Su Mo's previous conclusion was that Aeons weren't born from nothing but were transmuted from some other existence.
Afterward, he emphasized that the birth of Aeons was related to the development of interstellar civilization, a trait characteristic of native planetary gods.
If these two points were combined, what he was trying to say became all too clear.
"You're not trying to say that beings on the level of Aeons are the result of native planetary gods ascending to a higher dimension, are you?"
Herta leaned forward, her hands on the table, her face extremely close to Su Mo's, her violet eyes staring at him without blinking.
It was an incredibly bold, incredibly crazy conjecture with numerous fatal flaws.
It wasn't as if no one had proposed similar ideas before. After all, an Aeon is a god, and a native planetary god is also a god. To powerless ordinary people, there was no difference between the two; they were both a type of deity.
But as early as the dawn of the Aeons, numerous researchers had already disproven this conjecture.
As more Aeons appeared and more research was conducted on them, this idea was gradually abandoned. Now, not even a child would equate the two.
Given the capabilities Su Mo had shown, Herta found it hard to believe he would support such a flawed view.
However…
"To a large extent, that's how I see it."
Su Mo's answer directly confirmed it.
Hearing this, Herta stared at Su Mo without a word. After confirming he wasn't joking, she sat back down, her expression serious as she asked, "Why do you think that? How could a cosmic-scale Aeon and a native planetary god who relies on faith to survive possibly be the same kind of existence?"
"Even in transmutation, some basic framework should remain unchanged. A god that needs faith to survive and a god that requires no faith at all... their very forms of existence are different, aren't they?"
She didn't rashly dismiss Su Mo's opinion but probed it cautiously.
She did so for two reasons. First, she already recognized Su Mo and didn't believe he would spout nonsense.
Second, there was a precedent for such things in the history of the Genius Society.
The second member of the Genius Society had once proven the existence of phlogiston. But not long after, the third member disproved it. And just when the entire universe was treating phlogiston as a pseudoscientific joke, the seventh member proved its existence once again.
With this precedent, no matter how absurd Su Mo's conjecture was, as long as he had Herta's recognition, she would take it seriously.
Because she understood one thing deeply.
The more absurd and unbelievable a conjecture was, the greater the waves it would create if it were proven true.
If she, out of arrogance, missed the chance to understand the origin of the Aeons right in front of the truth, she would surely regret it for the rest of her life.
Herta's question was serious, and the reason she gave was the most convincing one for distinguishing between Aeons and native planetary gods.
One's life depends on faith, disappearing without it. The other needs no faith at all and even has tendencies to destroy worlds. How could they be the same thing?
Faced with this perfectly logical question, Su Mo shook his head and asked in return, "Do you understand faith?"
"Huh?"
Herta paused, then answered immediately. "If you mean faith in Aeons, my assessment is that it's completely useless. An Aeon cares about faith less than it cares about an ant."
"If you mean faith in native gods, I've done some research on the existing data, but I can't claim to be an expert. I only know that for them, faith is the basis of their existence. Without believers, they disappear."
In the current interstellar society, while native planetary gods weren't exactly extinct, their development had long since stagnated, relegating them to the status of museum pieces.
Based on the remaining data, Herta had some understanding, but information obtained without field research was often heavily distorted, so she wouldn't dare claim to fully understand it.
Hearing Herta's response, Su Mo immediately shook his head.
"First, let me correct you on one point. Only the gods from the earliest stages of mythological development, those from animistic beliefs, disappear without faith."
For example, the gods of early religious tribes, or the hodgepodge of eight million gods in Japanese mythology—only these minor spirits and sprites were so fragile and dependent on faith.
In a proper pantheon, these mountain spirits and wild monsters would only be considered unsanctioned demons.
"Oh? I know a little about animism. It is indeed an early stage of religion. Are you saying that native planetary gods in later stages don't rely on faith as much?"
Hearing Su Mo point out her error, Herta's eyes lit up, and she asked with curiosity.
"It's not that they don't rely on faith at all, but the way they rely on it is different from what you imagine," Su Mo said, shaking his head. "Do you know how many ways there are for a god to acquire faith?"
"I don't know." Herta shook her head quickly.
Not knowing wasn't shameful; being unwilling to admit it was. And in the domain of gods, it was only natural that Su Mo knew more than she did.
After all, Asta had already told her about his identity.
"Then let me give you a brief introduction. The most primitive gods can only draw faith from the worship and fear of others. Once they lose their believers and are forgotten by everyone, they naturally disappear. These are generally called tribal gods or native gods," Su Mo explained eloquently, speaking from his area of expertise.
In ancient times, countless gods disappeared after their tribes were defeated and annexed, thus losing their faith.
The gods Herta mentioned, and the ones most people in this world knew of, were only from this stage.
"After that, as the eras developed and different civilizations and tribes began to interact, different gods formed complex mythologies. Later, rich and colorful mythological stories replaced the singular belief in individual gods and became the mainstream."
"During this period, gods could gain faith through the propagation of their myths. Even if they lost their believers, were no longer worshipped by anyone, and were even forgotten by most, as long as they were part of the myth and the myth was still being told, they would not completely disappear."
"These gods, I call them mythological gods."
Through myths, even the weakest gods didn't have to worry about disappearing, and powerful gods could amplify their strength through faith.
For a god, joining a mythology was the best decision, bar none.
"Interesting. A way to lower the difficulty of acquiring faith and increase its sources by spreading the load?" Herta immediately grasped the beauty of mythology. A richer story could attract more believers and also reduce a god's dependence on them.
"But even so, they can't completely escape their reliance on faith, can they?" she pointed out keenly. "If even the myth itself is forgotten, wouldn't the entire pantheon disappear with it?"
Weaving myths could only reduce risk, not eliminate it entirely.
Mythological gods still needed to rely on faith. They weren't the same as Aeons.
"You have a point. In fact, many mythological gods have indeed perished with the loss of their myths," Su Mo nodded, affirming Herta's line of thought. "In order to compete for faith and avoid being forgotten, various pantheons and their believers would naturally come into conflict."
"And in the clash of pantheons, people soon discovered that the victorious pantheons all shared a certain transcendent commonality. By studying this commonality, a brand-new way of acquiring faith emerged."
Su Mo paused here before continuing.
"This commonality is the true core of a mature mythology: a cosmology."
"Cosmology?" Herta tilted her head. "You mean, a unified view of the universe?"
"Correct." Su Mo nodded. "Just as myths can replace individual gods in gathering faith, a cosmology can replace myths in gathering faith."
"Therefore, even if people completely forget the myths, as long as they still remember and identify with the core cosmology of the myth, the gods will not perish."
"Gods of this level, I call them civilizational gods."
In reality, the uses of a cosmology were more numerous, but here, the main topic was the relationship between faith and gods, so Su Mo didn't elaborate too much.
Hearing this, Herta immediately asked, "If humanity forgets the corresponding cosmology, wouldn't they disappear then?"
"No." Su Mo shook his head with certainty. "As long as civilization continues, they cannot forget these things."
Otherwise, he wouldn't have given them the title of civilizational gods.
"Why do you say that?" Herta asked, slightly puzzled. "No matter how sophisticated a cosmology is, isn't it easy to forget over time?"
"Quite the opposite. The core cosmologies of myths are often not sophisticated at all. They can even be described as crude and simple," Su Mo said, shaking his head and explaining succinctly. "For example, Zoroastrianism's dualism of good and evil. As long as one holds a basic dichotomous view and believes that good will triumph over evil, one can be said to have inherited this cosmology."
"Or Buddhism's concept of anatman. As long as one continuously explores one's own mind and recognizes that all phenomena are illusory and all things are impermanent, one can be said to have inherited this cosmology."
"Or Taoism's Dao, Christianity's original sin and theory of Forms, the cultural syncretism of Roman mythology... In fact, one doesn't even need to know the myths to understand these cosmologies. As long as one lives within the corresponding cultural context, even an atheist is inevitably steeped in the cosmology."
A simple example: when one person asks another, "Do you know?" about something, they may be unaware of it, but the word "know" itself, in many languages, contains fragments of a cosmology.
Under these circumstances, the cosmology has become the foundation of culture, a mental tool to help humanity understand the world. It is deeply engraved in the annals of the planet, along with human history, becoming a cornerstone of civilization.
Even if one destroys their own writing, betrays their own civilization, and erases their own past, they cannot erase the way they perceive the world from their minds.
At this level, through their cosmology, civilizational gods can be said to be coexistent with human intellect and civilization itself.
"Under this understanding, regardless of whether an individual loves or hates myths, whether they are a theist or an atheist, even if they are completely unaware of the gods' existence, the gods can still draw faith through their cognitive framework."
With that, Su Mo looked into Herta's eyes and asked, "Do you think a civilizational god in this form would still be dependent on so-called 'faith'? Would they still care about so-called 'believers'?"
"...No." Herta slowly shook her head.
The attitude of the civilizational gods Su Mo described was infinitely close to that of the Aeons.
No, it wasn't even just "infinitely close"!
Thinking of something, Herta's expression became slightly dazed. She looked down in thought for a long while before raising her head again and saying to Su Mo in a dreamlike voice, "Hey, have you noticed that the 'cosmology' you speak of seems to have a very high degree of similarity to the abstract philosophical concepts represented by the Aeons?"
"Of course it's high." Su Mo nodded very calmly. "The so-called mythological cosmologies are themselves the result of processing the simple philosophical concepts of early peoples. They are essentially the same thing. Sometimes, the cosmology is even more complete."
In other words, the concept of a civilizational god was already very close to an Aeon, which is a condensation of a philosophical concept.
"..."
Upon receiving confirmation, Herta did not look happy. On the contrary, her expression twitched slightly as she looked at Ruan Mei.
Ruan Mei nodded silently, indicating that she saw no problem with the logic.
Seeing this, Herta slapped her own forehead heavily.
"I must be crazy. I actually think your hypothesis makes a lot of sense. Not only can it perfectly verify most of the questions, but it can also explain the origin of the Aeons... If this is true, the entire universe's understanding of the Aeons will be overturned."
"Who would have thought that the Aeons are actually related to native planetary gods?!"
Even though she had considered this possibility before, now that she was convinced, Herta still felt she needed time to accept it.