Deep Sea Embers

Morris sighed.

"When those of us who dig in history try our best to come to the high wall of the Great Annihilation, and spend our entire lives searching for cultural relics, comparing classics, and trying to get a glimpse of the scenery on the other side of the high wall, what are we facing? It’s just such a grotesque thing.”

The old man's face is full of exhaustion and frustration, as if he is a traveler who has traveled for most of his life. At the end of the journey, he still cannot see the end and has to accept the reality.

"The history before the Great Annihilation is fragmented and contradictory. The records of different city-states are like bizarre stories, or dreams that are not connected to each other... There is no conclusive evidence to prove which of the records is correct, or there is a set of records. Theory can bring these contradictory things together."

Duncan didn't speak for a while, because his thoughts were already ups and downs like waves. In the incredible "unofficial history fragments" described by Morris, he seemed to be experiencing the baptism of an information storm.

As a "foreigner" who has experienced the information age and has a good association ability, he can imagine or guess something from the other party's description——

The dome covering the entire continent may be some kind of artificial ecological device, an energy system with the same source as the sun, relying on the substances in seawater as fuel, it may be fusion technology.

The giant ship sailing in the void is powered by capturing dust and gas clouds in space. This may be one or several colony starships.

As for the so-called demon god's dream... the seawater that came from the dream to reality... he couldn't imagine what it was for a while, but it sounded like a fantasy concept, which was different from the technological atmosphere in the previous two periods of history. Something very different.

He can find explanations or conjectures for many things, but these things can't be pieced together anyway.

As Morris said, they are more like dreams that are not connected to each other, outlining a completely different "prehistoric history".

Contradictory and broken, it cannot be used to reproduce the appearance of the world before the Great Annihilation.

"Perhaps what you said is correct. In the key event of the Great Annihilation, there is a 'horizon limit'," Morris' voice came from across the counter, interrupting Duncan's thoughts. The old man held his forehead and spoke in a low voice. "We cannot observe 'events' across the event horizon, so the history before the annihilation is a never-trivial concept for us."

Looking at Morris who was full of emotion, Duncan's thoughts still did not stop. Gradually, he came up with a rather bold idea: "Then... what if these records are all true?"

Morris raised his eyes and looked at Duncan with some surprise: "Oh?"

"If these records are all true, is the history recorded by each city-state or each race really what they think the 'world before the Great Annihilation' really looked like?" Duncan rubbed his chin and said thoughtfully , "Maybe our ancestors 10,000 years ago really came from completely different 'hometowns' and had completely different civilizations? The Great Annihilation trapped these exiles from different worlds on this sea, and the exiles Before the inheritance of civilization was completely cut off, the descendants of the former barely recorded what they knew, and ten thousand years later, it became a 'contradictory history' that troubled scholars..."

His thoughts became active, he paused, and then continued: "Maybe the essence of the Great Annihilation is not the end of the world, but a 'big teleportation'?"

Morris looked at Duncan in surprise, and suddenly said: "...the conjecture of the Brock Bendis school? The world drifts? This is a relatively unpopular school. Is your research on ancient history so deep?"

He was admiring, but Duncan was a little stunned: Listen to this, so someone has thought of this possibility long ago? !

He blinked his eyes, but he didn't let his surprise be exposed, he just pretended to follow the topic: "It's all scattered knowledge, but I like this conjecture very much."

"I like this conjecture, too—it's an unpopular one," Morris shook his head, "but like all conjectures, we don't have evidence, so it's just a conjecture.

"The Clark school once assumed that the subspace's interference with the real world distorted all historical records. The Villentium school believed that the world before the annihilation was countless isolated lattices. The people of the city-state of Bologna even believed that the world before the annihilation Does not exist at all, all records of prehistoric history are illusions created by shadows in the warp...

"To put it bluntly, even some heretical cults have their own understanding of world history. The missionaries who worship the end of the subspace firmly believe that the end of the world has actually begun, and they are chasing and devouring our civilization along the long river of history. The contradictory historical records of the various city-states are the result of the real history being gradually torn apart by the subspace, and the Great Annihilation is a barrier before the end. The days of entering the subspace..."

The more Duncan listened, the more astonished he became, and it took him a long time to subconsciously shake his head: "I didn't know there were so many weird hypotheses..."

"Ordinary people don't dabble in this kind of field. After all, studying history is a dangerous thing in the sense of mysticism," Morris said, "but one reason is obvious: if thousands of scholars have died After hundreds or even thousands of years of groping in a field with no way out, they must have come up with all the hypotheses they could."

Duncan slowly understood what the old man meant.

For these people who have spent their entire lives in classics and cultural relics, it is very simple to put forward a hypothesis that can explain the current situation. As scholars, what they lack is never imagination and vision.

What they lack is evidence, evidence that can prove even any hypothesis.

"... Is there no evidence left?" Duncan asked, "Is there any 'physical evidence' from the history before the annihilation that can prove that some 'unofficial history' is true?"

"It has not been discovered so far," Morris said slowly, "10,000 years, plus periods of dark ages in between, countless city-states rose and fell in the boundless sea, it is too difficult to leave anything from the ancient times... What survives are either manuscripts of unreliable origin or stories passed down through word of mouth, which themselves may have been altered along the way."

Duncan didn't speak for a while.

In the depths of his spirit, on the distant Lost Homelander, the waves were rolling gently, and the boundless sea, as always, covered the whole world.

It also covers all possible truths.

He couldn't help sighing: "Researching ancient history is really a difficult thing."

"Yeah, what we have to face is not only the fragmented 'years', but also the status quo of emptiness," Morris sighed, "on a limited land like a city-state, if anything can be excavated, it would have been dug long ago." If it can't be dug up, it means that something that can prove our history is hidden out of the reach of mortals."

"Like the bottom of the sea?" Duncan said suddenly.

"The bottom of the sea? Ha, what a horrifying and bold statement," Morris laughed. "But this is really the only thought left by many historians who have come to the end of the world... There are evidences on the bottom of the sea, and there are piles of mountains. There are cultural relics, cities with ancient civilizations, and ruins that can explain everything, but what is the use? When we dive down, we can only touch the shadows, and mortals cannot touch the deepest part of this world."

Speaking of this, he paused for a moment, then said again: "However, this has indeed led to another conjecture... Although it has not yet become a school, there are many people who speculate that the lost 'old world' in history is actually in the boundless sea below the level of the sea, and even precisely located in a certain 'depth' between the deep sea and the spirit world-the world before the Great Annihilation sleeps in that depth."

"Why do you say that?" Duncan was a little curious, and this serious but unfounded assumption aroused his interest.

Morris thought for a while and explained: "Because many broken ancient histories mentioned that the world before the Great Annihilation had a 'starry sky' covering the four fields, and as we all know, the 'starry sky' is at the interface between the deep sea and the spirit world Come on."

Duncan almost choked himself to death with a mouthful of saliva: "Ahem... huh?"

"Are you okay?" Morris was taken aback by Duncan's reaction, "It shouldn't be incredible..."

"I'm fine, but I was so fascinated by it that I choked on it." Duncan quickly waved his hand, "The starry sky is between the deep sea and the spirit world. Of course I know, of course I know..."