Part Two: The Ancient Era: The Tragedy of Hengguang

Era Overview Modern historians usually regard the historical period from the Benqi Realm incident to the end of the Second Stargate War and the initial establishment of the post-war Stargate order as the last period of ancient times. There was no single name for this period that was commonly adopted by all civilizations of the time. Most of the Hengguang survivors' documents call it the "Hengguang War", the Qingqiong Realm post-war archives call it the "Zhumen Chaos", the early Weien Star textbooks use the "Stargate War Period", and some Beichen Star documents call it the "Two War Years". It was not until the compilation of general histories in later generations matured that historians gradually combined these events and regarded them as the final chapter of the ancient chapter. Unlike the great loss at the end of ancient times, the tragedy of Hengguang did not create a large-scale historical blank. On the contrary, a great deal of information has been left from this period. Gate-City records, Stargate school timetables, war rosters, exile registrations, post-war trial books, dream pattern testimonies, boundary road fragments, starport account books, copies of military orders, and a large number of personal notes have enabled later generations to track the evolution of events more clearly. However, rich information does not mean that the truth is simple. There has always been controversy in later generations about why Benqi Realm invited Hengguang to build a gate, whether the Black Obsidian Court tragedy could have been avoided, whether Hengguang's sanctions were too harsh, whether Benqi Realm's attack on Hengguang was premeditated, and whether the two Stargate wars could have been contained on a smaller scale. In particular, the incident at the Green Lantern Gate at the end of the Second Stargate War is still one of the most shadowy mysteries in ancient history. But there is one thing that modern historians can generally confirm: the final chapter of ancient times does not begin when a certain civilization declares a war, but begins when a conflict that could have been controlled gradually spiraled out of control. The Stargate Era enabled countless intelligent beings to truly travel far away for the first time. Roads, Gate-Cities, translation libraries, quarantine, public time, death compensation, residence in other places, and cross-world academy exchanges have enabled many weak civilizations, marginalized ethnic groups, residents of different places, non-human beings, and ordinary travelers to obtain positions that were previously unimaginable. The reason why Hengguang Realm was repeatedly mentioned by later generations was not just because it created the First Stargate, but because it understood Stargate as a public road rather than the private property of the powerful. Because of this, the spread of Hengguang values ​​has inevitably touched many of the world's deepest old orders. In some worlds, the rule of the weak by the strong is called tradition; in some realms, slavery is interpreted as blood law; in some places and regions, low-level ethnic groups are regarded as part of the resource structure; in some sects and theocracies, killing, sacrifice, hunting and cruel hierarchy have long been regarded as local order. Stargate brings not only trade and knowledge, but also external records, external eyes, and external languages. Deaths that in the past could only disappear in local silence may begin to be written into archives from afar. The Benqi Realm incident happened precisely under this background. It wasn't originally the Stargate War, or even an official declaration of war between the two camps. It started with an invitation, a palace banquet, a public rebuke, a post-banquet attack, and countless subsequent revenges that could have been prevented but were not. The reason why later generations regard it as the beginning of the end of ancient times is not because of the huge scale of the Black Obsidian Court tragedy itself. In terms of death toll, there are countless more tragic events in ancient history. What's really important about it is that it proves with extreme clarity for the first time: a powerful world that rejects the value of public roads but wants to gain Stargate's interests. Once it meets Hengguang head-on, the conflict may quickly transcend diplomacy, trade and regulations, and enter the level of blood and boundaries. From then on, there was no going back to the Stargate Era.

Benqi Realm and Jianmen Invitation Benqi Realm is not a remote world. Existing data shows that as early as around the 600th anniversary of the Stargate Calendar, Benqi Realm had entered the Stargate trading system through several branch gates. Its location is not on the most central trunk road, but it connects many mineral production areas, arms markets and marginal trade routes. Seven hundred years after the Stargate Calendar, Benqi Realm has become one of the powerful realms in the outer rim. It outputs black blood iron, red bone fat, domesticated war beasts, magic pattern equipment and some high-risk extraordinary materials. It also inputs Stargate maintenance parts, Weien time correction text, Qingqiong Realm road map, Luojia Hong Kong group supply equipment, Hengguang rule buffer and a variety of exotic medicines. These materials indicate that Benqi Realm is not a world that resists Stargate outside of the Stargate Era. On the contrary, it has already enjoyed the benefits brought by Stargate. But Benqi Realm never really embraced the public ethics behind Stargate. Benqi Realm has long been dominated by several powerful families, demonic sects, military forces and religious groups. Their governance structure is not completely unified, but it has a highly similar underlying logic: the strong have the qualifications to be closer to the essence of the world, while the weak are regarded as appendages of the family, sect, military or theocratic order. In the existing Benqi literature, words such as "nurturing", "blood tax", "life service", "zongxian" and "clan hunting" appear frequently. Some early scholars tried to interpret these words as Benqi ancient customs, but a large number of testimonies after the Black Obsidian Court massacre showed that they often corresponded to slavery, sacrifice, forced labor, blood oppression and public killing. The places that attracted the most attention from later generations are Tuluoyuan and Chigu River. Tuluo was originally located southwest of the Black Obsidian Court in Benqi Realm. It was originally the pastoral residence of several weak ethnic groups. Seven centuries after the Stargate Calendar, the place was gradually controlled by the Huya Clan, the Tumen Clan of the Split Crown Royal Family, and the Redbone Sect. Later generations found in Benqi's post-war trial files that Tuluoyuan had long been used as a "clan hunting" place by the powerful family. The so-called clan hunting is not simply hunting wild beasts, but a ritual in which the children of powerful families, sect disciples and military nobles hunt down expelled ethnic groups, fugitive laborers and foreign civilians. The results are often used to evaluate bloodline prowess, sect promotion, and noble marriage alliance qualifications. Chigu River is another type of evidence. The river runs through the terracotta belt in the northern Benqi Realm, and the riverbed contains a large amount of red minerals. The White Nightmare Church has long claimed that the Red Bone River is the "river of purification of sins" and throws prisoners of war, heretics, deserters and so-called "low-blooded people" into the river for sacrifice. After the Black Obsidian Court massacre, Chi Heng, a Hengguang survivor, stated in her testimony that on the third day after arriving in Benqi Realm, she saw a large number of unregistered corpses piled up in the lower reaches of the Chigu River, including many migrant workers and Benqi local weak people. These phenomena did not appear after the arrival of the Hengguang mission. They already existed, but were consciously obscured by the Benqi ruling group during the Stargate trade boom. The foreign chamber of commerce needs black blood iron and red bone fat, and the Benqi strongman needs Stargate technology and external artifacts. Both parties have avoided in-depth inquiry into the production methods behind the materials for a long time. The contradictions revealed by the road battle are presented in the most naked way in Benqi Realm: Stargate can allow trade to flow, and it can also allow silence to flow; it can allow knowledge to arrive, and it can also allow evidence of crime to arrive. Around the 820th year of Stargate Calendar, several major forces in Benqi Realm jointly proposed a large-scale Stargate expansion plan. The plan is nominally hosted by the Black Obsidian Court, and actual participants include the Huya Clan, the Tumen Clan of the Split Crown Royal Family, the Redbone Sect, the White Nightmare Church, the Northern Military Government, and several large Benqi chambers of commerce. Its purpose is to upgrade Benqi Realm from a strong outer boundary to a main branch road hub. If the plan is completed, Benqi Realm will gain higher traffic levels, more stable timing, larger cargo throughput capacity and stronger military dispatch potential. It was against this background that Benqi Realm sent an invitation to Hengguang Realm, requesting HengguangHengtong Institute to send Stargate engineers to assist in the design of large-scale Stargate. Benqi Realm chose Hengguang not because it respected Hengguang's value, but because Hengguang still represented the highest level of Stargate engineering credibility at the time. Even though the road war has made many worlds dissatisfied with Hengguang, Hengguang still has an irreplaceable status in terms of large-scale Stargate design, rule buffering, life traffic safety, public school time and multi-world registration system. Benqi Realm needs Hengguang's technology. It was not prepared to accept Hengguang's judgment. This became the source of all subsequent disasters.

Black Obsidian Court tragedy In the 829th year of the Stargate Calendar, the HengguangHengtong Institute accepted the invitation of Benqi Realm and decided to send a Jianmen inspection mission to Benqi Realm. There are forty-seven members in the mission. These include Stargate Division, Rules Buffer Division, Quarantine Officer, Translator, Road Legal Officer, Recorder, Guardian, and Observers from Hengguang Outer Ring Academy. The mission is not a diplomatic delegation or a military team in name, but an inspection team in front of Jianmen. This later became a point of controversy. Because Benqi Realm treated them as VIPs and technical personnel during the welcome ceremony, Hengguang insisted that the mission had the right to judge whether Benqi Realm was qualified for large-scale Stargate construction based on the public Stargate charter. The chief stargate of the mission is named Gu Qingyan. Gu Qingyan was born in the 786th year of the Stargate Calendar, and was born in the Heluo Gate-City outer ring workshop area in the Hengguang Realm. In his early years, he participated in many edge branch gate restoration projects and was known for being cautious, low-key, and focusing on the safety of passers-by. He is not a radical public activist, and is even considered conservative within the Hengtong Institute. In the extant notes, he wrote many times: "If the road is not stable, good intentions will also become disasters." Because of this, he was selected as the chief of the Benqi mission, which was obviously an arrangement that Hengguang hoped to avoid escalating the conflict. Wen Zhaobai, the road legal officer, is a different kind of character. Wen Zhaobai was born in the 797th year of the Stargate Calendar, and came from a school family near Shuiheng City in Donglu, Hengguang Realm. His father once served as the transcriber of foreigners' residence regulations, and his mother's line is related to the Wuhe Land Drifter Register. When Wen Zhaobai was studying at Heluo Academy, he had long studied the issues of high-risk labor, private accidents, and complaints from the weak. Compared with Gu Qingyan, he believes that public roads must proactively examine the targets for gate construction, otherwise Stargate will only become a tool for local powerful people to expand their power. There were two other survivors in the mission who would later become extremely important. One is the translator Lossin. Luo Xin was born from the Qingyu people, a small tribe on the edge of Hengguang, and was familiar with Hengguang common language, Benqi Black Ting language, some Redbone Sect secret languages ​​and the mixed language of the Outer Rim Chamber of Commerce. The second is the quarantine officer Chi Heng. Chi Heng is responsible for recording Benqi Realm life risks, diseases, regulatory pollution and migrant labor conditions. Her quarantine notes later became important evidence in the investigation of Benqi's crimes. When the mission arrived in Benqi Realm, both parties still maintained courtesy. BenqiBlack Obsidian Court arranged a grand welcome ceremony. The Huya Clan, Tumen Clan, Redbone Sect, White Nightmare Church and the Northern Military Government all sent representatives to attend. Benqi showed Hengguang the planned Stargate site, the Outer Ring Mining Road, the military gate guard team and the Chamber of Commerce storage area, but deliberately avoided Tuluo Yuan, Chigu River and the labor camp. Gu Qingyan’s initial report was also relatively cautious, only pointing out that Benqi Realm’s “public roster is incomplete, migrant worker registration is chaotic, and there is high-risk blood contamination around some locations.” However, as the mission's stay lengthened, the shielding gradually became ineffective. During the quarantine investigation, Chi Heng discovered that a large number of migrant workers did not have complete identity registration, and some of them came from weak star realms that were already connected to the Stargate network. Luo Xin heard Benqi's low-level servants talking about "Clan Hunting Day" in code during the exchange at the translation library. Wen Zhaobai met the fleeing Chigu River people on his way to the scheduled outer ring gate site. The latter claimed that the powerful Benqi people were preparing to expand the "blood tax" after the completion of the large Stargate to include more weak people and migrant workers into the Redbone Sect worship system. At the beginning of Stargate Calendar 830, Gu Qingyan submitted a mid-term review opinion to the Black Obsidian Court, requiring Benqi Realm to complete three rectifications before the large-scale Stargate design could proceed: establishing a public roster of migrant workers, suspending Tuluo Yuan hunting, and allowing Hengguang and Weien representatives to enter the lower reaches of the Chigu River for independent quarantine. If Benqi Realm refuses, the mission will recommend Hengtong Institute to discontinue the large-scale Stargate design. Benqi Realm reacted violently. The Black Obsidian Court believed that Hengguang exceeded his authority and interfered in the internal affairs of his community. Huya Clan calls hunting by the Tuluo tribe a noble tradition of Benqi, and outsiders have no right to comment. Redbone Sect claims that Chibone River belongs to the sect’s sacred area and Hengguang quarantine officers are not allowed to enter. White Nightmare Church Pope Chiuro said in a public prayer: "If the road comes to judge this world, it is not a road, but a shackles." In the 831st year of the Stargate Calendar, Benqi Black Obsidian Court held the second official banquet for the Hengguang mission. According to Benqi documentation, this banquet was called "Opening Ceremony" and was intended to confirm the cooperative relationship between the two parties and announce that the large-scale Stargate project has entered the next stage. Documents from Hengguang stated that the mission did not agree to continue the project before attending the banquet, and that Gu Qingyan originally planned to formally submit a document to Black Obsidian Court to postpone the construction of the gate after the banquet.