Tree of Ein Sof

Two centuries of history could not be summed up in a few brief words, especially when the survivors on this planet had not only forgotten the Human Alliance language, but had lost the written word entirely. To Ye Shi's surprise, however, even though these Forest People were essentially illiterate, they had still recorded their culture and history in their own way. Like fissures etched into the roots of the Sacred Tree, angular lines climbed across every inch of the "temple" walls. They looked like murals. At first, Ye Shi had assumed the grooves were naturally formed patterns—until he watched with his own eyes as a fresh row of sharp, angular lines slowly lengthened in response to his arrival. It seemed to happen simultaneously, making it hard to tell cause from effect. Just like the strange phenomenon he had encountered in the hyperspace conduit... "The Sacred Tree is the Tree of Ein Sof, Mother of All Things. Its root system spreads throughout the entire forest, throughout the entire world, and indeed forms our world... And the Sacred Tree above our heads right now is merely the part exposed to the open air—a tender sprout poking out from the soil." Dora spoke of the Sacred Tree in a soft voice. Ye Shi was astonished to find that as their conversation went on, her command of the Human Alliance language was improving at an unbelievable speed, even more astonishing than that old man named Sa Kui. If "psionics" had level gradations, that old man was probably around level 10, while she had to be at least level 30. Of course, it might also just be that young people learned faster. "I think I get it... If you compare it to a higher-dimensional being, the Sacred Tree we see is just one of its projections into the three-dimensional world, while other parts exist in dimensions invisible to us. Is that what you mean?" Dora paused, seemingly not understanding at first, but quickly caught on and nodded with a gentle smile. "That is the original explanation." Ye Shi asked, puzzled, "The original explanation?" Dora nodded gently, her voice calm and serene. "Dimension is a very ancient word to us. Long, long ago, you or your kin taught us in this very way... how to understand the existence of the Tree of Ein Sof, how to call upon It, how to nurture It, and how to become Its branches." Ye Shi broadly grasped her meaning. In other words, the survivors from the missile cruiser Gemini or the colony had discovered the existence of the "Tree of Ein Sof" in the period following the end of the Three-Year War. They had mastered the ability to communicate with It, explained It using Human Alliance physical theories, and passed down that digested knowledge to their descendants. Yet what baffled him was why they hadn't kept the name Gaia, choosing instead to invent a separate proper noun to distinguish It from the original moniker. Did they mean to indicate that Gaia was dead? Or that It had evolved into something else? Or perhaps the Human Alliance's original understanding of Gaia had been flawed from the start, and they had revised their previous theories. Seeing that the Progenitor remained silent, Dora turned her gaze toward the wall composed of tree roots before them. The fireflies hovering around her drifted forward lazily, as though drawn by an unknown force. They clustered in the air like an index finger resting on an open page, settling upon the opening line of the text. "Over long years, we discovered a new way of living, and later walked into the forest, casting aside all that once was to begin anew. Ever since the second Day of Judgment, we have used the growth rings at the roots of the Sacred Tree to record Its teachings and the events of the past." The second Day of Judgment? Ye Shi frowned slightly, asking in confusion, "Won't abstract patterns like these distort the recorded information?" "It will not," Dora shook her head, continuing in her gentle tone. "Symbols are merely form. Through unseen bonds, we can establish contact with the past." Hearing this, Ye Shi was utterly stunned. Holy crap. It had taken an extraordinary coincidence for him to establish contact within the hyperspace conduit with the crew of the missile cruiser Orion, who had been in the conduit as well. And these people were born with that kind of ability? Wait, that wasn't right. If they could connect with the past, pulling technologies researched in the future back into the past and then having them alter the future, wouldn't they be kicking their left foot off their right foot all the way into the stratosphere? Yet what he saw before him clearly didn't fit that picture. At least by the Doma Tribe's own description, the technological prowess of these Forest People lagged far behind that of the "Valley People" next door. As if discerning the confusion on Ye Shi's face, Dora continued in a soft voice, "The information that can be conveyed is limited. It must be something both sides share belief in, the same lingering doubts, the same questions being pondered. Thus, when such bonds bridge different points in space-time, the information we draw from the past tends to be concrete, while revelations from the future lean toward the abstract." As their conversation progressed, she seemed to comprehend more and more of the language, even voicing concepts that Ye Shi himself didn't entirely understand. After hearing her explanation, Ye Shi offered heartfelt praise. "Even so, that's already incredible." Having earned the Progenitor's approval, Dora's face lit up with a joyous smile, and she continued cheerfully, "These are the patterns we uncovered after your departure... As you can see, we never ceased our search." Ye Shi nodded and followed up, "Is this special ability unique to the Doma Tribe? Or... everyone?" "All tribes in the forest are like this," Dora answered softly. "Though we have not yet found a way for everyone to awaken this power, as long as we dwell beneath the Sacred Tree, kinsfolk with similar abilities continually emerge from our people. At fewest fifteen or sixteen, at most forty or fifty—and I am one of them." Ye Shi suddenly realized that his initial impression of them had been inaccurate. He had originally assumed that the emergence of these supernatural gifts had hindered their ability to understand the universe around them. But now it seemed the truth was quite the opposite— Far from being blinded by an unseen hand, they stood upon the shoulders of giants and saw even further, gaining premature access to facets of the universe that neither he nor even the Human Alliance during its Era of Prosperity had fully understood. Communicating with plants to accelerate growth, communing with the past to retrieve lost technologies, and even forging connections across parallel space-times to glean revelations from the future... these people might actually be far more formidable than he had imagined! They had simply started from a vastly lower baseline. Admittedly, such a "convenient ability" had hindered their discovery of natural sciences. Yet once they established a relatively mature scientific methodology through years of observing nature, this enhanced perception might well become a catalyst accelerating their technological breakthroughs, causing sudden flashes of inspiration to strike far more frequently. And not just in science. Politics, economics, culture, military, industry... across countless fields, this ability held the potential to serve as a catalyst. This racial trait is absolutely insane! The more Ye Shi thought about it, the more shaken he grew. He even briefly entertained the dark cliché of *this genius must not be allowed to live*, before snapping back to his senses. Come to think of it, stepping outside the game's setting and framework, weren't the "players" practically the exact same thing? In reality, the existence of players had indeed driven the prosperity of the Alliance's science, politics, economy, culture, military, and every other field—and in an explosive fashion! Under the influence of these "players," the Alliance had achieved in just a few short years what other survivor factions might not have accomplished in ten or even several dozen years. Realizing this, Ye Shi was utterly mind-blown. Holy hell. *Turns out the overpowered ones were us all along?!* Dora looked with bewilderment at the suddenly silent Progenitor, blinking her expressive eyes curiously. This person was always doing this. Mid-sentence, he would suddenly go mute, or just stand there lost in thought, who knew who he was conversing with. She did not have to wait long, however. Before long, the Progenitor standing before the temple "mural" seemed to snap back to reality, looking at her earnestly. "Thank you... This information is very important to us." "We have always kept your teachings in our hearts; our communion with the Sacred Tree has never slackened." Dora bowed her head respectfully, a delighted smile spreading across her face. In the time that followed, Ye Shi asked many more questions. In particular, he asked about the origins of the various forest tribes, the feud between the forest tribes and the valley tribes—the so-called "Sinners"—and what exactly was meant by "from above." And to all these sundry inquiries, the temple attendant named Dora patiently answered each and every one. According to her, the people living on this land were all children who had survived through the grace of the Tree of Ein Sof. Prior to that—in the so-called "Old Era"—this planet had once belonged to the "Progenitors" who came from the sky. Back then, people possessed diverse skin tones, held different beliefs, spoke virtually identical Old Era languages, and lived in a paradise unimaginable today... Until the arrival of the first "Day of Judgment," when countless blazing suns plummeted from the sky, turning the prosperous surface world to cinder and utterly destroying everything from the Old Era. Across the whole land, only a small number of young children had the fortune to survive. Just as the world fell into despair, the branches of the Tree of Ein Sof broke through the soil, stretching its first tender shoots toward the gray sky. No one knew where It came from, or perhaps It had always been there, living beneath people's feet all along. It was merely that It had slumbered for so long It had forgotten the concept of time, and was only awakened recently. Faced with a dying world, the compassionate entity performed a miracle, bestowing green skin upon Its believers so that they could bathe in sunlight for warmth and sustenance, surviving those years when there was no food. Not only that. Through Its miraculous works, the dead world began to gradually revive. In a mere two decades, It transformed the entire planet from an endless wasteland into a vast forest. Thus began a new era. The people who survived the Day of Judgment had, for reasons unknown, forgotten everything from the past, including the script and history of the Old Era. Even this memory of the Day of Judgment and the "Progenitors" came entirely from the recounting of the Tree of Ein Sof. Of course, that all came later. Those who had just entered the new era were not yet aware of the existence of the "Tree of Ein Sof." Though the green-skinned survivors clung to life, they lived much like beasts. For this reason, Dora called this initial period the "Savage Era." People back then were like wild animals, their only distinction from primitive beasts being their unusual vocalizations. Hearing this, cold sweat broke out across Ye Shi's back. It was clear these people had no memory whatsoever of the Three-Year War or anything before it, which was why they viewed these "Progenitors" through rose-tinted glasses of worship. If they knew that the so-called "Day of Judgment" was actually neutron plumes fired by a blood-crazed Human Alliance Aerospace Force, he wondered whether they would still look upon their Earth compatriots with such reverent eyes. On the other hand, at this point Ye Shi was almost certain that these "little green men" were transformed from Earth humans. The "Tree of Ein Sof" had likely altered their genes, seemingly granting them photosynthesis or some similar ability to carry them through those most brutal years. Then again, was photosynthesis really something humans could do?! On Earth, he had only heard of certain nudibranchs capable of photosynthesis, like certain sea slugs... But even sea slugs accomplished it with the aid of algal cells, not entirely on their own. Still, these little green people clearly didn't rely entirely on photosynthesis either; they still needed to eat. Ye Shi suddenly felt an urge to borrow some DNA from the girl before him to bring back for study. Nothing improper. Purely out of curiosity. Unaware of the bizarre thoughts swirling in the mind of the Progenitor before her, Dora looked at Ye Shi and continued. "In the third decade after that—the fiftieth year of the Savage Era—we met the Progenitors once more. They appeared suddenly, seventeen in all, wearing armor just like yours and speaking the same language as you." "They helped us greatly. They taught us how to make fire, taught us how to hunt, and most importantly... with their help, we realized our distinction from the rest of creation. We kindled the spark of civilization... and discovered the existence of the Tree of Ein Sof." "They helped you find the Tree of Ein Sof?" Ye Shi looked at her in surprise, thoroughly perplexed by this revelation. These seventeen people had to be the crew of the Gemini? The crew of the Orion were already dead—that was an established fact—so these could only be living souls from the opposing side. If he recalled correctly, the crew of the missile cruiser Gemini were supposed to be "extreme conservatives." Would such hardliners really take the initiative to help surface survivors seek assistance from an entity suspected to be "Gaia"? Talk about the sun rising in the west. Of course, it was also possible that things were not as absolute as he imagined. Perhaps not everyone aboard the missile cruiser Gemini was an extreme conservative. What was more, the fact that they termed what they found on this planet the "Tree of Ein Sof" strongly suggested they had recognized Its difference from Gaia. Or maybe they simply wanted to leverage the power of the "Tree of Ein Sof" to coax these compatriots—who had practically devolved into monkeys—down from the trees. Then again, Ye Shi hadn't expected those seventeen surviving crew members to have drifted in the sky for thirty years before touching down. He and Jiang Xuezhou had always assumed that the "crash of the Gemini" and the "Orion incident" occurred in the same era, if not at the exact same time. Feeling himself drawing closer to the truth of history, Ye Shi couldn't resist asking, "And then?" Dora recounted placidly, "Then, with the help of the Tree of Ein Sof, we came to understand one another. And with their guidance, we gradually mastered the means to commune with the Tree of Ein Sof and all things in the world, refining our own language." "That was the first time we recognized our own existence and our place in the world... In your words, in just ten short years we crossed a path that would normally have taken a thousand years. Because of this, we call that period the 'Awakening Era.'" *Awakening Era... fair enough.* Ye Shi had thought she might use the term "Era of Prosperity." Gazing at the rows of angular growth rings along the wall, a wistful nostalgia crept into Dora's eyes. Those soul-stirring eyes looked as though they had truly traveled back to that time—the "Era of Prosperity" that belonged to the people living on this land. "That was truly a wondrous time. Back then, we lived in the Forbidden Forest Valley—every single one of us lived there. And it was also then that the Tree of Ein Sof told us we came from a star in the heavens where our ancestors dwelt. We had quarreled over certain matters, bringing about the Day of Judgment, but the future was bright, and sooner or later, we would meet again." "Yet good times never last... In the second decade of the Awakening Era, a severe rift tore our Progenitors apart, and that division ultimately brought about the prophesied Day of Judgment once more." At this point, a faint sorrow shadowed Dora's face. She sighed softly and went on. "A portion of the Progenitors left the Forbidden Forest Valley and ventured into the depths of the forest, while the rest remained with us. Shortly thereafter, a burning palace plunged from the heavens, destroying the Sacred Tree in the Forbidden Forest Valley—the bough left upon the surface by the Tree of Ein Sof." "Our misfortune began there. A conflagration swept the forest, flames swallowing everything. Thousands perished in the blaze, and few survived... Those who had once departed the Forbidden Forest returned bearing weapons, seizing the sacred land from our grasp, while the rest of us were imprisoned, sacrificed, and exiled." "Yet fortunate it was that only a sprout of the Tree of Ein Sof was incinerated. Its children had long since peered through the mists of time to foresee the coming danger; leaving the Forbidden Forest Valley behind, we established a new home in the broader expanse of the forest." "In contrast, the sacred land the Sinners seized from us became a cage that imprisoned them. Bereft of the Sacred Tree's shelter, they could scarcely take a single step in the forest; everything within it was their enemy. To survive, they had no choice but to vie with birds and beasts for wild seeds, hiding within cold stones to scrape by..." Hearing this, Ye Shi couldn't help swallowing hard. "You don't hate us?" "Why would we hate you?" Dora looked at Ye Shi with puzzled eyes, speaking in her gentle voice. "Without you, we might never have realized the difference between ourselves and wild beasts, let alone lived in such prosperity and abundance as we do today. And the Tree of Ein Sof has admonished us more than once: we should draw lessons from the memories of the past, rather than let past catastrophes repeat themselves." Staring blankly at Dora, Ye Shi suddenly felt a pang of shame. For a moment, he didn't know how to meet those pure, guileless eyes. Perhaps Jiang Xuezhou was right. He really had botched things up. A far better choice had been laid right before him, yet he had unhesitatingly chosen the worst one. Even if, in his own view, all he had done was turn a blind eye. In his subconscious, he had only wanted to inherit the near-infinite power of the Human Alliance era, while forgetting that the comrades who had fought alongside him had passed into his hands not just the "keys" to the missile cruiser Orion, but the responsibilities they had once borne. They had trusted him, and that was why they had entrusted this starship to his care. Fortunately, realizing it now was not too late. There was still a chance to make amends. "...I may have done something bad." Ye Shi took a deep breath, looking at the bewildered Dora with a solemn tone. "Do you have any way of contacting those Sinners in the valley?" Dora froze, staring at him in confusion. "Contact... the Sinners? Why?" She couldn't understand. Now that the Progenitor had chosen them, why seek out their enemies? "I want to talk to them." Looking at her puzzled face, Ye Shi said sincerely, "Perhaps I can help you resolve this two-hundred-year grudge and bring this entire affair to a better resolution—" There were actually plenty of ways. Especially in his capacity as a "Progenitor." At worst, he could coax Jiang Xuezhou in a bit, swallow his pride and admit he was wrong, and get her to play the mystic god with him once more. With her kind heart, she surely wouldn't refuse! Dora looked at him in a daze, her lips parting as she was about to speak. Just then, a voice—respectful yet commanding—drifted from behind them. "It is already too late, respected Progenitor. We have nothing to discuss with the Sinners." "You dare defy my decree?" Ye Shi's face fell, boldly uttering a line so chuunibyou that even he felt embarrassed. Yet this overwhelmingly chuuni line seemed to carry some weight. Before "mortals," a "god" still commanded a degree of awe. Even if this mortal was no ordinary mortal. Standing at the entrance of the temple, Tun Nan fell silent for a moment before speaking slowly, "I dare not defy your decree. But for the future of your children... please, sleep." Heh. Talk was cheap. Ye Shi gave a cold sneer, his right hand already resting at his waist as he drew his pistol. The guy was refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit. He admitted these folks had some tricks up their sleeves—like those green crystal spears, or their uncanny "psionic abilities." But hoping to take on his heavy ordnance with parlor tricks was nothing short of a pipe dream. Of course, he didn't plan on doing anything terrible to this "Little Ah Guang," let alone snapping his neck, but teaching him a lesson was certainly in order. He could accept Brother Guang bossing him around, but who the hell did this bastard think he was? Yet just as this thought crossed Ye Shi's mind, Jiu Jiu's voice reached his ears from outside his door. "Bro, I'm eating your takeout!" "Jiejiejie... Not like you can hear me anyway. I'll leave you a chicken bone!" His head grew heavy, and Ye Shi's expression changed abruptly as an icon flashed before his eyes: [Connection Abnormal]. "What the fuck?!" He was getting disconnected?! You've gotta be kidding me!