Chapter 271: Ancestor (1)

Tens of thousands of Aliens surrounded the clearing in the forest, forming an offensive formation within the woods. Luo Qi observed carefully; they possessed rudimentary military thinking, and the tens of thousands of Aliens had completed a layered encirclement. If given the chance, they could efficiently annihilate the besieged enemy. Additionally, more than twenty thousand Aliens were gathering in the forest, preparing to close in on this location. Luo Qi performed a Calculation of the proportion of the gathered Aliens to the total number, guessing that it was likely the majority of the adult Aliens, which meant it was the main army of the Alien species.

Some of these Aliens approached at a speed that was particularly fast, far exceeding the movement speed of the other Aliens; Luo Qi thought of cavalry. In the Queen's flashing memories of fleeting shadows, Luo Qi snatched a nested memory: Aliens riding atop giant birds, holding bows and arrows in their hands, the iron arrowheads gleaming with a chilling light.

Flying cavalry? Luo Qi turned the thought over, roughly guessing the civilization level of the Aliens; this was an army in the Cold Weapon Age. However, even so, such an army—even if they had no bows, arrows, or giant bird mounts and were in an even more ignorant state—would already have a terrifying combat capability. If they were facing humans, this race that was born with a cheat code could still think of ways to cope. Ordinary humans, even if they had already fought two world wars, would likely have to pay a truly enormous price to deal with an Alien primitive army.

Fortunately, these Aliens were still in the Cold Weapon Age... Luo Qi froze as he thought of this, and a new thought sprouted in the depths of his heart—how long... had they actually been stuck in the Cold Weapon Age?

If compared to the development path of humans, humans in ancient times mainly relied on word-of-mouth to pass down knowledge and experience, and later relied on writing, but knowledge and experience passed down this way would inevitably have errors and be lost. The physiological structure of the Aliens gave them a natural, massive advantage; they relied on a shared Mental Network to pass down knowledge and experience. Deceased individuals left their memories behind, and experience and knowledge existed clearly and permanently within the shared Mental Network, with updates and corrections completed efficiently and accurately.

Furthermore, relying on the shared Mental Network, the education speed for raising newborns would also be very fast. The Mental Network was also convenient for overall planning, making social life more orderly. Given that such a life form possessed high intelligence, the speed of their evolution should have been very fast.

Even considering other factors that accelerate the progress of civilization, such as the pressure of war. Referring to humans, the blood and fire of war are catalysts for the progress of human civilization. Thus, one could know from the Queen's memories that there was more than one tribe on this continent, and more than one Queen, and the struggles between territories were just as bloody and intense.

A thought vaguely formed in Luo Qi's mind, and this thought became increasingly clear. He suspected that these down-on-their-luck Aliens were not saved by a great Queen who led them through a survival crisis. They were still surviving because the Ancestor Mage still allowed them to reproduce. Whenever their population grew to a certain scale—a scale large enough that they might break through their existing stage of civilization and enter the next—the Ancestor Mage would descend and carry out a massacre, reducing their population size to keep them stably maintained in the tribal era.

This thought made Luo Qi shiver; if this were true, such behavior would be too cruel. And for some reason, Luo Qi felt that this way of controlling the progress of civilization was more like the human way of thinking. It wasn't to say that humans were crueler than Mages, but that this scientific way of thinking was truly more fitting for humans. Mages didn't think about problems this way; if the Aliens were the neighbors of Mages, then Luo Qi knew all too well what the Mages would do. They would either turn a blind eye to them or, when they posed a threat, solve them once and for all—just like Du Zhengyi, even crushing the eggshells.

Luo Qi pulled his thoughts back; these things were not important, and he could leave them for later when he had time to ponder them slowly. He placed his Yajian back onto the Queen; the Queen was still conducting a strategic mobilization of her subjects within the Mental Network. This strategic mobilization was truly swift and efficient, making even Luo Qi sigh in admiration. He was busy twisting the volume down as if adjusting an old-fashioned radio, which was the only way to avoid being tortured by the high-pitched intensity in this memory. He also felt a trace of regret in his heart; watching the Aliens fight for the survival of their race, yet this was, after all, a memory, and he already knew the outcome of this war.

Suddenly, the gate of the Pyramid opened with a boom. Luo Qi could not spare the time to regret for the Aliens; he became nervous. He was about to witness the legendary Ancestor Mage with his own eyes.

He nervously recalled that the Mages' records regarding the Ancestor Mage were not very clear; it was not even certain how many Ancestor Mages there were in total. Some legends said there were nine Ancestor Mages, while others said there were only three. But regardless, Luo Qi would at least be able to see one today; he might be one of the very few people in tens of thousands of years to have this stroke of luck.