In the year 7234 of the Stellar Calendar, within a subterranean cavern on the planet Aiken, a youth was weeping on the body of an elder. The people around were gaunt, their clothes ragged, their eyes, turbid with despair and sorrow.
"Child, stop crying. The future of the Black Eye Galaxy rests in your hands. Please, don't give up," the elder said in broken whispers.
"Grandpa Li, I see no future. I'm not the Child of Hope you speak of. I'm just an ordinary carbon-based being. Please don't place such heavy expectations on me. I can't bear it. I'm too afraid!" The youth wept with his face in his hands. He dared not meet anyone's gaze, for he knew all too well what kind of person he was. From the day he was born, he knew he would never awaken to a special ability or possess any psychic power. While others marched to the front lines to fight the foreign invaders, he could only be a caged canary, protected but never understanding his own worth.
"No, you must believe in yourself. It's precisely because you're the only carbon-based being in the Black Eye Galaxy that you have the potential to bring hope and light to everyone. Follow your heart, my child." With these words, the elder closed his eyes. His withered hands clutched the youth tightly, transferring his last vestige of strength.
Everyone sank to their knees. Some closed their eyes, tears streaming down their cheeks; others buried their faces, wailing in grief. Each face was etched with the hardships of life. A hundred years ago, the Black Eye Galaxy was invaded by a group of winged bird people who claimed to be angels, swiftly establishing their own regime. They branded the native inhabitants as sinners, seeking to cleanse them with holy light. With their exquisite beauty and innate powerful light abilities, they ruled the entire Galaxy in the guise of religion, deifying themselves as gods.
Below the gods, all were mere ants. Any resistance was met with merciless slaughter. Thus, the natives of the Black Eye Galaxy entered the darkest and bloodiest era. Nations that once stood as enemies united to fight against these winged bird people, but due to the disparity in strength, they were ultimately suppressed. They shifted from open rebellion to underground operations, forming numerous exploration teams that roamed and fled across the Black Eye Galaxy.
The youth was the core of these exploration teams, revered as the Child of Hope, while the elder was the leader of all the teams. He found the youth in a sea of people, took him under his wing, raising him with care. He taught him what justice and courage meant. He said that one day, the youth would bring light to the Black Eye Galaxy.
But now, the elder was dead, and the exploration teams were on the brink of disintegration. The youth remained the same timid and powerless youth, and nothing had changed.
The crowd gathered to wash the elder's body and dress him in clean clothes. His limbs and abdomen were made of some kind of black crystal, covered with densely packed scales, which looked somewhat terrifying. But everyone knew the immense power contained in this stitched-together body. He was the only human who could face a high-level deity in a direct confrontation and not fall. His deeds were etched in everyone's memory.
As the elder's body was reduced to ashes, the youth finally collapsed, grabbing a comrade and demanding, "Why me? Can't you see how useless I am? I don't have psychic power, nor any special abilities. I get tired just from running. You are carrying a burden by having me. I don't want to be a drag on anyone, nor do I want to see you dying for my sake. I'm a nobody! Really!"
He knelt on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably, his mind consumed by self-doubt.
"No, you're not a nobody. If there's anyone who can save the Black Eye Galaxy, it's you and no one else," the man said slowly. "Do you remember the bedtime stories General Li told you when you were a child?"
"The god-level Artifact Refiner?" The youth lifted his head.
"Exactly. He truly existed. Before he left, he left behind a legacy and told General Li that only a carbon-based being could inherit it. That's why you were adopted by the general and taken to the places the Master Qi once visited, in search of that legacy. The planet Aiken, where we are now, was once also invaded by aliens, but it was saved by a divine artifact Master Qi left behind. Do you know why the city above us is called Spider City? Because that artifact had the appearance of a massive Ghost-Faced Spider. Until you find the legacy, you must not give up. Otherwise, General Li would never forgive you."
Another explorer stepped forward, speaking solemnly. "That's right. This is the most likely place for the legacy to be. You must pull yourself together."
"I, I can become a god-level Artifact Refiner? But I'm just a carbon-based being," the youth said, looking at his hands in fear and uncertainty.
"Master Qi was also a carbon-based being. Go in, child. We've confirmed that the legacy is in this cave, but no one can approach it. Give it a try. Even if you fail, we won't blame you."
The crowd parted, casting eager eyes deep into the cave. There, hidden in the darkness, was also the light. The youth stopped crying. His legs seemed to be pulled by a string, step by step entering the cave. He came to a wall and pressed his blood-stained palm into a recess.
The creaking sound echoed in the cave. The wall that not even a pulse cannon could penetrate slowly opened a small door, barely wide enough for the youth to pass through. His comrades fell to their knees as if drained of strength, a glimmer of light in their turbid eyes.
The youth looked back at them, his heart aching. His slight timidity was instantly replaced by determination. To protect him, a team of thousands had been reduced to just a few dozen survivors. Now even Grandpa Li was dead. What did he have left to lose?
With this thought, he walked through the small door without looking back, only to be enveloped in a warm liquid. He returned to the womb, born from a woman named Su Huaiyun, and then sent to Supreme Divine Creation Sect, where he was raised by his father. His father in this life was named Qi Zhongshu, the patriarch of Supreme Divine Creation Sect. He was strict and loving, giving everything he could to him and sacrificing his life for him.
Once again, the youth faced the pursuit of the entire continent, but this time not because of the title of Child of Hope, but because of his special physique. He experienced despair and had even thought of suicide, but remembering his father and fellow practitioners, he chose a mutual destruction. When he detonated himself to take down his enemies, he realized he was not on Qianyuan Continent; everything that had just happened was an illusion.
No, more accurately, it was Master Qi's test, to see what choice he would make in the end. Learning this from the holographic image, the youth was drenched in cold sweat, unsure if he had passed or not. Mutual destruction with the enemy seemed like a failed ending, not meeting the requirements of Master Qi, right?
Thinking about it, his eyes turned red, feeling utterly useless and undeserving to face his comrades. They had gone through great hardships to bring him to Aiken, only to face despair once again? Just as he was about to cry, a pearl emitting a soft light appeared out of nowhere and entered his mind.
The massive influx of information left him unable to stand, collapsing to the ground instantly. After a long while, there came a rustling sound from the depths of the dark cave, growing closer.
The youth wanted to run, but couldn't even move his fingertips, lying helplessly on the ground. After a while, a furry object tapped his back and came closer to sniff his body. When it bent down, the youth finally saw it in full. It was a massive spider, its eight eyes gleaming with a greenish glow. Its sharp mandibles dripped with venom, corroding the rock into deep pits.
Eight Desolate Ghost-Faced Spider? The youth received this information from the memories that appeared inexplicably and couldn't help but cry, sobbing and then laughing softly. He had obtained the legacy and the divine artifact left behind by Master Qi. The Black Eye Galaxy still had light and hope.
The Ghost-Faced Spider, seemingly confirming that he was its master, carried him on its back and crawled out. When the massive spider emerged in the cave, revealing its full ferocity, the comrades who had been standing stunned there burst into wild joy.
"We're saved! The legend is true! Master Qi indeed left behind a divine artifact and all his legacy!" They embraced each other, weeping happily, then lifted the youth and tossed him high in the air.
The Ghost-Faced Spider, starved for hundreds of years, had no patience for their release of emotions. It swung its rear and crawled out of the cave. The others finally regained their composure, wanting to stop it but not daring to, only shouting from behind, "Mr. Spider, please wait. There are bird people everywhere outside. They're in the middle of capturing the Child of Hope. You'll be discovered."
The youth also snapped out of his joy and hurriedly followed. But with eight legs, the spider was naturally fast, disappearing into the long tunnel in the blink of an eye. When they reached the cave entrance, they saw many bird people had spotted the spider and were floating in the air, drawing longbows made of light beams.
"Child of Hope, we've finally found you. Although I'm curious why they place so much importance on you, I don't want to know the answer anymore," the leading bird person said with a smile, then cast a look of disgust at the ugly spider. They hated all life forms except their own kind.
The youth hurriedly hid behind a rock and shouted anxiously, "Mr. Spider, come back quickly. These bird people's arrows of the God of Light are very powerful. They'll turn you into a sieve." He shouted several times, but the spider kept charging, forcing him to come out from his cover and pull it back.
The bird people hovering in the air seemed to enjoy watching their prey's futile struggles. Only when the spider and the youth approached did they release their arrows. The beams struck the Ghost-Faced Spider, but only dislodged a few of its hairs. It was enraged and shook its abdomen, spitting out silver threads that enveloped the bird people tightly. It dragged them down from the sky, rolled them into white balls, injected them with venom, and drank them dry one by one.
The youth was tightly sheltered under it, unscathed.
In just a few seconds, the battle ended. The army ordered to hunt down the Child of Hope was completely wiped out, including one six-winged bird person, six four-winged bird people, and over three hundred ordinary bird people. Under normal circumstances, this team could have annihilated a mech army of several thousand.
The explorers stood dumbfounded, staring stupidly as the spider greedily sucked the white balls. The bird people's wings jutted out from the balls, their feathers falling, bloodstained, a gruesome sight. But this gruesome scene brought intense pleasure, a long-suppressed hatred and despair finally being released. An explorer drew a long sword and chopped off a wing, sobbing, "Damn it! We're seeking revenge!"
Inspired by him, others started chopping the bird people's wings, stabbing into the white balls, only to find the bird people had already been liquefied by the spider's venom, leaving no intact bodies.
Seeing its food being desecrated, the spider couldn't help but let out an angry hiss. It lightly poked a few people with its legs, then pushed them away with its rear, gathering the white balls into its embrace, clearly protective of its food. The youth raised the camera, recording this scene, sending it to the secret website established by the underground organizers. The title was "Hope."
The seed of hope left behind by Master Qi would, one day, grow into a towering tree. From that day on, areas covered in white silk spread across Aiken, just like the scene a few hundred years ago when the infected invaded. On the satellite images, the landmark building of Spider City remained intact, with a line of words carved on its high pedestal - Spider City Stands Forever Unshaken.