Chapter 81 The Changes in Canaan
Time forges legends and epics.
And those stories, passed down by word of mouth, become distorted, become unbelievable...
And ultimately, become absurd...
In the winter following Ara's death, the first Canaanites who followed the Messiah to Canaan began to die of old age...
Among them was the elder, who had no children and left no descendants.
But before he died, many old Canaanites came to visit him.
They asked him what his achievements were, what was worth remembering...
He said that his proudest achievement was giving a scroll to Ara the Messiah,
and now, that scroll contained the Nine Commandments that the Canaanites must uphold...
After saying this, the elder died with a smile.
However, those old Canaanites did not tell him...
Within a short year of Ara's death... And so, the Nine Commandments were no longer followed...
Years later, the number of old Canaanites who had followed Arah and still remembered his commandments was far less than the number of newcomers who had migrated, married, and had children there...
Originally, after Arah's death, because Isaac was still young and Sarah was a woman, the pockmarked man naturally became the new leader of Canaan. He was a staunch follower of Arah and therefore adhered to Arah's administrative methods.
However, he lacked Arah's prestige, and perhaps governing the original old Canaanites was still feasible.
But as more and more people arrived, married, had children, and settled in Canaan,
the pockmarked man's governance became less effective...
Although most Canaanites considered themselves God's chosen people and still referred to Canaan as "the land given by God,"
most of them ignored the teachings of the Nine Commandments.
Annoyed by the pockmarked man's incessant chatter,
the Canaanites even united to sideline him and remove him from management. Years later, the pockmarked man claimed to have received a Messiah's revelation in a dream, and he used the Messiah's name to try to improve and purify Canaan.
However, to prevent his resurgence, the Canaanites murdered him one night, dumping his body in the wilderness and staging it as an unfortunate wild animal attack…
And the priests, to protect themselves, gradually fell silent about the Nine Commandments, focusing instead on extolling Ara's great deeds and achievements, crafting and packaging him as a pure hero and idol, not a messiah…
Furthermore, with the flourishing of commerce, slaves reappeared in Canaan. The Canaanites, enjoying the bounty of their land, were no longer content with modest wealth; they wielded whips, lashing the slaves to force them to cultivate high-quality grapes and fruits on a large scale;
And the Corinthian-style prostitution industry in the taverns expanded to every corner of Canaan.
Eight years later…
Some even began to enshrine Olympian idols in their homes…
Thus…
Those few righteous people who still yearned for the Messiah and believed in God...
Only then did they truly believe—
The Canaanites.
They had completely forgotten the Nine Commandments...
That same year.
Isaac was eighteen.
He was in his grandfather Tyr's courtyard.
He was attentively listening to his grandfather Tyr's final instruction to him:
"I have nothing more to teach you..."
"Your swordsmanship has reached the limits of what ordinary people can achieve, roughly at the level of a Bronze Warrior..."
"Combined with your tireless, rapid recovery ability, you should be able to defeat an ordinary Silver Warrior..."
Old Tyr had aged considerably. His body was no longer as upright as it had been years before; his beard and hair were completely white, the muscles in his arms were loose, and the skin visibly sagged...
His eyes no longer held the menacing aura of his youth, but instead radiated a gentleness, a sense of the vicissitudes of time.
"Grandpa Tyr, how far behind am I from Perseus?"
Isaac was as tall as his father, but a bit stronger.
His features also bore a resemblance to Yara...
But what was most striking were his golden eyes, as if they held a piece of gold within them.
Old Tyr chuckled softly, looking at Isaac, now a grown man, even half a head taller than himself, his eyes gleaming as he gazed into the distance, as if looking at distant memories:
"He's a little stronger than you..."
"Five years ago, he passed the trials of the Golden Warriors."
"He's the youngest Golden Warrior in history... and a strong heir to the throne. Some officials and wealthy merchants of commoner origin wanted to curry favor with him, even proposing to grant Perseus the title of hero and to build a second monument in the Hall of Heroes..."
Upon hearing Old Tyr's words,
Isaac, who had been so confident, immediately deflated.
Just like when he was a child, he still couldn't compare to her...
However, he was used to it by now.
After all, she was someone else's child; he'd better just lie there.
Perhaps he should go back and eat the honey bread his sister Hiaja made.
Just then, Old Tyr reminded him:
"Oh, by the way, if I remember correctly, your birthday is coming up soon..."
"You need to go to the Canaan Council as soon as possible..."
"You are Ara's child, and you should inherit your father's position upon reaching adulthood..."
Isaac nodded.
Seeing that it was getting late, already dusk,
he packed his things and waved goodbye to Old Tyr.
Since his father's death, Isaac's life had been very simple. He had little contact with outsiders, spending his days primarily practicing swordsmanship, reading, and praying. Therefore, he had a vague sense of Canaan's current situation, but didn't fully understand it...
However, he figured it was probably much the same as the wilderness and distant mountains, not much different...
He thought to himself.
He decided to follow his grandfather Tyr's instructions and go to the council hall in the town center first.
Canaan was now quite large, with several thousand people; if a walled city were built, it would be a small city-state.
As Isaac walked down the street, he attracted curious and concerned glances from those around him. The older Canaanites greeted him warmly, "Hey, Isaac, what brings you to the streets today?"
"Going to take care of some business."
Amidst the pleasantries, and with Isaac's signature golden eyes appearing, some newcomers who had never seen him before realized... that was the legendary son with golden eyes, Isaac...
After Isaac left,
some people asked curiously, "Why are his eyes golden?"
Some older Canaanites explained with great seriousness, "Because he witnessed a miracle when he was young, the image of God was reflected in his pupils, so his eyes became golden..."
Amidst the astonished and skeptical gazes of the crowd, Isaac's figure disappeared down the street.
...
The council hall, at the entrance.
Isaac surveyed the building.
This council hall had been rebuilt many times over the past decade.
It started as a wooden hut, then stone bricks and tiles were added. Shortly after Yara's death, they somehow acquired a large quantity of marble and granite, transforming the council chamber into a grand structure, resembling a small palace.
And when Isaac stepped into the council chamber...
One of the men inside spotted Isaac, rubbed his eyes, and looked him up and down several times before finally recognizing him.
He exclaimed, "Isaac? You're Isaac?"
"What brings you here?"
Isaac was somewhat confused. He frowned at the man and said,
"It's me, what's wrong?"
"Grandpa Tyr sent me to take over my father's position..."
Before he could finish speaking,
the man darted inside.
Leaving Isaac alone, utterly bewildered.
The man seemed particularly terrified. He ran into the inner hall...
He yelled at the men who were enjoying themselves with prostitutes:
"You idiots, he's here…"
"If he knew all this…"
"Oh God…we're doomed…"
At that moment, a burly man roared:
"Screw him! Who does he think he is?"
"Yara has been dead for years!"
"A bunch of sons of bitches, always trying to intimidate me with dead men!"
With that, he grabbed a prostitute by the neck,
bringing her to the brink of suffocation and oxygen deprivation…
Finally, in a daze…she fainted.
...