The winged people grew day by day.

They developed strong arms and long, powerful legs.

Sharp talons grew at the ends of their sturdy legs, tearing their small nests to shreds as they moved and frolicked about.

Sermos watched as black or brown feathers sprouted on their wings, and their upper bodies gradually began to resemble those of the snake people. It was then that she started to sense something amiss.

She brought food to the top of the Tower of Heaven, tearing the meat into strips to feed the young winged people.

The little winged ones gathered around her, flapping their not-yet-fully-grown wings.

Sermos also observed their wings closely. It was her first time seeing a life form with such appendages, instantly reminding her of the wing demons, once the most feared enemies of the snake people.

“The Mother of Life said that when they can fly, it will be time to put them to use and determine their destiny,” she thought.

“Does this mean these creatures will be able to fly when they grow up?”

This idea took root in Sermos’s mind.

The young winged people squabbled over the food, creating a commotion around Sermos.

Sermos looked at them and said, “Eat up!”

“The more you eat, the faster you’ll grow.”

The young winged ones fought over the food, but one of them kept staring at Sermos, watching her speak.

He opened his mouth, making “ah” sounds for a while.

Then suddenly, he began to mimic Snake Mother Sermos’s speech.

“Eat up!”

“Eat up!”

As he spoke, this young winged one became increasingly excited.

He flapped his wings and hopped around on the ground, repeatedly shouting.

“Eat up!”

“Eat up!”

Sermos was stunned at first, then a chill ran through her entire body.

She realized then that these were no ordinary animals.

This was an intelligent species.

A race with intelligence like the snake people, possessing the ability to create civilization.

Snake Mother Sermos’s gaze changed as she looked at these winged people. It was no longer the curious or indifferent look from before.

It was fear.

Snake Mother Sermos took a few steps back, covering her mouth.

She remained silent, fearing the winged people might learn more of the divine language from her.

That sacred tongue, the supreme secret taught to them by the Mother of Life.

She hastily descended the Tower of Heaven and retreated to her mansion.

The more Sermos pondered, the more frightened she became. Those three words spoken by the young winged one kept echoing in her mind.

“Eat up!”

“Eat up!”

“Eat up!”

She couldn’t understand why the Mother of Life would create a new intelligent species, nor could she fathom what purpose these winged people were meant to serve.

She suddenly recalled the words the Mother of Life had once spoken,

“Sermos, only today can I confirm that you are not a toy.”

“You are my servant.”

“You still have some use, at least you know how to use wisdom, which also proves the potential of your race.”

Once, they had been merely toys created by the Mother of Life out of boredom, lucky beings born by chance under the power of a god.

And they had gradually passed God’s tests, becoming God’s servants.

Finally, they became God’s apostles.

They had done their utmost to complete God’s tests, all for God’s love, to prove the potential of the snake people to God.

But why? Why had God created a new intelligent species?

Had they not done well enough?

Or had they lost their usefulness?

Had God ceased to cherish them, and thus created a new intelligent species?

Snake Mother Sermos was filled with anxiety and immense fear.

When Sermos’s daughter Avel came to see her, she sensed her mother’s unease.

She asked Sermos what was wrong.

Avel was not only Snake Mother Sermos’s daughter but also the first hunting team leader and Fire Guardian of the snake people.

From Sermos, she learned that a completely new intelligent species was growing at the top of the Tower of Heaven. They had been similarly blessed with the power of wisdom by God, and moreover, they possessed the gift of flight, superior to the snake people.

She was just as frightened as Sermos. She cast a fearful glance at the Tower of Heaven.

Although she couldn’t see the scene at its summit, she could sense that the snake people’s position was under severe threat.

A powerful race was about to be born, competing with them for the position of rulers of this world.

“Mother,” Avel said. “They are a menace. We must eliminate them.”

Snake Mother Sermos looked at her daughter angrily, loudly rebuking her.

“They are God’s creations. Their fate can only be decided by God.”

“Are you suggesting we betray God?”

Daughter Avel reached out anxiously, twisting her snake tail as she approached her mother.

“But…”

“But are we just going to watch an enemy be born right before our eyes? Watch as God abandons us?”

“We could create an accident, yes… an accident.”

Avel spoke recklessly, her thoughts in chaos.

Snake Mother Sermos laughed, shaking her head at her naive daughter Avel.

No one understood the nature of divinity better than Snake Mother Sermos, nor comprehended the vastness of God’s power more thoroughly.

“Avel!”

“Who gave you the courage to deceive God? What do you think you are?”

“You and I are merely mortals, while the Mother of Life is God.”

“She is the supreme deity, the greatest existence in this world.”

Snake Mother Sermos walked out of the door, looking at the towering Temple of Life.

“I won’t do it.”

“Even if God truly believes we have no more use, that is our destiny.”

“We are God’s creations, so let God decide our fate!”

Daughter Avel said no more; she too was a believer in God.

She was just afraid and panicked, and had never truly considered abandoning her faith in God.

Her fear and panic were, in fact, rooted in her unwavering faith in God.

Watching her daughter Avel slowly walk away, Snake Mother Sermos’s eyes also revealed intense unease.

Although Sermos spoke thus, she was actually just as panicked as Avel.

On the cold stone bed, Sermos tossed and turned restlessly.

Sermos had a dream, a terribly frightening dream.

She dreamed of countless winged people spreading their wings and circling in the sky, letting out screams that echoed through the clouds, like the trumpets of doom.

“Screech!”

As the winged people let out their sharp cries, they also swooped down from the sky in flocks.

They extended their talons and plunged into the crowds, snatching one snake person after another from the ground.

The winged people were hunting her children and her people.

She watched as snake person after snake person was grabbed and killed by the winged people, saw her people die untimely deaths, saw her children fall from the sky and crash to the ground.

The sky was filled with winged people, while the snake people ran about like headless flies.

Sermos woke with a start, breathing heavily.

Her eyes were filled with panic.

But looking around, she found herself still in her room.

Outside, the night was deep, the city utterly quiet.

That dream was nothing more than a false illusion, for no one and nothing could threaten them in the City of Life, a place under God’s protection.

Sermos lay back down, resting on her arm.

She told herself: “It was just a dream.” —

Night.

Shelly, dressed in an elegant gown and burgundy leather boots, stood by the window of the hot air balloon ship, gazing at the land beneath the sea of clouds.

She assumed an air of divine majesty, embodying her role as a deity like Yinsai.

Shelly, like an owl in the night, surveyed the world below, hovering proudly above it, hidden behind the veil of the world.

She was observing the changes she had brought to this world.

She saw the snake people establishing new towns, opening new pastures and fisheries.

She saw the sparks of civilization spread across Ruhe Beast Island.

She looked forward to seeing such sights in more places.

The snake people’s territory was but a small dot on Ruhe Beast Island, which was vast beyond measure.

She rode the Spirit’s Hot Air Balloon over every corner of Ruhe Beast Island, searching for a suitable homeland for the winged people.

Finally, she flew beyond Ruhe Beast Island.

She felt that perhaps the winged race wasn’t suited for this island, and that the continent on the other side offered more expansive space.

She roamed this world freely.

This world held no threats for her; she could freely come and go anywhere she pleased, seeking out whatever interested her.

As the sun rose, she returned to the City of Life.

Sermos, having just finished feeding the winged people, was somewhat dazed. She had just descended from the tall Tower of Heaven when she saw the deity descend upon the City of Life. She immediately ran back up the passageway to the top of the Tower of Heaven.

The Mother of Life was indeed there.

The flying ship was tethered to a large balloon, docked at the edge of the giant tower.

The Mother of Life took out a small snack and placed it in her palm.

The winged people carefully took the food from Her hand, then happily flapped their wings.

Sermos couldn’t help but recall when she was first born, how she too, like a child, had babbled with the Mother of Life.

Getting anything from the Mother of Life, even a tiny cake, was enough to make her circle the Temple of Life with joy.

But now, seeing this scene again, Snake Mother Sermos felt inexplicably pained.

The Mother of Life, Shelly, observed the dozen or so young winged people while speaking to Sermos.

“My apostle!”

“You’ve taken good care of these winged people.”

Snake Mother Sermos couldn’t help but ask the Mother of Life: “God, You’ve already created us. Why did You create the winged people as well?”

Shelly, as a god, remained oblivious to mortal emotions. From her lofty position, she focused solely on her own plans.

And her creations only needed to faithfully believe in her and accept all her arrangements.

Shelly, with her back to Snake Mother Sermos, expressed her thoughts.

She had no need to conceal anything; she was whimsical.

Because she was a deity.

“Because I need the winged people, I need them to create a civilization too.”

“Just as I needed you before.”

Sermos’s hand trembled, and she slightly opened her mouth.

Then closed it again.

After repeating this several times, Sermos finally spoke.

“God, please forgive my impertinence, but why do You need them? Have we not done well enough? Or have we displeased You?”

“We can do better, we can…”

Shelly looked at Sermos, smiling as she spoke of cruel things.

Just as she had once spoken of the extinct Trilobite people and the People of the Abyss, that powerful and prosperous civilization and race vanishing in the river of time was, to Shelly, merely an inevitable fate.

“You’ve done quite well.”

“But this world needs more races, because that’s what makes it interesting.”

Shelly wanted to see various races flourishing across the world, to watch the races she created establish different kingdoms one after another, changing this world.

That would give her a sense of accomplishment, more interesting than any game.

However, Snake Mother Sermos couldn’t understand the Mother of Life’s emotions, because God’s idea of “interesting” was too terrifying for her. A powerful and frightening race would rise in this world, competing with them for living space.

Competing for God’s love, competing for everything in this world.

God’s equal love for all was an incredibly cruel thing for the snake people.

They had once been God’s only favorites.

But the moment the winged race was born, everything they had prided themselves on became meaningless.

She said in bewilderment: “Interesting?”

She stared blankly at the Mother of Life, Shelly, the God she had believed in all her life.

The Mother of Life cradled a winged child, whose eyes were full of joy and laughter as it looked at God.

But in the Mother of Life’s eyes, as she looked at him, there was only interest.

As if…

Looking at a toy.

Snake Mother Sermos suddenly understood that from beginning to end, she too had been just a toy.

She had tried so hard, faithfully believing in her creator, willing to give everything for Her, facing death without the slightest fear.

She thought she had transformed from a toy into God’s servant.

From there, she rose to become Her only apostle.

Yet everything she had strived to achieve, pouring her all into it, was perhaps just as casually “interesting” to the deity.

It turned out they were not God’s most beloved children, and she was not God’s most beloved apostle.

They were merely God’s first favorites, and she was only God’s first apostle.

Sermos bowed to the Mother of Life and slowly descended from the Tower of Heaven. She spoke no more,

Because God had no feelings for her.

This seemed unsurprising, for after all, that was the lofty God!

How could She invest any emotion, even the tiniest bit, in Her lowly creations in the mortal realm?

But at this moment, Sermos felt unbearably pained. —

Sermos continued to repeat her daily tasks, keeping herself extremely busy.

Every morning and evening, she still came to the top of the Tower of Heaven to feed the winged people, watching them grow larger.

Their wings were becoming full, and it wouldn’t be long before they could take to the skies.

Each time Sermos fed them, she thought to herself.

“If the winged race also establishes a civilization, will the Mother of Life leave this place?”

“Will a new apostle appear among their race, an apostle just like her?”

This day, the deity was absent from the City of Life, having departed early on her celestial vehicle.

As Snake Mother Sermos was feeding the winged people in the morning, one of them suddenly leaped to the edge of the Tower of Heaven.

Sermos immediately looked over, not understanding what this winged person was trying to do.

The winged person spread its wings, dark feathers glistening in the sunlight.

One by one, the winged people stood atop the Tower of Heaven. The first one jumped off.

He spread his wings and began to glide.

At first, the winged person was not skilled, continuously falling.

Just before hitting the ground, the winged person let out a piercing screech, the sound extremely shrill.

Then, with a powerful flap of his wings, he pulled up from the ground and soared back into the sky.

One after another, the winged people leaped from the Tower of Heaven, beginning their first flight.

The winged people circled low in the sky, their sharp cries filling the air.

“What is that?” The snake people in the City of Life all ran out, looking at the sky in panic.

“Wing demons, it’s wing demons!” Some snake people, seeing winged beings, shouted the name of wing demons. In their view, only wing demons had wings.

“Not wing demons, they’re winged monsters!” But some snake people saw clearly the beings in the sky, creatures with human upper bodies but also claws and wings.

“Quick, hide!”

“Monsters are coming!”

The snake people were terrified of these “monsters” with wings and claws, as if facing natural-born enemies.

The City of Life was in chaos, with Fire Guardians and snake people ability users stepping forward.

But their power could hardly threaten the winged people in the sky, unable even to touch them.

These sky monsters seemed to have a natural advantage over them, holding the initiative to attack at will, able to freely choose the weakest individuals as targets.

Seeing the snake people in such panic, the winged people became increasingly excited.

From the sky looking down, the snake people seemed so small and fragile.

They extended their sharp claws, eager to act.

From her vantage point on the Tower of Heaven, Sermos watched this scene unfold, a sense of foreboding washing over her.

She foresaw a terrifying future that might come to pass.

These winged people would circle in the sky like those wing demons, hunting their companions.

Just like in her horrifying nightmare.

No.

Perhaps it wasn’t just a dream, but a future she had already foreseen in her heart.

Sermos became even more certain that these were their natural enemies.

“Clank!”

Sermos immediately pulled a chain above the nest, and invisible chains appeared simultaneously on these winged people.

It was a Divine Artifact, chains used by God to restrain them.

Even though these winged people had the ability to fly, they wouldn’t fly out of control beyond the City of Life and become untraceable.

These winged people had to return to the Tower of Heaven one by one amid shrill cries, then were bound by chains back to their nests, curled up before Sermos.

Sermos looked at these winged people, her jewel-like pupils shimmering with divine light.

These were just newly born winged people, their power not yet perfected.

Even with their innate talent for flight, they were still utterly powerless before Sermos.

Although they might have limitless potential in the future, at least at this moment before Sermos, she could easily kill them with just a blink of an eye.

Sermos’s mind was thinking the same, as if another self was constantly shouting at her.

“Kill them.”

“They are a menace.”

“The winged people are our enemies, we absolutely cannot let them grow up.”

And in her heart, there was another emotion.

Why?

Why were they born able to fly?

Why could they receive God’s love, what had they done for God?

They had done nothing, why should they share in God’s favor?

Thinking of this, the shadow of the deity appeared in Sermos’s mind.

The killing intent in Sermos’s eyes gradually dissipated, leaving only helplessness and bewilderment.

She looked at these trembling winged people and spoke in a confused voice.

“God!”

“Why has it become like this?”

“Is it because I’m not devout enough, because I’ve committed the sin of jealousy?”

“Or… is my supposed devotion merely self-deception?”

Sermos had always believed herself to be devout, a faithful follower of the Mother of Life.

She could do anything for the Mother of Life without reservation, could give everything for the deity.

Yet now, she found herself changed, wanting to go against God’s will, and she didn’t understand why.

Sermos let out a long sigh, then raised her head to look at the sky.

In the end, she couldn’t bring herself to kill the winged people.

She just broke the chains, letting the winged people fly towards the sky.

“Screech!”

The winged people rushed into the sky one after another in panic, having sensed the strong killing intent in Sermos’s eyes just now.

In the distance of the sky, wing demons were circling. The commotion caused by the winged people was not small, and several wing demon nests in the distance could be seen disturbed.

As soon as the winged people rushed into the sky, these wing demons quickly converged.

They chased them up into the cloud layer, the figures gradually turning into black dots in the distance.

In the eyes of Sermos and the snake people, these winged people would likely be killed by those vicious monsters before long.

But high in the sky, unseen to them, a different scene unfolded. While a few winged people were killed by the wing demons at first sight, many more managed to escape amid the pursuit and interception.

The winged people united together, shuttling through the sea of clouds, their speed increasing.

They awakened their talent, the gift of controlling the wind.

Moreover, they instantly learned to combine their wind-controlling powers, using the wind to propel them to accelerate continuously.

Flocks of wing demons chased them, but ultimately couldn’t catch up completely.

As they were about to leave Ruhe Beast Island, the wing demons gave up the chase.

The winged people had wings, and with one glide, they could cover dozens of miles.

In the blink of an eye, they were seen sweeping across the land, disappearing over the sea horizon—

Back on the Tower of Heaven, Snake Mother Sermos leaned against the parapet, her gaze fixed on the distant horizon.

In her view, all those winged people should have died.

Although she didn’t kill them with her own hands, it was still related to her actions.

She let out a long breath, then lowered her head.

“Clank!”

Snake Mother Sermos picked up the Divine Artifact chain in her hand, silently looking at it.

She quietly wrapped the chain around her hand, gently caressing it.

The winged people had broken free from God’s restraining chains, gaining freedom.

While Snake Mother Sermos tightly grasped the chains God had bound them with, which were their faith and everything.