A thousand years ago, Jiang Yang had transformed into a Great Sun of golden flame and plunged into Nidhogg's mouth.
As swift as lightning, he had passed straight through the serpent's neck and reached the heart.
Before Nidhogg's internal defenses could react, he had driven Gungnir into Nidhogg's heart.
As though triggering a volcanic eruption and shaking the stars until they burst, Gungnir had instantly unleashed world-destroying energy, shattering Nidhogg's heart and splitting his body apart.
Nidhogg's kilometer-long corpse and vast quantities of blood had scattered across the sky and into the endless ocean.
Under cover of the rain of blood filling the sky, Gungnir had carried Jiang Yang, along with the richest piece of flesh near the heart, down beneath the ice sheet.
Jiang Yang had also been gravely wounded. He had fallen into a deep sleep beneath the ice sheet and begun healing himself, nourished by Nidhogg's flesh and blood.
Only a thousand years later did he open his golden eyes and gradually awaken.
Over those thousand years, his body had long since healed completely. The bitter cold seemed to have frozen his thoughts, leaving him to recall who he was only slowly.
"I am Jiang Yang. Nidhogg... did he die? Did Human Civilization survive? And my Ania..."
His expression was cold and stern as he looked around and discovered that he was encased in ice.
He roused the strength throughout his body, and surging, domineering golden flames began burning around him.
The intense heat instantly melted the solid ice, opening a hole through the ice layer.
Soon, Jiang Yang became a human silhouette of golden flame and burst out of the ice!
He stood suspended above the Antarctic ice sheet and looked down, finding it completely clear, without a human or monster in sight.
"It seems the Nidhogg calamity has been quelled."
He felt a little comforted.
"Perhaps I should take a look at the world as it is now. I should also find them and ask how many years have passed since I was frozen."
With that, he launched himself forward and flew toward the Great Snowfield Shelter.
On his previous trips to Antarctica, he had always taken a spacecraft. Now he had to fly across the ocean, and even with his current strength, it would take Jiang Yang some time.
After crossing the ocean, he arrived above a land both familiar and unfamiliar.
The world was now peaceful and serene, with towering mountains and freely flowing rivers. Countless living things thrived and multiplied across the land, forming a beautiful scene brimming with life.
Earth had regained its former colors. The ruins of those cities were gradually being buried, too, and were close to disappearing.
There were already signs of human activity on the land. They lived scattered in tribes, with extremely tall, robust physiques and exceptional physical capabilities.
Looking down from high in the sky, Jiang Yang saw that even an ordinary person among them could leap several meters into the air.
Their numbers were considerable, too. A single tribe numbered a thousand, and Jiang Yang saw at least several tribes nearby.
"Is this the Human Civilization that developed anew? It seems a little different from what I imagined."
Jiang Yang spoke in puzzlement.
Shouldn't there be cities like the ones from before?
He descended from the sky to the ground and came before these humans.
The moment he appeared, he found that the humans hurried over upon seeing his arrival, knelt, and cried out.
"Lord God!"
"Which Lord God is it this time? It seems we've never seen him before."
Jiang Yang looked at the humans kneeling before him without speaking. He carefully studied their features and finally frowned.
All of them had golden hair and dark gold eyes, and their appearance differed greatly from that of the humans of the past.
For example, one of these humans' most striking characteristics was that every one of them had vertical pupils!
Their ears were all slightly pointed, too, making them look somewhat like humans who had reverted to an ancestral form.
This greatly puzzled Jiang Yang.
But Jiang Yang could understand everything they said. It was indeed the language of the humans from his time.
It seems I'll have to go back and get to the bottom of this.
He first gave the humans before him a gentle nod, then stepped into the air once more and flew toward the Refuge's location.
He left the New Humans behind in utter bewilderment.
"Why didn't the Lord God bring food when he appeared this time?"
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