When the war broke out, Uluru was repairing the ground boat.
He was very young for an Uzi.
In the Uzi kingdom, young people usually stayed in the safe zone.
They have a lot to learn: recognising complex subterranean changes, piloting the earthbound boats with skill and dexterity, building tall earth arches, and learning to switch between solid and liquid states and to live ……
In the city of Uda, no one was faster than Uluru.
He could drive a small earthbound boat all the way underground, accelerating and leaving his flock far behind, and he could control a large earthbound boat so steadily that the Uzi people travelling in it could not feel any bumps.
Uluru often travelled around the underground lava, manoeuvring the groundboat to leap over the yellow and red streams of searing heat, repeatedly taking corners on the edge of danger.
He felt that there was still plenty of room to dig deeper into the tropics deep underground.
To the normal solid Uzi, Uluru’s style could be described as radical. The elders would check Uluru’s body regularly, suspecting that his melted carapace was why he had become so active and keen on speed.
The elders later put him in charge of repairing the Earthbound Boat, and forbade him to pilot it without permission, to avoid putting himself or others of his kind in danger.
When war broke out, the world became a very different place.
One by one, the Uzi elders went off to war, valiantly piloting their Earthships and creating traps and holes in the ground on the front lines to impede and kill the enemy.
Uluru realised that more and more earthbound boats needed to be repaired, but fewer and fewer earthbounders were coming back.
He knew that the war was bad for the kingdom.
The vast majority of Uzis were born with a lugubriousness that was due to the nature of the U itself; as long as there was a patch of safe space, they could remain fixed there for a long, long time.
To make an Uzi active, heat is required to turn them into a near-liquid state.
Once a solid body begins to melt, the Uzi becomes violent and aggressive, wrapping and dissolving all sorts of substances around them, turning useful metals into parts of their own bodies.
The closer their bodies get to the liquid state, the more they will uncontrollably devour each other, which is what the Uzis call fratricide.
Agitated Uzis are extremely expansionist and very dangerous.
That was why most Uzis stayed in relatively cold areas, keeping their solid composure rather than their fluid madness.
Uluru had always wondered if there was a way to keep the Uzis active, but not filled with aggression and annexation instincts ……
But the war had made all that irrelevant.
Uluru was determined to go to the front line and fight to defend the freedom and dignity of the Uzi people!
He wanted to fly underground in an earthbound boat, to make a godly appearance on the battlefield, and to turn the enemy formations upside down.
Yet his request was denied.
The reason was also simple.
The Apostle Lord Zelkoukou told him, “You can help more Uzis by moving underground, by moving the wounded and the lone ones, and by enabling our warriors to appear behind enemy lines.”
And so, Uluru travelled underground through the battlefield in his earthbound boat to pick up one of the Uzi warriors and act as a logistician.
He saw with his own eyes that the clansmen were bravely fighting the enemy.
The Uzi warriors threw stones and created [Ure] with the U in their bodies.
Those neatly arranged enemy squares, they raised their shields, the Ure could not break through their armour and shields, they could only create some floral flashes, the stones did cause some trouble for them.
The Imperial Army’s attack was far more ferocious.
A rain of arrows with fire descended from the sky, igniting the black ooze of the Ujis and causing one Uji-warrior to explode into pieces.
In return, the Uzi warriors hid underground. Waiting for the enemy to pass by, they rushed out and burned themselves into a powerful human Ure, killing themselves with the many enemy troops.
One by one, their formerly familiar kinsmen were reduced to blinding flames and bursts of sound, and Uluru realised that not even the speed of his own ground-boat could carry them away from death.
The frozen slowness of life became a luxury.
Soon after.
The sandman apostle Atl died in battle.
The Apostle Zelkoukou in the rear fought in the battle himself.
The defences, however, were still retreating, retreating, all the way back to the outskirts of Uda City.
Uluru prepared himself to take on the form of Ure.
He had already planned to charge into the ground formation from underground in a small groundwalking boat, igniting his entire body where the enemy army was the largest and there were sand lizards, killing the most enemies possible.
Lord Zelkoukou gave orders to all the Uzis to hold the line of defence and forbid strikes.
He said something puzzling.
“The counterattack will begin here.”
As the defence line was shaken by the onslaught of the imperial army, a group of blue-skinned warriors suddenly appeared, only a hundred of them, but hardened against the rounds of charges and flurry of fire from numerous legions.
Each blue warrior charged into the enemy line with bravery and fearlessness, they withstood the imperial arrows and crossbows, wielded axes and sledgehammers in their hands, and engaged in a gruelling flesh war with the imperial army.
The battle of attrition caused the blue warriors to be constantly attritioned, and the imperial side left a trail of corpses and wreckage behind.
Uluru had heard that one of these blue-skinned warriors was a painter who painted the portrait of every Uzi, a chronicler of the battlefield. Unfortunately, he had never seen one.
Zelkoukou had no explanation for these reinforcements, but simply led the way and stood firm.
The battlefield continued to be stalemated.
The Dauntless Empire suddenly lost its patience and dozens of legions launched a general attack, the soldiers rushed forward like mad and were reduced to ashes and coke along with the Uzis who blew themselves up.
At this time, Uluru saw a mountain moving slowly.
It looked somewhat like the arch of the earth, but it had the majesty of a subdued holy god.
King Uzi’s divine body was present.
The gods entered the battle.
A seemingly ordinary soldier suddenly flew over and engaged King Uzi, who was as tall as a mountain.
Another giant emitting a terrifying aura entered the battle, and it seemed to be on the side of the Wu Ji Kingdom, joining King Wu Ji in fighting the soldier.
All the space around them was twisting as if it was on fire, and the miracle of the gods turned the ground into tatters, with vast swathes of land scorching and crystallising, and a cone of stone growing out of the ground and into the sky ……
Uluru felt like he was rapidly melting just by seeing this scene, his body and consciousness spiralling out of control.
He hurriedly hid underground and stopped observing.
The battle of the gods was a realm that only gods could see straight through.
Soon after, Uluru saw the Empire’s soldiers turn into transparent crystals one by one, falling to the mountains in brightly glittering shards. Their god let out a roar of angry displeasure, but Uluru could not understand the language of the gods.
The fallen glass god turned into a cloud of white light, blowing mountainous deep craters in the ground, which burned all the earth and stone into smooth, flowing crystals.
The war ended just like that without warning.
The retreating Uzi Kingdom, instead, reversed the battle and became the winner.
Only after the war did Uluru realise that it was all because of the appearance of the Yao God.
The Yao God had mercy on the Wuzhi people, so he extended a helping hand to the Wuzhi Kingdom and brought the war to an end.
And because the Bo God was unable to withstand the divine might of the Yao God but was unwilling to lose the war, he ultimately chose to destroy the empire he had created with his own hands ……
With the annexation of the Wu Ji Kingdom into Yao God’s divine kingdom, King Wu Ji also became Yao God’s subordinate god, but He would continue to guard the Wu Ji clan.
The people of Wu Ji were initially very apprehensive of the strange and powerful Yao God.
Its mere presence caused the mighty Yao God to kill himself in despair …… This greatness was beyond the limits of their imagination.
Soon, the Wuzhi people discovered that the Yao God, who was like a divine king, was surprisingly generous and merciful.
In His Divine Kingdom, there were many remnants of the old gods, all of whom lived well, and whether they became Yao Clan or maintained their independence, the gods did not interfere.
The Yao Clan’s mouths were filled with tales of God Yao’s miracles: He defeated the gods, gave the people food and tools, tamed the evil black sun, had the Dragon King garrison the north to farm transcendent creatures, the Twin Cities shone with the light of humanity, and Saniro was an ideal home for ghosts ……
Uluru decided to see for himself.
He prayed in Yao City, where everyone was pious, and strolled around the crowded Salt City, where he saw the lofty and majestic Dragon’s Nest in the north, and was surrounded by pixies chattering and frolicking in the south.
Different cities, different races, all kinds of beings celebrated the name of God Yao and were proud to follow Him.
In the process, Ululu also became a believer in God Yao.
He also found his goal.
To become an archaeologist.
It is a job that requires constant movement and aims to decipher the mysteries of the past through the underground, with its dangers and surprises.
His teacher, Fabiani, was delighted to see him and did not discriminate against the dark, non-verbal apprentice, even learning the sign language of the Uzis in order to communicate with him precisely.
All of Uluru’s proposals were seriously considered by Fabiani – as were those of the other apprentices.
The community of archaeologists may be poor, but everyone leads a happy life and doesn’t feel bitter or tired at all.
“We are the demystifiers who wipe the past.”
Teacher Fabiani said proudly, “Only by knowing the past can we find the future we want for the present.”
“We are followers of God Yao, who has the same tolerance and gifts for all people and professions.”
“This is what sets God Yao apart from other gods.”
“God loves the world.”
Whether it was the Wu Ji Kingdom or the Fearless Empire, no such profession existed, nor had there ever been such a god.
……
Uluru snapped back from his thoughts.
The Earthbound Boat had docked at the exit of the Earth Arch within the Crystal City.
Even if he relied on his limb memory, he was able to pilot the carrier at speed underground.
Time was urgent, the teacher was going to the Valley of the Gods in the eastern continent. He had dug up the seeds of the former Rose Kingdom and needed to give them to the Apostle Lord Pinkman to better cultivate these magical ancient species.
The other apprentices also had to return to the museum to report to the Salt City Council on one hand, and to put the newly unearthed ancient artefacts on display on the other.
So the task of Crystal City was given to Uluru first.
He needed to examine, excavate and restore the ancient history of the Fifth Dauntless Empire and the current situation before the fall.
Uluru found it a bit absurd.
The imperial army had invaded the territory of the Uzi Kingdom, and what buried the empire was instead the gods they believed in.
The Uzi, themselves, the empire’s sworn enemies, were coming as archaeologists to preserve the empire’s ruins and artefacts, to bring their history back to life.
Blessed be the god Yao.
I hope everything goes well and the ghosts of the Empire don’t hit me just yet.
Uluru prayed in his heart.
