The World Remained, but the People Had Changed

Beneath the setting sun.

The shattered tribe was already far behind them.

On a lush green hill, a tall tree stood alone on the heights.

Beneath the tree, three larger figures and one small figure stood together, gazing at the white clouds in the distance.

The tall, valiant figure suddenly lowered his head, looked at the little girl nestled beside him, and spoke softly.

"Your name is Filiya, is that right?"

"Yes, my lord."

The little girl, her cheeks washed clean, looked up to reveal a delicate, adorable face.

Her little hands clutched the hem of Jiang Yang's clothes, anticipation and reverence in her eyes.

"Where are your parents?"

"They're gone..."

"Would you like to come with me?"

"Of course, my lord. Filiya is willing to serve you for the rest of her life!"

Looking into the girl's sincere eyes, Jiang Yang's thoughts drifted, and he could not help remembering a day over a thousand years ago.

It had also been a dusk with a setting sun as red as blood.

A ruined city, collapsed high-rises, and blood blanketing the entire earth.

He stood atop the shattered walls, a longsword in hand and his clothes stained with blood, with the remains of countless monsters behind him.

A little girl with a tear-streaked face sat slumped amid the ruins, tightly clutching a bloodstained rag doll to her chest.

Her golden hair was a tangled mess, and her once spotless little white dress was in tatters. She looked utterly pitiful.

So he knelt on one knee and leaned closer.

"What's your name?"

"Ania. My name is Ania, big brother."

"Where are your mommy and daddy?"

"Dead... they're all dead..."

The little girl lowered her eyes, tears falling drop by drop.

"I'm sorry... then... would you like to come with me?"

"Ania would. You saved me, big brother. Ania trusts you."

"All right."

Time turned, and though the world remained, the people had changed.

Human Civilization had finally gained a moment to catch its breath, but the people of those days were already gone.

In the dusky sunlight, Jiang Yang looked at the little blonde girl before him. For some reason, her image overlapped with Ania's from back then.

"Filiya, let's go."

"Yes, my lord."

In the distance, an enormous lion beast with a pair of wings was slowly flying toward them.

"Poseidon, Apollo, guide Sphinx. We'll ride him to Olympus!"

"Great idea!"

"Agreed!"

The two gods jumped up happily, without the slightest sense of how gods ought to conduct themselves.

They had ridden planes and spacecraft before, but this was truly their first experience riding an Emperor-Rank behemoth.

News that the monstrous Sphinx, perpetrator of countless evils, had been subdued by a god called the Sword King soon spread in every direction from that tribe of Golden Humans.

The Golden Humans throughout the Olympian Region all learned that on Mount Olympus there was another incomparably great god-the Sword King!

He was greater than the Sun God and the Sea God. Before that sky-bearing sword, even the sun and the ocean had to lower themselves and show the utmost respect.

The proof of all this was the Sword in the Stone left behind by the Sword King. It was a divine weapon of supreme power, and it was also the Sword King's will.

Before this divine sword, anyone would involuntarily see a towering, majestic figure, his head holding up the heavens and his feet planted upon the earth, appear in their mind.

Later, relying on this, the tribe grew into the most powerful tribe in that region-the Sword Tribe. Until the world-destroying Great Flood erupted, they remained the uncrowned kings of that land.

Several days later.

High in the heavens, Sphinx beat his sky-blotting wings and soared among the clouds.

Atop Sphinx's enormous lion head, Jiang Yang stood proudly with his hands behind his back, looking down upon the sun, moon, mountains, and rivers!

Sphinx flew extremely fast. Fierce winds swept down from the sky, yet could not shake his body.

A transparent wind barrier rose before him, keeping the wind from buffeting the people riding on him.

This was a beast with emotional intelligence.

Poseidon and Apollo stood on the lion's head with excited expressions, looking at the boundless sea of clouds around them and the magnificent landscape below.

"Honestly, if we could stand on Sphinx's claws, we'd definitely get a clearer view."

The sudden fancy struck Apollo, and he blurted it out.

"Then why don't you go down and try?"

Poseidon looked at him speechlessly.

"Uh, never mind."

"Look ahead. We're at Mount Olympus!"

In the distance, a towering sacred mountain was already faintly visible amid the clouds.

Majestic and magnificent, it soared into the clouds.

That was Mount Olympus!

The hall of the gods!