At the same time, in the endless depths of the ocean, the unimaginably immense serpent lay at the bottom of the sea, quietly resting. On the other hand, it watched the young woman's weeping with interest, sensing the complex emotions emanating from her heart, such as remorse, fanaticism, jealousy, resentment, fear, and so on. The intricacy and volatility of these feelings made the Great Serpent, which possessed a human mode of thinking but lacked complete human memories, observe with great curiosity.
"Intriguing."
And sensing all this, the Great Serpent was very pleased with the choice it had made.
The serpent had no grand ambitions or desires, seeking nothing more than to sate its hunger and slumber. And indeed, since swallowing the sun, it no longer felt the gnawing pangs of hunger. In fact, that infinitely scorching sun, constantly radiating endless light and heat, was still wholly intact inside its belly at this very moment.
Compared to other sustenance, this furnace that suffused the serpent's entire being with extreme comfort not only quelled its previously insatiable hunger, but also afforded it time to contemplate and pay heed to some other matters it had previously overlooked.
For instance…
Those faint voices that often echoed by its ears.
Those tiny voices had appeared not long after the serpent's birth, but the serpent, perpetually in a state of extreme hunger, subsisting from one meal to the next, simply had no time or energy to heed those minuscule voices barely louder than the buzzing of mosquitoes.
But after the serpent swallowed the sun, these faint voices suddenly multiplied and were ever increasing.
However, it just so happened that the serpent, now content and finally having the peace of mind to ponder what these voices actually were, began to take a keen interest in these whispers that ceaselessly surrounded its ears.
"Please return the sun…"
"Hope…"
"…"
Countless fragmented murmurs reverberated around the serpent's ears. Some voices pleaded for it to return the sun, some revered it, and others made wishes upon it. There were even voices that arrogantly commanded and chastised it.
The sources of the voices were varied - some were scholars, some kings, some prophets, and others were ambitious usurpers, generals, nobles, pirates…
The voices were diverse, and the serpent heard all those that invoked the name Jormungandr. However, after listening with interest to some of the prayers, the serpent quickly lost interest, because far too many of the prayers were the same - invariably begging for power, wealth, or trying to offer up cattle and sheep as sacrifices.
If it had been before the serpent devoured the sun, it might have been quite interested in those sacrificial cattle and sheep, after all, they could sate its appetite. But now, with that ever-burning sun in its stomach, even if those cattle and sheep were ever so plump and succulent, the serpent had already lost all enthusiasm for them.
However, not all prayers and sacrifices were of no interest to the serpent. There were some things that could pique its curiosity, for example…
"Powerful and wise being, this humble mortal hereby offers you a sacrifice…"
While it was in a deep slumber, a murmured prayer entered its ears.
Normally, the serpent would have paid no heed to such a sacrificial offering, and indeed it did not. But this whispered prayer was different - the supplicant was exceptionally stubborn and persistent.
If one sacrifice wasn't enough, they would make two; if two weren't enough, they would make three.
But mere persistence was not enough to sway the serpent. If persistence was all it took, there was also a king who, after consulting with his priests, used a hundred bulls as sacrificial offerings every day for more than ten days, all in the hopes of bargaining for the return of the sun. But the serpent simply sneezed, transforming into countless raging tornadoes, and laid waste to the entire kingdom ruled by that wise king. The reason was simple - that individual's prayers were simply too irksome.
But the most crucial factor was one of their sacrifices…
A Norse warrior, with only a few pieces of armor covering his body and a battle-axe in hand, engaged in a desperate struggle with a black bear.
That Norse warrior was very brave, the scars all over his body ample proof that he was indeed a valiant fighter. But in the midst of the brawl, he finally let his guard down and the black bear seized its chance, smashing him to the ground with a swipe of its paw, then tearing out his throat.
The surrounding crowd cheered and whooped with excitement.
And emanating from that prayer was not just the sound of supplication, but also the warrior's defiant spirit and despair in the face of death. It was this emotion that the serpent found somewhat intriguing.
It was well aware that it harbored the memories of a human within its body, or rather, the memories of a human transmigrator. It contemplated matters according to human thought patterns. But what puzzled it was that it found it exceedingly difficult to experience those complex human qualities from when it had been human. The root and mode of what drove its actions still belonged more to a beast's primal nature rather than the human nature in its memories.
On this point, it was even somewhat perplexed. Was it a transmigrator named Meng who had crossed over into the body of a giant serpent, or was it a giant serpent that had obtained the memories of a transmigrator named Meng?
To verify this, it decided to use this tribe of humans as experimental subjects.
The experiment was very successful. When the female seer who was presiding over the sacrifice was in a trance-like state, it tried to make contact with her, and she instantly caught a glimpse of a portion of its visage…
However, it seemed that for a mere mortal, coming into contact with an existence so immeasurable that she had no way to describe it in words, the sensation was still too overwhelming.
The feelings of dread and astonishment instantly caused her to withdraw from that ethereal state.
Nevertheless, the serpent still left an imprint deep within her soul. This imprint caused the female seer to gradually begin transforming into a half-human, half-serpentine form, and incidentally also influenced the few clans centered around her.
Fanatical sacrifices, bloody rituals, increasingly fervent worship and faith…
Compared to the serpent's consciousness, human consciousness was far too insignificant and minuscule. Even just a simple gaze, the projected will of the serpent gradually influenced and warped the temperaments of these mortals more and more profoundly, causing this group of mortals to display more complex personalities and sinister facets under the serpent's observation. And when the serpent watched the intrigues, betrayals, blood feuds, deceptions and so on between these mortals, it was also able to gradually match up those fragmented human memories within itself to these behaviors one by one, which greatly satisfied the serpent.
However…
"As expected, I still can't empathize with them."
Observing yet another instance of treachery between humans, the plot nothing more than two former fast friends, in this desperate situation, one of them seizing the chance when the other was off guard and strangling them to death in a shadowy alley… Naturally, the various hesitations, vacillations, and inner turmoil went without saying, it was all a bit trite and commonplace.
But looking at the unfolding events in the world from when it had still been human, enough to film a 30-episode television series, the serpent clearly realized that it simply couldn't put itself in their shoes anymore. Watching the things that transpired between these humans was interesting, but just like how it used to watch episodes of "Animal World" - it's not that there was no amusement to be found, but no matter what occurred, it couldn't evoke any feelings of resonance.
Carnal desire for beautiful women, avarice for gold and silver, hunger for power…
The serpent found it very difficult to locate any of these various cravings within itself. It's not that the serpent had no desires, but rather that the serpent's desires were completely different from human desires.
What the serpent pursued was satiating its own hunger, belonging to the most primal, fundamental urge. But humans chased after all sorts of more intricate and multifarious wants.
"Is it because I don't have any sense of identity with being human?"
Just what was the deep-seated reason for this? The serpent couldn't figure it out, and it didn't intend to. As far as it was concerned, it wouldn't deny that former human identity as someone named Meng, but it also wouldn't deny its current identity as a giant serpent.
Or rather, they were both it. It was itself, a giant serpent possessing a human mode of thinking and a bestial nature.
Those incomplete human memories, it also had no intention of dwelling on, and was utterly indifferent to its own past and origins. In any case, it was all in the past, and it couldn't be bothered to care.
And after silently comparing the human emotions it had witnessed with its own eyes to the human feelings in its memories, this tribal clan also lost its value in the serpent's eyes.
The only thing the serpent hadn't anticipated was that there would actually be someone who could resist its mental influence, which greatly surprised the serpent. Out of curiosity, it even went so far as manifesting an illusory avatar, but…
Mortals were ultimately still mortals. Even if they were mortals with some unusual innate talent, they were ultimately nothing more than mortals. Just because she glimpsed the serpent's form while in a near-death state, her mental defenses crumbling in that moment, all her spiritual fortifications were instantly shattered…
She completely broke.
Although feeling a bit disappointed and uninterested, the serpent still magnanimously devoured those offerings that were frenziedly venerating and extolling it. As for that young woman, she wasn't consumed by it. After all, she hadn't been infected and driven to madness by its will, and hadn't offered up all those crazed and depraved evil desires to it. She couldn't really be considered an offering at all.
Unlike the female seer's misconception, although she had a vague inkling that the serpent was partial to human desires, she hadn't realized…
The serpent didn't treat the offerings placed upon the altar as the true sacrifices at all. The real offerings had always been those people fanatically making sacrifices to it.
Their increasingly evil, twisted, degenerate souls and actions were the offerings the serpent was genuinely interested in, what it truly wanted.
There had only ever been one true sacrificial ceremony.
A group of gradually maddened, depraved, warped humans - this was the real ritual and offering.
"Since they want the sun, I'll give them the sun… From now on, they can be with the sun forever."
The serpent was still fairly magnanimous. As long as the sacrifice was successful, it was willing to fulfill the mortals' wishes and wouldn't renege on its word.
However, apart from this, the serpent was actually also pondering something else…
"I… Jormungandr?"
"Thor? Odin? Did I transmigrate into Norse mythology?"
After an immensely long time, this giant serpent finally realized from the prayers of its supplicants that it turned out to be in Norse mythology.