Finally, Gao Wen asked him the most concerned and most important question he had when he came to Tallongde on this trip.

About the chain that connects between mortals and gods.

If he had only had some one-sided concepts and general guesses about this "chain" when he was in Loren, then since he came to Tallond and saw more and more "true sides" of this dragon kingdom, his impression of this chain has become clearer.

This is a "planetary civilization" that has developed to the extreme, and it is a stagnant country that seems to have stopped moving forward completely. From social systems to specific scientific and technological trees, Tallond has been under numerous shackles, and these shackles seem to be completely created by their "humans". Recalling the operational laws of gods, it is not difficult for Gao Wen to imagine that the birth of these "civilization locks" are inseparable from the Dragon God.

In the Lower City, he saw what a civilization that was completely locked would look like, and at least saw part of its truth. He believed that this was what the Dragon God took the initiative to let him see - it was this "activity" that made people feel particularly strange.

Because he could feel from the details of the Dragon God's words and deeds that this god did not want to lock his people—but He had to do so, because there was a supreme rule that was more irreversible than the Gods that bound him.

Gao Wen has tried to analyze and argue this rule with his experts and scholars, and they believe that they have at least summarized part of this rule, but there are still some details that need to be added. Now Gao Wen believes that the "god" in front of him is the last piece of the puzzle among these details.

Hearing Gao Wen's question, the Dragon God fell silent for a moment, as if even He needed to sort out his thoughts and answer carefully before this ultimate question. After a brief pause, Gao Wen said: "I actually know that God is also 'involuntary'. There is a higher rule that restricts you. The mortal thoughts are affecting your state. Too violent changes in thoughts will cause the gods to slide down madly, so I guess you have to impose many restrictions on the dragon clan in order to prevent yourself from falling into madness..."

"You only said part of the roamer outside the domain." At this moment, the Dragon God suddenly spoke and interrupted Gao Wen's words.

Gao Wen frowned slightly: "Only part of it is right?"

"God is indeed involuntarily... but you underestimated the extent to which we are involuntarily," the Dragon God said slowly, his voice low, "I really don't want to fall into madness. I am indeed a shackle of the Dragon Clan, but all this... was not done by me on my own initiative."

A light golden glow descended from the top of the temple hall, as if a hazy halo was condensed beside the "god". The low roar from outside the temple seemed to weaken a little, becoming a faint illusion. Gao Wen's face showed a thoughtful look, but before he asked, the Dragon God took the initiative to continue saying: "Do you want to hear the story?"

"Story?" Gao Wen was stunned for a moment, but then nodded, "Of course - I'm very interested."

Dragon God smiled and gently shook the exquisite cup in his hand: "There are three stories in total.

"The first story is about a mother and her children.

"A long time ago, in this world where there was no people, a mother and her children lived on the earth. It was the ancient wilderness, and all the knowledge had not been summarized, and all wisdom was still hidden in the young minds of the children. At that time, the children were ignorant, and even their mothers did not understand much.

"The world was very dangerous at that time, and the children were still very fragile. In order to survive in a dangerous world, mothers and children must live cautiously, be careful in everything, and do not dare to make mistakes at all. There are fish that bite people in the river, so mothers prohibit children from going to the river, and there are wild beasts that eat people in the woods, so mothers prohibit children from going to the woods, and fire will burn their bodies, so mothers prohibit children from playing with fire. Instead, it is the mother who uses her own strength to protect children and help children do many things... In the primitive era, this was enough to maintain the survival of the entire family.

"However, time goes by, the children will grow up gradually, and wisdom begins to burst out from their minds. They have mastered more and more knowledge and can do more and more things-the fish that originally bites people in the river can now be caught with harpoons, and the beasts that eat people cannot beat the sticks in the hands of children. The grown children need more food, so they start to take risks, go to the river, go to the forest, and make fires...

"But the mother's thinking is slow, and the children in her eyes are always children. She only felt that those actions were extremely dangerous, so she began to dissuade the children who were getting braver. She repeated the teachings from many years ago over and over again - don't go to the river, don't go to the forest, don't touch the fire...

"Her blocking is useful, and occasionally slows down the children's movements a little, but overall it is useless because the children's mobility is getting stronger and stronger, and they... must survive.

"At the beginning, this slow mother could barely keep up. She could slowly accept the growth of her children, and could let go of her hands and feet little by little to adapt to the new changes in the order of the family. However... as the number of children became more and more numerous, she finally couldn't keep up. The changes of the children were getting faster and faster. Once they took many years to master the skills of fishing, but slowly, they could tame new beasts and set foot on a new land in just a few days. They even began to create various languages, and even the communication between brothers and sisters changed rapidly.

"Mother was at a loss - she tried to continue to adapt, but her slow mind finally couldn't keep up.

"She could only repeat the dogmas that were too old, and continue to restrain the children's various actions, forbid them from leaving their homes too far, and forbid them from contacting dangerous new things. In her eyes, the children were still early from growing up. However, in fact, her constraints could no longer protect the children. Instead, they only made them irritated and uneasy, and even gradually became a shackle that threatened their survival. The children tried to resist, but resisted in vain, because as they grew up, their mothers were becoming stronger and stronger.

"Now that the mother has built a fence at home, she can't tell what the children are growing up anymore. She just circled everything and kept everything she thought was 'dangerous', even if those things were actually food that the children needed urgently - the fence was completed, and it was hung with the mother's teachings and all kinds of things that were not allowed to be touched or tried, and the children... starved to death in this small fence."

Gao Wen showed a thoughtful expression. He felt that he could easily understand this simple and straightforward story. The meaning of the mother and child represented each are also obvious, but the details revealed in it are worth thinking about.

But when he wanted to ask something, the next story had already begun-

“The second story is about a prophet.

"It was also a long time ago, in the wilderness of the world, a prophet appeared in the ancient kingdom. The prophet had no specific name, and no one knew where he came from. People only knew that the prophet was full of wisdom, as if he knew all the knowledge in the world. He taught the locals many things, and thus received the respect and love of all people.

"In that ancient times, the world was still very dangerous to people, and the power of the world seemed particularly weak in the face of nature - even to the point where the most common diseases could easily take away people's lives. At that time, people did not know much, and they did not understand how to treat diseases or how to relieve dangers. Therefore, when the prophet arrived, he used his wisdom to formulate many codes for people to survive safely.

"You can't eat wild beasts that live near the swamp, because most of these beasts have poisonous meat; you can't drink water from a certain mountain, because it will cause stomach and intestine infection; you can't cross a certain river, because there are poisonous weeds on the opposite side of the river, and humans can't make detoxification ointments...

"After leaving these admonitions, the prophet rested and returned to his retreat, and the people of the world took over the prophet's wisdom teachings with gratitude and began to plan their lives according to these admonitions.

"Soon, people benefited from these admonitions. They found that their relatives and friends were no longer sick and died easily. They found that these admonitions could indeed help everyone avoid disasters. So they followed the rules of the admonitions more cautiously, and things... gradually changed.

"People have taken these admonitions more and more important than the law. People have passed by generations, and people have even forgotten the original purpose of these admonitions, but are still obeying them carefully. Therefore, admonitions have become dogmas. People have become increasingly respectful of the prophets who left admonitions, and even feel that it is a existence that has spyed through the truth of the world, possessed supreme wisdom, and even began to create statues for the prophets - using the glorious and perfect image of the prophets they imagined.

"After many years, the prophet returned to this land, and he saw that the originally poor kingdom had flourished, and there were many times more people on the land than many years ago. People became more wise, more knowledgeable and stronger. The land and mountains and rivers of the entire country also changed tremendously over the long years.

"Everything has changed, becoming more prosperous and beautiful than the once-desolate world.

"Then the prophet was very happy. He observed the lifestyle of people again, and ran to the streets and told everyone loudly that the beasts living near the swamps can also be eaten, and they can be cooked in a suitable way; the water on a certain mountain can be drunk because it is no longer poisonous; the land opposite the river is already very safe, and there are now fertile land in fertile land..."

The Dragon God stopped and looked at Gao Wen with a smile: "Guess, what happened?"

Gao Wen took a light breath: "...The Prophet is going to be unlucky."

"Yes, the prophet is in trouble - an angry crowd rushed from all directions, shouting slogans to fight against heresy, because someone insulted their holy springs and holy mountains, and tried to deceive the civilians into the 'holy land' across the river, they surrounded the prophet and beat the prophet to death with sticks.

"This is the second story."

Gao Wen frowned little by little.

At first he thought he had seen through the meaning of these two stories, but now, a hint of doubt suddenly appeared in his heart - he found that he might have thought it too simply.

He raised his head and looked at the opposite side: "Body and prophets not only refer to gods, but children and civilians are not necessarily mortals... are they?"

"I'm glad you can think so deeply," the Dragon God smiled, as if he was very happy. "Many people would think so at the first time if they heard this story: mothers and prophets refer to God, children and civilians refer to people, but throughout the story, the identities of these characters are far from so simple.

"Everyone - and all Gods, are just insignificant characters in the story, and the real protagonist of the story... is the invisible and irresistible rule. The mother will definitely build a fence, which has nothing to do with her personal wishes, the prophet will definitely be beaten to death, and it has nothing to do with his wishes, and the children and civilians who are victims and perpetrators...they are just part of the rules from beginning to end.

"Maybe you think it's not difficult to break the tragedy in the story. As long as the mother can change her thinking in time, as long as the prophets can become a little smoother, as long as people become smarter and more rational, everything can end peacefully, and there's no need to go to such an extreme situation... But unfortunately, things won't be so simple."

The voice of the Dragon God became ethereal, and his eyes seemed to have fallen into some distant and ancient time and space. In His gradually low and ethereal narrative, Gao Wen suddenly remembered the scene he saw in the deepest part of the eternal storm.

In that static battlefield, the two sides of the war were so unrestrained and merciless, as if they were full of hatred, as if only by life or death could it be over. But if they thought about it carefully, did the two sides on the battlefield really come to that situation because of "hatred"?

Enya's voice sounded calmly: "...The group's thoughts are a powerful and inertial force. When a race has adhered to a set of rules for thousands of years, and this set of rules points to religion and gods, then this power will become... powerful. Many times, you cannot change the concepts accumulated by ten generations in one generation. This concept hedging will directly act in the thoughts and cause storms. You call it "God's Madness" - but God is not actually crazy.

“God is just 'correcting' your 'dangerous behavior' according to the 'tradition' of mortals for thousands of years - even if He doesn't actually want to do it, He must do it."

Gao Wen looked at the other party: "God's 'personal will' is separated from the 'running law' that God must fulfill. In the eyes of mortals, schizophrenia is madness."

“Indeed, from the perspective of mortals…when the gods choose to destroy all living things, there is no difference between whether this behavior is ‘corrected’ or ‘crazy’.”

Gao Wen was silent for a long time and said in a deep voice: "From the perspective of the development laws of civilization, in a healthy and sustainable society, the birth rate of new things and new ideas is always faster and faster - it is inevitable to change the concept of accumulation of ten generations in one generation, because productivity must be developed unless..."

Gao Wen stopped hesitantly when he said this. Although he knew that what he said was true, here, in the current situation, he always felt that he continued to speak as if he had some kind of quibbling or "mortal selfishness", but Enya continued to speak for him-

“Unless you fall into the 'cradle of eternity’.”

His expression was dull.

"The dragon clan has failed, the gods have merged into one, and the chains on the mind have directly trapped all the members of the civilization, so I had to turn Tallond into such a cradle, let everything stand still, so that I can ensure that I will not kill them all, and as a result, you have seen - they are still alive, but only alive, Tallond is dead, it is the machine running on this land, and those lifeless steel and stones are stained with some debris once called the "Dragon clan"... Let these debris be preserved, and it is everything I can do for them.

"So, extraterritorial wanderers, do you like such an 'eternal cradle'?"
Chapter completed!