Seth stepped backward, his expression showing confusion and hesitation.

He could feel the inviting presence of the lamp as it burned with a crimson hue. He could almost smell the faint stench of blood, sweat, and tears emanating from the bronze artifact — something he found strangely pleasing.

He finally asked, "This racial lamp... what is it?"

Adam stared at him silently with a solemn air. His once carefree demeanor was no longer present, the change quite jarring.

Adam’s gaze trailed back to the lamp, then he began, "A racial lamp can be seen as the totem of a race. It is the backbone of a hegemon race.

The difference between a race with a racial lamp and one without is like the difference between heaven and earth."

Staring at Seth with a meaningful gaze, Adam continued, "This is one of the reasons why I and countless of my descendants tried our best to delay Earth’s connection with the origin for as long as possible."

"Wait, what? The connection with the origin was delayed?" Seth interjected in confusion.

Adam nodded, smiling as he replied, "Well, we couldn’t let our race connect with the origin without sufficient preparation, now could we?

You see, a racial lamp grants a race three defining traits once lit." He held out finger after finger as he listed them. "One passive, one active, and one bind.

These traits awaken and become the distinct markers of that race. Every being born to the race will have them.

These traits will be the guiding path of the race, allowing for a much smoother evolution on the path to power."

Seth’s brows tightened into a confused frown. The more Adam answered, the more questions he had.

"Wait! That makes sense, but what if there are other humans with the same biological composition as us? Do they also benefit?" Seth asked.

Adam suddenly burst into uproarious laughter, slapping his lap at the ridiculous question.

"It’s impossible! There can only be one race of humans, and it is those from Earth. Any other race might look similar but will never have the same composition as us.

What do you take life for, child? Do you know how many millennia it took for great apes to evolve into humans?

Do you know how many more years it took for ancient primates to evolve into great apes? Do you know how many series of events aligned together by chance to birth our race?

Do you actually believe there is a planet out there that can replicate these events? Even if they did, do you think the results would be exactly the same?

This isn’t a game, child. The origin might have descended and the path to transcendence might be open, but reality still runs on raw numbers."

Listening to these explanations, Seth found it hard to argue against Adam’s logic.

Adam wiped his tears as he asked, "Can you guess the chances of another race of humans exactly like us existing somewhere in the infinite existence?"

Seth scratched his head. "Well, I’m not really good with math, but I’d assume zero point something?"

Adam shook his head. "While you are correct, the series of zeros that comes after the point would be enough to string together and reach the boundary of our universe before you can dream of finding the one whole digit that comes after.

Simply put, it isn’t happening. Not ever."

Seth finally understood, but he remained confused. "Then if the racial lamp is so important, why choose me to light it? Why not someone of more significance, like you — the literal ancestor of humanity?"

Adam shook his head, wearing a wry smile. "While I can do many things, this I dare not try. A racial lamp, apart from forming race traits, is actually the culmination of the said race’s karma and fortune.

Such a vast amount of fortune... while there is a chance I might be able to light the lamp, I would die under the crushing weight of humanity’s fortune and karma."

Pausing for a bit, he patted Seth’s shoulder and continued.

"Naturally, I wouldn’t hesitate to make such a sacrifice. But with your existence as the bearer of an origin soul, such a sacrifice isn’t necessary.

I still have a wife and children to look after, you know."

Shaking his head, Adam quickly shut down Seth’s question before he voiced it.

"Before you start asking, I don’t know what an origin soul is. I only know that it is absurdly rare, and that most great races had their ancestors sacrifice their lives to substitute for the fact that there was no origin soul bearer among them — just for a chance at lighting the racial lamp."

Seth closed his mouth, swallowing his question. But his eyes flashed as he recalled back to when the origin eyes appeared.

’Could that be why it noticed me back then?’

He had always wondered what made him so special that the origin eyes noticed him out of all the billions of humans on the planet.

But it seemed he had gotten something closest to an answer.

He stared at the racial lamp, sitting quietly before them. He had to ask.

"How do I light it? And I won’t die trying, right?"

Adam stared at him silently, contemplating for a bit before letting out a helpless sigh. "Grab it, and the rest will come naturally. As for you dying or not... I don’t know."

His reply rendered Seth speechless. Couldn’t this guy at least lie or try encouraging him in some way?

Now he was on the spot: either help humanity claim the racial lamp with an unknown outcome, or refuse and force Adam to sacrifice himself to light it.

Of both decisions, he tended to lean toward the latter. After all, Seth wasn’t the selfless type. It wasn’t like the whole survival of humanity was on the line. And besides, Adam had lived for so long and had a full life, while his had only just begun.

"There is a difference if I light it or you light it, though," Adam suddenly spoke.

"You see, me sacrificing myself will indeed light the lamp and give humanity their racial traits. But because we bent the rules a bit, the cost wouldn’t only be my death, but also a huge chunk of humanity’s fortune and karma.

Meaning a whole lot of people will die for unfortunate reasons. Some suddenly dying by heart attacks, some mistakenly channeling their essence the wrong way, heck, some might even trip and die.

With the fortune sustaining these huge amounts of the population gone, they will be prey to fatal misfortune."

When he finished speaking, Adam stared at Seth apologetically. "I really wish I could take your place, but the cost would be too much for humanity to bear. Even you might not be exempt."

Now Seth didn’t have a choice. As much as he was for self-preservation, when it came to the bigger picture he had to digress.

He frowned, lost in thought. Adam didn’t disturb him, respecting the fact that this was his life at stake. He had the choice to take as long as he wanted to decide.

But suddenly, the racial lamp reacted, rattling out of the blue, drawing the attention of both Adam and Seth.

Suddenly it started levitating, the crimson aura around it pulsing brighter.

Whisking through the air, before Seth could blink, it already lunged into his ethereal projection.

"Fuck!"