Shepherding Humanity

"Run away!"

"We have had countless giant beasts attack our tribe before, but how could there be such a terrifying behemoth!"

"There’s no escape! We're no bigger than a single strand of his hair!"

Countless fleeing Bugapes slumped to the ground.

However, while everyone else was screaming in despair, a young Bugape resolutely looked up at the sky. "Have you also come to eat us, giant beast? Your kind have already killed my father, my mother, and my big brother! Why are we so weak…"

Xu Zhi bowed his head, somewhat surprised that the young Bugape was brave enough to question him.

It’s decided then, I’ll choose you.

Xu Zhi gently stretched out his hand and placed the Bugape on his palm.

The young Bugape's mind went blank. He felt as if he was little more than a tiny pimple on a palm the size of a vast continent,

He looked up once again. The eyes of the ten-thousand-foot tall titan were like burning furnaces, as bright as the sun shining in the sky. Wreathed in sacred white light, its obscured visage radiated divinity.

Since the Mother Hive had concealed Xu Zhi’s face, the Bugapes could naturally only see a hazy face that emitted a soft glow. Xu Zhi lifted up this tiny Bugape with one hand, his eyes serene. "Gilgamesh, do you want to change everything?"

The young Bugape trembled and loudly shouted in the palm of his hand, "You can even communicate!!! What kind of giant are you!? To think that there are intelligent, 10,000-foot tall titans in this world! How can there be such an absolute existence!?"

He couldn't help but shudder and ask: "And, you called me Gilgamesh?"

"Names are also an expression of wisdom."

Xu Zhi lifted his palm, positioning Gilgamesh before his eyes, and replied calmly.

Gilgamesh stood on the great beast’s palm, looking into its vast eyes which were as radiant as the sun and moon, and said: "We can communicate! So we belong to the same intelligent species. Then why, why didn't you save us! You're clearly so mighty! So grand!"

They didn't know what he was, and just thought he was an intelligent great beast. Xu Zhi was fine with that.

Xu Zhi lifted Gilgamesh in his palm, and strode over mountains and rivers.

Great swathes of trees were trampled.

He let the weak and tiny Bugape look down at the whole world from his palm, and spoke in a voice that resounded throughout the heavens.

"Look upon the world, Gilgamesh. Before me, every species is equal. You are no different than every other plant and animal. Why should I save you and you alone? Just because you possess intelligence?"

Gilgamesh was speechless for a moment.

Then, he began to despair and shouted violently: “Then why have you come looking for us?”

Xu Zhi said, "No one can save you. Do not presume that anyone will save you. Only you can save yourself. But, I can grant unto you the Methods of Civilization. Master them and you will be able to save yourselves."

"What is Civilization? "

Gilgamesh looked down in amazement.

For the first time in his life, he had the experience of looking down from the clouds upon this vast green earth. Mountains and rivers spread out beneath him. Countless animals cried out in panic and fled from beneath the Great Beast of Wisdom. The awe-inspiring scene shook him to the core.

What a sublime and fantastical scenery, what a terrifying and unattainable power!

"What is civilization, you ask?"

It never occurred to Xu Zhi that he would have to teach this newborn race.

He thought for a moment and gave his answer: "Civilization is fire. Civilization is knowledge. Civilization is order. Civilization is the greatest weapon an intelligent species can possess."

"Civilization is a force we intelligent species can use to protect ourselves?" Gilgamesh murmured.

Xu Zhi walked back to the great canyon. He gently placed Gilgamesh on his shoulder, and took out the tiny juniper from his backpack. Digging into the soil, he planted it in the ground.

The juniper was a sinuous plant with an ancient and weathered appearance. It was only 60 centimeters tall, but in this miniature world, it was a divine tree that towered into the clouds, its twisting trunk seeming to stretch on without end.

"See this tree that I planted? If you want the power of civilization, show your courage and climb the Divine Tree. This is my test to you, the Test of Wisdom and Courage!"

Xu Zhi placed the silver-metal greatsword he had custom-ordered from Tabao, along with a match soaked in kerosene and a capsule containing termite body fluid on the Divine Tree’s highest branch.

"These are the Three Treasures of Civilization."

"The Sword of Damocles, the weapon that protects civilization, is what separates men from common beasts. Only intelligent species can borrow the power of tools."

"The Torch, which burns with a blazing flame, is the bridge that sustains civilization. Mastering fire is civilization’s first step."

"And last of all, within that bottle is the Blood of the Conqueror, which only the greatest warrior in the world can drink and still possibly survive. If you do indeed survive, you will be granted matchless power!"

"If you wish to change the fate of your race, climb the Divine Tree and obtain the Three Treasures of Civilization before the torch is extinguished."

Xu Zhi gently placed the young Bugape on the ground, and then under his awed gaze, he strode over the mountains and walked away.

As soon as Xu Zhi had walked out of the sandbox, he ordered the Mother Hive: "Accelerate cell division by a hundred units!"

The sandbox which had returned to a normal speed once again started to accelerate.

In an instant, the movement of the entire realm became absurdly fast, forming a never-ending stream of afterimages. Trees quickly grew and then withered. Animals turned into afterimages, rapidly growing, aging, and then dying.

The match soaked in kerosene would burn for about thirty seconds before it went out.

But for the realm that had been accelerated by a hundred units, those thirty seconds would be the equivalent of several days.

In other words, the test of the Divine Tree would last several days.

"Time is relative, a measurement of the movement of matter through space…. Accelerating their cell division by 100 units is the same as accelerating their time. A match that lights up but for an instant is, to them, a torch that can burn for days."

Xu Zhi remembered how Einstein once said.

“When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.”

What they thought was a long time was only a short moment in his eyes.

After Xu Zhi had left the sandbox, he looked through his binoculars and saw the young Bugape gathering his companions beneath the Divine Tree. With resolute faces, they quickly climbed up the Divine Tree together.

In Xu Zhi's eyes, these little ants climbed up the tree so quickly that he could only see their afterimages. In just a few seconds, they’ve already fallen down countless times only to struggle back up again. After the ten-second mark, they successfully reached the top of the Divine Tree.

But for them, it must have been countless hard days of failure.

Their movements were simply too fast. At the summit of the Divine Tree, Gilgamesh stood on top of the lush green canopy, holding his sword high while saying something, before disappearing down the length of the great tree, leaving behind only an afterimage.

Xu Zhi was curious, and couldn't help but ask the Hive, "What was he saying?"

The Hive Mind brought up the scene that Xu Zhi had just seen.

"To think that in this world, there could be such a grand existence as the Great Beast of Wisdom! A tens of thousands of feet tall titan!"

Gilgamesh, who had conquered the Divine Tree, raised the Sword of Damocles high above his head. He looked down on the world spread out beneath him, his black hair fluttering in the wind, his naturally armored shoulders glimmering darkly. His resolute face was filled with confidence.

"We who also possess Wisdom, will one day match the Great Beast! Every member of our tribe will wield divine power! Behemoths will flee before our might! I will lead my people to the summit and spread the fire of civilization throughout the land!"

This moment became myth.

Thousands of years later, amidst the ruins of man’s oldest empire, the glorious yet ephemeral Sumerian dynasty, archeologists unearthed the Epic of "Genesis" which the ancient Sumerians had dedicated to their great monarch.

This most ancient of records, the Epic of Sumer, started thus.

[The Great Beast of Wisdom stood ten thousand feet tall, radiant in its divinity. Its steps trampled over mountains and shattered the earth. In its Wisdom, the Great Beast planted the Divine Tree and initiated the holy Test, granting unto the young king of heroes Gilgamesh the Three Treasures of Civilization: The Torch, The Sword, and the Blood of the Conqueror.]