Original Being — The first reaction I had when I heard this term was that it sounded really impressive!

Because I completely didn’t understand what it meant, and based on my experience, anything I’ve heard from these Taville scientists that I don’t understand is always really impressive — by the way, I feel like everything they say is impressive.

"What is an Original Being?" I couldn’t help but ask Sandora. We were on our way to the research center, accompanied by Lin Xue and Orelia: Ever since we returned from Kerudak, we had stayed in Shadow City without going back.

Sandora thought for a moment, seemingly pondering how to explain this term that clearly needed a lot of groundwork to me. Then she pointed at herself: "Ah Jun, do you know the life form of a Xyrin Apostle?"

"Oh, half-energy constructed body," I nodded, "Non-fixed life form, with basic units of the body in a state between material and entity, can be individually ’customized’ as needed, hence having extremely strong evolutionary and enhancement abilities as a life form. Probably because of this, Xyrin Apostles include both entity life and energy life, and both completely opposite life forms belong to the same race..." As I spoke, I couldn’t help but digress a bit. The life form of Xyrin Apostles greatly piqued my curiosity from the start, so I had studied it for a long time back then, like doing body checks for Pandora... um, chatting and such, so I have rare deeper understandings in this area.

"That’s right, non-fixed life form designed for battlefield and evolutionary needs, capable of ’customizing’ their bodies," Sandora nodded, "You also know, Xyrin Apostles have many sub-clans, with differences among each sub-clan so immense they almost become independent species, just like Armored Scorpion and Raven, Alaya and Pandora. Logically, they are almost independent races with no similar points in life form, but in fact, all sub-clans belong to one single race..."

As Sandora was talking, she suddenly fell into silence. A few seconds later, she looked up at me and said, "Ah Jun, do you think such a life form could be a product of natural evolution?"

"What do you mean?" I didn’t understand for a moment.

"Xyrin Apostles were created, as I mentioned to you long ago," Sandora sighed, "To defeat the enemy, an even older race created... or rather reformed the Xyrin Apostles, which is why we obtained the basis to become stronger. Our current life form is evolved on an ancient customization mechanism; this mechanism allows Xyrin Apostles to adapt to their environment almost without limit. As long as there’s a possibility, we can always remodel ourselves to face any challenge we might encounter. During the long evolution process, Xyrin Apostles have undergone countless ’promotions’ at the clan level to overcome enemies and environments. We evolve ourselves entirely into another form of life to become more powerful, and in doing so, have birthed the many diverse sub-clans you see now: Armored Scorpions, Ravens, Artificial Angels, War Machines, Plastic Energy Masters... all these sub-clans emerged from voluntarily evolving to tackle some formidable enemy in the past. Xyrin Apostles were once called war viruses, and this is not incorrect at all. Our evolution and self-remodeling abilities are no weaker than that of a virus. Indeed, even now, after the founding of the New Empire, Xyrin Apostles continue this clan-wide evolution process — the promotion to become the Third Divine Race is essentially just a grander scale of such promotions. This evolution has accompanied us for billions of years now."

"So, what exactly are you trying to say...?" Lin Xue looked at Sandora and finally couldn’t help but ask.

"What I mean is that the current Xyrin Apostles have undergone countless updates, and the number of sub-clans only increased through these updates. Before all this happened, when Xyrin Apostles were just ’created,’ their life form was actually single: back then, we only had one kind of apostles..."

"Original Being!" In that instant, I suddenly understood the term I heard from Taville, and at this moment, everyone had already arrived at the entrance of the research center, where Taville herself was leading her senior assistants, eagerly waiting for us at the door. With an excited expression on her face, she quickly approached Sandora and me, "Your Majesty, it’s an Original Being, confirmed. There’s an original serial number stored within the specimen, with no signs of promotion anywhere on his body!"

"Very well, take us there now," Sandora nodded, then gestured for us to follow. Even though I had a belly full of questions in those few seconds just now, it seemed like it wasn’t the time for inquiries, so I could only grab Miss Lin and follow Taville to where they were analyzing the remains.

It was a small comprehensive laboratory used for precise analysis of smaller specimens. The central long platform of the lab secured the ancient remains we found on Ankah 5. The warrior’s power armor had been carefully dismantled, placed on another platform in the corner of the room, undergoing scanning by the automatic equipment, while the warrior without armor lay lifeless in front of everyone on the central platform. The warrior’s skin, with a texture between metal and plastic, was dotted with twinkling lights wandering all over.

Seeing the warrior’s full body made his features resembling a war puppet or an ordinary robot more evident, with obvious interfaces at all his joints, where blue inlays could be seen: now I knew, those were the primitive psionic adaptation modules used for allowing the body to directly use ghost energy, whereas in the current Xyrin Apostles, such adaptation modules had evolved into their basic body units, making it such that even high-level apostles could directly use psionic energy without needing those modules.

The above knowledge was all explained by Taville as she introduced her findings to us. While listening to her introduction, I was examining the ancient Xyrin Apostle known as the "Original Being," meanwhile numerous confusing doubts swirled persistently in my mind, becoming increasingly uncontrollable.

"Original Being, that’s the first generation of Xyrin Apostles, right?"

I asked Taville, who thought for a moment: "Not exactly, because creating a race from scratch isn’t something that can be completed instantaneously. The ancient race that initially created the Xyrin Apostles did not possess such overwhelming power. Hence, the initial Xyrin Apostles were created over a relatively long period, batch by batch, so ’first generation Xyrin Apostles’ is just a general term. Original Being refers to the Xyrin Apostles birthed in a certain historical period initially, they haven’t undergone evolution but were entirely designed by the ancient creators, retaining all the characteristics they were born with initially, as well as all their flaws, just as you see, this warrior is even akin to a war puppet. In truth, many of the components within him are not suitable for actual circumstances, or their design did not reach a level to maximize effect, theoretically speaking."

After Taville’s explanation, I understood the traits of the Original Being but remained puzzled: "Then why did the Melowa People want to touch an Original Being?"

"Meaning unclear," Sandora said softly, "Original Beings have special significance to Xyrin Apostles, but they are, after all, ancient designs. From a practical standpoint, even the most powerful Original Being’s strength is no match for an ordinary soldier now, and the technology contained within an Original Being... should not particularly intrigue the Melowa People. They’ve followed the Empire for many years and have access to far more advanced technology. I just want to know why there are still Original Beings existing, and how one drifted to such a remote place..."

"Speaking of which, it reminded me," I tapped my forehead, recalling a question I hadn’t had a chance to ask, "Sandora, Original Beings should be significantly important to Xyrin Apostles, like ancestors, but... when we were on Ankah 5, why didn’t you recognize the Original Being at first sight?"

I still remember Sandora’s initial expression when she first saw that coffin and the remains inside. It was purely surprise and puzzlement. There were many Xyrin Apostles present at the time, yet none could recognize the identity of the original body. It was only after being sent to the research institute that the warrior’s true identity was verified, which indeed left many of us a bit confused.

"I know you’ll surely ask about this," Sandora said with a faint smile, glancing at me, "because information about the original body... for us, it’s almost become a legend from countless years ago."

Me: "Huh?"

"Even a civilization as powerful as the Xyrin stumbled its way through," Orelia added from the side, "in the early years, we too experienced displacement, the destruction of our homeland, the exodus of our entire Race, and supposedly there were times so dire that we didn’t even have a single planet to settle on. Because of this, the records and heritages were fragmented, and it was during such times that the records of the original body gradually ceased."

Lin Xue and I listened to Orelia’s tale, dumbfounded and lost in thought: what she described was an era we had never imagined, a time when Xyrin Apostles had not yet reached their peak, not even close to claiming power in the Void, and later standing on par with gods, being called the Third God—the Xyrin Apostles once had times of struggling for survival and fighting bravely.

This is not hard to imagine, actually, it should be expected: as a civilization grown from the stage of mortals, no matter how powerful it became at its peak, it could never have been born as formidable as the Divine Race elites. Even knowing this, I had never truly understood this part of the Empire’s history, so upon first hearing it, it felt incredibly surreal—kind of like suddenly learning that Bill Gates once washed dishes or that Onikxia was once an egg; although nothing is technically wrong, it still delivered a psychological impact, right?

"Most of the history about our initial stage is now unverifiable, including where the ancient Race that created us came from, what they encountered beforehand that led them to create the Xyrin Apostles as super beings, and the fate of our original homeland—these are all topics with only scattered records, stored here—" Sandora pointed to her forehead, "in the basic memory bank. We only know that after creating the ’Apostles,’ that ancient Race completely disappeared. They uploaded all their culture and knowledge into the databases of the Apostles, effectively handing over their entire civilization to their creations, and then vanished into the Void. Their civilization and final mission lived on through their creations, hence we call ourselves Apostles, not ’Xyrin People.’ Though many who are unaware often confuse the two, in some circumstances, people also shorten Xyrin Apostles to Xyrin People, but we never do that. The Xyrin People are extinct, and we are Xyrin Apostles..."

"Were the Apostles created to fight the Abyss?" Lin Xue suddenly thought of something and asked.

Sandora thought for a moment and nodded: "Although there are no direct records, considering that the initial memory in our memory bank involves fighting the Abyss, this should be the truth back then. We were created to combat the Abyss, we might be called war machines, but no one knows why the creators went to such extents: they completely replaced themselves with ’Apostles,’ surrendering their entire civilization... They were a mortal Race, yet created Apostles capable of evolving toward godliness, which is difficult for us to comprehend. Research on the creators continued throughout the Old Empire Era without interruption, but until the Empire’s collapse, there was no progress whatsoever, and by the New Empire era, it became an utterly impossible project to carry on."

"The records of the original body are in a similar state," Orelia continued, "The original body and the creators are essentially from the same era. We’ve always speculated that they probably lived together for a certain time during the original body’s initial existence. The creators might have made final refinements and modifications to the original body during that period, but later found they could no longer understand these rapidly self-perfecting super beings, so they chose to leave—these are the scholars’ speculations. After the creators’ complete disappearance, the original body became the successor to the Xyrin Civilization. They continued to search for the Abyss’s traces, waged wars everywhere, and followed their initial directives: to evolve, become stronger, and eliminate the Abyss. This relentless advancement, by any means necessary, possibly led to several near-extinction calamities during their process, and the records concerning them are sporadic amidst those super battles. But each disaster failed to defeat the original body; they relentlessly evolved, customizing their life form, occupying anything bringing value, and then adapting to local environments. Eventually, they brought forth ’sub-clans,’ phenomena that revolutionized the entire Xyrin Civilization once again after the ’original body.’ The singularly evolving original body was replaced by the sub-clans, where the original bodies split themselves into multiple groups tailored toward specific functionalities in an ’use or lose’ fashion. The initial original body was comprehensive; the creators integrated all their Racial Talents into the original body, granting them a vast array of combat modes. But the sub-clans chose to abandon this jack-of-all-trades approach, reverting to a state of specialization similar to that of the creators, and took it further—Armored Scorpions, Ravens, Heavy Soldiers, and similar Apostle units emerged in droves, ushering in the sub-clan era. Only after this does the database contain clear information, and the account of the original body is much like my narrative, nearly a story."

Upon Orelia finishing, Lin Xue and I stood beside the "original body," quietly observing its simple, primitive Ghost Energy components: "This is the first time in history that an original body has appeared before you, right?"

Orelia, Taville, and Sandora silently nodded.

"How did the Melowa People come to know of the original body’s existence?" I suddenly asked, "Have you ever told your vassal races about the original body? It seems unlikely."

"The Melowa People might have found records about the original body from some of the Empire’s equipment they stole," Orelia replied, "when inventorying Heavenly Realm City’s materials, we found that a substantial part of the missing facilities were research facilities. It wouldn’t be surprising for the Melowa People to know about the original body from those materials."

"Then the question goes back to the beginning: what did the Melowa People want with the original body?" This time even Prophet Lin appeared bewildered, spreading their arms and glancing around us all, "Do they want to create original bodies themselves? Is that possible?"

Lin Xue’s remark made me quiver slightly, instinctively sensing that the Prophet might have inadvertently touched upon the truth, but Orelia immediately disagreed: "It’s pointless; replicating the original body is pointless; it’s too obvious. From our current perspective, the original body is only marginally better than a War Puppet. The Melowa People are not fools, even if they get hold of the original body. By researching to the extreme limits of the original body’s physical structure, they could only replicate a War Puppet because deeper knowledge cannot be acquired directly from the original body. All relevant foundational information vanished with the creators. Moreover, even if the Melowa People were to replicate bodies similar to modern Apostles, all they could produce would be a bunch of Super Soldiers. I know a fair bit about that Race; they admire strength and take pride in their ancient heritage, so they must have ambitions appropriate to their mindset. Whatever they are pursuing...it’s probably something much larger."

"For example..." I pondered, "Do they also want to become Xyrin Apostles?"

The scene fell silent, and after a few seconds, Sandora actually smiled: "Since the gods perished, maybe the servant of yesterday wishes to sit upon the altar themselves... That indeed is an intriguing ambition."

"I’m merely speculating," I said, spreading my hands, "but as Orelia also mentioned, researching the original body to the utmost could only produce War Puppets. The core technologies used in the original body’s creation were known only to the creators, so the Melowa People’s aspirations may forever remain just ambitions."

"Having such ambition, and the acts they’ve undertaken for it," Sandora narrowed her eyes, "is already condemnable." (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast recommendation votes, monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)