I'm Trapped in the Block

The gossamer-thin creature, Purple, shared a theory with the Ancient Mine Race.

"There is more than one path to eternal life. You have walked the road of individual immortality for so long that you have forgotten the road of procreation for the species."

"I am very fond of the human race. You could observe them, and then go and create descendants. Your descendants will inherit everything from you."

"For a population to exist forever is also a form of eternity..."

Purple and the Ancient Mine Race talked for a long time. It shared its philosophy and advised him not to be fixated on a single form of life.

"Do you know of Yu Gong? A very perseverant fellow among humans. You could look into his story. For example, if you were a mountain right now, you could imagine your own situation. I find it very interesting."

Even after the Ancient Mine Race bid farewell to Purple, those theories, which were so novel to him, still echoed in his mind.

"Yu Gong?"

So, he began to learn the stories of humanity and gradually came to understand the theory of species propagation.

He even went to the place where Yu Gong was moving the mountains and helped him move the two mountains away.

Hearing this, Mo Ling almost leaped to his feet.

"You moved Yu Gong’s mountains? Didn’t the Cataclysm only happen fifty years ago? How did you get out?"

Startled, Mo Ling fired off a series of questions.

"The Abyss has only been appearing for fifty years. That doesn’t mean I couldn’t get out before then," the Ancient Mine Race explained, sounding somewhat helpless.

Mo Ling suddenly realized his understanding of the Abyss was flawed.

The Abyss starting to appear fifty years ago didn’t mean it hadn’t existed before. The life within the Abyss may have existed for a very long time, perhaps even longer than life has existed on Earth.

And what was most thought-provoking was that these powerful beings had already been to Earth through some means long ago.

A chill ran down Mo Ling’s spine. He realized these powerful beings might have started influencing Earth’s history a very long time ago.

"And then?" Mo Ling asked impatiently.

The Ancient Mine Race continued its story.

After understanding species propagation, the Ancient Mine Race began to create his own descendants. He mimicked the appearance of humans, molding his descendants into humanoid forms.

He also used his ability to control materials to create descendant bodies from many kinds of materials, hoping they could all display powerful abilities.

However, these were all inanimate objects. He still didn’t know how to give his descendants consciousness, so he once again sought guidance from Purple.

And so, Purple taught him a method of controlling emotions:

"These are human emotions, called the seven passions and six desires."

"The seven passions are joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hate, and want."

"The six desires are carnal desire, the desire for a beautiful appearance, the desire for a dignified posture, the desire for a pleasant voice, the desire for a soft touch, and the desire for a perfect human form."

"Follow the sequence and proportions, place these seven passions and six desires into the bodies of your descendants, and they will gain consciousness."

He studied this method of controlling emotions for a long time, but he discovered that these emotions didn’t need to be put in completely and in order, as Purple had told him.

Just putting in any one of them would grant a descendant consciousness.

He didn’t pay it any mind, simply thinking that Purple didn’t fully understand it either.

To familiarize himself with this ability, he also created many kinds of relics. These relics all had some ability to influence emotions, and he also added some of his own powers to them.

"The Red Turban and the Golden Touch Hand?" Mo Ling couldn’t help but interrupt again.

"Yes, I am quite fond of human mythology," the Ancient Mine Race nodded.

Under Purple’s influence, he also began to take a great interest in humans, and these relics all drew from some mythological content.

Mo Ling breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought this Ancient Mine Race was Dionysus, the one who granted the Golden Touch Hand to the King of Phrygia. He almost blurted out the question.

’Looks like that business with Yu Gong moving the mountains made me a bit too paranoid.’

The Ancient Mine Race continued with the rest of the story.

After familiarizing himself with the ability, he began to instill the seven passions and six desires into his first batch of descendants.

Although he had tested it himself and knew that adding just one emotion would generate consciousness, his growing understanding of humans told him that wouldn’t be appropriate.

He also trusted Purple very much, so when creating the first batch of descendants, he was very cautious, completely following the taught method and proportions.

To help his descendants develop quickly, he also used the method of injecting emotions to directly instill knowledge and names into them.

Thus, these descendant Mineral Race were all born with intelligence and bore true names. Each was quite extraordinary from the moment of birth.

The first batch of descendants was very successful, and the Ancient Mine Race was very happy. After sending his thanks to Purple, he watched this generation of descendants flourish.

But it wasn’t long before he discovered a problem.

The first batch of descendants was too weak.

’How can they exist eternally like this?’

The Ancient Mine Race was very dissatisfied. The more he looked at them, the more he felt this batch of descendants was a failure.

"Do you know how weak they were? They couldn’t even kill a single Celestial Vault Worm!" the Ancient Mine Race said, his voice filled with bitter disappointment.

"What’s a Celestial Vault Worm?" Mo Ling was very confused.

"It’s a beast with no special abilities and no intelligence, about half the size of the Thorn Stone Forest." The Gray Ore Race member gestured casually with its hand.

"..."

Mo Ling was suddenly speechless.

Seeing Mo Ling’s silence, the Gray Ore Race member continued its story.

This batch of descendants spent their days pondering all sorts of meaningless things, performing various sacrificial rituals for the Ancient Mine Race, and even used their own people as offerings.

"They’d draw a circle on the ground, arrange all sorts of strange things, and then come asking me for help."

This batch of descendants, whenever they encountered any difficulty, would immediately come to him for help. They were completely incapable of solving problems themselves.

"They came to me when they were attacked by beasts, they came to me when their kinsmen went missing, they came to me when it rained heavily, they even came to me when they couldn’t find a mate!"

As he said this, an expression of extreme impatience, even disgust, appeared on the Ancient Mine Race’s face.

During this period, Purple came to visit and praised his descendants as being very cute, but the Ancient Mine Race only felt utterly humiliated.

"So I created a great earthquake and destroyed these failures."

The Ancient Mine Race said this as casually as if it were throwing away a pile of trash.

Mo Ling now realized that his way of looking at the actions of these unknown beings through a human lens was, it seemed, a bit too narrow.

Or perhaps, too complicated.

From the very beginning, the Ancient Mine Race’s goal was to create a batch of descendants who could exist eternally.

Whether it was learning the theory of species propagation from Purple, or observing humans and even influencing human history, his goal never changed.

As long as the descendants were not strong enough, they could not fulfill his purpose.

If their strength was insufficient, they couldn’t fight against the Abyss. If they were too foolish, they would be doomed to eternal damnation within the Abyss.

The Ancient Mine Race had always used a simple criterion to decide the life or death of its descendants—

—were they strong enough?

Like an eagle pushing its young from a cliff.

If you’re not strong enough, then die!