Chapter 118: The Weather Goddess Is Recalling the Past

The ascent to the sacred mountain was far less troublesome than Feng Xue had imagined; under the priest's guidance, the two reached the rear of the temple and stepped onto a platform, at which point Feng Xue realized that the previous civilization also had elevators!

But calling it an elevator was misleading—this platform resembled more of a cable-less aerial tram; even with Feng Xue's keen eyesight, he could not discern whether it was magnetic levitation, anti-gravity, or some other system—yet, with a smooth motion, Feng Xue finally saw the "Holy Hall" atop the mountain.

Compared to the temple below, which had been altered, graffitied, and repurposed for worship by villagers—with only the upper half of its photovoltaic panels still retaining a technological aura—the Holy Hall before him was a remarkably intact modern complex.

Though calling it a complex was inaccurate—it was, overall, roughly the size of a kindergarten.

The main building was a white, three- to four-story structure, its roof crowned with a device that looked vaguely like a windshield wiper, though Feng Xue suspected it was more likely an antenna; surrounding the building, apart from a six-meter-wide path, the entire ground was covered with various photovoltaic panels.

At this moment, small robots wielding brushes crawled across the panels, swiftly clearing away residue left by the heavy rain.

How to put it… at least it didn't look nearly as high-tech as Feng Xue had imagined.

"Welcome to the Karta Weather Monitoring Station—I'm your good friend Xiao Fengling~"

The weather goddess's voice, tinged with a touch of anime-style charm, sounded again—but this time, she did not use the priest's body; instead, she materialized a lavish-dressed female figure right there on the mountaintop platform.

"Ta-da~ The Divine One appears! Hey! Give me some reaction, okay?"

Seeing that neither Feng Xue nor Sara gave her the reaction she desired, Xiao Fengling's expression drooped slightly; Feng Xue, seeing this, felt a pang of awkwardness—but knowing he must not speak lightly to a phantom deity, he refrained from sarcasm and replied as succinctly as possible:

"I'm here to collect my reward."

"Alright, alright, Xiao Fengling knew no one cared about Xiao Fengling!" The weather goddess pouted as she turned around—and with her motion, the previously sealed door suddenly swung open; the space beyond showed no signs of long disuse, even appearing freshly maintained.

The weather goddess's projection drifted beside them, acting like a tour guide:

"When the Sea God's apocalypse occurred, the Karta Weather Station had fifty active researchers. During the initial days when communication was still possible, they desperately sought help."

"But this place was never an important facility, lacked mineral resources, and had too few survivors; during the first century, when the entire world frantically hoarded resources, no one paid attention to this island—"

"After all, the only thing of value here to that era was the halfway-up-the-mountain… oh, now it's at the foot—the plant factory built to improve the researchers' rations."

"They once tried hard to pass down the knowledge and skills they possessed, but by the end of the first century, the plant factory could no longer sustain food for hundreds of people…"

It seemed she had not spoken this history to anyone in a long time; the weather goddess spoke with great enthusiasm, though according to her, she had not yet developed true "thinking ability" or become a deity until five hundred years after the Sea God's apocalypse.

By then, the descendants of the survivors had already turned the plant factory into a temple, the mountaintop into a sacred mountain, the maintenance robots into divine messengers, and the intelligent control system into divine oracle tablets… yet she still recounted these "histories" stored in the weather station's database, as if she had prepared this narration for a long time.

"So, the rituals performed at the temple were also invented by them?" Feng Xue, deeply interested in the origin of natural phantom deities, immediately pressed further; the weather goddess showed no hesitation, even delighted that Feng Xue hadn't found her tedious, and replied at once:

"What they regarded as oracle tablets was actually the weather station's control platform. Through its visualized interface, they gradually figured out how to create simple rain-making missiles and rain-dispelling missiles—using their own understanding, they believed offering minerals and sea salt to the deity would summon rainfall."

As she spoke, the three passed through the corridor of the weather research institute and entered a large hall, where the still-pristine walls displayed a bird's-eye view of the island—

"Do you see this platform? I've spent centuries manipulating storms and ocean currents to build it. Thanks to this platform, they could cultivate crops at all; otherwise, even with the strictest rationing, the plant factory could barely sustain three hundred people's nutritional balance…"

As Feng Xue listened to Xiao Fengling explain how she had built up a society of several hundred fishermen into a semi-agricultural, semi-fishing community using only the weather monitoring system and her authority as the Weather Goddess, he felt as if he were being shown off to by a sandbox simulation game player boasting about her achievements.

Fortunately, the weather goddess's narration was not dull to Feng Xue; through the knowledge passed down by Senior Li, he could deduce many details regarding the cultivation of phantom deities from this millennium-long history.

But unlike the dog-like creature who knew nothing outside the database, Feng Xue understood well that a phantom deity—even one based on an AI personality—would not tell stories without purpose. When the weather goddess's tale reached a pause, he finally spoke up:

"So, why did you tell me all this? And where's my reward?"

"Sigh, since you finally asked, Xiao Fengling won't hold it against you! Ta-da-da-da!"

The weather goddess winked at Feng Xue, gestured behind her—and the previously empty floor in the center of the hall suddenly split open, rising a conference table. But instead of documents or a sand table, the table held a pile of roughly ten to fifteen items, haphazardly stacked like something from a two-yuan store.

"You nearly eliminated the pirates entirely, so Xiao Fengling won't be stingy—take anything you want! You can even take it all!"

Upon hearing this, Sara immediately rushed forward—but instead of reaching out, she crouched like a dog, pressing her face close to the items, staring intently.

Feng Xue picked up a device resembling a smartphone, frowning slightly:

"These aren't relics from the previous civilization, are they?"

"Impossible!" Before Xiao Fengling could respond, Sara cut in:

"The craftsmanship is definitely from the previous civilization! While some factions may have mastered their technology, this tiny island could never be one of them!"

Sara turned to the weather goddess's projection, expecting her to refute this—but to her surprise, the weather goddess wore a "death smile" as she stared at Feng Xue:

"Can you tell me how you figured that out?"

(End of Chapter)