What did ten thousand years signify?
In the Great Serpent's previous life, in ten thousand years, a group of ignorant stone age savages went from living in savagery to reaching for the stars. It was twice the total reign of over a dozen dynasties in an ancient Eastern nation, signifying the life and death of over five hundred generations. It meant that in these ten thousand years, the legendary figures that emerged, known to all, were more numerous than the stars in the sky…
Civilizations were born and then destroyed, kingdoms emerged and then vanished. Those magnificent heroes, before they could unleash their lofty aspirations, had already turned into piles of bones. Hundreds of thousands, even millions - the epic wars that determined the fates of civilizations and nations replayed over and over, enough to set one's blood afire and inflame the passions, appearing again and again…
Yet, the heavens and earth still remained the heavens and earth, the stars still remained the stars, merely watching the insignificant humans below in eternal and unchanging silence.
The world would not stop turning because of the disappearance of a certain person. Whether in the previous life or now, it was the same.
In these ten thousand years, many, many things happened. For example, with Loki's strenuous defense, the gods reluctantly acquiesced to the Great Serpent's power in the Eastern world and the Niflheim Sea. But precisely because of this, Loki began to suffer ostracization from the Aesir. His painstaking attempts to justify the Great Serpent and have the gods release it ended in failure.
The gods furtively whispered complaints, that this leader of the gods did not prioritize the Aesir's glory and interests, only caring about his few savagely ferocious children…
Also, for instance, after the intermarriages between several Vanir gods and Aesir gods, the Vanir and the Aesir formally became allies. From then on, these two tribes of gods that once engaged in a great war agreed to jointly advance and retreat.
Moreover, there were events like the elves and dwarves becoming mortal enemies due to hatred, Odin reordering and stipulating the positions of the constellations in the heavens, and so on.
But the most important event…
Was none other than the four unprecedented decisive battles that erupted between the gods and the Frost Giants.
Each war would involve a large number of races, leading to a major reshuffling of the entire world. Humans, gods, giants, and even numerous monsters, the dead, and ocean civilizations all participated, either actively or under coercion. Many races and civilizations perished as a result, while many races and civilizations ushered in their own glorious eras.
Including the serpent nation nurtured by the Great Serpent, which was also forced to participate several times in these grand wars that determined the fate of the Nine Worlds, the contests between gods and giants.
The first war between giants and gods directly led to the death of Mona, who had ruled the vast Eastern Marsh World for over a thousand years, lauded as the Queen of the East, Queen of the Serpents, the Serpent Maiden. As a result, the Great Serpent had no choice but to demand Mona's soul from Hel, ruler of the underworld, and established a system:
All souls chosen as maidservants of the Serpent Maiden would not be under the jurisdiction of Hel, the goddess of death.
The mighty Serpent Worship kingdom that had stood in the East for over a thousand years subsequently collapsed. The serpent people fled far away, escaping into the ancient undersea city of Nanor. Only those snake-worshipping people who inherited a portion of serpent bloodline remained. The Great Serpent's control over the land was drastically weakened to nearly nothing. It was only after Mona's unceasing efforts to recover, taking several hundred years, that the Serpent Worship was transformed into serpent reverence, evolving from a faith into a natural culture of the snake-worshipping people.
The second war between giants and gods didn't interfere much with the Great Serpent. However, the gods and giants tore a huge gash in the entire ocean.
Countless seawater flowed down through this enormous fissure, flowing into Hel's underworld, turning into the River of the Dead, spontaneously guiding the souls of the deceased into the underworld.
…
Each war between the gods and giants would shake the entire universe. The four unprecedented great wars forced the Frost Giants to steadily retreat, even making it difficult for them to fully control their own stronghold - Jotunheim.
And with the momentum from thoroughly trouncing their nemesis, the Frost Giants, in these four great wars, the power of the Aesir gods finally reached an unprecedented height…
The entire universe, the Nine Worlds, all the ancient gods and giants, humbly bowed their heads to them, expressing submission.
Wherever the sun and moon reached was the gods' domain.
Although there were still some blind and ignorant monsters that occasionally dared to stir up trouble, and most races only submitted nominally while actually still possessing considerable autonomy… these minor matters were unimportant. To the Aesir gods, what mattered was that the entire universe had finally officially prostrated at their feet. They had finally truly become the masters of the Nine Worlds, not just in title only.
On that day, it rained in the entire Nine Worlds for a whole day. But what fell from the sky was not rainwater, but sweet wine.
The joy and celebration of the gods, naturally, had to be shared with the entire universe.
And on that day, the Great Serpent lay silently at the bottom of the sea. Even though those chains pierced its flesh and blood, bound into its bones, making it unable to break free, forced to be a prisoner trapped at the bottom of this sea for ten thousand years, it only remained silent.
When brute force could solve problems, the Great Serpent would be too lazy to use its brain and directly steamroll through with brute force. But when it was trapped in this deep sea, powerless to break free, unable to exert its immense strength, it chose to hone its intellect, to be able to do what it wanted to do even without power.
In the past ten thousand years, far too many things had changed, including the Great Serpent's temperament and mind. Listening to the prayers of countless serpent worshippers, it was no longer as quick-tempered and irritable as it was initially, becoming much calmer. Its cunning and deceitful mind was completely impossible to associate with that arrogant Great Serpent from ten thousand years ago.
However, even in ten thousand years, there were still many things that could not be changed…
That cold, murderous intent condensed from resentment.
…
Beside its ears, the demon wolf's curses and low howls could no longer be heard. However, the Great Serpent did not believe that the demon wolf had given up on revenge. On the contrary, although it couldn't hear the sound, the Great Serpent could still clearly feel that violent and cruel aura from afar that made one shudder with dread.
"Ha…"
That aura that made one tremble in terror carried the demon wolf's various gloomy and dark negative emotions accumulated over ten thousand years. It seemed to allow one to vaguely see that blurry figure in the endless darkness, howling softly, a violent monster.
It had long been unable to endure the torment, ready to take revenge on the gods at any moment.
If a human felt all this, they would probably go insane directly. But the Great Serpent would not.
Although until now, the Great Serpent wasn't certain if it had originally been human or possessed human memories as a serpent, one thing it could confirm was that even if it had once been human, after the tempering of these ten thousand years, it could no longer possibly be the human in ordinary people's eyes.
At this moment, it only wanted to quietly wait and endure.
It could vaguely sense that the opportunity it had been waiting for ten thousand years was about to arrive.
"Splash…"
It tried to raise its head and look at the sky above, but the chains on its body immediately made a series of metallic clinking sounds, pulled taut, making it unable to move again.
Even with such a slight movement, its body that had grown more and more immense was already difficult to accomplish…
And through the deep seawater, beyond the layers of white clouds, the Great Serpent could vaguely see the scene of the gods indulging in joy in Asgard in the sky.
The pupils in its cold eyes became even more frigid.
"Such days won't last long…"