Before this, Blue Planet released some archaeological materials.

By piecing things together on their own, the extraterrestrial species gradually worked out the major events that had taken place on Blue Planet. Since the novels released by the writers all contained certain Western elements and were mostly set around the time of World War II, they naturally assumed that the history of this isolated planet could be divided into three stages: the rise of multiple human regimes, World War II, and the arrival of the modern era.

As for the ancient dynasties occasionally mentioned in those works, the aliens only had a vague and fragmented understanding. They usually skimmed over them, after all, they were events from the distant past, and didn't seem all that different from one another. Therefore, most species lacked any systematic grasp of Blue Planet's history.

At first glance, Born Again with the Spring Wind felt like a horror novel. The civilization on the barren planet was primitive and ignorant. Humans lived amidst abundance, yet didn't know how to make use of it. Every custom was utterly alien, making the story seem like nothing more than an imaginative fantasy.

But on closer reflection, what sent a chill down the spine was how logically consistent the historical development in the story was.

Some readers felt a faint unease and silently began analyzing and verifying the details. Others treated it as just another immortality-themed novel, breezing through it without much thought and leaving occasional casual comments.

The protagonist of Born Again with the Spring Wind was named Pu Wei. When it first arrived on the barren planet, it struggled to adapt. The bewildering variety of human sacrifices terrified it, so it became even more cautious about concealing its identity, afraid that it might be burned at the stake at any moment.

Pu Wei blended in by apprenticing under a shaman: carving turtle shells, serving the spirits, and chanting incomprehensible incantations.

It heard many legends: beyond the plains lived a great turtle carrying a mountain three thousand ren high on its back, and a king who communicated with the heavens alongside three living humans. It heard that the ancestor Yu the Great and Boyi, who tamed the floods, had written the Classic of Mountains. Humans used their own two legs to measure the land, recording its mountains, rivers, and strange creatures.

Pu Wei remained silent, continuing to record the cracks in oracle bones, thinking to itself that the faint light of civilization and barbaric sacrificial rites coexisted within the same species.

Outside the book, the alien readers were deeply immersed, following Pu Wei as they watched the Xia dynasty unfold.

"Why did Xia turn into a hereditary monarchy? What a pity! Wouldn't yielding power to the most capable successor have been better?"

"This is so frustrating! Qi of Xia worked so hard to establish hereditary rule, and his son Tai Kang turned out to be useless? Indulging in pleasure like that is unacceptable!"

"Good thing he got overthrown. But Zhong Kang doesn't seem much better. He can't even deal with Hou Yi."

"Finally, the protagonist has a close friend: Si Zhu. They're constantly at war. Their weapons are so primitive, but watching them expand their territory gets my blood pumping. The Xia population is growing, and their land is expanding. They're definitely going to dominate this barren planet. Maybe it's because of the protagonist's perspective, but I'm already blindly rooting for Xia."

"Si Zhu died. His son died too. Then his grandson asks the protagonist who they are. Not even a hundred years have passed, and no one remembers where the protagonist came from anymore."

"The protagonist has taken on a new identity, but still hasn't entered the center of power. Just focusing on divination. Is any of this real? I kind of want to kill a turtle and examine its shell too."

"But this primitive culture is so hard to watch. Even the Zerg races wouldn't treat their own kind this brutally."

Little by little, the readers shifted from detached observers to emotionally invested participants.

"In the blink of an eye, Xia has gone through so many rulers. This Jie of Xia is so cruel! Someone please come and overthrow him!"

"But I'm conflicted. I kind of don't want Shang Tang to win. Wouldn't it be nice if Xia could just continue? Why couldn't Jie have had a better successor?"

"Xia is gone. It's really gone."

"The dynasty has changed. It feels like watching the protagonist of a sequel step on the previous protagonist to rise to power. Even though the main character hasn't changed, the real soul of the story feels like it was the Xia dynasty."

One reader shut off their optical computer, feeling a deep sense of loss.

They gave a measured evaluation: "When you read immortality-themed stories, you already brace yourself for emotional suffering: an endless life is truly tragic. But Born Again with the Spring Wind is a bit different from Passing Years. Passing Years is set in interstellar travel, a setting readers are familiar with, so the changes don't feel as drastic. But this one is set in a primitive ancient world, which makes the passage of time feel far more tangible."

They found a better way to describe it: "Born Again with the Spring Wind feels more like the story of a civilization's evolution."

After grasping the core of the novel, their interest was piqued. They wanted to see what kind of developmental path Blue Planet's people would write. Would it differ from their own? Setting aside their lingering melancholy, they continued reading.

"The Shang dynasty should learn from Xia's mistakes and last longer. The Shang rulers seem more respectful toward mountains, rivers, and spirits, which should be a good thing. Sigh, these sacrifices are terrifying. But this system of divination is so fascinating. Why aren't there dedicated books about it? Wait! Why are there signs of decline again? This feels ominous. Shang has only lasted a few hundred years! Why is it already collapsing?"

The reader steadied themselves before continuing with bated breath.

"The next ruler moved the capital, developed the economy, expanded the territory, okay, okay... Wait, what is this ruler doing?! Don't mess with your ancestors' legacy! Do you know how hard they worked to build this land? I can't stand these incompetent humans. Ah... Shang... King Zhou... you were practically raised under Pu Wei's watch, and now you're really going to fall."

The reader quickly left a comment: "I finally understand the hallmark of Blue Planet's immortality stories: not only are they heartbreaking, but they also make you angry! Such a great dynasty, gone just like that!"

Many readers echoed the sentiment.

"They didn't even leave us a shred of hope."

Some readers, thinking they had figured out Qiongtian's writing pattern, bluntly remarked: "You don't have to make the Shang ruler so miserable just to elevate the next dynasty's ruler. It's a major taboo in series writing to smear the previous protagonist. Hope the author fixes this."

Seeing this comment, Xi Yujin chuckled in front of his optical computer. So this was how aliens reacted to observing Chinese civilization.

Using the pen name Qiongtian, he replied: "It's hard for the author to fix."

This earned him a string of question marks from readers.

After the Shang came the Zhou dynasty, which appeared wiser and longer-lived. Readers assumed the same narrative pattern wouldn't be used three times, so they relaxed and followed the protagonist in experiencing the customs and life of the Great Zhou. By now, the protagonist was accustomed to disguising itself as a human and had made many friends among commoners.

Until one day, when the war horns of King Xuan of Zhou's campaign against the Tiao Rong sounded, Pu Wei suddenly realized that the entire Great Zhou dynasty had already been at war for years. Its land was scarred and crumbling, like a great building on the verge of collapse.

"No, don't! Shang managed to drag on for three hundred years! Zhou should be able to last a bit longer too! Author, please, write more!"

"Exactly! Zhou is much stronger, with a larger population. Even though that also means more states. Wait, these feudal lords don't seem to respect the Zhou king at all."

"I don't think it's looking good. Zhou is just continuing on historical inertia at this point."

"King You of Zhou has been killed!"

"King Ping of Zhou has moved the capital east!"

"Zhou Dynasty is doomed."

Since the protagonist never got close to Zhou's rulers, the readers' grief was directed more toward the friends who died in war, while their feelings toward Zhou were more of regret than attachment. The alien readers grew increasingly confident that they had deciphered Qiongtian's formula and even started a new discussion thread:

"These feudal states seem unusually powerful. Perhaps one of them holds the beginnings of the next dynasty."

"Let's place bets!"

"I think Jin has a good chance. Zheng looks promising, too."

The comment section of Born Again with the Spring Wind was filled with laughter and lively speculation.

Meanwhile, the protagonist Pu Wei, pretending to be a learned individual, became a wandering shi* to various feudal lords, gradually unveiling the vibrant era of the Hundred Schools of Thought.

At this point, even the slowest readers began to sense that something was off. Some fell into deep thought on the spot, while others sought outside help.

The deep-space prison's network was incredibly fast, and in no time, all kinds of analyses spread through private channels among different species.

"Blue Planet... barren planet..."

"Should we just ask the Intelligent Machines directly?" One alien, overwhelmed while searching for historical data, suddenly thought of a shortcut, only to dismiss it immediately. "Asking a question is too expensive. Why don't we just try harder and dig up more information ourselves?"

As a result, the Blue Planet official website's Blue Planet Common Language Dictionary saw an unprecedented surge in readership. At the same time, readers began using specialized tools to search for keywords across other works.

Meanwhile, the remaining readers started thinking more boldly.

"Actually, we shouldn't view Xia, Shang, and Zhou as completely separate. I think there's a line of inheritance between them. It's just that each new generation absorbed more elements and refined things in a more civilized direction. Like how kids grow up and have to throw away smaller pants. Dynastic change is like putting on a new pair of pants so you can run farther with longer legs."

"So fascinating. Setting aside how horrifying the details of slavery are, when I got to the Hundred Schools of Thought, I got chills all over! Does anyone else feel this? Watching these humans evolve from cannibalism to upholding morality, even developing entirely different philosophies: governing by law, universal love and non-aggression, ruling through non-interference. None of this could have been imagined in the Xia dynasty! This kind of progress is terrifying!"

"I understand. The population keeps growing, the land expands, and dynasties become more prosperous. Even though there are always disasters, like wild grass, as long as the spring wind blows, life returns again."

"So this is the standard for Blue Planet's immortality literature? That's incredible."

"Hmm, I have a bold guess."

"What a coincidence, me too."

The readers spoke in riddles in the comment threads.

It wasn't that they refused to believe. It was just that the truth was too shocking to accept all at once.

The barren planet in Pu Wei's eyes...

...might actually be Blue Planet's real past.

Could Blue Planet's civilization really be traced back that far?

Fewer and fewer readers continued replying, until one reader made a new post announcing the results of their species' research.

 

[

Discussion

Based on joint research and cross-verification by the Big Eater Clan, the Lada Clan, and the Keke Clan, there is now a 98.9% probability that Born Again with the Spring Wind is based on the historical records of Blue Planet's Huaxia civilization.

—

Blue Planet's civilization truly can be traced back to such a distant point in time, back to the very origins of civilization itself.

—

The Solo Dance Clan agrees with this conclusion.

—

The Seven Seven Clan agrees...

]

 

The usually smooth-running AI Forum lagged for 0.1 microseconds. Countless readers froze in shock before their optical computers. Even members of the Intelligent Machines, spread across streets and alleys, began discussing the matter in hushed tones.

They had always known that Blue Planet's civilization was ancient, but not this ancient.

Not only had it gone through long stages such as the isolated planet era, first contact, the Dune Universe, the Hyperspace War, and peaceful interstellar ages. It could even trace its origins back to that tiny, initial planet. How terrifyingly long was that timeline?

And they were even presenting it directly as the background of a novel that anyone can read!

The Blue Planet's civilization was the true immortal race!

At this point, many writers who specialized in such topics began posting their analyses on the forum.

"First, thanks to another Blue Planet novelist, Canghai. He described Huaxia civilization in terms more in line with interstellar understanding. From his novel Ancient Tomb Code, we can see that Huaxia civilization indeed had an era called the 'Xia dynasty.' They even have a mnemonic: Three Sovereigns, Five Emperors, Xia, Shang, Zhou..."

"There's something before Xia, Shang, and Zhou??"

"You can tell from Qiongtian's personal page news. Blue Planet's latest archaeological discoveries have made a major breakthrough, but unfortunately, only Blue Planet natives can view them. Those articles block all non-native IP access."

"It makes sense they wouldn't publish it. If they put all of that into a single novel, it would be terrifying."

"No wonder Qiongtian said it couldn't be changed. It's real history."

"You might not know this, but for Blue Planet people, this historical knowledge is basic common sense. Any somewhat realistic novel will touch on it. It's precisely because of these repeatedly verified details that we can confirm: that really is their history."

"Blue Planet people are so incredibly privileged."

Readers were deeply shaken by the background of Born Again with the Spring Wind. Many who had passed it by multiple times before now approached it with reverence, paying closer attention to the details. The once obscure language now carried a kind of archaic beauty.

However, alien readers had only grasped the beginnings of Huaxia civilization and still lacked a systematic understanding.

In the comment threads, enthusiasm ran high, giving rise to both earnest and absurd speculation.

"If this is Blue Planet's history, then after Xia, Shang, and Zhou, it probably jumps straight to World War II, right?"

"Do you have any sense of logic? Does this level of technology look like it could reach a world war? It still needs a few hundred more years of development. Probably something like: Xia, Shang, Zhou, then World War I, the Middle Ages, World War II, and the modern era."

"Not just a few hundred years, none of you have any logic. Technological and cultural development takes time to nurture! This should take at least tens of thousands of years!"

Everyone's guesses became increasingly outrageous.

As they speculated, the readers gradually turned to talking about their own homeworlds.

Those homelands they could never return to had already become hazy shadows in their memories. Their wildly inaccurate guesses were, in truth, projections rooted in their own lost pasts.

On the AI Forum, readers chattered endlessly about their bleak histories. Yet they didn't sound sorrowful. They spoke with humor, joking about their misfortunes. Having wandered the stars for so long without ever looking back, they could now frame their past suffering with lightness.

"All we know is that our home planet was destroyed in a stellar expansion accident. We can never find it again."

"We're different. Our technology advanced because we were taught by a more advanced civilization. We didn't even have an isolated planet phase. We just rode their ships and ended up occupying an entire star system."

"We've got it worse. All we know is that our ancestors fled during a Hyperspace War and took refuge under a higher civilization. We basically spent our whole existence polishing their shoes, haha."

Their lost histories were already shattered into fragments. Drifting silently through space, these beings would sometimes wonder: where did they come from, and where were their roots?

But every time they thought too deeply about it, their mental confusion intensified. So they chose not to think and continued their endless, directionless drift.

Until now.

Through various channels, as they witnessed the rise and fall of dynasties in Born Again with the Spring Wind, a strange comfort settled over them. It was as if some missing piece had been restored to their memories: perhaps this was how history was meant to begin.

Thinking of their own past, and then looking back at Blue Planet's history, the aliens felt a faint yearning for this civilization, as though it embodied every species' deepest fantasy of what a civilization could be.

 

—

 

Inside the base for longevity literature:

The liquid lifeforms inside glass containers pulsed and rippled like waves as they carefully read Blue Planet's novels.

At a glance, they could tell that Blue Planet's civilization could not possibly possess true immortals. The protagonist's mentality was portrayed too unrealistically, because true long-lived beings wouldn't care about so many details.

In fact, the longevity literature produced by the longevity species had undergone a degree of artistic embellishment. After all, beings that could live so long were rare, and to avoid envy, the long-lived species would describe the circumstances of longevity as more tragic than they really were to garner much sympathy.

But gradually, they set aside their initial disdain and became immersed in the strange and fascinating events described in the book, as though they had truly walked through that distant past alongside the protagonist.

"This is a realm we can never truly reach."

A device on one of the containers synthesized their collective thoughts, its calm voice echoing through the base.

"After all... we are products of a laboratory."

 

—

 

Deep Space Prison, Secret Prison.

One thousand and twenty-four mechanical bodies floated in the void, glowing red in a slow, breathing rhythm.

To them, time was like a blank sheet of paper, with past and future indistinguishable. Yet at a certain moment, something older than cognition itself entered their central processors, triggering an explosion like a stellar storm. From then on, all civilizations converged into a single stable point.

 

—

 

Tidal Peace.

Suddenly, a letter arrived in Yujin's mailbox.

It was from the long-unseen Green Clan. With polite phrasing, they asked whether it might be time to release Chapter 77 of Dream of the Red Chamber. They had studied the work for a long time but still couldn't fully comprehend it, and hoped to obtain the complete ancient text for a holistic study. The letter also lavished praise on Qiongtian's novels, calling him a true specialist in portraying Huaxia civilization.

The Green Clan was a wealthy, advanced civilization within the Navigator Colossus fleet, and also the race that purchased the reading rights to Blue Planet's ancient texts.

In an instant, Xi Yujin deduced that the Green Clan was the species that had inquired about Blue Planet's background from the Intelligent Machines.

"Even if you're not the only ones, you've still caused me quite a bit of trouble."

The balance in Xi Yujin's heart tipped toward a dangerous direction.

Using the alias Yujin, he feigned regret: "It's not that we don't want to release the final chapters, but the responsible novelist has run into some issues recently. Our Qiongtian, along with his close friend Canghai, needs some time to resolve matters between them. There are too many mistakes and missed chances between them."

The Green Clan immediately replied:

"Then there's absolutely no need to rush. Please let the two novelists resolve things properly, truly. We greatly admire both of them. The Huaxia civilization depicted in their works is so captivating. I'm sure they will reconcile and bring about a bright future for Blue Planet. From your sincere partner, the Green Clan."

After sending the message, the Green Clan representative twisted its body and called out excitedly to its companions: "I've got firsthand gossip from Blue Planet's literary world! Qiongtian and Canghai actually used to be close friends!"