"What exactly are you talking about?"
With a loud bang, I grabbed Ethan Zhang by his long hair and punched him in the cheek. He only smiled bitterly.
Two crisp slaps followed. I stared wide-eyed at Ethan Zhang as he returned the favor, striking me twice. A warm flow trickled from the corner of my mouth.
"If you can't accomplish all three points I've mentioned, nothing will change. Or perhaps, even if you do, nothing will change—but at least you'll have other paths to take, and the future won't be so disastrous."
Rage surged from deep within me, a sensation I hadn't felt in a long time.
"Maybe my very existence is the greatest mistake of all."
My raised fist slowly dropped, my eyes vacant as I stared at the shifting black sand on the ground.
"If you can't do it, then go tell Wrathful Asura. He'll help you. All you need to do is watch quietly."
"What about Wrathful Asura and the others?"
I immediately asked, my voice urgent. Ethan Zhang shook his head.
"I've already told you, no one's left. Have you forgotten?"
My gaze dimmed as I sat down.
"Is that so!"
"What exactly is the Wraithlord?"
I asked, sensing that everything around me was connected to the Wraithlord, whom The Lost Mediator had just fought.
"So existence really does justify itself! John Chou was right. The legend of Mother Goddess Nuwa creating humans, as absurd as it sounds, turns out to be true. Can you believe it?"
I nodded slowly. The Lost Mediator continued speaking.
Long ago, there were no humans on this earth—only insects, fish, birds, and beasts. These creatures had no intelligence, only instinct, endlessly repeating their cycles, never changing. When disasters struck, they were even wiped out.
After sensing this desolation and loneliness, Mother Goddess Nuwa decided to create something unreasonable: humans. They would possess intelligence, greater than any other being—capable of thought, and incredibly strong.
Following this idea, Mother Goddess Nuwa tried, and created the first human. He possessed wisdom equal to hers, a body of immense power, able to split mountains and shatter stones, defeat wild beasts barehanded, immune to all diseases, immortal and undying, and capable of all things.
At first, Mother Goddess Nuwa found it all quite novel. She watched the human she had created wander through the wilderness, defeating all kinds of powerful beasts and surviving one disaster after another.
But soon, something changed in that person's expression—a deathly loneliness. There was no one in heaven or earth to talk to, just him alone with the mountains and forests.
Nuwa seemed to realize something. She decided to create more humans. After observing the first person she had made, she gradually understood that nothing in the world could be perfect. Even though she had given him flawless abilities and extraordinary intelligence, as time passed, his sadness grew. He even tried to end his life, but the powers she bestowed upon him made him invulnerable—fire, water, stone, and wood could not kill him. A great tragedy hung over him.
Who am I, where did I come from, who am I really—is this a punishment?
A string of questions made Nuwa feel the depth of his sorrow—a sorrow that came from the very core of his being, his days spent in tears.
Yet when it came to creating more humans, Nuwa hesitated. She wanted to break the original design and make beings more suited for this world, but she didn’t know how.
Eventually, that person could no longer bear the endless solitude. He tried to die, believing death might be the best choice.
Nuwa transformed herself into a woman, taking on the role of his mother, giving him boundless love and care. The ice and cold within him slowly melted away—love warmed every part of his existence.
He lived happily with his mother, relying on her completely. All loneliness and isolation faded from the world.
Finally, Nuwa found a good solution. She gave these humans intelligence and thought, but limited their bodies to a lifespan of a hundred years. After leaving her son with a few parting words, she departed and began her long journey of creation.
The man who lost his mother went mad. He searched the world for her, desperate to find her but never succeeding. No matter what he tried, he could only cry out for his mother in anguish.
Gradually, he met a woman—another being like himself. Both were frightened at first, but after some communication, they chose to stay together.
More and more people appeared in the world. Their bodies were far weaker than most beasts and monsters, so people banded together, struggling to find ways to survive the challenges nature threw at them.
Eventually, the first man discovered that after he and the woman had three children—two sons and a daughter—he lost all his extraordinary powers. He aged rapidly, tormented by illness, while the woman stayed by his side until death, and their three children wept for him.
Nuwa, witnessing all this, wept. Now she truly understood sorrow—watching the people she had created with such effort fade away. She did nothing, adhering to the principle of survival of the fittest, choosing to let go. She had already done enough; the future should be shaped by humanity, even if that meant extinction.
The man died, full of regret and helplessness. But after death, he was astonished to find that though his body was gone, he still existed. Excited, he sought out his family, but they had moved on, grown up, and mingled with others.
No matter how he called out or what he did, his family and the others could not see or hear him. Sorrow and loneliness wrapped around him again. He longed to be with his family, to see their smiles, to embrace them once more.
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Farewell after farewell forged layer upon layer of grief. The man witnessed the rise and fall of humanity—his family long gone, his descendants extinct. No one could hear his voice. Once again, he was utterly alone, and he remembered his mother.
He recalled the thing called love buried deep in his heart, but slowly, dark clouds of blackness began to swirl around him, and he grew colder.
More and more people populated the world. Conflict arose, mostly over food, and the man continued to change.
Gradually, the man understood. He began to resent everything—his mother was the cause of it all, creating him and then abandoning him, never helping him in his darkest moments. He made up his mind: he would wipe out all the humans created by his mother, hoping that when they were gone, she would reappear and give him love and care once more.
The man began to eat people, killing everyone he saw. His strength grew so immense that people could actually see him.
In the end, his decision proved correct. After a long path of slaughter, he finally saw the mother who had given him life, but she was only sad and helpless.
Nuwa saw that the person she created was no longer human—he had changed completely, become cold and sinister, the very opposite of warmth. She could do nothing, not even destroy him.
His strength was so overwhelming that even Nuwa could not subdue him. He continued to follow Nuwa, even trying to control his mother and bask in her eternal love and protection.
His actions finally attracted the attention of even greater beings. Some powerful entities arrived and easily subdued him, intending to destroy him outright.
At that moment, Nuwa stopped them, pleading bitterly and confessing that her negligence had led to her child’s transformation.
After discussion, Nuwa separated the three souls of her now-ghostly son, took away his seven spirits, emotions, and intelligence, and placed each of the three souls in different locations.
But the ghost’s power worried those who had subdued him. Nuwa finally devised a solution: she let the human soul dwell in desire, reading an eternally incomprehensible book, telling him that when he understood it, she would come for him.
She placed the earth soul in a void, endlessly striking a pillar that would never fall, promising that if he ever toppled it, he could see her again.
She set the heavenly soul to search for her, roaming the world—if he ever found the place that did not exist, that would be where his mother awaited.
All of this was unbearably cruel for the ghost. They kept their promises to their mother, existing only for that promise, stripped of intelligence, endlessly repeating the same actions.
Perhaps because of this ghost’s influence, souls began to appear after death. Some who died tragically became ghosts. To address this, Nuwa found the Ghost Ancestor’s three children—Illusionborn, Dawnflame, and Divine Emperor—and had them establish a place called Hell to manage souls after death.
Those other beings constructed a cycle: when people died, their souls could reincarnate. Yin and yang were balanced, and it seemed everything had settled.
But as time passed, the seven spirits of the sealed ghost began seeking its body, and the seal gradually weakened.
To solve this, Nuwa created another woman with her own bloodline—one who would never die, named Luoshui. To replenish the seal’s power every hundred years, Luoshui needed to bear children with men, passing on Nuwa’s bloodline to complete the Ghost Ancestor’s seal. Nuwa also created a soul—eternal and endlessly reincarnating—no matter how many times, it would be born from Luoshui to fulfill Nuwa’s mission.
I swallowed hard, looking at Ethan Zhang with his long hair.
"Now do you understand, Ethan Zhang? What you’ve chosen is already heading toward the worst outcome. The seal can be restored by Nuwa’s bloodline, but it can also be undone by it. Someone has found a way and is already putting it into practice. The best course is to kill Huangfu Ruofei, severing all possibilities. Kill her again after she’s reborn. The seal can’t be found now—because of the immense suppression in the underworld, the powers of Buddhism and Daoism, the Ghost Ancestor can never escape."