Chapter 254 Eternal Kalpa of Samsara (5400, arc ends, requesting monthly tickets~)

——A long, long time ago, everything comprehensible to humans did not exist. The void was a desolate ruin, with only endless stardust and debris suspended.

Like insignificant remnants of destroyed worlds.

These stardust-like remnants were gathering in the ice-like void, drawn together by some force and the mutual attraction of matter, like small droplets of water continuously collecting and merging.

Eventually, they re-aggregated, condensing into a small prototype of a new world.

Then, it began to burn.

Flames burned fiercely, incinerating all unnecessary elements, all chaos and indistinguishable dross, and the jumbled, superfluous information in the void, purifying the newborn world and restoring it to order and stability.

Finally, the source of the world burned intensely, generating an endless upward gale.

[The initial flame burned, purifying darkness and chaos, and the scorching power generated a gale, thus, Wind in Fire]

[This was the very first Epoch]

In the first Epoch, the ashes condensed in the flame gathered into continents, floating at the very top of this gale. The world drifted in this gale, which was the era of Sky Islands.

Giant insects roamed within, and the best among them, those who obtained the heart of the gale, became their gods and kings.

[Then, as the flame gradually extinguished, the scorching heat at the top of the gale cooled, and the hot wind froze, congealing into water, which transformed into endless torrential rain, thus, Water in Wind]

The aerial world fell with the torrential rain, plummeting towards the extinguished source of the world. Endless water, accompanied by endless gales and torrential rain, coalesced into the sea, and the world floated in the sea, which was the era of the Deep Sea.

Countless marine behemoths gestated within, and the lucky ones among them, those who obtained the heart of the ocean, became their gods and kings.

[Next, as the gale gradually subsided, the rainwater that had fallen from the highest point of the world ceased, and in the deepest part of the ocean, the water was congealing into earth. The entire ocean was solidifying, thus, Earth in Water]

The endless sea gradually solidified, the behemoths suffocating in the unnavigable mud, eventually transforming into subterranean corpses. The solidified ocean buckled into mountains and basins, transforming into land and jungle, where countless beasts proliferated. The most intelligent among them obtained the heart of the earth, becoming their gods and kings.

[Finally, as all the water was converted into earth, all things were on the verge of exhaustion, and scorching flames were born from the tremendous pressure and friction deep underground. Once again, the raging flames were about to burn the entire world, giving birth to an era of renewed flame, thus, Fire in Earth]

——The Wind Epoch, the fire extinguished, and there was no longer wind in the world, so the Sky Islands fell, and the gale condensed into rain, nurturing the Water Epoch of the seas.

——The Water Epoch, the wind ceased, and the world was no longer moist, so the world solidified, and the ocean transformed into earth, nurturing the Earth Epoch of the land.

——The Earth Epoch, the water congealed, and the world was no longer fertile, so the continent dried up, and the earth's core collapsed into fire, nurturing the Fire Epoch of flame.

——The Fire Epoch, the earth was burnt out, and the raging flames produced smoke. Embers created wind, and the dust condensed into the continent. This initial cycle repeated again and again, giving birth to a brand new Wind Epoch.

The four elements alternated and mixed. Although seemingly a single era, they always had connections with other elements. This mutual transformation process was an endless cycle.

In this endless cycle of epochs, there were always some lucky ones, some intelligent ones, some powerful creatures, who became beings called gods by intelligent life.

They were the symbols of the Epoch, the shared wishes of the life of that Epoch. Because of this, because of the endless thoughts and faith of their people, the gods who were engraved in the Epoch would awaken from the underworld again and again, attempting to use their power to alter this cycle, to recreate an Epoch belonging to themselves and their people.

The world gently echoed their wishes.

No matter who it was, no matter what element, as long as they could find the core of the next Epoch at the end of the current Epoch, then they could have their wish fulfilled.

After all, no matter how much it was altered or transformed, the cycle would not stop. This perpetually repeating cycle of eternal kalpa would not change because a few processes were altered or a few steps were skipped.

[Change to your heart’s content, change as you please, whether it is destroying the world or recreating it, the authority to reshape the world is here, and I also bestow upon you the elements of the source. This is your world and paradise... but, when will you transcend this world and paradise?]

[If the eternally joyful Eden, where one works at sunrise and rests at sunset, is an eternal and endless cycle of 'yesterday repeats itself,' then when the first human couple, tempted by the serpent, swallowed the 'poisonous' forbidden fruit that they would never have swallowed in the past, and were thus able to distinguish between good and evil, could they be considered to have broken the cycle?]

[Although they would have to endure suffering, to be banished from paradise... but... why not?]

This small world, a world of reincarnation, repeated epochs of alternating elements. Generations of life thrived and decayed within, were reborn and died, just like the Eden established by God.

And the serpent came.

Together with its covenantor.

Su Zhou stared at everything that appeared before him. He felt as if he were in absolute nothingness and darkness, and before his eyes, the countless cycles of the Tartarus world were all reflected in the youth's eyes.

Endless repetition, endless reincarnation. Each cycle lasted tens of thousands of years, or as short as ten thousand years. New life was born rapidly again and again due to the existence of the Gray Mist and the Underworld, thus nurturing brand new civilizations—however, ten thousand years was absolutely impossible for a single civilization to develop to the point of perceiving the truth, nor could it allow them to find a way to transcend this reincarnation by their own power.

This was reincarnation.

Whether it was Earth, Water, Fire, or Wind, or Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, or Earth.

Whether it was the rotation of Yin and Yang, or the alternation of Light and Dark.

Even if more and more elements were added, and it became more complex and varied.

Reincarnation was reincarnation.

In the end, the so-called reincarnation was the repeated occurrence of things that had already happened, things that were old under the sun, things that would inevitably exist again. If one wanted to transcend reincarnation, one had to do something that had never been done before.

[When exactly, will you transcend reincarnation?]

In the darkness, such a voice resounded.

Su Zhou raised his head, his cyan-purple dragon eyes surveying the endless darkness. And in this darkness, he could see starlight flickering, and the aura of a distant, ancient beyond was being received. The heavens and myriad worlds transmitted tremendous vibrations, resounding endlessly. A vast spiritual sound, so immense that it seemed to shatter the universe, echoed from around the world.

——Dawn of birth, dark night of return——

——The end of decay, the beginning of new life——

——The incubator of all things, the bestower of fate——

——Praise to the Silent Lord!——

——The source of life, the destination of death, the King of the Underworld, the Lord of Reincarnation!——

A huge, overlapping concentric circle of light lit up, seemingly overlapping endlessly. No matter how one looked towards the center, one could only see circle after circle, with neither end nor boundary in sight.

Holy and silent, as if the silent light that would bring eternal rest to all things was transmitted from the distant beyond, materializing before Su Zhou.

He saw it.

It was a mass of silent mist, a formless, intangible mass that, although drifting slowly, gave a sense of eternal stillness.

At this moment, Su Zhou also saw the world embraced by this mass of gray mist.

The cycle of elements, the alternation of worlds, the transformation and rebirth of epochs, all took place within the embrace of this mass of mist.

Su Zhou could even see what was beyond this gray mist—it was the 'Icy Void' that he had seen a glimpse of when traversing the world with the help of the Heavenly God Seal.

A completely solidified void, where the light of all worlds was like ice crystals, frozen in place. And the gray mist was also within it, quietly embracing this small world.

It was this gray mist that condensed the stardust after the shattering of countless worlds in the past, condensing the endless fragments of worlds, recasting them.

It did nothing superfluous. It was just that all things were born because of It, and also fell into reincarnation because of It.

The great being did not help them grow, nor did it help them resist this ultimate ending. It simply helped them return from the underworld again and again, sowing new life for the new Epoch again and again, allowing them to start over, again and again.

[When exactly, will you transcend reincarnation?]

That voice in the darkness resounded again, and this time, the huge spiritual sound, as if capable of tearing the universe apart, also resounded through the void. The sound, as if countless voices, countless people speaking completely different words simultaneously, shook the spirit realm, causing Su Zhou, who had thought he could already ignore the spiritual sounds, to feel as if his sanity was about to be torn apart by this frenzied sound, falling into madness. It was a long time before he regained clarity.

Su Zhou finally understood that this was the Silent Lord.

The corruption value was eighty percent, almost completely breaking through the seal. The gray mist of just the avatar enveloped the world, the great being that established reincarnation.

The vast spiritual sounds rumbled, as if countless people were simultaneously repeating completely different words, incomprehensible, as if without any meaning.

"Since you expect them to transcend reincarnation... then why can't you give them a little hint?"

Su Zhou would never feel fear just because the other party was a powerful being.

Facing the gray mist that had manifested before him, he stepped forward and said loudly in this dark void, "If there was even a little hint, they would definitely try, right? As long as there is even a little hope, as the foundation of mutual trust, the civilizations of the various Epochs would never have to fight each other to the death! Even if they can't sit down and communicate, they would at least know that mutual slaughter is not the only ending!"

"Or perhaps the time could be longer, not too long, as long as the civilizations searched the world and discovered that there was no other place to explore, they would inevitably try to explore beyond the world—as long as they developed the technology to explore other worlds, that would also be considered transcendence of reincarnation!"

Yala also appeared on Su Zhou's shoulder. He did not say a word, but the very fact that the red serpent spirit appeared before the Silent Lord was significant.

[Hints have already been given, and they have already transcended a portion of reincarnation.]

The voice in the darkness, and the huge spiritual sound, alternately resounded: [It's just that above the reincarnation of individual life and death, there is the reincarnation of civilization's destruction and rebirth, there is the reincarnation of alternating cycles of epochs, and there is the reincarnation of the world's decay and rebirth.]

[Above that, there is the reincarnation of the rise and fall of spiritual energy, there is the reincarnation of having spiritual energy and not having spiritual energy, and there is the reincarnation of the dimming and shining of world clusters.]

[The multiverse will also decay, and will also be reborn. Without birth, there would be no death, without decay, there would be no meaning of rebirth, without reincarnation, there would be no meaning of breaking through reincarnation, just like without shackles, there would be no meaning of breaking free.]

"Then there's no need to deliberately create suffering, letting endless beings cycle through this ending of destruction and rebirth!"

Su Zhou didn't even know who he should be talking to, where he should be talking. The gray mist that appeared before his eyes seemed like an unchanging eternity. Except for the voice that resounded in the darkness, nothing seemed to exist in this dark void, and nothing seemed to have changed.

He just said in a tone that was neither helplessness nor sigh, "Or is it that only suffering can make people transcend reincarnation?"

[Favored one of the Serpent of Chaos, one day, you will inevitably be able to place the civilizations and worlds you love in the palm of your hand, and place your race, friends, and all those you are familiar with, all in a 'absolutely safe, absolutely happy, eternally long' little bottle, and then just watch them continue eternally, just like the paradise of bliss created by a certain being.]

[But what is the meaning of that? In the end, what is the difference between that and a dream? One day, when the dream awakens, the happiness will be shattered, and all things you hold in your palm will also collapse.]

The voice in the darkness calmly answered Su Zhou's question. It was so gentle, so patient: [This is not suffering, this is a trial, and, of course, I can make everyone happy in the way they want to be.]

[But pure happiness cannot create transcendents.]

[Without transcendents, all happiness is an illusory dream, not to mention the endless disasters hidden in the many worlds of the vast heavens and myriad realms, just myself alone.]

[I only need a single thought, an accidental thought. Although, it is impossible for me to have an accident, but, that is how fragile they are, they are that fragile, like a dream. As long as I wake up, they, my children, will all become phantoms—everything about them, including happiness, will disappear without a trace, shattering like bubbles.]

[I don't want that. They are my children. They should be stronger. I want them to be able to accompany me forever by my side—so they must become transcendents who transcend all reincarnation.]

The roaring spiritual sounds resounded through the void. They were unprecedented spiritual sounds, sounds that no cluster of souls could ever make.

At this moment, Su Zhou realized that the huge spiritual sounds that were echoing in the gray mist, beside the Silent Lord, were not actually sounds emitted by His existence itself, but rather His low murmurs.

Those spiritual sounds were actually names—the true names of every individual, every life, every life with a name, and every life without a name, from the endless reincarnation that the Silent Lord had witnessed.

The great being remembered all the true names. He murmured these names, remembering everything, from the beginning to the end.

How long had the Silent Lord existed? How many lives, how many worlds, how many universes, had He nurtured and birthed before being sealed?

How many names had He remembered, and why did He keep repeating these names?

[Brief suffering, but it will eventually bring eternal transcendence. A single lifetime of death will accumulate power for the next lifetime.]

The voice in the darkness carried endless 'love': [I have infinite time. One day, after infinite time, all the children will return. At that time, there will be no need for me to remember them. They will transcend, and accompany me by my side, enjoying the true and real happiness of the transcendents.]

He sincerely expected the children to break through everything, to transcend reincarnation.

Su Zhou could not refute the Silent Lord's words. The Silent Lord's love was a grandeur that humans could not understand, nor was it something that humans could refuse.

He remembered Yala's words.

——In the eyes of the Silent Lord, the existence before and after the cycle of life and death is the same. Death is just a temporary rest and departure. If this time ends, there will be another chance.

"If they really transcend, then perhaps the thing they want to do most is to defeat you."

Staring at the black mist, Su Zhou whispered to himself. But halfway through, he laughed again.

Because the Silent Lord had already been defeated. He was sealed here.

Moreover, what He was looking forward to was precisely the fact that He would be defeated, and that reincarnation would be transcended.

The light dissipated, and the gray mist receded.

The Silent Lord was about to end this brief encounter.

He simply wanted to see where this existence that was helping His children transcend the cycle of epochs came from. And having obtained the answer, He was satisfied.

"Silent Lord, what exactly is your purpose?"

At this moment, Su Zhou asked the last question, "Even the Great Dao Tree wants to rely on its kin to escape the seal, but this time, in the Tartarus world, I haven't seen a single clue, haven't seen a single sign of trying to escape."

It was precisely because neither Yala nor he had discovered anything that Su Zhou was not so anxious to go and find the Silent Lord. After all, even if there were no tools for committing the crime, no matter how high the level of corruption, it would be impossible to escape.

[Have you already met the Great Dao Tree? Unlike Him, I do not want to escape the Great Seal.]

The voice in the darkness gradually became smaller and smaller, as if returning to the distant beyond of endless spacetime: [My path has been proven to be wrong. If I am wrong, I will change. I will only leave after I have proven my correctness again.]

[For us, proving our correctness is more important than anything else, even more important than freedom.]

[Favored one of the Serpent of Chaos, there is no need to repeat His old path. Presumably, He would not want you to become a yesterday that repeats itself, recreating a round of reincarnation.]

The little red snake chuckled. This time, he did not converse with his old friend, but everything was understood without words. Their mere meeting was meaningful.

——The serpent has arrived, so Eden is shattered, and reincarnation is broken.

The journey and story of humans and serpents has only just begun.

The voice disappeared.

The darkness receded.

Su Zhou's will, in a long sensation of falling, returned to his body.

Opening his eyes, he was still in the Tartarus world, the Central Maze, on the ninth floor.

Before him was the Epoch Core, the Heart of Flame, which was being transformed.

The initial flame, under Su Zhou's modification, had already begun to flicker with four-colored light.

One could see that the flame core, which had once flickered like the sun, had transformed into a huge, warm, light sphere where the four elemental lights rotated and alternated, shining like a rainbow.

Cyan wind, blue water, brown earth, red fire.

The light merged together, eventually transforming into pure white light, like the color of pure life, nourishing all things. And the endless lava sea of the entire ninth floor of the maze had also transformed into pure light, containing all the possibilities of the four elements.

[World Core · Four Elemental Heart]

"Did we succeed?"

One could hear the Wind God's tense voice. His instincts told him that what existed ahead was an unprecedented 'hope', but the god, who had long been accustomed to despair, had forgotten the taste of hope, so much so that he could hardly believe it.

Elias also clenched his fists, emitting a cry of joy: "We should have succeeded—look, the elements are rotating and alternating, so stable..."

"Yes, we succeeded."

Staring at this world-class elemental balancing organ, which was the core of the new world, that he had created with his own hands, Su Zhou came back to his senses. He revealed a complex smile, but in the end, it still turned resolute.

Turning his head, he looked at the Wind God and Elias, and Su Zhou said calmly, "But this is just transcending a mere cycle."

"This eternal kalpa, this endless reincarnation... the road to transcending them is still long!"

Having said that, Su Zhou stepped forward—he activated this huge sphere of light.

Thus, a brand new Epoch was opened.

——Volume 4 · Eternal Kalpa of Samsara · End

There is still one chapter to wrap things up, probably will finish writing tonight, and will post a single chapter summarizing the end of the month later, which will completely conclude this arc.

Requesting monthly tickets