Published: February 11, 2025
The question left the room in silence for a moment.
Then Hongxiang spoke, “Every so often, the monsters invade our territory. The intervals can vary, but from the time of their last invasion, it has been a long while. Now they are coming out in full force, and just like before, it must be driven by their desire for food.”
“You, me, and everyone outside are all food for these guys.”
In the long history, the main theme of the posthumous children and the Temple of Dawn was not so much the interaction with each other but rather the confrontation with the monsters.
The monsters regarded humans as energy for their evolution, and humans viewed them as necessities for survival. They were food for one another.
When humanity was strong, they would conquer the monsters; conversely, when the monsters were strong, they would prey on humans.
However, in recent long years, due to the harsh living conditions of the Secret Realm, humans have been far less adaptable than the monsters. The harsh environment has led to a continuous decline in human strength, and they can no longer gain an advantage in confronting the monsters, forcing them into passive defense.
Now, as the monsters launch another attack, they are filled with grief and anger, but not particularly surprised. Although these non-human creatures do not possess human-level intelligence or a well-structured societal framework, they still have their own unique understanding of humans and themselves.
Once they believe the time is right, they will initiate war.
Monsters are not like humans; they have a strict hierarchy among themselves, and those with great power are often very intelligent, completely controlling the lower-ranked beings. Initiating war does not pose the same heavy obstacles as it does for humans.
It has been many days of falling sand since the last invasion, so their new offensive is not difficult to comprehend.
“I think there are two possibilities,” the Holy Maiden said, clearly having given this question some thought beforehand, her reasoning clear.
“The first possibility is that their numbers have once again reached the limit that the Night Demon Plain can sustain, so they need to attack humans to consume some of us, which is one way to adjust their insufficient living space. Alternatively, some among them may have reached a point where they need to evolve, with humans serving as the key to their evolution, prompting them to launch a war against our entire race.”
This was something everyone could have guessed; it was the main reason for previous monster invasions, as they often initiated wars for this purpose.
“The second possibility,” the Holy Maiden continued, her voice somewhat unnatural, “is that we humans no longer have a ninth-level existence, which has been sensed by that ninth-level beast over there. It... wants to come over and conquer humans.”
Imbalance is a problem faced by humanity. Without a peer-level existence at the ninth level, they can no longer restrain the ninth-level monster. Therefore, once it senses this, launching a war against humans becomes a logical move without any threat.
If possible, every race hopes that within their living space, their own race is the strongest and has no rivals.
“That beast will not let such an opportunity go to waste. The records in our Temple have speculated by previous generations of Holy Fathers that perhaps the ninth level is not the endpoint of evolution, because life can continue to progress. It's just that above the ninth level, there is no distinction of levels; it is all collectively referred to as the ninth level. Yet in reality, both humans and monsters are striving to become stronger. Especially after the space became unstable, including the Holy Father, everyone has been trying to break through one limit after another. In the Holy Father's view, this might allow them to... leave this place.”
The room fell into an extreme silence. Everyone had thought about what might exist beyond the ninth level, and they were not disbelieving that something stronger could exist. After all, they had witnessed many incredible things.