While the planet Inferno was welcoming its first ray of suns.h.i.+ne and the people of the Sun Dynasty were ushering in the revival of their civilization, reconstruction was also underway on another planet. Tannagost in the Plane of Dreams was being reconstructed under the cosmic rays of a new world.
The first ray of morning sun shone from a low angle on earth, coating the golden capital of Alamanda in an even more dazzling golden halo. The giant Muru stood on the towering wall of Alamanda overlooking the garden he had just begun to take care of after resuming his duty as a guardian. The vast wilderness outside the city had changed so much that it looked different from yesterday. Low-lying vegetation was thriving between gullies and also on the huge tentacles in the distance. Initially, the world had only a few primitive creatures that were tenacious enough survived the catastrophe, now more species were growing doubly every day. He came to the wall every day and discovered that the world was never the same as the previous day, which reminded him of the old days of 10,000 years ago. Though mother was no longer here, the bustling world she had once created was finally blossoming again.
Muru cast his gaze to the West where he could sense the upsurge of the power of life. He took a step toward and instantly crossed more than ten kilometers distance and came to a red lake.
About 15 kilometers from Alamanda, it was the most important "spring of life" in the vicinity. It was initially a six-kilometer crater that formed after the First Born of the planet lost control and remained a lifeless crater and occupied by a few terrifying tentacles until a few months ago, now it had turned into a beautiful red lake surrounded by a vibrant forest and gra.s.sland. Back then, one of the lifeblood containers released from the CARS landed in this deep pit, catalyzed by Zorm to fill the crater with lifeblood to become a spring of life. Now the original tentacles of the First Born in the crater had been dissolved into the primordial living matter with a large number of seeds and embryos born in the lake every day.
Muru walked to the lake and placed his stick on the beach next to him, then bent down to check the state of the lake water. A group of elk-like, weird animals with long ears ran out from the nearby bushes, wandering around Muru and licking the stick of Muru curiously. The stick was tinged with the smell of life after being exposed to the lake water. The sweet flowers blooming on the tip of the stick were attracting the small the animals.
A breeze was blowing and rolling up layers of ripples on the red lake. Some clear, seed-like things floated up from the lake and drifted into the nearby forest. Muru smiled and looked at those seeds; he knew another restoration of species was successful.
Muru gaze at the sky, a faint red light was twinkling in the night sky. It was the CARS floating in orbit, and the red light was coming from the Capulum Vitae.
Zorm was watching the planet in s.p.a.ce and remotely controlling the lifeblood system to replicate and fuse the ecosystem. It was a system that Hao Ren helped to design. It seemed that it was running well, which turned Muru"s head quite a bit as regards to the human inspector.
There were not wild animals but also human settlements in the vicinity of the "spring of life."
Muru left the lake, and from not far away, he saw an open s.p.a.ce opposite the woods. The open s.p.a.ce had many simple houses built of wood, stone and synthetic materials, neatly arranged into a small circular town. Although the houses were primitive, their layout was the construction of advanced architectural planning. This little circular town would become a bustling city someday.
The settlement was built around a silver-white tower, which looked sophisticated and very different from the houses around it. The tower was not part of the town initially; it was a signal antenna that had already existed before the town.
Now, this tower was also the wireless transmitter of the First Born, acting as a tentacle for Zorm.
There was also a red pond in the central square of the town, next to the tower. Though it was smaller compared to the red lake, the red liquid inside was undoubtedly the lifeblood. The lifeblood continually surged in the pond with several specialized personnel guarding it.
When Muru came to the town, the liquid in the pond was rising as a man covered in seaweed-like substances climbed out of it, looking confused. The personnel immediately held the man up, cleaned him and put a blouse on him and then took him to the tower in the center of the town.
The man who was just "born" from the pond was not fully awake. He did not even have a complete intelligence. Personnel held his arm and placed his hand on a metal plate on the base of the alloy tower. The man twitched as if an electric current ran through his body, then his eyes opened and regained his glory of wisdom on his face.
He looked down at himself and then at the surrounding town, asking people around him with a loud voice. "Is it all over?"
"It"s just started," the personnel holding his arm said with a smile. "Your name?" the personnel asked.
"Ulyanov, ID x.x.xx.x.x," the man said while his hand touching his face, his breathing heavy, he had not adjusted to the air in the real world after coming from the virtual world. "I felt like I had a long, long nightmare."
"That"s normal. You will recover," The personnel said while writing something on a form. "Memory reconstruction takes about twelve hours, during which you will feel slightly dizzy and stuporous. Before that, you have to complete the registration process. Your occupation?"
"Engineer, machinery... precision machinery engineering."
"Oh, I see. Unfortunately, I"m afraid you won"t be able to work as an engineer for the time being because we don"t know when we could create our first steam lathe. You can go to the Technical Recovery Research Inst.i.tute first. If you can"t, you can help build houses; we need a lot of houses. Do you still remember your family?"
"I have a wife, her ID before the hibernation is x.x.xx.x.x."
"She is scheduled to enter the real world in a week, and you can wait for her outside."
The personnel asked Ulyanov a few things and then handed him a form. "Take this, report to the Social Adaptation Section, which is the blue-top house over there. Someone will tell you the current state of the world and the progress of the construction of our town. I hope that you can resume work as soon as possible, we now need more strong men to produce the necessities, after all, we cannot always rely on autonomous robots and synthetic factories. The inspector had given us a limited quota."
"The strong man, strong man," Ulyanov repeating to himself as he nodded. He looked at his healthy limbs, and there was a happy smile on his face. He suddenly noticed the giant in the distance. "Oh, what is that?" he asked.
"That"s Muru, the guardian of this planet. Don"t be afraid; he is friendly," the personnel gave Ulyanov a little push. "Go to the Social Adaptation Section first. You still have a lot to learn."
Muru took his sight off the town. He used to be stern towards the Zormians, but now he had no prejudice against those humans. As it turned out that these "Second Borns" were diligent and respecting the laws of nature, they were different the treacherous sons. He need not be harsh to them.
There were many such settlements on this planet, and they are multiplying every day. The factories and autonomous robots that Hao Ren left on this planet were helping to maintain the early life of these people, but the production activities of these factories would be reduced yearly, and the society of the Zorm would need to be self-sustained.
Muru did not intervene in all this. He just wandered around the wilderness, observing and guarding the ecosystem here.
After a walkabout, Muru came to a ruin near the North Pole. The Tannagost people had left behind a stargazing platform here where it was the best location to see the sky, suitable for meditation. Muru sat down on the stargazing platform and began to meditate, just like he did every other day. It had become a habit since 10,000 years ago. Meditation could let the guardians communicate with each other and listen to the mother"s voice. Even though the guardian mental network had collapsed, he still maintained this habit even though it was reduced to be spiritual sustenance now.
The mental world was empty, he could not hear the responses of any brothers and sisters anymore, but he kept his routine, every time, every day.
However, something seemed different today. When Muru was about to end his meditation, he heard a voice.
It was a signal from deep s.p.a.ce.