Chapter 2 of the Chronicle of the True Human: Suiren Kindled Fire
Ever since Pangu brought strength to humanity, humans no longer feared those desolate beasts.
Among the humans who lived across the boundless earth, a few newborns possessed innate strength from birth. They could hold the dao marks between heaven and earth: some commanded flowing water, some commanded flames, some wielded spears that pierced the air, and some wielded swords that rang out. With them, humanity finally had the strength to contend with the desolate beasts, daring to expand their settlements ever farther and dwell in the wilderness for long stretches.
Yet darkness still shrouded this land.
Humans had only the daytime to hunt, gather, and cross mountains and ridges to learn the paths. Once night fell, everything was swallowed by pitch-black darkness. Even with their eyes open, people could not see their own fingers, let alone the way they had come or the way home. At night, there was no fire, no light, only bone-deep cold. People could only huddle up and endure the long chill. Beneath that shroud of darkness, humanity could not explore the earth, much less connect, one by one, the tribes scattered across it like stars across the sky and pieces across a chessboard.
And so humans could only survive in little clusters, huddled inside caves.
One night, a human named Sui sat at the mouth of a cave, gazing absently at the starlight filling the sky. He thought for a long, long time, three questions turning over and over in his heart:
Why could humans not survive in the darkness?
Why could humans not travel farther in the darkness?
Why did humans have to lock themselves inside fear whenever night fell?
He thought, I have to do something.
And so Sui stood up