Didn't you go to Teyvat to earn money to support me?

Chapter 110 A mother cannot lose her baby, just as the West cannot lose Jerusalem.

In Shen Liang's limited memory, the Ark Project was just one of the many contingency plans the Fire Chaser Civilization had laid out after its demise. It was like the Sacred Mark Project, the Sanctuary Project, the Overseer Project (the Hengsha Project), and even the Son of Man Project.

Project Ark is easy to understand: send a spaceship carrying the human genetic pool and data on human civilization away from Earth to find a new home. This spaceship would be equipped with an ecological cycle system, creating a small, Earth-like ecosystem on board. Although such a spaceship could not carry too many people, only allowing one project executor to explore the endless universe, the final choice was the only child of the Fire Moth, who was also one of the few heroes with great power.

Greta.

As a child even younger than a "doll," Gretchen can't do much. Shen Liang can subjectively carry out his own plans, so the Son of Man Project revolves around him. However, Gretchen's mind is immature, and she mainly passively executes plans. Therefore, Gretchen's primary goal in the Ark Project is to find different worlds and then mark and modify them to suit the appropriate ones.

After an infinite amount of time, the executors of the Child of Man Project and the executors of the Ark Project met on this continent.

Shen Liang was intercepted by Gretsch when he was dropped into the stratosphere of Teyvat by Aponia via a landing pod. As a creation of the Fire Chaser civilization, Gretsch was naturally aware of everything. Teyvat, marked by Gretsch as one of the new homes suitable for the resurgence of Earth's civilization, underwent numerous modifications by Gretsch in accordance with the Ark Project.

This includes, but is not limited to, defeating the First Throne, establishing a continental governance system led by elemental gods, and developing a human-centered civilization.

The ark, having left its mark after accomplishing these tasks, was revered by the gods of all nations as "Heavenly Principle" and the "Second Throne" that governs everything.

Gretchen certainly wouldn't stay in one world for long, but as a spaceship that preserves the human gene pool, Gretchen could clone countless androids to serve as overseers of these worlds. For example, Enforcer 520, the "Supporter of Heavenly Law," was created in this way. Perhaps out of a twisted sense of humor or out of nostalgia for his brother, this Supporter's creation was based on an image extracted from Shen Liang's memories. Furthermore, due to the innate subconsciousness of his personality model, the android was born with a considerable degree of affection for him.

This might be one of the backup plans. Ten thousand years ago, Gretchen realized that Shen Liang would inevitably discover the foreshadowing of the Ark Project and would inevitably need her help.

Why did the Heavenly Nails of Heaven feel familiar to Shen Liang? Why could the power of Heaven suppress the erosion of the Beast Realm? Why did the God of Rock, Morax, and the God of Thunder, Raiden, both trust him so much? Why was it so difficult for him to control "Honkai Energy" on this land?

Because Tenri is the hero of the organization "Moth Chaser" that fights against the Honkai, Gretchen will not allow this land to be eroded by the Honkai again, nor will she allow civilization to be destroyed. The only Honkai energy she can use here is the power within her own body, and the power system of the entire world is different from hers.

The Rock God, guarding Kanria, never returned to defend his own country even amidst the carnage, precisely because he had witnessed Shen Liang's landing pod and the workings of Heaven. This shared civilization convinced him that Shen Liang's abilities extended far beyond what he had seen. In some ways, he might value Shen Liang more than Raiden Zhen. Raiden Zhen valued Shen Liang because she had witnessed the future he offered and, more importantly, because she, as a mother, loved this child with all her heart.

Yan Wang Dijun only guessed at the connection between Shen Liang and Tianli from minor details. His trust in Shen Liang was more like a gamble, betting that Tianli would not stand idly by.

“But there is very little I can do to help you. I am indeed powerful, but only as a warrior.” The Sustainer released Shen Liang and stared at him. “But Eve, combat power can only ensure the steady implementation of my Ark Project, but it is meaningless to your Son of Man Project.”

"What exactly is the purpose of my Son of Man Project..." Shen Liang smiled bitterly.

"Your plan is top secret within the Firemoth, executed solely by you. It requires neither help nor understanding. The details of the Child of Man plan are passed down orally only among your nine Primarchs—or more accurately, your nine harems. It's truly passed down orally; the plan exists only in their minds, not in any documents." The Sustainer chuckled. "So, what you want, I don't know how to help you with, and I can't help you much. For example, if you wish to save everything..."

"You can't help me?"

“I can do a lot, and I really want to help you, Eve, after all, my personality model is innately infatuated with you.” The Sustainer shook his head. “Even if I support you to become the king of the earth, that’s fine, but you want to save the people you’ve lost and take back what you’ve lost. That’s not something that gods or the laws of nature can do. To be precise, no one can do that at all.”

"You've said everything I wanted to say," Shen Liang shrugged.

"Aren't you sad?" the Sustainer asked, looking at him. "I can't save everything for you."

“It’s just that you’re not strong enough.” Shen Liang looked at the people gathered around him. “Saving everything is the privilege of the strong. Don’t even mention you. Even before the Fire Moth was destroyed, there were so many fusion warriors and heroes, Sister Mei, Aunt Mebius, and many smart and capable people, but they still couldn’t do it. How could I expect you to save everything? You’re just a child tens of thousands of years younger than me.”

The maintainer smiled silently.

“I have genuinely been with Miss Gretchen for tens of thousands of years, Eve. I am not like you, a fool who dies every now and then and whose memory is no different from that of a teenager. In terms of mental age, you have no right to call me a child.”

The two supported each other for a few steps. The Sustainer looked at the Thousand Rock Army around him, who were all silent. The pressure brought by the Sustainer, who was a god in the heavens, was too great. Even if Fanan had a million questions, he dared not step forward to ask.

“I think I roughly understand what the ‘Son of Man’ needs to do.” Shen Liang remained silent for a long time before finally saying, “In the words of Mother Aponia, I should descend from the sky, holding the key to the bottomless pit and a large chain.”

“You will seize that dragon, which is death, the devil, Satan, and bind him for a thousand years,” the Sustainer repeated in a low voice.

Many years ago, Earth also had religions and gods. The oracles sung in scriptures are still recorded in the Ark Project's database as treasures of human civilization. Coincidentally, the Sustainer knew this knowledge, because as "the Way of Heaven," as the supreme god of Teyvat, learning these arts of religious rule was an essential path.

But she knew that the Son of Man was different from her.

The Son of Man is the plan behind all plans, the salvation behind all salvation.

Whether it was subconscious or not, the maintainer suddenly sensed the boy's obsession and a kind of martyr-like divinity.

She suddenly longed to recite many things with him, because she suddenly felt like one of the priests described in the scriptures, walking with a god in white robes across the desolate and barren land, watching the lake of sulfur burn the demons, watching the beautiful maiden resurrect with joy, watching the sea part for him, and watching his loose sleeves billow in the wind.

“I threw it into the bottomless pit, closed it, and planted trees in it. No more death can disturb my nations.”

"No more death can afflict your nations."

"One last question." Shen Liang looked at the maintainer who was about to leave.

The Sustainer looked at him helplessly. "If you want me to relieve your current pain, I'm sorry, I can't do that. The Holy Blood Burning Body is actually your source of power. Let me explain a basic fact: Honkai energy is power absorbed from the outside world and circulated by itself. But the rule of this land is elemental power, there is not a trace of Honkai energy, so all your power must be sought from within. But what makes you, at only eighteen years old, have this level of power? You're not Raiden's real son, so what makes you wield her power? The Holy Blood was originally meant to help you control Honkai energy, but you don't have that, so it can only squeeze your body and spirit to infuse you with Honkai energy."

She paused, then added, "But don't worry, you'll be fine. After all, if things really get really bad..."

Her expression suddenly became slightly unnatural, but she quickly averted her gaze, making sure no one noticed that the goddess, the upholder of justice, had actually blushed slightly. This wouldn't do; as the embodiment of the world's supreme ruler, she had to maintain her high-class demeanor at all times!

“That’s not my question,” Shen Liang said. He actually knew that the Holy Blood wasn’t just torturing him. Mistelin had said that the Holy Blood’s torment of him was a last resort. In a normal world, the Holy Blood would be considered an unparalleled cheat code.

"Oh?" The maintainer asked curiously, "Is there another problem?"

"As for Sister Yutu, who embodies the holy bloodline of Shaniat, how exactly do we revive her?" Shen Liang asked hopefully. "I..."

"Wait a minute." The Sustainer looked at him strangely. "Your recovered memories don't include Earth's civilization?"

"Of course it includes! All my memories as 'Eve' have returned! I..."

Shen Liang noticed the Maintainer's expression grow even stranger. After pondering for a long time, she finally realized the timeline issue and glanced unexpectedly at Shen Liang's side. That direction was precisely where Mistelin was going. Mistelin and the Maintainer locked eyes, and the white-haired mature woman shrugged, the Maintainer understanding perfectly.

She reviewed the situation in her mind.

"I see, so the timeline is irreversible... In other words, in Gretchen's memories, the Earth civilization Eve experienced was a civilization five hundred years in the future... The two worlds operate at different speeds. Aponia threw him from the future Earth civilization period into Teyvat ten thousand years ago... The reason for doing this is... Eve must experience the present moment to ensure the certainty of the future?"

"So even now, he hasn't regained Cecilia's memories because he shouldn't remember them in this timeline... Why shouldn't he remember them? Because remembering memories related to Cecilia would affect Cecilia five hundred years from now?"

The maintainer was stunned. She began to sort out the timeline. As "Ark Project executors" who had been exploring the universe in spaceships since the time of the Fire Chaser civilization's demise, they were actually an independent coordinate system relative to the "Earth-Teyvat world." We named them "Ark Spaceships" so that we could view Shen Liang's life experiences independently of his timeline.

During the Fire-Chasing Civilization, nine Primarchs used their own genes as a blueprint to create male infants known as "Eve," who had genetic defects but were unaffected by the Collapse.

The Fire-Chasing Civilization perished, and Eve was sealed away. The Ark spaceship began its journey.

Forty thousand years later, the Ark spaceship is exploring the continent of Teyvat. Meanwhile, a landing capsule arrives in the Teyvat stratosphere, inside which lies Eve, having shed her serpentine skin.

Afterward, the Ark began its conquest of the continent of Teyvat. Meanwhile, the landing module descended onto the Teyvat surface and began to nurture Eve's growth.

Eighteen years ago, Eve was discovered and adopted by Raiden Shin, becoming the Crown Prince Inazuma.

Today, Eve meets herself, and for the "Ark Spaceship" coordinate system, the timeline ends here.

but!

For Eve, the timeline is not over yet!

Within Eve's sealed memories lies another inexplicable memory! That memory is of his life as "Shen Liang," living in an Earth civilization 50,000 years after the Fire Chasing Civilization. There are cute and lively sisters who are always trying to get him into bed, Valkyries with supernatural abilities who are always trying to get him into bed, and Shaniat girls who, despite being from the same family, are always trying to get him into bed.

Simultaneously with this period of memory, he could also open a portal to the world of Teyvat, maintaining contact with the continent! In that Teyvat continent, there was also a group of people who sometimes wanted to sleep with him… but that's not important. What's important is that, according to the Maintainer's understanding, this period of memory in his mind should belong to the Teyvat continent five hundred years in the future! The Teyvat continent after the end of the Kanriyar War!

In other words, from the perspective of the "Ark spaceship" coordinate system, Shen Liang is a person from the future to the present.

This isn't actually something that's hard for the maintainers to understand. Different worlds have different speed frames of reference, so time travel in a broad sense is feasible in physics. The different speeds of Earth and Teyvat create time paradoxes, which isn't hard to understand; it just creates a parallel universe.

But what the Sustainer truly cannot understand is that, as a "third-party observer," theoretically, if Shen Liang were someone who traveled back from the future, he should have created a parallel universe in which his future is still unknown. It would be useless for Gretchen to check his memories and know about the future, because the future no longer existed from the moment Shen Liang traveled back.

Those who maintain the system know that many people believe there are "time paradoxes" involved in time travel, such as the "grandfather paradox".

But there's really no need to worry. Once spacetime is traversed, a brand new parallel universe is immediately born, and Shen Liang can only save this universe. The Sustainer doesn't really care about these things. She knows that even if Shen Liang, as the son of humanity, saves her own universe and inherits the Fire Chaser civilization... that's not bad either. Faced with the great goal of reviving the Fire Chaser civilization, she doesn't care whether Eve, the son of humanity, comes from another universe.

But... Shen Liang had clearly regained his memories, yet he couldn't remember that the person in the coffin was Cecilia! He still thought it was Mistelin!

He just hadn't regained his memories of why he traveled to Teyvat five hundred years ago! He was thrown to the Teyvat continent five hundred years later in order to revive Cecilia, but after regaining all his memories, he forgot this one thing.

how can that be possible?

The maintainer's mind raced, much like a personality model of Celine. She was actually just as intelligent as Celine, and her intense thinking quickly led her to a terrifying truth.

If... there are no parallel universes, and Shen Liang really traveled through time?

Although he came from the future to the past, Shen Liang's future was still limited by the past. The reason he couldn't remember Cecilia was because the Cecilia of five hundred years later appeared precisely because of his actions...? He profoundly influenced Cecilia, so the rules of the universe erased his memories in the present, preventing him from recognizing "Cecilia"!

Nothing that affects the continuity of causality can happen; this is an ironclad law of the universe. Therefore, time travel is theoretically impossible. However, even if time travel were to occur, the causal law of "the past leading to the future" must be maintained, and "the future leading to the past" must never be allowed.

The maintainer suddenly realized something. She glanced at Shen Liang and realized that she couldn't tell Shen Liang about Cecilia; she had to keep quiet.

She couldn't tell Shen Liang anything about the development of time and space, lest his actions distort the future. But she also knew very well that even if she didn't keep quiet, the rules of the universe would prevent her from revealing any information to Shen Liang. The only one who could possibly reveal this information was... Mistelin?

Only she, only she is trapped in this level of logic, maybe only she! Although Mistelin hasn't told Shen Liang yet, maybe only she is allowed by the world!

But Mistelin only noticed that the Constituent of Heaven was staring intently at her. She was a little scared. She realized that the Constituent was also a member of the Fire Chaser civilization. She really had the ability to see her... So what if she saw me? You probably didn't know that I lied to you and said I was a corpse, right? Then why are you being so fierce to me?

The Sustainer almost laughed, only then realizing the perilous nature of the Great Universe's rules. What would happen if she revealed anything about Cecilia? Perhaps a bolt of lightning would strike her dead, a bolt that inexplicably possessed the power of hundreds of billions of watts, even more powerful than the Herrscher of the End?

This is called—

"It's a secret that can't be revealed." The maintainer smiled, touched the boy's face, and couldn't help but kiss his forehead under his innocent gaze. "I can't save him, and I shouldn't save him. Your Feather Rabbit sister... only you can save her."

Shen Liang narrowed his eyes. "Is it that you don't want to say, or that you can't say?"

"The secret cannot be leaked."

"It is indeed related to the law of causality."

"The secret cannot be leaked."

"This lady is so annoying."

"Anyway, you already know what to do, so just do your best." The Sustainer smiled, his eyes crinkling. "Anyway... you'll definitely succeed, but you'll have to figure out the way to succeed yourself. Don't rush, the laws of victory have already been decided, and I'm waiting for you to bring me and Miss Gretsch back to Earth together."

“Gresh is still alive…” Shen Liang hesitated subconsciously for a moment, but seeing the Sustainer preparing to leave, he couldn’t help but say, “Please contact Gresh on the spaceship for me, and tell her it’s me… tell her it’s me…”

"What did you say?" the maintainer asked with a smile.

"Just say... I'm sorry, brother."

"Ha, fifty thousand years have passed, Eve. You've finally transformed from a cold-hearted, inconsiderate brat into a polite, apologetic child." The Sustainer smirked. "What did you apologize for?"

"I……"

"speak out."