# Chapter 10: Listen to My Words (7000)
The current state of the multiverse was completely different from when Joshua had first left it.
Having returned from death, risen from falling, once losing the Sage's power but regaining it again, it was only at this very moment that Joshua finally had the time to truly and seriously gaze upon these relatives and friends who had exhausted all their strength to awaken him.
Even for the 'God-Sage', breaking free from within the First Flame was no simple matter. To put it in perspective, Joshua's general feeling at that time was roughly like hating that heaven had no handle, hating that earth had no ring—even with infinite power, he could not break out from within the Great Source, which had no boundaries, no targets, nothing except 'existence', more empty and silent than the Void itself.
In the past, Joshua had long considered that he might one day die in battle, or be severely wounded, his spirit or core processor shattered beyond repair. So he had always recorded his thinking algorithms and stored them along with most of his memory banks in a separate 'Secret Box', entrusted to Number 3 for safekeeping. When he died or suffered irreparable damage, Number 3 could use the self within the Secret Box as an origin point to resurrect or revive him.
He didn't care at all about problems like the Ship of Theseus. For a high-level existence whose essence could communicate faster than light, link the multiverse without time delay, and transmit information, both the 'main body' known to ordinary people and the 'split body' in the Secret Box were parts of the self. His essence was a vast existence transcending worlds, impossible to question using human logic and philosophy. However, the impact caused by Divine Annihilation was also a power transcending ordinary 'logic'. In an instant, it affected every single split body of Joshua across the multiverse, without omission, without exception. This caused even Number 3, who held the Secret Box, to be unable to contact and awaken him for a long time.
Until one day, Number 3 found a deity in a distant multiverse star river who claimed to have 'returned from Divine Annihilation'.
"Everything I say is true."
Facing Number 3, who had traveled from afar with extraordinary strength, this deity invited her into their divine kingdom. The two conversed amicably, and during the conversation, this deity emotionally recounted their own experience at that time.
"At that time, to protect the world I was in, I entered a state of Divine Annihilation, with the momentum of mutual destruction to obliterate that invading Evil God—truly, at that moment, I didn't think about anything at all. I just unleashed all my power, driving both myself and the Evil God into Annihilation."
"Soon, the Evil God was annihilated, and I was pulled into the Great Source—to be precise, half of me was pulled in. Because of my sacrifice, many people in my world who had not originally believed in me began to call my name, praying for my return. This prayer itself had no meaning, but it awakened my hazy will, which was about to merge into the Great Source. The awakened me resisted the assimilation of the Great Source, slowing down as much as possible, stuck roughly in the center between the Great Source and the normal multiverse."
The divine power this deity wielded was called 'Communication and Refusal'. The human heart is a natural barrier, naturally refusing the thoughts of all outsiders. But through communication, people can influence others and be changed by others. The same applies between people and people, people and the world, civilizations and civilizations, civilizations and order.
Communication divine power was the strongest offensive and attack method—it could communicate with the world, turning all things into weapons; it could communicate with the Void, creating space-time storms. And Refusal divine power was the strongest defensive method—it could create an absolutely self-enclosed 'Autistic Space', isolating space-time causality, blocking all external means of harm.
This deity refused the fact of being pulled into the Great Source, and maintained their will through communication with the beings who believed in them—but this was useless. They were still irresistibly pulled into the Great Source, at most slightly slower than other gods.
"Then how did you get out?"
At that time, Number 3 asked in confusion.
And that deity was silent for a long time, then sighed and said.
"Kicked out."
After a long silence, seeing Number 3's shocked expression, they added somewhat helplessly: "I felt an unstoppable force echoing inside the Great Source, seemingly fighting something, impacting everything—and I was hit by that force. It forcefully knocked me out."
"But because of that, I lost most of my divine power. Now I can only be considered a relatively powerful Legendary... I'm even beginning to lose the ability to use divine power. This divine kingdom is my final legacy."
And the moment Number 3 heard the word 'fighting', she immediately replaced it with 'Joshua'—considering that Joshua had entered the Great Source roughly several thousand years ago, and given his personality... she meant, if it were Joshua, fighting inside the Great Source didn't seem like something worth being surprised about.
"So, as long as one's own power is strong enough, and there is a sufficiently firm call from the outside, it's possible to awaken a deity who has undergone Divine Annihilation?"
Regarding Number 3's summary, this deity who had returned from semi-Divine Annihilation nodded seriously, but also shook their head: "Yes and no. My case was very fortunate. If your god enters Annihilation, many conditions are needed to return."
"First, the god who enters the Great Source after Divine Annihilation must have a clear and awake will, wanting to return to the world."
"Second, there must be things outside with a sufficiently deep connection to them, such as remaining divine bodies, holy emblems, or first-generation blood descendants."
"Finally, there must be an extremely large number of calls—at least more than ten times the size of our civilization—to transform into a substantial, almost collective divine-nature belief, piercing through the Great Source and reaching the heart of the god within. Then, with mutual resonance, this can awaken a god."
After bidding farewell to that friendly deity, Number 3 returned once to the 'Time Trap·Life Forbidden Zone'. She shared this speculation with Black, who was guarding outside, and entrusted the Secret Box she had been keeping to her.
"I still need to go outside and find more possible methods to awaken Joshua." She said this, then set off again. Before leaving, Black nodded and replied: "And I will wait here, gathering strength—when one day, all conditions are gathered, I will ensure that at the first moment, the master can possess everything, the elements for return."
Then came the era when the multiverse gradually entered a godless age. One deity after another fell into slumber, even the Seven Gods were no exception—but compared to other beings who fell into strange slumber, even showing shocked expressions, the slumber of the Seven Gods seemed somewhat surprised and joyful. However, the speed was too fast; they couldn't leave any information, leaving everyone puzzled.
One hundred and twenty thousand years passed. The long flow of time saw all conditions gathered, all calls converge here, allowing the warrior to return.
Raising his right upper hand, letting the Black Dragon, Number 3, and other familiar figures rest on his palm, Joshua laughed heartily, communicating with each familiar person, sensing their conditions.
First was Black—once a sleepy, playful little girl who was always somewhat lazy, she had now become a powerful expert with full momentum. Joshua's world-body remembered all situations within and around his world since his death. He knew that she had guarded beside his dead body for one hundred and twenty thousand years.
She had achieved Legendary Limit, only one step away from Near-Saint—this was also a huge threshold for Ancient Dragons. Ordinary Ancient Dragons only needed hundreds to thousands of years to grow from juvenile form to Legendary adult form, but needed several thousand years to enter complete maturity, which meant being able to revive a world at Mid-High Legendary rank. After that, the bloodline potential of Ancient Dragons was nearly exhausted. Among countless Ancient Dragons, perhaps only one could become a 'Creation Ancient Dragon' that transcends worlds, reviving or even creating worlds.
The stronger one is, the harder it is to break free from limitations—they might take one step to reach the heavens, reaching the supreme, but lacking experience, they simply cannot understand what 'breaking limits' means. And weak creatures, like humans, must begin to transcend their original racial limits at the Ultimate stage, developing various secret methods targeting humans. Plus, with a large biological population base, they can always produce a few alien species, naturally born strong ones.
And the limit of creatures like Ancient Dragons was High Legendary. Breaking through was originally far more difficult than for humans, and they basically had no secret methods. Before encountering the threshold, they couldn't even understand what a 'bottleneck' was.
In the inheritance of the Sage of Demons obtained by the Knowledge Seizer, there was mention of a 'Nameless Creation God' who carried the former Sage's inheritance as an individual. Based on the description, it was likely a 'Creation Ancient Dragon'. Black's ability to break through her bloodline's limitations and become an extremely powerful existence even among Legendary Limits was already very remarkable. It could be said she had surpassed ninety-nine percent of Ancient Dragons in the entire multiverse.
As for the heavenly barrier between Legendary Limit and Near-Saint, unless one had exceptional talent or was truly lucky enough to find a completely suitable path, no amount of time would matter. Legendary Limit could already strengthen without limit, but Near-Saint was the step toward infinity, the 'dangerous leap' from the finite crossing to the infinite. They hung in the air, just not yet having decided where to land.
Besides Black, who raised her head high to show Joshua the results of her long efforts, the Firefly and Cold held tightly in his hands also trembled slightly—once catalyzed by Joshua's divine power into two great worlds, the Divine Mechanism siblings, through countless years of prayer and reverence from the Light-Chasers, had now completely become the masters of 'Sword Realm' and 'Axe Realm'. Within them, there were a large number of souls of brave warriors who had died holding divine weapons against Chaos.
These souls were taken in by the sleeping Firefly and Cold through instinct into their worlds, even forming a strange ecosystem there—a living weapon world. There, any life was born in the form of spiritual weapons, nurtured and grown. These lives, to put it, should be the vassal race derived from Joshua together with Firefly and Cold. They could perhaps be called 'Weapon Angels' or 'Weapon Fairies', or simply a brand new native Divine Mechanism race.
Since most divine weapons were cold weapons like swords and blades, most weapon fairies also took this form. But Joshua listened to the siblings' visions and heard that they seemed to want to create 'Gun Fairies', 'Ship Fairies', even 'Castle Fairies', 'Planet Fairies'... Glancing at the elemental fairy family not far away, who were using elements to write on his finger roots, [Fairy Empress was here!] [Fairy XX followed the Empress here!], the warrior sighed and silently acquiesced to their visions for the future.
Turning slightly, Joshua met Nostradamus's gaze. This old man, who had witnessed his growth all along while he himself kept progressing, had also reached the realm of Legendary Limit—since the Starfall Era when Mycroft civilization split, the old mage had worked alone in the Great Multiverse Alliance as a Legendary expert. But no matter how enlightened, a huge alliance would inevitably be accompanied by bickering, struggles, factions, and all sorts of strange factions and selfish motives.
Having worked wholeheartedly for order for several thousand years, Nostradamus finally couldn't be bothered with these things anymore. So he simply applied for resignation and, in a relatively quiet and closed area of the multiverse star river, established another huge Transcendent academy—and this time, unlike the past Winterfell Academy, his students were not limited to one country or race, but to all nations and races of the multiverse.
Joshua and Nostradamus laughed and chatted about the major events of the last hundred thousand years. Both were the strongest Transcendents; many thoughts and feelings were conveyed without words. Knowing that the other had not decayed, not fallen, but maintained their original heart, advancing all the way, the warrior would sincerely be happy for them and offer blessings.
And Number 3, needless to say. She had been searching for methods to awaken him all along. If not for Number 3 planning the entire plan, and through Black and the 'World Frontier' where the Port Fortress was located, contacting the reincarnation of Carlis who happened to be exploring nearby, then if he wanted to awaken now, he would probably have to wait several more tens of thousands of years, until the Shining Region where the Light-Chasers were was truly extinguished. And even then, the success rate would be very low.
The two exchanged information. At this moment, Number 3's strength was likely even closer to Near-Saint than Black—as one of the core hubs of the multiverse's current Great Magic Net system, Number 3 could obtain far more resources and knowledge than most Transcendents. She had reached Legendary Limit very early, and had not yet broken through only because, before Joshua awakened, she temporarily had no energy to seek her own path.
"No need to stagnate your own progress for me."
"But this is also my choice—and now, can't I still advance?"
Communication was always simple. The more familiar, the less need for many words. The giant god gazed at the girl who was smiling back at him, then also revealed a smile.
"I'm back."
"Welcome back."
The split of Mycroft civilization in the past was mainly due to internal disagreements. One faction believed that the alliance, which had begun to gradually close off, stabilize, and lose its vitality for exploration and advancement, could no longer serve as a qualified commanding force—this faction was mostly Mycroft people living in various Sanctuary Worlds, descendants of former explorers, pirates, and bounty hunters. Because they were naturally close to the Void, these humans preferred to explore distant places rather than live comfortably as part of the Great Alliance.
So they left. And leaving with them were several of Joshua's students. The former First Squad—Ivan Makarov, Amira Makarov, the dwarf Nick, and the mage Karin—had already vaguely established a huge commercial empire while developing a large number of new-era Void products under the name 'Pioneer Laboratory'. After that, they moved and drifted their commercial Void base, wandering among many star rivers, trading with civilizations, adventuring, completing commissions and tasks.
They occasionally stopped, but never for too long. They occasionally relaxed and enjoyed themselves, but could always revive their spirits. The wandering Void commercial empire, the traveling merchant race exploring all realms—that was the legacy they left behind.
And Nature Mentor, Baniel, Barbarossa, and Brandon and other Mycroft Legendary experts brought the Aether Ring World and left as the Aether Star. Although they felt the alliance's problems weren't that serious, Mycroft civilization indeed didn't need to be involved in this increasingly murky and stagnant water. They sent the Aether Ring World into the Silent Void, hiding again, while many experts often went to the depths of darkness to hunt Chaos, honing their strength.
Born in worry, die in comfort. Anyway, Mycroft people were already spread across the multiverse; if this branch was destroyed, others remained. After ensuring the civilization's continuation, they unhesitatingly placed themselves in danger. This was naturally dangerous, but the results were equally inspiring: except for several Legendary experts who went missing during exploration, such as Barbarossa, the Fishman High Priest, and several newly born Legendary experts born later in Mycroft civilization, most people reached High Legendary. Among the outstanding ones, like Brandon, Baniel, and Galannod, they had Legendary Limit or could exert Near-Saint-level strength under specific conditions.
It wasn't that they didn't have the inheritance to become Near-Saint; they just sought perfection. Unless at a critical moment, there was no need to choose their final path so quickly.
As for Loranda... his situation was special. As the former first leader of the Great Alliance, after stepping down from the Chairman position, this Paladin established a Holy Light organization—unrelated to the Seven Gods or any religion. The Holy Light organization [Helping Hand] was more like a cross-multiverse star river large humanitarian organization. Most members were Holy Light system practitioners. Their daily work was to receive rescue missions, then go out to exterminate various monsters, Chaos, and even Evil Gods.
In a sense, this was also a kind of mercenary. They also accepted missions to assist areas of the Great Alliance that had suffered Chaos attacks, conducting garrison defense, even building fortresses... [Helping Hand] had now become a genuine multiverse-level organization. Loranda was long not its leader but founding elder. Now leading it was a newly born Legendary Limit, who had inherited the predecessors' beliefs, persistently fighting for the voices of all beings in the entire multiverse.
Besides these major forces split from Mycroft civilization, there were many who left individually to reproduce or take risks in various places. The former mostly transformed into strange forms, such as half-mechanized bodies, even children born with naturally born metal mechanical factors in their bodies, able to easily connect data lines—Cyber people. Not to mention those who self-modified, becoming plants, having magical beast bloodlines in their bodies, or simply transforming into another strange race of humans.
Among the former, one member of the 'Elite Squad' that Joshua had once looked after had established a huge alien empire—the former Alchemist, now Emperor Constantine, joined forces with Creler and Elma, guiding worlds in the Void, building a small world cluster semi-independent from the multiverse star river. That was a paradise for modifiers, a heaven for free people, and also the final destination for some free Amos people after losing Emperor Amos. Now it was also considered a decent independent force outside the Great Multiverse Alliance. Of course, some of them were criminals who had left their original organizations, villains who had changed their names. Constantine, whose personality leaned somewhat toward Chaos, was willing to shelter them in his territory, but if they dared to leave this place, they had no connection with the independent empire.
And the latter, most were still adventurers... Whether it was Priest and his teammates, who had set out again and were still exploring the Sage of Demons' inheritance, or Lisa and Syndicate, who were helping civilizations in the surrounding multiverse overcome difficulties, confirming their own paths—they all had Legendary Limit strength, enough to ensure their safety in this dangerous multiverse.
The inheritances and ruins of the Sage and the Psychic Sage had been obtained. The Shadow Sage hadn't appeared for long, but the ruins left by the four Sages—Arcane Power, Life Energy, Aether, and Elemental Force—still remained in corners of the multiverse. Priest, Lisa, and Syndicate had been wandering through all realms of the heavens, seeking clues, finding traces of those ancient ruins. With the help of the Knowledge Seizer, they spent a long time and finally found the Elemental Sage's ruins, and from these ruins, found clues to the more ancient Sage of Demons' ruins.
Not to mention the thrilling adventures and the shaking of multiverse forces caused by the Sage inheritance emerging, the fairy lineage benefited from this. Having obtained part of the Sage inheritance, fairies were no longer confined to 'element-rich' worlds but could spread throughout the entire multiverse.
Whether this was a blessing or curse for the multiverse remained to be seen.
Of course, besides this, there were many, many more stories. Whether it was Chu Hao, who independently built a huge mechanical intelligence group in a dead world star river, supplying his own growth and evolution, or Alva, who traveled for one hundred and twenty thousand years, turning the original lone ship into a steel star cluster—their stories and deeds were equally splendid, their strength equally not weak. In this dark multiverse, the inheritors of the flame lit their own light, advancing without hesitation on the path they illuminated.
And this was exactly the scene Joshua most wanted to see.
"Everyone is doing well."
After a moment of silence, the giant god smiled: "I always think about the worst possibilities, always want to change the worst possibilities—but I forgot that others also think the same, also want to change them. And it's not just me who can succeed."
Now, in the Multiverse Star River Alliance, four Near-Saints had appeared—Emperor Amos had long gone to the First Flame. His incarnation here spoke a few words with Joshua, asked about the possibility of breaking through to Sage, then thoughtfully left. The remaining Near-Saints were waiting in the distance. They also chatted with Joshua for a few words, explaining the general situation of this multiverse to the warrior.
[If life is a script destined to lead to death]
[Then this script, I have extended its fate toward 'infinity']
Listening to the other describe the powerful strength of the Multiverse Great Alliance and the relatively united public opinion within, Joshua couldn't help but keep smiling. Not just because what he wanted was realized in the future, but because the many multiverse star rivers now were no longer scattered weak prey with no resistance against the 'Future Sage', but gathered together, a iron fist that could strike heavily.
[Even if still unable to participate directly in the Sage's battles, this united order is enough to ensure that 'His' backup plans cannot be used]
Thinking this, after communicating with all the relatives and friends present, Joshua raised his head, looking at the endless void stars and the 'light' behind the stars that he could now clearly see.
But soon, the warrior lowered his head again. He directly spoke: "Next, I will tell you how to break through from 'Legendary Limit' to 'Near-Saint'. I will tell you this method. It is very difficult, with harsh requirements. Even knowing it, ninety-nine percent of people likely won't be able to advance. I believe you don't care about this, but I still need to tell you this fact first."
"However, before this, I feel that the beings of the multiverse need to know the 'truth' of all this first."
"Order and Chaos, the Evil Gods invading all things, the extinguished star rivers, the multiverse gradually stepping into darkness—this multiverse filled with sorrow, sacrifice, and death—why is it like this, and who pushed it to this step?"
[Beings, listen to my words]
At this moment, spreading four arms toward the void, Joshua's voice resounded throughout the entire multiverse—the Sage's power shaking the void, penetrating all existence, transmitting his will and information to all intelligent life.
[I will tell you, I will tell you this truth, our true enemy, the real identity of the behind-the-scenes manipulator—I will tell you His plan, His backup, His weaknesses, and what I should do, what you should do, the 'method' to defeat Him]
Even, at the distant other end, around the First Flame.
Those great wills that were struggling also heard.
They were shocked, doubtful, but finally all slightly turned their gazes toward the distant end of time and space.
[Listen to my words]