A self-deprecating smile appeared on the girl's face on the Wisdom Tree.
The monsters in the semi-transparent light were originally like glass artworks, and they could be seen at a glance.
But as the memories, emotions, and thoughts of humans were continuously instilled into them, they were like clear water that had a large amount of paint poured into it. Gradually, they became colorful and unfathomable.
"Some of the monsters learned to pretend to obey the humans and conserve their strength. When they faced the steel defense line that was armed to the teeth, they no longer fought head-on. Instead, they curled up at the back and watched coldly as other monsters went forward to die. Then, they went forward to take advantage of the situation," the Wisdom Tree said in resignation.
"Some of the monsters learned to hide crystals and treasures. They even killed their own kind to get crystal cores and neurospheres of the same nature as them to speed up their cultivation and evolution.
"You know, most of the monsters originally did not like to attack their own kind, but ever since they were injected with human intelligence, they became less hesitant and soft-hearted when they ate their own kind. In fact, they could even obtain great pleasure from eating each other.
"There are also some monsters whose species are becoming larger, and their brains are becoming more complicated. They are as unfathomable as a swamp, and they often break away from my neural network. When my tentacles go to explore them, the only thing I can sense is the squirming fog.
"There were a few times when my real body was even attacked by monsters!
"When I was just born, I was attacked by monsters many times, but those attacks were just normal attacks. The monsters just wanted to fill their stomachs and survive. The attackers didn't have any ill intentions towards me. In fact, they didn't even understand what 'ill intentions' was.
"But in these few attacks, I clearly sensed the attackers' undisguised malice and ambition.
"They knew very well that I was the center of the neural network. Their goal was very clear, and that was to destroy me and break free of my control. In fact, they wanted to seize my identity as the controller of the neural network and become the master of the entire forest!
`These things astonish me.
"Now that I think about it, isn't everything that happened in the forest the same as what happened in Peach Blossom Town?
"I've been watching the absurd play in Peach Blossom Town from the sidelines, and when it was about to end, I realized that I was the clown!
"That's reasonable.
"My civilization has always been a replica of human civilization.
"All of your flaws and deep-rooted bad habits have been perfectly replicated by me, complete with all of them.
"What happened to you, what will eventually lead to your destruction, won't happen to me as well?
"This discovery greatly disappointed me, and I was extremely depressed.
"You should know that wiping out the human race has never been my goal.
"Regardless of whether it's Peach Blossom Town or the war against Dragon City, I didn't do it to completely destroy human civilization. I just wanted to learn from you and continue developing and perfecting my civilization. In the end, I wanted to create a perfect civilization, or at the very least, a civilization that was strong enough.
"But if this civilization is born with a gene that is destined to be destroyed, then I have to stop and think if I have taken the wrong path.
"So, I ordered the Beast Tide to retreat and silently disappear into the depths of the forest, giving Peach Blossom Town some breathing room.
"I want to see if the Peach Blossom Town will welcome a new life when the pressure of survival is temporarily relieved.
"The result left me speechless once again.
"The humans did indeed think that the temporary retreat of the Beast Tide was a complete victory. They thought that they had completely defeated the monsters and became the masters of the forest.
"But not only did they not reconcile because of this, they continued to colonize the forest, gather and use more resources to build their civilization.
"Instead, they became even more aggressive and started killing each other without any qualms!
"Originally, even though the leaders, the high-grade fighters, the normal townspeople, and the low-level warriors occupied a corner of Peach Blossom Town and treated each other with hostility, there were still a lot of monsters watching from outside the town. It was impossible for them to bring out 100% of their strength to fight against each other.
"Even if they had irreconcilable grudges against each other, they were all in the same boat. If they were to die, they would die together, and no one could escape.
"But now, since the external threat had disappeared, the internal conflict became the only problem that needed to be solved urgently.
"Both sides used 100% of their strength in an attempt to destroy each other and become the only rulers of Peach Blossom Town, Hidden Fog Desolate Region, and even Monster Mountain Range.
"The methods they used to deal with their own kind were one hundred times crueler than when they dealt with monsters. Perhaps in their eyes, their opponents had already turned into real monsters that were more evil, ugly, and despicable than the snakes, rats, ants, wolves, tigers, and leopards in the forest.
"I realized that my good intentions seemed to have sped up the destruction of Peach Blossom Town.
"Originally, when faced with the threat of monsters surrounding the town, the humans could still force themselves to cooperate and persevere for a while longer.
"But when I withdrew the monster tide out of good intentions, I ended up intensifying the internal strife among the humans. The death knell for Peach Blossom Town had already been rung, and the humans were about to strangle themselves to death. They took the initiative to lie in their coffins and nail themselves in. Then, they sent themselves into the raging flames and burned to ashes.
"This kind of ending made me even more confused.
"Civilization shouldn't be like this. I don't want my monster civilization to repeat the mistakes of human civilization.
"But if Peach Blossom Town's path was wrong, then what should the correct path be? I have no idea, and I can't imagine it.
"Just when Peach Blossom Town was about to be destroyed and I was deeply confused, unable to find any clues, one day, I fished out a person from the Red Dragon River …"
The Wisdom Tree used biological nerve electricity to create a semi-transparent image of the surging river appeared in the image.
The detailed image showed that what it was about to say next was very important to it.
"As the internal strife in Peach Blossom Town became more and more intense, many humans were killed by the enemy forces every day, or thrown into the roaring river. Then, I fished them out. This was originally not a big deal," the Wisdom Tree said.
The Wisdom Tree said, "But this person is different, because she is hiding in the stomach of a Tiger Jumping Fish."
In the semi-transparent image, a big tiger-like fish that was more than five meters long appeared. It was covered in golden scales and black stripes, and it looked like a fierce tiger.
It was not afraid of the wind and waves. It swam and jumped in the river, doing its best to fight against the current and swim against the current.
When it jumped out of the water and into the air, it spread out four huge fins from head to tail. They were like gliders, allowing it to jump for a long distance.
"The Tiger Jumping Fish is a very fierce aquatic monster. It used to live in the upstream and downstream of Tiger's Fury River. By the way, 'Tiger Jumping Fish' and 'Tiger's Fury River' are both names that you humans came up with. The two seem to be related to each other. Humans first discovered the Tiger Jumping Fish, and then named Tiger's Fury River after it. As the source of Tiger's Fury River and Red Dragon River merged together, quite a number of Tiger Jumping Fish migrated to Red Dragon River," the Wisdom Tree said.
"However, the Tiger Jumping Fish that migrated to Red Dragon River still retained their habits. Every time it was breeding season, they would endure the impact of the rapid river and swim against the current. They would return to the upper reaches of the river to lay their eggs. It seems that the Tiger Jumping Fish would only be able to give birth to strong offspring after going through harsh training.
"At that time, it was the breeding season for the Tiger Jumping Fish.
"This Tiger Jumping Fish came back from the middle and lower reaches of Red Dragon River. How could there be a human-shaped thing hiding in its bulging stomach?
"I didn't think too much about it. I thought that it was a fish that I didn't manage to catch.
"You have to understand that mountain torrents and mudslides often happen, which makes the river incredibly muddy. There were too many human corpses thrown into the river over the past few days, and I was gradually learning the secrets of human civilization, so I didn't pay much attention to normal corpses. It wasn't strange for me to miss a few corpses.
"When these corpses were washed by the rapid river to a place where the water was slightly calmer, they were discovered by the Tiger Jumping Fish swimming against the current and were eaten. Before they were completely digested, they were brought back to the upper reaches of Red Dragon River.
"I didn't intend to find anything remarkable from the incomplete body. I merely extended my tentacles to pry into her brain out of habit. Little did I know —"
The image of the Wisdom Tree appeared in the translucent light.
Meng Chao noticed that at that moment, the Wisdom Tree was starting to look like the one he saw at the center of Peach Blossom Town. It was a towering tree that was dozens of meters tall.
The tentacles that hung down from the branches covered a circular area of a few kilometers. They were like a large group of dancing octopuses and jellyfish. They shone with a colorful light that illuminated the dark forest.
The tentacles caught a large Tiger Jumping Fish from the raging river. Then, they pierced its brain and controlled its nerves. Soon, the Tiger Jumping Fish gave up struggling and spat out the food in its stomach.
It was a clump of slimy humanoid shape.
Even though its body was incomplete, like it only had a head and part of its chest.
Once the Tiger Jumping Fish's sticky liquid was washed away, Meng Chao saw that its head was mostly intact. In fact, it looked pretty, as if the long period of time it had been soaked in the water and corroded its body.
When Meng Chao saw the rather familiar face that was sleeping quietly, he sucked in a deep breath and swallowed his cries of surprise.
The face of the person in the fish was the same as the girl on the Wisdom Tree.
'Jin Qianxi!'
A thought flashed in Meng Chao's mind, and he connected all the clues together.
Based on what Battle God Lei Zongchao and Underground Emperor Jin Wanhao said, when Jin Qianxi was fighting to overthrow Blood Alliance's evil rule, the leader of Blood Alliance launched a counterattack before his death, and he was heavily injured. He fell into Red Dragon River, and his fate was unknown.
Even if she did not die at that time, she should have been washed downstream by the raging river or even into the ocean.
Why was she connected to the source of Red Dragon River, Hidden Fog Desolate Region, and the monster civilization?
This was a question that puzzled Meng Chao, Lu Siya, A 'Ji, and Lei Zongchao.
It was because of the Tiger Jumping Fish!
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