The Sea Race dates the beginning of the Age of Creation to 13.82 billion years ago.
At that time, the Creator brought the universe into being. The Big Bang scattered matter far and wide; the universe expanded, temperatures plummeted, and galaxies, stars, and planets were gradually born.
The solar system formed 5 billion years ago, and Earth followed 4.6 billion years ago. During Earth’s formation, the Lord of Ether—the deity who manipulated time and space—found his attention captured by the wars of the world during his long interstellar journey.
That was the Age of Storms, 4 billion years ago. There was nothing on Earth but the endless ocean and volcanic lava locked in a struggle for sovereignty over the planet.
History proved that even among deities, the power of maternal love is great. 3.77 billion years ago, the sea nurtured the first single-celled life. It hid within the hydrothermal vents of the deepest ocean layers, signaling the beginning of a history both prosperous and sorrowful.
Unlike the Lord of the Sea, the Lord of Flame represented destruction and ruin. The Lord of Ether could almost hear their arguments.
*—Let life proliferate!*
*—I am the sole master of Earth! I cannot tolerate the existence of life beyond my control!*
Sensing that the Lord of Ether was nearby, the Lord of Flame took on a physical form and flew into the high heavens to communicate with him. The Lord of Ether, however, disdained taking a physical vessel, remaining in his incorporeal state within the higher dimensions, quietly listening to the other’s violent complaints against the Lord of the Sea.
“Why did the Creator make such a thing as the Lord of the Sea?!” The Lord of Flame’s physical form was a man with red hair and bronze skin, standing two and a half meters tall, looking ferociously powerful. “Does he know how much chaos and disaster a tiny bacterium will bring? In the end, we ourselves will be consumed!”
“You have no right to strip away the right of life to be born through natural selection.”
The one who answered was not the Lord of Ether, but a woman with a steady, melodious, and slightly raspy voice. The Lord of Flame turned and saw the Lord of the Sea suspended amidst the clouds.
As the drizzling rain ceased, her eyes appeared large and deep, like an ocean imprisoned within a desolate realm. Her hair was like wet, snow-white seaweed, flowing down to her knees and shimmering in the rotating golden sun. She had woven the colors of the sky into a long gown, wrapping her body as if in lake water; the style was simple, yet she was so beautiful that all things seemed to catch their breath.
Realizing the change in the Lord of the Sea, the Lord of Ether remained silent.
“Bah!” the Lord of Flame spat angrily. “You’re so competitive, yet you’ve made yourself look like a harmless, wretched woman. What are you doing, feigning kindness before the Creator’s messenger?”
“Boring.” With those words, a flash of water passed, and the Lord of the Sea transformed into a man. “You know you are in the wrong, so you pick at my flaws. Do not seek help from a third party. Return to your incorporeal form, and we shall let our strength do the talking.”
With that, the Lord of the Sea vanished back into the lower dimensions.
“Lord of Ether, kill him, and I will share the Earth with you.”
“But what difference is there between a lifeless Earth and any other planet?” the Lord of Ether said faintly. “Try to convince me.”
The Lord of Flame froze.
“I believe that even if the Creator saw this, He would agree with the Lord of the Sea’s actions.”
“What nonsense! This life will not be controlled by us!”
“You underestimate the power of a Lord.” The Lord of Ether scanned the chaotic oceans and magma, letting out a small smile. “All of this is but a toy. As an elemental deity, you can have what you want and destroy what you wish. Therefore, you simply want to defeat the Lord of the Sea. Why bother with so many excuses?”
The Lord of Flame never expected that by seeking help from the Lord of Ether, the other would not only refuse him but would give half of his creative energy—Arcane Divine Power—to the Lord of the Sea. Consequently, the Lord of Flame, who had previously been in a state of balance, was left with only the consuming power of Fel energy.
The Lord of the Sea seized the opportunity to launch a final assault. Amidst wails of resentment, the Lord of Flame sank into the depths of the ocean floor.
In this war, the sea won. From the higher dimensions, the Lord of Ether watched the waves sweep across the Earth’s surface, surging and frenzied; yet once they swallowed their target, the seawater returned to a state of exceptional, inclusive calm.
This was indeed different from the manic Lord of Flame.
Ultimately, the ocean became the original form remembered by later generations, and its temperature gradually stabilized into a state suitable for nurturing life.
The last vestige of Fel energy left by the Lord of Flame activated the life of the Flame Race on volcanic islands.
However, because they lacked the support of the Lord of Flame’s Fel source, the Flame Race was not powerful. Moreover, they would turn into white bone upon touching water. With the next rainfall, they wailed in the midst of decay.
The Lord of Ether summoned two swirling orbs of light, the "Eyes of Flame," and cast them toward the volcanic islands. Thus, the Flame Race was able to live and multiply.
“Thank you,” the Lord of the Sea communicated through divine consciousness.
“You are welcome.” The Lord of Ether returned to silence.
Three hundred million years later, microbial stromatolites appeared in the shallow seas. Every day and every year, the Lord of the Endless Ocean waited for subtle shifts, never growing bored. But she found it strange: was the Lord of Ether not bored as well?
“You aren’t planning to leave?” For the first time in three hundred million years, she initiated communication. She knew he was always there, though he made no sound.
“Leave? To where?”
“I don’t know… to the universe, to other spaces, to the past or the future?”
“On a planet without life, everything looks the same. And on Earth, I have no desire to peer into the future. Let life develop freely; this has been my only joy these past three hundred million years. In this regard, I am no different from you.”
The two ancient gods accompanied each other in silence, passing the years and centuries together.
Gradually, the Dawn Era of the Light Sea arrived.
Between 1 billion and 1.3 billion years ago, the supercontinent Rodinia formed. This was the only supercontinent in Earth’s history, surrounded by the Mirovia Ocean. Nothing had yet split; everything remained in its primal state. Sexual reproduction had only just begun, possessing a tragic, magnificent beauty of the world’s beginning.
After more eons of nurturing, Earth welcomed the Cambrian Explosion. In the short span of twenty million years starting from 530 million years ago, all kinds of animals appeared: brachiopods, arthropods, sponges, chordates… the ancestors of animals that would play major roles on the stage of evolutionary history all made their debut during this period.
“Do you remember when the Lord of Flame questioned why I chose a female form after manifesting?” the Lord of the Sea asked the Lord of Ether.
“I am not sure.”
“Perhaps guarding the first life gave me the feeling of being a ‘mother.’ Look at the ocean now; there are hundreds of millions of ‘mothers’ guarding their children.”
“Mhm.”
“Do you still have no intention of leaving?”
“None.” The Lord of Ether paused, and in the blink of an eye, scanned the changes of the ocean once more. “On the contrary, I’ve become more curious.”
“You have never manifested a physical form, have you?”
“Physical forms are too weak. There is no need.” Being able to perceive the high-dimensional world in an incorporeal state and travel directly through the universe, he could think of no reason to become physical.
“Actually, using a physical body to experience this world, to notice the minute details in the sea… everything becomes different.”
“Experience a low-dimensional world?” The Lord of Ether found the idea inconceivable.
“Yes.” The Lord of the Sea entered the ocean in her physical form, admiring the beautiful scenery of flourishing life. “Do you want to try?”
The Lord of Ether did not respond. The Lord of the Sea thought he likely disdained such games. She continued to swim through the water, feeling its temperature with her palms, drawing in the scent of plants with her breath, and listening to the sounds of bubbles and waves with her ears…
“Is there anything different?”
Hearing a man’s voice, she blinked and turned around.
Then, amidst the shimmering sea foam, a young man appeared not far behind her. He was tilting his head, looking at an oval trilobite on a rock wall. The waves were the leisurely wind of the sea, swaying his pearl-white hair; the light of the stars fell upon his shoulders, coating his broad, straight frame.
During this period, there were far fewer creatures in the ocean than there would be a hundred million years later, so the sea felt empty. Without any obstruction, his gaze crossed the water and landed on her.
“You were right.” The man’s features were deep, slightly obscured by the darkness, yet because his pupils were gold, they shimmered with the bright, starlike light of the water. “Many things must be observed up close in a physical state to be truly felt.”
Then, he swam to her, gave her a slight downward smile, and headed toward deeper waters. The Lord of the Sea hurried to follow, but the Lord of Ether’s speed in the universe could exceed the speed of light; even in physical form, he was much faster than her. She could only call out from behind, “Wait!”
He swam back.
“I can’t keep up with you.” The Lord of the Sea stepped forward and grabbed the hem of his clothes. “This way, I should be able to keep up.”
“Alright.”
He took her with him, diving into the deep sea.
Then, beneath a dark rock wall, they saw a golden sea lily. Its shell was calcareous, its shape like a flower with feathery, fern-like arms, easily mistaken for a plant. The Lord of Ether swam over, plucked it, and placed it on the Lord of the Sea’s head.
“Don’t, that’s an animal…” Before she could finish, the sea lily contracted and expanded in her hair, like a flower blooming and wilting in an instant.
“Beautiful.” The Lord of Ether tucked her hair behind her ear. “You are very suited to being a woman.”
For some reason, though it was clearly a compliment, it caused the Lord of the Sea to experience a peculiar emotion once again: she felt a bit happy, yet afraid to face that happiness. She could only avoid his gaze, her snow-white eyelashes trembling slightly like the "branches" of the sea lily.
She quickly returned to her incorporeal state.
Upon returning to the high-dimensional world, that strange emotion vanished instantly. This made her feel very secure.
Many years later, she learned that this emotion was called "shyness." When high-intelligence beings possess self-awareness, they produce the emotion of shyness. When a woman feels this toward a man, it stems mostly from an instinctive reaction—a contradictory mix of the desire to procreate and negative self-perception.
Even for deities, gaining a deeper understanding of low-dimensional creatures required time and exploration. The Lord of the Sea did not place much importance on the different reactions of different states, to the point that later, she committed a mistake a deity should never make.
The Cambrian Explosion brought the ocean into a vibrant age of life. Finally, 450 million years ago, vertebrates and fish appeared on the seabed.
At first, fish were jawless and could not hunt; they could only suck microbial matter from the seabed into their bodies. Most were ostracoderms, their bodies covered in thick "bony armor."
As time passed and natural selection took its toll, the first fish with a jawbone was born and began to hunt actively and efficiently. Subsequently, the jawbones of fish evolved stronger, their bite force becoming more ferocious, initiating an unprecedented and fierce competition for positions on the food chain.
Then, a cartilaginous fish with strong jaw muscles appeared. It had a streamlined body; whenever it encountered prey, it could give chase at high speeds, encircling the target with its forked tail, gripping it firmly with one bite, and swallowing it alive.
This was the earliest shark in the ocean, the *Cladoselache*.
“I can hardly believe it,” the Lord of the Sea sighed, feeling the power and transformation sharks brought to nature. “That our world could give birth to such beautiful yet cruel creatures.”
“Yes, and they are influencing the history of evolution.”
The Lord of the Sea soon understood what the Lord of Ether meant: from the moment the shark was born, it influenced the entire ocean, becoming the center of marine life. All creatures underwent genetic shifts because of it, evolving into entirely new and different forms.
This change filled the Lord of the Sea with wonder. Every day, she looked forward to new changes in the ocean and frequently shared her insights with the Lord of Ether.
But during the most brilliant stage of the Age of Life, a new kind of intelligent being appeared in the photic zone of the ocean and began to wantonly slaughter these creatures. Their upper bodies were humanoid, their pupils red—turning into vertical slits in bright light—with pointed ears and long nails. Their lower bodies were long, deep-red tails shrouded in Fel energy, and their body temperature could instantly evaporate the surface water.
They slaughtered their way from the dark seas to the light seas, devouring the life of the Light Sea, leaving devastation wherever they went.
The Lord of the Sea knew these were not naturally evolved creatures, but the physical manifestations of the Lord of Flame’s Fire Sea Legion—the Flame Demons.
Thus, using herself and the Lord of Ether as templates, she created a batch of Arcane consciousness entities and released them into the sea to find marine organisms to merge with. In this way, they possessed the genes of marine life while enjoying the protection of the Lord of the Endless Ocean, enabling them to protect the sea from being swallowed by the Fel energy of these Abyss dwellers.
In the early stages of the Age of Life, the Sea Race was born.
Those Arcane consciousnesses that merged with predators became the ancestors of the Predator Tribes.
Those that merged with ordinary marine life became the ancestors of the Ocean Tribes.
Under the counterattack of the Lord of the Sea, the leaderless Flame Demons were quickly driven back to the Abyss. The Sea Race took the Lord of the Sea as their faith and established the earliest Light Sea tribes around her.
As they began to busy themselves with building stone houses, the Lord of the Sea also grew fond of manifesting in physical form to observe them nearby. She discovered that they quickly learned the language she and the Lord of Ether had created, using it skillfully and giving each other names.
The most inconvenient part of being physical was the inability to precisely convey consciousness to another. Hearing them take names, the Lord of the Sea murmured to herself, “They have names. Should we perhaps give ourselves names as well?”
She was speaking to the Lord of Ether. After a moment, he responded, “That is something only low-dimensional beings use.”
“But I really want a name.”
“What do you want to be called?”
“Deep Blue.” The Lord of the Endless Ocean looked at the thriving Sea Race tribes and smiled. “I am the mother of the ocean, and the sea is blue. This name suits me, doesn't it?”
“You merely created the ocean and are its master; you are not a mother.”
“The meaning is similar.”
The next second, the Lord of Ether appeared beside Deep Blue. He turned her body around to face two Sea Race members who were mating and said, “Only after doing that will the female become a ‘mother.’ You are their god. Even if they reach the end of evolution, they cannot directly create life as you do. You will not complete procreation in such a low manner, so do not use that word lightly.”
This speech from the Lord of Ether gave Deep Blue a sudden realization: between the high-dimensional incorporeal state and the low-dimensional physical state, besides the gaps in dimension, perception range, and communication methods, there was another massive difference—the former had no "desire," while the latter did.
Genes are a terrifying thing. They cause all creatures to produce desire, which in turn produces emotions. But desire is not influenced by emotion; it only drives creatures to do things beneficial to evolution.
The reason high-intelligence beings feel pain is that, compared to lower beings, they wish to restrain their instincts and use reason to make choices that run contrary to the principle of "evolution above all."
They think because they possess higher wisdom.
This wisdom turns their original ignorant procreation into a kind of cunning selfishness.
Deep Blue grew to like living in a physical state more and more. She often sat alone on a reef under the moon, gazing at the sturdy mountains and the vast ocean, watching the tides rise and fall, watching the bioluminescence flicker, and pondering the various unknowns and laws of the universe and life.
In the physical world, she would contemplate realms she hadn't touched for billions of years. Then, she gradually experienced a brand-new sensation—regarding the changes in her surroundings, such as the blooming of a flower, the cry of a seabird, or the saltiness of the sea breeze, her concept of the "passage of time" grew increasingly intense.
Every time she discovered a new creature alone, as long as she was the only one happy, she would feel a sense of loss.
“The colors of this sea spider are so dazzling. There’s blue and red, both looking like they’re glowing.” Once, Deep Blue began talking to herself in the sea again.
But no one answered her.
“Come out for a bit.” She sighed, not realizing that, unconsciously, she had become more and more like a young maiden of the Sea Race. “I’m a bit bored by myself.”
“Is something the matter?”
“Come down here.”
“If there is something, say it directly.”
“Just come down.”
A few seconds later, the Lord of Ether appeared before her in physical form. Seeing his physical self, she smiled with great joy, her eyes curving and her eyelashes upturned. “You finally came! Let me show you the sea spider.”
“I know what a sea spider is.” The Lord of Ether looked at her for two seconds longer than usual.
“Remember what I told you? Low-dimensional observation is more interesting.” After saying this, she couldn't help but take his hand, wanting to lead him over.
The Lord of Ether looked down, surprised by her slender wrist, and then quickly gripped her hand back. “Let’s go.”
Deep Blue froze as well. She felt an organ thumping in her chest, tugging at her every nerve to the point that even the tips of her ears felt hot. This was a sensation she had never had in her incorporeal state. Before she could figure out where it came from, she only knew that this was very bad—this was something she shouldn't be doing. The slight girlish affectation from a moment ago vanished instantly; she broke free from his hand and dove forward with her head down.
Just then, a shark happened to pass by.
“Careful.”
The Lord of Ether took her hand again, shielding her behind him. Hiding behind his back, she looked up at his tall silhouette and broad shoulders, her heart racing even faster.
He turned his head halfway, revealing a beautiful profile. “Without precautions, a shark can still hurt you.”
“How is that possible? I’m not that weak…”
“Since you chose the physical form of a beautiful woman, you must accept the protection of a man. Wherever you want to go, I will accompany you.”
Afterward, the Lord of Ether did not let go of her hand again, carefully protecting her at every moment. However, the intense desire to be close to him only grew, never fading.
***
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