Descendants

"Pfft—" What in the world was a "Progenitor"?! Ye Shi hadn't expected the old man to speak the Human Alliance language at all, and the moment he opened his mouth, he had completely thrown Ye Shi off balance. It reminded him of when they had landed at Golden Gallon Port a long, long time ago. Back then, the locals had been utterly astounded by their equipment as well, shouting in awe and calling them "Iron Men." Still, at least those people could be reasoned with and had quickly returned to normal. "Quick, play along! Act it out!" An urgent prompt crackled through the comm channel. Ye Shi could tell that Jiang Xuezhou, watching the drama unfold from geosynchronous orbit, was even more anxious than he was down on the ground looking like a fool. "I know..." Ye Shi answered under his breath, gave a small cough, switched on the power armor's external speaker, and looked down at the old man and the cluster of youths prostrated before him. "Everyone... stand up and speak." The vast majority of them couldn't understand what he was saying, but the old man evidently did. Chanting something under his breath, he shakily rose to his feet. The young lads prostrated behind him followed suit. The confusion originally written on their faces had gradually shifted into solemn reverence under the old man's continuous muttering. "What on earth are they saying?" Completely unable to comprehend their discussion, Ye Shi maintained a calm facade, but his heart was pounding in panic. Jiang Xuezhou: "I don't know either... but I built a linguistic and behavioral analysis model before; maybe it can come in handy." Hearing this, Ye Shi felt a surge of joy. "Awesome! When did you make that?" Jiang Xuezhou: "A while back... and only because you kept spouting weird nonsense!" Ye Shi gave a dry chuckle. Turns out talking trash when bored had its perks—look, wasn't it coming in handy now? While he bantered, more and more "little green men" emerged from the forest, eyeing the iron hunk standing by the river with looks of mixed curiosity and fear. They wore garments woven from sweetgrass and flax—both males and females. Not everyone carried weapons; some held woven crates and baskets filled with wild berries gathered nearby and bizarre-looking insects. The old man continued babbling to his kinsmen behind him, growing increasingly animated with every sentence. And the youths who had gathered around late gradually saw their expressions of fear and curiosity morph into devout reverence. "...They seem to view you as some kind of religious totem," Jiang Xuezhou whispered through the comm channel. "I tried translating some of their speech. Broadly speaking... in their culture, they are a race from the sky, and they originally descended to this world wearing clothes made of 'iron.'" "They even know what iron is?" Ye Shi asked in surprise, glancing at the primitive spears in their hands. Jiang Xuezhou replied uncertainly: "Uh, that's just my translation. It could also be translated as metal or something similar. Of course, I don't think they've mastered forging technology, but they must have seen metal before. After all, the wreckage of the Gemini crashed somewhere around here." "Wearing clothes made of the same material as that starship"—translating it that way might be more accurate, but getting bogged down in literal wording would be too clunky. Ye Shi pondered for a moment and roughly grasped what Jiang Xuezhou was getting at. "I think I get it... In other words, these people are descendants of the missile cruiser Gemini?" Jiang Xuezhou was clearly puzzled as well, answering evasively: "Hard to say. I can't extract more information from their conversation... Nor can we rule out the possibility that they're survivors of a Human Alliance colony. After all, early colonists also descended from high orbit wearing protective gear similar to power armor. Many of these sentences could be interpreted either way." Ye Shi massaged his temples in exasperation. Honestly, whether they were descendants of the missile cruiser Gemini or of a Human Alliance colony, both theories had serious holes. After all, the former had taken a hit from a neutron torpedo, and the latter had been wiped clean by either neutron torpedoes or neutron eradication devices. Logically speaking, everyone should have been dead. Yet what lay before his eyes was an entirely different reality. They had survived in another form—and had even become a different form of humanity. Right then, Jiang Xuezhou's voice came through the channel again. "The only certainty right now is that civilization here has suffered a severe regression, falling all the way back to the tribal era. While this might be looking for trouble... I still suggest you visit their settlement. You might just find the answers there." Jiang Xuezhou ultimately left the decision to him, and in truth, Ye Shi was already leaning that way. He knew next to nothing about this forest and had been stepping into trouble the entire way. Who knew what bizarre hazards were waiting for him in the valley ahead? This run was single-life ironman mode; the nearest respawn point was five light-years away. Face-checking bushes was not the brightest idea, and getting a local guide might actually be the smartest move. Besides, there were so many people here treating him like an ancestor. After going through the Orion incident, Ye Shi had abruptly realized that he had gradually learned to solve problems with his brain. While Ye Shi was basking in self-satisfaction, the old man appeared to finish consulting his people. With a devout look, he extended an invitation: "Honored... Lord Progenitor... Would you follow me... to our tribe?" The old man knew very little of the Human Alliance language, and his sentences were peppered with numerous unfamiliar words. Fortunately, with Jiang Xuezhou's help—using that behavioral linguistics model to piece together the obscure words—she provided Ye Shi with real-time interpretation. Looking at the reverent elder, Ye Shi nodded his bulky helmet and gave the most concise response possible: "Very well." Seeing Ye Shi nod, the old man looked as if he had received some immense honor, a look of ecstatic joy spreading across his face—so much so that Ye Shi wondered whether this universal human gesture carried some other connotation here. In any case, their accidental "First Contact" could be considered a success. The elder called out toward the forest in strange syllables, and soon, lark-like whistles echoed through the woods. Amid the rising and falling calls, the birds and beasts of the jungle were stirred and driven away. And so, escorted by a troupe of singing and dancing little green people, Ye Shi followed the winding stream up toward the higher ground. According to the elder, their settlement was built at a bend further up the stream. All along the way, Ye Shi kept observing his surroundings. To his surprise, the further upstream they traveled, the thicker the trees became, and the bizarre vegetation growing between them grew ever denser and stranger. In contrast, navigable paths became fewer and narrower. By Earth standards, an area with such dense vegetation was hardly suitable for a settlement; open ground nestled between mountains and water was always the first choice to put down roots. Yet those Earthly rules didn't seem to apply here. The agile little green people were entirely unfazed by the tangled forest, actually moving faster and more nimbly than they had in the open ground. The only one suffering was Ye Shi. Even with guides leading the way, squeezing through the dense forest in his cumbersome getup was no easy task. Especially with the half-person-tall pack strapped to his back, pushing through these trees was practically a miracle! He couldn't help but wonder whether he would even be able to find his way out if he didn't have these locals helping him. He carried some incendiary grenades on him. However, such infantry equipment was fine for scaring off wild beasts, but using it to clear a path through a jungle was asking too much. Not to mention "Gaia" lurking who-knew-where. Unless it was an absolute last resort, he didn't want to alert It that Its opponents from two centuries ago had returned. Passing through a thick stand of brush, a towering "wall" soon entered Ye Shi's view, causing his eyes to widen involuntarily. And what shocked him even more came next— He discovered, to his utter astonishment, that this city wall had actually grown out of the ground! Row upon row of massive tree trunks were seamlessly knit together, their sprawling roots intertwining as they drove into the earth like hands gripping the soil with an unyielding hold. Ye Shi instinctively looked up. The lush canopy crisscrossed overhead, resembling an ocean flourishing in the sky. No wonder Jiang Xuezhou's drones hadn't spotted this settlement! Without a guide, even if he walked right past it, he probably wouldn't have noticed this enclave buried deep within the forest! Alerted by the commotion outside the wall, a spear-wielding guard strode over. He wore wooden armor woven from vines, and his elongated helmet and faceguard bore an uncanny resemblance to the Wood Elf armor from Warhammer Fantasy. Ye Shi stood dumbfounded, realizing that this world five light-years away had an art style entirely different from the solar system's wasteland. If these people suddenly started chanting magic spells in the next second, he wouldn't be surprised in the slightest. Of course, that was highly improbable. He still leaned toward believing that these eccentric designs were simply the result of local survivors adapting to this bizarre environment, evolving a unique set of customs and traditions. "...I had no idea a city was hidden here. I didn't see it at all from above," Jiang Xuezhou whispered into his ear. "Then you'd better look more carefully... I have a feeling there are other settlements like this hidden in the forest." Whether it was his imagination or not, Ye Shi felt that right as Jiang Xuezhou spoke, the spear-wielding guard cast a wary glance toward him. Yet it was only a fleeting eye contact. The guard quickly looked away, turning his gaze back to the seemingly venerable elder. "What happened? Why did you bring an outsider back? What if he's a... from the...?!" "...@%#!" The elder retorted agitatedly, seemingly rebuking the guard's suspicion, before repeating the earlier words with renewed vigor: "The Progenitor... Our Progenitor has returned!" As he spoke with vivid emotion, the vocabulary Jiang Xuezhou was able to decode grew increasingly rich. At its core, their speech was still the Human Alliance language, only altered into a different form after two centuries of independent evolution. Hearing the elder's explanation, the man on watch at the camp entrance showed a look of stunned disbelief, then hurriedly dashed back toward the gates. Before long, a large crowd of little green people in wooden armor emerged from beneath the roots of the tree wall, all staring at Ye Shi with eyes that were seventy percent nervous and thirty percent reverent. Scrutinized by dozens of strange stares, Ye Shi felt deeply uneasy, yet maintained an impassive posture. His instincts told him that playing the mystic was the best move when navigating the unknown. He was waiting for them to volunteer an explanation. Sure enough, after finishing his debate with the guards, the old man turned and directed a respectful gaze at Ye Shi. "Honored... Progenitor. My name... Saqui Doma. We... are your children." Jiang Xuezhou quickly translated his words. "Doma" was likely the tribe's surname, while "Saqui" was probably a title or role, akin to a priest or monk. Ye Shi barely followed along, suppressing the urge to roast the situation. Then, adjusting his voice, he spoke in a tone of tender affection he had never used in his entire life: "My children, you have waited long." As if understanding his words, or perhaps sensing the compassion in his tone, tears of emotion welled up in the elder's eyes. Seeing that pious devotion, Ye Shi almost felt bad about continuing the charade. He wasn't a Celestial, after all; he was never cut out for playing a fraudulent deity. Jiang Xuezhou, on the other hand, was much more pragmatic, even praising his performance: "Playing the mystic is a sound approach. Our technology is far too advanced for them. Rather than trying to get them to comprehend concepts beyond their understanding, having them revere us first significantly reduces communication costs... Mmh, that's straight out of my Extraterrestrial Civilizations Communication course." Though these people possessed humanoid forms, it was difficult by any standard to consider them part of human civilization. Because of that, she was far less conflicted than Ye Shi. Moreover, they didn't intend to abuse this divine guise for malice; they only wanted to retrieve the fuel required to go home and gather some local intelligence. Ye Shi muttered under his breath: "What kind of bizarre stuff does your Academy teach..." Jiang Xuezhou chuckled: "It's not that weird. Didn't I tell you? Our aspiration is to journey to distant worlds; we have to make preparations in advance, don't we?" "Whatever," Ye Shi sighed. "Either way, we're not cheating them out of anything. We'll avoid interfering with their civilizational progress as much as possible, grab what we need, and get out." Legally speaking, the assets aboard the missile cruiser Gemini belonged to Earth's survivors in the first place. His reasoning was completely sound. Right then, Jiang Xuezhou had a sudden inspiration: "Wait, I just thought of something... Let me give you something fun to show off." Hearing this, Ye Shi didn't feel curious; instead, his guard went up. "What are you planning?" Jiang Xuezhou giggled without explaining, merely urging him: "Don't worry about it, just raise your right hand over your head and hold it there!" Ye Shi was bewildered. Still, knowing Jiang Xuezhou wouldn't hurt him, he complied and raised his right hand. Not only was he confused by this seemingly pointless gesture, but the surrounding little green people also stirred in commotion, wondering what the Lord Progenitor was doing. Just then, beneath a clear sky, a soft pitter-patter sound suddenly echoed from above. It was the sound of raindrops striking leaves! The dense canopy acted like an unfurled umbrella, briefly holding back the descending droplets. Before long, however, the heavenly rain enveloped the entire settlement! Every single little green person froze in place. The armored guards, in particular, saw the remaining seventy percent of vigilance in their eyes completely swallowed by profound shock. Water was the source of life. And what it meant to command wind and summon rain was self-evident to people who still lived in an age of primal worship. Because dry ice had been seeded artificially, the downpour came quickly and passed just as fast. A vibrant rainbow filtered through the gaps in the leaves, arching across the dripping canopy. Witnessing this miraculous spectacle, the elder's expression turned instantly to overwhelming awe, and he prostrated himself respectfully once again. Ye Shi was stunned as well. Fortunately, the power armor's visor concealed his blank look, keeping his composure intact. After a long moment, he lowered his voice and whispered: "...You did that?" Giggles like silver bells chimed through the comm channel, and Jiang Xuezhou said cheerily: "A cumulonimbus cloud happened to drift by, so I used a drone to seed it with dry ice... Who knew it would work just like the textbooks said? They totally bought it." Looking at the rows of believers prostrating on the ground, Ye Shi couldn't help a wry smile. Just then, another strapping man stepped out from beneath the tall tree wall. He wore wooden armor inlaid with dark-green crystals and a crest-like crown carved from crystal atop his head. His commanding presence, looking down upon all living things, made his role as chieftain obvious at a glance. What surprised Ye Shi even more was that he sensed a familiar pressure emanating from the man. The aura that penetrated straight into the depths of the soul was astonishingly similar. However, perhaps due to a difference in tier, the pressure radiating from the man was not as pure and potent as the Administrator's. And likely because this fellow wasn't conscious of the talent he possessed, that unrefined power was like wild grass growing by the roadside—unable to be exerted and withdrawn at will, much less concealed. While Ye Shi was observing the man, the other was observing him just as intently. Fixing his gaze upon the angular power armor for a long moment, the man placed his palm over his chest and said: "...Honored Lord Progenitor, I am the chieftain of the Doma Clan, Tunnan Doma." Surprisingly, this fellow spoke more of the Human Alliance language than the priest named Saqui, suggesting he was likely of noble status among them. Ye Shi nodded. Meeting those wide, astonished eyes, he spoke in a solemn, dignified tone: "Greetings, leader of mortals. I am... Ye Shi of the Alliance—the one you call the Progenitor." Tunnan stared blankly at Ye Shi. Though largely bewildered by his words, he still nodded and asked: "May I ask why you have come here?" Ye Shi didn't beat around the bush and cut straight to the chase: "Something belonging to us has fallen to the ground. It is not something you can control, and it will bring catastrophe upon you. To prevent that disaster, we must return it to the heavens." Having likely grasped his meaning, Tunnan took on an earnest, grave expression: "The Doma Clan will do everything in its power to assist you!" Seeing this "junior Administrator" catch on so quickly, Ye Shi couldn't help a satisfied smile: "We will not have you help us in vain. As long as you assist me, we will not be stingy with our reward." Steam engines and printing presses might be too far beyond them, but casually tossing them a "Eureka" boost in metallurgy wouldn't be an issue at all. While he chuckled to himself, a snarky voice came over the comm channel: "Didn't someone just say they'd try not to interfere with their civilizational progress?" Ye Shi gave an embarrassed cough, his expression faltering: "Did I say that? Fine, just pretend I was talking out of my ass." Jiang Xuezhou: "..." After hearing Ye Shi out, Tunnan conferred with several elder-like tribesmen behind him, his face then lighting up with immense joy. Immediately after, he looked solemnly at Ye Shi and asked in a serious tone: "May I ask what that object is, and where it lies?" "I cannot describe its appearance, but its location should be on the other side of the river, in a valley about one or two thousand paces away... I need a guide, and I will find it myself." Ye Shi attempted to describe what he needed. Yet to his surprise, upon learning that his destination was the valley across the river, the chieftain named Tunnan and the elders behind him all registered sheer terror. Even Saqui, still prostrated on the ground, looked up with horror written across his face. "Honored Lord Progenitor, that is the Forbidden Forest... We cannot go near that place." "The Forbidden Forest?" Ye Shi frowned, sensing an ominous undertone in the name, and pressed: "What is the Forbidden Forest?" Saqui explained in a trembling voice for quite a while. Thanks to Jiang Xuezhou's simultaneous interpretation, Ye Shi managed to grasp the gist of it. Simply put, that valley was not unclaimed land. Beneath the forty-to-fifty-meter canopy lived a tribe of people whose culture and faith were entirely distinct from the "forest folk." The tribes of the forest called those people "Sinners." Those people were not only numerous and powerfully built, but they also wore rigid armor and had tamed ferocious wild lizards, riding into battle upon their backs. And the "wild lizards" Saqui referred to seemed to be the mutant beasts Ye Shi had encountered earlier in the woods. Those threats alone would have been troublesome, but hardly enough to frighten Ye Shi. However, according to Jiang Xuezhou, the danger Saqui described didn't stop there. Beyond their prowess in war and metallurgy, those people could also wield a power that the forest dwellers did not understand. And that power was what truly terrified them... "I hope it's just a few drones playing ghost tricks..." Jiang Xuezhou muttered quietly over the comm channel. "Though functioning in an oxygenated environment for two hundred years... their build quality would have to be absurdly good." Tunnan stared at the iron hunk before him, his face heavy as still water, an indecisive expression suggesting he was weighing the pros and cons. As chieftain of the tribe, he had to make more practical considerations for their future. Yet the Progenitor's warning of calamity was also part of that future. Calamity, or blessing. He had to make a choice. After conferring with the elders behind him, he delivered his answer in a solemn voice: "The children of the Progenitor will forever obey the Progenitor's call. We will assist you in reclaiming the heavenly 'holy relic' from the Forbidden Forest and the Sinners. "Yet this will be no easy feat. We must gather the other tribes of this forest together. "We beg you to grant us some time."