Chapter 1 The Infinite Void

The void is endless, it is everything and everything beyond everything, the integration of the knowable and the unknowable, the collection of all things and all things beyond all things. All that can be described, indescribable, solvable, unsolvable, orderly, and disordered are all encompassed in the void. In this boundless realm, undercurrents surge, and with each ebb and flow, countless worlds are born and countless worlds are annihilated. Whether it is the Dream Plane, the Surface World, or any other universe, they are all merely bubbles in the void.

Yet within these bubbles, endless magnificent landscapes are nurtured—those soulless, soulful, ignorant, and wise natural phenomena and intelligent races shape the myriad worlds, and every scene in these myriad worlds moves even the gods.

This was the first time Leah had seen such a sight.

For a long time, she had been trapped in the small universe of her birth. All she could see was the horizon that could be described by mathematical limits. Even with divine power, she could only vaguely sense the edge of the universe, and the faint fluctuations of information beyond the edge. She relied on calculation and reasoning to conclude that there were new worlds beyond the universe, but today was the first time she had personally seen those landscapes that had previously only existed in mathematical formulas and theoretical models.

Countless nebulae, kingdoms, and cosmic domains stretched out on the water beneath her feet, and some of them gradually became clear. The fates of these worlds were also reflected in her mind. She saw the history and future of these worlds as if she had witnessed them firsthand, even though the distance between these worlds and her had reached a scale that could not be described mathematically, everything felt like a personal experience.

And the voice of that "Mother" rang directly in her mind:

"This is called the Great Nebula. Ten thousand years ago, it was also called the 'War Galaxy.' The entire universe was almost a battlefield, and more than three-digit civilizations lived here. They are all mortals, and their opponents are a group of gods who have gone mad...

"This is Heisenwood-Redemoon. A dozen intelligent races live on this binary star system. Their civilization level has not even broken through the spaceflight bottleneck, but they have to face a source of disaster sufficient to cause the end of the world—they have persisted for a thousand years before the gods paid attention to this world.

"This planet is already destroyed. I once personally guarded this place, guarded it for tens of millions of years. My body is the seal, and this planet is covered on me, like a tomb. A human civilization thrived on the tomb, but after the seal was broken, this civilization instantly vanished into ashes—but the survivors built a refuge on a nearby planet. Now, ten thousand years have passed, and they are about to launch deep-space spacecraft to the edge of the universe. The disaster that broke out on a mere planet is no longer taken seriously by them.”

Leah opened her mouth slightly: "There are so many... so many worlds, so many disasters..."

"The void is boundless, and the number of worlds is endless, but for many mortals who can only live on a small planet all their lives, such a vast world is not of much significance. The world in which they live is their whole world, and in the face of the disasters that occur in this world, they will burst out with a desire for survival that you cannot imagine—because for them, that is their everything.

"Therefore, I want to correct one of your words, my bloodkin. You are indeed protecting them, but you are not just a protector, because protector is too lofty a word, which means a one-sided overlooking and giving. But mortals—they are more steadfast and powerful than you think. Even without gods, they will guard their homes and heritage, even more firmly than you. So, the more accurate statement is that you are not protecting mortals, but protecting their world together with mortals.

"You feel that you have the responsibility and obligation to protect mortals, which is very good, because a sense of responsibility has always been a good quality of gods, but do not use this sense of responsibility to cover up the efforts of mortals themselves, which will blind your vision, and blindness is often the first step on the wrong path."

Leah felt that she understood something. She nodded, and her gaze slowly moved on the water beneath her feet. One by one, the universes lived and died under her gaze. Gradually, the patterns on the water changed again, and the voice in her mind continued to sound:

"Now I will teach you the second thing, about those parts that we cannot save. You have seen those worlds struggling to be reborn after the apocalypse, but in fact, there are more of these... these that failed to survive, leaving not even a trace, and can only leave a number plate in the Extinct Civilization Archive."

The light and shadow appearing on the water surface were changing rapidly, and one after another starry sky flashed past. Leah saw ruins, fragments, and broken walls. There were celestial debris floating in the universe, and there were also jagged steel ruins on the earth, and a huge starship, torn apart, floating alone in the clouds of a gaseous giant planet. Those starships may have meant a failed escape.

Time was passing, eroding steel and tombstones. Cities and ships were gradually weathered into dust, but no survivors appeared, and no descendants of any civilization came to rebuild these things.

There were more and more such scenes, and the end of each group of scenes returned to darkness. A black cross mark was their final annotation, and there was only a word without temperature under that mark: DELETED.

Finally, Leah saw a huge cylindrical space that seemed to float in chaos. This space was boundless, and countless neat square crystal grids floated in the cylindrical area, and countless vague figures were constantly shuttling in this space, storing certain things into those squares. Under some inexplicable feeling, her gaze suddenly looked in a certain direction, so the square at the end of her sight became clear in her eyes.

She saw some words floating in front of the square:

"Dream Plane-Tanagus, Civilization Status: Extinct, Archiving Personnel: Hao Ren"

Leah opened her mouth: "... I remember this name..."

"Although they have been destroyed, the creatures living in these worlds once resisted resolutely. The lucky ones can still leave a few words of records or a few bloodlines that have been cut off, but more only have a number left. Doomsday is happening every minute and every second in the endless void. Even if the gods fight to the death and all living beings in the world resist to the death, the 'tombstones' with numbers left in this archive will still increase day after day. So, do you think that under the premise that these worlds are destined to be destroyed, is our effort still meaningful?"

Of course, it is meaningful, Leah wanted to say, but she couldn't help but think of her initial negative thoughts.

"You are hesitating, because you have realized the crux of the matter," that tall figure condensed out of thin air again, she quietly looked into Leah's eyes, "Perhaps we are destined not to be able to save everything, perhaps sacrifice is inevitable, but our battle has never been a clear-benefit transaction—mortals resist, because they don't want to perish, we fight, because we don't want to watch them perish, such a motivation is enough, as for the result... does that matter?"

Leah silently clenched her fists and said softly, "I think I understand."

"No, you don't fully understand yet," the dark Valkyrie interrupted her, "Because so far what I have told you are some glorious principles, principles are of course useful, but the motivation they generate is very limited. Next, I will tell you something more practical than principles—

"We fight, even at the cost of bloodshed and sacrifice, to kill an enemy, in addition to some grand principles, the more important reason is—annoyance."

Leah: "... Eh?"

"We want to protect something, but someone is trying to do the opposite, trying to destroy what we are protecting, so we will be annoyed, very, very, very annoyed. This annoyance is the primary motivation for us to decide to kill the opponent. No matter what the situation, as long as this annoyance still exists, we absolutely have no reason to stop. Either smash the opponent into渣滓 (zhāzǐ, scraps/dregs), or press the opponent to the ground and make him willingly call us ancestors, otherwise never stop!

"A qualified god will fight to the death after identifying his enemy. We will meet our enemy head-on, and do our best to destroy him, crush him, grind him to ashes, and cut him into pieces. If he escapes, then chase him to the end of the void. If he defends, then shatter his defense. If he is resurrected ten thousand times, then kill him ten thousand and one times. If he dares to branch out and let his evil claws spread everywhere, then cut off every trace of his power, sweep away every one of his claws, dig them out from multiple dimensions, dig them out from different timelines, dig them out from the cosmic background radiation, and keep digging until he regrets being born into this world—and this is the violent means necessary to uphold justice."

Leah's eyes slowly brightened.

"My bloodkin, now you tell me, does that guy called the Lord of Madness make you very annoyed?"

"Very annoyed!"

"Will you look favorably on your enemy just because your career has been frustrated and your results have been destroyed?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Then, are you willing to fight for your slaughtered people, to grind your enemy to ashes?"

"Quite willing!"

"Very good, it seems that you are ready to uphold justice," the dark Valkyrie smiled, looking at Leah with approval, "Then now turn to the first page of the textbook's inner text, the first lesson, about the origin and definition of gods—underline the entire text, it will all be on the final exam."

Leah: "..."

In another world far away, in the office of another god, Hao Ren looked at the goddess in front of him with some suspicion: "You said that the things left by that dark Valkyrie in the textbook will really work?"

"It will definitely work," V Raven 12345 waved his hand, "Anyway, if even the birth mother can't do anything, then even if you really wield a meteor hammer, it won't be of any use. Let's not talk about this, let's talk about the dark realm..."