The Cornflower Witch
Book 3: Chapter 114: The Birth of the Solar Furnace
Humans were once the Star-Gazing Beasts? For this answer, Sylutia did not feel very surprised, or rather, it made a certain kind of sense.
Although the laws of that world differed, everything still developed from the tiny and simple to the complex. In another universe, life had once been fungus, insects, fish, mice, monkeys, and only then humans; that was a clear path of a world birthing life and evolving into civilization.
However, this world was different. Life here was not solely nurtured from within but was catalyzed by the descent of the Alien Star. The accelerated progress caused some links to be missing, and people found that hard to accept.
How could humans possibly be stupid beasts? How could they be insects? If it were truly like that, humans could surely use some ancestral-reversion ritual to turn back into insects and beasts.
This was a world with Transcendents and extraordinary powers. If the two really had such a connection, then forms could indeed be reverted.
What Sylutia took for granted became a shocking doctrine to the Star-Gazing School of that era. It triggered a cascade of questions and debates.
If humanity’s origin was the Star-Gazing Beasts, then where had the missing segment of history gone? Furthermore, if humanity’s essence remained beast, did that mean the race’s ultimate goal should be to fight Fairies and Dragons and return the world to the age of the Star-Gazing Beasts?
Perhaps humanity ought not to bear the fate of the Star-Gazing Beasts, but as descendants of those beasts, how should they regard the world? Shape it into a home of their own, or break open the seal of the World Wall, embrace the stars, and stride into an age belonging to the Star?
Debates over human nature and destiny spread throughout the Mage Alliance, beginning to shake the foundations of certain orders.
Are we the pioneers and awakeners of the human species, or an aberration headed down the wrong path? The wisdom and knowledge we pursue—are they meant to embrace truth and lift the bans on life, or to usher in a vast self-destruction?
High-ranking officers began to waver, while mid- and lower-tier mages immersed themselves in the new avenues for advancement offered by this doctrine.
It became an era sliding toward chaos. After formerly unanimous beliefs wavered, mages split. Some hoped to draw closer to the Astral Plane, crack that eggshell, and finally let humanity step out of this world to become new life wandering the Astral Plane.
“This is the fate of the Star-Gazing Beasts!” they shouted, proclaiming and spreading this school of thought.
A portion of mages argued that humanity developing the two Aspects Secret Word and Castle meant the fruit of wisdom had already been plucked by humans, that they were no longer the old Star-Gazing Beasts.
“Do we really have to, for a sliver of bloodline connection, so thoughtlessly and foolishly decide our fate?” they asked. Even if a bloodline link existed, humanity should still remove itself from the Star-Gazing Beast category.
“The reason humanity rose to greatness was never beastly body or instinct, but the order and accumulated experience brought by wisdom.”
Around the question of stars versus wisdom, the Star-Gazing School split into two major factions.
A small remaining group of mages believed that, judging by Astral Plane beings and humanity’s developmental trajectory, neither humans nor the world were complete.
All things born naturally were imperfect. We are, the world is, and because of this, it is our mission to shape the world.
They urged both factions to set aside arguments and explore how mages could use their power to resist the corroding Chaos of Distortion. That approach could both protect humanity as a whole and serve as a direction aligned with the will of many Hours.
The first faction’s voice was the loudest and most popular among mid- and lower-tier mages, because many Secret Arts related to the Alien Star could rapidly advance practitioners. The power of the star realm seemed limitless; just pry open a small crack and individuals could benefit.
The second faction, though relatively smaller, still had clusters of mages around it. They knew that in the long run they would lose influence, because more and more mages accepted the first faction’s ideas.
The third faction had the most people but the thinnest voice. After all, this was the world of Transcendents. Ordinary special beings were like grains of sand in the wind, swept along. Those accustomed to living within the existing environment faced pressing problems; they wanted to protect that world, but had that world ever protected them?
Time passed.
To counter the doctrine of the Star-Gazing Beasts and the star-embracing thought born from it, the seventh faction of mages ended full communication with that school, attempting to find subtler retreat paths and Secret Arts brought by wisdom and knowledge.
Thus, beyond that age, exchanges among various schools suddenly became frequent, and many sects developed. We even tacitly formed an alliance to resist the first faction of mages.
That alliance stabbed at those star-chasing mages and created a sense of crisis. After all, embracing the stars was behavior foreign to that world: dragons that once held dominion over the stars were degraded into little snakes, losing their wisdom and forever carrying a small landmass on their backs.
War broke out one day. The Star-Gazing School formally united. Its members who pursued the stars ended their restraint of starlight, accepted the bloodline of Astral Plane beings, and some lower-rank mages became half-Astral lives, strange and weak.
Another group of mages chose to fight on. We relearned the ancient Path of the wizards and introduced the faint power of the Primordial Beasts from the old age to modify bloodlines. They gained slight power and bred a small number of new beastman subspecies to counter the summoned Astral creatures.
“Haha, ridiculous. How are you different from us when you accept the blood of Astral beings?” the first faction’s mages mocked their opponents.
“This is merely a temporary stratagem to resist you. Of course we still pursue wisdom.”
“To stop you, we must understand the source of your power more deeply. This is for a greater cause.”
Though some mages thought this was inappropriate, as the civil war intensified they had no right to stop it. They followed the same path to oppose the star-chasers.
The more they used such power, the more they discovered how easy and simple it was to accept the stars’ baptism, while the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom was so arduous and protracted.
Many mages of the second faction gradually defected and were assimilated in battle.
Just as many believed the civil war would soon end and the Mage Alliance would tilt toward star-chasing, the long-forgotten third faction finally produced something to change the situation.
It was a “fire seed.” Once thrown into fuel, it could supply tremendous power. Humanity could not beat beasts because their bodies were weak, but steel could. Now, it only required making the steel roar and turn.
The surging force brought by the fire seed gave previously invented machines powerful drive. Large golems and war machines finally stepped out of the laboratory and onto the battlefield.
The tide of war was gradually reversed. Mages who had followed the Star-Gazing Beast path retreated step by step; they were crushed by that roaring power. At that moment, golden light blossomed over the machines, and a brand-new Aspect was recognized by the world. It was named Gold Steam, the thunderous roar of metal and steam.
Faced with this, the remaining mages of the Star-Gazing School felt utterly denied, their morale collapsed, and they fled in all directions.
According to the Gold Steam Aspect theory, the original world was full of flaws, imperfect. Only through human modification, planning, and remolding could things become neater and more beautiful.
“We take everything discovered in nature as a Foundation Stone, then forge something that transcends nature, approaches Deity, and becomes more refined and perfect. Ultimately we will also forge ourselves to achieve a truth-like perfection.”
Afterward, all schools within the Mage Alliance began learning the Path of Gold Steam. The most famous and powerful faction among them was the school that first ignited the fire seed; they took on the name of the Sun, the Solar Furnace.