Nurturing Humanity

Chapter 29

Hermes, the God of Wisdom

This was certainly not the power of meditation.

If only they were like Gilgamesh, who relied on the strength of his muscles to survive. Then when Xu Zhi appeared as a deformed crow-like creature before them, looking as if nothing had happened, he would be struck down with a slap that instantly turned him into minced meat.

But this group of witches were physically weak, like ordinary people, and relied on psychic power for survival. And with the help of the Insecta Nest mind, there was no way they could cause him harm.

In reality, he was just an ordinary weak, deformed chicken-like creature.

“Who are you?”

The witches looked slightly shocked. This was their first time seeing an intelligent species that could speak that was not a human, and it was a strange, black-feathered, three-eyed bird-eyed creature.

“An intelligent species other than a human…”

The crowd’s breathing gradually picked up pace.

They remembered the ancient legend, the story of Gilgamesh. The only intelligent species other than human beings was the Great Beast of Wisdom, who was also the Creator of all lives.

They held their breath and no longer had any thought of fighting. The three of them did not even bother to put on their clothes and were fully at ease in revealing their perfect and graceful bodies. They stood straight, in the distance, and looked at the mystical creature before them.

“You… you are… God?”

Medea’s voice was trembling, but she could not help but ask.

In this world, there was originally no concept of God.

In the beginning, there was only the term “Great Beast of Wisdom”. But the horrible truth that followed the Great Flood that destroyed the world meant that all living creatures on land officially came to recognize the existence of God.

Right now, this mysterious intelligent species before them that was capable of speech, and judging from its body size, he was neither the great Creator nor the great Supreme God who towered above the clouds. But perhaps, he was a lesser kind of god.

There had been speculations early on.

They, humans, were not the first intelligent species to appear on this land, but they were the only intelligent species capable of reproducing in large numbers!

In this world, there should be other intelligent species existing as well.

Perhaps the great Creator, the Supreme God, had created many kinds of powerful species after creating the world. After countless failed experiments where he had created numerous incomplete, violent, witless creatures that were deformed and terrifying, he finally created them, humans who were weak, yet capable of natural reproduction. They were a weak species, yet intelligent.

Perhaps, this mysterious and powerful creature before them was one of the perfect intelligent species that the Creator had personally created after rounds of experiments.

“God?”

Xu Zhi smiled gently. With both crow claws perched on the branch high up in the tree, he shook his lush, black feathers, and looked so mysterious, like a crow messenger out of a myth. “God… If you are inclined to think of me as God, then I am a god…”

Xu Zhi had never thought of becoming a god.

But since that was what they all thought he was, then he might as well play along. It was simply just being a god.

And also, can you ladies put on some clothes…

Xu Zhi had indicated his identity to be that of a crow. Though he did not feel any physical reaction at the moment, his mind was still that of a human. With his human thoughts in play, it was inevitable for him to feel somewhat heated up with excitement. I do have a girlfriend, alright, albeit a surface girlfriend.

He thought about it for a moment and said, “I am one of the intelligent species that the Supreme God once created. Unlike you, though powerful, I’m not capable of reproduction, and that makes me a unique existence. I am Hermes, the God of Wisdom, and I’m responsible for all living beings of this world. You can also call me by my other name, Mercury. I have come to light the fire of the backward Babylonian tribe, and bring you the Truth of this world.”

Sizz!

The crowd held its breath.

Circe could not help but ask, “Oh Great God of Wisdom, Hermes, what is the Truth of this world?”

Xu Zhi smiled and said, “The truth, is that the origin of all rules and power of the world, everything that you see in the world around you, are all contained within the Truth. I have come to give the mortals, that I see before me, the Triple Knowledge of Truth of Meditation, Alchemy, and Sorcery.”

The Truth of this world: meditation, alchemy, sorcery.

The expressions on everyone’s face changed completely.

Back then, Gilgamesh had been gifted with the Three Treasures of Civilization. And now, they were going to receive the Triple Knowledge of Truth?

“We… we have actually encountered a legendary deity…” One of the beautiful witches wearing a crown made of a garland of flowers could not help but tremble from head to toe because of the excitement. She was so worked up that her pretty face was flushed, and her voice was trembling like a mosquito’s buzz, “It’s like I’m dreaming,” she said.

It was as if they had just been in a dream.

It was hard to imagine that they were actually experiencing Gilgamesh’s mythological allusions and were seeing a great god with their own eyes.

Xu Zhi was silent.

They were shocked, but rightfully so. This meeting was a conversation between a God from heaven and a Babylonian, and it would be recorded and go a long way down in the course of history.

“Meditation, alchemy, and magic, what are these?” Medea could not help but ask.

Xu Zhi laughed but when projected through the voice of a crow, his laughter became an eerie and bizarre cackle that sounded sharp and hoarse. “Meditation is the way to cultivate one’s spirituality, enabling you to gain the foundation to become gods. It is the path to becoming a great being like me and gain authority over this world, serve the superior Creator high above you, and listen to his teachings in the Temple of Genesis.”

Becoming a god…

The crowd’s breathing quickened. To them, this was extremely shocking information. Was he saying that they could rival this mysterious, bizarre, and powerful creature and become one of the gods that controlled this world?

Progressing towards true immortality…

That was a forbidden realm that even the ancient Hero King, Gilgamesh, had yet to set foot in!!

Xu Zhi did not care about the crowd and continued to talk, oblivious to the crowd that was already immersed in shock.

“Alchemy is the occult study of the unknown knowledge of creating life. It is the method to pry open the Gates of Truth. If you can master this knowledge, you will gain the glory of owning the entire Truth of this world. Nothing is left unknown to you, and all the obscured, implicit things in this world would disappear from your side.”

His voice was not loud, but it carried an extremely strange magical power that resounded throughout the snow-white water of the Emiya Pool and drifted towards the mountain peaks where it went on traveling far into the distance.

“The principle of alchemy is that all things in the world are related as they reinforce, neutralize, and replace one another. The mystery of alchemy is based on the ‘Trinity Formula’: one quality satisfies another, one quality is the bane of another, and one element dominates another.”

What was this??

They were all intoxicated as they seemingly understand what they were listening to yet were somehow finding the recondite words abstruse and hard to understand.

They were all intoxicated by this voice that seemed to come from a deity in heaven and listening to it made every inch of their body tingle with excitement. They were listening in a daze, feeling confused, but did not dare to ask questions. They could only bite their lips in silence with nervous expressions on their faces as they forced themselves to remember everything well. They were so afraid of getting even one word wrong.

Every word was extremely difficult to understand, but there had to be some deep meaning behind that which contained the Truth of the world.

Xu Zhi saw them behaving so respectfully and started on the third knowledge. “Sorcery is the miraculous power that can allow your psychic power to break down the earth from fire, break up the sun and moon with lightning, and extract fire from the ocean. According to this principle, you can produce many extraordinary transformations from a single object.”

Wind, rain, lightning, transforming everything with psychic power?

“What a great, inconceivable power.” The witches’ minds were completely blank. They had completely lost their cool. They were hit hard by the impact of these unimaginable words that shook them to their very core and caused them such unparalleled shock.