“Death of Viper, Advent of Scripture. Transference of Hope, Preservation of Kindle.”

“This legend is about the Phecda Hero, Gu Jun. It happened during the last century on Earth, at the time, the world had changed, many horrible plagues ravaged our ancestral world. To search for the medicine that could cure all the diseases, the Phecda Hero entered Dreamlands with the Goddess of Hope. They arrived at the Island of Giant Manor and defeated a viper that was as tall as a giant. The Phecda Hero used the scalpel to cut open the stomach of the viper to find both the medicine and the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan inside its stomach! Turns out the monster had predicted their arrival so it swallowed the items beforehand.”

Peacock tried to keep her tone level but Malachite was getting excited from the retelling of the story. The epic fight between the Phecda Hero and the Goddess of Hope with the giant viper! This was a story that they could listen to forever. But on the other hand, Gu Jun’s brows slightly frowned…

“But the cunning viper was not fully dead, when the Phecda Hero was checking the medicine, it took a sneaky bite at him.” Peacock sighed. “The venom was inserted into the hero’s body, he could have used the medicine to save himself but that meant the ancestral world would not be saved. The Phecda Hero did not use the medicine but gathered the last vestige of his power to open a dimensional wormhole. He had the Goddess of Life return with the medicine and the spell book while he remained forever in Dreamlands… buried on the island of the giant manor.”

Peacock was painting a beautiful picture with her words. Her tone took on a deeper cadence as she recited the famous last words the Phecda Hero had for the Goddess of Hope, “There’s hope with the scripture, and with hope comes the kindle and those kindles will one day light up the world. That has always been the teaching and inspiration for our people.” Gu Jun listened quietly but the problem was…’I definitely have not said anything remotely like that’.

“The Phecda Hero has many kernels of wisdom that he has left in his legacy.” Peacock continued, “They are the power source that keeps our people going.”

“A real warrior is brave to face any fear in its face.” Malachite said solemnly with fire in his eyes.

Gu Jun felt his stomach turning. He gave a long sigh and felt the breath catch in his throat. “Are you sure these are all true?”

“These are all legends that are common knowledge to our people.” Peacock answered. “That is what we were told.” As legends were, she did not dare to say that what they heard was the extent of the whole truth.

“They have to be.” Malachite though had a deeper faith than his partner. “Of course they are.”

However even for the young man, when questioned, he had to admit there was no way for him to confirm that the tales from 300 years ago were true.

Furthermore, Gu Jun acknowledged that verbal legacy would add further embellishment in the process of retelling. There would be exaggeration and personal touch until the story became a fixture in the group’s collective consciousness. This story of the Phecda Hero going to the Dreamlands to find some kind of miracle cure was not so different from the story of Gilgamesh going to the underworld to find the drug of immortality…

If Peacock was telling the truth, then this Phecda Hero would take the status of someone like Yu the Great, or Gilgamesh in their culture. Even if the legend might not be 100 percent true, it would reflect part of the truth: Gu Jun and Wu Siyu did indeed arrive at the Dreamlands, defeat their enemy and in the end, Gu Jun did stay and Wu Siyu did return with the items.

“And then?” He asked, “What happened next?”

“The Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan kicked off the last golden era of the ancestral world.” Peacock continued, “it was time of peace and development. The global supernatural alliance was formed and it collected the elites from all the countries. They revealed themselves to the public, which according to legend amounted to several trillion people.”

‘I wouldn’t say several trillion but there was at least several billion’. Gu Jun thought. ‘Global Supernatural Alliance?’ He did hear Elder Tong mention that Phecda would push towards international cooperation to form a global organization but would the countries come together so easily? Especially during a time of peace? Gu Jun had his doubts, this was probably another exaggeration or a confusion in the timeline.

“It was an era of heroes and heroines! The elites from all over the world inherited the spirit of the Phecda Hero, they obtained power from Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan and led the people to defeat the supernatural evil and take down all the villains.” Peacock said proudly but as this was a tragedy, as she reached the denouement, her face crumbled, “After the golden era ended, came the era of collapse…. First it was the epidemic of Bloody Lungs Disease. According to legend, the disease was airborne and once infected, the victim would perish within days.”

Gu Jun’s heart squeezed immediately. Airborne disease, fast spreading of the epidemic… he knew very well what that meant…

“Bloody Lungs Disease? Why is it called that?” he asked as a flash of shadow crossed his mind, the haemoptysis that destroyed the foreign civilization.

“According to legend, the disease would affect the patient’s lungs first before it spread to the rest of the body.” Peacock could not give more details about the symptoms because she did not know either. “In the end, the patients would die from bloody coughs.”

‘Bloody coughs…’ Gu Jun leaned against the chair and closed his eyes tiredly. ‘But haemoptysis is not supposed to be airborne… Has it mutated when it arrived on earth or this is another embellishment in the legend?’ In any case, Gu Jun believed this Bloody Lungs Disease was definitely haemoptysis. ‘So in Peacock’s story, haemoptysis will still ravage earth in the future, or at least the future of my timeline? Will it be the doing of the Afterlife Cult?’

“There were two other epidemics during the era of collapse.” Peacock’s voice dimmed. “The first was the Petrification Disease that would turn people into stone and the other is the Mutated Scale Disease that will turn the victim’s skin into fish scale before they crack.”

Gu Jun’s heart sank even further. ‘Multiple epidemics at the same time? Fish scale? If this was just a description of one’s appearance, then there was a skin disease currently in existence called ichthyosis vulgaris. A mutation of this disease can be responsible for the Mutated Scale Disease… But how would one turn into stone? Is that an effect of a spell? Because petrification is biologically impossible. Or ‘turned into stone’ is yet another figurative speech? Could it mean immobilization… like Locked-in Syndrome?’

“What do you mean by turning into stone?” He asked, “What kind of stone are you talking about?”

“Erm…” Both Peacock and Malachite were confused. Malachite responded with irritation, “Stone is stone, the material used to make statues.”

“A mortal’s power,” Atal sighed, “is still too insignificant.”

“From their discovery to their spread all over the world, the time taken was very short.” Seeing that the nightmare man had gone silent, Peacock took the cue to continue on her own. “In less than a year, all the cities had collapsed, the whole world crumbled into death and chaos. The heroes of the alliance brought all the survivors to set up the last bulwark at the south pole called ‘The City of Kindles’, but the arctic wind was no refuge against the disease, in the end… the ten thousand kindles migrated into the Plateau of Leng.”

Malachite’s jaw was clenched, he did not sigh or voice anything, he was paying respect to the loss of humanity’s golden era.

“Okay.” Gu Jun’s mind was fuzzy. He stared at the two and closely observed them, the more he did, the more unfamiliar he felt…

No, these two were not Asian. The details that he did not notice for the past few days now surfaced. They had mixed-race features with majority Asian genetic influence. Global migration would ensure that… Gu Jun could see that they were not lying but it did not help clear up his mind. Peacock was about to continue her story of what happened to the ten thousand kindles after they arrived at Dreamlands but Gu Jun stopped her. He asked with a frown. “The Goddess of Life that you mentioned, what happened to her then?”

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