The Past of the Floating Life Painting
Hearing this, the Dusk Society members simultaneously fell silent.
They seemed to already be able to see the scene in front of the Red Dust Base back then, where numerous Pioneers firmly stepped into the Nuclear Ruins, relying on their own strength and perseverance to little by little reconnect the realm train tracks...
"After the first batch of Pioneers stepped into the Nuclear Ruins, various symptoms appeared: high fever, cancer, coughing up blood. Fifteen days later, they died.
The second batch of Pioneers followed closely behind, and then the third batch... After nearly two months of hard fighting, the realm train's tracks were finally reconnected, and the infrastructure was also basically repaired... The supplies reserved by the Red Dust Base at that time were on the verge of exhaustion. If they hadn't repaired the tracks in time to let the realm train transport enough supplies, I'm afraid that hidden population of a million would have mostly starved to death...
But these several batches of Pioneers ultimately couldn't return alive.
Later, the Nine Great Realms reconnected, and the Red Dust Base also tried to search for the culprit of the nuclear strike. But looking at the time, the Lord of the Red Dust was the latest to fall asleep among the Nine Monarchs, and the other several Nine Monarchs had entered the Hibernation Pods long before her... Moreover, after the regression of technology, the trajectories of the Nuclear Weapons couldn't be traced either, so there is still no definitive conclusion to this matter today."
"I was wondering why the people in the Red Dust Domain all have such short lives... So it's because of the Nuclear Radiation?" Nine of Hearts nodded slightly.
"After those three rounds of nuclear strikes, the radiation intensity in the Red Dust Domain had always exceeded the standard. Fortunately, the Lord of the Red Dust'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 barely tolerable level...
In the end, under pressure, the Red Dust Base could only let them return to the Red Dust Domain... But before that, the Chief established the Floating Life Painting."
"What does your Chief establishing the Floating Life Painting have to do with the masses returning to the Red Dust Domain?" 10 of Diamonds was a bit puzzled.
"The Chief believed that art can influence people's emotions and subtly influence the values of an era... If these million people lived in the desolate and dreary Nuclear Ruins, their mood would continuously be low and pessimistic. Not only would it affect their bodily functions, but it would also lead society to develop towards the dark side, breeding a massive amount of barbarity and cruelty.
And those people in the speck of sand were the descendants of the Pioneers. The Chief didn't want everything to develop in that direction, so he hoped to use the Path of the Arts to forcefully rewrite this era;
He wanted the purest and most beautiful flowers to grow on this most barren land; to make the Nuclear Ruins, which represented deathly stillness and desolation, become the most vigorous and hopeful Tumultuous Secular World.
The Chief said that if the fate of humanity was changed by art, the Path of the Arts would be able to prove itself to heaven and earth and step onto the peak of the world."
Chen Ling was stunned.
Use art to rewrite the fate of humanity?
This simple sentence contained too much conviction and power. Chen Ling seemed to see Yao Qing's back standing in the nothingness, looking down at this ruin filled with death and desolation, making a great vow.
This sentence was too grand, so grand that it was unbelievable... How magnificent was the fate of humanity? How could it be rewritten by a single Embroidery Diagram or a single painting?
But thinking carefully about it, did Yao Qing do it?
The Lord of the Red Dust was forced to awaken, unable to extend her lifespan; the Red Dust Domain suffered a nuclear carpet bombing, unsuitable for survival; the realm train tracks collapsed, and all basic infrastructure was paralyzed... Under such hell-level difficulty at the start, these Nuclear Ruins still stubbornly developed into the Red Dust Domain before Chen Ling's eyes.
The fate of humanity... at least the fate of millions of people in the Red Dust Domain, was changed because of Yao Qing. He succeeded.
"Worthy of being the Azure Spirit Dao Chief. This broad-mindedness and vision are truly extraordinary."
Bai Ye couldn't help but sigh in admiration.
"The Chief is indeed worthy of being the Chief." Eight of Clubs continued to say,
"After the Floating Life Painting was established, they began using the power of the Path of the Arts to whitewash the Nuclear Ruins, using art to change the environment, creating one livable town after another. And the people responsible for maintaining these 'illusions' from being discovered by the residents were called 'Architects'.
Not long after, the Chief announced he would go into secluded deep sleep. No one knew where he went, nor did anyone know what he was doing... The subsequent affairs of the Floating Life Painting were managed by generation after generation of the Second Hall.
Due to the continuous development of the Red Dust Domain, the population grew larger and larger, and the difficulty of maintenance also increased. Thus, the Floating Life Painting began recruiting children from among the populace, sending them to the Path of Azure Ancient Vault to undergo trials. If any stepped onto the Path of the Arts, they would be incorporated into the Floating Life Painting... But to keep the secret, they forbade Architects from contacting Ordinary Persons, including their former 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, channeling the flow of people into the main city. Firstly, the residents would be concentrated, and within the same area, an Architect 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 the maintenance pressure.
Gradually, the Red Dust main city became larger and larger, and the Red Dust Domain developed into the appearance you see today."
Eight of Clubs explained the history of the Red Dust Domain and the Floating Life Painting in one breath, and the doubts in the minds of the Dusk Society members regarding the Red Dust Domain were mostly resolved.
"So speaking of this, the Floating Life Painting is quite nice?" Jian Changsheng slightly raised an eyebrow.
"The first-generation Floating Life Painting established by the Chief was indeed like this." Eight of Clubs paused for a moment. "But time will change many things... Over three hundred years, the Floating Life Painting has changed generation after generation of people. Now, besides those few Hall Masters, very few of them still have the sense of responsibility from back then. In their eyes, the current Red Dust Domain is more just an exquisite item that needs to be whitewashed, a complex and massive painting.
Some of them even started playing so-called 'Divine Beings', 'manifesting holiness' through this painting that took generations of effort to draw, in order to satisfy the vanity in their hearts..."
"You left the Floating Life Painting because of this too?"
"Part of the reason, I suppose... And I felt that using this method to whitewash the Realm wasn't a long-term solution. This balance was too fragile. As long as there was a slight storm, everything would shatter like a bubble."
Eight of Clubs spread his hands helplessly. "Looking at it now, my feeling was correct."
"The dreamy bubble has shattered. It's also time for the Red Dust Domain to face reality..." The always silent Jack of Clubs slowly pulled down the brim of his Magic Hat, his eyes looking peacefully into the distance,
"After the disaster, where will the fate of this Realm head?"
Chen Ling looked silently in that direction. The next moment, a slight pain came from his fingertips, as if a needle had pricked his skin.
Chen Ling looked down in confusion, only to see that on that Embroidery Diagram of the Lord of the Red Dust, a dark red silk thread seemingly came alive, silently winding around his fingertip...