Shepherding Humanity

Xu Zhi looked ruefully down upon the proud king.

He had lost, but from start to finish, he never once showed fear, even in the face of overwhelming power.

Gilgamesh was a powerful and complicated man. Royal grace and tyrannical brutality coexisted within him, and he possessed great personal charisma. His end stirred up inexplicable feelings within Xu Zhi. He felt that it was a pity.

But Xu Zhi was truly unable to change the end of his lifespan.

He hadn't been able to ascend and wouldn’t be able to incorporate a third gene, so naturally, he could only die of old age… Xu Zhi had come to see him off. He hadn't expected Gilgamesh to attack him.

Ishtar coughed out blood.

Her chest rose and fell violently, but she never showed fear when looking at the giant in the sky.

She had been ready to die from the very beginning, Sumerian warriors never feared death. She just laughed miserably: "So the difference between us is this great. What kind of being did we just wage war against?"

"Now, do you regret it?"

Xu Zhi sighed. Shrouded in a golden glow, his body towered over them like a titan out of myth, inscrutable and majestic in his divinity.

"Regret? We made our choice." Gilgamesh just laughed in between bloody coughs. He did not say anything more.

The Sumerian civilization has been defeated.

A complete defeat before the Great Beast of Wisdom.

They knew the price of failure when confronting the great titan. It was the end of days.

Xu Zhi bowed his head, looking down at the routed army. Chaos reigned. Faced with their imminent extinction, soldiers ran about in panic, wailing, crying, and laughing. They verged on the edge of madness.

"I never wanted to interfere with the fates of so many people, and the rise and fall of a civilization."

Xu Zhi looked down at the aging Hero King, and recalled the savage Bugapes that had screamed "Baldy!" "Baldy!" and dared to mock their creator the moment they were born.

At that time, he had joked that they must be a savage, tyrannical, and selfish race.

Who knew that his words would come true.

"Is this the end for us?"

Though Gilgamesh's bones had been shattered, he managed to relax into a sitting position and laughed despairingly at the giant looming in the sky. "Just like how we’ve exterminated countless behemoth species, will you now exterminate us and avenge them?"

Gilgamesh had never known fear in his life.

The callow Bugape of long ago had shown no fear before the great titan. It was only natural that the Hero King of today would be just as fearless.

Even though he was on the verge of death, he upheld his pride and never begged for mercy.

Xu Zhi considered his words and said: "Since you refuse to heed my words, I will exterminate you all. You have destroyed the ecology of the entire world, and exterminated too many species. I cannot leave you be and allow you to endlessly reproduce."

Their unbridled reproduction had been too detrimental to the world.

Gilgamesh laughed miserably and asked: "Back then, you answered my questions about civilization. Now, before the end, can you answer my final questions?"

Answer some questions?

For a few seconds, silence reigned as the crowd looked up at the colossal giant.

The mighty titan was silent. The holy light shining from his brow pierced through the clouds, dying the world pure white. The Great Beast of Wisdom was inscrutable in his majesty. Then suddenly, his deep ringing voice resounded throughout the ruins of Uruk.

"You may ask."

A dead silence descended upon the world.

Throughout the blood-soaked battlefield, all was silent.

The fleeing soldiers stopped in their tracks. Crowding together, they discarded their armor, and looked up at the towering titan.

Ishtar’s blood dyed the ground beneath her bright red. She smiled tragically as she gazed at the giant in the sky.

"You’ll answer our questions once again?" Gilgamesh was silent. He smiled miserably and asked his first question: "In what way will you destroy us?"

Xu Zhi gave it some thought. Since they were everywhere, it was indeed difficult to get rid of them all. But he had no choice but to do it, he could not allow them to continue multiplying like locusts and destroy the entire sandbox.

"I will use water." Xu Zhi considered his words, then calmly added, "I will use a massive flood to wash away everything and drown your entire civilization. No traces of your existence will be left behind."

The world stilled. All was silent.

This world was too filthy, too full of sinful men.

The Great Beast of Wisdom would cleanse this world of sin with a great flood?

However, though the Great Beast of Wisdom was indeed mighty, how could he possibly start a massive flood that would cover the entire world?

This was no longer the power of a Great Beast, this was already…

The crowd held their breaths, their faces horrified.

"Second question. Why could I not find any trace of you in this world?"

Gilgamesh hoarsely inquired: "Where did you come from? What kind of a being is the Great Beast of Wisdom? Why did you grant us the fire of civilization? Why do you stop us from slaughtering the other species? You said that all was equal before you, be it plants, animals, or men. Then, what is this land to you?"

Xu Zhi slightly bowed his head and gazed at the dying Hero King.

"This land is the world I have created with my own hands. You are all my subjects, be you plants, animals, or men. Therefore, before me, you are all equal."

Dead silence.

The air was deathly still.

Gilgamesh was dumbfounded, momentarily losing his voice in shock. His face was full of incredulity. It was all so unbelievable.

He suddenly started laughing, his laugh gradually increasing in volume, eventually turning into wild mocking laughter, "Hahahahaha! Funny, this is too funny! What the hell have we been doing?"

"… It turns out that the legendary Great Beast of Wisdom is not really a great beast. He is the creator of all things, an existence that we should call… God!"

Thus was the concept of God born in a land that once only had godless tribes.

"I was once arrogant enough to call my historical records “Genesis”, and believed that I was the Creator of the Civilized World. But in fact, the real Creator was the Great Beast of Wisdom all along, and all beings under heaven are his subjects. Such a transcendent existence, to think that I presumed to…"

Gilgamesh laughed louder and louder, his loud laugh echoing into the sky.

Hahahaha!

The more he laughed, the more he let himself go.

Xu Zhi tranquilly looked on, his mighty form towering over the royal city of Uruk. He had always been even-tempered and naturally could tolerate Gilgamesh’s final insolence.

"Last question. How many days did it take you to create our world?" Gilgamesh abruptly asked.

Xu Zhi thought for a moment. Back then, he had just finished chemotherapy and was in poor health. It took him a full week to shape the sandbox with his hoe and other gardening tools.

He answered truthfully:

"It took me seven days to create this land."