Chapter 662: The Past of the Floating Life Painting

Hearing this, everyone in the Twilight Society fell silent.

They could almost see the scene from back then: numerous Pioneers standing before the Red Dust Base, stepping firmly into the nuclear ruin, relying on their own strength and perseverance to reconnect the Domain Train tracks bit by bit...

"After the first batch of Pioneers entered the nuclear ruin, they developed various symptoms: high fever, cancer, coughing up blood. They died within fifteen days.

The second batch of Pioneers followed, then the third... After nearly two months of fighting, the Domain Train tracks were finally reconnected, and the infrastructure was basically repaired... At that time, the supplies stored by the Red Dust Base were on the verge of exhaustion. If they hadn't repaired the tracks in time to allow the Domain Train to deliver sufficient supplies, more than half of the million hidden people would likely have starved to death...

But these batches of Pioneers never made it back alive.

Later, the nine domains were reconnected, and the Red Dust Base tried to find the culprit behind the nuclear strike. But looking at the timeline, the Red Dust Sovereign was the last of the Nine Sovereigns to fall into slumber; the others had entered their pods long before her... And after the technological regression, the ballistic trajectories of the nuclear weapons couldn't be traced, so this matter remains inconclusive to this day."

"I was wondering why everyone in the Red Dust Domain is so short-lived... It's because of the radiation?" 9 of Hearts nodded slightly.

"After those three rounds of nuclear strikes, the radiation intensity in the Red Dust Domain remained consistently above safe levels. Fortunately, the Red Dust Sovereign's Domain seemed to have an inhibitory effect on the radiation in the air. Only after a dozen years did the radiation intensity reach a level that was barely tolerable...

At that time, the grain of sand hiding the million people was also reaching its limit. Coupled with being trapped for over a decade, the shadow cast by the nuclear strike gradually faded, and the public had long been repressed and resentful. There were even organized protests and riots, claiming that the radiation had long since disappeared and that the Red Dust Base was just keeping them captive there. All sorts of theories emerged.

In the end, under pressure, the Red Dust Base had no choice but to let them return to the Red Dust Domain... But before that, the Chief founded the Floating Life Painting."

"What does your Chief founding the Floating Life Painting have to do with the public returning to the Red Dust Domain?" 10 of Diamonds asked, puzzled.

"The Chief believed that art could influence people's emotions and subtly shape the values of an era... If these million people lived in a barren, desolate nuclear ruin, their moods would remain depressed and pessimistic. This would not only affect their physical functions but also lead society toward a dark path, breeding barbarism and violence.

The people in the grain of sand were the descendants of the Pioneers, and the Chief didn't want everything to head in that direction. So, he hoped to use the Green God Path to forcibly rewrite this era;

He wanted the purest and most beautiful flowers to grow on this most barren land; he wanted the nuclear ruin, which represented death and desolation, to become a vibrant, hopeful, rolling Red Dust.

The Chief said that if human destiny could be changed by art, the Green God Path could prove itself to the heavens and step to the pinnacle of the world."

Chen Ling was stunned.

Using art to rewrite human destiny?

This simple sentence contained so much conviction and power. Chen Ling seemed to see Yao Qing's back standing in the void, overlooking this ruin filled with death and desolation, making a grand vow.

This statement was too grand, so grand that it was hard to believe... How vast is human destiny? Could it really be rewritten by an embroidery or a scroll?

But thinking about it carefully, did Yao Qing succeed?

The Red Dust Sovereign was forced to wake up and couldn't extend her life; the Red Dust Domain was hit by nuclear bombs and was uninhabitable; the Domain Train tracks collapsed, and the infrastructure was paralyzed... With such a hellish start, this nuclear ruin had still stubbornly developed into the Red Dust Domain Chen Ling saw before him.

Human destiny... at least the destiny of the millions in the Red Dust Domain had been changed because of Yao Qing. He had succeeded.

"As expected of the leader of the Green God Path, this breadth of mind and vision is truly extraordinary."

Bai Ye couldn't help but praise.

"The Chief is indeed worthy of being the Chief," 8 of Spades continued.

"After the Floating Life Painting was founded, they began to use the power of the Green God Path to whitewash the nuclear ruin, using art to change the environment and create one livable town after another. Those responsible for maintaining these 'facades' so they wouldn't be discovered by the residents were called 'Architects.'

Not long after, the Chief announced he was going into seclusion and slumber. No one knew where he went, and no one knew what he was doing... Subsequent affairs of the Floating Life Painting were handled by generation after generation of the Second Hall.

Due to the continuous development of the Red Dust Domain, the population grew, and the difficulty of maintenance increased. So, the Floating Life Painting began to recruit children from the public, sending them to the Green Path Ancient Vault for training. If any stepped onto the Green God Path, they were incorporated into the Floating Life Painting... But to keep the secret, they forbade Architects from contacting ordinary people, including their own parents and siblings.

Later on, the population growth rate still exceeded the expansion rate of the Floating Life Painting, so they guided the residents to build the Red Dust main city, drawing the flow of people into it. Firstly, with people concentrated in one area, Architects could maintain more residents; secondly, there weren't as many trees and flowers in the main city as in the towns, which could significantly reduce maintenance pressure.

Slowly, the Red Dust main city grew larger and larger, and the Red Dust Domain developed into the appearance you see today."

8 of Spades finished telling the history of the Red Dust Domain and the Floating Life Painting in one breath. The doubts in the minds of the Twilight Society members regarding the Red Dust Domain were mostly resolved.

"So, the Floating Life Painting is actually pretty good?" Jian Changsheng raised an eyebrow slightly.

"The first generation of the Floating Life Painting founded by the Chief was indeed so," 8 of Spades paused for a moment. "But time changes many things... Over three hundred years, the Floating Life Painting has changed generation after generation. Now, apart from those few in the Hall, very few have the sense of responsibility they had back then. In their eyes, the current Red Dust Domain is more like an exquisite object that needs to be whitewashed, a complex and vast scroll.

Some of them have even started playing the role of so-called 'gods,' using this scroll that generations have worked hard to paint to 'manifest divinity,' just to satisfy their own vanity..."

"Is that why you left the Floating Life Painting?"

"Partly... And I felt that using this method to whitewash the domain wasn't a long-term solution. This balance is too fragile; as long as there's a slight wind or wave, everything will shatter like a bubble."

8 of Spades spread his hands helplessly. "Now it seems my feeling was correct."

"The dreamlike bubble has burst. The Red Dust Domain has reached the time to face reality..." Jack of Spades, who had been silent, slowly pulled the brim of his magician's hat, his eyes looking calmly into the distance.

"After the disaster, where will the destiny of this domain go?"

Chen Ling looked silently in that direction. The next moment, a slight pain came from his fingertip, as if a needle had pricked his skin.

Chen Ling looked down in confusion, only to see that on the embroidery of the Red Dust Sovereign, a dark red thread was moving as if alive, silently wrapping around his fingertip...