<h4>Chapter 960: The Secret of the Denizens of the Stars</h4>


    Hao Ren did not pay much attention to the term that appeared out of nowhere when he first heard of the ‘Denizens of the Stars’. Even when he found clues about them in the ruins of the other civilisations, he still had not paid much attention to them. The universe was wide, and if a god-killing race could be born, the appearance of a couple of powerful and advance civilisationsis no surprise to anyone. The Denizens of the Stars had ran out and about trying to save those that were threatened by the apocalypse, and this was something any race with sufficient capability and heart could aplish.


    But when the Denizens of the Stars were linked with the holy relics of the Goddess of Creation, Hao Ren realised that these mysterious beings were even more special than he had initially thought.


    They were not just special in their technological capabilities, they were special in their rtionship with the Goddess.


    “The Eternals is the collective name of a few particrly ancient and mysterious races.” Muru sat cross-legged, his voice thundering. “Long before our Mother started creating life, there were ancient lifeforms in the universe, and we call these races before the birth of the Goddess of Creation, the Eternals.”


    “The Goddess of Creation did not actually ‘create’ a new world’ didn’t she?” Lily asked as she strained her neck looking upwards.


    “Yes, the universe already there even before Mother was born. Mother was just the first of Gods to create arge number of lives, but she was not the originator.” Muru nodded. “So us guardians had used the era which a race was born, and how their birth came about to categorise them. Those who were around before the birth of the Goddess were all called the Eternals. The races that were created by the Goddess were call the ‘Godmolded.” while those born naturally after the birth of the Goddess were called the ‘Naturalborn’.”


    “Yes, the Goddess of Creation is a unique entity, and in this universe only She alone is without a race.” Hao Ren nodded. “So tell me more about these Eternals. Are these ancient race powerful?”


    In Hao Ren’s impression, ancient races are usually interlinked with strength, and the more ancient a thing, the stronger they are. Example being, old ginger, aged vinegar, aged wine, and a ten thousand year old old bat. So any races that were around before the birth of the Goddess of Creation can have the name applied to them. In any cases, even the title alone is probably some legendary orange title…


    But Lemendusa shook his head. “No, not necessarily. The Eternals are just races that have existed far longer. Of course, any race given time will be powerful but this is not absolute. Some Eternals till now still sow the fields for a living, and some Eternals who had lived for centuries were suddenly wiped out by a flu. The universe epasses everything, and nothing is final.”


    Hao Ren was stunned, and murmured to himself why reality did not match what those sci-fi novels had said. Didn’t the books said that if something lived long enough, even a radix would gain sentience?


    Scratching his hair, Hao Ren continued. “So, lets forget about those silly Eternals. What do you know about these Denizens of the Stars?”


    Muru frowned, and there was a hint of uncertainty in his voice, the very first. “They are probably th most secretive of the Eternals, and if I’m not wrong, they are probably one of the stronger ones. These beings are very, very ancient, and it is possible that they are the primeval beings of this universe. They were already around when Mother had tried to create the first batch of living beings. But by the age when us guardians were born, the ‘Denizens of the Stars’ had rarely appeared any more. They have a very unique mindset and worldview, and they avoid contact with other races. They stay away from the material world, and neither do they build colonies or expand their territory and aside from some asional wandering across the stars there were no visible activities from them. I’ve only saw mentions about them from ancient observation records, and I’ve only met them a few times at the border.”


    “You’ve met on before?” Lily’s ears perked up. “What did you say?”


    “There was no conversation per se.” Muru shrugged with a slightly awkward expression. “A small group of the Denizens of the Stars had visited a localm but they had stayed there for a long while, almost like they were sun-bathing. So I went up to speak with them and they…”


    Muru frowned hard as he tried to phrase the sentence in his mind, and after while he finally figured out a way to express himself. “They shot out a series of rapid shes, and even after hundred and further years of studiester I still could not decipher what they were trying to say.”


    Hao Ren pondered for a bit. “It probably did not mean anything aty all, you had simply scared the lights out of them…”


    “All in all, the Denizens of the Stars’ are just a very peculiar race.” Muru rubbed his chin. “Energy-based lifeform are all like this, because of their unique lifeform, they are distant towards most races. Even the guardians have not paid any attention to us, and neither them to us.”


    Vivian then asked. “Is the Denizens of the Stars close with the Goddess?”


    “I suppose not.” Heve shook her head. “The Denizens of the Stars seemed to be dormant, at least after our birth, their appearance were few and far between. While they may pop up once in a while in the holy kingdom, there is no possiblity of a deep conversation with Mother.”


    “When were you guardians born?” Hao Ren asked, his curiosity tingled. “I mean how long did it take for the Goddess to create you guys after her birth?”


    “Very long,” Lemendusa answered. “Mother used many years to research on how to create life, and researching the lifeblood on the Star of Creation itself took her almost a million years. She then had created some failed ‘seeds’, and that too took another hundred thounsand years. Only after that did she start creating matured giants and the Seed of Origins.”


    “Before that, were the Denizens of the Stars active?”


    “Yes, much more.” Lemendusa nodded slightly. “I heard from other Eternals about them, they were very active before but once the guardians were born, they simply just vanished. You seem to think that these ‘Denizens of the Stars’ have something to do with Mother?”


    “Did you know how the third gilded disc came about?” Hao Ren asked, with Lemendusa shaking his head.


    “The Denizens of the Stars gave this holy relic to a mortal race as a protective ward.” Hao Ren pointed towards the third disc. “That race had eluded the pursuit of the guardians for ten thousand years thanks to that.”


    The three giants were immediately stunned.


    “So the Denizens of the Stars must have some sort of connection with the Goddess, but that’s probaby long before you guardians were born.” Hao Ren rubbed his chin in thought. “And after a period they simply just vanished, and only to reappear after the fall of the Goddess, and were running about trying to salvage things… Don’t you find this weird? Also, did no one actually gotten around finding their homeworld? Even as secretive as they are, they should have a ce to call home right?”


    The three guardians looked at each other, and Muru had an awkward expression on his face. “We had never paid attention to them. They were a race whose existance was almost indistinct, they never colonise nor expand their territory neither were they hostile to anyone.. so…”


    “Alright, alright. I get it. You lot pretty much took them as somesort of natural phenomenon andpletely ignored them,” Hao Ren shrugged.


    “Actually, beside us there were other race who had tried to search for the homeworld of the Denizens of the Stars.” Lemendusa suddenly brought up something not know before. “There was a race whose psychic powers were highly developed. They lived by the holy kingdom and worshipped a mysterious ‘Truth of the Stars’, they think that the resonance of the soul and the universe is the path to the ultimate truth, and worshipped energy beings as gods sent by the will of the universe. They had tried to track down the homeworld of the Denizens of the Stars, but every expedition that they sent out ended up lost mysteriously, and they gave up after a while.”


    “Lost mysteriously?” Hao Ren immediately pounced with a question. “Have they found anything? Any fortunate survivors?”


    “Those that were lost were never heard from again. No one knew of their fate, and those who came back only left a word: The edge of the stars is covered with the sound of darkness.” Lemendusa then shook his head. “I was not an investigator that was in touch with the mortal races, so that’s about the extent I know.”


    “The edge of the stars is covered with the sound of darkness….” Hao Ren pondered the particrly odd sentence. “Don’t tell me the Denizens of the Stars lived in a ckhole… Heh, I think that race that tried to search for them probably ran into a catastrophe of sorts and there’s no one alive to tell any tales.”