Chapter 22: Prehistoric Extinction, The Creator God

The great army retreated like a receding tide. Fortunately, Liu Jun had responded with timely investigations and dealt with the coup with thunderous decisiveness, preventing a larger catastrophe.

The arriving Angel King seemed to have aged countless years in an instant. After a hurried farewell, he departed with his troops, taking the captured Wisdom Angel with him. He had far too many matters to address. Watching this farce, even the Amber Phoenix Butterfly, who cared only for eating, looked dull and dejected.

"Let us all return," Liu Jun sighed softly.

Beside him, the fifth butterfly, Die Mingren—a martial fanatic responsible for war and security—who was usually silent, suddenly spoke up: "It seems I must accelerate my cultivation."

Die Hongjun, the butterfly at the center of the incident, frowned slightly. "Why would they frame me?" It was an unprovoked disaster.

Die Chiyin, while happily munching on a roasted small insect-dragon, replied, "Because you have the worst reputation; you are the easiest to scapegoat and use as a pretext for starting a rebellion."

"Sigh, what a mess this is." Die Hongjun’s heart was heavy with complex emotions.

The fourth butterfly had slipped into his laboratory to roast the insect-dragon while he was out watching the spectacle, but he no longer had the heart to catch the gluttonous Die Chiyin. Such days, though noisy and mundane, were warm. He feared, more than anything, that the five siblings would eventually reach the point of fratricide. *We must—we absolutely must—never let that day come.*

"Should we still investigate this?" Die Hongjun wondered about the truth, wanting to know who had framed him.

"Let nature take its course," Liu Jun said coolly. Whether to investigate, and how, was Chong Shisan’s business.

...

At the Angel Sanctuary, after Chong Shisan returned, he remained alone in his palace for three full days. He knew the Prophet would not lie to him; if it wasn't the Butterfly Clan, then the culprit was among his own inner circle. The mastermind had painstakingly orchestrated this war, likely never imagining that tens of thousands of troops would be no match for the Prophet.

Was the culprit his own bedmate, the once-simple green caterpillar who had vowed to transform into a butterfly and fly wing-to-wing with him, his beloved Chong Qiqi—now the Angel Queen and Archangel? Was it his semi-mentor, the honest and earnest Multi-Armed Butterfly, the Wheel Angel and Knowledge Angel, who had selflessly taught him and others how to tie knots? Once the seeds of suspicion were sown, he even began to suspect the Wisdom Angel, Chong Sanshi. Could one spend countless years pretending to dote on their child only to kill them, using that as a pretext for an uprising?

The more he thought, the more chaotic and wrong it all felt. He suddenly did not want to face it; he could not accept any of the answers. What if he found out? What was he to do then?

He lay quietly on his throne, watching the sunset over the village at the foot of Sanctuary Mountain. Listening to the young, vibrant angels—friends laughing and playing in groups—he was momentarily reminded of their own youth. Only then did he truly realize: he had grown old, and his heart had softened. His old friends were also aging, and there was little time left in their lives. Was there any meaning in pursuing it further?

He was afraid. He was terrified of facing the truth.

He simply placed Chong Qiqi, Chong Sanshi, and the Multi-Armed Butterfly under lifelong house arrest, forbidding them from ever leaving their respective palaces. Just like the court of old, he chose not to pursue the true culprit, leaving them a shred of dignity. Afterward, he began the work of treating the surviving Angel offspring who had been wounded in the conflict. Although two-thirds had perished, the remainder were saved.

...

In the years that followed, the Angel King grew increasingly aged and burdened. In his later years, he became paranoid, turning into a tyrant who feared rebellion among his subordinates, frequently stripping them of their titles and launching thorough investigations. He established the Inspector Angels to capture traitors and monitor the realm, guarding against his closest ministers. He would promote a group only to dismiss them shortly after, driving himself into the role of a tyrant and gradually losing his reputation for benevolence.

Some insects whispered, "A tyrant! He is a tyrant!"
Some angels said, "Such a person is not fit to be the Angel King!"

"I spent my life pursuing beauty, yet now I have chosen to forfeit my beauty," he said, quietly accepting the criticisms from the young angels. He felt he had failed the Butterfly Clan, failed the First Emperor who granted them wisdom, and failed the Prophet who extended their lives. He remained melancholy, evading everything.

Three more years passed. As the Angel King reached the end of his life, he suddenly wanted to see the Prophet and the First Emperor to confess his guilt. But he dared not.

...

The loneliness of having no friends to trust, combined with the guilt of the attack on the Cangwu Tree, clung to him like layers of silkworm thread, wrapping him tight, suffocating him.

Then, one day, he received an invitation from the Multi-Armed Butterfly. In Chong Shisan’s memory, this was a simple, kind, and honest scholar devoted to research. That was, if he was not the mastermind.

When Chong Shisan arrived at the laboratory, he saw that the Multi-Armed Butterfly had aged beyond recognition. Time was a dull blade, changing the appearance of the Angel warriors who had once battled the Tyrannosaurs; they were all completely old now.

"It must be knotted like this."
"Try this knotting method; perhaps it can optimize our race's brain structure."

It was still leading a group of research angels, tinkering with bottles and jars, continuing to shine for the Angel race.

"You've come." The Multi-Armed Butterfly led the Angel King to an inner room.

"How did you become like this?" The Multi-Armed Butterfly looked at his old friend, who had lost his former high spirits, reduced to a suspicious and vigilant old monarch. His heart was filled with both pain and helplessness. The world said that the Wisdom Angel, who lost his child, was the most miserable, but who knew how much this Angel King had suffered?

"All these years, I have been looking for a way to change our strained relations, a way to return to the past."

"There is no way," Chong Shisan said in a low voice. "Once doubt is born, everything is beyond return. We can never go back to those times."

The Angel King’s voice was flat. "I was too benevolent back then. If I had investigated the mastermind during the first court crisis and stopped it in time, things would never have reached this irreparable state."

"No, there is still a chance," the Multi-Armed Butterfly said suddenly. "All these years, I have been searching for a way for us to return to the beginning, and I have found it."

Chong Shisan’s aged eyes flickered with a glimmer of hope as he stared at the Multi-Armed Butterfly. It was impossible, for time could not flow backward. Yet, Chong Shisan still felt a spark of hope. His life had been too dramatic—the first half a glorious career of conquest, the second half spent living in agony.

"That is why I called you here."
"For years, I have been studying that figure we saw back then, why it suddenly vanished... and now, I finally have results."

The Multi-Armed Butterfly’s aged face revealed a hint of expectation. "I know what that figure is!"

"Do you remember the Divine Trials?"

For years, he had been investigating history and various records. The first Divine Trial was attended by the Amber Phoenix Butterfly himself. The Light Umbrella was filled with light, blinding the eyes. Fortunately, the Phoenix Emperor was a natural saint with keen senses; he closed his eyes, plucked the divine object, passed the trial, and brought the divine treasure back to his race.

The second trial was even stranger. Though there was no threat, sound vanished in the vicinity of the treasure. Finding it was the hardest part, but once located, the trial was passed easily. The first and second trials, at least, were not life-threatening, but the third trial became terrifying. The Magic Carpet caused mutations. Only by stacking countless corpses and using suicide squads to wrap and seal the object was it barely brought back.

"The Divine Trials seem to become more difficult each time, and this fourth one is even more bizarre. Because this treasure possesses the divine power of [Aging]."

They were speaking of the talent mushroom, "Deep Affection Does Not Last," discovered in recent years.

"In recent years, the Butterfly Clan’s Die Luxin led a team to search for years, finally finding the site of the fourth Divine Trial. Every creature in that area died prematurely; it became a forbidden zone. For every meter one flew, one aged; the army died before reaching thirty meters. Even more interestingly, if you dropped a butterfly egg, it would hatch into a larva in no time. The green caterpillar would crawl forward a dozen meters, turn into a pupa, then transform into a butterfly on the spot, fly another dozen meters, and simply age to death."

Chong Shisan listened to the description of this trial and analyzed, "Each trial has become stranger and more difficult."

The Multi-Armed Butterfly continued, "And this trial is becoming so bizarre and difficult that perhaps one day, the trials descending from the sky will endanger the entire world, becoming disasters of an era."

Chong Shisan lowered his voice. "Are you not being too anxious?"

"What kind of anxiety is this?" The Multi-Armed Butterfly couldn't help but exclaim. "Do you know why the Divine Trials appear?"

Chong Shisan said, "We do not know."

"Then, what kind of god drops these treasures?" The Multi-Armed Butterfly continued his questioning. "Where do the treasures appear from? What is the pattern? Why did these treasures not exist before us? Why, in our era, have they started to descend one by one?"

These words made Chong Shisan feel uneasy. It was true. Why did they appear now? What about before? It was a fatal question.

"You have been thinking about these things?" Chong Shisan was stunned.

The Multi-Armed Butterfly said slowly, "To find out if Divine Trials had occurred before us, I specifically dispatched angels to search everywhere. Finally, I discovered a monumental secret. Why were there no other Divine Trial treasures before us? Because I discovered that our civilization's history has endured countless great extinctions."

He handed a top-secret scroll to Chong Shisan. Chong Shisan examined it carefully. The geological layers contained other extinct ancient organisms, lives that no longer existed. Before this era dominated by dinosaurs, there had clearly been several mass extinctions! (Because Liu Jun, in order to perfect this world, had downloaded complete data into the Wisdom Brain from the cloud, and the geological layers naturally included data from prehistoric mass extinctions.)

Chong Shisan studied the information. "Could it be that sudden changes in the environment caused biological periodic extinctions due to an inability to adapt?"

"I may not understand the past, but I understand the present," Chong Shisan continued. "Our current climate is changing. We butterflies are born in spring and die in winter; is that not also a life cycle? Perhaps it has simply been scaled up."

The Multi-Armed Butterfly nodded. "I thought so too."

"Then isn't that..." Chong Shisan suddenly realized something; his expression grew stiff.

The Multi-Armed Butterfly said slowly, "Yes, sudden environmental changes. But why would the environment change suddenly? Have you not realized it yet? What do the Divine Trials actually give us? Light! Perhaps it will become the Sun God of this world, shining upon everything. And others? Wind, water, and even the current God of Wisdom and God of Longevity—they all control these sudden environmental changes. Each god holds the cornerstone of the world's evolution."

Chong Shisan was silent. The various clues led him to a terrifying possibility. He muttered to himself: "So that’s it! So that’s it! Could it be that in past eras, there were also various Divine Trials? They passed trial after trial, becoming heroes of the land, living epics and myths. They grew along the way, eventually becoming lofty figures who opened up the glory of an era! And in the end? Why did the gods who passed the Divine Trials go extinct?"

"Is it because they could not withstand the trials the gods kept raining down?" the Multi-Armed Butterfly asked suddenly.

Chong Shisan was silent. After a long while, he replied, "I do not know."

The Multi-Armed Butterfly’s mind wandered, his voice trembling: "What is it, exactly? It grants this world the power to control the environment, it drops trials... allowing us to open the heavens and shape the earth?"

Now, the Prophet and the First Emperor were revered as gods—the God of Wisdom and the God of Longevity. And what was the name of the origin existence that granted all this power?

Chong Shisan smiled and looked up at the high heavens. "If it has a name, the entity that overlooks the eras from above and drops treasures time and again should be..."

"The Creator God."

Once those words were spoken, they were both silent.

Chong Shisan suddenly understood what he had to do—how he would reassemble his friends. He would cast aside all prejudice and stop pursuing past grievances. A powerful thought rose in the Angel King’s heart:

*Forget the past. Simply being together, fighting for dreams as we did in the old days, and facing the end of life together—that is enough.*

He had to do one thing. A monumental task that would benefit the era, honor the Butterfly gods, and hold meaning for the entire epoch. Through this, he would surely be forgiven.

He suddenly remembered his friends in the hollow tree, saying they had seen a mysterious and majestic god:

"According to the cycle, the next Divine Trial is not far off."
"Angels, it is time to gather again."