As it spun, it tore a gaping hole right through her.
Xiao Hua's consciousness grew hazier. At first, her chest had hurt badly, but then the pain seemed to fade. Her whole body felt light, as if she were about to float away.
Am I going to die? Xiao Hua wondered. No. She didn't want to go. She couldn't bear to leave Shu Zi and their child.
Xiao Hua's hand groped desperately forward. Shu Zi hurriedly took it, but she still struggled to grasp something.
At last, Shu Zi understood. It picked up the crying child from the ground and placed it in Xiao Hua's arms.
Held by her husband, then cradling her child, Xiao Hua's expression finally grew peaceful.
She lay quietly in Shu Zi's arms and slowly closed her eyes, as if she had fallen asleep.
When the enraged ape-men finally dragged Hei Zi out of the woods, everyone despised it.
To the ape-men, Hei Zi's use of a monster's weapon against one of their own was an unforgivable crime.
A crowd beat and kicked Hei Zi, wishing they could kill it on the spot.
Hei Zi knew it probably wouldn't escape, but it wasn't willing to give up. Though its body was fat, its little eyes darted about.
Suddenly, while an old ape-man was standing too close, Hei Zi grabbed it and pressed the barrel of its gun against the old ape-man's neck.
"Let me go, or this old geezer is dead!" Hei Zi roared.
The old ape-man wasn't strong. Once Hei Zi had grabbed it, it was powerless to fight back.
The ape-men feared the gun's power and didn't dare approach. They looked back at Shu Zi, waiting for it to decide.
Holding Xiao Hua, Shu Zi said, "Let it go. We can't have any more people die."
So Hei Zi held the old ape-man hostage, threatening the others not to come closer. It slowly made its way to the edge of the camp, then abandoned its hostage and fled in blind panic.
Only then did the ape-men return to look after Shu Zi and Xiao Hua.
Shu Zi sat in silence, holding Xiao Hua. All kinds of medicine had been placed over her body, but none of it helped. Beneath them, blood had pooled into a lakelet.
A long, long time passed. Even after Xiao Hua's corpse had grown heavy, until Shu Zi could barely hold her anymore, it still clung to her and refused to let go.
A few ape-men tried to persuade Shu Zi, but then they saw it weeping.
The Ape-man Tribe's most promising young leader, who had never cried before, held its motionless family member and sobbed in silence.
Several kilometers away, in the Earth Realm.
After Hei Zi fired the gun, Huang Si sensed that something was wrong. He gazed toward the place where the Ape-man Tribe had made camp, then sent a message through the network to Dong Yao and the others: "Something's happened. Go check it out."
Although Huang Si's Mental Force Field could just barely cover that area when expanded to its maximum, he hadn't kept it at full range while in the Green World, since there had been no need.
When the first murder in the history of this Green World took place, Huang Si didn't sense it at first. It was Xiao Ke, monitoring the area through a network camera, who spotted someone using a firearm and immediately notified him. Only then did he realize something had happened.
His Mental Force Field descended in an instant, and Huang Si saw that Xiao Hua was on the brink of death.
His mental force could only destroy, while his Creation Power could only create. Neither had the ability to repair or alter anything.
Of course, if Huang Si wanted to, he could still try to save Xiao Hua with modern technology. It didn't matter that her body had been torn open; he could use his mental force to lift her and carry her into the Earth Realm, insert a breathing tube and circulatory machine through her neck to keep her brain functioning, then perform major surgery to replace her damaged internal organs with artificial ones. Later, he could use her genetic material to grow replacement organs, then transplant them once they were ready.
That way, he could save this ape-man.
But it would be meaningless.
Before you continue