"It's been almost a year since you last left here, and I thought you had given up on your decision. ”

Meredith walked ahead, pushing away the bushes that stood in her way, and said, "Especially after I heard about the Children of the Gods...... Did you know that the northern nations are either fanatical about the rise of the gods or tremble under the iron hooves of tyrants. If you continue like this, it won't be long before you own the entire Northern Continent. ”

Todd looked at the dilapidated temple in front of him and said softly, "I never thought of giving up here, in this year, I just finished some of the things that I had to do. ”

"What you say sounds like a terminally ill person fulfilling an unfulfilled wish. ”

Meredith's words stunned Todd.

The latter was silent for a moment, then laughed: "It's really like." ”

Meredith glanced back at the man, turned his head, sighed lowly, and said no more.

The two of them walked to the high platform of the temple, where Skaha, the Queen of Shadows, was looking at the mountain peaks in the distance, and did not seem to notice the visiting guests.

Todd tried to speak, but Meredith stopped him, motioning for him to wait a moment.

A few minutes later, Skaha turned his gaze back from the distance to Todd's.

"There are more and more spirits in the sky. ”

Skaha's sudden words made Todd look up in confusion.

He transformed his eyes into golden pupils in the form of a tyrant and looked at the southern sky, where there was a thick layer of 'blue mist' that kept circulating.

Meredith frowned, "Those are the souls of the dead...... Souls don't come together unless someone is behind them. ”

Skaha came down the stone steps, came to the two of them, and said to Meredith, "Stand down first, I have something to ask him." ”

Looking at the purple-haired queen of shadows, standing in front of him, Todd was a little uneasy, always feeling that everything he had had been seen through by the other party.

"A human who is willing to be a monster for the sake of his fellow humans. There was an incomprehensible emotion in Skaha's words: "You have shown me that there is still hope in humanity." ”

Todd hesitated and said, "Actually, I ......"

Skaha continued: "But you may not know that you have chosen the most difficult path, Xia Shang......"

Hearing Skaha finally say that name in Chinese, Todd was stunned in place, at a loss, his brain was in chaos: "Do you know my name in the other world?!"

"It's not something to come up with. A name is meant to be a symbol, and it doesn't make sense what it's called. The point is, what's inside of you?"

Todd listened more and more confused: "Sorry, can you be more specific......?

Skaha closed his eyes and shook his head gently, "You've already seen Jingju, right?"

Todd was shocked again: "You don't even ...... about Jingsu"

"In addition to me, there is another creature who also knows about you and Jingju. ”

"Who?!"

"Leviathan. ”

Todd rubbed his temple vigorously with the index finger of his left hand, and made a pause with his right hand towards Skaha: "Wait! Wait! I'm completely confused! Who the hell are you?!"

With a wave of his hand, Skaha snapped out of the earth and grew into a "tree chair" in the blink of an eye.

Motioning for Todd to sit down, Skaha spoke, "Let's start from the beginning...... When the universe was still in chaos, Crystal created everything, including me and Leviathan. ”

Todd's eyes widened: "...... so"

"Yes, Leviathan and I were both the first beings created by the Crystal Suite, and we are also known as the Precursors, helping it to govern and oversee the world. Skaha looked at his palm and said, "Like Leviathan, I have had all kinds of names throughout my long history, Hekate, Sekel, and Geofein...... All of these identities have a single purpose, which is to help Crystal observe the creation of the world. ”

Todd gathered his thoughts for a moment and asked, "Precursors, the first creations of the Crystal Su, then, the two of you are not the only ones in this group?"

"Yes, but in the long years, some of the forerunners chose to exile themselves to the corners of the universe, and some of the forerunners chose to turn life into inorganic matter, and there are only a few individuals that really survive to this day, including Leviathan and me. ”

"I see...... I have a question that has been plagued for a long time, what is Jingju, or rather, what does Jingsu want to do?"

"I don't know much about that. All I know is that the Crystal Lodge created us, but above the Crystal Lodge, there is a group of higher level creators who created the Crystal Lodge. According to Jingsu, its creator has given it only one mission: to find out the optimal mode of existence of life. ”

Todd chewed on this passage over and over again and asked, "What is the optimal mode of existence of life?"

"I don't know. Jingsu once said that all creatures that are created are flawed. The optimal form of life should not be created, but should be formed naturally in the process of continuous evolution and evolution. How to discover the optimal model that is in line with the development of life is the mission given to it by the owner of Jingsu. As for why I did this, I don't know, even Jingsu itself doesn't know. ”

Todd rubbed his eyebrows and continued to ask, "Change the question, what is the matter with the god candidate that Jingsu said?"

Skaha replied, "The so-called candidate of the gods is actually a method of life selection. By judging the strength, evolution, and cognition of the individual, a race ruler is finally selected, and he is given slightly more abilities than ordinary individuals, and he is observed to see how he will improve the race. ”

Todd was a little skeptical: "Can this method really optimize life?"

"What happens in nature has proven everything, the survival of the fittest, the survival of the strong, and the way life is preferred. ”

Todd shrugged, "Well, even if that's the case, why are you suddenly telling me this today?"

Skaha said slowly, "The next thing I'm going to talk about is about racial differences. Once upon a time, the world's species were diverse, and humans were just one branch of it. ”

"In the tens of thousands of life selections that followed, human beings were able to materially assimilate other races with the speed of geometric research. This also makes them gradually stand out from the creation and become victors again and again. There was a sigh in Skaha's words: "But, unlike other races, the exclusivity of human nature is so serious that it is impossible to tolerate the existence of other races. In the war of God's chosen one after another, with the divine power of the winning candidate, human beings have repeatedly compressed the living space of other races, and finally pushed other races to the brink of extinction. ”

Seeing such a situation, as the first creation of Jingsu, the Forerunner, it was no longer possible to sit idly by. More and more individuals are proposing to Jingsu to rebalance the entire racial environment and restrain the power of human beings. However, the creator rejected the proposal. It believes that it is only in such a brutal competitive environment that the best life forms can be finally selected. ”

"More and more pioneers couldn't agree with Jingsu's approach and left the place...... Those who remained, watched as other species gradually died out. ”

Todd was a little helpless: "So, human beings have become the dominant ones in this world, so in the future, has there been progress in life optimization?"

Skaha shook his head in frustration: "On the contrary, after humans dominated the world, the process of life optimization has not progressed in the slightest, but has been regressing. ”

"Humanity, which has no enemies of other races, has begun to covet pleasure and act recklessly, and they have launched one internal battle after another. In the wars of human beings, the world has been destroyed again and again, species have stagnated, and even civilization has begun to regress. Jingsu's life is preferred, and it is trapped in a vicious circle that repeats itself. ”

"It was at this point that Leviathan and I had a serious disagreement. ”

"Leviathan believes that humans are inherently failed creatures, like viruses that devour others and then devour themselves. First, humanity will destroy all races that have the potential to develop, and then, in the absence of external enemies, they will seek self-destruction in endless strife and fighting. Therefore, he believes that this product of human failure should be completely erased, and the optimal plan of the whole life should be reset. ”

"I think that human beings are like the light and dark sides of the moon. They have both good and evil, and they cannot be generalized. If possible, they should be guided and managed, rather than just supervised. ”

Todd sighed, "Let me guess, Jingsu didn't adopt your opinion. ”

"That's right, Jingsu still insists on not taking any intervention in Preferred, however...... Just when we were discouraged, you appeared. ”

Todd pointed to himself in surprise: "Me?"

"You don't belong to this world, but you can influence the world in the right way. Most importantly, your attitude and choice of species happened to meet both my and Leviathan's requirements. ”

"At the same time, you are satisfied?"

"For me, I hope that the winner of this Chosen War will be a human who has abandoned self-interest and focused on balance, and that the Leviathan will win this time with an alien creature who has subverted human dominance. In this comparison, you may be the only option we have. ”