Regarding Why Humans Have to Seek Dragons

Translation by Heather Wang

About the author

Baoshu is a science fiction writer and translator, as well as a member of the Science Fiction Committee of the China Writers Association. He has authored eight novels, including Three Body X: Imagined Universe, The Redemption of Time, and Seven Kingdoms. His short and medium-length works have been published in various literary and popular science journals, and have been compiled and published in multiple volumes, his published works have exceeded one million characters in total. He has also edited science fiction anthologies such as History of Chinese Science Fiction and Future Parent-Child Archives. Many of his works have been translated into more than 10 foreign languages including English, French, German, and Japanese for publication. He has repeatedly won major awards such as the Chinese Science Fiction Nebula Award, the Chinese Science Fiction Galaxy Award, and the Science Fiction Planet Award. His published Chinese-to-English translations include The Cold Equation and The Star Maker.

About the translator

Heather Wang, an English tech journalist and freelance translator with a passion for science fiction and mystery novels. She has worked as a production assistant and field reporter at KOMU-TV in Missouri, USA, and her work has been featured in numerous American media outlets, including Storybench, Scope, and Missouri Business Alert. Combining the precision and attention to detail of her journalism background, she excels at creative expression while staying true to the original work, bringing fresh linguistic charm and cultural depth to her translations.

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Main text：

Esteemed Secretary-General of the United Nations, heads of state and representatives, scientists and religious leaders, ladies and gentlemen, a very good evening to all of you.

Well, given the current situation that humanity may indeed have walked into the night, saying “good” does feel sort of a stretch. I, personally, cannot escape responsibility for this, but let’s be honest, the bigger culprit is Dr. Ding Yi, who is not here with us today.

In some sense, it was us who brought our planet to the brink of this unprecedented crisis, though I must say, we never could have predicted things to turn out like this. Whether it was five years ago, three years ago—or even as recently as one year ago—none of us could have imagined that we’d be standing here, in the midst of such a catastrophe.

Yet, here we are. At this moment, this absurd, surreal situation has somehow solidified into a cruel and undeniable truth. Once the most absurd scenario becomes our reality, then it is 100% real—I know it sounds nonsensical, but perhaps this is the very crux of everything that is happening now.

I am here today, on behalf of the United Nations Timeline Coordination Committee, to outline the emergency response plan we have implemented. But before that, I believe it’s important to review the cause and development of this crisis, as many of you may not yet understand how it all began.

First of all, my name is Lin Yimin. I’m thirty-six this year. I’ve held several significant positions—the Director of the National Institute of Timeline Studies in China, the President of the Historical and Archaeological Society, and the Deputy Secretary-General of the UN Timeline Coordination Committee, among many others. But just eight years ago, I was a nobody. At that time, I worked as an assistant at the Henan Provincial Institute of Archaeology in China.

The pace of my promotion was quite unprecedented.

Some of you may know that this meteoric rise was due to a series of groundbreaking discoveries I made in the field of archaeology. I uncovered the tomb of Emperor Xia, which provided definitive proof of the Xia Dynasty’s existence in China. I also pinpointed the exact location of the ancient battlefield of Zhuolu¹ and restored the original text of the Yongle Encyclopaedia², among other significant achievements. I was even hailed as the greatest archaeologist in history. What very few people know is that all of these accomplishments originated from the summer when I met Dr. Ding Yi, eight years ago.

Right after I graduated with my doctorate and got my first job, news came. A tomb dating back to the Warring States³ period was found in a small village, in the western part of the Nanyang Basin.

The excavation revealed bronze artefacts, lacquerware, and bamboo slips. All of which, according to previous cases, could signify a major discovery. The Provincial Archaeological Institute took this very seriously and dispatched a team of over ten members to the site.

Prominent figures gathered in the archaeological team, while I was merely a lackey and had no chance to handle significant artefacts. My tasks consisted of sifting through the soil, inch by inch, recording trivial details, and organising thousands of fragments of bronze ware and pottery.

Under the scorching summer sun, working in a tent without air conditioning made these tedious tasks quite torturous. However, I gradually learned how the tomb was discovered: it was detected by a new type of tunnel boring machine developed by a private engineering physics institute in an underground trial.

At that time, many members of the research team remained on-site while the tunnel boring machine continued its disassembling and recovering works at a depth of over ten metres underground. I was rather interested in the machine’s detection capabilities, wondering if it could be potentially used for archaeological excavation, so I sought out its inventor—Dr. Ding Yi.

Dr. Ding explained to me that this machine was a quantum tunnel boring machine, and quantum mechanics could improve excavation efficiency. If one came from a science background, they’d probably find this invention unreliable, almost like a scam.

Since I was a newbie without relevant knowledge, his brief explanation went over my head. Instead, Ding Yi was rather interested in the details of the tomb, often asking me for updates on the excavation progress. Eventually, we became close. Life in the countryside was dull, so we would hang out occasionally, have some drinks and enjoy some grilled skewers together.

Later, we discovered that the tomb belonged to a noble of mid to low-ranking. There wasn’t anything valuable inside. Even the bamboo slips, which we had expectation for, were severely degraded and had no decipherable information.

I was quite disappointed, but the senior archaeologists reassured me that this was common in archaeological excavations. Major discoveries would occur maybe once or twice in several decades, and the chances of it happening to us is even smaller.

Afterwards, I went back to the city. A year passed, and honestly, I had almost forgotten about that excavation. I worked on other projects as a labourer, endless toiling away as I felt hopeless of my future, I was even thinking of quitting. Out of the blue, I received a call from Ding Yi.

He wanted to meet up.

I was curious what this guy could have wanted from me, so I had coffee with him. He told me that his quantum tunnel boring machine had made a new discovery during its most recent underground trial.

After beating around the bush, he asked if I had any “connections” to help him sell some rare artefacts at a good price. I knew that some people in the archaeological field were involved in such shady dealings, but I still had my principles. I immediately rebuked him for his greed and lack of integrity.

Ding Yi explained that his research was of great significance and required massive funding, but the institute’s funds were running low. I told him that selling artefacts to raise money was not an option! I even threatened to call the police.

He got a bit flustered and finally confessed the truth: those artefacts were “custom-made.”

All that went back to when Ding Yi was still working in the academia.

Back then, Ding Yi studied theoretical physics, his research focused on the properties of matter waves, also known as De Broglie waves. He believed that macroscopic matter is essentially a quantum state wave, collapsing into a fixed form upon observation. Ding Yi discovered that a deeper structure exists in the quantum state; in other words, while it is in a quantum superposition, many “precursor patterns” that are close to collapsing into a fixed state would begin to emerge. If these patterns could somehow be identified, it would be possible to allow a specific precursor to collapse into reality.

I’m not sure if you all can understand what I’m saying. Sorry if there’s any confusion, I’m very used to Ding Yi’s theoretical speeches since we spend so much time together.

Basically, there might be some ingenious mechanism that allow us to observe the quantum state while it undergoes an active choice of falling into a specific collapsed state, or not. Therefore, the direction of the matter’s collapse can be controlled. Ding Yi’s theories were unconventional and heretical; hence he was exiled by the science community. A senior commended his work and hired him to join a private research institute, providing him with funds to continue his research.

Ding Yi realised that despite the many unobserved materials on earth, the most convenient area to implement this theory for human detection is the underground—the underground that remains hidden from the world is essentially in a state of “quantum uncertainty.”

A few years ago, Ding Yi developed a special kind of tunnel boring machine based on this theory. It would turn the unobserved underground materials into a fluctuating quantum wave.

During excavation, it would simultaneously have the material “choose” to collapse into a specific form. The front cutterhead of Ding Yi’s tunnel boring machine was equipped with a special quantum detection device. During the process of digging, it would detect the superimposed precursor patterns within the quantum state, matching them to pre-programmed structures from the computer, and collapsing them into reality through observation.

Ding Yi built this tunnel boring machine not only to validate his own theory, but also because he believed this technology could improve the efficiency of underground excavation.

Typically, when digging underground, it is inevitable for us to contend with hard rock, complex soil deposits, bedrock layers, groundwater, and other challenging aspects in the environment. When faced with an impassable obstacle, we would have no choice but to blame it on bad luck.  By implementing Ding Yi’s method, we would be able to manipulate the underground soil to “collapse” into an ideal state. We could even potentially discover high-value mineral veins such as gold or diamond deposits.

In the beginning, Ding Yi failed multiple times. The data between different soil and rock formations variated on a small scale, making it difficult for the machine to have an accurate judgement. Moreover, the patterns weren’t entirely randomised, they were constrained by fundamental geological principles, for instance, lunar rocks would never appear on Earth.

While it was theoretically possible to uncover diamond, gold, or rare mineral deposits, the probability was very low. His machine was still in its primitive stage, and it was hard to identify these patterns. Despite numerous experiments, he had only achieved minimal results. His theory could not be proved, and his funding was diminishing quickly.

However, like many inventions, although the machine did not perform as well as expected, it brought about an unexpected result. In one experiment, a fleeting peculiar pattern caught Ding Yi’s attention. He didn’t know what it meant, but the curiosity of a scientist made him chose for the pattern to collapse into reality.

The results came out quickly, the tunnel boring machine immediately drilled into an ancient tomb ahead, it seemed to contain a good number of cultural relics. Without delays, the research institute reported the discovery right away, and the Henan Provincial Institute of Archaeology sent a team to assist—which included us.

This incident made Ding Yi realise the true value of the machine, it could “select” the pattern of a tomb or buried cache in a particular layer of the earth and turn it into reality. These structured underground cavities were significantly different from the patterns of regular soil and rock, making it easier to be detected and secured.

After that discovery, Ding Yi conducted several more experiments and found the success rate to be high. In addition to that, the deeper the layers were, the more ancient the discoveries would be.

After locating several tombs from the Spring and Autumn period⁴, the Western Zhou period⁵, and even the Shang Dynasty⁶, Ding Yi’s perspective shifted and became more opportunistic. He wanted to make profits from the artefacts he uncovered—since these relics were essentially created by him using the machine’s matter waves, it was only natural that he was in charge of allocating them, and as a result, benefit from them.

It took me several days to grasp the logic behind this. Using the quantum tunnel boring machine to “discover” an archaeological site was like realising a potential timeline of history. Now, I know it may sound crazy, let me explain.

Let us use the tomb of a noble from the Warring States period as an example. 2400 years ago, this noble—or one of their descendants—had chosen this particular location for the burial out of the many other burial sites.

The focus here is that they had many other options, and each of these options expands into a different timeline. In some of these timelines, the tomb could have either been plundered long ago, or it was destroyed by disasters like floods and earthquakes. In another, the tomb would still lie quietly in a hidden corner, without anyone finding it ever. However, in one specific timeline, this noble was buried right in this location, creating a unique underground structure, allowing for the quantum tunnel boring machine to detect this pattern, and have this timeline merge into our world.

I hope I didn’t complicate things. You may not be familiar with the concept of timelines, so allow me to elaborate.

To put it simply, it’s like a potential chain of cause and effect. Some of you may have been exposed to this idea in science fiction novels or films, but what we’re talking about here is a little different.

In most science fiction stories, timelines represent a fork in history that leads to a completely different future—for example, a world where the Qin Dynasty⁷ did not unify the six kingdoms, or a world where Hitler won World War II—these timelines diverge from our own and can never reconnect. However, that is only applicable to some scenarios. There is another possibility where the timeline is parallel to the original, and no one has really thought about it before.

Let me ask you all a question, when I came on stage just now, did I step with my left foot first or my right?

Alright, everyone is silent. Clearly, no one remembers or even cares about which foot I used, including myself. I mean, who will take note of things like that?

My point is, whichever foot I have stepped with is insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but it holds a different version of history and represents a different timeline. While these trivial differences do not change the fact that I will be here delivering this speech, the different paths ultimately bring me to the same end. In a sense, we could say that there are multiple chains of cause and effect behind a single reality, they are just invisible to us.

In the past, these hidden timelines would only appear when observed, and at a randomised possibility, but Ding Yi’s invention has made it possible for us to “customise” specific timelines.

Once I figured this out, I began to oppose Ding Yi’s plan. I told him that following his theory, these relics were not actually created, we just happened to enter a timeline where the tombs of these ancient people existed—we had no right to sell them off. Ding Yi didn’t agree with my logic. But I reassured him that there was no need to feel discouraged. His technology had far greater potential, far beyond what he could imagine.

Of course, it surpassed even my imagination in the end, which is why I’m here today.

Anyway, I had told him that I would resign from my job and join him. Together, we would embark on an extraordinary venture of timeline customisation.

I’ve always been passionate about the archaeology of the Xia Dynasty⁸, but there has been no modern discovery to definitively prove its existence for a long time. Even though I’ve always believed that relics and sites from the Xia Dynasty lie hidden beneath the vast lands of Central China, there was just no way to find them.

Ding Yi’s discovery provided a new solution—a quick and efficient method that will allow us to locate the treasure of the ancient civilisation, in other words, to “customise” a timeline where they exist in the location of our choice. Compared to the thrill of such a possibility, the idea of profiting from these artefacts was insignificant.

Ding Yi agreed to my plan. He had no understanding of archaeology, while I had no idea how relics from the Xia Dynasty would manifest in a precursor pattern, or how they would differ from the precursor patterns of other dynasties. Therefore, we had to combine our knowledge and work together.

First, we established that the sites belonging to the Xia Dynasty would be found in layers older than those of the Shang Dynasty. Next, if it was the site of a developed civilisation, its scope would have to be relatively huge. Additionally, high-status artefacts such as bronzeware and jade objects would have distinct features belonging to this era.

We spent an entire year tackling these theoretical challenges one by one and eventually built a new generation of quantum tunnelling machine, or as people would later call it—the timeline customisation machine.

The precursor pattern does not completely happen at random, as real-world probabilities would need to be considered too. After studying historical records and recent archaeological findings, I believed that the early capital of the Xia Dynasty might be located near Xinzhai Village, in Xinmi City.

Some ruins have been found there before, but no major artefacts have been excavated. Even so, there was a chance that the palace of Xia Dynasty emperors might be in that area. After a period of conducting site assessments, we identified an area covering several square kilometres, then we transported the tunnelling machine there to begin its work underground.

The process turned out to be much harder than we expected. We switched to several other specific locations, but nothing was discovered even after three months. Of course, it was not entirely nothing, while we did catch glimpses of some suspicious patterns flickering on the screen, we had to be careful. If we make a wrong judgement, we may end up uncovering artefacts from the Shang or Zhou Dynasties, or even primitive pottery from the Neolithic era, which will not be what we seek.

Eventually, the computer managed to successfully match a pattern that fit our prediction better than any of the previous waveform. The tunnelling machine secured the pattern and aligned that timeline with the real world. After conducting the preliminary excavation, we reported our findings to the state and contacted the media.

Soon enough, the site for an ancient majestic palace was unearthed. The palace did not only contain a vast array of precious artefacts such as jade, bronze, cowrie shells, ivory, and more, the discovery of jade inscriptions dating back to around 1900 BCE was even more astonishing.

The jade inscriptions, older and more primitive than oracle bone inscriptions⁹, clearly revealed the characters for “Tian Yi Xia” (Heavenly City of Xia) and “Hou Kai” (Emperor Kai)—a definite proof to the existence of the Xia Dynasty and its founding emperor, King Qi (Kai)¹⁰.

As a result, the existence of the Xia Dynasty was completely verified.

This discovery shocked the world, and along with it I became famous. Of course, we kept the fundamental principles of the timeline customisation machine a secret. We simply revealed that Ding Yi had invented a new underground site-detection device without providing any technical details.

Over the next two years, we “discovered” the ancient battlefield of Zhuolu and the long-lost Yongle Encyclopaedia, further proving the enduring legacy of China’s 5,000-year-old civilisation.

We received countless awards and honours. Ding Yi’s research institute was integrated into the newly established National Institute of Historical Archaeology, known as the Timeline Research Institute today. And yes, we received unlimited funding from the state. Some people suspected us of fabricating evidence, but all the artefacts and sites were undeniably authentic, even the harshest critics had nothing to dispute.

Just as we were gearing up, ready for ambitious plans, disaster struck.

One day, Ding Yi’s computer was hacked, and all the data was wiped clean. At the same time, an operating timeline customisation machine suffered severe physical damage, its multi-billion-dollar quantum detector vanished without a trace.

We reported the incident to the police, and investigations revealed that an unidentified individual had snuck into the working site during the night. This person, seemingly professional in the act, had bypassed our tight security and surveillance system and fled to South America with a false identity overnight. Further than that, no traces were found.

We suffered a lot from this incident. For several months, we were unable to resume our work. We had no idea who was behind the attack until half a year later, when a group of Japanese archaeologists announced the discovery of a massive royal tomb on Kyushu Island, dating back to 7th century BCE.

At that moment, we learned who our adversary was. According to their findings, long inscriptions were unearthed from bronze vessels in the tomb, bearing an ancient seal script of the characters “King Jimmu.”

This proved that the tomb belonged to a tribal leader known as “King Jimmu,” who would later be venerated as Emperor Jimmu¹¹, the mythical founder of Japan in 660 BC. The discovery fully validated Japan’s mythological historical narrative.

Japan’s right-wing nationalists were ecstatic, but their smiles soon faded.

Let me remind everyone once again, everything that happens is not a fabrication. The users of the timeline customisation machine merged our world with a timeline where Emperor Jimmu truly existed, bringing it to reality. And once the timeline was merged with our reality, it had to conform to the natural laws and historical logic of our world. This leads to an important question—by what chain of events could have allowed a highly developed Japanese civilisation to exist in the 7th century BCE?

There was only one possible explanation, this civilisation originated from their western neighbours, as confirmed by subsequent excavations.

The full inscription on the bronze cauldron was kept confidential for a while before it was eventually leaked by the media. Hidden within the text was an undisclosed history from the Spring and Autumn period; in 686-685 BCE, during the internal strife in the State of Qi¹², Jiang Wu, the son of Duke Xiang¹³ and nephew of Duke Huan¹⁴, fled with a few hundred followers to the East China Sea after failing to seize the throne. They drifted to the islands of Kyushu, bringing with them advanced agricultural knowledge from the mainland. Jiang Wu imitated the title “Heaven’s Son¹⁵” by calling himself the “Heaven’s Grandson,” combining it with local indigenous beliefs, this became the origin of the Japanese myth Descent of the Heavenly Grandson.

The right-wing nationalists in Japan were outraged that their ideal “divine nation” was shattered. Meanwhile, historians were exhilarated, believing they had found the true origin to Japanese civilisation. This was however merely the prologue to the real chaos of timeline customisation.

The fundamental principles of the timeline customisation machine could no longer be kept as a secret, and very soon, the Koreans joined the race for historical dominance.

A year later, they announced the discovery of an ancient altar near Seoul, notable for its grand scale, along with the excavation of numerous exquisite stone tools and jade artefacts. Carbon-14 dating determines it to be from 2300 BCE, which, as you all might expect, corresponds to the legendary era of Dangun¹⁶.

Now, remember that the laws of the real world are constantly in effect. When history decide to follow the timeline with the existence of Dangun, it would also inevitably select the plausible pathways for this civilisation to emerge.

The stone tools and jade artefacts found at the Dangun site have styles and patterns resembling those of the Liangzhu culture¹⁷ unearthed in Zhejiang. Considering that the Liangzhu culture thrived from approximately 3300 BCE to 2300 BCE, and the Liangzhu people possessed advanced seafaring capabilities, the hidden history of this timeline becomes clear.

After the decline of the Liangzhu civilisation, a group of Liangzhu people sailed to the Korean Peninsula, bringing with them the early form of civilisation. Although there were no written records, a beautifully crafted jade bi beneath the altar bore an intricate carving of the distinctive human-animal face deity of Liangzhu, serving as compelling evidence.

Just like that, the rediscovered history across East Asia in sites such as Sanxingdui, Shijiahe, Shimao, Taosi, Dawenkou, Taipei Yuanshan¹⁸, Vietnam Red River¹⁹, and the Ryukyu shell mounds²⁰ became intertwined with all kinds of bizarre events as the tunnel boring machine connects us with alternate timelines of the past.

As you can imagine, these timelines wove a fantastical web.

In these rewritten histories, descendants of Peking Man evolved into Homo sapiens, travelled back to Africa, and then back to East Asia. Ancient Shu became a civilisation founded by the Denisovans with a history 30,000 years long. The Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor were in chariot battles clashed against Chiyou, who wielded iron weapons at the Battle of Zhuolu. King Mu of Zhou journeyed to the Tianshan Mountains to meet the Tocharian Queen, Xiwangmu. Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a famed Japanese warrior, was discovered to be none other than Genghis Khan’s general, Jebe. Guo Jing’s real name was Guo Baoyu²¹.

Each of these discoveries would have been sufficient to shock the world for decades on its own, but now, a greater revelation was being found every day, further complementing the existing discoveries.

Simultaneously, similar events were happening across India, Egypt, as well as Europe and America. As the technology advanced, the conditions to customise the desired timeline also became extremely precise. As a result, Atlantis’ existence in the Atlantic Ocean became true—by the way, the Stonehenge in Britain was actually built by the Atlanteans. The Greek heroes have indeed wage war against the Trojans as fragments of that enormous wooden horse were found underground. The legendary world of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table was discovered as well. People even found Avalon, where Arthur was buried. But oddly, it was in Iceland.

Up till now, all these discoveries were still considered “normal” within the realm of secular history. No matter how unexpected they seemed, they still fit within the boundaries of common historical logic. But that threshold wasn’t absolute. As more and more bizarre and fantastical timelines merge into our reality, hints of surreal timelines began to surface. Humanity was inching closer to that tipping point where everything we know about history could unravel.

It’s not that there were no concerns. Many people began to question, “What’s the point of bringing in these timelines that were not supposed to exist?” and “Historical facts should be discovered naturally, not customised!”

Finally, three years ago, the United Nations convened an emergency meeting and passed a resolution prohibiting any nation from using the timeline customisation machine to alter history without authorisation.

The United States was particularly eager to push forward with this initiative, mainly because, no matter how many discoveries were made, they never seemed to benefit from it. On one occasion, they unearthed a massive ancient Native American city dating back to around 700 CE in the southwest, it strengthened the identity of their Indigenous people, which is what Uncle Sam didn’t want to see.

After the resolution was passed, the world was at peace for a while. The chaos of previous historical upheavals exhausted everyone, and people needed time to digest. However, the technology had already begun to spread to the public. A few fanatics were secretly constructing their own timeline machines. As a result, minor timeline alterations continued to pop up despite the ban.

Not long after the resolution was passed, a group of people approached me in secret. It was then that I first learned of a new fanatical religious movement that had emerged, comprising followers from both East and West.

They were worshippers of “dragons” and were determined to find a timeline where real dragons existed. By “dragons,” I don’t mean it as a metaphorical expression, they were indeed searching for the massive creature with a long, serpentine body, scaled, had horns, and a tail.

But of course, the Eastern and Western followers each had a different perception of what dragons should look like.

Attempting to locate a timeline with a surreal creature like a dragon was far more challenging than finding an ancient civilisation. These modern-day “Ye Gong²²” hoped that Ding Yi and I could help them refine their algorithm, simulating for the appropriate timeline models to match, and merge a dragon-inhabited timeline into our reality.

I refused such an absurd request. Honestly, I didn’t think they had any chance of succeeding anyway, so I didn’t take it seriously. At that time, we hadn’t yet realised that as long as the timeline possess even the slightest hint of possibility—then, no matter how surreal it is, it could still be customised and brought into our reality.

A little over a year later, just as the world was regaining its peace, an explosive news shook the world again—strange fossils had been unearthed in southern India.

The bones could be pieced together to form a horned skull, a body over twenty metres long, and several relatively short legs. Anyone who saw it would instantly recognise it as the “Naga”—the dragon god of Indian legend.

The few individuals who had illegally used the timeline customisation machine were quickly arrested, but it was too late. We had entered a timeline where dragons existed. Following this major discovery in India, more dragon fossils, each with distinctive features, were soon uncovered across East Asia, Europe, and America. Some had robust bodies, some had feathers, while some possessed wing membranes.

Despite their differences, they shared many common characteristics, forming a distinct evolutionary lineage.

Where did these giant dragons come from? Following the historical logic of our reality, the only explanation for this timeline would be the evolution of these giant dragons from an existing species. So, which species was it?

The most primitive dragon fossils date back to the Palaeocene epoch, showing apparent features of the crocodilians, though the dragons’ bodies were much longer than typical crocodiles. Experts speculated that the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period created an ecological vacuum lasting ten million years. During this time, a branch of ancient crocodiles moved onto land and became apex predators. Their bodies evolved to be elongated, and underwent mutations that allowed them to radiate into various ecological niches.

Some of these crocodile-dragons developed elongated ribs which evolved into wings, gaining the ability to fly. Others roamed the forests like tigers and leopards, hunting their prey; while some returned to the rivers and the seas, growing even bigger as they prey on whales and marine reptiles.

To this point, the discoveries were still within palaeontology, and the dragon worshippers were not satisfied. They were convinced that dragons were not merely ancient reptiles, but also possessed intelligence far more superior than humans. Soon after, they used the timeline customisation technology again and found the ruins of a non-human city on the seabed at the edge of the Pacific.

Among the ruins were strange dragon skeletons resembling upright-walking crocodiles, standing three to four metres tall, it was utterly terrifying. The “Kingdom of the Long Bo People²³” from the Classic of Mountains and Seas had become a reality. The city ruins contained numerous inscriptions in hieroglyphic script, where we learnt the history of the dragon species.

The dragon species had evolved into intelligent beings long before humans did—they were the Dragonfolk. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, they had already built a magnificent ancient civilisation. In that era, humans were nothing more than their pets and servants, genetically modified from primates through their advanced biotechnology. However, due to some unknown reasons, a war broke out among the Dragonfolk, and nuclear weapons were deployed.

The result was catastrophic—the Dragonfolk were wiped out, and humanity was nearly eradicated. This event occurred around 70,000 years ago, coinciding with the mysterious genetic bottleneck recorded in humanity’s history. The explanation lies here, 99% of humans were wiped out along with the Dragonfolk on Earth. The epic war described to be world-ending in the Mahabharata, known as the Kurukshetra War²⁴, are echoes of this ancient memory.

Eventually, humanity began to recover, and a small number of lower dragon species were coexisting with humans for a long time. But as human technology advanced, the dragons lost their habitats and breeding grounds, eventually leading to their extinction.

I know, this sounds like a bizarre story. Of course, it would be fine if it was just a story. The problem now, is that it had become a reality, even though it belonged to the distant past, it still carried with it the consequences, such as, having it woven into other timelines.

Around the same time as the discovery of the Dragonfolk, a much larger group of believers, bigger in numbers and more devout, embarked on an endeavour more ambitious and challenging than any other—they want to see meet God. In other words, they aimed to connect the world with the ultimate timeline, a timeline where “God” himself appeared.

Artefacts and sites described in religious texts began to surface—everything from the Tower of Babel to Sodom, Solomon’s treasures to the lost tribes of Israel. All of these could still be explained by conventional historical principles. But then, a group of fervent believers transported the machine into the mountains of Ethiopia, aiming to unearth the greatest relic of the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant. According to some accounts, it may have been secretly hidden there during the Babylonian exile around 500 BCE.

The CIA, MI6, and Mossad all rushed to the location, but they were too late. Surrounded by worshipping believers kneeling in reverence, they witnessed a dazzling metal chest being unearthed, adorned with two statues of winged dragon-like creatures.

The Ark of the Covenant was found, but it was nothing like the sacred relic people had imagined. The chest itself was, in fact, a computer, and the eyes of the two creatures served as projection devices. When activated, they began to reveal the oldest and most profound mysteries of Earth’s history:

In ancient times, when only single-celled organisms existed on Earth, a creation from a distant civilisation descended upon our planet.

He could be considered a form of life, or be seen as a machine. He was the Alpha and the Omega. He made modifications to single-celled organisms, allowing for the emergence of multicellular life forms. He dominated the evolutionary shifts that shaped Earth’s history over hundreds of millions of years. And ultimately, He created intelligent beings.

The first intelligent beings He created were not humans, but the Dragonfolk we have discovered earlier, known as angels in religions.

After a long period of development, the Dragonfolk achieved technological breakthroughs and refused to be controlled by their creator, the God. A great war erupted between the “fallen angels” and God—which was why, in the legend, the archangel Lucifer is depicted as a dragon.

This war destroyed the Dragonfolk civilisation, but God was also gravely injured, hence retreating into the device known as the Ark of the Covenant. It lay dormant until an Egyptian prince named Moses discovered it. God revealed this ancient history to Moses, who then went on to establish a great religious tradition.

Then came the events we know. The Ark was transported back to the United States and placed at a top-secret location. The president, the speaker of the house, and dozens of high-ranking officials visited it, eager to witness its power. However, after it emitted a message in ancient Hebrew, it began flickering and changing colours.

Soon, everyone in its vicinity was corrupted by a strange force, collapsing into piles of pitch-black dust. The dust began spreading outwards like living ants, infecting the buildings, vehicles, machinery, and people surrounding it, turning everything into ash. On the Earth’s surface, a small patch of darkness could be seen expanding rapidly, like the process of a rotting apple.

It was a type of nanomachine that consumed everything in its path, but it had been meticulously programmed to target only humans and man-made objects. In the ocean, its progress was much slower than on land, so it took some time for it to spread from one continent to another. Nevertheless, the intent of God was clear—He aims to destroy the world once more.

So today, one month since that incident, the remaining human representatives have gathered here, in the Mariana Trench, near the ruins of the Dragonfolk’s underwater city from seventy thousand years ago, holding this meeting in a submarine.

On the surface, humanity is besieged by the black dust, with only one-fifth of the population and territory remaining. At most, we have one or two weeks left, but it could perhaps be even shorter. After reviewing what happened in the past eight years, I will now propose our plan to save humanity.

This plan is related to the message left by the Ark. According to the experts in ancient scripts, the Ark’s final words to us in ancient Hebrew was, “You shall have no other Gods apart from me.”

We all know that this is the first commandment of the Ten Commandments. In the past, it was thought to be a religious prohibition against idolatry. But why would God reiterate this command now, and why would it be the reason to destroy the world?

After the invention of the timeline customisation machine, we can now understand the true meaning of this commandment.

God—or rather, this mysterious intelligent entity from the universe—fears that timeline customisation would allow other life forms to find a timeline wherein it was overpowered, summoning a greater and even more intelligent being.

It spread its avatars throughout the cosmos, controlling the development of life and intelligence on every planet, over billions of years, all with one fundamental purpose: To prevent the invention of timeline customisation machine.

Seventy thousand years ago, the Dragonfolk civilisation was likely wiped out for the same reason. But the Dragonfolk must have found a way to go down with it, which in turn, gave humanity a chance to develop.

But was it truly a mutual destruction? If this ancient “God” still exists in some form within our world, then perhaps the Dragonfolk are also lying dormant somewhere… at the very least, the possibility of such a timeline exists.

They might be hidden in the mist-covered Venus, within the sandstorms of Mars, or even along the majestic ring of Saturn… Unfortunately, under the interference of the Ark, humanity can no longer venture into the vastness of outer space. However, we can still try to find them in timelines closer to us.

At the deepest point of the Mariana Trench where the Eurasian and Pacific plates meet, Dr. Ding Yi has used the customisation machine to open a small fissure, wide enough for just a deep-sea submersible to pass through.

He hopes to find a timeline where the Dragonfolk still dwell in vast underground caverns beneath the Earth’s surface, living in seclusion. The latest geological survey of Earth reveals that over a dozen such cavernous structures exist beneath the crust. These caverns span millions of square kilometres, with heights reaching thousands of metres, they were interconnected and capable of housing an immense number of life forms.

Everyone, Dr. Ding Yi has descended into the Earth’s depths aboard a deep-sea submersible with the timeline customisation machine yesterday. He will be venturing into one of these caverns, and I believe that he will find a way to bring the Dragonfolk and their advanced technology back to the surface, allowing us to stand against the power of “God” and save humanity.

Will he succeed? To be honest, I don’t know. But I am convinced that even if humanity ultimately fails and falls into extinction, it will just mean that we have entered a failed timeline. In the distant future, using the timeline customisation technology, new life on Earth might find us again, uncovering a timeline where humanity survives, just as we have rediscovered the Dragonfolk.

For now, let us pray for humanity.

1. The Battle of Zhuolu was an ancient conflict in which the Yellow Emperor, or Huangdi—China’s founding ancestor and cultural hero—defeated his enemy, Chiyou, in northern China. This event is documented only in Chinese myths. ↩︎
2. The Yongle Encyclopaedia is a Chinese encyclopaedia compiled during the early Ming dynasty under the reign of the Yongle Emperor, containing vast knowledge across various fields—including history, philosophy, literature, and the sciences; however, the original copy is missing. ↩︎
3. The Warring States period (475–221 BC) in China was a time of intense warfare and political fragmentation among seven major states. This period has been confirmed by archaeology through the discovery of various artefacts, texts, and ruins that provide insight into its culture and conflicts. ↩︎
4. The Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BCE) was a time of political decentralization in China. ↩︎
5. The Western Zhou period (1046–771 BCE) was a time of relative stability and centralized rule in China. ↩︎
6. The Shang Dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BCE) was the first historically verified Chinese dynasty. ↩︎
7. The Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE) was China’s first imperial dynasty, established by Qin Shi Huang after he unified 4 separated kingdoms. ↩︎
8. The Xia Dynasty (c. 2070–1600 BCE) is traditionally considered China’s first dynasty, though its existence is debated due to limited archaeological evidence. ↩︎
9. Oracle bone inscriptions are the earliest known form of Chinese writing, dating back to the late Shang Dynasty (c. 1200–1046 BCE). ↩︎
10. Editor’s Note: There has been much debate over the definition of the founding emperor, while Yu the Great (Qi’s father) established the Xia dynasty, the passing of throne to Qi began the dynastic tradition—officially beginning the dynastic rule in China with Qi in-charge. ↩︎
11. Emperor Jimmu is the legendary first emperor of Japan, believed to have founded the country around 660 BCE. ↩︎
12. The State of Qi was one of the most powerful states during China’s Spring and Autumn period and Warring States period (c. 1046–221 BCE). ↩︎
13. Duke Xiang of Qi (r. 697–686 BCE) was a ruler during the Spring and Autumn Period of the State of Qi. ↩︎
14. Duke Huan of Qi (r. 685–643 BCE) was one of the most prominent rulers of the Spring and Autumn Period, renowned for strengthening the State of Qi. ↩︎
15. The term “Heaven’s Son” refers to the divine authority that Chinese emperors claimed as part of their legitimacy to rule. This title emphasizes the belief that the emperor was chosen by Heaven to govern and maintain harmony in the realm. ↩︎
16. Dangun, often referred to simply as Gojoseon, is a legendary ancient Korean kingdom in 2333 BCE. ↩︎
17. Liangzhu culture (c. 3400–2250 BCE) was a Neolithic civilisation located in the Yangtze River Delta region of China, particularly in present-day Zhejiang Province. ↩︎
18. Taipei Yuanshan, located in northern Taiwan, dating from around 3000–2000 BCE. This site revealed evidence of an early Neolithic society in Taiwan, including stone tools, pottery, and jade artifacts. ↩︎
19. Vietnam’s Red River, or Sông Hồng, has been a cradle of ancient civilization, particularly linked to the Đông Sơn culture (c. 1000 BCE–100 CE). This region is famous for its advanced bronze metallurgy. ↩︎
20. The Ryukyu shell mounds, also known as “kaizuka” or “shell middens,” are archaeological sites found throughout the Ryukyu Islands in Japan. These mounds are composed primarily of shells, coral, and other organic materials, accumulating from the remains of shellfish consumed by ancient inhabitants. ↩︎
21. Guo Jing is a fictional character and protagonist of the renowned martial arts novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes, while Baoyu (Jia Bao Yu) is the central character in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. The author used Guo Bao Yu to reference that Guo Jing became the character in Dream of the Red Chamber. ↩︎
22. Ye Gong (叶公) is a figure from Chinese mythology and folklore best known for the idiom “Lord Ye’s love of dragons (叶公好龙)”. According to the legend, Ye Gong was a nobleman who professed an intense love for dragons. ↩︎
23. The Kingdom of the Long Bo People (龙伯大人国) is a mythical group from ancient Chinese legends. They were described as dragon-shaped humans, standing three to four meters tall. ↩︎
24. The Kurukshetra War is the central event in the Mahābhārata, an epic battle fought between two factions of the Kuru dynasty—the Pandavas and the Kauravas—over the throne of Hastinapura. The Mahābhārata is one of the two major Smriti texts and Sanskrit epics of ancient India revered in Hinduism. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kurukshetra War. ↩︎

Translation Editor: Ruxuan