The place where the snake was kept in captivity was a large canyon, and before the royal aircraft had even arrived, Azir could hear a loud roar that pierced his chest.

They stopped at the outskirts of the canyon, where there was the occasional vibration and the sound of something hard rubbing against the rock formations on the ground.

Some of the academiologists were stationed here with permission, and the striking white building on the top of the hill was their camp.

Someone is talking to Azerkop: "The longest length of this kind of black snake can grow to a distance of 200 meters, and among the large snakes, it is rare to have venom, but their venom is not deadly, but will make the victim hallucinate, unable to distinguish reality, at that time they are powerless to resist, and they will become food for the black snake." ”

"What do they eat when they grow so big?" Azir had a curious look on his face.

"They eat everything, their stomach pouches are very strange, they are connected by the esophagus to thousands of small food bags, each of which can only fill a person, and they have different digestive functions, some of which are responsible for the organism. Some are responsible for inorganic classes. ”

The biologist suddenly said proudly, "Over the years, we have also modified some black snakes, they are larger, and they have also mutated in some genes, and some will show signs of giving birth to claws." ”

"Okay...... Do you know that my coming-of-age ceremony has something to do with these black snakes? Azir thought that perhaps his expression could be described as magical now.

He walked to the edge of the canyon and poked down, and a thick tail could be seen faintly in the bottomless darkness, and the black scales rubbed against the stone wall, and then disappeared.

Azir estimated that the small tail alone was larger than the tallest pillar of Shurima.

"This ......"

The biologist looked terrified, "Your Highness, please forgive me!" We're just ...... Just ......"

"Academics always have great expectations for their projects, and no one can resist not achieving them when they are likely to succeed."

Azir reflects on his experience and says with a smile, "I understand. ”

The biologists almost had to kneel and bow down, and Nasus didn't stop the whole time, he thought that as long as His Highness could see these monsters with his own eyes, he could give up, after all, how could mortal flesh and blood fight against such monsters? Even those royal families in the past have never faced the black snake that has been transformed into such a pervert.

Even if there is, after so many years of development, the coming-of-age ceremony, which initially reflected strength, has become just a ceremonial performance program.

Whether there is actually just a difference between whether everyone can live the eye addiction or not.

But Azir only gave Nasus a vague answer and went back, not knowing whether he had given up or not.

Leaving the canyon, Azir went to the public cemetery, where his father was buried.

Twenty years ago, Azir's father desperately exchanged for information to allow Kamigawa's army to defeat the rebels, and only then did it end the disaster, and after Kamigawa's army left, the dying emperor asked him to be buried here after his death, not in the imperial mausoleum, he wanted to be with his people.

A golden yellow flower blooms in the desert, and they survive on the meagre nutrients found in the sand and gravel, and stand tall in storms.

It is also the most beautiful flower of Shurima, and it is often picked and planted in front of the tomb as a sign of respect for the ancestors.

The same is true for Azir, who planted the golden desert flower in front of the tombstone, which is extremely tenacious, and even if it is rooted in the rocks, it will do its best to find the nutrients that will allow him to continue to live, and continue to take root deeply.

"Didn't you ever think that Shurima would become what it is today? That's not what you want to see, is it? ”

Azir looked down at the tombstone and said.

"Your Highness?"

As Azir was reminiscing, an old voice interrupted his thoughts.

It was an old man whom Azir had never seen before, and the other man's eyes looked like he had seen an old friend he hadn't seen for years.

"Who are you?"

Seeing the old man approaching, Azir asked.

"Oh, please forgive me for my faux pas."

The old man reacted and raised a hand to his chest, which was the etiquette of the internal guards who used to protect the royal family, and Azir also noticed that the old man's other hand was actually an immovable prosthetic leg.

"Former Royal Guard, Nazika, see Your Highness."

His gray hair and cricket figure were a sign that the old man was no longer young, but he still puffed out his chest, the standard of etiquette that had been a symbol of his glorious status.

"Are you here to pay respects to your loved ones?" Azir asked.

"Yes, by the way, I also came to see His Majesty." Nazika looked at the tombstone, "My wife and children lost their lives in that natural disaster, and if it weren't for Your Majesty, my old life would have been lost long ago." ”

"That'...... Have you always lived alone? ”

Azir looked at his prosthetic leg with some concern, if that was the case, it was hard for him to imagine how an old man would have lived for the past twenty years.

"Please don't worry Your Highness, the royal family has been taking care of veterans like us, and I have been well taken care of in the nursing home." Nazika saw his apprehension and explained.

"Years ago, I didn't retire, I had the privilege of being by your side, but even after twenty years of absence, I can still recognize you, you impress me too much." Nazika said.

"What's the impression?"

"It was after that war, the people of Kamigawa asked us what kind of compensation we wanted, and everyone didn't dare to get involved in facing everything from the upper civilizations, including their assistance, but back then, His Highness was just a young child, and he even asked to go to Kamigawa to study alone."

Nazika's eyes narrowed, as if caught in a memory, "You are really different from other children who cry when they leave home, your eyes are so determined, I have been thinking for so many years, what the hell were you thinking back then?" ”

Azir looked around, and the neatly arranged tombstones here were all tragically killed in the natural disaster of that year: "I was thinking...... Why does this happen to us, and why are we powerless in the face of superior civilizations...... Can we not let that happen again? ”

"You are exactly what I guessed, and I hope to see you lead Shurima to rise in my lifetime." Nazika said.

"Rise? Do you think we should rise? Azir asked.

"Why not?" The veteran asked rhetorically.

"In the current mainstream of Shurima's thinking, everyone is reluctant to explore the universe, and even if they are divided into different factions, their views are pessimistic......"

"I don't think we should surrender."

Before Azir could finish speaking, the veteran interrupted him directly, as if he couldn't listen.

"Surrender?" Azir wondered.

Nazika lowered his head: "I beg your pardon, I haven't learned much advanced knowledge, and my education is not high, maybe the words don't reach the point, but I think that the things of the superior civilization and the universe are not daring to face before they have started, and the people are panicking now, which is similar to surrendering before going to the battlefield." ”

Azir asked, "Aren't you afraid of the universe?" Aren't you afraid that one day, some amazing monster will suddenly appear in front of us? ”

"I'm afraid...... I'm afraid of ...... But I don't want to be afraid anymore, as Your Highness said, should our children and grandchildren continue to be afraid? ”

Azir was silent, he didn't know how to answer.

"How has your life been in Kamigawa after all these years?"

After a long silence, Nazika suddenly asked.

Azir looked up and met his gaze: "...... I am fine. ”

"Maybe it's late, but I still want to say,"

The old man looked at Azir with soft eyes, at this moment he was not like facing a high-ranking royal family, but just caring for a junior who had been away from home for many years:

"Your Highness, welcome home."

Azir smiled back: "Thank you." ”

As Nazika left, his back suddenly reminded Azir of Kagu, the stubborn old man who lived far longer than the Shurima people, but he, like the now rickety and short Nazika, had been obsolete by the times.

Nazika wasn't lying, he was doing well in the Royal Sanatorium, and the young people did their best to take care of the old people who had lost everything in the disaster.

A few months after a chance encounter with Azir, he was found to have stopped breathing, and Nazika had left in his sleep, dying peacefully.

Azir handed over the ship he had brought back from Kamigawa to Asitaya, as Asitaya's faction still wanted to explore the universe anyway, and the ship with Kamigawa technology might be able to help.

However, when Asitaya saw the beautiful Kamigawa spaceship, he directly refused.

"Why?" Azir couldn't figure it out.

"Because of such advanced technology, we don't have the strength to master it, and a preliminary floating experiment makes our scientists think hard, if they are suddenly given a spaceship that can travel at the speed of light, they will go crazy."

Asitaya bowed respectfully and said.

When he got up, Azir could clearly see in the former's eyes the same fear as the others, perhaps even more.

The middle-aged generation should be the pillars of a civilization at this stage, but Asitaya and others are sad, they have encountered obstacles beyond their understanding at the most ambitious age, and the emergence of a superior civilization is like a behemoth, inadvertently crushing the castle that was initially established in their hearts, and then it can never be rebuilt.

Although the era experienced by old people like Nazika is backward, they have passed their era very smoothly, and then handed over the burden of their bodies to future generations, the old people are the crystallization of the past, the recorders of history, but the experience of Nazika's generation cannot help Asitaya them.

They can only walk alone.

Azir wanted to walk back, but the knots in his heart could not be dissipated, and the rivers of Shurima were the color of yellow sand, even more solemn and muddy, and a group of children were laughing and playing on the beach where the tide receded.

He really envied their carefree age.

Azir remembered what Twilight had said when she was in Zaum:

"The younger generation is always the hope of a civilization."

But what kind of environment did these children grow up in?

In the past 20 years, all of Shurima's cultural works that disseminate ideas have expressed fear of the universe, even if these children grew up in a peaceful era, they have not experienced the natural disaster that caused Shurima to lose half of the population, and their subconscious has been engraved with fear, and when they grow up, are they still afraid to face the starry sky?

Isn't there no future for Shurima?

That's what Azir fears.

We can't always hope that an idealist who dares to go against the current can be born in the next era, because the idealist will eventually be defeated by the times.

Azir sensed that it was a sinking world, but when he turned his head and saw the children running with toys in their hands, with no innocent smiles on their faces, even if they would sink into the sand with every step, they would still lift their feet and continue to chase forward, not wanting to stop.

But the adults have lost that courage.

"The children of Shurima, should not inherit the sorrows of the previous era, and each of you should be an eagle riding the wind."

Azir looked out into the sky, meeting the sun.

Shurima, he thought, needed some people, who would be desperate to build a future for this planet, to let tears and blood be mixed together, to water the most powerful desert flowers, and even if they died, their souls would turn into stars to guide Shurima in the cold and dark universe.

The people of Shurima need the courage to crush the darkness.

Even if a thousand mountains block it, it is necessary to climb over the mountains and mountains.

And I'm just one of them.

"The Ascended One should lead mortals to prosperity!"

This is his promise with the future.

In the evening, Azir once again told Vichyna about her coming-of-age ceremony, which Vichyna thought was ridiculous, thinking that Azir would retreat after seeing the monsters that could shake the earth, but now she only thought that her son was a stubborn donkey carved out of the hardest rock.

"Why do you have to be obsessed with a ritual rite of passage?" Vicina resisted the urge to scold him.

Azir replied with a serious gaze, "Because the people of Shurima are eager to see a force that can stop them from being afraid of the universe, and I will let them see it!" ”

Vichyna was stunned, for the first time in many years, she felt that perhaps she should not continue to look at him like a child: "It seems that you are ready to be an emperor, Your Majesty." ”

"From the moment I was born, I was ready," Azir said. ”