Gods Vanish on a Cloudy Day
Chapter 1 In the Name of ‘Correctness’ (7500)
[Are most of the strong in the multiverse 'selfish'?]
Infinite spiritual energy, carrying the Great Dao that could encompass countless civilization systems and extraordinary powers, filled the entire sealed multiverse, giving birth to countless civilizations and races, almost all of whom had embarked on the path of transcendence to varying degrees.
Because of this, in this sealed multiverse, intelligent life had been naturally divided into two classes by extraordinary power since its birth.
[The Strong] and [The Weak].
Strong and weak are always relative concepts, but from a macro perspective, the strong are undoubtedly those who possess extraordinary power, technology, skills, and wisdom—their very existence surpasses the collective of countless weak, and even an entire civilization may not be comparable. The strong possess absolute suppression over the weak.
To put it simply,
—the weak can never contend with the strong.
Even if a group of weak individuals collectively gather to create artificial gods, use technology to create powerful giant ships or robots, or even elevate the power of the entire civilization, allowing themselves to contend with the strong... at that time, they will also become strong.
No matter how miserably they were oppressed as the weak before, when they can fight against the strong, they will naturally become the strong.
The weak are relative and eternal.
And the weak in this multiverse always have such questions.
—are most of the strong 'selfish'?
This is a very, very difficult question to answer.
Indeed, in many worlds, there are countless strong individuals who oppress the weak, exploit resources, and devour civilizations, planets, and even worlds to satisfy themselves. For the sake of their own existence, their own desires, their own ambitions and 'dreams', they will mercilessly and unscrupulously seize all the resources they can.
Those gods who oppress civilizations in the name of faith, and extract source power; those ancestral beasts who control bloodlines in the name of ancestors, using one race to complete themselves; those immortals and gods who drain the heavens and earth as soon as they ascend, using the power of one realm to cross the void to other realms, repeating this endless cycle...
There are too many, whether they are the immortal beasts that devour the heavens and earth, or the heavenly demons that reside in people's hearts and feed on the thoughts and karma of all beings, or even the demons and devils rooted in the souls of all things, which must be born with countless souls. They are all 'strong' who must make all living beings suffer, and oppress all life other than themselves in order to achieve themselves.
Their numbers are infinite and can be called limitless.
That is the number of 'selfish individuals' in the multiverse.
But, conversely, things are not so absolute.
In the multiverse, there are also some strong individuals who are selfless.
They are the saints, Dao Ancestors, and Buddhas who pass down their Dao lineage, hoping that everyone can become virtuous people and attain liberation from the Great Dao; they are the sages, creators, and true gods who spread their inheritance, forge the path of pursuing truth, create many new worlds, and guide and protect all beings... They have many names, just as 'selfish individuals' have infinite names, 'selfless individuals' also have infinite names.
Their number is only a fraction of the selfish strong.
However, the number of selfless strong is still infinite.
—very wonderful, isn't it?
Once infinity is involved, all logic, all karma, all common-sense judgments, and instincts seem to completely fail.
But that is the meaning of infinity.
That is why, whether selfish or selfless, all the strong, the weak, all beings, will pursue the brilliance of 'infinity'.
The selfish desire to bring all infinity to themselves, because they themselves are infinity, so they are the whole and also one, the unique and absolute gods and supreme beings, who can only see themselves, and therefore see the entire truth of the multiverse, and are the absolute gods who are only ego, only truth, and only pure.
The selfless desire to share all infinity, because they themselves are infinity, so one is also all, the infinite power and Great Dao, the infinite belief and inheritance, even if shared infinitely, are still infinite, and will eventually cover the entire multiverse, and are the eternally transmitted and infinitely spreading path and existence.
The strong devour the weak, turning them into a part of themselves—the absolute existence, yearning for infinity and eternity.
The strong spread their power, turning the weak into the strong—the existence of eternity and infinity also gazes at the absolute.
Their disputes will run through the entire history of the multiverse and reach the end of this multiverse.
——Sealed Multiverse, Cobonas World——
Ash, dust, and the surging, ceaseless rainbow light storms that pour into the inner side of the world from the void constitute the scenery of this shattered universe's almost scattered plane islands.
In the distant past, this was once the mother universe of a great multiverse civilization. Here, powerful wizards ruled over all things. Their power reached the source of the world, and they could easily control the truth for their own use. If the power of the nine wizard gods were combined, they could even temporarily change the light of truth of the entire universe.
This was a power that was close to merging with the Dao. Their civilization was enough to spread to other worlds in the void, conquering or enlightening the many worlds, universes, and countless races within the endless starry sky.
The wizards were full of ambition. They were about to choose their own path. When facing competitors from other universes, they would decide whether to embark on the path of 'selfishness' or 'selflessness'.
But they did not have the opportunity to choose.
The wizard civilization of Cobonas World was destroyed—destroyed by the aftermath of the battle between even more powerful strong, two merged Dao experts.
According to the timeline of the local world, it was 190 million years ago that two unknown merged Dao experts, appearing as giant beast shadows, fought each other in the void. They shattered the void and worlds along the way. The terrifying tremors caused by the collision of their limbs created thousands upon thousands of tiny worlds and planes. The ultimate skills and killing moves they used seemed to have their own lives. Even a trace of the aftermath could absorb the endless spiritual energy in the void, strengthen and grow itself, and even become a strange 'divine power life'.
Cobonas World, the wizard civilization, happened to be located on the trajectory of the battle between these two merged Dao giant beasts. Regardless of whether they noticed it or not, this great universe, which nurtured a thriving civilization, was crushed by their divine power. Two strands of merged Dao divine power intertwined and penetrated the core of this universe, completely obliterating and destroying the 'cosmic pan-will' that the wizard civilization had sacrificed for a long time to cultivate, and even refining it into a Great Dao puppet for temporary combat.
After tearing the entire Cobonas universe almost to pieces, these two merged Dao giant beasts left this world cluster. The cosmic pan-will that was refined into a Great Dao puppet and was beaten to pieces was naturally completely destroyed. Its wails covered all the world cracks of the Cobonas universe in the gradually descending destruction rainbow light, and under the urging of the nine Wizard Kings who burned their lives and souls, it even covered the entire universe.
The rainbow, enough to collapse all the earth, water, fire, and wind elements, prevented the power of the void from invading the inside of the universe, and destroyed everything in the universe, while also locking all the living beings in the universe in a completely broken universe—this was the final 'love' of the cosmic pan-will cultivated by the wizard civilization and the nine strong, for their creators and their people.
Until now.
Cobonas Universe, on a broken plane island, an old wizard with pointed ears, who looked like an elf but had a face full of wrinkles and beards, was standing on top of his wizard tower, overlooking his 'territory'.
In his hand, he held a wooden staff with wheat ear patterns. The two light green eyeballs on the old man's wrinkled face were turning slightly, gazing at the wheat field in front of him.
Blessed by the protection of the Truth, Alfonso Island welcomed an unprecedented harvest. Not only did the alchemical wheat ears not mutate into plant alien beasts with destructive magic under the illumination of the rainbow light, but also a lot of harvest wheat seeds with stable inheritance emerged.
In this way, Alfonso Island would not only have a harvest this time, but also have a harvest in the foreseeable future. The millions of wizard spirits living on Alfonso Island would also be able to eat their fill and wear warm clothes, and would no longer have to live the days of food shortage and eating wheat cakes mixed with soil.
But, everything was not so simple.
"Harvest... is also the root of disaster."
The old wizard, the great wizard who protected Alfonso Island, the seventy-fourth generation who inherited the name of Alfonso, sighed, and stared at the wheat ears representing the future and hope with complicated eyes. His old face was full of worry: "The wizard spirits on other plane islands should also have sensed our harvest... They don't have such good luck as us, and they are estimated to have a bad harvest this year. They need to go out to conquer and plunder to get enough food."
"This time, it is our Alfonso Island that has become the target."
Since the Cobonas universe shattered, and infinite time and space shattered into many limited plane islands, floating in the rainbow light, the wizard spirits who survived that world-destroying disaster tried their best to use the various knowledge and extraordinary skills left over from the civilization of the previous era to struggle for survival in this suffering universe.
Rainbow light is the strange brilliance born from the mixing of the four elements with the divine power of the cosmic pan-will, and the divine power of the two merged Dao giant beasts intersecting and rubbing against each other. Bathing in the rainbow light, all life will grow rapidly, and will also mutate rapidly.
Growth and mutation are probably the authority grasped by the two merged Dao giant beasts. Even with the suppression of the remaining power of the cosmic will, this power is enough to turn wheat ears into living plant alien beasts that kill people, and turn a gentle ordinary person into a violent and bloodthirsty flesh abomination—rainbow light is so terrifying, but if you don't bathe in the rainbow light, the plane island will not have any harvest, and there will be no food and resources.
The remaining strong led the weak people to live on the inner side of the plane island, avoiding the illumination of the rainbow light, but for food and spiritual plants and other resources for cultivation, they had to take risks, planting many spiritual plants on the surface of the island, and constantly annihilating those terrible plant aliens, and collecting the normal spiritual plants that may appear among them, cultivating the next generation to protect their homeland.
Population is the biggest resource. Without enough population, even advanced technology will decline, and food is the highest element to support population growth.
Similarly, food is also the most scarce resource among the many plane islands.
The old wizard was very clear that almost all plane islands could not have a fixed harvest every year. Some would have a good harvest, and some would have a bad harvest. Even if there were stable anti-mutation seeds, they would only support a few generations at most, and then a new mutation would occur again.
Therefore, the plane islands lacking food, in order to maintain their population, or to consume their excess population by reasonable means, will definitely launch invasions and plundering of other plane islands.
Boom!
In the sea of rainbow light, there was a sound like thunder. The old wizard knew very well that it was the sound of other plane islands operating and moving towards their own island at high speed. The thunder of the time and space fragments moving was like a dull drum, and every sound seemed to beat on his heart.
The battle was inevitable. Those 'compatriots' who intended to plunder seeds and food would not have any mercy... Even the wizard who ruled that plane island knew very well that only cooperation was the best way to resist disaster. Only when all the islands jointly managed the distribution of all food, and those with good harvests helped those without, could more people survive and breed more wizards, gradually recreating the wizard civilization of the past.
But who would dare to cooperate with other collectives that might harbor malice?
Who would risk sharing food with other islands when they have a good harvest, while their own residents are starving to death?
You must know that as long as they break through the realm of 'Great Wizard Priest', the strong can try to break through the weakest barrier of the rainbow light, reach the void of the multiverse, leave this universe, and obtain the freedom belonging to the immortals, and no longer be bound by this universe that is about to be destroyed.
Indeed, some people have left, taking the resources and energy of several plane islands, devouring everything to break through the realm, and leaving this universe.
However, the controllers of all the plane islands chose to stay.
Even if what they have to face is the reality of fighting with other 'stayers'.
"...Prepare for battle!"
Even if he didn't want to waste the few wizards in the island pointlessly, and even if he didn't want the last remaining blood of the wizard civilization to be consumed in such boring infighting and plundering, the old wizard still had to give this order.
—because of the existence of the rainbow light storm, all plane islands cannot communicate with each other, and by the time they can communicate, the other party has already landed on the island. At that time, it is almost impossible to communicate rationally.
Facing the invaders who set foot on their homeland, all they can do is fight!
With the order of the old wizard, many wizard spirits wearing gray and white robes appeared in the plane island.
They were all disciples of the old wizard, they were all wizards, the real center of this plane island, the 'strong' used to resist the plundering and invasion of other plane islands.
They were all selfish—just like this time they were plundered, they had plundered other islands more than once in the past, taking the food that other wizard spirits relied on to raise their young children from the mouths of babies.
They were all selfless—just like this time they were plundered, they stood up without hesitation to protect their relatives and clansmen who had no power behind them, the 'weak', even if the ending was destined to be death.
The majestic wizard power condensed above the island, even the rainbow light was distorted, and finally, at the top of the old wizard spirit's tower, it condensed into a polyhedron wizard power crystal as crystal clear as a dark green crystal. It contained incredible life source energy, which could be transformed into any kind of wizardry with the thought of the controller, punishing the enemy and strengthening their own side.
The old wizard raised the wooden staff in his hand and silently manipulated this huge force. He was just an ordinary agricultural wizard. In the past peak wizard civilization era, he was just a farmer, but now he was the most powerful existence in the entire plane island, shouldering the responsibility of guarding and fighting.
He looked vigilantly in the direction of the thunder, waiting for the invasion of other plane islands to begin again.
He was very familiar with it, because this scene had happened countless times, and it would be repeated countless times in the future—the old man could even imagine the next scene. A plane island would crash into his own island like a mad bull, and then the surging hungry wizards and ordinary warriors would devour all their food and resources like ants.
If they didn't want to lose everything, they had to fight and kill those compatriots who were equally hungry and had no future.
——This is wrong!
The old wizard knew this. His eyes were deep, as if he could see through the rainbow light and look at the wizard who was hosting the invasion.
They both knew that such fighting and killing, robbing and being robbed were wrong... but their own people, those ordinary people who just wanted to survive and have enough to eat, those weak people, made them, these 'strong' who were not strong enough, had to make wrong choices again and again.
Such a cycle... is really disgusting!
The thunder was getting closer and closer.
The collision and the battle after the collision were also getting closer and closer.
The old wizard held his breath and began to murmur to himself, silently reciting the time when the huge roar would resound through the islands.
"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six..."
However, before the old wizard could finish counting.
Suddenly, above the sky, there was a burst of thunder that resounded throughout the universe!
Boom—
Boom boom boom boom boom!!!!!!
In this extremely violent thunder, the rainbow light, flickering with colorful and strange rainbow light, and sprinkling endless power of growth and mutation, was like a bad contact lamp, and after several grand wails and flashes, it completely went out.
"What happened?!"
This unbelievable change immediately made all the wizards and intelligent creatures on all the plane islands open their eyes and look at the top of their heads in astonishment: "Why, why did the rainbow light disappear?!"
The old wizard looked up at the high sky in disbelief. Although he had cursed the rainbow light countless times, cursed the brilliance that caused the wheat ears to mutate and produce plant alien beasts again and again, and had hoped more than once that the rainbow light would completely disappear—but when this day really came, he knew better than anyone that without the rainbow light containing the power of growth, this universe that had already entered death would completely lose all vitality.
The curse and the blessing are two sides of the same coin. The rainbow light is both the entanglement of the power of the merged Dao giant beasts that destroyed this universe, and the last hope of the remaining cosmic will.
Its disappearance means that there will be no more flowering and fruiting trees in the future, and no new life will be born. This wizard civilization, which is emitting residual heat like ashes, will completely go out, leaving no temperature at all.
In this absolute darkness, the Cobonas universe ushered in unprecedented silence, and even the plane island that was originally planning to plunder food stopped its pace.
Everyone stared blankly at the pitch-black and deep sky, and then, because of cold and despair, they trembled and cried.
——190 million years later, the late final doomsday is about to come, and the wizard civilization that has been lingering on until now due to the nine Wizard Kings and the cosmic will will also usher in the end of its demise.
And this despair only lasted for more than ten seconds.
More than ten seconds later, in the pitch-black silence and despair, a blazing and hot light, like the Taiyi star placed in the air, illuminating all things in the universe, appeared on the outer side of the universe.
Then, it was a huge phoenix wing, so huge that it was unimaginable, enough to cover the sky of the universe, swept across the many cracks on the surface of the Cobonas universe... Then,
With the authority of the merged Dao expert, it ordered these ancient wounds to 'heal'!
It was like a miracle.
In less than ten minutes, all the remaining plane islands in the Cobonas universe, those intelligent beings who had survived and were struggling to survive, witnessed an incredible fact.
That was the restoration of the universe, and the re-creation!
The divine power of the Taiyi Phoenix and the immortal seed of the Xuanren Daoist jointly crushed the power of destruction that the merged Dao giant beasts left on the outer side of the universe two hundred million years ago, hindering the self-repair of the universe, and relying on the 'infinite power' provided by the 'Primordial Zhuzhou', which was supported by 'Zhuzhou Tian', easily repaired the entire great universe!
Immediately, time and space began to intertwine and continue, worlds began to derive, and crystal wall systems began to generate one after another, wrapping and isolating the many main material planes that were nurtured with the plane islands as the core, and constituting a whole crystal wall system great universe.
That was the original appearance of the Cobonal universe, the hometown of the wizard civilization.
"God... Truth!"
The old wizard watched all this almost blankly, and by the time he reacted, everything had been completely restored. The rainbow light disappeared, the normal sun hung in the air, the extremely rich land of the main material plane was under his feet, and his people who had suffered so much stood on the solid ground, looking around the world in confusion.
These lives, who had been immersed in despair for too long, raised their hands in fear, covering their eyes, trying to block the bright and hot light of the sun. It could be seen that their pale and fragile skin could not accept the embrace of this hot sunlight at all. The overly active energy made their flesh and blood begin to become transparent.
However, even so, even if it felt painful as if it was being burned by flames, the old wizard, his disciples, and his people could all feel the vitality that was overflowing in the Yang Yan and did not have any mutation power.
They could all feel that it was the brilliance full of hope and future.
Putting down his hand, the old wizard even let go of the staff he was holding tightly. This wrinkled wizard spirit, with tears streaming down his face, raised his arms and faced the sun.
The wind rolled his robe, and the old wizard spirit's light green eyes were full of almost sad desire, looking up at the high sky.
Countless eyes stared at the brilliance.
The already desperate fallen ones were waiting bitterly for the final judgment in the dead world. Tens of millions of years had passed, one hundred million years had passed. The beings who had been deprived of all hope by the selfish strong in the past, and had been guarded by the wizard kings and the world will who burned everything, finally waited for the coming of this brilliance.
That was the fire that countless selfless people had sacrificed again and again, and guarded again and again, to preserve until now. This flame inherited in the ashes was the brilliance of 'miracle'!
And this time, the one who ignited the miracle was the power called 'innovation'.
Infinite power.
——Pull up the field of vision.
Above the wizard spirit clan who were praying and thanking the huge phoenix wings and the phantom of the giant god who repaired the universe, outside the Cobonal universe that was gradually being completely repaired.
A huge merged Dao phoenix, and a majestic and solemn merged Daoist, nodded in satisfaction at the universe they had completely repaired. They talked for a while, and then sighed and set off, heading to another severely damaged universe to continue their 'labor reform'.
——Pull up the field of vision again.
In addition to these two merged Dao experts, there were more and more, dozens or hundreds of merged Dao experts, repairing all the damaged worlds and universes within the range of this brilliance, with a universe as dazzling as the sun, illuminating many surrounding world clusters, as the center.
In that world, infinite power overflowed, supporting these strong to infinitely repair many universes and time and space.
——Pull up the field of vision again.
The brilliance released by this extremely brilliant universe named 'Zhuzhou Tian', with those merged Dao experts as the diffusion nodes, faintly condensed into a towering tower that suppressed many world clusters and pressed against the multiverse structure—this tower ran through the nine heavens and reached the nine nether lands. More than a dozen world clusters were shrouded by it, and in the world clusters shrouded by this giant tower, even without the merged Dao experts repairing them, those damaged universes, those worlds that were falling into decline, all stopped the countdown to self-destruction.
Even began to reverse, began to gradually self-repair, self-restore!
——Pull up the field of vision again.
This brilliance, giant tower, and many affected world clusters were moving under an incredible and vast power that could only be described as infinite. This power spread its own Great Dao, released its own infinity, and protected all the heavens and earth, planes, worlds, and universes that were on the verge of ending, emptiness, destruction, and寂亡, and gave them all blessings.
And all the evil people who intended to destroy the universe, oppress all beings, and extinguish many lives and races were suppressed and blocked by this power, reminding them that if they really took action, then the blessing could also be transformed into a cruel judgment.
——Pull up the field of vision again.
Dimly, with the halo of infinite world clusters as the outline of the image, a silent youth closed his eyes, holding the town world tower, with Zhuzhou Tian as the bright star at the top of the tower.
He was this infinite world, and also just a vague trend. He was the torrent of innovation and Zhuzhou, and also the individual named Su Zhou.
——He was a force.
——Always dormant, eternally flowing.
——Making the weeping ones show smiles, and also making the happy ones dissatisfied.
——Its name is [Primordial Zhuzhou], and also the original body of [Innovation].
Its brilliance is infinite, and its will is eternal.
"This is my correctness."
The gospel of the infinite giver of blessings, the scolding of the infinite judge, was resounding throughout the entire multiverse: "Those who intend to block the path of innovation and obscure the light of Zhuzhou, come to the front of my path, whether you are correct, or wrong, or even pure decay and monsters."
"I will crush your futile resistance and use your Great Dao as the cornerstone to prove."
"Prove that I am more correct than you."
——Pull up the field of vision for the last time.
In the vast and boundless void world sea of the sealed multiverse, a brand new and surging ocean current appeared.
Many ocean currents opened their eyes, carrying curiosity, appreciation, admiration, vigilance, suspicion, hatred, and jealousy, 'looking at' this brand new change, listening to his declaration that resounded throughout the multiverse.
And the 'flood of selflessness' was surging, ignoring those suspicious and vigilant gazes, just step by step, changing itself, and also changing the appearance of the entire multiverse.
He promoted the beginning of the 'Era of Innovation' and opened the prelude to the 'War of the Flood'.
The last first, the first last.
The first scene of the final chapter rang out at this moment.
In the name of 'Correctness'.