Walking through dense forests made of steel, night always arrives earlier than anywhere else.

    "This place can be worse crowded than an anthill!" The bearded walked like dust through the gaps in the man-made towers and exclaimed as he walked.

    His round and short body was unsuitable for long journeys, and his ironclad warrior was too large to cross the drawbridge. At this point, the draped walls rubbed dust all over his beard.

    "Where are those priests hiding, hell! Why do they have such a big place? There are so many caves for people to live in. Damn it!  Where the hell are all these people hiding?" The bearded anger of the crowded space has nowhere to vent.

    "Lord Zulu, in fact, they have been following us."

    Kun looked back and uttered an incredible answer, and then the False Gods shouted into the air, "Come out, wise old men, and having followed us all the way here, you should have good enough reason to believe that we mean no harm."

    The bearded straightened up like an electric shock, and he looked at me with wide eyes, and a fine layer of cold sweat appeared on his forehead. Could it be that he felt it too?

    However, after waiting in the same place for a long time, except for a few birds that were hiding somewhere and taking flight, no one responded to Kun's shouts.

    The bearded man looked around back and forth, and his upside-down eyebrows finally returned to their relaxed original form. "What the hell are you doing, heavenly–wise guy, there aren’t nobody!" The bearded man wiped the sweat from his face, exhaled deeply in relief, and slowly put down the axe that he had been holding in his hand.

    "Great human priests, I implore you to show up, there is no need to hide anymore. This is already close to your altar, isn't it?" Kun exhorted alone into the air in front of him.

    The place where the sunset and the golden afterglow brought a bit of silence to the center of the city, and a few dark shadows suddenly flashed through the fading buildings that looked like weathered stone caves.

    Then the light steps approached, and three figures who looked to be hunched over, dressed in the fur of gorgeous water animals, approached us. The coming people had palatial scepters in their hands. In addition to the deep wrinkles, their ears were different from those of other mortals, which hung low and curved like the plaintain rolls.

    "Our True God tells us that three distinguished guests will come to the Sanctuary today, two wise beings, and…… a smart machine.”

    The oldest of the three elders stepped forward with a scepter and said. The sound of the scepter in his hand across the ground was similar to his husky voice.

    "The machine must be you, right?  Lord False God? But you shouldn't have come here. There are well-deserved gods enshrined here…… A god who belongs to mankind, the Life God.” The old man held the scepter at Kun and said condescendingly.

    "False God boy, are you a machine?"

    The bearded man looked at Kun in disbelief, his obscure eyes flashing with both contempt and fear, "No wonder your skin looks so weird and your behavior is elusive…… It turns out that you are a machine without a heart.”

    I also looked at Kun in amazement. My father once said that when a machine has similar abilities and appearances to people, then such a machine must be possessed by a digital demon…… However, no matter how human-like a machine was, it was not human…… But the most important thing was that humans believe in gods, but things without "hearts" cannot communicate with gods, so robots could only be lackeys of demons.

    Because of their belief in gods, mortals in the world had always avoided the use of machines to reduce the possibility of digital demons approaching mortals—at least in high-sounding rhetoric, so in the tribe where I grew up, there wasn't even anything that could be called a “machine”. In a cold world where people were deeply afraid that digital demons would follow machines to find humans.

    "But Kun! This handsome boy standing in front of me, is he really a machine possessed by digital demons?”

    "The true god who guards mortals is truly wise. Thinking so, your true God must be looking forward to my arrival, and I have only one identity - a dreamer who returns the world to natural destiny, not a False God who clings to heavenly obsessions, let alone a machine controlled by digital demons, and the heart to seek justice has nothing to do with my birth!”

    Kun raised his head slightly, the light just skimmed over his eyes. His gaze was like a clear but bottomless pool. His resolute nose bridge and slightly raised corners of his mouth were showing a confident look at this moment, "Any great person is merciful enough, let alone the True God, don’t you think?"

    Kun's deep voice didn't look like an argument but like a simple and pure request for an opportunity…… But how could a person who can have such a melodious and beautiful voice be a robot possessed by a digital demon? If Kun was really a cold machine, how could he explain his smile? His smile was so innocent and clear, and so warm and powerful……

    I didn’t believe it!

    "It's not strange, the False Gods in the sky will inject their souls into the machine in order to live forever, damn it! I should have thought of this earlier!” The bearded man pounded his chest.

    "You are right, our gods accept any being who is good, and of course, this may include machines, the heavenly beings." The old man said with a slight hesitation, his old face had lost its full confidence at this time. "But did you really come to devote to the True God? I don't think you're here for a simple purpose.”

    "Honored wise man, I never promised devotion, I only said that I came for the future - to return the fate of the world to mankind."

    Kun explained his unwavering belief with politeness and a smile. Yes, in words, I was sure no one could beat Kun.

    "Is that any different? Young False God, our gods themselves symbolize a bright future, and you should be glad that fate led you to the right place and allowed you to find the True Gods.”

    At this moment, the old man's vicissitudes of life approached Kun. The wise man of the Priest City stared at Kun with his eyes that had seen so many people, as if unwilling to let go of any subtle expression on Kun's face.

    "After all, there are terrible demons stationed in the bones and blood forged by your machinery, and those digital demons have no intention of sparing your pitiful fate! But remember, the power of choice is in your hands, even if that choice means sacrifice, or self-destruct! Your soul may evolve as a result!” The old man's expression gradually became serious, and his expression changed from inquiring to solemn.

    " Lord priest, sir, does believing in the True God mean to sacrifice?"

    I was not sure which words touched Kun's heart, and at this moment anger gathered on his usually light face. However, for Kun, even the rare anger was fleeting, as if he quickly realized the gaffe, and the next moment, a polite smile returned to his face.

    "Stubborn mechanical child, the sacrifice demanded by the True God is only very rare, and there are not many such moments, but you should think about the honorable side of the sacrifice! To follow the True God is to follow all of him and serve it with all of our own.”

    The old man's wrinkled eyes flashed with longing, and two fiery fireballs lit up in his eyes, so the expression of sacrifice became unshakable.

    “The arrival of the so-called bright future is not all without cost, something that I guess even the digital demons would agree - anything that happens with any human-led thing means sacrifice!"

    "If the digital demon you call is our Divine Intelligence, indeed, the DI system does suggest something similar – the future comes at a cost. It's just that the DI has done its best to avoid any sacrifice of living beings. And can the True God whom you mortals believe in do the same?”

    A war without guns and smoke was delicately going on between the old man and Kun, and Kun had no tendency to back down.

    "Robot child, it seems that the heavenly man has given the mortal demons a touching name, DI? What a self-deceived appellation!”

    There was a fit of vivid anger on the old man's dull face, and there was no argument that had gained the advantage, and the patience that the old man had maintained for many years was now all gone.

    "You False Gods have allowed the digital demons to overstep the duties of the True God, and have forsaken him…… You guys have so many digital demons involved! So much so that your souls are also sipped, and even the body left behind is just a cheap machine!”

    Looking at the High Priest who was so angry that it trembled, the smile at the corner of Kun's mouth seemed to be even brighter, and the False God robot was unmoved.

    "Foolish heavenly people, you live for the devil, you have betrayed the living, you have forgotten the gift of the true God!" The High Priest trembled and raised the scepter in his hand and scolded angrily at the Sky Tower of the False God, "Although we mortals live hard, we live for the dignity of life, which in the cruel world, sometimes it must mean sacrifice, but mortals would rather die than live in dreams woven by digital demons, so if you don't have such awareness, young boy, you can leave on your own!"

    “So, please don't mention in front of the gods the demons that your False Gods worship, and the so-called fake mercy, the digital demons, and the vicious things done by your False God have been enough. Looking at this flying fluffy stuff, the weather is getting colder day by day. These are all good things you do!”

    The old body could not support the High Priest's scolding so hard, and as soon as he finished speaking, a series of coughing and wheezing sounds followed.

    In fact, the High Priest was right, any mortal would hate the curse that the Sky Tower descends day and night - frosty-fluffy stuff, this artificial floc, brought nothing but cold and despair, and can do nothing but make us mortals hungry and freeze to death - all because of heaven man’s preference for the coldness! Such an irrefutable fact made the good impression of the False God that I had accumulated from Kun for a few days suddenly disappear.

    "Lord High Priest, now I have an idea to solve all this that mortals hate, and completely prevent the Sky Tower from descending frost with the least sacrifice, and even destroy the Sky Tower itself……" said Kun calmly. “If I can do all this, won't the future that belongs to humanity come sooner? My way with the True God would have coincided!”

    "It does sound good, but your identity makes us doubt your motives enough. Don't underestimate the wisdom of our priest, young False God robot!" The High Priest squinted at Kun with his scepter and said indignantly.

    "You can believe that what I am telling is the truth. Otherwise, the chief of the Rock Tribe and the son of the chief of the Su Xia Tribe would not have come with me at all, and I have already passed their test - the two most difficult to convince of all the tribes. In addition, the Dracolony, who once roamed on the brink of betraying the human race, also agreed to join us. Wise you must know that they have obtained from the King of ancient lizards the most discerning tool - the Horcrux, and if I tell even a word of lies, I will definitely not be able to walk in front of you.”

    Kun walked sincerely to the priest, his eyes sincerely resting on the old man's face, and his pure gaze was like a pool of clear water.

    "Besides, High Priest, let us please be honest with each other before the True God, all right? You have already learned the secrets in my scroll in your way, haven't you?”

    "You did do this, “marvelous union”, which I can't argue with, but I still have questions! It seems that everything you do, your motives, your purpose, and even the plan you made to destroy the Sky Tower are reasonable. But my intuition tells me that you must be hiding something! Out of protection for humanity, I must reject you, which may be humanity's last chance before facing a fatal fallacy.”

    Even though the High Priest couldn't help but be moved by Kun's sincere words, the old man still pursed his lips stubbornly and uttered the bluntest refusal. The wind blew through the old man's long robe, and the High Priest turned away from Kun's irresistible eyes. And when the long night came, the old man's hard expression was like a cast iron statue, only the water animal skin clothing on his body danced inappropriately against the wind.

    "Unless……" Kun's smile didn't turn away at the refusal, he continued to try.

    "Unless? Haha, don't dream, the robot kid, what you expect will not happen at all, even if you calculate every step accurately, you can't enter ‘the Woods of Shaping Gods’ to seek the True God's promise! Without the True God's promise, you would not be able to obtain the name of ‘justice’ for all the tribes of humanity.”

    "Why, Lord Priest, the Sanctuary is obviously fair and open to everyone, isn't this the reason why the City of Intone can become the mortal sanctuary—a chance for everyone to experience miracles on an equal footing, an infinite possibility to get the promise of the True God!"

    "But no one has succeeded in ten thousand years. The chosen one recorded in the oracle must be a good man without selfishness, a good man without evil thoughts, a warrior without fear, and only those who combine these three can be promised by the True God. However, while I am talking to you, I have just changed the rules again……" The old man's voice became determined again, and his previous desolate back became abhorrent again at this moment.

    "Robots can't enter! Although you may have been a human, since you have chosen to inhabit a machine in search of eternal life, you should pay for that choice. And the digital demon possibility exists for a word demon's ability to control the mind to fool the gods, then the ability to control at will the mind's ability might also have the possibility of fooling the gods!"

    "Is it possible for Kun to deceive the gods?" My heart felt as if it had been struck by electricity, and then I remembered the ever-present smile, behind the enigmatic smile…… Was there a hidden deception? Was I also the one who was deceived by Kun? Kun's ever-bright smile and the look that fascinated my eyes, everything was a comfortable fantasy carefully arranged by him.

    His ability to control the mind at will, the feeling of wanting to drown in it every time I looked at him, I, step by step, walked into the trap of Kun's warm smile.

    "My lord, I respect your decision! But I have a new proposal……" Kun's words made me have no time to think more, he raised his arm and pointed at me, I was still at a loss, and I didn't even know how to face this person who might have deceived me for a long time, and just now, his warm eyes once again fascinated me.

    "But humans still have the power to enter ‘the Woods of Shaping Gods’, right? So can he give it a try?” There was no doubt I was the one Kun was referring to.

    "My child, do you really want in this way?" The old man reminded me helplessly, but I nodded as if I had been hypnotized by Kun, was it just because I coveted the encouragement in Kun's eyes?

    I cannot forget the old man's old face, the helplessness, and regret when he gazed at me. The High Priest seemed to tell me with his eyes that the adventure brought by this easy promise would be a million times crueler than the worst thing I could have imagined.