Chapter 16: The Birth of Angels
Having transformed the elves into true living beings, Du Xin turned his attention to the others—the dragons, unicorns, treants, and various other creatures he had personally created within his miniature world. All of them were now imbued with new life. Although they had lost the majority of their former power, they had become truly sentient races, capable of reproducing and multiplying on their own. It was only then that the entire world truly began to feel real. After sending all these living beings down to the continent, Du Xin fell into contemplation once more.
"What should I create next?"
Standing alone in the center of the temple, gazing out at his now-empty Divine Realm, Du Xin murmured to himself.
"Perhaps I should create gods! But first, I need to send these two down to the mortal realm."
As he spoke, Du Xin turned his gaze toward Adam and Eve.
True to his word, Du Xin waved his hand, and a serpent appeared beside Adam and Eve.
"Adam."
"Who are you?"
"I am the Serpent."
The serpent flicked its forked tongue as it spoke.
"Are you not permitted to eat the fruit from *all* these trees?"
"We are permitted to eat the fruit from every tree—save for that one. God has forbidden us from eating its fruit, warning that if we do, we shall surely die."
Adam replied.
"Nay, you shall not necessarily die. That tree is the Tree of Wisdom; God fears that if you partake of its fruit, you will acquire wisdom equal to His own."
Eve gazed at the fruit hanging from the tree; it glowed with a radiant light. She plucked one, ate it, and then plucked another to give to Adam, who ate it as well. Immediately thereafter, they realized they were naked; they gathered leaves to fashion coverings for themselves.
The following day, Du Xin appeared in the orchard. He called out to Adam, but Adam had gone into hiding.
"I know you are here; I hear the sound of your voice. Why do you not come forth to meet me?"
"I heard the sound of Your voice, and I was afraid—for I realized I was naked. So, I hid myself."
"Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat the forbidden fruit?"
At that, Adam and Eve stepped out from their hiding place.
"It was my wife; she gave me the fruit, and I ate it."
Du Xin then turned his gaze toward Eve. "It was the serpent who beguiled me, and so I ate."
Du Xin spoke to the serpent: "Since you have done this deed, you shall be punished. You shall be cursed above all livestock and beasts of the field; you shall crawl upon your belly and eat dust all the days of your life."
Then he turned to Eve and said: "You shall endure the pains of pregnancy and suffer the agony of childbirth. You shall desire your husband, yet you shall be subject to his authority."
Finally, he addressed Adam: "Since you heeded the voice of your wife and ate of the fruit I forbade you to eat, the ground shall be cursed because of you. You shall toil in hardship to obtain your food; the earth shall bring forth thorns and weeds, and you shall eat the vegetables of the field until you return to the dust."
As he spoke, Du Xin waved his hand, and Adam, Eve, and the serpent vanished from the Divine Realm.
"I wonder if I got that right—or how much it differs from the Bible. No matter; time to go create some angels."
Du Xin rubbed his hands together and headed toward the center of the Divine Temple.
With a beckoning gesture, a surge of World Force manifested. Du Xin waved his hand, extracting a strand of genetic code from a massive white bird. He then retrieved the human genetic code he had obtained from Adam and attempted to fuse the two together. They immediately exhibited a strong mutual repulsion—after all, one belonged to a mammal, the other to a bird. Du Xin swiftly enveloped both genetic strands in the World Force; the force's immense compatibility bound the two segments together. Yet, although the strands no longer repelled one another, they still failed to truly fuse. Du Xin began to ponder the reason; he even tried extracting genetic material from numerous other birds, but every attempt ended in failure. "What exactly is the key? Angels... humans combined with birds? Winged people—yes, wings! That's it! I don't need the entire avian genome; I only need the genes responsible for growing wings. I can simply splice them into the human genome!"
Having reached this realization, Du Xin acted immediately. He swiftly stripped away the vast majority of the avian genetic code, retaining only a small segment—the specific genes responsible for wing formation—and then inserted them into the human genetic sequence. Finally, the two genetic strands fused together. Infused with the power of the World, the genes rapidly coalesced into a tiny embryo, which then grew at an astonishing pace. A new life had come into being. Under the ceaseless infusion of the World's power, a child was born. Du Xin bestowed upon him a new name: Lucifer. The child continuously absorbed the World's power, eventually growing to a height of two meters—a figure radiating divine sanctity, at once handsome and robust.
"I bestow upon you a name: Lucifer. In my absence, you shall guard the Divine Realm. I grant you the power to protect this realm, and you shall lead the Guardian Angels."
As he spoke, Du Xin extracted a copy of Lucifer's genetic code and created another angel.
"I bestow upon you a name: Michael. In my absence, you shall patrol the mortal world. I grant you the power to mete out punishment to all things within this world, and you shall lead the Punisher Angels."
Subsequently, two spheres of the World's power descended upon the two angels; their wings, originally a single pair, transformed into six pairs each.
"You shall be the Kings of the Twelve-Winged Angels."
As he spoke, spheres of the World's power rained down from the heavens, and one by one, new angels were born—ranging from those with a single pair of wings to those with five pairs. Before long, the angels divided into two distinct hosts, led respectively by Lucifer and Michael.
"You may withdraw."
Du Xin commanded. Lucifer and Michael bowed and withdrew; Lucifer led the Guardian Angels in defending the Divine Realm, while Michael patrolled the mortal world, ceaselessly seeking out those who had strayed from the Divine and meting out punishment to heretics. "I really ought to create a Hell, too—otherwise, where's the fun? I know—I'll create a Fallen Angel!"
With that, Du Xin detached his own timeline from that of the small world he had created. In the blink of an eye, several decades passed within that world; Adam had fathered two sons—the elder, Cain, and the younger, Abel. Only once they had grown into men did Du Xin reintegrate himself into the flow of the small world's time.
Du Xin summoned Lucifer and instructed him to convey a message to Adam's family: that in the coming year, they were required to offer a sacrifice to their God.
Lucifer descended to the mortal realm and delivered the divine decree to Adam's family. Consequently, Adam commanded Cain to till the soil and Abel to tend the flocks. Over the course of the following year, Cain labored diligently in the fields; the wheat grew lush and tall, yielding a bountiful harvest that filled the granaries to overflowing.
Abel, by contrast, slacked off nearly every day; the sheep under his care fared poorly, growing gaunt and skeletal.
The year soon drew to a close, and Du Xin once again dispatched Lucifer to escort the two brothers to the Divine Realm. Cain brought with him a sack of wheat—every single grain plump and perfect—which he had painstakingly hand-selected from the entire granary, a task that had consumed a full month of his time. Abel's offering, however, consisted merely of some meat hacked from the carcass of a scrawny sheep—an offering utterly devoid of sincerity.
Upon arriving in the Divine Realm, both brothers knelt upon the ground in awe and reverence, daring not to lift their eyes to behold the face of their God. Du Xin sat upon a massive stone throne in the center of the temple—an imposing and sacred figure. After a brief silence, Du Xin spoke:
"Accept the mutton; return the wheat. And bestow a blessing upon Abel."
In an instant, Cain's reverence for God vanished. He rose to his feet, consumed by a violent surge of jealousy and indignation that drove him to challenge the Divine.
"Why do You reject the offering I spent a whole year meticulously preparing, yet accept the mutton that Abel offered so casually?"
"I have no need for wheat; rather, it is mutton that I require."
"No! That is not fair!"
Cain roared. With a mere wave of his hand, Du Xin banished both Cain and Abel from the Divine Realm.
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