Nurturing Humanity

He had boasted as he pleased and had blown things out of proportion.

They were shocked by what they heard.

He would take no responsibility for anything that happened thereafter.

He was very clear that he needed to give them some ambitious goals to strive for, as well as instilling in them a mindset of being fearless.

They had to do some wild and crazy daydreaming, even if everything was just a pie in the sky. There was no need to be bothered about whether anything could be achieved or not. The foremost thing he had to do was to talk big!

To explicitly show them how awesome and how incredibly amazing this path was; he wanted to explain to them how this path could bring them such boundless, promising prospects!

This way, they would be convinced to head down this path.

From Xu Zhi’s perspective, witches represented the strict and scrupulous adherence to the Laws of Equivalent Exchange, the obsession of knowledge acquisition, as well as the tool that leveraged on knowledge to propel the entire world. He had merely explained the definition to them.

Everything was created; and the paths that humans took in life were created by them.

He was just providing them a path to follow so that they could open up their eyes to wider horizons without inhibitions, and then give play to their full potential.

And if they are unable to achieve what I’ve told them about, then it’s simply because they were lowly mortals on earth who were unable to comprehend the knowledge of God. It’s not just me wagging my tongue so freely and bragging away. I’m not spouting sheer nonsense.

“Great God of Wisdom, Hermes, how does the power of mankind’s greatest Hero King, Gilgamesh, stand before you?” Medea asked with a shudder.

Xu Zhi thought for a moment and said, “Gilgamesh has the power of a pseudo-god, but he is vulnerable before me and will not be able to withstand a single blow from me.”

Xu Zhi’s bragging was getting way out of proportion, but he did not have anything to fear.

The crowd was silent.

Xu Zhi remained perched on the branch and slowly began to fill them in on the information on meditation practices for yoga in the west, as well as the Taoist viewpoint on cultivating internal strength in the East. This would be the prototype of their cultivation methods.

Then he casually began to relate to them his knowledge of alchemy, where he directly appropriated some of the ancient alchemy theories of the West as the beginning of their civilization. Whether or not they could make anything out of it and develop their civilization was up to them.

After Xu Zhi finished speaking, he left the sandbox world by directly disengaging himself from the black, three-eyed crow and went offline.

After all, this black crow was an inferior species that was disposable after one-time use. It was just a medium for him to enter the sandbox, and there was no need to cherish it at all.

In truth, all those theories that he had shared with them were not baseless nonsense. He had evidence to support them.

There were similar meditation practices in both the East and West.

His statements about alchemy, including the Trinity Formula, were all based on ancient Western alchemy theories.

The things he told them about sorcery were references to theories recorded in ancient books of witches in the West.

All of these had existed at some point in the history of mankind on ancient Earth.

Perhaps they did not appear out of nowhere; it was possible that there had been similar extraordinary truths sprouting but had yet to fully emerge. Then following the rise of technology, nobody seemed to bother about them, and they were thus swept aside, unnoticed.

“I’ve planted the seeds of knowledge, but I don’t know if they would be able to turn into beautiful flowers.”

Xu Zhi did not know whether they would succeed or not. Otherwise, he would not have used this sandbox world as a base to test if it was possible to evolve a path of cultivation.

...

Snap!

The strange three-eyed, black-feathered crow on the tree suddenly fell off the branch on the lush tree and landed on the ground.

Everyone present remained still with pious looks on their faces.

It was not until long after the mysterious three-eyed, black-feathered crow had fallen to the ground that Medea and the others dared to approach slowly to confirm that this mysterious god, Hermes, had left.

“What a great lifeform this is.”

Medea was secretly guessing, with her heart burning with eagerness. “Formless and intangible, this is an extraordinary existence that can possess any living creature… This god, Mercury, reigns over Wisdom and Truth. And Wisdom and Truth are both formless and intangible existences!”

They returned to the tribe and began to eagerly try out the meditation methods.

As for the strange three-eyed crow, the three of them also began studying the corpse that was left behind.

They were shocked to discover that it was not a lifeform that had been seen before in their land!

It was as if a mysterious species had appeared out of nowhere in this world. And its structure was completely different from that of creatures from all other existing species of giant beasts. It was like it was from another foreign world.

“It’s a creature that doesn’t belong to this world. Could it be that it came from somewhere else?” Medea whispered.

Circe, who was next to Medea, was no longer fighting against it. She was also greatly shocked into a daze. Then in a low voice, she whispered to her two sisters, “According to the historical records, in our world, Hero King Gilgamesh once sent out hundreds of thousands of Sumerian warriors to explore our world where the sky is round, and the earth is square. There should not be any unknown location that we don’t know about. Could it be that it is from…”

Heaven!

Suddenly, in unison, they all slowly raised their heads to look up at the blue firmament high up in the sky above the Babylonian tribe.

The Great Flood had also come pouring down from the sky.

Could it be that there was still a mysterious land up in the sky, an empty island where all kinds of strange and unknown animals lived? That place, vast and immense, was probably the place where the gods dwelled.

They were shocked and completely immersed themselves in their imaginations.

...

“Finally, it’s done. I had to memorize it several times, lest I got even a single word wrong. Just as I’ve expected, acting really isn’t my forte. It was just so unbearable… If it was not for the sake of healing myself, I would not have bothered putting myself in such an embarrassing position of having to recite lines that I’ve memorized to them, and then keeping up my act as I impart knowledge… It’s really so distressing having to guide the development of a civilization as a Creator without giving away my true identity as a weakling.”

Xu Zhi put down his VR headset.

Reasonably speaking, if a terrifying figure like Gilgamesh were to appear before Xu Zhi in proportion to his actual size, just a single blow from Gilgamesh could crush him to death. After all, that was a monster that would not die even if it fell from a thousand meters.

Even the power and knowledge the three witches possessed were the fruits they reaped through countless deaths, hardships, and sufferings. They were powerful and extraordinary creatures far beyond Xu Zhi’s reach.

And yet, he…

And yet, he had fooled them…

Just thinking about it is giving me a headache. I’m just an ordinary person!

After logging off, he went to take a shower. And then, he came back and restarted the game in the small sandbox again.

Barely a few minutes later, all the other players were back online.

“D*mn you, freaking game designer! If you can’t get things done properly, then you really should go to hell!”

“I can turn a blind eye if you suddenly shut down the service to fix some bugs, but this time, I’m really so angry! How can you reopen the service without any notice at all! You’ve made me, a devoted and determined player, waste so much precious time!”

They were all cursing and swearing, but at the same time, they were refreshing the game like crazy, trying to evolve new species for Xu Zhi.

Xu Zhi did not hear those weaklings shouting away at all. He had the magnanimity of a Creator and besides, he was still fighting against his cancer.

“I’m using a sandbox world to evolve a civilization to figure out a way to cure my terminal disease… I suppose no one in this world could be capable of such an exaggerated act, right? But this path of evolving an extraordinary species is such an arduous journey.”

Since Earth’s modern medicine and science had failed to cure him, Xu Zhi would rely on witch’s medicine made through the use of sorcery and potions made through the use of alchemy. He would use these “medieval and superstitious” methods unique to Earth to find a cure for himself.

The seeds had been planted.

Among the three types of knowledge that he had imparted, Xu Zhi naturally pinned his highest hopes on alchemy, which could make potions and magic medicines, as well as research on diseases that could cure cancer. This was his main goal.

But alchemy only existed in myths. It was much too mysterious and unpredictable, so wanting to achieve something through it might be too difficult in reality.

On the other hand, the two other paths of meditation and sorcery should be quite feasible.

There was no need to talk about meditation in detail.

There were similarities between the meditative breathing techniques in yoga, as well as the internal Qigong techniques in the East.

The cultivation of one’s body and mind, as well as expanding one’s energy and spirituality, were fixed and unchanging processes. It was up to them to develop various meditative techniques, thoroughly study the sorcery system of witches, and progress through the various levels of cultivation in Sorcery.

And the use of magic was bound to arise. After all, if one’s psychic power was high enough, she would naturally be able to develop various subtle ways to make use of her psychic power. There was no need to worry.

“The preparations are complete. Now, it’s time to see what kind of developments they can make of it. It’s just a pity that there are still too few extraordinary species like the Evil Eye. If there were more of them, it would provide them with better inspiration… After all, my idea was to create a transcendent world of a sorcerer that is inhabited by various kinds of bizarre, horrifying supernatural species. Danger would be lurking all over and it was going to be extremely exciting.”

Xu Zhi sighed and silently looked at the other players. “You guys better put in more effort and do a better job.”

Xu Zhi mourned over his misfortune and raged over how incompetent and sluggish the other players were!

These guys! Instead of thinking about how they could better evolve a new extraordinary species of great potential and do a proper job at playing this sandbox game to give rise to the next Evil Eye, they would rather spend all day thinking about cutting corners and dishonest practices. They are always whispering among themselves in private, and every other day, they will try to come up with ways to mess with me.

“A bunch of animals. I must find a way to squeeze you dry.”

After thinking for a while, Xu Zhi was still out of ideas and inspiration. At this time, he heard Chen Xi’s voice coming from the gate. “Brother Xu Zhi, you promised that you’d accompany me to the class reunion. It’s time to go.”

Xu Zhi froze for a moment before coming back to his senses. He quickly concluded that a walk in the city was not a bad idea, so he changed into the set of new clothes that he had bought earlier on and walked out with big strides.

“Sh*t! The giant is walking out again. Earthquake! Quickly, run!”

“Guys, retreat! The giant is here to attack again!”

“Hehe, I have six legs. I don’t need to run faster than the giant, I just need to run faster than you all!”

“Brother, you’re too much! The next time, I will evolve eight beautiful long legs and then we’ll see who can run faster!”

A bunch of ants were screaming and crying out as they frantically scattered all over the ground. They were afraid that they would be trampled to death by Xu Zhi in their moment of folly. After all, they had suffered countless rounds of deaths to finally evolve into a species that could climb ashore.