Crossing the temporal rift, Ye Bai found herself standing in the very plaza she had glimpsed during her temporal regression.
Every object in the square remained exactly as she had seen it in her vision—unchanged for tens of thousands of years, as if the molecular motion within this space had co to a standstill.
Ye Bai’s gaze settled on the crystal sphere resting atop the central stone pillar.
The sphere lay quietly in its place, appearing no different from an ordinary crystal ball at this mont.
Like a phantom, Ye Bai descended soundlessly and appeared beside the sphere in an instant.
This sealed plaza was nestled deep within a colossal structure—likely the innermost sanctum of the Stellar Alliance’s stronghold. Nurous energy sensors were embedded here, designed to trigger alarms at the slightest molecular disturbance.
Yet, Ye Bai’s arrival went entirely unnoticed.
When she chose to conceal herself, she could erase all traces of her presence by replacing the environntal changes she caused with the unaltered "past" from the mont before her interference.
It was akin to covering an ink-stained canvas with an identical blank layer, effectively erasing her existence on a physical level.
The only remaining traces were on the psychic plane—undetectable to those with weaker ntal prowess than hers.
As Ye Bai focused her psychic energy on the sphere, sothing unexpected happened.
Unlike the radiant display of six million beams she had witnessed during her regression, the sphere reacted differently this ti.
From its core, an ominous red dot erged, rapidly spreading until the entire sphere was saturated in crimson.
[Intruder detected! Coordinates: (00.00.00)]
[Intruder detected! Coordinates: (00.00.00)]
[Intruder detected…]
Alarms blared incessantly, not only from the sphere—the central control unit—but also from the secondary terminal Ye Bai carried.
However, just like before with Lelun’s main terminal, the secondary unit lacked the authority to identify her as an "intruder." It rely relayed the ssage chanically, even as it rested in her possession.
Watching this unfold, Ye Bai’s form flickered briefly—as if she montarily vanished from this universe—before solidifying again with an intrigued expression.
Simultaneously, the alarms reached the main terminals held by mbers of the Stellar Alliance.
…
In a mysterious region inaccessible by conventional ans—a planet-sized expanse—stood an otherworldly chanical hall.
This was the heart of the universe, existing since the dawn of ti.
Now, every alarm device on the hall’s exterior blared to life.
"Who is it?! Lelun is dead, and a new main terminal has already been established… How could—? Wait, an intruder? Could it be… from last ti?"
"These coordinates… Impossible!"
Within the chanical hall, all activity ground to a halt as its occupants processed the alert. The intruder’s location—the very core of the Stellar Cathedral—defied logic. How had they breached such a heavily guarded space without triggering any prior alarms?
"Beep! Clank—"
The disturbance extended beyond the active personnel. Deep inside the hall, cryogenic pods—shielded by layers of heavy weaponry and machinery—began activating one by one.
The occupants, high-ranking mbers of the Stellar Alliance who had suspended their aging souls to prolong their lifespans, were forcibly roused from stasis.
These "Ancients," who had lived far longer than the current generation of the Alliance, possessed knowledge lost to ti.
Now, with only fragnts of their soul’s lifespan remaining, these revered bishops of the Stellar Alliance erged from their pods in a frenzy.
The most desperate among them—A-class psychics on the verge of soul depletion—descended into near madness:
"An intruder! There really is an intruder!"
"Eliminating them grants a request from the Primordial… That wish will be mine!"
The entire Stellar Alliance trembled with anticipation.
This ancient organization, existing since the birth of the cosmos, boasted a core force predominantly composed of A-class psychics, with B-class mbers being rare newcors.
Now, over a million of them within the chanical hall mobilized instantly, racing toward the intruder’s coordinates at top speed.
…
Back in the circular plaza at the heart of the chanical hall, the crimson sphere didn’t just sound alarms—it launched an attack on Ye Bai.
[Executing genetic annihilation protocol…]
Genetic annihilation?
A mont later, Ye Bai looked down at her hand.
The sa hand capable of shattering planets now crumbled into charcoal-gray dust, disintegrating from the molecular level upward.
Her body, regardless of its current resilience, was undergoing a fundantal collapse—gene by gene.
Indeed, genetic collapse.
A phenonon that wouldn’t have occurred even under extre radiation exposure during her F-class days was now unfolding at terrifying speed under the [genetic annihilation protocol].
Even cybernetically enhanced beings couldn’t escape this fate—as long as they retained even a fragnt of their original DNA, this technology would unravel them from within.
"So this is the Stellar Alliance’s ultimate bioweapon…"
Ye Bai raised her disintegrating hand, observing its dissolution with detached curiosity.
Even petrification rays paled in comparison. Those were still affected by the target’s size and psychic resistance, but this… this bypassed all defenses, targeting existence itself.
After witnessing the Alliance’s assault, Ye Bai pressed her crumbling hand against the blood-red sphere.
Had she confronted this before ascending beyond A-class, the damage—possibly even death—would have been irreversible.
But in the next instant, as her nearly vanished wrist reached for the sphere, the scattered ashes of her hand reversed course.
Like a recording played backward, the particles reassembled, restoring her palm to its pristine state.
By the ti her hand made contact with the sphere, it was as though nothing had ever happened.
In the eyes of all mbers of the Star Church, the most terrifying killing attack was effortlessly resolved by Ye Bai as she reversed ti upon herself.
Genetic annihilation was still a three-dinsional cosmic ability, but the temporal power she now wielded allowed her to partially transcend the current three-dinsional scale.
However, this encounter led Ye Bai to largely dismiss her earlier speculation that the real world might also be a ga.
If the real world were a ga, what she should have faced now would be sothing akin to the "Great Annihilation" of the divine realm—a complete data deletion—rather than genetic collapse.
Of course, Ye Bai never acted without certainty. After briefly experiencing dinsional transcendence, even if she were to encounter a "data deletion" scenario like that of the divine realm, she was confident she could handle it.
The current situation was, in fact, far better than she had anticipated.
[Intruder detected! Coordinates: (00.00.00)]
The alarm continued to blare. Unlike when she had accessed Lelun's master terminal, the crimson "central control" sphere Ye Bai now touched had additional security asures. Its information remained inaccessible to her, emitting only relentless warnings.
Yet, this posed no issue for Ye Bai.
Her psychic energy surged, and an eerie light flickered deep within her pupils. The sphere's history rewound rapidly in her vision, reverting to its original, untainted state.
Here, she discovered a vast array of missions and technologies.
Standard missions: Clearing wormholes, guiding civilizations…
As expected, all tasks delegated by the Star Church to the denizens of the Chaotic Star Sea originated from this central hub.
Wormhole missions under standard tasks appeared only once every few months, whereas civilization-guidance missions were far more frequent, with several erging each month. The universe was vast, and even with low civilization density, many still existed.
As for technology, it went without saying—every piece of knowledge and technique Ye Bai had encountered before was stored here. The highest-level authority was the genetic annihilation program she had just experienced.
This was likely a critical weapon within the Star Church, not deployed lightly.
Simultaneously, Ye Bai noticed that the number of master terminals this sphere could split into was fixed—6,895,134, matching the number of lights she had seen during her temporal backtracking.
The latest data showed that one master terminal had recently been "recovered" and successfully split anew.
Cross-referencing the tiline, Ye Bai imdiately realized this was Lelun's destroyed terminal. Even if a terminal was destroyed, it could be regenerated here given ti.
Did this an the Star Church's direct mbership was eternally capped at just over 6.8 million?
Beyond this, the sphere contained two special missions absent from all other master terminals:
Special Mission 1: Eliminate any intruder upon detection.
Special Mission 2: Decipher the aning of 6,895,134.
Ye Bai had already personally experienced the first mission, but the second left her montarily stunned.
Did this number hold so profound significance? The maximum number of master terminals the sphere could split into was this exact figure, suggesting "the Stars" deeply desired its aning.
Those who completed either special mission would have one request granted—unrestricted, perhaps even any request imaginable.
Ye Bai recalled Lelun's abrupt shift in deanor upon discovering her status as an intruder. He had sched relentlessly, even risking the Church's pursuit, just to extend his soul's lifespan. Completing this special mission would likely absolve him of all past transgressions and grant him immortality.
But Ye Bai, seasoned in evading pursuit, had acted faster.
As she pondered, her temporal backtracking continued unabated, unfolding at breakneck speed.
The sphere, hidden deep within the Star Church's core, had remained in an unchanging environnt, its only fluctuations being internal data shifts and rare interactions with the Church's highest echelons.
Ti rewound swiftly. Ye Bai frowned and accelerated the process.
The sphere was the true heart of the Star Church, and it was likely the object most deeply connected to the psychic universe in the current cosmos. She had to trace it back to its mont of creation.
The sphere's origin was far older than Ye Bai had anticipated—so ancient that even her imasurable psychic energy was being drained at an alarming rate.
"Hum."
Finally, after rewinding millions of years, a resonant vibration echoed across her consciousness. She had hit the "ceiling."
Stunned, she witnessed a scene she had never imagined.
A singularity exploded, spewing forth matter, birthing the universe.
From the mont this newborn universe erged—alongside primordial matter—this plaza, this pillar, and this sphere ca into existence.
Within the newly ford sphere, fragnts of now-deleted information flashed by:
[Universe reboot complete.]
[Current epoch: 01.]
[Constructed planetary system: Solar System, Blue Star (68.951.34).]
[Generated epoch-00 carbon-based lifeform genetic template.]
[Implanted epoch-00 cosmic structure initial mory.]
...
A universe reboot? Epoch-01? What was epoch-00? Before this reboot, another universe had existed?
No wonder Ye Bai had felt she hit a limit after rewinding millions of years—that was when this universe's reboot began.
In other words, this universe, recorded in the Stellar Alliance's archives as having nurtured intelligent life for billions of years, was in truth only millions of years old. Its current intelligent lifeforms weren't products of natural evolution but were instead crafted using genetic templates from the previous epoch.
Because the original genetic templates were identical, the genetic annihilation program could ignore species distinctions, becoming an unstoppable weapon…
And the cosmic civilizations' mories of ancient history were all artificially implanted—just like ga and Luo Jin, cultivated by the Black Hole, using technology exchanged from the Star Church…
The world's essence wasn't a ga, but the truth was no less unsettling.
From the universe's inception, all intelligent civilizations—whether under the Stellar Alliance or the Chaotic Star Sea—had been under the control of "the Stars."
Even now, the Stars continued issuing missions that shaped the course of civilizations…
What were the Stars? And what was their purpose in all this?
Lines of information resembling divine realm console logs, yet fundantally different in nature, flashed across Ye Bai's vision. A torrent of thoughts surged through her mind, gathering into storm after storm. Then, when she glimpsed one particular line, Ye Bai froze abruptly, her entire body shuddering as if struck by an electric current.
[Legacy Mission]
[Discover the aning of Cosmic Ultimate Answer 6895134]
[Eliminate the Stowaway from Epoch 00]
Beware the stars. Do not be discovered. Stowaway. The extra ten-thousand-year soul activity limit... Fragnts of previously incomprehensible information suddenly coalesced in this mont.
Amidst shock and disbelief, Ye Bai also felt an indescribable emotion welling up within her. So, the reason she was labeled a "stowaway" was because she didn’t belong to the current Epoch 01 at all.
This stowaway hadn’t crossed space—but ti.
Ye Bai was a relic from before the universe’s reboot, a temporal fugitive from Epoch 00—a historical stowaway.
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