Chapter 384: Chapter 319: Core of the Hundred Races: Source of Evolution
’Could it be that Xu Zilan knows Gao Xiaomeng’s origins?’
Gao Neng was shocked and suspicious. Just as he was about to ask more, Xu Zilan had already gone into the kitchen.
Soon, the sound of stir-frying filled the air.
A familiar aroma.
Gao Neng calmed himself, sat down, and started watching TV.
Just as Xu Zilan had said, all the major news outlets were more or less mentioning the future arrangements for the 300 prodigies on the Dragon List.
Of course, he was the one who received the most coverage.
Besides him, the names Shen Ning’Er, Fang Tangtang, and Shaximo also appeared frequently.
An hour later.
Five home-cooked dishes were ready.
"Ma’am, Mr. Gao, please go ahead and eat. I’ll be heading out. Just call me if you need anything!" Hua Quanquan said, preparing to leave after the food was served.
"Don’t like my cooking?" Xu Zilan asked Hua Quanquan with a smile.
"That’s... Ma’am, that’s not what I meant. You and Mr. Gao haven’t seen each other in so long, and I’m an outsider..." Hua Quanquan’s face turned slightly red.
"Stay for dinner, then you can go," Xu Zilan said, smiling again.
"Thank you, Ma’am!" Hua Quanquan didn’t refuse again and immediately sat down. Then, she took out a welcome gift she had prepared in advance.
Xu Zilan accepted it with a smile.
The three of them ate together. As she ate, Hua Quanquan also poured drinks for Xu Zilan and Gao Neng. She was quite proficient at her job as a young assistant.
A little over half an hour later, Hua Quanquan excused herself again.
This time, Xu Zilan didn’t ask her to stay. After all, the apartment she rented was only a one-bedroom, one-living-room unit; it would have been impossible to have Hua Quanquan stay over even if she wanted to.
Hua Quanquan left.
Xu Zilan began to clear the table.
Gao Neng offered to help, but Xu Zilan refused.
"Let me do these things. You just focus on your own business." In some ways, Xu Zilan had been like this for over a decade.
Cooking, washing dishes, tidying up the house—she never let Gao Neng lift a finger.
Gao Neng genuinely wanted to help, but since Xu Zilan insisted, he could only give up and sit back down to watch TV.
"Quanquan told me you’re going to the Underground City in three days?" Xu Zilan called out from the kitchen as she washed the dishes.
"Yeah... Mom, how do you know about the Underground City?" Gao Neng nodded, then asked casually after a moment of thought.
"I lived through the great war eighteen years ago. The City of Hope was built on top of the Underground City. It’s not strange that I would know that," Xu Zilan replied.
"The City of Hope was built on top of the Underground City?" Gao Neng looked up. He actually hadn’t known that, which was a little embarrassing.
If what Xu Zilan said was true...
’Does the Underground City have a longer history than the City of Hope?’
’Then this Underground City...’
’Who built it?’
"That’s right. The Underground City of the City of Hope is actually the place where the first generation of Energy Warriors found the ’Source’ and achieved their breakthroughs," Xu Zilan’s voice came again.
"Mom, how do you know so much?" It was impossible for Gao Neng not to be surprised, even though Xu Zilan had given an explanation.
In his memory, his mom, Xu Zilan, had always been the most ordinary person in the Forgotten Land, working several odd jobs a day. How could she have had time to pay attention to these things?
More importantly, who taught her all this?
Just as he was thinking, Xu Zilan walked out of the kitchen. She casually wiped the water from her hands and sat down in front of Gao Neng.
Gao Neng could see clearly that Xu Zilan’s expression was very calm.
"Mom, how did you..."
"People who lived through the great war naturally know a bit more," Xu Zilan said, waving her hand and giving the same reason as before.
"Then... what about Gao Xiaomeng?"
"Yes, I know about her too." Xu Zilan nodded.
"You know?"
"Yes. For over a month, when you told me you were going on a trip with classmates but were actually with Shen Ning’Er in the military base, Gao Xiaomeng was the one keeping me company. And she happened to be in a bad state, so how could I possibly not know? She’s an evolving cat, after all." Xu Zilan nodded again.
"’An evolving cat?’" Gao Neng’s mind raced.
’Xu Zilan doesn’t know that Gao Xiaomeng is a liquid lifeform that came from a ’magnetic pile.’ She only knows that Gao Xiaomeng shows signs of evolution.’
’In fact, even I’m not sure if the current Gao Xiaomeng is dominated by the liquid lifeform or the stray cat.’
’So how could Xu Zilan possibly know?’
"I guessed she would eventually leave the Forgotten Land, and I was right. A few months ago, I was actually the first person she came to find," Xu Zilan continued.
"I see." Gao Neng understood now. He had guessed correctly—Gao Xiaomeng really had looked for Xu Zilan after arriving in the City of Hope.
"Gao Xiaomeng is very special. Her evolution isn’t ordinary; it should be considered high-level, perhaps even super-level," Xu Zilan added, seeing Gao Neng nod.
"Super-level evolution?"
"It seems the Eastern Capital Military Academy’s library is more restrictive than I thought." Xu Zilan glanced at Gao Neng, though not in a blaming way.
"Mom, are you..."
"If you don’t know about super-evolution, then you probably don’t know the origin of the other races, do you?" Xu Zilan waved her hand, cutting Gao Neng off.
"Yeah... I only know that the other races appeared out of thin air after the Great Cataclysm, but I don’t know the specifics of where they came from." Gao Neng had read about it in textbooks, but he could tell from Xu Zilan’s tone that what she was about to say was not in any textbook.
"The phrase ’appeared out of thin air’ is both right and wrong. They did indeed appear out of nowhere, and yet, they didn’t."
"Mom, I don’t understand."
"It means they originally lived on Earth, but ’disappeared’ for some special reason. Or you could say they didn’t exist on the same ’parallel plane’ as us humans."
"’Disappeared? Not on the same parallel plane?’" This was the first time Gao Neng had heard such an explanation for the appearance of the other races.
"No one can explain the exact reason. In short, they all appeared in ancient times but later vanished. The Great Cataclysm was a ’trigger.’ Because of this trigger, they reappeared and now exist in the same world as us humans," Xu Zilan explained again.
"So you’re saying they, like us humans, are all creatures of Earth?" Hearing this, Gao Neng finally started to understand what his mother was saying.
"Yes. Many ancient books from before the Great Cataclysm described them. For example, the Celestial Race are the Angels, also known as the Western Divine Race. Then there’s the Elf Race, Dwarf Race, and Beastman Race, all of which appear in Western myths and legends. There are also the Winged Race and the Giant Race, which were actually written about in our own Eastern Realm’s *Classic of Mountains and Seas*. Speaking of the Giant Race, you should have heard one story."
"What story?"
"*Kuafu Chases the Sun*. The Kuafu in the story was actually the leader of the Giant Race, and the Kuafu Race are now the Hill Giant Clan among the other races!" Xu Zilan continued.
"So that’s how it is. Mom... then what’s this ’super-evolution’ you mentioned earlier?" Gao Neng nodded. As he looked at Xu Zilan again, his gaze was different.
’My mom...’
’She knows so much!’
’How did I never realize that before?’
"I heard you’ve been on the battlefield and even entered the Royal City of the Dark Night Elf Clan?" Xu Zilan didn’t answer Gao Neng’s question directly, instead asking one of her own.
"Yes!" Gao Neng nodded.
"Then you must have seen the Dark Night Elf Clan’s Ancient Tree of Life," Xu Zilan said.
"Yeah, and I even drank some Spring of Life. But we were surrounded by the other races at the time, so none of it was left. But I brought some for you this time..."
"Just leave it for now." Xu Zilan stopped Gao Neng’s hand as he was about to rummage through his bag. She then continued, "Since you’ve seen the Ancient Tree of Life, you should know what the core of the Dark Night Elf Clan is, right?"
"The Ancient Tree of Life?"
"Yes. The Ancient Tree of Life is the core of the Dark Night Elf Clan. If the Ancient Tree of Life were ever destroyed, the Dark Night Elf Clan would be as good as extinct."
"Extinct?" Gao Neng knew how important the Ancient Tree of Life was to the Dark Night Elf Clan, but he was still a little surprised to hear the word "extinct."
"Yes, extinct... To put it simply, the Ancient Tree of Life is the evolutionary source for the Dark Night Elf Clan. Similarly, the White Tower is the evolutionary source for the Celestial Race, and the Blood Pool is the evolutionary source for the Barbarian Race. If these evolutionary sources were gone, they could no longer continue to evolve, and might even regress!"
"Regress? What would happen to them after they regress?"
"They would naturally ’disappear’ again."
"’Disappear again...’" Gao Neng was starting to understand. No wonder Mu Feifei and the Elf Queen were so terrified back when he threatened to destroy the Ancient Elf Tree in the Dark Night Elf Clan’s territory.
’Disappear?’
At this point, Gao Neng was slowly beginning to understand the process of the Great Cataclysm.
’Because of the appearance of the magnetic pile...’
’Certain special ’channels’ and ’civilizations’ were reopened. The Hundred Races reappeared in the human world from their vanished one, and quickly established their own bases.’
’And the core of the bases they established was their ’evolutionary source’.’
’No wonder the other races don’t dare to wage all-out war against the Human Race with all their Strongest. If their ’evolutionary sources’ were destroyed, they would once again enter the ’vanished world’.’
’Thinking about it this way, if humanity could just destroy the other races’ ’evolutionary sources,’ it seems the whole world could return to an era of peace.’
’However, to actually do that...’
’...would probably be very difficult.’
’After all, according to what Gui Zian said last time, every evolutionary source is guarded by at least one of the Strongest. And for some of the larger races, like the Celestial Race...’
’...there are even two of the Strongest.’
"Mom, you’ve explained the other races’ evolutionary sources, but what about the ’super-evolution’ you mentioned?" Gao Neng asked thoughtfully, looking at Xu Zilan again.
(There will be another Chapter before 12 o’clock!)
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