The sensation of falling suddenly hit, fragnts of light and shadow swept through the field of view like a storm, a vast stream of information flooded into the mind, then roared away.
Yu Sheng didn’t know how long he had been "falling" in the chaos, only felt as if he had instantly experienced countless switches between life and death, yet it seed he was rely disturbed in consciousness, losing the perception of life and death—then, his consciousness finally stopped this seemingly eternal fall, lightly, as if "sent" to a certain place.
He opened his eyes in the darkness, first seeing a city, with towering spires standing like a forest, as if wanting to support the sky, the spires connected with endless chains, all dyed black, mimicking the form of a spider web.
Above the city, the sky is gloomy, sparse stars scattered, the strange firmant covered in fine crimson stripes like a thick, oppressive shell enveloping the whole world.
Then he saw a group of people, gathered in a vast building, clustered around so gigantic computational device, people bustling back and forth in the hall, tense and busy, all faceless, with only hazy shadows, indistinguishable features.
Finally, he saw a mountain, an extrely high mountain—soaring as if trying to reach the stars.
At the foot of the mountain, the city sprawls endlessly, full of towers; at the top, the temples are grand and awe-inspiring, the divine temple adorned everywhere with spider web insignia.
Long steps stretch from the foot of the mountain to the top, dark flags flutter on the platform before the divine temple, monks gather on the platform, seemingly surrounding so observational device, a voice is shouting, hoarse and vague, repeated several tis before Yu Sheng could barely understand the aning of the sentence—
"They succeeded! Those nearby... they built a sun, reshaping the dwelling place using the remaining mass and information of the world... ashes can sustain!"
Yu Sheng’s consciousness floated, not knowing when it landed in front of the divine temple, passing through the shouting figure, hearing the whispers around—the crowd discussed about so Sanctuary, discussed ashes, anchor points, observer effects, and the sustenance of the world.
But suddenly, all sounds vanished, the entire world froze at this mont.
Yu Sheng instinctively raised his head, seeing the divine temple doors wide open, inside was dim and chaotic, a massive shadow deep in the darkness watching him, he could not discern the shadow’s form, only seeing It had a spider-like lower body and a female figure, eyes crimson... like the strange fine stripes of the sky.
A voice suddenly sounded in Yu Sheng’s mind—
"It wasn’t until long, long after did I realize... it turns out not every world’s end lasted so long."
Yu Sheng instead cald down at this mont, not entering the divine temple, but simply sat down on the stone floor before the door, looking at those crimson eyes in the shadows: "Are there differences in the duration of the apocalypse?"
"Yes," the voice sounded warm and patient, "so are quick, the red scars swiftly run through the entire world, so everyone doesn’t have ti to realize the arrival of the apocalypse, and everything is over; so slower, they still have ti to lant and fear, can cry painfully, or send out a team to save the world, engaging in a futile but not long struggle; so slower still, they can properly plan a dignified farewell, welcoming peace after grief and chaos, or make so... attempts of slim hope, yet aningful."
Yu Sheng hesitated: "Then... what about you all?"
"Ours is slower," the gentle voice lightly said, "lasting 6,660 years—precisely starting when we first observed space, then accompanying our entire civilization’s progress."
Yu Sheng took a light breath.
Yet that voice continued seemingly unconcerned.
"So, since the day civilization was enlightened, the end of all things to us is a countdown placed before everyone—no need for any ethereal prophecy, no need for any endless conspiracy theories and disputes, it’s right above us, slow, real, advancing daily without rest...
"The observable universe is collapsing, a very slow collapse... and we, are almost at its center.
"Scholars say this universe was once stable, because traces left in the noise of background radiation were those beautiful ones, they say in those tis stars prospered, space dinsions were unimaginably large, stars had none of those crimson lines representing countdowns, only a deep black that was tranquil and peaceful, tribes living in that era were blessed, they didn’t even know when the apocalypse would co, so much that they might still need to concoct so horrifying apocalypse stories to scare themselves...
"But we didn’t catch such good days."
Sounds of sharp hard objects scratching the ground ca from the darkness, Yu Sheng saw a long limb slowly probing out from the temple door—covered in black armor, surface densely packed with fine, intricate, and elegant patterns, intimidating, yet seemingly emanating an indescribable... saintly quality.
The limb stopped beside Yu Sheng.
No malice.
"No wonder a tribe would take ’on’ as faith, and construct the entire worldview and belief system around ’on’," Yu Sheng said thoughtfully, yet his gaze was on those frozen figures before the temple, "but it seems those who created you... don’t want to resign themselves to fate so easily."
"Survival is a biological instinct, in the slow years of the apocalypse’s approach, the frail ones die first, and the rest, are notably keen to live."
"..putation?" Yu Sheng suddenly thought of sothing—the dense formulas in the Jinglin Sanatorium ward, the constantly calculating "puppet" in Black Stone Space Station, the Black Dot Group’s pursuit of so ultimate truth, "...you are trying to find the solution to the ’creator’s equation’?"
"We tried many things, split over them, waged civil wars, and even nearly faced an extinction crisis before the apocalypse arrived. So advanced while others retreated; so sought truth while others embraced folly. Much blood has flowed in front of this divine temple, and the ’calculation’ you ntioned... was rely one of the paths that prevailed.
"But at least most people reached a consensus on this path—to understand ’destruction,’ one must understand ’creation.’
Yu Sheng: "Creation?"
The slender limb gently lifted and pointed at the frozen figures on the temple square.
A gentle voice echoed in Yu Sheng’s mind.
"In the third millennium of the apocalypse, we observed the ’walls’ of the world becoming thin. As the observable universe kept collapsing and shrinking, this phenonon beca increasingly evident, and gradually, scholars discovered they could capture so... ’information’ that seed not to belong to this world through specific thods.
"So we built nurous observation devices, hoping to observe the situation beyond the crimson.
"But the initial observation results... almost broke down even the most optimistic among us."
"What did you observe?" Yu Sheng instinctively asked.
"Debris, the corpse of the universe, the roar of destruction of all things echoed among the corpses of thousands of extinct universes, turning into maddening noise," the slender limb uneasily scratched at the ground, as if the terror and despair felt by the forr believers while observing the ’outside’ for the first ti were still imprinted in this God’s mory, "Everything was over; outside the world, there were only embers."
The imnse shock left Yu Sheng speechless for a mont, and he quickly thought of Anka Aela and the Inference Star Body’s mory—and the scene witnessed in the illusion, surrounded by the Dark Angel.
After several seconds, he reacted suddenly: "But it seems you later observed sothing else..."
"Yes, there are always those who don’t give up—so after countless fatal madness and aberrations, we finally discovered a... ’survivor settlent.’"
"Survivors?"
"A group of embers, remnants piled together after several worlds were destroyed, where soone reignited a fire among those embers and raised a new sun," the slender limb softly tapped on the ground, "The observed information was vague, and establishing communication was impossible. After several attempts, we only obtained a rather limited amount of information, yet we did get a na...
"’Endless Sea.’
"It’s the na they gave their sanctuary."
The gentle voice paused for a mont before continuing: "Despite the limited information, this greatly encouraged us because the existence of the ’Endless Sea’ sanctuary proved one thing—re-’creation’ after the end of the world is possible."
"Creation..." Yu Sheng instinctively repeated the word.
He felt he had already guessed what the ’sanctuary’ they observed was about.
Baili Qing once said that before the "second Singularity Explosion," the previous era of this universe, the "old world," was known as the Deep Sea Era.
"Thus, our calculations began—for the ’re-creation’ after the end of all things," the ancient Outer God said softly, "We didn’t have so many embers aggregated together, nor did we have so many opportunities to get things wrong and try again like they did. The only possible bearer of the sanctuary, the ’Observer Effect Stable Anchor,’ was a ’God’...
"There was only a single chance; the timing could not be missed, nor could there be any mistakes. We began to set up nurous observation devices within the remaining universe space to precisely asure the shifts of ti and space, summarize the laws governing the transformation of creation and destruction, and the believers carefully adjusted the rituals and doctrines so I could understand their intentions and prepare for the new world...
"Day after day, scholars calculated, seeking the ultimate solution to the creator’s equation, and engineers began constructing a massive engine deep within the mother planet—to trigger the apocalypse when that final day arrives, creating our own sanctuary...
"Such days continued for more than three thousand years, and finally, everything was ready.
"Then, we unlocked the creator’s equation.
"After such a protracted struggle, we finally derived all the data required for rekindling the embers and reached the final conclusion—"
Yu Sheng unknowingly held his breath. He seed to have had a certain thought, yet he instinctively asked, "The conclusion is..."
The slender limb gently placed itself on Yu Sheng’s hand.
"The universe’s mass is insufficient."
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