These murals come from ruins of different human civilizations around the world and have been replicated in this "sanctuary" through rubbings.

Vibrations came from above the dome, dust accompanied by gravel rustled down, yet Sun Hang ignored the imminent danger of collapse, lost in admiration of the murals.

He discovered that the ancient myths of Xiazhou seemed to have many commonalities with myths from ancient civilizations in other corners of the world.

For example, in Xiazhou mythology, a giant named Pangu split open the chaos, and after Pangu's death, different parts of his body transformed into the sun and moon, mountains and rivers, gold and stone, vegetation...

In Norse Mythology, there is similarly a giant named Ymir, whose blood became the ocean; flesh turned into land; bones transformed into mountains; hair became trees... even his brains turned into the clouds floating in the sky.

In the eyes of the ancestors of Xiazhou and Northern Europe, this world seemed to be formed from the corpse of a giant, with everything being part of this giant's body.

As time went on, when human civilization began to flourish upon this land, both Eastern and Western civilizations recorded an unprecedented great flood — Noah's Ark mentioned in Greek Mythology and "Dayu Controlling the Waters" clearly documented in Xiazhou's history likely happened at the same time.

Moreover, even the story of "stealing fire" coincidentally exists in both Eastern and Western myths.

In Ancient Greek Mythology, Prometheus stole the fire from heaven to teach humans to use it, and thus, he was subjected to the cruel punishment of being chained to a cliff with his innards eaten by eagles.

In Xiazhou mythology, there is also the story of the fire god Yan Bo who brought the fire to the human world and was banished to live as a mortal by the Heavenly Emperor.

If these stories appeared independently, they might not attract attention, but when similar or even almost identical major events appear in both the East and the West, one cannot help but wonder if these events are not entirely fictitious tales created by our ancestors.

Especially in prehistoric times, when human living conditions were extremely harsh, the only means of transportation being their own legs, and cultural exchanges between different civilizations were rare, with information relatively isolated... yet under such circumstances, these civilizations of different races, origins, climates, and cultural customs produced similar mythical stories, perhaps indicating that...

"Those things called gods might have truly existed and had an immeasurable impact on human civilization..." Sun Hang murmured to himself, "When the power of a spectral entity is strong enough, beyond human comprehension, calling it a god is entirely reasonable."

Both gods and specters are things beyond human understanding... in the Bible, descriptions of God's angels include a large eyeball with six pairs of wings, or a wheel covered with eyes... if an angel appeared in such a form, modern human civilization would undoubtedly define it as a new type of specter.

Not all gods are benevolent to humans; whether in Eastern or Western mythology, there are many "evil gods" — they may be extremely bloodthirsty, enamored with blood and destruction, or severely obsessed or manic, perhaps even many that are "emotionless" — they neither care about human survival nor alter their own actions due to human prayers or curses, they are like the sun and moon rising and setting each day... neither providing extra rain during a drought nor giving more warmth in severe cold.

"Heaven and earth are unkind, treating all things as straw dogs."

Laozi said so in the Tao Te Ching.

Truly powerful specters, such as those primordial specters, are indistinguishable from deities to humans — yet they have never appeared during massive specter invasions of human territories, otherwise, human civilization would have been completely destroyed over two hundred years ago, leaving no trace whatsoever on Xiazhou Continent.

Their attitude towards humans is neither friendly nor hostile, but indifferent — they do not care about human life or death, just as a flood does not care for those it sweeps away, and the sunlight nourishing the earth does not care for the crops absorbing energy to grow strong.

Sun Hang walked along the "bowl rim," observing the murals, as he began to question the reason for the emergence of specters... is their true purpose truly to completely destroy human civilization?

A word suddenly popped into Sun Hang's mind.

"Assimilation."

The memetic nature of specters can infect humans... those humans capable of withstanding the memetic backlash and successfully becoming its vessel will become infected individuals possessing various special abilities, while those "failed" in natural selection will either die, become specter bones, or fall as specter sustenance...

Isn't this just another form of natural law?

Yet Sun Hang felt that something seemed amiss...

He couldn't pinpoint what was wrong, but his intuition told him this thinking was erroneous.

The "Evolutionists," deemed a "cult" by the Federation Government, hold this belief — they think humans must coexist peacefully with specters to survive, suggesting that if everyone became infected... or, in a more radical notion, if humans themselves became specters, then specters would no longer pose a threat to humans.

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